I have tickets to see Ben Watt in London but I have to say the creeping paranoia of the week is getting to me. Going into London on the train then the tube then mixing with herds of people has, shall we say, limited appeal. Thoughts?
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Don’t blame you, the thought of being in a fairly confined space with lots of sweaty people would put me off too. And that’s without the public transport element. On the other hand…
On the basis that I need you fit and well for the following weekends musical combo I suggest self isolation! Seriously just go – we will all more than
likely get this virus at some stage. If it was a business meeting or something dull I’d avoid otherwise go and enjoy yourself.
Well I’ve been dragooned into taking my elderly parents out to buy a new vacuum cleaner and carry their grocery shopping, but hoping it means trudging around empty shops.
I haven’t let it stop me doing anything yet, and half planning to for a feed with the Mrs tomorrow evening, but wonder if I would be more cautious about sharing a crowded space with a lot of people.
It’s entirely possible that I’m being over-cautious as a result of being in lockdown, but I wouldn’t even consider getting on the tube right now, let alone going to a concert. Given the way things are here it’s extremely weird to think that people’s lives in UK are carrying on almost as normal.
Listen to The Gary! Anyone going out this weekend into a crowd is simply crazy but more importantly selfish.
I have gigs tonight and Monday*, then flights to and from Edinburgh next Tuesday and Friday. I’ll add in plenty of handwashing and other common sense measures too, but have no plans to stop behaving normally in the UK unless told otherwise.
*Ian McNabb in Chelmsford tonight and Steve Knightley in Colchester on Monday, given that I know people on this board would be curious regardless of the thread topic.
@gatz
Review of the McNabb gig please!
I’ll see what I can do, but I don’t know much about him to be honest. I’m going because events by anyone I have heard of are rare in Chelmsford. He’s playing solo but billing it as The Icicle Works tour, so I guess there will be plenty of old.
The venue is the smaller of the two Chelmsford council owned theatres next door to each other, 140 capacity and still some tickets available, and I have never heard of any music act playing that hall before.
He can veer dangerously into gurning classic rock territory but the Icicle Works stuff is good.
After a number of shoddy McNabb solo gigs I gave up on him. Late last year I was persuded to give him (another) one last chance and of course he was brilliant. Enjoy!
You were right to of course, he was great. After comments on this site, he was a much more affable and humble stage presence than I had expected (even if he did seem to think that we would be familiar enough with his catalogue to sing along). In wonderful voice too through a long set, over two and half hours including interval. A really good night.
You dont know the words to Perambulator!
I don’t have to make a decision yet but I’ve got tickets for a couple of small gigs soon. I’m a bit of a fatalist so I’d probably still go although my wife will give me a hard time, even more so if my son comes with me to one. Tickets already paid for but travel costs to be considered when my work diary is almost empty. What a difference to last year when I travelled to gigs and got a budget hotel for the night.
Actually, my wife wondered if we’d had it already as we were so ill over Christmas with strikingly similar symptoms. I spent quite a bit of time in a West End department store which is always full of foreign visitors in November and December and my colleague was also unwell over the same period.
Daylight Music at the Union Chapel, Saturday lunchtime as usual and then the Tomorrow’s Warriors Jazz Jam at Rich Mix in Shoreditch on Sunday afternoon. Both of these entail train travel but I have tissues and hand sanitizer and will be using them.
Sunday evening is jazz vocalist Lily Dior + band at the Chandos Arms in Colindale. I’ll be driving to and from that one.
Nothing after that this month except the following Saturday’s Daylight Music, if it doesn’t get cancelled.
Meanwhile, regular supermarket shopping trips are pretty much unavoidable unless I go into hoarding mode.
Until testing is available outside the rigid restrictions currently in force, yes, wise to assume it is out there in considerably larger than reported numbers. Being alright Jack is no reason to introduce it to all Your future contacts. I wouldn’t go. I would close down all gatherings too.
Impressed by the Bearded Theory festival who have made contingencies for possible mandated postponement by already making arrangements to put it on in September instead, if it becomes necessary
I after much thought I dropped out of a twenty year reunion “do” on Saturday night. There were a couple of people from vulnerable groups, or at one degree of separation from such a person, due to attend.
The event was organised by email so I broadcast my decision that way. In the next couple of hours there were another couple of drop outs and then the main man quite rightly decided to cancel.
Shortly after I sent out my own email I picked up on the article that @Gary linked to so I sent that round as well.
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
Many people don’t seem to have understood that these decisions are not about avoiding infection, they’re about slowing the rate of infection.
This Richard Osman Tweet also came to my attention:
“It feels like today* might be the last ‘normal’ day for a while. If you are anxious then don’t forget the risk is very, very small**, but being careful and sensible will help anyone in vulnerable categories.”
(* Yesterday.)
(** Perhaps one of both of those “verys” should have been omitted.)
My favourite tweet on the subject
I got a cold right at the end of November with lasted till early January, then another one mid Feb which still has me coughing and spluttering. More paranoia, but my rarely exercised common sense instinct says sit this one out.
Hmm, now you come to mention it, I had an absolutely brutal bout of flu in January with a dry cough that has only recently gone away. Prior to that I was going into London on the train several times a week. However, I was pretty sure I picked it up from an Italian friend of mine who’d recently returned from there. She’s fine now and so am I. So too is everyone in our circle. But still…
New local advice re flying off the Island along the lines of “is your journey really necessary?”…
…Was up at 04:50 a.m. in the morning today to go to airport for London flight, but then decided to bail-out.
Was due to take The Boy to Bryan Ferry tonight and Ben Watt tomorrow. Feel very annoyed that I am going to miss out, but (would like to) think I have made the right decision.
The Boy will still go.
Sorry we can’t have that beer tomorrow, Twang.
You’re missing a treat with BF…by all accounts, he’s on top form. I’m quite surprised he hasn’t succumbed yet – he’s usually very susceptible to colds and stuff.
Indeed.
The Boy said he was excellent…
I’ve had tickets in my hand (pinned to the notice board in my office, actually) to see Lau twice in the past. I’d love to see them play live, I really would.
Both times I’ve had to bail; once because I was ill with standard man lurgy, and once because well, basically I was too shagged out to make the effort on the day, after a bastard week at work.
I now have my third pair of Lau tickets – great seats at my bestest favourite venue – for their “unplugged” gig on June 3rd in that Bristol.
What odds do you think there are that it will all be blown over by then? Cos if it isn’t it’ll be three in a row and I’ll be sobbing.
Just to pile on the presh I’ve seen them 3 times and they’re brilliant. Just sayin’.
*snuff’n ruff’n*
/Mutley voice
Only three? *rolls eyes meaningfully*
That said, sadly, I can’t make any of the gigs on this tour.
I’m in the “reduced immunity” category and am being pragmatic about it. Last time I had a cold, I ended up with pnuemonia and two weeks of steroids to clear it.
I was due to do sound last night at a gig in a pub. Compere/house band frontman rang at 3pm to say he was stuck in Brum. One of the two support acts pulled out due to colds. So we called it off. I’m not rushing to buy tickets for anything else right now.
I’m at work in a large open-plan office, but Mrs F has been told to go into the office today just to collect her laptop and charger, and to work from home until further notice. My employer is heading that way, next Weds is decision day.
Yep Costello again tonight at the Hammy O, a Doctor Who event at the NFT tomorrow lunchtime and Costello up in Birmingham next week if it holds. Similarly Baddiel next Saturday in Reading, Until they cancel I’m still going – unless the lurgee strikes me
No Selfish Cunt tickets thou…although you may be thinking that
Madame Foxy sometimes works as a Primary school supply teacher.
Her gig this pm is at a plague school a few miles away from Foxy Acres – one kid plus parents already in self-quarantine on return from pasta-munching in the Alps.
I’m trying to figure out if I should insist that she sleeps in the shed for the next two weeks. She can’t use the garage because that’s where my workshop is.
I am a chronic bronchial asthmatic. Life threatened on a number of occasions.
I am currently at a Womad festival in New Zealand. Didn’t see one face mask on day one.
All gatherings of more than 500 people are not allowed here I think. Pretty much all tours are being suspended. Will not be seeing Wire tomorrow. Yesterday I finally cancelled next week’s planned trip to Florida (and got a full refund, even the flights) later the same day they announced all Disney parks are closing anyway.
My office is moving to working from home, better for my group to be there as we are using specialist equipment in a lab though. Can’t believe the Wales v Scotland rugby international seems to be going ahead as planned. Will likely be the only major sporting fixture with a crowd in the world this weekend. And all schools in Ontario closed for next 3 weeks (at least).
Only 3 cases confirmed in Ottawa, one is the Prime Minister’s wife! Methinks there are many many others.
English football all postponed this morning, it can only be a matter of time before rugby follows suit.
Some of the leagues had already been suspended, 2 of the 3 6 nations games are off but Wales v Scotland seems to be no problem at all. Crazy! Especially in Cardiff where the pubs will all be full as well. People from all over Wales and lots of Scots mingling together in one small city centre.
And they just called off Wales v Scotland. Too late for most of the Scottish fans who will either be there already or on their way.
I find it staggering that we are not taking this more seriously. I cannot believe that any healthcare professional would stand there and say there’s no need to cancel big sporting events because you’re only likely to infect the people around you. What if the people around you include someone like me and Junior Wells with bronchial asthma, or someone HIV positive, or an 86 year old, etc. Being totally suspicious of everything this current government does or says (cos they’ve lied about everything else) it makes me wonder if this decision came straight from number 10 and the cabinet, concerned about the value of their own companies, stocks and shares plummeting if we took measures like the ones Italy have taken.
I have just heard that football has been suspended until 3 April, but this doesn’t seem to have been a decision made to safeguard the vulnerable people in the crowd, it’s because footballers have tested positive. I had already decided I wouldn’t be attending any more games, as the threat is too great for me, with my asthma and many other medical issues. It’s not enough though. We have the chance to slow the spread right down by doing what Italy are doing, preventing the amount of cases/deaths that Italy has suffered, so why aren’t we doing it?
Exactly, and not just the 2 or 3 around you in the stadium, the same number (or more) in the packed trains to the stadium, in a pub beforehand, waiting to get in, queuing for drinks, toilets etc. in the stadium. Then same deal after the game. One infected person could be in close proximity to 50 or 100 other people over the whole day.
I’m currently waiting for a decision for what happens to football further down the pyramid. My team play in the National League South. You would have thought that with average crowds anywhere from 300-1000 or so we could be asked to postpone all games as well, but what if we aren’t? All those Chelsea, Fulham, Brentford and QPR fans will want to go somewhere, and the trickle down effect might be a problem.
Personally, (and rightfully) I think they’ll abandon all football for the foreseeable future…
My 14-y-o lad’s team have only played 3 or 4 matches since mid-November, what with waterlogged pitches and Christmas holidays. There was talk of the lineup not shaking hands, but they all did at the floodlit match on Wednesday.
The home and away supporters of most U14 league matches could comfortably stand 5m apart on the touchline.
U15 league now also suspended.
This preoccupation with not shaking hands is driving me crazy! Apparently, this virus can cling to surfaces, door handles, etc for more than 24 hours. So, yes, shaking hands is probably not a good idea, but so much emphasis is being placed on it people are going to think that avoiding handshakes alone will stop you catching the virus.
Watching the players not shake hands before the kick off on Saturday was funny, as they spent the next 90 minutes pushing and pulling each other all over pitch, spitting all over the place and then they shook hands at the end because they forgot!
I took my old mum to her 6-week post-back-surgery check up on Tuesday. Signs everywhere warning against shaking hands.
Upon entering the medical room, consultant shoves out hand. “I’m not supposed to shake that, it says so out there”. “Well…” he said “I haven’t got it, have you?”
So don’t take viral advice from a spinal surgeon.
As a student nurse we had infection control drummed into us and were forced to practice aseptic dressing techniques until we were experts. But when I did my cardiology block, in what became Liverpool’s main cardiology centre a few years later, the surgeon used to check the post-operative wounds by poking them with his…car keys! I kid you not.
Elbow bumps seemed to be the preferred greeting at Daylight Music this lunchtime. A rather sparse audience sitting apart mostly, in the sizeable venue. Used my bottle of hand sanitizer when I sat down and I didn’t touch anything thereafter until I left. Hand washing when I got home before coffee and food.
I was a bit nervous travelling there and back by tube. It’s easy enough to tube it around without your hands touching any surfaces at all – you just keep your hands in your pockets at all times except when using your Oyster/contactless card at the barriers- but sitting/standing in close proximity to others on platforms or trains is unavoidable. On the way home a guy a couple of seats along from me coughed and every head turned to see if he used a handkerchief (he did). Quite a few surgical masks and scarf-covered mouths and noses evident.
I think I’ll give tomorrow afternoon’s planned Shoreditch gig a miss now. Don’t fancy the tube+overground journey to get there and back.
I dont have any gigs this weekend but I have Costello on wednesday and hope it goes ahead. I had tickets for Sid Griffin and Peter Case in 2 weeks. Peter Case can no longer make it so have opted for a refund as less keen on Sid Griffin solo
I dont think isolation or stopping mass gathering is is going to stop it only slow it down. On the basis that a big percentage of the population are likely to get it I would have thought there ws an argument for speeding up the contagion not slowing it down. There doesnt seem any chance of a vaccine any time soon. I am not blase but not really perturbed about the prospect of getting it. I have never had flu so to be honest that view is probably borne out of ignorance of what it is like
I am much more concerned about the economy, jobs and my 89 year old mum. I really hope it plateaus soon because the societal damage to the country is going to be immense
There is an argument for speeding up the spread but only in the young and healthy who will get a mild illness. Keep them in the schools and universities, infect them all, then isolate them from grandma until they are better. It’s not practical, is it? Or, is it? It also assumes the young and healthy will then be immune, which may not be 100% true.
I’d have gone to see Agnes Obel if she hadn’t cancelled and the guidance hadn’t changed by then. But, then, I’m young and healthy (inside my head). 😀
Googling “coronavirus herd immunity” the results certainly don’t quel any fears I have. And reading reports by coronavirus survivors certainly doesn’t provoke mere acceptance of its inevitability. Quite the opposite. Social distancing, as much as possible, seems the most sensible policy.
The point of banning gatherings, now due for a weeks time, is as much to take pressure of emergency services, who are required at big events. Seems wise to me. As for contracting it, the problem arises as Costello bellows his aerosol droplets into the crowd, who then bellow theirs back in adulation. Coming home safe, and you decide to pop in on old mum, ahead of any symptoms arising, not knowing you are already incubating her fate. Sorry to be bleak but this is going to be as much containing the masses as containing the virus.
Infecting the young and healthy in an organised manner means you know exactly when that incubation period is.
However, we don’t live in a totalitarian state. Yet.
That would require the testing of non-symptomatic young people and subsequent monitoring of carriers. Is that part of UK’s plan?
This is good, while emphasising the there are no end on unknowns https://twitter.com/iandonald_psych/status/1238518371651649538?s=21
I’m only fantasising Gary. It won’t happen.
Our government might be being quite clever. Mass events are closing down anyway without them having to make an edict. When they announce a ban next week, there will be barely a ripple of disquiet. They have focussed very clearly on three messages to everyone: wash hands, isolate if unwell and look out for the elderly.
We will only know which government has done the right thing in a couple of years time.
I get that quite a lot – people fantasising me. Even more so now so many are self-isolating.
As a long distance follower of the current leaders of the National League South, I would be mightily peeved if the season is declared null and void and the mighty Stones are denied promotion, but I guess better safe than sorry. I fear some non league clubs will look at this as nothing more than “an opportunity” to boost their attendances by a few hundred with fans who would otherwise be at a loose end on a Saturday. Best for the non-leagues to follow the lead of the big boys and call everything off till further notice.
Wealdstone follower eh Slug? If the season is declared null and void it would indeed be very unfair on your lot and I say that as a Hampton fan. We’re still due at your place aren’t we, if we’re allowed to somehow continue the season at some point. You’ve looked a bit more fallible lately though and we’re a much better side than when we scraped a win at home earlier in the season…
I still think going ahead with the games this weekend is a really odd move though.
Didn’t Tesco build a store on their ground?
They tried to buy Hitchin Town FC ground to build a Tesco on too. Mass protest and defence of the club drove them off.
I too was hanging on for a National League South fixture, at Truro City, but they’ve all gone now.
Not my biggest concern, but nevertheless a very real concern, is having to associate with people on a Saturday afternoon who don’t go to football on a Saturday afternoon.
It last happened to me in about 2009, following a postponement at Ilford, and I promised myself it would never happen again.
So, self isolation this afternoon, definitely … hmmm, a James bond adaption on Radio 4, nice.
I went to my first (nearly) proper footy match for 30 years the other day. My lad’s team were playing a charity friendly at a local league ground – full-size pitch, floodlights, stadium, tiered seating, bar, hot pies, the works.
I arrived slightly late (at kick-off) and had to perch on the end of a row amongst a couple of hundred home fans. They were, to put it mildly, of the lower orders. Overweight, tats, smoking, swilling pints of lager, swearing, feral kids running amok. It made me think “this is why I don’t go to matches”. So you can add ‘snob’ to my ‘dull’.
At half time I found the rest of the away team’s parents and sat up in the gods. It was great. Even though the visitors lost 0-1.
Yep, seating areas are to be avoided at all times.
Especially Wembley and, I suspect, Twickenham.
Elementary mistake.
I’ve only been to one game in an all-seater stadium in the last five years, Leyton Orient v. Northampton Town in January. Stood up at the back.
When in London I had three criteria for deciding where to go on a Saturday afternoon:
(1) Is it in the shade?, (2) Is it an all-seater stadium?, and, (3) Are they going to play “london calling” by the no-hits clash over the tannoy?
Yes, no and no, and we’re in business.
The merits, or otherwise, of the game in question was completely arbitrary.
Yup. The club was ripped off big time by the chairman who sold the land to Tesco. They ended up with about £15 and some parking vouchers from the deal.
It’s because they believe people can only stand being locked down for a finite period and it’d going to get a lot worse, so if people think “bollocks to this” and go out anyway, right in the peak, it’ll be far worse. Good column in the New Statesman about it a few days ago.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/03/why-aren-t-we-lockdown-coronavirus-yet
I think it will just become the new norm, at least well into the summer maybe for much longer, and if everything is cancelled where can they go anyway?
It depends on the circumstances for me. Providing I can get food to me somehow I’d be happy to be locked down indefinitely. However, as the lockdown includes the wife and kids, after a few days I might have to resort to feigning the symptoms and locking myself in the spare room with my iPods and some books!
Trump approves of the UK approach. Says it all. Don’t do what is proven to work in other countries. Locking down as early as possible. An actual policy of letting it spread instead, while at the same time saying certain things should be cancelled or closed. A mixed, muddled message. A recipe for disaster. People like my elderly mother actually said to me, the PM hasn’t told me to stay at home so I’m getting the train to see my daughter and my grandchildren. I told her not to go. She compromised and booked a taxi both ways instead. She’s 83 with underlying health issues.
@Diddley_Farquar well it hasn’t worked in Italy. 3 days of the highest reported death numbers (even higher than China) and even after lockdown.
The truth us no one really knows. You can sneer at Boris Johnson and I usually do but who knows whether his stance is correct t or not?
The death numbers here are still very low in comparison
Most Italians (including politicians and medical experts) regret national lockdown not being imposed sooner. They feel they would have fewer problems now.
Different countries, with different cultures, will see differences in the way the virus spreads.
The number of fatalities, while a profound tragedy, is not the only issue. The number of seriously ill who need hospital treatment is far greater and in many areas means that hospitals can’t cope with the amount of patients, let alone with the other health problems -illnesses and accidents- they usually deal with.
Are you still able to work Gary? What are the Italian government doing to help those who can’t?
Work? Me? How very dare you!
(Actually I’ve been doing my part.time so-called job online from home for a couple of years now, due to other health issues.)
State employees like me won’t have any problems, but I do worry about private sector employees, especially self-employed. My barber, for example, is understandably desperate for all this to end. I’ve heard some talk about financial relief (a temporary freeze on taxes, mortgage payments etc) but I don’t know details. The vast majority of people are not going into work, the vast majority of shops, offices and services being closed. I think the economic hit to an already weak Italy will be awful – catastrophic for many.
Early lockdown has worked. It is tried and tested. Delaying restrictions leads to catastrophe. The thinking is based on avoiding a huge peak that swamps hospitals and leaves staff with the awful choice of who should get a ventilator and who shouldn’t, thereby leading to a higher mortality rate because they lack resources to save those who otherwise could be saved. It would be like the frontline in a war. No doubt the UK has a cunning plan for that eventuality, not sure what it is exactly. The UK is the only country following a different, untested approach. Now I read that there is a divide following leave/remain lines between those who support the government’s approach and those who believe the WHO recommended approach should be followed. How utterly dispiriting and tiresome.
This week I’ve flown to Glasgow and back, and been to a charity pub quiz and a black tie dinner, and next week I’m off to Liverpool for a conference, if they don’t cancel over the weekend. Lots of planes, trains and tubes involved. In each case I made a commitment to be there and felt it was the organiser’s call to cancel.
On the other hand, I’m not planning to attend any big social events for the foreseeable. Being reasonably young and fit (relatively – these are not words I often use about myself), it’s not the getting it that’s the issue, it’s the passing it on to someone who can’t cope as well.
That’s the thing. People just think me me me where in fact they can pass it on to dozens of people before realising they’re infected. There was a good column in The Times entitles “We’re too selfish to deal with this properly”… I’m avoiding seeing my Mum who is 85 with respiratory problems.
“We’re too selfish to deal with this properly” pretty much sums up all political thought in this country, it seems to me.
The conference is cancelled, so that’s all my external work commitments out of the diary. Just us and the sofa from here to… whenever.
I’ve got shows on in fringe festivals from May to August… not looking too bright tbh.
Concert/ceilidh this weekend cancelled.
Quiz with son on Sunday
In my part time job as a celebrant registrar I’m still doing weddings but not sure what the next few months will bring.
I too have tickets to see Elvis Costello at the Hammersmith Odeon tonight, though my wife has indicated that she will not, after all, be joining me. That already puts me £100 out of pocket, so I’m buggered if I’m going to double that by not going myself.
But I don’t have anything else planned until the end of April by which time……who knows?
100 quid for Elvis Costello? Blimey.
That’s the very reason I didn’t buy a ticket so I went through the dilemma of whether to go or not some time ago. This time round my decision didn’t cost me anything but I fear that won’t be the case for any gigs in the coming weeks and months so I’m not going to be smug about it, just relieved.
Blimey indeed. In years gone by I would have thought about going to a few gigs on his tour, but the ticket prices put paid to that, so I’m just doing the one show. And two tickets came to £206! Now my wife isn’t going, and no-one seems to want to take her place, that’s turning out to be £206 for just me, so no wonder I am determined to make the most of it….
Well, I’m running a four-band charity show at a Belfast bar venue tonight and it will go ahead. If it had been next Friday, I think we may have cancelled. I’m not down-playing the virus – there are a number of variables in play. At present, the advice in NI is business as usual; the advice in the Republic of Ireland is ‘find a bunker and don’t leave it’.
Good job there is that large stretch of water and heavily manned border between the ROI and NI …
Agnes Obel tour off now until September.
I’m really struggling with some people’s attitude on this thread and I speak as someone until a few days ago would have joined in with “no big deal, wait till the government tells me what to do” etc. If we had followed that advice me and Mrs W would be in Madrid right now where the government is announcing a national state of emergency and there is every chance the nation’s capital will soon go into lockdown.
FFS – don’t go anywhere where there are crowds! It’s like drunk driving – if you kill yourself that’s one thing but if you take some other innocents with you then..
But don’t listen to me, listen to a bloody football manager
“I don’t think this is a moment where the thoughts of a football manager should be important, but I understand for our supporters they will want to hear from the team and I will front that.
First and foremost, all of us have to do whatever we can to protect one another. In society I mean. This should be the case all the time in life, but in this moment I think it matters more than ever.
“I’ve said before that football always seems the most important of the least important things. Today, football and football matches really aren’t important at all.
Of course, we don’t want to play in front of an empty stadium and we don’t want games or competitions suspended, but if doing so helps one individual stay healthy – just one – we do it no questions asked.
If it’s a choice between football and the good of the wider society, it’s no contest. Really, it isn’t.
Today’s decision and announcement is being implemented with the motive of keeping people safe. Because of that we support it completely. We have seen members of teams we compete against become ill. This virus has shown that being involved in football offers no immunity. To our rival clubs and individuals who are affected and to those who later will become so, you are in our thoughts and prayers.
None of us know in this moment what the final outcome will be, but as a team we have to have belief that the authorities make decisions based on sound judgement and morality.
Yes, I am the manager of this team and club and therefore carry a leadership responsibility with regards to our future on the pitch. But I think in the present moment, with so many people around our city, the region, the country and the world facing anxiety and uncertainty, it would be entirely wrong to speak about anything other than advising people to follow expert advice and look after themselves and each other.
The message from the team to our supporters is only about your well-being. Put your health first. Don’t take any risk. Think about the vulnerable in our society and act where possible with compassion for them.
Please look after yourselves and look out for each other.
You’ll Never Walk Alone,
Jürgen
Good words. I do love how many people are carrying on as normal because the government haven’t said otherwise. Who knew we were so compliant.
Not so much “compliant” as naively trusting of authority. I’m still getting from some of my family and friends in UK, even if they hate Boris, a sort of “if it really was dangerous, to me or people I’ll be in contact with, it’d be banned” mentality.
Shame the virus can’t apparently differentiate between the moral, sensible & thoughtful and the ignorant, dumb & selfish. Might raise the average IQ a few notches in passing if it could, and we’d all be better off afterwards.
Hmmmm.
*starts researching viral RNA editing techniques*
I don’t think people are carrying on as normal on the assumption they will be alright, it’s on the assumption that it’s coming down and it’s coming down hard and no amount of distancing is going to stop it. Fatalism as @davebigpicture puts it above. Would banning gatherings make any difference either to the level of infection or the rate of spread? Almost certainly not seems to be the message, even if it might make some people think that something is ‘being done’. There is almost nothing we can do about this.
Edit – Jon Ronson posts this on his Twitter earlier, and it might go some way to explaining the polarised responses: These reports about a rise in anxiety: I wonder if some other fellow long-term sufferers also feel weirdly calm. My theory is that we rehearse catastrophic what-if situations in our heads so often when a real crisis happens we’re quite good at it.
WHO (not Pete and Roger) statement:
“Not testing alone.
Not contact tracing alone.
Not quarantining alone.
Not social distancing alone.
You must do it all.”
Saying nothing can be done is completely wrong. 30-70% may get it, but spread it out as much as possible.
And in Wuhan only 0.6% of the population have had it (according to official figures)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/12/us-cities-wuhan-coronavirus-covid-19
Klopp for PM, please.
Thanks for posting that Lodestone. Powerful and articulate.
It’s the kind of statement I would like to hear from Downing Street or the White House.
Fat chance of that!
By the way you’ve probably noticed I’m not going to the gig!
Given Ben’s history, I’m surprised he hasn’t canned it already. Perhaps Trace has told him they need the moolah for school fees?
I am not so mean as to ask how you would feel if you sold the ticket to someone who then caught it, so I won’t but……
It’s ok, I know you’d be mortified and it ain’t a dig other than against all the blind hope keeping us going. I feel sorry for the performers, the staff at the venues and all those expected to swallow all personal doubts in the hope of eventual herd immunity. What is the collective noun for lemmings?
WorkingclassTories.
I’m not going because I’ve still got this bloody cough though I’ve had no other CV symptoms. Even so it seems daft in the circs.
I agree with an awful lot of what he says. He hits a lot of nails firmly on the head.
The only point that I seriously disagree with is his reference to people working from home “wanking to Mumford and Sons”.
Excellent thread, Twang.
Interesting to see the variety of different viewpoints.
I find myself agreeing with yourself, Gary, and Lodestone. And Jurgen Kropp!
As an asthma sufferer, I am thinking carefully about my actions.
The Swedish nanny state and the Guardian have got a few messages across.
Wash your hands with soap a lot.
Stockpile bogroll.
Don’t’ make unnecessary trips on the Metro.
Avoid any events with a large number of people-
Avoid handshaking, hugs and French kissing with strangers.
The nanny state has made things easier by banning all gigs and sporting events with more than 500 people.
This evening’s TV was odd.
Audiences have been banned. So we got Svenska Nyheter (a satirical news show) and the final of Talang (Sweden’s got Talent) without an audience. Both shows handled this very bizarre situation with imagination and humour and turned a setback into something positive.
I didn’t/am not flying in to that London for the weekend.
Missing out on time with The Boy – 2 gigs (still on), sport (cancelled), plus meals and chat. Oh, and lots of meetings from Monday to Wednesday.
However, the reason I didn’t fly was not to do with/for him, me, or even Mrs Biggles – it was for Mum (82) and M-I-L (nearly 90). ..What if I had gone, come back and then either of them had got Covid-19?!?…
“Surprised you wimped-out, It’s only advice, I’ll make my own decisions” said a number of people today (paraphrased). At least 50 Islanders went to Cheltenham and are/will be on their way back.
Perhaps it’s just me.
Ben Watt has now cancelled @biggles if that makes you feel any better. We might have that pint yet.
My concert going diary:
Wire – Ottawa tomorrow – cancelled
James Taylor/Bonnie Raitt – Ottawa April – cancelled
ZZ Top/Cheap Trick Ottawa May – cancelled I think
Ringo – nr Toronto in May – will be cancelled I expect
Stones – Cleveland June – ?
Bluesfest- Ottawa July – no news yet
Billie Eilish – Manchester July – no news yet
Wilco – Niagara Falls August – bought the tickets today! Hopeful
New Order/Pet Shop Boys – Toronto Sept – hopeful
Going to three sparsely-attended small-scale gigs this weekend and fully expect an announcement on Monday that future gatherings will be banned for a while. It so happens I’ve just acquired a stock of books to read, should I find myself in lockdown after this weekend.
I’m a bit trepidatious (is that a word?) about being on public transport (trains) to and from two of them but I have tissues and hand sanitizer, which I shall be using. No need to be in close proximity to others at either of these two once I’m there. At the third one I may well be at close quarters with a small number of others, but no public transport to get there and back.
Last weekend we got a train from Devon to that there London, then a tube, stayed at a hotel in Bloomsbury, theatre on Friday night, V&A on Saturday, West End pub, then large charity dinner with much mixing, British Museum on Sunday, another tube, train back to Devon….doomed I am…
Interesting article in The Times about herd immunity today. Basically the strategy is protect the vulnerable, let everyone else get it but at not too fast a rate (so that health services can cope) so that they progressively become immune until it can’t reproduce fast enough any more. But there are inevitably deaths and you can’t prevent it by isolating everyone as that just maintains the ability to reproduce ( because there are more potential targets). Without any innoculation this is inevitable. Grim stuff.
This article shed some light on herd immunity for me.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/herd-immunity-uk-coronavirus-robert-peston
The writer is not convinced about it.
But herd immunity requires infection to confer protection when (if) you recover. Not enough known yet to know whether this is a oncer or a returner. Anecdotal tales are flowing out from China about folk catching it a second time already. Flu needs an annual jab as it changes so swiftly. If this virus is quicker and smarter, or not limited to seasons of the year we are, um, fucked.
Very useful to have a qualified doctor in our midst.
Nice to hear some objective, scientific medical language too: “we are, um, fucked,”
Love those technical terms.
Thankfully I haven’t got a stitch to wear 😁
At time of typing, a friend’s new band is playing within walking distance of here. I shall be making my excuses.
My top tip is buy a petrol can. Fuel disruption will be next, wait and see. I’m filling up my two cans and the motorbike this weekend.
Panic buying, then?
What a good idea!
Once everyone has filled up, their tanks will stay full as there’ll be nowhere to go out to especially as we’ll all be ‘working from home’. There’s already been an obvious drop in the commuter traffic on my work route. I only knew it wasn’t christmas week because the sun was in my eyes!
I’m thinking of SORNing (registering it as off road) my big van as I can’t see me using it much for a while and the tax and insurance are due.
Petrol prices have plummeted here, 85 cents a litre (50p), was about $1.10 a week ago.
Per barrel price down by a third.
https://www.ft.com/content/dab75720-618a-11ea-a6cd-df28cc3c6a68
Update: 79 cents
I don’t think buying an emergency gallon of petrol is really panic buying. We have parents in their 80s 20 miles away and need to be sure we can get to them if needed.
“I’m filling up my two cans and the motorbike this weekend.”
There’s nothing wrong with being prepared – virus or no virus.
But you can’t keep pump unleaded hanging around for ages, it goes off, even in a jerry can. I always have 60 litres of good quality diesel in jerry cans at the back of the garage – one full tank’s worth for the Landy in case the shit hits the fan one day.
Enough to lug us all plus a thousand rounds of ammo to the prepper stash I have secreted in the hills.
*tugs baseball cap tight, checks bolt action*
See, when the shit/fan interface happens I think a motorbike is your best friend. Massive range, traffic jams can fuck right off and quick as anything.
Traffic jams, pah. I went to the supermarket this afternoon (only place we’re allowed to go) about 10 kms from my abode via a usually busy road and didn’t see any other cars at all. (Lunchtime, so most people lunching, but still, a weird sight.)
Yebbut, the M82 fits into the back of the Landy, and the thousand rounds weigh just north of 50kg.
/Jack Reacher mode
Oops! I’ve just read what I copied from your post, @Twang, and realised that I misread that as “my two cars”. Please accept my apologies – what you actually said is far more reasonable.
I’d go to Specsavers, but for fear of an infectious optometrist…
😄👍👓
I was due to see John Shuttleworth this evening at the Nottingham Playhouse (all 750 seats sold) but it has been postponed. Probably not the daftest idea at the moment but disappointing none the less.
John was probably concerned about the availability of sufficient hand cleaning products, especially bars of soap.
Ooof.