There’s almost too much going on at the moment. Certainly, there’s too much going on for the Government to cope with, given its evident bandwidth problems…
2 big stories
Buzzfeed News is claiming an exclusive insight into the Goverment’s proposed ideas in terms of relaxing the current restrictions and, on the face of it, they look fairly sensible. But, as I commented yesterday, are the British public willing to return to the ‘old normal’ so soon? My sense is that they generally aren’t, but the Government needs to change that mindset if their desire to taper down the level of support for jobs and businesses is to be fulfilled. On the other hand, I could be working from home until the autumn, so there’s that at least…
It’s being suggested that the Trump administration is now quietly raising its prediction for the number of deaths expected to be brought about by the Covid-19 virus to a fairly horrifying 100,000. Given that he started off expecting that there would be very few deaths, the growing increase in the predicted death rates might normally be fatal to any President’s re-election prospects. Of course, we’re talking about Donald Trump, someone for whom the word logic (or rules, for that matter) don’t seem to apply. But, as the virus makes its stealthy way into rural, Republican America, will voters there blithely excuse him this time?
2 social media posts
The news that the United Kingdom is promoting a ‘private sector academy’ to 50,000 people to fill in customs forms required after 31 December has not escaped Guy Verhofstadt…
…and I thought #Brexit was about getting rid of bureaucracy !😉https://t.co/ccu76DLGjp
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) May 4, 2020
If you add on the number already engaged in such tasks, that’s roughly as many people as it takes to staff the entirety of HM Revenue & Customs. At least they manage the raising of £600 billion each year…
Nick Tyrone continues to be interesting, damn him!… 🙂 Here, he examines what he perceives to be the emerging split in the Conservative Party, and offers some thoughts on how that might pan out…
What may blow this apart is Brexit, of course. The trad Tories wouldn’t be fazed by a Brexit extension in the least and would excuse it to the hilt, citing the CoVid crisis. However, the other bunch, let’s call them Brexit Party flirters, would cry foul. It would push a lot of them into outright, vocal dislike of the Tories and bring their suspicions about how the crisis and lockdown has unfolded to the surface. While I think there are way fewer people in this latter category than in the trad Tory one, this could still kick off a civil war on the right.
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3 Comments
Mark V: “But, as I commented yesterday, are the British public willing to return to the ‘old normal’ so soon? My sense is that they generally aren’t, but the Government needs to change that mindset if their desire to taper down the level of support for jobs and businesses is to be fulfilled.”
Well, we’re not going back to ‘old normal’. But did anyone in government (one of those social behaviour units?) have a method for measuring how many people were responding to ‘lockdown new normal’ and how they might respond to ‘next new normal’?
It is/was all about perceptions, now and six weeks ago. We don’t know how many people have changed their behaviour through logic, social conditioning, fear or the desire for some quiet walks with the dog.
Just an observation, but are people becoming a bit more polite? Folks who don’t seem like typical dog walkers and park strollers say good morning when passing on the fields. There’s something diffident, a bit like teenagers adjusting to a room of adults.
‘50,000 people to fill in customs forms required after 31 December’
What was expected? I was in Ottawa in summer 2016 just after the Referendum; a Canadian business newspaper headlined Brexit om its front page as a job opportunity for Canadian trade negotiation lawyers to work in the UK.
Brexit is going to increase bureaucracy and that will at least increase employment. It’s going to be tough for school and college leavers unless they will take on some of the more menial tasks such as in farming. I’m still hoping we can get a reliable antibody test that will provide a pool of people able to do some of the infection prone jobs as infection testing will need repeating frequently.