With all this home working and if productivity has not declined will firms start to think this can be the norm? If a lot of us can work from home then there will be advantages and disadvantages. less commuting so less expense, time wasted, conjestion, co2 Saving in overheads by companies Lots of empty office blocks and town centres Less social interaction at work If we have a home office will the tax man think this is not part of home and consider it liable for Capital Gains Tax More productivity by many, opportunity of skivers to get away will not doing much Will need the internet to be able to cope with the increased traffic, also mobile phone networks (it's creaking currently) Just a few thoughts.
That's a bit of a Brave New World there, Scully. But we can't all work from home - No factories No farms No retail/wholesale outlets No hospitals/GP surgeries No garages/workshops No transport systems No electricity/gas companies No football!!! What would we all be doing?
It is still a minority of people who can work from home Scully. Referring to your first point about Co2 emissions - the consequences of this crisis are mostly good. The air is so silent now, with very few aeroplanes messing up the atmosphere - those countries which depend upon international tourism will have it hard, particularly the meditteranean, which normally trebles it's population in summer. The negative side is that car drivers are better protected from this virus than those of us who are forced to use public transport - which is bloody unfair ! If people do actually take holidays this year then they will look closer to home - and maybe they will discover things which they never knew existed. Tourism is one of the biggest polluters on this planet and if change is forced through a crisis like this then that is a positive development for the environment, though difficult for those who live from it. Maybe the nature of globalization will change - less international trade and international mobility and more international cooperation (once we stop blaming each other for all this). Maybe the so called God of the free market has started to slip from its pedestal - and countries will start to take more control over their own production processes. Some international relations have changed as a result of this though I don't know which ones as yet.
I agree but many desk bound jobs can be. Even in some of the industries above in the long term robotics can do many of these things and the robots can be controlled by someone at home on a computer.
Yes Cologne, will be interesting to see what actually does change. I think firms will realise that more people can work from home, if not all the time then say 4 days a week. My neighbour works from home and travels to his work every 3 weeks I think.
But if there's going to be change, it must surely be the people who drive it - not business leaders or politicians. Once they realised that even more jobs would be lost to robotics, I couldn't see the majority being too happy. How many millions would be milling around the country looking for non-existent work? How many millions would any government - let alone this current one - be willing to fund in what Priti Patel described as an 'economically inactive' lifestyle? And how many would be happy that the wealth gap would be even greater than it is now, with them on the wrong side of the divide and unable change that? Too many people out of work means too many people bored - and with boredom comes social unrest. Too many people out of work also means too many people without money - and with a lack of money comes greed & increasing crime. So I guess there will have to be some sort of change in the way society operates, but I just can't see that working from home would be the change that is needed. As an aside, it's odd that I left Education off my original list. I know that most teachers are delivering online lessons at the moment - my wife and daughter included - but it's certainly not the ideal way to have children taught.
Whenever there is a massive change in technology and everyone thinks jobs will be lost but lots of different jobs will be created instead, I recall seeing a TV programme stating that this is likely to be the case again. Too many folk in the world that's the trouble...
I think the reporter misquoted her - she did actually say no 'major' sporting events. For me, that implies that any football below Division 2 could be ok - there's usually plenty of space for social distancing on the terraces and in the stands.
Particularly in Scotland! Probably be more playing staff and match day staff than fans at some games..
The fans at my local Highland League club have been practising social distancing for the last decade.
The fans who go must be really hard core or just want to see some live football. Hope it's cheaper than the £18 it costs to see St Albans play !
£10 cheaper. To be honest, it's good value for money - maybe not as skillful - well, definitely not as skillful - but normally end-to-end for the whole match. It's quite amusing to stand and listen to the players hurl obscenities at each other all over the pitch as well.
When this is all over we need to look long and hard at what kind of relationship we want with China in the future. I have been reluctant to criticize them up till now because we need their help in terms of some research into this disease - some of the steps they have taken have been effective in helping to cope with a problem which they, essentially, unleashed on the World. If 'going back to normal' means going back to a stage where our firms outsource essential resources to China - and if China thinks they can simply go back to being export World champions after this, then we have to be clear, in no uncertain terms, that this is not the case. Apparently new research suggests that the intermediary in the spread of Covid 19 may have been the raccoon - an animal which China extensively farms for its fur. In fact they would farm more or less every animal on this planet if there was some profit in it. If human rights are problematic in China then animal rights are non existent. So do we want such close contact to a country which uses animals in the way China does, and where the hopping of diseases from one species to another can become commonplace ? How can we loosen this relationship without a major recession, and how can we 'deter' Western firms from relocating there ? Most Germans were horrified to find how much of their medicine was produced in China by German firms - they never realized it until now ! The other thing we need to look at are the positive aspects of this crisis for the environment - the skies are remarkably silent and maybe it would be a good idea to keep it that way after this crisis is over.
This reliance on China is shocking IMO.... coupled with thier atrocious human rights record.. If this terrible saga can just wake people up one little bit to another way of living will be a good thing.....
The French response to a request to financial aid from Air France, is that yes you can some, but it will be tied to improvements on your environmental measures.
