Corona Virus

[reynard]

It is becoming clear that we are heading towards a breakdown in trust between those on the front line and the Government's ability to manage the provision of PPE.

The health secretary needs to get a grip on this asap. Same with the needed increase in testing.

[Leeds Fox]

3 hours ago, st albans fox said:

Wouldn’t  it be captain sir Tom? ?????  Honest question ...

It’d be Capt Tom followed by the letters awarded by HRH. 

[yorkie1999]

How come the government are giving councils 1.6 billion quid, but no ones out and about, no ones working at the council offices and they’re still taking council tax. What do they need the money for

[BKLFox]

4 hours ago, st albans fox said:

Wouldn’t  it be captain sir Tom? ?????  Honest question ...

I suspect the Captain portion to his name is put on by the media as retired officers will only use their retired rank from Major upwards, Captain being 1 service rank below Major so it should be Sir Tom if knighted or Tom CBE/OBE/MBE

 

To edit:- The exception to the rule would be if said retired officer was working as a civilian within a forces enviroment they would sometimes be addressed by the retired rank.

Edited 18 April 2020 by BKLFox

[Guesty]

4 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

How come the government are giving councils 1.6 billion quid, but no ones out and about, no ones working at the council offices and they’re still taking council tax. What do they need the money for

Not looked into it, but off the top of my head:

Having to set up all their employees to work remotely from home. 

Having to deal with social care, child protection, care homes and schools etc. And put in plans to make it work during this crisis.

I think local councils also have something to do with businesses receiving government money and grants through some of these new schemes.

 

Plus they've underfunded some/all of them for years.

[Parafox]

4 hours ago, st albans fox said:

Wouldn’t  it be captain sir Tom? ?????  Honest question ...

Yes, Captain Sir Tom.  For him

[StanSP]

What's today's death toll and case numbers? 

[whoareyaaa]

https://www.bitchute.com/video/xkUG9CoSyAYf/  interesting watch

 

[oxford blue]

34 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

How come the government are giving councils 1.6 billion quid, but no ones out and about, no ones working at the council offices and they’re still taking council tax. What do they need the money for

 

14 minutes ago, Guesty said:

Not looked into it, but off the top of my head:

Having to set up all their employees to work remotely from home. 

Having to deal with social care, child protection, care homes and schools etc. And put in plans to make it work during this crisis.

I think local councils also have something to do with businesses receiving government money and grants through some of these new schemes.

 

Plus they've underfunded some/all of them for years.

As Guesty says

Council tax only makes up a proportion of funding for local government.

Local councils receive most (I am not sure if all, that was proposed by 2020) of business rates: there has been a business rates holiday for 2020/2021.

All homeless people and those in shred facilities in hostels have had to be housed in hotels or other accommodation

Home Improvement Agency grants doubled (in Oxford at least) enabling more people in hospital to move home with adaptation.

Grant of £10000 to businesses that receive small business rate relief. A similar grant to other small businesses not receiving this including , nurseries, leisure and hospitality. 

Some councils receive rental income through property they own; some will choose to reduce this to enable a business to survive.

 

And yes, central government funding for councils has considerably reduced (a main reason for cuts in social care) - although this is separate from funding local councils has budgeted for in 2020/21.

 

[Stivo]

52 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

How come the government are giving councils 1.6 billion quid, but no ones out and about, no ones working at the council offices and they’re still taking council tax. What do they need the money for

No revenue from leisure centres swimming pools etc. Loss of business rates from retail.

 

Also I think that a lot of elderly patients who were occupying hospital beds were discharged into care.

[Bayfox]

51 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

How come the government are giving councils 1.6 billion quid, but no ones out and about, no ones working at the council offices and they’re still taking council tax. What do they need the money for

I can assure you there's still plenty of work going on at council offices and many more working from home. 

 

Charnwood spent the 2 or 3 weeks before lockdown, making sure everyone who needed too had the ways and means to work from home. My wife is still working full time hours from home as are all her team.

 

Many people across the board also got moved depts to essential services to deal, with things such as waste and refuse, benefit claims, the small business Grants all had to be dealt with by someone. Those 1000s of applications didn't just sit in a pile. They dealt with 100s in the 1st few days.

 

As someone else has also pointed out, council tax is really only a small percentage of the income required to run a council, and basically the only service they offer that is chargeable is planning. Everything else, refuse, social welfare, all benefits, job centre, parks and local open spaces etc all cost huge sums. 

[String fellow]

Another horrendous figure of 888 deaths today, according to the BBC News website.  

[l444ry]

7 minutes ago, String fellow said:

Another horrendous figure of 888 deaths today, according to the BBC News website.  

In hospital only. Get the feeling that news management is in full swing in the UK. 

[urban.spaceman]

2 hours ago, PaddyS said:

Interesting from the World Economic Forum -

 

'Viet Nam shows how you can contain COVID-19 with limited resources'

 

"To date, Viet Nam has had no fatalities as a result of the pandemic."

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/vietnam-contain-covid-19-limited-resources/

They’re all trying to hack into my Gmail account. 4 times this week!

[Paninistickers]

1 hour ago, BKLFox said:

I suspect the Captain portion to his name is put on by the media as retired officers will only use their retired rank from Major upwards, Captain being 1 service rank below Major so it should be Sir Tom if knighted or Tom CBE/OBE/MBE

 

To edit:- The exception to the rule would be if said retired officer was working as a civilian within a forces enviroment they would sometimes be addressed by the retired rank.

Captain Mark Philips

[Milo]

1 hour ago, yorkie1999 said:

How come the government are giving councils 1.6 billion quid, but no ones out and about, no ones working at the council offices and they’re still taking council tax. What do they need the money for

Cos they can't generate millions in parking fines at the moment

[yorkie1999]

48 minutes ago, Bayfox said:

I can assure you there's still plenty of work going on at council offices and many more working from home. 

 

Charnwood spent the 2 or 3 weeks before lockdown, making sure everyone who needed too had the ways and means to work from home. My wife is still working full time hours from home as are all her team.

 

Many people across the board also got moved depts to essential services to deal, with things such as waste and refuse, benefit claims, the small business Grants all had to be dealt with by someone. Those 1000s of applications didn't just sit in a pile. They dealt with 100s in the 1st few days.

 

As someone else has also pointed out, council tax is really only a small percentage of the income required to run a council, and basically the only service they offer that is chargeable is planning. Everything else, refuse, social welfare, all benefits, job centre, parks and local open spaces etc all cost huge sums. 

Surely, all  those things get paid for under normal circumstances

[st albans fox]

32 minutes ago, l444ry said:

In hospital only. Get the feeling that news management is in full swing in the UK. 

If you look back at the table I posted a page or so back you’ll see that the actual daily deaths in hospitals across the U.K. are actually below 800 (I’ve estimated Scot ,Wales m, n ire won’t take the number above 800) but we are reporting a daily figure of reported deaths in the past 24 hours - they actually occurred over the past 3 weeks 

 

of course there is poor recording of care homes and community deaths on specific dates until the ONS can actually process the data.

[Bayfox]

Just now, yorkie1999 said:

Surely, all  those things get paid for under normal circumstances

Depends how you look at it. The fact they have allowed you to defer your Council tax will have an impact on the budget.

 

But the lack of income from council owned leisure centres will create another deficit. Things such as planning applications a source of income will also fall due to the lack of activity in the building sector. 1 house builder has laid of it's planning dept and said they won't be submitting any developments for at least 18 months just a week into lockdown.

 

So they will be managing holes at the moment. I guess they need plugging some how. 

 

I'm sure theres plenty of reasons. I doubt the government are just handing it out for no reason after years of cuts. It's about making sure needs are met, to create some sort of positive confidence that they are doing everything they can.

 

 

[Wymsey]

There's a mass shortage of nursing PPE at Leicester Royal Infirmary, currently, to the extent where even its on-site warehouse store are struggling to get sufficient amounts in..

 

My ward there has a 'corona query patient' - someone who is initially suspected of having it, but won't be confirmed whether they have it or not until test results are back (usually 2 days it takes to get them back from the labs) - plus also one with Crohn's Disease; the latter is in his eighties, but tested negative for the virus after being suspected of having it due to a chesty cough.

 

The nurses looking after these two patients (both are in siderooms, obviously) have been advised by the Matron to go in and out of their rooms as little as possible in order to prevent the ward's Stockholm to run out of PPE the nurses wear to treat them.

Edited 18 April 2020 by Wymsey

[BKLFox]

1 hour ago, Paninistickers said:

Captain Mark Philips

Well he’s just a tool 

[reynard]

1 hour ago, Bayfox said:

Depends how you look at it. The fact they have allowed you to defer your Council tax will have an impact on the budget.

 

But the lack of income from council owned leisure centres will create another deficit. Things such as planning applications a source of income will also fall due to the lack of activity in the building sector. 1 house builder has laid of it's planning dept and said they won't be submitting any developments for at least 18 months just a week into lockdown.

 

So they will be managing holes at the moment. I guess they need plugging some how. 

 

I'm sure theres plenty of reasons. I doubt the government are just handing it out for no reason after years of cuts. It's about making sure needs are met, to create some sort of positive confidence that they are doing everything they can.

 

 

The reduction in revenue from things like car parking charges will be significant too.

[Alf Bentley]

3 hours ago, BKLFox said:

I suspect the Captain portion to his name is put on by the media as retired officers will only use their retired rank from Major upwards, Captain being 1 service rank below Major so it should be Sir Tom if knighted or Tom CBE/OBE/MBE

 

To edit:- The exception to the rule would be if said retired officer was working as a civilian within a forces enviroment they would sometimes be addressed by the retired rank.

 

Perhaps they could promote him to Major Tom. Then he could imagine that David Bowie was singing about him.

[Lionator]

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0764_article

 

A really interesting, informative article from Chinese/American scientists who observed the spread of the disease through air conditioning systems.

 

This could explain why the North of Italy (cold) is more affected than the South (warm) as well as contributing to high rates in cities like NYC and London where there's increased public transport which uses air conditioning. 

[SemperEadem]

The Sunday Times really going in on Boris.