We recently returned from a Warners weekend in Berkshire. Quite a few inmates were seen not using the hand sanitisers then handling the utensils in the self service restaurants. Is this a ploy to cull some of us oldies? Surely all hotels must be aware of the obvious potential for this practice to spread the virus.
I wasn’t sure about Trump but now I know he is an idiot. The Who are the greatest band in the world and if my 20th concert is postponed due to the virus I will be proper annoyed. I am wondering if I will get to Florida in 2weeks time as the USA may also ban flights from the UK. Meanwhile comply with my avatar - play loud.
You are obviously from my generation, I can't explain but you seem a happy jack. We should join together to make sure the kids are alright. My wife said at 5.15 I can see the magic bus for miles from my squeeze box.
With Italy in lockdown, France banning large gatherings, I do wonder if these are the only type of things that countries should be doing. On my trips up or down the A20 I see lorries heading to and from the Channel ports. These lorries are from all across Europe, and who is to say that none of the drivers has the virus that through contact with others he could spread. If the lorries are tested to say that they are safe, shouldn't the drivers be tested as well before being let out. Their job is one of the low paid types, that means if they do not work they don't get paid, a reason for them to try and keep going even if they don't feel too well.
Many lorry drivers have been forced into self employment Frenchie - and the golden rule of being self employed or freelance is that you work through illness.
That is exactly my point cologne. On the ferries they gather together for their meals and are in close contact with each other. Once they land goodness only knows where they will be going next. Probably to a service station where they stop and meet up with more drivers.
One moment SH. All countries within the Schengen area have the right to control their borders in an emergency situation. This is exactly what Italy has done, and it is perfectly within the scope of Schengen. This has very little to do with Schengen - if Germany wanted to close all its borders then it could do so within the Schengen agreement for the duration of this crisis. Both Poland and the Czech Republic are controlling traffic coming from Germany.
That is not true SH. Any driver could be asked to take a test and issued with a certificate to say that he was in the all clear. Failure to have one could result in him being taken off the road. There are plenty of roadside checks currently to see if you have the right papers, Insurance, Driving Licence, MOT etc, so to ask for an additional piece of paper would be quite easy. It would also be good for the UK to know that lorries coming into the country were cleared to do so.
Amid fears that the coronavirus is already spreading in the Formula One paddock at the Australian Grand Prix, the world champion Lewis Hamilton has admitted he is “shocked” the race is going ahead. Up to eight team members have now been tested for the coronavirus and placed into self-isolation as further doubt is cast over the running of the race on Sunday. Hamilton delivered a withering assessment of why he believed the meeting was taking place, commenting that “cash is king”.
Apparently the Ajax v Twente game is going ahead as normal on Sunday, despite the fact that the Netherlands has a known infection rate of 29.5 infected for every one million population - this being 6 more than Germany at 23.5. We really need a European directive on this - at the moment every country is making their own rules.
There is no need to cross themes here SH. We are talking about an epidemic and nothing but that - nobody has mentioned terrorists or criminals and we should keep the debate on track. You are possibly right that in practice there are not enough checks going on but this has nothing to do with Schengen but rather with individual countries not reacting quickly enough. You also cannot forget that sitting behind water and having only cod and haddock for neighbours gives you a certain advantage - Germany has 9 land borders which is a totally different case. Unless you are talking about the Iron Curtain, or the former conditions at the GDR border, Europe's borders have always been porous with, or without, Schengen. What should have been done is that virus hotspots should have been cordoned off immediately. The municipality of Heinstein produced the first cases in Germany - so it should have been sealed off immediately and, to soften the blow, an unconditional basic income brought in for every citizen there for the duration. South Korea immediately sealed off areas and it has had the desired effect. What the Italians have done is the right step but too late and they have done it, primarily, to stop people fleeing south. The keys to beating this were rapid quarantine conditions for whole areas and rapid testing to decrease the time between contracting the disease and it being finally diagnozed. The problem is that so many people are waiting to see how the situation develops - which is the very thing you cannot do in an epidemic. So, people are saying that if things get as bad as in Italy then we will have to take the same steps as they are doing - but it would be far more effective to do it now.
I guess that seeing that Hertfordshire is the largest hotspot for the virus in England, it should be sealed off from the rest of the country immediately.
