Some of the guff I've read on here this morning wouldn't look out of place at a pro-Trump rally.

Heard that there’s a less positive angle to the lockdown that’s been or being implemented. A fear that with so many couples stuck at home with each other, families will get bored stiff with each other, resulting in an increase in domestic abuse. Suppose things like drinking, eating and obesity, smoking and ill health, plus sex might increase too?

The virus or fear thereof may be the catalyst for transformative changes to our respective cultures and society at large.

Will the dietary patterns of the 50 plus (or even 40 plus) change dramatically? In the UK will this change the pub culture and the fare offered? Will we see a rise in older people of society joining health clubs? Will the health supplement market increase dramatically as a result as there is a race to strengthen ones immunity? Will we see more pensioners moving to tropical reasons since they seem the least hit by the disease?

Americans are horribly obese on average, even children. Will parents look to curtail this? Since those with pre-existing illnesses are very vulnerable will we see more testing? I've heard reports that 30% of the total in America who have high blood pressure don't know it and/or don't seek help to get the medication. This may be a result of the health system in America. Which may change to what the rest of the industrialized nations have. Some hybrid of NHS.

One thing for sure. A for profit health system is the worse thing to have in an epidemic. The one politician that has emerged as the sane voice is NY state governor Cuomo. He is the 'anti-Trump' to some respects. On a sidenote, look for him to run for President in 2024 if Trump wins re-election. (I can't believe I wrote "if Trump wins and its likelihood is very possible, surreal moment). He has successfully spoken in general, easy to understand terms to the people of NY and now to the nation. The nation is now listening to him instead of Trump or Pence. He is basically the surrogate for all state governors and what each state needs because his issues are shared by all 50 states.

Internationally, its a given that there is likely to be far more cooperation between nations to step the next disease early in its tracks. I can envision the G8 or G20 meetings to include covid19 related issues. Prior diseases, ebola, SARS, MERS, Zika, will now be given more importance.

Trump sacked Obama's pandemic director and the team in the government that was dedicated to diseases, then has the temerity to blame Obama over 3 years from the past. It just illustrates the wrong man for the times. Cynical, petty, narcissist, lacking any leadership qualities. But you get the president you deserve I suppose.

Football related news, I read Man Utd is interested in Aubameyang. I hope he has enough ethics not to go there. Spain, I can deal with but going to a direct rival is too much. What used to be uncommon (rival transfers) has become one way traffic for us.

The government, more specifically, the Penatgon, the Department of Defense have done a lot of scenarios an 'what ifs?'. The movies we see about government secret plans aren't born out of some Hollywood screenwriter's mind. It's based on actual facts. They research things like that as a screenwriter. I have 1 or 2 struggling sreenwriter friends in LA and they tell you, you don't write about things you don't research first. Even if its tangential.

That said, I find it very, very hard to believe the defense department doesn't have a paper on pandemics. One thing that is a fact is that there within the government there has always been people who study such possibilities. But we are now struggling on how to cope with one when its hit us. So, something within the government is not right. Either they have forgone the plans that were recommended on some internal white paper on it or we got rid of the people and/or departments that are related to it.

Furthermore, there are many non governmental or affiliated civilian people and organizations who have studied this from professors at universities, think tanks, research facilities, etc. I am sure there are internal voices in the government as well as external who have some sort of readiness plan or at the very least a list of things that needs to be in place for this sort of inevitability. Especially given the fact that the major countries all have extensive biochemical weapon including contagions, including the UK, Russia, as well as China.

Why does it seem we (as in our respective governments save a few) are all walking around like the proverbial chickens with our heads cut off. South Korea battled a serious virus some years ago and have received plaudits for how they handled it. They had a plan based on personal experience.


Something isn't right.

I don't see any reason why he'd want to go to Manche$ter.

You

Prince Charles is now isolating at Balmoral with Covid 19, while Prince Andrew is isolating at Windsor with Jennifer 14.

The virus making its way to the Royal family makes it real that its no respecter of class or status.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... oronavirus

The Spanish Flu (apologies to the Spanish for my blatant bigotry ala The China virus ) is the event that this current crisis is most compared to.

The Spanish Flu operated at a time where medicine was far from adequate. Many people were still doing blood letting in parts of the so called modern world. Having a global war at the time with people being moved internationally didn't help matters at all. It made matters much worse and the large number of deaths would not have happened perhaps if the war wasn't being waged. That said, the world was infinitely less mobile than today.

Two things that are both a huge advantage and disadvantage are these. First, the disadvantage is the world interacts face to face more than at any time in human history. That obviously means the disease can spread rapidly, sometimes faster than the authorities can backtrack. The advantage is that modern medicine is much more capable of dealing with it and we have the capability of building an infrastructure that can cope with later outbreaks if any.

I'm struggling with the strategy that trillions have to be spent to stave off a depression. Untold amounts spent to keep the share markets, industries and such afloat. Maybe...just maybe, there is nothing you can do to keep the economy out of a depression UNTIL the virus has either been defeated or at the very least on an unbroken downward trend. You can't have a viable economy when the public has to stay indoors. It seems as simple as that.

Monies, it seems should be directed to those who can not work, forced to stay indoors for most of the time and can only leave for the market or pharmacy. With the airports shut down, does it make sense to bail out the airlines? Wouldn't be more prudent to make sure the maintenance of the airplanes and other safety related jobs are done so that flights can be at the ready when they are allowed again?


Do we need to bailout the cruise ship industry? Wouldn't more harm than good occur printing monopoly money to artificially support economies that simply are going to remain negative and unproductive till the virus is contained?

Ooof!

Was Fabregas right?
https://sports.yahoo.com/van-persie-nas ... 02369.html
'Van Persie and Nasri were the only players on my level' - Fabregas explains decision to leave Arsenal in 2011

We had:
Arshavin Hmmm....moments of greatness but not consistent.
Rosicky Had he stayed healthy, Fabregas might have included him.
Ramsey Was Ramsey still a work in progress at that time?
Sagna Solid but not world class.

Well strident little troglodyte .....screaming like a banshee doesn't make your point anymore relevant .

"Why the two years "...?

Britain voted for Brexit in 2015 that's five years ago and you are still f***&&%^$ around trying to exit

; so anyone else deciding on the same path it isn't going to be done in a couple of months ....................... Ne'st-ce pas

There is likely to a blow out in stats from the norm in relation to births and divorces.

All I’ll say, if you travel to any of those countries you mentioned regularly and speak to any of the people in them you will realise how *%^@*** stupid that suggestion is. It’s not happening just in the same way Turkey still aren’t in the EU and all the liars said that was imminent.

.... we'll see .

Darren ; I find that very harsh ; okay let's face it Top Gun can get a bit antsy but I like the guy .

I think Aubamayang is gone this summer. If that is so what is the deal you'd accept?

Would you accept him going to Man U if they paid £25m more than Real/Barca offered? Lets say £50m vs £75m?

What about cash+Ceballos for Aubamayang from Real Madrid? £30m + Ceballos

If a transfer to Man Utd is forced.

Martial and a defender.
or
Pogba...i know...i know, tons of arguments against it but I like him.
or
Smalling and a lesser player.

If Barcelona, cash. or
Umtiti and Vidal

Stuck in a city with a night time curfew and found myself listening to songs my(much) older sister always had on the radio when she baby sat my younger brother, cousin and I. Or my father had on the radio at times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQZBaJAngH8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLeCB7Kn-VE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki78MK9JywE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Yi762sQTo

The US now has the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world.

Trump's popularity rating has gone up to 45%.

If I was an American I'm not sure which of those I'd find more scary.

I didn't realise you classified looking out of place at a Trump rally a bad thing.

I keep seeing this story of Smalling to us. I am sorry if in any way he part of a part swap deal then no way. Our club has purchased some absolute rubbish from Utd and I can imagine them valuing him at say 25mil and then wanting to pay us 25 for Aubameyang as part of the deal. Smalling is not good enough and to have any interest in him is a disgrace. They want Aubameyang then 65-75mil - nothing else.

Some form of treatment for your Trump derangement syndrome might be advisable ; all this constant fretting could lower your immunity to Corona Virus ;

also take special care when cooking the warthog ...pig meat can harbour a lot of diseases .

Was the right decision?

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/fa-under-f ... 43841.html
FA under fire for ‘appalling’ decision as coronavirus continues to impact sport

"The Football Association faces the threat of legal action after taking what has been labelled the “appalling decision” to expunge results for the 2019-20 season for non-league divisions below the National League and National League North and South."

On a sidenote, its going to be interesting how movies and TV shows that take place in the present will deal with the virus. Are they going to write it into to script? Or ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist?

When will new programmes and films be made? Maybe we’ll get kiwipete watching The Ipcress File with all the other repeats?

Got to say Bernard ...I'm slavering at the prospect .

At this moment watching the G7 recommended "The English Game "..not bad ..... although I'm getting a bit sick of the Scots bloke playing the naive gormless pr*ck ... keeps getting kicked ,tripped , punched by the toffs and doesn't retaliate .

The invincible line up of Lehmann, Cole, lauren, Campbell, Toure, Vieira, Silva, Ljungberg, Pires, Bergkamp, Henry only started 2 league games as an 11. The 4-2 v Liverpool and the 2-1 v Leicester on the final day

It appears the scientists are backpedalling their view that 200,000 will die fromm the pandemic. The expectation now is nearer 20000 which it appears near as damn it the same as a normal year for deaths amongst the aged.

Why can you not see that the panic being caused is unnecessary. Isolate the old and susceptible and let the others go about their normal days work with social distancing if one feels it necessary.

The Government are promising billions to people but they cannot guarantee it will get to them sooner rather than later. Do people not realise that these sums will have to be repaid one way or the other. Vat and rates etc will have to be paid in due course as well so why not pay it if you can.

I can survive on a basic pension roughly £700 a month so why not just give everyone say a £1000 and tell them to sort things out themselves. All monies to be repaid from future earnings.

In this way we will not have a recession and we will not have so many people losing their jobs.

Why can head in the sand trolls like TG not see it makes sense.

Ffs nobody said that 80 million Turks would invade they said they could. Do we really have to explain the difference?

Because pretty much every single expert in virology, immunology, disease control and any other relevant field of science you can think of from pretty much every affected country is in agreement that at least some form of drastic measure is required to get as much control as possible over the situation. We should probably listen to them.

So you literally didn’t read a word of DHDs post.

And you wonder why people think you’re a complete dinlow ?

So the death toll is currently 24000 and if you are correct it is over. You are plainly wrong on almost every aspect of your post. Please don’t bother replying because there is nothing more to say.

There’s a point in life where you realise you are trying to have a debate with a complete tool. That’s long past the post.

That surprised me when I read your post. The BBC sport website also pointed out that the 1966 England World Cup final team and the 1999 Manchester United treble winners didn’t play together as often as I’m sure many would assume. Having said that, they did both play together more than the Arsenal ‘invincibles’ team you list.

They couldn't.

It was yet another lie.

Anyway.

In 2005/06 we had 8 different left backs.

If you want to play, can you name all 8?

Cheers Ex. This is a really superb clip.

As an aside, Question Time is working so much better without an audience. It stops the grandstanding from panelists and also allows something more akin to proper debate. I hope they keep it this way.