F1: interesting qualifying. As usual, for a normally timed weekend, I plan to post the pre-race ramble on Sunday morning. Looking very much like a Hamilton win.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
So is that true or just someone spouting off rubbish?
"Privacy information on the vaccination passport app reveals personal data of users will be shared with NetCompany, Service Now, Jumio, iProov, Albasoft, Amazon Web Services, CFH Docmail, Microsoft Azure, Gov.uk Notify Service and Royal Mail. It is claimed that not all of the firms can “access” the data, even though it is "shared".
Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "Scottish Liberal Democrats have repeatedly warned the Government that data protection is virtually non-existent – a simple screenshot was enough to bypass whatever ‘security measures’ the system had in place.
"The launch was a shambles and the IT system struggled to cope."
Regarding the internet of things: Read Shoshana Zuboff's book 'the Age of Surveillance Capitalism'; or if you can't manage the book, some of the articles and podcasts she did around the time such as this interview with David Runciman of Cambridge University.
Zuboff describes how this is fundamentally altering human nature. People are becoming addicted to and dependent on technology in ways that are completely unnecessary, to serve the interests of commerce. I've seen this over and over again, and it is just all really sad.
This stuff all just seems so pointless. You want to boil the kettle? Press the on switch and wait for a minute. Want to know if your fridge is running low? Open it and look inside. One day we're going to wake up and realise we can't have a cup of tea because Vladimir Putin has hacked our kettles. It all reeks of more money than sense, too. Like boiling water taps and wine fridges. Meanwhile the world heats up, refugees are drowning in the channel, kids in this country are going to school hungry, hospitals are failing, the government shovels billions to its pals. But let's keep on buying pointless tat!
All just marketing fluff. Doesn't benefit quality of life very much if at all. And unless you earn at the rate of a PL footballer or above it certainly does not benefit quality of life to justify the extra working hours to pay for it all resulting in reduced leisure time.
It’s interesting though.
We have a boiling water tap at home because the last owner put one in. Very expensive to maintain & we would never have paid to fit one ourselves.
But it is very convenient and you get in the habit… it was a real hassle when it broke this summer and we had to break out the kettle
We paid to get a boiling water tap installed, first in London and then in the US. As far as convenience goes, I would rate it above a microwave, toaster or electric whisk, but below the fridge or oven.
For the first cup of tea in the morning, it saves about a minute, which seems like an eternity at that point in the morning. When cooking something like boiled eggs, it avoids me putting the pan on and having to wait five minutes before adding the eggs.
In the US, because it's all 110 volts (and therefore electric kettles take *weeks* to boil), the benefit is even greater.
I've seriously never heard of this device.
Since it costs over £1000 to install, maybe you’ve heard of it frivolously?
A man living in ignorance of Quooker?
That's like imagining that OGH has never heard of the Corby Trouser Press.
We keep hearing about the Leave-Remain ratios of these various seats, but I'd like to know why that is now even remotely relevant.
It remains a strong predictor of VI. It is true identity politics.
And so the key to our future politics is whether and when leave voters come to realise that they were duped.
I suspect the answer to that is 'now'. When the best spin even the Boris government can put on Brexit is that it allows a few pence to be cut from the tax on English fizzy wine then you know the concept has issues. (I don't think the poor returns from Brexit will make many Leavers regret their vote, but I do think it will dissuade many of them from being grateful to those who implemented it.)
You just carry on with your delusions Stark. The rest of us are carrying on with our lives.
Leave / Remain polling has shown a slow but steady decay in Leave support pretty much since the vote.
Some leavers are dying off, but some are changing their mind as the reality becomes harder to ignore.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
Not necessarily, most of the rich educated their children privately and probably most of them generally use private healthcare too and only go to the NHS if they have an emergency.
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
However the richest 10% still pay for state healthcare and education for the remaining 90% via their taxes
So why does your Tory Party currently adopt the policy of taxing the lower paid and poorer more harshly? Look at the social care reforms which penalise the poor peope who do try to save, and pamper your house-owning constituents in Epping.
Since coming into power in 2010 this Tory government has taken the lowest earners out of tax and raised the minimum wage.
The fact it has abandoned May's disastrous dementia tax plans which would have seen care costs consume the majority of the estate of most voters on death does not change that
I didn't express myself clearly. The new social care tax will take money from poorer decedents' estates rather than from wealthier decedents'. That is effectively a financial transfer from the poor to the richer (because a band of the richer don't pay their fair share). Haver a look at the graph in this rteport:
Given the average home is now worth well over £200k, the £86k cap means the average voter and up will be able to keep most of their estate immune from care costs and in the family actually. Whereas under May's dementia tax plan the average voter would have lost most of the value of their estate in care costs down to their last £100k as only estates up to £100k were immune from care costs for at home care as well as residential care costs (though of course you still have to pay living costs in care homes even now)
Trying to defend a crap policy on the grounds that Ms May's was (in your view) worse isn't a very convincing argument.
For the Tory base and most homeowners it is a good policy and it is the Tory base and most homeowners and their heirs we were elected in 2019 with a majority to deliver for
You were also elected to deliver levelling up but you seem a lot less arsed about that
We were more elected to deliver Brexit north of Watford, that was the reason Leaver Boris got a majority in 2019 unlike Remainer May in 2017 despite the fact both promised levelling up.
In the South and seats we regained in London like Kensington we were elected with a majority more to beat Corbyn and not impose the dementia tax which cost May her majority in 2017
So was the levelling up just lies or what
Of course it was.
Labour does eff all for the north, the Tories have shown they are liars. People in the north shouldn’t even bother voting.
It’s essentially about Westminster versus the rest.
Both Tories and Labour are instinctive centralists.
It was a Tory/Lib Dem coalition that made the first, albeit half-arsed, moves toward devolution.
Regarding the internet of things: Read Shoshana Zuboff's book 'the Age of Surveillance Capitalism'; or if you can't manage the book, some of the articles and podcasts she did around the time such as this interview with David Runciman of Cambridge University.
Zuboff describes how this is fundamentally altering human nature. People are becoming addicted to and dependent on technology in ways that are completely unnecessary, to serve the interests of commerce. I've seen this over and over again, and it is just all really sad.
This stuff all just seems so pointless. You want to boil the kettle? Press the on switch and wait for a minute. Want to know if your fridge is running low? Open it and look inside. One day we're going to wake up and realise we can't have a cup of tea because Vladimir Putin has hacked our kettles. It all reeks of more money than sense, too. Like boiling water taps and wine fridges. Meanwhile the world heats up, refugees are drowning in the channel, kids in this country are going to school hungry, hospitals are failing, the government shovels billions to its pals. But let's keep on buying pointless tat!
All just marketing fluff. Doesn't benefit quality of life very much if at all. And unless you earn at the rate of a PL footballer or above it certainly does not benefit quality of life to justify the extra working hours to pay for it all resulting in reduced leisure time.
It’s interesting though.
We have a boiling water tap at home because the last owner put one in. Very expensive to maintain & we would never have paid to fit one ourselves.
But it is very convenient and you get in the habit… it was a real hassle when it broke this summer and we had to break out the kettle
We paid to get a boiling water tap installed, first in London and then in the US. As far as convenience goes, I would rate it above a microwave, toaster or electric whisk, but below the fridge or oven.
For the first cup of tea in the morning, it saves about a minute, which seems like an eternity at that point in the morning. When cooking something like boiled eggs, it avoids me putting the pan on and having to wait five minutes before adding the eggs.
In the US, because it's all 110 volts (and therefore electric kettles take *weeks* to boil), the benefit is even greater.
I've seriously never heard of this device.
Since it costs over £1000 to install, maybe you’ve heard of it frivolously?
A man living in ignorance of Quooker?
That's like imagining that OGH has never heard of the Corby Trouser Press.
Jay Bhattacharya @DrJBhattacharya · 40m 'A disease is endemic when disease rates are reduced to ‘a locally acceptable level’ and the disease becomes manageable. However, what level is considered manageable and acceptable, particularly for a new disease, is not defined by epidemiology.'
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
Not necessarily, most of the rich educate their children privately and probably most of them generally use private healthcare too and only go to the NHS if they have an emergency.
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
However the richest 10% still pay for state healthcare and education for the remaining 90% via their taxes
Well @Benpointer has beaten me to the list (of which it is only a small subset). You only have to look at your council tax bill to see how much you pay for the police. You are not using them occasionally. You are using them all the time. All those police cars going up and down the motorway, clearing accidents, etc you are personally using otherwise you are going nowhere. And when you do directly need the services of the police, fire brigade, or an ambulance you are really getting a lot of value. I have personally only needed the fire brigade once to be rescued from a car in a flood. Even got a lift home in a fire engine which was fun. Sadly the car didn't do as well as me.
I said the police and fire service were the main public service the rich and high earners benefit from (albeit less than average as most also tend to live in safer areas with lower crime rates)
And the point I was making is the rich don't use them rarely, they use them all the time, albeit indirectly. Who do you think clears that motorway pile up holding you up, stops the speeders past your kids schools, catches the thief that has broken into a house and will break into your house next if he wasn't caught. You are benefiting indirectly all the time.
And when it rarely happens you do need them you get the tax you have paid many years over for what they provide and you will need them sometime no matter how rich you are.
PS I guess I come in what you would call the rich category. We do not have private health care. One of our children went to state school, the other was privately educated, but because of special circumstances otherwise he also would have gone to a state school.
I agree with most of that except, sadly, the bit about catching the thief. Burglary clear up rates are around 3%. So the answer to the question "Who catches the thief that has broken into a house and will break into your house next if he wasn't caught?" is usually "No one".
"Kyle Rittenhouse has been found not guilty on all counts and many people aren't surprised at all."
Yes, those who followed the case aren't.
What's struck me as particularly interesting* is that much of the footage, which all clearly showed Rittenhouse was acting in self defence, was produced by small, independent - guerrilla, perhaps - reporters.
And the Independent, which Nadine up there writes for, STILL managed to produce this:
It's almost as if people preferred their own narrative.
Shocked.
Interesting piece in NY Times on America's self defence laws and open carry guns.
“If we’re going to have a country in which guns are pervasive and the law has little or nothing to say about where and when one may carry a gun and display a gun,” Mr. Buell said, “then we are going to have a situation where self-defense law can’t really handle it.”
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
F1: interesting qualifying. As usual, for a normally timed weekend, I plan to post the pre-race ramble on Sunday morning. Looking very much like a Hamilton win.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” - Benjamin Franklin.
(Yes, that’s probably not exactly what he said. PB pedants).
"Kyle Rittenhouse has been found not guilty on all counts and many people aren't surprised at all."
Yes, those who followed the case aren't.
What's struck me as particularly interesting* is that much of the footage, which all clearly showed Rittenhouse was acting in self defence, was produced by small, independent - guerrilla, perhaps - reporters.
And the Independent, which Nadine up there writes for, STILL managed to produce this:
It's almost as if people preferred their own narrative.
Shocked.
Given that that following is merely true -
Why should we expect journalists to get anything else right?
F1: interesting qualifying. As usual, for a normally timed weekend, I plan to post the pre-race ramble on Sunday morning. Looking very much like a Hamilton win.
"Kyle Rittenhouse has been found not guilty on all counts and many people aren't surprised at all."
Yes, those who followed the case aren't.
What's struck me as particularly interesting* is that much of the footage, which all clearly showed Rittenhouse was acting in self defence, was produced by small, independent - guerrilla, perhaps - reporters.
And the Independent, which Nadine up there writes for, STILL managed to produce this:
It's almost as if people preferred their own narrative.
Shocked.
Interesting piece in NY Times on America's self defence laws and open carry guns.
“If we’re going to have a country in which guns are pervasive and the law has little or nothing to say about where and when one may carry a gun and display a gun,” Mr. Buell said, “then we are going to have a situation where self-defense law can’t really handle it.”
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” - Benjamin Franklin.
(Yes, that’s probably not exactly what he said. PB pedants).
I've been thinking about this recently, and think we crossed that line in the 00's with the anti terrorism laws. That was the point where we dropped the idea of liberty as it was originally described by JS Mill, in favour of trying to censor dangerous ideas out of existence. And since then, the censorious instinct has enveloped us like a dark cloud, brilliantly manipulated by the woke, and getting us to the point now where there is effectively no free speech.
Things are looking a lot brighter in terms of data sharing - the GDPR is brutal, as businesses are finding to their cost. No doubt they will be lobbying to get rid of it, and we shouldn't let them succeed.
"Kyle Rittenhouse has been found not guilty on all counts and many people aren't surprised at all."
Yes, those who followed the case aren't.
What's struck me as particularly interesting* is that much of the footage, which all clearly showed Rittenhouse was acting in self defence, was produced by small, independent - guerrilla, perhaps - reporters.
And the Independent, which Nadine up there writes for, STILL managed to produce this:
It's almost as if people preferred their own narrative.
Shocked.
Interesting piece in NY Times on America's self defence laws and open carry guns.
“If we’re going to have a country in which guns are pervasive and the law has little or nothing to say about where and when one may carry a gun and display a gun,” Mr. Buell said, “then we are going to have a situation where self-defense law can’t really handle it.”
F1: interesting qualifying. As usual, for a normally timed weekend, I plan to post the pre-race ramble on Sunday morning. Looking very much like a Hamilton win.
Would you prefer the points in bag like Verstappen, or what looks stronger car for season end like Lewis?
Usually you’d take the points in the bag, but I get the feeling the momentum is now with Mercedes and Lewis, and their championship to lose.
So long as it goes down to the last race, preferably at the Turn 6-7 chicane, I’ll be happy.
I think Verstappen will win the title, I'm expecting at least one Mercedes engine blowout and even if that doesn't happen then the Dutch shunt will do a Schumacher 94/97 and take out his rival in the last race.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” - Benjamin Franklin.
(Yes, that’s probably not exactly what he said. PB pedants).
I've been thinking about this recently, and think we crossed that line in the 00's with the anti terrorism laws. That was the point where we dropped the idea of liberty as it was originally described by JS Mill, in favour of trying to censor dangerous ideas out of existence. And since then, the censorious instinct has enveloped us like a dark cloud, brilliantly manipulated by the woke, and getting us to the point now where there is effectively no free speech.
Things are looking a lot brighter in terms of data sharing - the GDPR is brutal, as businesses are finding to their cost. No doubt they will be lobbying to get rid of it, and we shouldn't let them succeed.
Interesting idea that the anti-terror laws were the rubicon.
That’s one influence maybe. But I think that so called “woke” attempts to suppress speech has different ideological predecessors, although I couldn’t explain what.
Also, Big Brother, first broadcast 2000, evidenced a new willingness by large parts of the population to surrender privacy for essentially narcissistic reasons…six or seven years before social media went mainstream.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” - Benjamin Franklin.
(Yes, that’s probably not exactly what he said. PB pedants).
Well said (both you and Franklin).
Of course liberty allows one to have an open mind about this. Not suggesting for a moment that you think otherwise. Just that these matters are interesting and not quite as clear cut as we think.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” - Benjamin Franklin.
(Yes, that’s probably not exactly what he said. PB pedants).
Despite its many (many) variations, this is the actual quote:
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
According to Wittes, the words appear in a letter widely presumed to be written by Franklin in 1755 on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the colonial governor. “The letter was a salvo in a power struggle between the governor and the assembly over funding for security on the frontier, one in which the assembly wished to tax the lands of the Penn family,” he explains.
The letter wasn’t about liberty but about taxes and the ability to “raise money for defense against French and Indian attacks. The governor kept vetoing the assembly’s efforts at the behest of the family, which had appointed him.”
Indeed, if you look at the text surrounding the famous quote, it’s pretty clearly about money: “Our assemblies have of late had so many supply bill, and of such different kinds, rejected, on various pretences,” wrote Franklin.
There’s not much on liberty, as we understand the concept, in the entire letter.
F1: interesting qualifying. As usual, for a normally timed weekend, I plan to post the pre-race ramble on Sunday morning. Looking very much like a Hamilton win.
Would you prefer the points in bag like Verstappen, or what looks stronger car for season end like Lewis?
Usually you’d take the points in the bag, but I get the feeling the momentum is now with Mercedes and Lewis, and their championship to lose.
So long as it goes down to the last race, preferably at the Turn 6-7 chicane, I’ll be happy.
I think Verstappen will win the title, I'm expecting at least one Mercedes engine blowout and even if that doesn't happen then the Dutch shunt will do a Schumacher 94/97 and take out his rival in the last race.
I think that is spot on Eagles. 👍🏻 Verstappen reminds me of someone who won’t let someone drive round him and onto a title in the last race.
Lewis has matured into a great man and role model.
By by Ole. Typical that they’d change manager before they play Arsenal.
After today, would they want Rogers?
Note my tip from this morning. The 3 nil defeat was made more tolerable by £60 in winnings...
From 0825 today:
"My tip of the day is Chelsea to win at 1.83 on Betfair and Smarkets. Our defence is shambolic, while Chelseas is rock solid and we are missing Tielemans our player of the season. We beat them in the FA Cup final, but the teams have gone in opposite directions since. Leicester always do badly with the early kick off on Saturday. The handicap markets are good too."
By by Ole. Typical that they’d change manager before they play Arsenal.
After today, would they want Rogers?
Note my tip from this morning. The 3 nil defeat was made more tolerable by £60 in winnings...
From 0825 today:
"My tip of the day is Chelsea to win at 1.83 on Betfair and Smarkets. Our defence is shambolic, while Chelseas is rock solid and we are missing Tielemans our player of the season. We beat them in the FA Cup final, but the teams have gone in opposite directions since. Leicester always do badly with the early kick off on Saturday. The handicap markets are good too."
I think he’s taken you as far as he can. He showed at Liverpool he’s capable of taking very good players and turning them into a team capable of winning the league.
Jay Bhattacharya @DrJBhattacharya · 40m 'A disease is endemic when disease rates are reduced to ‘a locally acceptable level’ and the disease becomes manageable. However, what level is considered manageable and acceptable, particularly for a new disease, is not defined by epidemiology.'
Even though it's the repeatedly discredited Bhattacharya, it might be accurate.
Hopefully more accurate than his advice to Florida and DeSantis.
July 26, 2021:
"I don’t think the delta variant changes the calculus or the evidence in any fundamental way… In Florida in this past wave, the number of deaths have not risen proportionally. Why? Because we protected the vulnerable."
September 4, 2021:
"The emergency phase of the disease is over. Now, we need to work very hard to undo the sense of emergency. We should be treating covid as one of 200 diseases that affect people."
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” - Benjamin Franklin.
(Yes, that’s probably not exactly what he said. PB pedants).
I've been thinking about this recently, and think we crossed that line in the 00's with the anti terrorism laws. That was the point where we dropped the idea of liberty as it was originally described by JS Mill, in favour of trying to censor dangerous ideas out of existence. And since then, the censorious instinct has enveloped us like a dark cloud, brilliantly manipulated by the woke, and getting us to the point now where there is effectively no free speech.
Things are looking a lot brighter in terms of data sharing - the GDPR is brutal, as businesses are finding to their cost. No doubt they will be lobbying to get rid of it, and we shouldn't let them succeed.
Interesting idea that the anti-terror laws were the rubicon.
That’s one influence maybe. But I think that so called “woke” attempts to suppress speech has different ideological predecessors, although I couldn’t explain what.
Also, Big Brother, first broadcast 2000, evidenced a new willingness by large parts of the population to surrender privacy for essentially narcissistic reasons…six or seven years before social media went mainstream.
Under Blair, we essentially reintroduced internment without trial.
It is interesting to consider that Thatcher, with the dust from the Brighton Bombing on her clothes, rejected all such ideas out of hand. Instead she launched a two pronged response - negations with the SDLP and other like minded people, and a brutal and efficient intelligence war against the PIRA.
By by Ole. Typical that they’d change manager before they play Arsenal.
After today, would they want Rogers?
Note my tip from this morning. The 3 nil defeat was made more tolerable by £60 in winnings...
From 0825 today:
"My tip of the day is Chelsea to win at 1.83 on Betfair and Smarkets. Our defence is shambolic, while Chelseas is rock solid and we are missing Tielemans our player of the season. We beat them in the FA Cup final, but the teams have gone in opposite directions since. Leicester always do badly with the early kick off on Saturday. The handicap markets are good too."
You are having a dreadful day Foxy. You should never bet against your own team. It’s a no no. 🤦♀️
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” - Benjamin Franklin.
(Yes, that’s probably not exactly what he said. PB pedants).
Despite its many (many) variations, this is the actual quote:
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
According to Wittes, the words appear in a letter widely presumed to be written by Franklin in 1755 on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the colonial governor. “The letter was a salvo in a power struggle between the governor and the assembly over funding for security on the frontier, one in which the assembly wished to tax the lands of the Penn family,” he explains.
The letter wasn’t about liberty but about taxes and the ability to “raise money for defense against French and Indian attacks. The governor kept vetoing the assembly’s efforts at the behest of the family, which had appointed him.”
Indeed, if you look at the text surrounding the famous quote, it’s pretty clearly about money: “Our assemblies have of late had so many supply bill, and of such different kinds, rejected, on various pretences,” wrote Franklin.
There’s not much on liberty, as we understand the concept, in the entire letter.
I am currently reading the fascinating "The Dawn of Everything" by Graeber and Wendrow. One interesting bit in the first few chapters on philosophical approaches to freedom and inequality in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries was that Liberty in the sense that we think of it was widely considered a bad thing, a throwback to primitive times before Christianity and hierarchical societies. Obedience and loyalty to King and country were thought to be evidence of higher development.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” - Benjamin Franklin.
(Yes, that’s probably not exactly what he said. PB pedants).
Despite its many (many) variations, this is the actual quote:
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
According to Wittes, the words appear in a letter widely presumed to be written by Franklin in 1755 on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the colonial governor. “The letter was a salvo in a power struggle between the governor and the assembly over funding for security on the frontier, one in which the assembly wished to tax the lands of the Penn family,” he explains.
The letter wasn’t about liberty but about taxes and the ability to “raise money for defense against French and Indian attacks. The governor kept vetoing the assembly’s efforts at the behest of the family, which had appointed him.”
Indeed, if you look at the text surrounding the famous quote, it’s pretty clearly about money: “Our assemblies have of late had so many supply bill, and of such different kinds, rejected, on various pretences,” wrote Franklin.
There’s not much on liberty, as we understand the concept, in the entire letter.
Interestingly, if you read the actual letter, it is a not clear that Franklin wasn't talking about "Liberty" as we might understand it. He is talking about turning the state assembly into a rubber stamp for the governor, passing what the governor would let them pass, simply to fix an immediate problem.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
On the project I'm working on currently you could say that their customer data is shared with Amazon, but all this means is that AWS is used to provide a public gateway for the API calls used by Salesforce, and all the data is encrypted as it passes through the AWS servers, and there's no sense in which anyone working for Amazon could login to their servers and lookup the personal data for one of the customers, without doing something seriously dodgy to copy the data as it passes through and break the encryption (which might not even be possible, but I'm not sure).
That's very different to the situation where the government has actually sold our data to private companies for them to do what they want with it.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” - Benjamin Franklin.
(Yes, that’s probably not exactly what he said. PB pedants).
I've been thinking about this recently, and think we crossed that line in the 00's with the anti terrorism laws. That was the point where we dropped the idea of liberty as it was originally described by JS Mill, in favour of trying to censor dangerous ideas out of existence. And since then, the censorious instinct has enveloped us like a dark cloud, brilliantly manipulated by the woke, and getting us to the point now where there is effectively no free speech.
Things are looking a lot brighter in terms of data sharing - the GDPR is brutal, as businesses are finding to their cost. No doubt they will be lobbying to get rid of it, and we shouldn't let them succeed.
Interesting idea that the anti-terror laws were the rubicon.
That’s one influence maybe. But I think that so called “woke” attempts to suppress speech has different ideological predecessors, although I couldn’t explain what.
Also, Big Brother, first broadcast 2000, evidenced a new willingness by large parts of the population to surrender privacy for essentially narcissistic reasons…six or seven years before social media went mainstream.
Under Blair, we essentially reintroduced internment without trial.
It is interesting to consider that Thatcher, with the dust from the Brighton Bombing on her clothes, rejected all such ideas out of hand. Instead she launched a two pronged response - negations with the SDLP and other like minded people, and a brutal and efficient intelligence war against the PIRA.
The recent Blair / Brown doco was too favourable to Blair.
Christopher Snowdon Retweeted ab workout guy @un434 · 1m Things are so good in Britain that our antivaxxers have been reduced to protesting against other countries' covid restrictions, glorious
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
But so far as I can see it only mentionsw the contractor. Where do Amazon et al come into it? The lack of any followup to the original press stories suggests there's nothing in it.
It's not Scottish NHS policy to sell patient data to commercial operators, more generally.
PS I see LostPassword has provided a likely explanation. Deliberate misunderstanding by journls and southern English Tory MPs, rather.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
On the project I'm working on currently you could say that their customer data is shared with Amazon, but all this means is that AWS is used to provide a public gateway for the API calls used by Salesforce, and all the data is encrypted as it passes through the AWS servers, and there's no sense in which anyone working for Amazon could login to their servers and lookup the personal data for one of the customers, without doing something seriously dodgy to copy the data as it passes through and break the encryption (which might not even be possible, but I'm not sure).
That's very different to the situation where the government has actually sold our data to private companies for them to do what they want with it.
My understanding is that the anonymised data won't remain that because pretty much most of us are customers of Royal Mail and plenty of us are of Amazon.
They could work out from the temporary data sharing to comparing with their own records and send targeted adverts etc or sell on that data.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
On the project I'm working on currently you could say that their customer data is shared with Amazon, but all this means is that AWS is used to provide a public gateway for the API calls used by Salesforce, and all the data is encrypted as it passes through the AWS servers, and there's no sense in which anyone working for Amazon could login to their servers and lookup the personal data for one of the customers, without doing something seriously dodgy to copy the data as it passes through and break the encryption (which might not even be possible, but I'm not sure).
That's very different to the situation where the government has actually sold our data to private companies for them to do what they want with it.
It means that a journalist has read something but hasn't got a clue what is happening.
However it's got lots of big names in it which makes it sound BAD when in reality the only question I have is why are both AWS and Azure being used?
By by Ole. Typical that they’d change manager before they play Arsenal.
After today, would they want Rogers?
Note my tip from this morning. The 3 nil defeat was made more tolerable by £60 in winnings...
From 0825 today:
"My tip of the day is Chelsea to win at 1.83 on Betfair and Smarkets. Our defence is shambolic, while Chelseas is rock solid and we are missing Tielemans our player of the season. We beat them in the FA Cup final, but the teams have gone in opposite directions since. Leicester always do badly with the early kick off on Saturday. The handicap markets are good too."
You are having a dreadful day Foxy. You should never bet against your own team. It’s a no no. 🤦♀️
Really? I quite often do. As a Season ticket holder I think that I know the team better than most by direct observation.
Though I did win £7000 the year we won the title, including £2 each way at 3000/1.
Incidentally, I think Leicester are worth a Lay at 1.22 against Legia Warsaw in the Europa League on Thursday. Apart from against Napoli Legia have proven formidable, and even then they did well until well into the second half.
By by Ole. Typical that they’d change manager before they play Arsenal.
After today, would they want Rogers?
Note my tip from this morning. The 3 nil defeat was made more tolerable by £60 in winnings...
From 0825 today:
"My tip of the day is Chelsea to win at 1.83 on Betfair and Smarkets. Our defence is shambolic, while Chelseas is rock solid and we are missing Tielemans our player of the season. We beat them in the FA Cup final, but the teams have gone in opposite directions since. Leicester always do badly with the early kick off on Saturday. The handicap markets are good too."
You are having a dreadful day Foxy. You should never bet against your own team. It’s a no no. 🤦♀️
Hate to say it against someone called a strong Libdem but sometimes friends need to have honest words.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
On the project I'm working on currently you could say that their customer data is shared with Amazon, but all this means is that AWS is used to provide a public gateway for the API calls used by Salesforce, and all the data is encrypted as it passes through the AWS servers, and there's no sense in which anyone working for Amazon could login to their servers and lookup the personal data for one of the customers, without doing something seriously dodgy to copy the data as it passes through and break the encryption (which might not even be possible, but I'm not sure).
That's very different to the situation where the government has actually sold our data to private companies for them to do what they want with it.
On that logic Royal Mail could be said to hold the data too cos they delivered the original letters of notification for vaccine appointments.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
On the project I'm working on currently you could say that their customer data is shared with Amazon, but all this means is that AWS is used to provide a public gateway for the API calls used by Salesforce, and all the data is encrypted as it passes through the AWS servers, and there's no sense in which anyone working for Amazon could login to their servers and lookup the personal data for one of the customers, without doing something seriously dodgy to copy the data as it passes through and break the encryption (which might not even be possible, but I'm not sure).
That's very different to the situation where the government has actually sold our data to private companies for them to do what they want with it.
It means that a journalist has read something but hasn't got a clue what is happening.
However it's got lots of big names in it which makes it sound BAD when in reality the only question I have is why are both AWS and Azure being used?
I've heard of some companies using AWS and Azure at the same time, because they want to avoid being locked into one ecosystem and having the charges upped to extortionate rates.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
But so far as I can see it only mentionsw the contractor. Where do Amazon et al come into it? The lack of any followup to the original press stories suggests there's nothing in it.
It's not Scottish NHS policy to sell patient data to commercial operators, more generally.
PS I see LostPassword has provided a likely explanation. Deliberate misunderstanding by journls and southern English Tory MPs, rather.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
On the project I'm working on currently you could say that their customer data is shared with Amazon, but all this means is that AWS is used to provide a public gateway for the API calls used by Salesforce, and all the data is encrypted as it passes through the AWS servers, and there's no sense in which anyone working for Amazon could login to their servers and lookup the personal data for one of the customers, without doing something seriously dodgy to copy the data as it passes through and break the encryption (which might not even be possible, but I'm not sure).
That's very different to the situation where the government has actually sold our data to private companies for them to do what they want with it.
My understanding is that the anonymised data won't remain that because pretty much most of us are customers of Royal Mail and plenty of us are of Amazon.
They could work out from the temporary data sharing to comparing with their own records and send targeted adverts etc or sell on that data.
They could but they won't because that requires a lot of effort and it's not worth it.
Also Amazon are very good at keeping things separate but every department has it's complete separate P&L accounts.
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
On the project I'm working on currently you could say that their customer data is shared with Amazon, but all this means is that AWS is used to provide a public gateway for the API calls used by Salesforce, and all the data is encrypted as it passes through the AWS servers, and there's no sense in which anyone working for Amazon could login to their servers and lookup the personal data for one of the customers, without doing something seriously dodgy to copy the data as it passes through and break the encryption (which might not even be possible, but I'm not sure).
That's very different to the situation where the government has actually sold our data to private companies for them to do what they want with it.
It means that a journalist has read something but hasn't got a clue what is happening.
However it's got lots of big names in it which makes it sound BAD when in reality the only question I have is why are both AWS and Azure being used?
Could it be the alternative route? (Haven't a clue if this is so.)
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
But so far as I can see it only mentionsw the contractor. Where do Amazon et al come into it? The lack of any followup to the original press stories suggests there's nothing in it.
It's not Scottish NHS policy to sell patient data to commercial operators, more generally.
PS I see LostPassword has provided a likely explanation. Deliberate misunderstanding by journls and southern English Tory MPs, rather.
I'm guessing they are using AWS.
Weren't Amazon involved in the delivery of test kits to home addresses?
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
On the project I'm working on currently you could say that their customer data is shared with Amazon, but all this means is that AWS is used to provide a public gateway for the API calls used by Salesforce, and all the data is encrypted as it passes through the AWS servers, and there's no sense in which anyone working for Amazon could login to their servers and lookup the personal data for one of the customers, without doing something seriously dodgy to copy the data as it passes through and break the encryption (which might not even be possible, but I'm not sure).
That's very different to the situation where the government has actually sold our data to private companies for them to do what they want with it.
My understanding is that the anonymised data won't remain that because pretty much most of us are customers of Royal Mail and plenty of us are of Amazon.
They could work out from the temporary data sharing to comparing with their own records and send targeted adverts etc or sell on that data.
Okay, so take Royal Mail for example. This could just mean that their address finder service is being used to return an address for a given post code. So your personal data will be shared with Royal Mail, insofar as an API call will be made with your post code, which will then return all the addresses with that post code, but what can Royal Mail do with that information?
Each post code covers many addresses. They won't receive any other data about you, or your vaccination status, or where your vaccination status has been checked.
It's possible that all that data is being given to Royal Mail, but simply saying that some of your personal data is shared with them could also be completely harmless. I've clearly bored my wife with this stuff so much that I could read her the original tweet and she knew enough to ask, "So does that just mean it uses AWS then?"
Marcus Fysh MP @MarcusFysh · 48m Scottish NHS vaccine passport app shares personal data with Amazon, Microsoft, Royal Mail, AI firms. We should not follow China / SNP into becoming a surveillance / crony state
The idea of a survellance state sounds very bad, and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. However sometimes I do wonder. There are perhaps a few things about my life that I wouldn't entirely want in the public domain, but these things are very few and in all cases unimportant. If evryone was tracked and surveilled then crime would become much rarer. I might be tempted to make the trade - everyone has a chip implanted say.
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
News to me. I checked and it's a month-old story from a few tablooids with no obvious followup.
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
You missed this bit?
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
On the project I'm working on currently you could say that their customer data is shared with Amazon, but all this means is that AWS is used to provide a public gateway for the API calls used by Salesforce, and all the data is encrypted as it passes through the AWS servers, and there's no sense in which anyone working for Amazon could login to their servers and lookup the personal data for one of the customers, without doing something seriously dodgy to copy the data as it passes through and break the encryption (which might not even be possible, but I'm not sure).
That's very different to the situation where the government has actually sold our data to private companies for them to do what they want with it.
My understanding is that the anonymised data won't remain that because pretty much most of us are customers of Royal Mail and plenty of us are of Amazon.
They could work out from the temporary data sharing to comparing with their own records and send targeted adverts etc or sell on that data.
Okay, so take Royal Mail for example. This could just mean that their address finder service is being used to return an address for a given post code. So your personal data will be shared with Royal Mail, insofar as an API call will be made with your post code, which will then return all the addresses with that post code, but what can Royal Mail do with that information?
Each post code covers many addresses. They won't receive any other data about you, or your vaccination status, or where your vaccination status has been checked.
It's possible that all that data is being given to Royal Mail, but simply saying that some of your personal data is shared with them could also be completely harmless. I've clearly bored my wife with this stuff so much that I could read her the original tweet and she knew enough to ask, "So does that just mean it uses AWS then?"
Many thanks to you (and others) for the illuminating comments on the likely basis of that (apparently non-)story (given the lack of it being used to beat the Scottish Govetrnment on the head with, except by Mr Fysh MP about whom I know nothing except he is MP for Yeovil).
It's of interest to me as I am just trying to work out how to get my own passport.
It'll take more than a click on a guardian atrtilce for me to have faith in the SNHS (4 times sectioned since 2011 [3 if you don't count the "volunatary" one])
There is, for the first time in a terribly long time, a scintilla of optimism in the air, replacing what had been something close to despair. The sight of hope on the horizon. The sense that finally, finally, people are waking up to the failings of the man in No 10.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been getting justifiably hammered, even by his own side. His party’s poll ratings are in decline. His personal ones are in free fall. The foul scent of sleaze has finally started to cling to his suits. The controversy over MPs’ lobbying, their second jobs, the attempts to rewrite the rules in their favour, just won’t die down.
A cancer has been growing and metastasising in public life under our noses.
Here’s where it gets concerning. The sleaze row will die down eventually. They always do. Politics will move on. Something else will emerge to grab attention. People will look away. When they do, this stuff will return. Maybe with a bit more caution than before. Johnson has a habit of pushing it too far before performing a volte face. So while there may be grounds to hope that Johnson’s many manifest failings are starting to get through to the public, I’m not yet ready to say I’m convinced. Not yet.
There is, for the first time in a terribly long time, a scintilla of optimism in the air, replacing what had been something close to despair. The sight of hope on the horizon. The sense that finally, finally, people are waking up to the failings of the man in No 10.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been getting justifiably hammered, even by his own side. His party’s poll ratings are in decline. His personal ones are in free fall. The foul scent of sleaze has finally started to cling to his suits. The controversy over MPs’ lobbying, their second jobs, the attempts to rewrite the rules in their favour, just won’t die down.
A cancer has been growing and metastasising in public life under our noses.
Here’s where it gets concerning. The sleaze row will die down eventually. They always do. Politics will move on. Something else will emerge to grab attention. People will look away. When they do, this stuff will return. Maybe with a bit more caution than before. Johnson has a habit of pushing it too far before performing a volte face. So while there may be grounds to hope that Johnson’s many manifest failings are starting to get through to the public, I’m not yet ready to say I’m convinced. Not yet.
There is, for the first time in a terribly long time, a scintilla of optimism in the air, replacing what had been something close to despair. The sight of hope on the horizon. The sense that finally, finally, people are waking up to the failings of the man in No 10.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been getting justifiably hammered, even by his own side. His party’s poll ratings are in decline. His personal ones are in free fall. The foul scent of sleaze has finally started to cling to his suits. The controversy over MPs’ lobbying, their second jobs, the attempts to rewrite the rules in their favour, just won’t die down.
A cancer has been growing and metastasising in public life under our noses.
Here’s where it gets concerning. The sleaze row will die down eventually. They always do. Politics will move on. Something else will emerge to grab attention. People will look away. When they do, this stuff will return. Maybe with a bit more caution than before. Johnson has a habit of pushing it too far before performing a volte face. So while there may be grounds to hope that Johnson’s many manifest failings are starting to get through to the public, I’m not yet ready to say I’m convinced. Not yet.
I have my own little focus group of a mate's wife and a couple of extended family. Middle England. Once they turn from Johnson I will know he is done. To date it remains as "he's doing his best", "no one else could do better", "why are they always having a go at him", "he can't do right for doing wrong" etc etc.
F1: interesting qualifying. As usual, for a normally timed weekend, I plan to post the pre-race ramble on Sunday morning. Looking very much like a Hamilton win.
Would you prefer the points in bag like Verstappen, or what looks stronger car for season end like Lewis?
Usually you’d take the points in the bag, but I get the feeling the momentum is now with Mercedes and Lewis, and their championship to lose.
So long as it goes down to the last race, preferably at the Turn 6-7 chicane, I’ll be happy.
I think Verstappen will win the title, I'm expecting at least one Mercedes engine blowout and even if that doesn't happen then the Dutch shunt will do a Schumacher 94/97 and take out his rival in the last race.
And the Dutchman... ...Verstappen – who was asked the same question – complained his fellow drivers had described was was discussed in the meeting. “For me, the thing I don’t like, we discuss these kinds of things and they don’t need to go to the media,” he said....
By by Ole. Typical that they’d change manager before they play Arsenal.
After today, would they want Rogers?
Note my tip from this morning. The 3 nil defeat was made more tolerable by £60 in winnings...
From 0825 today:
"My tip of the day is Chelsea to win at 1.83 on Betfair and Smarkets. Our defence is shambolic, while Chelseas is rock solid and we are missing Tielemans our player of the season. We beat them in the FA Cup final, but the teams have gone in opposite directions since. Leicester always do badly with the early kick off on Saturday. The handicap markets are good too."
You are having a dreadful day Foxy. You should never bet against your own team. It’s a no no. 🤦♀️
Really? I quite often do. As a Season ticket holder I think that I know the team better than most by direct observation.
Though I did win £7000 the year we won the title, including £2 each way at 3000/1.
Incidentally, I think Leicester are worth a Lay at 1.22 against Legia Warsaw in the Europa League on Thursday. Apart from against Napoli Legia have proven formidable, and even then they did well until well into the second half.
That's got to feel a bit special, winning a bet at 3000/1. I'm pretty sure I'll never do that.
Was it a reasoned bet, or just a 'hell, why not' one?
F1: interesting qualifying. As usual, for a normally timed weekend, I plan to post the pre-race ramble on Sunday morning. Looking very much like a Hamilton win.
Would you prefer the points in bag like Verstappen, or what looks stronger car for season end like Lewis?
Usually you’d take the points in the bag, but I get the feeling the momentum is now with Mercedes and Lewis, and their championship to lose.
So long as it goes down to the last race, preferably at the Turn 6-7 chicane, I’ll be happy.
I think Verstappen will win the title, I'm expecting at least one Mercedes engine blowout and even if that doesn't happen then the Dutch shunt will do a Schumacher 94/97 and take out his rival in the last race.
And the Dutchman... ...Verstappen – who was asked the same question – complained his fellow drivers had described was was discussed in the meeting. “For me, the thing I don’t like, we discuss these kinds of things and they don’t need to go to the media,” he said....
That first article reads like a Daily Mash article.
F1: interesting qualifying. As usual, for a normally timed weekend, I plan to post the pre-race ramble on Sunday morning. Looking very much like a Hamilton win.
Would you prefer the points in bag like Verstappen, or what looks stronger car for season end like Lewis?
Usually you’d take the points in the bag, but I get the feeling the momentum is now with Mercedes and Lewis, and their championship to lose.
So long as it goes down to the last race, preferably at the Turn 6-7 chicane, I’ll be happy.
I think Verstappen will win the title, I'm expecting at least one Mercedes engine blowout and even if that doesn't happen then the Dutch shunt will do a Schumacher 94/97 and take out his rival in the last race.
I think that is spot on Eagles. 👍🏻 Verstappen reminds me of someone who won’t let someone drive round him and onto a title in the last race.
Lewis has matured into a great man and role model.
Hamilton has a decent chance. He's wise to Verstappen's dubious tactics, and might have a quick enough car to stay well clear of him.
There is, for the first time in a terribly long time, a scintilla of optimism in the air, replacing what had been something close to despair. The sight of hope on the horizon. The sense that finally, finally, people are waking up to the failings of the man in No 10.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been getting justifiably hammered, even by his own side. His party’s poll ratings are in decline. His personal ones are in free fall. The foul scent of sleaze has finally started to cling to his suits. The controversy over MPs’ lobbying, their second jobs, the attempts to rewrite the rules in their favour, just won’t die down.
A cancer has been growing and metastasising in public life under our noses.
Here’s where it gets concerning. The sleaze row will die down eventually. They always do. Politics will move on. Something else will emerge to grab attention. People will look away. When they do, this stuff will return. Maybe with a bit more caution than before. Johnson has a habit of pushing it too far before performing a volte face. So while there may be grounds to hope that Johnson’s many manifest failings are starting to get through to the public, I’m not yet ready to say I’m convinced. Not yet.
I have my own little focus group of a mate's wife and a couple of extended family. Middle England. Once they turn from Johnson I will know he is done. To date it remains as "he's doing his best", "no one else could do better", "why are they always having a go at him", "he can't do right for doing wrong" etc etc.
No surprise from me (4 times sectioned since 2011 [3 if you don't count the "voluntary" one])
If you don’t mind me asking, do you think, with a clear head - in hindsight - sectioning was appropriate? Presumably the authorities considered you a danger to yourself - do you now think that assessment was correct?
Genuine question (and fair enough if you don’t want to discuss it publicly on a forum).
I find peoples level headed assessments of their previous mental health episodes quite interesting and useful. Often, eg, in documentaries, we get people looking back on their mental health episodes and expressing gratitude at the way they were “handled” - was that your experience?
F1: interesting qualifying. As usual, for a normally timed weekend, I plan to post the pre-race ramble on Sunday morning. Looking very much like a Hamilton win.
Would you prefer the points in bag like Verstappen, or what looks stronger car for season end like Lewis?
Usually you’d take the points in the bag, but I get the feeling the momentum is now with Mercedes and Lewis, and their championship to lose.
So long as it goes down to the last race, preferably at the Turn 6-7 chicane, I’ll be happy.
I think Verstappen will win the title, I'm expecting at least one Mercedes engine blowout and even if that doesn't happen then the Dutch shunt will do a Schumacher 94/97 and take out his rival in the last race.
I think that is spot on Eagles. 👍🏻 Verstappen reminds me of someone who won’t let someone drive round him and onto a title in the last race.
Lewis has matured into a great man and role model.
Hamilton has a decent chance. He's wise to Verstappen's dubious tactics, and might have a quick enough car to stay well clear of him.
Hamilton's performance last weekend (and today) is of a man with a look that says 'Piss me off and I'll punch you so hard in the ovaries you'll get pregnant by giving blowjobs'
There is, for the first time in a terribly long time, a scintilla of optimism in the air, replacing what had been something close to despair. The sight of hope on the horizon. The sense that finally, finally, people are waking up to the failings of the man in No 10.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been getting justifiably hammered, even by his own side. His party’s poll ratings are in decline. His personal ones are in free fall. The foul scent of sleaze has finally started to cling to his suits. The controversy over MPs’ lobbying, their second jobs, the attempts to rewrite the rules in their favour, just won’t die down.
A cancer has been growing and metastasising in public life under our noses.
Here’s where it gets concerning. The sleaze row will die down eventually. They always do. Politics will move on. Something else will emerge to grab attention. People will look away. When they do, this stuff will return. Maybe with a bit more caution than before. Johnson has a habit of pushing it too far before performing a volte face. So while there may be grounds to hope that Johnson’s many manifest failings are starting to get through to the public, I’m not yet ready to say I’m convinced. Not yet.
I have my own little focus group of a mate's wife and a couple of extended family. Middle England. Once they turn from Johnson I will know he is done. To date it remains as "he's doing his best", "no one else could do better", "why are they always having a go at him", "he can't do right for doing wrong" ...
Anti-vaxxers on the motorway slipway to Chorley. About 12 of them. Not a great deal of logic or critical thinking there if their signs are owt to go by. Not sure they were US Christians. Although near the massive Mormon temple.
There is, for the first time in a terribly long time, a scintilla of optimism in the air, replacing what had been something close to despair. The sight of hope on the horizon. The sense that finally, finally, people are waking up to the failings of the man in No 10.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been getting justifiably hammered, even by his own side. His party’s poll ratings are in decline. His personal ones are in free fall. The foul scent of sleaze has finally started to cling to his suits. The controversy over MPs’ lobbying, their second jobs, the attempts to rewrite the rules in their favour, just won’t die down.
A cancer has been growing and metastasising in public life under our noses.
Here’s where it gets concerning. The sleaze row will die down eventually. They always do. Politics will move on. Something else will emerge to grab attention. People will look away. When they do, this stuff will return. Maybe with a bit more caution than before. Johnson has a habit of pushing it too far before performing a volte face. So while there may be grounds to hope that Johnson’s many manifest failings are starting to get through to the public, I’m not yet ready to say I’m convinced. Not yet.
I have my own little focus group of a mate's wife and a couple of extended family. Middle England. Once they turn from Johnson I will know he is done. To date it remains as "he's doing his best", "no one else could do better", "why are they always having a go at him", "he can't do right for doing wrong" etc etc.
Safe for time being.
Tempted to throttle them?
Boris is still fine overall. But there's a real issue that all of his recent decisions have been stupid beyond measure.
If someone could remind England of the Laws of Rugby Union we would have given SA an almighty shellacking there. As it is squeaking it by a point is fine for me given many of the team appear to struggle with facial hair.
There is, for the first time in a terribly long time, a scintilla of optimism in the air, replacing what had been something close to despair. The sight of hope on the horizon. The sense that finally, finally, people are waking up to the failings of the man in No 10.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been getting justifiably hammered, even by his own side. His party’s poll ratings are in decline. His personal ones are in free fall. The foul scent of sleaze has finally started to cling to his suits. The controversy over MPs’ lobbying, their second jobs, the attempts to rewrite the rules in their favour, just won’t die down.
A cancer has been growing and metastasising in public life under our noses.
Here’s where it gets concerning. The sleaze row will die down eventually. They always do. Politics will move on. Something else will emerge to grab attention. People will look away. When they do, this stuff will return. Maybe with a bit more caution than before. Johnson has a habit of pushing it too far before performing a volte face. So while there may be grounds to hope that Johnson’s many manifest failings are starting to get through to the public, I’m not yet ready to say I’m convinced. Not yet.
I have my own little focus group of a mate's wife and a couple of extended family. Middle England. Once they turn from Johnson I will know he is done. To date it remains as "he's doing his best", "no one else could do better", "why are they always having a go at him", "he can't do right for doing wrong" etc etc.
Safe for time being.
Tempted to throttle them?
That comment is an interesting window into your soul.
There is, for the first time in a terribly long time, a scintilla of optimism in the air, replacing what had been something close to despair. The sight of hope on the horizon. The sense that finally, finally, people are waking up to the failings of the man in No 10.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been getting justifiably hammered, even by his own side. His party’s poll ratings are in decline. His personal ones are in free fall. The foul scent of sleaze has finally started to cling to his suits. The controversy over MPs’ lobbying, their second jobs, the attempts to rewrite the rules in their favour, just won’t die down.
A cancer has been growing and metastasising in public life under our noses.
Here’s where it gets concerning. The sleaze row will die down eventually. They always do. Politics will move on. Something else will emerge to grab attention. People will look away. When they do, this stuff will return. Maybe with a bit more caution than before. Johnson has a habit of pushing it too far before performing a volte face. So while there may be grounds to hope that Johnson’s many manifest failings are starting to get through to the public, I’m not yet ready to say I’m convinced. Not yet.
I have my own little focus group of a mate's wife and a couple of extended family. Middle England. Once they turn from Johnson I will know he is done. To date it remains as "he's doing his best", "no one else could do better", "why are they always having a go at him", "he can't do right for doing wrong" etc etc.
Safe for time being.
Tempted to throttle them?
That comment is an interesting window into your soul.
No surprise from me (4 times sectioned since 2011 [3 if you don't count the "voluntary" one])
If you don’t mind me asking, do you think, with a clear head - in hindsight - sectioning was appropriate? Presumably the authorities considered you a danger to yourself - do you now think that assessment was correct?
Genuine question (and fair enough if you don’t want to discuss it publicly on a forum).
I find peoples level headed assessments of their previous mental health episodes quite interesting and useful. Often, eg, in documentaries, we get people looking back on their mental health episodes and expressing gratitude at the way they were “handled” - was that your experience?
I'll continue this on the next thread if you like - just post that again on new thread.
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
Roads and other transport infrastructure Armed forces Security services Stable currency The miriad of Standards and Regulatory authorities Democracy itself...
... all these and more are funded by taxes and benefit everyone, even the rich.
Unless we are threatened by invasion the armed forces does not benefit rich residents in the UK simply by its operations abroad, only in a supporting role it provides to the police (which I already mentioned) same goes for the security services.
Even some roads are privately owned though I grant you that.
A lot of private schools have their own inspectors so standards and regulatory authorities does not cover that completely either
'"The entire basis and rationale of the British state was to defend the property of the wealthy and to ensure they could continue to make more wealth without being put up against the wall and shot." Compare and contrast this assertion for 1800 and today.'
There is, for the first time in a terribly long time, a scintilla of optimism in the air, replacing what had been something close to despair. The sight of hope on the horizon. The sense that finally, finally, people are waking up to the failings of the man in No 10.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been getting justifiably hammered, even by his own side. His party’s poll ratings are in decline. His personal ones are in free fall. The foul scent of sleaze has finally started to cling to his suits. The controversy over MPs’ lobbying, their second jobs, the attempts to rewrite the rules in their favour, just won’t die down.
A cancer has been growing and metastasising in public life under our noses.
Here’s where it gets concerning. The sleaze row will die down eventually. They always do. Politics will move on. Something else will emerge to grab attention. People will look away. When they do, this stuff will return. Maybe with a bit more caution than before. Johnson has a habit of pushing it too far before performing a volte face. So while there may be grounds to hope that Johnson’s many manifest failings are starting to get through to the public, I’m not yet ready to say I’m convinced. Not yet.
By by Ole. Typical that they’d change manager before they play Arsenal.
After today, would they want Rogers?
Note my tip from this morning. The 3 nil defeat was made more tolerable by £60 in winnings...
From 0825 today:
"My tip of the day is Chelsea to win at 1.83 on Betfair and Smarkets. Our defence is shambolic, while Chelseas is rock solid and we are missing Tielemans our player of the season. We beat them in the FA Cup final, but the teams have gone in opposite directions since. Leicester always do badly with the early kick off on Saturday. The handicap markets are good too."
You are having a dreadful day Foxy. You should never bet against your own team. It’s a no no. 🤦♀️
Really? I quite often do. As a Season ticket holder I think that I know the team better than most by direct observation.
Though I did win £7000 the year we won the title, including £2 each way at 3000/1.
Incidentally, I think Leicester are worth a Lay at 1.22 against Legia Warsaw in the Europa League on Thursday. Apart from against Napoli Legia have proven formidable, and even then they did well until well into the second half.
That's got to feel a bit special, winning a bet at 3000/1. I'm pretty sure I'll never do that.
Was it a reasoned bet, or just a 'hell, why not' one?
I bet on Leicester winning every year, and this time it happened!
I did point out here when we were top in December that 20/1 was great value. @isam rubbished that tip...
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
Wealth taxes have two major difficulties. Virtually everyone defines being wealthy as having wealth quite a bit more than you have yourself and will vote accordingly. Those who are wealthy by universal standards are very small in number, and can, bu virtue of being that wealthy, put the same effort in to lawful avoidance as they currently do with inheritance tax.
The place to start is rational property taxation. Property has the unique merit that you can't hide it.
Property taxes also won’t raise an awful lot either, current council tax receipts are around £32bn, so to raise another £16bn you need to add 50% to everyone’s council tax.
There is, for the first time in a terribly long time, a scintilla of optimism in the air, replacing what had been something close to despair. The sight of hope on the horizon. The sense that finally, finally, people are waking up to the failings of the man in No 10.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been getting justifiably hammered, even by his own side. His party’s poll ratings are in decline. His personal ones are in free fall. The foul scent of sleaze has finally started to cling to his suits. The controversy over MPs’ lobbying, their second jobs, the attempts to rewrite the rules in their favour, just won’t die down.
A cancer has been growing and metastasising in public life under our noses.
Here’s where it gets concerning. The sleaze row will die down eventually. They always do. Politics will move on. Something else will emerge to grab attention. People will look away. When they do, this stuff will return. Maybe with a bit more caution than before. Johnson has a habit of pushing it too far before performing a volte face. So while there may be grounds to hope that Johnson’s many manifest failings are starting to get through to the public, I’m not yet ready to say I’m convinced. Not yet.
F1: interesting qualifying. As usual, for a normally timed weekend, I plan to post the pre-race ramble on Sunday morning. Looking very much like a Hamilton win.
Would you prefer the points in bag like Verstappen, or what looks stronger car for season end like Lewis?
Usually you’d take the points in the bag, but I get the feeling the momentum is now with Mercedes and Lewis, and their championship to lose.
So long as it goes down to the last race, preferably at the Turn 6-7 chicane, I’ll be happy.
I think Verstappen will win the title, I'm expecting at least one Mercedes engine blowout and even if that doesn't happen then the Dutch shunt will do a Schumacher 94/97 and take out his rival in the last race.
I think that is spot on Eagles. 👍🏻 Verstappen reminds me of someone who won’t let someone drive round him and onto a title in the last race.
Lewis has matured into a great man and role model.
Hamilton has a decent chance. He's wise to Verstappen's dubious tactics, and might have a quick enough car to stay well clear of him.
Hamilton's performance last weekend (and today) is of a man with a look that says 'Piss me off and I'll punch you so hard in the ovaries you'll get pregnant by giving blowjobs'
Has the Netherlands re-imposesed a full lockdown? or just tweaked the restrictions for the unvaccinated?
p.s. I do like the chap pushing a bicycle thought in the middle, very Dutch.
Woke up this morning to see the rioting in Rotterdam on the news. It appears to be a reaction to what is described as a "partial lockdown" that has been imposed on the whole population, allegedly for three weeks - although we all know what happened over here last year, where the Government tried to deploy one of these useless "circuit breakers" in November, lifted it again, and finally ended up imprisoning everybody from Christmas to Easter.
Once ministers impose these measures, previous experience shows that they find it very hard to let go of them, because of the rising case numbers and the panicked screaming from the boffins that follows as soon as they do so. The only thing that brings relief is warm weather: a lot of people in the countries that are finding themselves back in yet another cycle of lockdowns are probably terrified that they're going to be stuck in them for six months.
My gut instinct is that we are not very far behind, although this isn't reflected in the data as yet. Its a good time to get stuff done before the next lockdown.
Agreed. I may be suffering from some cognitive bias because my wife and I currently have it, but there seems to be a lot of it about, it's spreading really easily pretty much whenever people interact indoors. I know so many people getting it right now. I do feel a bit better this morning after a relatively good night. Adjusting for my wife's tendency to be more stoical than me I suspect she now has it worse. I'm going to go and make her a cup of tea.
I hope that, when you've made the tea and can settle down again to read this, you both continue to feel better. If you are doing so, then it's clear, that for Mr & Mrs OLB, This Thing Will Pass!
Best of!
Seconded. I’m more or less over the after effects, having been back at work for a week.
For your viewing pleasure, here is Zarah Sultana being tied up in knots by her own mini-brain. Note Shadow Leader of the House Thangam Debbonaire's body language...
Where does the hard left find these utter morons like Sultana?
How on Earth can she not think of another word for 'dodgy?'
Admittedly I might have asked her to withdraw it on the grounds that called Grant Shapps 'dodgy' is something of an understatement, but surely 'inept,' 'dubious,' 'duplicitous,' 'lazy' and 'pig ignorant' would all have fitted the bill?
But then, she never was exactly with it.
Economical with the probity ?
I wonder if in her head Sultana regards the Speaker as "establishment to be resisted", like all other authority figures, for plucky activists.
If she’s the best the Labour left has, then the threat of their taking over the party again seems somewhat diminished.
Debbonaire seems very impressive. Great name (which she chose herself via deed poll, apparently), and a cellist of professional standard to boot.
Yes, Debbonaire comes over well. As for the 'left' in Labour, the problem imo is they're too weak not too strong. As usual you get overswing and it's happened here in response to Corbyn. The party leadership is extremely averse to anything which might conjur up memories of that man in the minds of floating voters. Hence, very very cagey on certain issues that for me they could be stronger on. But if one takes the view that winning an election is more important than pleasing me, as many will, then I reckon Starmer is playing things about right. Roll on those policies. Let's hope there's some killers.
When you hear Sultana on the subject of tuition fees or on the increased NI on the working ages, you do get a good idea of what should be a central Labour theme. She may not be the right vessel, but this is something that the Front bench should be pushing:
They should. In a populist age you handicap yourself if you shy away from it. Also a risk though in that Labour are vulnerable to 'class war' attacks when sounding radical. So they need to get across anger at the working poor being screwed but without looking like they have the affluent and those aspiring to be affluent in their cross hairs.
PS: You're an interesting poster. One of the most left wing on here on many things yet a staunch Lib Dem!
It is baffling Labour can't commit to a super elite wealth tax at a time when obviously new taxes are needed and this is the only new tax that polls well. Apparently no policies are allowed until the GE but it makes no sense to me. Potential Labour voters will be drifting off to greens, LDs or becoming non voters over the next 3 years, when they could be drawn in with a popular policy. Momentum is needed well ahead of the GE.
I get the caution, and BJ is being very helpful to the strategy, but I am hoping for some radical polices and that one, a wealth tax that raises a lot of money, is right at the top of the list. As I say, I think the political risk of it, despite the polls, is that it opens up the 'class war' line of attack or its cousin the 'politics of envy'. We know how the Tories and the media demonize anything Labour propose which smacks of that and we also know how effective it can be. Still, I agree with you. The big picture imo is we tax wealth or we drop the idea of the welfare state and good public services for all. So it's seize the moment. Not sure they will though.
We already have close to 40% of UK GDP taken by the UK Government in tax. We don't need a welfare state and public services for all either. The average earning voter and above does not need much if any welfare and the richest and highest earning 10% can use private healthcare and private education.
However I would not be surprised if Labour backed a wealth tax in 2023/24 even under Starmer as Ed Miliband and Corbyn both did
You have to be ahermit living on St Kilda not to use public services. We all use them.
As for the highet earning 10% - well whoopee-shit for them, what about the rest of us?
Not necessarily, most of the rich educate their children privately and probably most of them generally use private healthcare too and only go to the NHS if they have an emergency.
If you are rich or a high earner probably the only public services you directly benefit from are the police, fire service and rubbish collection and the former 2 only a very occasional basis if ever.
However the richest 10% still pay for state healthcare and education for the remaining 90% via their taxes
Well @Benpointer has beaten me to the list (of which it is only a small subset). You only have to look at your council tax bill to see how much you pay for the police. You are not using them occasionally. You are using them all the time. All those police cars going up and down the motorway, clearing accidents, etc you are personally using otherwise you are going nowhere. And when you do directly need the services of the police, fire brigade, or an ambulance you are really getting a lot of value. I have personally only needed the fire brigade once to be rescued from a car in a flood. Even got a lift home in a fire engine which was fun. Sadly the car didn't do as well as me.
What if you don't use motorways, don't commit any crimes, have never had a house fire and are hale and hearty, you are getting a real bum deal.
Most people drive, policing is just not for motorways, and of course you benefit from detection and deterrence of crimes in general. I benefited from the police deciding to raid the cannabis farm upstairs. Fire and health I see very much as insurance payments. In any case, most of us will use a lot of NHS in the final years of our lives however healthy we are now. And you, @malcolmg, presumably need a new spleen every few years.
@JohnLilburne I was being very tongue in cheek John.
Comments
F1: interesting qualifying. As usual, for a normally timed weekend, I plan to post the pre-race ramble on Sunday morning. Looking very much like a Hamilton win.
AlphaTauri exceeding expectations. Likewise Alonso.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "Scottish Liberal Democrats have repeatedly warned the Government that data protection is virtually non-existent – a simple screenshot was enough to bypass whatever ‘security measures’ the system had in place.
"The launch was a shambles and the IT system struggled to cope."
Daily Record
That's like imagining that OGH has never heard of the Corby Trouser Press.
Some leavers are dying off, but some are changing their mind as the reality becomes harder to ignore.
Both Tories and Labour are instinctive centralists.
It was a Tory/Lib Dem coalition that made the first, albeit half-arsed, moves toward devolution.
Forget about it.
Ole has to go, Shirley?
“If we’re going to have a country in which guns are pervasive and the law has little or nothing to say about where and when one may carry a gun and display a gun,” Mr. Buell said, “then we are going to have a situation where self-defense law can’t really handle it.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/us/rittenhouse-acquittal-self-defense.html
For the time being though such sharing is very much to be objected to.
(Yes, that’s probably not exactly what he said. PB pedants).
Why should we expect journalists to get anything else right?
I think if United sack Ole then they should go for a caretaker manager until the end of the season, go for Ryan Giggs again.
Quiet competence is what ManU need. The problem is they’re suckers for sentimentality. They’ll probably go for someone stupid like Giggs.
So long as it goes down to the last race, preferably at the Turn 6-7 chicane, I’ll be happy.
Simeone perhaps?
You missed the asterisk on interesting.
https://www.nhsinform.scot/nhs-scotland-covid-status/covid-status-privacy-policy/
"Who has access to the data?
No one will have access to the data stored on your phone unless you decide to show your COVID Status to them.
Neither the Scottish Government nor NHS Scotland, (except NHS National Services Scotland as described below) get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process.
The Scottish Government does not get or have access to the data that you supplied for the online I.D. verification process. A limited number of NHS National Services Scotland personnel will have access to the data in order to produce anonymous aggregated metrics."
Things are looking a lot brighter in terms of data sharing - the GDPR is brutal, as businesses are finding to their cost. No doubt they will be lobbying to get rid of it, and we shouldn't let them succeed.
Your data is always encrypted, held by NHS Scotland and only temporarily shared with the trusted parties required to deliver this service.
https://www.nhsinform.scot/nhs-scotland-covid-status/covid-status-privacy-policy/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yht_Y7WywAU
That’s one influence maybe. But I think that so called “woke” attempts to suppress speech has different ideological predecessors, although I couldn’t explain what.
Also, Big Brother, first broadcast 2000, evidenced a new willingness by large parts of the population to surrender privacy for essentially narcissistic reasons…six or seven years before social media went mainstream.
Of course liberty allows one to have an open mind about this. Not suggesting for a moment that you think otherwise. Just that these matters are interesting and not quite as clear cut as we think.
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
According to Wittes, the words appear in a letter widely presumed to be written by Franklin in 1755 on behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the colonial governor. “The letter was a salvo in a power struggle between the governor and the assembly over funding for security on the frontier, one in which the assembly wished to tax the lands of the Penn family,” he explains.
The letter wasn’t about liberty but about taxes and the ability to “raise money for defense against French and Indian attacks. The governor kept vetoing the assembly’s efforts at the behest of the family, which had appointed him.”
Indeed, if you look at the text surrounding the famous quote, it’s pretty clearly about money: “Our assemblies have of late had so many supply bill, and of such different kinds, rejected, on various pretences,” wrote Franklin.
There’s not much on liberty, as we understand the concept, in the entire letter.
https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/14/how-the-world-butchered-benjamin-franklins-quote-on-liberty-vs-security/
Lewis has matured into a great man and role model.
On the other hand if it guaranteed a Champions League spot...
Note my tip from this morning. The 3 nil defeat was made more tolerable by £60 in winnings...
From 0825 today:
"My tip of the day is Chelsea to win at 1.83 on Betfair and Smarkets. Our defence is shambolic, while Chelseas is rock solid and we are missing Tielemans our player of the season. We beat them in the FA Cup final, but the teams have gone in opposite directions since. Leicester always do badly with the early kick off on Saturday. The handicap markets are good too."
Hopefully more accurate than his advice to Florida and DeSantis.
July 26, 2021:
"I don’t think the delta variant changes the calculus or the evidence in any fundamental way… In Florida in this past wave, the number of deaths have not risen proportionally. Why? Because we protected the vulnerable."
September 4, 2021:
"The emergency phase of the disease is over. Now, we need to work very hard to undo the sense of emergency. We should be treating covid as one of 200 diseases that affect people."
It is interesting to consider that Thatcher, with the dust from the Brighton Bombing on her clothes, rejected all such ideas out of hand. Instead she launched a two pronged response - negations with the SDLP and other like minded people, and a brutal and efficient intelligence war against the PIRA.
They are going to absolutely fuckwangle Liverpool, just have a look at our bench!
On the project I'm working on currently you could say that their customer data is shared with Amazon, but all this means is that AWS is used to provide a public gateway for the API calls used by Salesforce, and all the data is encrypted as it passes through the AWS servers, and there's no sense in which anyone working for Amazon could login to their servers and lookup the personal data for one of the customers, without doing something seriously dodgy to copy the data as it passes through and break the encryption (which might not even be possible, but I'm not sure).
That's very different to the situation where the government has actually sold our data to private companies for them to do what they want with it.
ab workout guy
@un434
·
1m
Things are so good in Britain that our antivaxxers have been reduced to protesting against other countries' covid restrictions, glorious
It's not Scottish NHS policy to sell patient data to commercial operators, more generally.
PS I see LostPassword has provided a likely explanation. Deliberate misunderstanding by journls and southern English Tory MPs, rather.
They could work out from the temporary data sharing to comparing with their own records and send targeted adverts etc or sell on that data.
However it's got lots of big names in it which makes it sound BAD when in reality the only question I have is why are both AWS and Azure being used?
Though I did win £7000 the year we won the title, including £2 each way at 3000/1.
Incidentally, I think Leicester are worth a Lay at 1.22 against Legia Warsaw in the Europa League on Thursday. Apart from against Napoli Legia have proven formidable, and even then they did well until well into the second half.
Also Amazon are very good at keeping things separate but every department has it's complete separate P&L accounts.
https://www.nhsinform.scot/covid-19-vaccine/after-your-vaccine/get-a-record-of-your-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-status
Edit: again LostPassword has explained ...
No surprise from me (4 times sectioned since 2011 [3 if you don't count the "voluntary" one])
Each post code covers many addresses. They won't receive any other data about you, or your vaccination status, or where your vaccination status has been checked.
It's possible that all that data is being given to Royal Mail, but simply saying that some of your personal data is shared with them could also be completely harmless. I've clearly bored my wife with this stuff so much that I could read her the original tweet and she knew enough to ask, "So does that just mean it uses AWS then?"
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/aug/22/nhs-data-grab-on-hold-as-millions-opt-out
It's of interest to me as I am just trying to work out how to get my own passport.
Folk were talking about them as title contenders when CR7 came.
There is, for the first time in a terribly long time, a scintilla of optimism in the air, replacing what had been something close to despair. The sight of hope on the horizon. The sense that finally, finally, people are waking up to the failings of the man in No 10.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has been getting justifiably hammered, even by his own side. His party’s poll ratings are in decline. His personal ones are in free fall. The foul scent of sleaze has finally started to cling to his suits. The controversy over MPs’ lobbying, their second jobs, the attempts to rewrite the rules in their favour, just won’t die down.
A cancer has been growing and metastasising in public life under our noses.
Here’s where it gets concerning. The sleaze row will die down eventually. They always do. Politics will move on. Something else will emerge to grab attention. People will look away. When they do, this stuff will return. Maybe with a bit more caution than before. Johnson has a habit of pushing it too far before performing a volte face. So while there may be grounds to hope that Johnson’s many manifest failings are starting to get through to the public, I’m not yet ready to say I’m convinced. Not yet.
Incidentally, as of a couple of days ago it shows boosters too.
You missed the first line:
"Spend a moment in the anti-Tory Twitterverse and you’ll find something new."
Safe for time being.
Honestly, why anyone wants to be anti-vax and take the kind of risk this graph shows is beyond my ken.
https://www.racefans.net/2021/11/20/fia-told-drivers-to-expect-different-decisions-with-different-stewards-hamilton/
And the Dutchman...
...Verstappen – who was asked the same question – complained his fellow drivers had described was was discussed in the meeting.
“For me, the thing I don’t like, we discuss these kinds of things and they don’t need to go to the media,” he said....
It might be worth a try......
Was it a reasoned bet, or just a 'hell, why not' one?
He's wise to Verstappen's dubious tactics, and might have a quick enough car to stay well clear of him.
Genuine question (and fair enough if you don’t want to discuss it publicly on a forum).
I find peoples level headed assessments of their previous mental health episodes quite interesting and useful. Often, eg, in documentaries, we get people looking back on their mental health episodes and expressing gratitude at the way they were “handled” - was that your experience?
About 12 of them. Not a great deal of logic or critical thinking there if their signs are owt to go by.
Not sure they were US Christians. Although near the massive Mormon temple.
People might notice you know.
NEW THREAD
The accompanying data table gives a bit more flesh to the data.
I did point out here when we were top in December that 20/1 was great value. @isam rubbished that tip...
(Gov source for £32bn figure)
The message is there may be a chink of light at the end of the tunnel for those of us not of the faith.
I was being very tongue in cheek John.