Making the news today....

[Khriss]

Do like a bit of William Morris. K

[monkeybusiness]

11 hours ago, Mark J said:

Could the lockdown have side-effects no one has considered? | The Spectator

WWW.SPECTATOR.CO.UK

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This virus is still evolving

Interesting piece.

‘Herd immunity’ as a term was ridiculously made toxic by the press and the point-scoring left, and is now impossible to refer to politically. It is still currently our only way forwards though, and I reckon is the reason the lockdown hasn’t been more strictly enforced (allowing 15000 people per day in/out of the country by air, keeping some public transport running, letting people go to work etc). We will (correctly and in a planned fashion) end up with herd immunity, without using the term in front of the ‘panicking masses’. 
(Interesting article by the way). 

Edited May 3, 2020 by monkeybusiness

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

[Mark J]

How poor planning left the UK without enough PPE | Free to read | Financial Times

WWW.FT.COM

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Procurement problems and contradictory guidance left frontline staff fearful and suspicious

 

[Johnsond]

17 hours ago, Mark J said:

How poor planning left the UK without enough PPE | Free to read | Financial Times

WWW.FT.COM

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Procurement problems and contradictory guidance left frontline staff fearful and suspicious

 

Good article Mark and some interesting points. To try and prepare for a multitude of different scenarios is difficult to say the least. The structures involved within the NHS and the management format does not help I’d say in planning for such a variety of scenarios. Surely going forward the procedures,  planning and procurement of eqpt  to cover every possible event regardless how crazy it may seem will be put in place, right from having the correct PPE to a firm border closure and travel restrictions plan. 
Good few years ago I worked at Sellafield on a decommissioning project,  after a rather large fuck up they invoked a process called a Haz ops review that involved everyone from all levels and disciplines, we ended up sitting in meetings for a month to thrash out every possible scenario from minor incidents to crazy crazy off the wall events. Procedures were devised to deal with every one  of them, whilst the process was excruciating it did enable the project to go forward and be completed successfully. Mind you it did go from being a planned 6 months to 3 years to complete  ?‍♂️

[Mark J]

Open Letter to UK Government: “Do you want our PPE or not?”

MEDIUM.COM

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This open letter from suppliers across the UK has been put together by Lucy Wathan — organiser of the campaign calling...

 

[Mark J]

Study claiming new coronavirus can be transmitted by people without symptoms was flawed

WWW.SCIENCEMAG.ORG

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A traveler to Germany from China who infected another person did feel ill, contradicting New England Journal of Medicine...

 

[Mark J]

This scheme is now up and running. It will potentially help businesses who have invested themselves in kit as it's based on (up to) 25% of your turnover for 2019.
If you want to borrow money; not everyone does.
It's 2.5% over six years. The government is lending you the first years worth repayments and acting as a guarantor (of sorts) for the loan.

Apply for a coronavirus Bounce Back Loan - GOV.UK

WWW.GOV.UK

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This scheme helps small and medium-sized businesses affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) to access loans of up to...

I still reckon that a Universal Basic Income is inevitable.

Edited May 4, 2020 by Mark J

[eggsarascal]

7 minutes ago, Mark J said:

This scheme is now up and running. It will potentially help businesses who have invested themselves in kit as it's based on (up to) 25% of your turnover for 2019.
If you want to borrow money; not everyone does.
It's 2.5% over six years. The government is lending you the first years worth repayments and acting as a guarantor (of sorts) for the loan.

Apply for a coronavirus Bounce Back Loan - GOV.UK

WWW.GOV.UK

---

This scheme helps small and medium-sized businesses affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) to access loans of up to...

I still reckon that a Universal Basic Income is inevitable.

Applied for £10k this morning, just waiting to hear back. I probably won't need it and I'll pay it back in a oner, nice to have a cushion just in case mind.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

On 03/05/2020 at 08:56, Woodworks said:

OK I get what you are saying.

 

My family is guilty of this with them dotted around all over the planet. Not that I visit them but they come back here from time to time clocking up god knows how many miles.

 

With my green hat this is an interesting period. You mention the air quality and I saw mention of 1700 less deaths due to air pollution in the UK but cant find the source but sounds more than likely.

 

Let's face it only one species is unhappy about the current situation while millions of other species are having a field day. 

 

 

This is a really short piece but it highlights some of the point I was trying to make:

 

DEFINE_ME

WWW.THELANCET.COM

 

"...This is most troubling given the time of year—the Spring Festival celebration, which sees a lot of movement to and around China, with people rushing home to celebrate and subsequently returning to their usual place or country of residence..."

 

Whether it be MERS, SARS COVID, Ebola, and a whole host of 'lesser' infectious diseases (and grotesque ideological fantasies such as FGM) the discussion has to be had, or at least it should be had, by global leaders responsible for setting grand strategic policies.  

 

Either we carry on with this physical, emotional, economic, societal 'lock-down' - with all its consequential implications - or we stop trade, movement, collaboration etc with areas that are likely to infect us in the future.

 

I know it's a big shift change but surely, this is an either / or situation based upon the guaranteed recurrence of something like, or worse, than we currently have.  The so-called incentives for cheap manufacturing and migration from alien (we have not evolved in unison) cultures can be wiped out in an instant as soon as something like this occurs.  Are we to live forever in fear and preparedness for the new norm of routine lock-down and isolation as the price we pay for global trade / movement and the threat of  intercontinental transportation of future virus?

 

I can't help but make the comparison with EU expansionism.  Had the EU stayed as the original (+) small group of like minded, culturally, economically, geographically, politically similar cohort, I would probably have been in favour of the institution.  It got too big, it got too diverse and it is/will continue to destroy itself as a consequence.

 

Why have we been so keen to forge ever greater integration with other nations?  Cheap labour which supports growth in GDP - in its very simplest from.

 

I guess there are comparisons with the time of Empires.

 

Maybe it's time to take a proper look at why we use GDP as the key measure of national economic 'success' and start to place greater value upon the more holistic human needs.

 

Maybe it's time to recognise the unintended benefits that have come from this situation and build them into the vision for the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by kevinjohnsonmbe