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?

Thanks BCF.
Re journalists’ repetitive and rather dim questions - are they really asking something else entirely, to do with BJ’s health?
Or have I spent too long in the sun today?

Pmk

I don't think I am terribly concerned about Dominic 'Dover' Raab's morale.

In any case I have been allowed to take my approved leave over Easter and the week after, so am looking forward to being locked down without working 14 hour days.

all we hear is a power vacuum.

That'll be one of James Dyson's ventilators on the blink.

Raab starting to relish being able to swing round and round in the big chair. Has not spoken to BJ. Sounds like protection officers have orders to shoot pfeffle if he tries to get out.

A characteristically shitty ‘witticism’.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/consultant-who-pleaded-for-more-nhs-hospital-ppe-dies-of-coronavirus

A hospital consultant has died from the coronavirus weeks after pleading to the prime minister for more personal protective equipment for frontline staff.

Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, a consultant urologist at Homerton hospital in Hackney east London, died after spending 15 days in Queens hospital, Romford.

Last month he wrote a Facebook message to Boris Johnson outlining the urgent need for PPE for frontline staff and calling for testing for healthcare workers to be fast-tracked.

He wrote: “Dear and respectable prime minister Mr Boris Johnsonn^, Please ensure urgently PPE for each and every NHS health worker.”

Another doctor of an ethnic background dies. After appealing for more PPE equipment.

I hope those voters who voted for curbs on immigrants remember this. It might be too much to ask that they hang their heads in shame.

Thank you BigChocFrenzy

I do think the key thing here is that
When Soundbites meet reality, reality wins

Brexit was one big soundbite and has been the best part of 4 years spaffed up against the wall

The UK Govt approach to Covid is Clap at 8pm soundbites
that are going to meet the reality of millions of families running out of money in the next few weeks
I know that many salaried, commuter MN families are better off but their nannies and cleaners and school TAs are not

From what I see on tax and accounts forums, the money will start to BADLY run out around the Queen's birthday ....
a clear, REALISABLE, UNDERSTANDABLE, MEASURABLE plan needs to be in place before then
or lockdown will turn into chaos.

As Brexit ably demonstrated

LQ - basically SMART objectives as anyone who had done project management will know.
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timebound

We can see that Merkel has gone some way to doing that, talking about the lockdown being eased or released when the new cases have reduced by a specific amount after a certain number of days have passed.

By contrast we have had waffle about Tory cronies being asked to develop ventilators to be delivered in some uncertain quantity in the future and at some uncertain date, to an unknown design.... When we could have asked existing firms who make the equipment how much stock they could deliver now, how much did they think they could ramp up production assuming either best case or worst case.

For people operating at a Government level it should be basic stuff. I don't doubt the Civil Servants knew this, but Cummings had no time for them, and as for Gove, well we have had enough of experts. Piffle and Waffle and 3 word soundbites rule the day.

Louise I don't disagree.

And I think 'not yet' is a perfectly valid answer.

I just wish they could quantify it in the way Germany, for example, has done.

Piffle and Waffle and 3 word soundbites rule the day.

If nothing else, this crisis has seen us shrink to 2 word soundbites mainly ... "self isolate", "social distancing" ...

And saying the above is not running down England and praising Germany. It's praising a relatively efficient Government, over one which is run by a bunch of incompetents.

Not that ours is the only incompetent Government in the world, but I live in the UK.

The New York Times is reporting that at least 150 members of the Saudi Royal Family have got covid-19 and they are preparing 500 beds at the elite hospital that serves the family...

PMK - tx for the thread and directions BigChoc :)

DGR you may be onto something there “Stay At Home” became “Stay Home” when they switched to the red and yellow lecturn branding too

BJ out of intensive care.

knackered hello, still reading mostly

Interesting (Eng lang) report by a Brit expat immigrant in Berlin

He's a sporty 28-yr-old who caught CV and had to go to hospital - sounds quite scary
Still not fit

berlinspectator.com/2020/03/22/joshua-beedle-in-berlin-has-covid-19-do-not-take-any-chances/

Stay Home jars on me slightly because not being American or Australian most of us will say Stay at Home . It also reminds me of the stupid characters in the film Home Alone, with McCaulay Culkin being deemed to be "cute".

Apologies to any American Westministender,
but compared to your batshit POTUS, the UK govt is sane:

just venal incompetents and ideologues, rather than a narcisstic psycho mobster

In fact, Sunak, Hancock, BJ and even Raab have sounded quite human in this crisis,
doing their best - not an impressive best in the case of the latter 2

These Germans get everywhere !

Ds messaged us to say that the minute he went to Lidl, he wanted to cough and had to hold it in for 15 minutes

....for the avoidance of doubt, it's not a "new" cough but one he had had now for about 8 weeks.

Thank you to everyone (with the odd exception) who so dedicatedly keeps debate alive on these threads. I hope you and yours are all safe and well. In my opinion, most days the Westminstenders threads are the best read on t'interweb 💕

Wow, my friend is an epidemiologist from Saudi and has been trying to get back to his country - they have no flights in and 14 day quarantine for all visitors. Far more stringent than us!

Must suck for Dyson, being beaten to heroism by zee Germans!