Westministenders: Crisis, which crisis ?

[BigChocFrenzy]

Main crises facing the government:

. Negotiating a Brexit deal with the EU
. Coronoavirus
. Floods
. Allegations of some ministers - and Cummings - bullying civil servants
. More trouble threatened from Turkey / Syria

Unfortunately with all these parallel crises, we have a workshy lying arse as PM
and the worst collection yet of incompetents in Cabinet
who seem to have decided on a strategy of bullying their civil servants to avoid hearing any facts that don't fit with current Tory party ideology

Yes so I saw. Not good in anyway really.

But I was thinking more economy tanking. Which doesn't mean the dead baby etc analogy doesn't hold true.

analogies aren't always perfect. I'm starting to think that Cummings heard somewhere a phrase about "one step back, to take two steps forward" (god damn my memory). So tanking the economy - and provoking the civil unrest from which to wipe out the undesirables and feeble-minded - is where we are headed. With an added bonus if COVID can get us there a few months or years early.

I'd like to be wrong, of course. But there isn't much to support any alternate explanations at the moment.

I was particularly amused by the suggestion the police could be forced to concentrate on "serious crime". Most of the population probably couldn't notice any difference anyway. However it's a great way to sneak in a change in policing that would otherwise attracted attention.

Has there been any criticism of social media and scaremongering yet ? I'd expect there to be some sort of "story" along with a flourish of the new powers to shut down debate.

Who knows ? Even MN may go dark. In which case, hope to see you all on the other side

The typo annoys me and the stats have not been checked but the sentiment I totally support

This is why we need to post cat pictures, Woody Allen (?), or comedy of your choice. Plus music video links people!

Yes LQ.

I think I heard somewhere that hippopotamuses are the worlds deadliest creatures. (Probably after humans though?) But they receive good press compared to great white sharks, spiders etc.

Tobee
Will this do?

I think I heard somewhere that hippopotamuses are the worlds deadliest creatures.

Somewhere a mosquito is crying.

That aside, hippopotami, to be grammatically correct, are a surprisingly dangerous species for a peaceable vegetarian. Mainly because they have a habit of wandering into the bush at the side of rivers, and then getting very skittish should a passing human (or group of humans) position themselves between the two. At which point they emerge with surprising speed (beating Usain Bolt) and either trampling the interlopers, or pushing them into the river where they drown - or get eaten by crocodiles.

My most nervy moment in Kenya was getting a skiff - which was basically a vol-au-vent case with an outboard motor - across Lake Baringo. We saw a couple of crocodiles (tastes foul, by the way) in the distance, but the pilot was watching for the tell tale bubbles of a hippo walking on the bottom. They have a nasty habit of surfacing under boats. And good a swimmer as I am, I wouldn't like to race a crocodile.

hippopotami, to be grammatically correct

...in Latin.

Just say hippos

Listening I don't regard deaths in developing countries whether from disease, starvation or war,
as any kind of yardstick for what the UK should regard as acceptable within the UK

Also, I wouldn't be blase about adding an additional but unknown chunk more deaths in the UK

The government's worst case scenario is unlikely to happen, because ntbo it is a worst case, the absolute upper limit of what they are planning for

However, a worst case of 50% infected and 1% death rate gives a death toll of about 330,000
2% death rate gives 660,000 deaths
So even a small chance of anywhere near their worst case would be the worst national disaster since WW2

So that screenshot that keeps getting posted is a prime example of head in sand
and reassures noone except those who already have head down, arse up.

The best way to prevent a disaster is to tackle it early
Otherwise the measures necessary later will be far far tougher on everyone

"hippopotamus" isn't Latin, it's Greek. Hippo (horse) and potamus (river). Literally "river horse".

The best way to prevent a disaster is to tackle it early

Is the UK doing this ?

Otherwise the measures necessary later will be far far tougher on everyone

how do we have any faith this isn't the intended outcome ?

the stats have not been checked but the sentiment I totally support

Except that

• people are still going to die of heart disease and malaria as well as coronavirus.
• if health systems get overwhelmed, you can be certain that more people will die^ early of chronic illnesses even if^ they don't get coronavirus.

As a general point people on social media (not so much here) are very confused about the difference between excess mortality (ie the flu stats of tens of thousands of deaths) and deaths with a direct causal link ie the coronavirus death stats.

(Format fail there entirely due to the unfit for purpose Mumsnet app)

Is the UK doing this ?

The U.K. appears to be doing much better on testing than other European countries, based on the fact that it has done more tests with a much higher % of negative test results - ie it has been able to cast the net wider. (I have a theory about why this is).

The crunch in the U.K. will come when hospitalised patient numbers begin to rise.

BigChoc
My problem with the way the COVID situation is being publicised is that it is creating panic where there need be none.

If all young healthy people took sensible precautions and left the hospitals to handle those who are at much, much higher risk
(the already ill and the elderly)
then there should be no need for such hysteria.

I was at a meeting today which pointed out
this is peak flu season, you should be taking hygiene precautions ANYWAY
COVID has a higher death rate because nobody has immunity
but obesity is still much, much more dangerous

My most nervy moment in Kenya was getting a skiff - which was basically a vol-au-vent case with an outboard motor - across Lake Baringo. We saw a couple of crocodiles (tastes foul, by the way) in the distance, but the pilot was watching for the tell tale bubbles of a hippo walking on the bottom. They have a nasty habit of surfacing under boats. And good a swimmer as I am, I wouldn't like to race a crocodile.

Delurking to say that anecdotes like this ^ are one of my favourite things about MN. My folks went on safari in Kenya when I was a kid (without me) and reported back the ranger & guides’ nervousness about hippos, significantly more so than about the lions and bull elephants.

In Tanzania all of the guides said hippos were the most dangerous of the big animals as they are so random

If the UK follows the example of Italy and closes all schools and universities I think I'll just curl up at home and drink.
My income will tank
The economy will tank
getting really worried now
Not of COVID but of the reaction to it

YIPPEE
at last a piece of good news
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51742481

Thanks for the jolly links LQ and DGR. Although now I'm feeling tearful listening to the late Terry J. You can't win

Rich Hall is currently touring his Hoedown live show. Well worth catching if you can (but don’t sit in the front row).

Some people have $500 million to burn

DH’s parents used to dinghy race on Lake Victoria in the 60s and 70s. For one race series, some bright spark had the idea of putting one of the marker buoys at Hippo Point. Racing was abandoned rather quickly.

My MIL claims that she always thought that the technical name for the big extra sail at the front was “the fucking spinnaker”. FIL might have been a bit competitive.