Did they? Or did they agree to pay the private companies £400m every month so they could use the hospitals - which then largely sat idle? Not really my idea of requisitioning which would be more like, 'it's a national emergency, we trained all your staff, you can f*** your profits because we're having your hospital and your staff for the duration'.
[News] Matt Hancock.
- Thread starter Leekbrookgull
- Start date
Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊
Did they? Or did they agree to pay the private companies £400m every month so they could use the hospitals - which then largely sat idle? Not really my idea of requisitioning which would be more like, 'it's a national emergency, we trained all your staff, you can f*** your profits because we're having your hospital and your staff for the duration'.
Motogull
Todd Warrior
- Sep 16, 2005
- 9,942
I'm not so sure I agree with that. Johnson seems unable or unwilling to touch. Patel should not be there. Raab is a tit. Hancock is worse than I thought in the light of Cummings' comments. It is a cabinet laden with Bungle*****. I'm not sure what the collective noun of a bungle**** is. Trump is my suggestion.
Johnson's cabinet is a Trump of Bungle*****.
Sorry, you may have got me wrong, I agree with all this.
Johnson can’t touch Patel, Raab, Gove & Hancock etc because like him, they are snakes. They’ve all got something on him. They’ll simply do what Cummings has done if he lays a finger on them and stab the **** in the back. Johnson is a genius at self-preservation and political survival though, if their ****-ups start affecting the polls, he might have to get rid.
A ‘Trump of Bungle*****’ is very apt.
Since1982
Well-known member
I've said before, it is our grave misfortune when, faced with the greatest national emergency since WW2 to have the least competent and most dishonest government in charge. A bunch of chancers who have attached their personal quest for power to the cult of Brexit led by a charlatan with the morals of an alley cat. And I say this as someone who previously voted Tory.
Do you know the current plan? I have posted it on another thread. I work at one of the top 5 unis un the UK.
Our 'leaders' (under instruction from HMG) have decided there will be nolarge theatre lectures in 2021-22. That means most of my teaching will remain online (using lectures I recorded in the autumn of 2020).
However we are being asked to invent new teaching that will bring students onto campus. To preclude their asking for their fees back.
So imagine I have a class of 50 who would normally receive 20 lectures in a term, half of them from me. I am beig asked to use the room that would nornally hold 50 to teach cohorts of 10, socially distancing. Since they lectures are all recorded I have been asked to invent....er, tutorials! Or 'workshops'. Or 'Quizzes'. They will each need to be repeated 5 times, so I am being asked to do the same session 5 times in a day for the 5 groups. Doing the same teaching twice in one day is hard enough....
And I am supposed to do this at least three times on each course I teach.
The upshot is I will have massive loads of extra 'contact' teaching next year, and yet the students will get only 3 hours of on campus teaching on the course I run.
Plus, of course, the contact teaching is made-up shit of the sort deemed pointless in a normal academic year.
Oh, and the plans are bound to change as HMG 'responds' to changes in circumstance. Like last year when I had to change the timetable for one course three times between November and January, each time requiring new room bookings, changes to the published timetable, the invention of 'new' (and silly) events.....
Sadly the university leadership is largely a bunch of 'do rights'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCXMXZA-0eE
Wardy's twin
Well-known member
- Oct 21, 2014
- 8,489
My daughter finished uni a couple of years ago and she was aghast that people were encouraged back to campus only to have online teaching. My neighbours youngest is experiencing this , his sister though is doing her law conversion totally from home and proving it can be done. I know people will say people will miss out on the university experience , yes not good news but my dad's generation had to miss out on a lot of things to fight a war and many did not return. In this case the pressure is all about money and not what is right.
GT49er
Well-known member
A suggested amendment for you!
Correct.
Money and fear. We unis are all 'competing' for students and have all manner of 'targets' and the constant threat of departmental closures and layoffs. We had a cull a few years ago that was based on grant income (for research) in the previous 12 months. One colleague of mine spent 3 months fighting for her job - no new grants in the previous 12 months, but no need - millions from the previous 2 years in the bank and a large research group. Most grants run for 3 years. In case anyone is under illusions, you can't do research unless you apply for and 'win' grants.
JC Footy Genius
Bringer of TRUTH
- Jun 9, 2015
- 10,568
Undoubtedly true that we were caught unprepared along with many other countries. Unfortunately, our pre-pandemic contingency planning seemed to be based on a different type of contagion, more 'flu' like.
The NSC man in the street may have come up with numerous seemingly common-sense options but none of them were putting forward their views being fully aware of all the available data or facts at the time. None of them were being briefed and advised by SAGE and other expert bodies as to the reasons why those options may not be suitable at any particular time. One example being SAGE not recommending a complete early travel ban as they thought it would have a very limited impact and negatively affect supply chains. Would all of NSC's finest (the very same people who usually say follow the science) really have simply ignored this advice and just closed all our borders anyway? There were tragic failings re care homes and the 'putting a shield around them' was obvious bollox, someone should be held to account for this but if the options to protect them were so obvious and easy to implement, I wonder why the devolved (Labour,SNP) governments didn't implement these 'obvious' solutions instead of making exactly the same errors as HMG.
I don't believe paralysis was the main problem, more trying to cope with an unprecedented situation with constantly changing data facing no good easy options meaning it was inevitable many tragic mistakes would be made, similar issues in all parts of the UK and further afield. Hopefully, the enquiry will identify the many failings, the reasons why they happened and where necessary people should be held to account.
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 70,526
Sorry, not buying it.
Parts of Northern Italy were under full lockdown with highly distressing photos coming out of their overwhelmed hospitals. As NSC noted at that time, TWENTY flights a day were coming into London airports from that region with ZERO entry checks at UK airports.
Similarly noted at the time, Care Home residents, by their very nature, tend not to stray far beyond the dining room of their care home. These tend to be, sadly, folks who can get knocked over by a stiff breeze. Staff had no PPE, staff often rotated between care homes in the same town. And then untested Covid-recovering patients get inserted into Care Homes? It's pure criminal neglect on multiple counts. There was a massive failure of basic common sense at the heart of government. No need to wait for the public inquiry really, we all already know what the conclusions will be. Or at least should be
Last edited:
JC Footy Genius
Bringer of TRUTH
- Jun 9, 2015
- 10,568
Errr, keep up at the back ...the topic we were discussing was the setting up of a Vaccine task force, suggested by Vallance and Whitty .... would you agree it was set up in a timely fashion and has delivered impressive results saving numerous lives?
A cynic would say that Unis encouraged students to return to campus because they are heavily dependent upon accommodation rentals as a source of revenue.
I'm not a cynic BTW.
Randy McNob
Now go home and get your f#cking Shinebox
- Jun 13, 2020
- 4,512
Perfect example of gaslighting the public, i.e. any level of incompetence, cronyism, corruption is okay because (somehow) the alternative would be worse. even having the worse death rate, worse performing economy of the G7, it would be worse even if you're already the worse compared to other comparable countries? go figure....
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 70,526
Certainly seems to have been the overriding business plan for Brighton town El Pres. Jerry Building student tower blocks all over the place. London Road, Lewes Road etc etc. Fair enough it's an improvement on what was there before. But it'll be a decade before the numbers come back to allow the developers to turn a profit on their investment. On the plus side: plenty of capacity to give every first-time buyer an affordable starter home - if the political will is there
- Jul 10, 2003
- 26,048
I noticed this earlier this week driving out on the Lewes road. Who decided that Lewes road should be Brighton's homage to New York
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,383
so they paid and didnt use them, not surprising since most hospitals werent at capacity. everything non-emergency simply got canned. what your highlighting is another failure to manage resources available.
Sorry, not buying it.
Parts of Northern Italy were under full lockdown with highly distressing photos coming out of their overwhelmed hospitals. As NSC noted at that time, TWENTY flights a day were coming into London airports from that region with ZERO entry checks at UK airports.
Similarly noted at the time, Care Home residents, by their very nature, tend not to stray far beyond the dining room of their care home. These tend to be, sadly, folks who can get knocked over by a stiff breeze. Staff had no PPE, staff often rotated between care homes in the same town. And then untested Covid-recovering patients get inserted into Care Homes? It's pure criminal neglect on multiple counts. There was a massive failure of basic common sense at the heart of government. No need to wait for the public inquiry really, we all already know what the conclusions will be. Or at least should be
Spot on.
Wardy's twin
Well-known member
- Oct 21, 2014
- 8,489
well it certainly wasn't for 1:1 tuition. The argument is and was financial. There are student flats i.e. one, medium sized room with ensuite , going for £895 a month in new accommodation in Brighton, absolutely mind boggling.
GT49er
Well-known member
I suppose those poor landlords could convert to Air B'N'B to save themselves from penury.
They paid and didn’t use them because mostly the doctors in private hospitals are the same consultants that work in the NHS. They do the private work in their spare time. Sure, you can try to point the finger at the NHS if you like and say it was them wasting resources. But that’s what happens if you have a flawed two tier system. It’s down to the Government to get a grip when it’s taxpayers’ money but they have no incentive to do that when their mates are making all the money. Whatever way you carve it up, you’ve had profit-making health care companies bleeding the NHS for billions, covering all their costs while the hospitals stood empty because it wasn’t feasible to continue with routine operations. Plus some staff that do work solely for those private hospitals - NHS trained - got paid time off while those working in the NHS were desperately trying to keep the system afloat with huge numbers of colleagues either off with COVID, shielding or simply stressed out (and it gets no better....).