Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

As a Brit in Sweden my mind is blown how they’ve f’d this up so badly. Also gutted for you lot and all my fam back in the UK.

Name one thing since the 2016 referendum that this shower of wet arseholes hasn't fucked up?

Possibly, possibly, the furlough scheme.

Absolutely nothing else, on any front.

"the roads?"

And Matty Hancock was trying to bring this up on R4 earlier when saying how essentional it is to make international comparions as we do have a large testing program we just appear to be using it inefficienctly

This makes the blood boil, few months ago they were refusing international comparisons because of this and that reason. They only want to compare when they can spin it in their favour

Possibly, possibly, the furlough scheme.

Got quite a few freelancer friends in the artistic sector and friends in TV/Movie sector who would beg to differ on that.

Well, technically I was asking for something that wasn't a complete and total balls up rather than something perfect.

From my POV, every single other thing that the Tories have attempted since 2016 has been a shambles.

I think we can discount things like winning the 2019 general election and giving themselves get out of jail free cards and payouts. Something for the good of the country.

essentional

Very nice, I like inventing new words. Now I'm trying to work out what nuance of meaning differentiates it from 'essential'. It's clearly derived from 'an essention'¸ which could be a kind of actively exercised power of an essence, as opposed to its potential. :)

Something for the good of the cuntry.

Fixed, they've delivered plenty of that (while we're at inventing words).

(I agree with your point.)

I'm mostly in favour of HS2, for capacity rather than speed reasons, and that seems to be going ahead. Maybe just project inertia?

Although

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2019/feb/01/scrapped-hs2-bike-path-could-have-reaped-five-times-more-than-hs2-itself

There are loads of things about HS2 that I think could have been done better. The lack of cycle provision on the bridges is one that I think is a very bad decision. The construction phase is poor too, see https://twitter.com/adamtranter/status/1304848140722413576

But the government could have scrapped the whole project which I think would have been worse.

Wait and see.

If it goes as well as Crossrail....

Yeah - HS2 will be very late and very, very much more expensive than planned.

They've done nothing for anyone other than themselves and their mates. And STILL are the most popular party. smh.

As I've said before, HS2 is largely on the same template as high-speed trains in Europe, whose remit is basically to facilitate business travel. Obviously, it also facilitates travel between larger centres for other people wealthy enough to afford the higher fares, while typically having a negative impact on the rest of the rail network, when it is far, far more important, and far cheaper, to reinstate lost railway lines and create other useful local-ish rail links. Also important are sensible main line upgrades, of course, but HS2 isn't a strategic priority by any stretch of the imagination.

Would have been awesome to have a country long cycle path </3

Has the tweet from Richard E Grant on the 15th been mentioned?

Please can someone explain to me why, when you land in Rome, there is a swift and well organised COVID test, with the result given 30 minutes later, yet we don’t have this in the UK?

Also important are sensible main line upgrades

There aren't any sensible upgrades of the north south railways (WCML, ECML and MML) without bulldozing a lot of homes and businesses. To free up capacity on those routes you need to move the high speed paths somewhere else.

Probably for another thread though.

As I've said before, HS2 is largely on the same template as high-speed trains in Europe, whose remit is basically to facilitate business travel. Obviously, it also facilitates travel between larger centres for other people wealthy enough to afford the higher fares, while typically having a negative impact on the rest of the rail network, when it is far, far more important, and far cheaper, to reinstate lost railway lines and create other useful local-ish rail links. Also important are sensible main line upgrades, of course, but HS2 isn't a strategic priority by any stretch of the imagination.

Interestingly I've read a number of articles from people who seem to know what they're talking about which contradict every single point you make there, let me see if I can find them.

Most especially the "cheaper to reinstate lost railway lines" IIRC.

This closes tonight for those who have an opinion on vaccination

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/distributing-vaccines-and-treatments-for-covid-19-and-flu

Anyway - the national lockdown that we may have heading our way, do we think that people are going to observe it, or are we too far through the eye-test/grouse-shoot mirror and people will just continue about their normal lives?

Interestingly I've read a number of articles from people who seem to know what they're talking about which contradict every single point you make there, let me see if I can find them

I was thinking exactly the same thing!

Well. Look at the way people on here talk about the rule of 6 and how it can be gamed, how they're off here and there, how they're being sensible but others aren't, and I'm including some of my actions (camping with friends a couple of weeks ago, trying to work out how to keep my kids unorganised but organised sports club going)..and then draw a conclusion.

• High speed services on the continent have exactly the same mix of business and leisure travel, expensive and cheap fares, etc as UK Intercity services.
  
• The lost railway lines either went nowhere and were closed for good reason, have been built over in key sections, or do nothing to add capacity in congested urban areas. Usually, all three.
  
• Expanding existing mainlines is ludicrously expensive and disruptive for limited gain.
  
• Cancelling HS2 doesn't do anything to make money appear for local transport schemes.
  

On the other hand, I just popped out to get some beers and takeaway and there is definitely more distancing and more care being taken than last week. There's an awareness. I think most people will observe the rules but not so rigidly.