Jump to content

  • Sign up for free and receive a month's subscription

    You are viewing this page as a guest. That means you are either a member who has not logged in, or you have not yet registered with us. Signing up for an account only takes a minute and it means you will no longer see this annoying box! It will also allow you to get involved with our friendly(ish!) community and take part in the discussions on our forums. And because we're feeling generous, if you sign up for a free account we will give you a month's free trial access to our subscriber only content with no obligation to commit. Register an account and then send a private message to @dave u and he'll hook you up with a subscription.

Coronavirus

Bjornebye

By Bjornebye,
in GF - General Forum

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 49.1k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Bjornebye

    4448

  • Rico1304

    2174

  • TheHowieLama

    2085

  • Spy Bee

    1908

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

Carvalho Diablo
Carvalho Diablo

So I'm just waiting on the paperwork for my discharge and thinking about the things I've seen and endured over the past few weeks. Firstly, loss and specifically the death of my mother. It's very

Caramac
Caramac

I lost my mum to the virus yesterday. She was 86 and had been in a care home for just coming up to six years suffering from alzheimers. The care home seemed to be keeping the virus at bay up unti

Jordy Brouwer
Jordy Brouwer

My mother seems to be on the mend thank Christ.    Hope you are all safe and well. 

Posted Images

Bruce Spanner Grand Master

Bruce Spanner

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, Dr Nowt said:

They’ll tire of this mob eventually. It’s just that the only other show in town is engaged in a deeply impressive plan to remove its own nutsack with a chainsaw live on tv.
 

Still, I’m sure George Galloway/Jeremy Corbyn/the ghost of Mohandas Gandhi’s  

exciting new political vehicle will mop up all the disaffected quote unquote decent people and turn this abject nightmare around.


I’d put Tony Benn’s corpse in charge, just in case, can never be too careful. 
 

Plonk it outside a screw fix in Hull and task it to talk about Marx’s fiscal policy and Bob’s your Uncle, election landslide!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
clockspeed Rising Star

clockspeed

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, MegadriveMan said:

Seems to be working quite well in Ireland.

Working in Ireland and N.Ireland . Ireland's is for longer period . The crunch comparison for the UK is with N.Ireland. Two week (at the minute) circuit breaker that coinsided with half term meaning children missed one week of school. They did it when England was being asked by scientists for same thing. Seems to be working. Basically the Tiered system was set up to keep London open for business.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rushies tash Grand Master

Rushies tash

Posted
Posted
55 minutes ago, clockspeed said:

Working in Ireland and N.Ireland . Ireland's is for longer period . The crunch comparison for the UK is with N.Ireland. Two week (at the minute) circuit breaker that coinsided with half term meaning children missed one week of school. They did it when England was being asked by scientists for same thing. Seems to be working. Basically the Tiered system was set up to keep London open for business.

Reckon schools in England will be told to stay open, which is why they didn't bother worrying about half term.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Red Phoenix Grand Master

Red Phoenix

Posted
Posted

From The Guardian (update blog thing, not an article) on schools. It'll probably be ignored though :

 

Teaching union calls for schools to close

 

The National Education Union (NEU) has called for schools and colleges to be included in any lockdown.

 

The Union says that schools should only remain open to the children of key workers and vulnerable children during such a general closure period. Boris Johnson is expected to say that schools, universities and colleges should remain open in a four-week lockdown.

 

But Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU said:

 

"It is clear from ONS data that schools are an engine for virus transmission. It would be self-defeating for the government to impose a national lockdown, whilst ignoring the role of schools as a major contributor to the spread of the virus.

 

Such a lockdown would impose pain on the whole community - but not be as effective as it could be if schools were included. Ignoring the role of schools and colleges in the spread of the virus is likely to lead to the need for even longer lockdowns in future.

 

The latest figures from the ONS estimate that 1% of primary pupils and 2% of secondary pupils have the virus and that these levels have increased dramatically since wider opening in September. NEU analysis of ONS figures shows that virus levels are now 9 times higher amongst primary pupils and an astonishing 50 times higher amongst secondary pupils.

 

The National Education Union called for a two week circuit break over half term to include schools, which the Wales Government and the Northern Ireland assembly have done - but the Government in Westminster has ignored this call. More severe measures are now called for as a result, the Government should not make this mistake again.

 

The government should include all schools in proposals for an immediate national lockdown and as a minimum be preparing for school rotas at the end of that period, including by actually meeting its promise to deliver broadband and equipment to those children who do not have them.

 

It is also vital that the government ensure proper financial support for all those affected by lockdown including crucial supply teachers and other staff."

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Barrington Womble Grand Master

Barrington Womble

Posted
Posted

I would be rather happy if something was to come of this. 

 

Dossier alleges Cummings may have perverted course of justice in account of lockdown trip

Former prosecutor sends file to police and CPS accusing PM’s aide of multiple alleged offences

 
Published:18:30 Fri 30 October 2020
 Follow Matthew Weaver
 

Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have been handed a 225-page dossier urging them to investigate Dominic Cummings for allegedly perverting the course of justice, in relation to a statement about his journeys to the north-east of England at the height of the pandemic.

The former regional chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal said Cummings’ claims during a press conference in Downing Street’s rose garden on 25 May affected the course of justice as they were made as Durham police’s investigation into his behaviour was already under way.

Afzal’s lawyers gave extensive details of the allegation in the dossier sent on Friday to Durham police, the Metropolitan police and Max Hill, the director of public prosecutions, and his staff at the CPS.

They claimed the legal test for such a prosecution had been met. The dossier also accuses Cummings and his wife, Mary Wakefield, of multiple alleged offences under the coronavirus regulations for leaving their primary home in London and their second home in Durham without, it says, a reasonable excuse.

The most serious allegation in the documents is the claim that Cummings perverted the course of justice in his account of his journey to Barnard Castle on 12 April and his denial of a claim that he made a second lockdown trip to Durham. If such a charge were proven, Cummings could face a prison sentence.

In a statement, Afzal’s lawyers said: “The alleged offence of perverting the course of justice arises from Mr Cummings’ statement in the rose garden … Mr Cummings made public assertions about his conduct at Barnard Castle on 12 April and his actions on the weekend of 17-19 April that appear to be wholly inconsistent with accounts of his conduct at that time obtained from eyewitnesses.”

 
 Dominic Cummings says he drove to Barnard Castle to test his eyesight

Cummings admitted in his statement that he had travelled to Durham and Barnard Castle, as revealed by the Guardian and the Daily Mirror. He said he had acted legally and travelled to Durham to self-isolate after his wife became sick with suspected Covid, and a day before he also fell ill.

He claimed he had phone data to prove he was not in Durham on 19 April as one Guardian source had claimed. When three other people made similar claims, Downing Street said it considered the matter closed and refused to release the evidence that Cummings said proved he was in London.

Two of the people, Dave and Clare Edwards, gave statements to Durham police officers on 25 May as the prime minister’s chief aide was giving his press conference, claiming that they saw a man whom they believed to be Cummings on 19 April in Durham’s Houghall woods.

The submissions from Afzal’s lawyers said Cummings’ account appeared to have influenced a three-day investigation by Durham police into his lockdown journeys.

The force made no finding on his decision to leave London because its investigation was confined to County Durham. It concluded that the journey to Barnard Castle on Wakefield’s birthday amounted to a “minor” breach of the rules “because there was no apparent breach of social distancing”, and it found there was “insufficient evidence” that he made a second trip.

Afzal’s lawyers said new statements from witnesses called these conclusions into question.

At least three people have reported seeing Cummings in Barnard Castle, including Robin Lees, a retired chemistry teacher, who alerted the Guardian and the police to seeing Cummings and his family getting into a car on a road on the southern side of the Tees on 12 April.

Cummings said he stayed by the Tees for 10 to 15 minutes and strayed no more than 15 metres from his car. But Rosalind Evans, a retired council worker, told the Guardian and the police that she saw someone she believed to be Cummings in the town centre on 12 April.

A third person, Alan Gowland, told the Sunday Times and later the Guardian that he saw someone he believed to be Cummings on a path by a weir on the other side of the Tees from Lees’ sighting.

Afzal’s dossier includes eight annexes of new statements from witnesses in Barnard Castle and Durham. The Met and the CPS have previously refused Afzal’s request to investigate the allegations against Cummings.

Afzal, whose brother Umar died from coronavirus when he was self-isolating at home on 8 April when Cummings was in Durham, said he wanted to get to the truth.

“The picture painted by the witnesses that have come forward appears clear and coherent and is inconsistent in important parts with the version given by Mr Cummings,” he said. “I believe the CPS’s public interest test is also met, given the impact that this has had on general compliance with Covid regulations.”

A No 10 spokesperson said: “The prime minister has said he believes Mr Cummings behaved reasonably and he considers the matter closed. Durham Constabulary have made clear they are not taking any further action against Mr Cummings and that by locating himself at his father’s premises he did not breach the regulations.”

Cummings and Wakefield have been approached for comment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Davelfc Grand Master

Davelfc

Posted
Posted

These are the measures to be announced by the PM at 5, as I understand it. They will last 2 December. And they are, In effect, a new “Tier 4” that will be imposed for a month initially to the whole of England.

 

1) All pubs and restaurants to close, though takeaways...and deliveries will be permitted.

 

2) All non-essential retail to close, though supermarkets won't have to follow the Welsh example of fencing off non-essential goods.

 

3) There will be no mixing of people inside homes, except for childcare and other forms of support...

 

4) Manufacturing and construction will be encouraged to keep going.

 

5) Outbound international travel will be banned, except for work.

 

6) Travel within the UK will be discouraged, except for work.

 

7) Overnight stays away from home will be allowed only for work purposes...

 

8) Courts, schools, and universities will remain open.

 

9) Outdoor exercise and recreation will be encouraged.

 

10) Private prayer will continue in places of worship, but not services. 

 


It all starts at one second past midnight on Thursday. The...regulations will be published in Tuesday, and MPs will vote on them on Wednesday. One source told me to consider the regulations as a Tier 4 for the whole of England.  After 2 December, the exit strategy is that different parts of the country will then have respective places.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...