Coronavirus

[maxjam]

4 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Surely a drop in cases allied with a supposed increase in testing should be an extremely positive sign?

I know they have to be careful but surely now is the time to start giving individuals and businesses a glimmer of hope?

Just as a complete aside but one of the companies I work with today received there grants from their local council.

Fair play to the Government, they have managed to turn that round in 14 days of the business closing.

Not quite sure where they keep getting these studies from tbh - we've gone from a projected 250k deaths to 20k deaths, from not enough beds to plenty of beds.  

This new study puts us back at 65k+ deaths and woefully short on beds/ICU (100k+).  Fortunately there will probably be another along tomorrow saying something completely different.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/uk-will-be-europes-worst-hit-by-coronavirus-study-predicts

[G STAR RAM]

8 hours ago, Pastinaak said:

Which council is that?

Cornwall 

[Angry Ram]

9 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

To prove your point, I calculated my expected electricity costs to go up by 30p a day based on my setup (high kWh usage but very low rates). Living 8 miles away it normally costs just under £1.50 a day in fuel to get to and from work. A tidy little £1.20 a day (or £6 a week) better off

You can also claim for home working with HMRC. 

[Sith Happens]

10 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

To be honest though, if you're able to work from home (you could almost say, consider yourself lucky) many workers actual costs will go down if they don't need to commute. Yes, you might use a bit more electricity to power your laptop but this would hardly be measurable and heating and lighting costs shouldn't really be that significant now. 

So, whilst some may genuinely have increased costs I would say to the others, think very carefully if it's morally the right thing to do to claim this sum. 

My son and daughter in law are having to work from home and I would be very disappointed in them if they claimed allowance this given they now don't need to drive to the station and catch the train into Birmingham every day. 

Must admit I didn't know this, but I get what you mean, the extra i pay on electric etc i save more than in fuel and more important I guess the value of my time.

I guess it depends where you draw the line on morals.

My example would be if i claim it, do i need to? probably not and to be honest dont know if i could be bothered. But someone i know who is self employed, when his work stopped and it looked like there was no money from the govt he made an application to be a delivery driver, however as soon as the govt announced the 80% of profits his view was 'nah bin that off i'll take the govt money'.

So if i do claim, morally for £6 a week compared with the sum the govt will pay out to my friend.....

Now, i guess of course there is the argument that staying at home is safer and of course it is but i know this wasnt the driving decision behind the decision to take the govt money.....

Not saying you are wrong btw, just giving an example, and im sure there are many more like this, so i guess im not going to think too bad if someone claims £24 a month when others who could perhaps find an alternative are claiming thousands.

I am also not saying this is the typical approach by s/e people but i am sure he is not the only person with the same approach to this. He may well be right btw, his view that millions of others are getting paid to stay at home why shouldnt he....

 

[Tamworthram]

58 minutes ago, Angry Ram said:

You can also claim for home working with HMRC. 

Same applies though. Whilst you may be able to claim, should you if your costs have not gone up and, for many, may actually have gone down?

Not only are we talking about the financial impact on the treasury (OK, only a tiny amount compared to everything else that is going on) but also the administrative cost. 
 

In my mind, unless you’re actually doing something extra (for example, I believe that if you’re  furloughed you can work for someone other than your normal employer provided it’s not during your normal working hours) no one should be looking to financially benefit from this crisis.

If you normally work 9-5 Monday to Friday but, because you’ve been furloughed you’ve decided to get a weekend or evening job at Tesco’s then, good for you, you deserve the extra income. Similarly, if you’re having to work from home but decide you could do with some extra cash and also pick up some hours at the supermarket again, that’s good. 

[angieram]

Our solar panels and the lovely weather should hopefully combine to mean no extra electricity costs during working hours.

[Angry Ram]

36 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

Same applies though. Whilst you may be able to claim, should you if your costs have not gone up and, for many, may actually have gone down?

Not only are we talking about the financial impact on the treasury (OK, only a tiny amount compared to everything else that is going on) but also the administrative cost. 
 

In my mind, unless you’re actually doing something extra (for example, I believe that if you’re  furloughed you can work for someone other than your normal employer provided it’s not during your normal working hours) no one should be looking to financially benefit from this crisis.

If you normally work 9-5 Monday to Friday but, because you’ve been furloughed you’ve decided to get a weekend or evening job at Tesco’s then, good for you, you deserve the extra income. Similarly, if you’re having to work from home but decide you could do with some extra cash and also pick up some hours at the supermarket again, that’s good. 

Agreed, individual judgement call. 

I'm furloughed as from Sunday, only wish I was getting 80% of my salary. It's a lot, lot less than that. 

[Red_Dawn]

14 minutes ago, Angry Ram said:

Agreed, individual judgement call. 

I'm furloughed as from Sunday, only wish I was getting 80% of my salary. It's a lot, lot less than that. 

Where do you work?

[Wolfie]

The decision on Furloughing our staff will be taken tomorrow.

It probably won't include me but the company is going to top-up to 100%, so I sort of wish it did. At least then I wouldn't feel guilty about knocking off at 4.30 to have a game of Mario Kart with Miss Wolfie before I start making the dinner.

[jono]

10 hours ago, 86 Schmokes & a Pancake said:

So you're basically saying Peston and Kuenssberg are a pair of useless, gobshite Bamfords?

Not at all, I am saying that the public would rather know how the national leader is doing in terms of health and ability, rather than their (the journos) musings and speculations on the thought processes of those further down the chain of command. The musings seem to only want to discover if there is a war within govt and pounce on it. As news journalists I just want them to provide information. 

[uttoxram75]

Jet2 holidays have announced that they start flying again on 17th June.

A friend who works for Haven Holidays has been told to report back to work for the half term week at the end of May.

How do these businesses know the lockdown will be lifted by then?

[FindernRam]

4 minutes ago, jono said:

Not at all, I am saying that the public would rather know how the national leader is doing in terms of health and ability, rather than their (the journos) musings and speculations on the thought processes of those further down the chain of command. The musings seem to only want to discover if there is a war within govt and pounce on it. As news journalists I just want them to provide information. 

Kuenssberg and Peston seem to vie to ask the most contentious questions, they are both incredibly tedious, and why are they always asked first. Sky seem to approach it more based on facts rather than speculation.

If you like irony: Watch the brief, then rather than the questions, switch over to BBC 2 and watch Pointless. You may learn something useful.

[Wolfie]

7 minutes ago, FindernRam said:

Kuenssberg and Peston seem to vie to ask the most contentious questions, they are both incredibly tedious, and why are they always asked first. Sky seem to approach it more based on facts rather than speculation.

If you like irony: Watch the brief, then rather than the questions, switch over to BBC 2 and watch Pointless. You may learn something useful.

Quite right. Which is why I don't watch the briefing and just catch up with the headlines on the BBC News app.

Just get fed up of them all asking for dates & some certainty, when we all know that can't be done at the moment.

[Gritstone Ram]

17 minutes ago, uttoxram75 said:

Jet2 holidays have announced that they start flying again on 17th June.

A friend who works for Haven Holidays has been told to report back to work for the half term week at the end of May.

How do these businesses know the lockdown will be lifted by then?

I would assume the directors will be in very close communications with the government and the models are predicting this will have settled down by then. I know our CEO has a conference call with the government every Friday.

What isn’t predictable is other countries handling of It.

[Stagtime]

30 minutes ago, uttoxram75 said:

Jet2 holidays have announced that they start flying again on 17th June.

A friend who works for Haven Holidays has been told to report back to work for the half term week at the end of May.

How do these businesses know the lockdown will be lifted by then?

And we’ve been told at least 6 months more at stage 3, 12-18 months for international travel and organisers of the Aus Open in January planning for deferral. Maybe a bit of optimism and pessimism perhaps?

[Comrade 86]

37 minutes ago, jono said:

As news journalists I just want them to provide information. 

I was actually joking though it obviously wasn't terribly funny. The joke being that if as journalists, they don't fulfil the basic requirement of being informative, then they are effectively a total waste of feckin space. I'll take time out to type that next time rather than posting my usual half-arsed glib(ism) ?

[Wolfie]

10 hours ago, maxjam said:

Not quite sure where they keep getting these studies from tbh - we've gone from a projected 250k deaths to 20k deaths, from not enough beds to plenty of beds.  

This new study puts us back at 65k+ deaths and woefully short on beds/ICU (100k+).  Fortunately there will probably be another along tomorrow saying something completely different.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/uk-will-be-europes-worst-hit-by-coronavirus-study-predicts

Well unless there is a massive spike today, the current death numbers are well below what that graph says, so it hasn't aged very well already.

Let's hope it stays that way.

[Pearl Ram]

Why do a lot of the people being interviewed by Skype etc by news channels choose to sit in front of bookshelves ?

There’s a bit of bookshelf competition going on, are you more intellectual if you’ve got more books than somebody else ? ? 

Sometimes what I think as I sit here on random select troubles me. ?

 

[GboroRam]

8 minutes ago, Pearl Ram said:

Why do a lot of the people being interviewed by Skype etc by news channels choose to sit in front of bookshelves ?

There’s a bit of bookshelf competition going on, are you more intellectual if you’ve got more books than somebody else ? ? 

Sometimes what I think as I sit here on random select troubles me. ?

 

The same question was asked on HIGNFY (without the live audience it sounds awful - I'd even consider putting fake laughter in the show as it just feels flat without any reaction) - Paul Merton asked Ian if he'd finished colouring them all in.

[maxjam]

12 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

The same question was asked on HIGNFY (without the live audience it sounds awful - I'd even consider putting fake laughter in the show as it just feels flat without any reaction) - Paul Merton asked Ian if he'd finished colouring them all in.

Paul Merton showed himself to be a real champion of the common man by having an impressive collection of DVDs instead of books ?