I know the UK calculates its Covid death rate on those who die 28 days after a Covid diagnosis. Is the any statistics showing what the normal death rate would be. If the were circa 40K positive tests each day over 28 days that's aprox a population of 1.12 million people - just think this would put the statistics in a better context.
Day out with my older daughter. We went to Silchester (modestly interesting deserted Roman city) and then the Vyne (the house shut at 3 so we missed it). Oh well. We still had fun letting the dog run around the ancient amphitheatre and we had nice sandwiches in Silchester Tesco car park.
The absolute highlight of the day?
My 15 year old daughter revealing that her favourite sitcom is Parks and Rec and her favourite character within it is Ron Swanson
My heart sang with paternal pride. Tho I remained apparently calm. The girl will go far
Bojack Horseman in my daughter's case. A bit woke for you, probably. Though you might recognise something familiar in the titular character.
Is it funny? It would be the first Woke comedy to be funny if it is funny. I do not know of any funny Woke comedians or sitcoms, indeed the concept of Wokeness is intrinsically inimical to great humour. That which is taboo REMAINS taboo, only more so, and all great comedy breaks taboos therefore NOPE....
I though it was. Though it does take a little patience to get into. Like you (though perhaps for different reasons) I was disposed not to like it, but it's actually pretty good.
I'm still struggling to get into Rick and Morty, despite ADORING Community, created and written by the same guy, Dan Harmon
Some animations work, and some just don't, despite huge talents devoted to them
This is an odd thing, because with an animation all you need to get write is the story telling and dialogue, and I guess a bit of drawing. With real life drama/comedy you have actors and directors and it's all much messier...
Never been tempted to try it. Daughter loved Community too (as did I), so there's that.
Eddie Izzard. If anyone's looking for woke + unquestionably funny.
Such a dumb remark.
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
So he’s a bit sniffy and feeling unwell. Who gives a fuck. Vaccine has worked. Give it a rest and look at the reality. How many fans at twickenham yesterday? How many at each of the premiership football matches? Life is back to normal, with NO legal restrictions in England. Because of the vaccines. Wishing it wasn’t so won’t make it happen. I don’t know what your game is, but you are not winning.
One sad milestone this week. The last of our Spanish/Portuguese nurses is leaving. We recruited about 10 in 2015. Most went back, or to France/Germany pre pandemic, but being redeployed to ICU was the final straw for the last one. She goes in a fortnight albeit with British dual nationality, but I don't think she will return.
A lot of staff have had enough and are talking of going too, even Mrs Foxy and I are increasingly talking about it.
Please don't go Foxy, the NHS is barely surviving as it is.
Not planning to yet, but doing anything at the moment is like wading in treacle, hard work to make minimal progress. No beds, staff shortages, morale in the dumps, patients with loads of neglected conditions over the last 18 months. It really is no longer much of a pleasure, and generally I love my job and have great colleagues and juniors.
One thing too is that while I haven't really been locked down is that my habits have changed. I went to my first meal out last week in over 6 months. It was nice, but used to be nearly a weekly event. I have re-learnt to enjoy simple pleasures such as reading, music, gardening, cooking, walking my dog across the fields, visiting the Isle of Wight family etc. In short, the cost of my leisure activities has reduced quite noticeably, and the simple life appeals more each day.
Anecdotally am hearing much of this. Taking fewer hours, or changing jobs for less pay and less hassle. My brother just quit yesterday for less pay but better hours. They realised they simply don't need the money that much anymore. If they ever did.
Yes and it is not just a British phenomenon. The Atlantic broke it down in several ways: the Great Resignation, the Great Rudeness, the Great Reset and the Great Reshuffling.
I don't think that I will quit medicine, but I may well "retire and return" on pension plus 50% part time, perhaps in another part of the country, or just doing locums when I fancy. Mrs Foxy would quite like to move to Wilts/Dorset area, where she has family.
Well I hope whatever you choose works out.
Speaking personally (and in the negative) I think a big factor in being able to feel good post career is that you can look back and say, "Yep, I did something of real value and I did it to the best of my ability".
This might not work for a Sinatra song but I do think it's the case.
Weren't you.... an accountant?
Forgive me if I got that wrong
An honest accountant is a pearl beyond price. Not to mention a competent one when one has a tax problem.
I gather, done right, it's a very taxing profession.
The upper reaches of the profession are completely bent in my view. Entirely within the law of course,
Actually thinking about it all accountants are on the make.
Good and honest accountants are not that rare (though I'd agree about the upper reaches of the profession). Competent solicitors are much harder to find in my experience.
What a waste of a life. Being an accountant
You get one go on this earth. And you spend it totting up numbers to save people some tax? In an office? That's it?
There are some jobs I find contemptible, others I find pitiful. Accountant seems to tick both boxes. A rarity
Another damn thick post. Always scribble, scribble, scribble eh mr Leon?
Chisel, chisel, chisel, I think you will find
A description which would also, of course, apply to all the bankers, accountants, lawyers and politicians on this forum, and many many others
Must say, have always admired magnate who named Chislehurst - at least ONE land pirate honest about it.
The LDs ought not to feature at all. I simply don't understand how they manage it. They're clearly nowhere.
OB&S - who knows. North Shropshire - choose your protest vote.
You really don't like the Liberal Democrats, do you?
I'm no more objective I suppose - it's obvious the party has abandoned Old Bexley & Sidcup for a tilt at North Shropshire. That makes sense on so many levels.
Whether it delivers a positive outcome remains to be seen but no one will be paying attention to the LD vote in Old Bexley & Sidcup (except you perhaps). It's an election to see whether Labour can be in any way competitive - the highest vote for the party in recent times was 37.5% in 2001. If Labour are anywhere near that I'd consider that a good result for them.
Conservatives sub 50%? I think that would be interesting.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
Er - no. That's what we (including me) told you was happening when you said there would be an October lockdown because government departments were preparing for one.
And, I might add, you stubbornly persisted in your belief 'it's being planned for so it must be going ahead' for several very annoying weeks, and were extremely rude to a number of people who pulled you up over it.
As for your first point about complacency, surely the fact that your worst predictions haven't come to pass despite the fact we now have minimal restrictions in itself shows that that's not the case?
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Not really. The consequences of infection, vaccinated vs unvaccinated, are vastly different. For most of us vaccinated, it was like a moderate flu bout.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Look, even double vaccination does not stop you getting Covid, it just reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death from it.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
One sad milestone this week. The last of our Spanish/Portuguese nurses is leaving. We recruited about 10 in 2015. Most went back, or to France/Germany pre pandemic, but being redeployed to ICU was the final straw for the last one. She goes in a fortnight albeit with British dual nationality, but I don't think she will return.
A lot of staff have had enough and are talking of going too, even Mrs Foxy and I are increasingly talking about it.
Please don't go Foxy, the NHS is barely surviving as it is.
Not planning to yet, but doing anything at the moment is like wading in treacle, hard work to make minimal progress. No beds, staff shortages, morale in the dumps, patients with loads of neglected conditions over the last 18 months. It really is no longer much of a pleasure, and generally I love my job and have great colleagues and juniors.
One thing too is that while I haven't really been locked down is that my habits have changed. I went to my first meal out last week in over 6 months. It was nice, but used to be nearly a weekly event. I have re-learnt to enjoy simple pleasures such as reading, music, gardening, cooking, walking my dog across the fields, visiting the Isle of Wight family etc. In short, the cost of my leisure activities has reduced quite noticeably, and the simple life appeals more each day.
Anecdotally am hearing much of this. Taking fewer hours, or changing jobs for less pay and less hassle. My brother just quit yesterday for less pay but better hours. They realised they simply don't need the money that much anymore. If they ever did.
Yes and it is not just a British phenomenon. The Atlantic broke it down in several ways: the Great Resignation, the Great Rudeness, the Great Reset and the Great Reshuffling.
I don't think that I will quit medicine, but I may well "retire and return" on pension plus 50% part time, perhaps in another part of the country, or just doing locums when I fancy. Mrs Foxy would quite like to move to Wilts/Dorset area, where she has family.
Well I hope whatever you choose works out.
Speaking personally (and in the negative) I think a big factor in being able to feel good post career is that you can look back and say, "Yep, I did something of real value and I did it to the best of my ability".
This might not work for a Sinatra song but I do think it's the case.
Weren't you.... an accountant?
Forgive me if I got that wrong
An honest accountant is a pearl beyond price. Not to mention a competent one when one has a tax problem.
I gather, done right, it's a very taxing profession.
The upper reaches of the profession are completely bent in my view. Entirely within the law of course,
Actually thinking about it all accountants are on the make.
Good and honest accountants are not that rare (though I'd agree about the upper reaches of the profession). Competent solicitors are much harder to find in my experience.
What a waste of a life. Being an accountant
You get one go on this earth. And you spend it totting up numbers to save people some tax? In an office? That's it?
There are some jobs I find contemptible, others I find pitiful. Accountant seems to tick both boxes. A rarity
I know the UK calculates its Covid death rate on those who die 28 days after a Covid diagnosis. Is the any statistics showing what the normal death rate would be. If the were circa 40K positive tests each day over 28 days that's aprox a population of 1.12 million people - just think this would put the statistics in a better context.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Look, even double vaccination does not stop you getting Covid, it just reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death from it.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
Can someone please find that tweet from yesterday that showed ICU occupancy for vaccinated (two-dose) vs. unvaccinated by age. The idea that two jabs offers no protection is utterly absurd.
I feel run-down, fatigued, a regular but not constant cough, blocked nose. I'm generally fit and healthy (with good regular workouts for my respiratory system, thanks Pilates!). But I imagine this would be much worse if I wasn't vaccinated and my health situation were different.
The LDs ought not to feature at all. I simply don't understand how they manage it. They're clearly nowhere.
OB&S - who knows. North Shropshire - choose your protest vote.
You really don't like the Liberal Democrats, do you?
I'm no more objective I suppose - it's obvious the party has abandoned Old Bexley & Sidcup for a tilt at North Shropshire. That makes sense on so many levels.
Whether it delivers a positive outcome remains to be seen but no one will be paying attention to the LD vote in Old Bexley & Sidcup (except you perhaps). It's an election to see whether Labour can be in any way competitive - the highest vote for the party in recent times was 37.5% in 2001. If Labour are anywhere near that I'd consider that a good result for them.
Conservatives sub 50%? I think that would be interesting.
You're mistaken. I quite like the LDs generally, but see Davey as worse than hopeless.
In real elections, the Bulgarian presidential election second round has gone pretty much as you would have expected.
Incumbent Ruman Radev, with 49.5% of the vote in the first round has got 63-65% of the vote in the run off and will comfortably defeat Anastas Gerdzhikov, the favoured candidate of Borisov's GERB candidate who is polling 33-35%.
This would clear the way for the formation of a new coalition led by PP and including ITN, the Socialists and Democratic Bulgaria and Kiril Petkov to become Prime Minister.
One sad milestone this week. The last of our Spanish/Portuguese nurses is leaving. We recruited about 10 in 2015. Most went back, or to France/Germany pre pandemic, but being redeployed to ICU was the final straw for the last one. She goes in a fortnight albeit with British dual nationality, but I don't think she will return.
A lot of staff have had enough and are talking of going too, even Mrs Foxy and I are increasingly talking about it.
Please don't go Foxy, the NHS is barely surviving as it is.
Not planning to yet, but doing anything at the moment is like wading in treacle, hard work to make minimal progress. No beds, staff shortages, morale in the dumps, patients with loads of neglected conditions over the last 18 months. It really is no longer much of a pleasure, and generally I love my job and have great colleagues and juniors.
One thing too is that while I haven't really been locked down is that my habits have changed. I went to my first meal out last week in over 6 months. It was nice, but used to be nearly a weekly event. I have re-learnt to enjoy simple pleasures such as reading, music, gardening, cooking, walking my dog across the fields, visiting the Isle of Wight family etc. In short, the cost of my leisure activities has reduced quite noticeably, and the simple life appeals more each day.
Anecdotally am hearing much of this. Taking fewer hours, or changing jobs for less pay and less hassle. My brother just quit yesterday for less pay but better hours. They realised they simply don't need the money that much anymore. If they ever did.
Yes and it is not just a British phenomenon. The Atlantic broke it down in several ways: the Great Resignation, the Great Rudeness, the Great Reset and the Great Reshuffling.
I don't think that I will quit medicine, but I may well "retire and return" on pension plus 50% part time, perhaps in another part of the country, or just doing locums when I fancy. Mrs Foxy would quite like to move to Wilts/Dorset area, where she has family.
Well I hope whatever you choose works out.
Speaking personally (and in the negative) I think a big factor in being able to feel good post career is that you can look back and say, "Yep, I did something of real value and I did it to the best of my ability".
This might not work for a Sinatra song but I do think it's the case.
Weren't you.... an accountant?
Forgive me if I got that wrong
An honest accountant is a pearl beyond price. Not to mention a competent one when one has a tax problem.
I gather, done right, it's a very taxing profession.
The upper reaches of the profession are completely bent in my view. Entirely within the law of course,
Actually thinking about it all accountants are on the make.
Good and honest accountants are not that rare (though I'd agree about the upper reaches of the profession). Competent solicitors are much harder to find in my experience.
What a waste of a life. Being an accountant
You get one go on this earth. And you spend it totting up numbers to save people some tax? In an office? That's it?
There are some jobs I find contemptible, others I find pitiful. Accountant seems to tick both boxes. A rarity
Depends what you do with the money.
Indeed, partners at Ernst and Young and PWC earn well into 6 figures
Eddie Izzard. If anyone's looking for woke + unquestionably funny.
Such a dumb remark.
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
You might want to rewatch some of his live shows. There is cetainly politics in there. Not sure how you could possibly have watched them all and seen NO politics. You'd have to be halfway down your second bottle to miss it.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
The LDs ought not to feature at all. I simply don't understand how they manage it. They're clearly nowhere.
OB&S - who knows. North Shropshire - choose your protest vote.
You really don't like the Liberal Democrats, do you?
I'm no more objective I suppose - it's obvious the party has abandoned Old Bexley & Sidcup for a tilt at North Shropshire. That makes sense on so many levels.
Whether it delivers a positive outcome remains to be seen but no one will be paying attention to the LD vote in Old Bexley & Sidcup (except you perhaps). It's an election to see whether Labour can be in any way competitive - the highest vote for the party in recent times was 37.5% in 2001. If Labour are anywhere near that I'd consider that a good result for them.
Conservatives sub 50%? I think that would be interesting.
I think a Witney type outcome in N Shropshire is quite plausible (and even a win would no longer shock me) , even if it doesn't signify too much nationally. I was initially quite dubious but such an outcome wouldn't be surprising at all even if only relates to local issues. It reminds me of the Brecon and Radnorshire by election (but without the recent liberal history).
I think the Old Bexley and Sidcup by election is more interesting even though there's no chance of a Tory loss. But Labour does need a strong performance of around 30% at least to boost Starmer.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
One sad milestone this week. The last of our Spanish/Portuguese nurses is leaving. We recruited about 10 in 2015. Most went back, or to France/Germany pre pandemic, but being redeployed to ICU was the final straw for the last one. She goes in a fortnight albeit with British dual nationality, but I don't think she will return.
A lot of staff have had enough and are talking of going too, even Mrs Foxy and I are increasingly talking about it.
Please don't go Foxy, the NHS is barely surviving as it is.
Not planning to yet, but doing anything at the moment is like wading in treacle, hard work to make minimal progress. No beds, staff shortages, morale in the dumps, patients with loads of neglected conditions over the last 18 months. It really is no longer much of a pleasure, and generally I love my job and have great colleagues and juniors.
One thing too is that while I haven't really been locked down is that my habits have changed. I went to my first meal out last week in over 6 months. It was nice, but used to be nearly a weekly event. I have re-learnt to enjoy simple pleasures such as reading, music, gardening, cooking, walking my dog across the fields, visiting the Isle of Wight family etc. In short, the cost of my leisure activities has reduced quite noticeably, and the simple life appeals more each day.
Anecdotally am hearing much of this. Taking fewer hours, or changing jobs for less pay and less hassle. My brother just quit yesterday for less pay but better hours. They realised they simply don't need the money that much anymore. If they ever did.
Yes and it is not just a British phenomenon. The Atlantic broke it down in several ways: the Great Resignation, the Great Rudeness, the Great Reset and the Great Reshuffling.
I don't think that I will quit medicine, but I may well "retire and return" on pension plus 50% part time, perhaps in another part of the country, or just doing locums when I fancy. Mrs Foxy would quite like to move to Wilts/Dorset area, where she has family.
Well I hope whatever you choose works out.
Speaking personally (and in the negative) I think a big factor in being able to feel good post career is that you can look back and say, "Yep, I did something of real value and I did it to the best of my ability".
This might not work for a Sinatra song but I do think it's the case.
Weren't you.... an accountant?
Forgive me if I got that wrong
An honest accountant is a pearl beyond price. Not to mention a competent one when one has a tax problem.
I gather, done right, it's a very taxing profession.
The upper reaches of the profession are completely bent in my view. Entirely within the law of course,
Actually thinking about it all accountants are on the make.
Good and honest accountants are not that rare (though I'd agree about the upper reaches of the profession). Competent solicitors are much harder to find in my experience.
What a waste of a life. Being an accountant
You get one go on this earth. And you spend it totting up numbers to save people some tax? In an office? That's it?
There are some jobs I find contemptible, others I find pitiful. Accountant seems to tick both boxes. A rarity
You either get the thrill of 'double entry' or you don't. And I did. Straightaway, I did. Still remember the first time. I was only 22 and oh boy.
Just been away with Mrs Anabob for a few blissful autumn days and nights in a luxury hotel. Fantastic walks and great dinners. The place was buzzing and apart from one or two staff wearing masks (out of about 50) it was like covid never happened.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Look, even double vaccination does not stop you getting Covid, it just reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death from it.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
Boosters are very effective at reducing transmission. Israel is back to very few cases a day now.
The LDs ought not to feature at all. I simply don't understand how they manage it. They're clearly nowhere.
OB&S - who knows. North Shropshire - choose your protest vote.
You really don't like the Liberal Democrats, do you?
I'm no more objective I suppose - it's obvious the party has abandoned Old Bexley & Sidcup for a tilt at North Shropshire. That makes sense on so many levels.
Whether it delivers a positive outcome remains to be seen but no one will be paying attention to the LD vote in Old Bexley & Sidcup (except you perhaps). It's an election to see whether Labour can be in any way competitive - the highest vote for the party in recent times was 37.5% in 2001. If Labour are anywhere near that I'd consider that a good result for them.
Conservatives sub 50%? I think that would be interesting.
I think a Witney type outcome in N Shropshire is quite plausible, even if it doesn't signify too much nationally. I was initially quite dubious but such an outcome wouldn't be surprising at all even if it only to do with local issues. It reminds me of the Brecon and Radnorshire by election (but without the recent liberal history).
I think the Bexley and Old Sidcup by election is more interesting even though there's no chance of a Tory loss. But Labour does need a strong performance of around 30% at least to boost Starmer.
Thanks, Mags, but that is gibberish from start to finish. Badly Written Bot.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
The LDs ought not to feature at all. I simply don't understand how they manage it. They're clearly nowhere.
OB&S - who knows. North Shropshire - choose your protest vote.
You really don't like the Liberal Democrats, do you?
I'm no more objective I suppose - it's obvious the party has abandoned Old Bexley & Sidcup for a tilt at North Shropshire. That makes sense on so many levels.
Whether it delivers a positive outcome remains to be seen but no one will be paying attention to the LD vote in Old Bexley & Sidcup (except you perhaps). It's an election to see whether Labour can be in any way competitive - the highest vote for the party in recent times was 37.5% in 2001. If Labour are anywhere near that I'd consider that a good result for them.
Conservatives sub 50%? I think that would be interesting.
You're mistaken. I quite like the LDs generally, but see Davey as worse than hopeless.
I don't mind Davey, ex Cameron Coalition Minister of course, positive and intelligent and on the Orange Book wing of the LDs and an Anglican. Moving on from Brexit as well.
If we did have to have Starmer as PM I would hope he lacked a majority and needed Davey and the LDs as well as the SNP to be able to form a stable government.
However while the LDs would not expect to beat the Tories and Labour in Old Bexley and Sidcup, falling behind RefUK too, which I think is a strong possibility, would not be great news for them and a boost to Tice
Eddie Izzard. If anyone's looking for woke + unquestionably funny.
Such a dumb remark.
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
You might want to rewatch some of his live shows. There is cetainly politics in there. Not sure how you could possibly have watched them all and seen NO politics. You'd have to be halfway down your second bottle to miss it.
When he was actually funny it was less so though. The more issue based he became the less funny.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Look, even double vaccination does not stop you getting Covid, it just reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death from it.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
Boosters are very effective at reducing transmission. Israel is back to very few cases a day now.
Doesn’t Israel have a rather large unvaxxed population as well?
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Look, even double vaccination does not stop you getting Covid, it just reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death from it.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
Boosters are very effective at reducing transmission. Israel is back to very few cases a day now.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Look, even double vaccination does not stop you getting Covid, it just reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death from it.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
There is an axiomatic obsession with covid cases. And, as horrible as it is, a stigma attached to contracting it. Attitudes like that of @Heathener don’t help.
Eddie Izzard. If anyone's looking for woke + unquestionably funny.
Such a dumb remark.
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
I think Izzard once said "I am a lesbian trapped in a man's body" or words to that effect.
Most "unusual" role of his was arguably as one of the July 1944 plot conspirators in Tom Cruise's "Valkyrie".
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Look, even double vaccination does not stop you getting Covid, it just reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death from it.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
Boosters are very effective at reducing transmission. Israel is back to very few cases a day now.
Doesn’t Israel have a rather large unvaxxed population as well?
I think there was a fair few. No idea what has happened now.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Look, even double vaccination does not stop you getting Covid, it just reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death from it.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
There is an axiomatic obsession with covid cases. And, as horrible as it is, a stigma attached to contracting it. Attitudes like that of @Heathener don’t help.
Well, speaking personally I do try to avoid people with Covid.
But then, they should make things easier for me by isolating themselves.
The LDs ought not to feature at all. I simply don't understand how they manage it. They're clearly nowhere.
OB&S - who knows. North Shropshire - choose your protest vote.
You really don't like the Liberal Democrats, do you?
I'm no more objective I suppose - it's obvious the party has abandoned Old Bexley & Sidcup for a tilt at North Shropshire. That makes sense on so many levels.
Whether it delivers a positive outcome remains to be seen but no one will be paying attention to the LD vote in Old Bexley & Sidcup (except you perhaps). It's an election to see whether Labour can be in any way competitive - the highest vote for the party in recent times was 37.5% in 2001. If Labour are anywhere near that I'd consider that a good result for them.
Conservatives sub 50%? I think that would be interesting.
You're mistaken. I quite like the LDs generally, but see Davey as worse than hopeless.
I don't mind Davey, ex Cameron Coalition Minister of course, positive and intelligent and on the Orange Book wing of the LDs. Moving on from Brexit as well.
If we did have to have Starmer as PM I would hope he lacked a majority and needed Davey and the LDs as well as the SNP to be able to form a stable government.
However while the LDs would not expect to beat the Tories and Labour in Old Bexley and Sidcup, falling behind RefUK too, which I think is a strong possibility, would not be great news for them and a boost to Tice
I don't "mind" him either. However I want to see the LDs as the opposition with a Tory government.
LDs focussing where they can win makes total sense.
You're mistaken. I quite like the LDs generally, but see Davey as worse than hopeless.
Apparently a lot of Conservatives don't think much of Johnson but they still support the Conservatives.
Apparently a lot of Labour people aren't that impressed with Starmer but they still support Labour.
Sometimes the "leader" isn't the be-all and end-all - given we've had Iain Duncan-Smith, Jeremy Cornyn and Jo Swinson as party leaders in the past 20 years, one might argue it's not the cream that has risen to the top but all were elected by the memberships of their party.
I agree Sir Ed isn't the most charismatic man out there and given we have three party leaders all representing London constituencies, all white and all male, you could say we aren't exactly thinking outside the box.
As for an LD alternative, it's a limited field in many senses - you know how this place works, as soon as you mention someone, up pops someone else to tell you they are rubbish and they'd never vote for them in a million years etc.
It can be trivial such as how they look, how they sound, how they eat a bacon sandwich - ephemeral in every sense.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
Technically that's a class 43, which is bearable.
If we get to bimode Azumas (class 800) we're truly buggered.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
The engines for those are Class 43s! (eg. 43001)
So we can't go higher than 93k/day?
The Class 98s used to be the Vale of Rheidol steam locomotives, and Class 99 were (believe it or not) the old Sealink ferries.
Class 97s are various old locos and other vehicles in use by Network Rail as "departmental" stock.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Look, even double vaccination does not stop you getting Covid, it just reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death from it.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
Boosters are very effective at reducing transmission. Israel is back to very few cases a day now.
Boosters every 6 months I agree are also vital
They might not be, or may be once a year for more at risk groups. There is nothing magic in the initial two dose regime, so those who think needing a booster is somehow indicative of failure are plain wrong. Many vaccinations are based on three shots. We will see what happens to immunity over the next few months. My guess is the boosters will keep a lot of older folk out of hospital, but we can’t help the fuckwits out there whom won’t even have one.
Never worth looking at sunday's, the numbers are always down. Compare the 7 day average and do not try to kid yourself and other people. Bit like using subsamples.
The numbers have shown the falls for sometime now, apart from infections, and there is no evidence admissions or sadly deaths are rising
Indeed my daughter and her family have had positive tests this last week but they are working from home whilst isolating
The does seem to be quite a few locally contacting covid but the vaccine and boosters are working and keeping them out of hospital
Unfortunately the vaccine and boosters are not working for those who refused to have them, the same people who are responsible for reducing the NHS to its knees going into the winter months.
My patience with them is wearing thin too. It's time to make the life of the unvaccinated difficult, rather than watch the NHS disintegrate and in response impose further restrictions on the substantial majority who have done the right thing.
I agree. Vaccine passports for pubs and sporting events have always seemed to me to be a sensible way of incentivising the stupid. The obvious Darwinian benefit is just too slow and the consequences for others too severe to let this go on.
You already have that rubbish in Scotland and there's no evidence it's made a blind bit of difference.
Well maybe the fact that Scotland is at 1:95 whereas England is at 1:65 would say it could possibly make a difference. Something must be causing it to be 50% less in Scotland. Any idea of what rubbish it could be.
PS: given it only started a few weeks ago it is a bit quick to have masses of evidence into the bargain.
We lesser breeds in the territories should be grateful for any words of wisdom from the Bwanas.
And then Tom he talked along and talked along, and says, le's all three slide out of here one of these nights and get an outfit , and go for howling adventures amongst the Injuns, over in the Territory, for a couple of weeks or two; and I says, all right, that suits me, but I ain't got no money for to buy the outfit, and I reckon I couldn't get none from home, because it's likely pap's been back before now, and got it all away from Judge Thatcher and drunk it up.
British Territories citizens' rights accorfing to HMG website:
"Unless you’re also a British citizen: you’re still subject to immigration controls - you do not have the automatic right to live or work in the UK."
Make them overseas territories with seats in Parliament as France does
Spain would actually go mental if we did that with Gibraltar. Likewise Argentina with the Falklands. And Bermuda doesn't seem to want it.
Well tough, they are British Overseas Territories whose populations wish to remain British and we fought a war against Argentina to prove that to them in the case of the Falklands
If they are so desperate to be British they should move to Surrey instead of living on an island in the South Atlantic.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Look, even double vaccination does not stop you getting Covid, it just reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death from it.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
Boosters are very effective at reducing transmission. Israel is back to very few cases a day now.
Boosters every 6 months I agree are also vital
Not necessarily. There is a belief in some quarters that “boosters” should not really be seen as boosters, but part of the optimal initial programme (on the basis eg. that it appears that the protection offered by boosters is actually greater than the initial two dose programme - ie. they do not so much act as a booster, so much as an enhancer). There are other vaccination programmes which historically have required “boosters” in this way. Basically a lot of it is guesswork.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
Technically that's a class 43, which is bearable.
If we get to bimode Azumas (class 800) we're truly buggered.
Much the same is true if you get into a bimode Azuma as a passenger.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
The engines for those are Class 43s! (eg. 43001)
So we can't go higher than 93k/day?
Nah there are a lot of 6 figure classes, mostly DMU/EMU etc. Do not want to see them in use...
These vastly different council tax rates surely makes the case for a single annual property rate (or banded rates) applied nationally, rather than based on local council's net financing requirements.
Which would make it considerably more difficult for working-class people to live in more expensive areas of the country.
The current problem, though, is that poorer areas have more service demands than richer areas. They therefore have higher council tax charges, which encourage the flight of the more talented. (Why stay and pay more Council Tax when you can move to a richer part of the country and pay less? Only those whose Council Tax is subsidised by Central Government stay in high tax areas.)
Is it not simply that the comparisons most commmonly used to show council tax in different areas, are completely spurious.
How many “Band A” properties exist within the M25, and how many “Band E” properties exist in northern towns like Rotherham?
Does the owner of a 2,000 sq ft, 3 bed semi, pay more or less council tax in London or Rotherham?
That is a massive 3 bed semi lol. One thing, everywhere ought to be unitary. 2 tier is a farce that just adds jobs for the boys and expense.
Only if town and parish councils get increased power too should we have universal unitary councils, otherwise there is no significant council with a local link to where people actually live rather than a town or city up to an hour away
Town and parish councils are just full of power hungry whoppers
If they think they will get power by being on a parish council they are in for a big disappointment!
It's a mostly thankless task, very much dependent on having a good chair and a good clerk to do much. Larger towns have more scope to actually do things, but are at their worst when the 'power hungry' treat it like its national politics, rather than treat party labels (much more common on towns than parishes) as pretty lose affiliations.
Never worth looking at sunday's, the numbers are always down. Compare the 7 day average and do not try to kid yourself and other people. Bit like using subsamples.
The numbers have shown the falls for sometime now, apart from infections, and there is no evidence admissions or sadly deaths are rising
Indeed my daughter and her family have had positive tests this last week but they are working from home whilst isolating
The does seem to be quite a few locally contacting covid but the vaccine and boosters are working and keeping them out of hospital
Unfortunately the vaccine and boosters are not working for those who refused to have them, the same people who are responsible for reducing the NHS to its knees going into the winter months.
My patience with them is wearing thin too. It's time to make the life of the unvaccinated difficult, rather than watch the NHS disintegrate and in response impose further restrictions on the substantial majority who have done the right thing.
I agree. Vaccine passports for pubs and sporting events have always seemed to me to be a sensible way of incentivising the stupid. The obvious Darwinian benefit is just too slow and the consequences for others too severe to let this go on.
You already have that rubbish in Scotland and there's no evidence it's made a blind bit of difference.
Well maybe the fact that Scotland is at 1:95 whereas England is at 1:65 would say it could possibly make a difference. Something must be causing it to be 50% less in Scotland. Any idea of what rubbish it could be.
PS: given it only started a few weeks ago it is a bit quick to have masses of evidence into the bargain.
We lesser breeds in the territories should be grateful for any words of wisdom from the Bwanas.
And then Tom he talked along and talked along, and says, le's all three slide out of here one of these nights and get an outfit , and go for howling adventures amongst the Injuns, over in the Territory, for a couple of weeks or two; and I says, all right, that suits me, but I ain't got no money for to buy the outfit, and I reckon I couldn't get none from home, because it's likely pap's been back before now, and got it all away from Judge Thatcher and drunk it up.
British Territories citizens' rights accorfing to HMG website:
"Unless you’re also a British citizen: you’re still subject to immigration controls - you do not have the automatic right to live or work in the UK."
Make them overseas territories with seats in Parliament as France does
Spain would actually go mental if we did that with Gibraltar. Likewise Argentina with the Falklands. And Bermuda doesn't seem to want it.
Well tough, they are British Overseas Territories whose populations wish to remain British and we fought a war against Argentina to prove that to them in the case of the Falklands
If they are so desperate to be British they should move to Surrey instead of living on an island in the South Atlantic.
Why? Most of them were born there, it is their home.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
Technically that's a class 43, which is bearable.
If we get to bimode Azumas (class 800) we're truly buggered.
Much the same is true if you get into a bimode Azuma as a passenger.
They turned out not to be all they were cracked up to be.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
Never worth looking at sunday's, the numbers are always down. Compare the 7 day average and do not try to kid yourself and other people. Bit like using subsamples.
The numbers have shown the falls for sometime now, apart from infections, and there is no evidence admissions or sadly deaths are rising
Indeed my daughter and her family have had positive tests this last week but they are working from home whilst isolating
The does seem to be quite a few locally contacting covid but the vaccine and boosters are working and keeping them out of hospital
Unfortunately the vaccine and boosters are not working for those who refused to have them, the same people who are responsible for reducing the NHS to its knees going into the winter months.
My patience with them is wearing thin too. It's time to make the life of the unvaccinated difficult, rather than watch the NHS disintegrate and in response impose further restrictions on the substantial majority who have done the right thing.
I agree. Vaccine passports for pubs and sporting events have always seemed to me to be a sensible way of incentivising the stupid. The obvious Darwinian benefit is just too slow and the consequences for others too severe to let this go on.
Vaccine passports for pubs doesn’t just make life difficult for the unvaccinated. It makes life very difficult for the pubs expected to enforce them as well.
Hopefully we'll be able to keep on doing without vaccine passports in England, but I question how much difference they would make even if we tried using them. AIUI they've had them in Germany all along and a fat lot of good it has done.
That kind of measure is only going to get anti-vaxxers out of circulation and/or compel them to stop digging their heels in if it is made a condition of going to work. The large bulk of anti-vaxxers aren't pensioners: strip them of their income and they'll soon be forced to give in.
Why though? The NHS isn’t about to keel over. The risk they are taking is with their own health. Why discriminate against fellow citizens to force them to take a medical intervention against their will?
You're mistaken. I quite like the LDs generally, but see Davey as worse than hopeless.
Apparently a lot of Conservatives don't think much of Johnson but they still support the Conservatives.
Apparently a lot of Labour people aren't that impressed with Starmer but they still support Labour.
Sometimes the "leader" isn't the be-all and end-all - given we've had Iain Duncan-Smith, Jeremy Cornyn and Jo Swinson as party leaders in the past 20 years, one might argue it's not the cream that has risen to the top but all were elected by the memberships of their party.
I agree Sir Ed isn't the most charismatic man out there and given we have three party leaders all representing London constituencies, all white and all male, you could say we aren't exactly thinking outside the box.
As for an LD alternative, it's a limited field in many senses - you know how this place works, as soon as you mention someone, up pops someone else to tell you they are rubbish and they'd never vote for them in a million years etc.
It can be trivial such as how they look, how they sound, how they eat a bacon sandwich - ephemeral in every sense.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Look, even double vaccination does not stop you getting Covid, it just reduces your risk of hospitalisation and death from it.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
Boosters are very effective at reducing transmission. Israel is back to very few cases a day now.
Boosters every 6 months I agree are also vital
They might not be, or may be once a year for more at risk groups. There is nothing magic in the initial two dose regime, so those who think needing a booster is somehow indicative of failure are plain wrong. Many vaccinations are based on three shots. We will see what happens to immunity over the next few months. My guess is the boosters will keep a lot of older folk out of hospital, but we can’t help the fuckwits out there whom won’t even have one.
Yep there was something I saw the other day from the person who received the first booster (8 months ago I think he said). Apparently even now his antibody levels are off the chart ie. very little waning so far.
I know the UK calculates its Covid death rate on those who die 28 days after a Covid diagnosis. Is the any statistics showing what the normal death rate would be. If the were circa 40K positive tests each day over 28 days that's aprox a population of 1.12 million people - just think this would put the statistics in a better context.
Between 17th September and 17th October there were 1,100,245 infections. If all these infections were as deadly as drinking a cup of tea you'd expect ~ 700 deaths between 17th October and 17th November mentioning 'within 28 days of the diagnosis' (Correcting properly for age it would be lower).
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Never worth looking at sunday's, the numbers are always down. Compare the 7 day average and do not try to kid yourself and other people. Bit like using subsamples.
The numbers have shown the falls for sometime now, apart from infections, and there is no evidence admissions or sadly deaths are rising
Indeed my daughter and her family have had positive tests this last week but they are working from home whilst isolating
The does seem to be quite a few locally contacting covid but the vaccine and boosters are working and keeping them out of hospital
Unfortunately the vaccine and boosters are not working for those who refused to have them, the same people who are responsible for reducing the NHS to its knees going into the winter months.
My patience with them is wearing thin too. It's time to make the life of the unvaccinated difficult, rather than watch the NHS disintegrate and in response impose further restrictions on the substantial majority who have done the right thing.
I agree. Vaccine passports for pubs and sporting events have always seemed to me to be a sensible way of incentivising the stupid. The obvious Darwinian benefit is just too slow and the consequences for others too severe to let this go on.
Vaccine passports for pubs doesn’t just make life difficult for the unvaccinated. It makes life very difficult for the pubs expected to enforce them as well.
Hopefully we'll be able to keep on doing without vaccine passports in England, but I question how much difference they would make even if we tried using them. AIUI they've had them in Germany all along and a fat lot of good it has done.
That kind of measure is only going to get anti-vaxxers out of circulation and/or compel them to stop digging their heels in if it is made a condition of going to work. The large bulk of anti-vaxxers aren't pensioners: strip them of their income and they'll soon be forced to give in.
Why though? The NHS isn’t about to keel over. The risk they are taking is with their own health. Why discriminate against fellow citizens to force them to take a medical intervention against their will?
Did you not see the discussion earlier today about the state of the NHS? With Foxy et al.
I know the UK calculates its Covid death rate on those who die 28 days after a Covid diagnosis. Is the any statistics showing what the normal death rate would be. If the were circa 40K positive tests each day over 28 days that's aprox a population of 1.12 million people - just think this would put the statistics in a better context.
Between 17th September and 17th October there were 1,100,245 infections. If all these infections were as deadly as drinking a cup of tea you'd expect ~ 700 deaths between 17th October and 17th November mentioning 'within 28 days of the diagnosis' (Correcting properly for age it would be lower).
I have booked accommodation to visit my daughter in Bath in mid-December. I am still confident that I will be able to take this trip without any significant restrictions on what I can do while I am there (if any) excepting those following from my wife's caution.
Hopefully it will be dry and we can go to the rooftop open-air hot springs.
Eddie Izzard. If anyone's looking for woke + unquestionably funny.
Such a dumb remark.
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
I think Izzard once said "I am a lesbian trapped in a man's body" or words to that effect.
Most "unusual" role of his was arguably as one of the July 1944 plot conspirators in Tom Cruise's "Valkyrie".
Wasn't as miscast as Cruise as von Stauffenberg imho.
Izzard as the choleric captain in the rubbish remake of Whisky Galore was up there.
The LDs ought not to feature at all. I simply don't understand how they manage it. They're clearly nowhere.
OB&S - who knows. North Shropshire - choose your protest vote.
You really don't like the Liberal Democrats, do you?
I'm no more objective I suppose - it's obvious the party has abandoned Old Bexley & Sidcup for a tilt at North Shropshire. That makes sense on so many levels.
Whether it delivers a positive outcome remains to be seen but no one will be paying attention to the LD vote in Old Bexley & Sidcup (except you perhaps). It's an election to see whether Labour can be in any way competitive - the highest vote for the party in recent times was 37.5% in 2001. If Labour are anywhere near that I'd consider that a good result for them.
Conservatives sub 50%? I think that would be interesting.
I think a Witney type outcome in N Shropshire is quite plausible (and even a win would no longer shock me) , even if it doesn't signify too much nationally. I was initially quite dubious but such an outcome wouldn't be surprising at all even if only relates to local issues. It reminds me of the Brecon and Radnorshire by election (but without the recent liberal history).
I think the Old Bexley and Sidcup by election is more interesting even though there's no chance of a Tory loss. But Labour does need a strong performance of around 30% at least to boost Starmer.
How can a by-election where you see no chance of an upset and the only thrills to be had are seeing whether Starmer clears 30%, possibly be “more interesting” than one where, by your own account, there is a chance of a major upset and hence the outcome is not entirely predictable????
These vastly different council tax rates surely makes the case for a single annual property rate (or banded rates) applied nationally, rather than based on local council's net financing requirements.
If you that then what is the point of local government? They just become delivery agents for central government
I have booked accommodation to visit my daughter in Bath in mid-December. I am still confident that I will be able to take this trip without any significant restrictions on what I can do while I am there (if any) excepting those following from my wife's caution.
Hopefully it will be dry and we can go to the rooftop open-air hot springs.
I have more doubts on the weather than on Covid.
Genuine question - does it matter if it’s raining if you are going in the hot water? Hoping you enjoy the trip. Sadly the Christmas market is not running this year which is a huge shame, as it’s always a highlight for us in the lead up to Christmas.
The LDs ought not to feature at all. I simply don't understand how they manage it. They're clearly nowhere.
OB&S - who knows. North Shropshire - choose your protest vote.
You really don't like the Liberal Democrats, do you?
I'm no more objective I suppose - it's obvious the party has abandoned Old Bexley & Sidcup for a tilt at North Shropshire. That makes sense on so many levels.
Whether it delivers a positive outcome remains to be seen but no one will be paying attention to the LD vote in Old Bexley & Sidcup (except you perhaps). It's an election to see whether Labour can be in any way competitive - the highest vote for the party in recent times was 37.5% in 2001. If Labour are anywhere near that I'd consider that a good result for them.
Conservatives sub 50%? I think that would be interesting.
I think a Witney type outcome in N Shropshire is quite plausible (and even a win would no longer shock me) , even if it doesn't signify too much nationally. I was initially quite dubious but such an outcome wouldn't be surprising at all even if only relates to local issues. It reminds me of the Brecon and Radnorshire by election (but without the recent liberal history).
I think the Old Bexley and Sidcup by election is more interesting even though there's no chance of a Tory loss. But Labour does need a strong performance of around 30% at least to boost Starmer.
How can a by-election where you see no chance of an upset and the only thrills to be had are seeing whether Starmer clears 30%, possibly be “more interesting” than one where, by your own account, there is a chance of a major upset and hence the outcome is not entirely predictable????
Maybe because of the circumstances surrounding each?
Eddie Izzard. If anyone's looking for woke + unquestionably funny.
Such a dumb remark.
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
I think Izzard once said "I am a lesbian trapped in a man's body" or words to that effect.
Most "unusual" role of his was arguably as one of the July 1944 plot conspirators in Tom Cruise's "Valkyrie".
Wasn't as miscast as Cruise as von Stauffenberg imho.
Izzard as the choleric captain in the rubbish remake of Whisky Galore was up there.
What did you think of Whisky Galore, the book? I don't know how far Compton Mackenzie got the local zeitgeist right (though he was a lot better than Waugh E. in the Sword of Honour trilogy).
Eddie Izzard. If anyone's looking for woke + unquestionably funny.
Such a dumb remark.
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
You might want to rewatch some of his live shows. There is cetainly politics in there. Not sure how you could possibly have watched them all and seen NO politics. You'd have to be halfway down your second bottle to miss it.
When he was actually funny it was less so though. The more issue based he became the less funny.
One of the all time greats though.
Just been rewatching the bit about empire (do you have a flag?), still brilliant all these years later.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Not really. The consequences of infection, vaccinated vs unvaccinated, are vastly different. For most of us vaccinated, it was like a moderate flu bout.
And that is exactly the case with my daughter, husband and grandson all confirmed with covid last week
Our son called today and said a colleague has had covid, was off for three weeks, and is now on a phased return
He like my daughter's family are vaccinated and needed no medical intervention
@Heathener posts are much as her first one, always negative, and increasingly a minority voice which seems to be in denial of just how much better we are in the UK, as covid becomes endemic and we learn to live with it, most probably for years
You're mistaken. I quite like the LDs generally, but see Davey as worse than hopeless.
Apparently a lot of Conservatives don't think much of Johnson but they still support the Conservatives.
Apparently a lot of Labour people aren't that impressed with Starmer but they still support Labour.
Sometimes the "leader" isn't the be-all and end-all - given we've had Iain Duncan-Smith, Jeremy Cornyn and Jo Swinson as party leaders in the past 20 years, one might argue it's not the cream that has risen to the top but all were elected by the memberships of their party.
I agree Sir Ed isn't the most charismatic man out there and given we have three party leaders all representing London constituencies, all white and all male, you could say we aren't exactly thinking outside the box.
As for an LD alternative, it's a limited field in many senses - you know how this place works, as soon as you mention someone, up pops someone else to tell you they are rubbish and they'd never vote for them in a million years etc.
It can be trivial such as how they look, how they sound, how they eat a bacon sandwich - ephemeral in every sense.
Anecdote on leaders. I've spent today eating and drinking with six 'young' people (all in their 30s). All educated and reasonably politically aware. I asked them who the leader of the Lib Dems was; only one knew. By contrast, all knew and had an opinion on Sturgeon, although there were no Scottish connections. Unsurprisingly, they were fluent on Johnson and Starmer. I then asked for impressions of Ed Davey; none at all, even from the one who knew who he was. I suspect he really has failed to get any cut through and is not a well-known figure, despite being around for a long time.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
Just a bit of fun.
If the daily Covid number matches the number of a locomotive, I try to find a photo of that locomotive to post a link to.
Others have also joined in.
As I have little knowledge of steam locomotive numbering I will leave any kettle references to those better informed and stick to diesels (or electrics if the numbers really take off).
I have booked accommodation to visit my daughter in Bath in mid-December. I am still confident that I will be able to take this trip without any significant restrictions on what I can do while I am there (if any) excepting those following from my wife's caution.
Hopefully it will be dry and we can go to the rooftop open-air hot springs.
I have more doubts on the weather than on Covid.
Genuine question - does it matter if it’s raining if you are going in the hot water? Hoping you enjoy the trip. Sadly the Christmas market is not running this year which is a huge shame, as it’s always a highlight for us in the lead up to Christmas.
I can speak about the real and artificial outdoor hot spring baths in Iceland: it's actually better if it's snowing. You sit there nearly naked, all snug and warm, with snow falling on your head. What a fabulous experience. Add a small glass of Brennevin to the mix and it's perfection.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night are in winter.
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
Eddie Izzard. If anyone's looking for woke + unquestionably funny.
Such a dumb remark.
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
I think Izzard once said "I am a lesbian trapped in a man's body" or words to that effect.
Most "unusual" role of his was arguably as one of the July 1944 plot conspirators in Tom Cruise's "Valkyrie".
Wasn't as miscast as Cruise as von Stauffenberg imho.
Izzard as the choleric captain in the rubbish remake of Whisky Galore was up there.
What did you think of Whisky Galore, the book? I don't know how far Compton Mackenzie got the local zeitgeist right (though he was a lot better than Waugh E. in the Sword of Honour trilogy).
It's an absolute age since I read it and it's probably been swamped by the several times I've watched the film (the original), I suspect I'd find it a bit of a curiosity if I read it now. No doubt of his genuine interest in and sympathy for Hebrideans though.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night are in winter.
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
Winter starts on November 1 and ends, in a good year, on 1 May.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night are in winter.
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
For the NHS there are only two seasons - Summer and Winter.
You're mistaken. I quite like the LDs generally, but see Davey as worse than hopeless.
Apparently a lot of Conservatives don't think much of Johnson but they still support the Conservatives.
Apparently a lot of Labour people aren't that impressed with Starmer but they still support Labour.
Sometimes the "leader" isn't the be-all and end-all - given we've had Iain Duncan-Smith, Jeremy Cornyn and Jo Swinson as party leaders in the past 20 years, one might argue it's not the cream that has risen to the top but all were elected by the memberships of their party.
I agree Sir Ed isn't the most charismatic man out there and given we have three party leaders all representing London constituencies, all white and all male, you could say we aren't exactly thinking outside the box.
As for an LD alternative, it's a limited field in many senses - you know how this place works, as soon as you mention someone, up pops someone else to tell you they are rubbish and they'd never vote for them in a million years etc.
It can be trivial such as how they look, how they sound, how they eat a bacon sandwich - ephemeral in every sense.
Anecdote on leaders. I've spent today eating and drinking with six 'young' people (all in their 30s). All educated and reasonably politically aware. I asked them who the leader of the Lib Dems was; only one knew. By contrast, all knew and had an opinion on Sturgeon, although there were no Scottish connections. Unsurprisingly, they were fluent on Johnson and Starmer. I then asked for impressions of Ed Davey; none at all, even from the one who knew who he was. I suspect he really has failed to get any cut through and is not a well-known figure, despite being around for a long time.
To be fair under FPTP as LD leader he only really needs to cut through in about 20 seats beyond those the LDs already hold, virtually all of them Tory held in the posher parts of London and the South.
If he manages that then Davey will almost certainly be Kingmaker with the balance of power in 2023/24
Eddie Izzard. If anyone's looking for woke + unquestionably funny.
Such a dumb remark.
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
You might want to rewatch some of his live shows. There is cetainly politics in there. Not sure how you could possibly have watched them all and seen NO politics. You'd have to be halfway down your second bottle to miss it.
When he was actually funny it was less so though. The more issue based he became the less funny.
One of the all time greats though.
Just been rewatching the bit about empire (do you have a flag?), still brilliant all these years later.
Eddie Izzard. If anyone's looking for woke + unquestionably funny.
Such a dumb remark.
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
You might want to rewatch some of his live shows. There is cetainly politics in there. Not sure how you could possibly have watched them all and seen NO politics. You'd have to be halfway down your second bottle to miss it.
When he was actually funny it was less so though. The more issue based he became the less funny.
One of the all time greats though.
Just been rewatching the bit about empire (do you have a flag?), still brilliant all these years later.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Not really. The consequences of infection, vaccinated vs unvaccinated, are vastly different. For most of us vaccinated, it was like a moderate flu bout.
And that is exactly the case with my daughter, husband and grandson all confirmed with covid last week
Our son called today and said a colleague has had covid, was off for three weeks, and is now on a phased return
He like my daughter's family are vaccinated and needed no medical intervention
@Heathener posts are much as her first one, always negative, and increasingly a minority voice which seems to be in denial of just how much better we are in the UK, as covid becomes endemic and we learn to live with it, most probably for years
Like this double post that apparently didn't exist:
Tim Spector and ZOE study suggests the true figure probably nearer 60,000.
As I said, that fits what I'm seeing (anecdotally). A lot of people are refusing to get tested and a significant number are also refusing to self-isolate...And the DWP have been told to expect lockdown in October.
These vastly different council tax rates surely makes the case for a single annual property rate (or banded rates) applied nationally, rather than based on local council's net financing requirements.
If you that then what is the point of local government? They just become delivery agents for central government
That's happened to a depressingly large extent already. Councils are stuck in the increasingly narrow window between statutory minium services and statutory maximum council tax increases. And every year, social care costs get a bit bigger.
Going back to the earlier conversation about parish councils, my impression is that they work pretty well as local civic pride units. And the sort of things they do- the flower beds, the community hall and so on- are the kinds of thing that could make a real difference to visible levelling up. They're the kind of things that are often the first to go when a larger council is feeling the pinch. Is there mileage in urban parish councils; say the size of a London Borough ward (Romford Town is about 16k, which might be a bit big) doing the hyperlocal stuff? Would people be happier to pay towards things that will be in their street, or the next one along?
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night are in winter.
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
....
My point is the part of the year where you walk home from work in the dark is interrupted by a series of fun holidays.
I find spring (particularly last year) takes way longer to arrive than you expect, and that's exactly when we may have to lock down again.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night are in winter.
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
....
My point is the part of the year where you walk home from work in the dark is interrupted by a series of fun holidays.
I find spring (particularly last year) takes way longer to arrive than you expect, and that's exactly when we may have to lock down again.
The end of January is always the worst time of year. Dismal weather, short days and nothing to look forward to for a while.
Just been away with Mrs Anabob for a few blissful autumn days and nights in a luxury hotel. Fantastic walks and great dinners. The place was buzzing and apart from one or two staff wearing masks (out of about 50) it was like covid never happened.
Fantastic, great to hear you living life as it should.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Not really. The consequences of infection, vaccinated vs unvaccinated, are vastly different. For most of us vaccinated, it was like a moderate flu bout.
And that is exactly the case with my daughter, husband and grandson all confirmed with covid last week
Our son called today and said a colleague has had covid, was off for three weeks, and is now on a phased return
He like my daughter's family are vaccinated and needed no medical intervention
@Heathener posts are much as her first one, always negative, and increasingly a minority voice which seems to be in denial of just how much better we are in the UK, as covid becomes endemic and we learn to live with it, most probably for years
Like this double post that apparently didn't exist:
Tim Spector and ZOE study suggests the true figure probably nearer 60,000.
As I said, that fits what I'm seeing (anecdotally). A lot of people are refusing to get tested and a significant number are also refusing to self-isolate...And the DWP have been told to expect lockdown in October.
I know the UK calculates its Covid death rate on those who die 28 days after a Covid diagnosis. Is the any statistics showing what the normal death rate would be. If the were circa 40K positive tests each day over 28 days that's aprox a population of 1.12 million people - just think this would put the statistics in a better context.
Between 17th September and 17th October there were 1,100,245 infections. If all these infections were as deadly as drinking a cup of tea you'd expect ~ 700 deaths between 17th October and 17th November mentioning 'within 28 days of the diagnosis' (Correcting properly for age it would be lower).
Just been away with Mrs Anabob for a few blissful autumn days and nights in a luxury hotel. Fantastic walks and great dinners. The place was buzzing and apart from one or two staff wearing masks (out of about 50) it was like covid never happened.
Fantastic, great to hear you living life as it should.
I don’t understand the train meme, when images of trains are posted next to covid stats. (Today’s numbers look decent by the way)
TOPS numbering of the engines. So a class 40 engine, might be number 40 004. Numbers of cases have been great for this. Ideally we don’t want deltics and we do want shutters, except the shunters wouldn’t work (08 class).
We certainly don't want any of those intercity 125s.
The engines for those are Class 43s! (eg. 43001)
Power cars. Not locomotives.
The class is officially the fastest diesel locomotive in the world, with an absolute maximum speed of 148 mph (238 km/h), and a regular service speed of 125 mph (201 km/h). The record run was led by 43102 (43302) and trailed by 43159.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night are in winter.
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
....
My point is the part of the year where you walk home from work in the dark is interrupted by a series of fun holidays.
I find spring (particularly last year) takes way longer to arrive than you expect, and that's exactly when we may have to lock down again.
The end of January is always the worst time of year. Dismal weather, short days and nothing to look forward to for a while.
Quite. We need another Xmas round about the end of Feb.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night are in winter.
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
....
My point is the part of the year where you walk home from work in the dark is interrupted by a series of fun holidays.
I find spring (particularly last year) takes way longer to arrive than you expect, and that's exactly when we may have to lock down again.
PB is littered with predictions of lockdown at some vaguely defined point in the future.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night are in winter.
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
....
My point is the part of the year where you walk home from work in the dark is interrupted by a series of fun holidays.
I find spring (particularly last year) takes way longer to arrive than you expect, and that's exactly when we may have to lock down again.
The end of January is always the worst time of year. Dismal weather, short days and nothing to look forward to for a while.
Quite. We need another Xmas round about the end of Feb.
Bringing forward BST to the first Sunday in March would help. Never been clear why we have to drag GMT out until the final weekend of that month.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night are in winter.
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
....
My point is the part of the year where you walk home from work in the dark is interrupted by a series of fun holidays.
I find spring (particularly last year) takes way longer to arrive than you expect, and that's exactly when we may have to lock down again.
The end of January is always the worst time of year. Dismal weather, short days and nothing to look forward to for a while.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night are in winter.
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
....
My point is the part of the year where you walk home from work in the dark is interrupted by a series of fun holidays.
I find spring (particularly last year) takes way longer to arrive than you expect, and that's exactly when we may have to lock down again.
PB is littered with predictions of lockdown at some vaguely defined point in the future.
And predictions that cases are about the skyrocket. And predictions that cases are about to fall because we've reach "herd immunity"
I predict that the predictions won't stop no matter how often they're wrong.
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the Senior Reporter and anchor for BBC World News, has just tested positive and he's triple jabbed, wears a mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Not really. The consequences of infection, vaccinated vs unvaccinated, are vastly different. For most of us vaccinated, it was like a moderate flu bout.
And that is exactly the case with my daughter, husband and grandson all confirmed with covid last week
Our son called today and said a colleague has had covid, was off for three weeks, and is now on a phased return
He like my daughter's family are vaccinated and needed no medical intervention
@Heathener posts are much as her first one, always negative, and increasingly a minority voice which seems to be in denial of just how much better we are in the UK, as covid becomes endemic and we learn to live with it, most probably for years
Like this double post that apparently didn't exist:
Tim Spector and ZOE study suggests the true figure probably nearer 60,000.
As I said, that fits what I'm seeing (anecdotally). A lot of people are refusing to get tested and a significant number are also refusing to self-isolate...And the DWP have been told to expect lockdown in October.
I know the UK calculates its Covid death rate on those who die 28 days after a Covid diagnosis. Is the any statistics showing what the normal death rate would be. If the were circa 40K positive tests each day over 28 days that's aprox a population of 1.12 million people - just think this would put the statistics in a better context.
One sad milestone this week. The last of our Spanish/Portuguese nurses is leaving. We recruited about 10 in 2015. Most went back, or to France/Germany pre pandemic, but being redeployed to ICU was the final straw for the last one. She goes in a fortnight albeit with British dual nationality, but I don't think she will return.
A lot of staff have had enough and are talking of going too, even Mrs Foxy and I are increasingly talking about it.
Please don't go Foxy, the NHS is barely surviving as it is.
Not planning to yet, but doing anything at the moment is like wading in treacle, hard work to make minimal progress. No beds, staff shortages, morale in the dumps, patients with loads of neglected conditions over the last 18 months. It really is no longer much of a pleasure, and generally I love my job and have great colleagues and juniors.
One thing too is that while I haven't really been locked down is that my habits have changed. I went to my first meal out last week in over 6 months. It was nice, but used to be nearly a weekly event. I have re-learnt to enjoy simple pleasures such as reading, music, gardening, cooking, walking my dog across the fields, visiting the Isle of Wight family etc. In short, the cost of my leisure activities has reduced quite noticeably, and the simple life appeals more each day.
Anecdotally am hearing much of this. Taking fewer hours, or changing jobs for less pay and less hassle. My brother just quit yesterday for less pay but better hours. They realised they simply don't need the money that much anymore. If they ever did.
Yes and it is not just a British phenomenon. The Atlantic broke it down in several ways: the Great Resignation, the Great Rudeness, the Great Reset and the Great Reshuffling.
I don't think that I will quit medicine, but I may well "retire and return" on pension plus 50% part time, perhaps in another part of the country, or just doing locums when I fancy. Mrs Foxy would quite like to move to Wilts/Dorset area, where she has family.
Well I hope whatever you choose works out.
Speaking personally (and in the negative) I think a big factor in being able to feel good post career is that you can look back and say, "Yep, I did something of real value and I did it to the best of my ability".
This might not work for a Sinatra song but I do think it's the case.
Weren't you.... an accountant?
Forgive me if I got that wrong
An honest accountant is a pearl beyond price. Not to mention a competent one when one has a tax problem.
I gather, done right, it's a very taxing profession.
The upper reaches of the profession are completely bent in my view. Entirely within the law of course,
Actually thinking about it all accountants are on the make.
Good and honest accountants are not that rare (though I'd agree about the upper reaches of the profession). Competent solicitors are much harder to find in my experience.
What a waste of a life. Being an accountant
You get one go on this earth. And you spend it totting up numbers to save people some tax? In an office? That's it?
There are some jobs I find contemptible, others I find pitiful. Accountant seems to tick both boxes. A rarity
In Italy, one of the ways I improved my language was with the odd film, generally with my flatmates. We tend to think as foreign cinema as all art house, all Bertolucci and Il Postino and La Dolce Vita, but the truth is predictably far more mundane.
And so, one day, we had some girlfriends over and braved the all conquering juggernaut of Italian cinema at the time, an enjoyably decent stab at a heavily Curtis influenced romcom about an overly selfless rural accountant and a troupe of rather beautiful dancers whose bus had become lost.
As it was a Curtisian thing to have non obvious heroes, I did enquire, and none of the Italians thought it the least bit odd that an accountant was feted as as central a pillar of the community, if not more, as the doctor or priest. It turned out that in real life, the person who could help in the national sport of tax avoidance was indeed regarded in this way.
Eddie Izzard. If anyone's looking for woke + unquestionably funny.
Such a dumb remark.
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
I think Izzard once said "I am a lesbian trapped in a man's body" or words to that effect.
Most "unusual" role of his was arguably as one of the July 1944 plot conspirators in Tom Cruise's "Valkyrie".
Wasn't as miscast as Cruise as von Stauffenberg imho.
Izzard as the choleric captain in the rubbish remake of Whisky Galore was up there.
I actually though that Cruise as Stauffenberg worked rather well.
I quite liked the newspaper review that got upset that all the German generals were portrayed as a bunch of neurotic wibblers - this was exactly true to life. The generals spent all their time vapouring about whether killing Hitler was compatible with their honour, to the point they had no time to actually kill him
I'm afraid that we may need to accept that the true proportion of the country vaccinated is closer to 20% i.e. those triple jabbed and even then it's not foolproof. Rich Preston, the senior reporter and anchor for BBC world news has just test positive and he's triple jabbed, wears mask everywhere and observes social distancing.
We have a long way still to go with this pandemic. At least 2 years. This winter will be tough for everyone in Europe, including the UK.
Sorry. Wish it were not so, believe me.
Likely to be as accurate as your predictions of October lockdown, for one very good reason.
It doesn't matter if you test positive if you are not going to become seriously ill as a result. That's what vaccines, even just one or two doses, have been very good at. They don't stop you getting it, but they do cut the likelihood of getting ill by an order of magnitude.
That's why Austria is locking down and we're not.
Complacency has bitten us on the behind every time.
I didn't predict an October lockdown anywhere. Ever. I said preparations were being made for that contingency in Gov't departments, which they were. So I was right.
And my actual prediction was that this winter I wouldn't be surprised to see us hit 100,000 cases a day. Which we will.
That's a silly 'insight'. Of course the Civil Service has contingencies, every statement out of gov mentions a possible new variant turning up which would screw us again.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night are in winter.
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
....
My point is the part of the year where you walk home from work in the dark is interrupted by a series of fun holidays.
I find spring (particularly last year) takes way longer to arrive than you expect, and that's exactly when we may have to lock down again.
PB is littered with predictions of lockdown at some vaguely defined point in the future.
And predictions that cases are about the skyrocket. And predictions that cases are about to fall because we've reach "herd immunity"
I predict that the predictions won't stop no matter how often they're wrong.
Are your predictions of predictions by reporting day, or day of prediction of prediction?
Comments
Izzard is - - or was - a comic genius. His best stand up is some of the greatest of all time. But it is not Woke: there is no politics at all in his material. Just because towards the end of his stand up career he started wearing lippy and then eventually skirts does not make it "Woke" - it's a man thinking about becoming a woman, that's all.
Stewart Lee is a very funny political comedian, but again he is not Woke. He's just political. Of the Left.
There are plenty of funny Left and Right wing comedians, there are no funny Woke comedians. Woke is the Orwellian anti-sex league applied to humour. THAT'S NOT FUNNY
I'm no more objective I suppose - it's obvious the party has abandoned Old Bexley & Sidcup for a tilt at North Shropshire. That makes sense on so many levels.
Whether it delivers a positive outcome remains to be seen but no one will be paying attention to the LD vote in Old Bexley & Sidcup (except you perhaps). It's an election to see whether Labour can be in any way competitive - the highest vote for the party in recent times was 37.5% in 2001. If Labour are anywhere near that I'd consider that a good result for them.
Conservatives sub 50%? I think that would be interesting.
And, I might add, you stubbornly persisted in your belief 'it's being planned for so it must be going ahead' for several very annoying weeks, and were extremely rude to a number of people who pulled you up over it.
As for your first point about complacency, surely the fact that your worst predictions haven't come to pass despite the fact we now have minimal restrictions in itself shows that that's not the case?
The consequences of infection, vaccinated vs unvaccinated, are vastly different. For most of us vaccinated, it was like a moderate flu bout.
The fact is it may be with us for the rest of our lifetimes, never mind just 2 years, we have to learn to live with it and now most of us have been double jabbed get on with our lives
I feel run-down, fatigued, a regular but not constant cough, blocked nose. I'm generally fit and healthy (with good regular workouts for my respiratory system, thanks Pilates!). But I imagine this would be much worse if I wasn't vaccinated and my health situation were different.
Incumbent Ruman Radev, with 49.5% of the vote in the first round has got 63-65% of the vote in the run off and will comfortably defeat Anastas Gerdzhikov, the favoured candidate of Borisov's GERB candidate who is polling 33-35%.
This would clear the way for the formation of a new coalition led by PP and including ITN, the Socialists and Democratic Bulgaria and Kiril Petkov to become Prime Minister.
I think the Old Bexley and Sidcup by election is more interesting even though there's no chance of a Tory loss. But Labour does need a strong performance of around 30% at least to boost Starmer.
😊
If we did have to have Starmer as PM I would hope he lacked a majority and needed Davey and the LDs as well as the SNP to be able to form a stable government.
However while the LDs would not expect to beat the Tories and Labour in Old Bexley and Sidcup, falling behind RefUK too, which I think is a strong possibility, would not be great news for them and a boost to Tice
One of the all time greats though.
Most "unusual" role of his was arguably as one of the July 1944 plot conspirators in Tom Cruise's "Valkyrie".
But then, they should make things easier for me by isolating themselves.
LDs focussing where they can win makes total sense.
Apparently a lot of Labour people aren't that impressed with Starmer but they still support Labour.
Sometimes the "leader" isn't the be-all and end-all - given we've had Iain Duncan-Smith, Jeremy Cornyn and Jo Swinson as party leaders in the past 20 years, one might argue it's not the cream that has risen to the top but all were elected by the memberships of their party.
I agree Sir Ed isn't the most charismatic man out there and given we have three party leaders all representing London constituencies, all white and all male, you could say we aren't exactly thinking outside the box.
As for an LD alternative, it's a limited field in many senses - you know how this place works, as soon as you mention someone, up pops someone else to tell you they are rubbish and they'd never vote for them in a million years etc.
It can be trivial such as how they look, how they sound, how they eat a bacon sandwich - ephemeral in every sense.
If we get to bimode Azumas (class 800) we're truly buggered.
Class 97s are various old locos and other vehicles in use by Network Rail as "departmental" stock.
(I think)
We will see what happens to immunity over the next few months. My guess is the boosters will keep a lot of older folk out of hospital, but we can’t help the fuckwits out there whom won’t even have one.
It's a mostly thankless task, very much dependent on having a good chair and a good clerk to do much. Larger towns have more scope to actually do things, but are at their worst when the 'power hungry' treat it like its national politics, rather than treat party labels (much more common on towns than parishes) as pretty lose affiliations.
There were around 4,500.
I think a reasonable worst case scenario with Delta for two weeks after Christmas is cases roughly double what they are now.
Whether we need new measures depends on flu etc and general tolerance for lockdown. This is the fun bit of winter - Halloween, Guy Fawkes, Christmas, Hogmanay, Burns night. It's then completely rubbish until May (April if lucky).
Hopefully it will be dry and we can go to the rooftop open-air hot springs.
I have more doubts on the weather than on Covid.
Izzard as the choleric captain in the rubbish remake of Whisky Galore was up there.
Hoping you enjoy the trip. Sadly the Christmas market is not running this year which is a huge shame, as it’s always a highlight for us in the lead up to Christmas.
Our son called today and said a colleague has had covid, was off for three weeks, and is now on a phased return
He like my daughter's family are vaccinated and needed no medical intervention
@Heathener posts are much as her first one, always negative, and increasingly a minority voice which seems to be in denial of just how much better we are in the UK, as covid becomes endemic and we learn to live with it, most probably for years
If the daily Covid number matches the number of a locomotive, I try to find a photo of that locomotive to post a link to.
Others have also joined in.
As I have little knowledge of steam locomotive numbering I will leave any kettle references to those better informed and stick to diesels (or electrics if the numbers really take off).
News to me.
You really do learn something new every day on PB.
If he manages that then Davey will almost certainly be Kingmaker with the balance of power in 2023/24
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/3511523/#Comment_3511523
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-uks-daily-coronavirus-data-looks-a-bit-fishy-says-professor-behind-uks-largest-symptom-study-12371076
Tim Spector and ZOE study suggests the true figure probably nearer 60,000.
As I said, that fits what I'm seeing (anecdotally). A lot of people are refusing to get tested and a significant number are also refusing to self-isolate...And the DWP have been told to expect lockdown in October.
Or this one:
https://vf.politicalbetting.com/discussion/comment/3511516#Comment_3511516
I have heard today from a reasonable source that Government departments have been told to expect lockdown in October.
ZOE are reporting likely around 60,000 cases a day. Anecdotally that fits what I'm encountering.
Going back to the earlier conversation about parish councils, my impression is that they work pretty well as local civic pride units. And the sort of things they do- the flower beds, the community hall and so on- are the kinds of thing that could make a real difference to visible levelling up. They're the kind of things that are often the first to go when a larger council is feeling the pinch. Is there mileage in urban parish councils; say the size of a London Borough ward (Romford Town is about 16k, which might be a bit big) doing the hyperlocal stuff? Would people be happier to pay towards things that will be in their street, or the next one along?
My point is the part of the year where you walk home from work in the dark is interrupted by a series of fun holidays.
I find spring (particularly last year) takes way longer to arrive than you expect, and that's exactly when we may have to lock down again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_43_(HST)
I predict that the predictions won't stop no matter how often they're wrong.
And so, one day, we had some girlfriends over and braved the all conquering juggernaut of Italian cinema at the time, an enjoyably decent stab at a heavily Curtis influenced romcom about an overly selfless rural accountant and a troupe of rather beautiful dancers whose bus had become lost.
As it was a Curtisian thing to have non obvious heroes, I did enquire, and none of the Italians thought it the least bit odd that an accountant was feted as as central a pillar of the community, if not more, as the doctor or priest. It turned out that in real life, the person who could help in the national sport of tax avoidance was indeed regarded in this way.
I quite liked the newspaper review that got upset that all the German generals were portrayed as a bunch of neurotic wibblers - this was exactly true to life. The generals spent all their time vapouring about whether killing Hitler was compatible with their honour, to the point they had no time to actually kill him