Westminstenders: No pubs till Christmas?

[RedToothBrush]

Today the news has moved towards acknowledging covid-19 reality: Nicola Sturgeon has explicitly stated that some social distancing will carry on until the new year in all likelihood.

When Matt Hancock asked if this was true for England too, he refused to say yes but he said that Scotland was working from the same framework as England.

In case anyone does still need this spelling out, this means the outlook for the hospitality and leisure industries is bleak.

There are extremely unlikely to be many enjoying a holiday in the sun any time soon, whether it be in Devon or Spain.

We won't be celebrating birthdays in restaurants nor having a pint in the pub.

Conversations on the doorstep from a couple of metres away is as good as it gets.

That means if you can't adapt you may not survive.

To add into the mix changes to customs to those companies who are operating seems insanity. But that's a political not a scientific decision to be made.

Whether reality in this will kick in, in the next six weeks or so before EU budgetary decisions relating to an extension have to be made remains to be seen.

Until then, there is no news but covid-19.

I'm getting urgent referrals most days now...
Todays was from a housing officer.
Young family, moved onto UC, no money for 5 weeks.
I live in an "affluent" area. People have no fucking clue...

@HoneysuckIejasmine, where did you put your order in?
Im desperately looking for some buckwheat flour (I cant have gluten) and dont seem to be able to find any at a decent price - £10 per kg is just too much!)

Question mark - I am not gluten intolerant, but have IBS and manage it through diet - which means not having much gluten and diary.
I found buckwheat on amazon - I don't think I paid a crazy amount..... but also my farm shop had it at the weekend for first time in ages.

Keep an eye out in Sainsbury's as the "strange" flours are sometimes still available.

If you're desperate, QuestionMarkNow , PM me and I'll send you what's left of my Wholemeal Buckwheat flour (about 1kg). It's beyond its "Best Before" but was fine in a sourdough loaf I made last week - but dh prefers white(r) loaves. This was made using 400g white bread flour and 100g wholemeal buckwheat.

Keep an eye out in Sainsbury's as the "strange" flours are sometimes still available.

If "strange" is some millennial slang for "fuck all" then you're not wrong.

Thank you all.
I still have some flour at home but I know I need to find some sort of 'supplier'. I normally shop at Tesco and they just vent ad some for ages now. So my stock is dwingling.

Amazon was where I found the flour at £10 per kg . I'll have a look again and see if they have somethng more reasonnable.
A bag of 16kg is actually what I need (because yes we do all the pastry, cakes etc... with it)

Will the public fall for this ?
news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-families-of-frontline-nhs-and-social-care-staff-who-die-with-covid-19-to-get-60k-11979573
Death in service payments for most people in public sector pension schemes are already three times salary ....
Is the £60k on top?
Or is it just stating the blindingly obvious?
And would it be restricted to those who have been tested?

I would hope that some of the UK media have enough brain cells to check such naff spin.

They had white bread flour there last week (when I was looking unsuccessfully for plain flour for my dad - ended up giving him half of the plain bread flour that I had at home) and Allison's wholemeal bread flour that I bought by accident two weeks before

I was going to ask about the likelihood of ND Brexit on top of this, as it seems likely to me. In that vein I've decided to try to keep as much of my stockpile as I can and continue to buy fresh from farm shops. I've got lots of flour and sugar thankfully and even a tin of powdered milk (!) but I haven't been able to get yeast since the start so have had to use ready made packs of bread mix so far when we've not been able to get an order. I've begun a sourdough starter this morning...

My newly qualified friend is now on a ward with dementia patients. She said it is pretty hard going as they can't understand social distancing and get very angry and frustrated. I am astounded by the link re learning disabilities and DNR. I wonder if the numbers for these will every be fully realised Does anyone know if ONS has a separate section for DNR figures? IIRC it doesn't...maybe it should.

A realistic response to stuff in our own backyard?

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/881458/2020.04.277PaymasterGeneralltoHelgaaSchmidanddMichelBarnier11_.pdf

What the hell good is £60k going to be for the baby of the mother who died? Not enough to secure their home, ensure the dad won't have to work while the baby is pre-school. They think that 60k as compensation for the completely unnecessary death of a parent through govt negligence is something to be proud of .

Blood money.

When I read the headline 'govt fund life assurance scheme for NHS and frontline workers' I thought they'd found the Turkish PPE. I presume this is instead of, and probably cheaper.

I'm sure it's some legal benefit to them; for example that Dr couple suing for lack of protection the other day probably got in before it, but they've seen what is coming as a negligence suit. They've probably been advised that if there is nothing set up as compensation more people will sue than if they do (plus they get kudos and halo effect from their beloved voters).

This particular news offering has Behavioural Science written all over it Maybe they should just rename them the Press Office?

Does anyone know if ONS has a separate section for DNR figures? IIRC it doesn't...maybe it should.
The weekly ONS data set lists the reasons given on the death certificate (there are multiple levels)
And DNR makes sense in many cases so should not be blanket criticised
These are fraught times. The measured analysis will come out in the months to come.

Not quite sure what Dimbelle Dorries is saying here ?

DGR
She's clearly implying that people have been catching Covid since last year as he knows how long they take to recover

I bought a 1kg of buckwheat flour from Indigo Herbs in Glastonbury. Can’t remember the price, just relieved to find it.

My Orgran buckwheat crackers that I usually live off and order a 6 pack at a time from Amazon, have not been seen or heard of since before lockdown.

Another place to check out is Dolphin Fitness.

I got it at ingredientsforcooks.co.uk very long lead time, about a month between ordering and supposed delivery date... We'll see.

Whereas with Harvest I ordered on Friday lunchtime and it came at 8am today
Have a look here to see who is near you ...
www.countryrange.co.uk/where-to-buy/

There is one in my local area, but no bread flour and a minimum order of 10 X 16kg of self raising.

Tee hee
what about a Zero waste shop ?

and yes, the old Brexit stockpiling is going to have to ramp up isn't it !!!

My understanding with the DNR notices, was that they weren't being done in consultation with the person concerned and the relatives or carers. It might be the right course of action - but it needs to be informed, not just done because someone has decided that people with Learning Disabilities or the elderly are a nuisance.

I’m 5 minutes from a flour mill and they have just started selling to the public in 15kg sacks. It’s a bit too much for me, though. Oddly, when my veg box arrived last week, it included a bag of plain flour (that I’d ordered extra) from that same mill in a normal retail size 1.5kg bag. I’m not sure how that works because I thought that the mills who supply the trade just aren’t equipped to fill the smaller bags, but they’ve managed it somehow!

I found out at the weekend that I can make a pretty good pizza base with plain flour and I have plenty of yeast yet. It feels like months since I’ve been able to get any caster sugar though