Celtic have apparently asked the Scottish Government to take a common sense look at their Covid restrictions for football players, but I don’t know if I have ever imagined a greater waste of energy than to appeal to this Government’s common sense.
Yesterday they shuttered the hospitality sector for most of the country, while locking down rural areas after 6pm, claiming this sector was prevalent in the rise of Covid’s second wave. You don’t say, Sherlock. Since August they permitted football fans to gather in enclosed pubs to watch games, while prohibiting games at open air stadiums, contrary to all scientific evidence. We have repeatedly discussed this folly here.
Encourage people into pubs, then blame pubs for the second wave, if only they were prepared to deviate from the policies of a Westminster government, scientific evidence would have had a chance to influence political policy.
Thousands of fans attend games across Europe, all outdoors, all socially distanced, all with strict travel, entry and egress protocols, mandated by governments who are not following Boris Johnson’s cabal. There has been no related increase in contagion – because, as we all know, this is not how contagion happens. It happens indoors, where there is no monitoring.
The hospitality sector needed to be thoroughly monitored (just as the football sector would have been) when it opened. Spot checks should have taken place many times each week, with licences pulled immediately for those who allowed unsafe practices. If it was monitored, social distancing practices would be sufficient to keep people safe.
I saw plenty of venues that had clearly spent a small fortune on partitions, with staff permanently wiping and cleaning handles, and others which looked little changed from the pre-Covid era. There was no consistency, which means there was no enforced monitoring, which means responsibility for the rise in contagion from the hospitality sector lies largely with the government.
If you do not monitor compliance and close offending venues, you know you are contributing to the problem. Despite this, you can continue watch afternoon games in a Dunfermline pub, with as much alcohol as you can consume, without any change in government monitoring policy.
Unusually, this wave of restrictions came several days ahead of Westminster’s planned move. Don’t get me started on it grabbing the headlines on ‘Oh, I forgot Day’. We are bereft of competent leadership in Edinburgh and London. The former can do what they like because their opposition is even less competent than they are, and the latter can do what they like because they have another four years before they need to care about you.
It is thoroughly depressing; our government co-joined twins care nothing of the game, do not expect any amount of evidence to bring about change. As long as they keep their legions of cognitively dissonanced fan boys (CDFBs) on side, competency will not improve. I buy none of their bull, self-promoting careerists to the last. Green and white are my only colours.
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Ernie Lynch…
Do the 9 million people of London have a right to self determination?
Yes they do.
They voted Labour. They voted to remain in the EU.
London is part of England. They’re part of the problem. Highlighting two issues where they’ve voted against the end result doesn’t get away from the fact they’re part of the landmass whose wishes are the only ones that count across the UK.
Scotland, as a country that forms part of the UK has no such representation. Scotlands vote hasn’t made a difference to Westminster election results for over 70 years (74 IIRC). We’re unrepresented on an industrial scale. And the ‘industrial scale’ isn’t my term, it’s the election reform society’s.
Now, if we were governed in the same manner as London, and we weren’t regarded as a operate part of the UK then that would be fair enough, but we’ve had things foisted on us, we’ve been used as a test bed for things before roll out to England – notably, the poll tax. We’re a different country, treated as different, but play no part in democracy. First past the post locks in inequality for us, and gerrymandering wraps it up. We do not have the access to democracy or self determination that Liverpool has, that London has or that any part of England’s fine country has.
The Westminster government doesn’t represent their wishes.
The Westminster government rules directly over London, and London’s voice is represented in the election in a manner that ours isn’t. London also doesn’t have separate laws to Birmingham. So, London gets to self determine. That it loses and doesn’t get exactly what it wants is irrelevant. It plays a part in the process. That democracy has been so badly subverted in the UK just demonstrated that London and other regions have been asleep at the wheel.
Look also at the way assets are bestowed on the country – millennium dome? That’ll be in London. As far from Scotland as possible. Can you remind me the last time we had something prestigious like that gifted to Scotland?
What about the people of Shetland? Do they have the right to self determination?
Of course they do. self determination doesn’t mean getting what you want all the time though – it means playing a part in a functioning democracy (ok, the UK is an oligarchy, and not a real democracy but that’s a discussion for a difference day when my anarchist socialist believes can get a *real* airing) instead of not being represented at all.
Even in Westminster – the MP numbers mean that any English MP’s can decide what’s what whilst Scotland make up the numbers – it’s not a workable or functioning system. It’s also part of the reason also why Sinn Fein play no part in the pantomime.
Everyone deserves the right to representation. It should be in inalienable human right to live in a democracy and to live in a representative democracy. We don’t.
/p
As always, apologies for the ridiculous autocorrects and typos.
I’d use the excuse English isn’t my first language, but I’m not sure that snoring and guttural roars count as a language. ;)
/p
P8DDY on 9TH OCTOBER 2020 11:26 AM
‘As always, apologies for the ridiculous autocorrects and typos.’
###
No offence, but it’s the complete absence of logical coherence and total disregard for the truth that you should be apologising for.
Hot Smoked
Re your earlier post about your “hopes “
My hope is your hopes all come true
Hail Hail
Stay Safe
new article posted.
I know it’s a drag and some people have medical issues but come on how difficult is it to wear a mask whilst in a shop or on public transport…some people might believe it’s all a big conspiracy but is it really such a hardship to wear a mask for ,which is most of the time, a few minutes.