On the economic side the news is 1) work from home if you can 2) go to work if not UNLESS 3) your work is closed by terms of the lockdown (non-food shops/restaurants).

In practise there’s a 4th category: your employer has taken it’s own decisions to close/shrink even if not ordered to and you’re furloughed so stay at home

What do we know about the people the PM just ordered back to work? Everyone’s saying they are the lowest earners - that isn’t true. They are instead 1) overwhelmingly male (28% of men vs 10% of women)

2) middle earners when it comes to weekly pay with typical earnings of £540. This is way below those lucky enough to work from home (£700) but above our key workers (£454) facing the biggest health risks and those in the shutdown sectors (£350) who are hit hardest economically

3) concentrated in construction and manufacturing (sectors parts of govt are keen to say they basically never said should close)

4) While they aren’t the lowest earners they are lower qualified. Basically we’re talking about men that earn a middle income despite not having many qualifications by getting on with a trade. It’s partly white van man that just got ordered back to work.

Big picture: highest earners by far most protected economic & health wise because of nature of this crisis. Very lowest earners (hospitality) face biggest economic risk while low earners & women dominate key workers = highest health risks. Change today was for middle earning men

Should have said: no change for those with kids which is that we’re basically using Job Retention Scheme to fill the gap of us not having paid parental leave in the UK ie so they can be at home with kids and get 80% of pay. Older millennials facing the brunt of the caring burden