Well said, P4ulie. That was possibly the worst informed, least factually correct post I've seen about the lockdown thus far. Some facts. The schools have been open throughout, so that the children of essential workers and those with special needs could be looked after in very difficult conditions for a school to work in. Teachers not required in school have usually continued to work from home, marking work submitted on-line and helping their pupils remotely. Local council workers have been managing services from home or risking infection by collecting waste and recycling, cleaning streets, maintaining street lighting, running social services, transport services, planning services - the massive list goes on and on. By far the largest proportion of those who have been furloughed work for the private sector, to prevent their employers from sacking them, not the public sector - which has been in the front line of tackling the virus crisis throughout. If it wasn't for the continued dedication of largely low-paid public sector staff, the UK would have sunk to its knees like Brazil months ago. This crisis should have taught everyone, even the most avid neo-liberal, that ultimately it is the state that bails us all out in extremis - and that's why we should all pay in via taxation to provide the catch-netting we all need at times like this.P4ulie wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 7:53 amI'd love to sit at home on full pay, or even go on a camping jolly (I'm not even going to go there). However I have to head off to work now to the council.....just like I've done every day. With broad, sweeping generalisations like that, you should go into politics
Posts like that perfectly reflect the success of certain politicians and newspapers in dragging gullible public opinion into their narrative - which is basically trying to place blame for the covid response where it does not lie and to deflect from high-level government policy failure. Don't be a mug, Don't fall for it. Keep your intellectual self-respect. Base your opinion on the facts, rather than what Ian Duncan Smith and Nigel Farage want you to think.