What we do seem to have seen is a budget that Ed Miliband might have been pretty proud of had things gone differently. A truly massive increase in public spending, some increases in taxes, notably for businesses through CT and ENI, and yet projected deficits which fall very rapidly as a share of GDP.
I suspect that many on the right of the Tory party will be quietly appalled but they will be nowhere near as appalled as the pretty competent Labour shadow Treasury team. Boris and Rishi are running an extremely centrist, almost fractionally left of centre, government and it does not leave Labour with much room for offering a substantive alternative.
Bit like what Blair & Brown did to the Tories.
True I think but eventually, or maybe quite soon, what happened to the dismal Brown and Blair will happen to the only slightly less dismal Sunak and Johnson - they'll run out of other people's money.
Can I refer my honourable friend to my earlier comment about the quietly appalled.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 1h Rachel Reeves was basically like John Barnes against Argentina. Came on without any real chance to change the result. But a good performance. People will be buying shares in her.
Blimey. Hodges needs to update his references. Surely Mrs Thatcher was PM back then, and half his readers weren't born.
If it encouraged wine producers to edge down their alcohol content that would be a good thing.
I'm not persuaded that French wine producers, for example, will have been hanging on to Rishi's every word and, as we speak, trying to work out how to reduce the alcohol content of their vin rouge.
No, probably not, but British buyers will be very conscious that they can offer wine with an alcohol level of less than 11% at a very competitive but still profitable price and they will look out for it.
Trouble is, we've got the taste for big peppery reds now. I'd guess (but happy to be proved wrong) that reds at 11% are going to taste a bit insipid?
Oh, and as I forecast this morning when mocking the IMF forecast that we would still be down 3% on 2019 GDP in 2024 it does appear we will be there by the end of this year: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59062392
Starting without a queen would be more interesting than 30 seconds time limit.
This is either incredibly subtle or a reply to a different post.
Yes! Not sure what happened but was meant as a reply to the Bill Gates chess post.
Carlsen without a queen vs Gates would have been interesting, and possibly determined by how much time each player had, the more time the better the chance for Gates. Whereas Carlsen with 30 seconds and all the pieces will win over 99% of the time.
Interesting to about three people, as Channel 4 discovered when it bought the rights to Kasparov versus Short for peak evening viewing. They even curtailed the racing to get there for the start in case they missed the first ever Foolsmate in a world championship match.
If it encouraged wine producers to edge down their alcohol content that would be a good thing.
I'm not persuaded that French wine producers, for example, will have been hanging on to Rishi's every word and, as we speak, trying to work out how to reduce the alcohol content of their vin rouge.
No, probably not, but British buyers will be very conscious that they can offer wine with an alcohol level of less than 11% at a very competitive but still profitable price and they will look out for it.
Trouble is, we've got the taste for big peppery reds now. I'd guess (but happy to be proved wrong) that reds at 11% are going to taste a bit insipid?
I hesitate to generalise but I am starting to find some reds, notably Australian Shiraz and the like, just a tad on the strong side. Sometimes its a bit like drinking sherry which is not ideal to sip with a meal. I am aware of a female friend who has stopped drinking reds for the same reason.
We shall see.
My impression is that it's the Aussie reds that pack stupid punches and the European reds are a bit more civilised.
How do these duty changes compare with the effects of the Brilliant Trade Deal?
Much if not all of Laithwaites' business model is to flog 14-15% wines which you can't really taste beyond the alcohol.
Edit: to burnish my metropolitan liberal elite credentials, I should point out that my knowledge of this comes only from an unfortunate flat-share at university with someone who was - how can I put it? - not one of us. Think she went to work for Goldman Sachs. New money.
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Oh, and as I forecast this morning when mocking the IMF forecast that we would still be down 3% on 2019 GDP in 2024 it does appear we will be there by the end of this year: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59062392
Starting without a queen would be more interesting than 30 seconds time limit.
This is either incredibly subtle or a reply to a different post.
Yes! Not sure what happened but was meant as a reply to the Bill Gates chess post.
Carlsen without a queen vs Gates would have been interesting, and possibly determined by how much time each player had, the more time the better the chance for Gates. Whereas Carlsen with 30 seconds and all the pieces will win over 99% of the time.
Interesting to about three people, as Channel 4 discovered when it bought the rights to Kasparov versus Short for peak evening viewing. They even curtailed the racing to get there for the start in case they missed the first ever Foolsmate in a world championship match.
I thought that had a decent number of viewers? There were certainly more people turning up to chess clubs for a while after it. Certainly more than do now (or at least did before the pandemic).
Any half reasonable player could easily beat Magnus with a queen head start given more than 5 seconds a move.
What we do seem to have seen is a budget that Ed Miliband might have been pretty proud of had things gone differently. A truly massive increase in public spending, some increases in taxes, notably for businesses through CT and ENI, and yet projected deficits which fall very rapidly as a share of GDP.
I suspect that many on the right of the Tory party will be quietly appalled but they will be nowhere near as appalled as the pretty competent Labour shadow Treasury team. Boris and Rishi are running an extremely centrist, almost fractionally left of centre, government and it does not leave Labour with much room for offering a substantive alternative.
Bit like what Blair & Brown did to the Tories.
True I think but eventually, or maybe quite soon, what happened to the dismal Brown and Blair will happen to the only slightly less dismal Sunak and Johnson - they'll run out of other people's money.
Sunak and Johnson will run out more quickly because they won't tax the rich.
Oh, and as I forecast this morning when mocking the IMF forecast that we would still be down 3% on 2019 GDP in 2024 it does appear we will be there by the end of this year: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59062392
Starting without a queen would be more interesting than 30 seconds time limit.
This is either incredibly subtle or a reply to a different post.
Yes! Not sure what happened but was meant as a reply to the Bill Gates chess post.
Carlsen without a queen vs Gates would have been interesting, and possibly determined by how much time each player had, the more time the better the chance for Gates. Whereas Carlsen with 30 seconds and all the pieces will win over 99% of the time.
Interesting to about three people, as Channel 4 discovered when it bought the rights to Kasparov versus Short for peak evening viewing. They even curtailed the racing to get there for the start in case they missed the first ever Foolsmate in a world championship match.
If pb posts had to be interesting to more than a niche audience, pb would not exist.
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
"The Prime Minister is the frontman, distracting people with his wild promises. All the while, his Chancellor dips his hand in their pocket. It all seems like fun and games until you walk away and realise your purse has been lifted."
Oh, and as I forecast this morning when mocking the IMF forecast that we would still be down 3% on 2019 GDP in 2024 it does appear we will be there by the end of this year: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59062392
Starting without a queen would be more interesting than 30 seconds time limit.
This is either incredibly subtle or a reply to a different post.
Yes! Not sure what happened but was meant as a reply to the Bill Gates chess post.
Carlsen without a queen vs Gates would have been interesting, and possibly determined by how much time each player had, the more time the better the chance for Gates. Whereas Carlsen with 30 seconds and all the pieces will win over 99% of the time.
Interesting to about three people, as Channel 4 discovered when it bought the rights to Kasparov versus Short for peak evening viewing. They even curtailed the racing to get there for the start in case they missed the first ever Foolsmate in a world championship match.
If pb posts had to be interesting to more than a niche audience, pb would not exist.
Well quite. This is a site for people of all political persuasions, who are into test cricket, unusual wines, chess strategy, and trains.
Weasel words though. "depiction of a young actor..."
It looks for all the world that it depicts a boy who likes dressing up with all the associated implications.
I still want to know how on earth that advert got past anyone, and how on earth those people are still employed by John Lewis.
It was without doubt the worst advert I've seen in years (and I watch a few bit of TV streamed from the states with adverts included).
The intent was to rile people up and get them talking on twitter. It succeeded in doing that but unfortunately all they did was rile up their own customers.
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
"The Prime Minister is the frontman, distracting people with his wild promises. All the while, his Chancellor dips his hand in their pocket. It all seems like fun and games until you walk away and realise your purse has been lifted."
Was RR responsible for that line? If so, she has come up with a better attack line - and put it more eloquently - than anything SKS has managed in the last 20 months. In fact, it's better than anything anyone from Labour has managed for over a decade.
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
Rachel has won universal plaudits on PB – from both sides of the divide. Indeed, the PB Tories have been generous with their praise.
The more interesting question is now perhaps: what does she do next to make her play for the leadership?
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
"The Prime Minister is the frontman, distracting people with his wild promises. All the while, his Chancellor dips his hand in their pocket. It all seems like fun and games until you walk away and realise your purse has been lifted."
Was RR responsible for that line? If so, she has come up with a better attack line - and put it more eloquently - than anything SKS has managed in the last 20 months. In fact, it's better than anything anyone from Labour has managed for over a decade.
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
"The Prime Minister is the frontman, distracting people with his wild promises. All the while, his Chancellor dips his hand in their pocket. It all seems like fun and games until you walk away and realise your purse has been lifted."
Was RR responsible for that line? If so, she has come up with a better attack line - and put it more eloquently - than anything SKS has managed in the last 20 months. In fact, it's better than anything anyone from Labour has managed for over a decade.
I suspect she didn't write it, but she delivered it well. But yes, it's a beautifully crafted line that strikes right at the heart of the cost of living theme.
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
Rachel has won universal plaudits on PB – from both sides of the divide. Indeed, the PB Tories have been generous with their praise.
The more interesting question is now perhaps: what does she do next to make her play for the leadership?
Absolutely nothing - at least not until after the next GE. Starmer won't be challenged before then.
And it does Starmer no harm to have a brilliant Shadow Chancellor, and Reeves no harm to shine in that role.
Weasel words though. "depiction of a young actor..."
It looks for all the world that it depicts a boy who likes dressing up with all the associated implications.
I still want to know how on earth that advert got past anyone, and how on earth those people are still employed by John Lewis.
It was without doubt the worst advert I've seen in years (and I watch a few bit of TV streamed from the states with adverts included).
It was an attempt to capture the zeitgeist. But ended up asking more questions than it answered.
Just watched the John Lewis Let Life Happen advert for the first time and thought it was great. Far better, in fact, than most of their much-vaunted Christmas commercials. Did not mind, or really notice, the woke business. Just a shame it was advertising a completely different product from the one they actually sell.
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
"The Prime Minister is the frontman, distracting people with his wild promises. All the while, his Chancellor dips his hand in their pocket. It all seems like fun and games until you walk away and realise your purse has been lifted."
Was RR responsible for that line? If so, she has come up with a better attack line - and put it more eloquently - than anything SKS has managed in the last 20 months. In fact, it's better than anything anyone from Labour has managed for over a decade.
Kate McCann of Sky News admits Rishi baffled us with Science.
You mean he used maths more complex than 2+2?
If your being snippy with me here's my Budget Reaction:
That 2021 6pc growth is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
I was referring to the journalist claiming to be baffled by Science - that tends to be code for "the bad person used numbers and things I don't want to know about"
Fair enough - I assume Rishi's calculator does add 2+2 to equal 4 but he's probably utilised some Civil Service prepared graphs as well.
What I would really enjoy is a demolition job such as DK Brown did after the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster.
He demolished a journalist and a strangely ignorant maths professor who'd read a book on naval architecture for 1 minute.
I still recall the plaintiff cries from the interviewer that it was a bit "complex"...
Oh? What was his view vs the maths prof? Presumably about the importance of free water sloshing around the car hold?
The math prof had read one equation on stability, and claimed that 1mm of water would cause any RoRo ship to capsize. and had gone hot foot to the BBC....
DK Brown gently pointed out that this was bollocks - informed by his having designed such ships and being taught the design principles by Baker* (the chap who was *the* landing ship designer in the RN, in WWII)
EDIT: In addition Brown was a serious authority on ship stability. His books on the Royal Navy have massive chunks on the problems and successes in various classes of this.
*Who designed the landing ships to be stable even when the vehicle deck was flooded. To prove this he trialled deliberately flooding the lead craft of various classes. At sea.... As Brown pointed out - a nice idea for civilian vessels as well...
Thanks! I've got his books on the RN myself. But had not been aware of the HFE link.
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
"The Prime Minister is the frontman, distracting people with his wild promises. All the while, his Chancellor dips his hand in their pocket. It all seems like fun and games until you walk away and realise your purse has been lifted."
Was RR responsible for that line? If so, she has come up with a better attack line - and put it more eloquently - than anything SKS has managed in the last 20 months. In fact, it's better than anything anyone from Labour has managed for over a decade.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
"The Prime Minister is the frontman, distracting people with his wild promises. All the while, his Chancellor dips his hand in their pocket. It all seems like fun and games until you walk away and realise your purse has been lifted."
Was RR responsible for that line? If so, she has come up with a better attack line - and put it more eloquently - than anything SKS has managed in the last 20 months. In fact, it's better than anything anyone from Labour has managed for over a decade.
That's a bit desperate from Guido - the theme of the pickpocket chancellor has been around for a long time, as far as I recall. The wording is quite different, Kinnock-Biden it is not. If that's the worst they can come up with then Reeves should be pleased.
Mr. Cookie, that only stacks up if Labour are promising to cut taxes, though.
Otherwise their only option is to hike borrowing even more to splurge even more money.
It'd be interesting if Labour became fiscally conservative. Not going to happen, though.
You mean RR's line? It works as an attack line. It doesn't have to be a coherent policy position from Labour. But it will be interesting to see what they propose to do. Do they propose to spend less? Or borrow more?
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
I don't think viruses care who the prime minister is.
From my back of a fag paper calculations it looks like a full time employee on UC will be better off after today's budget than if they'd kept the £20 uplift but not touched the taper. Whereas they'd have been worse off even with the Living Wage boost had it not been touched.
Plus the benefit of a lower taper is the poverty trap is reduced for if they do some overtime or get a pay-rise.
People should be able to rely on work and not welfare.
Devil will be in the detail but I'm a happy bunny today. I'm still worse off personally due the NI changes, but the poorest who work are better off so this is a big first step in the right direction.
Back on board the Boris bus, thank goodness for that!
Maybe.
This is an issue I care passionately about which I've been campaigning about for years. Its not like I've suddenly just discovered this issue - this is something I did a paper on nearly two decades ago and is something I have long really cared about. There's a reason why when it was named other posters name-checked me on it, this is something I've been advocating for here.
The devil will be in the details. It will be interesting to see if this stands up in the light of day but if it does then Rishi may have won me back with this move.
But I'll want further such steps in the future, this isn't the end of the line as far as I'm concerned.
It's something I've come around to, and the more it's investigated, the better it looks.
Whilst some people jink at the "Unconditional" bit, it must be borne in mind that the alternative to Unconditional Basic Income is Conditional Basic Income. Because no modern country just sits by and let people starve.
Conditional Basic Income means that the State gets to dictate the conditions, monitor the conditions, assess you against those conditions, and implement the conditions.
And, because this is the case, it smothers citizens in need with complex, lengthy, and often ambiguous forms and documentation and repeated assessments, as well as incurring a delay when in need. This increases tension and stress just when said citizens are most stressed, and this damages the decision-making powers of the brain (this surprised me initially, but there are a lot of studies on it).
So just when people need a clear mind, they're clouded. And then we hold their (impaired) decisions against them, adding punitive elements to the conditions.
Set it up such that it replaces the tax allowance and, yes, you might need specific extra targeted benefits (such as for those who are disabled), but these are specific and far smaller add-ons.
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
"The Prime Minister is the frontman, distracting people with his wild promises. All the while, his Chancellor dips his hand in their pocket. It all seems like fun and games until you walk away and realise your purse has been lifted."
Was RR responsible for that line? If so, she has come up with a better attack line - and put it more eloquently - than anything SKS has managed in the last 20 months. In fact, it's better than anything anyone from Labour has managed for over a decade.
That's a bit desperate from Guido - the theme of the pickpocket chancellor has been around for a long time, as far as I recall. The wording is quite different, Kinnock-Biden it is not. If that's the worst they can come up with then Reeves should be pleased.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
I don't think viruses care who the prime minister is.
They do care about population density though.
Denmark population density 137 / km^2 England population density 445 / km^2
LAB need to prepare for the future once Keir has lost the election.
As I have said on here before there are not many credible candidates. Rayner can be discounted. People like Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn - and Ed - are yesterday's contenders. So Rachel is a good option for LAB.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
I'm not sure the personality of prime minister needs to be controlled for in this comparison.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Clearly unrelated to the Denmark situation you're talking about, but someone in Denmark is paying to advertise Danish "oyster safaris" to me on twitter. I've seen three of them today.
I put another £200 on Labour poll lead by end of 2021 today
Are you betting on Smarkets? That market is a lead by 2 November which is next Tuesday, not the end of the year.
The graph isn't showing any matched bets for today yet. If your bet isn't matched and you've just put it on hoping it gets selected at better odds than what's currently available you may want to cancel your bet if you didn't realise the market ends on Tuesday not the end of the year.
The fall increasingly feels as if it's mainly half term test reduction driven rather than particularly real.
Sure, but how can it have been any different? Our knowledge of case numbers is purely coming from tests taken. We need to stop reporting and stressing about the number of new infections and purely concentrate on hospitalisations.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
I don't think viruses care who the prime minister is.
They do care about population density though.
Denmark population density 137 / km^2 England population density 445 / km^2
Bulk densities are a fairly pointless metric, what matters is the distribution of crowdedness. You could change Denmark's population density hugely just by decided whether or not to include Greenland in the figures, but it would have no impact whatsoever to the transmission of the virus, because Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, and so on would all have exactly the same conditions.
I put another £200 on Labour poll lead by end of 2021 today
Are you betting on Smarkets? That market is a lead by 2 November which is next Tuesday, not the end of the year.
The graph isn't showing any matched bets for today yet. If your bet isn't matched and you've just put it on hoping it gets selected at better odds than what's currently available you may want to cancel your bet if you didn't realise the market ends on Tuesday not the end of the year.
The fall increasingly feels as if it's mainly half term test reduction driven rather than particularly real.
Hm - it's certainly not as good as I'd like given it's half term. I'd maintain that the fall started before half term though. It'll be interesting to see how the various age brackets are doing in a few days.
EDIT: Actually, scratch that - I misread where we were 7 days ago. I'd rate the fall so far as 'about the minimum I'd like to see to be confident we're going in the right direction.'
The fall increasingly feels as if it's mainly half term test reduction driven rather than particularly real.
What's the positivity rate?
The R from cases peaked around the 16th, so it isn't the half term...
Rolling 7-day peak was on 20th with 46.7K cases. This was of course before half-term but could well be people not wanting to test before going away. There does seem to be a gradual decline but too soon to tell how much is caused by half term. I still think there can't be many more school kids who have yet to develop immunity.
The fall increasingly feels as if it's mainly half term test reduction driven rather than particularly real.
Sure, but how can it have been any different? Our knowledge of case numbers is purely coming from tests taken. We need to stop reporting and stressing about the number of new infections and purely concentrate on hospitalisations.
If we've hit "herd immunity" then true case numbers should drop. Anything policy related should be driven of course by hospitalisations as you say; and not by the flu/cold like symptons most healthy vaccinated people get as cases.
The fall increasingly feels as if it's mainly half term test reduction driven rather than particularly real.
Hm - it's certainly not as good as I'd like given it's half term. I'd maintain that the fall started before half term though. It'll be interesting to see how the various age brackets are doing in a few days.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
I don't think viruses care who the prime minister is.
They do care about population density though.
Denmark population density 137 / km^2 England population density 445 / km^2
Raw population density isn't that important, surely, as number of people living in cities and in close proximity to each other. If the Highlands of Scotland suddenly declared in indepedence, it wouldn't result in case rates shooting up in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Are people clutching at straws re COVID as the fall has not arrived, wrong again why am I not surprised.
Plan B now.
I think there is a (small) fall, and hospitalisations look like they're falling a bit too. Plan B doesn't need to be case based unless it's at least at 100,000 and probably more.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
I don't think viruses care who the prime minister is.
They do care about population density though.
Denmark population density 137 / km^2 England population density 445 / km^2
Bulk densities are a fairly pointless metric, what matters is the distribution of crowdedness. You could change Denmark's population density hugely just by decided whether or not to include Greenland in the figures, but it would have no impact whatsoever to the transmission of the virus, because Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, and so on would all have exactly the same conditions.
Yes but I'm not doing that. Denmark is not remotely as crowded as England and the towns and cities are both less crowded than English ones and they are more spread out from each other (which acts as a natural firebreak that can be lacking in England).
Just watched the John Lewis advert - have I been in a cave for a few weeks?
Perhaps I'm reading too much into it but the message seems to be - if you're a boy and you want to cause chaos (let's face it lots of boys do), make sure you put a dress and make up on first!
Just watched the John Lewis advert - have I been in a cave for a few weeks?
Perhaps I'm reading too much into it but the message seems to be - if you're a boy and you want to cause chaos (let's face it lots of boys do), make sure you put a dress and make up on first!
The problem is that none of the damage is accidental - unless the parents completely lie on the claims form.
The fall increasingly feels as if it's mainly half term test reduction driven rather than particularly real.
Hm - it's certainly not as good as I'd like given it's half term. I'd maintain that the fall started before half term though. It'll be interesting to see how the various age brackets are doing in a few days.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
I don't think viruses care who the prime minister is.
They do care about population density though.
Denmark population density 137 / km^2 England population density 445 / km^2
Bulk densities are a fairly pointless metric, what matters is the distribution of crowdedness. You could change Denmark's population density hugely just by decided whether or not to include Greenland in the figures, but it would have no impact whatsoever to the transmission of the virus, because Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, and so on would all have exactly the same conditions.
Yes but I'm not doing that. Denmark is not remotely as crowded as England and the towns and cities are both less crowded than English ones and they are more spread out from each other (which acts as a natural firebreak that can be lacking in England).
Awkwardly, it looks like Copenhagen's density is higher than London's. Frederiksberg is even higher.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
I don't think viruses care who the prime minister is.
They do care about population density though.
Denmark population density 137 / km^2 England population density 445 / km^2
Bulk densities are a fairly pointless metric, what matters is the distribution of crowdedness. You could change Denmark's population density hugely just by decided whether or not to include Greenland in the figures, but it would have no impact whatsoever to the transmission of the virus, because Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, and so on would all have exactly the same conditions.
A quick google tells me Copenhagen has a higher population density than London.
Just heard Wes Streeting on R5 talking about the Budget. He was complaining about Amazon being given a massive tax break, and said the word Amazon about ten times.
Somehow, he doesn't know how it's pronounced.
It should be æməzən with the stress on the first syllable
He was saying æməzɒn (ie rhyming with con) with the stress on the final syllable
How has he never learnt to say it properly?
The way it was pronounced is the standard US pronunciation. Your way is English RP, but I think most people use the US pronunciation these days - I’ve certainly never heard it pronounced the RP way.
Since Amazon the company is a US company, pronouncing their name the way they do seems perfectly reasonable regardless.
The fall increasingly feels as if it's mainly half term test reduction driven rather than particularly real.
Sure, but how can it have been any different? Our knowledge of case numbers is purely coming from tests taken. We need to stop reporting and stressing about the number of new infections and purely concentrate on hospitalisations.
If we've hit "herd immunity" then true case numbers should drop. Anything policy related should be driven of course by hospitalisations as you say; and not by the flu/cold like symptons most healthy vaccinated people get as cases.
What do you mean by true case numbers though? We can never know that. All we have is the tests and if we test more then more cases will appear (though they were of course there, undetected and harmless, already). We are testing oodles of healthy schoolchildren and I think we need to stop doing this. Test poorly ones only.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
I don't think viruses care who the prime minister is.
They do care about population density though.
Denmark population density 137 / km^2 England population density 445 / km^2
Bulk densities are a fairly pointless metric, what matters is the distribution of crowdedness. You could change Denmark's population density hugely just by decided whether or not to include Greenland in the figures, but it would have no impact whatsoever to the transmission of the virus, because Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, and so on would all have exactly the same conditions.
A quick google tells me Copenhagen has a higher population density than London.
beat you to it by a matter of seconds. There's probably so definition that needs to be examined in that, but I can't be arsed. E.g. does Copenhagen include Frederiksberg, Taarnby, etc.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
I don't think viruses care who the prime minister is.
They do care about population density though.
Denmark population density 137 / km^2 England population density 445 / km^2
Raw population density isn't that important, surely, as number of people living in cities and in close proximity to each other. If the Highlands of Scotland suddenly declared in indepedence, it wouldn't result in case rates shooting up in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
But overall population does generally matter because unless everyone is crowded into a single area then countries with low density tend to have more space between towns and cities, acting as more of a natural firebreak.
Take Edinburgh and Glasgow, if you compare it to the Highlands its densely population, but if you compare it to North West England its very sparsely populated. The land between Glasgow and Edinburgh is mostly farmland and relatively uninhabited compared to the land between Liverpool and Manchester, meaning that there's a firebreak there that doesn't exist here.
Can anyone explain the Denmark situation to me. They lifted all covid restrictions over a month ago and are doing fine so far as I can see. We, however, seem to be in a more difficult position.
Different vaccines/rates of take up? Different behaviour?
Perhaps they don't have a clown for a prime minister?
I don't think viruses care who the prime minister is.
They do care about population density though.
Denmark population density 137 / km^2 England population density 445 / km^2
Bulk densities are a fairly pointless metric, what matters is the distribution of crowdedness. You could change Denmark's population density hugely just by decided whether or not to include Greenland in the figures, but it would have no impact whatsoever to the transmission of the virus, because Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, and so on would all have exactly the same conditions.
A quick google tells me Copenhagen has a higher population density than London.
Quite. And it doesn't matter a bit if the Great Funen Steppe exists in parallel with the Great Central Scottish Desert with its camel-trains from Leadhills to the port at Borrowstounness which the PBTories invented the last but 34 times we had this discussion. The maths are the maths.
The fall increasingly feels as if it's mainly half term test reduction driven rather than particularly real.
Hm - it's certainly not as good as I'd like given it's half term. I'd maintain that the fall started before half term though. It'll be interesting to see how the various age brackets are doing in a few days.
Comments
An Italian Lambrusco, perhaps.
Weasel words though. "depiction of a young actor..."
It looks for all the world that it depicts a boy who likes dressing up with all the associated implications.
Tio Pepe = 18%.
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/253209096
Edit: to burnish my metropolitan liberal elite credentials, I should point out that my knowledge of this comes only from an unfortunate flat-share at university with someone who was - how can I put it? - not one of us. Think she went to work for Goldman Sachs. New money.
https://labourlist.org/2021/10/labour-would-put-working-people-first-rachel-reeves-full-budget-response/
It is, in my view, mightily impressive. Careful reading reveals, I think, the battlegrounds for the next general election. It also, I think, destroys the myth that Sunak delivered a 'New Labour' type budget.
It was without doubt the worst advert I've seen in years (and I watch a few bit of TV streamed from the states with adverts included).
Different vaccines/rates of take up?
Different behaviour?
Any half reasonable player could easily beat Magnus with a queen head start given more than 5 seconds a move.
The more interesting question is now perhaps: what does she do next to make her play for the leadership?
https://order-order.com/2021/10/27/hague-inspires-reeves-budget-response/
Otherwise their only option is to hike borrowing even more to splurge even more money.
It'd be interesting if Labour became fiscally conservative. Not going to happen, though.
And it does Starmer no harm to have a brilliant Shadow Chancellor, and Reeves no harm to shine in that role.
Deaths 179 -> 207
Where are the Welsh numbers?
Edit: sorry, they are there. I misread the dashboard.
From the same paragraph of RR's speech;
"This country deserves better..." As used by BoJo in 2019 and Blair in 1997. Angry about now, hope for the future. It's a goodun.
But it will be interesting to see what they propose to do. Do they propose to spend less? Or borrow more?
Whilst some people jink at the "Unconditional" bit, it must be borne in mind that the alternative to Unconditional Basic Income is Conditional Basic Income. Because no modern country just sits by and let people starve.
Conditional Basic Income means that the State gets to dictate the conditions, monitor the conditions, assess you against those conditions, and implement the conditions.
And, because this is the case, it smothers citizens in need with complex, lengthy, and often ambiguous forms and documentation and repeated assessments, as well as incurring a delay when in need. This increases tension and stress just when said citizens are most stressed, and this damages the decision-making powers of the brain (this surprised me initially, but there are a lot of studies on it).
So just when people need a clear mind, they're clouded. And then we hold their (impaired) decisions against them, adding punitive elements to the conditions.
Set it up such that it replaces the tax allowance and, yes, you might need specific extra targeted benefits (such as for those who are disabled), but these are specific and far smaller add-ons.
Weak, weak, weak.
(from Guido)
Denmark population density 137 / km^2
England population density 445 / km^2
As I have said on here before there are not many credible candidates. Rayner can be discounted. People like Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn - and Ed - are yesterday's contenders. So Rachel is a good option for LAB.
Labour poll lead soon
19th October, 797990
26th October, 732736
(91.8%)
Cases @ 90.3%.
There might be a true drop - but it's small.
Haven't looked at anything else.
The graph isn't showing any matched bets for today yet. If your bet isn't matched and you've just put it on hoping it gets selected at better odds than what's currently available you may want to cancel your bet if you didn't realise the market ends on Tuesday not the end of the year.
polls tend not to be worth doing during the holiday period.
Laithwaites have 79 and 36 respectively afaics.
I'd maintain that the fall started before half term though.
It'll be interesting to see how the various age brackets are doing in a few days.
EDIT: Actually, scratch that - I misread where we were 7 days ago. I'd rate the fall so far as 'about the minimum I'd like to see to be confident we're going in the right direction.'
Plan B now.
They have a lower positivity rate than the PCR tests, so it might not be correct to compare ratios directly.
It does seem to be a very slow fall, though, particularly as the SW retest data will be dropping out.
Tomorrow likely to be slightly higher again (as usual)?
https://i.imgur.com/WIZmlk7.png
Overal UK case R from yesterdays run
https://i.imgur.com/87vRIJb.png
R peaked on the 16th
But that only goes up to the 21st.
Perhaps I'm reading too much into it but the message seems to be - if you're a boy and you want to cause chaos (let's face it lots of boys do), make sure you put a dress and make up on first!
New Thread
The rest of the team have managed 49 off 71 balls so far.
Which I think it likely is now. Slightly. Very slightly.
Frederiksberg is even higher.
I'll let others dig through the detail of that.
Since Amazon the company is a US company, pronouncing their name the way they do seems perfectly reasonable regardless.
Take Edinburgh and Glasgow, if you compare it to the Highlands its densely population, but if you compare it to North West England its very sparsely populated. The land between Glasgow and Edinburgh is mostly farmland and relatively uninhabited compared to the land between Liverpool and Manchester, meaning that there's a firebreak there that doesn't exist here.