love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

If Labour aren't able to make hay over something like this then they're in real trouble.

i've gotta say using primary school children as canaries in the rona mine really captures the national mood

The proposed reduction of the two-metre rule to one metre seems completely bananas.

the virus is getting tired and can't travel as far

Coronavirus: Plan to use private firm at centre of outsourcing scandal to run contact tracing attacked
Serco and other giant contractors likely to recruit 15,000 call centre staff - who could be given only one day’s training

A plan to use a private firm at the centre of an outsourcing scandal to help run the ‘test-and-trace’ system crucial to curbing Covid-19 has drawn criticism.

Labour hit out at ministers after it emerged that Serco – and probably other giant contractors such as G4S – will carry out most of the contact tracing work, by recruiting 15,000 call centre staff.

They will be given only about one day’s training in the principles of contact tracing, The Times reported, stating Serco was in “advanced talks”.

Last year, the outsourcing giant was fined £19.2m by the Serious Fraud Office as part of a settlement over an electronic tagging scandal, also paying £3.7m in costs.

Look, I know we bandy the phrase around a lot, but lol we're all going to die.

i've gotta say using primary school children as canaries in the rona mine really captures the national mood

I don't really know what can be done about this, losing six months to year of educational and social development is going to have a major effect on the lives of a lot of children. It's not just the learning that might not be happening, it's the likelihood of forgetting things they've already learned up to now. Obviously not every parent has home internet access and/or engaged parents, plus it affects kids from deprived backgrounds the most on top of every other barrier they're going to face in life.

There doesn't seem to be any evidence that young children themselves are especially at risk from the virus itself so it becomes almost entirely an issue of whether or not they're likely to transmit the virus, and I don't think anyone knows that yet.

the risk is low but children have died from it. there is also plenty of evidence that they catch it, even if they're asymptomatic. and if they've caught it, they can spread it. i'm in the weird position that my kids have already caught it and gotten better so i'm not that worried but i certainly would be if they hadn't got it yet.

how many times must serco, atos and g4s fuck up before they stop being awarded zillion dollar contracts. it really is just fucking incredible.

Also the likelihood that a classroom full of asymptomatic kids all spreading it around is putting teachers, especially older teachers, at risk.

indeed

Repeatedly being rewarded for being shit is a Tory touchstone.

it's entirely possible that teachers would suddenly be in the same risk category as bus drivers, NHS workers, etc.

I don't think children returning to school before the summer are going to gain much by way of educational advantage, because everything is likely to be piecemeal and disrupted. The most deprived children will be getting state sponsored childminding tho, which will allow their deprived parents to get back to their low paid jobs ASAP, which is the only agenda motivating this government, which certainly won't be providing adequate ppe for anybody or running a meaningful assessment of the risk.

Schools going back is a terrible idea, how many of those children live in multigenerational households?

I'll leave questions of how shit the national curriculum and every other aspect of the state's programme of education and child development is. And don't even get me started on likely consequences for children with SEN.

BREAKING: Jennie Formby has announced she is standing down as General Secretary of the Labour Party

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) May 4, 2020

The proposed reduction of the two-metre rule to one metre seems completely bananas.

― ShariVari, Monday, 4 May 2020 12:01 (fifty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's that or building in extra protection for returning workers so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Given how badly the government handled the move into lockdown I don't think they have any clue at all as to how to handle the (infinitely more difficult) of how to exit.

I think the guiding light will be "as close as possible to the capitalism that made us rich, chaps, and avoid any painful reconfigurations that risk making us less rich or tilting society away from our benefit"

Anyone with family who are autistic and non verbal wouldn't want them anywhere near a hospital right now, they'd be at the back of the queue for ICU/ventilators if they urgently needed that kind of medical care and would be likely to get sectioned if their behaviour became too challenging. You can't really do social distancing even with a small classroom of autistic children, a lot of them have poor spatial awareness and often walk right into people.

we are the briquettes

https://media.thegospelcoalition.org/static-blogs/ray-ortlund/files/2010/01/Molech.Zm.-86.-5.jpg

Is there any growing pressure for a strike in the UK against the deconfinement for schools or other workers? Here in France the movement against deconfinement grew significantly over the weekend, with 120+ mayors of towns in the Paris region saying that it is unreasonable for schools to reopen 11 May as currently planned. In one department in the Paris region, teachers have filed an intention to strike starting 11 May. The transport unions are preparing to resist the return to a fuller offering of trains, without which a return to work would be difficult. The government is conscious of this, with its more recalcitrant members saying that French people are just putting off "learning to live with the virus", which in any case will have to happen by the start of the next school year in September. But that isn't clear: at universities we are preparing numerous scenarios for the next school year, including delaying its start until January.

Nothing yet has happened that would prompt a strike - we're still in the middle of lockdown and no firm exit proposals have been made. If it happens it'll probably be on the railways or Tube first. Teachers unions are generally reluctant to strike but this is one thing that might make them.

I'm getting frequent messages from my union about the proposed 'return'. I've filled out various ballots and seen the letters to government. It's all couched in pretty forceful language but no direct mention of the 's' word yet.

it is absolute fucking nonsense to think that schools will reopen before september

that is the extremely firm line that should be taken by everyone

I can't see it being anything other than another appaling blunder that would only make sense if you think spreading the Rona is a net plus.

Strikes in the UK? You're having a laugh aren't you?

not having a laugh, Britain has a glorious history of industrial action! but it's been a while...

plenty of strikes among university ancillary workers and food-delivery couriers right up until lockdown

i mean i guess that's not strictly speaking "industrial" action but

i've been on strike in the last 2 years

not having a laugh, Britain has a glorious history of industrial action! but it's been a while...

... a long while.

Poor old Mike Yarwood, nobody knowing who trade union leaders were anymore drove him to the bottle... hold on though, did he actually do union leaders?

Viewing figures for his programmes were enormous. The Mike Yarwood Christmas Show, aired on Christmas Day 1977, was watched by an audience of 21.4 million.

This is still the record for the biggest audience of a single UK light entertainment broadcast, beating the Morecambe and Wise Christmas special later the same day.

a huuuuge star, this mofo was a quasar! can barely remember him tbh - he was a bit passe by the early 80's iirc

Some reporting on rent strike actions:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rent-strike-student-coronavirus-lockdown-housing-crisis-a9493936.html

schools are open right now afaik. not sure what the rates of infection are wrt teachers.

at my local j + i school I have never seen more than 6 or 7 kids in the playground when I'm walking past and it often looks empty. This will vary obv depending on "key worker" numbers in a catchment area.

UK coronavirus hospital death toll rises by 229 in lowest total in six weeks

so how big a leap are the figures going to take tomorrow, do we reckon? double? more?

it always drops on a monday, because of weekend counting delays i think.

I'm not surprised Yarwood hit the bottle after just watching his Jimmy Savile impression

the non-london school where my friend and one-time ilxor _____ is a key (admin) worker has not so far had as many as 10 kids to look after in the building, more like 3-6 most days

so it is open but if you bring yr child in merely bcz yr fed up of keeping them occupied you will be disapproved at

rubber-faced funnyman not even funny (or rubber-faced)

https://www.hsj.co.uk/news/coronavirus-deaths-mapped-every-region-now-at-least-25pc-below-peak/7027212.article

This is a couple of days old and only includes hospital deaths but this is helpful:

The figures were collated between 5pm on 29 April and 5pm on 30 April, but due to the need to inform relatives and authenticate reports, many of the deaths occurred earlier than this period. It is also very likely that some deaths which did occur during these 24 hours — and before — have not yet been recorded, normally for the same reasons.

The delays to reporting mean the growth curve of deaths for recent days appears flatter than it actually is.

The figures do not include those who have died from the virus outside of hospital, nor those where covid-19 has not been specifically recorded as a cause. These are thought to be at least the equal of hospital deaths.

Due to late reporting, hospital deaths data is only considered robust until 24 April. At that point, the weekly running average had declined for 15 consecutive days and was 40 per cent lower than the peak.

All seven English regions have seen declines by at least a quarter on the various peaks. London leads the way with a drop of 59 per cent, while progress is slowest in the north east and Yorkshire where fatalities have fallen just 27 per cent.

My brother works for an academy school in an area with a large number of deprived kids so they have quite a few in, he says some of them are clearly malnourished despite the meals they get at school

Can’t remember if I already posted about how at the beginning of lockdown he was in the Budgens loading up his trolley with boxes of cereal for the kids and he said he thought he was gonna be attacked by a mob of people assuming he was hoarding for himself

without the school breakfast clubs and their free dinners some of these kids will be wasting away, some bordering on being full on edema cases if things get worse. this is the year 2020 in the United Kingdom.

Update: Following the latest hospital figures for the number of people who have died after testing positive for coronavirus, a cautious estimate of the UK excess deaths linked to the outbreak is

50,200

some methodology follows

1/

— Chris Giles (@ChrisGiles_) May 4, 2020

good god

90% of (hospital) deaths are in the 60 upwards age group. 1% are 20 to 40. That's a fuck of a difference!

and yet the over-70s are agitating to be Let Out Now!