Every single death from this horrid disease is absolutely tragic. My heart goes out to all their families and friends. Very tragic as I say. Dependant upon what news channels you use, between 7 and 12 Covid related deaths in the last 24 hours in Scotland. During a similar period of time 8 deaths in East Anglia from individual RTA's (admittedly over 48 hours). This is during a period of a 90% reduction in road traffic. Absolutely not trying to undermine what we need to continue to do and stay at home and protect the NHS, but we have now seen 140,000 companies apply for 'furlough help'. There seems to be a common view that as many as 25% of employees affected will never be re employed. I really don't know the answer, but we need to take a balanced view and try and and think about how we can possibly return to a staged return to normality if at all possible. (Now need to sit back and compose myself before I dare hit the send button). Take care and stay safe everyone.
TBF 2018 averaged out at just over 5 road deaths per day across the entire GB. I don't know what the hell happened in East Anglia. There have been reports of people taking advantage of the quiet roads to push it to the limits. I know I saw one myself, absolutely nuts, Honda S2000 beyond the limits around a city centre roundabout with another fishtail as he proceeded onto a stupidly dangerous short stretch of road over a ancient, awkward, totally blind bridge on a bend where people cross from the park to get to Tesco. I've seen people driving far too fast quite a bit, but there was something deliberately excessive about it that made me think he'd not have tried that normally. There's a theory that says some people are addicted to risk, and I wonder if the current measures will have wound some people up in a way that makes this sort of thing more likely. You just want to squeeze the sense into the top of their head, but it'll take more subtlety in govt messaging and measures as well as much more enforcement to have a real impact, and then you've got to admit that you're fighting nature, young people's minds will always provoke them to seek risky excitement.
The economic fallout is an unknown. Whilst the capital continues to flow in the markets, I'm torn between wondering which planet they are on, and quietly noting that the theory is they've got outstanding access to information and the ability to form very safe analysis. Equity, commodity and currency prices seem stable, and - hopefully - this means that economic opportunities for individuals should be possible, through a mixture of re-openings and new businesses. But, yeah, I'm not convinced the bankers and other investors aren't motivated to keep things afloat and pass the liquidity between them whilst it's there. It's incredible that it still seems heresy to say that the markets are excessively focused on the short-term. If you can earn a bonus in six months or a year, or keep taking a margin, then you're going to. And then worry about the period after that as it arrives. Because who knows if the liquidity will be there then. So it still seems to me that it's not possible to say current market conditions actually do reflect a view of the future.
I know so many young families with adults who've now lost their jobs, or are furloughed. My impression has always been one of horror at the precarious finances, and therefore lives, of millions of UK families. I don't see them now so I've not kept my eye on how they manage, what sacrifices are made, what needs aren't. I'm pretty clear in my view that this class of people have been left behind and squeezed for decades. Whilst it's not as ridiculously insecure as the average american family's existence, we're at risk of seeing huge structural economic and social problems that have been largely been allowed to grow unchecked breaking wide open.
And then there's social care. We've let these problems fester. I wonder how much more strain the families can survive.
