Not an outrageous proposal, but one that is only available in a very narrow array of locations.

McHrozni

It's been Boris Johnson's default approach for years, announce some kind of grand plan and they immediately make the actual planning and delivery of that plan other people's problem.

He recently announced grand plans for the UK's economic recovery to much fanfare in the press. His plan ? To ask ministers to come up with ideas for the UK's economic recovery. Ideas were not forthcoming but then that means that it's the ministers' fault for not coming up with some magic ideas, not his fault that he had a grand announcement with no idea about how it would be delivered.

As I said - that's all already being done, absent social distancing.

Yes, but since your solutions to the problem require the magical acquisition of both space and money, they're problematic.

Solutions are easy to pull out of your bumhole. Viable solutions are not quite so easy.

Wonderful. So not only have we had one of the worst responses in the world in terms of public health, but we've had one of the worst responses in the world in terms of our economy. Well done, Boris.

Didn't they say about a month ago that they were switching to the Apple/google API? Now there's another delay while they consider switching to the Apple/google API?

We still have a 20km travel limit....

That's about the size of it.

Of course the primary concern is to ensure that Dido Harding and her friends get their payday and so I guess it takes a while to determine what the impact of switching to the Apple/google API will have on that ;)

Not all of the UK is incompetent. Take Guernsey for example:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/worl...ost_type=share

Almost certainly not a scalable solution but it shows that effective tracking and tracing is a way to tackle Coronavirus.

Well, at least it won't be due to Brexit.

Nope. That'll just pile on top.

Apparently R is at 1 so we should be seeing lockdown reimposed in 3, 2, 1 .... or perhaps not..

Rather like a working track and trace system, an R-number of less than 1 is just a cherry on top when it comes down to relaxing lockdown in England.

Here in Wales, our R-number is lower, maybe because we've been more cautious lifting lockdown.

Maybe it's that whole thing about planning first, then making announcements. You're lucky to have a layer of government between you and these absolute ******* *******.

Scotland is doing better, as are Wales, Norn Iron, Wales, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands.

Pretty much everywhere but England :(

FTFY

Chief nurse @CNOEngland was dropped from No.10 coronavirus briefings after refusing to back Dominic Cummings.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a9562741.html

And the thing is, that it was in the public domain well before the lockdown:

This is a tweet of mine from March 12th (the day after Italy's lockdown) pointing out that if we were following a similar track to Wuhan a week's delay would account for 66% of cases.

https://twitter.com/ParkinJim/status...65380012240897

We were following the same 35% per day increase so it's reasonable to assume that if we had locked down 14 days earlier, so a day after Italy showed the way, we'd have had about 10% of the cases we have had, (33% of 33%).

Or as I said on March 11th in a discussion with an epidemiologist who had been arguing for earlier lockdown for some time by then.

https://twitter.com/ParkinJim/status...06717167120384

This article is a devastating retrospective on the measures the government took - or did not take - to contain the virus.

I happened across this wonderful turn of phrase while rereading Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal" seems painfully apt. I think it may appear verbatim when a report into this government'S response to corona virus is released, which will probably occur between Boris Johnson's retirement to somewhere with no tax and lots of women in bikinis, and the heat death of the universe. And will be followed by release of the Russia report. I wonder if Johnson, Gove and Cummings originated in the Dungeon Dimensions?

Boris Tweeted

I was delighted to meet those working at Westfield shopping centre, Stratford, where I saw adjustments being made to ensure customers can shop safely.
This week, as shops start reopening in England, remember to follow social distancing rules to protect yourself and others.

In other words.....

If you catch Coronavirus, it's not the government's fault for releasing lockdown restrictions recklessly early, it's business' fault for not taking adequate precautions and your fault for being insufficiently alert.:mad:

And don't forget to spend all that money you don't have...

Apparently R has fallen, so the distancing rule is going to be relaxed to get it back up again.

If there's any doubt as to why the UK lockdown hasn't been particularly effective, this BBC report of a 6,000 person illegal rave near Manchester may be a clue.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...ester-53040827

All the money, time and effort expended by all those shops to cater for the 2m rule. ALl the signs, markers, barriers etc and now Boris is going to scrap the rule.

What a shambles.

It certainly is a shambles, but I’m not sure what you’re saying. Shops are opening today; the 2m rule is not likely to be changed before July 4th, when hospitality may be re-opening. Who knows what the numbers will look like by then. He’s also not likely to scrap the rule, but change it to a smaller distance.

Perhaps they were just testing their hearing?

Who knows what decisions the government are going to make. They seem to have abandoned even pretending that science has anything to do with the decision making process and have instead moved it to an economic/political/public opinion based method.

They also seem desperate for positive headlines and a big splash about lifting social distancing restrictions would provide that so I wouldn't be shocked if announcements were made, effective immediately.

A very bold move would be to sit down and just tell the country that the government believes that the English populace are sensible and it's up to them to be vigilant and so all official rules will be removed and instead it's up to each individual to manage their risk. That's certainly what the right of the Conservative Party is pushing for.

Reports of Tory MPs concerned that Boris Johnson “no longer seems interested” in Coronavirus and that it has fallen down his list of priorities for his briefings.

Also now confirmed that Johnson has not attended a COBRA meeting on the virus in over a month.

Links?

ETA: OK, I’ve found one for the COBRA meetings: https://www.theguardian.com/politics...r-over-a-month

Sounds like Boris Johnson and President Trump share a lot of character traits in that regard. They really don't like hard work, they're easily distracted and they get bored about the same boring old thing.

It also seems like Tory MP concerns are as critical, and immediate as the concerns expressed by certain GOP senators......:rolleyes:

Dominic Cummings has brazened out his crisis, despite the alleged "concerns" of 40 or more Tory MPs. He is now free to lead the Conservative sheep wherever he likes, not least because (the fear of a lack of no-deal) Brexit can be used as a distraction to bring and straying Tory MPs back in line.

They travelled for childcare reasons, they heard it takes a village to raise a child so they thought they'd better go to one. Perfectly reasonable common sense.

Upthread, it's already been posted that the UK economy is forecast to be one of the hardest hit by Coronavirus :(

Some more news stories on the BBC about this:

Job losses have been bad, but the worst is yet to come

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53060529

The Bank of England is going to try to cushion the UK economy from the worst - which is yet to come:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53019360

The UK's unemployment rate could turn out to be worse than the US'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52932962

Given how much of the UK economy is service sector, and how much of that is dependent somewhat or entirely on discretionary spend, I fear that any recovery will be long, uncomfortable and incomplete and that low single digit unemployment rates will be a distant memory.

If 10% of people are out of work, we'll need a low fewer restaurants, bars, hairdressers, nail bars, interior decorators, artisan soap makers and so on...

Quoted from another thread:


I wonder how many of the people queuing on Oxford Street yesterday managed to get there and back without making unnecessary journeys on public transport.

It's your patriotic duty to go out shopping, risk your life and buy **** you don't need :mad:

I see that now there's good news about an effective treatment, Boris Johnson has bothered to turn up for today's briefing. :rolleyes:

Johnson has shown great leadership and initiative today, carrying on “free school meals” during the summer holidays in England. Typically it was only him that recognised a need for such a policy.

Another 233 deaths recorded in the UK today, good job a prominent politician didn't get overexcited at the weekend and imply it was nearly over.

Obviously they weren’t being alert. :(

It really says something that a Premier League footballer had a better grasp on reality than the entire government.