It’s a shame that Wales, Scotland, NI have to follow a national shutdown in England, but we left the others to their own devices with a simple “oh well”
I do feel sorry for our friends in the Union.
I think it will hit morale hard.
What else is concerning about this is the fact that the ACF are remaining devolved, staying open in Scotland and NI, and closed in Wales until the 9th Nov. Where I can partially (and I mean the tiniest little bit) understand the logic behind having one rule for all across the country, there’s no way it’s fair on squadrons in areas of devolved power to be made to stand down when their guidance says it’s fine. If (as I imagine as I’ve heard nothing), overseas squadrons are allowed to follow their own guidance and remain open, why on earth are we not letting that happen here? Is it not more beneficial to the corps to show that we’re still going, still carrying on but adhering to restrictions and show that we do great things for our cadets? At the end of the day, SNI are their own region and should have been allowed to continue managing returns to squadron, and W&W doing the same for the Welsh squadrons once their fire break is over. We’re definitely at risk of losing more and more staff, and I’d be intrigued to see the results of a new survey looking at how many staff have/want to leave giving the current situation and to compare it to the results of the one that we had in the new year. And considering that most squadrons probably won’t be returning to squadron until the new year, I can imagine that this is going to keep getting higher and higher, especially in Scotland and NI. Personally reading into the email that was sent, I read it as a bit of an f you, we don’t really care about anywhere but England, what England does, everyone else has to. Why can’t we just use some common sense for once?
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Has anyone even considered the thought that the devolved bits might have to go into a full lockdown alongside England until dec or whenever england comes out.
Therefore HQAC decision would make sense.
By ceasing all now they stop any later confusions.
Also cadets in england who might cross the borders to a Sqn cant now.
All these things.
Oh and HQAC is in england. So under lockdown. It does have an impact!
I think it’s crass, insensitive, and politically dangerous.
I accept that with HQAC being in England there could be some impact on operations within the other nations, but I’d ask what time critical impact HQAC actually has on Sqns in W, S and NI in the average month?
It’s an absolute morale hoover because we just know that once England is back up, and any of the devolved nations go into lock down, England will happily carry on. It says your countries don’t matter, your governments don’t matter, and your identities don’t matter.
It is as politically incilindary a move and attitude as I’ve seen - and it will bite TK in the backside, hard, and very publicly. Anyone fancy watching TK attempting to justify this to Nicola Sturgeon and would you bet on him winning?
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I fear she may have bigger issues on her plate.
Would be great to see her take up the challenge and give it some press but she won’t. This isn’t TKs decision either, I believe it is above him.
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Yes.
And this is why allowing us to do some activity this month would have made sense - while we’ve got the opportunity, we should be trying to open.
We could well be in a situation whereby HQAC let us go ahead again, and immediately after the devolved administration say “stop” and we’ve ended up with an even longer “pause”.
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I fully expect if England is released from lockdown and one of the devolved nations re-enters it will have precisely zero impact on any English squadrons.
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I’m not so sure. Given the reference to DComOps and AOC22 in the letter I imagine this was driven by them primarily. Who knows, I could be wrong!
Most obvious statement of the year.
It’s clearly not that obvious to some though is it?
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Anyone know if the overseas units are still meeting F2F?
I have no clue but considering the letter specifies a unified approach across the UK, I’d say that overseas squadrons are exempt from this. Therefore the question of why are overseas squadrons exempt but not SNI and Wales exists… Because personally I find that is rather unfair.
I guess the million dollar question is what happens if the UK lockdown is eased as planned, but Scotland (as an example) bans Cadet type activities with some restriction of other, will HQAC keep Squadrons in the UK closed, dealing yet another blow to an already wounded beast, or will HQAC catch that very virulent condition emanating from Whitehall called the U turn? 
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There may be a reprieve - message currently being cascaded to SNI that F2F might be able to resume from Monday…
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Yep, the message is out that National guidance applies. Will work its way out via CoC no doubt at some point in the next 3 months if you’re in SW.
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I think there will always be an element of unfairness, for as long as we have “local lockdowns”.
My wing had squadrons under Tier 2 and Tier 3 restrictions - but the Wing “strategy” was based on data from the worst hit areas.
With regards to Wales, there are some squadrons that are based close enough to the border that staff and cadets could live in one country, but attend a Squadron in another. Yes, you could assess each Sqn individually, but that could prove to be an admin nightmare. Or you ban English cadets from attending a Welsh Squadron, or vice versa. But whatever you do, there will an element of unfairness.
Personally, I think we need to remember that we’re all in one organisation, and try not to let the English vs Wales vs Scotland political issues divide us as well. Yes its a bit crap, but it’s also crap for English Sqns that were in a Tier 1 area, that are now banned from meeting too.
Yeh - I crossed a national border as a cadet, so I can empathise with people in that situation…
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Hot off the press, indoor and outdoor activities will be permitted after the 9th in Wales, up to 15 indoor and 30 outdoor. England ATC activities remain paused!
Yay
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Which bit is that a yay to
That’s odd