Good morning everyone. Thought I'd kick off with today's thread. Stay Safe!

Is it just the Brexit voters that we should leave to die or the older generation more generally?

Who said anything about leaving people to die? You know full well I’m in favour of the lockdown because we must save every life we can. I was just musing on the irony of it.

Not so much a metaphor as "Taking back control", Justin?

R.

Ah, so it was just a crass generalisation based on age. Fair enough.

1922 committee apparently putting increasing pressure on the government to ease restrictions and get the economy moving. I expect it must be proving quite expensive for some of them.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown:

“That inevitably will mean that there will be, at each time, more coronavirus cases. And we just have to accept that,” he said. “If we keep the lockdown going, it will be much more difficult for the economy to recover."

Crass is my middle name

Farage and the odious Duncan Smith anxious to prioritise the economy and leave the older generations to their fate. I guess they served their purpose in June 2016.

Indeed But as Clifton-Brown says, "We'll just have to accept" more Corona virus cases. And deaths. 

Another distressing account:  GP calls for action after 125 of her care home patients die of Covid-19

The government's handling of the epidemic in care and nursing homes has been absolutely appalling, it has treated both residents and workers as seond class residents:

• failed to help with PPE


• failed to test residents or workers


• insisted on care homes accepting back patients from hospitals without testing them


• is still failing to event count timely the number of people dying from Covid and this is bad for tracking the epidemic

It is the very definition of negligence.

I suspect this of being one of your tongue-in-cheek posts, Brian. But many a true word spoken in (a rather grim) jest - and I can agree with this despite being one of the oldest contributors on here and so most at risk. 

It's a choice of the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, if we want our pensions paid and thus avoid starvation, we need the end of lockdown to get the economy moving but the end of lockdown puts us at risk of death more directly. 

Interestingly, my wife's nephew works for a mental health charity which is about to publish a survey of the effect of the lockdown, and it turns out that the 55+ age group are by far the least prone to anxiety in the present situation.

Good post.

Of course, it’s been a choice between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea since the pandemic started. There’s a tightrope to try to walk which doesn’t cause either collapse of the economy or collapse of  the healthcare system and an associated jump in deaths. Any other option never really existed, being realistic.

As for pensions, it was highlighted last night how much pension scheme’s cash flow relies on dividend payments from oil companies - which are being hit very hard by the collapse in demand and prices.  If this runs on for many more months it will cause problems for pension payments.  Nobody is immune from the economic impacts. 

I think evidence from the Spanish flu epidemic shows that a longer and harder lockdown leads to LESS economic damage. Rushing to restart is likely to be short sighted and counterproductive.

One reaches a certain age when it becomes OK to joke grimly about one's death as the inevitable looms. Graveyard humour is a way of facing that reality. We are both in our 70s and I have underlying health issues - so there is no point in denying the risks. We have discussed the situation, reviewed our wills and our "Advance Decisions". I am allowing myself to feel guilty that I have not tidied the garage and had a chuck out. It would be kind not to leave that for some other sod to do. I have started by destroying my old beekeeping bits - which will make good kindling. All the good stuff has been sold. The sad bit is we are enjoying life and doing a lot of things - and I really don't feel like croaking yet. At least I'd like to make it to our 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2022. I accept and am content to go when my time is up but I will feel resentful if it is because some faceless bureaucrat has rated me low priority. I shall volunteer to come back and haunt their dreams!
Roger

Yes, I was musing on that point yesterday; ‘following the science’ is so clearly a cop out.  

‘Following recommended best practice’ would be better.

We can’t tell everyone in vulnerable groups that they’re going to be locked down for another year: no summer holiday, effectively no summer, no Christmas.

Even if that was possible you’ve still got care homes and the like, where there’s inevitable and necessary interaction with other people.

It is essential we get most of the economy up and running again and all non essential businesses should be re-opened where social distancing can be adheared to and numbers of people can be controlled.Obviously no sporting events and sadly most of the hospitality and tourism sectors will have to remain shut and imo schools as well. All the vunerable groups will have to be shielded as they are now.We are going to have to find a way of living with this virus as staying in lockdown,even though it is a light lockdown in the uk, is not an option! Iam predicting the current measures/restrictions will begin to be lifted after the late May bank holiday.

I agree, however, there will be those that would be prepared to self isolate so they need to be provided with the support and services to enable that. For care homes the government should ensure enough PPE for staff and visitors is available until we have a vaccine.

We may as well lift the lockdown in this hamlet as the only ones observing it are people under 55. All the over 70s are ignoring it - some going to supermarkets every other day. Lots of nice 'drives in the country'.

The irony that I am personally enjoying is that a generation obsessed with non problems like gender pronouns and racial stereotypes actually has to cope with a real problem now. All that jazz handing safe space crap goes out of the window pretty fast when there are real problems to deal with!

That will help the share price which will help my portfolio.