UK Measures for Covid-19 announced 23rd March 2020

These were announced at 8:30pm on UK TV:

NEW RULES ON STAYING AT HOME AND AWAY FROM OTHERS
The single most important action we can all take, in fighting coronavirus, is to stay at home in order to protect the NHS and save lives.
When we reduce our day-to-day contact with other people, we will reduce the spread of the infection. That is why the government is now (23 March 2020) introducing three new measures.
1. Requiring people to stay at home, except for very limited purposes 2. Closing non-essential shops and community spaces
3. Stopping all gatherings of more than two people in public
Every citizen must comply with these new measures. The relevant authorities, including the police, will be given the powers to enforce them – including through fines and dispersing gatherings.
These measures are effective immediately. The Government will look again at these measures in three weeks, and relax them if the evidence shows this is possible.
1. STAYING AT HOME
You should only leave the house for one of four reasons.
●  Shopping for basic necessities​, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible.
●  One form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle - alone or with members of your household.
●  Any medical need​, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person.
●  Travelling to and from work​, but only where this absolutely cannot be done from home.
These four reasons are exceptions - even when doing these activities, you should be minimising time spent
outside of the home and ensuring you are 2 metres apart from anyone outside of your household.
These measures must be followed by everyone. Separate advice is available for individuals or households
who are isolating​, and for the ​most vulnerable who need to be shielded​.
If you work in a critical sector outlined in this ​guidance​, or your child has been identified as vulnerable, you can continue to take your children to school. ​Where parents do not live in the same household, children under 18 can be moved between their parents’ homes


2. CLOSING NON-ESSENTIAL SHOPS AND PUBLIC SPACES
Last week, the Government ordered certain businesses - including pubs, cinemas and theatres - to close.
The Government is now extending this requirement to a further set of businesses and other venues, including:
● all non-essential retail stores - this will include clothing and electronics stores; hair, beauty and nail salons; and outdoor and indoor markets, excluding food markets.
● libraries, community centres, and youth centres​.
●  indoor and outdoor leisure facilities​ such as bowling alleys, arcades and soft play facilities.
●  communal places within parks​, such as playgrounds, sports courts and outdoor gyms.
●  places of worship, ​except for funerals attended by immediate families.
●  hotels, hostels, bed and breakfasts, campsites, caravan parks, and boarding houses for commercial/leisure use (excluding permanent residents and key workers).
More detailed information can be found ​here​, including a full list of those businesses and other venues that must close. Businesses and other venues not on this list may remain open.


3. STOPPING PUBLIC GATHERINGS
To make sure people are staying at home and apart from each other, the Government is also ​stopping all
public gatherings of more than two people​. There are only two exceptions to this rule:
●  where the gathering is of a group of people who live togethe​r - this means that a parent can, for example, take their children to the shops if there is no option to leave them at home.
●  where the gathering is essential for work purposes - but workers should be trying to minimise all meetings and other gatherings in the workplace.
In addition, the Government is stopping social events, including weddings, baptisms and other religious ceremonies. This will exclude funerals, which can be attended by immediate family.


DELIVERING THESE NEW MEASURES
These measures will reduce our day to day contact with other people. They are a vital part of our efforts to reduce the rate of transmission of coronavirus.
Every citizen is instructed to comply with these new measures.
The Government will therefore be ensuring the police and other relevant authorities have the powers to enforce them, including through fines and dispersing gatherings where people do not comply.
They will initially last for the three weeks from 23 March, at which point the Government will look at them again and relax them if the evidence shows this is possible.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/874742/Full_guidance_on_staying_at_home_and_away_from_others__1_.pdf

Monolingual Democracy

“In the UK, people cannot read most of the foreign press, so they are easy to influence by super-rich owners of newspapers and other media. Now that we are living in Belgium again, with a few shorts visits to the UK each year, it is very noticeable how narrow the information input is in the UK in comparison to that in Belgium, where everyone who has had an education can read two, three or more languages and can follow the news of neighbouring countries.”

M Turner-Prins, 2020

UK European Parliament Elections 2019 – Brexit analysis

It's hard not to see the UK Euro elections as a Brexit Poll, Round 2. Perhaps some voters didn't see it that way, but presumably Brexit party voters did (what else did Brexit Party mean?); and presumably the LibDem & Green swingers did too.

These are the England, Wales, Scotland results (Northern Ireland results not yet available) analysed as if it were a Brexit poll and on the assumption that 100% of Conservative voters were Pro-Brexit and that Labour is split 50/50:

Pro-Brexit          7,349,304 44%
Pro-Remain          6,791,094 41%
Split          2,398,097 14%
N/A                88,759 1%
Total        16,627,254 

“Split” covers primarily the Labour Party. Evidently there is a large part of the Labour Party that supports a People's Vote; the YouGov poll survey (fieldwork between Dec 2018 and Jan 2019) puts the Labour Split as 71%/21%. Although I have treated a vote for Conservative as a vote for Brexit, the YouGov poll suggests that is only 69% true of Conservative voters.

Taking those two factors into account brings us closer to the picture described in the Jan 2019 YouGov survey, which has Brexit support at 40%, and Remain support at 46%.

If there were a referendum today on whether or not the UK should remain a member of the European Union, how would you vote?TotalConLabLib Dem
Remain a member of the EU46%2671%84
Leave the EU39%6921%11
Would not vote6%221
Don’t know7%453
Refused2%010


Most other parties have an explicit stated position:

Party%ageVotesBrexit
Position
The Brexit Party31.6%5,248,533->Brexit
Liberal Democrat20.3%3,367,284Remain
Labour14.1%2,347,255 Split
Green12.1%2,010,909Remain
Conservative9.1%1,511,485->Brexit
Scottish National Party3.60 594,553Remain
Plaid Cymru1.0% 163,928Remain
Change UK3.4% 571,846Remain
UKIP3.3% 549,348->Brexit
The Yorkshire Party0.3% 50,842Split
English Democrats0.2% 39,938->Brexit
UK European Union Party0.2% 33,576Remain
Animal Welfare Party0.2% 25,232Remain
Women's Equality Party0.1% 23,766Remain
Independent Network0.1% 7,641-
Socialist Party of Great Britain0% 3,505-
Independents0.5% 77,613-