1. If it is at all possible for children to be at home, then they should be.
2. If a child needs specialist support, is vulnerable or has a parent who is a critical worker, then educational provision will be available for them.
3. Parents should not rely for childcare upon those who are advised to be in the stringent social distancing category such as grandparents, friends, or family members with underlying conditions.
3. Parents should also do everything they can to ensure children are not mixing socially in a way which can continue to spread the virus. They should observe the same social distancing principles as adults.
4. Residential special schools, boarding schools and special settings continue to care for children wherever possible.
5. If your work is critical to the COVID-19 response, or you work in one of the critical sectors listed below, and you cannot keep your child safe at home then your children will be prioritised for education provision:
'3. Parents should also do everything they can to ensure children are not mixing socially in a way which can continue to spread the virus. They should observe the same social distancing principles as adults."
The theory is actually that a combination of heat AND humidity will significantly inhibit it.
I am sure that this is at least partly due to air conditioning. Heat cannot stop the virus if it is being spread and preserved in air conditioning ducts.
If aircon is to blame then football crowds would have been safe. No doubt boffins both sides of the Irish Sea will be keeping an eye out for reports of the dreaded lurgy infecting returners from the 4-day Cheltenham (horseracing) Festival last week. No aircon out of doors in the Cotswolds.
This potential financial and economic armageddon if this is sustained, plus uncertainty over how long it will be, plus the very real and rational fear everyone has over their financial situation was why I liked that five point plan I posted yesterday. It's flexible (do it a month at a time; if it lasts two or three months, fine; it can last eighteen months as well), it puts wide areas on "pause" rather than "kill" (in computer terms - it suspends to RAM rather than shuts down), and it puts everyone's minds at rest.
The latter is quite important, because when push comes to shove, people are going to start ignoring "advice" when their families and livelihoods face permanent financial disaster if they comply.
1 - Suspend all loan and financial repayments and interest other than credit cards (including expiry dates of loans). Government to underwrite the liquidity.
2 - Suspend all rents
3 - Suspend all business rates
4 - Businesses requested/required to move empoyees to unpaid leave rather than laying them off.
5 - Basic income of £600 per month to all adults, taxable monthly. (Did some back of the envelope sums; as some are still paying tax, and as Housing Benefit will no longer be required, net cost is c. £25bn per month. Painful, but not remotely fiscally disastrous under the circumstances. )
I'm going to be socially-distanced in a house on my own with a phone and a PC for 12 weeks. But shops close by when necessary and an Estate and lots of old filing to process.
Will be trying to limit exposure to the net, using it to get back in touch with some people, and learning to garden now that the weather turned.
The time was planned to rebuild a social life, which is now up in smoke. Dancing shut till autumn. U3A suspended. Volunteering opportunities vanished.
But shops within walking distance when needed, and friends offering to help.
Did it for 7-8 week Dec-Feb with just 4 or 5 trips out. Can do it again.
The virtual U3a is still operating.....http://vu3a.pbwiki.com ...... And the U3a I attend is running some groups ..... Reading, Creative Writing..... on a virtual basis.
2 emails this morning. One from the boss posting the government advice and formally noting that we are all key workers. Another from one of my team wondering how to tell her son he has to go to school after all. Like me she is also WFH and TBH she isn't exactly busy at the moment as her area of the market (Foodservice) is slowing down fast.
I'm going to be socially-distanced in a house on my own with a phone and a PC for 12 weeks. But shops close by when necessary and an Estate and lots of old filing to process.
Will be trying to limit exposure to the net, using it to get back in touch with some people, and learning to garden now that the weather turned.
The time was planned to rebuild a social life, which is now up in smoke. Dancing shut till autumn. U3A suspended. Volunteering opportunities vanished.
But shops within walking distance when needed, and friends offering to help.
Did it for 7-8 week Dec-Feb with just 4 or 5 trips out. Can do it again.
Talk to her nicely, and Cyclefree might do a weekly gardening tutorial....?
I see Nationwide travel insurance (the one you get with the bank account) is now excluding Corona claims from all trips booked from Wednesday onwards.
Who in their right mind is booking a holiday now?
People do travel internationally for reasons other than holidays, you know. The only reason I'm not booking visits to my recently widowed mother is because the risks to her of those visits would arguably outweigh the benefits.
After my "scoop and run" to pick up Fox jr in London last night, I am off for the weekend to the Isle of Wight to check on elderly family. My Trust is not yet cancelling Annual Leave, though Study and Professional Leave has been cancelled, unless COVID19 related. The view is that staff will need respite breaks so as to not burn out. Voluntary cancellations are being agreed, as many cannot travel due to flights.
Some of the ferries are running "stay in your car" services for some of the crossings, depending on what time you choose.
People lucky enough to have stable incomes aren’t spending. If you are in isolation then meals out, trips away, home improvements, drinks down the pub, all are knocked on the head. Economically it would seem possible to introduce a temporary supertax to take the income that earners would otherwise have been saving and redistribute it as helicopter money, or some kind of negative tax or Ni, to keep everyone afloat.
What absolute bollox, not everyone on stable incomes is down the pub on the razz every night or fancy foreign trips, your average Joe is just managing to pay their mortgage, keep a car on the road and if lucky have a cheap holiday, only difference now is they may not have to add to credit cards to survive. One can only assume you are loaded and have no concept of most people's lives.
I thought you were the one with £millions
I am not sure you are understanding. Everyone would get the helicopter money right away, to keep things simple. Whereas the extra tax would fall progressively on those maintaining most income. If you are net worse off in that scenario then you are relatively in a pretty good position.
Not quite millions , my only one is much reduced recently. Luckily I am still paid and have good salary, but being close to retirement am far from rich. Lots of family costs outside my own. PS: having been absolutely skint at times I know how it feels, not nice at all.
I'm thinking of starting a weekly podcast, given that I haven't got a lot to do. It would basically be like being down the pub with your mates, not too serious but also not about Love Island.
2 emails this morning. One from the boss posting the government advice and formally noting that we are all key workers. Another from one of my team wondering how to tell her son he has to go to school after all. Like me she is also WFH and TBH she isn't exactly busy at the moment as her area of the market (Foodservice) is slowing down fast.
The kids of key workers don't have to go to school. Only if the parents can't take care of them. If I were a parent my kids would have been off a week already.
Anyway, this was sent to me by in response to my recent article. 58 with a successful business established for 25 years advising companies in the food sector, with offices here and in Europe.
“My business earns 95% of its revenue from outside the UK, and because the panic and demand suppression is the same everywhere, our business has dropped off a cliff. Our customers in Paris, under lockdown, have disappeared. A big American customer cut their service in half overnight. Every customer project has been put on hold 'for the duration'.
In early April I will have to inject my own money into the business to keep paying the staff wages (I already cut my own salary to zero).
If it goes on into June then it's two people made redundant (both with mortgages to pay) and a 20% pay-cut for the survivors.
Continue to August and its curtains for us.
I re-mortgaged my house in the last financial crisis, as many business owners did, and used the money to keep staff on and pay their wages.
My business and life are debt-free and at my age I don't want to be taking on a load of bank debt with - as you correctly point out - no idea how/whether I will be able to repay it. The chancellor's bank guarantee is useless to me and most small businesses.
Mr Johnson's Titanic is steaming towards a huge iceberg. It's all calm on the surface, but there's an economic disaster unfolding under the surface which could sink him. Just today I have learned of four separate people I know whose businesses are folding in a month or two. That will be about 100 people losing their jobs.
Your grants suggestion is an excellent one. The PAYE system means that grants to cover staff salaries can easily be policed.
Quite where the chancellor thinks his VAT, PAYE and corporation tax revenue (which pays for the NHS) is going to come from if the economy craters I don't know.
I also happen to be one of the immuno-suppressed 'vulnerable' people that government policy is aiming to protect. I'd rather everyone went to work and we 'vulnerable' were locked up in Center Parcs than that we crater the economy and the lives of tens of millions.”
I quote agree, particularly the last bullet.
I can't sleep. My company just told me yesterday that any time I have to take off for essential childcare (we now have no choice) will be classed as unpaid leave. So my income is going to drop by 50%. Meanwhile, our nursery are insisting we pay full fees as normal so they can stay solvent and continue to pay their staff.
We are trapped in a pincer movement with no way out.
I am so sorry to hear that. Perhaps a quick email to your MP pointing out the problem and that if the government does not do something many many people are going to be in financial distress very soon.
I'm going to be socially-distanced in a house on my own with a phone and a PC for 12 weeks. But shops close by when necessary and an Estate and lots of old filing to process.
Will be trying to limit exposure to the net, using it to get back in touch with some people, and learning to garden now that the weather turned.
The time was planned to rebuild a social life, which is now up in smoke. Dancing shut till autumn. U3A suspended. Volunteering opportunities vanished.
But shops within walking distance when needed, and friends offering to help.
Did it for 7-8 week Dec-Feb with just 4 or 5 trips out. Can do it again.
Talk to her nicely, and Cyclefree might do a weekly gardening tutorial....?
I would just love to do that!!!
Perhaps we could do a virtual PB book club. I stocked up yesterday.
I see Nationwide travel insurance (the one you get with the bank account) is now excluding Corona claims from all trips booked from Wednesday onwards.
Who in their right mind is booking a holiday now?
Quite a lot of people are cancelling spring holidays and rebooking for the autumn, or the same time next year.
You can question the optimism of the earlier ones - but nevertheless when the pandemic recedes and Corona becomes an occasional risk along with a whole host of other "known conditions", I would hope that cover is restored.
I've never been sure what the cry for more 'testing' has been about? For diagnostic purposes I can understand, but it doesn't tell you much about the incidence in the general population because it's not random. And very little about the fatality rate at this point in proceedings.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
I see Nationwide travel insurance (the one you get with the bank account) is now excluding Corona claims from all trips booked from Wednesday onwards.
Who in their right mind is booking a holiday now?
People do travel internationally for reasons other than holidays, you know. The only reason I'm not booking visits to my recently widowed mother is because the risks to her of those visits would arguably outweigh the benefits.
Sorry, yes, I realised after I posted that I was over-generalising.
I'm going to be socially-distanced in a house on my own with a phone and a PC for 12 weeks. But shops close by when necessary and an Estate and lots of old filing to process.
Will be trying to limit exposure to the net, using it to get back in touch with some people, and learning to garden now that the weather turned.
The time was planned to rebuild a social life, which is now up in smoke. Dancing shut till autumn. U3A suspended. Volunteering opportunities vanished.
But shops within walking distance when needed, and friends offering to help.
Did it for 7-8 week Dec-Feb with just 4 or 5 trips out. Can do it again.
Talk to her nicely, and Cyclefree might do a weekly gardening tutorial....?
A weekly garden diversion on PB. We probably mainly have gardens - I need to recover a small garden done jointly with mum that has been simplified as she went slowly downhill. Even the poor sods in pied-a-terres in the City will have a plant pot.
I keep trolling her friends about advice, but all they have is "we were advised by you mum".
@MarqueeMark I'm planning to use it to start a small gardening blog on the self-build website buildhub.org.uk anyway. Also doing Microveg for salads. First trial seeds in 8 days ago; first harvest later this week.
The theory is actually that a combination of heat AND humidity will significantly inhibit it.
I am sure that this is at least partly due to air conditioning. Heat cannot stop the virus if it is being spread and preserved in air conditioning ducts.
If aircon is to blame then football crowds would have been safe. No doubt boffins both sides of the Irish Sea will be keeping an eye out for reports of the dreaded lurgy infecting returners from the 4-day Cheltenham (horseracing) Festival last week. No aircon out of doors in the Cotswolds.
Air conditioned environments are usually both cool and dry, perfect conditions for maximum survival of the virus on surfaces and the like.
"Coronavirus: Urgent appeal for Brits to work on farms
Industry leaders have issued an urgent plea for British people to work on farms and help feed the nation amid a burgeoning labour shortage due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Some 70,000 seasonal workers are usually required annually on British farms – with many coming from overseas. But travel restrictions and tighter border controls are having a significant effect on the number of people able to travel to the UK...."
I've never been sure what the cry for more 'testing' has been about? For diagnostic purposes I can understand, but it doesn't tell you much about the incidence in the general population because it's not random. And very little about the fatality rate at this point in proceedings.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
OK here is a point I am embarrassed to say I don't understand:
Why does the iceberg theory (that infection is hugely more widespread than we know) matter? Because it seems to me that "OMG 100 000s of thousands of extra people have got it" and "phew, but so mildly they don't even know about it" cancel each other out. What matters is absolute numbers of seriously ill and dead, not percentages.
Son off for his last day at school. Not good. Not good at all.
Just recall that his future is being sacrificed for the elderly. Again.
Not sure that’s entirely fair. But there is a total abject failure of the government’s primary responsibility here. There will have to be a reckoning at some point. This was foreseen, we were warned, action could have been taken. For another day.
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
I've never been sure what the cry for more 'testing' has been about? For diagnostic purposes I can understand, but it doesn't tell you much about the incidence in the general population because it's not random. And very little about the fatality rate at this point in proceedings.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
OK here is a point I am embarrassed to say I don't understand:
Why does the iceberg theory (that infection is hugely more widespread than we know) matter? Because it seems to me that "OMG 100 000s of thousands of extra people have got it" and "phew, but so mildly they don't even know about it" cancel each other out. What matters is absolute numbers of seriously ill and dead, not percentages.
But for any individual person, the former is quite a reassuring statistic.
Just consider if the death totals were the same - but at a rate of 100%, so that if you got the virus, death was guaranteed. You'd sure be preferring the first scenario then.
I've never been sure what the cry for more 'testing' has been about? For diagnostic purposes I can understand, but it doesn't tell you much about the incidence in the general population because it's not random. And very little about the fatality rate at this point in proceedings.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
Why do you say "it's not random"? There is nothing to stop it being random, as in opinion polls for example, and that would provide useful information.
I've never been sure what the cry for more 'testing' has been about? For diagnostic purposes I can understand, but it doesn't tell you much about the incidence in the general population because it's not random. And very little about the fatality rate at this point in proceedings.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
OK here is a point I am embarrassed to say I don't understand:
Why does the iceberg theory (that infection is hugely more widespread than we know) matter? Because it seems to me that "OMG 100 000s of thousands of extra people have got it" and "phew, but so mildly they don't even know about it" cancel each other out. What matters is absolute numbers of seriously ill and dead, not percentages.
Well for one thing it greatly increases the odds that you'll encounter someone with it if you pop down the shops. Greatly increasing the chance of being infected.
Looks like a bit of over-ordering by Wor Lass. We've got 4kg of carrots! Just as well I like carrot juice.
You need to get a horse
Carrot and red pepper soup is very nice.
Gajrela is also an option.
Where is the Arnie carrots video? Someone on pb a few days ago did wonder why people were stockpiling perishable items. If God intended us to make soup, he wouldn't have put it in tins.
I'm going to be socially-distanced in a house on my own with a phone and a PC for 12 weeks. But shops close by when necessary and an Estate and lots of old filing to process.
Will be trying to limit exposure to the net, using it to get back in touch with some people, and learning to garden now that the weather turned.
The time was planned to rebuild a social life, which is now up in smoke. Dancing shut till autumn. U3A suspended. Volunteering opportunities vanished.
But shops within walking distance when needed, and friends offering to help.
Did it for 7-8 week Dec-Feb with just 4 or 5 trips out. Can do it again.
Talk to her nicely, and Cyclefree might do a weekly gardening tutorial....?
A weekly garden diversion on PB. We probably mainly have gardens - I need to recover a small garden done jointly with mum that has been simplified as she went slowly downhill. Even the poor sods in pied-a-terres in the City will have a plant pot.
I keep trolling her friends about advice, but all they have is "we were advised by you mum".
@MarqueeMark I'm planning to use it to start a small gardening blog on the self-build website buildhub.org.uk anyway. Also doing Microveg for salads. First trial seeds in 8 days ago; first harvest later this week.
I would love to do it. Seriously. People could ask / suggest what they would like to know. Plus things to look at in garden now, things to do now which will bring joy later in the year. A helpline - here’s a photo: what is this / what should I do with it? Etc.
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
Would it help to plan some sort of event to celebrate her mother's life later in the year? If only to have something more positive to talk about.
It appears that most people are key workers. We're going to have to build more schools to fit all the kids in!
Yes; it seems to me that about half the working population come into these categories. This can only work if most of them in fact keep their children off school.
Is there nursery provision for key workers' small children?
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
I know it going to sound odd, but I think you should do it but ask people to do 14 days isolation before coming to visit and the two of you should also do 5he same. If none of you are presenting symptoms after that time then meeting within that closed circle shouldn't be a problem. As long as everyone in attendance sticks to the rules you won't be responsible for inadvertently spreading the virus.
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
Having gone through bereavement recently this stuff matters. Focus on what you can do and the written word can be powerful. Encourage those that can’t attend to write to your wife, sharing memories and kind thoughts. Make the most of the service you have and hug each other (even if you wash your hands afterwards). The Irish have a great tradition, get together a few weeks after the funeral. Make a commitment to have a wake in the summer and autumn.
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
Have more faith in your wife. She will not want to attend more funerals just because she wanted to do the socially normal thing. I expect that if you raise the subject of Covid-19 and the funeral, she will already have done a lot of this thinking already.
Agree with her that you will have a proper memorial for your mother-in-law in due course, perhaps on the year anniversary of her death.
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
That is a hearbreaking dilemma for you and your wife. I hope circumstances allow the grieving process to follow its natural course.
You can't ban people from taking photos! Seriously, though, the government needs to sort this out. Empty shelves scare people, and the daily bog roll scrum isn't exactly helping social distancing. A lot of people are getting very distressed about the situation, and if it goes on for much longer there will be riots.
2 emails this morning. One from the boss posting the government advice and formally noting that we are all key workers. Another from one of my team wondering how to tell her son he has to go to school after all. Like me she is also WFH and TBH she isn't exactly busy at the moment as her area of the market (Foodservice) is slowing down fast.
If working at home then there should be no need for son to go to school
I'm thinking of starting a weekly podcast, given that I haven't got a lot to do. It would basically be like being down the pub with your mates, not too serious but also not about Love Island.
Don't. Every sleb in the world is Instagraming and twittering like crazy, telling the world how awful it is "self isolating" in their luxurious holes. I just read today how poor Sam Smith is going stir crazy in their 12 million quid mansion.
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
Perhaps the way she will register it is to say it prevents the risk of anybody else going through the grief she's now going through. Because, as terrible as her life is now, it is going to get worse if some time down the road, she thinks she also inflicted this pain on others.
And because everyone will understand that.
The alternative is to have nobody there but you and her, then have a memorial service for her mother, with as many as she wants to invite, all allowed to hug and console, once we have the all-clear to do that. A celebration of her life, with pictures and any other momentos she wants to have on display.
I'm going to be socially-distanced in a house on my own with a phone and a PC for 12 weeks. But shops close by when necessary and an Estate and lots of old filing to process.
Will be trying to limit exposure to the net, using it to get back in touch with some people, and learning to garden now that the weather turned.
The time was planned to rebuild a social life, which is now up in smoke. Dancing shut till autumn. U3A suspended. Volunteering opportunities vanished.
But shops within walking distance when needed, and friends offering to help.
Did it for 7-8 week Dec-Feb with just 4 or 5 trips out. Can do it again.
Talk to her nicely, and Cyclefree might do a weekly gardening tutorial....?
I would just love to do that!!!
Perhaps we could do a virtual PB book club. I stocked up yesterday.
As mentioned the other day, I have, unread as yet, both The Testaments and The Mirror & the Light. Might be time also to start Ormrod's Edward III.
I've never been sure what the cry for more 'testing' has been about? For diagnostic purposes I can understand, but it doesn't tell you much about the incidence in the general population because it's not random. And very little about the fatality rate at this point in proceedings.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
OK here is a point I am embarrassed to say I don't understand:
Why does the iceberg theory (that infection is hugely more widespread than we know) matter? Because it seems to me that "OMG 100 000s of thousands of extra people have got it" and "phew, but so mildly they don't even know about it" cancel each other out. What matters is absolute numbers of seriously ill and dead, not percentages.
It matters how many are asymptomatic, seriously ill, mildly ill etc. We need to know as much about this as possible. Data is power.
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
Would it help to plan some sort of event to celebrate her mother's life later in the year? If only to have something more positive to talk about.
There is a difficult issue of priority and proportion, where current practice does not entirely make sense. You are supposed to have only 5 people present at was was your big wedding service lasting 40 minutes, but, SFAICS, nothing prevents 200 guests who weren't allowed in going straight afterwards to a hotel/Wetherspoons/marquee and mingling for the next 8 hours or longer in perfect surroundings for catching Covid 19 and a number of other diseases.
2 emails this morning. One from the boss posting the government advice and formally noting that we are all key workers. Another from one of my team wondering how to tell her son he has to go to school after all. Like me she is also WFH and TBH she isn't exactly busy at the moment as her area of the market (Foodservice) is slowing down fast.
If working at home then there should be no need for son to go to school
Mine are off from the end of today - we can make WFH work between us. My team member however having got her young son through the "school is finishing on Friday" now needs to tell him "not for you" as her husband's employer wants him back in having cancelled WFH.
I know, its small beer compared to Southam and Charles and Casino.
I've never been sure what the cry for more 'testing' has been about? For diagnostic purposes I can understand, but it doesn't tell you much about the incidence in the general population because it's not random. And very little about the fatality rate at this point in proceedings.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
OK here is a point I am embarrassed to say I don't understand:
Why does the iceberg theory (that infection is hugely more widespread than we know) matter? Because it seems to me that "OMG 100 000s of thousands of extra people have got it" and "phew, but so mildly they don't even know about it" cancel each other out. What matters is absolute numbers of seriously ill and dead, not percentages.
It matters from a perspective of herd immunity and recurrence (ie from second waves etc) as it reduces the transmission speed by half if half the population have already had it and are thus immune.
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
Perhaps the way she will register it is to say it prevents the risk of anybody else going through the grief she's now going through. Because, as terrible as her life is now, it is going to get worse if some time down the road, she thinks she also inflicted this pain on others.
And because everyone will understand that.
The alternative is to have nobody there but you and her, then have a memorial service for her mother, with as many as she wants to invite, all allowed to hug and console, once we have the all-clear to do that. A celebration of her life, with pictures and any other momentos she wants to have on display.
Whatever she decides, condolences from all here.
Seconded.
Your wife will understand. Agree with her that on some other significant date - her mother’s birthday or similar - there will be a proper memorial service with party/wake/celebration of her mother’s life afterwards. Tell people the plans.
Maybe get them to write something in a book about what she meant to them / memories / photos which could be given to your wife in lieu of hugs and post-funeral drinks.
And you will I am sure be giving her all the hugs and kisses she deserves now and in the future.
I've never been sure what the cry for more 'testing' has been about? For diagnostic purposes I can understand, but it doesn't tell you much about the incidence in the general population because it's not random. And very little about the fatality rate at this point in proceedings.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
OK here is a point I am embarrassed to say I don't understand:
Why does the iceberg theory (that infection is hugely more widespread than we know) matter? Because it seems to me that "OMG 100 000s of thousands of extra people have got it" and "phew, but so mildly they don't even know about it" cancel each other out. What matters is absolute numbers of seriously ill and dead, not percentages.
Well for one thing it greatly increases the odds that you'll encounter someone with it if you pop down the shops. Greatly increasing the chance of being infected.
But what it gives with increased risk of infection it takes away (if not entirely) in worry about the fact of being infected.
You can't ban people from taking photos! Seriously, though, the government needs to sort this out. Empty shelves scare people, and the daily bog roll scrum isn't exactly helping social distancing. A lot of people are getting very distressed about the situation, and if it goes on for much longer there will be riots.
The supermarkets need to sort it out. Stop bulk buying. "Only two per item per customer" and enforce it.
I'm going to be socially-distanced in a house on my own with a phone and a PC for 12 weeks. But shops close by when necessary and an Estate and lots of old filing to process.
Will be trying to limit exposure to the net, using it to get back in touch with some people, and learning to garden now that the weather turned.
The time was planned to rebuild a social life, which is now up in smoke. Dancing shut till autumn. U3A suspended. Volunteering opportunities vanished.
But shops within walking distance when needed, and friends offering to help.
Did it for 7-8 week Dec-Feb with just 4 or 5 trips out. Can do it again.
Talk to her nicely, and Cyclefree might do a weekly gardening tutorial....?
A weekly garden diversion on PB. We probably mainly have gardens - I need to recover a small garden done jointly with mum that has been simplified as she went slowly downhill. Even the poor sods in pied-a-terres in the City will have a plant pot.
I keep trolling her friends about advice, but all they have is "we were advised by you mum".
@MarqueeMark I'm planning to use it to start a small gardening blog on the self-build website buildhub.org.uk anyway. Also doing Microveg for salads. First trial seeds in 8 days ago; first harvest later this week.
I would love to do it. Seriously. People could ask / suggest what they would like to know. Plus things to look at in garden now, things to do now which will bring joy later in the year. A helpline - here’s a photo: what is this / what should I do with it? Etc.
Go for it! My current role has been rendered largely impractical, so until things revert to something closer to normal, I am going to be mixing redecorating inside and gardening out. Assuming always the constant storm force winds and lashing rain abate some....
I've never been sure what the cry for more 'testing' has been about? For diagnostic purposes I can understand, but it doesn't tell you much about the incidence in the general population because it's not random. And very little about the fatality rate at this point in proceedings.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
OK here is a point I am embarrassed to say I don't understand:
Why does the iceberg theory (that infection is hugely more widespread than we know) matter? Because it seems to me that "OMG 100 000s of thousands of extra people have got it" and "phew, but so mildly they don't even know about it" cancel each other out. What matters is absolute numbers of seriously ill and dead, not percentages.
The absolute number of people seriously ill or dead now is the same under both scenarios as you point out.
But the number eventually seriously ill or dead is very different.
If it is already widespread but with low fatality we are nearing the peak. You can't get more than 100% infected.
If only 1% currently have it with fairly high fatality the peak is much much higher, even though current deaths are basically the same.
If someone has to away from all social contact, how do they get deliveries of food if delivery slots are booked up 3 weeks in advance? How do those needing washing and lifting in and out of bed etc avoid all social contact?
I wish the government would think through some of the practicalities and engage brain before opening mouth.
If someone has to away from all social contact, how do they get deliveries of food if delivery slots are booked up 3 weeks in advance? How do those needing washing and lifting in and out of bed etc avoid all social contact?
I wish the government would think through some of the practicalities and engage brain before opening mouth.
Whilst I am sure they’re doing their best, their best isn’t very good.
If someone has to away from all social contact, how do they get deliveries of food if delivery slots are booked up 3 weeks in advance? How do those needing washing and lifting in and out of bed etc avoid all social contact?
I wish the government would think through some of the practicalities and engage brain before opening mouth.
There is also absolute no thought as the staggering emotional price of such a cut off.
I'm thinking of starting a weekly podcast, given that I haven't got a lot to do. It would basically be like being down the pub with your mates, not too serious but also not about Love Island.
Don't. Every sleb in the world is Instagraming and twittering like crazy, telling the world how awful it is "self isolating" in their luxurious holes. I just read today how poor Sam Smith is going stir crazy in their 12 million quid mansion.
Just shows, you can't buy happiness.
Tragic to think that Hello! or whoever is not going to want to pay them a bunch of money to share "The diary of my lockdown hell".
Oh, they do? Well then, retail therapy is your absolute duty, darling....
Just to add to the gloom, another of my lads has just lost a big contract for his fledgling business. He had a lot of work lined up at a hotel, refurbing the rooms one by one. No other work in the pipeline, people are canceling. That's 2 of the younger Stopper clan members out of work in a week.
If someone has to away from all social contact, how do they get deliveries of food if delivery slots are booked up 3 weeks in advance? How do those needing washing and lifting in and out of bed etc avoid all social contact?
I wish the government would think through some of the practicalities and engage brain before opening mouth.
There should be extra capacity coming alongside - eg Morrisons are hiring 3k+ new people. That *could* be reserved.
Or most will have friends and neighbours etc.
Despite being quite isolated for the last few years as a part time carer until Christmas, then ill for weeks, I already have several offers.
Or some are already geared up - I readjusted all my quarterly orders 2-3 weeks ago, so the actual number may be less. I will struggle mainly for milk and fresh veg.
Personally, I think it may also calm down a little once the panic-shoppers realise that there is no shortage.
More difficult for people people really urbanised or really ruralised, perhaps - but there are still things like farm shops in many places which are less heavily trafficked therefore less risky.
1.4 million seems quite a low number - that looks like the core of the core, cancer patients, organ transplants etc. It may have Type I diabetics in it (400k), but certainly not Type IIs - unless it is people who have been operated on for complications.
You can't ban people from taking photos! Seriously, though, the government needs to sort this out. Empty shelves scare people, and the daily bog roll scrum isn't exactly helping social distancing. A lot of people are getting very distressed about the situation, and if it goes on for much longer there will be riots.
The supermarkets need to sort it out. Stop bulk buying. "Only two per item per customer" and enforce it.
That won't work. People will just make repeated visits to the same or different supermarkets. If it is going to go on for much longer, we will need some form of proper rationing system.
If someone has to away from all social contact, how do they get deliveries of food if delivery slots are booked up 3 weeks in advance? How do those needing washing and lifting in and out of bed etc avoid all social contact?
I wish the government would think through some of the practicalities and engage brain before opening mouth.
There is work and advice on all of those issues, and others. It can't be perfect, but it can get reasonably close to it.
You can't ban people from taking photos! Seriously, though, the government needs to sort this out. Empty shelves scare people, and the daily bog roll scrum isn't exactly helping social distancing. A lot of people are getting very distressed about the situation, and if it goes on for much longer there will be riots.
The supermarkets need to sort it out. Stop bulk buying. "Only two per item per customer" and enforce it.
I`m thinking of selling my body. I`d shag anyone for a few Andrex.
You can't ban people from taking photos! Seriously, though, the government needs to sort this out. Empty shelves scare people, and the daily bog roll scrum isn't exactly helping social distancing. A lot of people are getting very distressed about the situation, and if it goes on for much longer there will be riots.
The supermarkets need to sort it out. Stop bulk buying. "Only two per item per customer" and enforce it.
That won't work. People will just make repeated visits to the same or different supermarkets. If it is going to go on for much longer, we will need some form of proper rationing system.
Seemingly they are just putting stuff in car and then go back in for another lot, lots of scumbags about.
I've never been sure what the cry for more 'testing' has been about? For diagnostic purposes I can understand, but it doesn't tell you much about the incidence in the general population because it's not random. And very little about the fatality rate at this point in proceedings.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
OK here is a point I am embarrassed to say I don't understand:
Why does the iceberg theory (that infection is hugely more widespread than we know) matter? Because it seems to me that "OMG 100 000s of thousands of extra people have got it" and "phew, but so mildly they don't even know about it" cancel each other out. What matters is absolute numbers of seriously ill and dead, not percentages.
It matters from a perspective of herd immunity and recurrence (ie from second waves etc) as it reduces the transmission speed by half if half the population have already had it and are thus immune.
OK. So if iceberg theory is true is that an unqualified good thing?
If someone has to away from all social contact, how do they get deliveries of food if delivery slots are booked up 3 weeks in advance? How do those needing washing and lifting in and out of bed etc avoid all social contact?
I wish the government would think through some of the practicalities and engage brain before opening mouth.
There is also absolute no thought as the staggering emotional price of such a cut off.
There will be suicides.
I said the same a week ago. In certain age cohorts there could end up being more suicides than lives claimed by the virus.
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
When my wife died suddenly on holiday in Ireland 18 months ago we had a funeral locally that my wife's Irish relations and neighbours attended. But two months later, in England, we had a "celebration of my wife's life" which over 200 people attended. Many gave a short speech about some aspect of my wife's life that had touched them. Lots of photos and videos and exchange of stories. It was a very moving occasion and in some ways better than the reception after a funeral.
So my advice is to have a low key funeral but a big "celebration of your mother-in-laws life" in a few months time.
If someone has to away from all social contact, how do they get deliveries of food if delivery slots are booked up 3 weeks in advance? How do those needing washing and lifting in and out of bed etc avoid all social contact?
I wish the government would think through some of the practicalities and engage brain before opening mouth.
Whilst I am sure they’re doing their best, their best isn’t very good.
I think that's fair - it's clearly extremely difficult to make decisions on the run, but we can all see gaps that haven't been fully considered. What I primarily want at the top is good administrators empowered to make fast decisions. On the specific point of carers, the guidance is pretty clear - the elderly and sick shouldhave carer visits but nobody else. But I know someone in her 90s who has 5 carers dealing with different issues - if they're not dealt with, she'll probably die; if they are, she's at obvious risk of infection; if she goes to hospital, she'll take up a bed without needing any new treatment. There is no easy solution.
In our council (Waverley) all parties have agreed to suspend all face-to-face meetings and empoower officers to make decisions to put combating the virus first ahead of all kinds of routine things (planning applications, for example). Disagreements between parties have simply been put on hold - it seems completely out of place to be arguing about local stuff.
I've never been sure what the cry for more 'testing' has been about? For diagnostic purposes I can understand, but it doesn't tell you much about the incidence in the general population because it's not random. And very little about the fatality rate at this point in proceedings.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
OK here is a point I am embarrassed to say I don't understand:
Why does the iceberg theory (that infection is hugely more widespread than we know) matter? Because it seems to me that "OMG 100 000s of thousands of extra people have got it" and "phew, but so mildly they don't even know about it" cancel each other out. What matters is absolute numbers of seriously ill and dead, not percentages.
It matters from a perspective of herd immunity and recurrence (ie from second waves etc) as it reduces the transmission speed by half if half the population have already had it and are thus immune.
OK. So if iceberg theory is true is that an unqualified good thing?
Whilst I am sure they’re doing their best, their best isn’t very good.
But is not the "their" here really the civil service?
Many on PB were criticising Ms Patel recently for giving her civil servants a well deserved arse kicking. In hindsight maybe other ministers should have followed her lead.
Surely that is proof enough, if proof were needed that Boris must take decisive action, as a nation we are not disciplined enough to do this for ourselves. For Boris, to misquote Richard Millhouse Nixon, 'the time has come to **** or get off the pot'!
Apart from anything else, assuming we end up with 5 million + unemployed which I think is not at all unlikely can dwp and councils cope with that number or will their systems crumble before we even begin to wonder how we as a country pay for it
If someone has to away from all social contact, how do they get deliveries of food if delivery slots are booked up 3 weeks in advance? How do those needing washing and lifting in and out of bed etc avoid all social contact?
I wish the government would think through some of the practicalities and engage brain before opening mouth.
There is also absolute no thought as the staggering emotional price of such a cut off.
There will be suicides.
I said the same a week ago. In certain age cohorts there could end up being more suicides than lives claimed by the virus.
And a good cohort of new alcoholics. Indeed I settle down to watch the latest evening virus news with a drink myself.
2 emails this morning. One from the boss posting the government advice and formally noting that we are all key workers. Another from one of my team wondering how to tell her son he has to go to school after all. Like me she is also WFH and TBH she isn't exactly busy at the moment as her area of the market (Foodservice) is slowing down fast.
If working at home then there should be no need for son to go to school
Mine are off from the end of today - we can make WFH work between us. My team member however having got her young son through the "school is finishing on Friday" now needs to tell him "not for you" as her husband's employer wants him back in having cancelled WFH.
I know, its small beer compared to Southam and Charles and Casino.
Be desperate for many and for companies to be cancelling WFH is mental.
Whilst I am sure they’re doing their best, their best isn’t very good.
But is not the "their" here really the civil service?
Many on PB were criticising Ms Patel recently for giving her civil servants a well deserved arse kicking. In hindsight maybe other ministers should have followed her lead.
(coming out of lurk mode as stuck at home)
Civil servants act at the behest of the elected Government. If there is a failure it is the responsibility the Masters not the Servants.
Ms. Patel bullying staff should not be a blueprint for other failing Ministers.
Whilst I am sure they’re doing their best, their best isn’t very good.
But is not the "their" here really the civil service?
Many on PB were criticising Ms Patel recently for giving her civil servants a well deserved arse kicking. In hindsight maybe other ministers should have followed her lead.
My laptop is constantly being logged out of PB this morning. It’s frustrating.
Anyway the key, as I and many others have been saying on here is to keep the income flowing and as many jobs as possible intact until the virus is over. Boris reckons we are 12 weeks from that. It should be possible for the government to pay everyone’s wages for that long. They are already paying the 40% in the public sector. They need to keep the tax base for the recovery.
At the moment even those who are still paid are not spending. Restaurants, hotels, holidays, cars, cinema, home improvements, nothing is going to happen until we can move about freely and without fear. But we will need all of those things in due course. More than ever in many cases.
2 emails this morning. One from the boss posting the government advice and formally noting that we are all key workers. Another from one of my team wondering how to tell her son he has to go to school after all. Like me she is also WFH and TBH she isn't exactly busy at the moment as her area of the market (Foodservice) is slowing down fast.
If working at home then there should be no need for son to go to school
Mine are off from the end of today - we can make WFH work between us. My team member however having got her young son through the "school is finishing on Friday" now needs to tell him "not for you" as her husband's employer wants him back in having cancelled WFH.
I know, its small beer compared to Southam and Charles and Casino.
Be desperate for many and for companies to be cancelling WFH is mental.
It depends upon the sector surely? For vast majority of companies it will be mental but for a small niche of key sectors its going to be different - like Foxy talking about some elements being cancelled in order to ensure people can be on the front line.
You can't ban people from taking photos! Seriously, though, the government needs to sort this out. Empty shelves scare people, and the daily bog roll scrum isn't exactly helping social distancing. A lot of people are getting very distressed about the situation, and if it goes on for much longer there will be riots.
The supermarkets need to sort it out. Stop bulk buying. "Only two per item per customer" and enforce it.
I`m thinking of selling my body. I`d shag anyone for a few Andrex.
We supply equipment that makes the toilet roll machines work ( amongst other things). I did suggest that one of the works engineers at one of our customers might soon have a a Super Model on his arm !
Incidentally a piece that we were supposed to quickly fix this morning to open up a new tissue line arrived even more broken by the packing and transport they’d used, and is so is going to be days not hours to fix. Numpties, all for the want of a decent box,
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
When my wife died suddenly on holiday in Ireland 18 months ago we had a funeral locally that my wife's Irish relations and neighbours attended. But two months later, in England, we had a "celebration of my wife's life" which over 200 people attended. Many gave a short speech about some aspect of my wife's life that had touched them. Lots of photos and videos and exchange of stories. It was a very moving occasion and in some ways better than the reception after a funeral.
So my advice is to have a low key funeral but a big "celebration of your mother-in-laws life" in a few months time.
That sounds like excellent advice.
My only comment would be to do what you are going to do PDQ to get it over before this thing escalates seriously.
At my mother's funeral recently which we rushed in before Christmas, we employed a professional "Celebrant" (Vicars difficult in mid December), who did the full 10 minute life-story and was the president, and I just did a compilation of memories to be a foil and a personal touch for 2 minutes.
I asked 5 people (including myself) for a memory that gave a window on the person, and summarised. The type of things was "the octopus pyjama case she made for me when I was 6" or "the hundreds of daffodils she put on the grass verge outside your house".
Worked really, really well. And fitted within the Crem's allocated 25 minutes.
2 emails this morning. One from the boss posting the government advice and formally noting that we are all key workers. Another from one of my team wondering how to tell her son he has to go to school after all. Like me she is also WFH and TBH she isn't exactly busy at the moment as her area of the market (Foodservice) is slowing down fast.
If working at home then there should be no need for son to go to school
Mine are off from the end of today - we can make WFH work between us. My team member however having got her young son through the "school is finishing on Friday" now needs to tell him "not for you" as her husband's employer wants him back in having cancelled WFH.
I know, its small beer compared to Southam and Charles and Casino.
Be desperate for many and for companies to be cancelling WFH is mental.
If he can do his job wfh then it should be stated by the government that his company has to let him....it is a situation I expect to face similarly in a week or so as our boss hates people working from home even though we perfectly can
Comments
Seriously? Teenagers?
The latter is quite important, because when push comes to shove, people are going to start ignoring "advice" when their families and livelihoods face permanent financial disaster if they comply.
1 - Suspend all loan and financial repayments and interest other than credit cards (including expiry dates of loans). Government to underwrite the liquidity.
2 - Suspend all rents
3 - Suspend all business rates
4 - Businesses requested/required to move empoyees to unpaid leave rather than laying them off.
5 - Basic income of £600 per month to all adults, taxable monthly. (Did some back of the envelope sums; as some are still paying tax, and as Housing Benefit will no longer be required, net cost is c. £25bn per month. Painful, but not remotely fiscally disastrous under the circumstances. )
FFS Boris. Action This Day.
And the U3a I attend is running some groups ..... Reading, Creative Writing..... on a virtual basis.
Orange Man Syndrome
https://www.google.co.uk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8OX0FNWANM
PS: having been absolutely skint at times I know how it feels, not nice at all.
But the government is faffing about with the wrong policies and with no sense of urgency.
Meanwhile the lost businesses and redundancies pile up.
Never mind 18 months, the real economy doesn’t even have 18 days.
Perhaps we could do a virtual PB book club. I stocked up yesterday.
You can question the optimism of the earlier ones - but nevertheless when the pandemic recedes and Corona becomes an occasional risk along with a whole host of other "known conditions", I would hope that cover is restored.
Testing for antibodies rather than the viral RNA is more useful on the assumption they will confer a degree of immunity for some time. I know it's a new virus, but it is a virus.
Apologies.
A weekly garden diversion on PB. We probably mainly have gardens - I need to recover a small garden done jointly with mum that has been simplified as she went slowly downhill. Even the poor sods in pied-a-terres in the City will have a plant pot.
I keep trolling her friends about advice, but all they have is "we were advised by you mum".
@MarqueeMark I'm planning to use it to start a small gardening blog on the self-build website buildhub.org.uk anyway. Also doing Microveg for salads. First trial seeds in 8 days ago; first harvest later this week.
Why does the iceberg theory (that infection is hugely more widespread than we know) matter? Because it seems to me that "OMG 100 000s of thousands of extra people have got it" and "phew, but so mildly they don't even know about it" cancel each other out. What matters is absolute numbers of seriously ill and dead, not percentages.
My wife’s mother died last week. Of course, my wife is heartbroken. We’ve already been told there can be no church service and that there can only be a small family ceremony at the graveside. That will have around 20-25 in attendance. People will be coming from all over the country. My wife will want to hug and kiss, as will others I am sure, and have people back to ours for a drink, bite to eat afterwards. It is the greatest cruelty for these things not to happen, but I don’t know how they can. But how do you even begin to have that conversation with someone who is grieving and who nursed their mother night and day for 15 months?
Just consider if the death totals were the same - but at a rate of 100%, so that if you got the virus, death was guaranteed. You'd sure be preferring the first scenario then.
There is nothing to stop it being random, as in opinion polls for example, and that would provide useful information.
Is there nursery provision for key workers' small children?
Agree with her that you will have a proper memorial for your mother-in-law in due course, perhaps on the year anniversary of her death.
And because everyone will understand that.
The alternative is to have nobody there but you and her, then have a memorial service for her mother, with as many as she wants to invite, all allowed to hug and console, once we have the all-clear to do that. A celebration of her life, with pictures and any other momentos she wants to have on display.
Whatever she decides, condolences from all here.
Similar with funerals.
I know, its small beer compared to Southam and Charles and Casino.
Your wife will understand. Agree with her that on some other significant date - her mother’s birthday or similar - there will be a proper memorial service with party/wake/celebration of her mother’s life afterwards. Tell people the plans.
Maybe get them to write something in a book about what she meant to them / memories / photos which could be given to your wife in lieu of hugs and post-funeral drinks.
And you will I am sure be giving her all the hugs and kisses she deserves now and in the future.
But the number eventually seriously ill or dead is very different.
If it is already widespread but with low fatality we are nearing the peak. You can't get more than 100% infected.
If only 1% currently have it with fairly high fatality the peak is much much higher, even though current deaths are basically the same.
I wish the government would think through some of the practicalities and engage brain before opening mouth.
One's more than enough!
There will be suicides.
Tragic to think that Hello! or whoever is not going to want to pay them a bunch of money to share "The diary of my lockdown hell".
Oh, they do? Well then, retail therapy is your absolute duty, darling....
Or most will have friends and neighbours etc.
Despite being quite isolated for the last few years as a part time carer until Christmas, then ill for weeks, I already have several offers.
Or some are already geared up - I readjusted all my quarterly orders 2-3 weeks ago, so the actual number may be less. I will struggle mainly for milk and fresh veg.
Personally, I think it may also calm down a little once the panic-shoppers realise that there is no shortage.
More difficult for people people really urbanised or really ruralised, perhaps - but there are still things like farm shops in many places which are less heavily trafficked therefore less risky.
1.4 million seems quite a low number - that looks like the core of the core, cancer patients, organ transplants etc. It may have Type I diabetics in it (400k), but certainly not Type IIs - unless it is people who have been operated on for complications.
https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/waitrose-limits-food-sales-to-people-with-detached-houses-20200319194656
So my advice is to have a low key funeral but a big "celebration of your mother-in-laws life" in a few months time.
In our council (Waverley) all parties have agreed to suspend all face-to-face meetings and empoower officers to make decisions to put combating the virus first ahead of all kinds of routine things (planning applications, for example). Disagreements between parties have simply been put on hold - it seems completely out of place to be arguing about local stuff.
Many on PB were criticising Ms Patel recently for giving her civil servants a well deserved arse kicking. In hindsight maybe other ministers should have followed her lead.
(coming out of lurk mode as stuck at home)
Ms. Patel bullying staff should not be a blueprint for other failing Ministers.
Anyway the key, as I and many others have been saying on here is to keep the income flowing and as many jobs as possible intact until the virus is over. Boris reckons we are 12 weeks from that. It should be possible for the government to pay everyone’s wages for that long. They are already paying the 40% in the public sector. They need to keep the tax base for the recovery.
At the moment even those who are still paid are not spending. Restaurants, hotels, holidays, cars, cinema, home improvements, nothing is going to happen until we can move about freely and without fear. But we will need all of those things in due course. More than ever in many cases.
Incidentally a piece that we were supposed to quickly fix this morning to open up a new tissue line arrived even more broken by the packing and transport they’d used, and is so is going to be days not hours to fix. Numpties, all for the want of a decent box,
My only comment would be to do what you are going to do PDQ to get it over before this thing escalates seriously.
At my mother's funeral recently which we rushed in before Christmas, we employed a professional "Celebrant" (Vicars difficult in mid December), who did the full 10 minute life-story and was the president, and I just did a compilation of memories to be a foil and a personal touch for 2 minutes.
I asked 5 people (including myself) for a memory that gave a window on the person, and summarised. The type of things was "the octopus pyjama case she made for me when I was 6" or "the hundreds of daffodils she put on the grass verge outside your house".
Worked really, really well. And fitted within the Crem's allocated 25 minutes.