Mr. Borough, is that London-specific? Obviously the Met's in London, but I'm wondering if it's London only, a general picture, or a city/rural divide.
Ultimately, the lockdown requires the consent and obedience of the public. If they flout it, the situation will only get worse, and there's not much any government that isn't a dictatorship can do about that.
It's been barely a week.
As long as the vast majority of the public follow it, which they are, then those who don't, while irresponsible and dangerous, are manageable. In Italy, France and Spain there are a minority of people who have never followed the lockdown, but the vast majority still are and that makes the difference.
Some people will never lock down regardless of when you implement it, whether because they are too stupid, too selfish or too stubborn doesn't matter.
We are now 10 years into a Tory government, only 3 governments since WW2 have lasted more than 10 years and only 1 government, the Tories in 1992, won a general election after more than 10 years in power.
So the Government should have expected things to get much tougher even without Covid 19 and a likely new and more centrist and media savvy Labour leader
At risk of being pedantic, only two governments have lasted more than ten years since World War Two. A government in our system is identified by who leads it, not which party forms it.
Except in the case of a national government a government in our system is actually defined by the party which forms it, we have not had a national government since WW2 but single party government bar 2010 to 2015 which was still a Tory led Government
China has approved the use of bear bile to treat critically ill coronavirus patients.
The National Health Commission has recommended the use of Tan Re Qing - an injection that contains bear bile, goat horn and herbs - to treat patients with Covid-19.
But there is no evidence the mixture has any medicinal value.
Bear bile, which is produced in the liver and stored in the gall bladder, has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for hundreds of years and fetches a high price in the illegal international market.
The move to approve its use has angered animal rights activists and comes just weeks after the country banned the sale of wild animals for food.
Give me strength
Does it do that as well?
I very much doubt it but you are on the ball this morning
China has approved the use of bear bile to treat critically ill coronavirus patients.
The National Health Commission has recommended the use of Tan Re Qing - an injection that contains bear bile, goat horn and herbs - to treat patients with Covid-19.
But there is no evidence the mixture has any medicinal value.
Bear bile, which is produced in the liver and stored in the gall bladder, has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for hundreds of years and fetches a high price in the illegal international market.
The move to approve its use has angered animal rights activists and comes just weeks after the country banned the sale of wild animals for food.
Give me strength
Does it do that as well?
I very much doubt it but you are on the ball this morning
I think we need the bare facts .
We’re all getting browned off.
Trouble is ..... Some of the opinions are polar opposites.
Mr. Borough, is that London-specific? Obviously the Met's in London, but I'm wondering if it's London only, a general picture, or a city/rural divide.
Ultimately, the lockdown requires the consent and obedience of the public. If they flout it, the situation will only get worse, and there's not much any government that isn't a dictatorship can do about that.
It's been barely a week.
Quite - we're into our third week now with every prospect of at least another 2/3 before any lightening. It is also much stricter than yours. While I feel for the busineeses in the tourist beaches near us I am not expecting any significant summer opening from foreign tourists or Spanish 2nd homers. P)eople in the UK need toget real or a lot of them are going to get dead imho.
He doesn't seem to grasp the lag caused by the incubation and infection periods.
If it is: - An average of 5-7 days between infection and showing symptoms (if you are going to show symptoms) - An average of 16-20 days between showing symptoms and death (if you are going to die) (of course, some will be far quicker and some far slower)
... then those poor souls dying on Tuesday (and recorded yesterday) were mostly infected between 6th March and 9th March.
So how in the world could a lockdown established on the 23rd of March have affected the death rate?
Peston has an agenda - it goes back a long way.
Does it ever get off Any Other Business?
His dad was a bright chap. Very pleasant with it, as well.
The Government should swallow its pride and repeat what it did with ventilators but for testing.
A Minister should give a statement inviting any and all companies, universities, labs etc who think they can join in the effort to ramp up testing to approach the government and offer their services.
Any help should be welcome and appreciated. And this should not be a partisan matter or a media 'gotcha' moment.
I think the Government may prove to be less culpable on testing than PHE.
We cant vote PHE out though.
If there's any truth in the news PHE insisted on all tests going through itself then that centralisation should end today. Send the results to PHE sure but that's it.
80 years ago today my parents got married and although this was 1940 their "honeymoon" was a visit to the Grand National meeting at Aintree. Unlike today there was horse racing going on.
Why can’t non working class people have ideas about what is best for the working class?
Like Jeremy Corbyn...
Yeah, why not. I don’t buy into the idea you have to have ‘lived’ something to have an opinion on it. Working class people are allowed to have opinions on how the upper and middle classes should live, so why not vice versa?
The Government should swallow its pride and repeat what it did with ventilators but for testing.
A Minister should give a statement inviting any and all companies, universities, labs etc who think they can join in the effort to ramp up testing to approach the government and offer their services.
Any help should be welcome and appreciated. And this should not be a partisan matter or a media 'gotcha' moment.
I think that is already happening, there was a person from a private lab talking about such a scheme on the radio this morning.
However, approaching this as a 'government comms' issue is incredibly narrow sighted
Perhaps, but there is definitely a Government comms issue.
Dom made his reputation with 2 campaigns fronted by Bozo, both of which relied upon simple messaging and ruthless message discipline.
£350m for the NHS
Get Brexit Done
Neither were true, but that's beside the point. Every interview, Every appearance. The answer to every question.
The Government message now is Stay At Home
Simple. Clear. And BoZo fucked it up.
He stood behind a podium with Stay At Home plastered on the front and delivered the message "Practise Social Distancing, and Go to the Park"
We do need a political assessment of this crisis as well as a medical one. The team who wanted to disrupt Whitehall are not covering themselves with glory in this time of massive state intervention to manage a crisis
It's a white collar lockdown. Other countries have locked down their blue collars too.
To be fair, Italy did this only two weeks after the initial lockdown... And that initial lockdown has been what got the spread under control there. But certainly a more extreme lockdown (as they have in Italy now and in Spain since Monday) would curtail the spread even further.
An Italian doctor interviewed yesterday got this right. Once the war has started it is near impossible to catch up. In time this 2016 pandemic report that was supposedly suppressed by Hunt will get more attention. That man will have some very serious questions to answer as will Theresa May if the final decision was hers.
One fellow Conservative recalls: “I remember discussing the future of the Union with Rishi and he argued that England should break away. He was advocating the end of the UK because it doesn’t make financial sense to him. He doesn’t have any love for the institution and I suspect he looks at it as he looks at anything: what’s the profit?” Sunak’s allies say the chancellor does not recall the conversation and is a staunch supporter of the Union “and the shared values it represents”.
I think the Government may prove to be less culpable on testing than PHE.
We cant vote PHE out though.
If there's any truth in the news PHE insisted on all tests going through itself then that centralisation should end today. Send the results to PHE sure but that's it.
Should have ended well before today TBF.
The Government should have identified what all the factors stopping its ramping were over a week ago and addressed them before now.
The NHS has delayed the unaudited Accounts submission deadline by a fortnight. Ridiculous late April now early May. Do they have access to the news.
The Audited Accounts deadline is still exactly the same June date as it always was.!!
Yeah, I'm glad this all hit after year end in our company. Your accounts staff will need some new systems for WFH most likely. Trying to implement that whilst doing year end work for the NHS must be a nightmare.
We are now 10 years into a Tory government, only 3 governments since WW2 have lasted more than 10 years and only 1 government, the Tories in 1992, won a general election after more than 10 years in power.
So the Government should have expected things to get much tougher even without Covid 19 and a likely new and more centrist and media savvy Labour leader
At risk of being pedantic, only two governments have lasted more than ten years since World War Two. A government in our system is identified by who leads it, not which party forms it.
Except in the case of a national government a government in our system is actually defined by the party which forms it, we have not had a national government since WW2 but single party government bar 2010 to 2015 which was still a Tory led Government
That is simply not correct in law. It is in practice, of course, but constitutionally parties have no actual role in the system. A government is defined by the person who leads it, which under usual circumstances is whoever commands a majority in the Commons.
80 years ago today my parents got married and although this was 1940 their "honeymoon" was a visit to the Grand National meeting at Aintree. Unlike today there was horse racing going on.
There is even a book about it. Insane and Unseemly: British Racing in World War Two A comprehensive account of how and why horse racing was able to continue throughout the Second World War, despite repeated controversy over its doing so. Insane and Unseemly is based on extensive, original research into Home Office and Jockey Club papers and first-hand recollections of staff from three leading stables. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Insane-Unseemly-British-Racing-World/dp/1848760345
The Government should swallow its pride and repeat what it did with ventilators but for testing.
A Minister should give a statement inviting any and all companies, universities, labs etc who think they can join in the effort to ramp up testing to approach the government and offer their services.
Any help should be welcome and appreciated. And this should not be a partisan matter or a media 'gotcha' moment.
I think that is already happening, there was a person from a private lab talking about such a scheme on the radio this morning.
Good. Could be clearer about it - having the key comms people all self-isolating probably isn't helping.
He's right the CSA and CMO made it quite clear that timing was critical as you might only get one go at it.
I saw a big group of young twenty-something boys on the benches round the back of a (closed) pub yesterday. All on furlough getting paid handsomely to do nothing all day. They are nice, fit young boys, whose heads are collectuvely going. They were saying they can't stay home with Mam and Dad anymore so had arranged a big piss up.
I didn't join them. I came home and got pissed.
I've seven grandchildren (and a grandchild-in-law). The married couple, both teachers are teaching remotely. The youngest child, 6 is fine at home, although her parents are having trouble keeping up with the lessons. The young teenagers are finding enough to do on social media, although one is aggrieved at not being on holiday at her best friends but the seventeen year old, although he's doing his A level work is getting BORED with being in the house.
I can see a major central London road from my window, it is normally at 5 mph and full throughout a working day and most of the evening.
Since the lockdown including today if I look I can normally but not always see at least one vehicle but the traffic is flowing very freely and Id say 90%+ down on normal.
And when I go for a run/walk I have noticed most buses have zero passengers, just the driver (admittedly those are timed to avoid whats left of rush hour).
However, approaching this as a 'government comms' issue is incredibly narrow sighted
Perhaps, but there is definitely a Government comms issue....
Agreed.
Thus far the government has manage to retain a fairly high degree of trust. Focusing on something as a priority, setting themselves a target which they fail to meet, and then providing conflicting explanations, will tend to erode that trust.
I don't really care about the politics at this point, but it is extremely important the government is believed to be correct when it issues instructions to stay in homes etc. If they have a problem on ramping up testing (which I suspect is simply that we lack the capacity to rapidly manufacture the kit required), fine.
Some interesting excerpts from a Reuters story today. Generally I find them well sourced and without a political bias.
TL;DR: all European governments got it wrong. My assessment is that they must have been working on bad data - either that or there is a systematic failure in the way that separate governments assessed the problem and I think that is unlikely.
BRUSSELS, April 1 (Reuters) - Barely a month before Europe embarked on a scramble for masks, ventilators and testing kits to fight coronavirus, governments told Brussels their healthcare systems were ready and there was no need to order more stocks, EU documents show. This rosy assessment is in stark contrast to the shortages of masks and medical equipment just a few weeks later, when the European Commission estimated needs across EU states to be 10 times higher than would usually be available.
[snip]
"Things under control," a European Commission official said at a closed-door meeting with diplomats from member states on Feb. 5, two weeks after China locked down nearly 60 million people in Hubei ... "There is strong level of preparedness in member states, most have measures in place" to detect and treat COVID-19, the official said, relaying comments from national envoys, according to minutes of the meeting seen by Reuters.
[snip]
EU governments began to realise the gravity of the situation in March but rather than focusing on joint action many resorted to protectionist measures, raising trade barriers to hinder the export of medical equipment to their neighbours.
[snip]
The optimistic analysis presented by the European Commission official on Feb. 5 stemmed from a series of meetings with health experts from EU member states. At a meeting on Jan. 31, delegates from national health ministries told the Commission they did not need help acquiring medical equipment, according to the minutes. ... with only four states warning they might need protective equipment if the situation worsened in Europe. On Feb. 28 ... the European Commission launched a joint procurement programme for face masks and other protective gear. The tender ... initially received no offers, an internal document seen by Reuters showed. EU member states are now assessing bids made under a second tender but no contracts have yet been signed and deliveries are still weeks away, according to Commission estimates.
[snip]
Now, EU states are facing a massive shortage of testing kits and launched a joint procurement scheme on March 18. The need to jointly acquire ventilators ... only arose for the first time at a meeting of EU health experts on March 13, according to minutes of the meeting.
[snip]
Risks that healthcare systems might exceed their capacity were considered "low to moderate" in mid-February by the EU agency for disease control, which relies on assessments by individual member states. A month later, it updated its assessment to say no countries would have enough intensive care beds by mid-April.
There is no question that the lies from China played a part in this but so did incompetence and an inability to imagine something different.
Some interesting excerpts from a Reuters story today. Generally I find them well sourced and without a political bias.
TL;DR: all European governments got it wrong. My assessment is that they must have been working on bad data - either that or there is a systematic failure in the way that separate governments assessed the problem and I think that is unlikely.
BRUSSELS, April 1 (Reuters) - Barely a month before Europe embarked on a scramble for masks, ventilators and testing kits to fight coronavirus, governments told Brussels their healthcare systems were ready and there was no need to order more stocks, EU documents show. This rosy assessment is in stark contrast to the shortages of masks and medical equipment just a few weeks later, when the European Commission estimated needs across EU states to be 10 times higher than would usually be available.
[snip]
"Things under control," a European Commission official said at a closed-door meeting with diplomats from member states on Feb. 5, two weeks after China locked down nearly 60 million people in Hubei ... "There is strong level of preparedness in member states, most have measures in place" to detect and treat COVID-19, the official said, relaying comments from national envoys, according to minutes of the meeting seen by Reuters.
[snip]
EU governments began to realise the gravity of the situation in March but rather than focusing on joint action many resorted to protectionist measures, raising trade barriers to hinder the export of medical equipment to their neighbours.
[snip]
The optimistic analysis presented by the European Commission official on Feb. 5 stemmed from a series of meetings with health experts from EU member states. At a meeting on Jan. 31, delegates from national health ministries told the Commission they did not need help acquiring medical equipment, according to the minutes. ... with only four states warning they might need protective equipment if the situation worsened in Europe. On Feb. 28 ... the European Commission launched a joint procurement programme for face masks and other protective gear. The tender ... initially received no offers, an internal document seen by Reuters showed. EU member states are now assessing bids made under a second tender but no contracts have yet been signed and deliveries are still weeks away, according to Commission estimates.
[snip]
Now, EU states are facing a massive shortage of testing kits and launched a joint procurement scheme on March 18. The need to jointly acquire ventilators ... only arose for the first time at a meeting of EU health experts on March 13, according to minutes of the meeting.
[snip]
Risks that healthcare systems might exceed their capacity were considered "low to moderate" in mid-February by the EU agency for disease control, which relies on assessments by individual member states. A month later, it updated its assessment to say no countries would have enough intensive care beds by mid-April.
Says it all, if you listened to our journalists, the UK is the only country with shortages of PPE ,test kits etc. in Europe
We are now 10 years into a Tory government, only 3 governments since WW2 have lasted more than 10 years and only 1 government, the Tories in 1992, won a general election after more than 10 years in power.
So the Government should have expected things to get much tougher even without Covid 19 and a likely new and more centrist and media savvy Labour leader
At risk of being pedantic, only two governments have lasted more than ten years since World War Two. A government in our system is identified by who leads it, not which party forms it.
Except in the case of a national government a government in our system is actually defined by the party which forms it, we have not had a national government since WW2 but single party government bar 2010 to 2015 which was still a Tory led Government
That is simply not correct in law. It is in practice, of course, but constitutionally parties have no actual role in the system. A government is defined by the person who leads it, which under usual circumstances is whoever commands a majority in the Commons.
We have no written constitution, the Ministers of the Crown have all come from one party in any one government since WW2 bar 2010 to 2015 when most of them were still Tory
He doesn't seem to grasp the lag caused by the incubation and infection periods.
If it is: - An average of 5-7 days between infection and showing symptoms (if you are going to show symptoms) - An average of 16-20 days between showing symptoms and death (if you are going to die) (of course, some will be far quicker and some far slower)
... then those poor souls dying on Tuesday (and recorded yesterday) were mostly infected between 6th March and 9th March.
So how in the world could a lockdown established on the 23rd of March have affected the death rate?
Peston has an agenda - it goes back a long way.
Does it ever get off Any Other Business?
His dad was a bright chap. Very pleasant with it, as well.
Maurice Peston had his own idiosyncrasies. A typical utterance I heard after a paper of his was "that was very Maurice". Always had a leftish slant on any topic.
Current scores Boris 7 Gove 2 Raab 2 that bloke yesterday 0 PHE minus infinity.
Two journalists and Dominic Raab who captained the university karate team, according to Wikipedia which includes this piece of tiptoeing up to the facts and absolutely no further: ...and shared accommodation facilities with future Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Raab
The NHS has delayed the unaudited Accounts submission deadline by a fortnight. Ridiculous late April now early May. Do they have access to the news.
The Audited Accounts deadline is still exactly the same June date as it always was.!!
Yeah, I'm glad this all hit after year end in our company. Your accounts staff will need some new systems for WFH most likely. Trying to implement that whilst doing year end work for the NHS must be a nightmare.
All systems now set up as WFH by my former Trust over last 3 weeks . The point is more Accounts are unimportant right now and not sure how Auditors will function. The fact that NHS England thinks maintaining a deadline is sensible is PHE centralized testing type mindset.
We are now 10 years into a Tory government, only 3 governments since WW2 have lasted more than 10 years and only 1 government, the Tories in 1992, won a general election after more than 10 years in power.
So the Government should have expected things to get much tougher even without Covid 19 and a likely new and more centrist and media savvy Labour leader
At risk of being pedantic, only two governments have lasted more than ten years since World War Two. A government in our system is identified by who leads it, not which party forms it.
Except in the case of a national government a government in our system is actually defined by the party which forms it, we have not had a national government since WW2 but single party government bar 2010 to 2015 which was still a Tory led Government
That is simply not correct in law. It is in practice, of course, but constitutionally parties have no actual role in the system. A government is defined by the person who leads it, which under usual circumstances is whoever commands a majority in the Commons.
We have no written constitution, the Ministers of the Crown have all come from one party in any one government since WW2 bar 2010 to 2015 when most of them were still Tory
Even that isn’t correct, as in the 1950s the Liberal Nationals were still a separate party.
He's right the CSA and CMO made it quite clear that timing was critical as you might only get one go at it.
I saw a big group of young twenty-something boys on the benches round the back of a (closed) pub yesterday. All on furlough getting paid handsomely to do nothing all day. They are nice, fit young boys, whose heads are collectuvely going. They were saying they can't stay home with Mam and Dad anymore so had arranged a big piss up.
I didn't join them. I came home and got pissed.
I've seven grandchildren (and a grandchild-in-law). The married couple, both teachers are teaching remotely. The youngest child, 6 is fine at home, although her parents are having trouble keeping up with the lessons. The young teenagers are finding enough to do on social media, although one is aggrieved at not being on holiday at her best friends but the seventeen year old, although he's doing his A level work is getting BORED with being in the house.
I've been WFH for the past few years so nothing new but in the past couple of weeks have for the first time started to lose track of what day it is. Covid-19 and lockdown have removed the structure of the week as each day has an amorphous nothingness about it.
"The need [for the EU] to jointly acquire ventilators ... only arose for the first time at a meeting of EU health experts on March 13, according to minutes of the meeting.
So much for that story about the UK walking away from these discussions in January, February, early March....
Disappointing to find that somebody has no sense of humour (or an incredibly fat finger while trying to ‘like’ posts).
Please try to keep in topic in these difficult times.
Just kidding I don't think anyone uses those buttons intentionally.
Might be me . Working off small phone with fat fingers and eyesight not as good as in my youth.. Apols if its me I do try to undo it but it does not always work
We are now 10 years into a Tory government, only 3 governments since WW2 have lasted more than 10 years and only 1 government, the Tories in 1992, won a general election after more than 10 years in power.
So the Government should have expected things to get much tougher even without Covid 19 and a likely new and more centrist and media savvy Labour leader
At risk of being pedantic, only two governments have lasted more than ten years since World War Two. A government in our system is identified by who leads it, not which party forms it.
Except in the case of a national government a government in our system is actually defined by the party which forms it, we have not had a national government since WW2 but single party government bar 2010 to 2015 which was still a Tory led Government
That is simply not correct in law. It is in practice, of course, but constitutionally parties have no actual role in the system. A government is defined by the person who leads it, which under usual circumstances is whoever commands a majority in the Commons.
We have no written constitution, the Ministers of the Crown have all come from one party in any one government since WW2 bar 2010 to 2015 when most of them were still Tory
Even that isn’t correct, as in the 1950s the Liberal Nationals were still a separate party.
John Maclay was backed by the Tories in a straight fight against Labour in West Renfrewshire, he was only a National Liberal in name in reality a Tory and ultimately it became the National Liberal and Conservative party before merging into the Tories too
He's right the CSA and CMO made it quite clear that timing was critical as you might only get one go at it.
I saw a big group of young twenty-something boys on the benches round the back of a (closed) pub yesterday. All on furlough getting paid handsomely to do nothing all day. They are nice, fit young boys, whose heads are collectuvely going. They were saying they can't stay home with Mam and Dad anymore so had arranged a big piss up.
I didn't join them. I came home and got pissed.
I've seven grandchildren (and a grandchild-in-law). The married couple, both teachers are teaching remotely. The youngest child, 6 is fine at home, although her parents are having trouble keeping up with the lessons. The young teenagers are finding enough to do on social media, although one is aggrieved at not being on holiday at her best friends but the seventeen year old, although he's doing his A level work is getting BORED with being in the house.
I've been WFH for the past few years so nothing new but in the past couple of weeks have for the first time started to lose track of what day it is. Covid-19 and lockdown have removed the structure of the week as each day has an amorphous nothingness about it.
I'm exactly the same. I actually managed to miss a telephone conference yesterday because I had lost track of time. It's not that I am busy, it's just an unstructured morass.
He's right the CSA and CMO made it quite clear that timing was critical as you might only get one go at it.
I saw a big group of young twenty-something boys on the benches round the back of a (closed) pub yesterday. All on furlough getting paid handsomely to do nothing all day. They are nice, fit young boys, whose heads are collectuvely going. They were saying they can't stay home with Mam and Dad anymore so had arranged a big piss up.
I didn't join them. I came home and got pissed.
I've seven grandchildren (and a grandchild-in-law). The married couple, both teachers are teaching remotely. The youngest child, 6 is fine at home, although her parents are having trouble keeping up with the lessons. The young teenagers are finding enough to do on social media, although one is aggrieved at not being on holiday at her best friends but the seventeen year old, although he's doing his A level work is getting BORED with being in the house.
I've been WFH for the past few years so nothing new but in the past couple of weeks have for the first time started to lose track of what day it is. Covid-19 and lockdown have removed the structure of the week as each day has an amorphous nothingness about it.
I'm exactly the same. I actually managed to miss a telephone conference yesterday because I had lost track of time. It's not that I am busy, it's just an unstructured morass.
Changing the clocks could not have come at a worse time either. Just addded to the unbalancing of time.
I can see a major central London road from my window, it is normally at 5 mph and full throughout a working day and most of the evening.
Since the lockdown including today if I look I can normally but not always see at least one vehicle but the traffic is flowing very freely and Id say 90%+ down on normal.
And when I go for a run/walk I have noticed most buses have zero passengers, just the driver (admittedly those are timed to avoid whats left of rush hour).
TfL and other bus and train companies may need new subsidies before long because they are running services on almost no fare revenue.
He's right the CSA and CMO made it quite clear that timing was critical as you might only get one go at it.
I saw a big group of young twenty-something boys on the benches round the back of a (closed) pub yesterday. All on furlough getting paid handsomely to do nothing all day. They are nice, fit young boys, whose heads are collectuvely going. They were saying they can't stay home with Mam and Dad anymore so had arranged a big piss up.
I didn't join them. I came home and got pissed.
I've seven grandchildren (and a grandchild-in-law). The married couple, both teachers are teaching remotely. The youngest child, 6 is fine at home, although her parents are having trouble keeping up with the lessons. The young teenagers are finding enough to do on social media, although one is aggrieved at not being on holiday at her best friends but the seventeen year old, although he's doing his A level work is getting BORED with being in the house.
I've been WFH for the past few years so nothing new but in the past couple of weeks have for the first time started to lose track of what day it is. Covid-19 and lockdown have removed the structure of the week as each day has an amorphous nothingness about it.
I'm exactly the same. I actually managed to miss a telephone conference yesterday because I had lost track of time. It's not that I am busy, it's just an unstructured morass.
Changing the clocks could not have come at a worse time either. Just addded to the unbalancing of time.
Boris should employ a procurement czar, as Churchill did when he made Beaverbrook Minister of Production. It is surprising he has not already done so given Cummings's low opinion of government procurement and Boris's own biography of Churchill, which is no doubt compulsory reading for @ydoethur's history students.
That would be rather pointless since the only British history we study at A-level is the Wars of the Roses.
Russian revolutions, American slaves, and Italian unifications?
All systems now set up as WFH by my former Trust over last 3 weeks . The point is more Accounts are unimportant right now and not sure how Auditors will function. The fact that NHS England thinks maintaining a deadline is sensible is PHE centralized testing type mindset.
I have a relative who works in finance with the NHS. Still not WFH as the NHS IT bods haven't sorted the gear out yet. Apparently this did not come as a surprise...
We are now 10 years into a Tory government, only 3 governments since WW2 have lasted more than 10 years and only 1 government, the Tories in 1992, won a general election after more than 10 years in power.
So the Government should have expected things to get much tougher even without Covid 19 and a likely new and more centrist and media savvy Labour leader
At risk of being pedantic, only two governments have lasted more than ten years since World War Two. A government in our system is identified by who leads it, not which party forms it.
Except in the case of a national government a government in our system is actually defined by the party which forms it, we have not had a national government since WW2 but single party government bar 2010 to 2015 which was still a Tory led Government
That is simply not correct in law. It is in practice, of course, but constitutionally parties have no actual role in the system. A government is defined by the person who leads it, which under usual circumstances is whoever commands a majority in the Commons.
We have no written constitution, the Ministers of the Crown have all come from one party in any one government since WW2 bar 2010 to 2015 when most of them were still Tory
Even that isn’t correct, as in the 1950s the Liberal Nationals were still a separate party.
John Maclay was backed by the Tories in a straight fight against Labour in West Renfrewshire, he was only a National Liberal in name in reality a Tory and ultimately it became the National Liberal and Conservative party before merging into the Tories too
Leaving aside the trifling detail that you don’t seem to understand what they were or how they operated, it occurs to me that Gwilym Lloyd George was still officially a Liberal while Home Secretary in the mid-1950s, although he had lost the Liberal whip in 1946. So you would still be wrong.
Let it go. Trying to defend an indefensible position just makes you look silly, although I know you’re used to that.
Lockdown until a vaccination is available for me and Mrs BJ even if that's 2021.
Unfortunately with Carers in day and night even that may not get us through.
Well I hope you both DO make it through. I'm sure you will. And I think that WILL be what we end up doing. Not a lockdown on this scale for that long - since the economic and social damage would be too great - but some sort of targeted regime whereby those at high risk (quite a large group) remain isolated and the rest resume a stripped down version of normality - e.g. they WFH where possible and maintain a degree of social distancing. Schools reopen but pubs and the like probably don't. It's life, Jim, but not as we know it. I can't see any other feasible way forward. The end of this does not come until we have mass immunity. Achieving this by infection costs 3,000,000 hospital admissions and 200,000 lives, unthinkable, therefore the only route to it is via a vaccine, and a vaccine is probably over a year away. This is my rather downbeat assessment having now educated myself on the key metrics and chewed the thing over. I did so last night. Not a pleasant exercise - would vastly prefer to have listed out my top ten Madonna songs - but I felt I had to do it.
Boris should employ a procurement czar, as Churchill did when he made Beaverbrook Minister of Production. It is surprising he has not already done so given Cummings's low opinion of government procurement and Boris's own biography of Churchill, which is no doubt compulsory reading for @ydoethur's history students.
That would be rather pointless since the only British history we study at A-level is the Wars of the Roses.
Russian revolutions, American slaves, and Italian unifications?
We do the first at A-level, the second at GCSE.
Not studied the third in any depth since I was doing my own A-levels 20 years ago.
Lockdown until a vaccination is available for me and Mrs BJ even if that's 2021.
Unfortunately with Carers in day and night even that may not get us through.
Well I hope you both DO make it through. I'm sure you will. And I think that WILL be what we end up doing. Not a lockdown on this scale for that long - since the economic and social damage would be too great - but some sort of targeted regime whereby those at high risk (quite a large group) remain isolated and the rest resume a stripped down version of normality - e.g. they WFH where possible and maintain a degree of social distancing. Schools reopen but pubs and the like probably don't. It's life, Jim, but not as we know it. I can't see any other feasible way forward. The end of this does not come until we have mass immunity. Achieving this by infection costs 3,000,000 hospital admissions and 200,000 lives, unthinkable, therefore the only route to it is via a vaccine, and a vaccine is probably over a year away. This is my rather downbeat assessment having now educated myself on the key metrics and chewed the thing over. I did so last night. Not a pleasant exercise - would vastly prefer to have listed out my top ten Madonna songs - but I felt I had to do it.
Biden is going to pile up massive majorities in the likes of New York and California - and still lose the Electoral College, isn't he?
It's possible but I don't think so. Wisconsin is a Bernie Sanders hotspot and it's about to have a primary, so some of the Bernie Bros will be reluctant to make Biden look good in the head-to-heads. If the states behave like last time the pivotal one is PA, but that's quite good territory for Biden.
Idiots like Hitchens are not even sparing a moments thought for the health care workers who are risking their lives trying to deal with this, and would be completely swamped in coronavirus patients without a lockdown, infecting and killing even more of our health care workers. Perhaps those who do not want lockdown should be allowed back on the streets on the condition that they waive the right to go to hospital if they do get ill.
I can see a major central London road from my window, it is normally at 5 mph and full throughout a working day and most of the evening.
Since the lockdown including today if I look I can normally but not always see at least one vehicle but the traffic is flowing very freely and Id say 90%+ down on normal.
And when I go for a run/walk I have noticed most buses have zero passengers, just the driver (admittedly those are timed to avoid whats left of rush hour).
TfL and other bus and train companies may need new subsidies before long because they are running services on almost no fare revenue.
Local govts generally will certainly need bailouts as well as businesses. Ive not been paying much attention on that front but it will need to be done if it hasnt already.
I must admit to not understanding the logic of this, I must be missing something.
As I see it the lockdown will eventually get the numbers down low enough that tracking and tracing those with the virus will be possible in the way South Korea are doing it.
Waiting until more are infected before the lockdown just means more deaths before that point is reached. The fact that say 0.5% rather than 0.2% of the population have had the virus after makes no real difference in terms of a herd immunity strategy.
So what is the advantage of having a lockdown later?
I can see a major central London road from my window, it is normally at 5 mph and full throughout a working day and most of the evening.
Since the lockdown including today if I look I can normally but not always see at least one vehicle but the traffic is flowing very freely and Id say 90%+ down on normal.
And when I go for a run/walk I have noticed most buses have zero passengers, just the driver (admittedly those are timed to avoid whats left of rush hour).
TfL and other bus and train companies may need new subsidies before long because they are running services on almost no fare revenue.
Local govts generally will certainly need bailouts as well as businesses. Ive not been paying much attention on that front but it will need to be done if it hasnt already.
I must admit to not understanding the logic of this, I must be missing something.
As I see it the lockdown will eventually get the numbers down low enough that tracking and tracing those with the virus will be possible in the way South Korea are doing it.
Waiting until more are infected before the lockdown just means more deaths before that point is reached. The fact that say 0.5% rather than 0.2% of the population have had the virus after makes no real difference in terms of a herd immunity strategy.
So what is the advantage of having a lockdown later?
I think that's a fair point - I think the government is still pursuing a herd immunity strategy, they just aren't talking about it.
Worth noting that football is still suspended in the Far East.
Comments
However, approaching this as a 'government comms' issue is incredibly narrow sighted
Some people will never lock down regardless of when you implement it, whether because they are too stupid, too selfish or too stubborn doesn't matter.
The Audited Accounts deadline is still exactly the same June date as it always was.!!
Just kidding I don't think anyone uses those buttons intentionally.
We cant vote PHE out though.
A Minister should give a statement inviting any and all companies, universities, labs etc who think they can join in the effort to ramp up testing to approach the government and offer their services.
Any help should be welcome and appreciated. And this should not be a partisan matter or a media 'gotcha' moment.
Dom made his reputation with 2 campaigns fronted by Bozo, both of which relied upon simple messaging and ruthless message discipline.
£350m for the NHS
Get Brexit Done
Neither were true, but that's beside the point. Every interview, Every appearance. The answer to every question.
The Government message now is Stay At Home
Simple. Clear. And BoZo fucked it up.
He stood behind a podium with Stay At Home plastered on the front and delivered the message "Practise Social Distancing, and Go to the Park"
We do need a political assessment of this crisis as well as a medical one. The team who wanted to disrupt Whitehall are not covering themselves with glory in this time of massive state intervention to manage a crisis
One fellow Conservative recalls: “I remember discussing the future of the Union with Rishi and he argued that England should break away. He was advocating the end of the UK because it doesn’t make financial sense to him. He doesn’t have any love for the institution and I suspect he looks at it as he looks at anything: what’s the profit?” Sunak’s allies say the chancellor does not recall the conversation and is a staunch supporter of the Union “and the shared values it represents”.
https://www.ft.com/content/b465a3fe-73b1-11ea-ad98-044200cb277f
Single source....
The Government should have identified what all the factors stopping its ramping were over a week ago and addressed them before now.
If the taxi has a screen in it between you and the driver then that will provide social distance.
You're probably safer in a taxi than most other forms of public transport.
Insane and Unseemly: British Racing in World War Two
A comprehensive account of how and why horse racing was able to continue throughout the Second World War, despite repeated controversy over its doing so. Insane and Unseemly is based on extensive, original research into Home Office and Jockey Club papers and first-hand recollections of staff from three leading stables.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Insane-Unseemly-British-Racing-World/dp/1848760345
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1245553886351577090?s=20
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1245554097501151232?s=20
https://twitter.com/ClarkeMicah/status/1245592512456093696?s=20
https://twitter.com/ClarkeMicah/status/1245587732811771904?s=20
Since the lockdown including today if I look I can normally but not always see at least one vehicle but the traffic is flowing very freely and Id say 90%+ down on normal.
And when I go for a run/walk I have noticed most buses have zero passengers, just the driver (admittedly those are timed to avoid whats left of rush hour).
Thus far the government has manage to retain a fairly high degree of trust. Focusing on something as a priority, setting themselves a target which they fail to meet, and then providing conflicting explanations, will tend to erode that trust.
I don't really care about the politics at this point, but it is extremely important the government is believed to be correct when it issues instructions to stay in homes etc.
If they have a problem on ramping up testing (which I suspect is simply that we lack the capacity to rapidly manufacture the kit required), fine.
Just explain what it is, rather than havering.
Says it all, if you listened to our journalists, the UK is the only country with shortages of PPE ,test kits etc. in Europe
I knew that Johnson really wants to be liked by young metropolitan liberals, but I didn't expect him to favour them so strongly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Raab
The fact that NHS England thinks maintaining a deadline is sensible is PHE centralized testing type mindset.
BTW I am long retired thank God
So much for that story about the UK walking away from these discussions in January, February, early March....
Might be me
. Working off small phone with fat fingers and eyesight not as good as in my youth.. Apols if its me
I do try to undo it but it does not always work
https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1245637312760836096
Excess of PPE in the corridors of power.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=trainspotting+2:+changing+of+the+clocks+scene&docid=608026463682562193&mid=B172D0C5CDCFBC8AD615B172D0C5CDCFBC8AD615&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
People would spend so much time debating how rude it is that everyone would get the message.
I think she was joking but not sure.
Hitchens is @eadric and I claim my £5 worth of toilet paper.
Let it go. Trying to defend an indefensible position just makes you look silly, although I know you’re used to that.
https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1245637309023715328
Not studied the third in any depth since I was doing my own A-levels 20 years ago.
As I see it the lockdown will eventually get the numbers down low enough that tracking and tracing those with the virus will be possible in the way South Korea are doing it.
Waiting until more are infected before the lockdown just means more deaths before that point is reached. The fact that say 0.5% rather than 0.2% of the population have had the virus after makes no real difference in terms of a herd immunity strategy.
So what is the advantage of having a lockdown later?
Worth noting that football is still suspended in the Far East.