Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[OnlyBlueWillDo]

I think Morgan does go over the top a bit sometimes, but he's angry at the way this crisis has and is being handled, and he's right it is a scandal.

Watch Panorama from last night, this Govt has a lot to answer for.

 

[PhilM]

There is always the BBC...lol

Not allowing this insidious Government narrative to compare ourselves Italy is good thing.

Piers Morgan has been fired up about recent politics and has looked to challenge the establishment, which contrary to his normal attack lines.

I have no issue with him questioning the government on their current policy and plans etc., but when I've watched his interviews I don't think that's his real motive.

He asks a question and often before the interviewee is allowed an answer he interrupts, shouts over them, refers to something else and / or moves on.

As @Bruce Wayne mentioned, I think a lot of people want answers (to feel informed), and I don't think that's what we're getting from him nor does he want us to.

From his interviews, I'm learning less about the government's COVID-19 response and more about his overall nature and ego, but each to their own.

 

[Brisan123]

DIS really alternate depending on different parts of the public sector, but the minimum I know of is two and a half years your pensionable service.

Other services can be easily over a hundred thousand lump sum and a window pension.

in Ireland its 3 years gross salary tax free and a 50% widows pension
That 50% of the pension you would have got at NRA irregardless of age or service
I would assume Britain is much the same

 

[PhilM]

in Ireland its 3 years gross salary tax free and a 50% widows pension
That 50% of the pension you would have got at NRA irregardless of age or service
I would assume Britain is much the same

A Google came up with this for contributing member's.

2 x actual pay* (*pensionable pay - 1995 section, or reckonable pay - 2008 section)

In the 2015 scheme, the higher of:

• 2 x relevant earnings in the last 12 months of pensionable membership
• 2 x revalued pensionable earnings for the scheme year, up to 10 years earlier, with highest revalued pensionable earnings

For deferred members, it's:

• 3 x annual pension (1995 section)
• 2.25 x annual pension (2008 section)
• 2.025 x annual pension that the member would have received if they retired on the date of death (2015 scheme)

 

[OnlyBlueWillDo]

We've got british companies who have turned to manufacturing PPE to help and had to sell their products to places like the USA because the Govt haven't given them a decision on if they want to buy it or not, meanwhile we are buying from China, buying from Turkey with delays in importing the stock.

Absolute shambles, it really is, NHS staff have died on the front line and continue to do so with a lack of the correct PPE kit, it's really not on is it.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

I have no issue with him questioning the government on their current policy and plans etc., but when I've watched his interviews I don't think that's his real motive.

He asks a question and often before the interviewee is allowed an answer he interrupts, shouts over them, refers to something else and / or moves on.

As @Bruce Wayne mentioned, I think a lot of people want answers (to feel informed), and I don't think that's what we're getting from him nor does he want us to.

From his interviews, I'm learning less about the government's COVID-19 response and more about his overall nature and ego, but each to their own.

We know the Government response, it's not very good. Its not up to Piers Morgan to tell us how good they are. Or translate what the government is doing the BBC news can do that all by itself, we are supposedly not as bad as Italy, I get that part of their response, look over there and not here.

Who knew a journalist on independent channel senses a viewing surge and goes after the story...

If @bruce is your yard stick of democratic news, I hear North Korea does just the sort free press you will be happy with.

 

[Brisan123]

The consequences on the mental health and well-being of millions of people is going to be profound, and I think it'll last for years - maybe decades.

We're talking about PTSD for those on the front-line, difficulties to isolation, compulsive disorders and people simply struggling to interact as they once were.

Also, it may only be my opinion but while there are many more ways of speaking out and getting help, the stoic attitude of generations before may not be there.

This may have dire consequences, which will actually kill or harm more than the virus. For example: what will divorce figures be like? Domestic violence?

Police in Ireland have reported a dramatic rise in domestic abuse calls

 

[zzr45]

We've got british companies who have turned to manufacturing PPE to help and had to sell their products to places like the USA because the Govt haven't given them a decision on if they want to buy it or not, meanwhile we are buying from China, buying from Turkey with delays in importing the stock.

Absolute shambles, it really is, NHS staff have died on the front line and continue to do so with a lack of the correct PPE kit, it's really not on is it.

How good is the PPE that these companies are turning out? There was an example of a printers who’d turned towards making visors and were outraged that they weren’t being bought. Is it exactly going to be a sterile environment and is the equipment actually going to be effective when it’s produced? Most likely not.

 

[PhilM]

Police in Ireland have reported a dramatic rise in domestic abuse calls

There's been the same here, and there is a growing concern regarding a suspected* rise in incidents of child sexual abuse / exploitation.

*This will become more evident once the lock down is peeled back.

 

[GwladysBlue]

There is always the BBC...lol

Not allowing this insidious Government narrative to compare ourselves Italy is good thing.

Piers Morgan has been fired up about recent politics and has looked to challenge the establishment, which contrary to his normal attack lines. He is only the mainstream media that is challenging. There is Channe 4l and Guardian ,however, hardly mainstream.

Its like whack a mole these minister's turning up, I do like how Morgan pulls their media training apart... The sickly smile at key points, absolutely marvellous he pulls them up for it...

He’s hunting for headlines, nothing more. He loves the limelight and will do anything to get himself talked about.

Yes the government need to be held to account but let them finish answering a question and then dissect the answer.

 

[Brisan123]

Are you American?

Bit off topic but how do you guys view people from other states? Like we are tiny in the UK in comparison but there still feels like those from say London or the south coast are completely different to say those from the northern towns/cities.

Do you guys all see yourselves as being "one nation" or is it often a case of say someone from New York feeling almost in a different country to say folk from an Oregon or a Mississippi?

Something that has always intrigued me and with all this going on you tend to see folk on social media from the US slating other states etc.

Urban areas and rural areas of the same state can have completely different outlooks and views
NY being one example

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

He’s hunting for headlines, nothing more. He loves the limelight and will do anything to get himself talked about.

Yes the government need to be held to account but let them finish answering a question and then dissect the answer.

Who knew Piers Morgan is not Carole Cadwalladr...

Yes indeed, Government answer, they follow the science.

Any functioning Government would say they make an informed decision on the science they are given.

And that's where Morgan gets them every time they won't take responsibility, they look to blame, It is that simple.

 

[OnlyBlueWillDo]

How good is the PPE that these companies are turning out? There was an example of a printers who’d turned towards making visors and were outraged that they weren’t being bought. Is it exactly going to be a sterile environment and is the equipment actually going to be effective when it’s produced? Most likely not.

If it's good enough for the Americans it's good enough for us is your answer, it's made to specific standards and templates that are being used around the world to manufacture this type of PPE kit.

You have private self-employed at home tailors and seamstresses manufacturing gowns and scrubs and delivering them to hospitals and the staff are glad to receive it.

 

[Brisan123]

If those numbers are replicated across the country, it's huge.
And to be fair to her, she called it way before the government mentioned it.

In Ireland slightly over 1000 have died and nearly 50% of those were care home and institution residents
If its the same in Britain (and there is no reason to assume its not ) you can double the 20,000 death figures
The way we care for our elderly and the way we allow nursing homes to be run is an international scandal
One care home owner in Ireland who owns 4 home was selling them for 155m euro late last year
It shows the profits that are there to be made

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I have no issue with him questioning the government on their current policy and plans etc., but when I've watched his interviews I don't think that's his real motive.

He asks a question and often before the interviewee is allowed an answer he interrupts, shouts over them, refers to something else and / or moves on.

As @Bruce Wayne mentioned, I think a lot of people want answers (to feel informed), and I don't think that's what we're getting from him nor does he want us to.

From his interviews, I'm learning less about the government's COVID-19 response and more about his overall nature and ego, but each to their own.

I've personally found the universities are churning out a lot of interesting stuff at the moment, and they're a much better source of quality information. A lot of the talk shows, whether on television or radio, merely play to the political tribalists whose sole aim is to bash whomever their chosen opponent is. It's tiresome in the extreme, but you see an example of it in your charming correspondent above.

I noted yesterday, for example, that German doctors are or were staging a protest whereby they appeared at work naked to highlight the lack of PPE they have. That's the Germany that is largely held up as the benchmark for responding to this. There are undoubtedly issues with securing the right amount of this equipment, in the right quality, around the world, as you would probably expect when demand for it must have risen enormously in a very short space of time.

There almost certainly are some interesting aspects of that debate, but it's interesting in a procurement context, a medical use context, and a global trade context. You don't tend to get any of that in the shock jock interviews. It's all just shouting at the 'murdering' politician who draws the short straw and has to submit themselves to the borefest for 10 minutes. Do we know why PPE is in short supply here and elsewhere in the world? Or do we just know it's all the governments fault and they're deliberately killing nurses or something?