Tier 3 and above.

[sparky Paul]

The rule says "shops selling", not that they are only allowed to sell them. So more loopholes for business to do what they want.

Not much point to that then 

Watched Pritti Patel and I have never heard anyone, even a politician, prevaricate as much as she did. She never answered a question. Regards the rules not being strict enough she deaf eared three journalists and a member of the public who all asked the same question.

...and word of the day today, from Susie Dent on twitter...

Word of the day is ‘circumlocutionist’: one who consistently speaks in a roundabout way in order to avoid addressing a question directly.

[Westy36]

I always speak to shop assistants, people I pass in the street, posties, traffic wardens, you name it. My wife says I will talk to anyone, particularly the ladies, but it is just my nature. Probably the reason I post so much on here.

Agreed Even though we live in the suburbs, I know our posties, bin guys, most neighbours and such. Every shop, fuel station or wherever, always say 'Hi' and have a smile. Costs me nowt, and I know it makes a difference. Even if I'm having a bad day, I don't need to pass that on to other people.

As sparkPaul says "a pair of smiling eyes" have you noticed how lovely some eyes are! Almost be a shame when they are gone. Mind you, I certainly won't miss the litter of face masks being dropped all over the place.

[Kremmen]

Vaccine tracker:

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-uk-vaccination-tracker-find-out-how-many-have-had-the-jab-12179220

[madasafish]

Deaths doubling every two  weeks https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

We'll see around 100,000 deaths before end January...

[Jocko]

have you noticed how lovely some eyes are!

For many years I worked in a semiconductor clean room, and we all had to wear full clean gear, including masks. I discovered then just how beautiful eyes are. When that is all you have to concentrate on, you realise just how much they sparkle. Two girls in particular, who worked on my sputter line, one had emerald green eyes and the other violet eyes. Unless you are in a relationship with someone, you seldom notice another person's eye colour.

[sparky Paul]

What have I started here? 

[JimSh]

Deaths doubling every two  weeks https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

We'll see around 100,000 deaths before end January...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/13/uk-coronavirus-deaths-pass-100000

[madasafish]

The Guardian quotes death totals for the UK which are NOT official and are therefore fake news as far as I am concerned.

(And then they rant about Trump and his fake news)

[JimSh]

The Guardian quotes death totals for the UK which are NOT official and are therefore fake news as far as I am concerned.

(And then they rant about Trump and his fake news)

"There have been 93,418 coronavirus deaths recorded by statistical agencies, based on those with Covid on the death certificate, from the beginning of the pandemic up to 10 January, and a further 7,742 deaths since, according to figures published by the government based on deaths within 28 days of a positive test for the virus.
The way coronavirus deaths in the UK are counted has changed since the beginning of the pandemic. While statistical agencies count deaths where Covid-19 is noted on the death certificate, the government figures released each day count fatalities within 28 days of a positive test. The Guardian analyses the data from both sources to achieve the most up-to-date fatality count possible."

As near 100000 as damnit as far as I'm concerned.
There's a great difference between rounding off and Trump's type of fake news.

[ColinB]

There is no absolutely correct number of deaths because counting them is not easy. The 28 day criterion is arbitrary, and means that (eg) someone who has a fatal car crash 2 weeks after a positive Covid test would be included, but someone who passed away gasping for breath in an ICU 29 days after their positive test wouldn’t. Chasing numbers like “100,000 deaths” is simply a morbid desire to create newspaper circulation through lurid headlines. The only way you can really use the various statistics is to monitor progress in fighting the pandemic by ensuring you always measure consistently and then understand that the important things are the rates of change and not the absolute numbers.

Whether the total number of deaths to date is 85,000 or 100,000 is pretty irrelevant: whichever number you choose to believe, it’s obscene and one of the worst in the world. That represents a dismal failure on the part of this government (and its predecessors who ran down the NHS to the point where it was stretched too thinly) to protect its citizens.

[JimSh]

Just wondering what's going to happen when the 15 million "most vulnerable" have been vaccinated.
The government will be under pressure to release restrictions and are likely to do this too quickly as before.
Many of the "less vulnerable" have felt for a long time (or have been encouraged to feel) that they have been giving up their freedom to protect the "more vulnerable".
I can foresee another massive free for all cockup in the making.

[ColinB]

Just wondering what's going to happen when the 15 million "most vulnerable" have been vaccinated.
The government will be under pressure to release restrictions and are likely to do this too quickly as before.
Many of the "less vulnerable" have felt for a long time (or have been encouraged to feel) that they have been giving up their freedom to protect the "more vulnerable".
I can foresee another massive free for all cockup in the making.

1. Was chatting to a neighbour a couple of days ago (from an anti-social distance, of course) who was gleeful at having just received his second jab. His attitude was "I'm OK now, I'm going to go out to enjoy myself".
2. BBC R4 reporting this morning that travel companies are experiencing a boom in over-50's booking holidays for later this year, safe in the knowledge that they'll have been vaccinated and are therefore OK.

This attitude is understandable, but ignores the fact that even after vaccination you can still catch Covid (albeit mildly) and you can still spread it. Just wait until BoJo starts trying to clamp down on those who have been vaccinated because the infections start going up again amongst those who haven't!

[peteo48]

The answer, alongside vaccination, is a viable trace, test and isolate programme rather than lockdowns. Don't get me wrong, this lockdown was necessary but only because we don't have a working trace test and isolate programme.

[culzean]

Just wondering what's going to happen when the 15 million "most vulnerable" have been vaccinated.
The government will be under pressure to release restrictions and are likely to do this too quickly as before.
Many of the "less vulnerable" have felt for a long time (or have been encouraged to feel) that they have been giving up their freedom to protect the "more vulnerable".
I can foresee another massive free for all cockup in the making.

1. Was chatting to a neighbour a couple of days ago (from an anti-social distance, of course) who was gleeful at having just received his second jab. His attitude was "I'm OK now, I'm going to go out to enjoy myself".
2. BBC R4 reporting this morning that travel companies are experiencing a boom in over-50's booking holidays for later this year, safe in the knowledge that they'll have been vaccinated and are therefore OK.

This attitude is understandable, but ignores the fact that even after vaccination you can still catch Covid (albeit mildly) and you can still spread it. Just wait until BoJo starts trying to clamp down on those who have been vaccinated because the infections start going up again amongst those who haven't!

That's the trouble - people queuing up for jabs and then they will be zooming off everywhere and heaven help anyone who crosses their path, next thing is they will be saying 'I have had the jab so don't need to wear a mask'.  The more you see of people the more sensible animals seem......

The reason UK hit so badly ( this was a quote from WHO way back in March ) 'UK has lots of sick and unhealthy people who have been kept alive by NHS, they should expect large numbers of Covid deaths'...

[JimSh]

Just wondering what's going to happen when the 15 million "most vulnerable" have been vaccinated.
The government will be under pressure to release restrictions and are likely to do this too quickly as before.
Many of the "less vulnerable" have felt for a long time (or have been encouraged to feel) that they have been giving up their freedom to protect the "more vulnerable".
I can foresee another massive free for all cockup in the making.

1. Was chatting to a neighbour a couple of days ago (from an anti-social distance, of course) who was gleeful at having just received his second jab. His attitude was "I'm OK now, I'm going to go out to enjoy myself".
2. BBC R4 reporting this morning that travel companies are experiencing a boom in over-50's booking holidays for later this year, safe in the knowledge that they'll have been vaccinated and are therefore OK.

Yes. There's going to be complacency all round and an upsurge in flying.

The reason UK hit so badly ( this was a quote from WHO way back in March ) 'UK has lots of sick and unhealthy people who have been kept alive by NHS, they should expect large numbers of Covid deaths'...

The reason the Uk has been hit so badly has been the inept, short-sighted handling by the government -
in particular their applying restrictions too late, lifting restrictions too soon, reluctance to restrict flights or apply quarantine or enforce self isolation and their inability to impose a working test,track and isolate system.