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My company have got rid of 22 employees this morning...

Ok, I'll give a personal example of the government's failings currently. Not aimed particularly at Boris but I guess he's in it. I'm a 58 yr local old GP of 29 yrs. Due to retire April 6th, but I've told the practice I'll come back and help when they need me, as inevitably clinicians are gonna start to get sick. However this coincides with an appraisal I would have been due also in April, and I've been told categorically that if I don't sit down to discuss quality initiatives and personal development etc , they'll revoke my licence to practise. I've rang the GMC and they just repeat the same mantra. Now I don't have an overwhelming desire to expose myself to this virus anymore than anyone else, but equally feel that this is what I do and I should try to help. Local MP is running it by Hancock today, but there's a bit of me thinks **** it why bother.

Isn’t the bigger picture view here, not insurance payouts, but government support. If a business goes under today per se, they are stuffed. Had it been a result of an order from government to shut down, then government would have some liability. France has said no business will go bust. Ours has given a woolly statement re support and liquidity. Our country is not leading our people as I would expect them to.

Remember when we used to argue about whether Eliasson should start, the merits of four or three at the back, and the lack of shots on target? I miss that.

My particular beef at the moment is with the BBC and their treatment of self isolation for the over70's They inevitably interview a 70 plus luvvie who witters on about more time to bake biscuits or enjoy the garden or catch up with friends on Skype. I'd rather hear about Doris from Wigan who lives alone in a council block and has no internet or mobile phone and is worried sick

Tough one for you there, LB. I guess everyone, bar undertakers, is braced for a downturn. And even undertakers might not be that happy at having a job that precludes "working from home" and social isolation. I'm not particularly going to criticise Johnson for the way his government has dealt with the virus. I'm not sure what I'd do in his position. Probably the same, but take a leaf from Macron's book and start cancelling future and past tax debts for small businesses and making other measures to keep firms alive while this de facto lockdown goes on. Macron has the advantage that the French weren't stupid enough to privatise all their utilities, so he's been able to order that these are provided for free as well. Where I think the chickens will come home to roost for the Conservative Party is the way the crisis is exposing the damage done to the NHS by 10 years of austerity and the death of a thousand cuts. We have much lower numbers of ICU beds than the rest of Western Europe. In fact, even Russia and China have more beds per million than we do. And other aspects of the health service, from ambulance numbers to blood analysis laboratory workers have been similarly run-down leaving an NHS that is now highly unlikely to cope for very long at all. This systematic neglect may already be reflected in our death rate per infection which, if you look at the tables in this excellent data site, seem very high compared to much of the world. Spain has just nationalised all private hospitals and clinics. We should consider doing likewise. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

This is clearly a once in a lifetime event. I don’t for one second believe that the government is purposely taking a course of action that is intentionally screwing people over. They are simply trying to stem the flow of pressure on the nhs by a slowly slowly philosophy, rather than inducing full lockdown, full panic and an overful nhs. I personally believe that every single economy in the world will collapse over this. We are in the very early days of a very long struggle. I don’t believe that any policy is to single out any particular industries - every single industry and every single person is going to suffer. They’re just stemming the flow at the moment. Many people are going to die and whatever course of action is taken will not prevent that. This is not a political game.

Can our ******* Government actually make a ******* decision. Advice does not help, our employers need support and be told to send those at risk, or those that live with those at risk home. I could easily do my job from home. **** Boris is not going to be remembered fondly. Theresa May ‘I was crap’, Boris ‘Hold my Beer’. Not that I think Jeremy Corbyn would have done any better. We have such low grade politicians at the moment.

My wife is secretary to a consultant surgeon in his private practice. He says that the private hospital in which he does his private work is gearing up to be utilised in dealing with coronavirus. They are cancelling elective surgery at the local NHS hospital and he expects that surgery at the private hospital will stop shortly, because anaesthetists will be needed in treating CV patients. The consultant is an orthopaedic surgeon but is getting training in using ventilators.

Not a Boris fan, i voted Labour .. but for **** sake, no PM is ever going to be able to say or do the right thing to appease all of the people at a time like this. Strangely , I actually feel for the bloke having to stand up and deal with this day by day and I think he has started to look real tired with all the stress. Not a time to start saying we are right, you are wrong politically.. let's just pull together and get through this weird thing together.

Pretty fed up of people having ‘political’ arguments on this. Whether you like Boris or not, I think it’s pretty clear to see that he is taking the advice of the eminent experts of our country - he isn’t making it all up himself! This is a totally unprecedented situation and no one, in any country, knows how to handle this. Our ‘experts’ are attempting a softly softly approach rather than an immediate lockdown. Other countries have done differently. It’s not a political point of view. It’s not Boris making these recommendations. Please, he’s not bright enough. Let’s quit the political arguments. We are in the very early days of a very lengthy and deadly situation and no one has any clue yet what the best way to deal with this is. Let’s just abide by the advice being given. If you don’t agree that schools should be open - you are free to make your own choice and keep your kids at home. If you don’t agree that pubs shouldn’t be open - make your own choice and don’t go to one. If you don’t agree that you shouldn’t have close contact with your elderly relatives - make your own choice and go and see them as much as you want. No government is gonna get this right. However, ours is relying on us, as a general public, not to be a bunch of disrespectful pricks and to act with due care and attention to the situation. I personally have been very wary to keep a distance from people over this last week. I’m amazed that when I took my daughter to school this morning there were people still congregating so close together and happily nattering away in close-contact. I kept my distance, dropped her off and went home without coming within 2 metres of anyone. It’s easy to do, if you want to. Our government’s philosophy at the moment is that people act responsibly - sadly many people aren’t taking this seriously. The death rates will not be the responsibility of anyone on government. We are all able to make our own choices. The continual ignorance of the population is what will cause more deaths than anything the government have decided so far. Quit the political nonsense folks and batten down your hatches. They’re giving you a personal choice to do this at the moment. If you don’t all start acting responsibly then they will have to force it upon you via martial law. And then you’ll really have something to complain about. I find it baffling that people are trying to blame Johnson for a fricking pandemic, accuse him of not doing enough, and then still **** off to the pub of a night anyway. Unbelievable.

While a lot of employers are hanging on, insisting staff try to attend at the moment, I'll give you some news about an employer positive. I work for a world wide company and was, sadly, badly ill in late 2017 with sepsis and pneumonia. I'm absolutely fine now and have been for over 2 years. My employer has gone back through each employees employment records, looking for elevated risk and informed me I'm not allowed to go to a company site or enter a customer's premises for 12 weeks as I'm at an 'elevated risk' and to work from home where I can. Totally shocked me and i was a bit gutted but, in support of their decision, they are looking out for me as well as themselves. Roll on June 14th when I can do some 'proper' work.

The contrast between France's economic measures and ours is staggering. Last night Macron announced the suspension of mortgages, rents and all utility bills as well as underwriting €300bn in loans for struggling companies. We've effectively shattered the hospitality industry in a stroke, shrugged and walked off thus far.

I must admit that when I saw Boris’s press conference my first thought was for the poor pub and restaurant owners and the low paid workers on zero hours contracts that depend on them. The government has told us to stay away from them but not told them to close. this is an unprecedented situation and this is exactly what governments are employed to deal with. All non-essential businesses should close but with guarantee of income that enables them to survive. Yes it will cost £billions but not as much as having no economy and millions of jobless and homeless when this thing finally blows over. It’s not normal for a Tory government to subsidise businesses, but what is happening isn’t normal either and if we want our economy to recover we need those businesses to be able to pick up from where they left off.

The political ramifications of this pandemic are going to be huge either way. Politicians will eventually be judged on how they managed this. We are only a couple of weeks in to it and it has got a long, long way to run, so life is not likely to be quite the same again. The comment about having just lived through the summers of 1914 and 1939 seems very apt. You may not like or want my prescriptions but enormous financial and political interventions will be needed and many countries have already started to make them. As for Bojp, I don’t feel sorry for him at all. He has spent most of his life bluffing his way through and looking after No. 1. Suddenly he is in the biggest worldwide crisis of the last 75 years and there is no easy way out of facing up to his responsibilities as prime minister, unlike his usual personal modus operandi with wives, lovers and children. No wonder he looks tired and is aging rapidly before our eyes. There really is nowhere to hide any more. No more disappearing off to the Caribbean for a couple of weeks. With great power comes great responsibility, or did no one tell him that?! At least he seems to have wisely decided that experts are a good idea after all...

Wouldn't be so sure. My wife is a teacher, and teaches a mixed year 1/2 class. They usually watch newsround at some point in the afternoon, and the Coronavirus was mentioned in it. Her words to me the other day were "I thought I'd ask them what/if they knew anything about it, whilst not expecting much." She said the answers she was given were mind blowing. They told her loads about it - what it was, that it was mainly elderly and people with certain illnesses at the biggest risk, people were dieing because of it (but mainly if they fell in the last bracket), started in Wuhan which caused lockdown, then Italy - lockdown, US, here, hand washing was needed. Oh yeah, and that it may have been caused by someone eating a bat!! All of this coming from, mainly 5 to 7 year olds. Don't be fooled into thinking they aren't taking it in. They are.

Well there is that of course, and yes reactive but they could have announced as Dave said, about significant support packages on the way, in progress- bear with us, etc. That would have enabled businesses not so shed 30% of staff and maybe more in a week, as I know of at least one that did that last week!

I would’ve felt much better about this had it been mentioned yesterday, when first advice given re “not going out”....but at least they’ve now reacted.

Er - there isn’t any football happening at the moment - or for the foreseeable future. Might as well shut the entire forum ?

I am fed up of Boris saying we are two weeks behind alot of Europe so drastic measures aren't needed just yet.......no you fool, we are two weeks AHEAD of Europe in that we have more time to try and contain it. Give it a week or two, the amount of people infected and dying will continue to shoot up, and then action will be taken.

Yeah, can we all stop trying to score cheap political points....

Great post. ?? edit: so far in two speeches he’s been reactive, 1) initially on Thursday 2) yesterday was a change of message, one positive is he appears to be reactive to the mood post-speech. What will be get today. Another change of message in reaction to being woolly yesterday, e.g. a message of financial support available, not just a suggestion? At some point, hopefully today, he needs to get on the front foot and lay out what is going to happen, not use each press conference as a chance to rectify the poor message of the previous day.

At least I don't run a restaurant. I can't help but think this "only test people if they've come back from abroad or know they've been in contact with people who have" is a cheapo way of trying to hide that they just do not have the resources to do so. South Korea at one time was the world's most infected country and what they did was test anyone who thought they had symptoms, if positive test those who were known to come into contact with them, and if those are positive test those in contact with THEM and so on. The rigorous testing regime and isolation of those with covid-19 has successfully slowed the progress of the virus right down there. Over here, we have umpteen people who have no idea if they have the virus or not and we are relying on no one basically doing anything for the foreseeable for it just to vanish. Which seems very optimistic. A bloke from the industry talking on R4 this morning said it was highly unlikely most hospitality industry outlets would have insurance that paid out even if they were legally ordered to shut, and even for those that did, the delay in payouts would mean they still wouldn't have the cash-flow to continue paying staff. He said yesterday's announcement effectively made 1 million redundant. Numerous pubs and restaurants are likely to never re-open and parts of our heritage and the UK we know could be lost forever. The more I think about the way this is being tackled - the economic impact, the social isolation and worry with likely increases in mental health problems/suicides, plus the lack of exercise for many and long-term health problems that will cause - the more I'm beginning to think that the expert's "cure" for this virus could be worse than the virus itself. Particularly if these measures last all year, as many suggest they will. No way will the economy "come roaring back" as Mr Blobby suggests, once a vaccine is developed. We're looking at deep, deep economic hardship and a very slow recovery.

Completely agree. Anyone still worrying about football hasn’t grasped how huge this has become for all of us.

Is there anyone left who really cares about when the football season restarts? Surely this has all got a bit bigger than sport

My heart bleeds at the thought of them having to relocate to a house costing less than £3m if they are not doing their job for a protracted period of time. Those of us with more modestly priced homes also face difficulties if the side-effects of this virus stop us from working as normal. Why should footballers be insulated?

I'm self employed and have been told by an organisation that I do a lot of maintenance and upgrade work for that its emergency work only at the moment and yet BCFC still wanted me to commit several hundred pounds yesterday for a season ticket which I didn't do due to the uncertainty and my seat has gone, I've mentioned it before and sorry for mentioning it again but surely they could have extended the seat renewal deadline for a couple of months, very disappointed by the clubs attitude.

Tell him you won't be going in as the government has said not to! And tell him he is a cock.

Your director is a dick. Where has he been ? Under a rock ?

Heard a so called expert yesterday on Breakfast news and when it was put to him about re infection said it would only be in exceptional cases as the bodies immune system in the vast majority of people would not let that happen.

Just while we are at the biggest crisis since WW2 we are lumbered with the most incapable PM imaginable who has no concept of what life is like for the ordinary man/woman on the street.

Well I thought the ‘advice’ was quite clear yesterday. If you have the ability to work from home then you should. That was made quite clear. As for those “at risk”, it’s also quite clear that those who are in at risk categories should stay away from work or any kind of social gathering. Whilst this is just ‘advice’ at this stage, I think you are incorrect to say that it’s not been made clear. It’s really quite, quite clear that if you have the ability to work from home (which you have said you can easily do) then you should. I don’t know what is in any way ambiguous about that? https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-on-social-distancing-and-for-vulnerable-people/guidance-on-social-distancing-for-everyone-in-the-uk-and-protecting-older-people-and-vulnerable-adults

Just my meandering thoughts on this FWIW - not aimed directly at you Mr. Fevs, just that it was the last post I looked at. I think this crisis is moving incredibly fast and its likely we'll always be a day behind playing catch up as things develop. But yes, its obvious that SMEs, pubs etc, and people with debts to pay but no means of doing so through no fault of their own will need huge support. The measures put in place (but yet to materialise and they need to get them in place very soon) are very welcome but, as I said, its moving at a pace and its changing daily but its obvious that more needs to be put in place and I would hope that more on that will come today. The banks were bailed out earlier this century and its now time for payback. But I wouldn't have expected everything to be in place from day one and those that do think that are being naive imo. It'll never be enough for some though. Seems like the public are being sensible in the main by not socialising in pubs etc (or at least cutting it down), and reducing journeys on public transport (buses in Bristol about to announce cut down services as London has done). Businesses also, in the main, appear to be acting responsibly and following the Government guidelines. Much better that we aren't under some sort of martial law and still have some freedoms and normal life whilst trying to keep this virus under control. The self isolation issue seems to have be clarified but they are still people who are under the impression its some sort of house arrest. That needs further clarification. 80 year old on the radio yesterday was up in arms about staying indoors for 3 months and wouldn't listen to reason - its ageist apparently. Another aspect of this is care homes stopping relatives visiting - a bit of common sense and compassion is required. One lady on the radio said she can't see her husband who has dementia so she asked if she could go to his window so he could at least see her. Heart rending stuff which isn't necessary if the correct risk assessments are in place. It would help if people and elements of the media were a bit more circumspect and stop the scare mongering, banging on about millions being homeless in the future, 500,000 deaths etc etc . Stuff like that really doesn't help - and neither does people trying to score petty political points which is pathetic. I'll get me coat.

Only 45 minutes till Homes under the Hammer Stay strong.

She's blaming it on being under stress as she was in Spain trying to get her brother home, as he suffers from dementia. In such circumstances, the best thing to do would be to stay off twitter.

I can see the Tories (reluctantly) having to adopt some of the fiscal policies championed by Labour and the Greens. A period of time with a universal basic income? A suspension of repayments or even temporary nationalisation of some services. All of which will cost money, but even Boris must realise that the sick can't pay for housing, bills and food on SSP.

Against my better judgment I have had some sympathy with Alex dP and his running of the crisis so far. However apparently on a call with leaders of industry regards manufacturing more ventilators this morning he suggested they should call the project ‘operation last gasp’. The man is a ***t of the highest order.

If countries coordinated better early and aggressively did so, for example had those returning from anywhere else been stuck in quarantine or isolation from the get go and had aggressive tracing and testing started early and continued across the board, might this have been suppressed significantly? Feels too late now but an interesting counterfactual. I'm convinced most- if not all- countries have made significant errors on this.

He does this every time he fails to win an NHS contract, the man is a disgrace

One thing that stands out for me is the difference in attitude to private hospitals/beds. We are 'buying up beds' to quote the Health Secretary. Spain have requisitioned beds. We've still put private industry first whereas the Spanish have put them in their place...

50% of what you say is quite a reasonable argument the other 50% is complete political point scoring B***Ocks I will leave you to decide which is which.

You certainly aren’t letting the facts get in the way. You have made the weird and arrogant decision that you understand businesses’ insurance policies better than those businesses themselves. A lot of small theatres and music venues are small independent businesses - in many cases essentially doubling up as a town’s local pub. From what people do involved with them tell me, their insurance would be affected. Not just large events like Glastonbury. These people know their businesses. You very evidently do not know their businesses. I am really not clear why posters who have never seen their insurance policies feel they know best here but I can promise you don’t. Hardly a fringe point either. If you don’t know pubs, bars and venues’ insurance policies, maybe admit that rather than pretending you do for political convenience? So let’s not let the facts get in the way indeed.

It is political. Boris Johnson has chosen to protect the insurance industry over small businesses. That is literally a political decision. Telling someone not to make politics political is the daftest thing I have seen on this thread. And you would need to be utterly naive not to realise the decision is connected to the fact the insurance industry has more lobbying influence than small businesses

He's a spineless shithouse of a man. Protecting his mates whilst the hospitality and entertainment industries go to the wall.

I broadly agree but I do think it cynical and a bit cowardly to ask people not to go to pubs but refuse to close them outright. The government has a responsibility to play fair by everyone at a moment like this and that has to include ensuring small businesses are not out of pocket with no recourse to compensation or support. What he has effectively done is deny pubs business without allowing them to claim on their insurance, thus protecting insurance companies and destroying small businesses. That is not scientific advice but very nasty politics.

One of the partners at my wife’s work has been getting worried about the financial implications of the virus. He said today that he might have to get rid of his Bentley if things get too bad. And he wasn’t joking, he genuinely expected sympathy. Eat the rich.

Apparently this will really hit broadband usage with extra people working from home too, I just hope there is no interruption half w