#tuc speculation

[quohotos]

So about the Serpents in the Prophecy of Bane...

I'm almost certain this is an allusion to Jules Verne's seminal piece of speculative fiction about going underground Journey to the Center of the Earth. Exerpt from the Wikipedia page:

The story begins in May 1863, at the home of Professor Otto Lidenbrock in Hamburg, Germany. While leafing through an original runic manuscript of an Icelandic saga, Lidenbrock and his nephew Axel find a coded note written in runic script along with the name of a 16th-century Icelandic alchemist, Arne Saknussemm. When translated into English, the note reads:

Go down into the crater of Snaefells Jökull, which Scartaris's shadow caresses just before the calends of July, O daring traveler, and you'll make it to the center of the earth. I've done so. Arne Saknussemm

Lidenbrock departs for Iceland immediately, taking the reluctant Axel with him. After a swift trip via Kiel and Copenhagen, they arrive in Reykjavík. There they hire as their guide Icelander Hans Bjelke, a Danish-speaking eiderduck hunter, then travel overland to the base of Snæfellsjökull.

In late June they reach the volcano and set off into the bowels of the earth, encountering many dangers and strange phenomena. After taking a wrong turn, they run short of water and Axel nearly perishes, but Hans saves them all by tapping into a subterranean river, which shoots out a stream of water that Lidenbrock and Axel name the "Hansbach" in the guide's honor.Édouard Riou's illustration of an ichthyosaurus (which is actually more like a mosasaurus) battling a plesiosaurus.

Following the course of the Hansbach, the explorers descend many miles and reach an underground world, with an ocean and a vast ceiling with clouds, as well as a permanent Aurora giving light. The travelers build a raft out of semipetrified wood and set sail. While at sea, they encounter prehistoric fish such as Pterichthyodes (here called "Pterichthys") Dipterus (referred to as "Dipterides") and giant marine reptiles from the Age of the Dinosaurs, namely an Ichthyosaurus and a Plesiosaurus. A lightning storm threatens to destroy the raft and its passengers, but instead throws them onto the site of an enormous fossil graveyard, including bones from the Pterodactylus, Megatherium, Deinotherium, Glyptodon, a mastodon and the preserved body of a prehistoric man.

So that's our culprit. That basically fits the description of the Serpents. Thought that was just a cool detail and reference.

The underground jungle is an element that you could potentially say is also an allusion to Verne, though I think the version in the underland chronicles is significantly different since the depiction in Journey to the center of the earth has light from above whereas all the plants in the underland are basically carnivores and/or feed off of volcanic heat.

It's also possible that this allusion is not deliberate, as much like War of the Worlds, Journey to the Center of the Earth has basically been subsumed into pop culture cannon and referenced so many times that a lot of it's unique elements have just become tropes. Dinotopia also used dinosaurs in a cave surviving the asteroid, Minecraft, Terraria, Spelunky, Noita, and basically any other video game that involves digging will at some point put a Verne styled underground jungle in there.

One YA series that leans really hard into the Journey to the Center of the Earth inspirations is the Tunnels series. I actually read them in 6th grade to attempt to scratch my TUC itch. Let me tell you, they're not as good and don't even come close. Whereas TUC has some tasteful allusions, Tunnels goes all in. The underground people are more evil (if that's possible) and are intent on wiping out all life on the surface. Worst of all, it's set in England!!! There's cool world building, but no giant talking bats so I have no choice but to award it zero stars. It was supposed to be turned into a movie in 2009 and all the books got stickers for that... said movie appears to have never materialized.

Idk, something I thought about while listening to today's @returntoregalia episode

Okay bonus details about how I made this connection: As a kid, wishbone would come on once a week at like 4 pm or something, I didn't get to see it often, but I vividly remember one of the episodes. For anyone who doesn't know, wishbone was PBS show that followed a dog and his human family as they go through some struggle that wishbone (the dog) finds allegorical to a piece of classic, public domain literature. The episodes are split in half with the parts in the present, and the reenactments within the dog's imagination of the classic piece of literature. In one of the few episodes I caught was about Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. I do not recall how this novel was relevant to the characters lives, all I know is that it's way to long to fit into half of a 20 minute episode, so they had to really rush through a lot of parts. In one shot the characters are in this jungle and they run away from a Plesiosaurus puppet.

#Tuc #the underland chronicles #Gregor the overlander #tuc speculation #Journey to the Center of the Earth #return to regalia #return to regalia podcast #Quohotos' unhinged rants no one asked for #I did not proof read this. You're going to find typos

[dnewstrending]

Haircuts: You allow people to consume wrong info before debunking; it's not the best - TUC tells govt

Haircuts: You allow people to consume wrong info before debunking; it’s not the best – TUC tells govt

Deputy Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Joshua Ansah has asked the President and government officials to quickly respond to claims on socials media about governments polices and programmes. He said if the speculations are untrue, the government should move swiftly to refute in order to prevent the public from consume false news. Mr Ansah told TV3’s Daniel Opoku in an interview…

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[speculative-underland-chronicles]

Speculative Evolution of Diggers

There is a high chance that the diggers were the first mammals to ever enter the underland, due to the fact that they live underground in caves and first evolved in North America over 20 million years ago. The fact that diggers seem to be closely related to star nosed moles makes them the second species in the Genus Condylura. Moles eat insects, which appear to be everywhere in the underland and would have been a great food source for the diggers, leading to their giant growth and together with the high oxygen percentage in the air also to them becoming highly intelligent. 

#the underland chronicles #tuc #moles #speculative biology #speculative evolution

[spacecowjoy]

Oh no i just had a sad idea about tuc2

because brennan made esther talk to ricky about the questing blade the same episode sof talked to dale...is ricky gonna find the questing blade before she realizes herself?!? this is 100% speculation but brennan made such a big deal out of ricky missing the questing blade that i know something like that is gonna happen

#i am crying because of dice speculation #sofia bicicleta #ricky matsui #esther sinclair #emily axford #zac oyama #brennan lee mulligan #dimension 20 tuc #dimension 20 #dimension 20 tuc2 #tuc #tuc2 #tuc2 spoilers

[markcampbells]

fandom: applauds Troye Sivan for chewing out an interviewer who asked a lewd and inappropriate question about his sex life

also fandom: make the same lewd and inappropriate suggestions when speculating two out celebrities might be together

#like... why? christ #the speculation is that andrew rannells and tuc watkins might be together IRL #they've been spending lots of time together once BITB wrapped shooting and it seems plausible #and i would be super happy for them both #i love that the cast spend time together outside of it all #but the gross invasive comments are just #and i know people will be like LOL IT'S A JOKE LIGHTEN UP #but jesus christ #you can be happy they're maybe together without making a fucking sex joke

[dailyrannells]

Thank you for saying that about tuc and andrew! Drives me nuts when people assume that just because celebrity couples are not being public about everything it implies that they've broken up. And it's none of our business if they have (sorry if this comes across as rude, I'm not trying to be but I just can't think of another way to say it!)

i understand that people are curious but andrew's not really active on insta unless he's promoting a project and tuc mostly posts about his kids so there's really no point speculating about their relationship just cuz they're keeping things private

[0chexmix0]

Hello!! Bout time I make a semi intro lol, so here is a small get to know me!!

I'm Chex, but y'all can also call me Jester! I am 17 years old, but will be 18 in a couple of months!

I consider myself an artist, though I have not actually drawn somethin in a while lmao. I also like the play video games and write occasionally! I also cosplay but I don't think I'll be showing off any of my personal stuff on here anytime soon due to being underage and also just self conscious lol

I am a lesbian (atleast I'm p sure!!) and speculating being on the ace spectrum (kinda ironic considering I have kinks, but this is where it starts getting uncomfortable to talk about openly especially considering I'm a minor so I don't really wish to disclose WHY I think I am)

Since this acc is for kink and NSFW shit (and one of my kinks is snez), I'll mention that I usually prefer women sneezing wavs n stuff, though occasionally male sneezes are alright? Idk lol I think it's just the comphet subconsciously trying to attach any sneeze it here's to "this characters sneeze would sound like this!!!" Lmao idk

I like Ho/mes/tuc/k, Dan/ganr/on/pa, SG/T Fr/og, and a few other things (I promise I'm not a problematic tiktok child pls I've been stalkin SFF and Snzblr for a few years now and try to do actual analysis n research of and on characters n plot stories n all that--)

Im not the most active on this acc cause I have a job n have actually finally started hanging out with friends more, but I do try my best!!! I prob won't post much but I'll try to interact a bit!

Uhhh I like making friends? Don't be shy to message me or somethin!! Im a bit new to actually interacting community n all so I'm not sure how to like comfortably hold a conversation (that part isn't exactly new tbh lmao) so if I seem a bit rigid in conversation or iffy pls know I'm trying!!! I'm not used to just talkin bout this stuff lmao.

If anyone wants to roleplay I may be down. Ive been having a huge writers block recently n have some other non-kink rps to respond too but I really wanna get back into it and keep practicing in character writing and not just ocs!! (I do semi-lit to novella if anyone wishes to know lol)

My discord is 🕸️ChexMix💮#0871

I'm always open to talk, though I'm usually more comfy talkin to people around my own age ya know? It gets a bit awkward if you get really into talking about this stuff with someone older than ya lol

I'm one of those people who likes hearing people sneeze n stuff but I'm uncomfy sneezing myself n all. Idk if it's weird or hypocritical but that's my personal preference buuut if anyone wants to talk on discord or Tumblr bout sneezing and maybe do a call I may draw ya somethin if I have the time and motivation in return instead of sneezing 030 (I need to redownload KIK I don't have it anymore since it's got such bad shit round it lmao)

IIIIII think this is all for now I think??? Idk buuut I guess here is the end of my intro!! I hope to be able to finally make friends round my age who I can actually talk to and all that stuff!! Have a great day / night everyone!!!! :DD

#snez kink #snzblr #sneeze kink #whump #sneezing kink #uhhh yeah idl what else to put

[thevalleyisjolly]

idk if you're the right person to ask but idk who I should so, do you know why tuc chapter 2 isn't going to be streamed on YouTube? I get that it might just be that dropout needs money, but I was rlly looking forwards to it. thanks 🖤😊

Sorry anon, I’m afraid I’m just another fan!  I don’t know that other fans would know either, but if anyone does have any concrete ideas (not speculations or rumours), can you help anon out?

#anon #dimension 20 #the unsleeping city

[quohotos]

Everyone is trying to do prophecy gymnastics to explain how Ares is actually the warrior. No one is talking about how the character named after the god of war is the war's final causality, that he never gets to see the peace, that him and Gregor only met because there was a war, that him letting Henry die and saving Gregor fulfilled the Prophecy of Gray... Thus implicitly starting the prophecy of Bane and the war that followed.

Ares isn't the warrior, he IS the war.

#the underland chronicles #Tuc #Speculation #Tuc Ares #Look... Ripred didn't go through all that bullshit for decades just for you to go on believing Sandwich is devine #Be reasonable and belive in allegorical naming symbolism instead 🤣 #Spoilers #tuc spoilers

[thisdaynews]

JUST IN:TUC Tackles Sylva As FG Says Fuel Price Increase Looms.

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/just-intuc-tackles-sylva-as-fg-says-fuel-price-increase-looms/

JUST IN:TUC Tackles Sylva As FG Says Fuel Price Increase Looms.

The Trade Union Congress on Tuesday tore into the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, who advised Nigerians to get ready for the torment related with the expansion in unrefined petroleum cost.

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Additionally, the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry and different partners on Tuesday encouraged the Federal Government to utilize rising income from raw petroleum to handle destitution and drive a comprehensive development.

The gatherings expressed this in isolated meetings with The PUNCH while responding to an assertion by Sylva, who prior on Tuesday cautioned Nigerians to anticipate advantages and agony from the rising cost of unrefined petroleum on the planet market.

For Nigeria, which depends on unrefined petroleum for around 50% of government incomes and more than 90% of fare profit, rising oil cost implies expanded income.

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Then again, rising oil cost additionally means expanded expense of oil based commodities as the nation relies vigorously upon imports because of an absence of homegrown refining.

Sylva, who talked at the dispatch of the Nigerian Upstream Cost Optimization Program in Abuja, said, “Since we are advancing everything, NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) requirements to likewise consider the advancement of item cost on the grounds that as we as a whole realize oil costs are the place where they are today: $60.

“However attractive as this seems to be, this has genuine results too on item costs. So we need to take the joy and we ought to as a nation be prepared to take the agony.”

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He added, “Today, the NNPC is enduring a top dog from this. We as a whole realize that there is no arrangement in the financial plan for sponsorship. Along these lines, some place down the line, I accept that the NNPC can’t keep on taking this blow. It is highly unlikely on the grounds that there is no arrangement for it.

“As a nation, let us take the advantages of the higher unrefined petroleum costs and I trust we will likewise be prepared to take a little agony on higher item costs.”

The PUNCH had announced only on Tuesday that the arrival cost of Premium Motor Spirit (petroleum) brought into the nation had ascended by 13.34 percent in one month to about N180 per liter on the rear of the expansion in worldwide oil costs.

The global oil benchmark, Brent unrefined, which rose to $59.34 per barrel on Friday from $53.70 per barrel on January 7, crossed the $60 per barrel mark on Tuesday without precedent for more than a year.

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Raw petroleum value represents a huge lump of the last expense of petroleum, and the liberation of petroleum cost by the Federal Government a year ago implies that the siphon cost of the item will reflect changes in the worldwide oil market.

Since November 13, 2020 when the siphon costs of PMS were last expanded in the country, the oil cost has expanded by more than 45 percent.

Passing by the petroleum evaluating layout of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, the arrival cost of petroleum rose to N179.67 per liter last Friday from N158.53 per liter on January 7, with the normal open market cost (siphon cost) of the item expanding to N202.67 per liter from N181.53 per liter.

The rising cost of unrefined petroleum pushed the expense of petroleum cited on Platts to $543.25 per metric ton (N157.99 per liter, utilizing N390/$1) last Friday from $480.25 per MT (N139.67 per liter) on January 7.

The NNPC, which has been the sole merchant of petroleum into the country lately, is as yet being depended upon by advertisers for the stockpile of the item regardless of the liberation of the downstream petrol area.

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The Federal Government eliminated petroleum sponsorship in March 2020 subsequent to diminishing the siphon cost of the item to N125 per liter from N145 on the rear of the sharp drop in unrefined petroleum costs. The value decrease endured till June.

Nigerians saw increments in the siphon costs of petroleum in four months, ascending from N121.50–N123.50 per liter in June to N140.80-N143.80 in July, N148-N150 in August, N158-N162 in September and N163-N170 in November.

There is no honor in your assertion, Congress lambasts serve

Responding to the priest’s assertion, the TUC asked why the public authority rushed to report increment in fuel siphon costs however delayed to actualize arrangements came to with the coordinated work.

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The TUC President, Quadri Olaleye, who expressed this when asked by The PUNCH to respond to the clergyman’s assertion, noticed that there was nothing respectable about what the pastor said.

The association chief expressed, “The inquiry is the reason rushes to inform us regarding the ascent in the cost of raw petroleum in the worldwide market and the need to build the cost of PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) here however it generally takes them weeks, if not months to execute arrangements came to with the coordinated work? Everything focuses to a certain something: they have no benevolence on the destitute individuals of this country.”

Olaleye noticed that the joyful mentality of the public authority to the situation of laborers and different Nigerians indicated that they couldn’t care less.

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He further contended that they likewise appeared to be uninterested about the neediness, frailty, and other social plaques their arrangements had caused.

The TUC pioneer added, ” In each move and proclamation by government authorities, you could see and feel their cheerful disposition and aloofness to our predicament.

“It shows up they are not upset by the neediness – ridden predicament of Nigerians and the joblessness/weakness circumstance that their unsavory arrangements have made in the country. There isn’t anything noteworthy about what the clergyman has said.”

Remarking on the pastor’s assertion, The Director-General of MAN, Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said the normal expansion in income should profit all through a comprehensive monetary development, which ought to incorporate monstrous occupation creation.

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He noticed that the positive side of expanded public income from the rising raw petroleum costs in the worldwide market “is currently taking steps to deliver the negative side for us.”

He said, “Despite the fact that the financial matters of it looks clear, any conceivable expansion in fuel costs in Nigeria should be considered cautiously. This is a result of its likely negative effect on the delicate financial and security circumstance of the country as of now.

“Additionally, we are simply seeing some proportion of modern solidness and only clinging to an open financial and public activity under the assaulting COVID-19 pandemic. I don’t know that we are prepared for a fuel-initiated swelling. This is very separated from the hefty expense suggestion it predicts for organizations that are as of now compelled to produce their own power for extended periods because of helpless stockpile insufficiency.

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Expanded income from unrefined petroleum ought to have multiplier impacts, says MAN

“Additionally, for the individuals who might need to legitimize the conceivable increment, the inquiry to pose is how is government going to manage the comparing expanded income from unrefined petroleum deals in the global market? It ought to regularly revoke the ascent in agonies emerging from the ascent in the cost of fuel. Is it accurate to say that we are ready to interpret this bonus, in the event that I may utilize the word, to comprehensive financial development and collect its innate multiplier impact? Will it reserve profitability, work creation and expanded speculations?”

Nigeria faces an issue, says LCCI

The Director-General of the LCCI, Dr Muda Yusuf, said the nation should discover a harmony between balance between social contemplations and the business and monetary contemplations

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As per him, the liberation strategy of the downstream area of the petrol business represented a quandary during such a critical point in time.

He expressed, “From an absolutely financial and business perspective, it is a strategy that we need to support independent of what the oil cost is on the grounds that the ability to have the option to proceed with fuel appropriation and its issues isn’t there, and it is likewise not in light of a legitimate concern for the economy for us to proceed with that course,” he said.

As per him, the sponsorship system accompanies a great deal of monetary tension on government funds, the issue of defilement, and the issue of redirection of oil based goods to adjoining nations, among others.

Yusuf said, “Yet the quandary is the ramifications for the government assistance and social states of individuals since we are managing a circumstance of a lot of outrageous neediness among most of Nigerians.

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“We are managing a financial downturn, cost of creation and transportation that is now high, and a general population that is now anxious due to the difficulties of the climate. We are managing a populace that is portrayed by top level salary disparity.

“Along these lines, it is significant that we have an equilibrium in light of the fact that not liberating the area isn’t actually a choice; so we need to locate a model that will work – like a harmony between the social contemplations and the business and monetary contemplations.”

FG rebuffing Nigerians for its inability to make treatment facilities work – Economist

An educator of Economics at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Sherrifdeen Tella, said government ought not rebuff residents.

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A market analyst and Senior Lecturer, Lagos Business School, Dr Bongo Adi, said it was a terrible time at a fuel cost climb.

As indicated by Adi, Nigerians are confronting social and monetary difficulties forced on them by the public authority and an expansion in the siphon cost of fuel will additionally drive more Nigerians into neediness and hopelessness.

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He said, “From in general, the Nigerian residents are confronting gigantic danger to their business, to their security and obviously to their wellbeing, attributable to the Covid pandemic. The occasions have never been more terrible than it is correct now in 2021.”

A previous President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, Dr Sam Nzekwe, said the public authority should realize the difficulties confronting Nigerians in the COVID-19 period as costs of products and ventures had gone so high.

[speculative-underland-chronicles]

Origin of Fliers

The fact that the Appearance of Fliers seems to vary a lot makes it really hard to make out which Genus they belong to, but after looking through tons of pictures of Fliers and Overland bats, I was able to determine two different matches between Fliers and New World Leaf-nosed bats. The first identical trait is the fact that both tend to eat a large variety of food, covering fruits and insects, thus being omnivores. The other identical trait is their pointy noses. But due to the fact that leaf-nosed bats have been existing for 30 million years and that leaf-nosed bats have 55 genera and the Fliers do not really seem to perfectly fit a single one of those and tend to vary strongly in their appearance when it comes to color, exact nose shape and ear shape to a degree similar to humans, it is really hard to say to which genus they belong.

The fact that we know to which Family of bats they belong helps us a lot when it comes to tracking down their point of origin. We can say with almost 100 percent certainty that they entered the Underland somewhere in America, probably in the middle of the USA / near the border between Mexico and the USA. From there they started to evolve and later split into tribes. At this point in history some of them traveled to ancient Greece probably around 6000 years ago. When some of these Fliers later came into contact with the fliers in the Underland underneath the US these American Fliers adopted the naming conventions of the Greek fliers. This split into tribes is also the reason for the diverging appearances of the fliers. There also is a high chance that even today there are still fliers that do not live in the mapped underland underneath the US.

#speculative evolution #speculative biology #the underland chronicles #tuc #bats

[icechuksblog]

 The Trade Union Congress on Saturday says it will not go back on its decision to embark on a protest on Tuesday against the increase in the prices of fuel and electricity tariff despite speculations about a court order stopping the proposed demonstration.TUC Deputy National President, Chika Onuegbu, who disclosed this to newsmen, said the union had begun to mobilise its members for the protest and strike.Explaining that the TUC was not aware of any court order to stop the planned protest, Onuegbu condemned the increase of fuel price, adding that the Federal Government’s action had become a burden on Nigerians.He said, “I must say that we are mobilising our members for the planned protest on Tuesday. Some are talking about a court order; but to the best of my knowledge, we are not aware of any court order stopping our planned protest.“I am also not aware that our secretariat has received any court order; our people have not been served. As a matter of fact, we are preoccupied with mobilising our members for the protest.“The increase in fuel price is an extra burden on us and our families; the increase in electricity tariff is an extra burden on us and our families; the increase in Value Added Tax is an extra burden on us and our families; and the general increase in food prices.“While all these are happening, our members are being owed salaries, gratuities and pensions. Honestly speaking, we have a lot that we are bothered with this period. I think we have to really make a statement that Labour is united in the struggle for a better Nigeria.”Onuegbu called on the Federal Government to immediately revert to the old prices of fuel before the recent increase to avert the protest.“Again, the National Secretariat has not given any counter-order to say we should not proceed with the protest/strike.“The last order I know is that we have to go ahead with the strike and it is that order we are working on. The government should immediately revert to the old price of petrol before these increases,” he maintained.

http://icechuks2.blogspot.com/2020/09/no-going-back-on-planned-protest.html

#SEO #Local SEO training

[gizedcom]

Coronavirus UK: ‘Work from home’ advice to end in August

Boris Johnson’s timetable for getting life in the UK back to normal 

Today: Rules on using public transport will be relaxed so that ‘anybody may use’ buses, tubes and trains. Public transport no longer needs to be treated as a last resort.

Tomorrow: New ‘lightning lockdown’ powers for councils will be introduced to allow them to shut public spaces and premises without consulting the Government to stop outbreaks. 

Next week: New local lockdown draft powers for ministers will be published to allow them to issue stay at home orders and impose travel restrictions.

August: New rules on working from home to be introduced to encourage more workers to return to their offices. Remaining leisure facilities like bowling alleys, casinos and skating rinks will reopen from August 1. Socially distanced indoor performances in theatres can start. 

October: Stadiums could reopen to audiences for sport and music events, depending on the success of a pilot programme. 

November: All ‘outstanding restrictions’ will be reviewed and eased in November at the earliest and ‘possibly in time for Christmas’. 

Boris Johnson’s hopes of getting life back to normal by Christmas have been attacked as over optimistic as unions accused the Prime Minister of ‘passing the buck’ to businesses over when workers should return to offices.

Mr Johnson today announced a timetable for the further easing of lockdown in England as he said restrictions on using public transport were being lifted from today while workers will be encouraged to resume their normal commutes in August.

He said football stadiums could reopen to crowds in October, leisure facilities like ice rinks and bowling alleys can welcome back customers from next month and that he is aiming to ‘allow a more significant return to normality from November at the earliest’. 

However, the announcements prompted an immediate wave of criticism as Mr Johnson’s political opponents ridiculed the suggestion that life could be back to normal by the end of the year while unions accused the PM of failing to take responsibility for getting the nation back to work.  

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said you would ‘have to take a pretty sunny view of circumstances’ to think the PM’s December prediction is achievable while Labour’s Lord Adonis said it was a ‘mistake’ and it is not ‘at all likely that we are going to be back to normal by Christmas’. 

John Phillips, acting general secretary of the GMB union, said Mr Johnson had ‘once again shown a failure of leadership’ by handing responsibility for the return of workers to businesses rather than taking charge of the issue himself.

‘Passing the responsibility of keeping the people safe to employers and local authorities is confusing and dangerous,’ he said. 

‘With fears of a second spike looming, bewildering advice, and a desperately underfunded health service – the Prime Minister’s talk of returning to normality by Christmas just seems phoney.’

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady echoed a similar sentiment as she said: ‘Returns to workplaces must happen in a phased and safe way. The Government is passing the buck on this big decision to employers.’

Mr Johnson said the Government will soon publish guidance on reducing working from home in the hope that more employees will physically return to their desks to give town and city centres a much needed economic boost. 

However, in a significant softening of the PM’s tone on the issue, he stopped short of ordering workers to return after Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, warned yesterday there was ‘absolutely no reason’ to change the existing policy of people working from home where they are able to.

Sir Patrick and the chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, were both notably absent from today’s Downing Street press conference, despite the fact they have flanked the PM at briefings throughout the pandemic, in a move which will ignite speculation of a worsening split between Mr Johnson and his experts. 

Mr Johnson also announced today that audiences will be able to return to indoor theatre, music and performance events from August 1 if venues put in place social distancing measures. 

The PM said ministers will review all of the remaining ‘outstanding restrictions’ – including social distancing – in the coming months in order to allow a ‘more significant return to normality from November at the earliest’ and ‘possibly in time for Christmas’.

But he insisted all of the proposed changes would only go ahead if the spread of coronavirus continues to fall and that ‘we will not hesitate at any stage to put on the brakes’ if there is an increase in infection. 

He stressed the UK must be prepared for a potential second wave in the winter as he announced £3 billion of extra funding for the NHS, unveiled new ‘lightning lockdown’ powers to enable ministers and councils to pounce on local outbreaks and pledged to increase daily coronavirus testing capacity to 500,000 by the end of October.  

Mr Johnson’s timetable for the further easing of coronavirus restrictions came as: 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock ordered Public Health England to review the way it counts deaths because of a ‘statistical flaw’ that means officials have ‘over-exaggerating’ the daily toll. 

It emerged PHE has been counting people as victims of coronavirus even if they die of another cause at another time having previously tested positive for Covid-19.

A new study suggested Britain may already have developed herd immunity against coronavirus because many people have suffered from milder strains of similar types of infection in the past.

Security Minister James Brokenshire said the UK is at least 95 per cent certain the Kremlin gave the green light for Russian cyber attacks designed to steak coronavirus vaccine research. 

But he insisted there was ‘no evidence’ that the raids had been successful as he said they are ‘completely unacceptable’.

Official data showed the rate of spread of coronavirus across the UK is at minus five per cent to minus one per cent while the R rate of reproduction remains between 0.7 and 0.9. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson today set out the next stage in his plan to return life to normal in the UK as he delivered a press conference in 10 Downing Street 

Sir Patrick Vallance yesterday told MPs he believed there was ‘absolutely no reason’ to chnge existing work from home guidance

Green light for fans to return to stadiums: Boris Johnson announces sports grounds could let spectators back in from October

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced crowds could return to sports stadiums in the United Kingdom from October subject to successful pilot events starting later this month. 

Sports events have taken place without crowds since they restarted in recent weeks because of the risk of spreading coronavirus.

But laying out the next steps in lifting lockdown on Friday morning, Mr Johnson said: ‘From 1 August, we will restart indoor performance to a live audience, subject to the success of pilots, and we will also pilot larger gatherings in venues like sports stadia, with a view to a wider reopening in the autumn.

‘From October, we intend to bring back audiences in stadia. Again, these changes must be done in a Covid-secure way, subject to the successful outcome of pilots.’ 

It raises the possibility that only the first month of the 2020-21 football season will be played out behind closed doors, with supporters allowed back in the autumn. 

The pilot events – which would see a limited number of spectators admitted to stadiums with social distancing rules observed – could begin this month. 

It has been reported that pilot events will include the County Championship cricket match between Surrey and Middlesex at The Oval on July 26, the Glorious Goodwood race meet between July 28 and August 1, and the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible from July 31. 

Mr Johnson said any further changes to lockdown restrictions will rely ‘on our continued success in controlling the virus’. 

The Prime Minister spoke last week about his desire for more workers to return to their places of work amid growing fears that a lack of commuters will see urban centres struggle to recover. 

But his announcement today was more nuanced than had been anticipated as he said businesses would be given ‘discretion’ to decide, following consultation with staff, when workers should return rather than being ordered by the Government. 

He told today’s press conference: ‘We will not proceed if doing so risks a second peak that would overwhelm the NHS.

‘Nonetheless it is important to give people hope and to give business confidence, so in England from today we are making clear that anybody may use public transport while of course encouraging people to consider alternative means of transport where they are available.

‘From July 25 we have already committed to reopening indoor gyms, pools and other sports facilities.

‘From August 1 we will update our advice on going to work. Instead of government telling people to work from home, we are going to give employers more discretion and ask them to make decisions about how their staff can work safely.

‘That could mean, of course, continuing to work from home which is one way of working safely, and which has worked for many employers and employees.

‘Or it could mean making work places safe by following Covid secure guidelines.

‘Whatever employers decide, they should consult closely with their employees and only ask people to return to their place of work if it is safe.’ 

Mr Johnson’s announcement on working from home appears to put him at odds with Sir Patrick. 

The expert had told the Science and Technology Select Committee yesterday afternoon that the UK is ‘still at a time when distancing measures are important’ and that working remotely ‘remains a perfectly good option’. 

He then went even further as he said many companies had found working from home had not been ‘detrimental to productivity’ and as a result there is no need to move away from the policy.  

He said: ‘My view on this, and I think this is a view shared by SAGE, is that we are still at a time when distancing measures are important and of the various distancing measures working from home for many companies remains a perfectly good option because it is easy to do.

Sir Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty notably absent from PM’s latest coronavirus address

Signs of a rift between Boris Johnson and his top scientific advisers deepened today after they were sidelined from his Downing Street address. 

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty were notable absentees from this morning’s press conference. 

The experts have become familiar faces at the Number 10 podium during the crisis, regularly flanking the PM for big announcements. 

Instead, Mr Johnson was joined by NHS Test and Trace chief Dido Harding during his clarion call for workers to go back to offices to rescue the ailing high street.

He also gave the green light for casinos, bowling alleys and ice rinks to reopen next month. 

But much of the attention was focused on the break-up of the so-called ‘three amigos’ which came after Sir Patrick yesterday hinted disapproval of the Government’s haste to unlock the economy.

‘I think a number of companies think it is actually not detrimental to productivity and in that situation absolutely no reason I can see to change it.’

Mr Johnson today sought to down play splits with Sir Patrick as he said it was not for the Government to tell employers if staff should return to their workplaces. 

‘I totally agree with Patrick Vallance on what he is saying,’ Mr Johnson said. 

‘It is not for Government to decide how employers should run their companies and whether they want their work forces in the office or not – that is for companies.’ 

The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said after the press conference that both Sir Patrick and Prof Whitty were ‘involved in all the discussions about the next chapter in the road map’. 

Pushed on whether the pair had given their approval for today’s announcements, the spokesman added: ‘That doesn’t reflect how it works – as I’ve said many times, scientific and medical experts advise and ministers decide.’

Tory MPs had urged Mr Johnson to overrule Sir Patrick and order workers back to work as they warned a failure to act would risk the death of town and city centres.   

The British Chambers of Commerce said firms will still need ‘crystal clear official guidance’ from the Government when they decide who should physically return and when. 

‘Companies, in discussion with their employees, will decide how and when to return to offices safely. To take those decisions, businesses need crystal-clear official guidance,’ the organisation said.

‘Firms will be weighing up how they want to work in future. Many have seen benefits to productivity and work-life balance over recent months, and will want to keep elements of their new normal.’

As well as the shift on working from home, Mr Johnson said that remaining leisure facilities like bowling alleys, skating rinks and casinos will be allowed to reopen from August 1 but night clubs will remain shut for the foreseeable future.

Public debt will soar as the UK reels from the coronavirus crisis, according to the Office For Budget Responsibility’s central scenario. By 2023-4 the liabilities will be around £660billion higher than forecast in March before the chaos hit – and that does not include an extra £50billion from the mini-Budget

The OBR’s downside scenario sees unemployment rising to more than four million next year – with a rate higher than seen in the 1980s

One in 10 adults visited a barber or hairdresser in first week of July after lockdown was eased

Split ends and beards were trimmed en-masse after hairdressers and barbers reopened, with a survey suggesting around one in 10 adults attended appointments.

Nine per cent of adults in Britain visited a hair salon or barber in the week starting July 1, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

A further 10 per cent ate or drank in a restaurant, cafe, bar or pub while 15 per cent collected takeaway food from these establishments.

The survey, which analysed responses from 1,743 people between July 8 and 12, asked about behaviour over the previous week amid a key loosening of lockdown restrictions.

Pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants in England were able to reopen for the first time since lockdown on July 4, which was also when salons and barbers opened their doors.

Men were more likely to eat out or pick up takeaways, while more women visited salons, the ONS found.  

Restrictions on weddings in England will also be lifted to allow up to 30 people to attend receptions. 

On the issue of reopening stadiums for sporting and music events, Mr Johnson said the timing would be dependent on the outcome of pilots but that ministers have earmarked October. 

He said: ‘We will restart indoor performances to a live audience, subject to the success of pilots and we will also pilot larger gatherings in venues like sports stadia with a view to a wider reopening in the autumn.’

He added: ‘From October we intend to bring back audiences in stadia and to allow conferences and other business events to recommence.

‘Again these changes must be done in a Covid secure way subject to the successful outcome of pilots.’

Mr Johnson said that it is his hope that the Government will be able to recommend in the coming months that families and friends can resume more close contact. 

‘Throughout this period we will look to allow more close contact between friends and family where we can,’ he said. 

‘It is my strong and sincere hope that we will be able to review the outstanding restrictions and allow a more significant return to normality from November at the earliest, possibly in time for Christmas.’ 

Despite the PM’s optimistic timetable, Mr Johnson also warned that the UK must be ready to deal with spikes in infection as he set out new powers for councils to impose ‘lightning lockdowns’. 

He said that as of tomorrow local authorities will be able to shut outdoor public spaces and cancel events at short notice if it is deemed necessary to stop an outbreak. 

Meanwhile, new powers will also be brought forward to allow ministers to impose tougher local lockdown restrictions including ‘stay-at-home’ orders. 

Mr Johnson said: ‘From tomorrow, local authorities will have new powers in their areas. They will be able to close specific premises, shut public outdoor spaces and cancel events.

‘These powers will enable local authorities to act more quickly in response to outbreaks where speed is paramount.

‘Action by local councils will not always be sufficient, so next week we will publish draft regulations on how central government can intervene more effectively at a local level.

‘Where justified by the evidence, ministers will be able to close whole sectors or types of premises in an area, introduce local stay-at-home orders, prevent people entering or leaving defined areas, reduce the size of gatherings beyond the national defined rules or restrict transport systems serving local areas.’

The number of deaths being announced each day is higher than the reality, scientists say, because not all of them actually died of Covid-19 – some tested positive weeks or months ago and died of other causes but are still included in the list

Scientists say if a vaccine was developed it would need 60-70 per cent coverage to work — but this threshold could be significantly lower for natural immunity because the most at-risk people will always be the first to get exposed to the virus and, if it can’t infect them, it can’t spread through them to the less at-risk groups

UK ‘may already have herd immunity’ against coronavirus

Britain could already have herd immunity against Covid-19 because so many people have had similar illnesses in the past, a study claims.

Experts have noticed the infection looks extremely similar to other, milder strains of coronaviruses which cause coughs and colds and circulate regularly.

Brits who have had these in the past may have some level of ‘cross-protection’, they suggest, which means they aren’t seriously harmed by Covid-19.

While it remains unlikely that people will be totally protected from any infection at all, ‘background’ immunity could make their illness less severe and death less likely. 

Theories that even exposure to common colds may protect people from the coronavirus have been floating around for months and raise hopes for a milder second wave.

Combined with the fact millions of people have been infected in the pandemic’s first wave, it may mean the UK is already protected against another deadly surge.

The concept of herd immunity – in which so many people are immune to a virus that it cannot spread – is controversial because there is no scientific proof that people who have had Covid-19 once can’t get it again.

Scientists have claimed, however, that if immunity does develop, the proportion of people who need to have had it could be as low as 20 or even 10 per cent. 

And Britain may already be reaching this level, the Oxford University paper said, adding: ‘[Immunity] measures of 10-20 per cent are entirely compatible with local levels of immunity having approached or even exceeded the [herd immunity threshold], in which case the risk and scale of resurgence is lower than currently perceived.’

The Prime Minister today acknowledged the threat of a second wave of coronavirus this winter. 

Sources had said he was determined to avoid the fate of several US states which are seeing cases of the virus soar after easing restrictions too fast.       

The premier is hoping an extra £3 billion of funding will ensure the health service is ready for a potential spike in infections. 

It comes after a report commissioned by Sir Patrick warned there could be 120,000 hospital deaths in a ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ this winter. 

Confirming the £3bn in extra funding, Mr Johnson said: ‘Demand for testing is not the only challenge that winter will bring. It’s possible that the virus will be more virulent in the winter months and it’s certain that the NHS will face the usual annual winter pressures.’

He added: ‘We’re making sure we’re ready for winter and planning for the worst. But even as we plan for the worst I strongly believe we should hope for the best.

‘That means looking ahead with optimism, now extending our plan to lift the remaining national measures, which have restricted our lives since March, so we can get back to something closer to normal life.’ 

Mr Johnson today published an additional chapter to the Government’s ‘road map’ for recovery from the crisis. 

Earlier this week Mr Johnson was warned in the report by the Academy of Medical Sciences that action must be taken now to mitigate the potential for a second peak, including scaling up the Test and Trace system.

The research said capacity for 350,000 tests per day will be needed to test individuals as they show symptoms of either Covid-19 or flu.

The latest Government figures say capacity stood at nearly 338,000, but Mr Johnson today committed to increase this to half a million by the end of October to bolster Test and Trace.  

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer criticised Mr Johnson for failing to provide any new money for social care in today’s series of announcements. 

‘What I didn’t hear from the Prime Minister this morning was any extra funding for social care,’ Sir Keir said. 

‘And what we can’t afford to do again is leave social care out of the priorities as we move into the autumn and winter.

‘So where was the money for social care?’

When asked if he thought the Government’s road map out of lockdown was credible, Sir Keir said the Labour Party will be ‘looking into the details’ before commenting.

‘This can’t be done on a wing and a prayer, it requires a credible plan, and national leadership,’ he said. 

Matt Hancock launches urgent review into fiasco at Public Health England as it’s revealed anyone who has ever died after testing positive for Covid-19 has been recorded as a ‘coronavirus death’ – even if they were hit by a bus

Health Secretary Matt Hancock today ordered Public Health England to review the way it counts deaths because of a ‘statistical flaw’ that means officials are ‘over-exaggerating’ the daily toll.  

PHE counts people as victims if they die of any cause any time after testing positive for Covid-19 – even if they were hit by a bus months after beating the life-threatening infection, top academics revealed last night.

The method is likely why the daily fatality tolls are not dropping quickly in England because survivors never truly recover from the disease as their deaths are blamed on the coronavirus – regardless of their real cause.

One of the leading experts who uncovered the flaw told MailOnline his ‘best guess’ was that more than 1,000 people have had their deaths wrongly recorded as caused by Covid-19.

Dr Yoon Loke, a pharmacologist at the University of East Anglia, warned that it is ‘not a good way of collecting data’, has had a significant impact in the past two months and is happening because PHE ‘chose a quick and easy technique’. 

And the daily death tolls may not hit zero ‘for months to come’ because of a long tail of elderly people who beat Covid-19 but will die of other causes, Dr Loke added. He uncovered the flaw alongside Oxford University’s Professor Carl Heneghan.

Dr Loke said: ‘By this PHE definition, no-one with Covid in England is allowed to ever recover from their illness.’

Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed in a press conference today that the Health Secretary has ordered PHE to review the way it is counting people’s deaths. 

It comes after a string of mistakes at PHE, including stopping testing and tracing at the peak of Britain’s outbreak. Tory MP David Davis this month told MailOnline the organisation had ‘made a complete mess’ of Covid-19 testing. 

Dr Loke’s analysis shows that ‘all settings’ deaths (red bar) remain very high in England even as hospital deaths (blue bar) – which the Office for National Statistics says should make up two thirds of the total – have plummeted

COVID-19 WAS STILL THE THIRD MOST COMMON CAUSE OF DEATH IN JUNE 

Covid-19 was still the third most common cause of death in England and Wales over June. Dementia and Alzheimer’s took the lead for the most frequent underlying cause of death followed by heart disease. The leading causes of death are shown per 100,000 of the population

Covid-19 was still the third most common cause of death in England and Wales in June, even though the darkest days of crisis are over.

One in 14 deaths were caused by the coronavirus in June – the same month Number 10 began to relax strict lockdown measures. 

The disease was written on 2,525 death certificates, meaning 50,335 confirmed or suspected Covid-19 deaths have been recorded over the course of the pandemic. 

But coronavirus deaths in June were significantly lower than they were in May, when the life-threatening infection accounted for a fifth of all fatalities. 

And it’s the first time since March that the coronavirus was not the leading cause of death, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data released today.

Dementia and Alzheimer’s took the lead for the most frequent underlying cause of death in June, accounting for 10 per cent of fatalities.

A Department of Health spokesperson said today: ‘The Health Secretary has asked Public Health England to conduct an urgent review into the reporting of deaths statistics, aimed at providing greater clarity on the number of fatalities related to Covid-19 as we move past the peak of the virus.’ 

The way PHE counts victims on a daily basis works by it combing through records of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past to see if they have died. If they have, their death is automatically added to the coronavirus count.

It means that if, for example, somebody tested positive in April but recovered and was then hit by a bus in July, they would still be counted as a Covid-19 victim.  

Dr Loke pointed out that unless PHE changes its system, all 292,000 people who have tested positive so far will be added to the Covid-19 death toll when they eventually die.

The Department of Health, which uses PHE’s data for its daily announcements, has so far counted 45,119 fatalities with 66 announced yesterday. 

The ‘statistical flaw’ should not drastically affect the total number of deaths but means the ongoing death tolls appear worse than the reality. 

The Office for National Statistics – which is not affected by the counting method – has confirmed at least 50,698 people have died in England and Wales up to July 3. 

Public Health England admitted it is counting the deaths of anyone who tests positive for Covid-19, regardless of how long afterwards they died. 

Dr Loke said: ‘It seems that PHE regularly looks for people on the NHS database who have ever tested positive, and simply checks to see if they are still alive or not. 

‘PHE does not appear to consider how long ago the Covid-19 test result was, nor whether the person has been successfully treated in hospital and discharged to the community.

‘Anyone who has tested Covid-19 positive but subsequently died at a later date of any cause will be included on the PHE Covid-19 death figures… even if they had a heart attack or were run over by a bus three months later.’

The pharmacologist, who published his findings in a blog post last night, said the bizarre way of recording deaths is why there are such wide variations in daily figures.  On Monday July 6, for example, 16 deaths were recorded, while 152 were announced the next day on Tuesday the 7th.  

The Department of Health has blamed low numbers on Sundays and Mondays on a ‘weekend effect’ which means paperwork doesn’t get completed.

But academics are increasingly confused about why there are such wild variations, and why the number of deaths seems to remain so high. 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has called for an urgent review into the way deaths are being counted by Public Health England

WHAT ELSE HAS PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND COME UNDER FIRE FOR? 

Public Health England has been in the firing line for a number of dubious decisions taken during the coronavirus pandemic.

STOPPING TEST & TRACE 

When the first cases of coronavirus appeared in the UK, Government policy was to test everyone who had symptoms after returning from abroad and to trace people they had come into contact with.

However, on March 12, testing and contact tracing stopped completely. PHE no longer had the capacity to test the amount of people who were coming into the country infected with the virus after trips to Italy and France in half-term.

The decision has since been branded disastrous and a contributing factor to the UK’s devastating outbreak.  

‘THEY WERE OVER-CONTROLLING’ 

Conservative MP David Davis told MailOnline this month that Public Health England had been over-controlling and made a mess of coronavirus testing.

The Tory MP said: ‘They made a complete mess of the testing arrangements; they were over-centralised, over-controlling and massively reduced our ability to test.’

He warned the decision – criticised heavily by top scientists at the time – then ‘handicapped’ later decisions and was ‘precisely the wrong thing to do’.

‘Before the winter crisis, the government has to reorganise this, whether that’s abolition or taking some of the powers away from them and giving them to someone else,’ he added.  

OVERLOOKING LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Public Health England kept too much power over testing and contact tracing and should have delegated it to local authorities, one expert said.

Professor John Ashton, a former public health director, said Britain should have followed the example of Cuba where local teams went from house to house screening people for coronavirus.

He said: ‘The local public health level has been neglected. I think we’ve missed an opportunity because we should have made more use of primary care, local government and volunteers…

‘Instead what we did was a very top-down, London-centric approach.’ 

And it appears to be simply that anyone who dies after being added to a register of people who have tested positive is classified as a victim.

It is currently impossible to know how many of the deaths announced by the Department of Health were not actually caused directly by Covid-19.

Dr Loke told MailOnline: ‘This is a very serious issue for public confidence. 

‘When you go onto social media you will see hundreds of posts from rightly anxious people who are petrified at the seemingly relentless, unyielding daily death toll in England. The public are scared.  

‘The public are asking questions about why England is doing so badly, when actually the truth is that the healthcare professionals in NHS are doing a great job in ensuring thousands of Covid survivors. The statistics here are misleading the public.

‘Because of this major flaw in the statistics, and the fact that tens of thousands of older people are being monitored, there is going to be a very very long tail of daily deaths. 

‘The death toll will go down exceedingly slowly. It’s certainly not going to get to zero for months to come yet, because older people who have recovered from Covid-19 will unfortunately still succumb to other illnesses.’       

Professor Carl Heneghan and Dr Jason Oke, Oxford University researchers who published Dr Loke’s work on their website, said that officials also seem to be spreading out historical deaths and just adding them on to ones that are happening now. 

The pair pointed out the death counts from NHS England, which are accurate around three days after the date in question, are too low to match counts from PHE.

According to the Office for National Statistics, hospital fatalities now make up around 60 per cent of all deaths that happen on any given day.

On June 30, NHS England recorded 27 fatalities. If this was 60 per cent of all deaths that happened on that day the total number would be 45.

But the Department of Health, using PHE’s data, announced 115 more deaths on that day.

Dr Loke now suggests these massively inflated numbers are because PHE is counting people who died outside of hospital but didn’t die of coronavirus at all. 

He wrote: ‘PHE data confirm that more than 125,000 patients have been admitted to NHS hospitals for Covid-19, the majority being successfully treated and discharged. 

‘There are now less than 1,900 patients in hospital. So, roughly 80,000 recovered patients in the community will continue being monitored by PHE for the daily death statistics. 

‘More and more people (who are mainly in the older age group) are being discharged to the community, but they clearly may die of other illnesses.’ 

Dr Loke said it would be a ‘reasonable approach’ to set a three-week limit on blaming someone’s death on coronavirus unless they were in hospital. 

Public Health England told MailOnline that the World Health Organization has not defined a time limit for counting a death as caused by Covid-19, and said it ‘continues to keep this under review’.

It admitted that a coronavirus death is a death that happens to anyone who has previously tested positive, regardless of how long ago the test happened. 

It said the ‘vast majority’ of Covid-19 deaths are correctly identified.

Dr Loke added: ‘This statistical flaw arose because PHE chose a quick and easy technique. 

‘Their statistical method is reasonably accurate at the beginning of the pandemic, when there were not yet many people in the community who had survived Covid. 

‘However, PHE did not – and have not yet – realised that glaring inaccuracies arise when tens of thousands of frail older people are discharged from hospital, and these Covid survivors unfortunately die from other, non-Covid related causes. 

‘Like most things that are a quick fix, the monitoring system eventually churns out gibberish, and needs a thorough overhaul so that a lasting solution is implemented.’

Dr Susan Hopkins, Public Health England’s incident director, said: ‘Although it may seem straightforward, there is no WHO agreed method of counting deaths from Covid-19. 

‘In England, we count all those that have died who had a positive Covid-19 test at any point, to ensure our data is as complete as possible. 

‘We must remember that this is a new and emerging infection and there is increasing evidence of long term health problems for some of those affected. Whilst this knowledge is growing, now is the right time to review how deaths are calculated.’

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Unions warn over schools reopening

Unions warn over schools reopening

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Schools should not reopen unless key measures are in place to stop the spread of coronavirus, unions have warned.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is urging ministers to work closely with unions to agree a way forward.

There was speculation schools may return in England from 1 June, but it was ruled out in Scotland a…

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Copper Clad Laminate (CCL) Market Analysis (2020-2027) | ITEQ, Panasonic, Nan Ya plastic

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Debenhams must be quicker in revealing what's in store | Nils Pratley

Phew, there will be no catastrophe at Debenhams imminently. The department store chain was silly to wait until lunchtime, by which time its share price had fallen 17%, to attempt a few reassuring words but at least the board addressed some key points eventually. Pre-tax profits this year will be about £33m before one-offs, which is a miserable return but no worse than predicted in June. The debt position, too, is lousy – £320m is pencilled in for the financial year-end – but it also hasn’t deteriorated in the last three months.

This roundabout way of saying “nothing to see, please move on” did not have quite the desired effect, however. The shares still closed 10% lower on the day, giving Debs a stock market value of only £140m. There is, unfortunately, a reason why investors are jumpy. The presence of KPMG as an adviser to work on “longer-term options” is a reminder that, one way or another, some form of restructuring is still the way to bet.

Weekend speculation centred on a company voluntary arrangement, or CVA, the much-used (and abused, in the eyes of some landlords) way for retailers to shed stores and request lower rents, but it is hard to see how Debs could try that trick now. First, the business is generating cash, so a plea of absolute poverty would currently fall flat. Second, landlords could reasonably demand that Debs completes its self-help measures, such as finding a buyer for its profitable Magasin du Nord chain in Denmark. Third, autumn is a bad time to fight with landlords; better to concentrate on preparing for the peak Christmas season.

Next year may be different, however. The chief executive, Sergio Bucher, can whistle cheerfully about being “well equipped to navigate” choppy markets but the board as a whole has to be prepared for fresh storms. Debs’ profits, after all, have collapsed from £139m five years ago and the downwards trend has been relentless. The arrival of arch-trader Mike Ashley on the bridge at House of Fraser merely adds to the sense of danger.

In the circumstances, you can understand why the chairman, Sir Ian Cheshire, would want some outside advisers. The priority, one assumes, is getting a decent price for Magasin – the rumoured £150m-plus would buy some time and options. But a CVA must be a medium-term option because it is hardly controversial to suggest that Debs has too many stores. The lesson from Monday’s excitement is to be transparent and to speak up early. It’s what the suppliers – the critical audience – expect.

If the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, is going to inject life into his intriguing idea that companies should be forced to set up “ownership funds” for employees, he will have to explain in detail how his plan would work. The sketchy description raises too many questions.

The first problem is how a government can force all private companies with more than 250 staff to divert a portion of their profits into such a fund. It is clearly within the Treasury’s gift to offer tax breaks to firms that want to offer save-as-you-earn share schemes for staff. But it’s a very different matter for government to give a precise direction over how a slice of profits should be used every year. Should such payments take priority over, say, repairing the pension fund? Since the “ownership” contribution would be seen as a payroll cost, what’s to stop companies depressing wages by a similar amount? And how could such a system be imposed on foreign-owned multinationals operating in the UK, such as Airbus, Ford or McDonald’s?

The other audience McDonnell will have to convince is workers themselves since, as he told the Observer, the shares would go “into a pool that will allow them to have an ownership role”. If that implies a collectively-owned pool of shares that cannot be sold by individual beneficiaries, it’s a peculiar definition of ownership, a concept that usually implies the freedom to sell.

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It is easier in theory to see how dividends (where companies pay them) on the pooled shares could serve as a top-up to wages but there are other complications. Does a employee lose all rights to the dividend income at the moment of retirement? And who decides how the employee shares are voted at annual meetings or when there’s a takeover bid on the table?

McDonnell, we’re told, will set out his thinking at a speech at the TUC conference on Tuesday. He needs to. Proper boardroom representation for workers is easy to understand and the campaign is gaining support. “Ownership funds” sound like an unnecessary complication.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2018/sep/10/debenhams-must-be-quicker-in-revealing-what-is-in-store