The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
You don’t mean that, Nick. I have been to China a number of times. It is a miserable place: polluted, corrupt, authoritarian. Healthcare is as bad as it is in the US, working conditions are worse, environmental standards are non-existent, there is zero tolerance of dissent. The regime gets away with it only because things were even worse in the past. I would never choose to live in the US, it is a country in deep trouble, but it is a long, long way from being China, believe me.
Amongst my employers, there's considerable confusion this morning about whether certain aspects of the business can continue after Boris's announcement last night. My thought is that they can, but the fact it's in no way obvious to everyone suggests clarity is still a bit lacking.
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
You don’t mean that, Nick. I have been to China a number of times. It is a miserable place: polluted, corrupt, authoritarian. Healthcare is as bad as it is in the US, working conditions are worse, environmental standards are non-existent, there is zero tolerance of dissent. The regime gets away with it only because things were even worse in the past. I would never choose to live in the US, it is a country in deep trouble, but it is a long, long way from being China, believe me.
Former communist prefers China to the USA shocker....
Junior doctor "vlogging" coronavirus response. Interesting talks to a more senior healthcare professional in ICU said government modelling to how this is spreading looks spot on. Neither of these people are big fans of the government in general.
Waiting in the car for my wife's blood test. Excellent safeguarding in place. Roads very quiet, beaches virtually empty, people keeping distance. Good to see.
Junior doctor "vlogging" coronavirus response. Interesting talks to a more senior healthcare professional in ICU said government modelling to how this is spreading looks spot on. Neither of these people are big fans of the government in general.
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
Dear god - thank goodness Labour lost the last 4 elections.
China is a grade A toxic waste dump run by an authoritarian cartel. America has a dumb president.
Is this fellow talking nonsense? Pollution is to blame for China and Italy’s crisis, and loads of people die from Coronavirus every year anyway, we just don’t report them
One side comment on food nonsense. Bought a std weekly shop on Friday . With two teenage boys at home they’ve now pretty much eaten it. Having to cater for lunches and boredom are significantly adding to my shopping basket.
Meanwhile no click and collect or delivery available for a month. Vulnerable customer policy not working for us.
This is not good. We are going to need more clarity on what essential working is and on what help will be given to the self-employed and zero hours workers. People getting up this early and heading to work are not metropolitan avocado eaters or good time Charlies. They are people who have no choice currently.
How do you know they're not all key workers? You can't tell from just their faces what work people are going to, especially if they're getting changed into uniforms on site and not on the commute (as I know some have been told to do to reduce risk of transmission from transport onto clothes).
If you slash the frequency of trains you will end up cramming the key workers onto a few trains. Not a smart move!
I don’t know. Neither do you. That’s the point. Right now the self-employed and zero hours workers have no choice but to carry on as normal, while a lot of businesses are not yet sure whether they are essential or not. Until there is clarity on these things, people will continue to travel. It could be that Khan did make a mistake in believing such clarity would be provided. It’s clear now, though, that the government must now get involved - either to order, and subsidise, additional transport, or to be much clearer about what is essential and what help will be available to the self-employed and those on zero hours work.
Why would they cut transport though? I presume train drivers will get paid either way, their job doesn’t involve any physical interaction with anyone else at all, and we want more space between people on trains, so best there’s more of them. I can’t see why they’d think to run a reduced service
Because they have fewer drivers due to self isolation and as the virus continues to spread driver availability will get even worse. In such circumstances you have to reduce services to maintain a regular schedule.
It isn't only the Tube that is doing this, other systems across the country like Metrolink have scaled back so they can still provide regular services with fewer drivers.
Or you could just blame it all on Sadiq (I'm not his greatest fan either, but come on).
Junior doctor "vlogging" coronavirus response. Interesting talks to a more senior healthcare professional in ICU said government modelling to how this is spreading looks spot on. Neither of these people are big fans of the government in general.
Is this fellow talking nonsense? Pollution is to blame for China and Italy’s crisis, and loads of people die from Coronavirus every year anyway, we just don’t report them
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBB9bA-gXL4
He certainly isn't inline with the medical consensus, although the point about air pollution is interesting. You would imagine high rates of smoking + poor air quality = knackered lungs.
We have also seen talk of obesity likely being a big issue. Obviously America suffers terribly with this, China due to a number of reasons, very low. Northern Italy?
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
Wow Nick. Are you being serious? Bear in mind that we get to hear, in glorious surround sound via social media, everything that is wrong with America (coronavirus response and the rest). We don't understand the full extent of China's awfulness, and few Chinese residents are foolhardy enough to try and change that.
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
Quite so. Bravo.
Unfortunately, there are some posters on here who are far more interested in virtue-signalling and condemning others on here than taking any action.
I think it is about priorities. I have woken to a strange new world one of whose oddest features is that I basically can't buy anything, of any kind, anywhere. I am therefore a bit bemused to find a manic slope baiter shouting the odds about how I should be preferentially not buying Chinese things; it may be right, but it's a bit previous and kinda not the point at the moment.
And your wilfully ignorant delusion that communicable disease is a racial thing is unsettling.
I agree with the general sentiment of pushing back against those who are using the C-19 crisis to further their anti-Chinese prejudices but could I just point out that it is definitely not the case that you "...basically can't buy anything, of any kind, anywhere."
Food and hardware stores are still open and eBay, Amazon and many other online retail outlets seem to operating as normal.
When all this is over, those on the green-left will be thinking that if all this can be done to tackle the virus, surely we can do a hell of a lot more to tackle the climate emergency.
Alternatively, if this misery is what it takes to reduce CO2 by the amount we need to, then people might just go off this whole green thing. :-(
Huge difference between temporarily shutting society down for a short period to deal with a pandemic, and doing it permanently to deal with a nebulously defined climate emergency. I'm not particularly happy that I'm now sat at home entirely on my own on 80% pay for at least three weeks, but I can think of worse fates, and I accept its probably a proportionate response to the present crisis. Tell me it's permanent, and merely to try and change the weather, and I'll be in the mood to riot pretty quickly. Also, the government is currently borrowing / printing my wages. That's viable in the short term, partly because there is going to be one heck of a bounce back when this thing ends, and partly because there is a lot of ruin in a nation. Attempting to print enough money for most of the population to stay at home in the long run will end very very badly.
Is this fellow talking nonsense? Pollution is to blame for China and Italy’s crisis, and loads of people die from Coronavirus every year anyway, we just don’t report them
Waiting in the car for my wife's blood test. Excellent safeguarding in place. Roads very quiet, beaches virtually empty, people keeping distance. Good to see.
Disable traction control and do a burn out in the car park. Cloud that joint out.
You can read this two ways. On the one hand, it's good that the measures have such strong support. On the other hand, this shows that the measures could probably have been introduced before now, if the government had been willing to accept some criticism for its actions. It needs to get a thicker skin and fast. Its unwillingness to be disliked is costing lives.
They've been caught out by the speed of the spread in London in particular. Here in Scotland we have 14 people dead so far. Individual tragedies no doubt but not much of a reason to bring the whole nation to a halt. 3-4 weeks from our peak whilst London looks more like 1-2. If anything we are locking down too soon. We are probably but it would just be too complicated to have different rules for different parts of the country. I've no complaints if some confusion about how this is supposed to work.
Actually I think it's overdue. A lot of people who will now die in London could have been saved if it had been done two weeks ago. But I have relatives in rural Lincolnshire and Devon where the disease has barely touched so far, and I really want them safe from it spreading. Surely the same applies to Scotland?
It depends how long you think we can keep this up Nick. Our economy has stopped except for government services and food. Working from home only works when there is something to work on as I have found from my own experience.
This was the thinking of the original government plan and it had merit. The fact that they have had to move things up for London (and of course they should, no question about that) means we risk being at more of a peak point when the pressure is on to relax the limits than we are right now.
Its genuinely tricky and I don't envy those making the decisions one bit. Its one of the reasons I find this carping about Boris on here just a bit tiresome.
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
You don’t mean that, Nick. I have been to China a number of times. It is a miserable place: polluted, corrupt, authoritarian. Healthcare is as bad as it is in the US, working conditions are worse, environmental standards are non-existent, there is zero tolerance of dissent. The regime gets away with it only because things were even worse in the past. I would never choose to live in the US, it is a country in deep trouble, but it is a long, long way from being China, believe me.
I think it's the trajectory of the two countries that make people feel that way. I've only been to China once, but I agree that is by far the worse place. However, as you say, it was even worse in the past, whereas the USA was better. Whether this is a trend or a blip remains to be seen, but America does feel like an unstable place, and will continue to be one even if the Democrats win.
It's like the cries of hypocrisy when people protested Britain treating Trump honourably, despite not protesting the same towards Chinese leaders. I never thought it was hypocritical, because context matters.
Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
Dear god - thank goodness Labour lost the last 4 elections.
China is a grade A toxic waste dump run by an authoritarian cartel. America has a dumb president.
I can't help but wonder, if it was a Corbyn government nationalising half the economy, announcing strict surveillance measures, etc if we would feel half as secure that our freedoms would return.
I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.
One side comment on food nonsense. Bought a std weekly shop on Friday . With two teenage boys at home they’ve now pretty much eaten it. Having to cater for lunches and boredom are significantly adding to my shopping basket.
Meanwhile no click and collect or delivery available for a month. Vulnerable customer policy not working for us.
A side-effect of closing schools, workplaces and restaurants is that vastly more people will be eating at home which means more shopping and we will be back to empty shelves at the greengrocer supermarket.
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
Wow Nick. Are you being serious? Bear in mind that we get to hear, in glorious surround sound via social media, everything that is wrong with America (coronavirus response and the rest). We don't understand the full extent of China's awfulness, and few Chinese residents are foolhardy enough to try and change that.
Authoritarianism is great if your not the one being oppressed....
Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!
Apparently you can get "sourdough flour" that doesn't need it. My dad bought some. No idea if it works yet
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
Dear god - thank goodness Labour lost the last 4 elections.
China is a grade A toxic waste dump run by an authoritarian cartel. America has a dumb president.
You can read this two ways. On the one hand, it's good that the measures have such strong support. On the other hand, this shows that the measures could probably have been introduced before now, if the government had been willing to accept some criticism for its actions. It needs to get a thicker skin and fast. Its unwillingness to be disliked is costing lives.
Lol - and most of the 4% are on here moaning and whinging - in this instance not as much as usual in your case Mr Meeks.
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
Dear god - thank goodness Labour lost the last 4 elections.
China is a grade A toxic waste dump run by an authoritarian cartel. America has a dumb president.
I can't help but wonder, if it was a Corbyn government nationalising half the economy, announcing strict surveillance measures, etc if we would feel half as secure that our freedoms would return.
I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.
Corbyn would certainly have felt and looked a lot more comfortable reading out a list of state-approved activities we may leave our homes for.
Tesco is understood to have been looking at limiting the number of customers entering a store at any one time and the possibility of banning trolleys so that shoppers can only take away a basket of shopping at a time.
I thought the government wanted us to visit shops LESS often?
You can read this two ways. On the one hand, it's good that the measures have such strong support. On the other hand, this shows that the measures could probably have been introduced before now, if the government had been willing to accept some criticism for its actions. It needs to get a thicker skin and fast. Its unwillingness to be disliked is costing lives.
They've been caught out by the speed of the spread in London in particular. Here in Scotland we have 14 people dead so far. Individual tragedies no doubt but not much of a reason to bring the whole nation to a halt. 3-4 weeks from our peak whilst London looks more like 1-2. If anything we are locking down too soon. We are probably but it would just be too complicated to have different rules for different parts of the country. I've no complaints if some confusion about how this is supposed to work.
I was all for stuff just happening in London but it would result in people fleeing the capital.
Yes, that is the lesson of Italy. The government had no choice.
This is not good. We are going to need more clarity on what essential working is and on what help will be given to the self-employed and zero hours workers. People getting up this early and heading to work are not metropolitan avocado eaters or good time Charlies. They are people who have no choice currently.
How do you know they're not all key workers? You can't tell from just their faces what work people are going to, especially if they're getting changed into uniforms on site and not on the commute (as I know some have been told to do to reduce risk of transmission from transport onto clothes).
If you slash the frequency of trains you will end up cramming the key workers onto a few trains. Not a smart move!
I don’t know. Neither do you. That’s the point. Right now the self-employed and zero hours workers have no choice but to carry on as normal, while a lot of businesses are not yet sure whether they are essential or not. Until there is clarity on these things, people will continue to travel. It could be that Khan did make a mistake in believing such clarity would be provided. It’s clear now, though, that the government must now get involved - either to order, and subsidise, additional transport, or to be much clearer about what is essential and what help will be available to the self-employed and those on zero hours work.
Why would they cut transport though? I presume train drivers will get paid either way, their job doesn’t involve any physical interaction with anyone else at all, and we want more space between people on trains, so best there’s more of them. I can’t see why they’d think to run a reduced service
Because they have fewer drivers due to self isolation and as the virus continues to spread driver availability will get even worse. In such circumstances you have to reduce services to maintain a regular schedule.
It isn't only the Tube that is doing this, other systems across the country like Metrolink have scaled back so they can still provide regular services with fewer drivers.
Or you could just blame it all on Sadiq (I'm not his greatest fan either, but come on).
Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!
Apparently you can get "sourdough flour" that doesn't need it. My dad bought some. No idea if it works yet
Sourdough bread is great for making toast that does not collapse into a soggy mush when you put the beans on top. Otherwise it is just very heavy bread.
You can read this two ways. On the one hand, it's good that the measures have such strong support. On the other hand, this shows that the measures could probably have been introduced before now, if the government had been willing to accept some criticism for its actions. It needs to get a thicker skin and fast. Its unwillingness to be disliked is costing lives.
They've been caught out by the speed of the spread in London in particular. Here in Scotland we have 14 people dead so far. Individual tragedies no doubt but not much of a reason to bring the whole nation to a halt. 3-4 weeks from our peak whilst London looks more like 1-2. If anything we are locking down too soon. We are probably but it would just be too complicated to have different rules for different parts of the country. I've no complaints if some confusion about how this is supposed to work.
The government could have done a lot more with communication. It hasn't made use, for example, of free Facebook advertising that has been offered.
I'm not going to be super-critical. While these are life and death decisions, any of us would struggle with the immense and rapid calls that are being required of the government right now. Being right slowly is as lethal as being wrong quickly.
Agree completely. Of course there are some things that could have been done better. The messaging has been and is slightly confused, eg our Amazon deliveries today. But jeez this is hard.
I can't help but wonder, if it was a Corbyn government nationalising half the economy, announcing strict surveillance measures, etc if we would feel half as secure that our freedoms would return.
I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.
I no fan of Boris and he definitely sees a lot of decisions through the filter of what is best for him. However, I do also think he believes in business and when it comes to personal freedoms is very liberal.
I genuinely think he feels incredibly uncomfortable and with a heavy heart with the measures been put in place and hoped that we would as a herd have more sense.
Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!
Apparently you can get "sourdough flour" that doesn't need it. My dad bought some. No idea if it works yet
You can make your own sourdough starter. Takes a few days. Be warned that bread entirely leavened with sourdough is quite sour. The "San Francisco" style sourdough bread that you buy in shops is mostly leavened with yeast.
When all this is over, those on the green-left will be thinking that if all this can be done to tackle the virus, surely we can do a hell of a lot more to tackle the climate emergency.
Alternatively, if this misery is what it takes to reduce CO2 by the amount we need to, then people might just go off this whole green thing. :-(
Huge difference between temporarily shutting society down for a short period to deal with a pandemic, and doing it permanently to deal with a nebulously defined climate emergency. I'm not particularly happy that I'm now sat at home entirely on my own on 80% pay for at least three weeks, but I can think of worse fates, and I accept its probably a proportionate response to the present crisis. Tell me it's permanent, and merely to try and change the weather, and I'll be in the mood to riot pretty quickly. Also, the government is currently borrowing / printing my wages. That's viable in the short term, partly because there is going to be one heck of a bounce back when this thing ends, and partly because there is a lot of ruin in a nation. Attempting to print enough money for most of the population to stay at home in the long run will end very very badly.
There's a difference in timescale between the Coronavirus and the Climate Emergency. To be honest I'm surprised that this needs to be pointed out. Coronavirus requires these measures for a relatively short period, to ameloriate the Climate Emergency requires some tax changes and some policy changes which, if made now, would not be too painful and would be quite easy to implement. Some are happening anyway because renewables are now cheaper than coal but we need governments to encourage this type of change rather than hindering it.
Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!
I like eating, me. I've been baking my own bread for 40 years or so (these days gluten free), four loaves at a time, so I have a stash. I add lots of seeds: baking your own allows one to customise. Delicious toasted with Marmite.
Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!
Apparently you can get "sourdough flour" that doesn't need it. My dad bought some. No idea if it works yet
You can make your own sourdough starter. Takes a few days. Be warned that bread entirely leavened with sourdough is very sour. The "San Francisco" style sourdough bread that you buy in shops is mostly leavened with yeast.
Or Sodabread. Delicious and easy! Doesn't even need kneading.
Google a recipe. You'll need buttermilk, which I bet hasn't sold out.
Tesco is understood to have been looking at limiting the number of customers entering a store at any one time and the possibility of banning trolleys so that shoppers can only take away a basket of shopping at a time.
I thought the government wanted us to visit shops LESS often?
That is the rule here in Spain and it is working very well in our area. Protects both staff and customers as well as calming everyone down.
Is this fellow talking nonsense? Pollution is to blame for China and Italy’s crisis, and loads of people die from Coronavirus every year anyway, we just don’t report them
An interesting point of view from an expert in the field. What he says might also explain the very low German figures.
Mostly nonsense, I'm afraid. And his numbers are just wrong.
Whether measures taken will end up doing more harm than "taking it on the chin" is I suppose something that can be debated. But the reality is it is unthinkable to just allow our health system be totally overwhelmed, so there isn't really any choice now. Just a question of how far you go.
Don't be silly. Some of the worst mental cases - on both sides (cooee HYUFD) not only can't help themselves, the actually think they are positively advancing their cause.
I utterly dislike the Prime Minister. In so many ways. But the time for positioning and points scoring is afterwards, not during. All of our leaders are under enormous pressure, making genuine life/death/destruction decisions with minimal prep on minimal sleep.
Party politics is for the birds right now. As frankly is political ideology. Some self-reflection in their state mandated exercise period followed by a period of silence would be welcome.
I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.
Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
Dear god - thank goodness Labour lost the last 4 elections.
China is a grade A toxic waste dump run by an authoritarian cartel. America has a dumb president.
I can't help but wonder, if it was a Corbyn government nationalising half the economy, announcing strict surveillance measures, etc if we would feel half as secure that our freedoms would return.
I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.
There've been a lot of calls to put aside party political differences and pull together in a crisis. Whenever I have heard Labour voices in the media, they have largely done that. There has been some measured and constructive criticism, but no Tory-bashing.
It's interesting how quite a few posters here feel no need to reciprocate, and continue with these absurd comments about the Labour left. The idea that they'd want to increase surveillance of individuals, for example, where does that come from? Ah yes, East Germany was left wing and they did that, therefore anyone who is left wing must want to do that.... Grow up!
Do find it odd that the government haven't really been bashing the social medias hard, especially after how much they used it during the recent GE. I fully expected the equivalent of Get Brexit Done type videos polluting YouTube pre-roll ads and across all of tv.
Tesco is understood to have been looking at limiting the number of customers entering a store at any one time and the possibility of banning trolleys so that shoppers can only take away a basket of shopping at a time.
I thought the government wanted us to visit shops LESS often?
In Denmark the govt announced all the shops would have floor stickers for the queue and people would be routed around the shop in a way that helped keep things clear - and the next day it was all in place, including plastic screens for staff to be behind at the till. "Hold Afstand!" (maintain distance) is the key message.
However the government here is now getting serious criticism for not acting earlier from the same journalists who three weeks ago were publishing pieces on "corona panic" and making fun of the idea that getting the flu was dangerous.
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
Dear god - thank goodness Labour lost the last 4 elections.
China is a grade A toxic waste dump run by an authoritarian cartel. America has a dumb president.
I can't help but wonder, if it was a Corbyn government nationalising half the economy, announcing strict surveillance measures, etc if we would feel half as secure that our freedoms would return.
I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.
There've been a lot of calls to put aside party political differences and pull together in a crisis. Whenever I have heard Labour voices in the media, they have largely done that. There has been some measured and constructive criticism, but no Tory-bashing.
It's interesting how quite a few posters here feel no need to reciprocate, and continue with these absurd comments. The idea that they'd want to increase surveillance of individuals, for example, where does that come from? Ah yes, East Germany was left wing and they did that, therefore anyone who is left wing must want to do that.... Grow up!
I'm simply saying I wouldn't trust Corbyn in this crisis. I don't trust Boris, either, but I would trust Corbyn far less. I wouldn't be terrified by, say, Prime Minister Starmer, either.
I believe Boris's instinct is towards freedom and individual liberty - I can't say the same for Corbyn or the people he surrounded himself with.
Lots of people will be using this as an excuse to push through bad legislation, some of which may be around much longer than this crisis.
What we need is effective opposition. Where is it?
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
The Chinese government allowed this virus to start in the first place
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
Dear god - thank goodness Labour lost the last 4 elections.
China is a grade A toxic waste dump run by an authoritarian cartel. America has a dumb president.
I can't help but wonder, if it was a Corbyn government nationalising half the economy, announcing strict surveillance measures, etc if we would feel half as secure that our freedoms would return.
I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.
There've been a lot of calls to put aside party political differences and pull together in a crisis. Whenever I have heard Labour voices in the media, they have largely done that. There has been some measured and constructive criticism, but no Tory-bashing.
It's interesting how quite a few posters here feel no need to reciprocate, and continue with these absurd comments about the Labour left. The idea that they'd want to increase surveillance of individuals, for example, where does that come from? Ah yes, East Germany was left wing and they did that, therefore anyone who is left wing must want to do that.... Grow up!
You missed all the left of centre posters doing just that then
Do find it odd that the government haven't really been bashing the social medias hard, especially after how much they used it during the recent GE. I fully expected the equivalent of Get Brexit Done type videos polluting YouTube pre-roll ads and across all of tv.
Please no! There are enough videos of medics lecturing at us from social media already. If it is just going to become a funnel for more even more videos then I might as well stop using it.
You can read this two ways. On the one hand, it's good that the measures have such strong support. On the other hand, this shows that the measures could probably have been introduced before now, if the government had been willing to accept some criticism for its actions. It needs to get a thicker skin and fast. Its unwillingness to be disliked is costing lives.
They've been caught out by the speed of the spread in London in particular. Here in Scotland we have 14 people dead so far. Individual tragedies no doubt but not much of a reason to bring the whole nation to a halt. 3-4 weeks from our peak whilst London looks more like 1-2. If anything we are locking down too soon. We are probably but it would just be too complicated to have different rules for different parts of the country. I've no complaints if some confusion about how this is supposed to work.
The government could have done a lot more with communication. It hasn't made use, for example, of free Facebook advertising that has been offered.
I'm not going to be super-critical. While these are life and death decisions, any of us would struggle with the immense and rapid calls that are being required of the government right now. Being right slowly is as lethal as being wrong quickly.
Agree completely. Of course there are some things that could have been done better. The messaging has been and is slightly confused, eg our Amazon deliveries today. But jeez this is hard.
The two things - not small scale but bigger picture - that the Government could have done better, earlier was
***realise that Boris should have been used in smaller doses than daily press conferences. Getting a senior minister* to run daily coronavirus briefings, with Boris doing the 'straight from #10' weekly chats may have been better. Last night was the first time I thought he'd worked out how to do this and then nailed it.
*someone who would toe the party line, straight bat the sillier press questions and liaise well with the scientists. Over the weekend, George Eustice did this excellently, for example.
***think of it as a campaign earlier - i.e. get a media team/strategy in place. Most of the issues haven't been in the policies per se but how they've been communicated and, bluntly, people trying to play politics/clever with them. I thought they'd got 'it' with the handwashing part but no. And the stories about the medium detract from that central message.
That said, I do think going straight to a lockdown would have been unenforceable.
Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!
Apparently you can get "sourdough flour" that doesn't need it. My dad bought some. No idea if it works yet
You can make your own sourdough starter. Takes a few days. Be warned that bread entirely leavened with sourdough is quite sour. The "San Francisco" style sourdough bread that you buy in shops is mostly leavened with yeast.
Chit Chat: My grandma was a farmer's wife. Their farm was well away from the madding crowd. Her bread was sourdough using a culture from scrapings from the leaves of the hedge in front of the house. I don't know whether it was bay. Granddad was born just before 1870.
Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!
I like eating, me. I've been baking my own bread for 40 years or so (these days gluten free), four loaves at a time, so I have a stash. I add lots of seeds: baking your own allows one to customise. Delicious toasted with Marmite.
The vast explosion of Gluten Free Bread Mix sales have been the revelation of the last week...
Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!
I like eating, me. I've been baking my own bread for 40 years or so (these days gluten free), four loaves at a time, so I have a stash. I add lots of seeds: baking your own allows one to customise. Delicious toasted with Marmite.
The vast explosion of Gluten Free Bread Mix sales have been the revelation of the last week...
Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!
I like eating, me. I've been baking my own bread for 40 years or so (these days gluten free), four loaves at a time, so I have a stash. I add lots of seeds: baking your own allows one to customise. Delicious toasted with Marmite.
I would be interested in your GF bread recipe if you care to post it up here
Is this fellow talking nonsense? Pollution is to blame for China and Italy’s crisis, and loads of people die from Coronavirus every year anyway, we just don’t report them
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBB9bA-gXL4
He certainly isn't inline with the medical consensus, although the point about air pollution is interesting. You would imagine high rates of smoking + poor air quality = knackered lungs.
We have also seen talk of obesity likely being a big issue. Obviously America suffers terribly with this, China due to a number of reasons, very low. Northern Italy?
Forget bog roll, there is a global shortage of yeast for home bread making. Can't buy it from the supermarkets, none on Amazon and on ebay it's only available from China or Turkey!
I like eating, me. I've been baking my own bread for 40 years or so (these days gluten free), four loaves at a time, so I have a stash. I add lots of seeds: baking your own allows one to customise. Delicious toasted with Marmite.
The vast explosion of Gluten Free Bread Mix sales have been the revelation of the last week...
Bovril is far better on hot buttered toast; mixes with the butter.
The Chinese government is probably the most damaging force in the world today - widespread human rights abuses, repression of religious minorities, Hong Kong, Tibet, and now barbaric animal welfare standards causing a viral outbreak and government cover-up delaying a global response. Pointing this out and wanting said government to be held to account is clearly not hating or blaming the ordinary Chinese population and it's daft to claim otherwise.
This is all absolutely true. It's also true that it's done more to relieve human poverty and sickness than any other organization in the history of the universe. Modern China is just an epic, monstrous, astonishing, incredible, evil, wonderful, terrifying phenomenon.
If you've got some leverage over them I'd have thought were more useful ways to deploy it than badgering them over their treatment of pangolins, since that's something they'll be motivated to look at already, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm not a fan of the Chinese government or their evolving Xi personality cult. But right now I'd rather live in China under Xi than in America under Trimp. In China I'd need to be annoyingly careful not to annoy local bureacrsats and police. In the US I'd quite possibly die of the virus while Trump olishes his self-image. The Chinese government appears to be rational, though unpleasantly authoritarian. The US government does not, and that is really, really terrifying.
Dear god - thank goodness Labour lost the last 4 elections.
China is a grade A toxic waste dump run by an authoritarian cartel. America has a dumb president.
I can't help but wonder, if it was a Corbyn government nationalising half the economy, announcing strict surveillance measures, etc if we would feel half as secure that our freedoms would return.
I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.
There've been a lot of calls to put aside party political differences and pull together in a crisis. Whenever I have heard Labour voices in the media, they have largely done that. There has been some measured and constructive criticism, but no Tory-bashing.
It's interesting how quite a few posters here feel no need to reciprocate, and continue with these absurd comments. The idea that they'd want to increase surveillance of individuals, for example, where does that come from? Ah yes, East Germany was left wing and they did that, therefore anyone who is left wing must want to do that.... Grow up!
I'm simply saying I wouldn't trust Corbyn in this crisis. I don't trust Boris, either, but I would trust Corbyn far less. I wouldn't be terrified by, say, Prime Minister Starmer, either.
I believe Boris's instinct is towards freedom and individual liberty - I can't say the same for Corbyn or the people he surrounded himself with.
Lots of people will be using this as an excuse to push through bad legislation, some of which may be around much longer than this crisis.
What we need is effective opposition. Where is it?
I'm not sure we do need an effective Opposition, in the conventional sense. We do need the Opposition to be very clearly supporting the essential measures that are in place, which they are, while also raising the most important issues that the government is failing to address (for the purpose of addressing them quickly, not for the purpose of scoring points).
That's exactly what I've heard from Labour figures in the media. The problem is that it isn't headline grabbing, and they don't have a very high profile, but that's the decision of the media resulting from the fallout of the general election. It is, again, political points-scoring to blame the Labour figures themselves for that, beyond their role in losing the election.
Okay, if you want to be constructive, you could argue that the leadership context should be accelerated, but I'm not sure that would make much difference.
I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.
Now that Johnson has had a sniff of being Britain Pinochet he is not easily going to relinquish those powers.
Just asking - do you want to be buried under the pitch at Elland Road?
Comments
This is almost an entertaining Year 13 lesson as the one about the sex life of Edward IV. Admittedly there are no Year 13s present...
We need troops on the streets and public transport. If you're going to do something like this then you have to do it properly.
Basically people are just going to flout the rules.
I think you are at the epicentre!
Excellent safeguarding in place.
Roads very quiet, beaches virtually empty, people keeping distance.
Good to see.
China is a grade A toxic waste dump run by an authoritarian cartel. America has a dumb president.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBB9bA-gXL4
Meanwhile no click and collect or delivery available for a month. Vulnerable customer policy not working for us.
It isn't only the Tube that is doing this, other systems across the country like Metrolink have scaled back so they can still provide regular services with fewer drivers.
Or you could just blame it all on Sadiq (I'm not his greatest fan either, but come on).
We have also seen talk of obesity likely being a big issue. Obviously America suffers terribly with this, China due to a number of reasons, very low. Northern Italy?
Food and hardware stores are still open and eBay, Amazon and many other online retail outlets seem to operating as normal.
Tell me it's permanent, and merely to try and change the weather, and I'll be in the mood to riot pretty quickly.
Also, the government is currently borrowing / printing my wages. That's viable in the short term, partly because there is going to be one heck of a bounce back when this thing ends, and partly because there is a lot of ruin in a nation. Attempting to print enough money for most of the population to stay at home in the long run will end very very badly.
This was the thinking of the original government plan and it had merit. The fact that they have had to move things up for London (and of course they should, no question about that) means we risk being at more of a peak point when the pressure is on to relax the limits than we are right now.
Its genuinely tricky and I don't envy those making the decisions one bit. Its one of the reasons I find this carping about Boris on here just a bit tiresome.
It's like the cries of hypocrisy when people protested Britain treating Trump honourably, despite not protesting the same towards Chinese leaders. I never thought it was hypocritical, because context matters.
I don't trust Boris at least half the time, but imagine the opportunity this would be for the likes of McDonnell and Milne to create a permanent socialist state.
https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/23/coronavirus-uk-morrisons-launches-food-box-service-people-unable-get-delivery-slots-12442916/
I thought the government wanted us to visit shops LESS often?
I genuinely think he feels incredibly uncomfortable and with a heavy heart with the measures been put in place and hoped that we would as a herd have more sense.
https://twitter.com/DannyShawBBC/status/1242108471039926272?s=20
I've been baking my own bread for 40 years or so (these days gluten free), four loaves at a time, so I have a stash. I add lots of seeds: baking your own allows one to customise.
Delicious toasted with Marmite.
Google a recipe. You'll need buttermilk, which I bet hasn't sold out.
Whether measures taken will end up doing more harm than "taking it on the chin" is I suppose something that can be debated.
But the reality is it is unthinkable to just allow our health system be totally overwhelmed, so there isn't really any choice now. Just a question of how far you go.
Don't be silly. Some of the worst mental cases - on both sides (cooee HYUFD) not only can't help themselves, the actually think they are positively advancing their cause.
I utterly dislike the Prime Minister. In so many ways. But the time for positioning and points scoring is afterwards, not during. All of our leaders are under enormous pressure, making genuine life/death/destruction decisions with minimal prep on minimal sleep.
Party politics is for the birds right now. As frankly is political ideology. Some self-reflection in their state mandated exercise period followed by a period of silence would be welcome.
https://twitter.com/DannyShawBBC/status/1242370983983558658?s=20
It's interesting how quite a few posters here feel no need to reciprocate, and continue with these absurd comments about the Labour left. The idea that they'd want to increase surveillance of individuals, for example, where does that come from? Ah yes, East Germany was left wing and they did that, therefore anyone who is left wing must want to do that.... Grow up!
However the government here is now getting serious criticism for not acting earlier from the same journalists who three weeks ago were publishing pieces on "corona panic" and making fun of the idea that getting the flu was dangerous.
I believe Boris's instinct is towards freedom and individual liberty - I can't say the same for Corbyn or the people he surrounded himself with.
Lots of people will be using this as an excuse to push through bad legislation, some of which may be around much longer than this crisis.
What we need is effective opposition. Where is it?
London apprentices were known as a rowdy lot. See Shakespeares "Winters Tale, Act 3, Scene 3
Sorry lefties - couldn't resist
***realise that Boris should have been used in smaller doses than daily press conferences. Getting a senior minister* to run daily coronavirus briefings, with Boris doing the 'straight from #10' weekly chats may have been better. Last night was the first time I thought he'd worked out how to do this and then nailed it.
*someone who would toe the party line, straight bat the sillier press questions and liaise well with the scientists. Over the weekend, George Eustice did this excellently, for example.
***think of it as a campaign earlier - i.e. get a media team/strategy in place. Most of the issues haven't been in the policies per se but how they've been communicated and, bluntly, people trying to play politics/clever with them. I thought they'd got 'it' with the handwashing part but no. And the stories about the medium detract from that central message.
That said, I do think going straight to a lockdown would have been unenforceable.
My grandma was a farmer's wife. Their farm was well away from the madding crowd. Her bread was sourdough using a culture from scrapings from the leaves of the hedge in front of the house. I don't know whether it was bay. Granddad was born just before 1870.
That's exactly what I've heard from Labour figures in the media. The problem is that it isn't headline grabbing, and they don't have a very high profile, but that's the decision of the media resulting from the fallout of the general election. It is, again, political points-scoring to blame the Labour figures themselves for that, beyond their role in losing the election.
Okay, if you want to be constructive, you could argue that the leadership context should be accelerated, but I'm not sure that would make much difference.