Rayvin

IDK man, she's exactly how I picture you when you post on here, right down to the pose

I couldn't get my phone to save the screenshot in a small enough file but i got an 83% match with Daniel Jackson from Stargate. I don't know that show. I flicked the universe over to GOT and got 72% on Tyrion though, so I'm gonna bank that. Also Gandalf LOTR

Gemmill being hysterical and Renton talking him down from the ledge.. never thought I'd see the day.

That sounds like it might be a drop in the rate of increase though?

I know mate, but i hope it anyway

This is the thing that has scared me most so far now. That's a big number. I hope to fuck Trump has a plan..

Fair enough, but then if we compare to Korea we can make the argument successfully, at this point? Also it may be a few days before the differences between the UK and everyone else are fully revealed I suppose. I do get what you're saying though, about the misleading nature of that graph.

I'm not immediately going to reject J69's point here as I can see an underlying logic, but how would he explain South Korea's success if not being due to mass testing and origin tracking?

The Independent, international review carried out last year in global readiness had the UK as the second most prepared country to handle anything like this, and directly cited the NHS in the way you've referenced here. So you're totally right. The issue therefore cant be the NHS, it has to be political leadership. The US incidentally came first in that list.

An enquiry which will take years, become hugely politicised, and the outcome of which no one will take any notice of anyway, having decided to tar it with their own political bias without needing to engage with the material.

Sounds like a good gesture to me tbh. Nice one ewerk.

4th April I think I read? No idea how long it takes to handover.

I appreciate no one cares anymore, but apparently Starmer is going to purge the Corbynite Ultras at the top - good move IMO, Labour needs unity, not more factionalist nonsense. I can't quite believe how many people in the Labour groups I'm involved with want to use COVID to extend Corbyn's reign. He's been invisible since the election and is absolutely not going to be able to muster any kind of serious challenge to the government. He's done.

It's not so much optimism as not really seeing what it is that's indicating so clearly that we're going to be locked down for something approaching a year...?

As soon as we go past the peak of the curve, we can start easing people back in, you would have thought.

'Turkeys voting for Christmas' has to be one of the most frequently used Brexit metaphors. This feels the same. Non billionaires voting despite all evidence to the contrary, against their own interests and possibly their own existence. Given that 180k died for austerity, I think we can assume Brexit will have a toll.

Just feels like Brexit all over again to me.

The Independent has just reported that polling indicates more people in the US trust Trump on the pandemic than they would Biden. And moreover he has overall positive approval ratings for his handling of it.

Yeah that sounds like a fair assessment to me.

Fine.

Although if it delays or softens Brexit, it gets a gold star from me.

Wait, what? I'm not worrying about any of this I was simply making the point that they won't let the economy fall apart. This whole thing isn't panicking me at all, my life has been a continuous train wreck for the past 2 years anyway, there's not much COVID-19 can do to me, to be perfectly frank. I think it'll blow over after a year or so without any particularly earth shattering long term consequences. Because the system has to perpetuate - we have no other models to move to.

2008 was a recession in my book, but it's been a while since I really looked at it. I just think in this era of boundless apocalyptic possibilities, collapse means collapse, and not shrinking But look, we don't know how bad this is yet anyway - but if the power stays on and the food keeps coming, then for me it's just a depression at worst, and one we'll probably bounce back from fairly quickly (within 5 years), without even the need for a world war this time. The only reason 2008 dragged on was because of austerity.

Well, tbf, you and I have wildly different definitions of the word "collapse"

Ok so you're talking about a depression. Ok yes, it'll be annoying for a while indeed, and life will be shit. No arguments from me there. I suppose the US will act as a control group in all of this. I think their economy will bounce back quicker if they take the hit as Trump wants them too, but I don't think it'll be worth the cost in lives.