Seems like if you grew up in a working class family in London you're not really working class and have no connection with people outside of London, who knew
Seems like if you grew up in a working class family in London you're not really working class and have no connection with people outside of London, who knew
London is the new EU. Didn't you get the memo?
These same people call Sadiq Khan a combination of terrorist or useless or some other nasty description and they wonder why the London working class won't just vote Tory
- Cases have stopped rising nationally - pretty much. The cases among the older part of the population is still falling. - Admissions are still falling. In the England data this is largely in the 64-85 group. - Deaths are still falling.
Still riding the exit Delta wave quite nicely but will Omicron knock us off the board and force us to remount?
Difficult to say just yet, we need to know whether Omicron can cause severe disease in vaccinated and recovered patients with high immunity to Delta. If it does then we're all pretty much fucked, if it doesn't then it's really no change.
Yes, fingers crossed it's nearer to 'as we were' than 'oh no, Covid rides again'.
I found this a striking sentence from the BBC write up of Omicron:
"This level of mutation has most likely come from a single patient who was unable to beat the virus."
Yes, it's the same as Alpha and Delta, an immunocompromised person who was kept on life support. The subject came up yesterday, the one doctor at lunch was very much unable to resolve the ethical quandary of turning off the life support machines for the greater good while the scientists and academics were all pretty clear that life support shouldn't be available to COVID patients unable to defeat the virus in one or two attempts as it allows for significant viral evolution and may set the whole world back and cause countless deaths. It is the reason doctors make for poor public health officials, they can't see beyond the single patient, as harsh as that sounds.
That's quite a thought - a single dying person cooking up inside them a new malign variant. And, yes, an interesting ethical issue. There are quite a few of those thrown up by Covid.
Indeed, and think about this - the person in whom Omicron originated may not have been eligible for a vaccine anyway, a lot of people who are severely immunocompromised aren't. So the whole narrative of this being caused by vaccine inequity may not even apply in this case. I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing our part to fix vaccine inequity, we should, but in the most serious mutation cases it's been the same class of patients making multiple attempts to defeat the virus which gives the virus a lot of opportunities to evolve and evade multiple standard natural immune responses.
As you say, quite an interesting ethical issue.
It really is. And it's one I wasn't aware of. Not a nice thought at all. Still, the other point, the global dimension to this remains very valid imo.
There was a famous ad years ago ("for Mash get Smash") that featured very intellectually advanced aliens observing us earthlings and laughing fondly at our absurd behaviours.
When considering the 'big picture' vaccination profile for this global pandemic, how in some places there's heated debate about which of the many available flavours is best for 3rd and 4th jabs, and how quickly they should happen, should children be given one, etc etc, when in other places they haven't been able to hardly get started on a 1st jab for the most vulnerable, I often think of that advert.
Those countries that haven't done jabs for their vulnerable should have sorted themselves out to get jabs available.
If they haven't because they can't sort themselves out and they need our generosity to get it sorted, then our generosity is dependent upon us running normally. So getting our own ones done first is still the right thing to do, in order to be able to better aid others.
If we go back into lockdown and halt aid as a result, then who does that help?
Its the same in an airplane - always put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.
Having vaccine feast in some places and famine in others - as opposed to distributing according to need - means the pandemic will last longer and kill more people than it otherwise would. Trite 'oxygen mask on first' analogies notwithstanding.
For countries which do not have the same vaccination percentages that we do, what has been the limiting factors? Vaccine availability? Distribution? Take-up? Anti-vax stupidity?
If we take South Africa as an example, then we see a country that has had a terrible time with AIDS, partially because of previous governments' evil denigration of the HIV/AIDS link and treatments, particularly under Mbeki. They behaved poorly over the AZ vaccine.
Some of these countries are having a vaccine 'famine' not because of evil western countries, but because of the reluctance of the population to get vaccinated, and their poor (at best) leadership.
You would have these countries not using vaccines they are given, whilst our people - where there is a demand - go unvaccinated. That's the quickest way for a government to be thrown out. Which is probably why you are advising it ...
Other factors, yes, but availability is the biggest. And it's not an 'evil west' observation I'm making. There are obviously domestic political imperatives in play and commercial ones too. But put it all together and you have an overall approach to a global pandemic that makes little sense for anybody apart from Pfizer & Co.
"Other factors, yes, but availability is the biggest."
Can you provide some figures for that assertion, please?
I know a lot of saffas. Lived there in fact. You’d be surprised how prevalent anti-vax mythology is even amongst the most highly educated and internationalised of them. That’s without taking into account the masses who can be quite distrustful of western medicine in general and lean towards muthi. Finally layer on top the logistical challenge of delivering mrna vaccines in townships. It’s ignorantly simplistic to blame low vaccine rates in South Africa on evil English Tories.
That's my impression as well. I mentioned Mbeki who, when he dies, should surely be going straight to hell over his behaviour wrt HIV/AIDS. Hundreds of thousands of deaths weight too lightly on his shoulders
I'm sure it's nothing a refreshing shower could not fix.
- Cases have stopped rising nationally - pretty much. The cases among the older part of the population is still falling. - Admissions are still falling. In the England data this is largely in the 64-85 group. - Deaths are still falling.
Still riding the exit Delta wave quite nicely but will Omicron knock us off the board and force us to remount?
Difficult to say just yet, we need to know whether Omicron can cause severe disease in vaccinated and recovered patients with high immunity to Delta. If it does then we're all pretty much fucked, if it doesn't then it's really no change.
Yes, fingers crossed it's nearer to 'as we were' than 'oh no, Covid rides again'.
I found this a striking sentence from the BBC write up of Omicron:
"This level of mutation has most likely come from a single patient who was unable to beat the virus."
Yes, it's the same as Alpha and Delta, an immunocompromised person who was kept on life support. The subject came up yesterday, the one doctor at lunch was very much unable to resolve the ethical quandary of turning off the life support machines for the greater good while the scientists and academics were all pretty clear that life support shouldn't be available to COVID patients unable to defeat the virus in one or two attempts as it allows for significant viral evolution and may set the whole world back and cause countless deaths. It is the reason doctors make for poor public health officials, they can't see beyond the single patient, as harsh as that sounds.
That's quite a thought - a single dying person cooking up inside them a new malign variant. And, yes, an interesting ethical issue. There are quite a few of those thrown up by Covid.
Indeed, and think about this - the person in whom Omicron originated may not have been eligible for a vaccine anyway, a lot of people who are severely immunocompromised aren't. So the whole narrative of this being caused by vaccine inequity may not even apply in this case. I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing our part to fix vaccine inequity, we should, but in the most serious mutation cases it's been the same class of patients making multiple attempts to defeat the virus which gives the virus a lot of opportunities to evolve and evade multiple standard natural immune responses.
As you say, quite an interesting ethical issue.
It really is. And it's one I wasn't aware of. Not a nice thought at all. Still, the other point, the global dimension to this remains very valid imo.
There was a famous ad years ago ("for Mash get Smash") that featured very intellectually advanced aliens observing us earthlings and laughing fondly at our absurd behaviours.
When considering the 'big picture' vaccination profile for this global pandemic, how in some places there's heated debate about which of the many available flavours is best for 3rd and 4th jabs, and how quickly they should happen, should children be given one, etc etc, when in other places they haven't been able to hardly get started on a 1st jab for the most vulnerable, I often think of that advert.
Those countries that haven't done jabs for their vulnerable should have sorted themselves out to get jabs available.
If they haven't because they can't sort themselves out and they need our generosity to get it sorted, then our generosity is dependent upon us running normally. So getting our own ones done first is still the right thing to do, in order to be able to better aid others.
If we go back into lockdown and halt aid as a result, then who does that help?
Its the same in an airplane - always put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.
Having vaccine feast in some places and famine in others - as opposed to distributing according to need - means the pandemic will last longer and kill more people than it otherwise would. Trite 'oxygen mask on first' analogies notwithstanding.
For countries which do not have the same vaccination percentages that we do, what has been the limiting factors? Vaccine availability? Distribution? Take-up? Anti-vax stupidity?
If we take South Africa as an example, then we see a country that has had a terrible time with AIDS, partially because of previous governments' evil denigration of the HIV/AIDS link and treatments, particularly under Mbeki. They behaved poorly over the AZ vaccine.
Some of these countries are having a vaccine 'famine' not because of evil western countries, but because of the reluctance of the population to get vaccinated, and their poor (at best) leadership.
You would have these countries not using vaccines they are given, whilst our people - where there is a demand - go unvaccinated. That's the quickest way for a government to be thrown out. Which is probably why you are advising it ...
Other factors, yes, but availability is the biggest. And it's not an 'evil west' observation I'm making. There are obviously domestic political imperatives in play and commercial ones too. But put it all together and you have an overall approach to a global pandemic that makes little sense for anybody apart from Pfizer & Co.
The only way to boost availability is to increase the supply via investment.
Seems like if you grew up in a working class family in London you're not really working class and have no connection with people outside of London, who knew
London is the new EU. Didn't you get the memo?
These same people call Sadiq Khan a combination of terrorist or useless or some other nasty description and they wonder why the London working class won't just vote Tory
My favourite is when people call him a teetotaller. In a sort of wink wink nudge nudge kind of way. They never say it about Sunak, or Trump, or Biden though.
How many cases a day do we sequence - the omicron seems to be a lot of '2 more here, 6 more there' at the moment.
Apparently around 1/3rd of our PCR tests include an element which makes them stick out like a sore thumb compared to delta
That's around 15,000 a day; not 6 here, 7 there though ?
1/3rd have the capability to notice the difference, not 1/3rd actuallt do show that difference. So right now we can indeed be confident there's very little of it about compared to delta.
- Cases have stopped rising nationally - pretty much. The cases among the older part of the population is still falling. - Admissions are still falling. In the England data this is largely in the 64-85 group. - Deaths are still falling.
Still riding the exit Delta wave quite nicely but will Omicron knock us off the board and force us to remount?
Difficult to say just yet, we need to know whether Omicron can cause severe disease in vaccinated and recovered patients with high immunity to Delta. If it does then we're all pretty much fucked, if it doesn't then it's really no change.
Yes, fingers crossed it's nearer to 'as we were' than 'oh no, Covid rides again'.
I found this a striking sentence from the BBC write up of Omicron:
"This level of mutation has most likely come from a single patient who was unable to beat the virus."
Yes, it's the same as Alpha and Delta, an immunocompromised person who was kept on life support. The subject came up yesterday, the one doctor at lunch was very much unable to resolve the ethical quandary of turning off the life support machines for the greater good while the scientists and academics were all pretty clear that life support shouldn't be available to COVID patients unable to defeat the virus in one or two attempts as it allows for significant viral evolution and may set the whole world back and cause countless deaths. It is the reason doctors make for poor public health officials, they can't see beyond the single patient, as harsh as that sounds.
That's quite a thought - a single dying person cooking up inside them a new malign variant. And, yes, an interesting ethical issue. There are quite a few of those thrown up by Covid.
Indeed, and think about this - the person in whom Omicron originated may not have been eligible for a vaccine anyway, a lot of people who are severely immunocompromised aren't. So the whole narrative of this being caused by vaccine inequity may not even apply in this case. I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing our part to fix vaccine inequity, we should, but in the most serious mutation cases it's been the same class of patients making multiple attempts to defeat the virus which gives the virus a lot of opportunities to evolve and evade multiple standard natural immune responses.
As you say, quite an interesting ethical issue.
It really is. And it's one I wasn't aware of. Not a nice thought at all. Still, the other point, the global dimension to this remains very valid imo.
There was a famous ad years ago ("for Mash get Smash") that featured very intellectually advanced aliens observing us earthlings and laughing fondly at our absurd behaviours.
When considering the 'big picture' vaccination profile for this global pandemic, how in some places there's heated debate about which of the many available flavours is best for 3rd and 4th jabs, and how quickly they should happen, should children be given one, etc etc, when in other places they haven't been able to hardly get started on a 1st jab for the most vulnerable, I often think of that advert.
Those countries that haven't done jabs for their vulnerable should have sorted themselves out to get jabs available.
If they haven't because they can't sort themselves out and they need our generosity to get it sorted, then our generosity is dependent upon us running normally. So getting our own ones done first is still the right thing to do, in order to be able to better aid others.
If we go back into lockdown and halt aid as a result, then who does that help?
Its the same in an airplane - always put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.
Having vaccine feast in some places and famine in others - as opposed to distributing according to need - means the pandemic will last longer and kill more people than it otherwise would. Trite 'oxygen mask on first' analogies notwithstanding.
For countries which do not have the same vaccination percentages that we do, what has been the limiting factors? Vaccine availability? Distribution? Take-up? Anti-vax stupidity?
If we take South Africa as an example, then we see a country that has had a terrible time with AIDS, partially because of previous governments' evil denigration of the HIV/AIDS link and treatments, particularly under Mbeki. They behaved poorly over the AZ vaccine.
Some of these countries are having a vaccine 'famine' not because of evil western countries, but because of the reluctance of the population to get vaccinated, and their poor (at best) leadership.
You would have these countries not using vaccines they are given, whilst our people - where there is a demand - go unvaccinated. That's the quickest way for a government to be thrown out. Which is probably why you are advising it ...
Other factors, yes, but availability is the biggest. And it's not an 'evil west' observation I'm making. There are obviously domestic political imperatives in play and commercial ones too. But put it all together and you have an overall approach to a global pandemic that makes little sense for anybody apart from Pfizer & Co.
The only way to boost availability is to increase the supply via investment.
Grow the pie, not redistribution.
There's no way on God's green earth you'll grow the pie big enough to supply the likes of DRC without something like Covax. It's to the UK's credit that we've been front & centre on that.
South Africa is a different story, and borne mostly of their own Gov'ts incompetence.
Somehow the public has been conned into the idea that Boris Johnson, of Eton is somehow more working class than the son of a toolmaker and a nurse, who worked off his own back to become one of the most powerful and successful lawyers in the UK
He’s finally decided to stop pretending that he had anything in common with the low life scum that he was happy to serve with when Corbyn was in charge and is moving back to the Blairites and competence.
Thank goodness for that. We may finally have an opposition worthy of the name.
In an ideal world this may sharpen the government up too and cut out some of the crap and self indulgence they have been enjoying.
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
- Cases have stopped rising nationally - pretty much. The cases among the older part of the population is still falling. - Admissions are still falling. In the England data this is largely in the 64-85 group. - Deaths are still falling.
Still riding the exit Delta wave quite nicely but will Omicron knock us off the board and force us to remount?
Difficult to say just yet, we need to know whether Omicron can cause severe disease in vaccinated and recovered patients with high immunity to Delta. If it does then we're all pretty much fucked, if it doesn't then it's really no change.
Yes, fingers crossed it's nearer to 'as we were' than 'oh no, Covid rides again'.
I found this a striking sentence from the BBC write up of Omicron:
"This level of mutation has most likely come from a single patient who was unable to beat the virus."
Yes, it's the same as Alpha and Delta, an immunocompromised person who was kept on life support. The subject came up yesterday, the one doctor at lunch was very much unable to resolve the ethical quandary of turning off the life support machines for the greater good while the scientists and academics were all pretty clear that life support shouldn't be available to COVID patients unable to defeat the virus in one or two attempts as it allows for significant viral evolution and may set the whole world back and cause countless deaths. It is the reason doctors make for poor public health officials, they can't see beyond the single patient, as harsh as that sounds.
That's quite a thought - a single dying person cooking up inside them a new malign variant. And, yes, an interesting ethical issue. There are quite a few of those thrown up by Covid.
Indeed, and think about this - the person in whom Omicron originated may not have been eligible for a vaccine anyway, a lot of people who are severely immunocompromised aren't. So the whole narrative of this being caused by vaccine inequity may not even apply in this case. I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing our part to fix vaccine inequity, we should, but in the most serious mutation cases it's been the same class of patients making multiple attempts to defeat the virus which gives the virus a lot of opportunities to evolve and evade multiple standard natural immune responses.
As you say, quite an interesting ethical issue.
It really is. And it's one I wasn't aware of. Not a nice thought at all. Still, the other point, the global dimension to this remains very valid imo.
There was a famous ad years ago ("for Mash get Smash") that featured very intellectually advanced aliens observing us earthlings and laughing fondly at our absurd behaviours.
When considering the 'big picture' vaccination profile for this global pandemic, how in some places there's heated debate about which of the many available flavours is best for 3rd and 4th jabs, and how quickly they should happen, should children be given one, etc etc, when in other places they haven't been able to hardly get started on a 1st jab for the most vulnerable, I often think of that advert.
Those countries that haven't done jabs for their vulnerable should have sorted themselves out to get jabs available.
If they haven't because they can't sort themselves out and they need our generosity to get it sorted, then our generosity is dependent upon us running normally. So getting our own ones done first is still the right thing to do, in order to be able to better aid others.
If we go back into lockdown and halt aid as a result, then who does that help?
Its the same in an airplane - always put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.
Having vaccine feast in some places and famine in others - as opposed to distributing according to need - means the pandemic will last longer and kill more people than it otherwise would. Trite 'oxygen mask on first' analogies notwithstanding.
For countries which do not have the same vaccination percentages that we do, what has been the limiting factors? Vaccine availability? Distribution? Take-up? Anti-vax stupidity?
If we take South Africa as an example, then we see a country that has had a terrible time with AIDS, partially because of previous governments' evil denigration of the HIV/AIDS link and treatments, particularly under Mbeki. They behaved poorly over the AZ vaccine.
Some of these countries are having a vaccine 'famine' not because of evil western countries, but because of the reluctance of the population to get vaccinated, and their poor (at best) leadership.
You would have these countries not using vaccines they are given, whilst our people - where there is a demand - go unvaccinated. That's the quickest way for a government to be thrown out. Which is probably why you are advising it ...
Other factors, yes, but availability is the biggest. And it's not an 'evil west' observation I'm making. There are obviously domestic political imperatives in play and commercial ones too. But put it all together and you have an overall approach to a global pandemic that makes little sense for anybody apart from Pfizer & Co.
"Other factors, yes, but availability is the biggest."
Can you provide some figures for that assertion, please?
There's tons on it but here's a recent summary piece -
Somehow the public has been conned into the idea that Boris Johnson, of Eton is somehow more working class than the son of a toolmaker and a nurse, who worked off his own back to become one of the most powerful and successful lawyers in the UK
Possibly because the latter spent years acting like he hated the working class scum and what they voted for and worked to overturn it?
Somehow the public has been conned into the idea that Boris Johnson, of Eton is somehow more working class than the son of a toolmaker and a nurse, who worked off his own back to become one of the most powerful and successful lawyers in the UK
Most people aren’t obsessed by class like you are. They just want to feel like politicians are listening to them. That’s why Labour lost the red wall, because Starmer (and yes it was Starmer) couldn’t have cared less what those voters had to say on the issue that at that time mattered most to them. Time will tell if Johnson makes a similar mistake.
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
Oooh, I've been there too. Can't move à la russe diners and morning suits, now you mention it. Kings Cross. Well known for it.
Somehow the public has been conned into the idea that Boris Johnson, of Eton is somehow more working class than the son of a toolmaker and a nurse, who worked off his own back to become one of the most powerful and successful lawyers in the UK
Most people aren’t obsessed by class like you are. They just want to feel like politicians are listening to them. That’s why Labour lost the red wall, because Starmer (and yes it was Starmer) couldn’t have cared less what those voters had to say on the issue that at that time mattered most to them. Time will tell if Johnson makes a similar mistake.
I'm not obsessed by class at all, I was responding to others here who sneer constantly at people from London.
Evidently the best government we have had has been of the centre, that is where we must go back to.
Sorry, is the suggestion that Peppa Pig was actually a success for the PM, is this the angle we're going with now
Well I said on the day that Peppa Pig is huge for almost any household with children or grandchildren, not just in this country but around the globe too.
It wouldn't surprise me if people mocking the PM for referencing Peppa Pig backfires and makes the PM seem in touch and his critics out of touch.
“I think they will take a bit of a battering, actually,” he [38 y.o. tory party member] says, when stopped while walking his dog, Fleur, to Costa Coffee on the high street.
“I was saying to my wife the other day that when he initially got in, I think he was quite endearing.
“He initially came across as a man of the people, and I think people are now getting a bit more clued up to what he’s actually like.”
Top of the list of Tory gaffes is Mr Johnson’s speech to the CBI conference last week, in which the Prime Minister mislaid his notes and spoke at length about his recent visit to Peppa Pig World.
“More than anything else, it was just cringey. I felt really awkward for him,” Mr Barfield says.
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
Happy to have a grown-up debate about Starmer's mistakes of Brexit - as I now see them - but the sneering at working class people who vote Labour in London is just as pathetic as what they accuse Starmer of.
Perhaps if they put up a better candidate and stopped attacking London all the time, they might do better down here
- Cases have stopped rising nationally - pretty much. The cases among the older part of the population is still falling. - Admissions are still falling. In the England data this is largely in the 64-85 group. - Deaths are still falling.
Still riding the exit Delta wave quite nicely but will Omicron knock us off the board and force us to remount?
Difficult to say just yet, we need to know whether Omicron can cause severe disease in vaccinated and recovered patients with high immunity to Delta. If it does then we're all pretty much fucked, if it doesn't then it's really no change.
Yes, fingers crossed it's nearer to 'as we were' than 'oh no, Covid rides again'.
I found this a striking sentence from the BBC write up of Omicron:
"This level of mutation has most likely come from a single patient who was unable to beat the virus."
Yes, it's the same as Alpha and Delta, an immunocompromised person who was kept on life support. The subject came up yesterday, the one doctor at lunch was very much unable to resolve the ethical quandary of turning off the life support machines for the greater good while the scientists and academics were all pretty clear that life support shouldn't be available to COVID patients unable to defeat the virus in one or two attempts as it allows for significant viral evolution and may set the whole world back and cause countless deaths. It is the reason doctors make for poor public health officials, they can't see beyond the single patient, as harsh as that sounds.
That's quite a thought - a single dying person cooking up inside them a new malign variant. And, yes, an interesting ethical issue. There are quite a few of those thrown up by Covid.
Indeed, and think about this - the person in whom Omicron originated may not have been eligible for a vaccine anyway, a lot of people who are severely immunocompromised aren't. So the whole narrative of this being caused by vaccine inequity may not even apply in this case. I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing our part to fix vaccine inequity, we should, but in the most serious mutation cases it's been the same class of patients making multiple attempts to defeat the virus which gives the virus a lot of opportunities to evolve and evade multiple standard natural immune responses.
As you say, quite an interesting ethical issue.
It really is. And it's one I wasn't aware of. Not a nice thought at all. Still, the other point, the global dimension to this remains very valid imo.
There was a famous ad years ago ("for Mash get Smash") that featured very intellectually advanced aliens observing us earthlings and laughing fondly at our absurd behaviours.
When considering the 'big picture' vaccination profile for this global pandemic, how in some places there's heated debate about which of the many available flavours is best for 3rd and 4th jabs, and how quickly they should happen, should children be given one, etc etc, when in other places they haven't been able to hardly get started on a 1st jab for the most vulnerable, I often think of that advert.
Those countries that haven't done jabs for their vulnerable should have sorted themselves out to get jabs available.
If they haven't because they can't sort themselves out and they need our generosity to get it sorted, then our generosity is dependent upon us running normally. So getting our own ones done first is still the right thing to do, in order to be able to better aid others.
If we go back into lockdown and halt aid as a result, then who does that help?
Its the same in an airplane - always put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.
Having vaccine feast in some places and famine in others - as opposed to distributing according to need - means the pandemic will last longer and kill more people than it otherwise would. Trite 'oxygen mask on first' analogies notwithstanding.
For countries which do not have the same vaccination percentages that we do, what has been the limiting factors? Vaccine availability? Distribution? Take-up? Anti-vax stupidity?
If we take South Africa as an example, then we see a country that has had a terrible time with AIDS, partially because of previous governments' evil denigration of the HIV/AIDS link and treatments, particularly under Mbeki. They behaved poorly over the AZ vaccine.
Some of these countries are having a vaccine 'famine' not because of evil western countries, but because of the reluctance of the population to get vaccinated, and their poor (at best) leadership.
You would have these countries not using vaccines they are given, whilst our people - where there is a demand - go unvaccinated. That's the quickest way for a government to be thrown out. Which is probably why you are advising it ...
Other factors, yes, but availability is the biggest. And it's not an 'evil west' observation I'm making. There are obviously domestic political imperatives in play and commercial ones too. But put it all together and you have an overall approach to a global pandemic that makes little sense for anybody apart from Pfizer & Co.
The only way to boost availability is to increase the supply via investment.
Grow the pie, not redistribution.
Both, really. Pfizer are going to clean up from a project that was de-risked for them by government. So maybe they can reciprocate.
Volunteers will be needed to help the “vital national effort” of expanding the coronavirus vaccination programme, the head of NHS England has said as the UK rolls out booster jabs for all adults.
Amanda Pritchard said NHS staff will “move heaven and earth to vaccinate as many people as possible” to ensure that people can enjoy Christmas with their loved ones.
But she said volunteers should come forward once again as the service “will not be able to do it alone”.
Sorry, is the suggestion that Peppa Pig was actually a success for the PM, is this the angle we're going with now
Well I said on the day that Peppa Pig is huge for almost any household with children or grandchildren, not just in this country but around the globe too.
It wouldn't surprise me if people mocking the PM for referencing Peppa Pig backfires and makes the PM seem in touch and his critics out of touch.
“I think they will take a bit of a battering, actually,” he [38 y.o. tory party member] says, when stopped while walking his dog, Fleur, to Costa Coffee on the high street.
“I was saying to my wife the other day that when he initially got in, I think he was quite endearing.
“He initially came across as a man of the people, and I think people are now getting a bit more clued up to what he’s actually like.”
Top of the list of Tory gaffes is Mr Johnson’s speech to the CBI conference last week, in which the Prime Minister mislaid his notes and spoke at length about his recent visit to Peppa Pig World.
“More than anything else, it was just cringey. I felt really awkward for him,” Mr Barfield says.
It's not "referencing" PP that's the prob, it's doing it in a speech to a serious non-after-dinner audience
As if the only audience is the one in the room.
I seem to recall a certain leader of the Remain campaign telling an assembled group of business leaders that Brexit would be bad because wages would go up. It's a good job that message never left the room he was speaking to at the time, isn't it ...
Whataboutery is usually a sign that you are in deep deep do do... All the statistical analysis in the world wont stop an electorate if they are are angry enough. This does feel a bit like the calm before the storm for the Tories... mene mene tekek upharsin... or if you prefer, the writing is indeed on the wall.
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
Kings Cross is in Camden.
But if you run hard enough at the wall with your luggage trolley, you end up in Islington.
London doesn't have any real problems evidently, we all drink champagne and earn £4 million a year, no working class people here, no poverty or problems.
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
You're not really getting the proper Islo vibe at Kings Cross station.
How many cases a day do we sequence - the omicron seems to be a lot of '2 more here, 6 more there' at the moment.
Apparently around 1/3rd of our PCR tests include an element which makes them stick out like a sore thumb compared to delta
That's around 15,000 a day; not 6 here, 7 there though ?
1/3rd have the capability to notice the difference, not 1/3rd actuallt do show that difference. So right now we can indeed be confident there's very little of it about compared to delta.
75 probable (to be confirmed by sequencing) and 150 possible. The latter presumably being an extrapolation from the 2/3rds of tests without the marker.
- Cases have stopped rising nationally - pretty much. The cases among the older part of the population is still falling. - Admissions are still falling. In the England data this is largely in the 64-85 group. - Deaths are still falling.
Still riding the exit Delta wave quite nicely but will Omicron knock us off the board and force us to remount?
Difficult to say just yet, we need to know whether Omicron can cause severe disease in vaccinated and recovered patients with high immunity to Delta. If it does then we're all pretty much fucked, if it doesn't then it's really no change.
Yes, fingers crossed it's nearer to 'as we were' than 'oh no, Covid rides again'.
I found this a striking sentence from the BBC write up of Omicron:
"This level of mutation has most likely come from a single patient who was unable to beat the virus."
Yes, it's the same as Alpha and Delta, an immunocompromised person who was kept on life support. The subject came up yesterday, the one doctor at lunch was very much unable to resolve the ethical quandary of turning off the life support machines for the greater good while the scientists and academics were all pretty clear that life support shouldn't be available to COVID patients unable to defeat the virus in one or two attempts as it allows for significant viral evolution and may set the whole world back and cause countless deaths. It is the reason doctors make for poor public health officials, they can't see beyond the single patient, as harsh as that sounds.
That's quite a thought - a single dying person cooking up inside them a new malign variant. And, yes, an interesting ethical issue. There are quite a few of those thrown up by Covid.
Indeed, and think about this - the person in whom Omicron originated may not have been eligible for a vaccine anyway, a lot of people who are severely immunocompromised aren't. So the whole narrative of this being caused by vaccine inequity may not even apply in this case. I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing our part to fix vaccine inequity, we should, but in the most serious mutation cases it's been the same class of patients making multiple attempts to defeat the virus which gives the virus a lot of opportunities to evolve and evade multiple standard natural immune responses.
As you say, quite an interesting ethical issue.
It really is. And it's one I wasn't aware of. Not a nice thought at all. Still, the other point, the global dimension to this remains very valid imo.
There was a famous ad years ago ("for Mash get Smash") that featured very intellectually advanced aliens observing us earthlings and laughing fondly at our absurd behaviours.
When considering the 'big picture' vaccination profile for this global pandemic, how in some places there's heated debate about which of the many available flavours is best for 3rd and 4th jabs, and how quickly they should happen, should children be given one, etc etc, when in other places they haven't been able to hardly get started on a 1st jab for the most vulnerable, I often think of that advert.
Those countries that haven't done jabs for their vulnerable should have sorted themselves out to get jabs available.
If they haven't because they can't sort themselves out and they need our generosity to get it sorted, then our generosity is dependent upon us running normally. So getting our own ones done first is still the right thing to do, in order to be able to better aid others.
If we go back into lockdown and halt aid as a result, then who does that help?
Its the same in an airplane - always put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.
Having vaccine feast in some places and famine in others - as opposed to distributing according to need - means the pandemic will last longer and kill more people than it otherwise would. Trite 'oxygen mask on first' analogies notwithstanding.
For countries which do not have the same vaccination percentages that we do, what has been the limiting factors? Vaccine availability? Distribution? Take-up? Anti-vax stupidity?
If we take South Africa as an example, then we see a country that has had a terrible time with AIDS, partially because of previous governments' evil denigration of the HIV/AIDS link and treatments, particularly under Mbeki. They behaved poorly over the AZ vaccine.
Some of these countries are having a vaccine 'famine' not because of evil western countries, but because of the reluctance of the population to get vaccinated, and their poor (at best) leadership.
You would have these countries not using vaccines they are given, whilst our people - where there is a demand - go unvaccinated. That's the quickest way for a government to be thrown out. Which is probably why you are advising it ...
Other factors, yes, but availability is the biggest. And it's not an 'evil west' observation I'm making. There are obviously domestic political imperatives in play and commercial ones too. But put it all together and you have an overall approach to a global pandemic that makes little sense for anybody apart from Pfizer & Co.
The only way to boost availability is to increase the supply via investment.
Grow the pie, not redistribution.
Both, really. Pfizer are going to clean up from a project that was de-risked for them by government. So maybe they can reciprocate.
They are reciprocating.
Millions of doses have been distributed around the world. Penny pinching on redistributing a fraction of our millions of doses doesn't do anything when you're looking to generate billions of doses for the planet. Investing in capacity is the only viable solution.
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
My future wife and I stayed in a highly insalubrious B&B at the back of Kings Cross 40 years ago. We were both ill on the train back to civilisation. If that’s what Islington is like it’s over rated.
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
You're not really getting the proper Islo vibe at Kings Cross station.
Didn't know you were a fellow Londoner @kinabalu, hope you are well otherwise
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
You're not really getting the proper Islo vibe at Kings Cross station.
Are you sure? It's changed a hell of a lot since the first days of the Deltics. The yuppies were already invading in 1990 or so when I went to meet my editor at a publishing firm on York Way - a street formerly about as pleasant as no man's land at Third Wipers - and found a modern office block with ther canal basin as the scenit feature for the office windows. And the changes since have been massive. Even the station is not what it was, and that is an understatement.
Does anyone know why what is now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was briefly given the title "Ministry" when it was the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government? I understand that the MoD and MoJ are called "Ministries" rather than "Departments" to prevent confusion with their American counterparts, but I don't see that applying in this case.
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
You're not really getting the proper Islo vibe at Kings Cross station.
Are you sure? It's changed a hell of a lot since the first days of the Deltics. The yuppies were already invading in 1990 or so when I went to meet my editor at a publishing firm on York Way - a street formerly about as pleasant as no man's land at Third Wipers - and found a modern office block with ther canal basin as the scenit feature for the office windows. And the changes since have been massive. Even the station is not what it was, and that is an understatement.
Had a lot of muggings outside the station, still lots of homelessness and some of the worst in the UK, from what I recall
London doesn't have any real problems evidently, we all drink champagne and earn £4 million a year, no working class people here, no poverty or problems.
The hypocrisy is genuinely astounding
London has lots of rich and lots of poor. Other areas of the country don't have the astonishing wealth gap present in London.
Often been said that Starmer’s job is to be Kinnock but still no obvious sign of the next Blair in that lot
Well, it wasn't going to be Blair was it? One wonders how things would have gone if John Smith had not passed on so prematurely.
He’d have won a majority most likely wouldn’t he? Had a decent public image and a very similar team to what Blair went to the country with. And would have been up against the same tired government. Not such a sweeping majority mind. Probably no second election prior to 9/11.
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
You're not really getting the proper Islo vibe at Kings Cross station.
Are you sure? It's changed a hell of a lot since the first days of the Deltics. The yuppies were already invading in 1990 or so when I went to meet my editor at a publishing firm on York Way - a street formerly about as pleasant as no man's land at Third Wipers - and found a modern office block with ther canal basin as the scenit feature for the office windows. And the changes since have been massive. Even the station is not what it was, and that is an understatement.
Had a lot of muggings outside the station, still lots of homelessness and some of the worst in the UK, from what I recall
Indeed, in 1990-ish you mean? I was always glad to get back into the station and on the train north before darkness fell.
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
You're not really getting the proper Islo vibe at Kings Cross station.
Are you sure? It's changed a hell of a lot since the first days of the Deltics. The yuppies were already invading in 1990 or so when I went to meet my editor at a publishing firm on York Way - a street formerly about as pleasant as no man's land at Third Wipers - and found a modern office block with ther canal basin as the scenit feature for the office windows. And the changes since have been massive. Even the station is not what it was, and that is an understatement.
Had a lot of muggings outside the station, still lots of homelessness and some of the worst in the UK, from what I recall
Indeed, in 1990-ish you mean? I was always glad to get back into the station and on the train north before darkness fell.
Think until the very late 90s it was still very bad, it's been re-developed hugely in the last few years and is a lot better and safer.
But sadly the homelessness has certainly exploded under the Tories
Does anyone know why what is now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was briefly given the title "Ministry" when it was the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government? I understand that the MoD and MoJ are called "Ministries" rather than "Departments" to prevent confusion with their American counterparts, but I don't see that applying in this case.
Housing has always been a ministry. Agriculture was too before it became the Environment Dept.
Does anyone know why what is now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was briefly given the title "Ministry" when it was the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government? I understand that the MoD and MoJ are called "Ministries" rather than "Departments" to prevent confusion with their American counterparts, but I don't see that applying in this case.
I thought it was just because the minister at the time preferred Ministry to Department. I didn't think MoD or MoJ had retained their M because of the Americans, just that they had been grandfathered in.
Does anyone know why what is now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was briefly given the title "Ministry" when it was the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government? I understand that the MoD and MoJ are called "Ministries" rather than "Departments" to prevent confusion with their American counterparts, but I don't see that applying in this case.
Housing has always been a ministry. Agriculture was too before it became the Environment Dept.
Seems like if you grew up in a working class family in London you're not really working class and have no connection with people outside of London, who knew
London is the new EU. Didn't you get the memo?
These same people call Sadiq Khan a combination of terrorist or useless or some other nasty description and they wonder why the London working class won't just vote Tory
Sadiq Khan is 0% terrorist and 100% useless. That’s a combination
But he’s been a dreadful, uninspiring Mayor who’s played the angles to try and further his career rather than try to do his current job well
Sorry, is the suggestion that Peppa Pig was actually a success for the PM, is this the angle we're going with now
Well I said on the day that Peppa Pig is huge for almost any household with children or grandchildren, not just in this country but around the globe too.
It wouldn't surprise me if people mocking the PM for referencing Peppa Pig backfires and makes the PM seem in touch and his critics out of touch.
“I think they will take a bit of a battering, actually,” he [38 y.o. tory party member] says, when stopped while walking his dog, Fleur, to Costa Coffee on the high street.
“I was saying to my wife the other day that when he initially got in, I think he was quite endearing.
“He initially came across as a man of the people, and I think people are now getting a bit more clued up to what he’s actually like.”
Top of the list of Tory gaffes is Mr Johnson’s speech to the CBI conference last week, in which the Prime Minister mislaid his notes and spoke at length about his recent visit to Peppa Pig World.
“More than anything else, it was just cringey. I felt really awkward for him,” Mr Barfield says.
It's not "referencing" PP that's the prob, it's doing it in a speech to a serious non-after-dinner audience
As if the only audience is the one in the room.
I seem to recall a certain leader of the Remain campaign telling an assembled group of business leaders that Brexit would be bad because wages would go up. It's a good job that message never left the room he was speaking to at the time, isn't it ...
Whataboutery is usually a sign that you are in deep deep do do... All the statistical analysis in the world wont stop an electorate if they are are angry enough. This does feel a bit like the calm before the storm for the Tories... mene mene tekek upharsin... or if you prefer, the writing is indeed on the wall.
So you guys have been saying for about 11 years, six months.
Seems like if you grew up in a working class family in London you're not really working class and have no connection with people outside of London, who knew
London is the new EU. Didn't you get the memo?
These same people call Sadiq Khan a combination of terrorist or useless or some other nasty description and they wonder why the London working class won't just vote Tory
Sadiq Khan is 0% terrorist and 100% useless. That’s a combination
But he’s been a dreadful, uninspiring Mayor who’s played the angles to try and further his career rather than try to do his current job well
That's why he was re-elected by a larger margin than Johnson was
Somehow the public has been conned into the idea that Boris Johnson, of Eton is somehow more working class than the son of a toolmaker and a nurse, who worked off his own back to become one of the most powerful and successful lawyers in the UK
The son of a factory owner vs the immigrant son of a jobbing journalist.
Does anyone know why what is now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was briefly given the title "Ministry" when it was the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government? I understand that the MoD and MoJ are called "Ministries" rather than "Departments" to prevent confusion with their American counterparts, but I don't see that applying in this case.
Not sure that I get the flap about flags. There is a difference between hoisting the England flag on the lawn every day and doing nazi salutes to having one because you identify with the nation / region. I've seen people with England / Scotland / Yorkshire / Kernow flags on their house or in their garden and it doesn't bother me that much.
Anyway, the classy way to fly a flag is to make sure that people get the message you want to communicate. The Scotland flag design that covers the giant YES letters in Alex Salmond's garden for example...
I agree. Not a big deal and each to his own.
But back to where this started, Thornberry and the notorious tweet, that was a property on a normal street completely festooned with the St George. There was more flag than house. And not an international football tournament in sight.
There is no way imo that most people wouldn't look at that and quite reasonably think "oh dear oh dear, numbskull little englander alert!"
Now that could be unfair and be disproved on personal acquaintance. But still, c'mon.
The problem we have is that national shame in England means that the St George's flag (and to a lesser extent the Union flag) have been hijacked by fascists. Why do we think negatively about someone with their national flag? Because usually its racist or its En-ger-land morons.
Can't people take back control of the flag from knuckledraggers? Do other countries have this "oh no, not the flag" reaction?
I think this is where centrists like you, me and Kinabalu inadvertently trigger the political angry brigade. I have been castigated on here before because I besmirched the flag of St George, just like Lady Emily.
When I was teenager in the 1970s I moved from near Solihull to Herefordshire. Every now and again around Herefordshire and Gloucestershire one would see a house with a proper flag pole and a flag of St George flying jauntily in the breeze. In general it was some mad old boy, and it was for the benefit of the Welsh, reminding them who was in charge - no harm done. I never saw a flag of St George outsIde of a sporting occasion in the West Midlands in the 1970s.
In 2018 I ordered a car from Mercedes Benz of Solihull. On collecting the car I noticed a flag flying from a house further along the Warwick Road, it was a proper flag in a stand bolted to the wall. Well, I thought, "I've never seen one of those in Solihull before, and it is a fair distance from Wales, I wonder for whom that flag is flying?"
Anyone else surprised by David Lammy going to foreign affairs?
Yes, I am - but delighted for him. He's a good example of a politician who has matured over the years. Ten years ago, no Labour leader would have trusted him with a big job, as he tended to speak before he thought. That's no longer the case.
The problem with factions is they shallow the accessible talent pool for a cabinet or shadow cabinet - with Labour at such a low ebb in terms of numbers, and so many of those Corbynite wackos, the end result is shuffling deck chairs but a pretty obvious dearth of real talent.
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
You're not really getting the proper Islo vibe at Kings Cross station.
Are you sure? It's changed a hell of a lot since the first days of the Deltics. The yuppies were already invading in 1990 or so when I went to meet my editor at a publishing firm on York Way - a street formerly about as pleasant as no man's land at Third Wipers - and found a modern office block with ther canal basin as the scenit feature for the office windows. And the changes since have been massive. Even the station is not what it was, and that is an understatement.
It's been spruced up a lot, yes, also the environs. And there's the rather grand St Pancras right next door. Euston is more the poor relation now, I'd say. Bit grotty. Not a destination area.
Somehow the public has been conned into the idea that Boris Johnson, of Eton is somehow more working class than the son of a toolmaker and a nurse, who worked off his own back to become one of the most powerful and successful lawyers in the UK
The son of a factory owner vs the immigrant son of a jobbing journalist.
Sorry, is the suggestion that Peppa Pig was actually a success for the PM, is this the angle we're going with now
Well I said on the day that Peppa Pig is huge for almost any household with children or grandchildren, not just in this country but around the globe too.
It wouldn't surprise me if people mocking the PM for referencing Peppa Pig backfires and makes the PM seem in touch and his critics out of touch.
Could it be, that Peppa Pig turns out to be the winner for him, that the Teddy Bear was for Theodore Roosevelt?
Perhaps worth pointing out that, while the Rough Rider actually did spare a bear cub (after shooting it's momma on a hunting trip while President in the Mississippi woods IIRC) there is no record of him referencing his ursine pal at any meeting of top-level business leaders and industrialists.
Also note that efforts where made to endear William Howard Taft, TR's successor as POTUS, with an increasingly disaffected if not down-right hostile public via his own cute animal friend - Billy Possum
Seems like if you grew up in a working class family in London you're not really working class and have no connection with people outside of London, who knew
London is the new EU. Didn't you get the memo?
These same people call Sadiq Khan a combination of terrorist or useless or some other nasty description and they wonder why the London working class won't just vote Tory
Sadiq Khan is 0% terrorist and 100% useless. That’s a combination
But he’s been a dreadful, uninspiring Mayor who’s played the angles to try and further his career rather than try to do his current job well
That's why he was re-elected by a larger margin than Johnson was
He nearly lost to Shaun Bailey 😬
But electorates, in their great wisdom, don’t only consider competence in voting
London doesn't have any real problems evidently, we all drink champagne and earn £4 million a year, no working class people here, no poverty or problems.
The hypocrisy is genuinely astounding
Who are you addressing this to? I've no sense of the context.
Somehow the public has been conned into the idea that Boris Johnson, of Eton is somehow more working class than the son of a toolmaker and a nurse, who worked off his own back to become one of the most powerful and successful lawyers in the UK
The son of a factory owner vs the immigrant son of a jobbing journalist.
Both privately educated though
One on a scholarship to a public school, the other attended a grammar school with a great deal of lack of clarity about who paid his fees (if any)
Does anyone know why what is now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was briefly given the title "Ministry" when it was the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government? I understand that the MoD and MoJ are called "Ministries" rather than "Departments" to prevent confusion with their American counterparts, but I don't see that applying in this case.
I thought it was just because the minister at the time preferred Ministry to Department. I didn't think MoD or MoJ had retained their M because of the Americans, just that they had been grandfathered in.
Interesting. I'm not sure that you could say Justice was grandfathered in, as it replaced what had been the Lord Chancellor's Department and only in 2007. Defence is more complex: the current department that finally subsumed the old Admiralty, Air Ministry and War Office dates from 1964, but an earlier MoD was created in 1947 to supervise the service departments. That was the year that the US DoD was founded, but it didn't adopt that name until 1949, initially being known as the "National Military Establishment". Interestingly the US DoD still contains within it Departments of the Air Force, Army and Navy complete with Secretaries of each, but they are no longer Cabinet rank.
Cooper at Home, Reeves at CoE, Nandy at Levelling - this is an all-guns blazing team who will put Cabinet under real pressure.
Whether any voters notice is another matter, but definitely right direction from Sir K.
Yep. It's both a strong team, and it's getting the right people in the right job, which Starmer didn't do at first. I commented at the time that I thought Foreign Office was the wrong post for Nandy - I wanted her as Shadow Home Secretary. But the levelling up job is even better: she understands Wigan, and the hundreds of similar places across the country (not just in the North) as well as anyone.
Sienna Rodgers @siennamarla · 9m More on this – Miliband is going to be leading on climate change and net zero. Big new department dedicated to climate. Responsible for transforming energy system, leading allocation of Climate Investment Pledge, and net zero industrial strategy.
The government are just about to undertake the most ambiguous vaccine programme to date, with a rate in excess of what has previously been achieved. Has anybody heard from the vaccines minister?
Sienna Rodgers @siennamarla · 9m More on this – Miliband is going to be leading on climate change and net zero. Big new department dedicated to climate. Responsible for transforming energy system, leading allocation of Climate Investment Pledge, and net zero industrial strategy.
Seems like if you grew up in a working class family in London you're not really working class and have no connection with people outside of London, who knew
London is the new EU. Didn't you get the memo?
These same people call Sadiq Khan a combination of terrorist or useless or some other nasty description and they wonder why the London working class won't just vote Tory
Sadiq Khan is 0% terrorist and 100% useless. That’s a combination
But he’s been a dreadful, uninspiring Mayor who’s played the angles to try and further his career rather than try to do his current job well
That's why he was re-elected by a larger margin than Johnson was
He nearly lost to Shaun Bailey 😬
But electorates, in their great wisdom, don’t only consider competence in voting
You're right. Because if they did, Shaun Bailey wouldn't have got any votes.
Cooper at Home, Reeves at CoE, Nandy at Levelling - this is an all-guns blazing team who will put Cabinet under real pressure.
Whether any voters notice is another matter, but definitely right direction from Sir K.
Yep. It's both a strong team, and it's getting the right people in the right job, which Starmer didn't do at first. I commented at the time that I thought Foreign Office was the wrong post for Nandy - I wanted her as Shadow Home Secretary. But the levelling up job is even better: she understands Wigan, and the hundreds of similar places across the country (not just in the North) as well as anyone.
Exactly. I have no idea what Starmer was thinking putting Nandy in at Foreign, other than it is a big job and she was one of the big losers of the leadership election.
Fantastic move with Gove's white paper on levelling up/down due in December.
Does anyone know why what is now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was briefly given the title "Ministry" when it was the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government? I understand that the MoD and MoJ are called "Ministries" rather than "Departments" to prevent confusion with their American counterparts, but I don't see that applying in this case.
Housing has always been a ministry. Agriculture was too before it became the Environment Dept.
The changing names of this department is linked to its ever shifting portfolio of activity. It was CLG in 2010 (communities and local government), but this sounded rather like an anonymous IT company so 'department' was added to make it sound more like a government department. No idea what was behind the brief shift to Ministry for a couple of iterations- probably political whims.
The government are just about to undertake the most ambiguous vaccine programme to date, with a rate in excess of what has previously been achieved. Has anybody heard from the vaccines minister?
The government are just about to undertake the most ambiguous vaccine programme to date, with a rate in excess of what has previously been achieved. Has anybody heard from the vaccines minister?
The government are just about to undertake the most ambiguous vaccine programme to date, with a rate in excess of what has previously been achieved. Has anybody heard from the vaccines minister?
Seems a better gig for Nandy. Her northern credentials were wasted on Foreign Affairs.
I cannot see what anyone finds impressive about her. Seems a complete lightweight to me.
She's not a North London hand wringer. So that's a good start.
Is there something in particular that you don't like about north Londoners, or is it just old-fashioned northern prejudice?
I want Labour to be fronted by politicians who can connect with working people up and down the country. Attending dinner parties in Islington where you can demonstrate your wokeness is not the way to achieve this.
Have you ever been to Islington?
Look, I'm using shorthand. This type of wank can occur in other parts of London. And even in other parts of the country.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
You're not really getting the proper Islo vibe at Kings Cross station.
Are you sure? It's changed a hell of a lot since the first days of the Deltics. The yuppies were already invading in 1990 or so when I went to meet my editor at a publishing firm on York Way - a street formerly about as pleasant as no man's land at Third Wipers - and found a modern office block with ther canal basin as the scenit feature for the office windows. And the changes since have been massive. Even the station is not what it was, and that is an understatement.
Had a lot of muggings outside the station, still lots of homelessness and some of the worst in the UK, from what I recall
Indeed, in 1990-ish you mean? I was always glad to get back into the station and on the train north before darkness fell.
Think until the very late 90s it was still very bad, it's been re-developed hugely in the last few years and is a lot better and safer.
But sadly the homelessness has certainly exploded under the Tories
Kings Cross was one of these areas that took a disproportionately long time to shake off its bad reputation.
Sorry, is the suggestion that Peppa Pig was actually a success for the PM, is this the angle we're going with now
Well I said on the day that Peppa Pig is huge for almost any household with children or grandchildren, not just in this country but around the globe too.
It wouldn't surprise me if people mocking the PM for referencing Peppa Pig backfires and makes the PM seem in touch and his critics out of touch.
Could it be, that Peppa Pig turns out to be the winner for him, that the Teddy Bear was for Theodore Roosevelt?
Perhaps worth pointing out that, while the Rough Rider actually did spare a bear cub (after shooting it's momma on a hunting trip while President in the Mississippi woods IIRC) there is no record of him referencing his ursine pal at any meeting of top-level business leaders and industrialists.
Also note that efforts where made to endear William Howard Taft, TR's successor as POTUS, with an increasingly disaffected if not down-right hostile public via his own cute animal friend - Billy Possum
Peppa Pig thing is really interesting. And I expect political historians to look it into this. For the audience in front of him it was utterly the wrong line of presentation. They were confused/bemused etc. But outside the bubble. Parents and Grandparents heard some vague stuff about the Pig and kinda of connected imho.
The government are just about to undertake the most ambiguous vaccine programme to date, with a rate in excess of what has previously been achieved. Has anybody heard from the vaccines minister?
'ambiguous'?
As an opponent of this government that works for me.
The problem with factions is they shallow the accessible talent pool for a cabinet or shadow cabinet - with Labour at such a low ebb in terms of numbers, and so many of those Corbynite wackos, the end result is shuffling deck chairs but a pretty obvious dearth of real talent.
Unlike the blistering, world-beating talent in the actual Cabinet?
Comments
Grow the pie, not redistribution.
Solid
They never say it about Sunak, or Trump, or Biden though.
It's to the UK's credit that we've been front & centre on that.
South Africa is a different story, and borne mostly of their own Gov'ts incompetence.
Thank goodness for that. We may finally have an opposition worthy of the name.
In an ideal world this may sharpen the government up too and cut out some of the crap and self indulgence they have been enjoying.
As King's Cross station is in Islington then yes, I've been there.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02309-6/fulltext
The next leadership election (post-2023 Johnson win) will be v interesting and v female me thinks.
Evidently the best government we have had has been of the centre, that is where we must go back to.
Just like the Garden Bridge and the money he wasted
Perhaps if they put up a better candidate and stopped attacking London all the time, they might do better down here
Amanda Pritchard said NHS staff will “move heaven and earth to vaccinate as many people as possible” to ensure that people can enjoy Christmas with their loved ones.
But she said volunteers should come forward once again as the service “will not be able to do it alone”.
Cancelling New Year is not a good idea. Its pathetic in fact.
The hypocrisy is genuinely astounding
Millions of doses have been distributed around the world. Penny pinching on redistributing a fraction of our millions of doses doesn't do anything when you're looking to generate billions of doses for the planet. Investing in capacity is the only viable solution.
Small northern towns etc etc...
But sadly the homelessness has certainly exploded under the Tories
But he’s been a dreadful, uninspiring Mayor who’s played the angles to try and further his career rather than try to do his current job well
Very shrewd from Keir
Whether any voters notice is another matter, but definitely right direction from Sir K.
Fantastic!
Top news.
Proper social democracy of the centre left, underpinned by competence, good government and tight spending.
A winning combination, possibly. Only time will tell - getting Cameron vibes
When I was teenager in the 1970s I moved from near Solihull to Herefordshire. Every now and again around Herefordshire and Gloucestershire one would see a house with a proper flag pole and a flag of St George flying jauntily in the breeze. In general it was some mad old boy, and it was for the benefit of the Welsh, reminding them who was in charge - no harm done. I never saw a flag of St George outsIde of a sporting occasion in the West Midlands in the 1970s.
In 2018 I ordered a car from Mercedes Benz of Solihull. On collecting the car I noticed a flag flying from a house further along the Warwick Road, it was a proper flag in a stand bolted to the wall. Well, I thought, "I've never seen one of those in Solihull before, and it is a fair distance from Wales, I wonder for whom that flag is flying?"
Perhaps worth pointing out that, while the Rough Rider actually did spare a bear cub (after shooting it's momma on a hunting trip while President in the Mississippi woods IIRC) there is no record of him referencing his ursine pal at any meeting of top-level business leaders and industrialists.
Also note that efforts where made to endear William Howard Taft, TR's successor as POTUS, with an increasingly disaffected if not down-right hostile public via his own cute animal friend - Billy Possum
https://www.ohiohistory.org/learn/education/resource-roundup/november-2019-(1)/billy-possum
But electorates, in their great wisdom, don’t only consider competence in voting
Steven Swinford
@Steven_Swinford
·
5m
This morning
@EleniCourea wrote that Keir Starmer was poised to reshuffle his top team with:
Yvette Cooper installed as shadow home secretary
Kate Green demoted from shadow education
Jo Stevens demoted from DCMS brief
All 💯 bang on
@siennamarla
·
9m
More on this – Miliband is going to be leading on climate change and net zero. Big new department dedicated to climate. Responsible for transforming energy system, leading allocation of Climate Investment Pledge, and net zero industrial strategy.
Fantastic move with Gove's white paper on levelling up/down due in December.