IntenseDebate - Fernando

1 week ago @ http://www.conservativ... - The prospect seems rem... · 0 replies · +1 points

Why do you think a national government would tackle the outbreak better? The public health response is being led by the experts. The politicians follow their advice. Asking Starmer along to Cobra might help but only so he understood the magnitude of the challenge and the nature of the expert advice.

As regards the mechanics of closing schools and supporting the economy through the disruption, that is best left to those already running departments. Bringing in new people would only waste time.

2 weeks ago @ http://www.conservativ... - David Gauke: How Sunak... · 0 replies · +1 points

I thought you were implying that Corbyn had won the argument.

You now seem to argue that Starmer was reverting to New Labour. Rather than winning the argument Corbyn would seem to have comprehensively lost it. There is a profound difference between our approach and that of Corbyn. I would also agree,however, that we are closer to New Labour than to Corbyn.

2 weeks ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Johnson's extra virus ... · 3 replies · +1 points

In your example they would be infecting others before their symptoms showed up but not after. So it would have a slowing effect. Say they were infecting 10 per day and they were infectious for ten days and it took 5 days for the symptoms to show. They would infect 50 people rather than 100.

The situation of the elderly is more complicated. OK we want to shield them from the virus. But I’m old although reasonably healthy. I didn’t want to be cut off from society for any length of time and most definitely not from my family. I’ll take reasonable precautions - no cruises, avoid unnecessary journeys, shop at less busy times etc, but otherwise I’ll take my chances.

2 weeks ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Johnson's extra virus ... · 2 replies · +1 points

A very good extract. The effect it demonstrates relies on having a vaccine or having herd immunity. The best way to protect the old and vulnerable is to have either or both.

But... will a vaccine be ready any time yet? Will the virus mutate and negate the efficacy of the vaccine. The same might apply to herd immunity.

All the responses are a gamble: short-term suppression as much as building up herd immunity.

I guess the scientists reckon this is a comparatively mild virus to most people and will never be eradicated worldwide. It can be suppressed but it will bubble up, picking off the old. Just another challenge we oldies need to face, hopefully with a safe vaccine a few years down the line.

2 weeks ago @ http://www.conservativ... - David Gauke: How Sunak... · 7 replies · +1 points

Both the main parties are agreed on the need for large capital spending. This featured in our manifesto as in Labour’s.
However, thereafter the approach is very different.
1. Labour would have had large-scale nationalisation. At best a great deal of time and effort would be spent on this rather than new projects.
2. Higher business taxation which would inevitably impact the willingness of companies to invest.
3. The removal of at least some of the TU reforms introduced under Thatcher: return of secondary picketing, sectoral wage negotiations rather than local bargaining and outlawing of many of the flexible employment practices which have grown up.

The differences between the two approaches is profound.

2 weeks ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Lagarde, von der Leyen... · 0 replies · +1 points

You are quite correct, Keith, that the health and control response to the crisis needs to happen at a national or even regional level. However, there is a financial dimension, protecting the economy for when we emerge into more normal times. Here, those running the Eurozone have an important role and one that has been ceded by the nation states. We control all aspects via Johnson to Sunak. That is not the case in most of the EU.
The pandemic will show up the problems inherent in the monetary union.
This is not even a Remain v. Leaver divide as many of us who supported Remain only did so because we had a permanent opt-out from the euro.

2 weeks ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Lagarde, von der Leyen... · 0 replies · +1 points

There will be a financial shock which those outside the Eurozone can address with specific measures, as we are doing here.
The problem with the Eurozone is that many of the areas which electorates expect their national leaders to control have been ceded: support and control of the banking system, interest rates, exchange rates and aggregate demand in the economy. Even some of us who argued the Remain case in the referendum were adamant opponents of the half-baked monetary union and only supported Remain because we had an opt-out.

3 weeks ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Iain Dale: I'm asserti... · 0 replies · +1 points

The Right, especially the Brexiteers, condemn Bercow as a bully and want to deny him a peerage.

The Left condemn Patel as a bully and want to see an ally of Johnson forced out of office.

Most of us observing the spectacle see it as partisan froth.

4 weeks ago @ http://www.conservativ... - WATCH: "Keeping the co... · 0 replies · +1 points

Even when we get to the delay and mitigation phases i would expect the politicians to follow the advice of the experts. No doubt the trade-offs will emerge between the medics, the economists and the politicians.

4 weeks ago @ http://www.conservativ... - WATCH: Trump - "I'm th... · 0 replies · +1 points

Many of us prefer our version of Conservatism. The Coronavirus is highlighting the defects in the American system, so vigorously defended by Trump: the lack of testing and the high mortality (6 so far). I prefer our universal healthcare system, social safety net and tradition of robust public health measures.

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