Reading all the different countries announcing cases, just so many appear to have exported all around Europe from those skiing in Northern Italy, you wonder just how it broke out there, how long it has been circulating. It literally must have been everywhere.
The half-term skiing holiday in Northern Italy is the very preserve of the entitled Remainer middle-classes.
So, we expect to see Coronavirus hotspots develop in the Remainer cities & towns. Brighton, Oxford, London, Herts.
By contrast, nothing has been reported in the Welsh Valleys. The Rhondda, Ponty, Blaenau Gwent, Ebbw Vale -- all completely free of the virus.
You need to get that massive chip off your shoulder
What YBarddCuwc seems to forget is that the virus is far more dangerous to the over-65s aka the Leaver Demographic......
I am over 65 and high risk and voted remain
However, the nuance of your post is your 'delight' it may affect those who voted leave
What happened to kinder, gentler politics
My "delight"? Your projection perhaps...
I was pointing out a flaw in YBarddCuwc's argument. You were not involved in this conversation nor was it aimed at you.
1. Try getting my name right. It is of Celtic origin, like yours.
2. Try understanding the argument.
Nah, the Welsh language was invented by someone crap at Scrabble.
Its been years since the government was able to defeat a rebellion within its own ranks. The government starting to flex its muscles, make decisions and move the country forwards with its working majority.
I've just advised my family not to travel to southern Spain over Easter - they are from the NE which is relatively safe but Easter in Spain normally involves lots of gatherings and travel to the costas from Madrid, etc There are hardly any case where I live and I'm hoping a travel ban might keep it that way.
According to Wiki (I know, I know) on published data the UK has the fourth (third on a list which excludes China) highest number of tests behind S Korea and Italy:
DHSC just updated its breakdown of cases by local authority, which now shows the number of cases in each area as of 9am this morning. Five new cases were detected in Kensington and Chelsea, one of the UK’s wealthiest areas, bringing the total in the borough to 13.
The area with the most cases overall remains Hertfordshire, with three new cases bringing the total in the county to 16.
Vaguely back on topic, the LDs are at as low an ebb as I can remember in four decades of being a member of the Party (and its predecessors).
Siobhan Benita's dreadful poll rating in the London Mayoral Election shows how far the party has reversed since it won London in the 2019 European elections. The extent of the fall has been in many ways as dramatic as the 2015 election.
The Party faces an existential identity crisis and it has to ask the fundamental - what is it for? There are plenty of niches out there - as a centre-right pro-sound financial management party it would stand in marked contrast to the two big-spending social democratic parties led by Johnson and (presumably) Starmer but the appetite for fiscal probity has long gone - people just want the Government to emulate Viv Nicholson though it didn't end well for her.
There's a space for a pro-environment party which keeps well clear of eco-authoritarianism. Many would agree climate change is a serious issue and needs to be addressed and you can easily fault both the Conservative and Labour parties but is there a niche beyond 10-15% of the vote in that?
On Europe, the war is over yet you wouldn't think so from some of the LD language. Within the LEAVE vote there are presumably those who would wish a close economic relationship with Europe outside the EU but there seems a hardening toward a more independent line with the desire for sovereignty, control and divergence in the ascendant.
It may well be a Party arguing for a re-negotiation of the trade and economic arrangements back toward a closer relationship may have some difficult questions to answer about sovereignty and control but if the economic impact of divergence is sub-optimal such an argument may at least get a hearing.
At the moment, though, the LDs are lost and irrelevant. That will not always be so and the new leadership has to be adroit in picking up the opportunities when they arise (as they will) and capitalising on disillusionment with Johnson (which will come). That doesn't mean moving "closer" to Labour which remains in many ways a centralising and authoritarian movement for all that Starmer will, if becoming leader, begin Labour's journey back to credibility and a clear status of being an alternative Government.
In politics, there's what you have to say to get elected and there's what you can do once you are elected.
Good post.
I’d also add that they should be unashamedly liberal, standing up for freedom of speech and of assembly.
DHSC just updated its breakdown of cases by local authority, which now shows the number of cases in each area as of 9am this morning. Five new cases were detected in Kensington and Chelsea, one of the UK’s wealthiest areas, bringing the total in the borough to 13.
The area with the most cases overall remains Hertfordshire, with three new cases bringing the total in the county to 16.
Skiers...Luton Airport...
Bedfordshire, but may be accessed via Hertfordshire
Reading all the different countries announcing cases, just so many appear to have exported all around Europe from those skiing in Northern Italy, you wonder just how it broke out there, how long it has been circulating. It literally must have been everywhere.
The half-term skiing holiday in Northern Italy is the very preserve of the entitled Remainer middle-classes.
So, we expect to see Coronavirus hotspots develop in the Remainer cities & towns. Brighton, Oxford, London, Herts.
By contrast, nothing has been reported in the Welsh Valleys. The Rhondda, Ponty, Blaenau Gwent, Ebbw Vale -- all completely free of the virus.
Isn't Torquay/Devon leaver central ?
The first two incidences in Devon were, er, school kids returning from a school trip to Italy....
Guess they stopped trying to track down everyone when it become dozens of cases a day.
I would be interested to know how many of the recent (passed few days) cases are from people who have retered from other contrarys, and how many from inside the UK, I don't understand why they are not publishing this anymore?
As UK cases seem to be scattered rater than clustered, for the most part, that would suggest to me its still mostly from people who contracted it oversees but maybe I'm wrong.
I haven't seen it commented on but Spain has had another big rise for covid cases (up 419 since yesterday) and has now gone past both France and Germany to be the second highest in Europe.
China has now dropped out of the top 5 countries by capita (Italy, S Korea, Iran, Bahrain, Switzerland)
Can I suggest that we find out what Spain is doing/not doing and take the opposite approach?
So past 2 days, increase of 17% each day...compared to 30-40% daily increases across the previous week.
That should be good news, but I think it is concerning...are we now not testing enough people? Or are we going to get the explosion in numbers in the next 2-3 days?
It could be the effect of some behavioural changes. If people are panic buying soap and so on, hopefully it means they are actually washing their hands more. I suspect we are already seeing the effects of some voluntary event cancellations and home working as well. Basically there must be a fair bit of already doing what the government is about to mandate.
My company has just moved to 80% homeworking today. Only short collab periods Monday and Tuesday otherwise 100% remote for all workers.
That's what I was getting at, although I broadly agree that the goverment should say "JFDI" it does seem that a lot of companies are already implementing travel bans, visitor bans, inter-site movement bans, and home working where possible.
The City will be at home by the end of next week, I think.
There seems to be a bit of a drop-off in new confirmed cases in Germany too, I suspect that it's a result of testing criteria being relaxed last week led to a surge of new cases which should have been confirmed earlier, and that surge is levelling off a little. I haven't seen much evidence of any changes in behaviour here in Cologne, where we already have 33 confirmed cases. This might change - today the state government has decided to stop gatherings with more than 1000 people (2 days after the national health minister advised such a ban, so not so much sense of urgency yet...)
I'm surprised there are only 33 cases in Cologne when there are over 500 in NRW. Do you know where most of the positves live?
most of them - more than half - in Heinsberg
Wow, I knew the Carnival outbreak was there but had not realised it was that big. That's a shed load of cases for a town.
So past 2 days, increase of 17% each day...compared to 30-40% daily increases across the previous week.
That should be good news, but I think it is concerning...are we now not testing enough people? Or are we going to get the explosion in numbers in the next 2-3 days?
It could be the effect of some behavioural changes. If people are panic buying soap and so on, hopefully it means they are actually washing their hands more. I suspect we are already seeing the effects of some voluntary event cancellations and home working as well. Basically there must be a fair bit of already doing what the government is about to mandate.
My company has just moved to 80% homeworking today. Only short collab periods Monday and Tuesday otherwise 100% remote for all workers.
That's what I was getting at, although I broadly agree that the goverment should say "JFDI" it does seem that a lot of companies are already implementing travel bans, visitor bans, inter-site movement bans, and home working where possible.
The City will be at home by the end of next week, I think.
There seems to be a bit of a drop-off in new confirmed cases in Germany too, I suspect that it's a result of testing criteria being relaxed last week led to a surge of new cases which should have been confirmed earlier, and that surge is levelling off a little. I haven't seen much evidence of any changes in behaviour here in Cologne, where we already have 33 confirmed cases. This might change - today the state government has decided to stop gatherings with more than 1000 people (2 days after the national health minister advised such a ban, so not so much sense of urgency yet...)
I'm surprised there are only 33 cases in Cologne when there are over 500 in NRW. Do you know where most of the positves live?
most of them - more than half - in Heinsberg
Wow, I knew the Carnival outbreak was there but had not realised it was that big. That's a shed load of cases for a town.
It’s an odd bug. At certain occasions it really goes wild. I don’t know if this is a “superspreader”, weather conditions, or something inherent to the event itself (shared food?)...
The thing is if one does change from shopping in Waitrose to the likes of Lidl, does one not run the risk of catching some other horrible disease that circulates among the peasants?
My next-door neighbors have flown off to Austria this morning to go skiing...
I am off to Switzerland tomorrow Skiing, this may be my last post. You would be surprised how many skiers are over 70, not me yet.
If you have your own accommodation, objectively the flight is your biggest, and probably only significant, risk.
Yes we have our own chalet,you are right the flight is the danger, I have just had a week in the Costas and seem to be OK. The other danger skiing is going into the crowded snack bars on the piste, but even I baulk at the cost in Switzerland, so we take a packed lunch and eat outdoors. I am staying put in the UK when I get back, and will probably self isolate for a week, I know too many people in the danger category.
I haven't seen it commented on but Spain has had another big rise for covid cases (up 419 since yesterday) and has now gone past both France and Germany to be the second highest in Europe.
China has now dropped out of the top 5 countries by capita (Italy, S Korea, Iran, Bahrain, Switzerland)
Can I suggest that we find out what Spain is doing/not doing and take the opposite approach?
I actually don’t think it’s about what governments are or are not doing as up until the last Few days I don’t think many European governments have done anything of note. It’s down to social norms which differentiate cultures. Kissing, sharing food, mass gatherings etc. can anyone tell me what steps any European government have taken that has contained this?
Comments
You would be surprised how many skiers are over 70, not me yet.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8095727/Uber-driver-Brits-returning-Italy-Weve-told-self-isolation.html
I don't see much difference going to Austria than going to Skegness and I know which I'd rather do if I had the choice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_outbreak_in_the_United_Kingdom#Statistics
Guess they stopped trying to track down everyone when it become dozens of cases a day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_testing
Not all the data is completely up to date, and some countries are notably absent - eg Germany, Spain - but so far, we seem to be doing pretty well...
The area with the most cases overall remains Hertfordshire, with three new cases bringing the total in the county to 16.
Skiers...Luton Airport...
I’d also add that they should be unashamedly liberal, standing up for freedom of speech and of assembly.
NEW THREAD
As UK cases seem to be scattered rater than clustered, for the most part, that would suggest to me its still mostly from people who contracted it oversees but maybe I'm wrong.
The rest are roughly distributed, according to population distribution, across the UK.
It will not be possible to “quarantine” parts of the UK. We’re in this together!
PS Skiers heading off to Switzerland should note it has one of the highest per capita incidences of coronavirus already.
At certain occasions it really goes wild.
I don’t know if this is a “superspreader”, weather conditions, or something inherent to the event itself (shared food?)...
https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/gallery/publications/statistics-publication/2018/08/government-expenditure-revenue-scotland-2017-18/00539518.gif
The other danger skiing is going into the crowded snack bars on the piste, but even I baulk at the cost in Switzerland, so we take a packed lunch and eat outdoors.
I am staying put in the UK when I get back, and will probably self isolate for a week, I know too many people in the danger category.