So border infrastructure then a possibility within Schengen, even if only ‘temporary’?
Temporary, but indefinite. I was thinking more of the Schengen bloc having a hardened outside border with an EU standard for quarantine and testing than internal changes.
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I think we’ve been through all that before. Yes.
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Sure. The current circumstances just throw up some interesting questions particularly at a time when the border on the island of Ireland is about to come more starkly into focus.
Wars and pandemics are not voluntary and would be considered extraordinary circumstances by most states I think. I don’t see why and how this should or could in any way give the UK arguments on something that they themselves chose. If you are being invaded or you are having a plague running rampant, it is quite natural that you must lift a bit on your principles. It is not the same. I feel you are using a false equivalence here.
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I think Toxvaerd is both an economist and an epidemiologist.
With respect, how do you know what equivalence I’m using, or even if I am at all?
The question of the border on the island of Ireland has rather been pushed from the news agenda given the pandemic but it’s about to raise its head in a very real way in less than 3 months time. It will do so at a point where its possible border infrastructure might being implemented for reasons unrelated to Brexit anyway, and not just on the island of Ireland but within Schengen.
So it’s going to be another lockdown until 1st December “to protect the NHS” by all accounts.
Now, my memory isn’t what it used to be, so can someone please remind me: who has been running the NHS into the ground for the last decade? 
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By false equivalence, I thought you compared the border status in the UK and the dispute there between the various parties, with necessary allowances that the EU must make in extreme emergencies, but maybe I misunderstood.
Are you not talking about Ireland and the border there that the Irish really do not want and that the UK swore not to impose ? I am not sure it is the same concerning Schengen in a dire emergency, For one, the symbolism isn’t there. Maybe I am misunderstanding you but if your under air strikes or have a rampant epidemic, temporary controls and checks seems a bit different to me.
But I may have misunderstood you.
Edit: Maybe I have misunderstood something. If so, sorry for the interruption.
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It was Jordan Pickford - He did it.
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If we are going to get another lockdown it will be more about protecting Christmas (the most economically active time of the year) than the NHS.
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That was my first thought - but less the economic activity and more the social one. Families being kept apart could upset a lot of voters.
I don’t understand. Wouldn’t another lockdown mean no Christmas shopping???
Are suggesting that the authorities are trying to stop the spread by clamping down on shopping and other holiday activities?
The suggestion is a month long lockdown, which means things would reopen for December.
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Oh OK, thanks
On Christmas, the Conservative Party official Christmas card is in fucking bad taste
[credit https://mobile.twitter.com/Coldwar_Steve]
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I share your feeling in regards to the US and the UK, and yeah, it must be like that all around the world. Their ‘saving grace’ though is that there is a blatant lack of alternatives to look upwards to. China are ‘efficient’ but at an enormous cost for individual liberty. I’m not sure that many people outside of China would like to live there, or to live like Chinese people. Too much of Big Brother there, for me it’s a no-go.
Maybe other, more democratic Asian societies will play the role of examples for us: Japan, South Korea? They surely have a card to play.
I also think that the UE has a role to play. At least, there is an ideal at the heart of their project: transforming a continent which has almost been at permanent war since centuries into a peaceful, prosper one, by protecting individual rights and liberties. It’s a beautiful project, even though it’s realisation is far from being straightforward.
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