may be not setting the best example
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Do we need a coronavirus thread?
(5710 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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Reported on news as saying She had no legitimate excuse. So not the horses then
Posted 5 years ago # -
Would that be legitimate for her/family??
Posted 5 years ago # -
@chdot, in my hypothetical Chief Medic World each member of the family had a horse and they were starving so one presumably already over worked in a very high pressured job family member needed help to feed them. She had a feeding system on a conveyor belt so she only had to take the 44 mile trip once a week.
I was trying not to be too judge mental but after that I Have no idea where I was going.
Does seem to be hypocritical that she did not follow her own advice. I left it open that there was a reason but she is saying herself she is sorry she did not have a legitimate reason.
Maybe it is an elaborate PR thing where she gets sacked for it and therefore everyone has to abide by the rules. Plus she now gets a bit of a breather?
Who knows?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Meanwhile elsewhere -
“
England's Health Secretary Matt Hancock said staying at home this weekend was an instruction and "not a request" .
“
Is said instruction backed by specific law(s) - really am unsure of what is legitimately legitimate anymore.
Working (when boss says you HAVE to)?
Shopping, anywhere, anytime - even if social distancing is physically impossible (or not enforced by shops)?
Is exercise ‘30 minutes ONCE a day’ a law?
I presume the intention is to minimise the number of people out at any one time potentially using the same spaces? Plus some notion that shops are in different places from ‘open spaces’??
Is there any etiquette/instruction/law for when people pass on a common stair?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Jason Leitch has been given job to comment on this. Bet you that was a job he didn't want!
Phone call from FM with 'have you seen today's Sun?'Wonder how many other civil servants have not followed advice?
We know of other politicians that have failed to take their own advice of course. Look no further than PM.
Take it no Sun reporters drove to Fife to investigate? ;-)Posted 5 years ago # -
Even IF there were animals needing fed or important stuff to be done in order to close the house up for a few months, it only needed one member of the family at most to go. It's an hour away, it didn't merit an overnight stay.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Lots of calls to resign. I'd have thought a grovelling apology and a public hammering by Sturgeon would be sufficient. I'm assuming she's okay at her job normally.
Posted 5 years ago # -
The resignation usually starts with an apology to see if that is sufficient.
YOu wonder how the sun knew? Tipped off by neighbours?
Posted 5 years ago # -
”Maybe it is an elaborate PR thing where she gets sacked for it and therefore everyone has to abide by the rules.“
Well that failed - not resigning or getting sacked.
The stupid thing is she appears not to have realised the hypocrisy (in advance) or considered the possibility of being ‘found out’.
More bizarre is that (apparently) none of her four family members said ‘but we can’t’.
If she was a politician it might be reasonable to expect her to resign. But she’s not.
She is however someone people want to be able to rely on/trust.
That is now more of a problem.
The odd thing about the Sun story is that they don’t mention the police.
Does include “It comes days after SNP bosses called for powers to stop second home owners travelling to rural areas” so, again, I have no idea what isn’t legal and how different laws in England and Scotland actually ARE!
“Who knows?”
Precisely!
Must go out.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I don't care if the Scottish Government gets medical advice from Jimmy Savile's zombie corpse as re-animated by Baron Samedi as long as the advice is the best going.
If the CMO broke the law by travelling then she can be fined like the rest of us and maybe even carpeted afterwards but when folk are actively engaged in trying to keep me alive I tend to cut them large amounts of slack.
Posted 5 years ago # -
What IWRATS said.
Posted 5 years ago # -
“If the CMO broke the law by travelling then she can be fined like the rest of us“
Yes, I genuinely now have no idea what the LAW is!
First day of the ‘lockdown’ there was a police car cruising about (I saw it three times on a short cycle ride) with three officers inside. Not spreading the social distancing message very well.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@IWRATS - agree.
But... with social media and smartphones anyone in the public world knows they are "surrounded by a neighbourhood of voluntary spies" (quote - Jane Austen) - how could she be so stupid?
Posted 5 years ago # -
i saw something suggesting she had tweeted or shared pictures in both places? or maybe someone else took them?
I am disappointed. She seemed like such a good thing, but this is gross misjudgement. I do think she will have to resign.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Just one thing though. If the advice is the best, why cant she or her family follow it?
She certainly tweeted her family clapping on THurs “at her edinburgh pad” the earlsferry photo in front of sun is paparrazzi
Posted 5 years ago # -
Also agree with IWRATS. I think The Sun has been massively irresponsible in publishing this story - how many people will now choose to ignore the lockdown advice because of this? Is that really worth it for yet another tawdry "gotcha".
Yes, the CMO seems to have been in the wrong (morally, rather than legally). Given the strain she must be under, and the fact she seems to have been doing a very good job, I would cut her a serious amount of slack.
Posted 5 years ago # -
“I would cut her a serious amount of slack.“
Yes but.
This is a big part of the problem with ‘our’ ‘society’.
‘Rules are for other people’ - not billionaires, wealth creators, celebrities the tabloids ‘like’ (this week), multinationals, the elite, etc. etc.
No, I don’t think CMO should go over this.
A lot of UK’s problems are due to the shorttermism culture - inc Ministers moving from job to job before they have even begun to understand the complexities.
The last thing needed is a new person doing the CMO job at this time.
In six months...?
Meanwhile she has a LOT to do AND a lot to do to reestablish authority.
Posted 5 years ago # -
The CMO has now got a talking-to at home (presumably her main one) off the bobbies. That's enough.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I don’t think it’s irresponsible for media to highlight for hypocrisy of politicians or key civil servants, especially just now. Let’s face it, snooping on neighbours has probably become the national sport since lockdown happened and It was naive or arrogant in the extreme to think this was possible. Even without the Sun, it would have been the talk of Elie today, Fife tomorrow and be in the papers by Tuesday anyway.
My work (not critical to COVID response) is asking all its staff to update their locations immediately if we have to leave our residence for any reason such as family illness, would have thought the Scot Gov would have similar in place for key COVID decision makers? Can’t see it in this case if so. I’d actually view that even more seriously than the hypocrisy.
Posted 5 years ago # -
So it is open season for every second home owner across Scotland. Not to mention the campervan brigade. Get that AirBnB booked, open the hotels and guest houses.
I've a mind to go bicycle touring next week - if the CMO can get away with taking her entire family on a weekend away, why not me? Of course, I won't be doing that because I'm a responsible person who realises that, however small the risk to/from me and my family, if everyone travels wherever they like for leisure, the virus will spread like wildfire.
It's a pity that the CMO of all people, couldn't obey her own government's instructions, regardless of the pressure she is under.
She'll have to resign. Or be sacked.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Rules are for other people
This. Rules are to be pointed at the plebs sculking about in tower blocks and tenements. The privileged can take a more expansive view.
Honestly, some folk just don't want to believe there are serious class issues in Scotland.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Strong advice, and public letter to the CMO from Police Scotland...
https://twitter.com/paulhutcheon/status/1246775264715198464?s=19
Posted 5 years ago # -
@bax, exactly.
She's got a big house in the West End, presumably with a garden. Others are cooped up in flats with no gardens. But apparently that's not enough, she decides to drive 40+ miles to the East Neuk for the weekend. Credibility is completely destroyed, she'll have to fall on her sword, or the FM will need to despatch her first thing tomorrow.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I really don't understand why she would do this. It's such an awful time for controversy and distrust of important medical staff. However, I don't think it's useful for the country for her to resign now. Perhaps let the response continue and then have disciplinary matters afterwards.
@chdot The law re staying at home: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2020/103/contents/made
5.—(1) Except to the extent that a defence would be available under regulation 8(4), during the emergency period, no person may leave the place where they are living.
8.—(4) It is a defence to a charge of committing an offence under paragraph (1), (2) or (3) to show that the person, in the circumstances, had a reasonable excuse.
(5) In paragraph (4), a reasonable excuse includes the need—
Given she seems to have admitted she had no reasonable excuse, I'm surprised she wasn't fined.
Posted 5 years ago # -
"I'm surprised she wasn't fined."
Smacks of one rule for the high heid yins, and another for the hoi polloi.
I don't get why folk seem to think Calderwood is irreplaceable. There is a Deputy CMO who presumably could step up to the plate if required.
https://twitter.com/DrGregorSmith
The idea that Calderwood is a credible spokesperson for the government's epidemic policies is now laughable. Just get it over with, force a resignation. She could always be kept on as an advisor if need be.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Thanks.
But is that a law that applies in Scotland?
(I really don’t know.)
Posted 5 years ago # -
@chdot, here is the Scottish legislation:
https://www.parliament.scot/S5_Bills/Coronavirus%20(Scotland)%20Bill/SPBill66S052020.pdf
On the plus side, judging by the cool temperatures so far, it looks unlikely we'll see mass outbreaks of sunbathing in Scotland as has been witnessed darn sawf...
Posted 5 years ago # -
Sun out 3pm-6pm according to BBC weather but wind has also picked up
Posted 5 years ago # -
@gembo, had window open earlier but it was so chilly had to shut it just now, great big dirty cloud overhead too.....if sun emerges I may venture to the allotment while it is still permitted.
Posted 5 years ago #
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