Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

[Marty1]

Agree with all of this - there seem to be a lot of people, many of them old, doing everything as normal, maybe on the basis that everywhere might be shut soon. (Mind you I am having a quiet pint myself, in an almost completely empty pub where I am about ten metres away from any other human so I reckon it's pretty safe.)

I also don't think it's practical for a lot of Londoners to really stock up on food either - storage space and carrying capacity are limited. This is how I live myself; I have a tiny freezer compartment, I buy small amounts of fresh veg most days. If I really need to I could survive for a bit but it wouldn't be good for me.

Make sure you’ve got plenty vape juice - imagine going without nicotine

 

[Badgers]

I am not scaremongering about the army thing. Nor do I expect any type of martial law.

It is just logical. Not as enforcers (barring a serious situation arising) of a curfew but to support with logistics and such.

 

[brogdale]

Hmmm

 

[mx wcfc]

I normally commute by train, but I had to drive in one day. Sat in a traffic jam on the A33. when I got to the front, there was, indeed and in actual fact, a copper chasing a swan around the dual carriage way. I did laugh.

 

[Proper Tidy]

I am not scaremongering about the army thing. Nor do I expect any type of martial law.

It is just logical. Not as enforcers (barring a serious situation arising) of a curfew but to support with logistics and such.

Yeah it does make sense to use the armed forces, part of their function is as a source of flexible labour, but yeah it will be in logistics, distribution, perhaps army medics etc working within nhs. Fuck knows though, world is so weird now it wouldn't surprise me to wake up tomorrow to some green cunt pointing a gun at me and requisitioning my supernoodles

 

[brogdale]

Yeah it does make sense to use the armed forces, part of their function is as a source of flexible labour, but yeah it will be in logistics, distribution, perhaps army medics etc working within nhs. Fuck knows though, world is so weird now it wouldn't surprise me to wake up tomorrow to some green cunt pointing a gun at me and requisitioning my supernoodles

Yeah, probably about right...but when MPs are talking openly about "containing London" I'm thinking that they would need the green cunts.

 

[Marty1]

Are you sure?...rumour is all us people from the big smoke are loaded and think we are all special.

Special like EastEnders.

 

[LeytonCatLady]

I'm due to visit my family in Birmingham on Saturday 4th April. Think I'll have trouble getting into Central/from Euston on my way home? Or should I ask Trainline for a refund?

 

[tommers]

So just me that finds this all a bit scary? They're here to save us from ourselves or something?

 

[spitfire]

I don't expect for a second it will be sandbags round the streets and mirrors under cars #thegoodolddays

More of a presence.

I know mate, didn't think you did. May have been lost in translation.

 

[Badgers]

I'm due to visit my family in Birmingham on Saturday 4th April. Think I'll have trouble getting into Central/from Euston on my way home? Or should I ask Trainline for a refund?

Unless it is an essential trip I would cancel. Most train companies are offering credits or journey transfers.

 

[brogdale]

So just me that finds this all a bit scary? They're here to save us from ourselves or something?

Nope, not just you al all.
When i drove down to my aged pares last week to fill the boot with grub for them, I was thinking then about when and how they'd cut off London.

 

[Badgers]

So just me that finds this all a bit scary? They're here to save us from ourselves or something?

We can't be trusted sadly.

Nor can they but look at other countries and the measures taken. The army are scary but actually not to bad at something like this.

 

[Treacle Toes]

Johnson plans London lockdown as crisis escalates Prime minister shows strain in latest address to country on coronavirus While Boris Johnson was addressing the country, officials were being briefed on plans to close down London

Boris Johnson’s face bore the strain of the past three weeks, during which coronavirus went from being a distant menace to one that threatened to consume Britain’s economy, spread death across the country and dominate his premiership. The British prime minister has gone in a matter of days from advising people to wash their hands to planning the closure of London, followed by the rest of the country; government officials expect the capital to be locked down as early as Friday.

As the UK death toll jumped by 33 to 104 — and with the pound crashing around him — a pale-faced Mr Johnson announced at a press conference plans to close the country’s schools, declaring: “We will not hesitate to go further and faster in the days and weeks ahead.” While Mr Johnson was addressing the country, officials were being briefed on plans to close down London — the worst affected part of Britain — as early as Friday, with police being put on standby to prevent the possible looting of deserted town centres. According to one person briefed on the proposal, there would be a full lockdown of the capital with only one person allowed to leave home at a time, with no entry to local shopping areas. Supermarkets would be guarded by police, while pharmacies would be among the few other shops to remain open. Two officials briefed on the proposals said residents and business would be given just 12 hours’ notice of the new restrictions. They could initially be in place for about a fortnight. Mr Johnson did not deny that plans for a lockdown existed, and his allies say only that “the situation is moving fast”.

A number of senior Whitehall officials have told the Financial Times they expect the plan to be implemented in London on Friday. Coronavirus business update How is coronavirus taking its toll on markets, business, and our everyday lives and workplaces? Stay briefed with our coronavirus newsletter. Sign up here Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak, Mr Johnson’s chancellor, and Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England governor, were drawing up plans to prevent coronavirus laying waste to the British economy. Tory MPs now talk about the risk of the “D word”: depression. Elected with an 80-seat House of Commons majority in December, Mr Johnson had anticipated at least four years of untrammelled power, but like other world leaders his authority has been challenged by an invisible enemy. The speed with which the crisis has escalated has taken Mr Johnson — and the scientists upon whose advice he has been acting — by surprise, although few around the world predicted chaos on such a grand scale so soon. Mr Johnson said he would have to lead something akin to a “wartime government” and he did nothing to deny the widespread expectation that London could be closed down as part of an escalating attempt to halt the virus. Asked about a possible shutdown, he said: “We don’t rule out — and it would be wrong to do so — taking further and faster measures in due course.” It was only a week ago that Mr Sunak announced an apparently generous £12bn package of support for the economy to cope with the crisis; this week he announced £330bn of loan guarantees and a further £20bn in fiscal support. But that is only the start, as Mr Sunak has admitted, and the chancellor will this week announce a massive package of measures to try to keep people in work and to help those laid off as the crisis deepens. Mr Johnson hinted that Britain was about to become a very different place, saying that while he cherished freedom, the country was about to be asked to make sacrifices: “These are very, very important choices we are making in our daily lives.”

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Basically not enough police to do this. The army is around for specific reasons.

 

[Badgers]

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Paywall

 

[brogdale]

We can't be trusted sadly.

Nor can they but look at other countries and the measures taken. The army are scary but actually not to bad at something like this.

That said, they'll shoot anyone attempting to get through the cordon sanitare.

 

[Treacle Toes]

Paywall

Have a look again. C & P'ed

 

[ska invita]

/

 

[clicker]

It all feels very War of the Worlds here. No aeroplane sound is deafening.

 

[Treacle Toes]

It all feels very War of the Worlds here. No aeroplane sound is deafening.

Weird huh... absolutely under the gatwick flight path here...noticably quiet in that regard.

 

[Badgers]

Have a look again. C & P'ed

Thanks x

 

[brogdale]

Guardian report on Army involvement here.

 

[weepiper]

Edinburgh is already locking itself down voluntarily. These are from 9pm this evening. It wouldn't normally look like this even at 4am.

 

[clicker]

Not much left to loot.

 

[brogdale]

Not much left to loot.

In the shops, no...but those distribution centres just out beyond the M25...

 

[Puddy_Tat]

blargh

i'm still trying to persuade mum-tat (who is in that london) that she won't be under house arrest and will be allowed out for food shopping (she does also do online shopping and has some neighbours who have already offered help)

don't think it's going to be entirely constructive to try and get her out and over here before lockdown happens (assuming we're given notice) or for me to go and stay there

if she came here, she'd be remote from her doctors, and while it would be possible, there isn't really much space here

if i went there, i'd have to stop work (the specialist software i work with isn't work from home-able and i'm kinda busy at the moment producing plans for each stage of shitstorm

 

[ska invita]

(assuming we're given notice)

notice is given - starts friday, no?

 

[Treacle Toes]

Not much left to loot.

Warehouses and small business stocks are full.

 

[weepiper]

 

[keybored]

"sources"