Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[The Brain]

Just tried the government's career app. First category it said I qualify for is sports and leisure. Top jobs for me in there were health trainer and stunt performer.

Bollywood calling?

[Iormlund]

Just tried the government's career app. First category it said I qualify for is sports and leisure. Top jobs for me in there were health trainer and stunt performer.

It's good to see a Stanford education pays off.   

[garbon]

Just tried the government's career app. First category it said I qualify for is sports and leisure. Top jobs for me in there were health trainer and stunt performer.

It's good to see a Stanford education pays off.   

Hey, it told me I could make £22k a year as an experienced health trainer!

[Sheilbh]

Spain has said time and time again that as long as independence is achieved through legal and mutually agreed terms they'd be perfectly ok with it and not block anything. Please stop using the Spain card against a hypothetical independent Scotland joining the EU because it's getting quite tiresome.

Sorry I won't again

I suppose the thing I struggle with is if they get independence it will be legal and agreed. It's not Kosovo.

Just tried the government's career app. First category it said I qualify for is sports and leisure. Top jobs for me in there were health trainer and stunt performer.

It recommended retail and hospitality for me. Which I thought was ambitious at the minute

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/09/sunak-planning-furlough-extension-in-areas-affected-by-local-lockdowns

Sunak planning furlough extension in areas affected by local lockdowns

New support comes after Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, said he would take government to court

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, will announce a limited extension of the furlough scheme on Friday amid the prospect of legal action to prevent new restrictions from being imposed.

Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, indicated he would take the government to court to stop new measures being introduced without "proper compensation and a local furlough scheme for staff".

Sunak will on Friday outline new support for people and businesses in areas expected to face tough new restrictions, including the closure of pubs, bars and restaurants, next week.

A Treasury spokeswoman said: "The chancellor will be setting out the next stage of the job support scheme later today, that will protect jobs and provide a safety net for those businesses that may have to close in the coming weeks and months."

If lockdown spreads over more areas of the country, what justification will gov't have to keep purse strings tied if they are already opening them up in a limited way for specific areas?

[Zanza]

Their answer will be that "There is no magic money tree".

[celedhring]

Spain has said time and time again that as long as independence is achieved through legal and mutually agreed terms they'd be perfectly ok with it and not block anything. Please stop using the Spain card against a hypothetical independent Scotland joining the EU because it's getting quite tiresome.

Sorry I won't again

I suppose the thing I struggle with is if they get independence it will be legal and agreed. It's not Kosovo.

That's Spain's stated general policy, not a policy for just Scotland. It's the reason we won't recognize Kosovo until there's a deal with Serbia, and we won't have a problem with Scotland because, as you say, unilateral independence is extremely unlikely in their case (even if SNP went insane like its Catalan counterparts, they have absolutely no chance of achieving any kind of independence without consent from the UK).

[Sheilbh]

If lockdown spreads over more areas of the country, what justification will gov't have to keep purse strings tied if they are already opening them up in a limited way for specific areas?

Yeah, I don't see a way to avoid it. I think if you're telling businesses to shut down then you need to support them so they can basically go into hibernation, or you'll just end up picking up the cost as a welfare issue anyway.

Sort of related but if you look at the map in the Guardian article on cases and hotspots - I feel like England and Scotland should be asking what the Welsh Government is doing:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/09/sunak-planning-furlough-extension-in-areas-affected-by-local-lockdowns

In addition to that map I think Wales had the lowest death rate of all the four nations.

[Josquius]

The big trouble with local lockdowns et al is what this means for border areas.
In the North East lockdown (which has changed zero in my life) they had the area right in including Co.Durham and Northumberland as well as Tyne and Wear to encompass the whole commuter zone- though doubtless folk down towards Teeside had complaints as it was left out.

I wonder whether we do need some kind of coordination and levels of lockdown. e.g. city A gets a level 5 lockdown, the areas around it are level 4, around them 3, etc...
Steadily phase out the restrictions as you get further from the area of high infection rather than have people with completely different conditions down the street.

Of course this would be a nightmare to organise and considering the government can't even organise something simple, this idea can be instantly dismissed.

[Josquius]

Now this annoys me



I get why they did it. There's no point in a map that shows everyone the same...but they could have added new colours to the end instead of just shunting everything down.

[Sheilbh]

Or just explain it transparently rather than waiting for people to do the comparison

Edit: Incidentally ONS survey out and confirms it's growing rapidly. Interesting how big the regional divergences are though:

[Iormlund]

Colder weather shifting activities indoors? 

[Sheilbh]

Colder weather shifting activities indoors? 

No idea. Details are here:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/englandwalesandnorthernireland9october2020

The good news is the new spread is very focused in young people so schools/universities (predictably) which should mean it's safer than last time. I think the decisions on universities were a huge mistake (and again entirely predictable because the same thing happened in Scotland which go back a few weeks early ), but probably think it's worth some spread and stricter restrictions on socialising if we can keep schools open.

[Josquius]

Tbh I've always expected it to hit the north east bad. My big surprise is quite how long it took to really hit here. Its months after the outbreak really kicked off.

[Sheilbh]

So this is slightly related to the Grenfell talk.

Chatting to a friend yesterday who was doing a help-to-buy purchase. His mortgage was approved etc but it was all on hold. He then found out from a friend looking at the same development that their mortgage had been removed because of the use of unsafe cladding. Apparently the developer were going to get it inspected and certified by the local fire safety inspector, but they were only informing people who had had their mortgage turned down.

The developer then sent an email to my friend being like "LET'S COMPLETE!!!! " He goes back to them and explains he knows about the cladding issue and they say they'll let him know about the certificate too. That was meant to be done by start of September, then October, now November.

Think he's probably going to pull out because it feels like the building could be unsafe, if it's borderline now hopefully regulations will only get stricter and if some banks are already refusing mortgages for this now it's possible he'll have trouble selling in a few years.

This building was completed last year

It is crazy. I live in a block of council flats built in the 30s (homes for heroes type development). But I would just be incredibly wary of buying any new-builds because I don't trust the quality, the safety or the ability to sell it on. Just don't trust post-war building built or renovated by modern developers