A Tory backbencher asked Hancock when the NHS staff would be tested for the virus. We have some test kits on order, so when they arrive we will start. This virus was notified in January. Why are we waiting so long for an order to be processed? Seems that the private sector is to blame.
This the big question.... and here's hoping that they get a handle on this worldwide...... otherwise this will spill over into next winter. We need vaccinations We need treatment packages.... ...and of course there is the big hope that this thing will just work its way out and reduce to some minor mutation that is much less harmful
Up to 1 million Britons on holiday or on business trips abroad have been asked to return to the UK immediately by the Foreign Office, as they may not be able to get commercial flights within days. I have been looking up during the day and haven't seen a single aircraft going over, whereas normally there must be hundreds.
Today I was sent an email from Aer Lingus asking me to check for my flight to Dublin (my flight from there to Miami is cancelled) and then an email encouraging me to upgrade on my return flight.
I have had similar problems with my Ryan air flight to Limoges this week..... I think their algorythms are apoplectic currently......
10 days ago I was restricted to exactly the same measures that Johnson has announced tonight. That is 10 days lost in the fight against the virus.
Quite and how will the police be able to know who is travelling to a supermarket to buy food? We have to fill in a certificate before we leave home to say where we are going which you have to produce if asked. A fine results if you don't have one.
Wholly unimpressive. The first few minutes of that were painful to listen to but he pulled his delivery round in the end to acceptable, if short of statesman-like levels. And no, Mr Prime Minister, you haven't got the first clue about sacrifice and suffering any more than cadet bone spurs across the pond has about military service.
And well the online services are pretty much full up for weeks to come. Seemed to be as you were really... I am sure he means well and only taking advice but was there much new?
When the same measures were put in force here, Macron announced that there would be 100,000 police on the streets to enforce them. The UK has 103,000 front line police officers, so taking into account shift work, days off etc. the UK cannot supply the numbers. In the ten days since the regulations came into force I have only needed to go food shopping once, but have never seen one of the 100,000, so I ask how are these reduced numbers supposed to operate?
The French have a built in disregard for the law as seen in last two years of rioting on the streets of France. Brits are much better behaved, the UK government will require a much smaller number of police to enforce the law.
Interesting twist here - could the wall which Trump built to keep the Mexicans out now be giving some protection to Mexico against American virus refugees ?
I do wonder if the measures described tonight have been forced on Johnson after France stated they would close the border if the UK didn't tighten controls. Related were the headlines in the local newspaper today. They were saying that a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables come from Spain and due to the restrictions there, it was possible that there could be a shortage here in a week or two. This could of course apply just as well to the UK being even further away. They also talked about the seasonal workers who start in Spain, move on to France, then finish in the UK. It would seem that many are from Eastern Europe, and they have gone home leaving a shortage of workers that are normally called on. There were problems last year in the UK with many crops unpicked, and it sounds as if it could be worse this year.
Dominic Cummings’ view summarised by Downing Street source as “if some old people die, too bad.” Presumably only “too bad” if they are poorer old people? Callous? Obviously. Typically uncaring ‘I’m All Right, Jack’ philosophy? Of course. What else should we expect? I hope the older generation who were responsible for electing (or not, in Cummings’ case) this selfish, elitist, god forsaken rabble of blackshirts live to regret their actions.