Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[summerisle]

The blitz spirit did exist, it doesn’t today though....and as I say, Brexit won’t even be noticed.....

Another fantasy :

Coronavirus and the myth of ‘Blitz spirit’

It had to be. We were barely into the first week of the coronavirus emergency than the Prime Minister and others started invoking the ‘Blitz spirit’. You know, that incomparable time soon after the start of world war two when Brits stood firm and united against the worst that Nazi Germany could...

www.spectator.co.uk

Why the cruel myth of the 'blitz spirit' is no model for how to fight coronavirus | Richard Overy

Wartime leaders disguised the awful reality of being bombed with tales of British resolve. It’s no fit approach for this crisis, says academic Richard Overy

www.theguardian.com

 

[Sentinel]

I’m one of those at greatest risk, so I can afford to be nonchalant about it....

I understand your laissez-faire sentiments. Stay safe mate.

 

[orly]

The problem here is Korean churches are essentially franchises in a way that would make American style fundamentalist churches blush. Not uncommon to see people give over 30%+ of their wages to the local church. So those that run them have no interest at all in a lockdown. It's not like the Buddhists , who are also the country's biggest landowners so still have a fixed income from rents and business rates.

Religion hey. Gang of goblins

 

[tsubaki]

I'm not saying life should continue, btw. There has to have been measures in place. My point is merely more should have been done beforehand if they really did give a crap about the old and vulnerable to ensure that the measures didn't have such an immediate negative impact on the economy and people's livelihoods.

There will be big, big organisations that benefit from this. As always with any global emergency.

But you can't ignore that the solutions so far are going to lead to more problems further down the line.

People are acting like there's nothing that could be done other than what we're doing now. Right now, there isn't. Maybe our measures in the UK aren't even enough.

But if we had been pumping more money into protection, testing and equipment six-seven weeks ago (not just here, but everywhere across Europe) you'd like to think we'd have been able to a) save more lives and b) not damage the economy as much long term.

None of that is what is being spoon-fed to the likes of pete, though.

Yes, if we'd took this seriously two months ago we'd be in a better place now. If we hadn't spent the last thirty years reducing the overall capacity of the NHS whilst turning it into a machine that prints money for certain firms and people we'd be in a better place now. If we hadn't monetized training then we'd have more doctors and nurses than we have now, and be better able to cope with this horror. If the care sector hadn't been trashed and made reliant on foreign labour that is about to disappear we'd be able to free up hospital beds and increase capacity that way. If the current Government and the media hadn't drilled it into people for years that "experts" can't be trusted then perhaps more people would listen.

Instead its all THE FEDS ARE COMING TO ARREST YOU, OLD FOLK as if they are going to be taken to the camps instead of - at most - escorted home and told not to be so daft.

 

[tsubaki]

I don’t give a toss about politicians or their views and dreams. I care about my family, friends and fellow country folk. I care that our country is one worth living in and that everyone does well.....

Pete if this thing isn't sorted you are going to know someone, possibly a few someones, who spends a week struggling for life and gasping for air via a ventilator.

If Johnson and Cummings had got their way (and Hitchens in advocating that life should continue without measures that would harm the economy), you could have taken "via a ventilator" out of that sentence because there wouldn't be anywhere near enough to go around.

 

[Sentinel]

The problem here is Korean churches are essentially franchises in a way that would make American style fundamentalist churches blush. Not uncommon to see people give over 30%+ of their wages to the local church. So those that run them have no interest at all in a lockdown. It's not like the Buddhists , who are also the country's biggest landowners so still have a fixed income from rents and business rates.

Religion hey. Gang of goblins

Koreans eat dogs. Their part of the problem.

 

[orly]

Koreans eat dogs. Their part of the problem.

Oh wow

 

[peteblue]

Email just arrived....

”Dear Brook Taverner Customer,

It is with great sadness that we have made the difficult decision to temporarily close all our Brook Taverner stores in England and Scotland from Sunday 22nd March at 4pm until we are advised that it is safe to re-open.

Events have moved so quickly over the past few days that we now know it is the right thing to do to protect our customers and staff in all our store locations and to keep everyone safe in these extraordinary times.....etc”

Watch everyone jump on this publicly funded bandwagon over the next few weeks.....

 

[summerisle]

Email just arrived....

”Dear Brook Taverner Customer,

It is with great sadness that we have made the difficult decision to temporarily close all our Brook Taverner stores in England and Scotland from Sunday 22nd March at 4pm until we are advised that it is safe to re-open.

Events have moved so quickly over the past few days that we now know it is the right thing to do to protect our customers and staff in all our store locations and to keep everyone safe in these extraordinary times.....etc”

Watch everyone jump on this publicly funded bandwagon over the next few weeks.....

Never heard of them.

 

[Sentinel]

Oh wow

Orly meet Google, Google meet Orly.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

Koreans eat dogs. Their part of the problem.

 

[Harryflashman]

Email just arrived....

”Dear Brook Taverner Customer,

It is with great sadness that we have made the difficult decision to temporarily close all our Brook Taverner stores in England and Scotland from Sunday 22nd March at 4pm until we are advised that it is safe to re-open.

Events have moved so quickly over the past few days that we now know it is the right thing to do to protect our customers and staff in all our store locations and to keep everyone safe in these extraordinary times.....etc”

Watch everyone jump on this publicly funded bandwagon over the next few weeks.....

regardless of your side of the debate there is zero doubt that any company not involved in food retail is jumping on it . So rightly a lot of hospitality businesses were feeling the pinch and then had no choice but to avail themselves of the offer , several of the less scrupulous already laying off staff which I’m told despite the ‘backdating’ message nobody is completely sure if they’ll be paid . However as soon as the announcement was made major high street retailers like H&M for example were emailing staff telling them not to come in , they at least are making up your 20% a lot of smaller retailers are simply allowing the government to carry the load .

I’m not really saying anything on it really other than I’m not sure the initial plan when thought up was for H&M or John Lewis’ wages to be covered by the government.

 

[peteblue]

Never heard of them.

Some business that keeps sending out emails to buy over priced shirts and country clothing...

 

[peteblue]

regardless of your side of the debate there is zero doubt that any company not involved in food retail is jumping on it . So rightly a lot of hospitality businesses were feeling the pinch and then had no choice but to avail themselves of the offer , several of the less scrupulous already laying off staff which I’m told despite the ‘backdating’ message nobody is completely sure if they’ll be paid . However as soon as the announcement was made major high street retailers like H&M for example were emailing staff telling them not to come in , they at least are making up your 20% a lot of smaller retailers are simply allowing the government to carry the load .

I’m not really saying anything on it really other than I’m not sure the initial plan when thought up was for H&M or John Lewis’ wages to be covered by the government.

which was the point I’m making.....

 

[aazak]

Ireland - HSE briefing at the moment saying they are preparing field hospitals. Anything like that going on where you are?