Build me up Buttercup

It was lovely and sunny this morning for my exercise walk in Spout Hills. If Holt is anything to go by, the restrictions will be re-tightened quickly as I gave up after counting what would be 10 breaches of the lesser restrictions coming in tomorrow. I suspect the message received is that lockdown is over, which is most certainly isn’t. 

Today is International Nurse’s Day and also the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. I enjoyed seeing the Royal Family film of clips from their video calls to some nurses around the World. I put a light in the window at 8:30 as was encouraged to thank all nurses. 

I often think of the song Build me up Buttercup when I see a buttercup, I had many an enjoyable evening in the Olney Wine Bar when Clem Curtis, the original lead singer of The Foundations, used to entertain patrons singing songs from the 1960s including this one.

Day 58 / Day 50 of Full Lockdown (for my record only)
UK deaths up 627 to 32,692 (ONS figures for E&W up to 1st May showed  36,391 deaths with Covid on the death certificate (27,510 confirmed), incl over 8k in care homes. There were 50,000 excess deaths from mid-Mar to early May); Italy up 172 to 30,911, Spain up 176 to 26,920.

Chancellor extends furlough scheme by 4 months to end Oct with employers to share the cost from Aug when they can also bring employees back part time. I’m in favour of this, except where employers already know they can’t keep the business open under the ‘new normal’ or employ a material number of existing staff. The scheme is currently costing £8bn a month.  Guidelines published for employers in steps 1 & 2 on how to be Covid Secure. Workers can complain to the HSE if their employer refuses to comply. £8bn of bounce back loans now issued, the main loan scheme has only issued £6bn of loans. 44% of employees are currently working from home.