I feel the policies are motivated by 2 factors.

Resources. Not an area of public service was not diminished by diversion of funds to the sacred cow NHS. Lockdown has accelerated that trend and has given a dystopian view of the health service bearing the atlas burden of an ever aging population. While there is a desperate need to massively increase private sector intervention in healthcare, short term, lockdown is justifiable to protect resources from being overwhelmed. This argument is convincing.

Voting tendency. The old are now so numerous and have a higher tendency to vote. Governments know that any apparent preference for the young and working population will not be forgotten. Thus, to stay in power they must create policies that prefer the issues of anxious and isolated voting old folk over the needs of the economy and the decimation of the less voting young. As Stirling says those forming the policy will be on the lucrative book signing lecture circuit by the time the real impact is felt. This I find callous and abhorrent.

Quite. Triple lock pension based on age not means, TV licence, prescriptions, transport passes - all vote bribes.

If masks work? vaccines work? & lock downs work? then enough of this bullcrap & open up.
If you feel your at risk stay indoors whilst the rest of us get on with it.
We are fast approaching a year's anniversary of 3 weeks to save the NHS, a service which is top heavy with middle management, a serious overhaul is needed in my opinion to a service which has billions of peoples taxes pumped into it annually.

Pro USA & Israel

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Medical advice from a shrink?? Absolutely no actual you know medical experience. This is the sort of bullcrap we're expected to believe.

Pro USA & Israel

I have to say, and it's no conspiracy theory, that where I live far more people are commiting suicide than are dying of Covid. I'm not sure exactly what to think about that or if it's being replicated elsewhere.

Red and Blue Army!

I don't need to assume it, I'm literally talking about my town. I'm in a small town by English standards. Two bodies not recovered since last week. Being kept out of press and political arguments abound, meanwhile the helicopter searches for the bodies. I don't know National Statistics and did hear the stuff about NI. Colloquially suicide prevention groups are stating 3500 deaths in Ireland from suicide last year. I think that would be similar to Covid deaths for the Republic but, as I say, statistical arguments abound. Doesn't stop the nightly jump into the river.
To balance, however, I think 2014 and 2015 we had weeks where 5 people died in the river. Sometimes accidental death was given as cause of death by the coroner. You'd have to make your own mind up about that.

Red and Blue Army!