Well Mark I guess if I was on the wages they are I’d be happy with the so called lockdown too. Mainstream and social hysterical media have gone to town on this as soon as they got the chance. As for phill well his confusion as to what he wanted after all these years is well known now ?♂️. You can not hide away
Thought I’d copy this in from a pal of mine, he’s a very pragmatic guy with a very good sense of community etc, in no way a selfish or money orientated individual.
My latest rant on Facebook
Sunday Morning Hand Grenade! I know my opinion won’t be welcomed by many.
I’ve read many articles on the Coronavirus and have read many people’s comments on social media.
The coronavirus should be taken seriously and everyone should take precautions to prevent contracting and spreading the virus. Yes, people have died and this reinforces the point about taking this virus seriously. We all have a duty to be extra vigilant and not to get too complacent. However, I do not think this virus warrants shutting down our economy. The measures have been an overreaction and now it’s going to change our way of lives forever.
I don’t think people have a grasp of the economic disaster awaiting us around the corner. People are enjoying being furloughed from their work, I must admit I’m making the most of being furloughed by spending quality time with my daughter and catching up with DIY jobs around the house which is great. This lockdown has made me realise just how much I work and has highlighted the little time I actually spend in my home. It’s been refreshing but some people do not realise the consequences of this Pandemic. Employers now realise that they can function with a skeleton workforce, they no longer need these oversized offices as their employees can be as productive working from home as they can be at the office. This in the longer term will hit the support networks for these offices such as catering services and cleaners etc, all the local coffee shops and food outlets etc in proximity to large office blocks will suffer. Some small businesses might find it difficult to restart and for some the financial pressures will be overbearing to the point it’s not worthwhile to continue. The unemployment figures are going to rise as a consequence to this lockdown.
Figures from America show when Donald Trump came to power there were 9million Americans unemployed. Within four years Donald Trump reduced unemployment down to 3 million. Unfortunately for him the latest figures show between 26 to 33 million Americans have filed for unemployment ?.
I see many people on my Facebook have criticised Sweden’s approach to the virus. So I’ve looked into the stats out of interest.
Population 10 million of which 7.5 million people live in urban environments.
To date they have had 3,220 deaths because of COVID-19. All deaths are bad and hence why we all need to be vigilant. Anyways the point is that Sweden has not had a lockdown but they have taken precautions and have cracked on as normal. The result is their economy is still buoyant and people are still employed.
Furlough is great but the reality is there is nothing such as free money. One day somebody is going to have to pay it all back and yes that’s going to be the U.K. tax payer. The sad thing is some people have a false sense of security when the reality is for some they may not have a job to go back to after the lockdown measures have been lifted and the government stop furlough payments. The banks will not suspend your mortgages and loan Payments and will demand that you start your monthly repayments again. How many people will be worse off because of the lockdown? What will the ratio be when comparing unemployment to deaths within the country after the lockdown measures have been lifted.
Another thing, too many people are quick to judge. Nobody knows what others are doing. In my household if I or the kids leave and enter the house we wash our hands as a precaution even if we have not touched anything. At the petrol station we wear gloves and dispose of them after use. In the shops we will not touch our faces, we use hand sanitiser before entering and on leaving the shop. On our return to the house we wash our hands, unpack the shopping, wipe down the shopping, dispose of the shopping bags before washing our hands again to the point my hands are all cracked and are constantly bleeding. Some say this might be an overreaction but it’s better to be safe than sorry. If my neighbours stop to speak to me whilst I am in the garden or whilst walking my dog I am not fearful of contracting the virus, I’ve researched enough to understand that speaking to somebody in proximity is safe enough unless they are showing signs of a fever, coughing and spluttering as they speak.
It’s time that we move on with extra measures in place to keep our most vulnerable safe. However, common sense and statistics would suggest that basic hygiene and an alertness to the potential danger with extra precautions taking into consideration should be enough for us all to return to normal and move forward.
The death toll numbers in the UK can best be described as subjective as if somebody dies they are recorded as suspected COVID-19 without having a test to prove if they did or didn’t have the virus. If in Germany somebody has COVID-19 and dies of a heart attack, on the death certificate the cause of death is recorded as a heart attack.
How many people are going to die of cancer because of cancelled operations and scans etc. That’s the brutal reality to this lockdown or from depression once people find themselves with empty pockets with no job and are faced with having their family home repossessed? It’s worthwhile to consider all these facts before criticising this post.
The welfare state helps so many in their hour of need but can it survive when there is less people paying into it? As said earlier there is nothing such as free money in life.
Anyone who understands inflation, not that I claim to know everything on economics because I don’t and I only know what I’ve read and researched. Think about this, the global stock market should of crashed and burned by now but world governments are pumping silly amounts of cash into the stock markets to keep everything buoyant and to prevent them from crashing. All this artificial money which never existed before is now in circulation which in time will devalue currencies around the world and as a result products and services will become more expensive.
Before supporting this lockdown you need to consider everything and if after researching you still believe the lockdown needs to continue then that’s your opinion and you are entitled to it and I respect that. Nobody should make you feel bad because you differ in opinion.
