The end of days

Last night, at just gone five in the evening, the Chancellor nationalised the entire country.

Those words were not mentioned, but the Government agreed to underwrite 80% of just about everyone's wages, so people would not have to worry about being sacked and not being able to meet their rent payment, mortgage payments can already be suspended by three months.

The Bank of England will pump up to £330 billion into the economy, no news on where the money was coming from, who would lend it, or anything. Interest rates had already been cut to 0.1%. Another historical low.

And all pubs, clubs, libraries, restaurants, gyms, sports centres were to close by midnight.

The country is in lockdown.

Church services had already been suspended from this weekend.

There is little else other than the virus to report on, as there is little else now going on.

It is still maybe ten weeks to the peak of the outbreak, depending on how successful these measures are. Even if they do work, then for the next year they might have to be reintroduced to prevent new peaks in cases and fatalities climbing.

All the above measures were necessary, but had they been introduced by a Labour PM there would have been a huge outcry from the press and Tories in general.

We have no idea what the country, the world will look like that the end of this. Many things we are used to will be gone, or changed.

Maybe we will value all workers, not just hedge fund managers and investment bankers. It don't matter how much many you earn, you can't buy shit of the drivers don't deliver and staff stock shelves in supermarkets. And as for those who work in the NHS, a national treasure that for ideological and dogmatic reasons has been starved of funds and staff for a decade, well, I hope those guilty of these crimes hang their heads in shame.

The US will find out what happens when a pandemic strikes a society with mainly private health care. Let us in the UK watch and learn. Health care should not be a privilege of the rich, or a perk from a job making it impossible for you to resign. That was the whole point of the NHS, but both the Tories and Labour have been selling bits of it off from under our noses.

Make it stop.