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.

We wanted to be a world leader. This is showing just how lacking we are in this.

Weeks ago lots of us were busy getting stuff together and planning as we watched China and then Italy.

But our government was still going 'nothing to worry about here, threat is low' when it fucking obvious to us that was a pile of crap.

Now I don't particularly care about which party is in power at this junction, nor where responsibility for how well prepared the NHS was prior to the pandemic. All I need to look at is the actions, or lack of, to secure PPE, ventilators and tests in mid February.

It just wasn't happening. Its only just now that the penny is dropping with someone that this is a problem.

In terms of experts and management of the crisis there is a problem

The ft tonight is running with this story

Shashank Joshi @shashj
"for ministers and their aides, the primary target of their ire is the civil service and what they see as the state machinery’s inability to deliver. Over the past fortnight, Downing Street political team has been increasingly at odds with Mark Sedwill"

'"Criticism of Sir Mark is also coming from within Whitehall. His lack of Treasury experience has been identified by several civil servants as a flaw in his skills-set"...“People are saying that Jeremy Heywood would have handled things differently,” said one senior civil servant'

'One cabinet minister closely involved in responding to the ... outbreak said the leadership of key public bodies should also shoulder responsibility ... "Public Health England [are] the reason we don’t have more testing. They want to control the whole tedious process.".'

'One cabinet minister not involved in the daily meetings said she “didn’t have a clue” about the basis for the decisions. Another MP said: “It’s like a black box in Number 10. No one knows what is going on.”'

amp.ft.com/content/b7277a55-387b-4529-85af-54c7a691b0cc?__twitter_impression=true
With Johnson under fire, blame game begins over virus crisis

Things are troubled at the heart of decision making...

Until a decade or so ago, it would be unthinkable for a govt to try dumping blame on civil servants

Ministers used to take responsibility and resign even if it was their Perm Sec or other civil servant who actually cocked up

because the minister is ultimately in charge

@ListeningQuietly You might like the German help for SE and small businesses - main plus is SPEED of emergency help for all.

They'll get additional help later when individual cases are considered, but this is to keep them alive while the paperwork is done:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/apr/02/coronavirus-live-news-global-cases-latest-updates?page=with:block-5e861bc38f08532a0e666d9a#block-5e861bc38f08532a0e666d9a

Authorities in Germany have so far received 1.1 million applications for “immediate financial help” from self-employed people and small businesses
.....
Self-employed people have expressed their amazement on social media at how unbureaucratic the access to the funds has been,

just days after the measures were passed as emergency legislation in Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag.

Freelancers, self-employed people and small companies are eligible for funds.
Those with up to five workers can get a one-off payment of €9,000, and businesses with up to 10 workers €15,000.

The monies do not have to be paid back.

< Employees get 80-100% wages for up to 6 weeks if sick, then 80% for longer, or for layoffs due to CV
This money is paid at the same dates as ordinary salary would be >

After trying to row back on the legally binding NI protocol ...

https://www.ft.com/content/a53e81a0-b2bd-4da8-a6ce-28904fa9879a?

The UK is pushing to water down its obligation to recognise valuable EU regional food trademarks for products like Parma ham and Champagne,

in a move that risks souring trade negotiations between London and Brussels.

EU and UK officials confirmed that
Britain wants to use talks on the future relationship to negotiate looser rules on the protection of geographical indications - or GIs -
than those agreed by Boris Johnson in the legally binding Withdrawal Agreement

You seem (and please correct me if I have this wrong) deeply unhappy the government “driving the narrative”. I ask, if we are in a state of national emergency, then whom would you rather have drive it?
LoiuseCollins

There is a huge difference between making sound and sensible policy and 'driving the narrative'.

Louise

LouiseCollins
It is the governments job to be accountable to the electorate at election time (not to the media!) and before or during 2024 they will be.

Governments and Parliament are always accountable, not just in an election year.

The media plays a vital role in a healthy democracy, not just in an election year because informed public opinion is crucial to its functioning.

The First Amendment of the US Constitution mentions the press specifically. I recommend you watch the thought-provoking movie 'The Post', and maybe look up and read the significant 20th century US Supreme Court judgements on press freedom, in which justices grappled with competing interests of press and government, and came up every time on the side of the press.

LouiseCollins
At election time, to whom should the government be accountable? the media or the voters?
Not just at election time, and to the public by means of the media all the time.

At no point did I say a government shouldn’t be held to account by the media, of course the should. My point is the government don’t have any form of “contract” if you will with the media, with the voters, they do.
Yes, and it is the job of the media to ensure the government keeps up its part of the contract, all the time.

Pmk

Pretty difficult for "the people" to hold the government to account between elections. In practice there are very few levers for direct accountability of govt to the public: most people can't afford to go to law, FOI provisions in the U.K. are relatively weak, and many MPs do not take their role of representing all constituents (instead of just their own voters) seriously.

That's why a free, independent and critical press is so vital.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/eu-plans-to-spend-100bn-on-saving-jobs-amid-coronavirus-crisis
EU plans to spend 100bn on saving jobs amid Coronavirus crisis

Von der Leyen apologises to Italy for lack of solidarity and proposes Covid-19 ‘Marshall plan’

Sliding in with a thoroughly disinfected place mat King....

I’m hearing that there is new modelling coming through suggesting a peak in 3 weeks time, maybe sooner if lockdown is working more effectively.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-52146227?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=5e86e3aa4e049e066f59681c%26Indian%20twins%20named%20after%20coronavirus%262020-04-03T07%3A25%3A26.336Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:8919fdd4-499b-4177-b683-3c259815ef1a&pinned_post_asset_id=5e86e3aa4e049e066f59681c&pinned_post_type=share

Had to happen: twins named Corona and Covid.

(sorry about the long link!)

Hospital staff started calling the twins as Corona and Covid soon after they were born - which helped the parents make their decision.

Just makes me think the hospital staff were talking in code about patients...

BigChic
Good old German Efficiency
but, and much as it pains me to defend a Tory

Rishi Sunak's scheme for the self employed is even neater.
There is no application.
Its automatic based on information they already hold
and the money does not have to be paid back

• it is taxable so in some cases the government will get 49% of it back

And I do accept that part of the delay is that the UK public sector year end was on Tuesday and the tax year end is on Sunday so by making it kick in after both of those he does not bugger up everybody's tax planning.

I'm also very impressed by how Rishi tore the banks a new one on bank lending
you know I've always said Corbyn was a Tory mole, and we know that Winchester produced Saemus Milne

PS re New York
Part of the reason that the hospitals there (and soon to be every US city) are overwhelmed is that they are getting the patients who do not normally exist - undocumented, unregistered, uninsured
and because every dead person is infections, the unclaimed bodies cannot be sent of to the crematoria for rapid burial - hence the morgue trucks.

Here is an article about how the lack of Universal health care is now biting the USA in the backside
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pennsylvania-county-facing-coronavirus-crisis-without-health-department

Rishi Sunak's scheme for the self employed is even neater. There is no application. Its automatic based on information they already hold

And - from various interesting posts here - it really, really really hits liars and cheats in the 'nads hard. If the same approach were taken to bailing out the Bransons and Greens, of basing bailouts on tax declared and paid in the UK - I could find myself fancying Dishy Rishi too.

.

DGR
And - from various interesting posts here - it really, really really hits liars and cheats in the 'nads hard. If the same approach were taken to bailing out the Bransons and Greens, of basing bailouts on tax declared and paid in the UK - I could find myself fancying Dishy Rishi too.
With bells on.
British bailouts for British taxpayers

British bailouts for British taxpayers

Neat, snappy - has the semi-moronic tone of a football chant that seems to drive C21st politics.

Might be onto something ...

Ah, who remembers Chris Graylings ferry service ..

Incidentally, since we are speaking about lying scumball governments who govern by headline, rather than detail, then how sure are we that the £13.4 billion NHS debt "write off" really is that? And not actually one-weird-accounting-trick that will pop up next year when people say "why is the NHS budget £100billion down ?" and the answer comes "well, you know that £13.4 billion last year ? Guess where we found it ?! That's right 2021-2022s budget ! Trebles all round !"

"Dishy Rishi"