Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

If they all live together anyway then there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing this.

 

I would imagine that the majority of what you describe as "high earners" are not really "lying idle in their homes" but are in fact still working from home. The people who are sitting at home not working are likely low earners who have been made redundant off the back of shops, pubs, restaurants and the like closing down.

If they've been "laid off" then they're not working.

If they are indeed "working from their homes" then the Gov are not subsidising them so it's a moot point.

[Jacksgranda]

17 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

Slowly, slowly catchy monkey.

The army will not be sitting about at the moment. They'll be preparing for whatever their most effective use can be.

A visual presence might help, but we might need transport and delivery at the drop of a hat so that will all be happening in the background.

By the time a tank trundles out here with a food parcel we'll have starved to death.

[ayrmad]

19 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

28 minutes ago, JTS98 said:

Sturgeon said not to play golf yesterday morning.
Here to help

Oh ffs he's back.

You should be cutting him a bit of slack, we might have a deluge of worriers when the deaths start piling up. 

I do agree that he needs to calm it a bit but he is just trying to help. 

[Granny Danger]

Just got an e-mail from a major company (we hardly buy anything from them but are on their e-mail list).

They are closing from Friday, so almost a week of the proposed three weeks being ignored.

[East Calder Lion]

1 hour ago, well fan for life said:

Was there an emergency text message put out? I certainly never got one. 

Does sound about right, though. 

I didn't get one either.  Maybe because I'm just on pay as you go and only spend about a fiver each year.

[Marshmallo]

30 minutes ago, philpy said:

4 Bulgarians across the street decided they would all huddle together to change a wheel on a car. One of our neighbours who works twilight shifts in asda came home and got out her car and went mental at them, they all shuffled back inside rather quickly .

Maybe this is unfortunately worded but what does it matter a f**k if they are "Bulgarian"? And if they live together than it's a non-issue.

25 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

Stop seeing things in such concrete, black and white terms.

The government are following medical and scientific about gradually reducing interaction, hopefully halting the spread.

It's been done in stages, and has been entirely predictable, albeit the timing is the only thing they need to decide - when to do this, when to move to that.

They're handling it ok, despite the folk screaming from the rooftops. Yes mistakes are being made, but by in large they're being highlighted and addressed. That's what's meant to happen.

You can't expect detailed instructions about every single thing. Yesterday we were still able to go outside freely, encouraged to strongly stick to social distancing. Now we're being severely limited in that, and there are authorities in the street to advise us on this.

A clear increase in the seriousness dial.
 

Tell me that "they're handling it OK" in a fortnight's time when we've got 1,000 UK deaths a day from this.

They're changing guidance day to day because they realise they're making a monumental James Hunt of managing it.

 

11 minutes ago, pozbaird said:

Wonder how marshmallo rates that scene compared to me being on an almost empty golf course for two hours yesterday afternoon? Poor chap will be ruddy faced with the rage.

It's absolutely horrific and the management who are making these guys come into work in those conditions should be charged with gross negligence.

The individuals in that photo do not have a real choice. They can go in and get paid or stay home and not be able to pay the bills. Anyone going to play golf or milling about in parks has made a choice to do so. I don't understand what is difficult to grasp here. 

If you absolutely 100% need to do something to survive, do it. If it is not a 100% requirement for you to survive, do not do it.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Marshmallo

[throbber]

Sorry if been posted before but this was a message from a construction director at cala homes following the pm announcement.

[jagfox]

19 minutes ago, heedthebaa said:

This morning 

Lazy bastirts...

[hk blues]

1 minute ago, WATTOO said:

I'm sure if you gave the majority who are being forced to work the option of NOT working for 80% pay then they'd take it.

Unless you believe that earning 20% of the minimum wage or thereabouts is worth risking your life and those of your loved ones for ???

The other point there is that travelling expenses alone would make up close to the 20% pay differential in many cases.

I can't talk for others but I'd prefer to work for 100% of my pay than not work for 80% of it.   Regardless of personal preference, the simple fact is people are losing 20% of their income and for many that is an issue.  Their feeling of unfairness would be compounded if they were sitting next to a colleague doing a different job in the same company who didn't lose a penny and further was able to pay less tax and NI.  

Nope, I would not be willing to risk my life nor my family's for 20% of minimum wage, but that wouldn't be the case, would it?  Because, I'd be at work because it was decided I needed to be so I'd be risking my life and my family's life to keep my job.  Exactly the position many people are now finding themselves in.  

Agreed travel expenses will offset the loss in many cases but aren't we getting into the detail too much?  People with season passes won't save anything, people will spend more money on utilities if at home all day.  Swings and roundabouts in many cases. 

I'm not saying there is a degree of unfairness in the system as it has been set up, but you may find fixing that unfairness simply creates a different type of unfairness. 

[ayrmad]

9 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

You'll be keeling over with heart failure long before the virus gets you auld yin, keep it up.

[SlipperyP]

While all you are typing your whataboot him, point scoring & Madonna best song.  The son and I have been out the back making bows and arrows. 

Get prepared lads.

I love golf.

[itzdrk]

1 hour ago, ayrmad said:

Folk will still work for him after it's over and loads will buy his cheap bevvy. 

Hopefully I'm wrong but too many put pounds over cuntishness in our society at present. 

I do not go near his shit pubs

[jamamafegan]

My work is non essential however I’ve just been told that some of our jobs will continue. My job involves lone working in remote countryside which means I don’t need to come into contact with anyone. Problem though is that should anything happen to me, an injury or vehicle breakdown for example, someone would need to be called in to get me and that would breach the social distancing thing and put myself and them at unnecessary risk.

I’ve said I’ll work but I’m a little uneasy at the prospect of it all. One part of me wants to get out and work (I enjoy my job and want to get paid!)- the alternative is to pick up scraps of office work, of which there is very little, leaving me with uncertainty as to what happens next in my job. The other part feels a massive sense of guilt being outside and potentially contributing to the situation.

I think by the end of the week the choice will have been taken out of my companies hands anyway once “essential work” and “key workers” have been explicitly detailed and companies are told to cease business.

[Savage Henry]

The Y2K computing bug 20 years ago is now widely regarded as a crisis that never was.
In fact it was a very serious issue for a lot of companies and organisations that fortunately did take it seriously.
If this pandemic is handled well and a large number of deaths are averted then similarly in future years this will be seen as a fuss about nothing.

Correct. This logical fallacy is self-serving. If more than the estimated number of people die, it’s because the government (Boris, not Nichola, natch) didn’t do enough. If less than expected die, it was all a big hoax. If this is seen as a fuss over nothing, it means the government - and the populace - did the right thing.

Make no mistake, this is serious business - Pie and Bovril’s meat and potatoes, as it were.

[ayrmad]

Just now, itzdrk said:

I do not go near his shit pubs

Quite right Derek, hope you're not planning on drinking yourself to death during the course of your sabbatical, we need all the eejits more than ever on here. 

[Salvo Montalbano]

I've touched on this before, however to reiterate, 
Currently those who are expected to continue to work are among the lowest paid in the country and are risking their life and the life's of their families for only the minimum wage in many cases. As such I don't see why these people should "pay" to keep the high earners lying idle in their homes ???
Personally I think that everyone who's being expected to work in a "critical" post should be earning at least the £35k figure that the chancellor is paying out to people laid off in their homes.
Ultimately this Government hand out is coming from the tax payer and as such it will end up being the people actually doing the work and seeing no benefit who will be the poor barstewards who end up paying for it.
Another option would be to amend the PAYE system to give those asked to work through the crisis a Tax and NI break which again could easily be implemented by HMRC.

The issue of course is that we have a conservative (small c) government whereby when they they enact liberal looking policies they are done in a conservative way. It would have been a lot simpler to have Universal Basic Income (at say 80% of the median salary, although really it should be at the national living wage since you know, that's what we are meant to be able to live on...) but instead it was always about supporting businesses rather than people. Giving companies the option of taking up the government's support package, having loans, not having mortgages and rents automatically paused, or having credit card fees paused or whatever. The same goes with the mixed messages about going out and the like. Small c conservatives will always argue for personal responsibility over government overreach which is ridiculous in this crisis as we need the government to enforce laws rather than make suggestions.

[alta-pete]

I'm not buying the Government making a c**t of it stuff.

For everyone saying we should have gone into lockdown a month ago - and we may even get to the stage anyway if the lockdown actually does what is intended and dramatically slows the infection/death rate - how many people do you think will be getting bored cooped up in their houses saying it's been a huge overreaction and a gross infringement of their human rights to roam? They then start piling onto the streets thinking all is well and we then get a huge spike on infections/deaths.

Its all about slowing the rate of infection.

Living in Scotland we are (mostly for those that live outwith Glasgow and Edinburgh) in a very fortunate position to have the space around us that we do. Never liked London and now no fooking way would you ever be able to pay me enough to work there. The message that is coming rom Government has to be a one-size-fits-all. Yes it is hugely inconvenient to us but if that's all it turns out to, we'll not have done too badly...

[ICTChris]

Even if the death rate in this country is less than feared I don't think anyone will ever play down the impact of all of this.  This is the biggest event that has ever happened in this country, certainly the one that has had the biggest impact since the Second World War.  The economic impact is going to be massive and continuing.  The social impact is massive and I think it will change politics in Britain significantly.

[itzdrk]

1 minute ago, ayrmad said:

Quite right Derek, hope you're not planning on drinking yourself to death during the course of your sabbatical, we need all the eejits more than ever on here. 

I was previously unemployed at a stage for three years, I can handle three-months paid.  A like the PlayStation

[Steven W]

16 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

What part of there arent enough police officers and soldiers to effectively implement a lockdown across the country don’t people like you get?

Fair do's then pal. Crack on as you are. I hope that you are lucky enough to remain healthy