Coronavirus

[BillyStubbsTears]

So Priti Patel insists that the reason there are unsafe conditions in Leicester garment sweatshops when CV-19 has re-emerged is because the local council is so PC that it darent step on toes because...racism.

Funny that. I thought it might have more to do with Local Authority budgets being slashed to the bone and beyond since 2010, means that health and safety spot check numbers have collapsed.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EcrXTheWoAAHM_F?format=png&name=medium

I'm sure Patel is right though. She doesn't seem like one who would play the Culture War card to deflect from the Tories' actual record in Government.

[Ldr]

So Priti Patel insists that the reason there are unsafe conditions in Leicester garment sweatshops when CV-19 has re-emerged is because the local council is so PC that it darent step on toes because...racism.

Funny that. I thought it might have more to do with Local Authority budgets being slashed to the bone and beyond since 2010, means that health and safety spot check numbers have collapsed.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EcrXTheWoAAHM_F?format=png&name=medium

I'm sure Patel is right though. She doesn't seem like one who would play the Culture War card to deflect from the Tories' actual record in Government.

Or more likely a combination of both

[selby]

  More likely someone along the line has received a brown envelope.

[Glyn_Wigley]

Envelope racism!

[ravenrover]

  More likely someone along the line has received a brown envelope.

Other colours are available😇

[wilts rover]

Oh, if only the government had commissioned a report into the conditions in the Leicester garment industry. In 2017 say?

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/1952/report-files/195205.htm

https://www.ft.com/content/e427327e-5892-11e8-b8b2-d6ceb45fa9d0

Maybe Priti Patel should be asking the people in government since 2017 why they did nothing about it?

Or was she too busy delivering brown envelopes of taxpayers money to the Israeli Army?

[Hounslowrover]

Andrew Bridgen, Tory MP for North West Leicestershire brought the matter up in the Commons in January. Claudia Webbe, Labour MP for Leicester East raised the issue in her maiden speech in February. Just two more adding to the debate.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Interesting point isn't it?  Not directly a coronavirus issue I guess but still vitally important.

1. Why didn't Priti Patel's team raise it with the right people/department (which I think is hmrc?)?
2. If they did why no action taken?
3. Why should they have to? It's not a secret issue and seems strange nothing was done.
4. Thus question 4, why nothing done? Sounds a little suspect to me.
5. Perhaps this is a power best devolved to local areas?

I actually won some money once from a claim on minimum wage so it was enforced certainly 10 years ago and that was without complaint. Also remember a few compliance checks in past too.
 Hence the surprise on the last point.  Under funding perhaps an issue? Seems a strange area to underfund.

[SydneyRover]

As the graph bst posted above bfyp local government had inspectors to do that very job but they have been starved of funds and inspections are a thing of the past.

[albie]

Well, so much for herd immunity;
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/12/immunity-to-covid-19-could-be-lost-in-months-uk-study-suggests

Looks like most are all in for the second round, once it kicks back in again.

[selby]

  From the radio report I heard tonight, the situation in Leicester could well open a can of worms for the local council,safety, and employment inspectors.
  Reports of illegal immigrants employed, lack of safety and employment law and working conditions.
  And collusion warning of when inspections are going to be made within the local authority. Statements that the factories are at the moment not accessible with people locked inside and stopped from being approached by reporters.
  One interviewee stated that everyone in Leicester knows what is going on but gang masters employers crack down on them saying anything and being mostly illegal immigrants dare not go to the authorities.
  One reporter was harangued by an owner driving a Lamborghini motor when he stopped a worker to interview outside a factory.
  Sounds like lots of brown envelopes Glyn for you to get your teeth into.
 
 

[IDM]

So now masks will be compulsory in shops..

In ten days time..

Ten days.?  If they are necessary then, why not today or tomorrow.?  Folks can wear a scarf or similar until they could get a mask.?

As for confused messaging on this in recent days, that really has been pathetic.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

So now masks will be compulsory in shops..

In ten days time..

Ten days.?  If they are necessary then, why not today or tomorrow.?  Folks can wear a scarf or similar until they could get a mask.?

As for confused messaging on this in recent days, that really has been pathetic.

Does it not require a change in law?

People (and many already do) could do this from tomorrow.

I've found wearing a mask really difficult breathing wise, not sure what the guidance is on that, it's not so clear.

[IDM]

There will be an exemption for medical reasons you would expect.

As for wearing one in the shops, it’s only going to be for a short while isn’t it.?  I don’t know about shop workers who would find it more difficult wearing them all day.

[Filo]

I just don’t get it, why were n’t masks essential 3 months ago? Likewise why were n’t flights from places like China stopped in the beginning ? 

[IDM]

Precisely Filo.  Although with masks there was some debate as to how effective they would be, so a delay there is understandable unless we went for belt and braces.

Quarantine for folks arriving from other countries should have been in place at the start of March.

Lots of things should have been done sooner.  The question being asked mid-March was why is our country doing nowt compared to our European neighbours:?  Perhaps we have to be different because we are British and can’t be seen to be following others, regardless if that’s a good idea

[SydneyRover]

I would think there were not enough of them.

[IDM]

We are not talking about medical grade PPE - just face coverings, even a scarf or similar.

[selby]

  Obvious that the "EXPERTS" new very little about the virus and are learning on the hoof about as quickly as we are, and we are probably as EXPERT as they are.
  Just read a story of one woman returning from the USA who returned to China.
  She returned to her flat and got in the lift to her apartment alone. She had been tested in the USA negative, she had been tested in China when arriving negative, and went into lock down in her flat on arrival and never left the flat and at no time showed symptoms.
  Her neighbour used the lift the next morning to go out and 72 cases have been traced from that moment on from the lady using the lift on arrival home who had passed tests in two airports and although having the virus as a spreader at no time in the lock down after her arrival showed any symptoms herself.

[SydneyRover]

We are not talking about medical grade PPE - just face coverings, even a scarf or similar.

I agree something is better than nothing but if you don't have some sort of standard some people will wear anything just to comply IDM. There are plenty of 'approved' designs that can be made at home but a medical grade mask is always going to be better.

[IDM]

Wearing anything is possibly suitable to be compliant.?

[IDM]

From the news story on the bbc website today:

“ Environment Secretary George Eustice told BBC Breakfast the new mandatory rule for face coverings in shops does not apply to retail staff.
"It is about managing the overall risk," he added. "Any type of covering will be sufficient for this purpose."...”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53397617

[SydneyRover]

IDM, I don't know how the quality of any particular mask would be policed, but of course as I said or hoped to infer the better quality of face covering the better the chance that it would do what is supposed to.

[SydneyRover]

From the news story on the bbc website today:

“ Environment Secretary George Eustice told BBC Breakfast the new mandatory rule for face coverings in shops does not apply to retail staff.
"It is about managing the overall risk," he added. "Any type of covering will be sufficient for this purpose."...”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53397617

That's it then underpants on your head is fine? 

[idler]

From the news story on the bbc website today:

“ Environment Secretary George Eustice told BBC Breakfast the new mandatory rule for face coverings in shops does not apply to retail staff.
"It is about managing the overall risk," he added. "Any type of covering will be sufficient for this purpose."...”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53397617

That's it then underpants on your head is fine? 

Only if they are the right way round.🤔

[Filo]

IDM, I don't know how the quality of any particular mask would be policed, but of course as I said or hoped to infer the better quality of face covering the better the chance that it would do what is supposed to.

What are they supposed to do now, that they could n’t do at the peak of the virus in April? i’m genuinly baffled as to why face coverings are essential now when the numbers are lower and not essential when the numbers were at their highest

[SydneyRover]

And also what if staff in a shop are a-symptomatic?

[IDM]

From the news story on the bbc website today:

“ Environment Secretary George Eustice told BBC Breakfast the new mandatory rule for face coverings in shops does not apply to retail staff.
"It is about managing the overall risk," he added. "Any type of covering will be sufficient for this purpose."...”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53397617

That's it then underpants on your head is fine? 

In theory, yes.!!

Rather you than me though.. 

And yes, it would probably be better if there was a minimum standard for acceptable face coverings, but then we would have a panic rush on medical grade PPE.

[SydneyRover]

It's like the whole shebang has been a panic IDM

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

IDM, I don't know how the quality of any particular mask would be policed, but of course as I said or hoped to infer the better quality of face covering the better the chance that it would do what is supposed to.

What are they supposed to do now, that they could n’t do at the peak of the virus in April? i’m genuinly baffled as to why face coverings are essential now when the numbers are lower and not essential when the numbers were at their highest

1. Science confirmed recently it can last longer than thought in air and travel a bit further, hence every bit helps.

2. It's about stopping the numbers rising again which clearly they will.