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...

Meanwhile ...

www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2020/0401/1127912-eu-belfast/

UK refuses EU request for Belfast office

Brexit

Lewis Goodall@lewisgoodall

Have talked to officials across a number of depts in Whitehall.

As I reported on #Newsnight just now they are expecting an extension to the Brexit transition period.
One told me:

“if it doesn’t come I just don’t know what we’ll do- with coronavirus we realistically can’t do both”

Am told that senior civil servants in a number of departments are in the process of impressing upon their respective ministers,
the difficulties that no Brexit transition extension would generate.

Other scenario civil servants think possible is
a deal which is basically an extension.

An agreement where both sides agree to extend current arrangements in a whole host of areas, with what replaces them to be decided much later.

< but can all those Tory Leave donors make enough money out of that ? >

Also, re extension:

The EU will be mounting a huge economic rescue package, although it won't be as much as Italy & co are demanding
(Germans don't want to pay for everyone after their own economy has been badly hit)

Hence the contributions that the UK would be required to pay could rise substantially,
so the govt might decide against

Of course, opting out would also mean the end of significant UK influence on the continent for many years.

It's a very real possibility that the UK ends up paying into the EU while bound to existing arrangements, while not having a say in anything. Arguably the brexiteers nightmare scenario ? Because it's laying a platform for a future campaign to say "well if we are paying and have to follow the rules, where is our say ?"

It all depends when the next pandemic hits really. If the rumours I saw about the Chinese having discovered bear bile is a C-19 cure are true, It won't be far off. It would have been nice to have had a year or so respite, but it seems China's gonna China.

I wonder at what point the US will openly admit it deeply regrets forcing China to end it's isolation ? With the UK nodding besides saying We are very sorry

Remembering the post yesterday about plagues and locusts

That’s been doing the biblical nutjob conspiracy theory rounds for a while (it’s 2 Chronicles 13-14).

erm, I wasn't suggesting there was anything in it... just to be clear.

The anti-globalists have a lot of ammunition right now

Bringing back those like the Zombie Farage ?

The usual MNers still saying "thank god Corbyn & Abbot aren't in charge" 🤦🏻‍♀️
Despite my lack of enthusiasm for Corbyn he'd be hard-pressed to cockup any worse

All that diversion to an alternate reality in which that idiot was PM, instead of concentrating on the idiot who actually is PM

Now they'll switch to demonising Starmer ?
(presuming he gets in - massive shock if not)

Lewis Goodall@lewisgoodall

NEW: Ballots have closed in the Labour Party leadership contest.

It’s over.

Should also just remind ourselves that the contest wasn’t actually that long, in the grand scheme of things

• not so unusual for a party leadership race.

There were those at the start who argued it should be longer still.

It wasn’t so much the length-it was just quite...dull.

Why was the Labour leadership contest so dull?

-no jeopardy, result was predictable early on
-no insurgency candidate
-unwillingness of candidates to have a fight
-Covid 19 made it hard to campaign/made it all seem quite trivial, quite quickly
(even though it isn’t)

The hegemony of Starmer, from so early on,

made it difficult for the contest to in any way really engage with the problems of questions the party is facing

-he was so dominant, he wanted to focus on unity and that’s really as far as it went.

@AuldAlliance

S'okay, didn't have you down as a conspiracy theory nutter

I'm sure there's a bible passage for every eventuality.

Or a Shakespeare quote...

"Brexit: Do or Die."

Looks like we won't be doing but will be dying.

Useful planner for German health services

Shows that currently 80% of ICU beds are still available in Germany, even with nearly 80,000 confirmed cases 🤔

Hence why they felt able to take in patients from Italy and France

• they expect that the need for beds for German patients will continue to rise for weeks, though

Anyone have a figure for NHS bed availability and is there a similar UK central planner, at least for NHS personnel to use ? 🤔

https://www.zeit.de/wissen/2020-04/krankenhaeuser-kapazitaeten-coronavirus-patienten-deutschland/seite-2

..... the scientists and doctors defined three important categories for the treatment of Covid-19:
low care, high care and ECMO.

Low care
means that ventilation with a face mask is possible on the bed,
which means that normal breathing is supported by oxygen.

High care
refers to a ventilation area that builds up pressure in the lungs through a tube pushed into the trachea and takes over the ventilation completely.

The patient is in an artificial coma.

ECMO stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

It is the most expensive treatment for patients whose lungs are already badly damaged.

Blood of the affected person is processed outside of their body in a machine with oxygen, colloquially the machine is also called artificial lungs.

The new statistics can indicate for all three categories at any time how many places are available and how many are occupied.

This not only helps the health authorities and politics. In particular, hospitals and emergency services can see at any time which free beds are still available in their region and where they can take patients.
"The intensive care bed register is the central control element,"says epidemiologist Grabenhenrich.

.

Trump is dumb. He does not understand the science.
Pence is a religious bigot. He wants to actively undermine the science.
Pence is much more dangerous than Trump.

All that capacity - and Germany will stay in lockdown until at least 19 April

Pence does not posses the one gift that Trump truly has, the only way in which Trump is a genius:

The ability to call out the very worst from large numbers of people and hypnotise them into following him like a psycho Pied Piper

Pence is just a standard bible-thumper employed by the rich to thump the poor

He doesn't have that one amazing talent of Trump for demagoguery

I had a bad shock, I read another thread and thought it was this thread for some reason and couldn't believe the nonsense being spouted.
Put up a graph and the realized my mistake much to my relief.

I disagree with Pence on pretty much everything but he has seemed a great deal more competent than Trump over C19.
I was particularly un thrilled at being told to wrap a scarf around my face going out, as there are no masks.
I've dragged my sewing machine out of hiding and am making some. I know they are fairly useless but at least I cannot touch my mouth with one on.

Agree with you LQ Trump chose wisely in terms of selecting someone that no one actually wants to be POTUS.

Midwest this is not to say that Pence is not smarter than Trump, but that wouldn't be a difficult reach. Just to say that his true religious beliefs would be scarier than Trump's pretend beliefs.

BigChoc
Under US Law, if Trump is indisposed/dies, Pence becomes POTUS till November by default.
That is a bad thing
His speaking skills are irrelevant.
Its the hand on the levers of power (he's a darwinian who does not believe in health care for the poor or women's rights or climate change) that would be so scary

We've seen on MN too that older people say they'd rather die than have this economic disaster

However, they say they'd rather die than lose their money, that they've built up over years and younger posters say they don't want to suffer lockdown or job loss for what they consider low risk to them

well Ive also seen young people saying its easy for the older ones to say everyone should stay at home when they (the older generation) are the ones with the stable income - their pension - a house (no risk of being evicted) and the savings (thanks to being part of the babyboomers generation) when, as the younger generation they have ....fuck all.....

Its not an issue about having generations fighting against each other and each side wanting to 'impose' their side of the sort to others.
Its about some people been unable to LISTEN to the worries about other groups. Its about one group deciding that THEIR worries (and their way of seeing things) is more important.
Its like saying that SE and people having a business just want to go back to work and have no care for the more vulnerables etc....

To say things bluntly, if people carry on banging about loss of life and how we should protect the most vulnerable wo actually ALSO addressing the MAJOR impact this lockdown is going to have on the rest of the population, then it IS going to become an epxlosive situation.
Because said elderly will be protected (just like with brexit) from the economic consequences of the lockdown. And it might well be that this is actually the right thing to do. But to say to the ones who are working, have lost their ncome, struggle to buy food etc... that tough luck, they shoud just get on with it is crap imo.

Once again, actually being able to put ourselves into each other shoes goes a long way. So YY to 'younger' people, SE etc to put themselves into the shoes of the more vulnerable and elderly. But I expect the most vulnerable and retired to ALSO put themselves into the shoes of the ones who have or are losing everything, the ones who see their future disappearing (both with the CV-19 AND brexit) and acknowledge that they have a hell of a lot to loose and have very good grouns to be extremely worried.

This btw should be done at a national level, through a national discussion, both at the level of the politicians and at a personal level. What IS the plan to support the economy and the people? How can we ensure a better redistribution of wealth? What sort of economy do we want, one that is actually sustainable in the long term (and thinking about the environment too)? How are we going to deal with unemployment and inflation? Like we've always done with a tough luck aproach and "this is our fault anyway. You shoud be creating the job if you dont find it" type of answer maybe
Not addressing the fears of the big part of the population, the one that works and brings the wealth to the country is a big mistake imo. Because angry, hungry and disappointed people makes for an explosive situation.

Under US Law, if Trump is indisposed/dies, Pence becomes POTUS till November by default.

Only if he is Veep. A position that is the the gift of the president, if I remember my constitution ? The same memory that reminds me there is no way to delay or postpone the presidential elections no matter how many states may or may not have a functioning electoral machine.

DGR
But he IS the VP, until November.

If Trump is indisposed when the polling papers are printed the GOP will have to - in the technical parlance - get its ass in gear

If for any reason Trump is unable to stand in November the sound of popcorn makers will be heard from this side of the pond

I wonder if Johnson is going to make him the godfather (like Murdoch did with Blair)

Mockers your talents are wasted here (other than providing a much needed smile). You need to volunteer for Labour or any of the other political parties to help them create convincing soundbites / 3 word phrases .

But he IS the VP, until November.

In normal times I wouldn't thank anyone forcing me to revise my USC ...

US VP cannot be dismissed by POTUS - possibly one of the few roles that can't.