The world's most famous surgical masks turn out to be unusable.

Some 400,000 surgical gowns ordered from Turkey have not been given to NHS workers because they do not meet British safety standards, the government has confirmed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52569364

Had a manic afternoon and evening so just catching up from yesterday 

6,000 new cases is a real concern , if that continues I wonder 'if' Boris might change the contents of his speech on Sunday ?

Tragically, HMG has briefed the RWM that the lockdown will start to be eased from Monday and the Brexit mob are baying that lives must be lost to save Britain’s ‘economic model’. So a second catastrophe looms.

The BoE has just confirmed that it thinks GDP has fallen by 30%.

...and the pound's popped up a third of a cent. Funny how losing almost a third of GDP is seen as good - truly, we live in crazy times.

Also with the papers today, ye gods... I expect there'll be rather more people out and about in the warmth tomorrow, as the beans have been spilled.

I'm sure the head at work will be pleased to be getting info via the papers rather than the government too (especially if, as the Mirror says, they plan to get more kids in on Monday... that'll require extra staff on site compared to the past few weeks, so it would have nice to have been warned officially!)

From what I’ve read this morning, measures announced from Monday will be relatively limited, basically allowing unlimited time outdoors (with social distancing), which let’s be honest, a lot of people are doing already. 

I suspect businesses will start opening from 1st June, with many of the lockdown measures continuing for another three weeks.  

As usual, this will be a game about shifting blame (and therefore liability) to the individual and away from the government.

Technically I think you will be right. However, there is a lot of nudge nudge, wink wink taking place. The lockdown is lifting "organically" and the government is making no attempt to stop it. Just look at traffic levels. They are MUCH higher now and locally I reckon between 50% and 70% normal. 

Demand for Sterling on world markets hasn't depended on domestic UK economic activity for many years.

I agree. 

Meanwhile. In New Zealand, as long as they have their borders closed, their panic can end for now. I’m jealous.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/07/new-zealand-halfway-down-everest-as-ardern-plans-big-easing-of-covid-lockdown?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other 

Their problem will come later, when they want to rejoin the rest of the world.

Exactly. The government sees all this as the responsibility of the individual rather than the state. They will, as usual, issue guidance or even regulation, but not enforce.

Possibly.

They are in a much stronger position in my view as they can keep their borders closed until there is either a more effective treatment or a vaccine. 

I get the impression Ardern will do anything to keep her people safe. 

More news on the NHS app-ocalypse. Android specifically this time: 

The other permission [when using Bluetooth] that you must declare is ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION*. Your app needs this permission because a Bluetooth scan can be used to gather information about the location of the user. This information may come from the user's own devices, as well as Bluetooth beacons in use at locations such as shops and transit facilities.

*Allows an app to access precise location.

https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/bluetooth

So apparantely there are thoughts of abandoning the NHS app and going with an apple/google one.

Imagine my shock, the NHS bodged up an IT project yet again.

Seriously, the NHS should never have been allowed to have anything to do with this contract training app in the first place.

Yet the traffic round here has changed very little: a slight uptick but I’d say still 10-20% of what it was. Popped out to do the weekly shop yesterday and the M11 was still amazingly quiet; just a handful of private cars.

It should end with "This article was funded by HMG". Bizarrely it shows a graph which proves that the chance of dying increases for both males and females as they get older even if corona virus didn't exist. By the time you reach 90 the chance of dying in a given year is really quite high. Who'd have thunk it? You learn something new everyday.

I mean one thing they could have done is get Niantic to do it. Niantic was responsible for Pokemon Go and the first mobile virtual reality game (on the real world map) Ingress. Not only do Niantic use the exact technology in Ingress/PoGo that this app would need to use but they also have huge amounts of data on pedestrian traffic and data hotspots.

Niantic has also got its apps to work on pretty much every mobile platform and they have an inbuilt feature which allows the App to work in the background with GPS data so you don't even have to have the App open for it to collect data.

There's a lot of traffic here in Lowestoft, of what I can hear out the back of my property. More like ordinary weekday.

It’s still quiet by me, I can run on the road and see v little in the way of traffic.