Westministenders: Lockdown continues

[BigChocFrenzy]

The UK has been on lockdown since 23 March,
with no end in sight.

The deaths peak is predicted to be around 17 April,
with the controversial IHME prediction that the UK will have considerably more total deaths - 66,000 - by summer than other European countries.

Supermarkets are struggling to satisfy demand for online slots for the vulnerable
and to keep shelves supplied for other customers

Like all countries, the UK economy is being hammered and heading for a deep recession.
Estimates are for UK GDP to fall 15% this year.

A million people have applied for Universal Credit
The self-employed and small - and some large - businesses are struggling to stay solvent.

They don't know how long to plan for.

The PM is in ICU and Raab has taken over as stand-in, but needs Cabinet approval for decisions.
Probably BJ will be unfit to resume his duties as PM for several weeks, if ever.

WIll he stand down soon and let the Cabinet choose a new PM,
or will the UK continue for weeks with a stand-in leader during the worst crisis since WW2

What's the plan, anybody?

This internal squabbling won't be helping decision-making

Looks a mess,
some of which should have been corrected over the last decade, some new.

The govt needs to get a grip, but on previous performance will grab at the wrong thing

https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/coronavirus-health-politics-economics-johnson-cummings?bftwuk&utm_term=4ldqpgm#4ldqpgm

A minister told BuzzFeed News:

“There have been many competing command structures.

No10, government departments, especially DHSC, NHS national level leadership, NHS trusts, Public Health England and groups of academic experts inside government.

They are not integrated clearly, there is no real sense of who is in charge, they each have their own interests and they have spent weeks contradicting each other.
I would be surprised to see Public Health England continue in its current form after this.”
....
One Whitehall insider said they thought the relationship between Downing Street and the civil service was beyond repair.

“Number 10 advisers think the civil service are a bunch of wets who failed to prepare and got us into the worst crisis since World War 2.

The civil service thinks Number 10 advisers are a load of idiots and lunatics who shouldn’t be anywhere near power.”

< "the buck stops here" - stop whining >

even Uganda. Hmmm. Bit if a dodgy statement that. Uganda has come of the best infection control in the World after it's experiences with Ebola. It was very quick to react to this threat and was one of the last countries to report a case.

Excuse typos...

Some countries previously hit by serious epidemics, SARS, Ebola, MERS had more systems in place,
instead of having to develop them from scratch

Others didn't prepare properly then and have continued like that

Some health services were barely coping even in normal times,
but sadly that has to include the NHS

Great visual explanation of social distancing, from Ohio.

mrslaughan

I am hoping that the eugenics theory back fires on the Tory party, removing a large proportion of there base..... however if we "only" have a death toll of 20k that's a faint hope.

Did you just say that you hope that the virus wipes out a large proportion of the Tory base, meaning that it would kill many thousands of older people?

Forgive me if I piss myself laughing the next time I hear about the morality and decency of the left...

@Cendrillon - how can you knock a poster for saying what the Govt is actually stood by and is doing?

Âs well as poor people being less likely to have gardens and live in leafy suburbs

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/10/coronavirus-park-closures-hit-bame-and-poor-londoners-most

Londoners living in deprived areas and those from BAME backgrounds share less space and have less access to private gardens and public parks, according to an examination of mapping data.

Fair enough and excellent point Piggy, I withdraw the even.

Well Cendrillions
1/ I'm a centrist - I think many on heat would choke to see me thought of as left wing
2/ I would way prefer this epidemic was managed to minimise deaths..... see my country of birth NZ. Yes that is a labour government - but they are in coalition weirdly with a right wing nutter (Winston Peters NZ's answer your Nigel Farage). I think Adern has done a good job of protecting its citizens. Only time will tell if she has gone too hard too early.....
3/ if people have to die - as it seems they do in the UK (seems to have been unspoken policy at the beginning) I would way prefer the people that voted for that government to be the victims that said government, than people who didn't. Sorry - but that is how I feel about it - actually no - I am not particularly sorry about that. But let me re-iterated I would way prefer that this had been managed way way better.

New Zealand has about 6% of our population density and is not a global transit hub, so that’s a fairly irrelevant comparison.

I would way prefer the people that voted for that government to be the victims that said government, than people who didn't. Sorry - but that is how I feel about it - actually no - I am not particularly sorry about that.

Good of you to be so clear - always nice to know where people really stand.

They were in the height of tourist season - look how many have had to be repatriated.

They also have huge inflow and outflow of individuals from Asia and increasingly specifically China .....
So - no not irrelevant.

They also recognised they are a hub to the Pacific Islands and recognised the responsibility they had to those communities.....

But ok then Germany....

Not that I expect you to ever admit that your darling Boris and Tory party completely fucked this up. Your too bloody arrogant and unable to learn - blinkered would be a good description

🎵🎶🎵🎶

On another note - so we think the UK has got its reporting of deaths sorted? Or is it going to be carnage next week as they play catch up 😱

Tagging ?
Some fuckwits deliberately leaving their phone home - probably taking a 2nd one

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/apr/11/coronavirus-live-news-trumps-biggest-decision-curbs-who-on?page=with:block-5e91b0f08f082dfd549d4a8d#block-5e91b0f08f082dfd549d4a8d

South Korea has announced plans to strap tracking wristbands on people who ignore quarantine orders. Officials said stricter controls were required to enforce self-isolation rules.

Some of the 57,000 people who are under orders to stay home have apparently slipped out by leaving behind their smartphones, which are used to monitor movement.

Nineteen dead UK medics, eighteen of them BAME, most of them immigrants.

Cummings has gonnings, and seems to be hiding in a cupboard somewhere. Anyone else thinking of Fredo Corleone in The Godfather?

BJ's other sidekick, Edward Lister, also AWOL. Nobody knows who's in charge, who's supposed to be in charge, who thinks they're in charge and who should be arrested on a charge.

Handcock rowing sideways if not back on his misspeak. Patel crawled under a stone where she feels most comfortable and at home. BJ's handmaiden Laura K also missing in action, but still no proper journalism from BBC News who are not having a good war. BBC Science dept. doing a good job in their place, with a novel policy of reporting the facts. It'll never catch on.

Strewth, it's PP at the lectern!

Currently reading a script. Questions are going to be interesting...

Do we know which retailers are behaving responsibly? DS1 has had a massive growth spurt and needs new trousers. DH is the wrong shape to lend his, so I’m going to have to order some online.

For all countries - at least those with Christian heritage - there is a tradition of Easter hols

So I expect most Western countries will have lower figures over the holiday period,
as the data collators don't work 24/7 like frontline staff

So .... don't get shocked if there is a sharp rise on Wednesday & Thursday
It'll just be a catching up blip

This is where a rolling 7-day curve, as in the FT, is useful, to smooth out blips
e.g. we usually have a Tuesday blip too, with the WE figures

Priti Patel, at the Daily Press Briefing, continuing to push the Government message that it is focusing on the right actions at the right time

The sub-message being that if the strategy doesn't work, it is the plebs fault for not following the advice

As an observation: I thought that the Daily Press Conference was supposed to start at 4pm . It started today at 16.16. The his is not a one-off: I've noticed that every day, Sky has to say that it is "going to start imminently" and fill time until they deign to appear

Contrast that with the Scottish Press Conference that starts at 12.30 every day (except Wednesdays, when it is substituted by FMQs).

Mockers I visualise Cummings as hanging upside down in an attic somewhere,
exuding more virus

boatyard Boycott the Range:

the bosses have been fuckers to their employees, openly saying they're exploiting lockdown to make money when other more responsible businesses shut down
e.g. some Range branches bringing in freezers for the first time ever, to claim they are selling food
and requiring customers to buy at least 1 food item

Did you just say that you hope that the virus wipes out a large proportion of the Tory base, meaning that it would kill many thousands of older people?

Funny that Cendrillon, I don't remember you calling out Cummings or your Sainted Boris (a.k.a Saint Alexander) when they thought it was only the old and the already sick who would get it.

Count Dracula, for all his faults, was a sharp-dresser who would never be seen arse hanging out in a charity shop kagool.

Priti Vacant standing on a box to give the briefing