Boris..intensive care..

I’m hoping that it’s not too serious and that Boris has a sensible doctor who said he’d never rest in Downing Street so he needed to be made to rest in hospital.

I thought Churchill was hospitalised - a stroke? Or am I remembering wrongly (from The Crown ?

Another nurse has died. I think that makes 18 so far. Not enough PPE yet, I suppose.

Oh WhitewaveMk2 how very sad, I do hope she pulls through.

That is a real shame Whitewave I hope she recovers soon as well.

Remember the nurse crying because the shop shelves were empty?

She has the virus.

Get well soon.

The PM is first amongst equals and as such holds the power for various decisions like worse case scenario - the nuclear button. The PM always has the final say in any decision.

But the rest of the cabinet are all equal, and none of them have the nuclear option plus other stuff.

We don’t have an equivalent like a designated survivor and I’m arguing that it is time we revisited it and got it sorted.

Of course if like Churchill the PM is disposed for a short length of time then no real problem, but in this case the poor sod will be incapacitated for a good while.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Does it make any difference whether Boris or Dominic Raab is in charge? It isn't like an inexperienced leader is taking over from a vastly experienced one. Politically, they are both cut from the same cloth. Can't really see that the change will affect the government's response in any serious way.

Whaitewavemarks posts sent me scurrying off to do a mini study on the British constitution.

How complex it is! I knew we didn’t have a written one. I didn’t know (and still don’t know much) about how it works.

I’m willing to take lesson from Grans who are versed in law, but as I understand it, we can’t be leaderless because we don’t constitutionally have a leader as such. Anybody in the elected government can be the leader or Prime minister with the consent of the elected members.
I think that’s a real strength as opposed to an elected President who has to be impeached.

Anyway, just looking that up passed my coffee break. Back to the garden!

hetty true, thinking about it I suspect the head of the civil service will have a lot of power. But I do think it needs sorting out in the constitution.

WW2 'My concern is however for this leaderless country.' I really wouldn't fret too much.

The prime minister doesn't actually make many decisions or lead, he's more of a spokesman for the government.

The Civil Service, being lined up for blame (along with NHS England) do much to run the country - whoever 'leads'.

wait it our

Oh dear. I knew he looked unwell and shouldn't have been left above 3 days with a temperature.

What should they / he have done?
There is no moderate treatment for CV. Its either weight it out, or hospital monitoring for mechanical intervention if youre sick enough.

If youre not that sick yet theres no treatment.

Theres no treatment anyway ITU supports failing organs it doesnt "cure" CV

There arent even drug trials yet unless you are in the "hospital sick" category

China, like ALL the vast nations, will have wave after wave as different regions peak at different times.

Sounds very much to me like they are gearing up to blame the next wave on foreigners, ditto australia, and saying THEY sorted it but OUTSIDERS brought it back, when actually they are due new waves regardless becausd their regions are like different european countries!

Thanks all for getting back. It is a jolt when you read such dreadful forecasts.

I look forward to something more optimistic.

They DO do what they are told in China. However, my friends in Shanghai are out of lockdown. The school I used to work at reopens April 20th. The family of one friend are all living in Wuhan. THEY are also just coming out of lockdown.

So whatever they did, regardless of the conspiracy theories that abound, clearly DID work. I don't take that from the news, which to be honest, I don't watch anymore. Too scary. I'm getting first person reports from friends both Chinese and Western. I have two western friends in China who are heavily pregnant. They're having their babies there soon. THEY are also no longer too worried. No plans to come to the UK anytime soon though. They see that as very risky.

I'm also getting reports from Spain, Italy and Switzerland. It helps to have international contacts. You don't have to rely on media propaganda. Italy sounded the most frightening place to be. The teacher I spoke to in Italy, was frankly, terrified.

craftyone ironically it is a by-product of the petrochemical industry, our primary source is through an import company in the U.K.

I have never been involved in NHS procurement, only industrial/asbestos, not sure if the standards are comparable.

The companies we supply are still working as you cannot just stop fire protection/cladding/asbestos removal. Our supply chains are drying up , the prices have increased in some cases by up to a 1,000%. There will be companies with vastly increased profit margins at the end of this pandemic. (^unfortunately ours will not be one of them^)

Yes, thank you Callistemon.

I think I was trying to give some reassurance to the poster who was anxious?

Without minimising what we all should be doing, but do t seem to be able to!!

In China you do what you are told!
No discussion. No tweaking. Constant surveillance.

I have spent some time there.

Eglantine the Worldometer information gives the number of cases per head of population too.
I can't remember which poster linked it, I can't on this device, sorry.

We can only theorise, craftyone

Whitewave I don't think the kind of scaremongering they are doing is very useful at the moment.
I don't know if my post above would be of any interest to you.

However, better to be prepared and act accordingly.

We heard reports that France was introducing stringent regulations ; some on here compared us to France and found the UK lacking and were fearful for us. I was castigated on here when I told the story of the reporter I had seen live on TV from a small rural French town with people milling around in a market behind him, head to head chatting and a woman stall holder, then coughing near her produce.

Young French people living overseas relate quite different stories from their relatives back in France - people were out and about ignoring the rules and they are fearful for their older relatives back home in France.
The rapidly rising numbers of deaths would bear that out.
It is just that our peak may come later than theirs.

Whatever happens, it is a catastrophe.

if china had been open and truthful, then models would have been much more accurate. At the moment the timeline is far too short to have a great degree of accuracy. That country has a lot to answer for and while I am at it. Can anyone explain why the virus was so confined to a relatively small area in china, leaving billions of people in china unaffected whilst the whole world suffers the consequences of what started in china and became a rapid spread. Something very odd

As someone with asthma (not badly, just the occasional wheeze with a cold etc) I'm pretty much resigned to being locked in for at least 3 months, if not longer. I'm a similar age (and shape!) to Boris and have no illusions about the effect C19 would have on me. I had flu a couple of years ago and was pretty out of it. I had to go to hospital once, to be put on a nebulizer. Fortunately, that was in Spain and I was seen, tested and treated and home within 2 hours.

In my (unpopular) opinion, the UK isn't being anywhere near strict enough and as a result, we're massively prolonging the lock-down AND hugely increasing deaths. Not to mention, as SCJ has said, the country wasted the long stretch of preparation time they had, also worsening the effect when it hit us.

I don't think I'm OCD. I take all the precautions I can and then I do my best to forget about C19 and just get on with living. As has been said on social media repeatedly, I'm not being called to fight a war. I'm sitting on my sofa.