Why is political capital not being made of the shambolic performance by this government and Bozo's 'invisible man' thing (following his similarly couldn't-give-a-toss approach with the floods)

A Labour government performing this badly would be ripped apart. 

Originally Posted by: Saint Snow 

I do not believe that it will be possible to control this disease without an Italian style lockdown. While I am reasonably optimistic about how things will pan out, it will not simply burn out all by itself. Like a fire, it needs to be starved of fuel.

I am also sure that the world economy will bounce back. No doubt, there will be some casualties but this will not be apocalypse now either. There will be unprecedented world wide government action to stimulate the economy. However,  there is a possibility that that stimulus will itself store up problems a little down the track. 

Originally Posted by: Lionel Hutz 

But the only way to starve it of fuel, is via herd immunity. The vast majority just get ill and then recover.

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

But the only way to starve it of fuel, is via herd immunity. The vast majority just get ill and then recover.

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

 It's not just party politics, the opposition parties have a duty to the people of this country to criticise the government if they think it's doing something wrong. I haven't watched it, but I heard Lisa Nandy was scathing on Marr this morning about HMG's shambles. 

Originally Posted by: xioni2 

 But the only way to starve it of fuel, is via herd immunity. The vast majority just get ill and then recover.

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

The Guardian reports that the Netherlands is going to close schools. That's interesting as they've been following a similar strategy to us so far. Ireland, Germany (second link), France, Belgium, Greece, Poland, Denmark... all of those have or will soon close theirs.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/mar/15/coronavirus-latest-updates-trump-tests-negative-as-spain-orders-nationwide-lockdown-uk-us-australia-italy-europe-global-economy

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/mar/13/coronavirus-school-closures-uk-gdp-ministers-warned
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/12/how-do-coronavirus-containment-measures-vary-across-europe

The last link contains this map - red is where all schools have closed as of Friday, yellow where some are closed and grey is where they're still open. My school has been expecting they'll be ordered to close this coming Friday for the past 2 weeks... they could well be right!

Originally Posted by: Retron 

This is clearly wrong as so many Asian countries are demonstrating.

Originally Posted by: xioni2 

Forgot to add though that the Labour party is still being led by someone that even this highly contagious virus would find a waste of time.

Originally Posted by: xioni2 

We've got 30,000 people to repatriate from the French ski resorts. This will turn into another massive fiasco I expect.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/coronavirus-chaos-as-30000-british-tourists-told-to-leave-french-ski-resorts

Originally Posted by: Brian Gaze 

No it isn't - if you have no herd immunity, you are at risk of developing a recurrence, unless you lockdown indefinitely.

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

Brian Gaze: I dread to think the impact on the economy if we go for 60% infection in the next 12 to 18 months to get herd immunity. That's on top of the several hundred thousand body bags which will need processing.

Arcus: Brian there's going to be 60% infection anyway no matter what we do.

Brian Gaze: Not if a vaccine is available within 18 months.

 Arcus: Absolute nonsense. You're trying to juggle jelly. 

https://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twocommunity/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1189135#post1189135

Originally Posted by: Brian Gaze 

 No it isn't - if you have no herd immunity, you are at risk of developing a recurrence, unless you lockdown indefinitely.

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

It’s a proper shambles. The resorts were still telling people to travel yesterday morning. Thousands of people arriving at French airports and having to turn straight round again. Some were even told at check-in that the resorts were going to shut but they couldn’t cancel. 

Originally Posted by: Rob K 

Yes...and? For the UK that's a realistic assumption no matter what action is taken. Germany's government have said the same. Unless you a querying the 18 months for a vaccine? If so, this may help:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/when-will-a-coronavirus-vaccine-be-ready-human-trials-global-immunisation

"“Like most vaccinologists, I don’t think this vaccine will be ready before 18 months,”

Originally Posted by: Arcus 

What on Earth are you talking about? Most of the Asian countries have not initiated 'lockdowns', they have slowed down the epidemic to a trickle, they haven't had significant numbers of deaths and they didn't harm their economies. They seem ready to fight new waves of the epidemic too. We need to look to their examples and not Europe!

Originally Posted by: xioni2 

Sorry, but they were bloody idiots to go in the first place. Utterly bonkers. Puerile, brain-dead twats!

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

Sorry, but they were bloody idiots to go in the first place. Utterly bonkers. Puerile, brain-dead twats!

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

No it isn't - if you have no herd immunity, you are at risk of developing a recurrence, unless you lockdown indefinitely.

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

Presumably if they had cancelled themselves they would have lost all their money.

Originally Posted by: westv 

 They were quick to bring in travel restrictions as we should have done - that makes all the difference. However, Malaysia is now seeing an uptick in numbers and some like Indonesia were providing false figures all along.

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum 

Sorry, but they were bloody idiots to go in the first place. Utterly bonkers. Puerile, brain-dead twats!

Originally Posted by: Maunder Minimum