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.

If you look at flight radar the number of flights is vastly down, although the Beluga for Airbus is still flying between Toulouse and Chester. Looking at Heathrow on the Radar just now, there are three planes over the airfield. Normally when you go there they land and take off one after the other.

I was out of the country when the first panic hit and the shelves were stripped bare of loo rolls, but I notice now that gaps are appearing on the supermarket shelves of things which weren't supposed to be in short supply.

Gove self isolating ?

Heathrow is the UK’s largest port by value of goods. It’s unlikely to shut down cargo flights.

I love this

Gove self-isolating because a family member has it.

Is it wrong to hope the pound shop Lady Macbeth might be out of action for a while?

mrslaughlan I know a lot of people who are self employed and they are terrified. It takes a true blinkers on Brexiteer to see the current crisis around COVID as an indication that a No Deal Brexit will be fiiiiiine...

Heathrow is the UK’s largest port by value of goods. It’s unlikely to shut down cargo flights.

It's the largest by value because gold and other precious metals are shipped by air.

Even gold is having trouble moving around the world right now - that's how problematic air capacity is. And gold is very dense so it does not take up very much space!

I work in high value commodities (not gold specifically though we use a bit of that) and supply chain issues are going to be explosive.

Gove self-isolating because a family member has it.

I know it makes me a Terrible Person but I'd have a lot more trouble sympathising with Gove than with Johnson. He's just such an alien creature. Johnson's faults are at least particularly human ones.

The problem (as I see it) with trying to doggedly pursue Brexit is - once again - the goalposts have changed.

Only a complete and utter moron would have the lack of brain cells to imagine that the post-Covid EU is going to have the same shape, form and focus as the pre-Covid EU the UK has (allegedly) done all it's planning around.

I won't post it again, but the VW ad about the man that put it all on black and it came up red is just as apposite now as the few weeks ago when I posted it.

Can someone order a 2020 reset?

We were just debating this over lunch & the ‘end times’ vibe. DS (14) just quipped: “ah 2020, at least its a nice round number to end on!” We laughed hard, but it’s only because the alternative is bleak.

Gold is the largest item by value shipped by air, but power generating equipment and other machinery makes up an equivalent amount by value.

Good point that one DGR. One of my strongest long term criticisms of the EU is that is has proved incapable of making positive systemic changes. It will be fascinating in the longer run to see how the EU is or isn’t changed by Covid-19

Perhaps if the UK had been prepared to play its full part in the EU, instead of constantly whining for special deals, they might have helped to bring about systemic changes.

I now want to see how the Brexiters cope with their favourite ally the USA. Seeking deals from an ally who is happy to hijack equipment from other countries doesn't look like the best option to me.

Sunak would take over if Raab became ill.

He's just such an alien creature.
I said something similar to DH when he said Gove was isolating because a family member had symptoms

I think that systemic changes that I would view as positive ones would have been very unlikely to occur in the EU pretty much regardless of what Britain did or did not do.

Slightly OT, but you have to ask yourself what the Kennedy family are having to atone for in their past lives ... JFKs granddaughter found dead after a canoe accident ?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52195939

www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/dominc-raabs-guide-to-the-britain-hes-just-now-finding-out-about-20200407195259

I'd rather have Sunak as Johnson's number 2 than bloody Raab!
Raab and HandCock must share a brain, I think?
I loathe Gove too, but i think he might be more competent than the aforementioned chuckle brothers

DH and I were talking about the Kennedy family earlier - do they actually die more frequently or is it just that it’s a very large family?

I found myself wishing that Raab could develop a health issue, say a burst appendix, which needed treatment PDQ but kept him out of action for a few weeks. Then Sunak could take over.

As for Gove self-isolating - perhaps he could do that in perpetuity?

Barrique / DGR
Its a VERY large family and every arm of it is deemed newsworthy .....
and being in politics they have never pushed for privacy like other big super rich families (eg the Rockefellers)

oldlace
Sunak should be the deputy (as per the seniority list I posted last night
but Johnson does not want anybody likeable / competent as then he'd not be welcomed back .....

DH and I were talking about the Kennedy family earlier - do they actually die more frequently or is it just that it’s a very large family?

The ones I know off the top of my head ..

JFKs older brother - died in a plane crash over England during WW2.
JFK - assassinated
John Jnr - Plane crash
Patrick - stillborn
Maeve - drowned (?)

Robert Kennedy - assassinated
David Kennedy - drug overdose
Michael Kennedy - skiing accident

While Ted Kennedy might be regarded as author of his own misfortune he took Mary Jo Kopeckne (RIP) with him and pretty much ended his generations political hopes.

They are really paying off a karmic debt of all time ... what exactly was Joseph Kennedy up to ? How did he make his fortune ?

DGR
Its a massive, massive family
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Kennedy_family_tree#/media/File:Kennedy_family_tree.png
(just one of many images of parts of it)