An interesting article from an Italian author

GracesGranMK3 I've just read the article you recommended in Esquire and, strangely, it has given me hope. Yes, some of it was hard reading but I am hopeful we will all take forward the sense of community that this crisis has given us. Also the changes in working patterns and the realisation that climate change is not inevitable if we all do our bit. Thank you for flagging the article up.

I love the Guardian on line (a Manchester newspaper back in the day). I also subscribe to the Telegraph (the Torygraph as some of you call it) on line at £180 p.a. - equivalent to a couple of coffees each week - as I like to read the same story from different perspectives. Plus I think they too have brilliant journalists. And horror of horrors, I read the Daily Mail (Heil) too!

MawB Pleased to hear it. I've been reading it for 50 years and still think it's the best paper around.

Maybe it's wishful thinking to hope that those people who always claim that public service workers aren't economically productive, will have a rethink.

I think I'm being a numptie here. What do you mean by the last two sentences Sussexborn? Millions of people in the UK are going to come out of this with huge amounts of personal debt, quite apart from the national debt.

Thinking about what could seem like trivia is also a way of keeping our minds occupied and trying to plan ahead including growing edible plants and flowers that lift the spirits.

An Italian recovering patient said that he is not going to let the 6000 eu he now owes worry him. At least that is one less worry for us.

Great article, thank you.
It has prompted me to sign up to The Guardian on line!

I agree with you about the levels of pollution, Dinahmo. The staggering thing is how quickly they are dropping. If this is a more long term event than most of us would like to contemplate why would people want to go back to all arriving at work at the same time or even working every day in "the office". Hopefully, this may be something we can learn from.

I also share your hopes for the NHS. One thing we are seeing is how health service around the world is structured. I think politicians will have to take into account that we have that knowledge and hopefully that will make them meet higher criteria.

I was surprised (but very pleased) to see that Basic Income came up the article.

“We are going to be spending half a year socialising people to the idea that, when there is a social necessity, it is not a moral hazard to pay people without expecting work in return,” says Nusbacher.

It will take some getting used to that's for sure but it is the means to remove some of the inequality of wealth. I'm trying to work out exactly what "Instead of their value to the economy being calculated by how much they produce, it would be based on their consumption – the way in which they spend the money given to them by the government." means though.

Very profound and moving. Thanks for sharing, Dinahmo.

GGMK3 I've just read your article and to me it seems realistic.

One benefit, for me at any rate as an asthmatic, is the reduction in pollution. I lived in London until the mid eighties and walked a lot of the time - quicker than waiting for a bus to the tube. The last time I was in London, about 3 years ago we got taxis everywhere because I found walking so difficult, apart from pollution from vehicles there was an enormous amount of dust around from the construction work going on.

Something that I hope will come out of it will be the security of the NHS. I doubt that after this any government will be able to try further privatisations and restrictions in funding.

Perhaps another result will be a re-thinking of benefits and a move towards a decent universal basic income.

When the virus first hit France I had two little trips planned, for the end of May and the end of June and I naively thought that the epidemic (as it then was) would be over and done with and our plans would be OK. Last week I cancelled the hotel for the June visit and am now thinking, maybe next year it will be OK. But that's probably wishful thinking.

I was reading an article today re the Imperial college study which seems to be finding that we are not actually on the same trajectory as Italy. Who knows though. Fingers crossed we aren't but...
My concern for the future is that large deprived areas such as townships in SA or slums in India will act as reservoirs for the virus for years and could lean to further mutations in the virus and drip feeding it into the global population as people move around more. Just my personal thoughts though.

Very good reading and something everyone can relate to. My son works for an Italian company - he said last night he has been on calls all week with his colleagues over there and it is so much worse than we hear on the news. Terrifying to think we could be on the same trajectory as them

Thank you Dinahmo; that was an interesting read from someone going ahead of us in all this.

There is truth in the last line "... when all of this is over, the world won’t be the same.", but I wonder how long the "not the same" will last. I imagine it will depend on how long this goes on giving the changes the chance to become the new normal.

"In less than a fortnight, Britain has experienced the kind of social and political upheaval that normally only comes when you guillotine some royals, or storm a winter palace. But is this a brief moment of national solidarity, or a 'new normal'?"

This is from an article in Esquire by Chris Stokel-Walker - not my normal reading but flagged up in an email from Apple.

It takes us through, month by month, what we various knowledgable people think we can expect. Just one warning - it goes to month 18. It would be interesting to know what anyone gets from it.

My feeling about this time is that it is no good the domineering trying to force opinions on anyone as no one knows what will happen so we might just get to the stage of real debate and conversation. That, to me, would be a real bonus.

I agree with grannypiper, a report like this every week will help us to see what will happen next. Now is such a time of uncertainty that we need to look to the short term future often and say, ok we have got through that now lets get through the next week. It helps people to know what is going to happen no matter how vague it might be.
Thank you for showing it.
Hands up for Gransnet.

I found it very moving.

I would enjoy reading a weekly update from Francesca Melandri.

An interesting article / thank you

I was just about to post that. Well written and so true. I’m finding I have to think of who is worse off than me in their isolation and that is so many people. I have no garden but my flat has big big windows to open. I haven’t seen my elder son since 2018 but others don’t ever see theirs.

I recognise a great deal of it. Those of us worrying about bedding plants really are in a different zone to many families.

Interesting article. I recognise everything in it.

Thanks for that, a very though-proving article. I do think when this is all over, the world will be a very different place, lets hope it's in a good way.