aintforever

How is it hindsight? I definitely remember other European countries going into shutdown and saying we were mad not to when Boris was telling us to just sing happy birthday and wash our hands.

This.

That’s obviously just passing on what they have been told by the Chinese. I’m sure every government in the world would understand the reliability of that information.

This, unless they can sort a deal, but going WTO in the current situation would just be plain reckless.

Think they have all agreed in principle to finish the season, just don't know when or how yet. I'm guessing they can't nail down timings until UEFA decide what's happening to the Champs/Europa League etc. Think they meet next week.

#inittogether

Na **** em, that ‘’journo’ was just being an annoying arsehole.

Cycling on the roads is actually enjoyable.

Because they don’t want thousands of people heading into Bournemouth or similar popular locations every day. It’s not rocket science.

There has to be rules, otherwise nothing would change. The police have to enforce the rules otherwise they will just be ignored. It's not rocket science. From a selfish point of view, I could safely pop to a beach near me and spend the day sunbathing in a secluded spot with next to no risk of spreading anything. But if the police let me do it they would have to let everyone else and you end up with thousands of people out and about as usual. The police have no option but to make examples of people and they were 100% right to fine these selfish idiots.

If everyone went on a tour of the UK the roads, service stations, convenience stores etc would be the same as the average bank holiday - it's the last thing we need.

Thought it was a democratic hoax?

I dunno, religion has played a part in wars for centuries, from the Spanish Inquisition through to ISIS today. Like Geopolitics it creates division.

I think most atheists among us has showed more tolerance than anyone to be honest. From a young age pretty much all of us have had religious beliefs forced upon us, forced to sing hymns at school, forced to do numerous religious based activities, there are still parts of our life being influenced by a load of ****ed up fairy tales from centuries ago - atheists have every right to have a bit of a chip their shoulder but still most don't. I'm more agnostic than anything, I used to be anti-religion because of all the wars and misery it has caused but I do understand the good to does so am not really bothered either way.

Surely if a country is on a "war footing" then traditional supplier frameworks shouldn't really get in the way?

But surely it’s fair if the government claw back the money by taxing high-earners afterwards, then all companies get treated the same?

Beattie?

Religion is obviously a load of b*ll*x but if people want to make life choices based around centuries old works of fiction that’s fine by me. Churches do a lot of good, I think a fair amount of people, especially the elderly go purely because it’s free, gets them out the house and makes them feel part of something.

I really don’t get the issue with furloughing, thousands of profit making companies up and down the country are doing it, many will have high earners, all will have to pay for it through tax later on.

If it doesn’t change behaviour I don’t see the point.

Except if they ever did what you say the only way it would make any difference is if they made the info public, in which case people would just leave their phones at home, making the whole exercise pointless.

The Israel thing was just part of the baggage Corbyn carried around which made him so inappropriate for party leadership. Fact is if you campaign for Palestinian rights you make so many enemies within the Jewish community you will always have anti-semitism allegations thrown at you. At least now the party will have seen the back of that particular problem.

People have to work, they don’t have to go sunbathing - that’s the difference. All workplaces should be following guidelines to minimise the risk as well.

Interesting comparison, the government obviously screwed up in delaying the shutdown. We can all see now how critical time is in a pandemic. I expect London distorts the stats somewhat though.

Boris’ ‘sing happy birthday’ phase does seem idiotic now. Looks like they were caught with their pants down and were just buying some time whilst they put together something that resembles a plan. The PPE and testing situation is a disgrace. I always though rule 1 in a pandemic is protect your health workers.