Coronavirus (OLD)

[figgyburn]

Re valuating the council tax to current day values would help greatly towards the debt.I live in a crap area of Edinburgh and i am in band A tax band(value of house up to £27,000) my house is worth today (circa £140,000)

Hell, a single car garage in some parts of Edinburgh costs way more than £27,000!.

No wonder councils are struggling for cash with the obsolete council tax banding.

The SNP up here bribed us to vote for them by freezing council tax for a good number of years.Yes, it will effect me and yes, i would gladly pay the increase as we are all supposed "to be in this together".

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by figgyburn

Re valuating the council tax to current day values would help greatly towards the debt.I live in a crap area of Edinburgh and i am in band A tax band(value of house up to £27,000) my house is worth today (circa £140,000)

Hell, a single car garage in some parts of Edinburgh costs way more than £27,000!.

No wonder councils are struggling for cash with the obsolete council tax banding.

The SNP up here bribed us to vote for them by freezing council tax for a good number of years.Yes, it will effect me and yes, i would gladly pay the increase as we are all supposed "to be in this together".

What about pensioners on a fixed income how would they be able to pay more.

Originally Posted by figgyburn

Re valuating the council tax to current day values would help greatly towards the debt.I live in a crap area of Edinburgh and i am in band A tax band(value of house up to £27,000) my house is worth today (circa £140,000)

Hell, a single car garage in some parts of Edinburgh costs way more than £27,000!.

No wonder councils are struggling for cash with the obsolete council tax banding.

The SNP up here bribed us to vote for them by freezing council tax for a good number of years.Yes, it will effect me and yes, i would gladly pay the increase as we are all supposed "to be in this together".

Revaluation to 2020 prices wouldn’t make any difference to you, if your house was in a poor area in 1990 and still is today. Council tax works on relative values, so the cheapest houses are always in band A, regardless of their absolute value. Where revaluation makes a difference is in areas that were poor in 1990 and have gone through the “up and coming” phase, and are now fashionable. In such cases you can see houses move up a couple of bands and attract a higher council tax bill.

It’s also worth remembering that a council can revalue a house whenever it’s sold, so despite them having to do a reverse-inflation calculation to work out what its sale price would have been in 1990 terms, it can move up a band or two if its value has improved due to having had work done on it, or if the whole area has improved. We got caught out this way when we bought ours about 15 years ago. It had had an extension since its previous sale and went from band D to E because of what we paid for it.

[figgyburn]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

What about pensioners on a fixed income how would they be able to pay more.

I am a just recent pensioner and on a fixed income now. Tighten the belt slightly is the way forward!.A few less pints a week etc.I already eat crap so nothing to change there!. Obviously they could phase the increases yearly to achieve the correct council tax charge to reflect the current house prices say over 5 years till it reached the true level. All governments have shied away from this as it's a massive vote loser so,if this is to be done this is as good/bad time to do it as any.Council tax bands below.I am in band A,i should be in band G,look at the difference in payments.Yikes!.Think i will need to go tea total to cover the increase......

https://www.saa.gov.uk/council-tax/council-tax-bands/

https://cullenproperty.com/council-tax-bands-edinburgh/

[1andrew1]

An undeniably incompetent state of affairs. We're pissing in the dark when it comes to forming policies. I suspect Nick Hancock's head will roll.

Coronavirus: Dodgy data and double counting - the UK's testing data is a mess
How many people have been tested in the UK for COVID-19? It's a pretty simple question, which most countries are capable of answering.
And it's a pretty important one, since until you know how many people have been tested it's very difficult to get a real early handle on the spread of the disease.

Will there be a second spike? Is it safe to loosen the restrictions on our lives? Are quarantines justified or not? If not, how do we ensure those coming to the country do not bring the disease with them?
Testing - doing it well, accounting for it well and using the results sensibly - is clearly a crucial part of the solution.
Yet here in Britain we don't know how many people have been tested for the disease.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavir...-mess-11999797

[Mr K]

Maybe sending MPs back to parliament wasn't such a good idea...
https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/03/busin...share.top.link

Business Secretary Alok Sharma has been tested for coronavirus after he began showing symptoms while in the Commons today. A spokesperson for Sharma said he started feeling unwell while in the chamber delivering the second reading of the Corporate Governance and Insolvency Bill. They continued: ‘In line with guidance he has been tested for coronavirus and is returning home to self-isolate

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Maybe sending MPs back to parliament wasn't such a good idea...
https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/03/busin...share.top.link

Can we be surprised as JRM was warned it was not a wise idea sending MPs back to parliament.

l would suspect if the test comes back positive and he has got Coronavirus there will be a lot of MP's who will have to self isolate as well.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by denphone

Can we be surprised as JRM was warned it was not a wise idea sending MPs back to parliament.

l would suspect if the test comes back positive and he has got Coronavirus there will be a lot of MP's who will have to self isolate as well.

I can see the need to avoid looking hypocritical but the new policy excludes those who cannot attend in person for good reasons. And all the unnecessary time waiting to vote is neither safe nor a good use of time. But it's unlikely the right honourable member for the 19th century would maintain a 21st century solution for too long.

[papa smurf]

Labour mp puts lives at risk for publicity stunt

https://twitter.com/BarryGardiner/st...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Is this an example of Starmers strong leadership.

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

Labour mp puts lives at risk for publicity stunt

https://twitter.com/BarryGardiner/st...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Is this an example of Starmers strong leadership.

Almost as good as someone insisting all MPs return to Parliament, to hear a minister who potentially has the virus in an enclosed place, then distributing the MPs round the country again. Top government !

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Almost as good as someone insisting all MPs return to Parliament, to hear a minister who potentially has the virus in an enclosed place, then distributing the MPs round the country again. Top government !

All they have done is go back to work.

This idiot joined a mob of thousands ignoring the pandemic and the law regarding it, how many people will now die as a result of this illegal gathering and his publicity stunt.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Almost as good as someone insisting all MPs return to Parliament, to hear a minister who potentially has the virus in an enclosed place, then distributing the MPs round the country again. Top government !

Two crass decisions - one from the Leader of the House and one from an MP.

[jonbxx]

Just read an interesting article in the FT about how Germany handled and is handling the outbreak - https://t.co/Ho1Q11Ndm3?amp=1 (not paywalled)

There are many aspects where there can't be a comparison between the UK and Germany (massively devolved health management and a mixed state and private healthcare system) but it's interesting nevertheless. It seems very local empowerment backed up by a strong, popular federal leadership was the key to Germany's success

[RichardCoulter]

There was an interesting programme on Channel 4 last night:

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/...t-get-it-wrong

Dispatches investigated whether the Government got things right in the way that they have handled the virus thus far.

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by jonbxx

Just read an interesting article in the FT about how Germany handled and is handling the outbreak - https://t.co/Ho1Q11Ndm3?amp=1 (not paywalled)

There are many aspects where there can't be a comparison between the UK and Germany (massively devolved health management and a mixed state and private healthcare system) but it's interesting nevertheless. It seems very local empowerment backed up by a strong, popular federal leadership was the key to Germany's success

This April, Walther Leonhard got an unusual call from the authorities in Rosenheim, his hometown in southern Germany.

So how did any action in April prevent cases before then and their more limited form of lockdown?

In Rosenheim, it could have been very different. A short drive from the Austrian border, this bustling, affluent town, with its medieval centre and grand 19th-century facades, was one of the hardest hit parts of the country. Locals returning from Shrovetide skiing holidays in nearby South Tyrol brought coronavirus home with them, while a three-day “strong beer” festival that started on March 6 acted as a “super-spreader”. By late May, Rosenheim district had suffered 183 deaths from Covid-19 and 864 coronavirus infections per 100,000 people — one of the highest ratios in Germany.

As I have to keep pointing out, the biggest factor in the number of cases, is the number of people bringing it into the country in the first place. Just think of the fictional scenario when somebody deliberately uses people to spread a virus. The more people used in country X compared to country Y, will increase the number of infections in X compared to Y.

It decided which patients were sent where, how to share out scarce protective equipment and where to create additional capacity. “There were really no instructions from Berlin,” says Deerberg-Wittram. “Decisions were made locally, on the spot.”

So what has Merkel got to do with that?

One major issue: the acute shortage of PPE, especially masks — at least at the start of the onslaught. Like other countries, Germany found itself having to scour the world for increasingly scarce supplies just as its hospitals needed them most.

Fewer cases, but still had a PPE shortage, same as with South Korea.

The UK has had plans in place for more than 10 years. They have been, and are, publicly available. It's all related to the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. The NHS also had £100m of stock set aside for a pandemic.