Westministenders: Reployed back to No Deal Planning

[RedToothBrush]

Now Covid-19 is over (yeah I know right) lots of civil servants who were switched from brexit no deal planning to covid-19 planning have been switched back to their original remit.

For some reason this doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

We've also seen yet another doubling down on the EU not being flexible and how they need to make a deal. And lots of rhetoric about being serious about no transiton planning.

Remember we have something of a deadline looming at the end of next month.

So before we are even out of this crisis, the government have lost interest. Today's press conference was an eye opener - Van Tam openly said that the time taken to get test results was too long and wasn't good enough yet and meant track and trace wasnt still operational despite it being such a crucial factor in being able to go into the next phase as planned on 1st June.

Another deadline we won't make - the Manchester Nightgale still has patients and the local authorities in the NW are going mental. So the government is playing more silly buggers over blame and villianising the evil workshy teachers. Noting the government guidance for teachers on how to teacher children at home says fuck all and the guidance on reopening schools makes a Theresa May dog ate my homework style document look positively well thought out, in terms of practicality. (Not even going to touch on the question of whether its safe - the whether its workable one is more important).

I guess that means things are getting back to normal at least.

A recession looms, but workers rights are now fair game and fully in the government cross hairs - as we see from a lack of PPE for the 'heroes' and the attacks on the teachers. As well as the carers who were sold down river. That'll be the ununionised carers...

Taking back control.

Yoikes Best wishes for your SIL 💐

Dh and I were talking about the George Monbiot article while we were out for our government sanctioned walk.

I don't agree with his somewhat tortured use of the expression "de-prepared". I think they absolves the (WM) government of the fact that it was a conscious choice, if we were indeed prepared had they chosen to act

But apart from that, spot on (and I don't always agree with him).

It seems appropriate to attach one of the memes I saw today. They are, after all, the ones that BJ cares about.

"Over on CNN they are spluttering their outrage at 90,000 deaths"

They'll be lucky if the 1st wave doesn't exceed 100k

Can sensible governors and Mayors still counteract Trump's lunacy ? - and the problems of limited health insurance, sick pay, unemployment pay etc

The USA does not seem to have adequate / appropriate systems to handle a largescale pandemic, that may continue significantly in some states for several months

Also, some of those governors and mayors will be GOP wingnuts,
not traditional conservatives, trying to preserve the lives of their citizens

pmk

nypost.com/2020/05/19/coronavirus-dashboard-architect-claims-she-was-fired-for-not-changing-data/

Let's learn from the best, before any 2nd wave:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/19/mps-hear-why-hong-kong-had-no-covid-19-care-home-deaths

(Despite sharing a border with China)
Hong Kong has recorded zero deaths in care homes from Covid-19 by employing strict infection control measures that were ignored in the UK,
MPs were told on Tuesday as the death toll from the virus in English and Welsh care homes reached almost 15,000.
...
MPs also heard from Isabell Halletz, the chief executive at the German employers’ association for care homes, who said
there had been fewer than 3,000 Covid-19 deaths in care homes in Germany,
partly because no one was allowed in from hospitals without a negative test,
or had undergone quarantine in designated centres or repurposed hotels for at least 14 days.
< more doable to copy than HK for the UK >

Adelina Comas-Herrera, a research fellow at the London School of Economics studying Covid-19 deaths in care homes globally, also praised
Singapore and South Korea, which have recorded no care home deaths by quarantining infected residents or moving them to hospitals.

I see that C&Pnova and her army of squirrels has been deployed to the COVID graphs thread to re-educate the posters there about the correctly patriotic view of UK COVID success.

Pmk

Yes on our nice clean graphs thread, which is normally v calm & logical,
C&P has been trying to invent a spring heatwave in previous years that cunningly killed off thousands of Europeans to make the UK look bad in 2020

Next step, ET lizards killing off care home residents to make BJ look bad

The squirrel army are now on the "Where is Boris" thread
which is good fun - and a good question too

Is he hiding in the fridge from Starmer ?

Hello all and thanks RTB, belated PMK.

I see that Tory minister Useless Eustice was saying furloughed workers should take fruit picking jobs during the lockdown

Tough when the "Pick for Britain" website crashes
< anyone else visualise a toddler picking their nose & eating it ? >

Reportedly the UK is missing many thousands of EU pickers - funnily enough, not many are keen to come

It will be interesting to see later this year if the UK becomes even more dependent on EU imports of fresh produce,
or if the price goes up, as the UK workers won't be as experienced / fit to pick at the EU workers' speed.

But the furloughed workers would need to volunteer? As I believe they aren't allowed to fake paid employment, but can volunteer....... back breaking work - tough gig, and if you listen to the farmers - far from unskilled.....

Have you guys seen that 6 players and Staff tested positive from a group of 748 individuals tested from 3 premier league clubs. Which give an infection rate of .8..... they don't say which clubs .... so don't know if they are all in the north? But much higher infection rate than was expected ....... and that was use in government calculations.....

Reportedly the UK is missing many thousands of EU pickers - funnily enough, not many are keen to come

But then tons and tons of strawberries are grown for Wimbledon, which isn't going ahead, so they won't be required, so it won't matter that the strawberries don't get picked, because the pickers haven't come. Yes, it's a shocking waste of a good crop and a shocking waste of money, but deterring immigrants is what people voted for.

MrsL
The vast, vast majority of Furlough staff are allowed to work elsewhere - that is a specific part of the scheme
(eg BA staff working in hospitals)
BUT
Both salaries are taxable so for many people it may push them out of tax credits or into the 40% band
and
picking veg is a bit tricky if you have child care or OAP parent care responsibilities in the middle of a big city

Students have lectures and exams online but important
School kids ditto (and school kids may not have their own transport)

The one group who could work on the farms en masse are the Festival workers
but as I've linked before, the farmers do not want them because they bring their own accommodation and food which is where the farms make extra profits from their pickers

Sorry about your sil yoikes . Really hoping that she'll be okay.

According to Useless Eustice, furloughed workers are allowed to pick for pay

Of course, to make that hard work worth enought net after tax and maybe losing benefits, the price increases on produce would need to be .... formidable

The farmer at the bottom of the hill where I live was ploughing in his spring onion crop yesterday. Normally at this time of year the fields are full of pickers from well before I drive by to work (7am) until well after I drive by on my way home (6pm).

She was sent home. She's feeling very unwell.
They don't think its covid-19 so didn't test?
Is that normal proceedure?
Thank you for the kind thoughts x

"normal procedure ?"

I would have thought would be to test anyone at hospital

I hope she feels better soon 💐

(((((Yoikes)))))
Hopefully she will be fine
and the data on catching COVID in hospital is enough to make me glad she is safe at home

I'm a bit baffled tbh...
She has many of the symptoms but no fever.
She's not normally one to make a fuss so she must feel bad...

Trump: Scientific study is a "Trump enemy statement"

Very telling how he - and his administration - think

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/may/19/coronavirus-us-live-trump-taking-hydroxychloroquine-withdraw-who-biden-obama-latest-news-updates?page=with:block-5ec425648f08a1782fa7dbff#block-5ec425648f08a1782fa7dbff

“If you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape,” Trump said. “They were very old. Almost dead. It was a Trump enemy statement.”

The president appears to be referring to a study of hundreds of patients at US veterans health administration medical centers.

In reality, that study showed patients treated with hydroxychloroquine were no less likely to need a ventilator and saw a higher death rate.

According to the study’s results, 97 patients who took hydroxychloroquine had a 27.8% death rate,
while the 158 patients who did not take the drug had an 11.4% death rate.

re that drug:
nearly all patients ill enough for it to be worth risking the serious side effects, would indeed be very old

Listening - I thought HMRC - restrict how much you can charge accommodation as part of a job (vaguely know about it from the equine industry) ..... but maybe that's how they get around it - not valuing it as a benefit but charging it separately?