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?

When companies get fined for wrong doing, rather than the individuals who perpetrated it, then all that happens is that their customers pay the fine via higher prices and/or the shareholders via reduced dividends

Just seen Tim Brooke-Taylor has died of coronavirus. 😰

quick PMK, made quicker by scrolling straight past certain posts from last night
as they are just there to derail.

Easter egg hunt done
Tomatoes and aubergines potted up
Sourdough underway

Happy Easter

Just seen Tim Brooke-Taylor has died of coronavirus.

You mean with coronavirus ...www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52262490

From te comment by his agent, T B-T had been ill for a little while so Covid was the tipping point.

Stirling Moss was already ill with other things.

I don't think anyone was claiming that Stirling Moss had caught corona virus.

Saint Boris is out of hospital, and is going to Chequers to recuperate.

^Jail, or probation, community service, fines are all used for ordinary criminal individuals,
as distinct from wealthy people running billion-pound businesses^

That is changing, but as ever we are playing catch up:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50763204

Though one of the problems with going after seriously wealthy individuals is that they have a lot more resources to splash on getting networks of bent professionals to help them hide their gains and find loopholes, and even when they are caught they can then afford seriously good counsel who will throw resources into finding reasons to disallow evidence.

Sorry, but I've worked close enough criminal justice system for long enough that lazy armchair cynicism pisses me off. By all means, keep insisting that the criminal justice system do better - it must be answerable. But putting the way wealthy criminals get off down to pure systemic corruption is untrue and a real kick in the teeth to the people who are trying to build solid cases against them.

Saint Boris is out of hospital, and is going to Chequers to recuperate.

Saint Boris ?

When Jesus rose on Easter Sunday (whenever it was ) he became our Lord and Saviour - the main main, the organ grinder. Not just a mere "saint" ...

I fear I am going to hell ...

If that's the opposite of where the likes of Boris and Cummings end up DGR...

No surprise to some ...

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/john-humprys-on-bbc-presenters-during-coronavirus-1-6604475

Former Today programme presenter John Humphrys has claimed that BBC bosses are privately telling interviewers to go easy on ministers during the coronavrius outbreak.

Why is Mr Johnson going to his second home in the countryside
rather than staying in his primary residence in the capital ?

essential travel clearly means different things to different people

There is a difference between wealthy criminals like drug barons - who are just much more difficult to convict

and the ruling classes protecting themselves by not letting top business chiefs and directors face criminal penalties, or even criminal investigation.

Police and prosecutors not even allowed to work on such cases, because it is "not in the public interest"
i.e. it is in the public interest that the ruling classes never face jail

Outside police forces can carry out full investigations and produce cases against another force, or against British soldiers or security services,

.... but then be shut down by the government

The TL;DR is that businesses have slowly and incrementally been able to acquire all the civil privileges of individuals, whilst simultaneously managing to dump all the criminal responsibilities. (I think things are even worse in the US).

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/12/virus-hitting-hardest-modern-equivalent-victorian-slums

Analysis shows Covid-19 disproportionately affecting those living in ‘the equivalent of Victorian slums’

^Fears are growing that coronavirus could be ripping through some of the poorest and most overcrowded parts of Britain’s cities
as new research suggests cramped living conditions might be accelerating the spread of the virus.^

As I say...

The demographics of covid-19 in the US make it attractive to Trump to have a massive wave of it....

LQ I wondered that too.

I also wondered about the second home. Setting a poor example, as are the royals.

Analysis shows Covid-19 disproportionately affecting those living in ‘the equivalent of Victorian slums’

Hands up who has heard of John Snow ?

Says it all really ...

At W he should have gone to his private house in London, but complete understand why he can go back to No 10 - it's a place of work predominantly, and he has been very very sick.

It is just soooooo obvious that the Beeb is shitting itself over the licence and licking Tory arse.

Another PP&PPE point: She name-dropped Rolls-Royce and Burberry several times, whilst we hear that less well-known businesses havecontacted the govt offering to make stuff and have been ignored.

It's all part of the messaging, associating the govt with blue-chip names while the greedy nurses make balloons out of their disposable gloves because they're all bored with nothing to do.

But I will say that moving BJ to one of the govt. pads; Chevening, Chequers or Dorney Wood, is necessary because he needs security and secure comms. And didn't Carrie throw him out making him homeless?

It is just soooooo obvious that the Beeb is shitting itself over the licence and licking Tory arse.

Too late, too late the awful cry (and I still think that's a quote from somewhere ...).

We're probably still too close to the event to call it "history", but it will be interesting to see when future scholars think the BBCs death warrant was signed. Probably earlier than we think - around about the time Sky was still primarily a satellite service ?

I can only hope the slow demise of the BBC backfires as people multiply their sources of news and it becomes harder, not easier to control the news. But then I still have some hippy ideals left, apparently.

To be fair on BJ (), he can't go to his "private" house in London as iirc, he was kicked out of it by his stvxw (not sure if his divorce is through yet and can't be arsed googling) and he moved in with Carrie - who is herself now ill.

So that leaves Chequers, because, as has rightly been said, No 10 is also a place of work.

The decline of the BBC starts with the loss of channels. First BBC HD, which might have evolved into BBC 4K, then BBC Three, and soon there will be just one kids channel, local news will go online, the last valve at Droitwich will explode and take 4LW with it, etc.

I do hope Carrie wasn't just holed up with Bozo. I mean, I hope she has people around who can help her as being ill with COVID whilst pregnant cannot be fun alone

@prettybird - it was reported after his divorce that he had bought a separate house - away from those pesky neighbors who were concerned about DV

Handcock on now. Apparently the key shortage is hospital gowns. A flat piece of fabric with ties. Anyone with a sewing machine and enough fabric could make these. They just need the orders and a bit less fawning over Burberry.