Harry

To be honest, it was meant fairly tongue in cheek. Yes, going out for essentials is necessary. Of course. Many are going out for whatever reason.

Man who is out on Gloucester Road criticises other people for being on Gloucester Road. You are part of the problem, sir.

Have you got a beer fridge in the garage?

Exactly. As I said a fair few pages ago now - political arguments are pointless right now. This situation is much bigger than anything we’ve ever faced. Politics is out of the window. This needs a joint effort by everyone to get us through. Whoever was in charge would’ve done pretty much the same thing. No one in politics is responsible for anything. This is a virus. It’s unprecedented. No one has any clue how to deal it and mistakes will be made. Not on purpose, or for any political gain, but simply because we just don’t know what to do for the best. Quit the political shyte please everyone.

Not that I actually care much about football at the moment, but hopefully, whenever we come out the other side of this hell, maybe, just maybe, we might see a wholesale change of how football operates. An idea could be that, hear me out, I know it’s totally revolutionary, but maybe clubs could only spend what they earn. Just imagine.

Yep, saw that a couple of weeks ago. Basically, there is a very large Chinese population in Italy, many of their factories, particularly in the north, are owned by Chinese or have a significant workforce from China. Thoughts are that many of the +300,000 Chinese returned to China for their new year and then came back to Italy carrying the virus. Italy is one of few places (apparently) with direct flights to Wuhan, and there is a very particular concentration of Chinese in northern Italy. Add to this the fact that Italy has more percentage of older folks than anywhere else and you have yourself a perfect storm. Whilst in the U.K. we have more Chinese living here, there isn’t the dense concentration of that population in any particular area. Some northern Italian towns have over 6% of their population as Chinese. We have nothing more than around 2% in any town. That all said, we are clearly on a similar trajectory to Italy in terms of deaths, so that is a concern. I can only guess that this is likely due to us not closing borders earlier. Hindsight is wonderful, as they say, but I do find myself thinking we should’ve stopped all flights from China as soon as this started and we should’ve maybe even quarantined all incomings, from anywhere, for 14 days, as many countries are now doing. However, I can’t begin to imagine the outrage and panic if we’d closed our borders back in January. I don’t think it would’ve been very popular!

Currently near the end of season 2 of El Chapo. It’s good, as long as you can get over the terrible dubbing that doesn’t match the subtitles. Also currently on Better Call Saul. Highly recommended. Recently watched The Witcher. Very much enjoyed that and looking forward to series 2.

Was good until the last episode. Very rushed finale I thought.

Yep. I mentioned this all the way back on page 2 or 3 I think, of this thread. My sister in law regularly visits China for her work. She returned in mid December and felt terrible. She was told she had severe pneumonia and was given some pretty strong drugs. Me and the family spent Xmas at her house, for 3 days and every one of us was ill with these corona symptoms shortly afterwards. It’s fairly common knowledge now that the first cases of this in China were Nov/Dec so I’m convinced the sister in law came back with this. She was ill for weeks, really badly. And she passed it, in a milder form, onto all of us. She also said that literally everyone on her flight home was complaining of feeling ill. Edit - it was page 6

Pops, you seem to regularly misunderstand what I say. My post was specifically in regard to the chap who is high risk, and has the facility to wfh. My amazement would be if such an employer refused wfh for such an individual.

Good luck with everything you two. Hope all goes well. If it’s any consolation, my experience of having kids is that your Mrs will be shattered and will not really want to see anyone for a couple of weeks anyway. So you’ve probably got a very well timed self-lockdown situation. If you are in a high risk group and your employer is refusing your request to work from home then your employer is a total dick. If they don’t allow it, call in sick and say you have symptoms. You don’t need a Dr‘s note to prove it, just say you called 111 and they instructed you to stay at home. Technically, if you call in sick then you are entitled to sick pay from day 1. However, if your employer does the right thing and allows you to work from home then that’s the best scenario. I’d be amazed if employers are refusing this, if it’s available.

None. And that’s exactly the point. The clear advice at present is that those who can work from home should. Because there are many that can’t. So it’s a slowly slowly process. If employers are refusing those that can, then they are dicks, simple as. My wife’s job requires her to be there in person. She can’t serve a table if she’s not there. So, if her restaurant is open this weekend then she’ll have to be there. Likelihood is that they won’t be open as they’ve had 500 cancellations yesterday. As I said to rumred earlier, I don’t see where the ambiguity is. If you can work from home, you should. This reduces the movement of people significantly enough to reduce the risk of spread, slowing it enough for the NHS to be able to cope. It’s all about stemming the flow and gradually introducing harsher and harsher actions, whilst relying on the public to abide by the advice in the meantime. Give it a few more days and everything will be shut. No one will be earning any money and the government will need to have an income protection plan in place for ALL workers. For now, and prior to the BIG shutdown, people should abide by the advice to try to reduce the case count. Loads of people are going to die, whichever way this is handled. And everyone is going to suffer loss of earnings, whichever way this is handled. We are quite literally in a no-win situation. Everyone.

Should be easier if working at a big national. They would be more likely to have pandemic planning policies in place. Whether they’re fit for purpose is another thing but they’d certainly have to have a disaster recovery plan. But they’ve got the richest man in the world to bail them out. Haven’t they?

If you have the ability to work from home then you should do so. That’s the advice. That’ll keep the salary coming for those people. Of course there are HUGE challenges to come for many people who won’t be able to work and whose employers have to close. I know all about that, as my wife works in a restaurant who’ve had 500 cancellations yesterday and is likely to be let go. Yes, the government have a massive role to play in ensuring there is as little impact to people and businesses as possible. Big big challenge. But that’s a totally different argument to “I can work from home but I’ve decided not to because my employer isn’t following the advice”.

Ha ha. That’s mint news. He’s been a proper dick over the last few weeks. Every program he’s been on he’s been going totally against all advice and positively ‘encouraging’ people to book holidays. He’s been bleating on about “there’s great deals to be had here” and “you can get a flight and hotel for 3 nights in Venice for less than £100”. He’s a total imbecile and I’m glad he’s stuck in Yemen.

Your employer doesn’t need to be “told” by anyone else. The advice is quite clear. I’d suggest you speak to your employer yourself and inform them, that due to government advice, you are going to work from home. If they refuse, then it’s your employer who is being a dick, rather than Boris, whom you were so keen to blame earlier.

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

You’ve tagged me twice now and got it wrong both times. I firmly believe that once this situation REALLY hits the fan that the whole economy collapses. Everyone will need support. Everyone. I find it very hard to believe that the banks will start evicting people for non payment of mortgages. We will quite literally all be in this together. Not sure why you’ve developed a very incorrect impression of me?

You couldn’t be more wrong Pops. I’m totally FOR all those things that IamNick mentions. But, as I said, this is not a time for political argument. I’m absolutely certain that, once we are in full swing, full lockdown, no business being transacted, no salaries being paid etc etc, that the measures spoken about will be implemented. No one will be working. No one will be paid. Thus the only course of action available will be for no one to pay any rent/mortgages/bills etc, and I’m even more certain that there’ll be rationing soon that people won’t starve.

Also, just want to add that, no, I’m not ok with it. I’m not ok with any of it. I work in insurance. Private medical insurance to be precise. So on one hand some are saying that I’m a beneficiary of today’s action. But my wife works in a pub/restaurant. So she is on the receiving end of today’s actions. This will end up affecting everyone and every industry. No one is immune to the economic crisis coming our way, and no government will be able to prevent it.

I’m not apologising for him. We currently have no idea, not a single inkling, that the approach taken by other countries will work. You’ve taken your own personal responsibility and isolated yourself and your family. And I applaud you for that. Sadly many others are carrying on regardless and aren’t yet appreciating the vastness of the situation ahead of us. You might be angered about the decision today to not enforce pub closure, but trust me, when all this is over, todays decision will be long forgotten. Politics will be long forgotten. This is much bigger than any of that. Much much bigger.

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.

You’re actually agreeing with me, in a way. Absolutely. The philosophy at the moment is to just slowly slowly ramp up the actions, hoping that the public realise the seriousness of the situation and take personal responsibility. Some are and lots aren’t. If lots continue to show a blatant disregard for others then the end outcome is full lockdown and martial law. No government knows the right course of action to take at the moment. It’s unprecedented.

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.

Is this anything linked to Section 82? Do I get a refund on my stickers that I now won’t be able to plaster on all the remaining away grounds? It’s so unfair.