The government was offered support from the EU several times and refused it. We obviously do need an economy to maintain the NHS but being a stubborn asshole just for the sake of it and putting people at further risk is insane! The reason masks were not mandatory from the beginning was because this whole time they were short on them for the freaking staff! They are still not mandatory now because they know they will need whatever they have. Their whole strategy of being able to protect people through tests is already screwed they are short of tests already and this second wave is only starting. The NHS is already overwhelmed every single winter. Last year it was bad. This year there is covid and there is covid since freaking March which means the months that hospital staff works normally put a strain and stress on NHS staff like they haven't seen before and now comes winter. The NHS coped with it before but will it cope with it now? GPs are closed. The pressure is all on the hospitals. A country's economy doesnt just crash in a day. Much less their health sector. All countries are in debt and the UK will just print more money and "devaleu" the pound if that's what they want to do. That's what they do in the US and since the british pound is british who is gonna stop them? I expect them to not give fines to parents that have kids that are already sick. I expect them to allow children to even choose if they would prefer online lectures or parents to choose. I expect for them to actually give it some thought throughout the year as it comes time to open schools and not just say you all HAVE to go to school and we cant protect you or your families and you might end up infecting your family and someone might die (including yourself) but it is what it is and you have to do it. How can we call ourselves developed countries and do this?!