One of the great areas of the shutdown that is open to interpretation is what constitutes exercise – something that you are allowed to do alone or with a member of your household. The logic is sensible. Getting out for a brisk walk, job or cycle ride is likely to make you feel good and less trapped in your home. But how to do you define what exercise is? The above poster has just appeared at the entrance to my…
More polling like this will add to pressures on ministers The Standard is reporting a new study by Kings College London and Ipsos-MORI on how the public is coping with the lockdown restrictions. Overall there was strong, 89%, backing but a number of possible health issues were highlighted. In particular the study found: 49% said they were more anxious and depressed 38% said they were having less sleep 35% said they were eating more or less healthy food than normal…
Normally the Thursday afternoon and evening before Good Friday is just about the busiest it gets on the roads during the year. Huge traffic jams build up on the roads and it can be mighty frustrating. Well today has been different. Everything is so different this year. Bring back the bank holiday traffic jams. Mike Smithson
I don’t know about other Pbers but on my permitted daily exercise bike ride there has been a noticeable increase in road traffic with people going to parks ans other open spaces simply to get out of the house. My sense is that there is just a level of easing taking place and that’s going to be exacerbated by continued good weather and the Easter Weekend. This is one of those things that is very difficult to police but that…
63% of Brits support a national unity government for the duration of the #covid19 crisis – including a majority (54%) of Conservative voters https://t.co/rSTOdNTVxP https://t.co/5iT8aOkAai — YouGov (@YouGov) April 8, 2020 This latest polling which was published overnight is really quite remarkable and shows the impact of two things; the growing crisis and sense of helplessness as the lockdown looks set to go on and on and secondly how the political world has changed with Sir Kier Starmer now being…
Following last night’s Wisconsin primary the big WH2020 news today has been the widely expected withdrawal from the race by Bernie Sanders. This means that Biden now has a clear run into to what would have been the convention in three and a half months. That clearly remains very much in doubt because of the epidemic and the party will be looking at other ways of staging the convention which would give the nominee a big publicity boost. One feature…
Might be problematical in election year The above compilation of clips, mostly from Fox News, shows how leading media supporters of the President and Trump himself were viewing the epidemic only a few weeks ago. Since then the US has become the nation most affected and Trump has changed his tune. His latest is blaming the World Health Organisation. The initial stance from the White House was reflected in the polling. In mid-March Ipsos found that 63% of Democrats and…
Is there a need for a temporary PM? Today’s front pages very much sum up the the mood of the nation and the political issues created by the continued hospitalisation of the prime minister who has been in intensive care now for a second night. All this comes at the height of the biggest peacetime emergency that the UK has seen in generations. A huge issue that will have to be decided in the coming days and weeks is how…