England to enter month-long lockdown from Thursday...

[dutchman]

Boris Johnson urges the country to return to his spring message of "stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives"



England will enter a month-long lockdown from Thursday, Boris Johnson has announced.

Until 2 December, people in England will only be allowed to leave their homes for specific reasons, such as education, work or food shopping.

Mr Johnson, speaking at a Downing Street news conference on Saturday evening, said there was "no alternative" to a second period of national lockdown restrictions.

Schools, colleges and universities will remain open while those who cannot work from home, such as construction or manufacturing workers, will be encouraged to continue going to their workplaces.

Pubs, bars and restaurants will close across the country, although they will be able to offer takeaway and delivery services.

Non-essential shops, hairdressers and leisure and entertainment venues will also be shut.

The prime minister said the furlough scheme, which has seen the government pay a proportion of peoples' wages during the COVID-19 crisis but was due to end on Saturday, would now be extended through November.

Different households will be banned from mixing, although support bubbles and childcare bubbles will remain and children will still be able to move between homes if their parents are separated.

Gyms will be shut but people can continue to exercise for unlimited periods outdoors, either with people from their own households or on a one-to-one basis with one person from another household.

People will be able to travel internationally for work, but won't be allowed to go abroad for holidays.

Premier League football and other elite sports will be allowed to continue, due to the testing regimes in place for professional sportspeople, but amateur sports will be put on hold.

The prime minister said those who are vulnerable would not be asked to shield in the same way as they did in the spring and early summer.

But he urged those who are at risk to minimise their contact with others and not go to work if they are unable to work from home.

[rebbonk]

IMO, not closing educational establishments is his big mistake here.

I also wonder if this lockdown will grow as the previous one did?

Having listened to Bozo's address, I can't say that I'm exactly brimming with confidence about what he's doing.

[dutchman]

It didn't work last time so why should it work this time? People who followed the rules last time didn't see any benefit so why should they follow them this time?

Johnson has totally destroyed the British economy. Meanwhile China is working flat out to produce goods to sell to stay-at-home Brits, their economy is booming.

[dutchman]

England's month-long lockdown could be extended, says Michael Gove



England's month-long lockdown could be extended beyond 2 December if necessary, cabinet minister Michael Gove has told Sky News.

Speaking to Sophy Ridge on Sunday, the Tory frontbencher also defended the delay in reintroducing the nationwide restrictions, which had been called by the government's own scientific advisers back in September.

Tougher action was needed now because the "situation has been worse than any of us expected" and threatened to overwhelm the NHS, said Mr Gove.

Mr Gove said the government would review the data during November, adding he hoped the infection rate would be "significantly reduced" by the start of next month.

But he said it would be "foolish" to predict what would happen with the pandemic over the next four weeks, and admitted the lockdown may have to be extended.

Asked if the national restrictions could be extended, he replied: "Yes."

He said: "We will always take a decision in the national interest, based on evidence.

"We want to be in a position where we can - and I believe that this is likely to be the case - have an approach where if we bring down the rate of infection sufficiently we can reduce measures nationally and also reduce measures regionally."

Mr Gove said a regional approach was "one that wherever possible we want to take", because it would allow the future targeting of "a specific upsurge in specific areas".

[dutchman]

Nigel Farage: Brexit Party to focus on fighting lockdown



Nigel Farage has applied to change the Brexit Party's name to Reform UK, promising to focus on dealing with the government's "woeful" Covid response.

He said renewed lockdown would "result in more life-years lost than it hopes to save" and argued that "building immunity" would be more effective.

The party leader also said there should be "focused protection" from coronavirus for the vulnerable.

Mr Farage set up the Brexit Party ahead of last year's European Parliament elections, winning 29 seats - the most of any UK party.

In an email to supporters, he and party chairman Richard Tice said this had "rescued Brexit and in so doing, restored some confidence in democracy in the UK".

While they were "keeping a close eye" on Mr Johnson "to make sure he does not sell us down the river" in any trade deal with the EU, they said it was time to "apply our energy and resources to the other pressing issues facing the nation".

They have asked the Electoral Commission to rename the Brexit Party as Reform UK, arguing: "The government has dug itself into a hole [with coronavirus] and rather than admit its mistakes, it keeps on digging.

"The new national lockdown will result in more life-years lost than it hopes to save, as non-Covid patients with cancer, cardiac, lung and other illnesses have treatments delayed or cancelled again. Suicides are soaring. Businesses and jobs are being destroyed."

Mr Farage and Mr Tice said the UK should follow the Great Barrington Declaration, signed by thousands of experts, which calls for "focused protection" for the elderly and other groups particularly vulnerable to Covid-19, while others continue to live relatively normally.

Their email said: "The rest of the population should, with simple hygiene measures and a dose of common sense, get on with life - this way we build immunity in the population. We must learn to live with the virus not hide in fear of it."

Treatments were "getting better" and survival rates were improving, they added.