Capeesh

Careful when you say 'we elect them' on the bass you describe. I, for one, don't elect them on the assumption they're going to be talking 'pure baloney'. I value the integrity of elected officials, as do most people I discuss politics with. 
 
Regardless, Cummings wasn't elected - he's an employee of the government, and like other high profile employees of the government that have been found to be in breach of lockdown guidelines, he should step down or be removed from his position. I suspect that the reason Johnson hasn't sacked him is because Cummings is the brains behind Johnson's bluster

Welsh government quote from the Scottish Sun link above..."The Welsh Education Minister will announce when Welsh schools will reopen, not the UK Government." 
Quite right too, Education is devolved, it's their responsibility to decide when it's safe to do so. Following Boris and his government has proven to be hazardous to health.
Personally I hope the Scottish government aren't as hasty, we can wait and see how the other countries (who are much further ahead than us in their suppression measures) get on first.

Herd immunity is usually gained through vaccination, with a new virus that has no vaccine, no treatment and has the world's experts baffled, encouraging it to rip through 66 million people in a rapidly spreading Global pandemic and swamp our health system is probably the most deranged thing any sane country could suggest.(Source Epidemiologists, Virologists, Doctors and other experts from all over the world).The boffins don't even know how long immunity after infection lasts for. (Immunity after any infection can range from lifelong and complete to nearly nonexistent), the whole herd immunity (through infection) gamble was based on hypotheticals and we were going to be the guinea pigs.
The fact is the whole wheeze has been globally discredited yet still there's some who think the rest of the world was wrong and the UK was right, even after the UK government themselves realised they were heading for disaster.
After back peddling furiously, screeching to a halt, doing a U turn and telling us we'd got the wrong end of the stick, we're finally following the right path.
What's unforgivable for me is we had months more warning than China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea etc to act and prepare and we didn't.

The two polar opposites of lockdown stupidity..
The ones who're totally ignoring the government guidelines.
The ones shopping their neighbours to the police for going for a long walk on the hill.
Thankfully the vast majority are acting sensibly.

The goals of the temporary laws are...
To suppress the infection rate of the virus by limiting contact between people.
To try and prevent any extra strain on our emergency services, especially the NHS.
To achieve these two basic goals while at the same time minimising non pandemic problems.
It's a crying shame we need laws, even temporary ones to enforce simple idiot proof advice from the world's leading Epidemiologists in a serious global pandemic.
Could the people who think the temporary measures represent a "police state" answer me this?
How on earth can they achieve these goals when a tiny minority refuse to do what's necessary voluntarily?

In an ideal world we wouldn't need authorities stating the bleeding obvious and enforcing the very simple rules put in place to prevent a lot of people needlessly dying.
Unfortunately, as has been proven with the softly softly approach, a very large number of our fellow citizens are just downright stupid.

Here's another question for the amateur statisticians...
 
For those that give annual figures for ailments that require hospital treatment and may lead to death, what would happen to those hospitals if instead of being spread over a whole year they all hit in the space of a couple of weeks?
 
If you got a years worth of rain in a day there would be total destruction, could the same analogy not be the case with our health service and this virus?

Could the amateur Epidemiologists and Virologists on here please answer me this?
If this is no worse than the run of the mill illnesses and deaths that occur annually, why is the whole planet in various stages of lockdown?
Could it be this is a tad more serious?

Here's another question for the amateur statisticians...
 
For those that give annual figures for ailments that require hospital treatment and may lead to death, what would happen to those hospitals if instead of being spread over a whole year they all hit in the space of a couple of weeks?
 
If you got a years worth of rain in a day there would be total destruction, could the same analogy not be the case with our health service and this virus?

Far be it for me to oppose the much adored cull-of-the-weakest due to Covid19 but (here's your starter for 10) given, how the NHS would crumble under the weight of cases from this one virus alone; who do you think would handle care for all the heart attacks, strokes, flu and other normal every-day life takers? Who? I'd like to know as half of them will be knocked flat with just this one virus.
 
To anyone proposing this to be some kind of "Mother Nature culling the planet due to over population" nonsense... you may like to imagine what may happen in 9 months time. The world population will more than recover.

The biggest risk to Shetlanders imho is other Shetlanders ignoring the social distancing measures designed to help prevent the collapse of our health service.

The biggest risk to Shetlanders imho is other Shetlanders ignoring the social distancing measures designed to help prevent the collapse of our health service.

@Ghostrider.
The argument that drove Brexit in large parts of the UK wasn't there's "too many Europeans" it was there's "too many immigrants".
The immigration system the Tories are putting in place to pander to these voters blocks immigration for certain jobs to ALL nationalities, not just European ones.
There's a lot of people who believe, rightly or wrongly, that immigration is a problem, being tough on immigration is a vote winner in large parts of the UK, unfortunately that doesn't help us in Shetland or Scotland attract working age, tax paying people to do what is deemed "low skilled work".
Another negative we're seeing now is we're even losing skilled workers, by pandering to this "immigration is bad" narrative we're making it less attractive for them to come and work here.
One great irony of this whole debacle is the current Tory Home Secretary Priti Patel's immigration plan would've prevented her being the current Home Secretary, by her own admission there's a good chance her Ugandan parents wouldn't have qualified for UK entry.

When it comes to public finances EU migrants contribute far more than they cost
It's not EU migrants putting a strain on our public services, it's criminally negligent underinvestment and mismanagement from our abysmal Tory government.
The last thing the country needs is to start booting out working age tax payers.
Maybe those rich, tax dodging Tory party donors and their pals could start paying their share like the rest of us.
These charlatans are playing an absolute blinder convincing people it's the EU's free movement to blame for the strain on our public services.

When it comes to public finances EU migrants contribute far more than they cost
It's not EU migrants putting a strain on our public services, it's criminally negligent underinvestment and mismanagement from our abysmal Tory government.
The last thing the country needs is to start booting out working age tax payers.
Maybe those rich, tax dodging Tory party donors and their pals could start paying their share like the rest of us.
These charlatans are playing an absolute blinder convincing people it's the EU's free movement to blame for the strain on our public services.

Boris Johnson and his government with ample help from their uber rich backers and allies in the press have pulled off the greatest con in UK political history.
These snake oil salesmen have managed to create a whole load of hardships for ordinary people with their woeful record in government and deflect the blame onto the shoulders of Johnny Foreigners.
Austerity for the many, great rewards for the few £££££££.

Boris Johnson and his government with ample help from their uber rich backers and allies in the press have pulled off the greatest con in UK political history.
These snake oil salesmen have managed to create a whole load of hardships for ordinary people with their woeful record in government and deflect the blame onto the shoulders of Johnny Foreigners.
Austerity for the many, great rewards for the few £££££££.

Boris Johnson and his government with ample help from their uber rich backers and allies in the press have pulled off the greatest con in UK political history.
These snake oil salesmen have managed to create a whole load of hardships for ordinary people with their woeful record in government and deflect the blame onto the shoulders of Johnny Foreigners.
Austerity for the many, great rewards for the few £££££££.

Boris Johnson and his government with ample help from their uber rich backers and allies in the press have pulled off the greatest con in UK political history.
These snake oil salesmen have managed to create a whole load of hardships for ordinary people with their woeful record in government and deflect the blame onto the shoulders of Johnny Foreigners.
Austerity for the many, great rewards for the few £££££££.

Neil Riddell's letter is a fine example of democracy in action, Boris may have won the election but that doesn't mean his opponents should down tools and remain silent.

This election has certainly emboldened the far right, it's frightening.
Neil Riddell should be applauded for bravely sticking his neck out and publicly calling it out.

Neil Riddell's letter is a fine example of democracy in action, Boris may have won the election but that doesn't mean his opponents should down tools and remain silent.

Neil Riddell's letter is a fine example of democracy in action, Boris may have won the election but that doesn't mean his opponents should down tools and remain silent.

Scotland voted Labour for decades and got rewarded with Tory government's who proceeded to throw the whole country to the wolves. Don't think they'll fall for that old chestnut again. There's only one way for Scotland to get the government it votes for every single time.

The EU would bend over backwards to have the honour of having Scotand as its 27th member in the event of independence, we'd not only be invited, we'd be fast tracked back into the club.
Of course the people against Scottish independence have their own agenda and that's to try and convince the gullible how impossible everything will be, telling them how useless and pitiful they are and how nobody else would have them is the order of the day for most of the naysayers.
The reality of course is a million miles from this, the goodwill Scotland has from their friends in every European capital is phenomenal.
Scotland's been a member of the EU for 40+ years as part of the UK, they don't want us or anybody else to leave.