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.

I am waiting to see what will be done about offshore as that is the easiest tap for all governments .....

Easiest is to scrap the £ and start a new currency day 0.

Speaking of currency shenanigans, who else picked this one up as it tried to sneak under the radar ...

www.brecorder.com/2020/03/17/580793/pakistan-china-and-russia-decide-to-conduct-trade-in-local-currencies-skip-dollars/

The eight-member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), including China, Russia, and Pakistan, have made the principle decision to conduct bilateral trade and investment and issue bonds in local and national currencies instead of US dollars.

As per details, a road map will be finalized and signed at SCO's Finance Ministers' meeting in Moscow on March 18th.

Russia, as chairman of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, has called for suggestions from all member states for trade and investment in local currencies. After a detailed review of these proposals in Moscow's meeting, a system of mutual settlement of national currencies will be introduced for the member countries of the SCO.

All member states will sign a roadmap for trade and investment in national currencies between member states. Russia has issued the agenda for the SCO's Finance Ministers' meeting summoned in Moscow on March 18.

As per reports, the finance ministry of Pakistan has completed preparations in light of the agenda of the conference of finance ministers.

Representatives from the finance ministries and central banks of China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will attend the SCO conference in Moscow.

In addition, Iran, Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia are the observer countries of the SCO who wish to become a regular member of the organization.

Reports say that if the trade and investment between the member states of the SCO begin in national currencies instead of dollars and pounds, it will be a big breakthrough. It will also strengthen the national currencies of the member countries and promote mutual trade and investment.

There used to be a 1:1 correlation between "countries that have decided not to use the petrodollar" and "countries in axis of evil"

Mine too!
I've got loads of spring cleaning jobs to do 🧹🧺
It's been a bit odd shopping wise casa yoikes...I'd got 2 morrisons and 2 x ocado deliveries pre boooked prior to lockdown...
All good!...except I couldn't get onto the bloody sites to view or edit the orders...
So its been "mystery shops" here for 2 weeks :)
We now have 3 packs of dishwasher tablets and litres of floor cleaner, 4 tins of illy coffee...oh well. It'll all get used :)

German politicians, media and probably public are fuming at Trump's latest act

They only just realised he's a thief ?
and that he doesn't give a shit about the "transatlantic partnership"?

• under Trump, that's as dead as the UK's (imaginary) Special Relationship

berlinspectator.com/2020/04/03/berlin-muller-slams-trump-for-confiscating-masks-bought-for-police/

Michael Müller, the Governing Mayor of Berlin, sharply criticized U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday for purchasing 200,000 protective masks that had been bought for the Berlin Police Department.

The United States reportedly outbid Berlin after the masks had already been paid for.
....
One thing is certain:
The Berlin Senate is furious

“We see an act of modern day piracy”, Geisel stated.
“This is not how to treat transatlantic partners.
Even in times of global crises Wild West methods should not be used”
....
The 200,000 masks were supposed to flown to Berlin from Bangkok Airport.
Most purchases of this kind are officially being made by the German Customs Agency in Bonn.

Things I have learned of late ...

1. "Hooch" is a bakers term (?)
2. All the coal the earth will ever make is in the ground. There will be no new coal in future.

Dead chuffed to find a 500g bag of flour lurking behind an open bag in a cupboard (we don't bake much). That's the dough for Easter pizza sorted if nothing else.

Why does Trump need Thai / German kit ?
Its all already there ....
abcnews.go.com/Politics/medical-supplies-seized-alleged-price-gouger-distributed-hospitals/story?id=69938363

R4 just now: 2 nurses died of CV, but we mustn't assume their deaths were linked to the apparent shortage of PPE.

Aye right.

DGR ditto gold (and rather less of it)

R4 just now: 2 nurses died of CV, but we mustn't assume their deaths were linked to the apparent shortage of PPE.

This whole died of/died with C-19 is starting to grate a bit.
I get the distinction, but fear it's going to be prised open to allow our hopeless government off the hook by fiddling the figures.

Imagine if this lot had been anywhere near power in WW2 ? (Churchill would have gone to help Hitler before that happened, by the way). Yes, it's true that 50,000 people died. But that was with bomb injuries not necessarily of bomb injuries. We are sure some people were smoking.

Too right DGR

DGR Things I have learnt of late...

The word 'furlough'! How come I'd never heard of that one?!

Also hopefully we're all learning/realising:

Turns out we can get rough sleepers off the streets after all.
And speed up the benefits system and pay more.
And value people previously dismissed as “unskilled”.
And stop underfunding the NHS with the stroke of a pen.
When this is over, let’s never go back.

twitter.com/davidschneider/status/1246019454162604032

Another company to try to avoid when this is all over
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52153183

Another company to try to avoid when this is all over

New Look.

Would not have been on our list anyway, sadly. All these past weeks have done is pretty much confirm that people we knew were wankers, are. And, conversely, people we respected, by and large had earned it.

I guess there are a few exceptions both ways, but none that were worth committing to main memory ...

Furlough - part of my vocab for cultural reasons not unconnected with knowing how regularly the US government fails to pass its own budget and shuts down, putting all staff on furlough

Died from / died with
I admit that I do think its an important set of stats to stick to
BECAUSE
there are lots and lots of people with entirely preventable healthcare issues who put a huge strain on the NHS
and the of/with split will allow the message of eat less move more to be reinforced after this pandemic has gone past

and leave more resources in the NHS for those who really need
(including the husband of a MN/FB friend who has just had the shittiest of all possible cancer diagnoses)

Died from / died with I admit that I do think its an important set of stats to stick to BECAUSE there are lots and lots of people with entirely preventable healthcare issues who put a huge strain on the NHS and the of/with split will allow the message of eat less move more to be reinforced after this pandemic has gone past

alternatively, it can be used to simply refuse treatment to the undeserving poor.

Again.

I know where I would put my bet ...

DGR
Re the undeserving poor - I'll be honest ..... once my pet GOP voter has changed their mind, I think anybody will.
I'm also watching my business social media feeds, folks are realising that their office is only as safe as the night cleaner is healthy .....

And if a clever politician realises that the votes of the the poor can be won en masse by taxing offshore wealth
then the identity politics of blame might go back under the rock it deserves.

Yes, I knew "furlough"

• being such a bookworm does expose one to words from other English-speaking countries not used much in the UK

So Matt Hancock this morning: "We think Easter Sunday will be the peak."

Then Matt Hancock this afternoon: "We have no idea when the peak will be."

When all this is over, the govt will have a big party in a distillery, with only hand-sanitiser to drink.

And if a clever politician realises that the votes of the the poor can be won en masse by taxing offshore wealth

We already know the poor don't vote anywhere near as much as they could and should. If they did, we wouldn't be looking at 54 more months of Boris.

So Matt Hancock this morning: "We think Easter Sunday will be the peak." [] Then Matt Hancock this afternoon: "We have no idea when the peak will be." [] When all this is over, the govt will have a big party in a distillery, with only hand-sanitiser to drink.

Shhhh, the bots posters on that other thread might come over here to tell what a great job everyone is doing.

David Blanchflower (ex Bank of England) has been giving apocalyptic warnings:

"Unemployment in US and UK 'may be worse than in Great Depression'"

What we have all been fearing - but the alternative looked even worse
Will it bounce back quickly after 18 months, once we (hopefully) have a vaccine and herd immunity

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/coronavirus-uk-business-activity-plunges-to-lowest-ebb-since-records-began

Coronavirus fuelling faster collapse than 1930s
....
the economist said UK unemployment could rapidly rise to more than 6 million people, around 21% of the entire workforce,

based on analysis of US job market figures that suggest
unemployment across the Atlantic could reach 52.8 million, around 32% of the workforce.

“There has never been such a concentrated business collapse.

The government has tried to respond but it has no idea of the scale of the problem it is going to have to deal with.
We make some back-of-the-envelope calculations and they are scary,”
....
While joblessness would rapidly rise, they cautioned it was uncertain how long the impact would last and how quickly unemployment would come down

DGR
I know lots and lots of blue collar Tories
I struggle to understand them but they seem to think that Boris loves them .....

And TBH the 54 months of Boris comes down squarely to the election that ends at 10:45 tomorrow morning .......

Disproportionately high black death rate in Michigan - and elsewhere ?

No surprise, probably because death rate would be related to access to health care - and hence income - before and during CV

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/03/detroit-bus-driver-dies-coronavirus-video-passenger-coughing

Michigan is emerging as one of America’s troubling coronavirus hotspots, with nearly 11,000 confirmed cases and more than 400 deaths as of Wednesday.

Public health data from the state of Michigan shows coronavirus is having a disproportionate toll on the state’s black residents.

In a state where only 14% of the total population is black, at least 35% of people who have been confirmed to have coronavirus, and 40% of the dead, are black.

I knew furlough as a military term.

BTW can anyone provide me with a handy, official link to advice indicating that recommended quarantine for CV is 14 days? Am having a grim tussle with my ex. Maybe it has left me too shaken to find the info, but I've been having trouble. I did look on the WHO website, in vain.

auldalliance
Pressie for you
www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-advice/
14 days repeated several times ;-)

Auld
I'm in the odd situation that a family member has a stinking cold which fits none of the criteria for covid, so we are making that person stay at home and well away from everybody else because it will cause stress to others
but the rest of us are sticking to the normal rules
while taking daily temperature checks and doing the apps