Boris has made a rod for his own back. He scared the country into the lockdown and now the unions are using his own words against him as he tries to relax it.

We can never be 100% safe and the Teacher's and Transport Unions in particular are being difficult I hope their members are more practical though.

A friend's son is a teacher in Islington he is doing 2 days a week at the school. The school gave up teaching online as apparently the parents can't afford the equipment. This seems to be replicated across the country in the state sector mainly. The private schools are all working online I guess because the families already have home computers.

Some teachers are doing a full week but most are either part time or no time and the kids are suffering. The unions needs to stop politicking and start discussing practical measures to ensure the schools open and are as safe as possible.

As for the transport unions most of their members spend their day in a train / tube / bus cab separated from the public. I would remind them that this is a golden opportunity to show the public how vital they are to getting the country back to work but if they want to play silly buggers don't expect much public sympathy when the subject of driverless transport comes up.

As for Mayor Khan I think he will get away with his appalling handling of TFL by blaming the virus and the government. A pity because he needs the golden boot up the backside by the voters.

Secondary schooling....like many other situations....is a classic case in point. It illustrates the sheer impracticality of social distancing in the real working world.

There are no two ways about it.....You either go back to normal or you keep the schools shut.

It's true for many other situations. Some jobs can socially distance but others are just impractical.

As for the unions....don't get me started.

As for Khan, it matters little how bad he is. He will be reelected due to demographics.

Edited by Stirlingsays (17 May 2020 9.50am)

The Andrew Marr programme this morning had some interesting and potentially important new information (at least to me) about how the virus is spread by children.

This came from the WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan who said that although children can catch the virus from adults their capacity to spread it seems very low. The only outbreaks in schools seem to have been introduced by adults. We already know that the impact on children themselves is almost always mild to non-existent.

This suggests to me that opening schools can be safely managed rather more easily than appeared to be the case. If the children cannot transmit it to others, including their classmates and family members, then the controls need to be on the adults in the schools. Testing them and making sure those bringing the children to school observe social distancing, ought to minimise any risks.

If true then I hope that those objecting can be reassured and a staged reopening progress quite soon.

Boris has made a rod for his own back. He scared the country into the lockdown and now the unions are using his own words against him as he tries to relax it.

We can never be 100% safe and the Teacher's and Transport Unions in particular are being difficult I hope their members are more practical though.

A friend's son is a teacher in Islington he is doing 2 days a week at the school. The school gave up teaching online as apparently the parents can't afford the equipment. This seems to be replicated across the country in the state sector mainly. The private schools are all working online I guess because the families already have home computers.

Some teachers are doing a full week but most are either part time or no time and the kids are suffering. The unions needs to stop politicking and start discussing practical measures to ensure the schools open and are as safe as possible.

As for the transport unions most of their members spend their day in a train / tube / bus cab separated from the public. I would remind them that this is a golden opportunity to show the public how vital they are to getting the country back to work but if they want to play silly buggers don't expect much public sympathy when the subject of driverless transport comes up.

As for Mayor Khan I think he will get away with his appalling handling of TFL by blaming the virus and the government. A pity because he needs the golden boot up the backside by the voters.

The unions and councils in Liverpool, Manchester and huddersf***ingfield or wherever it is are prepared to cause thousands to lose their private sector jobs and companies to close because they can’t take their kids back to school to bring down the government. Some true colours are coming out now.

Trouble is there’s plenty of uninformed parents out there whose knowledge of this comes from Piers Morgan on morning itv and Philip Schofield on itv This Morning and some who won’t let a speck of dust into the house so are in meltdown already.

What a country of spineless pathetic people we’ve become. I always said social distancing was going to be difficult or impossible in some jobs but I also said lockdown couldn’t go on everywhere.

War spirit? Like WWII? Don’t make me laugh.