Westminstenders: A test of logistic planning

[RedToothBrush]

We are witnessing a demonstration in Government crisis management.

For the past week journalists have asked the same questions and politicians have said they've already done it / are doing it in the near future. But as time wears on, the inability to produce the answers or demonstrate results is proving illusive.

This will have consequences.

It is a demonstration in how planning has proved to be lacking in certain areas.

With Brexit in mind, the lack of vision, coordination with business and wider capability and capacity this does not bode well.

She hasn't had a test has she? At least not officially.

I'm glad she's on the mend. Boris was utterly feckless a few weeks ago playing at being Mr Shaky Hands man.

Sky reporting a 5 year old has died. Holding my two under 5s extra tight now.

That answers my question about whether or not I'll be disinfecting my shopping this evening. I didn't want to go there but this has tipped me over.

Oh fair enough, me leaping to an anti-Tory conclusion then.

Gabriel Pogrundd@Gabriel*_Pogrund

NEW: I'm told Keir Starmer is likely to appoint:

Anneliese Dodds as shadow chancellor
Nick Thomas-Symonds as shadow home secretary
Jo Stevens as foreign secretary

Not finalised.
But that trio was "100%" discussed in Team Starmer this week.

Professor Graham Medley of Imperial College London, the government’s chief pandemic modeller, says the country has “painted itself into a corner” as it battles the deadly bug with no clear exit plan.

He said the UK needed to face the trade-off between harming the young versus the old.
(From RTB's post of Sat 04-Apr-20 09:38:21, quoting Graham Medley).

But in that case...Brexit?

Never mind.

Professor Graham Medley of Imperial College London, the government’s chief pandemic modeller, says the country has “painted itself into a corner” as it battles the deadly bug with no clear exit plan.

I see a pattern emerging.

Anneliese Dodds did have some Finance role before, didn't she?

I am just so glad Starmer has won. DH is not, he joined the party and voted for Wrong-Bailey. The last thing we need now is a continuation of Corbynism. Many of Corbyn's policies were fine, as indeed the Tories have now found out because they are copying them wholesale, but he just wasn't PM material.

(Neither is Johnson, but we are stuck with him until the Tories see him as a liability and then he will be despatched in short order.)

I am led to understand that Rachel Reeve is a shoe-in for Shadow Chancellor.

I am also led to understand that the five y/o who died was already ill with something else.

I wonder how long it will take before the US experiences a military/ judicial/ Romney wing of the GOP coup that will be widely supported. I think there is a limit to the amount of bullshit the armed forces will take from this president. I have a suspicion that the sacking of Captain Crozier for his demonstration of honour and strong leadership is being entered in a ledger somewhere.

If I was Carrie, having my DP unnecessarily exposing both me and my unborn child to a deadly virus because it suited his ego to be the BMOC for the media, would be the last straw.

Professor Graham Medley of Imperial College London, the government’s chief pandemic modeller, says the country has “painted itself into a corner” as it battles the deadly bug with no clear exit plan.

Wasn't a problem with Brexit though. Or Iraq.

math The GOP had their chance to get rid of Trump by voting for impeachment

Too late to go through that now and we've already seen they'd rather have that maniac than risk a Democratic
Sadly, the country is very polarised and nearly all GOP voters would still choose him rather than let in even a Biden

There seems no end to the damage Trump has done to the USA

this crisis has revealed many egregious errors , as below,
.... but what other errors would have been revealed by different crises ?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/04/coronavirus-us-ventilators-new-york-trump-touts-unproven-cure-malaria-drug

White House has repeatedly claimed it has 10,000 ventilators in a strategic national stockpile.

However, states have reported some of those ventilators are unusablee*, after the Trump administration failed to ensure the stockpile was properly maintained

I doubt that anyone would tell that 5-yr-old's mum:

"he would have been dead in a year anyway

Stolen from FB:

A RECAP OF THE LAST THREE WEEKS

AMERICA: Oh my god! Coronavirus! What should we do?

CALIFORNIA: Shut down your state.

AMERICA: Wait... what? Why?

CALIFORNIA: Because 40 million people live here and we did it early, and it’s working.

NEBRASKA: Whoa... whoa... let’s not be hasty now. The President said that this whole coronavirus thing is a Democratic hoax.

CALIFORNIA: He also said that windmills cause cancer. Shut down your state.

TEXAS: But the President said that we only have 15 cases and soon it'll be zero.

CALIFORNIA: The President can’t count to fifteen nor even spell it. Shut down your state.

NEW JERSEY: Us too?

CALIFORNIA: Yes, you guys too. Just like when Christie shut down the bridge, but it’s your whole state.

FLORIDA: But what about all these kids here on spring break?? They spend a lot of money here!

CALIFORNIA: Those kids invented the Tide pod challenge. Shut down your state.

LOUISIANA: But wait let’s have Mardi Gras first. It entertains people.

CALIFORNIA: It also kills them. Shut it down.

GEORGIA: Ok well how about we keep the state open for all of our mega churches? Maybe we can all pray really hard until the coronavirus just goes away!

CALIFORNIA: Which is working like a charm for mass shootings.
Jesus told us to tell you to shut down your state.

OKLAHOMA: What about the tigers?

CALIFORNIA: What about a dentist. Shut it down.

WYOMING: Hold up, maybe we should go county by county like the president said.

CALIFORNIA: Stop acting like there are counties in Wyoming. There are no counties in Wyoming. Wyoming is a county. Shut it down.

PENNSYLVANIA: But big coal.

CALIFORNIA: But big death. Shut it.

WEST VIRGINIA: But we were the last state to get coronavirus!

CALIFORNIA: And don’t make us explain to you why that was. Shut it down.

NORTH CAROLINA: But the Republican National Convention is coming here!

CALIFORNIA: SHUT... OK, fine, do what you want.

• Colleen Sullivan

Thank you for posting this, Shelly Keiko. I don’t know who Colleen Sullivan is, but she is brilliant!! 😂

Anyone seen this thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3871095-History-Repeats-itself

Shame that level of critical analysis wasn't in play during the referendum ...

DG More people are at home now with nothing to do but check things on Tinternet

Many people were too busy during the ref campaign to realise it was important to sit down and dig out information

btw, this might give a higher chance than usual of governments around the world being held to account for their cockups:

Most people now are locked up, looking for something to do and many are reading - and thinking - far more than they ever did before

Maybe a danger that govts haven't yet realised:

they've given - forced - too many people to stay home and pause their lives,
a long pause in which they might read and think about things,
instead of the endless treadmill of commuting, work, school runs, activities, clubbing etc

1 month ago today, the Uk had ZERO deaths (registered at least) from COVID

Now 4,313 total
And still in exponential growth

I read something that absolutely gobsmacked me this morning.

Many American doctors and nurses are being forced to accept pay CUTS due to the fall in lucrative elective procedures. Some are even being laid off.

If that doesn't tell you how broken their system is, and how forcefully the U.K. must resist Americanisation of the NHS, nothing will.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/04/uk-risks-losing-offer-of-400000-covid-19-testing-kits-a-week

Crises, what crises?

MaxNormal if the photo at the top of that article is correct, the ‘test kits’ discussed (I notice that this is not clarified in the text) are probably not the sort that will detect an active infection. Those look like the antibody kits that will tell you whether a person has immunity. As I understand that the antibodies don’t show up for a considerable time after a person is infected, these tests won’t help much with the spread of infection. So I would take it with a pinch of salt, personally.

My understanding is that it's the antibody tests which are houng to be vital I'm managing the pandemic as lockdown is lifted.

Interesting explanation of why there continues to be a flour shortage.

https://inews.co.uk/news/consumer/why-no-flour-supermarkets-baking-uk-coronavirus-lockdown-explained-2528688

The bread flour I managed to buy this week came in plastic bags that had been repackaged by a local bakery and were being sold by a local greengrocer.

Reading about Starmer's win yesterday and I came across these two sentences:

Amid the public's coronavirus concern, it's not party politics as usual. Conservative Party opinion poll ratings have soared to 50%, as the public rallies round the men and women in charge.

Soared 50%?! Over this shambolic lack of management of a deadly virus and NHS staff getting ill and dying due to lack of PPE? How is that possible? Yes, I really ought to know by now, but it hit home (again) just how much people's opinions are shaped by which media they consume. And until v recently, most of the papers probably lauded gov't handling of the crisis.

You have to hand it to Cummings, he saw what was needed to win power referendums and elections: control over messaging. A New Frontiers Foundation (which he ran) posted a blog back in 2004 said that the Tories needed: "1) the undermining of the BBC’s credibility; 2) the creation of a Fox News equivalent / talk radio shows / bloggers etc to shift the centre of gravity; 3) the end of the ban on TV political advertising..." And, of course, no need to ban TV political advertising thanks to the like of FB etc. now.