The Government screwed up big time. They should’ve shut the country down as soon as Italy did. Instead they carried on as normal, not giving the NHS a chance to cope with it, the fact that Cheltenham went ahead was a complete f*** up.

I don't have the virus or at least I hope I don't, but put simply I can't afford to catch it from care free people like yourself.

WildMoggy, if you have the time on your hands may I suggest that you read the studies carried out by Imperial College London, this is probably the closest you will get to the evidence that you are looking for that the measures put in place by the government and the similar measures throughout Europe have saved a number of people’s lives.

Look up the Swedish Prime Minister's latest comments. He has apologised for not acting sooner as the rate jumped. Macron has apologised too.

There is an assumption that many people will die or get ill, but if you can manage the rate of infection, the NHS can cope and thus save lives. If you don't manage the infection rate, the numbers overwhelm the NHS.

The experts can't beat the actual virus, yet, but they can manage the infection rate, which has been our strategy throughout. Manage that and you can treat the affected. Don't manage it and you can't. It is as simple as that.

So what about the 'natural' curve of this illness, if there's an inevitability about all of this, it comes down to how many lives have been saved at what cost of what being in lockdown will mean for society in years to come, what about divorce rates, suicides, domestic abuse etc as a result of basically having your human rights taken away, and all the mental health issues as a result, that's not even touching on the economical implications?

Jesus Christ. The Government aren’t taking away human rights, you aren’t being thrown into Guantanamo Bay.

Quote ="Wildmoggy"Are you sure about that?! Weren't Italy one of the first to introduce lockdown? What's your opinion on Sweden and how they have handled things? Maybe I should email Chris Witty, Matt Hancock etc, the experts on how to avoid contracting this virus with their social distancing, oh no they got this didn't they?! At the end of the day mate, they, you, me have no idea how many people worldwide have had this, or, and this is the crux of everything, they have no idea that lockdown has saved lives. If there had been no lockdown, they have no figures to present to the public as re. deaths, no evidence whatsoever, just an assumption that things would have been much worse.'" There's plenty of data on this page: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51235105 In particular,have a look at the 4 graphs labelled "deaths over time in selected countries" and get back to us on what you can infer from them.

Quote ="Wildmoggy"Are you sure about that?! Weren't Italy one of the first to introduce lockdown? What's your opinion on Sweden and how they have handled things? Maybe I should email Chris Witty, Matt Hancock etc, the experts on how to avoid contracting this virus with their social distancing, oh no they got this didn't they?! At the end of the day mate, they, you, me have no idea how many people worldwide have had this, or, and this is the crux of everything, they have no idea that lockdown has saved lives. If there had been no lockdown, they have no figures to present to the public as re. deaths, no evidence whatsoever, just an assumption that things would have been much worse.'" There's plenty of data on this page: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51235105 In particular,have a look at the 4 graphs labelled "deaths over time in selected countries" and get back to us on what you can infer from them.

Civil liberties then? It's a balancing act isn't it, that's why I keep banging on about deaths, at what cost in years to come, the implications from this could be irreversible. Also I've asked before, what of China after all this, will they be cut off from the rest of the world given their economic importance to the rest of the world? When if you believe what you read, they could have contained this at source possibly??

There'll be a reversal of the restrictions because the economy depends on it. There will be no long-term civil liberties implications. And China won't be cut off, because so much of Western manufacturing is dependent on it.

It is merely a suspension of life as we know it, life put on pause. Once the pause button is pressed again, we'll continue as before, and perhaps even more productively. There is not a chance Boris will now do anything to prejudice the NHS.

The principal effect will be in taxation, as at some point this will have to be paid for.

If you can show me credible experts who have a different view, then fine, but there don't appear to be any. Eamon Holmes and David Icke don't count.

The only people questioning the lockdown are economic people, like Mervyn King, not medical or pandemic experts.

Totally incorrect.

It's all very simple to understand... The economy can be fixed. People can't be brought back from the dead.

Your are seriously deluded if you think life is just on pause and will go back to normal?! For the minority possibly, this has implications far greater than any of us can imagine, on so many levels. People on about the experts and evidence, no-one even knows if lockdown would have been more effective than herd immunity?! There simply isn't enough evidence like I've said to suggest it has been the best way of dealing with this?! Exactly right about China, I doubt any lasting repurcussions, no blame, no bringing to account anyone or organization, because they are probably the most 'important' country on the planet, and have one of the worst humanitarian and animal rights records, but whose bothered eh?1 As long as they keep supplying the corporate world what they want.

I suggest instead of swallowing what so called experts keep telling us, read articles by Peter Hitchens, Simon Jenkins etc, they just make you think and question what we have had rammed down our throats recently, unfortunately, even in science, not everything is black and white, that's me done, need a lie down, stay safe, and OPEN MINDED everybody, and thank God when we can start watching the best game in the world again......

Simon Jenkins and Peter Hitchens have no expertise in pandemics or medicine. They are journalists paid to churn out weekly opinion pieces, nothing more.

Herd immunity creates immunity, but does so by creating illnesses in vast number, which the NHS would be unable to cope with. Go forward a year, you might have a lessened economic impact, and a shorter crisis, but the death toll is guaranteed to be higher because the intensive care beds and ventilators just aren't there.

Not it's not. I'm in isolation as I have a compromised immune system. If I get covid I'll be seriously ill or worse!

Same here, plus I'm over seventy.

That's like saying "my doctor who studied medicine for 7 years says I should have a scan as he thinks I might have a serious illness but Pete and Simon from the Internet says it's fake news so I'm not going to go".

The ones who influence government decisions

I don’t know if anyone as mentioned it earlier but it says that there might be a possibility of the Magic concept being played at a rugby ground instead of St James Park and presumably any other football ground. Where do you think would be the best rugby venue .

Headingly. Holds more than 20,000 and refreshment tents could be built on the cricket side. It is relatively central, in the M62 world.

The negative for it is that it's central location would mean that it demand would outstrip supply.

Odsal? It's big enough. Just not nice enough.

The Huddersfield ground is a fair old size too, with the historical connection to a relaunch.

Would be surprised if there's any mass gatherings before September

Don’t think a ground shared with football would be agreed for obvious reasons but Huddersfield would be good with a short walk into town, oh and one other thing 15minutes up the road

Never mind Cheltenham going ahead. There were flights into and out of many of the affected areas without any isolation etc, absolute madness.
I see the benefit on keeping stuff moving, cars on the road, planes in the air but, on the basis that most of this has now sopped, it would have been a brighter decision to prevent some of the movement far, far earlier.
None of us would have liked it but, it may have meant a little less pain in the long rune and a swifter return to something resembling normal life.

Right now it's difficult to see ANY sporting event in front of a sizeable crowd.

To complete the season, could we be looking at games behind closed doors ?

Not sure if Cheltenham went ahead as I'm no horse racing fan and stay well clear of anything to do with it, but your right about the Government though imo, our borders should have been closed a lot earlier, hindsight eh

Tough ask to get it all right, hindsight for keyboard warriors and journos is a wonderful thing. The thought of a reaction from Corbyn, who couldn't decide on Brexit, would have been a concern and I'm no Tory. At least Trump is nowhere near us. More importantly, I think this season could be either aborted or truncated unless next year is a later start/ finish. Sport with spectators could be a long long way off.

You mention most of these flights have stopped? A quick GOOGLE and there are still flights coming in to Heathrow from New York, Madrid and Rome, without (as I understand) it any checks, straight out onto public transport or hire cars, scandalous.