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A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu—NYT

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/us/flu-outbreak-air-force-base.html?unlocked_article_code=1.rFA.LASy.Em3OYzAscBzB&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Why do we need to relearn the lesson that vaccines are a good thing?

Same reason we apparently need to relearn the lesson that Nazis are a bad thing. We've had getting on for seventy years of peace and health and whatnot, and come to take it as read, rather than things that require a bit (not very much) effort on our parts.

Starmer considers resigning. End of June bet still on

Theoretically possible but not going to happen.

Burnham will let Starmer hit his second anniversary in July. He's not in a hurry and if it saves face and lets Starmer go with a bit of dignity, why not agree to that?

When does Burnham stop being Mayor? Is that job now vacant or is he in post until replaced in a Mayoral by-election, presumably also to be held in July?

I believe he stopped being Mayor the instant he was elected an MP. By law, AIUI, you cannot be an MP and a mayor who has a police & crime commissioner role. In being elected an MP, he thus instantly becomes disqualified for the mayor role.

A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu—NYT

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/us/flu-outbreak-air-force-base.html?unlocked_article_code=1.rFA.LASy.Em3OYzAscBzB&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Why do we need to relearn the lesson that vaccines are a good thing?

Because some people are absolute [redacted].

One of my father's colleague said recently he mentioned vaccinating a child and their parent threatened them with violence, this isn't an uncommon experience in the last few years.

Starmer wasn't a Ming Vase, he was an Empty Vase.

And this shows just how pointless such a strategy is in politics.

A lesson for the ages.

The Ming vase strategy was an imperative so as not to scare the horses. Being a shite PM was not a great second step.

Yep. His problem was not MV. Everybody does MV when an election is in the bag bar screw ups. It's the political equivalent of closing down the game 3/0 up with 10 mins left. That was not the SKS problem. The SKS problem was an inability (and quite a special one) to connect with the public. That's why he's going and that's why Burnham is taking over. He has shown that he can. Mayor votes plus polling and now this clinching final step, thumping the populist right in a by-election.

The ghost of the Sheffield Rally looms large. Yeah, woow, yeah!

But in a Lancs accent. Totally different.

I would argue that the big problem was that they had absolutely no idea what to do once in Government. They had wasted 15 years in opposition in-fighting and complaining. They couldn't do Blair's trick of just carrying on with a competent Tory administration's policies (there wasn't one). The global conditions remained unfavourable for coasting.

So what changes when Andy Burnham takes the helm? How do they magic up a decade of intellectual effort and policy development in, say, 6 weeks?

On the other hand, the other guys clown shoes are bigger, so they have that electoral asset - which is all they seem to care about. Government is just an inconvenient distraction from campaigning.

That's fair criticism about lack of a plan but you are overegging it bigtime. He took over as LOTO in 2020 and until Johnson imploded (2022) and then Truss trashed the Tory brand beyond redemption the realistic goal was rebuilding the party not 'preparing for government'. He had less than 2 years for that.

His remarkable inability to connect with the public is why he has become in short order the most unpopular PM in living memory. That's the main reason he's having to be replaced. It's not the only reason but it's by a distance the main one.