Manchester and T3.

[Workingman]

It is going into T3 despite what it wants. From a national consistency point of view that has to be the right thing to do, and there should never have been local negotiations.

However, and this is my fear, it will provoke local protests and those protests can and could get violent and go national. That is what the government is really scared of and why it has held off for so long. Imagine the citizens of the biggest cities defying the government. It could happen.

I think that is why the government has tried to get GM on board, because at the end of the day the government has to have the final say. Troops on the streets: don't bet against it.

[TheOstrich]

It is going into T3 despite what it wants.

What it wants, or what a small minority of its politically active denizens want? I rather got the impression from TV interviews that the ordinary Mancunian was adopting a "well it's inevitable and frankly rather overdue" approach.

Given you could well be next, WM, what's the mood on the street in Leeds?

[medsec222]

Separate negotiations with different authorities may be the root of the problem. During the first lock down government help was standard throughout the country and overall people knew what to expect. The government should make it clear that each authority will be treated in the same way throughout the country. I am quite saddened by the way councillors and politicians are stirring up the north/south divide, aided and abetted by certain sections of the press, claiming that the government is deliberately trying to punish people in the north.

[miasmum]

Separate negotiations with different authorities may be the root of the problem. During the first lock down government help was standard throughout the country and overall people knew what to expect. The government should make it clear that each authority will be treated in the same way throughout the country. I am quite saddened by the way councillors and politicians are stirring up the north/south divide, aided and abetted by certain sections of the press, claiming that the government is deliberately trying to punish people in the north.

Me too Med Sec

[Workingman]

Given you could well be next, WM, what's the mood on the street in Leeds?

We suspect that it is coming so grudging acceptance is the order of the day. S. Yorks goes T3 from Saturday, which means we are surrounded: almost. We might as well have the announcement and get on with things.

[cromwell]

Around here the mood is rather more cheesed off.
We seem to be endlessly kicking the can down the road. Lockdown has solved nothing and we are doing all this on the back of unproven theory. Many people are very unhappy.

Separate negotiations with different authorities may be the root of the problem. During the first lock down government help was standard throughout the country and overall people knew what to expect. The government should make it clear that each authority will be treated in the same way throughout the country. I am quite saddened by the way councillors and politicians are stirring up the north/south divide, aided and abetted by certain sections of the press, claiming that the government is deliberately trying to punish people in the north.

Well said.

[Workingman]

How very un-strange.

There was no money, none at all, for the new three tier system and those in the higher tiers, especially T 2, just had to suck it up..... even though furlough was about to end.

But now that London is in T 2 the magic money tree has started to bloom, and in autumn, no less. Well there's a surprise - not. Splash the cash, Rishi, luvvly-jubbly, loadsamoney!

It is all dressed up as a plan for the regions, however, those of us living in "the regions" know that it is anything but. It is all about keeping London sweet.

[Workingman]

Stoke, Coventry and Slough are now to be moved to T 2 - national lockdown by stealth?

Facts about this virus are a movable feast: Symptoms from two to five days, possibly seven; infective for seven to 14 days, but possibly even 21, maybe, perhaps. Then cases and deaths rise two to three weeks later.

Given all those uncertainties a lockdown would need to be in place for at least six weeks, as is the case in Ireland. For all the above reasons we cannot know whether a short-sharp circuit break has succeeded or failed until after the event. However, it would have to be a proper lockdown and not some half-hearted 'lockdown lite', which is what we have done so far.

The alternative, which looks more acceptable to the many as each day passes, is to protect the most vulnerable and then open up for the rest.

[JoM]

I asked Tom if there was any word in the school about an extended half term, seeing as Joe’s college is closing for two weeks (although he only does one day a week so isn’t really affected), but he said that nothing has been said and that the school staff would probably be the last to know anyway.