love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

now that schools aren't really schools anymore i guess they'll have to stay open throughout the easter holidays?

That would be logical given the circs yeah

not sure how will this is going to age

No 10 says there is 'zero prospect' of a big lockdown of London - as we've been reporting there might be tightening of restrictions but remember that is VERY different from other suggestions of travel bans or the kind of total lockdowns some other countries have pursued

— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) March 19, 2020

(also if you're still counting Andrew, confidence in the execution crumbled a good while ago)

When you look at the numbers of cases and growth trajectories I don't understand why everyone isn't following the cue of Japan.

because we believe in freedom

Random leftists shooting this down within seconds

We deserve better than policies which do the bare minimum and don't help everyone, and not just during this pandemic.

We need:
🔺 Universal basic income
🔺 Suspend rent and utility bills
🔺 Nationalise essential services

That's it, that's the line. https://t.co/pm3RoFT4uU

— jt (@jennby__) March 19, 2020

BTW I'm in the pub and it's heaving

(also if you're still counting Andrew, confidence in the execution crumbled a good while ago)

Yeah, I feel sorry about this now - looking back you were just the target for a freakout that I needed to have. Sorry.

The worldometers graph for the UK is not calming at the moment

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/

The stat I just heard on WS was it's killing one person every ten minutes.

Globally of course.

Some science press briefing highlights:
1. Whitty: "it's improbable" there will b #coronavirus vaccine in 6 months
2. Plea for young people to take social distancing seriously
3. Mortality rate in UK looks higher than other countries cos of lack of community testing in UK

— James Illman (@Jamesillman) March 19, 2020

That's from Health Service Journal by the way.

Meanwhile a friend with a long-scheduled birthday party in a pub is telling everyone in the chat that it’s still on, come along

tbf the government is not taking social distancing seriously, why should we?

I went to tesco to get some bread and milk, seems the panic-buying is if anything going up a gear, even saw people with trolleys full of toilet paper again, how long is this phase going to continue?

there were queues outside all the supermarkets I passed today, and boots was serving people in a long line from a hatch

I went to tesco to get some bread and milk, seems the panic-buying is if anything going up a gear, even saw people with trolleys full of toilet paper again, how long is this phase going to continue?

Sainsbury's supposedly started allocating the first hour to older and disabled people from today but predictably this seems to have been disregarded today judging by what was left in the second hour. No sign of items being limited or any safety gear for staff.

Kind of crazy that supermarkets don't seem to have had any panic buying protocol ready or provisions for increasing hygiene.

I've seen some pure joker stories doing the rounds. The guy who had a full trolley of Iron Bru. The one buying £49 worth of Petits Filous fromage frais, if true it would mean they aren't doing two item limit on all goods.

On my way to the store I say a guy with three big packs of toilet paper that went bouncing all over the wet street. Maybe he has a large family but it was comically poetic.

3. Mortality rate in UK looks higher than other countries cos of lack of community testing in UK

hmmm

Woohoo!! #UniversalCredit #chefskiss pic.twitter.com/bLIw5IXPrh

— Greggs Truther (@invisibleste) March 19, 2020

if UC have to put all resources into processing new clients rather than sanctioning/harassing existing ones as seems to be suggested by a few people on my TL now, then at least some people are catching a small break during this horror show.

how do you eat £49 of petit filous before they expire?

went to local sainburys local (at about 14:00 which was probably my mistake) and it was the emptiest i've seen it. no fruit or veg but, amusingly, lots of brightly coloured easter eggs. i'm ok for a while (went to get salad and a couple of other perishables) but i am kind of relying on there being things to buy when i need to buy them again.

Our society must fall back on normality which is totally great and not already killing people

_3. Mortality rate in UK looks higher than other countries cos of lack of community testing in UK_


hmmm

Say you have someone who went through Angel station while infected, coughed into their hand on the way off the train, had their hand on that escalator rail while standing on the way out and unknowingly passed it on to people who made the same journey and touched the same rail?

So currently if this person then develops severe symptoms, is tested, and turns out positive, they may be testing the family and contacting any colleagues or anyone else? But ideally, in a containment situation, they’d try to catch anyone who went through Angel station that day and stood on the right? Potentially those people will have been exposed, some would have become infected, and therefore spread the disease when they travelled onwards. Obviously we’re beyond that now. This is how they’ve been handling it in Singapore iirc.

Germany: 12,853 cases / 34 deaths
UK: 2,626 cases / 103 deaths

Ratio that.

— Matthew Tempest (@MattTempest) March 19, 2020

Difficult to see how the government could come back from a higher death toll than Italy when they had every opportunity to do things differently. Every bungled announcement or briefing is going to come back to bite them.

Also judging by those numbers Germany is just testing way way more people?

The Germany numbers being reported on Worldmeter are saying 100% of the current cases are “mild”, whereas they’re probably only confirming you here if you’re sick enough to go to hospital.

Germany has more beds and ventilators too

BREAKING: 'The government is giving public health officials, police, nurses, doctors the power to detain potentially infection persons.'

A new, 329-page emergency legislation to tackle the #coronavirus outbreak has been published.

More on this story: https://t.co/SeVZN6TXKX pic.twitter.com/QkrpVlGbz8

— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 19, 2020

when we getting that sweet sweet helicopter money

xp the ventilators don’t mean anything if you don’t have the staff trained to use them

Sure, there is a lot of underlying stuff that the UK doesn't have.

iberia laying off 90% of staff for three months. base rate at 0.1%. IKEA closing all UK stores indefinitely. bit wild out there lads

lost count of the number of fb and ig posts by beloved neighbourhoud brunch/coffee/beer spots saying they're closing up and the future is really uncertain. depending on how long this thing goes, we could be lucky if 50% of them re-open : /

Hey do you remember during the election campaign when that guy had the temerity to confront Boris Johnson about the state of the NHS and our most prominent political journalist was all "ah what do you expect he's a Labour supporter" handwavey? And when that guy shouted at Matt Hancock outside a hospital and they amplified confected a story about a physical assault?

Is it possible that a) maybe those guys had a point and b) that our most prominent political journalists might have been unable to see the real story that was staring them in the face?

Obviously the chance of any tiny amount of self-reflection is zero. They got what they were after right?

Let's talk other people getting what they want:

More than 70,000 seasonal workers are normally required to harvest the UK’s fruit and vegetables. Domestic supplies are critical for soft fruits with around 90% of the strawberries and 60% of the raspberries we eat grown in the UK.

There is now uncertainty that overseas workers will be able to travel to the UK over the next month to take up those jobs. There is also worry among the existing overseas labour force working on farms in the UK about whether to stay or travel back home.

We urgently need a UK labour force who can help harvest crops to feed the nation. At a time when international travel is restricted and people are panic buying due to the coronavirus, it is crucial that growers can provide enough British produce to our supermarkets and local shops,” said Sarah Boparan, operations director at the farm recruitment company HOPS Labour Solutions.

We are aware that there are many people facing sustained periods away from their usual employment or studies and HOPS can offer paid positions for those who are willing to work.

HOPS has called for interested applicants to find out more and apply online.

The British Summer Fruits association said it would be mounting a large-scale recruitment campaign in the next few days aimed at that part of the UK population left out of work by the coronavirus. It said 98% of harvest staff last year were from outside the UK.

looks like it's time to nationalise food or just let it rot in the fields.. the choice is theirs.

Kids, the important thing here is that the status quo doesn't die. Everything else is collateral

Hey do you remember during the election campaign when that guy had the temerity to confront Boris Johnson about the state of the NHS and our most prominent political journalist was all "ah what do you expect he's a Labour supporter" handwavey? And when that guy shouted at Matt Hancock outside a hospital and they amplified confected a story about a physical assault?

Is it possible that a) maybe those guys had a point and b) that our most prominent political journalists might have been unable to see the real story that was staring them in the face?

I wish to like and retweet this

perhaps I could print it on a t-shirt and wear it forcibly attach it to someone more persuasively attractive to wear around town. forcible attachment not social distancing-compliant though

There was also that other guy who presented evidence of the government’s designs against the nhs and was negged by the same lickspittle journalists

He at least was an elected representative, negging and smearing members of the public for pointing out glaring flaws in our creaking public infrastructure is a different thing entirely.

Still, it's not as if thousands of lives are at stake or anything.

got my COVID-19 operational planning updates from both farrow & ball and screwfix so I'm feeling a lot calmer now

windrush report out today. it's a good month to bury bad news.

in my local Co-op all the milk, bread and potatoes were wiped out though I managed to get onions, cheap bottle of malbec and long life cream. I heard a macabre convo going on behind me in the queue. Bloke with local council shirt on was loudly boasting how he now has Key Worker status and added : they've moved me from cutting hedges now, they need me to dig some graves.

Priti Patel "I'm a bit sorry.."