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 that's much as I thought, listening quietly

Correction:

It seems RoI is excluded from the Trumpy Ban. (He has a golf course there.)

But Varadkar is still not happy and will not be handing over any photo-op shamrock.

Morning.
Just been to pick up my fresh fruit that I forgot to order online and am happy to see pretty full shelves locally.
Next town over the shops look like they've been hit by a plague of locusts!!
It's mum I'm worried about...she refused point blank to prep for no deal brexit despite having the money and storage space to do so. Sigh.
I wonder if the schools will close?
I guess dh could wfh

DS has just been to GP with son - who has some of the symptoms of Covid-19...... she did check she should take him in. She said because he hadn't been to a high risk country (I think that list is out of date) , didn't know if he had been in contact with anyone who has been in those countries. It was ruled out.
He goes to a big private school with lots of international students.

She felt the whole process was completely useless and inadequate

Given that we know there is community transmission there are loads of cases that will have been missed. You don't look , you don't find.

I am
Putting money on schools closing end of next week.
Think it should be this week

I hope the schools do not close. My finances are bad enough as it is.

Putting money on schools closing end of next week.

Given the chronic underfunding, some areas might not actually realise for a week.

Most school terms end on the 27th.
The Universities start breaking up tomorrow - but lots of students will stay put as they have nowhere else to go.
If the schools shut, older people will be at EVEN MORE risk as they will be roped into child care.

My (French) university held a meeting about health and safety today, moved forward from the 21st only because the unions insisted.

We've been told:
-all events involving over 50 people are to be cancelled, except lectures and classes
-all missions abroad or to cluster areas of France are to be cancelled

I really don't think this is being taken seriously enough.

Yep, I've all along wanted all the other measures like banning all social gatherings & events

• but not school closures

Some small DC may alternatively just be locked in the house all day or left to roam - many won't have willing GP - but also not great.

Worse consequences to the health service and other essential services as responsible parents - who get paid - stay home

Then there is the risk of turning the certain global recession into a Depression, at least in countries that go for total lockdown

There isn't much pressure in Germany as far as I can see to close schools or unis,
precisely because of the impact on the economy and essential services

However, we are taking social distancing seriously, as least in my area -
everyone well spread out even at gym, restaurants, shops

and I see phenomenal handwashing all around ! - just not only that

I expect if cases - more especially deaths - ramp up,
then the political pressure would presumably grow to do more,
but imo the surprisingly low death rate here is keeping things calm

Are your local U3A (University of the Third Age) still going too? As of today our Repas des Anciens is still on (usually about two thirds of the population of the commune). 😱

Oh FFS!

Dr Farage on ITV now telling us what to do about Covid19

(It's all the fault of foreigners, apparently.)

Dr Farage on ITV now telling us what to do about Covid19 [] (It's all the fault of foreigners, apparently.

Actually, there might be some value in that. If all the Farage fans refuse to be treated by foreigners, things might level out pretty quickly.

meanwhile in the US, Trump has declared all discussions about COVID secret. Guaranteed to prompt claims the US government is drawing up plans for eliminating vast swathes of the population.

At the same time, however, it emerged the White House was also ordering all deliberations over covid-19 to be considered classified, effectively restricting discussions to only those with a top secret classification.

(www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/11/white_house_coronavirus/)

Returning to the budget, apparently "borrowing is the right thing to do" says the chancellor of a party that based it's entire campaign on rubbishing Labours spending plans.

MissClimpson,
I don't know about the U3A, to be honest.

it emerged the White House was also ordering all deliberations over covid-19 to be considered classified, effectively restricting discussions to only those with a top secret classification.
The likes of Jared? Ach, sure, it'll all go really well.

Next town over the shops look like they've been hit by a plague of locusts!!

In addition to loo rolls and pasta (usually the first to go), the locusts have completely cleaned out all the eggs in my local Asda, which I found a bit surprising. Plenty of tins of beans and soup and veg available though. For once I remembered to get some for the food bank trolley, I’m feeling a bit worried about the potential impact of school closures

I wonder how well suspending the need for DBS checks would go down ?

I would imagine people with ill intent might have already had the same thought, and given themselves a head start ...

Nicola Sturgeon! Well I can't fault her for her bravery. A popular move, not so sure?!

www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/mar/12/trumps-travel-ban-wont-have-much-impact-on-spread-of-coronavirus-says-rishi-sunak-live-news

'big question mark” about whether large public events like football matches should continue to go ahead'.... er…

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/scottish-premiership/scores-fixtures

Old Firm game on this Sunday lunchtime and wee Nicola could be banning fans of fitba!!

Seen on the Guardian BTL today

'I read elsewhere in The Guardian the super rich might be retreating to their remote disaster bunkers. I feel I should remind people that concrete is only £80 tops per cubic metre, so it can't cost that much to infill the bunker entrances once the billionaires are in situ. It won't solve the covid19 problem but probably would solve many many other problems these individuals have caused society...'

In other news, shopping mall behemoth "InTu" are signalling distress. Seems they own far too many a lot of shopping centres in the UK.

Having worked in a company that was under the cosh of the CMA (who has had to prepare for a dawn raid on their company as SOP ?) I find myself idly wondering quite what it is they do. We're seeing far too many of these megacorps going from hero to zero with seismic consequences for everyone but the directors.

Given what we suspect is the true situation regarding CV-19 in the US, Trump might actually be doing the rest of the world a favour by cutting off travel to the USA

That's the Old Firm game cancelled - or at least,has to be played behind closed doors - as Nicola has announced that all gatherings of >500 have been banned.

Actually, SKY misreported that: Nicola has said that she is minded to cancel mass gatherings of 500 or more that require policing and ambulance cover.