Starting from December 27th, the Scottish Government will force all nightclubs to close for at least three weeks in an attempt to curb the spread of the Omicron variant. John Swinney, the SNP Deputy First Minister has promised to give affected businesses financial support, and has recommended that these venues temporarily convert themselves into bars so they can adhere to social distancing rules to remain open. BBC News has more.
Swinney said nightclubs would have the option to stay open by effectively becoming a bar, but physical distancing and table service would need to be in place.
He said: “We consider that closure in regulations, combined with financial support, may reduce losses and help these businesses weather what we hope will be a short period until they are able to operate normally again.”
People in Scotland have not been told to cancel their Christmas plans, but have been urged to stay at home as much as possible throughout the rest of the festive period and to limit any gatherings to three households.
Swinney told MSPs that there had been a “rapid acceleration of cases driven by the Omicron variant” in recent weeks, with concerns that the faster-spreading strain could overwhelm health services despite early evidence that fewer people are needing hospital treatment than with other variants.
The Deputy First Minister said “we have to reduce dramatically the level of social interaction if we want to interrupt the circulation of Omicron”.
Nightclubs were only allowed to reopen in August, having been shut for longer than almost every other sector during the pandemic, and had been subject to vaccine certification rules since October.
The Scottish Conservatives said closing them again was “a further setback to a sector already on its knees”.
MSP Murdo Fraser said: “I understand that this is a fast-moving situation, but when announcing this enforced shutdown, John Swinney should have spelt out the exact details of the support package that will be given to nightclub businesses.
“The SNP Government has been given an extra £440 million in assistance from the U.K. Government. They need to get that money out the door and into the hands of beleaguered Scottish businesses immediately.”
National Clinical Director Jason Leitch said the decision to close nightclubs took account of typically younger crowds who may not be vaccinated.
Speaking to the BBC’s Lunchtime Live programme, he said: “The thing that really scares us about this [variant] is its attack rate. That’s why you can hear our tone and our fear rising a little.
“It’s one of the reasons nightclubs have unfortunately had to be closed down. That population tends to be slightly less protected not because they’re not actually coming forward in big numbers but because it’s taken us a bit longer to get to that age group. It’s an environment in which the virus enjoys.”
Worth reading in full.
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Despite the government not having any money and just adding to the already colossal debt pile.
Despite the service not being able to attend to its patients even with the biggest budget in its history.
Despite many things.
I suppose there’s a possibility that we will all equally be unable to get any treatment …. despite our ethnicity.
Although I suspect that if you come from some “communities” you’ll be prioritised.
I presume that the diversity managers have the goal of making the NHS reflect the gender, race and sexuality distribution in the general population — so I imagine that they’ll be encouraging white-British individuals and males to the health service.
Not that I think it is necessary — the NHS should be recruiting only those that meet their requirements, and there’s no need to spend time worrying too much about race/gender/sexuality (other than where they might harm others, such as encouraging workers from other countries). Obviously there’s a need to ensure that there’s no discrimination, but that’s probably best dealt with at a local level.
If members of a suitable group are statistically underrepresented (a meaningless criterion), that’s a sign of systemic somethingism. If they’re overrpresented, that’s nothing but just compensation for past discrimination.
On a day to day basis what do diversity officers actually spend their time doing?
I can image it’s things such as writing long winded reports that are rarely if ever read about the life experiences of minorities in the health service. Maybe they come up with equally unread suggestions for recruitment campaigns aimed at minorities. Occaisionally they may produce leaflets or posters showing how their trust is helping promote diversity and inclusiveness, or celebrating all the hard working underpaid people from minority backgrounds and calling on staff/patients to respect them.
Maybe they spend most of the day doing sweet F###all, but their bosses can still boast they have a diversity officer. Who knows?
You forgot to mention planning the:
Eid celebrations
Diwali celebrations
Pride celebrations
Climate Change celebrations
BLM celebrations
And issuing instructions that Christmas, Easter, Hanukkuh and Passover must not be celebrated since they may upset some “communities” and are divisive.
If you have a Diversity/Inclusion Associate Director then you also have a Manager, Deputy Manager, a couple of Executives and a handful of administrators. So the cost isn’t £77,274 (Liverpool) – it’s going to be 3 or 4 times that.
Repeat that across the NHS (and the rest of the Public Sector) and soon you’re talking serious money.
The solution is to repeal the Equality Act and sack the lot of them.