Russ in Cheshire has been at it again, summing up the previous week’s events and, as ever, it isn’t pretty.
His thread comes as there has been a warning that tougher restrictions will be needed to stop the spread of Covid-19, which has already seen large parts of the country under restrictions not too far from the original lockdown rules.
Further restrictions including closing bars and restaurants could be needed to keep coronavirus under control while schools and universities remain open, an expert has warned.
Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, said the most important measures were reducing contacts between households.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said that with schools and universities open ways needed to be found to reduce contacts in other areas, such as an “extended half term” or closing hospitality venues.
Prof Ferguson added: “So we are in a more difficult position, if we want to keep schools open we have to reduce contacts in other areas of society by more.
“You will have heard measures being discussed across society as a whole such as extended half terms where we try to reduce transmission for a concerted period.
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“I think those measures should be considered.”
Week in Tory
Russ began with a joke tweeting: “I was gonna do another #TheWeekInTory but, try as I might, I could not find a thing they’d done wrong since Friday. No corruption.
“No ineptitude. No lies. No hypocrisy. Just a solid 96 hours of honest, decent and reliable governance.
“Only kidding: it’s an absolute shit-show…”
I was gonna do another #TheWeekInTory but, try as I might, I could not find a thing they’d done wrong since Friday.
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
No corruption. No ineptitude. No lies. No hypocrisy. Just a solid 96 hours of honest, decent and reliable governance.
Only kidding: it’s an absolute shit-show…
1.
1. A report found the “Eat Out To Help Out” scheme cost £500m and didn’t do a single thing to improve the economy of the UK’s hospitality sector
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
2. However, it did help to double the number of infections, although they forgot how to count, so didn't notice
2.
3. As infections spiked, the govt briefly woke up and introduced local lockdowns
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
4. But predictably, the local councils responsible for implementing the new plans were given literally (not making this up) 5 minutes warning and no additional resources whatsoever
3.
5. It was revealed absolutely not a single penny of the £1.58bn “Arts Rescue Plan” announced to great fanfare in July has actually been handed out to the artists or venues relying on it
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
6. So unsurprisingly, the country’s largest cinema chain had to close, costing 5,500 jobs
4.
7. But thankfully Work and Pensions Minister Thérèse Coffey was on hand to reassuringly tell them they can all become Care Workers with "very little training" (I'm sure nursing is a doddle)
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
8. Slight problem: in June the govt froze millions in funding for training care workers
5.
9. But it’ll be fine, won’t it? I mean, who needs to train care workers? We have plenty, don't we? Oh, hold on: this week it was revealed care workers are caring for 2,400 families each, which is 10x the recommended number
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
6.
10. Good News for Boris Johnson, as a poll of Tory Members found they think Gavin Williamson is even shitter than the PM
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
11. Bad News: they think every other Conservative MP is better than the PM, and only 28% of them think he’s up to the job. And that’s his fan-club.
7.
12. So Boris Johnson went on a charm offensive (and did both), and promised to build 40 new hospitals
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
13. Seemingly he had forgotten – or hoped we had – that he also promised to build 40 new hospitals a year ago, and then … how can I put this? … didn’t
8.
14. The 40 new hospitals have £3.7bn budget
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
15. Unfortunately, 40 new hospitals would cost at least £24bn
16. And there's backlog of £6bn in maintenance and repairs, so the day it was launched the “new hospital fund” was £2.3bn short of building a single Lego Hospital
9.
17. Last week Boris Johnson said the Covid rules were simple, then forgot them, then said they were complicated, then said he’d fine people breaking them, then didn’t fine his own dad
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
18. This week his own dad broke the rules for a second time and [tumbleweed]
10.
19. So 6 days after the PM went on TV to assure us the lockdown rules were simple, the govt has announced it will announce some simplified rules. But not yet. Soon. In a bit. First we need another few levels of announcements about announcements, cos there’s no rush fellas.
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
11.
20. I always try to find a supportive and approving quote about Boris Johnson from an star-struck anonymous Tory MP: this week, I have an embarrassment of riches
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
21. “It’s like ‘carry on coronavirus’, with Boris as Sid James and Matt Hancock as Kenneth Williams”
12.
22. “I find myself bewildered at the clownish lack of professionalism in Downing St”
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
23. “If you drop something which is entirely ornamental [meaning Boris] it tends to lose its appeal”
24. “We’ve gone from eat out to help out, to drink up and piss off”
13.
25. The Tories called loudly for the firing of the SNP’s Margaret Ferrier for travelling by train after being found positive for Covid
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
26. No word yet about them calling for the removal Tory MP Peter Gibson, who travelled 250 miles by train with Covid symptoms
14.
27. Peter Gibson is part of the new “Red Wall” intake of Tory MPs, so presumably was keen to return to his constituency to inform them that 1/3 of them would be £1000 a year worse off due to govt cuts
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
15.
28. It was revealed that 5 years after Tories pledged to end money laundering with the announcement “there is no place for dirty money in Britain”, absolutely no action has yet been taken, and the legislation has been gathering dust since 2015
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
16.
30. And a legal challenge was launched over a £580k contract to friends of Dominic Cummings, with no competitive tendering
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
31. Oh, and Matt Hancock takes “donations” from the horse-racing fraternity, and excluded the highly profitable Cheltenham Festival from the lockdown
17.
32. The former Chief Scientific Advisor said Cheltenham Festival “probably helped to accelerate the spread” of coronavirus
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
33. Not that we’d know, because it appears a mere 227 days after the first case, the govt still hasn’t learned to import data into an Excel Spreadsheet
18.
34. Any IT manager would tell you Excel is not the way to store the data of up to 67 million people – it is spreadsheet software for a max of 1 million records
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
35. 16,000 tests were lost, and over 50,000 potentially infectious people may have been missed by contact tracers
19.
36. On 2nd June, Boris Johnson announced he would take “direct control” of Covid
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
37. So 125 days later, he couldn’t tell us the social distancing rules, how many records had been lost, or explain why 4 different lockdown regimes exist in Greater Manchester alone
20.
38. But human spork Matt Hancock rushed out to say NHS Test and Trace are working hard, neglecting to mention the slightly awkward truth that NHS Test and Trace is not run by the NHS, but by a private business under the guidance of the effortlessly terrible Dido Harding
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
21.
39. Highly effective private business Serco do our contact tracing, which is why some of its tracing staff report being so under-occupied they have managed to watch 3 entire series of The Good Place and play computer games all day for months, while 60,000 Britons died
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
22.
40. I have no idea if the Queen has noticed her govt's honesty, but this week she said “having trusted, reliable sources of information is vital”
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
41. We enter flu season under a govt you can trust, but who accidentally failed to send the flu vaccine to GPs for over a month
23.
42. And the average hours for teachers increased from 53 to 70 hours per week, as they attempt to cope with endlessly shifting instructions
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
43. Teachers are also having to be cleaners in schools, as there is no additional money for adaptations to keep staff and students safe
24.
44. As the govt prepares for 4 million unemployed in 2021, Rishi Sunak said he would introduce “job coaches”, and said 4 million of us being coached for *up to* 2 hours to do jobs that don’t exist would be “the first time that people will realise government could be helpful”
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
25.
45. A report found “trust between ministers and staff is being severely eroded” by a 7-month delay in the bullying inquiry into Home Secretary and horcrux, Priti Patel
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
46. She then made a speech in which she voluntarily opted to define herself as opposite to those who “do good”
26.
47. Possibly to distract from this, health minister Lord Bethell rushed out to claim Covid 19 would make us as proud as the Olympics
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
48. Covid 19 has killed about as many as you can fit into an Olympic Stadium, so maybe that’s what he meant
27.
49. A quick detour into the magical, spinning world of gaffe-hamster Lord Bethell: last week he tried to distract from govt student cockups by claiming Covid 19 was predominantly caused by “late-night intimacy” and not by, for example, failing to trace infections
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
28.
50. Earlier, Bethell tried to distract from govt A-Level cockups by claiming him failing A-Levels didn’t prevent him hustling to his lofty position (momentarily forgetting the hustling assistance he gained when his dad, the 4th Lord Bethell, hustled his way into a grave)
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
And finally…
51. And finally, in an image that will haunt you, Matt Hancock announced he would only snitch on his neighbours if he was “watching them having an Animal House-style hot tub party”. Watching. He said watching. Matt Hancock. Watching. pic.twitter.com/P0xgv4DnQ7
— Russ (@RussInCheshire) October 5, 2020
Related – Now PM urges public to ‘go to the cinema’ after telling people not to go to work
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