Hancock's Half Hour

[Rorschach]

'Coronavirus lockdown: Warning after Ogmore-by-Sea mass brawl' - one of our local beaches:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53186920
I don't know if they were socially distancing or not.

And on rubbish, again local where 'Increasing amounts of litter could have a "devastating" effect on health, wildlife and tourism in Wales, an environment charity has warned':
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53193425
All pics photoshopped by msm, obvs.

No some of that is clearly left by pineapples

As for the brawls, I don't condone violence but it baffles me that the government locked people up for months and then are surprised when tensions are high after.

 

[Rorschach]

The lower the infection rate we see now, the higher it will be later on is what I suspect their thinking is. Scotland followed the same basic rules as England and Wales (less strict than Wales actually) and is in a better position because it started with less cases that's all.

Who's thinking that? Sounds a bit odd to me. And I'm not sure how many cases anywhere started with - presumably one unless a few were imported at the same time?

The government, just my impression anyway.
Yes we all started with 1 (probably) but when we realised things were bad. As studies are showing it has been spreading for far longer in Europe than we realised, when the UK locked down there were a lot more cases in England than Scotland for example.

 

[selectortone]

...I suspect your hatred of me will colour your opinion on everything these days so I'll just move on :mrgreen:

Hatred? Oh good grief, grow up man, we don't know each other from Adam. What is this, break time in the primary school playground? :roll:

As a resident of Bournemouth who lives close to the beach, I'm telling you that you were entirely wrong to play down the volume of rubbish left by the visitors on two days last week. You are unable to refute that so you accuse me of hatred and ask for pictures? Stop making it up mate.

 

[Blackswanwood]

At the end of the article it talks of scientists' fears of what's going to happen in winter - does anyone know if substantial measures are now being put in place to deal with the lack of resources (especially people) in case those fears are realised? Or are we just optimistically (naively) hoping it'll go away?

I think that there are steps being taken Chris. One example is that much more PPE is now being manufactured in the UK so there is far less reliance on an international supply chain. I have seen this in the news but also experienced it having been involved in sourcing PPE for several thousand employees providing key services since March.

That having been said whether it is enough is a good question. I would have expected more scrutiny from the opposition and questions from the press to hold Boris and Co’s feet to the fire.

 

[Rorschach]

Hatred? Oh good grief, grow up man, we don't know each other from Adam. What is this, break time in the primary school playground? :roll:

As a resident of Bournemouth who lives close to the beach, I'm telling you that you were entirely wrong to play down the volume of rubbish left by the visitors on two days last week. You are unable to refute that so you accuse me of hatred and ask for pictures? Stop making it up mate.

Ok, my apologies. Want to go play football :wink:

Since you are a local, are you able to answer these questions? Do you know if the 33 tonnes figure quoted was what was picked up from the beach or did it include general litter from bins etc as well? I know someone who works on the bins and they are apparently weighed in at the dump, my guess would be they were not separating the rubbish to calculate what was littered as opposed to disposed of properly. Also what is the state of bins etc on Bournemouth sea front? Are they adequate for the number of visitors you get? I know that has been a problem in some areas including where I live.

Note this does not excuse malicious littering, I will state it again I am totally against that.

 

[Rorschach]

One example is that much more PPE is now being manufactured in the UK so there is far less reliance on an international supply chain. I have seen this in the news but also experienced it having been involved in sourcing PPE for several thousand employees providing key services since March.

Well that is very reassuring! =D>

 

[Chris152]

At the end of the article it talks of scientists' fears of what's going to happen in winter - does anyone know if substantial measures are now being put in place to deal with the lack of resources (especially people) in case those fears are realised? Or are we just optimistically (naively) hoping it'll go away?

I think that there are steps being taken Chris. One example is that much more PPE is now being manufactured in the UK so there is far less reliance on an international supply chain. I have seen this in the news but also experienced it having been involved in sourcing PPE for several thousand employees providing key services since March.

That having been said whether it is enough is a good question. I would have expected more scrutiny from the opposition and questions from the press to hold Boris and Co’s feet to the fire.

Yes, I saw the adequate PPE news, which is definitely good. But as a punter who knows very little but watches the news, I'm wondering what happens if/ when a winter surge in Covid cases meets the usual NHS-at-breaking-point news that appears each winter now, and what the govt is doing to make sure that's not a much deeper crisis than the last surge.

 

[selectortone]

Since you are a local, are you able to answer these questions? Do you know if the 33 tonnes figure quoted was what was picked up from the beach or did it include general litter from bins etc as well?

I have no idea. The council declared a major incident because much of the infrastructure that normally deals with close to (worst case) half a million visitors on a hot bank holiday was in the process of being reopened after lockdown, including beach-side refuse disposal. This meant that the limited number of bins that were available were quickly overflowing.

What irks us locals is the attitude of the visitors who think it's fine to leave the beach looking like an explosion at a recycling depot (and no, that is not hyperbole) rather than take their litter home - despite many signs politely asking them to do so. If they are able to transport full (ie heavy) containers of food and drink all the way here, surely it's not unreasonable to ask them to take them (in their much lighter and compactable state) back with them. Don't they have dustbins at home?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

We used to have all night beach parties with usually forty or fifty people back in the '70s and '80s. We always informed the police, the fire brigade and the coastguard, giving the map reference of the large bonfire. In the early morning the fire was extinguished and an area probably about ten times the area we used was scoured for litter - even fag ends. I went to a shop owned by a parish councillor one morning and he told me he'd been asked to check the condition of the beach by some locals (we were local as well) and that he knew when the parties were ours as the beach was always perfectly clean afterwards.

It really isn't that difficult. :?

 

[Rorschach]

I'm wondering what happens if/ when a winter surge in Covid cases meets the usual NHS-at-breaking-point news that appears each winter now, and what the govt is doing to make sure that's not a much deeper crisis than the last surge.

That's a worry for certain.

I guess it will all depend on what effect C19 has on the normal winter deaths. If we get winter deaths plus C19 then we are really in the cack and the NHS will almost certainly be overwhelmed.
If however (and this is what I think will happen but I accept it is my biased opinion based on what I have read) C19 is the (major) cause of the winter deaths this year then things won't be too bad and possibly it might be a quieter winter than usual due to the excess deaths already suffered this year.
We will see.

 

[Andy Kev.]

On a more general note, I have to wonder about the brain dead nature of so many people. How on earth could folk not realise that there would be masses of people on popular beaches at the first opportunity? And having realised that, why on earth would anyone want to go and sit in such a vision of hell on earth? Obviously if it is your idea of fun then the question does not apply, each to his own and all that.

I can only assume that all the people there were incapable of working out what the likely scenario would be.

I'm prepared to accept that I'm a bit weird in reacting almost allergically to anything which might be prefixed with the word "mass" and so I tend to always head in the opposite direction to the crowds. I do hope I'm not alone in this as it would make me officially weird.

 

[Rorschach]

I'm prepared to accept that I'm a bit weird in reacting almost allergically to anything which might be prefixed with the word "mass" and so I tend to always head in the opposite direction to the crowds. I do hope I'm not alone in this as it would make me officially weird.

Well you might not like my company but I am in total agreement, I can't stand big crowds like that, I also hate beaches in the hot weather, indeed I hate most places in the hot weather.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Winter crisis - one way around the problem is to use the Nightingale hospitals for all CV19 cases, and leave the rest of capacity for normal demand.

The Nighting gale hospitals were set up specifically to deal with Covid and do not have all the other hospital facilities which more general admissions may require. It would also minimise the risk to other "normal" patients and staff of cross infection.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I don't know why that wasn't done from the day they opened.

 

[Rorschach]

I don't know why that wasn't done from the day they opened.

Not enough cases to justify their use.

 

[Jake]

They aren't as good as a proper ICU, and they didn't have the staff.

 

[Chris152]

... they didn't have the staff.

This has to be the real issue now? Probably too late to address it for what may come next, I still wonder what the plan would be.

 

[Rorschach]

... they didn't have the staff.

This has to be the real issue now? Probably too late to address it for what may come next, I still wonder what the plan would be.

Likely not nice. If things do get bad, there will be much more suffering than there was the first time around. The monumental balls up of the economy over this means that if infection rates rise, tough, the hospitals are already going to be full of all the patients who are suffering now because services were cut.
I would wager nightingale hospitals would be opened up quite literally as somewhere for you to go to die as painlessly as possible, little to no treatment available, minimal staff on hand.

Another lockdown won't happen, it can't happen. But as I said, I don't think it will be needed. Cases will rise but not to an excessive level.

Before I get attacked as usual, yes this is all my opinion, yes I might be wrong, but we'll see shall we :wink:

 

[Lons]

... they didn't have the staff.

This has to be the real issue now? Probably too late to address it for what may come next, I still wonder what the plan would be.

Maybe plan to bring in the military medics? I don't know the numbers available but it is a possibility you would think.

Rorschach wrote:
this is all my opinion, yes I might be wrong,

That's better, you're learning. :wink:

 

[Droogs]

Lons are you aware that the military's medical units are expected to be staffed by volunteers from the NHS. Just over 2/3s of the wartime manpower of the RAMC is to be manned by members of the reserve (previously the TA medical squadrons who are current NHS employees). Apart from combat medics who are not trained in anyway for hospital service the forces in peace-time have less than 1500 qualified nurses.