These Covid Polices Are Going Well .....

[Unkraut]

Any pre Christmas circuit breaker would have been widely ignored , mainly due to the recent revelations.

The mutated virus will ignore the fact it is Christmas and happily spread at a rapid rate through the population. It is a very sociable virus in that regard, and loves parties. The jury is still out as far as I can see as to how serious this is in terms of illness and the death rate, but those obsessed with making their own decisions as to what they do at Christmas (i.e. ignore restrictions) will in a minority of cases pay a high price for their 'freedom'. What is worse is when others have to pay the price as well who do abide by the restrictions.

 

[icowden]

Chris Whitty is effectively setting public health policy, and that's not his job, and it's not a healthy situation for a democracy to be in.

I think you will find that Chris Whitty has no power to set public health policy. What he *does* do is to advise the government and this includes telling them when they are being idiots. He is not going to revise scientific opinion to make a few lunatics happy just because they are elected MPs.

This is Dean Russell MP being handed his posterior (and later claiming that he asked the question deliberately to get clarification)


View: https://twitter.com/dean4watford/status/1471512656410337280?s=20

 

[farfromtheland]

I had a discussion at work on Thursday night with someone who used to work for Co-op funeral care. She told me of many cases where doctors certified death from Covid last spring when there was no good evidence of it. The pointers were often towards stroke or heart attack. This would back up Prof. Whitty's view.

 

[FishFright]

I had a discussion at work on Thursday night with someone who used to work for Co-op funeral care. She told me of many cases where doctors certified death from Covid last spring when there was no good evidence of it. The pointers were often towards stroke or heart attack. This would back up Prof. Whitty's view.

Well I'm convinced at that piece of peer reviewed research.

 

[swansonj]

I think you will find that Chris Whitty has no power to set public health policy. What he *does* do is to advise the government and this includes telling them when they are being idiots. He is not going to revise scientific opinion to make a few lunatics happy just because they are elected ....

Sorry, let me try to spell it out one more time.

The constitutional position is as you say: Whitty is an advisor to government, he advises on policy, they decide.

The practical position at the moment is that government are failing to make the decisions necessary to protect the public, so Whitty finds himself issuing advice directly to the public that goes beyond the extent government advice, and to that extent, he is in practice setting policy.

Tory MPs are right that this is unconstitutional.

I say thank God for someone like Whitty.

 

[theclaud]

Sorry, let me try to spell it out one more time.

The constitutional position is as you say: Whitty is an advisor to government, he advises on policy, they decide.

The practical position at the moment is that government are failing to make the decisions necessary to protect the public, so Whitty finds himself issuing advice directly to the public that goes beyond the extent government advice, and to that extent, he is in practice setting policy.

Tory MPs are right that this is unconstitutional.

I say thank God for someone like Whitty.

Yes, it's part of the more general trend that we are now all trying to manage the pandemic, and every other difficulty, from the needs of refugees to whatever we do for a living, in spite of the government. We don't really have a government, as has been said before - just a posh crime syndicate hiding in plain sight.

 

[mjr]

Sorry, let me try to spell it out one more time.

The constitutional position is as you say: Whitty is an advisor to government, he advises on policy, they decide.

The practical position at the moment is that government are failing to make the decisions necessary to protect the public, so Whitty finds himself issuing advice directly to the public that goes beyond the extent government advice, and to that extent, he is in practice setting policy.

Tory MPs are right that this is unconstitutional.

I say thank God for someone like Whitty.

Tory MPs are wrong. Whitty is the Chief Medical Officer, which is an unusual government post who is empowered by statute to issue public advice and reports without approval by the government, as well as be a government adviser.

Don't let the Tories cripple the post of Chief Medical Officer! The inability of government to set policy is not because of him. He's just trying to advise the public because the head ain't listening.

 

[farfromtheland]

Chris Witty is between a rock and a hard place. The principled thing would be to resign. Having heard his reports, at least earlier in the year, he is a man of conscience, and I dare say would be scared of the consequences for policy if not for himself, at this point.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Chris Witty is between a rock and a hard place. The principled thing would be to resign. Having heard his reports, at least earlier in the year, he is a man of conscience, and I dare say would be scared of the consequences for policy if not for himself, at this point.

I don't see how it would be principled of him to resign. As the most senior health advisor he's left with virtually no one near government who is giving coherent health advice. His resignation would simply reduce what little health advice there is. Meanwhile, the government seems to be acting along the same principles as Brexit policy: they want to stop freedom of movement without putting up borders.

 

[farfromtheland]

I don't see how it would be principled of him to resign. As the most senior health advisor he's left with virtually no one near government who is giving coherent health advice. His resignation would simply reduce what little health advice there is. Meanwhile, the government seems to be acting along the same principles as Brexit policy: they want to stop freedom of movement without putting up borders.

He is not able to give the best advice, he is giving the best permissible advice.

I reckon the government are just riding the wave as long as it holds. They have nothing to fear from the opposition.

 

[Deleted member 28]

I would imagine earning 200k per year, apparently, is a good enough reason not to resign.

 

[Bromptonaut]

I would imagine earning 200k per year, apparently, is a good enough reason not to resign.

I think, absent the CMO post, he'd find plenty of other opportunities...

 

[Rusty Nails]

I would imagine earning 200k per year, apparently, is a good enough reason not to resign.

 

[Deleted member 28]

View attachment 387

No idea?

 

[Rusty Nails]

No idea?

We know that.