Brace yourselves: Bobby Ball gone.

[Sir C]

Don't. I'm already despairing of my short break away in Ludlow I've booked for next month.

I do struggle with the logic of seeing a rise in infections that was merely postponed by the last lockdown and concluding that the best way to deal with it is with another lockdown that can only postpone another rise in infections.

Well you know my attitude to the whole thing. It's entirely down to the arrogance and egocentricity of the majority of the population. "Oh noooos I might die that would be so terrible! I'd best hide behind the sofa!" (Cf peoiple who are 'afraid of flying') It's just selfishness.

We are a nation of repellant, self-absorbed egomaniacs and I hate each and every one of us.

Whatever happened to living a dayt as a lion rather than years as a lamb, ffs?

[Burney]

Well you know my attitude to the whole thing. It's entirely down to the arrogance and egocentricity of the majority of the population. "Oh noooos I might die that would be so terrible! I'd best hide behind the sofa!" (Cf peoiple who are 'afraid of flying') It's just selfishness.

We are a nation of repellant, self-absorbed egomaniacs and I hate each and every one of us.

Whatever happened to living a dayt as a lion rather than years as a lamb, ffs?

Well medical science has created average life expectancies of 80-fúck+ and we haven't had a proper war in ages, so the concept of suffering an early death seems even more egregious and unfair to people now than it ever has before.
Stoicism is borne of hardship and we in the west have lived in a condition of ease for a long, long time. Put simply, you can't create a society that minimises risk to an unprecedented degree and then expect everyone to happily accept and embrace risk.

[Sir C]

Well medical science has created average life expectancies of 80-fúck+ and we haven't had a proper war in ages, so the concept of suffering an early death seems even more egregious and unfair to people now than it ever has before.
Stoicism is borne of hardship and we in the west have lived in a condition of ease for a long, long time. Put simply, you can't create a society that minimises risk to an unprecedented degree and then expect everyone to happily accept and embrace risk.

Well I do, as do loads of people I know. How come the hard of thinking get a pass?

[Burney]

Well I do, as do loads of people I know. How come the hard of thinking get a pass?

You do for yourself, which is fine. But of course your risk calculation is relatively simple by virtue of having (for instance) no living parents and no kids.
But others need to consider the risk not only to themselves, but to their vulnerable relatives, neighbours, etc. In other words, not everyone's risk calculation is the same or can be managed as easily.

[Sir C]

You do for yourself, which is fine. But of course your risk calculation is relatively simple by virtue of having (for instance) no living parents and no kids.
But others need to consider the risk not only to themselves, but to their vulnerable relatives, neighbours, etc. In other words, not everyone's risk calculation is the same or can be managed as easily.

Meh. I smell fudge.

[Burney]

Meh. I smell fudge.

Take my folks, for instance. They are (touch wood) very healthy; mentally acute; active and are very much enjoying their later years. Given which, they - not unreasonably - would prefer not to expose themselves unduly to the risk of catching a virus that would have a very good chance of killing them.
As a result, I tend to take a dim view of people who boldly assert that they just should strap on a pair and potentially shorten the lives they are very much enjoying because the rest of us are finding the whole thing a bit tiresome. Now you can take the view that their determination to cling to life is selfish in a societal sense if you like, but you probably need to accept that your view comes from an equally selfish place.

[WES]

Take my folks, for instance. They are (touch wood) very healthy; mentally acute; active and are very much enjoying their later years. Given which, they - not unreasonably - would prefer not to expose themselves unduly to the risk of catching a virus that would have a very good chance of killing them.
As a result, I tend to take a dim view of people who boldly assert that they just should strap on a pair and potentially shorten the lives they are very much enjoying because the rest of us are finding the whole thing a bit tiresome. Now you can take the view that their determination to cling to life is selfish in a societal sense if you like, but you probably need to accept that your view comes from an equally selfish place.

In which case they are free to take the decision to self-isolate.

Or to decide for themselves which risks they are willing to take and to act accordingly.

Asking the rest of us to put our lives on hold, load our children down with debt and wreck the economy in order to minimise risk that they are fully capable of controlling strikes me as really, really stupid.

[Sir C]

Take my folks, for instance. They are (touch wood) very healthy; mentally acute; active and are very much enjoying their later years. Given which, they - not unreasonably - would prefer not to expose themselves unduly to the risk of catching a virus that would have a very good chance of killing them.
As a result, I tend to take a dim view of people who boldly assert that they just should strap on a pair and potentially shorten the lives they are very much enjoying because the rest of us are finding the whole thing a bit tiresome. Now you can take the view that their determination to cling to life is selfish in a societal sense if you like, but you probably need to accept that your view comes from an equally selfish place.

It's not exactly the bubonic plague, mate. Two old dears in a nursing home died three weeks earlier than they would have otherwise and a number of people (including me) got a nasty cough.

[WES]

Take my folks, for instance. They are (touch wood) very healthy; mentally acute; active and are very much enjoying their later years. Given which, they - not unreasonably - would prefer not to expose themselves unduly to the risk of catching a virus that would have a very good chance of killing them.
As a result, I tend to take a dim view of people who boldly assert that they just should strap on a pair and potentially shorten the lives they are very much enjoying because the rest of us are finding the whole thing a bit tiresome. Now you can take the view that their determination to cling to life is selfish in a societal sense if you like, but you probably need to accept that your view comes from an equally selfish place.

Someone in the Tele the other day was considering these YouGov polls that show the large majority of the people support the current restrictions or think we should go farther. His point was that the questions are really loaded and geared towards that outcome.

The question he felt everyone should really be asked was, and I paraphrase 'are you prepared to significantly curtail the social aspect of your life, no longer travel abroad and add enormous amounts of debt in order to for a small reduction in the likelihood that you live into your 90s?'.

And he's right.

[Monty92]

Take my folks, for instance. They are (touch wood) very healthy; mentally acute; active and are very much enjoying their later years. Given which, they - not unreasonably - would prefer not to expose themselves unduly to the risk of catching a virus that would have a very good chance of killing them.
As a result, I tend to take a dim view of people who boldly assert that they just should strap on a pair and potentially shorten the lives they are very much enjoying because the rest of us are finding the whole thing a bit tiresome. Now you can take the view that their determination to cling to life is selfish in a societal sense if you like, but you probably need to accept that your view comes from an equally selfish place.

"A very good chance of killing them"?

What the buggery are you jibbering on about?