We knew there was to be another announcement from Chancellor Rishi Sunak, but no one could have guessed how far his measures would go. At about 1715 today, at the daily press conference, and with the PM at his side, Mr Sunak announced that the government will pay 80 per cent of people’s salaries, defer VAT payments and increase out of work benefits. The chancellor said that Britain faced a “generation-defining moment” as he said that HM Revenue & Customs would pay grants to companies hit by coronavirus to cover the cost of people’s wages up to a cap of £2,500 a month. The scheme, which will open before the end of April and be backdated to March 1, will run for at least three months and the amount of funding available will be unlimited. “We will pay to support as many jobs as needed,” Mr Sunak said. He added that they were “unprecedented measures for unprecedented times”. There appears to be universal support for these measures, which is seeing all the fiscal rules being consigned to the scrapheap, at least in the short term. This will come back to bite us, but right now we must concentrate on the present and safeguard the nation as best we can from this virus. As you can imagine, Dorset Council is working round the clock to meet unprecedented calls on its system, with staff working flat out to help. First thing this morning, I took part in a 90 minute conference call with the authority's CEO, political leader, councillors, other officials and some of my parliamentary colleagues. It was a most informative and useful session. It was also heartening and inspiring to hear just what people are doing to go the extra mile for their fellow citizen. We heard that there were seven positive cases of coronavirus in Dorset Council's area and nine in the other unitary. The majority of council staff are now working from home and all the libraries have been closed as a precaution. The council is keeping a skeleton team on to man customer services. Schools will close at the end of the day, but many will reopen on Monday morning as heads sort out who exactly will remain in school and who will not. The children of those serving in certain public services - like the NHS, police and army - will be allowed to continue in school, to enable their parents, or parent, to continue in their role. This is vital. On the question of financial support for businesses and employees, the council and Dorset Chamber of Commerce are doing all they can to inform. Many questions remain unanswered, which is not surprising given the scale and complexities of the rescue packages. I then had a useful chat with Ian Wilson of the National Trust, which is looking at reintroducing beavers in Purbeck. I have very mixed feelings about this, as do many farmers, not least because of the animal's instinct to dam rivers. I was reassured that the NT was taking this very seriously and consulting widely before any beaver is released. The day was then spent, with my team, reassuring, helping and advising constituents. Some are stuck in remote countries, for example. The knock-on effects of this shut-down are many; some are yet to be realised. And can people stop panic-buying! This is not helping the situation one bit.