Still impressed by BJ?

DD2 teaches at a large school in Wembley. She says they are all set up for the school to close and anticipate it will be next Friday.

is it "rational" to think he can let the virus rampage through the population and expect herd imunity ...and up to 400.000 deaths? I would prefer someone who would help SAVE lives by putting stringent measures in place NOW not tomorrow not next week .

I'm not normally a BJ fan, but I was quite impressed with his performance with the two experts. Rational and reasonable were the two words which came to mind.

Rory Stewart and Jeremy Hunt are not experts though ilovecheese and it would be better for them to pipe down.

Will anyone who decides to keep their child at home just in case when the school remains open have to pay the statutory fines?

Just a thought.

I suppose if pupil numbers are down and also staff numbers, they could keep them open using available staff.

A bit drastic, shooting the HT

I’m sure they did Callistemon but if there are not enough staff to open or teach the schools or pupils to attend - similar to winter closures - then how are they going to force them to stay open? Threaten to shoot the HT in the staff car park?!

I need more detail before I can understand what they’re planning to do.

I remember the Asian flu epidemic SirChenjin.
My school then stayed open and there were only three of us out of a class of about 40 who stayed well and attended so lessons were really put on hold.

Of course, another girl and I caught it a fortnight or three weeks later when everyone had returned, so missed these lessons and had to try and catch up.

Of course, different experts have different opinions. For a start, they are dealing with different cultures and different progress of the virus through the populations. Even within the groups'of experts, they will each be coming from own area of knowledge. However, scientists of all sorts are usually happy to share knowledge as they are doing universally in a hope to find medicines and/or a vaccine.

Anyone coming on here to carry out the usual sniping really doesn't deserve a reply, do they? It's rather like selfishly bulk buying - putting yourself first to get a little buzz.

Chestnut -Is the UK the only country to have dense populations in small areas? So the other European countries don't have large cities with large populations?

I’d like to see what those measures look like in reality - they can’t force schools to stay open if teachers, pupils and support staff are ill in such numbers that it’s impossible for them to stay open.

Police will be able to detain infected people and schools could be forced to stay open under a package of powers being announced next week to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Emergency laws to help to limit the spread of the virus will be introduced after the number of people infected in Britain rose by 200 in 24 hours to 798. The measures, seen by The Times, will also let councils lower standards in care homes to deal with staff shortages.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-emergency-laws-police-get-powers-to-detain-victims-b65fp7fvm?wgu=270525_54264_15841901360695_7a0f77f969&wgexpiry=1591966136&utm_source=planit&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_content=22278

www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/03/14/coronavirus-in-russia-the-latest-news-march-13-a69117

Does Russia have as much travel and tourism as the rest of Europe, probably not but I have not a clue.

Presumably the experts are not in agreement.
The politicians are all flailing around in the dark like the rest of us.
Russia hasn't been on the news much lately. How are they dealing with it?

Lemongrove said
" POGS posts on this subject are definitely worth a read.
They cut through all the cheap political point scoring from Disgruntled LP voters."

It is not just Labour voters who are not convinced by the Government response though is it. Rory Stewart and Jeremy Hunt are also not confident about it.

Different experts can have different opinions, I don't know either if the experts that the Govt. is listening to are giving the right advice or not, nobody does yet, so there is no need to pretend that Labour voters are just using the arguments to score political points.

Funny how Johnson is now following the experts. I thought they said people were fed up with experts.
--

This is a question I have asked before as this point has been made repeatedly .

Do you want Johnson to follow the experts or prefer to snipe about the fact that is what he is doing.

Do you think Johnson should do as the experts are advising him or are you of the opinion he is still an idiot who has not taken decisions unilaterally.

There is so much hypocrisy at a time of crisis I sometimes despair.

I just hope in a year or so we don't look back in hindsight and wish we hadn't listened to the experts.

As sometimes happens.

Funny how Johnson is now following the experts. I thought they said people were fed up with experts.

Medical professionals were expressing concerns about our capacity to cope. I think that's worrying.

Every country is worrying about their capacity to cope. No country has faced this before. Wash your hands, use tissues and keep surfaces clean. If they tell us there is more we can do, do it. No one has told us moaning will help us avoid this. It is not avoidable it is merely manageable.

I feel we can only trust the scientists and Johnson has done none of the posturings I would have expected and appears to be behaving like a grown-up. The opposition is asking the questions that need to be asked but also offering the support that needs to be offered.

We have a "don't know" situation and I have never expected people to behave like gods so I am not disappointed with what is happening. I would not say this lets the politicians off the hook in other areas but, currently, they seem to be doing the best they can in the situation we are in.

I'm with those who think we're not doing enough. I've asked on another thread whether anyone saw the programme on this on Ch4 last evening, Coronavirus - have we got it right?

Medical professionals were expressing concerns about our capacity to cope. I think that's worrying.

I just give up. We were in what Boris called the delay period with virus and what did he do to delay it? Sweet f..a. This is when he should have stopped large public events, Cheltenham Races for one and been testing at the airport. But no we just had to wash our hands.
I hear today that next week he is going to stop large public events after a load of events to come have cancelled. We are an island and surely it should have been easier for us to contain the virus. Everywhere else is doing far more than we are.

We don't know what effect this could have if a woman is pregnant, do we, as yet?

Corbyn useless. BJ useless.

No point comparing BJ to Corbyn now is there. He’s definitely yesterdays man. Where is Carrie though? I’ve read she has been whisked away to a luxury location far away from the city crowds.