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?

Pretty now that's a garden that's good for the soul.

Squid I fear that the mental health of those on the front line is being very much overlooked (no change there I guess)

Squid Sounds like it must feel a bit like the calm before the storm. Best of luck

Meanwhile, for those wjo haven't forgotten about Brexit:

Michel Barnierr@MichelBarnier*

We’ve sent a draft agreement on new  partnership to EP & Council for discussion.

It shows ambitious & comprehensive future relationship is possible.
We must give ourselves every chance of success.

We will publish the text after our exchanges & look forward to working w/

Squid, take care of yourself if you can

Anyone else noticing an uptick in "I don't trust the government - and certainly not with my children" postings around here ?

Oops his flags didn't paste:

Michel Barnierr@MichelBarnier

We’ve sent a draft agreement on new 🇪🇺 🇬🇧partnership to EP & Council for discussion.

It shows ambitious & comprehensive future relationship is possible.
We must give ourselves every chance of success.

We will publish the text after our exchanges & look forward to working w/🇬🇧

Agree DGR and in real life too, but if you point out they voted for them you just get silence!
Thanks for the new thread RTB and to Squid it’s just the worse thing possible for the already on the edge NHS (and staff).

"Anyone else noticing an uptick in "I don't trust the government - and certainly not with my children" postings around here ?"

I think the "many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time” has seriously scared a lot of people
and sying it's not like flu.

Even though it didn't refer to children, BJ for the first time talked of many deaths

However, the longterm dedicated Tory posters have switched seamlessly from

"it's no worse than flu, you're all scare-mongering"
to
"it's inevitable we'll have many deaths; nothing we can do"

If official government response is weak, then people, employers and organisations may take things into their own hands and limit movement/participation. They won't want the responsibility of not doing so.

My DC has just been told by the Uni to bring home plenty of work/reading/revision home for the Easter holidays in case they can't go back just after Easter.

squid Lowest numbers I've seen in A&E for years.
I wondered last week whether all this extra cleanliness/precautions would reduce the number of normal flu cases. And if people being indoors more/ trying to be careful would reduce other things like accidents. There'll be fewer football matches etc too.

@mrslaughan Yes we're two weeks behind Italy, aren't we? So if Johnson thinks the peak for us may be midsummer, then that would suggest Italy hasn't even reached the peak yet? But China are on the other side of it already??

I'm trying to second-guess the experts, which I shouldn't!

Scottish Rugby suspends all rugby from 6pm on Sunday

Thank you for new thread
for squid

I think the "many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time” has seriously scared a lot of people

Now that is the most scary thing. Scared people tend not to think or act rationally. I'm sure posters here have imagination enough to picture a tragic toilet roll tussle in a supermarket with tempers amped up to the max

Always with an indignant tone that we dare criticise the govt
We should keep debating, despite their annoyance

I hope the govt are correct, but I fear they aren't, given the difference to the WHO mainstream

However, we just don't know if this strategy will give a comparable number of total deaths within the next couple of years to France, Spain, Italy, Germany

Is BJ pushing the strategy, or Whitty

• or does Whitty think the end results won't be different enough for him to speak out against ?

Another 208 cases in the UK today. (798)
And Bolsonaro has tested positive. He dined with Trump on Saturday.

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/mar/13/coronavirus-live-updates-uk-us-australia-italy-europe-school-shutdown-share-markets-sport-events-cancelled-latest-update-news#block-5e6b923f8f085c6327bbf52f

DG Think of increased aggression by terrified relatives in A&E,
even around ICU if they think, rightly or wrongly, their loved one needs a bed there

Think of increased aggression by terrified relatives in A&E

Well, if you are going to get into a fight, A&E is probably the best place for it.

Last remaining 6 Nations game, Wales v Scotland, has now been postponed.

Reports that Bolsonaro has tested positive. He was with trump at the weekend.

Spanish take on it ...

Oh and Italy vs. EU ...

www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/not-a-single-eu-country-responded-to-italian-plea-for-help-with-coronavirus

A top Italian official knocked the European Union for leaving Italy’s plea for medical assistance unanswered while the coronavirus outbreak cripples the country.

Italy’s permanent representative to the EU, Maurizio Massari, wrote an op-ed in Politico on Tuesday asking for aid from EU members. The Italian official said that while the EU has ignored Italy’s requests for aid, China has begun assisting Italy bilaterally.

(contd)

(tad taken aback that Clav missed an open goal like that. Or has Russia self-isolated it's internet ?)

The EU itself, i.e. the Commission & EP etc
doesn't have the power to do anything much in a pandemic

• maybe that will change now, especially with the UK unable to block it ?^ Add another EU competency to be centralised ?

China is some weeks past its peak, so has a lot of spare gear free to donate,
whereas the crisis is high and ramping up all the time in Europe - so no individual country dares donate anything

Thanks red

Very moving. Locked down Italians singing together from their balconies.

May we all find some humanity and togetherness in this scary and divisive crisis.

mobile.twitter.com/RachelDonadio/status/1238366924704305153

Re CV19, maybe we need to be a bit more objective about it all.

The Wuhan/Hubei area represents about 60 million people, the same than france, the Uk etc...
There has been overall 5000 deaths, only 3062 in hubei.

so why are we all worried that there will be 250.000 people dying in the uk and in france and.. and...
Unless our healthcare system is so much worse than the chinese (and we dont take ANY reasonnable measures to contain the epidemy), it shouldnt be the case. Esp as so many people have been ever so quick to dismiss both the chinese healthcare system AND the way they reacted to the epidemy (too slow) AND the fact not everyone who was infected has been counted (which we dont either).

If we go by numbers only (and assuming we are as 'good' as the chinese to deal with an epidemy), then surely the number of deaths shouldnt exceed 3000~4000 in the UK?

Re CV19, maybe we need to be a bit more objective about it all

Whilst that may be true, there are plenty of other threads you could have offered that pearl of wisdom to before us swine ....