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P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?


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4 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

But it doesn’t have to be. We could have closed down, we did not.  Now we have a massively high infection rate and one of the highest rates of death on the planet. That’s real lives of real people. They are more important that an air hub IMO.

 

I’m sure most people in Australia and New Zealand don’t believe that they live in the middle of nowhere Graham.

Paulines cousin has lived in Australia 15 years and they love it.

They say they have everything there and love the vast area and diversity of Australia.

For the UK there was a lot of mistakes made with Covid19 just like many other countries and we just have to hope the vaccines are a game changer for us all.

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1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

Australia?

On the subject of Australia, I saw some cricket from Oz earlier. There were people in the audience. Sitting next to each other with no social distancing. And they weren’t wearing masks. It was astonishing- quite literally a different world. 
 

NZ and Australia are examples of what can happen if a strong leader takes decisive action quickly.


U.K. is an example of the opposite, I’m sad to say 

 

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8 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

But it doesn’t have to be. We could have closed down, we did not.  Now we have a massively high infection rate and one of the highest rates of death on the planet. That’s real lives of real people. They are more important that an air hub IMO.

 

I’m sure most people in Australia and New Zealand don’t believe that they live in the middle of nowhere Graham.

Absolutely.  And though there's a reluctance in certain quarters to accept it, the scientific and medical opinion overwhelmingly concludes that there are two key reasons for our very poor international showing - indecision and and delay. Too little, too late. Every single time. That plus mixed and muddled messaging,  hardly helped by the word local depending entirely on whether you're in government or just a couple of young women. 

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13 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

But it doesn’t have to be. We could have closed down, we did not.  Now we have a massively high infection rate and one of the highest rates of death on the planet. That’s real lives of real people. They are more important that an air hub IMO.

 

I’m sure most people in Australia and New Zealand don’t believe that they live in the middle of nowhere Graham.

My husband.has found a third cousin who lives in Brisbane. She said one case of the U.K. variant was found in the city and the whole city was  locked down for 3 days, in order for contacts to be traced. Fast and decisive action has worked for Australia 

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3 minutes ago, batholiver said:

Absolutely.  And though there's a reluctance in certain quarters to accept it, the scientific and medical opinion overwhelmingly concludes that there are two key reasons for our very poor international showing - indecision and and delay. Too little, too late. Every single time. That plus mixed and muddled messaging,  hardly helped by the word local depending entirely on whether you're in government or just a couple of young women. 

Yes, I agree. Each time it gets to the point where we are literally begging to be locked down. But the damage has been done by then.

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4 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

You are right about the way it has been handled across the globe. Six months ago some were saying how wonderful Sweden was as they had no lockdown and tried for herd immunity. Look at their results now.

 

Elements of the public are also idiots who don’t follow rules. Many poor souls get covid at work or through no fault of their own but some certainly only have themselves to blame based on their behaviour.

 

I was staggered when I saw the photos of the parks in London over the weekend. The numbers walking about in groups was unbelievable. It doesn't matter what rules the government puts into place, until they begin to take notice it's the equivalent of trying to bail out the Titanic with an eggcup.

Avril

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5 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

My husband.has found a third cousin who lives in Brisbane. She said one case of the U.K. variant was found in the city and the whole city was  locked down for 3 days, in order for contacts to be traced. Fast and decisive action has worked for Australia 

We have relatives in Sydney.  They simply cannot understand what's going on in the UK. Two very large cities,  London and Sydney,  but poles apart in dealing with Covid. 

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3 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

I was staggered when I saw the photos of the parks in London over the weekend. The numbers walking about in groups was unbelievable. It doesn't matter what rules the government puts into place, until they begin to take notice it's the equivalent of trying to bail out the Titanic with an eggcup.

Avril

Why do you think that some just ignore the rules?

 

My belief is that the messaging right at the start of this was that this was a decease of the old and the ill. They kept on announcing deaths with the caveat or either “old” or “underlying health condition”. The message was that the young and the fit could just live their life. It seems to have stuck and in spite of all facts to the contrary and the rules some think they are invincible.

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36 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

We have relatives in Sydney.  They simply cannot understand what's going on in the UK. Two very large cities,  London and Sydney,  but poles apart in dealing with Covid. 

Same in Adelaide where they locked down instantly for 5 days when they had 5 cases of covid19.

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33 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Why do you think that some just ignore the rules?

 

My belief is that the messaging right at the start of this was that this was a decease of the old and the ill. They kept on announcing deaths with the caveat or either “old” or “underlying health condition”. The message was that the young and the fit could just live their life. It seems to have stuck and in spite of all facts to the contrary and the rules some think they are invincible.

I agree.

Today at the briefing they said 45,000 people had been given fixed penalty fines and 88% were aged 18-39.

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59 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

My husband.has found a third cousin who lives in Brisbane. She said one case of the U.K. variant was found in the city and the whole city was  locked down for 3 days, in order for contacts to be traced. Fast and decisive action has worked for Australia 

Did he find her by using a world class track and trace like ours?

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1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

Australia only had 25.5 million population.

Paulines cousin who she speaks to daily lives in Adelaide Australia and she says they were very proactive with locking their borders and life for them is almost normal.

Finally on Friday arrivals in U.K. at ports and airports will need to present proof of a negative test in the last 72 hours, only  9 months late!

 

In Ireland failure to present a negative test on arrival in the country can result in a fine of up to €2500 or 6 months in prison,

 

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-britons-must-take-coronavirus-test-before-travelling-to-ireland-12180841

 

 

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5 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

I agree.

Today at the briefing they said 45,000 people had been given fixed penalty fines and 88% were aged 18-39.

Did they fine all those Scottish football players who were having group hugs? 

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2 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

Finally on Friday arrivals in U.K. at ports and airports will need to present proof of a negative test in the last 72 hours, only  9 months late!

 

In Ireland failure to present a negative test on arrival in the country can result in a fine of up to €2500 or 6 months in prison,

 

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-britons-must-take-coronavirus-test-before-travelling-to-ireland-12180841

 

 

Beginning on Saturday and could result. In the UK many years ago we would have transported them. That would have been to ..... Australia

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Anyone care to comment on the Sky Princess programme?  Obviously Princess have editorial control, but I thought overall Princess came out pretty well.

Most impressed by the British girl who started working at sea as a beauty therapist,  and enjoyed life at sea so much that she joined as crew and is now 5th in charge (sorry, not to sure about levels of command.)

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1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

Australia only had 25.5 million population.

Paulines cousin who she speaks to daily lives in Adelaide Australia and she says they were very proactive with locking their borders and life for them is almost normal.

I do feel that countries with a federal system and strong state organisations have handled this covid crisis better than we have, Canada, Australia, Germany and many others including the USA, have managed their states far better than us. 

I recognise that the devolved assemblies have been operating in a sort of independent fashion, but most civil organisations in the UK tend to operate on UK national lines, and it is almost impossible for the devolved administrations to segregate these, let alone control them independently.  Whether this accounts for our poor performance, or it was just the govts inability to  coordinate everything in a more timely fashion, I will leave for the enquiry that will ultimately follow. 

But I do hope that this and or future govts will offer more regional autonomy for the English regions, along with more autonomy for the devolved assemblies, along with the dissolution of the Whitehall civil service, which I firmly believe has stifled improvement in central govt.

 

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1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

Why do you think that some just ignore the rules?

 

My belief is that the messaging right at the start of this was that this was a decease of the old and the ill. They kept on announcing deaths with the caveat or either “old” or “underlying health condition”. The message was that the young and the fit could just live their life. It seems to have stuck and in spite of all facts to the contrary and the rules some think they are invincible.

I think the tone of reporting has changed in the last week, and we are seeing inside hospitals and  testimonies from people who have lost loved ones who weren’t old.

 

But it’s too late to reach some people - they are so far into Covid denial, they simply don’t believe what is being shown on TV 

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24 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Did he find her by using a world class track and trace like ours?

No, by a Find My Past DNA test.

 

I’ve found  a second cousin who knows many of my relatives, and I know many of her relatives but we didn’t know each other. 
 

Finding new family members is a good way to spend the lockdown 

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16 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Anyone care to comment on the Sky Princess programme?  Obviously Princess have editorial control, but I thought overall Princess came out pretty well.

Most impressed by the British girl who started working at sea as a beauty therapist,  and enjoyed life at sea so much that she joined as crew and is now 5th in charge (sorry, not to sure about levels of command.)

I was particularly impressed with the girl who had worked her way up from beauty therapist to senior officer and also with the captain who seemed very much a 'people ' person, exuded calmness and for his enthusiasm for his job .We had been going to book a June cruise on Sky Princess but doubt whether it will go ahead.We will probably book a similar itinerary for 2022.We have only sailed with Princess previously to cooler climes but the Caribbean waters looked very inviting!

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2 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

You also have to take into account that the population of New Zealand is about 5 million and  the Uk is around 68 million. I don't think you can logically compare the two

Avril

I wasn’t making a direct comparison - just saying one is an example of a country where the leader took firm action very early on, and the other one isn’t.

 

 

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1 minute ago, ann141 said:

I was particularly impressed with the girl who had worked her way up from beauty therapist to senior officer and also with the captain who seemed very much a 'people ' person, exuded calmness and for his enthusiasm for his job .We had been going to book a June cruise on Sky Princess but doubt whether it will go ahead.We will probably book a similar itinerary for 2022.We have only sailed with Princess previously to cooler climes but the Caribbean waters looked very inviting!

We did a Panama transit with Princess. Excellent cruise,  made better by the cosmopolitan mix of passengers.  Every dinner was a new experience due to the different backgrounds of those on board. 

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1 hour ago, Adawn47 said:

I think to a certain extent population is a big factor in this. It stands to reason that the more densely packed areas will allow the virus to spread rapidly. Having said that, the governments of the countries also have a  big part to play in this as well, you only have to look across the pond. Many European countries are having a large increase in covid cases and are dealing with in their own particular ways. Who's to say which is the right way? The biggest problem we have imo, is the the public themselves, and you can't expect much improvement until they adhere to the governments rules, whether we think they're strict enough or not.

Avril

I agree Avril, but equally I understand  how the young feel, having their freedoms denied and their futures destroyed as we all stand by unable, unprepared or unwilling to look for alternative solutions.  My eldest Granddaughter is in her final year at 6th form college, and sinking deeper into despair as she finds it impossible to get job interviews, or failing to get onto a final interview list because it is oversubscribed several hundred times over.

Hers will be the generation that pays by far the highest toll from this pandemic. 

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Just now, wowzz said:

We did a Panama transit with Princess. Excellent cruise,  made better by the cosmopolitan mix of passengers.  Every dinner was a new experience due to the different backgrounds of those on board. 

Stop it wowzz, you are only making this cruise-less year or two even even more unbearable.😩

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2 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I wasn’t making a direct comparison - just saying one is an example of a country where the leader took firm action very early on, and the other one isn’t.

 

 

To be fair, the UK is (was) a global hub, with thousands of people transiting daily, plus the dozens of points of entry, all of which made travel restrictions difficult to implement at first, especially in comparison with a geographically remote country like New Zealand. 

Certainly I think that more control should have been implemented on travellers from the most infected countries earlier on in the pandemic,  but I doubt that even that would have made much difference in the long term, once the virus was established.

When making comparisons with other countries, there are numerous variables to be taken into account, not just population density. For example, age profiles, general population health (the UK would fare badly here), proportion of BAME citizens, etc. 

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