Dear Big Nana,

You said;

“Conservatives are the one who supported strict lock downs, not the socialist left.”

Well that was patently untrue in Sweden, and in the UK, and in Brazil, and in the USA.

If you have counter examples I would like to hear them.

Dear Shadow Minister,

Sweden's economy grew only on the back of a rise in exports. Theirs rose by 3.4 percent while ours dipped by 3.3%. But it wasn't on the back of increased production. Large parts of its manufacturing shut down while Australia's kept going. As a result we recorded far stronger manufacturing growth figures in the GDP mix.

Our household consumption fell by 1.1% while theirs dipped by 1.7%. Of course included in our figures were the impact of the bushfires.

So little joy for you there I'm afraid.

As to Victoria only a single one of the new cases over the weekend is recorded as having attended the protests. The vast bulk are either from the meatworks or outbreaks in families ignoring COVID rules.

Dear JBowyer,

Not a great fan of hers but Pelosi vs Mitch? Whew. No contest there I'm afraid.

I like this one;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALGkQq3RJ7k

SR,

I was comparing Sweden with other countries in the EU not Aus or NZ who benefited from a huge separation from the rest of the world and a significant time lag in infections. Compared to most of its neighbours the Swedish economy has suffered far less than most EU countries (EU average -3.5% )and while its death rate is relatively high, its population is also not suffering from lockdown fatigue that is the source of unrest in most countries and is better equiped to deal with the crisis in the long term.

Notably Aus had a conservative government with strict lock down and Sweden has a comparatively left whinge government and had a very loose social distancing regime.

"In the seven days to Monday, Victoria revealed 121 cases of coronavirus, only 34 of which were in recently returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine. Monday’s 16 new cases included a fourth case of a person who attended the protest in Melbourne’s CBD on June 6 and caught the virus."

Regards

Professor Neil Ferguson’s team at Imperial College were the people who put together the models used to predict disaster in the US, UK and (it seems) Australia. That the models were fatally flawed is now confirmed.

But not all their advise was about impending disaster....

"In fact, the Imperial team did identify the main problem about a lockdown. In an earlier report to Sage, they had pointed out that once a disease had taken hold in a population, ‘measures which are too effective merely push all transmission to the period after they are lifted, giving a delay but no substantial reduction in either peak incidence or overall attack rate’."

New Zealand and Victoria, as well as many other parts of the world, are in a panic about a second wave and what's to be done.

I wonder if Sweden is concerned about a second wave. </sarc>

More important than comparing ourselves with other countries is what we do in Australia. With our international borders closed probably well into next year, now is time to wean ourselves off mass immigration and get our our 0.7 million permanently unemployed, as well as the 600,000 thrown out of work by Morrison, into work. Dick Smith has called today for a cut in immigration to 75,O00 year. That's still too many, but much better than the suicidal 200-300 thousand pre China virus intake.

Dear Shadow Minister,

“As part of the agreement, the Social Democrats and Greens signed onto a 73-point declaration of intent that is heavy on conservative policies like mandatory language testing to become a citizen, lower taxes and weaker employment protection rules. It also ruled out any influence from the Left Party, the heir to the old Communist Party.”

Hardly makes it a comparatively left wing government does it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/world/europe/sweden-government.html

Dear mhaze,

Sweden is likely well into its second phase with record setting new infections seen over the last week.