this is in effect a government on a
wartime footing a government calling for
a collective national effort as far as
Johnson would do quotes whatever it
takes
warning of even more extreme measures to
come or the Chancellor ashisu NAT
promised a 330 billion pound package of
government backed loans and guarantees
along with cash grants for smaller firms
promising that if demand was greater it
would be met the Prime Minister insisted
the government and society was there two
quotes look after people thick and thin
a political editor Gary Gibbon has this
report
rush hour this morning a commuter ghost
train the train from Gatwick empty
London's Covent Garden a ghost town one
day after the government clamp down on
socializing and work travel the Prime
Minister and the Chancellor tried to
address the howl of pain from employees
and businesses who fear they're staring
into an abyss we must act like any
wartime government and do whatever it
takes to support our economy and that's
the the main purpose of this press
conference this afternoon we must
support millions of visitors and tens of
millions of families and individuals
through the coming months and to do that
the government machine must and will
respond with a profound sense of urgency
this national effort will be underpinned
by government interventions in the
economy on a scale unimaginable only a
few weeks ago this is not a time for
ideology and orthodoxy this is a time to
be bold a time for courage I want to
reassure every British citizen this
government will give you all the tools
you need to get through this the pace
and virulence of the virus changed the
government's health advice yesterday
today it rewrote a budget at least six
days old and challenged decades of Tory
economics thinking and in the coming
days I will go much further to support
people's financial security in
particular I will work with trade unions
and business
groups to urgently develop new forms of
employment support to help protect
people's jobs and their incomes through
this period that was a hint at the
government paying employers to keep
workers in their jobs it came on top of
cash grants to smaller businesses
billions of pounds worth of government
loans we have never faced an economic
fight like this one but we are
well-prepared we will get through this
and we will do whatever it takes
thank you as you'll have gathered this
afternoon we are going to do whatever it
takes
thank you very much that phrase echoing
the language leaders used after the 2008
crash and the euro crisis an open-ended
promise meant to reassure NHS bosses
giving evidence to MPs were asked if the
government call for people to stay apart
from each other might avoid the NHS
being overwhelmed by more patients than
it could treat do you think the new
guidelines issued yesterday to the
public about social distancing will be
more effective if they were mandatory
rather than advisory we will know the
answer to that question within a matter
of days I think we say yesterday
obviously the first approach is to
appeal to the good judgment and
altruistic instincts of the British
people but if it turns out that further
measures are required that I'm sure the
scientific advisors will put those
before the government to consider I
can't be plainer than to say the
importance of adhering to these measures
as much as you possibly can
is going to make the difference to
whether the NHS copes or not it's as
plain as that some NHS leaders sound
like they want a full legal crackdown on
movement including the shut down of
schools and universities they may not
have long to wait non-essential
operations will be postponed the NHS
said over the coming weeks to free up
beds for covert 19 victims the Bleak
ambition if all these measures paid off
spelled out the the total number of
deaths rather than being in the hundreds
of thousands could potentially get below
20,000 that is the hope we can get it
down to that and to put that into
perspective every year in seasonal flu
the number of deaths is thought to be
about 8,000 excess deaths so if we can
get this down to numbers 20,000 and
below that's a good outcome in terms of
where we would hope to get to with this
outbreak but I mean it's still horrible
I mean that's still an enormous number
of debts and it's an enormous pressure
on the Health Service the government has
tonight published an emergency powers
bill which it hopes will ease the
pressure on the NHS allowing the
government to shut down ports and
airports temporarily lower care
standards speed up funerals and allow
the police to detain those with the
virus the clamp down only announced
yesterday already being superseded in
the race to stop kovat 19 engulfing the
National Health Service