Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
If Rachel Reeves doesn't get a prime Shadow Cabinet job, she might be after the West Yorkshire elected mayor gig. Just my musings, but bettors take note.
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Cant see anyone in labour that would add anything to the response...tories are bad enough without adding the likes of burgon, abbot, corbyn ,milne to the mix
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
That was the path Attlee took to power.
Martin Kettle raised the idea of coalition in Guardian a day or two ago.
Implies we will still be in deep shit by the autumn.
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Cant see anyone in labour that would add anything to the response...tories are bad enough without adding the likes of burgon, abbot, corbyn ,milne to the mix
But Starmer, Cooper, Benn, Miliband might.
Not sure I see it though, barring the next few weeks becoming an utter catastrophe.
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Cant see anyone in labour that would add anything to the response...tories are bad enough without adding the likes of burgon, abbot, corbyn ,milne to the mix
If a very extended lockdown is required, then a united front like this might help. Because after a while it will only be enforceable by really draconian activities.
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Cant see anyone in labour that would add anything to the response...tories are bad enough without adding the likes of burgon, abbot, corbyn ,milne to the mix
But Starmer, Cooper, Benn, Miliband might.
Not sure I see it though, barring the next few weeks becoming an utter catastrophe.
none of whom are currently in power in labour so not who we would get
The UK, with 144 deaths and 3269 confirmed cases, is today almost exactly where Italy was two weeks ago on 5th March (148 deaths and 3296 confirmed cases).
Have we already done enough to prevent us tracking Italy for the next two weeks? I am not sure that we have, sadly.
Except we have the advantage that we live two weeks in the future.
The other advantage we have is that the age profile of our “hotspot” is significantly younger than the rest of England, and the age profile of England is a bit younger than Italy. Stereotypically the people most at risk in this move out of London when they retire. There are 2.25 million people in Lombardy over the age of 65, nearly a quarter of the population, whereas it’s under 1.1m, 13%, in London. And of those over 65s, not many are going clubbing, and few use the Tube at rush hour.
The issue is the berks and jerks who demanded daily information, press conferences and interrogation.
The standard of questions from journalists are abysmal and mind numbing in trrms of stupidity and seeking gotcha moments.
Two or three times a week may be ok. Daily is useless and enough to bore any PM.
That is quite a get out of jail card you have given Johnson.
There is a lot of mundane stuff to complete as 'World King'. Trying to get ones head around dull subjects like statistics and correlation co-efficients as a Classics Scholar is probably hard work.
Initially I liked the fact that Boris engaged the experts to sit with him and explain the technical issues with fluency. Cameron and Blair would probably have flown solo back in the day, but at least they would have needed to grasp the issues in order to talk about them. I do get the impression that Boris engaged the scientists because he either couldn't understand the science or couldn't be arsed to read up about it.
Delegating all the big boy and girl work to the big boys and girls makes sense. Johnson sat beyween them spewing out sound bites and platitudes appears superfluous. He is supposed to be the master orator. He needs to up his game!
Government of national unity....a bit like people often think about how much better England might have been if say Giggs or Bale weren't Welsh.
The difference is at the moment, the labour and lib dem shadow cabinet....we aren't exactly talking about having Jack Straw or Steve Webb sitting on the bench.
You want Richard Burgon or Dawn Butler anywhere near national planning on this?
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Cant see anyone in labour that would add anything to the response...tories are bad enough without adding the likes of burgon, abbot, corbyn ,milne to the mix
But Starmer, Cooper, Benn, Miliband might.
Not sure I see it though, barring the next few weeks becoming an utter catastrophe.
none of whom are currently in power in labour so not who we would get
In less than a month they likely will be, assuming Starmer wins
Government of national unity....a bit like people often think about how much better England might have been if say Giggs or Bale weren't Welsh.
The difference is at the moment, the labour and lib dem shadow cabinet....we aren't exactly talking about having Jack Straw or Steve Webb sitting on the bench.
You want Richard Burgon or Dawn Butler anywhere near national planning on this?
Neither of them - but Johnson, Williamson,Patel et al are just as bad.
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
The issue is the berks and jerks who demanded daily information, press conferences and interrogation.
The standard of questions from journalists are abysmal and mind numbing in trrms of stupidity and seeking gotcha moments.
Two or three times a week may be ok. Daily is useless and enough to bore any PM.
That is quite a get out of jail card you have given Johnson.
There is a lot of mundane stuff to complete as 'World King'. Trying to get ones head around dull subjects like statistics and correlation co-efficients as a Classics Scholar is probably hard work.
Initially I liked the fact that Boris engaged the experts to sit with him and explain the technical issues with fluency. Cameron and Blair would probably have flown solo back in the day, but at least they would have needed to grasp the issues in order to talk about them. I do get the impression that Boris engaged the scientists because he either couldn't understand the science or couldn't be arsed to read up about it.
Delegating all the big boy and girl work to the big boys and girls makes sense. Johnson sat beyween them spewing out sound bites and platitudes appears superfluous. He is supposed to be the master orator. He needs to up his game!
Indeed, master orator, huh!
He likes to think of himself as a modern day Churchill but imagine how clearly and powerfully Churchill would have delivered the key messages the country needs right now.
Sadly, any other PM of the last 40 year would have made a better fist of it than Johnson has so far.
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Cant see anyone in labour that would add anything to the response...tories are bad enough without adding the likes of burgon, abbot, corbyn ,milne to the mix
But Starmer, Cooper, Benn, Miliband might.
Not sure I see it though, barring the next few weeks becoming an utter catastrophe.
none of whom are currently in power in labour so not who we would get
In less than a month they likely will be, assuming Starmer wins
Some of the Twitterati are claiming the Labour leadership election should be cancelled and an experienced LOTO should be allowed to continue during the crisis. Titter ye not!
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Government of national unity....a bit like people often think about how much better England might have been if say Giggs or Bale weren't Welsh.
The difference is at the moment, the labour and lib dem shadow cabinet....we aren't exactly talking about having Jack Straw or Steve Webb sitting on the bench.
You want Richard Burgon or Dawn Butler anywhere near national planning on this?
Neither of them - but Johnson, Williamson,Patel et al are just as bad.
I don't like any of those 3 and wouldn't vote for them unless it was a choice between them and the ones I mentioned. Sorry corbyn , milne, abbot and burgon really aren't fit to run a village fete let alone a pandemic response. Yes I agree the ones doing now are hugely better but they are better
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Cant see anyone in labour that would add anything to the response...tories are bad enough without adding the likes of burgon, abbot, corbyn ,milne to the mix
But Starmer, Cooper, Benn, Miliband might.
Not sure I see it though, barring the next few weeks becoming an utter catastrophe.
none of whom are currently in power in labour so not who we would get
In less than a month they likely will be, assuming Starmer wins
Some of the Twitterati are claiming the Labour leadership election should be cancelled and an experienced LOTO should be allowed to continue during the crisis. Titter ye not!
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
That is partisan clap trap. They already are working together
While it is unlikely I expect the close cooperation with Sturgeon, Drakeford, Foster, and the mayors will continue and develop into a de facto governmentof national unity
The issue is the berks and jerks who demanded daily information, press conferences and interrogation.
The standard of questions from journalists are abysmal and mind numbing in trrms of stupidity and seeking gotcha moments.
Two or three times a week may be ok. Daily is useless and enough to bore any PM.
That is quite a get out of jail card you have given Johnson.
There is a lot of mundane stuff to complete as 'World King'. Trying to get ones head around dull subjects like statistics and correlation co-efficients as a Classics Scholar is probably hard work.
Initially I liked the fact that Boris engaged the experts to sit with him and explain the technical issues with fluency. Cameron and Blair would probably have flown solo back in the day, but at least they would have needed to grasp the issues in order to talk about them. I do get the impression that Boris engaged the scientists because he either couldn't understand the science or couldn't be arsed to read up about it.
Delegating all the big boy and girl work to the big boys and girls makes sense. Johnson sat beyween them spewing out sound bites and platitudes appears superfluous. He is supposed to be the master orator. He needs to up his game!
Indeed, master orator, huh!
He likes to think of himself as a modern day Churchill but imagine how clearly and powerfully Churchill would have delivered the key messages the country needs right now.
Sadly, any other PM of the last 40 year would have made a better fist of it than Johnson has so far.
Unless he bucks up his ideas, Boris is no Churchill!
Churchill had two favourite phrases. It is time to move from his advice to those away from the front line — “keep calm and carry on” — to his advice for those controlling operations — “action this day”.
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Cant see anyone in labour that would add anything to the response...tories are bad enough without adding the likes of burgon, abbot, corbyn ,milne to the mix
But Starmer, Cooper, Benn, Miliband might.
Not sure I see it though, barring the next few weeks becoming an utter catastrophe.
none of whom are currently in power in labour so not who we would get
In less than a month they likely will be, assuming Starmer wins
Some of the Twitterati are claiming the Labour leadership election should be cancelled and an experienced LOTO should be allowed to continue during the crisis. Titter ye not!
Neil Kinnock is available?
The pink Tory, Kinnock, I suspect, is not who they have in mind.
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Cant see anyone in labour that would add anything to the response...tories are bad enough without adding the likes of burgon, abbot, corbyn ,milne to the mix
But Starmer, Cooper, Benn, Miliband might.
Not sure I see it though, barring the next few weeks becoming an utter catastrophe.
none of whom are currently in power in labour so not who we would get
In less than a month they likely will be, assuming Starmer wins
Some of the Twitterati are claiming the Labour leadership election should be cancelled and an experienced LOTO should be allowed to continue during the crisis. Titter ye not!
There's more chance of Liverpool not winning the premiership this seaso.. oh!
The number of new cases in Italy is appalling. We really should be seeing the benefit of their lockdown starting to factor in by now.
If is does not come down massively in a week then there is a real problem, it surely must do because how can the virus infect people if there is no social interaction
There are probably still social interactions. Going to the shops, for one.
There's people who were infected before the lock down still getting tested positive. There's members of the same household getting infected. There's loads of people still going to work. There's people getting infected in hospitals, care homes etc
All those matter. And (1) is probably still the biggest factor right now.
But it's not about getting to zero, it's about getting an R0 that is nearer 0.2 than 3. And as the number of social interactions in Italy is probably down 90+%, and as people are a lot more cautious, and are using soap, etc.m we can be reasonably confident that it will come down fairly quickly.
Now, everyone is fixating on the total Italian number, but it's worth looking at the numbers for the Veneto area, which was one of the first two hotspots.
The number of new cases jumped above 200 for the first time on 12/3. It has been above there every day since, peaking at 510. It's now 270. Now it's too early to celebrate yet. But it's possible that we'll see the first number under 200 tomorrow. That would be a more than halving from the peak.
And where Veneto goes, the rest of Italy will follow (with a lag).
One further question that should have been asked:
If we start lifting the restrictions in late June - is that it, or is it merely the end of the first cycle (as per the pulsing-restrictions-on-and-off-again recommendation in the IC paper)? Because, after all, as the issue with the suppression method has always been: it doesn’t fix the problem; just stretches it out. A rebound peak should immediately start to build at that point, according to the modelling.
One would hope we'd handle a second Coronavirus peak rather better. We'd have more testing, and could act like the Koreans do to restrict infection. We'd know which drugs worked, and we'd also know which people had already had the disease (and recovered) and therefore were very unlikely to act as vectors for reinfection.
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
That is partisan clap trap. They already are working together
While it is unlikely I expect the close cooperation with Sturgeon, Drakeford, Foster, and the mayors will continue and develop into a de facto governmentof national unity
Unless I am behind the times, Khan and Burnham haven't been invited to the party.
The issue is the berks and jerks who demanded daily information, press conferences and interrogation.
The standard of questions from journalists are abysmal and mind numbing in trrms of stupidity and seeking gotcha moments.
Two or three times a week may be ok. Daily is useless and enough to bore any PM.
That is quite a get out of jail card you have given Johnson.
There is a lot of mundane stuff to complete as 'World King'. Trying to get ones head around dull subjects like statistics and correlation co-efficients as a Classics Scholar is probably hard work.
Initially I liked the fact that Boris engaged the experts to sit with him and explain the technical issues with fluency. Cameron and Blair would probably have flown solo back in the day, but at least they would have needed to grasp the issues in order to talk about them. I do get the impression that Boris engaged the scientists because he either couldn't understand the science or couldn't be arsed to read up about it.
Delegating all the big boy and girl work to the big boys and girls makes sense. Johnson sat beyween them spewing out sound bites and platitudes appears superfluous. He is supposed to be the master orator. He needs to up his game!
Indeed, master orator, huh!
He likes to think of himself as a modern day Churchill but imagine how clearly and powerfully Churchill would have delivered the key messages the country needs right now.
Sadly, any other PM of the last 40 year would have made a better fist of it than Johnson has so far.
Unless he bucks up his ideas, Boris is no Churchill!
If I had to choose a party leader of the last 30 years for now I think I would go for ashdown and no I am not a lib dem
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
That is partisan clap trap. They already are working together
While it is unlikely I expect the close cooperation with Sturgeon, Drakeford, Foster, and the mayors will continue and develop into a de facto governmentof national unity
Unless I am behind the times, Khan and Burnham haven't been invited to the party.
I believe Khan is attending Cobra with the mayors to follow
The issue is the berks and jerks who demanded daily information, press conferences and interrogation.
The standard of questions from journalists are abysmal and mind numbing in trrms of stupidity and seeking gotcha moments.
Two or three times a week may be ok. Daily is useless and enough to bore any PM.
That is quite a get out of jail card you have given Johnson.
There is a lot of mundane stuff to complete as 'World King'. Trying to get ones head around dull subjects like statistics and correlation co-efficients as a Classics Scholar is probably hard work.
Initially I liked the fact that Boris engaged the experts to sit with him and explain the technical issues with fluency. Cameron and Blair would probably have flown solo back in the day, but at least they would have needed to grasp the issues in order to talk about them. I do get the impression that Boris engaged the scientists because he either couldn't understand the science or couldn't be arsed to read up about it.
Delegating all the big boy and girl work to the big boys and girls makes sense. Johnson sat beyween them spewing out sound bites and platitudes appears superfluous. He is supposed to be the master orator. He needs to up his game!
Indeed, master orator, huh!
He likes to think of himself as a modern day Churchill but imagine how clearly and powerfully Churchill would have delivered the key messages the country needs right now.
Sadly, any other PM of the last 40 year would have made a better fist of it than Johnson has so far.
Unless he bucks up his ideas, Boris is no Churchill!
If I had to choose a party leader of the last 30 years for now I think I would go for ashdown and no I am not a lib dem
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
That is partisan clap trap. They already are working together
While it is unlikely I expect the close cooperation with Sturgeon, Drakeford, Foster, and the mayors will continue and develop into a de facto governmentof national unity
Unless I am behind the times, Khan and Burnham haven't been invited to the party.
I believe Khan is attending Cobra with the mayors to follow
Sorry, it would appear I am as equally ill-informed as Boris!
The pathology of this disease seems nuts. I mean with the flu, well you know if you have the flu. This is something else varying from asymptomatic to death
The pathology of this disease seems nuts. I mean with the flu, well you know if you have the flu. This is something else varying from asymptomatic to death
It's actually pretty similar, 50% of seasonal flu infections are asymptomatic:
Interesting suggestion from Stephen Bush of the serious possibility of a National Coalition Government by the end of the summer. I cannot see it myelf. Certainly no way Labour would agree to serve under Johnson.
Cant see anyone in labour that would add anything to the response...tories are bad enough without adding the likes of burgon, abbot, corbyn ,milne to the mix
But Starmer, Cooper, Benn, Miliband might.
Not sure I see it though, barring the next few weeks becoming an utter catastrophe.
none of whom are currently in power in labour so not who we would get
In less than a month they likely will be, assuming Starmer wins
Some of the Twitterati are claiming the Labour leadership election should be cancelled and an experienced LOTO should be allowed to continue during the crisis. Titter ye not!
There's more chance of Liverpool not winning the premiership this seaso.. oh!
Doesn't Karren Brady want the title bestowed on West Ham? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick...
The pathology of this disease seems nuts. I mean with the flu, well you know if you have the flu. This is something else varying from asymptomatic to death
Part of the reason is down to the fact nobody has any built up immunity. Some people's bodies react quickly and calmly and fight it off, some young people who are fit and healthy have an immune system over-react and the old's immune system reacts slowly and really struggles to get a handle on it.
One would hope we'd handle a second Coronavirus peak rather better. We'd have more testing, and could act like the Koreans do to restrict infection. We'd know which drugs worked, and we'd also know which people had already had the disease (and recovered) and therefore were very unlikely to act as vectors for reinfection.
This, and I'd also add that the restrictions could probably be a lot smarter. It's likely that a lot of the changes people are making right now won't actually help much or at all; The problem is that like advertising, you don't yet know which parts are wasted.
So you might need some things to actually get more restrictive, but be less restrictive overall. For example - just pulling this out of my arse as an example of the kind of thing, and in no way suggesting this particular example is right - it might turn out that the insides of pubs are really nasty contagion vectors and hard to fix, and they all need to be closed. (But you might also find that it's OK to drink outside...)
Watching Pandemic: How to prevent an Outbreak, a documentary series on Netflix. There is a reference there by an Egyptian virologist that the peak flu season in Egypt is April/May.
The government has already provided £300 billion of loans and even if the government paid every person £1000 for 3 months I expect some hospitality businesses would still sack people knowing that would not last for ever and they would face a big rise in their costs and tax bill to pay for it.
The government is not a magician, it cannot make everybody's lives perfect at every time it just has to find the best outcome at each time for the most number. At the moment that is advising avoiding unnecessary travel and visits to restaurants and hotels etc due to the health risks and that will have costs too.
Plus no doubt once this crisis is over even Britannia Hotels will be hiring again
Hospitals in Italy’s central and southern regions are bracing themselves as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases grows.
The rise, which has been particularly steep in Lazio, Campania and Puglia, is believed to be largely the result of the thousands of people who fled south after Lombardy, where the outbreak in Italy began, was quarantined on 8 March. The entire country was put under lockdown on 9 March and rules were tightened on 11 March.
The pathology of this disease seems nuts. I mean with the flu, well you know if you have the flu. This is something else varying from asymptomatic to death
It's actually pretty similar, 50% of seasonal flu infections are asymptomatic:
Not so unusual. Most people can fight off the virus pretty efficiently it seems - it's only if you are compromised (elderly or with an immuno-deficiency) does it generally become a major problem. Unfortunately there are many people who fall in this category. But, if you are healthy and reasonably young, your immune system can probably fight this off (cf the cases in Germany and the really interesting factoid from @eristdoof about 70% of their cases being relatively young).
She is right. All other elections postponed a year. Labour setting a terrible example not binning theirs
You are normally one of the sagest voices on PB. You are wrong over this one.
We need strong opposition at a time of crisis and Starmer, Nandy or Bailey possess more gravitas than Corbyn- even the weakest of the candidates towers head and shoulders over Jezza..
The government has already provided £300 billion of loans and even if the government paid every person £1000 for 3 months I expect some hospitality businesses would still sack people knowing that would not last for ever and they would face a big rise in their costs and tax bill to pay for it.
The government is not a magician, it cannot make everybody's lives perfect at every time it just has to find the best outcome at each time for the most number. At the moment that is advising avoiding unnecessary travel and visits to restaurants and hotels etc due to the health risks and that will have costs too.
Plus no doubt once this crisis is over even Britannia Hotels will be hiring again
The pathology of this disease seems nuts. I mean with the flu, well you know if you have the flu. This is something else varying from asymptomatic to death
It's actually pretty similar, 50% of seasonal flu infections are asymptomatic:
Not so unusual. Most people can fight off the virus pretty efficiently it seems - it's only if you are compromised (elderly or with an immuno-deficiency) does it generally become a major problem. Unfortunately there are many people who fall in this category. But, if you are healthy and reasonably young, your immune system can probably fight this off (cf the cases in Germany and the really interesting factoid from @eristdoof about 70% of their cases being relatively young).
The government has already provided £300 billion of loans and even if the government paid every person £1000 for 3 months I expect some hospitality businesses would still sack people knowing that would not last for ever and they would face a big rise in their costs and tax bill to pay for it.
The government is not a magician, it cannot make everybody's lives perfect at every time it just has to find the best outcome at each time for the most number. At the moment that is advising avoiding unnecessary travel and visits to restaurants and hotels etc due to the health risks and that will have costs too.
Plus no doubt once this crisis is over even Britannia Hotels will be hiring again
Whether anyone will want to actually work for them though....
BT, owner of the UK’s biggest mobile operator, EE, is in talks with the government about using its phone location and usage data to monitor whether coronavirus limitation measures such as asking the public to stay at home are working.
The government has already provided £300 billion of loans and even if the government paid every person £1000 for 3 months I expect some hospitality businesses would still sack people knowing that would not last for ever and they would face a big rise in their costs and tax bill to pay for it.
The government is not a magician, it cannot make everybody's lives perfect at every time it just has to find the best outcome at each time for the most number. At the moment that is advising avoiding unnecessary travel and visits to restaurants and hotels etc due to the health risks and that will have costs too.
Plus no doubt once this crisis is over even Britannia Hotels will be hiring again
Comments
When is Johnson going to get a grip on this?
If Rachel Reeves doesn't get a prime Shadow Cabinet job, she might be after the West Yorkshire elected mayor gig. Just my musings, but bettors take note.
https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1240719190371127296
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/f94c3c90da5b4e9f9a0b19484dd4bb14
Implies we will still be in deep shit by the autumn.
Not sure I see it though, barring the next few weeks becoming an utter catastrophe.
There is a lot of mundane stuff to complete as 'World King'. Trying to get ones head around dull subjects like statistics and correlation co-efficients as a Classics Scholar is probably hard work.
Initially I liked the fact that Boris engaged the experts to sit with him and explain the technical issues with fluency. Cameron and Blair would probably have flown solo back in the day, but at least they would have needed to grasp the issues in order to talk about them. I do get the impression that Boris engaged the scientists because he either couldn't understand the science or couldn't be arsed to read up about it.
Delegating all the big boy and girl work to the big boys and girls makes sense. Johnson sat beyween them spewing out sound bites and platitudes appears superfluous. He is supposed to be the master orator. He needs to up his game!
The difference is at the moment, the labour and lib dem shadow cabinet....we aren't exactly talking about having Jack Straw or Steve Webb sitting on the bench.
You want Richard Burgon or Dawn Butler anywhere near national planning on this?
He likes to think of himself as a modern day Churchill but imagine how clearly and powerfully Churchill would have delivered the key messages the country needs right now.
Sadly, any other PM of the last 40 year would have made a better fist of it than Johnson has so far.
While it is unlikely I expect the close cooperation with Sturgeon, Drakeford, Foster, and the mayors will continue and develop into a de facto governmentof national unity
Idiots buying bog rolls ???
https://www.citypopulation.de/en/italy/admin/03__lombardia/
https://twitter.com/ScaryHighlander/status/1240700402783244288?s=19
Thankfully, nobody is dying of hunger from this stupidity. Nor will they.
There would be far more trouble if it had been food.
Gatwick Airport and Cineworld already on the list for their preemptive strikes on the poor sods that used to keep their businesses going.
http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/cbn/2005/cbnreport_103105.html
Or even worse:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/16/us-sales-guns-ammunition-soar-amid-coronavirus-panic-buying
So you might need some things to actually get more restrictive, but be less restrictive overall. For example - just pulling this out of my arse as an example of the kind of thing, and in no way suggesting this particular example is right - it might turn out that the insides of pubs are really nasty contagion vectors and hard to fix, and they all need to be closed. (But you might also find that it's OK to drink outside...)
Eek.
The government is not a magician, it cannot make everybody's lives perfect at every time it just has to find the best outcome at each time for the most number. At the moment that is advising avoiding unnecessary travel and visits to restaurants and hotels etc due to the health risks and that will have costs too.
Plus no doubt once this crisis is over even Britannia Hotels will be hiring again
The rise, which has been particularly steep in Lazio, Campania and Puglia, is believed to be largely the result of the thousands of people who fled south after Lombardy, where the outbreak in Italy began, was quarantined on 8 March. The entire country was put under lockdown on 9 March and rules were tightened on 11 March.
I wonder how many people have fled London?
The fiasco of the last 5 years will be a thing of the past
We need strong opposition at a time of crisis and Starmer, Nandy or Bailey possess more gravitas than Corbyn- even the weakest of the candidates towers head and shoulders over Jezza..
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1240704835684454400?s=20
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/plan-phone-location-data-assist-uk-coronavirus-effort
Dent Coad cancelling the Labour Leaders election, or HYUFDs extraordinary statement re: Britannia Hotels?
"I have to go home for 7 days isolation, Sir, I've got a cough...."
"Make it 14, Jenkins...."