Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[cupid_stunt]

The Bank of England has slashed the interest rate from 0.75% to 0.25% to help prop-up the economy, as the virus is already causing a slowdown.

 

[Artaxerxes]

The Bank of England has slashed the interest rate from 0.75% to 0.25% to help prop-up the economy, as the virus is already causing a slowdown.

Priorities of course.

 

[bimble]

Just went to nhs website and it is still sending a message of wash your hands but otherwise basically carry on as usual unless you've come back from china, been in close contact with a confirmed case or are told by someone on the helpline to self isolate.
Seems irresponsible to me to not even suggest people avoid crowds if they can help it.

Also criteria for being eligible to be tested seem to remain really narrow.

 

[magneze]

Isn't there another Cobra meeting today? Perhaps further guidance will be given after that.

 

[pesh]

beginning to think having a Cobra meeting is just a euphemism for going for a curry.

 

[Yossarian]

beginning to think having a Cobra meeting is just a euphemism for going for a curry.

Apparently it started when hungry minister refused to work without takeaway food being delivered and an aide promised "Curry on Boris, right away."

 

[two sheds]

 

[chilango]

We don't even have cobras in this country. Should change to something more British, like an adder. Or a slow worm.

 

[two sheds]

I was going to say there's no adder beer though, but

 

[Buddy Bradley]

We don't even have cobras in this country. Should change to something more British, like an adder. Or a slow worm.

Hobgoblin committee. It's a beer and also a fairly accurate description.

 

[elbows]

Isn't there another Cobra meeting today? Perhaps further guidance will be given after that.

Health secretary due to make a statement at 7pm, I think, I've only just started to look at todays news.

 

[gentlegreen]

Looks like I won't be getting back into raves any time soon

 

[8ball]

Looks like I won't be getting back into raves any time soon

You can go to techno nights where everyone is spaced out 3 metres away from one another.

 

[elbows]

Johnson is clearly leaving it up to the experts, knowing full well what a political hot potato it would become otherwise.

He's a cunt, but he's not that daft.

I dont think thats the way I'd look at this.

Science and medicine do not operate in a vacuum. Different parts of the political system feed into each other. Science will give different answers depending on what parameters you feed it. The preferences of the government and the PM are parameters that can in theory affect the scientific advice.

There is simply no knowing the extent to which Johnson has influenced the decisions being made. We'd usually only find that out if there was a falling out and someone revealed something in particular.

As it happens, I assume that Johnsons instincts on this matter are not really so far adrift from what the UK establishment would come up with as the favoured approach anyway. But small differences in things like the timing can be important, so I shall just have to wait and see.

I will say that I finally watched Mondays press conference and the press were starting to sound skeptical, and were pressing Boris & the health/science blokes. The phenomenon where people start looking at what other countries are doing (especially countries in europe) and are asking 'why arent we doing that yet?' has begun.

One of the political risks for the government is that even if their strategy works, in terms of delivering effects that were in the range they were aiming for, it might still look like a failure to everyone else. Then all thats required is some small revelation about how Johnson influenced the approach, and a gazillion tonnes of blame will end up on his shoulders.

 

[Fez909]

Good article here on the govt's strategy. Very risky. Has all the hallmarks of Cummings.

Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands: Britain’s Strategy to Beat Virus

While China quarantined 56 million people and the whole of Italy is on lock down to counter the spread of coronavirus, the U.K. is taking a radically different approach. Instead of keeping people inside their homes, Boris Johnson’s government is trying to get inside their heads.

www.bloomberg.com

 

[elbows]

The other thing that could go wrong for them is that they may be aiming to have an intense period of more draconian measures, but are planning to leave this quite late. The political risk is that this wont seem like a planned step when it happens, it will look more like they did far too little for too long, and then had to u-turn suddenly while under mounting pressure.

 

[Cid]

Just got a text from my GP saying they’re stopping walk-in services.

 

[8ball]

Good article here on the govt's strategy. Very risky. Has all the hallmarks of Cummings.

Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands: Britain’s Strategy to Beat Virus

While China quarantined 56 million people and the whole of Italy is on lock down to counter the spread of coronavirus, the U.K. is taking a radically different approach. Instead of keeping people inside their homes, Boris Johnson’s government is trying to get inside their heads.

www.bloomberg.com

Nah, it's not Cummings' lot - it's the Behavioural Insights unit.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Well, ATM, both the Labour Party & the SNP are backing the government's overall action.

Not heard anything for the LibDems. [who?]

 

[Orang Utan]

You can go to techno nights where everyone is spaced out 3 metres away from one another.

Eh?

 

[Pickman's model]

Pessimistic view of what might happen:

The 27 EU leaders are currently taking part in a teleconference summit on the coronavirus outbreak. Their conclusion is that all countries across the EU should go into lockdown to stop the spread of the virus. The UK, having just left the EU and being run by fucking idiots, decides that this needn't apply in this country, and we blunder on regardless. The virus continues to spread in the UK while it slows down in the EU. By the time we realise the EU were right, it's too late. Brexit turns out to be a bigger fuck up than we'd initially feared.

Doom-mongering, right?

i think you're being overly optimistic

 

[Orang Utan]

Looks like I won't be getting back into raves any time soon

I hope you’ve started washing again

 

[8ball]

Eh?

3 metres is likely to be safe.

 

[Pickman's model]

UK investment for covid is woeful

it's all the money from boris johnson's piggy bank

 

[Orang Utan]

3 metres is likely to be safe.

No, why do you seem to think people keep their distances at techno parties?

 

[elbows]

Well, ATM, both the Labour Party & the SNP are backing the government's overall action.

Not heard anything for the LibDems. [who?]

It is normal for oppoisition parties to mind their public sentiments during national emergencies. They will use the standard template language about how great and professional the chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser are. About how they will support the government in keeping people safe, about how this is not the time for partisan party politics. But that wont stop them making quiet and careful criticisms at the same time, about the timing of the response, or some other details. Chances that they will not resist pointing out what austerity has done, what it means for our response and the most vulnerable. But there will probably periods where they are relatively quiet about that, they will want to pick their moment. The press wont be so timid, though again there are moments when dissent might be considered an unaffordable luxury and they will fall into line. That wont last, and then we will get to see the political ramifications play out.

 

[8ball]

No, why do you seem to think people keep their distances at techno parties?

Obviously not all of them.

 

[Orang Utan]

Obviously not all of them.

None of them

 

[8ball]

None of them

'Not all' and 'none' are different.

 

[Cloo]

The other thing that could go wrong for them is that they may be aiming to have an intense period of more draconian measures, but are planning to leave this quite late. The political risk is that this wont seem like a planned step when it happens, it will look more like they did far too little for too long, and then had to u-turn suddenly while under mounting pressure.

Johnson said, not unreasonably, that to start on a hard lockdown too soon would risk making it too long to be really sustainable and harder to enforce. Honestly it's probably mostly a guessing game of when and how long. What I gather now is that potential lockdown is not intended as 'until this thing goes away and no one gets it', but 'until most usual winter NHS strain has passed and it can cope with masses of cases' (and presumably has got more breathing equipment in?)