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?

USA:

16.8 million Americans – 1 in 10 – have lost their jobs in three weeks

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/apr/10/coronavirus-live-news-global-deaths-near-95000-as-boris-johnson-leaves-intensive-care?page=with:block-5e8fb3de8f08db3109f1fe36#block-5e8fb3de8f08db3109f1fe36

Not mass graves, but massive new mortuaries in the UK

For various reasons I know the Birmingham one is already in use. Not really sure what else you can do if the rate of burial can't keep up with the rate of death ? I guess massed pyres are an option, but given the current national obsession with barbecues, there would be a message gap somewhere.

Sky News Report - Coronavirus: Patients wheeze into oxygen bags. They aren't even in intensive care

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-even-patients-who-are-not-in-intensive-care-are-struggling-with-covid-19-11971372

.... now working at nearly four times its normal critical care capacity because of COVID-19
.....
Of those who have been admitted to this hospital, about a quarter haven't survived

• and that has taken its toll on the staff who are battling against the own fears over the disease.

< NHS frontline staff 👏🏼 >

Sos
The unmarked mass graves in NYC is not a new thing.
Its been going on for decades - normally the prisoners from Rikers Island do the digging and carrying.
Because of the lack of health insurance, NYC (and all big US cities) have always had large numbers of John Doe deaths.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_Island_(Bronx)#Cemetery

Piggy (and other teachers)
Starmer had to put RLB into the shadow cabinet.
Schools are shut so she can do little harm.
In a few months he can do a reshuffle - and she will be gone.

Delighted to see Jess in there

A relative who is a civil servant has been involved in financial planning for additional mortuaries for some weeks now.
A neighbour who is a funeral director has been overwhelmed, she says. Happily she has been told she must take her upcoming leave to get a break.

Good point LQ : hadn't thought of it that way.

In the meantime if she'd like to ask awkward questions on our behalf about the massive funding issues over online learning, I'd happily like her to proceed. (On another thread a poster you will all recognise thinks the PTA should fund learning platforms instead of paying for one minibus.)

The whole online learning is a debacle in states schools - we have a friend - SM - doesn't have a computer in the house, simply because it's not something she can afford. She was having to right out her daughters worksheets for her daughter to complete. We have re-jigged our home computer and given her our laptop ...... but not everyone has a friend who can and would do that. The whole inequality that thE situation creates is awful.

The whole online learning is a debacle in states schools - we have a friend - SM - doesn't have a computer in the house, simply because it's not something she can afford.

If you knew how much fully functional kit was thrown away each year ...

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What can you say to Isabel Oakeshott but Well, well? I thought Brexit was the only thing in life!

Bloody hell. Next someone will telling me that is Aaron Banks saying delay Brexit if Oakeshott is!!!

quietly falls off chair

What can you say to Isabel Oakeshott but Well, well? I thought Brexit was the only thing in life!

The comments on that post were the more revealing part of the situation.

Brexiteers have trapped themselves into not being able to call for a delay by simple dint of their cheery "no problems whatsoever" bluster previously.

And if pursuing Brexit now is "unwise" it's fair to ask if there will ever be a time when it's "wise" ?

The EU is currently a bloodstained furball of recriminations over who gets bailed out and who pays. It would require unanimity to let us ride on the roof for a few more stops. And we might not get it.

The EU is currently a bloodstained furball of recriminations over who gets bailed out and who pays. It would require unanimity to let us ride on the roof for a few more stops. And we might not get it.

I am old enough (and still alive !!) to recall the distinct sense of bloody mindedness (certainly in my Harrow bubble) before 1973, when some people wanted to join the EEC solely because France rejected our application. Groucho Marx in reverse ...

"It's an ill-wind," etc, Pt 94:

Just heard on CNN. One consequence of the global pandemic lockdown is that African leaders used to jetting off for their medical treatment are now confronted by their own inadequate healthcare systems, giving some of them pause for thought...

I have a very very strong hunch that a 2 year extension of Transition will be rushed through under some pretext
because some paperwork I've seen implies that the EU are already working on that basis

Late again to these threads, having missed the last few, still reading though - thanks everyone. Starmer putting RLB in education shows smart thinking, kept his promise to put her in the shadow cabinet but in a ‘quiet’ brief. He will need to be smart to be an effective leader of the opposition at the moment. This government needs to be held to account but the public won’t want obvious policemen point scoring. Especially now Saint Boris the Fighter (love that name by the way) has the public on his side, for the time being anyway.

political point scoring!

I have a very very strong hunch that a 2 year extension of Transition will be rushed through under some pretext because some paperwork I've seen implies that the EU are already working on that basis

taking us (well some of us ) to 2022

Starmer had to put RLB into the shadow cabinet.
Schools are shut so she can do little harm.
In a few months he can do a reshuffle - and she will be gone.

What a cynic!

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Yeah I can see an extension coming too.

Yeah I can see an extension coming too.

Quite aside from the total lack of respect for democracy an extension would demonstrate - and we know how precious that is to the Brexiteers - there's also the thorny question of "what sort of extension ?". After all, given there's no "solve by date" for covid yet, any time limited extension - even 5 years - could prove to be inadequate. However any open-ended extension would risk the UK drifting into the worst possible outcome of being bound by and to the EU without any say in policy, direction or internal affairs.

I stand to be corrected, but my memory of the past 4 years is that the only time remainers were thrown a bone was when Brexiteers were pushed towards the edge first.

So, no. There should be no extension. If anyone even thinks (let alone posts of one) they need to be immediately called out as ignoring the democratic decision of the UK electorate, and have their biscuit rations reduced. Do it twice, and no gin either.

We were told - so often I can still see it in Times New Roman when I close my eyes - that Brexiteers knew what they were doing. They had a plan. It was all under control. Well not is their big moment to put their our money where their mouth is, and prove us wrong, and Farage et al right. Once and for all.

Extension my arse ! What kind of wimpish talk is that ?

I’m assuming DGR that your reply is supposed to be funny, so I guess

Why the scepticism, of though? You get that me expecting an extension isn’t the same thing as me wanting one, right?