My turn to open up this morning - off you go

Something to cheer you up to start with! Serves him right, I say.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/15/australian-hoarder-unable-return-5000-sanitary-goods-failing/

An Australian hoarder has been left high and dry after his local supermarket refused to refund him for more than £5,000 worth of goods he tried to sell online, including 132 packs of toilet paper rolls.

The Adelaide man recently attempted to return the toilet paper and 150 one-litre bottles of hand sanitiser to Drakes Supermarkets.

The man hoarded the goods at the beginning of coronavirus panic buying, which saw supermarket shelves emptied of toilet paper, hand wash, sanitiser, tinned food, pasta and other goods.

Drakes Supermarkets director John-Paul Drake said the man was part of a team of hoarders planning to profiteer from shortages, but his attempts to sell the goods online fell flat.

Mr Drake told ABC Radio that the shopper had bought around $10,000 worth of goods with his “team” about one month ago and claimed he ran into trouble when his “eBay site (was) shut down”.

Mr Drake described the shopper’s actions as “absolutely disgraceful”

Gotta look on the bright side I guess... that's probably one item the guy will not have to buy again for many, many years!

IDS and Gerard Lyons are calling for a traffic light system to reopen the economy in stages. Each last 3 weeks. Pubs and large events would resume in June. They say we can't afford to wait for testing and contact tracing to be scaled up. 

The National Education Union is mounting a campaign amongst its members to delay any re-opening. Recent email received from Branch Secretary (I get these as a retired member). Earlier emails from National HQ were more strongly phrased.

STOP THE PREMATURE OPENING OF SCHOOLS

Hope you are well. Please right click on the link below to urge the Government not to re-open schools before it is safe to do so.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/lockdown-staged-exit-and-changed-behaviour-will-be-crucial-for-recovery-jfhs2tvh0

"The only argument in favour of using age in the unlocking is focused on nurseries, schools and universities. Most advisers don’t believe that schools spread the virus, however, they do play an important part in unlocking the economy as people with children will be freer to return to work. This would need to be gradual."

Well, sounds like an experiment about to happen! There is no way, for example, that you can stop 1600 kids from mingling with each other - enforcing social distancing would be all but impossible.

At least we'll have the benefit of seeing what happens elsewhere, but even if the kids themselves don't spread it (something I'd find remarkable, TBH, if true) the same cannot be said for staff. Larger schools will have in excess of 200 staff on site.

Still, time will tell!

(EDIT: this bit makes me wonder, too. "Masks would be mandatory on public transport."

Are IDS and Lyons blissfully unaware that there aren't enough masks for medical / care staff, let alone millions of people on public transport? )

So ......  in  effect they reckon by June  it's a case of "nothing to see here, move along" - sorry that's absolute bollox !!!  Do that and by  Aug the NHS will be totally bricked making the  current daily death tolls look like nothing !

What, precisely,  will have changed by June ??? Just what planet are these idiots on ?

2 of our local pubs are doing take away - one is also offering a local delivery service  and restricting  self collection to  appointment only.

I agree that large City based  non-delivery take away shouldn't be allowed.  It's not a necessary service and creates a considerable risk.  Aside from the queues, it will  fire up local Public Transport !

A very tiny fraction have or are reopening and for delivery only

And yes there will be people that turn up for a takeaway, but they are probably the idiots that are already out there anyway.

I remain convinced that the rush worldwide to lift lockdowns and try and move forward will be our undoing.

Those wanting the economy to start up again will soon realise the damage will be far worse when we have a second wave and have to start this whole process again.

If it was me I'd just send the older years back to school to limit the risk initially , to have every year in every school go back will increase the risk and make parents a tad nervous IMO 

I totally agree - take the hit now , nothing wrong with being over cautious , to have a second or third wave of this would be an absolute disaster .

Idiotic IMO 

June is 6 weeks away , what a pair of  morons

I assume all school staff will provided with full PPE on a daily basis? Children may not be at high risk but those who would spend all day with hundreds of them may very well be.

I don’t think government ministers have considered that teachers deserve every right to have the same level of protection as other key workers on the front line

Valid point Michael -

My comments were based on if the decision was made for schools to return  , I would also throw in to the mix social distancing ,surely that can't be dropped instantly?

As if! Strangely enough my school has been doing the opposite, they've been making visors for local care homes on their 3D printers (a member of DT staff came in to do it) and even the science goggles have been donated to the council - apparently all the schools in the area have donated theirs too!

I do plan, when we go back, to make sure my IT team leaves the office as little as possible. We've always had an open door culture - just pop in and see us if you have an IT problem - but that might have to change in the short term.

In other news, the Tele has an interesting article about what happens when we ease the lockdown. The link in this bit takes you to the report on what should be done.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/15/shopping-tongs-keeping-cats-inside-among-ways-beat-coronavirus/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

Preventing pet cats from roaming outdoors, making shoppers pick up products with tongs and telling people to walk clockwise around parks are among 275 suggestions made by Cambridge University for reducing the spread of coronavirus after the lockdown.

...

The team suggests cafe owners could open outdoor areas only at first, and that pedestrians should be urged to walk on the right side of the pavement and only allowed to enter parks at specific times of day depending on their age. 

Patients with doctors appointments could be asked to wait in their cars outside the surgery until called in, while music could be turned off in shops so people do not need to move closer to each other to be heard. 

I think mass gatherings will be way down the line when it comes to lifting restrictions. Not one country has mentioned lifting them anytime soon and Merkel made the point yesterday saying they would not be allowed until the end of august. 

Yes you’re right Marcus. The idea of implementing social distancing in a secondary class is probably enough of a challenge but in a junior primary class over a school day is incomprehensible. Anyone with young kids will know that. 

I assume those making the decisions will know this and have models that will come up with what is believed to be an acceptable risk/price.

Darren perhaps all classroom teachers should be supplied with two-metre sticks? 

Is there no limit to their idiocy? 

They are only opening for delivery and will be donating food to the NHS and others.

Seems odd to me too! They and some others seem to be assuming there will not be a second wave if restrictions are lifted. I don't understand it at all. Perhaps they think the transmission of the virus will be massively slowed by the summer weather or the Oxford study which suggested close to 50% may have already been infected was correct.

I also get the impression they are putting out feelers for the government because it is struggling to scale up testing and contact tracing sufficiently. Until recently those two elements were considered essential components of an exit strategy.