COVID-19

Let’s be fair we’ve been in the equivalent of tier 2 since August. They just renamed it. But it’s good they have got more support and shows the government knew it was needed. Support people now and you’ll be rewarded for it when we are over the worst of This virus. It’s not about an easy ride it’s ensuring you have a tax paying work force out there once we are over the worst.

 

Very good and was much needed.

 

Let's hope you're right. Probably goes a bit far for me but given the wide range of support across all three tiers no I can't see any reason for complaint.

 

Bloody hell they are being generous!!

I hope paying back all this money is going to be as painless as it's sometimes portrayed.

 

They were never going to be able to save every business I suppose. Lot's of businesses close even in a normal year.

Just looking through it. Absolutely enormous amount of support. Don't think they could be expected to do anything more.

 

It’s going to be hard and painful for a lot but it’s the cheaper alternative to letting millions and millions fall into unemployment

 

Just the employed people who will be living in poverty!

 

Oh wait money for Tier 2 now the London and a lot of the South have entered in it what a shock.

 

In addition to standard Universal Credit that absolutely eye watering.

The lack of actual contribution from businesses is the striking thing to me in comparison to standard furlough.

 

It’s designed to keep people employed by employers.

 

The businesses will taxed to high heaven next year.

 

That's right. Stage 1 of the furlough scheme was even more generous.

The 20% only kicked in this month I believe.

 

The Conservatives will soon eat themselves. The in fighting will be starting at full pace within weeks.

Least Desmond is no puppet and has his own mind. Unlike the sheep that just care about themselves.

 

So explain why scaling up existing local authority teams would have been less doable than starting a completely new system from scratch using untrained new recruits employed by an organisation with no prior expertise whatsoever. You would still have lots of untried raw recruits, but they'd have been led, trained and mentored by people who actually know what they are doing, rather than fed a PowerPoint presentation and told to wait by their phone.
It is surely quicker and more efficient to spend money building on existing expert resources than inefficiently reinventing the wheel at extortionate expense. With the added bonus that none of the money being poured in would have been creamed off in shareholder profits.
No, the LA teams aren't doing just the easy cases. The whole point about local teams is that they have the local knowledge and expertise to access harder to reach communities. Germany and Korea have successfully used the local approach.

This is an example of how inefficient, wasteful and distressing the Serco crapshow is. It would be funny if it weren't so tragically serious:

BBC News - 'We had more than 60 calls from test-and-trace'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54559228

 

just seen during the Welsh Lockdown supermarkets can only sell essential goods. What is essential?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-54648194