Westminstenders: All bets are off

[RedToothBrush]

We are seeking an extension. Apparently. No prizes for guessing why.

There is no news but COVID news. And that's all there will be for a long time.

Enjoy your stockpile and your sunny uplands it brought.

Keep safe.

Oh Yoikes 💐 how terrible for you and your family

Thinking of you and your family yoikes

Yoikes- there are no words.......just virtual hugs

Born - what rough geographical area? Not that it really matters - I think we all have to presume and act as if it is everywhere

yoikes sending much love to you and your family xx

So very sorry Yoikes.

And unmumsnetty hugs for Grinchly too.

I mostly lurk but find great comfort in these intelligent threads. I'm 'at risk' and alone, which is mostly fine, but I'm valuing online company more and more. McDonnell was right about broadband wasn't he?

Also, whither HS2 now?

So sorry, Yoikes much love to your family and I will pray x

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies
[[https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage-coronavirus-covid-19-response
www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage-coronavirus-covid-19-response]]

Scientific evidence supporting the government response to COVID-19

Bore
One of the publications I read was pointing out that those of us with 'social media habits' are likely to cope better with self isolating than those without
as we are happy to chat away through a keyboard.

mrsl (S)WMidlands - Worcs.

You and your family are in my thoughts yoikes

DGR I admire your sunny optimism about the possibilities of what life or politics could look like post CV-19, but don't you remember about how the finanical / banking sector was going to be rehabilitated post Financial Crash?

Very well. But this is different. Now the globe is effectively locked down and populations pretty much everywhere are concerned for their own lives, I can't see us going back to pre-covid levels of globetrotting. Certainly not until there's a way to prevent anything like this ever happening again. That alone completely changes everything.

Once again, thoughts to @yoikes @Grinchlywords and any and all reading or lurking.

yoikes and prayers for you & your family

grinchly so glad you are feeling a bit better.

I’ve never stopped reading these threads (although I haven’t posted for ages due to many life changes) , they are always appreciated

I don't see a permanent change in mindset,
just a blip after BJ realised he couldn't get away with ½ million dead, which the previous strategy would have meant

It'll probably be 18 months until a vaccine
after which I expect it'll be back to the rich getting richer, at the expense of the poor

Globetrotting:
I see people still planning their holiday for summer / Autumn "after this is over"
as most haven't realised about the 18 months

If the vaccine is effective, holiday & business flights might resume as before
because the public's desire for foreign holidays has not yet diminished

BUT
it would mostly have to be after the global Depression has ended - how long ? -
because otherwise not many businesses and people would have the spare to go on what will probably be more expensive flights

I think there will be a change in terms of cheap flights, multiple holidays a year, stag and hen trips and the AirBnB mindset.
Possibly, depending on how long things last, a little less focus on instant gratification. (When I step off the WM threads and venture elsewhere on MN, I'm at some people's priorities and how accustomed everyone is to almost 24/7 service. Maybe in countries like Germany, Italy and France, which still have shorter opening hours, people are a bit less used to obtaining what they want immediately...)

The rich will mostly still be rich.

Maybe if the gvmt takes over all the private healthcare sector's beds and medical staff, those rich might feel a little more concerned about the NHS? Or maybe the luxury-bunker-complete-with-doctor-and ventilator building industry is the one to bet on?

Meh. We'll see...

yoikes and deepest sympathies for your aunt and family

grinchly glad you're feeling better

Auld
I mentioned to my kids (both back from Uni) that I thought that piss up weekends in Prague would not return

they both put me straight PDQ - they cannot WAIT to get back to partying

On the other hand, my daughter just found this ;-)

Oh yoikes there are no words.
And many thanks for the further good wishes and messages also.
Let us all stick together and support each other on this scary journey ahead as best we can.

Auld I read that the truly rich decamped (from many countries) with their own medical staff to their own safe little islands,
to wait out the plague from afar

"they cannot WAIT to get back to partying"

With what money ?

BigChoc
They are students. Debt means nothing to them as they will each start their working lives £50k in hock.

Listening : they are used to debt, but not to air fares being anything other than cheap.
They may well find that partying in Prague slides down the list of priorities when a depressed job market makes that debt a far greater burden than it once was.

@yoikes.

Everything will change, but it's going to be more subtle than we think.

I think the holidays will continue. Places like Spain and Italy want the tourism (although I suspect it will be capped)

I also think a lot of companies will cut back on business travel and homeworking will become the norm. This is positive, purely because a small amount of travellers (business) account for the majority of flight pollution.

Education will be VERY interesting to watch - a mass online homeschooling experiment. I am also going to wonder how this will affect the way we see homeschooling in the future, along with the insistence of 3 years on a campus at university.

In politics, the Tories have just blown up the economic theory they have followed for the past 10 years and admitted they quite like having a functioning health service. To the point they have co-opted all the private beds and staff. I find it deeply amusing that they have implemented some of the most radical points of Corbyn's manifesto, including train nationalisation in a few cases. UC remains utterly shit, but I think the Chancellor is going to regret moving all the pissed-off self-employed on it in the weeks to come. Never underestimate a freelancer with time on their hands.

That's just for starters. The way the EU responds to the Corvid Depression will be one to watch, as will the American response to depressed oil prices. Russia ignored OPEC to kill off the USA shale oil industry but he may have simply pushed investors into renewables instead.

I wonder what our world will look like after this?

I think some people will change their behaviours - travel less, be more community minded etc

But sadly - if current behaviours are anything to go by - most won't.

Thank you for your kind words. I can't bear to think of her dying alone....

TBH I hope that air fares NEVER return to dirt cheap levels
I hope that people fly mindfully
and that the mega tourist hotspots like Venice and Rome and Paris realise that less is sometimes more