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

I observed yesterday that there was little toilet roll and no antibacterial products in the grocery store that I collect my dc from after school.
So while the USA is being slow to react the population is starting to think about it.
I can imagine a USA/UK trade deal slipping further down the agenda if Trump has to start contending with Covid 19 rather than hosting rallies.

I would be careful comparing Italy and the UK.
I have no idea how developped internet shopping is in Italy. I know deliveries from supermarkets are not really usual in france for example.
This is not the case n the UK and you could still get your deliveries from an internet order for most places (i would guess 90% of the population?)

THIS is what they in china btw. No one allowed to go outside and all deliveries were done thought internet orders/whatsapp orders to reduce the risk of transmission.
If anything, the safest thing would be to use inernet shopping right left and centre and have a reduced opening of the supermarkets (to the few who dont have the internet?)

I also think the UK is in a very similar place than france, albeit maybe a few days (a week?) ahead.
Were not that different in the way we are handling things.

Just very relunstant to go down the route of putting the whole country on lock down.

Imagine after all the Brexit fuss and waste of money - CV made us all - every one of us - realise that Brexit was and is a bad idea. Imagine if they scrapped the whole thing? Could that be possible?

AuldAlliance our local U3A is still running In our bit of France. I am 😱. Lots of 65+ in an enclosed space. Seriously?
Pleased to see the réserve sanitaire has been mustered though.

BBC News (UK))@BBCNews

£7bn to support self-employed, businesses and vulnerable people
and £5bn emergency response fund for NHS and other public services

In total, £30bn fiscal stimulus to support UK through coronavirus,
says Chancellor Rishi Sunak

http://bbc.in/2IDEZbm

NomdeDieu In my part of Germany, only one supermarket delivers and it doesn't have a great range of things I'd normally choose

No internet shopping here either, but we could order on line and pick it up from the supermarket Drive building.

I use Ocado regularly- in our neck of the woods it's become noticeably harder to get delivery slots. More people wanting to use it - not set up to cope with the demand.
Plus - what if 1 person at a warehousing faculty get diagnosed - then all staff have to self isolate...... no more Ocado in the are that they serve - putting pressure on other providers.

I don't think we can fully rely on being able to have things delivered

BBC’s Norman Smith described the budget as: “a labour budget - I can’t see how they’re going to pay for it”.

This is not the case n the UK and you could still get your deliveries from an internet order for most places (i would guess 90% of the population?)

When Matt Hancock fibbed about working with the supermarkets to set up deliveries a few days ago, one of the retail spokespeople interviewed said supermarkets don’t have in the infrastructure or staff to massively increase deliveries. I was surprised to hear it’s only about 7% of UK grocery sales currently. We’ve had an annual delivery pass for about 3 years now and rarely visit a supermarket in person.

@HenHarrier, I was wondering where the extra money was going to come from, too. Either they are borrowing more, fudging the figures or have stopped funding something.

Time will tell.

My theory about why loo paper has been subject to CV stockpiling is that loo paper was one of the products that was supposedly under threat of shortages in the event of a No Deal Brexit.

People have conflated the two different "needs" for stockpiles (one because of supply chain problems, the other because of the need to self-isolate/not go to the supermarket), hence the run on loo roll.

I was wondering where the extra money was going to come from, too

Taken out of future budgets. All departments have to find 20% year on year "savings" until 2025.

And our old friend brexit is starting to wreak the predicted havoc:

In its Economic and Fiscal Outlook report, the Office for Budget Responsibility says Brexit has led to the economy being 2% smaller than it would have been

Reported in the Guardian earlier.

Just reverse this pile of shite already. We need it like another plague...

In its Economic and Fiscal Outlook report, the Office for Budget Responsibility says Brexit has led to the economy being 2% smaller than it would have been

"Project Fear"
"We've all had enough of experts"

I suspect there's going to be lots more like this in the coming months.

On a lighter note, anyone watched Home on All4? The scene in S2 ep 3 in which poor Peter loses his job is a pretty cruel metaphor of the entire situation.

On a lighter note, anyone watched Home on All4? The scene in S2 ep 3 in which poor Peter loses his job is a pretty cruel metaphor of the entire situation.

... anyone who's a Hugh Laurie/Armando Ianucci fan will have been watching "Avenue 5", I presume. But for those that haven't, episode 8 is a pitch perfect very black comedic take on the dimness of the public. Well worth watching, as it's a microcosm of how Brexit happened. Only it's the whole UK in the airlock.

Will do!

I had a cup of tea with a group of tactical voting university students today.
All of them study statistics as part of their courses.
They are not in the least bit worried about their own health
but they are staying away from old people
and take the view that the Brexiter boomers are about to get what's coming to them.

Brutal, but they feel very ignored by the current government so its hard to blame them

I’m not watching the Budget, but I’ve seen a few pictures inside the HoC today. They do sit very close together, don’t they?

I believe that experiments on rats have shown that overcrowding causes behavioural problems, particularly increased aggression. I've often wondered about the HOC in this light of this information.

I believe that experiments on rats have shown that overcrowding causes behavioural problems, particularly increased aggression. I've often wondered about the HOC in this light of this information.

That would only be useful if we equate MPs with rats ....

I was wondering where the extra money was going to come from, too

If you were a cynic you'd look at the following and hmmm very hard:

^
Of the £217 billion spent on welfare payments in 2016-17, around 59 per cent was paid to pensioners, with state pensions the largest single item at £92 billion. Personal tax credits – mostly for families with children – cost £27 billion and housing benefit – three quarters of which is paid to people of working age – cost £23 billion. Together these payments made up around two-thirds of all welfare spending.
obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/brief-guides-and-explainers/an-obr-guide-to-welfare-spending/

Not forgetting the long term cost of emergency housing because of a shortage of council property and the cost of social care.

Of course you'd have to be extremely cynical...

Oh yes - Exactly that !