CB Fry

Quite. What he's said makes a lot of sense. There will obviously be a way, in a couple of months time, to put on football matches. The nation, by then, will need entertainment, things to look forward to and talk about. Sport can do that. In mid-May, after two months of everything shut and weeks and weeks of daily news about deaths, children climbing up the walls at home, people without purpose or work, the country is going to be at breaking point. If in June there are tests to test the 50 or so people required to put on a behind closed doors football match then I think they will start doing that. If the widespread national testing of people is underway then it would be completely appropriate. The fragile national consensus of "let's all stay in forever" will be straining and some entertainment/news/focus/collectivism may help to keep it going. The idea that we can beat this virus by months and months of solemn purgatory at a national scale is misguided. Distraction will be required. I'm expecting the BBC and ITV to put on some entertainment events to bring people together, and Sky putting on a week of back to back Premier League football (for free) could clearly be part of it. This isn't China. You can't keep British people indoors with soldiers on the corner of the street. But you can with entertainment. It's the only weapons weve got.

What has been amazing to me is across the five daily press conferences, there has been a massive announcement or huge change every day. Illustrative of the pace of change and the response required. The whole thing inconceivable.

That feels like the long term plan. The testing phase I think will be about working out who has had it and then getting them back to work as safe bets - feels like there is confidence that once you've had it, you have immunity (for a while).

Just to recap you definitely are the only person who truly cares about this crisis. Congratulations. Sanctimonious horsesh it.

"I was into Coronavirus before it was famous"

This coming from a man who has written post after post after post about such vital and important issues like, err, David Gauke not being a member of parliament anymore. Obviously that's jolly important compared to trivialities like young people not being able to see their friends or complete the education they've worked on for many years.

Agree - felt like an attempt to do a two-hander "bottle" episode but didn't work quite as well, they didn't quite commit to it especially as they needed to get the "reveal" in at the end. An episode based on the week they'd actually had - standing in for the vicar - would have been great. Very much enjoyed the three you mentioned though.

Long old list of key workers released overnight. Reckon I could probably take the mick and claim myself as I work in the food industry. I'm not going to but there are loopholes a-plenty as is typical for policy made up on the hoof.

Are you saying that children should be told they don't need to have any friends?

Precisely. The idea that we could have shut the entire country down, say, a month ago on the back of a handful of cases and single digit deaths was never going to play. Ditto shutdown for 18 months. For a lot of people, if that's the plan, you might as well just riot. Fu ck it. And the same applies at the other end of the suppression phase which I think us where it becomes much more difficult. There will be a point - let's call it the end of May - where collectively people will feel they have "done their bit" and actually wed quite like to go to work, have some fresh air and try and rebuild our decimated florist business/building firm/cabbie job. My main criticism of the government is the lack of testing and tracking and therefore the lack of data. I'll generously assume this will come through in the management of the exit-from-lockdown phase as I guess it may be used as a tool to "all-clear" areas/cities etc.

Right decisions at the right time.

My brother has just given me some exclusive inside info that children of key workers will still be able to go to school. You heard it here first from my brother.

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It's not beyond the wit of man etc etc etc.

Scotland and Wales closing schools on Friday, Boris hinted at PMQs so very likely the theme of today's press conference will be the same for England. As expected really - the correct decision at the correct time.

Walford in lockdown BBC suspends filming of EastEnders due to coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/bbc-suspends-filming-of-eastenders-due-to-coronavirus?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Tapatalk_Pro

No because that message is for you and you alone.

The schools stay open for at least another day. YES YES YES YES YES YES Suck it up buttercup. Suck it right up.

If this is the UK then the government advice is for entire households to isolate for 14 days not for those people to send their kids to school. So in your example its their kid infecting the school not the other way round. Keep going on and on about schools though Soggy, keep going.

The theme of tomorrow's press conference now needs to be the financial support for the businesses and individuals impacted by the announcements in today's press conference.

You said dead not sick.

Read that back. Again and again and again. Utterly despicable. Hey, you're the good guy because you hate Boris, right?

The government are weaseling around at the moment, with "suggestions" and "recommendations" which gives them room to swerve when businesses shut down and people are laid off. If this goes the way it's looking this virus could be a social revolutionary act, hollowing out businesses and infrastructure and jobs. After that, the question is then what? I think the answer might well be riots in the summer.

You were suggesting people were equating looking for childcare as comparable to dying of the virus for lack of a respirator. I don't need a fight just pointing out the absolute horsesh it you type.