Westministenders: The Virus

[RedToothBrush]

Its like living in a Bad Disaster B Movie.

If you thought Brexit on your TV every day was Bad, The Virus is a whole new level.

The 5pm broadcast with Johnson and friends, and the public infomation video with the unblicking Chris Witty (who has such unfortunate mannerism he makes me think he's me a Dr Who alien akin to the Slitheen).

Who knows what will happen. Just that everything has changed and our entire economy is now on life support whilst we figure out how to deal with the crisis and what on earth our exit strategy is.

Johnson has however refused to join a joint EU purchase scheme designed to assist countries through the crisis.

Meanwhile the US is about to go nuts... so what does that do to a trade deal?

More money for the NHS? More hospitals?

Well its possible that might just happen...

Urgh, lockdown for at least 3 weeks more in Germany, but now we know the official criteria for relaxing this

• and what the health system can handle

Merkel - "Be patient"
(my translations)

https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/coronavirus-deutschland-209.html

"Almost all Germans have changed their behavior;
Thank you - thank you from the bottom of my heart
.....
"Unfortunately, the daily numbers of new infections do not yet give us any reason to relax, or relax the rules.

One goal is that the number of new infections only double every 10 days so as not to overwhelm the health system.

Currently, however, this is already the case after 5 ½ days, so the increase is still far too high."

=======
Chancellor Minister Helge Braun:

"We are not talking about any relaxation [of lockdown] before April 20"

Opinion polls show support in Germany for lockdown remains around 95%

but let's see in 3 more weeks - if deaths haven't fallen below that target - if there is still support to continue

Merkel's CDU party & her CSU allies, plus the SPD, die Linke, Greens fully support lockdown

The small FDP (liberals) have always been the most economically rightwing (but the most socially liberal)
so no surprise they were as lukewarm as they dared about lockdown and now want it to end asap

Any companies / owners who decided to minimise their UK tax liabilities can naturally only expect any help based on UK tax paid

It's not looking good for the cruise companies. Neither Liberia nor the Bahamas have yet announced any bailout measures.

(And cue Joan Armourplating: You're going to reap, just what you sow....)

Mockers
There is an idea rumbling around some accountancy forums that countries without transparent company ownership registers are no longer deemed valid for company asset transfers
which would kill the offshore finance industry in no time
and pull loads of those mountains of cash back into circulation in the real world economies of countries suffering covid

It will be interesting to see what Rishi does
as he'll want to ramp up the tax take over the coming years
and multinationals are an easy tap
especially if he removes their hiding place
many of the worst offender countries are UK former colonies

Looks like we need those EE workers after all ....

www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/28/fruit-and-veg-will-run-out-unless-britain-charters-planes-to-fly-in-farm-workers-from-eastern-europe

Charter flights to bring in agricultural workers from eastern Europee^ are needed as a matter of urgency, otherwise fruit and vegetables will be left unpicked in Britain’s fields,
the government is being warned.

Some large farms have already been chartering planes to bring in labour from eastern Europe.

But farming organisations and recruitment agencies say that, in the face of massive disruption to the agricultural sector caused by the spread of the coronavirus, the government needs to step in and help organise more flights.

Some 90,000 positions need to be filled, many in just a few weeks’ time.

Looks like the UK can't reap enough .....

Some large farms have already been chartering planes to bring in labour from eastern Europe.

Whatever happened to the promise of UK borders being closed ?

Where are these labourers being held in quarantine ?

Just heard that Trump has claimed the first thing Johnson said to him was we needed ventilators. Made it sound a lot more panicky than the press conferences suggest. It is Trump though so 🤷‍♀️

countries without transparent company ownership registers

My subscription to Private Eye leads me to believe the UK is one of them.

So fed up with gloomy news so I decided to get the pencils out

Trouble is I only gave two pencils and a bit of grubby putty rubber and I'm not allowed out!( Sigh).

*have not gave

Quite, BurneyFanny

France has said that they are going to track the number of deaths in EHPAD (care homes) more accurately. Some serious catch-up going on... Will mean a big hike in figures when that is effective.

Seems odd to change the clocks when time has become rather an abstract concept over the last 2 weeks of confinement.

My sister in law works in a EHPAD. It sounds utterly grim at the best of times.

If that's your sketching, I'm very impressed, sos

Some timely lights are being shone into the grimmer aspects of life in various countries.
EHPAD and others.

Nice sketches, Sos

Burney Ah, another Eye reader :-)
The UK has a transparent Company register
what it does not have is

• enforcement
• appropriate rules around LLPs

BUT young Rishi will be in a very powerful position in that those who want him to print money have to be balanced against those who will elect him

and I was recently chatting to more people who have had dealings with him and he's apparently very likeable
and he's so rich he cannot be bought
so the dangle of directorships is worth nowt

young Rishi will be in a very powerful position in that those who want him to print money have to be balanced against those who will elect him

Of course years of inflation would be one way to make us all pay for those bailouts ...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/28/covid-19-may-be-peaking-in-parts-of-spain-says-official

Spanish government has tightened up its national lockdown,
ordering all non-essential workers to stay at home for the next two weeks

Chris Packham begins legal case to halt HS2

Has more ammo now:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/27/chris-packham-begins-legal-case-to-halt-hs2-amid-coronavirus-crisis

“Contractors are coming in from all over the country, mixing and paying absolutely no attention to social distancing rules.

At the Crackley compound, we’ve had contractors from Bedford, Swindon, Liverpool, Peterborough, Preston and Birmingham.”

Sky news @skynews
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe 'being considered for clemency' in Iran as leave from prison extended
news.sky.com/story/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-being-considered-for-clemency-in-iran-as-leave-from-prison-extended-11965152

Solving the loo roll shortage

Coronavirus: 30 million households to receive letter from PM warning 'things will get worse before they get better' ' http://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-30-million-households-to-receive-letter-from-pm-warning-things-will-get-worse-before-they-get-better-11965131

Bcf the peak for the UK was supposed to be mid May. That's now been pushed earlier to 12th April. That's some two weeks away. Germany is supposed to be ahead of us slightly. But the peak means we've only done half the distance in effect.

The relaxing of rules in Germany before the end of April, never mind the 20th, is therefore unlikely.

The UK is looking like June at the earliest in my opinion. And I think that's on the optimistic side at this point.

Let us sincerely hope this is true for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. It will be one positive to take from the current crisis.

From Spain to Germany, Farmers Warn of Fresh Food Shortages

I've been worried about this year's crops and farm workers

Looks like continental Europe will have little if any spare to sell to the UK
.... 55% of fresh fruit & veg is imported from the EU

Wholesale prices of flour, rice, beef are rising --> expect hefty price rises, shortages and much less range of choice

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-27/from-spain-to-germany-farmers-warn-of-fresh-food-shortages?sref=0klsF1YE