The Big Issue is trying to take a bit of a lead, not sure if government is listening yet though. https://www.bigissue.com/community-partnerships/introducing-the-ride-out-recession-alliance/ In the meantime, a forest of glass and steel towers continues to proliferate in the City of London and Docklands. I don't see them filling up with office workers any time soon (or ever really). A visionary government would be looking at converting them to housing, but something more immediate certainly needs to be done to keep people off the streets in the coming weeks and months.
I get that everything has changed, probably forever. Life is like that. I just don't think that putting half the world under house arrest (the rest will have to work anyway) is such a great response. Not really worked so far, has it? The impact of forced isolation on people's mental health is as yet unmeasured but likely to be immense. I'm at work now btw. Not fearing for my life, despite being overweight, with ****ed up lungs (years of smoking) and getting on a bit. What I am fearful of is the effect further lockdowns might have on the wellbeing of people close to me. Meanwhile, the virus isn't going away just yet. One way or another, we all have to find a way of living with it. We're all going to die in the end btw. Maybe that's a reality worth coming to terms with.
If there's a vaccine. Out of interest, would there be any cost of life due to lockdown that would make you consider that it might have caused more harm than good?
I hope the Big Issue, and Shelter, can get something going. As the piece says the cost of dealing with the evicted and homeless would be greater than helping to fund the rents and keep them housed. And ruling out evictions, that are caused by loss of earnings as a result of the coronavirus, needs to be a must. So many of those London buildings are foreign owned and part of the global money laundering system, that we are the hub of, so I can’t see Johnson and his lot doing anything to upset that apple cart.
We will probably have to live with it for a few years...even an effective vaccine won't be available to everyone who needs it immediately....pure logistics tells you that. By the way, lets give a shout out to antivaxxers who are willing to give up their shots to other more deserving people. I'd like to think it was evolution in action, but sadly too many antivaxxers will increase the risk to others. Perhaps we should just shoot them....but that may be too radical for some The problem is that we have all got used to the idea that we are generally safe from deadly illnesses that you can catch (at least in the developed world since the second world war). Before that, people lived with the idea of dying from diphtheria, polio, smallpox, measles etc and got on with their lives.....such illnesses were still around in the fifties when I was young. We need to take care of the very vulnerable and the rest of us just need to be more stoic.
I hate it that Fran is just so practical and sensible. EDIT: Just reread that and it is not a criticism by the way
I understand the logic and agree on what you have said. The problem is the country as a whole moves around a lot more than say the fifties. You take this weekend they say don’t go to Blackpool for a last blast yet looking at the pictures who took any notice and traveled to Blackpool. After lockdown they said try not to go to The beaches. So people packed the beaches. My only trip out since March is to the supermarket once a week and I hate that as people do not social distance. You politely ask you are in the wrong. Don’t even dare ask why they are not wearing a mask
I can’t even remember the last time I saw someone without a mask in a shop....and I made a decision when it started that I wouldn’t question why some people weren’t...just assumed they’d have a reason. And as I said everyone does here. Has the side effect that people come closer though, so social distancing has reduced.
So the “moonshot” testing won’t be on the NHS? That will encourage people to use it, should it ever be available. https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/d...5aOc7_nCCgKde0UoO_T7tYgmpwKg9q4bU5wKlECEzuoTs
Apparently this has been decided. Not satisfied with killing off the elderly in care homes, then? The government have just announced that grandparents are now exempt from local lockdown restrictions to mind children, including those that are sent home from school because there has been a coronavirus outbreak. Just read that back again.
If grandparents don’t want to do it they won’t, but most will because it’s necessary for their families. It’s a judgement of risk....small chance of being ill, even smaller chance of being seriously ill...or dead cert your family will lose money they can’t afford. I get the general feeling that even people who accepted the lockdown and are being careful now, won’t go into full lockdown a second time. As one said, I’d rather die than miss my family again.
You are probably right, but some grandparents will feel pressured into risking their lives, rather than see their children suffer, which is why the government have to govern and stop sending out mixed messages. We already know that the older age groups are the most likely to die, from this virus, so telling older people that it is okay to put themselves at risk, of death, in a high risk area, is just wrong.
My son has banned me for a week because he has been to mainland.....in contrast, my friend’s son won’t speak to her because she wouldn’t babysit 2 children during lockdown...despite her being a desperately ill invalid. People vary a lot, don’t they
Boris finds antidote to covid19. Stand by one of these and keep feeding it with dosh and you will be fine.
Agreed. Something I've been saying for a while now. Good to know I'm not being crazy when you've got experts in the field saying the same thing. I honestly feel the media have a lot to answer for with this. The daily tallies of deaths and working people into a frenzy was/is ridiculous.
Yeah, they really do. For that reason, I try not to judge those who behave in ways that seem absurd to me; everyone has their reasons, and pretty much everyone thinks they are doing the right thing. Everyone except me is wrong though, of course.