Awol

Macron got on the phone to President Xi yesterday and requested the purchase of 1 billion face masks. Xi said he would allow it, on condition that France accepted Huawei building their 5G network. Straight up commercial blackmail. For context, in January the EU shipped 70 tons of medical supplies to Wuhan, no questions asked. Geopolitics is going to look very different after this pandemic, and much not to China’s liking.

We’re getting a sneak peak of what antibiotic resistance could look like. Once this is all over, hopefully researchers will get funded to the gills to develop new ones as a public health priority.

No chance of a national unity government, the Tories have a whopping majority - sorry. PS. I voted Lib Dem. Edit: I think it’s also been pointed out to you several times that Brexit has already happened.

You’d like to think so, but don’t underestimate the ambition of some of these guys. People who think they’ve got a shout, like Hunt for example, might not want Raab to demonstrate himself as competent* *stop laughing at the back!

Sorry mate, the data says he’s got a 50/50 chance. Of course I want him to survive, but given that’s a coin toss I’d like to know how we go forward, given the situation.

Just looked at the rules and if Johnson dies Raab can carry on while the 1922 Committee nominate candidates for a leadership contest. If only one candidate is nominated then that person is appointed by HM as the new Prime Minister, but Raab doesn’t just get it by default. Do they all rally round Jeremy Hunt? A leadership election in the middle of a pandemic seems practically (if not logistically) impossible.

RIA were reporting Johnson was on life support in the early hours of this morning. He’s been moved to ICU in last 2 hours, reportedly not on a ventilator yet. Tell enough lies...

Life really is odd sometimes. A scholar, admirer and frequent reciter of Classical Greek literature, fervent admirer of Churchill and expecting a baby, only to be struck down by the very crisis he thought himself born to lead his country through. Instead he has the lead role in an epic tragedy. You couldn’t make it up.

I’ll bet they have. The only source for that was Russian state media earlier today running a disinformation campaign. Mix of wishful thinking and extreme gullibility there from The Times.

Singapore too. That’s 2 of the 3 early poster boys for Covid response going backwards quickly, which may support the UK scientific analysis that it wasn’t containable in the short-medium term?

I did think allowing 17 flights from northern Italy to land in UK on the day they locked down - with no checks at UK end - was a bit complacent.. Much of that failure to act on restricting travel seemed to come from a political fear of being labelled racist little Englanders - there was a government and media effort at the time to squash some genuine (if very limited) anti-Chinese racism that was springing up. A case of putting ideology before public health, perhaps? One for the inquiry anyway.

Going from memory here but didn’t they close their border with Italy In early March? Pretty sure that was applied to trains and flights too. Germany then closed its border to Austria a few days later, plus France and Switzerland. Perhaps limiting free movement of people into a country once a pandemic breaks out is helpful in controlling the spread?

Sky said his missus has symptoms too. Pretty grim given she’s pregnant.

I think it’s standard procedure for the foreign secretary to be the designated survivor in case of the PM being incapacitated. Agree he’s unlikely to cover himself in glory though. Marmalade maybe, but not glory.

Apparently not - although the idea Johnson can continue managing the country through a crisis while seriously unwell is ridiculous.

Boris off to hospital. Edit: I guess that means Raab is acting PM.

Exactly, what I don’t know is how you identify the tipping point where furlough for workers transitions to unemployment because businesses are no longer viable. I’m all for individual workers being bank-rolled by the government for months if necessary, the issue then is having no job to go back to. If Starmer wants to make a splash then some well developed proposals for universal basic income would be hard to resist once the post-crisis crisis hits.

Gove reporting hospital admissions in the Midlands up 47% for Covid cases since beginning of April - the highest rate of increase in the country. Nightingale at NEC will now be a 2,000 bed field hospital - think original plan was for 1,000 beds.

Oh FFS. @foreveryoung commented that he wasn’t sure Labour would be doing any better dealing with COVID if they were in government now. I replied with a joke about Abbott and Burgon who would have been senior ministers in such a government. That triggered her fans into a bout of chivalry - though they’ve ignored the dig at Burgon for some (obvious) reason. Point taken, I shall focus exclusively on criticising the government, and not mentioning where that’s straying into partisan levels of f**kery bordering on the absurd. It’s VT not Labour List, though I admit that’s not always obvious.

Not met many politicians then?! Sat with a fair few reds and blues on ‘fact-finding’ jaunts who couldn’t find their arse with both hands, although not Saint Diane tbf - who I doubt would struggle with that task.

Don’t know, I’ve only been watching the situation in Italy. Can’t imagine there’s much headroom in Greece but Ireland seems to have turned itself around pretty successfully after the last crisis. This time is a different order of magnitude to 2008-10 though. We’re looking at a depression not a recession.

Sovereign defaults. Italy is too big to fail but is now (very sadly) goosed. It needs a mutualised debt instrument, a euro or corona bond to raise money after this. Spain & France may well be in the same boat. Italy will not accept the kind of crushing, socially destructive austerity programme Greece was forced in to. Germany, the Netherlands and the Commission are opposing bonds for now, but the crunch point is coming fast when it’ll be a choice: go Federal or go home. That’s likely to determine the future of the EU in its current form - and yes I remember it being discussed as one of many reasons to leave on here.

The Tories have been able to get as sloppy as they have only because Corbyn was a uniquely repulsive leader. Starmer is a different kettle of fish and I expect the Labour front bench to reflect that. It’s a good result for the country as much as for Labour.

It wasn’t to defend the Tories, it was mock Diane Abbott. I don’t need a reason to do that.

White House Press conference on Monday: