
London may have gone into a Covid-accelerated decline - jxub
https://www.economist.com/britain/2020/05/21/london-may-have-gone-into-a-covid-accelerated-decline
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esotericn
The article takes a long time to essentially get around to saying this:

> But covid-19 and the extreme social-distancing measures used to combat it
> pose a new and more profound danger to the capital

I feel that during lockdown a fair few people have turned mildly insane - they
seem to honestly believe that we're going to stand very far apart from other
humans for the rest of time.

It's just not the case. I'll be in the pub by the end of the year.

~~~
kinkrtyavimoodh
Considering that the virus is here to stay for a few years at least, how can
we blame them for thinking this way? Lifting the lockdown is not gonna make
the virus disappear.

~~~
matz1
The virus is not gonna disappear but it doesn't mean you are going to be
infected as well. If you do infected, doesn't mean you are going to have the
symptom. If you do have the symptom, doesn't mean you are going to have severe
symptom. If you do have severe symptom, doesn't mean you are going to require
hospitalization.

~~~
kinkrtyavimoodh
Then why are we doing any lockdowns at all? If most of the young are near-
safe, we should have just isolated the 60+ and kept society running as usual
for the rest.

Clearly a lot of people are not willing to take the risk of contracting the
virus.

~~~
cm2187
That was the initial strategy of herd immunity, and everything we learned
about this virus vindicated this strategy. But it didn't go well because the
vulnerable population wasn't isolated. My opinion is that it is because
instead of passing on the message of what to do to isolate the sick and the
elderly, the media were busy trashing "evil Boris" and his herd immunity
strategy.

And no the lockdown isn't about "lot of people are not willing to take the
risk of contracting the virus", it is about keeping the pace of the tiny
fraction of infections that go bad to under the capacity of the NHS / ICUs. At
least that was the stated goal. It seems now that we have switched to a goal
of zero infection (and not sure that it makes sense, given that I hear the WHO
now refering to this virus as an "endemic disease").

~~~
cameronbrown
My mum works in a care home, and the stories are harrowing. Anecdata leads me
to believe they are the worst hit.

~~~
cm2187
I don’t think it is just anecdata. I think in NY care homes represent
something like 40% of covid deaths.

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jxub
[http://archive.is/ZydIr](http://archive.is/ZydIr)

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sandworm101
>>> poor parts of the Midlands and north of England would get lots of
infrastructure investment, helping them to close the productivity gap with
London. The country would be “levelled up”.

By "infrastructure" I guess they mean improvements to intercity rail
connections, namely the high speed rail. I don't see those as localized
improvements. Moreover they seem geared to decreasing commute times in/out of
london (and a couple other of the largest cities). The net result is to allow
rich londoners to live and commute from further afield. That isn't a move away
from "peak capital", it's doubling down on that capital by further extending
its influence, expanding the hinterlands on which it relies.

~~~
ENIanDEM
Sorry, no. High speed rail's main benefit is to increase capacity on existing
lines by removing fast trains from the mix. Currently big gaps have to be left
in front of the fast trains to allow them to run. The reduction in travel time
is a secondary benefit.

I was unaware of this until I recently discovered Gareth Dennis on twitter,
who is doing a fantastic job of making up for HS2 ltd's appallingly lacking
public engagement "strategy".

~~~
venantius
Surely you mean removing slow trains from the mix?

~~~
ENIanDEM
Maybe "slow" is a misnomer or misleading. By slow we're talking about local
services which stop at every station. When you relocate fast trains onto
another line, those local services benefit considerably. Ultimately you get
more local services running, which alleviates the sardine-style travel we
currently endure.

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adav
London will be fine...

Source: The traffic jams outside my front door are back and the lockdown isn’t
even lifted yet.

~~~
globular-toast
Nothing about that sounds "fine".

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wdb
I have no intention to go to the pub or travel abroad, especially with a
potential two week quarantine. I have seriously ill early March and it wasn't
fun at all. I am sure the pubs or the restaurants will not miss me

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wwqrd
“Why pay london rent when you can’t enjoy what the city has to offer?” said my
friend that lives there just the other day.

~~~
djohnston
Yeah of course, but the same could he said for almost any major city in the
world right now save a few exceptions in East Asia.

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neonate
[https://archive.md/ZydIr](https://archive.md/ZydIr)

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ur-whale
[http://archive.is/ZydIr](http://archive.is/ZydIr)

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organian
Non-paywall link: [https://outline.com/4e95fm](https://outline.com/4e95fm)

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saberience
The article is behind a paywall and I can't read it, anyone got an alternative
url?

