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When I was at school (best part of 50 years ago) we had a maths class about 'geometric progression'. The teacher told us a story about a wise man who went to work for a king. He asked to be paid each day in grains of rice on the squares of a chess board. On day 1 just 1 grain of rice. On day 2 put 2 grains of rice on the next square. On day 3 put 4 grains of rice. Every day doubling the number of grains of rice - 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and so on. The king agreed. After 64 days (the number of squares on a chess board) the wise man was owed more than all the rice in the world and was able to take the king's kingdom from him. That's geometric progression. Corona virus spreads at the rate of about 2.5 new infections per infected person. That means one infected person could potentially lead to about 60000 infections after 10 days. Without lockdown this would lead to 70-80% of the population being infected - until herd immunity kicks in and the infection rate slows right down. 70% of 70 million people is around 50 million. If 10% need hospital then that's 5 million. If 2% die then that is 1.4 million deaths. All happening over a couple of months. Unless you took radical action to slow things down you wouldn't be able to burn the bodies fast enough. This is way different to normal flu and doesn't remotely compare with smoking. There is no way on Earth that Trump will open up by Easter. We are in for a long haul, 3 months lockdown and then restrictions for many more months until, hopefully, a vaccine is developed. I said on a previous thread that 'failing to plan is planning to fail'. Back in January I read that some of the hardest hit businesses in China were car dealers because they were unable to trade and pay stocking loans. We started preparing about 4 weeks ago. Not buying anything and offloading cars where possible, maximising cash in the bank. We normally stock about 40 cars but now have just 11 cars at a covered secure storage site. Computers and anything of value removed from our premises. We spent quite a few days working on preparations for this and I think we can get through ok.

They were the first to show their hand and went at 50% before anyone else did anything and before full lockdown. I think it was a fair gesture at the time but yeah perhaps they will just change things now everyone else has gone fully free.

Does anyone have a contact email and a draft to send to them?

I had the same conversation yesterday. They are ‘currently reviewing the options’.

To be fair to you all, I was 50/50 and this forum contributed to the fact I stayed.. so sure big Thanks for advice. Its a solid 35k salary job. I still have 12 cars in stock and paying rent for the yard but I don’t mind that.. Looks like Boris will sort you all out tonight hopefully. I think measures he is taking are very reasonable.

He is leaving keys and paperwork on seat and we are posting keys. Our drivers have got little packs of spray and cloths to wipe contact surfaces either end plus rubber gloves. As for us working, nobody other than staff are allowed in the office and there are only 3 in working within different individual offices, no A/C allowed, no sharing communal areas. Everyone else is at home as not much to do. As for deliveries, we think we are allowed to do it, it’s only 30 miles and the driver won’t be stopping anywhere. to be fair probably the only one we will be doing for the foreseeable.

I would put the letter in a solid gold frame and kiss it every night You dont need to thank me by the way nobody ever does

All your figures maybe accurate, but they are not really applicable here as we have movement restrictions in place, which for the moment we can all agree is the correct thing to do. Trump says anything that comes into his mind, I am not defending him. One thing I hate is the use of the phrase 'lockdown'. This is not a 'lockdown'. You are correct, this is not comparable to smoking as smoking is killing many more people every day. The death rate halved yesterday, I am sure it will rise again today, and continue to rise over the next couple of weeks, but the massive problem with this virus is the fact that anyone who ends up in hospital needs help to breathe and we are short of machines that help this. I'm not saying this isn't serious, but consider this. My Mother-In-Law is in her 80s, she only stopped smoking when she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She is not being treated for her cancer. If she contracts this virus, she will undoubtedly die, it is unlikely that the NHS will even try to treat her because of her condition. The press will say that the virus killed her. Did it? Things like obesity and smoking are major factors in the outcome of this, is Piers Morgan banging on about us all getting fit?

No. You're trying to have your cake and eat it. Unlike most of us, you are still earning at least 80% of your salary. Most on here will be earning sweet FA and even if they do offer some "wage" support, what about my rent, advertising (after the free period), insurance et al. Be happy with the position you are fortunately in (guided by people on this forum, myself included to hold off resigning).