Is the Government's contact tracing system effective and worthwhile?

[Bletchleyite]

Even though he got within a few thousand votes of a majority?

Yes, even though he did. Had it been Starmer I'm certain they would have got a majority.

Corbyn was simply too far left, in the presence of the SNP taking most of the Scottish left of centre vote, to ever actually win in the UK.

Trump is similarly in part the Democrats' fault. Clinton was an incredibly weak candidate.

 

[HSTEd]

Yes, even though he did. Had it been Starmer I'm certain they would have got a majority.

No it wouldn't.

Starmer would have put up a blairite-remainer manifesto in 2017 and got crushed.
Nevermind that there would have been no 2017 General Election anyway.

We would have had an election in the middle of this mess.

 

[ainsworth74]

Think we're getting a little off the topic of track and trace here! You're welcome to continue the discussion in General Discussion if you wish to but I think we need to reign in the politics a little bit here.

 

[PHILIPE]

I suppose it shouldn't be surprising really. It seems that these days the Governments default position is to outsource instantly (I'm sure no Tory party donors or other hangers on benefit from such things) rather than looking internally at what could be delivered by existing departments or by regional/local governments. But no instant outsourcing. I can't help but suspect that if the same money that has been spent on Serco had been given to local the Test & Trace teams we would have had a far better system and it would have been up and running much quicker to boot. Particularly considering the good work they've already been doing on existing budgets...

And awarding a contract for PPE to a Private Equity Company based in a tax haven with a former Tory adviser at it's helm. PPE turned out to be useless. Little wonder the Government are stalling on an Enquiry into how they dealt with the pandemic.

 

[Bletchleyite]

(from the mask thread, fits here better)

You really think that T&T go to the trouble of figuring out who was a close contact or not, based on all the stories that have come out about it? I wouldn't be surprised if they just went through the list provided by an establishment of who was there at the same time and told them that they might be infected. Hell, that is all that they can do, unless the restaurant starts noting down table numbers, seating positions and handing over CCTV recordings

If they're doing it properly (and the local authority teams will be) they will contact each person and ask them some questions to determine risk (e.g. "do you remember where you were sitting? did you socialise with another table?), not just tell the whole place to self-isolate.

Some businesses are collecting table numbers and these are the best ones as they make the job easier! The visible list at the door (=GDPR breach) does show organisations not taking it seriously.

If you really do contact tracing properly yes, you do go into CCTV etc - doing a good job is quite invasive (compare it to, for example, the way high level security clearance like DV is done). For unusual serious one-offs I'd imagine they do do that, e.g. if they find a case of Ebola in the UK (I know the spread of that isn't the same).

 

[Mintona]

I’m just not answering the phone anymore. I’m not staying in for two weeks because I sat across a restaurant from somebody who later is diagnosed positive. This is absolute madness.

 

[Pete_uk]

I see android phones have a tracking system setting under Settings > Google.

 

[Bantamzen]

I see android phones have a tracking system setting under Settings > Google.

That's been there for a while now, its the upgrade to both Android & Apple operating systems that Track & Trace applications can use. It is not a tracking system in itself, it still requires the user to download an app & allow it to use the facility.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I’m just not answering the phone anymore. I’m not staying in for two weeks because I sat across a restaurant from somebody who later is diagnosed positive. This is absolute madness.

That isn't how it works. They'll ask questions to determine if you are a close contact.

Contact tracing is very important in removing other restrictions. If it concerns you, you should consider not eating in restaurants or eating outside where it's less likely.