Total closure immediately and maybe  we wouldn't be where we are today , I'm still struggling as to why everything has taken so long , also the sad thing is there are many people who are still ignorant to the facts and how bad this could be and wont realise how bad a job Boris has done or is doing 

I won't sidetrack this thread but I am starting to think the fallout from this episode could be so great that the term "Brexit" loses all meaning. It will be possible for people on both sides of the fence to make arguments on the way forward but clearly there will be big changes to the economy and trade. 

PS: The number of emergency service sirens I can hear from my office has increased in recent days. Could be entirely coincidental.

Got it in a nut shell....

Exactly and it proves my point. Brexit for the freaks of the Tory Party and the Farage entity was just a theoretical undertaking. A [censored]fest. Once climax was achieved, they were left flaccid and bewildered. Their failure will have been responsible for tens of thousands of avoidable deaths.

I honestly think most people have been blindsided by this. If I try to identity failings in the UK then possibly: 1) arrogance in not listening to experts from overseas 2) an overrated health service which politicians from all parties have oversold for decades

David Barlow Buik on LBC this morning was saying the £ is struggling because we are now decoupled from the EU and it has lost its tenuous link to the Euro. As a result the £s status as a reserve currency is diminished. I believe Buik is a Eurosceptic.

That is a very salient fact. It exposes the lies we have been told.

On the other hand, the first instincts of the EU at the outset was defend Schengen - countries on the border with Italy were inhibited from closing their borders in good time - they only did it (and the EU was aghast) when the scale of what was being faced became apparent.

The EU will not survive this pandemic - everything is back to nation states doing what they can.

If ‘taking back control of our borders’ does not involve closing them during a global pandemic, then those who used this message as the central deceit of their jizzfest must be arrested and put on trial for manslaughter when this is over.

It is the greatest outrage of the Brexit atrocity.

On the subject of healthcare systems in Europe the following countries ALL rank higher than the UK on outcomes according to the WHO. European countries below the UK are mainly former members of the Warsaw Pact (the only notable exception is Greece which does slightly worse than UK). 

Switzerland
Norway
Finland
Denmark
Sweden
Netherlands
Belgium
Luxembourg
Austria
Germany
Ireland
France
Italy
Iceland
Portugal
Spain
Slovenia
Czech Republic

The EU will survive. Not sure the UK will.

How do you explain why several Schengen countries have closed their borders but the UK STILL HAS NOT?

The communist party in China will gradually turn this into a nationalistic triumph and contrast it with the inadequate response of the weakened West. It could even become a positive episode in their history ('we rose to the challenge united, we used our technology' etc.).

This is completely untrue.

Good reaction to the 'we survived the Blitz' people.

Since you people love Blitz analogies, this is like keeping all your lights on so you can keep reading during an air raid, when you live next door to a hospital and a munitions factory. https://t.co/eyMoFbWr4b

— Dmitry Grozoubinski (@DmitryOpines) March 19, 2020

Pretty unlikely, if anything people in Europe might see the need for even more international cooperation.

Why haven't we started building field hospitals in Battersea Park and Regent's Park? The Chinese and Italians both built temporary hospitals. The UK should be doing it now.

There is no need for the UK to shut borders now - they have been pretty well shut on our behalf by everyone else.

Our only saving grace is the Channel.

Anyhow, just read this in the Telegraph - some glimmer of hope, since this was what ended the Spanish Flu pandemic:

"

A team of Singapore-based scientists has uncovered the first glimmer of hope that the COVID-19 virus could be mutating into a less virulent strain after discovering key protein suspected to affect the virus’s transmission and severity has disappeared in some patients.

In an academic paper, still under peer review but provided to The Australian, the Duke National University of Singapore team reported the protein “deletion” discovered in eight Singapore eistjg43534dsfdpatients between February 9 and March 2 was consistent with those found at the tail end of the 2003 SARS outbreak, and could signal a weakening of the disease.

Duke NUS team leader Wang Linfa, an Australian virologist who sequenced and named Australia’s bat-borne Hendra horse virus, said the discovery was significant because “it’s important for the world to know that, just like SARS and MERS, (COVID-19) can change”.

Among the first hallmarks of the novel coronavirus identified early by World Health Organisation scientists was that it was eistjg43534dsfdgenetically more stable than its eistjg43534dsfdsevere acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome predecessors."

 

Brexit. The first results are in:

EU countries: borders closed, lockdown, currency drifting but basically stable 

UK: Borders STILL open, cretins still visiting Wetherspoons every night, sterling in freefall

Which supranational entity is more likely to survive this?

The Italians have started building their extra 3rd hospital with most of the funding donated from the private sector. I am sure our hedge funds and property developers here can't wait to copy them.

Not necessary - empty hotels are being commandeered instead. We don't lack buildings (in the capital at least) which can be used.

If mass infection spreads to the provinces, then we will need field hospitals.

I think the hotels are primarily for medical staff. I doubt they are suitable for ICUs.

Just noticed the drain is being closed completely. I flagged it up the other day. It must be one of the most efficient spreaders of the coronavirus in the world.

Latest YouGov has Tories on 52%, 30 points ahead and Boris surging approval rating

I think most on this forum are out of step with public opinion