Hopefully the emergency powers will allow for him to be arrested.

On another burning issue this evening, I would also like some clarity regarding today's figures. The testing numbers and % of positives not not match up at all.

Like Brian says there is something not right 

We need to track people's movements via GPS on mobile devices.

Anyone found to do something f#cking stupid like rush to a pub the day before they close in a crowded part of N london should be refused all NHS treatment until the crisis is over.

No but you’d at least expect them to not drop to 2.5k

I don't think that you can get data which is that accurate. I thought all you could do was track a mobile to a particular cell. Don't know whether you can pull GPS data from a mobile over the network though.

Google knows via GPS when I've been in specific restaurants and asks me to review them. The technology exists and most people have phones.

There should be a govt app where people get rewards for behaving in a socially responsible way every week. And those that do anything stupid need to be punished.

And I'm sorry but while we can argue about whether or not the govt should bring in tougher measures (they should), anyone who uses that excuse to behave irresponsibly is a selfish little sociopathic parasite that should be right at the back of the queue when it comes to hospital treatement.

Don't start going all authoritarianesque on us Q, it doesn't suit you. 

That's an excellent solution.  Anyone with a Wetherspoons in their area should phone their Environmental Health department and complain.

I'll be the first to admit that this is not the time for airy fairy libertarianism. We need social authoritarianism right now. And the sooner this crisis is over the sooner we can return to being a free nation.

We are 100% in agreement on this Q.

Reward good behaviours and penalise poor ones.  

👍

Famous last words! 

But I get what you are sayin'. 

The thing that really annoys me is that I am completely willing to sacrifice my freedoms and go virtually communist for a few months so we can get beyond this crisis. Yet on the other hand you have teenagers that are like 'legalize pot man, capitalism kills', you know that slactivisty hippie dippy crap.

And yet when their wish comes true and we actually have to live that way, these people are the first to go to pubs, bars, clubs or go partying. WHO, today, was particularly critical of the younger generation of behaving irresponsibly. Though, of course, the same applies to those in older generations.

Thing is though, the younger generation seems to acknoledge that the virus is a threat and is less complacent than the older generation. But despite this they are irresponsible anyway. The behaviour is sociopathic and needs to stop.

Should be possible to fix phones so they deliver a shock for breaking the locations rules. "That's the way to do it!"

Roger

In all seriousness, there should be weekly cash bonuses for people that follow the rules. Those that are irresponsible, could, after being warned multiple times have a black mark by their name which would mean they would be deemed 'low priority' if they needed to use the health service for any reason during the crisis.

I'd be inclined to follow Churchill's policy WRT UK Communist sympathisers, Q. "No martyrs!" However, I could take to an app that represented, say, £1000 gift per individual at the end of the epidemic - that would deduct, say, £25 every time someone was logged at a proscribed location.

Trust you are keeping well.

Roger

Nah tie it into the government pay package. Make those cash bonuses a significant part of that, if people behave irresponisbly they don't get paid. If they continue to behave irresponsibly they don't get treated. Arrest and inprison the p*sstakers who don't stop even after that.

Tiny in the scheme of things but this will be the end for newsprint IMO. We've just bought a Times online sub because who wants to pop out to buy a newspaper in this environment?

Some sectors will rebound relatively quickly e.g. pubs, cafes. Others will be much slower. So much depends on whether the government takes a sector by sector approach or whether it takes a one size fits all approach when the time comes to relax these measures. My sector, law, will be in the doldrums for some time after many others pick up. And when these emergency measures are relaxed, you may be sure that no mercy will be shown if the government decides that it's time for you to pay your taxes and you can't. 

However, I am mainly impressed with what your government has done today. Perhaps they're finally doing the right thing?

Possibly a starry eyed thought (after my first glass of sauvignon) but will this crisis bring about a reappraisal of what the national defence budget should be spent on. It seems now that the greatest threat to a nation state does not necessarily come in the form of a column of tanks or an incoming missile.

Some of the non UK data from today

• 
  
  
  
  • Italy - 5,986 new cases and 627 new deaths
  
  
  • Germany - 4,528 new cases and 15 new deaths
  
  
  • Spain - 2,943 new cases and 105 new deaths* Another update may arrive tonight.
  
  
  • France - 1,617 new cases and 78 new deaths
  
  
  • Iran - 1,237 new cases and 149 new deaths
  
  
  • Switzerland - 1,159 new cases and 13 new deaths
  
  
  • Netherlands - 534 new cases and 30 new deaths
  
  
  • Belgium - 462 new cases and 16 new deaths
  
  
  
  

Perhaps we can use our Trident system and nuke the virus?

What's our figures Gav?

My view for a while has been that SARS-Cov2 is now in the environment and won't/can't go away, any more than Influenza, Measles or Rubella or any other virus can just vanish.  You defeat a virus through reaching the herd immunity threshold, via exposure or a vaccine.

That means that the current containment measures are going to be needed for the long haul.  Indeed the government's scientific officer said today that the social distancing rules would need to be in place for a year.

Hopefully there will be some controlled easing once the position stabilises but I can see the controls being tightened again for a time if the outbreak flares up again - particularly next winter, when the usual seasonal outbreaks tend to make a reappearance.

For these reasons I'm expecting some financial measures to be rolled on well into 2021.