Westminstenders: Events...

[RedToothBrush]

Events have taken over. EU / UK negotiation have been put on ice due to covid-19.

The US has banned all travel from Europe - apart from to the uk and Ireland - in a manner which is highly political to drive wedges.

The effects of leaving the European Medicines Agency may be much more serious than anyone could have anticipated.

There's a oil price war going on between Saudi Arabia and Russia which has further driven market fears led by covid-19.

There the crisis in Turkey with Syrian refugees which is also distracting the EU.

We are facing lockdown and economic turmoil over the next weeks and months.

Johnson is having his leadership moment with deaths projected to possibly exceed UK WW2 deaths.

We are desperately trying to recruit negotiators as it's suddenly become apparent we don't have enough to carry out all the trade deals we want.

The civil service will be stretched to its limited by covid-19. Yet we also have Brexit to consider.

Where next? How bad are things going to get?

Well I definitely don't want a JLR - the electronics in my car are completely unreliable and have a mined of their own!!!

Well SOS they said last week they are only testing in hospital now. Could be people that they put there tests to the back of the queue and only just got their results?

I am not sure - but scary

Panic Over

JCB, Brexit Teachers Pets, are going to make ventilators out of bits of old digger.

You vote for monkeys, you get shit flung at you.

Looks like advice in Scotland is going to start to diverge from WM/English advice

Over 70s to be advised only to reduce social contact, not to totally self-isolate.

Coronavirus: 'Reduce social contact' plans for over-70s https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-51898288

mrslaughan. Yes it is scary because if 1300 deteriote and need ventilators ( and beds) wtf will it be like next week?

UK coronavirus crisis 'to last until spring 2021 and could see 7.9m hospitalised'

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/uk-coronavirus-crisis-to-last-until-spring-2021-and-could-see-79m-hospitalised

The coronavirus epidemic in the UK will last until next spring and could lead to 7.9 million people being hospitalised,
a secret Public Health England (PHE) briefing for senior NHS officials reveals.

an estimated 500,000 of the 5 million people deemed vital because they work “in essential services and critical infrastructure”
will be off sick at any one time during a month-long peak of the epidemic.
The 5 million include 1m NHS staff and 1.5 million in social care.
....
From now on only the very seriously ill who are already in hospital and people in care homes and prisons where the coronavirus has been detected will get tested.
Testing services are under such strain that even NHS staff will not be swabbed,

And Matt Hancock is pretty much begging for anyone who can make respirators to sell them to us as since we left the EU we don't get priority.

www.bbc.com/news/live/world-51895276

The European Union has announced a series of measures to pool resources among its 27 members
in order to help to fight coronavirus and protect national health services across the Continent.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, said the aim was to ramp up the production of protective equipment like masks and suits,
and to prevent it being exported outside of the bloc without authorisation from EU governments.

Under the measures, equipment would be shared across EU members instead of each country making it for their own use.

Having watched the poor Spanish lady that had lost her hubby to the virus and has it herself surrounded by her children after being kicked out of hospital because though she was having trouble breathing she was not ' ill' enough really put the wind up me!

Aeroplane companies, rail companies all clamouring for money aide. Wtf do they think these billions will come from???

US CDC now recommending to event organisers that events with more than 50 people are cancelled or postponed for the next 8 weeks.

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/large-events/mass-gatherings-ready-for-covid-19.html

If you want a sign that the end of the world is nigh then I think MGM closing its Vegas casinos is up there.

The world is in Mass panic!

Everything happening all at once.

I've been spending a little time on CV19 threads. Yikes
Schools all closed here, along with restaurants and bars. Lots of talk of doing our duty for the sake of the greater good. Nothing but contempt for the spray tanned fool of a president and his arse licking sidekick who have been sidelined into irrelevance by individual state governors; thank goodness for state powers is all I can say.

YY to gorse blossoms smelling of coconut - we had one near the front gate when I was a child and it was gorgeous to walk past it on a warm day.

The CV threads on here are scary. What will it take?

And where is Johnson?

I think they could be loans Sos , to see them through the worst of the crisis ?

And where is Johnson?

I was pondering this morning how Theresa May would have handled all this. (I'm not sure if that's a relevant use of brain space given the end of the world seems nigh. There have even been increased locust plagues in Africa, with global warming how many more signs do we need fgs.)

Must focus on cats and gorse...

Where is BJ?

Still boycotting GMB, R4 and Andrew Neil in a fit of post-Brexit pique.

Had a very upset dfil on the phone last night regarding self-isolation for over seventies. He was in tears.

And he's one of the ones who could, feasibly, do it (at this stage, anyway).

He's in reasonable health (although would probably be classed as having 'underlying health conditions') independent, doesn't require care, tech savvy enough to face time, do an online shop, and has enough family around to drop anything off he needs.

But four months on your own...I've done a week and it's been shit, but of course rather that then people dying.

I told him to wait and see what is actually said and if it even comes in before getting too upset about it, and I didn't think it would be as extreme as people were making out. Although I am glad he is taking it seriously.

I know bugger all about such issues, but how easy is it for a fully automated JCB plant to switch to making ventilators?

I know bugger all about such issues, but how easy is it for a fully automated JCB plant to switch to making ventilators?

Short answer is they can't.

Long answer is they sniff a contract and remember Grayling and the ferry co. with no ships. Expectations of favourable treatment from BJ based on his track record as Mayor.

At most, JCB could make the box and try to source the components.

Thanks. I thought the JCB guy's comments last night (which I can't now find, but were along the lines of "we don't usually make ventilators but are very proud to be part of this project") meant pretty much that.

I know bugger all about such issues, but how easy is it for a fully automated JCB plant to switch to making ventilators?

The sort answer is: they can’t.
A longer answer:

• JCB isn’t fully automated
• the equipment used to manufacture a truck engine, a JCB etc... is totally different.
• the people on the line aren’t trained and wouodnt know what to do
• and even if they had managed to build one, they wouldn’t have all the quality control and safety check available (and the knowledge to do them) to be able to give/sell them to the NHS. Who would want a ventilator that hasn’t got through quality control and therefore has t been checked for safety??

news.sky.com/story/most-world-airlines-could-be-bankrupt-by-end-of-may-aviation-consultancy-11958150

Most world airlines could be bankrupt by end of May - aviation consultancy
The warning comes after many countries around the world closed borders or placed extra restrictions on arrivals.

German govt ordered massive ramping up of production of ventilators, masks etc
... from firms who make them

afaik, they have not enquired at VW, Opel etc

Ventilators are apparently not simple, so would require production lines to be retooled or built new
and before that the tools would have to be made, CAD bods would have to define the design etc