Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
- Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain*
The C Word- Spain: It's disturbing to read that very many cases of infection - and even death - go unrecorded. Though this does suggest that death rates are overstated.
- Spain and Italy: In both countries, the curve is bending downwards, though deaths run behind cases, of course. Good to see that Turkey has reversed its decision to sequester respirators bought by Spain.
- Sweden: The world is watching this 'outlier', with a 'herd immunity strategy. Now that the death toll has risen to 373 — in per capita terms, a fatality rate higher than the US’s and only just behind Iran’s — the dissent has become louder. And: There are indications that Sweden is gradually tightening its restrictions.
- The UK: 1. The first hint of Britain’s exit strategy from lockdown has been revealed - Massively ramped up testing going back to trying to identify contacts of cases and stopping chains of transmission. But: That can only feasibly be done when we have many fewer cases per day than we have at the moment. 2. It's suggested now that there might be 'only' 7,000 deaths. I know full well that statistics are not everything but, with a total of 1,255 towns and cities in the UK, this would mean an average of 5.6 deaths in each of these. More in some, fewer in others, of course.
- China: 1. It's flooding Facebook with undeclared coronavirus propaganda ads blaming Trump. 2.Think-tanks around the world are contemplating how to punish the country. There's even a suggestion it'll be sued, though one wonders where and by whom.
- María's Day 22.
- Here's one of several videos on how to make your own masks.
- Working from home proves offices are out of date — we’re more productive in our jim‑jams. See the article below.
- More articles on its faults and its possible implosion, here and here.
- And a caustic paragraph. The EU exemplifies the global economic and social earthquake the coronavirus pandemic has caused. It is the type of grave event we were told the EU existed to manage smoothly, through international cooperation and co‑ordination in public health, cushioning economic shock and ensuring a smooth take-off after the crisis. Instead, it has been every man for himself. All the EU’s weaknesses and federalist fantasies are exposed. As with much European commerce, it is unlikely to be business as usual for “the project” ever again. One does wonder.
- This rather gives the lie to the OFC's claims that the USA acted faster and better than any other country. But that won't surprise anyone, of course.
- US state governors are (very) angry that - trying to get urgently needed health equipment - they're involved in a bidding war against each other which has, inevitably, led to price gouging. Why is this happening? Because the US federal state is buying the stuff overseas and giving it to "6 or 7" commercial distributors who are free to adopt 'normal' business practices. See this video on this. Welcome to Fart's America.
- The Pandumbics of Fox News. Again, no surprises.
- Phrase of the day:- El gilipolla mentiroso: The lying dickhead (US: asshole)
- I've waited 14 days for some rain to come to incentivise me to whitewash the walls of my garage. When I finally got down to this yesterday, I discovered that the 'one-coat plastic paint' is useless at covering up marks. Even after 2 coats. Isn't life a bitch.
Working from home proves offices are out of date — we’re more productive in our jim‑jams: Rod Liddle, the Times.
“Nobody knows anything, so shut up” is the rather mordant thought that occurs to me whenever I listen to the various pundits, experts, journos and — especially — government ministers telling us on the radio what’s going to happen with this wretched virus. Not least our health secretary. Expecting Matt Hancock to lead us to a disease-free sunlit upland is rather like expecting a blind man to find a discarded matchstick in the Kalahari desert.
Meanwhile, commentators from both sides of the divide have been predicting that the current strictures on our lives will, once this is over, behove us all to change our behaviour patterns for good — always in a manner commensurate with their respective political mindsets.
So, for antediluvian social conservatives like me, it means we will once again value the benefits of a nation state with strong borders, never go to London and upon meeting people say a cheery “Good day to you, sir!” from a respectable distance rather than slobbering over them. For the liberals, it means we will eschew the nation state in favour of worldwide collaboration, and we’ll all be a lot nicer to each other.
All of this is probably balderdash. I genuinely hope that in future we will travel less, by plane or car, shop more locally and be a little more communitarian in our outlook. But I suspect that as soon as this mysterious parasitical creature has been vanquished, there will once again be a river of good old British urine on the streets of Ibiza and Ayia Napa and we will be every bit as rapaciously selfish as we were before.
However, there is one good that might come of all this. My suspicion — or hope — is that right now our companies, large and small, will be examining their vast and deserted offices, and the enormous bills for their maintenance, heating and upkeep, and wondering: what on earth is the point of the office any more?
They had a use once, these desolate areas of parched pot plants and plywood cubicles, patrolled by willy-waving middle managers forever calling fatuous meetings, often involving PowerPoint presentations, in order to ameliorate their own crushing insecurities — but, surely, no longer.
If, instead of the elderly, we could pin the notice “do not resuscitate” on the door of almost every office in the land, we would be an immediately better, happier and more profitable place for big business, employees and society in general. There is almost no downside. Abolish the office, everybody gains.
Let’s run through the facts. Home-working (or co-working) employees are considerably more productive than those who work in the office, to the tune of three additional weeks of work per year. Those fatuous, time-consuming meetings are much shorter when conducted remotely (plus the company doesn’t have to provide stewed coffee and cheap biscuits).
An American workplace survey showed that the more workers were out of the office, the more innovative and successful the company. Another US survey suggested national productivity would rise by $334bn (£273bn) if workers did their jobs from home, or a “third site” (such as a co-working space or, in my case, Madame Svetlana’s Correctional Dungeon and Cocktail Bar).
Imagine the cost savings to our companies. And then imagine what we might do with those buildings, given that we have a housing crisis. Just as we transformed and humanised our docklands and inner cities by converting the old warehouses into apartments, around which sprung up a plethora of shops and restaurants, we could do exactly the same with the thousands of newly redundant offices.
Commuting? Dead time. We could spend those precious hours doing something more fulfilling with our lives than wondering if we have passed Hither Green, or growing ever more enraged in a queue at the Swanley interchange as we spew carbon emissions into the air. And we’d avoid the personal costs of the commute: a Swedish study suggested that people who commute more than 45 minutes a day each way were 40% more likely to divorce.
Homeworking has already seen a rise of 173% from 2005 to 2015 (again, American figures; they’re ahead of us on this). The trend began two decades ago. Here, in coronavirus lockdown, we’re experiencing a bit of what it might be like if that Victorian concept, the office, were suddenly abolished. A quieter, happier, more efficient way of working.
*A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.
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