🚨 | BREAKING: Plans are being drawn up for a two week circuit breaker after Christmas, which would ban indoor mixing and have the rule of six outdoors. Pubs and restaurants outdoors only
🚨 | BREAKING: Plans are being drawn up for a two week circuit breaker after Christmas, which would ban indoor mixing and have the rule of six outdoors. Pubs and restaurants outdoors only
Lockdown when: introduced incrementally, but fast. Plan C from about mid December, Plan Z (a harsh lockdown) from around Jan 1
Lockdown how long: not long. It won't do much. 3-4 weeks
UK hospitalisations between now and end March 2022: 310,000
UK deaths in the same period: 49,000”
Any lockdown would see Boris face a no confidence vote the day after no question which he may well lose.
Boosters not lockdown
I reckon they are working on the premise by then cases will be high, hospitalisations will be high, deaths have been rising, and then the Tory backbenchers are in trouble of looking massively irresponsible if they turn it down. That is how it will be pitched, you look like you don't care about people dying, you are happy to let it happen, you will be hit with the heartless "herd immunity" tag.
🚨 | BREAKING: Plans are being drawn up for a two week circuit breaker after Christmas, which would ban indoor mixing and have the rule of six outdoors. Pubs and restaurants outdoors only
Boris is in totally no win situation here. It isn't as bad as planned, he will still get the why didn't you do more. If it is bad, he will get the why didn't you do more.
Lockdown when: introduced incrementally, but fast. Plan C from about mid December, Plan Z (a harsh lockdown) from around Jan 1
Lockdown how long: not long. It won't do much. 3-4 weeks
UK hospitalisations between now and end March 2022: 310,000
UK deaths in the same period: 49,000”
Any lockdown would see Boris face a no confidence vote the day after no question which he may well lose.
Boosters not lockdown
I reckon they are working on the premise by then cases will be high, hospitalisations will be high, deaths have been rising, and then the Tory backbenchers are in trouble of looking massively irresponsible if they turn it down. That is how it will be pitched, you look like you don't care about people dying, you are happy to let it happen, you will be hit with the heartless "herd immunity" tag.
You and i clearly predicted all of this. In detail. Right down to the same old choreography. Wales goes first, the boffins sound the sirens, etc
Lockdown when: introduced incrementally, but fast. Plan C from about mid December, Plan Z (a harsh lockdown) from around Jan 1
Lockdown how long: not long. It won't do much. 3-4 weeks
UK hospitalisations between now and end March 2022: 310,000
UK deaths in the same period: 49,000”
Any lockdown would see Boris face a no confidence vote the day after no question which he may well lose.
Boosters not lockdown
I reckon they are working on the premise by then cases will be high, hospitalisations will be high, deaths have been rising, and then the Tory backbenchers are in trouble of looking massively irresponsible if they turn it down. That is how it will be pitched, you look like you don't care about people dying, you are happy to let it happen, you will be hit with the heartless "herd immunity" tag.
You and i clearly predicted all of this. In detail. Right down to the same old choreography. Wales goes first, the boffins sound the sirens, etc
You don't need to be a genius to see the playbook. Its absolutely transparent now.
Outdoors only. In the Uk. In January. Then two weeks becomes four becomes ten. The whole winter
Two weeks won't do jack shit against the might big O, especially given how transmissible it is within homes. Even with lesser variants, the first week it just applying the wheel to the oil tanker, in which you have now just asked everybody to spend more time with each other.
Yes, recall the Dutch said ‘just 2 weeks’ for their curfew
It will of course be extended. All of January at least. Possibly all of feb. We are right back in the nightmare
Have you ever considered its people babbling about lockdowns which helps create the basis to apply one ?
I rather suspect you and FrancisU enjoy lockdowns or at least getting off on the thrill of babbling about them.
Lockdown when: introduced incrementally, but fast. Plan C from about mid December, Plan Z (a harsh lockdown) from around Jan 1
Lockdown how long: not long. It won't do much. 3-4 weeks
UK hospitalisations between now and end March 2022: 310,000
UK deaths in the same period: 49,000”
Any lockdown would see Boris face a no confidence vote the day after no question which he may well lose.
Boosters not lockdown
I reckon they are working on the premise by then cases will be high, hospitalisations will be high, deaths have been rising, and then the Tory backbenchers are in trouble of looking massively irresponsible if they turn it down. That is how it will be pitched, you look like you don't care about people dying, you are happy to let it happen, you will be hit with the heartless "herd immunity" tag.
Not if most have had their boosters, hospitalisations will not then be a major problem even if cases high.
This would be Boris' Poll Tax or May Deal mark my words, the Tory base and membership would erupt as would Tory backbenchers. He could be removed by mid February if he tried another lockdown
Lockdown when: introduced incrementally, but fast. Plan C from about mid December, Plan Z (a harsh lockdown) from around Jan 1
Lockdown how long: not long. It won't do much. 3-4 weeks
UK hospitalisations between now and end March 2022: 310,000
UK deaths in the same period: 49,000”
Any lockdown would see Boris face a no confidence vote the day after no question which he may well lose.
Boosters not lockdown
I reckon they are working on the premise by then cases will be high, hospitalisations will be high, deaths have been rising, and then the Tory backbenchers are in trouble of looking massively irresponsible if they turn it down. That is how it will be pitched, you look like you don't care about people dying, you are happy to let it happen, you will be hit with the heartless "herd immunity" tag.
You and i clearly predicted all of this. In detail. Right down to the same old choreography. Wales goes first, the boffins sound the sirens, etc
You don't need to be a genius to see the playbook. Its absolutely transparent now.
I despise them. And by them I don’t just mean Boris, i mean the entire scientific-political establishment, left to right. Brainless fucking cowards
They haven’t even TRIED to atttack the anti-vaxxers first. Why?? Scared of being ‘racist’? What is their problem? Civil liberties??? Give me a break. We are all going back into prison. Into the wintry lockdown gulag. Where is MY liberty?
Boris is in totally no win situation here. It isn't as bad as planned, he will still get the why didn't you do more. If it is bad, he will get the why didn't you do more.
He's only in a no win situation cos he's pissed away a formidable amount of political capital by one unforced error after another. Folk were desperate to give him the benefit of the doubt for ages. Now he can't win. No sympathy whatsoever.
Outdoors only. In the Uk. In January. Then two weeks becomes four becomes ten. The whole winter
Two weeks won't do jack shit against the might big O, especially given how transmissible it is within homes. Even with lesser variants, the first week it just applying the wheel to the oil tanker, in which you have now just asked everybody to spend more time with each other.
Yes, recall the Dutch said ‘just 2 weeks’ for their curfew
It will of course be extended. All of January at least. Possibly all of feb. We are right back in the nightmare
Have you ever considered its people babbling about lockdowns which helps create the basis to apply one ?
I rather suspect you and FrancisU enjoy lockdowns or at least getting off on the thrill of babbling about them.
I have a holiday in Centreparcs in Cumbria from the 3 January. I am going to be f***ing livid if they mess with that.
It doesn't make any sense to mess around with restrictions. If they're right and its so contagious there's nothing we can do and its too late anyway. If they're wrong, then its not necessary.
Like in Game Theory sometimes, whatever way you logically look at it, whatever path we take, the same outcome is the only one. In this case: do nothing.
If they do a lockdown then the only logic I can see with that, is a purely selfish one of the country's so-called "leaders" wanting to say they did something when there's the inevitable inquiry. Even if that something is futile, stupid and counterproductive.
A true leader would stand up now and say there's never again going to be restrictions, we're all going to get the virus, so if you haven't yet then get the jab as the virus is coming and we are not able or going to halt it. So get the jab first if you can.
I have a holiday in Centreparcs in Cumbria from the 3 January. I am going to be f***ing livid if they mess with that.
It doesn't make any sense to mess around with restrictions. If they're right and its so contagious there's nothing we can do and its too late anyway. If they're wrong, then its not necessary.
Like in Game Theory sometimes, whatever way you logically look at it, whatever path we take, the same outcome is the only one. In this case: do nothing.
If they do a lockdown then the only logic I can see with that, is a purely selfish one of the country's so-called "leaders" wanting to say they did something when there's the inevitable inquiry. Even if that something is futile, stupid and counterproductive.
A true leader would stand up now and say there's never again going to be restrictions, we're all going to get the virus, so if you haven't yet then get the jab as the virus is coming and we are not able or going to halt it. So get the jab first if you can.
They are clueless, careerist imbeciles. All of them. Look at Drakeford and his fucking ridiculous reintroduced ‘one way system’ in welsh shops and restaurants. He knows its pointless. He knows we know its pointless. He just wants to do some theatre and be able to say ‘well i tried this’ at the inquiry. They are all terrified losers and wankers
I have a holiday in Centreparcs in Cumbria from the 3 January. I am going to be f***ing livid if they mess with that.
It doesn't make any sense to mess around with restrictions. If they're right and its so contagious there's nothing we can do and its too late anyway. If they're wrong, then its not necessary.
Like in Game Theory sometimes, whatever way you logically look at it, whatever path we take, the same outcome is the only one. In this case: do nothing.
If they do a lockdown then the only logic I can see with that, is a purely selfish one of the country's so-called "leaders" wanting to say they did something when there's the inevitable inquiry. Even if that something is futile, stupid and counterproductive.
A true leader would stand up now and say there's never again going to be restrictions, we're all going to get the virus, so if you haven't yet then get the jab as the virus is coming and we are not able or going to halt it. So get the jab first if you can.
I have a holiday in Centreparcs in Cumbria from the 3 January. I am going to be f***ing livid if they mess with that.
It doesn't make any sense to mess around with restrictions. If they're right and its so contagious there's nothing we can do and its too late anyway. If they're wrong, then its not necessary.
Like in Game Theory sometimes, whatever way you logically look at it, whatever path we take, the same outcome is the only one. In this case: do nothing.
If they do a lockdown then the only logic I can see with that, is a purely selfish one of the country's so-called "leaders" wanting to say they did something when there's the inevitable inquiry. Even if that something is futile, stupid and counterproductive.
A true leader would stand up now and say there's never again going to be restrictions, we're all going to get the virus, so if you haven't yet then get the jab as the virus is coming and we are not able or going to halt it. So get the jab first if you can.
Useless fact: when it first opened in 1997 the Cumbrian park was known as "Oasis Whinfell Forest" and was supposed to be a rival to Center Parcs, but in about 2001 it was taken over by Center Parcs themselves. I've been there once in 2004. Some other family members went in 1997 just after it opened which is why I know about its history.
Lockdown when: introduced incrementally, but fast. Plan C from about mid December, Plan Z (a harsh lockdown) from around Jan 1
Lockdown how long: not long. It won't do much. 3-4 weeks
UK hospitalisations between now and end March 2022: 310,000
UK deaths in the same period: 49,000”
Any lockdown would see Boris face a no confidence vote the day after no question which he may well lose.
Boosters not lockdown
I reckon they are working on the premise by then cases will be high, hospitalisations will be high, deaths have been rising, and then the Tory backbenchers are in trouble of looking massively irresponsible if they turn it down. That is how it will be pitched, you look like you don't care about people dying, you are happy to let it happen, you will be hit with the heartless "herd immunity" tag.
You and i clearly predicted all of this. In detail. Right down to the same old choreography. Wales goes first, the boffins sound the sirens, etc
You don't need to be a genius to see the playbook. Its absolutely transparent now.
It won't just be a failure of government, it will be a failure of the press (again).
First question: What do you expect to achieve with this? Show your working. A reduction in Rt of 0.1 and the deaths of a few anti-vaxxers punted 4 months down the road? Sorry, what?
And I say this as someone who won't actually miss out on very much due to a lockdown, other than having to pay for it in the future.
Why is "Do something - anything" always the default option?
I have a holiday in Centreparcs in Cumbria from the 3 January. I am going to be f***ing livid if they mess with that.
It doesn't make any sense to mess around with restrictions. If they're right and its so contagious there's nothing we can do and its too late anyway. If they're wrong, then its not necessary.
Like in Game Theory sometimes, whatever way you logically look at it, whatever path we take, the same outcome is the only one. In this case: do nothing.
If they do a lockdown then the only logic I can see with that, is a purely selfish one of the country's so-called "leaders" wanting to say they did something when there's the inevitable inquiry. Even if that something is futile, stupid and counterproductive.
A true leader would stand up now and say there's never again going to be restrictions, we're all going to get the virus, so if you haven't yet then get the jab as the virus is coming and we are not able or going to halt it. So get the jab first if you can.
Useless fact: when it first opened in 1997 the Cumbrian park was known as "Oasis Whinfell Forest" and was supposed to be a rival to Center Parcs, but in about 2001 it was taken over by Center Parcs themselves. I've been there once in 2004. Some other family members went in 1997 just after it opened which is why I know about its history.
That's why the whole design and architecture of the place is totally different to the other Center Parcs resorts. It was a rival company to begin with as I said. A bit sad they weren't able to keep it going more than 4 or 5 years.
I have a holiday in Centreparcs in Cumbria from the 3 January. I am going to be f***ing livid if they mess with that.
It doesn't make any sense to mess around with restrictions. If they're right and its so contagious there's nothing we can do and its too late anyway. If they're wrong, then its not necessary.
Like in Game Theory sometimes, whatever way you logically look at it, whatever path we take, the same outcome is the only one. In this case: do nothing.
If they do a lockdown then the only logic I can see with that, is a purely selfish one of the country's so-called "leaders" wanting to say they did something when there's the inevitable inquiry. Even if that something is futile, stupid and counterproductive.
A true leader would stand up now and say there's never again going to be restrictions, we're all going to get the virus, so if you haven't yet then get the jab as the virus is coming and we are not able or going to halt it. So get the jab first if you can.
Useless fact: when it first opened in 1997 the Cumbrian park was known as "Oasis Whinfell Forest" and was supposed to be a rival to Center Parcs, but in about 2001 it was taken over by Center Parcs themselves. I've been there once in 2004. Some other family members went in 1997 just after it opened which is why I know about its history.
That's why the whole design and architecture of the place is totally different to the other Center Parcs resorts. It was a rival company to begin with as I said. A bit sad they weren't able to keep it going more than 4 or 5 years.
And of course, it despite being labelled 'Lake District' it isn't actually in the Lake District (or the North Pennines AONB either).
I can't say I've ever been tempted into Center Parcs. The one in Nottinghamshire ("Sherwood") looks rather too much like Stalag Luft 3 from the outside - I believe it might even have been a PoW camp once? That might just be to keep plebs like me out, of course.
Give me a tent and whatever the weather can throw at it any day. Still, I'd rather they weren't forced to close.
"In recent weeks, the percentage of 2019 Conservative voters who say they will not vote at the next election, who do not know who they will vote for or who refuse to say either way has more than doubled, surging from 18 to 38%."
Japanese anti-omicron border closure seems kind of fucked.
Foreigners aren't allowed in but returning Japanese people test negative at the airport but then they're supposed to quarantine at home. So they go home in their dedicated private vehicles, family and visiting friends get infected and go off to work and soccer games and so forth, and there you have it.
Then the border closure doesn't apply to US forces, so there's a huge cluster on a US military base in Okinawa, which also infected Japanese people working at the base, etc etc.
Why is anyone even giving a fuck what the government says at this point. If they won't crack down hard on the anti vaxxers then all their restrictions are pointless and should be totally ignored and disobeyed. I certainly have no intention of following any of them and will just tell them where to go
Outdoors only. In the Uk. In January. Then two weeks becomes four becomes ten. The whole winter
If is simply unfeasible to expect pubs and restaurants to operate outdoors at this time of year. Have they seen the sort of weather we get? Could someone remind the numpties dreaming this up of Storm Arwen, for instance.
This is closure - and unless there is support - now not in a few weeks time - it will mean closure for good for many venues, Daughter's included.
Why is anyone even giving a fuck what the government says at this point. If they won't crack down hard on the anti vaxxers then all their restrictions are pointless and should be totally ignored and disobeyed. I certainly have no intention of following any of them and will just tell them where to go
Pubs and restaurants need licences. If they break the rules they get hit as do those holding the licence.
That is why state mandated closure must be accompanied by financial support.
It won't be and so this government will destroy a significant part of another sector, to add to all the others it has harmed by its stupidity, ignorance and malice.
Why is anyone even giving a fuck what the government says at this point. If they won't crack down hard on the anti vaxxers then all their restrictions are pointless and should be totally ignored and disobeyed. I certainly have no intention of following any of them and will just tell them where to go
Pubs and restaurants need licences. If they break the rules they get hit as do those holding the licence.
That is why state mandated closure must be accompanied by financial support.
It won't be and so this government will destroy a significant part of another sector, to add to all the others it has harmed by its stupidity, ignorance and malice.
Yes I know, but if they dont have licenses and open and people still continue to go there what the hell can the police do? Absolutely nothing. The simple fact is people are going to be catching covid every winter for the next few centuries. It is not going to go away and we cant keep locking everyone away.
Yes pubs like your daughters will be breaking the law by staying open. If all of them stand together and just say no though ie civil disobedience then at that point nothing can be done. If the government say no license just continue to open anyway.
Time to tell the government we are in charge not them.
Interesting thought from the Sky Paper Review: Is Omicron hitting London harder because of lower vaccine rates in London?
Its because it is an international travel hub. Omninomnom got there first. The rest of the country is a few days toa week behind at most given the crazy reproduction rate.
I do wonder if the Scottish outbreak is from COP 26. People came from all over the world...
As.much as I hate lockdowns, I don't see any way out of this one for Johnson. The booster programme came too late for a variant that spreads much faster than our ability to understand it.
Posters upthread are right about lockdowns - once they start they are nigh impossible to reverse. Even if this is a milder version, we'll be in this for months now, not weeks, and the low hanging fruit in hospitality, gyms etc will be hardest hit as people continue to mix in homes.
I'm going to enjoy Christmas lunch with friends today, spend a huge amount of cash at a rural restaurant tomorrow, and then concentrate on keeping my mental health intact.
Peter Oborne is a Jeremy Hunt backer and predicts VONC in New Year:
“… likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, is favourite among Tory voters to win the leadership contest that will take place when Johnson goes. She is out of her depth, and I expect her to be found out. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the Exchequer, is inexperienced and yet to acquire a robust public voice.
The right-wing newspapers – which without exception support Boris Johnson to be prime minister in 2019– will present the succession as a contest between Truss and Sunak. Yet both are deeply implicated in the moral squalor and falsehoods of Johnson’s shortly-to-be defunct administration.
Jeremy Hunt, a former foreign secretary who came second to Johnson in the 2019 Tory leadership election, is not contaminated in the same way. He is a traditional Tory statesman who would offer a fresh start and return to decency and common sense. But that may count against Hunt, given the state of the British Conservative Party as it is today.
Meanwhile Johnson's reputation is shattered: he is held widely in contempt not just by most voters but also by Tory colleagues. If he does not go of his own accord – he has a potential alibi in two small children and could plausibly claim family commitments – Tory MPs will strike with a vote of no-confidence in the New Year.”
Anyone think Nadhim Zahawi could be in with a shout? Very safe pair of hands on the vaccines
Definitely, doesn't seem to have much of a personality though, but at 80/1 is a value bet given that he's the facew of the one good thing over the past 20 months. Mark Harper is also a good value bet (66/1). Completely inoffensive and centre-right. Hunt, Javid, and Gove are all obvious lays - the only question is whether the 12.5%ish return will outpace the stockmarket.
In recent times there has been a pattern to alternate between charismatic and dull leaders
Thatcher- charismatic Major - dull Blair - charismatic Brown - dull Cameron - charismatic May - dull Johnson - charismatic
I think if Johnson goes the Tories will be looking for dull and competent
Would hardly call Cameron charismatic. More of an empty vessel who filled the barbour jacketed void with a bad Blair tribute act that was eventually rumbled as completely hollow. For example I struggle to think of one moment in the referendum campaign, which should have been the fight of his life, in which Cameron showed an ounce of persuasive charisma rather than plotting a path he hoped would provide least resistance. That would have been unimaginable for Blair or Thatcher.
Peter Oborne is a Jeremy Hunt backer and predicts VONC in New Year:
“… likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, is favourite among Tory voters to win the leadership contest that will take place when Johnson goes. She is out of her depth, and I expect her to be found out. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the Exchequer, is inexperienced and yet to acquire a robust public voice.
The right-wing newspapers – which without exception support Boris Johnson to be prime minister in 2019– will present the succession as a contest between Truss and Sunak. Yet both are deeply implicated in the moral squalor and falsehoods of Johnson’s shortly-to-be defunct administration.
Jeremy Hunt, a former foreign secretary who came second to Johnson in the 2019 Tory leadership election, is not contaminated in the same way. He is a traditional Tory statesman who would offer a fresh start and return to decency and common sense. But that may count against Hunt, given the state of the British Conservative Party as it is today.
Meanwhile Johnson's reputation is shattered: he is held widely in contempt not just by most voters but also by Tory colleagues. If he does not go of his own accord – he has a potential alibi in two small children and could plausibly claim family commitments – Tory MPs will strike with a vote of no-confidence in the New Year.”
There's an awful lot of people wanting the world to be a certain way, and projecting that view onto every bit of data they see: ignoring difficult evidence and promoting the good.
In reality we've drunk the tea, and are examining the tealeaves left at the bottom of the cup. At best.
We just don't know. There are indications, yes: hints that things might be one way rather than another. But we do not know. Given that, the government really are in a damnable situation: do nothing, and risk the NHS collapsing, or do something, only for omicron to turn out to be Leon's fluffy kittens.
Yet again, I'm glad I'm not the one making the decisions...
🚨 | BREAKING: Plans are being drawn up for a two week circuit breaker after Christmas, which would ban indoor mixing and have the rule of six outdoors. Pubs and restaurants outdoors only
So if someone is deliberately obstructing you going about the necessities of your day, you are not allowing to forcefully move them?
The UK legal system has absolutely no sense sometimes. The protesters were breaking the law. Moving them out the way with a level of force that doesn't injure them is entirely reasonable.
A former Tory cabinet minister warned Johnson’s operation needed a change. He said that Johnson still has a chance of resetting his premiership, but added: “There are those who say, Boris can’t change. And the consequence of that is a better-than-50% chance he’ll be dead by the end of next year.”
Underlining the need for Johnson to overhaul his approach, they said: “The old Boris brand, the old Boris shtick, doesn’t work any more.”
Another Conservative former cabinet minister said MPs were already discussing among themselves how to get the prime minister to change his top team, and in particular, expressing reservations about his chief of staff, Dan Rosenfield. He said MPs would be delivering a message to Johnson that he needed to shake up his operation and consult more with MPs, with the scale of discontent obvious after 100 rebelled against his plan B Covid measures this week.
But one minister said that Johnson was unlikely to be able to change his approach. “He’s probably not going to come to terms with the fundamental questions he’s got to ask himself – he never has and I doubt he will. At some point people won’t forgive him any more … He’s on notice, from me.”
I reckon BJ (unless he really does fxxxk up) has until the May locals to start turning things around, not sure how he will cope with the pressure so I suspect he may want to jump if an opportunity (big paycheck/speaker circuit,/publishers advance etc) is waved under his nose. From memory, he seemed like a rabbit stuck in headlights (like most of our political elite) straight after BREXIT despite having been a champion for it, so IMO the omens for him seizing the initiative in January 2022 appears slim so a lingering drift into the Easter/locals is highly probable. Even picking a fight with Brussels etc is unlikely to rally the faithful..... should be an interesting 6 months ahead. A couple of possible byelections (Wakefield if the MP is convicted/found guilty) may hasten things further...
I have a holiday in Centreparcs in Cumbria from the 3 January. I am going to be f***ing livid if they mess with that.
It doesn't make any sense to mess around with restrictions. If they're right and its so contagious there's nothing we can do and its too late anyway. If they're wrong, then its not necessary.
Like in Game Theory sometimes, whatever way you logically look at it, whatever path we take, the same outcome is the only one. In this case: do nothing.
If they do a lockdown then the only logic I can see with that, is a purely selfish one of the country's so-called "leaders" wanting to say they did something when there's the inevitable inquiry. Even if that something is futile, stupid and counterproductive.
A true leader would stand up now and say there's never again going to be restrictions, we're all going to get the virus, so if you haven't yet then get the jab as the virus is coming and we are not able or going to halt it. So get the jab first if you can.
They are clueless, careerist imbeciles. All of them. Look at Drakeford and his fucking ridiculous reintroduced ‘one way system’ in welsh shops and restaurants. He knows its pointless. He knows we know its pointless. He just wants to do some theatre and be able to say ‘well i tried this’ at the inquiry. They are all terrified losers and wankers
This is all ridiculous toy throwing by people who have lost all the British stoicism of our grandparents. Lockdowns slow the spread of the virus. The NHS will be overwhelmed if Omicron is not slowed down. Deaths from lack of treatment due to undercapacity should be avoided. That is more important than going to the pub or center parcs.
They say good times create weak men. Clearly Britain has had good times for a long time.
Katy Balls: What worries those Tories who have been out canvassing is that sleaze only came up occasionally. Instead, the complaints from voters that the Conservatives once relied on in the area pointed to a wider dissatisfaction with the party, and more specifically the prime minister.
Rather than Paterson, the issue that came up more regularly early on on the doorstep was Johnson’s rambling CBI speech to business leaders in which he waxed lyrical about Peppa Pig World. “They kept saying he just wasn’t a serious person,” says one Lib Dem working on the seat. To those in CCHQ, the focus on Peppa Pig didn’t come as a huge surprise – it chimed with their own intel. As the campaign progressed, the conversation turned to “partygate”. “We were shoring up the vote and then the party video came out. We were done,” says one Tory staffer.
After a tricky few weeks for Johnson, it is impossible to separate the prime minister from the result. Tory MPs believe he was a key factor on the doorstep. Already Tory MPs from across the party are openly discussing whether he can really lead them into the next election. As the prime minister takes a break over Christmas, he will need to use that time to work out how to regain the support of his party. Otherwise, 2022 will be his most turbulent year yet
Freedland: Talk to those involved, on all sides, and they agree that voters were driven chiefly by fury with the prime minister – over the revelations of Downing Street partying when the rest of the country was locked down against a killer disease, and what one minister calls the general “shitshow” of this government.
In 2019, voters were ready to overlook any misgivings they might have had about the Tories – including, in those “red wall” seats, the fact that they were Tories – for the prospect of getting Brexit done. Now, even in the Conservative heartland and even among hardcore leavers, departure from the EU is not enough to wash away the sins of booze, nibbles and party games, or Paterson’s fat Randox contracts.
A second ingredient was Johnson himself, the famed Heineken politician…in North Shropshire he became the man who repelled the parts every other Tory leader used to reach. That’s a reverse Heineken. Once cherished for defying the Tory stereotype of stuffy formality, Johnson now incarnates a much more poisonous set of tropes: that Tories believe it’s one rule for them, one rule for everyone else; that they look out for themselves and their mates; that they’re pampered and spoilt, laughing at those who are less lucky.
More stringent restrictions need to be brought in "very soon" in England if ministers want to stop hospital admissions reaching 3,000 a day, the government's scientific advisers say.
The BBC has seen leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies held on Thursday.
It comes as the UK's four nations are to hold a Cobra meeting this weekend.
More stringent restrictions need to be brought in "very soon" in England if ministers want to stop hospital admissions reaching 3,000 a day, the government's scientific advisers say.
The BBC has seen leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies held on Thursday.
It comes as the UK's four nations are to hold a Cobra meeting this weekend.
What was the point of the last 21 months of restrictions if we're still doing all of this now? And if restrictions didn't work for the last 21 months, why are they suddenly going to start working now.
More stringent restrictions need to be brought in "very soon" in England if ministers want to stop hospital admissions reaching 3,000 a day, the government's scientific advisers say.
The BBC has seen leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies held on Thursday.
It comes as the UK's four nations are to hold a Cobra meeting this weekend.
More stringent restrictions need to be brought in "very soon" in England if ministers want to stop hospital admissions reaching 3,000 a day, the government's scientific advisers say.
The BBC has seen leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies held on Thursday.
It comes as the UK's four nations are to hold a Cobra meeting this weekend.
What was the point of the last 21 months of restrictions if we're still doing all of this now?
Are you honestly saying we'd be in a *better* situation if we hadn't had any of the restrictions over the last 21 months?
The economy and people’s mental health undoubtedly would. So the question is quantifying the difference. Those regions that have been consistent with restrictions through the year, like southern Germany, certainly haven’t got out of jail.
My Pfizer booster really knocked me out yesterday. I went to bed at five, slumbered, then slept. I was fully clothed in bed and shivering; two hours later I was boiling. A big headache and really sore arm, with the soreness moving down from the shoulder to the elbow.
By far the worst effect of all three doses. Much better this morning (in total I slept well over twelve hours yesterday).
Mrs J just had a sore arm and headache. Women really are the stronger sex.
Despite this, I'm really glad I've had my booster. Yipppeeee!
More stringent restrictions need to be brought in "very soon" in England if ministers want to stop hospital admissions reaching 3,000 a day, the government's scientific advisers say.
The BBC has seen leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies held on Thursday.
It comes as the UK's four nations are to hold a Cobra meeting this weekend.
What was the point of the last 21 months of restrictions if we're still doing all of this now?
Are you honestly saying we'd be in a *better* situation if we hadn't had any of the restrictions over the last 21 months?
The economy and people’s mental health undoubtedly would. So the question is quantifying the difference. Those regions that have been consistent with restrictions through the year, like southern Germany, certainly haven’t got out of jail.
"The economy and people’s mental health undoubtedly would."
There is a lot of doubt about that. If we had people dying at the levels we did at periods this year, people would have been voluntarily locking down anyway.
For some odd reason people don't want to get ill and die.
The Sun: “INFAMY, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me!” Never has the old Carry On Cleo joke rung so true for Boris Johnson.
No successor wants the blame for Omigod Covid or booming inflation, soaring mortgages, painful tax hikes and gaping holes in household budgets. They especially don’t want to carry the can for the inevitable meltdown in next May’s local elections. So Boris has five or six months….
Sympathy for Boris is hard to find — even among his few remaining staunch supporters. “People know what they are doing when they vote in by-elections,” says one who knows him well. “They are sending a very direct message to the Government and its leader. This is about loss of trust. Once you have lost trust it is a hell of a job to get it back.”
My Pfizer booster really knocked me out yesterday. I went to bed at five, slumbered, then slept. I was fully clothed in bed and shivering; two hours later I was boiling. A big headache and really sore arm, with the soreness moving down from the shoulder to the elbow.
By far the worst effect of all three doses. Much better this morning (in total I slept well over twelve hours yesterday).
Mrs J just had a sore arm and headache. Women really are the stronger sex.
Despite this, I'm really glad I've had my booster. Yipppeeee!
Mail: Some believe a wider reshuffle is needed. But there are serious doubts about whether the PM has the will to change – or even really accepts he has a problem.
The issue was raised this week at a hastily-convened meeting of the backbench 1922 Committee, where Mr Johnson tried and failed to persuade mutinous MPs to back him over Covid.
One witness said: 'The PM said we 'shouldn't believe all that media guff' – he just dismissed it. People had their heads in their hands at the level of denial.'
Suddenly political gravity has started to reassert itself. In fact, some MPs fear Mr Johnson is in danger of becoming a political black hole which sucks the party down with him. He has time to turn the anti-gravity machine back on if he can remember how. But perhaps not as much time as he thinks.
"Brits ignore Omicron surge to party on the biggest night out before Christmas as Rishi Sunak flies back to take part in crunch talks with the beleaguered hospitality industry and SAGE demands a two-week lockdown and ban on households mixing
Revellers in Leeds, London and Birmingham pictured enjoying Christmas blowout amid Omicron fears Hospitality bosses had warned ministers alarmist rhetoric on new mutant strain had hit consumer confidence But pictures taken on Friday night showed the party spirit was alive and well across Britain's largest cities Leaked SAGE minutes urge restrictions as two-week circuit breaker lockdown was mooted by ministers CBI and other groups asked Rishi Sunak for emergency grants, VAT drop and 100% business relief for retail"
My Pfizer booster really knocked me out yesterday. I went to bed at five, slumbered, then slept. I was fully clothed in bed and shivering; two hours later I was boiling. A big headache and really sore arm, with the soreness moving down from the shoulder to the elbow.
By far the worst effect of all three doses. Much better this morning (in total I slept well over twelve hours yesterday).
Mrs J just had a sore arm and headache. Women really are the stronger sex.
Despite this, I'm really glad I've had my booster. Yipppeeee!
The only jab that badly affected me was the first one. Just had an aching arm on the day itself, but the next day was like having flu. It only last 24 hours though.
Mail: Some believe a wider reshuffle is needed. But there are serious doubts about whether the PM has the will to change – or even really accepts he has a problem.
The issue was raised this week at a hastily-convened meeting of the backbench 1922 Committee, where Mr Johnson tried and failed to persuade mutinous MPs to back him over Covid.
One witness said: 'The PM said we 'shouldn't believe all that media guff' – he just dismissed it. People had their heads in their hands at the level of denial.'
Suddenly political gravity has started to reassert itself. In fact, some MPs fear Mr Johnson is in danger of becoming a political black hole which sucks the party down with him. He has time to turn the anti-gravity machine back on if he can remember how. But perhaps not as much time as he thinks.
The problem being that in 6 months time, Boris will have trashed the Tory brand so much that PM will be an even more poisoned chalice that it is now. The next election will be an interesting one.
Perhaps by the time there is another Tory PM, the current crop's careers will be over...
More stringent restrictions need to be brought in "very soon" in England if ministers want to stop hospital admissions reaching 3,000 a day, the government's scientific advisers say.
The BBC has seen leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies held on Thursday.
It comes as the UK's four nations are to hold a Cobra meeting this weekend.
What was the point of the last 21 months of restrictions if we're still doing all of this now?
Are you honestly saying we'd be in a *better* situation if we hadn't had any of the restrictions over the last 21 months?
The economy and people’s mental health undoubtedly would. So the question is quantifying the difference. Those regions that have been consistent with restrictions through the year, like southern Germany, certainly haven’t got out of jail.
"The economy and people’s mental health undoubtedly would."
There is a lot of doubt about that. If we had people dying at the levels we did at periods this year, people would have been voluntarily locking down anyway.
For some odd reason people don't want to get ill and die.
If there had been no official lockdown, there would have been no business support and social chaos as people refused to go to work or go shopping.
Now everyone who wants jabbed has been jabbed and the boosters are going at a hell of a rate. That makes it all very different
Peter Oborne is a Jeremy Hunt backer and predicts VONC in New Year:
“… likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, is favourite among Tory voters to win the leadership contest that will take place when Johnson goes. She is out of her depth, and I expect her to be found out. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the Exchequer, is inexperienced and yet to acquire a robust public voice.
The right-wing newspapers – which without exception support Boris Johnson to be prime minister in 2019– will present the succession as a contest between Truss and Sunak. Yet both are deeply implicated in the moral squalor and falsehoods of Johnson’s shortly-to-be defunct administration.
Jeremy Hunt, a former foreign secretary who came second to Johnson in the 2019 Tory leadership election, is not contaminated in the same way. He is a traditional Tory statesman who would offer a fresh start and return to decency and common sense. But that may count against Hunt, given the state of the British Conservative Party as it is today.
Meanwhile Johnson's reputation is shattered: he is held widely in contempt not just by most voters but also by Tory colleagues. If he does not go of his own accord – he has a potential alibi in two small children and could plausibly claim family commitments – Tory MPs will strike with a vote of no-confidence in the New Year.”
I'm not a fan of Hunt. Certainly wouldn't support the Tories if he was leader.
The whole party needs to go and spend time in the political wilderness to either reset their moral compasses or decide if they have a moral compass at all.
"Brits ignore Omicron surge to party on the biggest night out before Christmas as Rishi Sunak flies back to take part in crunch talks with the beleaguered hospitality industry and SAGE demands a two-week lockdown and ban on households mixing
Revellers in Leeds, London and Birmingham pictured enjoying Christmas blowout amid Omicron fears Hospitality bosses had warned ministers alarmist rhetoric on new mutant strain had hit consumer confidence But pictures taken on Friday night showed the party spirit was alive and well across Britain's largest cities Leaked SAGE minutes urge restrictions as two-week circuit breaker lockdown was mooted by ministers CBI and other groups asked Rishi Sunak for emergency grants, VAT drop and 100% business relief for retail"
Oborne: This colossal electoral setback is a manifestation of the scale of the anger and disgust felt right across Britain at the corruption, sleaze, grotesque double standards and epic incompetence of the Johnson premiership.
In political terms, Johnson has joined the living dead.
Any one of these three issues [Geidt, parties, wallpaper] would plunge any prime minister into crisis. All three of them coming together mean that his time as prime minister can confidently be said to be over.
Johnson's reputation is shattered: he is held widely in contempt not just by most voters but also by Tory colleagues. If he does not go of his own accord – he has a potential alibi in two small children and could plausibly claim family commitments – Tory MPs will strike with a vote of no-confidence in the New Year.
Johnson, as I told Middle East Eye readers last week, is finished.
"Brits ignore Omicron surge to party on the biggest night out before Christmas as Rishi Sunak flies back to take part in crunch talks with the beleaguered hospitality industry and SAGE demands a two-week lockdown and ban on households mixing
Revellers in Leeds, London and Birmingham pictured enjoying Christmas blowout amid Omicron fears Hospitality bosses had warned ministers alarmist rhetoric on new mutant strain had hit consumer confidence But pictures taken on Friday night showed the party spirit was alive and well across Britain's largest cities Leaked SAGE minutes urge restrictions as two-week circuit breaker lockdown was mooted by ministers CBI and other groups asked Rishi Sunak for emergency grants, VAT drop and 100% business relief for retail"
That doesn’t really square with all the anecdotal reports of how quiet it is and of all the cancellations etc.
They've gone looking for young people out clubbing and found them. So? When I went to the neighbouring town to get my booster yesterday evening, there was a reasonable turnout in some of the restaurants I passed along the way - but these places are probably relying on something a bit better than a reasonable turnout just before Christmas.
The fact that there's a decent fraction of the population that just wants to get on with life and is prepared to risk catching Covid does not make up for the cautious or downright frightened masses all sat at home - people who are afraid of the virus, or of having to isolate over the holiday, or all those cancelled corporate bookings where firms are doubtless having visions of mass staff absences.
🚨 | BREAKING: Plans are being drawn up for a two week circuit breaker after Christmas, which would ban indoor mixing and have the rule of six outdoors. Pubs and restaurants outdoors only
More stringent restrictions need to be brought in "very soon" in England if ministers want to stop hospital admissions reaching 3,000 a day, the government's scientific advisers say.
The BBC has seen leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies held on Thursday.
It comes as the UK's four nations are to hold a Cobra meeting this weekend.
What was the point of the last 21 months of restrictions if we're still doing all of this now? And if restrictions didn't work for the last 21 months, why are they suddenly going to start working now.
The entire problem that the politicians have is that, when the NHS starts screaming, they have to be seen to be doing something to make it stop - even though endless cyclical lockdowns in response to every scary new variant aren't a sustainable solution to anything. And restrictions have been demonstrated in the past to put a lid on cases and ease the pressure on the healthcare system.
Therefore, we are going to be stuck in this doom loop until the virus evolves to be sufficiently transmissible that not even a March 2020-type lockdown will make much difference to its spread - i.e. no matter how much Government tries to stop "non-essential" contact between people, the interactions we still have at work, in health and care settings, within household bubbles and going to the supermarket will still be enough to drive cases upwards.
Restrictions will continue until it becomes obvious to everybody that they don't work, because it is politically impossible to abandon the hospitals to burn.
”.The North Shropshire result – a Liberal Democrat win in a leave seat – also raised questions about whether Brexit was starting to lose its hold over the electorate. That could be bad news for Johnson, who was able to unite voters in disparate seats in 2019 by promising to “get Brexit done”.
If Brexit is starting to become a less crucial determinant of voting behaviour, he will need to find another potent argument to hold his electoral coalition together – and many MPs are not convinced “levelling up” is it."
Perhaps the worst possibility for the Tories is that Leavers are not motivated by Brexit, but that Remainers are still. Not to reverse it necessarily but at least to punish the perpetrators.
”.The North Shropshire result – a Liberal Democrat win in a leave seat – also raised questions about whether Brexit was starting to lose its hold over the electorate. That could be bad news for Johnson, who was able to unite voters in disparate seats in 2019 by promising to “get Brexit done”.
If Brexit is starting to become a less crucial determinant of voting behaviour, he will need to find another potent argument to hold his electoral coalition together – and many MPs are not convinced “levelling up” is it."
Perhaps the worst possibility for the Tories is that Leavers are not motivated by Brexit, but that Remainers are still. Not to reverse it necessarily but at least to punish the perpetrators.
Must be unpleasant people if they are motivated to punish others.
”.The North Shropshire result – a Liberal Democrat win in a leave seat – also raised questions about whether Brexit was starting to lose its hold over the electorate. That could be bad news for Johnson, who was able to unite voters in disparate seats in 2019 by promising to “get Brexit done”.
If Brexit is starting to become a less crucial determinant of voting behaviour, he will need to find another potent argument to hold his electoral coalition together – and many MPs are not convinced “levelling up” is it."
Perhaps the worst possibility for the Tories is that Leavers are not motivated by Brexit, but that Remainers are still. Not to reverse it necessarily but at least to punish the perpetrators.
Must be unpleasant people if they are motivated to punish others.
Quite a common motivation for voting is wanting to punish someone, just look at NS this week.
I voted Conservative in 2010, and supported the coalition government. I won't vote Conservative again in the foreseeable future.
More stringent restrictions need to be brought in "very soon" in England if ministers want to stop hospital admissions reaching 3,000 a day, the government's scientific advisers say.
The BBC has seen leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies held on Thursday.
It comes as the UK's four nations are to hold a Cobra meeting this weekend.
”.The North Shropshire result – a Liberal Democrat win in a leave seat – also raised questions about whether Brexit was starting to lose its hold over the electorate. That could be bad news for Johnson, who was able to unite voters in disparate seats in 2019 by promising to “get Brexit done”.
If Brexit is starting to become a less crucial determinant of voting behaviour, he will need to find another potent argument to hold his electoral coalition together – and many MPs are not convinced “levelling up” is it."
Perhaps the worst possibility for the Tories is that Leavers are not motivated by Brexit, but that Remainers are still. Not to reverse it necessarily but at least to punish the perpetrators.
Must be unpleasant people if they are motivated to punish others.
Quite a common motivation for voting is wanting to punish someone, just look at NS this week.
I voted Conservative in 2010, and supported the coalition government. I won't vote Conservative again in the foreseeable future.
I think a huge part of the UKIP/BREXUT motivation was centred on `punishing' political elites
Just looking at headlines this morning - I am wondering whether the Cabinet Secretary's position is looking a bit wobbly this weekend, I sense that Simon Case (the youngster) may have damaged his brand within the CS. Labour seem keen to make the point
”.The North Shropshire result – a Liberal Democrat win in a leave seat – also raised questions about whether Brexit was starting to lose its hold over the electorate. That could be bad news for Johnson, who was able to unite voters in disparate seats in 2019 by promising to “get Brexit done”.
If Brexit is starting to become a less crucial determinant of voting behaviour, he will need to find another potent argument to hold his electoral coalition together – and many MPs are not convinced “levelling up” is it."
Perhaps the worst possibility for the Tories is that Leavers are not motivated by Brexit, but that Remainers are still. Not to reverse it necessarily but at least to punish the perpetrators.
Must be unpleasant people if they are motivated to punish others.
Quite a common motivation for voting is wanting to punish someone, just look at NS this week.
I voted Conservative in 2010, and supported the coalition government. I won't vote Conservative again in the foreseeable future.
I think a huge part of the UKIP/BREXUT motivation was centred on `punishing' political elites
Yes, it is why referendums don't really work in our political system. A significant minority vote not on the issue, but rather to get at the people in power. A free hit, if you want it.
So if someone is deliberately obstructing you going about the necessities of your day, you are not allowing to forcefully move them?
The UK legal system has absolutely no sense sometimes. The protesters were breaking the law. Moving them out the way with a level of force that doesn't injure them is entirely reasonable.
She deliberately drove into her with her SUV, albeit slowly, and pushed her along the road.
Very understandable, but difficult to argue with the prosecution.
I think if she had dragged her off the road by hand, it would not be prosecuted.
More stringent restrictions need to be brought in "very soon" in England if ministers want to stop hospital admissions reaching 3,000 a day, the government's scientific advisers say.
The BBC has seen leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies held on Thursday.
It comes as the UK's four nations are to hold a Cobra meeting this weekend.
Still no solid evidence that Omicron is innately less severe than other variants, but I now make this the second plausible mechanism through which it *could* be less severe
The lesson from South Africa seems fairly clear to me by now. Which is that Sweden had the right idea in the long run, though with hindsight wrong idea in the short term because vaccines arrived so quickly.
Simply, anyone triple vaxxed should be living as normally as possibly in the next 90 days, while their T-Cell response from the vaccines is as its strongest, in the hope they get a mild impact natural top to immunity. Double dosers over 50 it’s on them if they’re not boosted by now. Double dosers under 50 will still on aggregate be fine. No dosers; well there’s no reason we should indulge you any longer.
Oborne: This colossal electoral setback is a manifestation of the scale of the anger and disgust felt right across Britain at the corruption, sleaze, grotesque double standards and epic incompetence of the Johnson premiership.
In political terms, Johnson has joined the living dead.
Any one of these three issues [Geidt, parties, wallpaper] would plunge any prime minister into crisis. All three of them coming together mean that his time as prime minister can confidently be said to be over.
Johnson's reputation is shattered: he is held widely in contempt not just by most voters but also by Tory colleagues. If he does not go of his own accord – he has a potential alibi in two small children and could plausibly claim family commitments – Tory MPs will strike with a vote of no-confidence in the New Year.
Johnson, as I told Middle East Eye readers last week, is finished.
For me both Oborne and Middle Eastern Eye are problematic.
Too willing lazily to repeat anti-semitic claims in their desire to have a go at Israel.
So if someone is deliberately obstructing you going about the necessities of your day, you are not allowing to forcefully move them?
The UK legal system has absolutely no sense sometimes. The protesters were breaking the law. Moving them out the way with a level of force that doesn't injure them is entirely reasonable.
She deliberately drove into her with her SUV, albeit slowly, and pushed her along the road.
Very understandable, but difficult to argue with the prosecution.
I think if she had dragged her off the road by hand, it would not be prosecuted.
”.The North Shropshire result – a Liberal Democrat win in a leave seat – also raised questions about whether Brexit was starting to lose its hold over the electorate. That could be bad news for Johnson, who was able to unite voters in disparate seats in 2019 by promising to “get Brexit done”.
If Brexit is starting to become a less crucial determinant of voting behaviour, he will need to find another potent argument to hold his electoral coalition together – and many MPs are not convinced “levelling up” is it."
Perhaps the worst possibility for the Tories is that Leavers are not motivated by Brexit, but that Remainers are still. Not to reverse it necessarily but at least to punish the perpetrators.
Must be unpleasant people if they are motivated to punish others.
Why would you want to *reward* a group of politicians responsible for a policy that many consider has seriously harmed our economic prosperity and global reputation, not to mention degrading political integrity and public trust.? Asking for a friend.
The lesson from South Africa seems fairly clear to me by now. Which is that Sweden had the right idea in the long run, though with hindsight wrong idea in the short term because vaccines arrived so quickly.
Simply, anyone triple vaxxed should be living as normally as possibly in the next 90 days, while their T-Cell response from the vaccines is as its strongest, in the hope they get a mild impact natural top to immunity. Double dosers over 50 it’s on them if they’re not boosted by now. Double dosers under 50 will still on aggregate be fine. No dosers; well there’s no reason we should indulge you any longer.
We don't know enough about omicron to say what you claim. You may want that to be the case, you may even believe it is the case, but the current evidence is really sparse and contradictory.
I *hope* that omicron turns out to be fluffy kittens; but if it isn't then many people will die.
And they won't all be sick, elderly or unvaxxed.
I've little idea what the policy should be at the moment; and I'm blooming glad I'm not the one making the decisions. But the idea that life should - and could - continue on as normal is rather odd.
My Pfizer booster really knocked me out yesterday. I went to bed at five, slumbered, then slept. I was fully clothed in bed and shivering; two hours later I was boiling. A big headache and really sore arm, with the soreness moving down from the shoulder to the elbow.
By far the worst effect of all three doses. Much better this morning (in total I slept well over twelve hours yesterday).
Mrs J just had a sore arm and headache. Women really are the stronger sex.
Despite this, I'm really glad I've had my booster. Yipppeeee!
My wife is usually by far the stronger of the two of us, to the point where she basically thinks I am a pathetic hypochondriac, but our Pfizer booster really seems to have had a much worse effect on her than me. I had a few hours of mild shivers and a headache, she's completely wiped out today. Hoping it is the booster and she hasn't caught Omicron from our daughter... Incidentally, our carol concert went off well last night, we did it outside the church in the end and raised loads of money for the local refugee resettlement charity.
”.The North Shropshire result – a Liberal Democrat win in a leave seat – also raised questions about whether Brexit was starting to lose its hold over the electorate. That could be bad news for Johnson, who was able to unite voters in disparate seats in 2019 by promising to “get Brexit done”.
If Brexit is starting to become a less crucial determinant of voting behaviour, he will need to find another potent argument to hold his electoral coalition together – and many MPs are not convinced “levelling up” is it."
Perhaps the worst possibility for the Tories is that Leavers are not motivated by Brexit, but that Remainers are still. Not to reverse it necessarily but at least to punish the perpetrators.
Must be unpleasant people if they are motivated to punish others.
Why would you want to *reward* a group of politicians responsible for a policy that many consider has seriously harmed our economic prosperity and global reputation, not to mention degrading political integrity and public trust.? Asking for a friend.
I would want to vote on the best prospectus for the future from where we are. That isn't conservative right now. Based on having tosser #1 as leader. That is on competence not as punishment.
”.The North Shropshire result – a Liberal Democrat win in a leave seat – also raised questions about whether Brexit was starting to lose its hold over the electorate. That could be bad news for Johnson, who was able to unite voters in disparate seats in 2019 by promising to “get Brexit done”.
If Brexit is starting to become a less crucial determinant of voting behaviour, he will need to find another potent argument to hold his electoral coalition together – and many MPs are not convinced “levelling up” is it."
Perhaps the worst possibility for the Tories is that Leavers are not motivated by Brexit, but that Remainers are still. Not to reverse it necessarily but at least to punish the perpetrators.
Must be unpleasant people if they are motivated to punish others.
Unlike all those nice Leavers who, since 2016, have spent the time calling anyone who wanted to Remain "Traitors, Quislings, Unpatriotic, Suck it up, we won, you lost" ?
I was told that if I did not like it here, why not F*** off to your beloved EU?
I too remember the Major advancement, almost out of nowhere, following the cult of Maggie. Something similar may happen here after the cult of Boris.
Last night's HIGNFY was really something. I rarely watch it but, wow, it was brutal on the tories. The hardcore on here may dismiss this as typical BBC etc. but, seriously, listen to me. The tide has really turned. You can feel it in the anger around. When pictures of Boris or Raab appeared there were groans from the audience. But I'm not just basing this on a tv programme. I've got friends who are ardent tories, and previously Boris fans, who have really turned viciously against him. I've been totally taken aback by the strength of feeling. One of them posted this on their facebook account this month. You've probably seen it.
This is why Boris Johnson is in such trouble. 'His' constituents are telling their MPs what they think ... and in North Shropshire they voted accordingly.
So if someone is deliberately obstructing you going about the necessities of your day, you are not allowing to forcefully move them?
The UK legal system has absolutely no sense sometimes. The protesters were breaking the law. Moving them out the way with a level of force that doesn't injure them is entirely reasonable.
She deliberately drove into her with her SUV, albeit slowly, and pushed her along the road.
Very understandable, but difficult to argue with the prosecution.
I think if she had dragged her off the road by hand, it would not be prosecuted.
It's also a charge of Dangerous Driving.
Bit of six and two threes there, IMHO.
And Good Morning to one and all.
That Case had to step down rather does suggest that our PM doesn't know what's going on under his nose.
Why is Dominic Raab as short as 40/1? He is not going to be an MP after the next GE.
Hunt a tasty 16/1 (Vbet)
Raab will probably find a safer seat. Boundary changes offer a reason to move.
He's terrible. Widely disliked. Known to be litigious. After his BBC interview he was seen this week mouthing to Nick Robinson 'You're a f**king w***ker'
Charming man.
Wow there are some sleaze balls in power at the moment.
The lesson from South Africa seems fairly clear to me by now. Which is that Sweden had the right idea in the long run, though with hindsight wrong idea in the short term because vaccines arrived so quickly.
Simply, anyone triple vaxxed should be living as normally as possibly in the next 90 days, while their T-Cell response from the vaccines is as its strongest, in the hope they get a mild impact natural top to immunity. Double dosers over 50 it’s on them if they’re not boosted by now. Double dosers under 50 will still on aggregate be fine. No dosers; well there’s no reason we should indulge you any longer.
Look like I will find out how well the boosted (well this individual example) cope with covid.
Booster around 5th November over 65 age group AZ/AZ/Moderna Positive PCR 16th Dec Slight sore throat, minor headache, a bit sleepy, hot overnight. Now wait and see what happens to me!
Johnson effectively took over the Conservative Party with a UKIP style insurgency and imposed his brand over that of the Party. This was a strength as he was able to pretend his party was new and had nothing to do with the Conservatives who had been ruling the place since forever. It's turning into a weakness as the forever party gets saddled with a despised brand.
”.The North Shropshire result – a Liberal Democrat win in a leave seat – also raised questions about whether Brexit was starting to lose its hold over the electorate. That could be bad news for Johnson, who was able to unite voters in disparate seats in 2019 by promising to “get Brexit done”.
If Brexit is starting to become a less crucial determinant of voting behaviour, he will need to find another potent argument to hold his electoral coalition together – and many MPs are not convinced “levelling up” is it."
Perhaps the worst possibility for the Tories is that Leavers are not motivated by Brexit, but that Remainers are still. Not to reverse it necessarily but at least to punish the perpetrators.
Must be unpleasant people if they are motivated to punish others.
Unlike all those nice Leavers who, since 2016, have spent the time calling anyone who wanted to Remain "Traitors, Quislings, Unpatriotic, Suck it up, we won, you lost" ?
I was told that if I did not like it here, why not F*** off to your beloved EU?
Equally compemptible motivation. It isn't hard to be civil to each other.
Why is Dominic Raab as short as 40/1? He is not going to be an MP after the next GE.
Hunt a tasty 16/1 (Vbet)
Raab will probably find a safer seat. Boundary changes offer a reason to move.
And be returned to Parliament by three or four tory officials sitting in a room.
Why would anyone want him as an MP? He is best known for being unaware that Dover is a major cargo port and that France was less than 30 miles away and for going on holiday when he was Foreign Sec. and Afghanistan was falling apart.
I too remember the Major advancement, almost out of nowhere, following the cult of Maggie. Something similar may happen here after the cult of Boris.
Last night's HIGNFY was really something. I rarely watch it but, wow, it was brutal on the tories. The hardcore on here may dismiss this as typical BBC etc. but, seriously, listen to me. The tide has really turned. You can feel it in the anger around. When pictures of Boris or Raab appeared there were groans from the audience. But I'm not just basing this on a tv programme. I've got friends who are ardent tories, and previously Boris fans, who have really turned viciously against him. I've been totally taken aback by the strength of feeling. One of them posted this on their facebook account this month. You've probably seen it.
This is why Boris Johnson is in such trouble. 'His' constituents are telling their MPs what they think ... and in North Shropshire they voted accordingly.
It's not just there either. Sarky remarks are all over the place. 'Barnard Castle' has reappeared as an issue, too!
Comments
Even for me I was genuinely surprised by that stat. It really has hit quick and hard.
The Tories will have to hope it is only the "mild" variant
I rather suspect you and FrancisU enjoy lockdowns or at least getting off on the thrill of babbling about them.
This would be Boris' Poll Tax or May Deal mark my words, the Tory base and membership would erupt as would Tory backbenchers. He could be removed by mid February if he tried another lockdown
They haven’t even TRIED to atttack the anti-vaxxers first. Why?? Scared of being ‘racist’? What is their problem? Civil liberties??? Give me a break. We are all going back into prison. Into the wintry lockdown gulag. Where is MY liberty?
Folk were desperate to give him the benefit of the doubt for ages.
Now he can't win.
No sympathy whatsoever.
Would actually be a better result on voteshare than 2005
It doesn't make any sense to mess around with restrictions. If they're right and its so contagious there's nothing we can do and its too late anyway. If they're wrong, then its not necessary.
Like in Game Theory sometimes, whatever way you logically look at it, whatever path we take, the same outcome is the only one. In this case: do nothing.
If they do a lockdown then the only logic I can see with that, is a purely selfish one of the country's so-called "leaders" wanting to say they did something when there's the inevitable inquiry. Even if that something is futile, stupid and counterproductive.
A true leader would stand up now and say there's never again going to be restrictions, we're all going to get the virus, so if you haven't yet then get the jab as the virus is coming and we are not able or going to halt it. So get the jab first if you can.
First question: What do you expect to achieve with this? Show your working. A reduction in Rt of 0.1 and the deaths of a few anti-vaxxers punted 4 months down the road? Sorry, what?
And I say this as someone who won't actually miss out on very much due to a lockdown, other than having to pay for it in the future.
Why is "Do something - anything" always the default option?
I can't say I've ever been tempted into Center Parcs. The one in Nottinghamshire ("Sherwood") looks rather too much like Stalag Luft 3 from the outside - I believe it might even have been a PoW camp once? That might just be to keep plebs like me out, of course.
Give me a tent and whatever the weather can throw at it any day. Still, I'd rather they weren't forced to close.
"In recent weeks, the percentage of 2019 Conservative voters who say they will not vote at the next election, who do not know who they will vote for or who refuse to say either way has more than doubled, surging from 18 to 38%."
https://unherd.com/2021/12/how-boris-can-still-win/
Foreigners aren't allowed in but returning Japanese people test negative at the airport but then they're supposed to quarantine at home. So they go home in their dedicated private vehicles, family and visiting friends get infected and go off to work and soccer games and so forth, and there you have it.
Then the border closure doesn't apply to US forces, so there's a huge cluster on a US military base in Okinawa, which also infected Japanese people working at the base, etc etc.
I guess the rationale is that it enables us to reach a much higher percentage of third doses. Still...
Do we have to downgrade their handling from gold standard to silver?
This is closure - and unless there is support - now not in a few weeks time - it will mean closure for good for many venues, Daughter's included.
That is why state mandated closure must be accompanied by financial support.
It won't be and so this government will destroy a significant part of another sector, to add to all the others it has harmed by its stupidity, ignorance and malice.
Yes pubs like your daughters will be breaking the law by staying open. If all of them stand together and just say no though ie civil disobedience then at that point nothing can be done. If the government say no license just continue to open anyway.
Time to tell the government we are in charge not them.
Posters upthread are right about lockdowns - once they start they are nigh impossible to reverse. Even if this is a milder version, we'll be in this for months now, not weeks, and the low hanging fruit in hospitality, gyms etc will be hardest hit as people continue to mix in homes.
I'm going to enjoy Christmas lunch with friends today, spend a huge amount of cash at a rural restaurant tomorrow, and then concentrate on keeping my mental health intact.
Lab 38 (-1)
Con 34 (+1)
LD 10 (+1)
SNP 5 (nc)
Grn 4 (nc)
Oth 9 (nc)
2,139 adults, 16 Dec (Changes from 9-10 Dec)
Note fieldwork dates: pre by election
“… likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, is favourite among Tory voters to win the leadership contest that will take place when Johnson goes. She is out of her depth, and I expect her to be found out. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the Exchequer, is inexperienced and yet to acquire a robust public voice.
The right-wing newspapers – which without exception support Boris Johnson to be prime minister in 2019– will present the succession as a contest between Truss and Sunak. Yet both are deeply implicated in the moral squalor and falsehoods of Johnson’s shortly-to-be defunct administration.
Jeremy Hunt, a former foreign secretary who came second to Johnson in the 2019 Tory leadership election, is not contaminated in the same way. He is a traditional Tory statesman who would offer a fresh start and return to decency and common sense. But that may count against Hunt, given the state of the British Conservative Party as it is today.
Meanwhile Johnson's reputation is shattered: he is held widely in contempt not just by most voters but also by Tory colleagues. If he does not go of his own accord – he has a potential alibi in two small children and could plausibly claim family commitments – Tory MPs will strike with a vote of no-confidence in the New Year.”
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-boris-johnson-north-shropshire-calamity-get-worse-why
Gove lengthening, now 12/1
Why is Dominic Raab as short as 40/1? He is not going to be an MP after the next GE.
Hunt a tasty 16/1 (Vbet)
There's an awful lot of people wanting the world to be a certain way, and projecting that view onto every bit of data they see: ignoring difficult evidence and promoting the good.
In reality we've drunk the tea, and are examining the tealeaves left at the bottom of the cup. At best.
We just don't know. There are indications, yes: hints that things might be one way rather than another. But we do not know. Given that, the government really are in a damnable situation: do nothing, and risk the NHS collapsing, or do something, only for omicron to turn out to be Leon's fluffy kittens.
Yet again, I'm glad I'm not the one making the decisions...
So if someone is deliberately obstructing you going about the necessities of your day, you are not allowing to forcefully move them?
The UK legal system has absolutely no sense sometimes. The protesters were breaking the law. Moving them out the way with a level of force that doesn't injure them is entirely reasonable.
Underlining the need for Johnson to overhaul his approach, they said: “The old Boris brand, the old Boris shtick, doesn’t work any more.”
Another Conservative former cabinet minister said MPs were already discussing among themselves how to get the prime minister to change his top team, and in particular, expressing reservations about his chief of staff, Dan Rosenfield. He said MPs would be delivering a message to Johnson that he needed to shake up his operation and consult more with MPs, with the scale of discontent obvious after 100 rebelled against his plan B Covid measures this week.
But one minister said that Johnson was unlikely to be able to change his approach. “He’s probably not going to come to terms with the fundamental questions he’s got to ask himself – he never has and I doubt he will. At some point people won’t forgive him any more … He’s on notice, from me.”
Even picking a fight with Brussels etc is unlikely to rally the faithful..... should be an interesting 6 months ahead. A couple of possible byelections (Wakefield if the MP is convicted/found guilty) may hasten things further...
They say good times create weak men. Clearly Britain has had good times for a long time.
Rather than Paterson, the issue that came up more regularly early on on the doorstep was Johnson’s rambling CBI speech to business leaders in which he waxed lyrical about Peppa Pig World. “They kept saying he just wasn’t a serious person,” says one Lib Dem working on the seat. To those in CCHQ, the focus on Peppa Pig didn’t come as a huge surprise – it chimed with their own intel. As the campaign progressed, the conversation turned to “partygate”. “We were shoring up the vote and then the party video came out. We were done,” says one Tory staffer.
After a tricky few weeks for Johnson, it is impossible to separate the prime minister from the result. Tory MPs believe he was a key factor on the doorstep. Already Tory MPs from across the party are openly discussing whether he can really lead them into the next election. As the prime minister takes a break over Christmas, he will need to use that time to work out how to regain the support of his party. Otherwise, 2022 will be his most turbulent year yet
In 2019, voters were ready to overlook any misgivings they might have had about the Tories – including, in those “red wall” seats, the fact that they were Tories – for the prospect of getting Brexit done. Now, even in the Conservative heartland and even among hardcore leavers, departure from the EU is not enough to wash away the sins of booze, nibbles and party games, or Paterson’s fat Randox contracts.
A second ingredient was Johnson himself, the famed Heineken politician…in North Shropshire he became the man who repelled the parts every other Tory leader used to reach. That’s a reverse Heineken. Once cherished for defying the Tory stereotype of stuffy formality, Johnson now incarnates a much more poisonous set of tropes: that Tories believe it’s one rule for them, one rule for everyone else; that they look out for themselves and their mates; that they’re pampered and spoilt, laughing at those who are less lucky.
The BBC has seen leaked minutes of a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies held on Thursday.
It comes as the UK's four nations are to hold a Cobra meeting this weekend.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59707252
By far the worst effect of all three doses. Much better this morning (in total I slept well over twelve hours yesterday).
Mrs J just had a sore arm and headache. Women really are the stronger sex.
Despite this, I'm really glad I've had my booster. Yipppeeee!
There is a lot of doubt about that. If we had people dying at the levels we did at periods this year, people would have been voluntarily locking down anyway.
For some odd reason people don't want to get ill and die.
No successor wants the blame for Omigod Covid or booming inflation, soaring mortgages, painful tax hikes and gaping holes in household budgets. They especially don’t want to carry the can for the inevitable meltdown in next May’s local elections. So Boris has five or six months….
Sympathy for Boris is hard to find — even among his few remaining staunch supporters. “People know what they are doing when they vote in by-elections,” says one who knows him well. “They are sending a very direct message to the Government and its leader. This is about loss of trust. Once you have lost trust it is a hell of a job to get it back.”
The issue was raised this week at a hastily-convened meeting of the backbench 1922 Committee, where Mr Johnson tried and failed to persuade mutinous MPs to back him over Covid.
One witness said: 'The PM said we 'shouldn't believe all that media guff' – he just dismissed it. People had their heads in their hands at the level of denial.'
Suddenly political gravity has started to reassert itself. In fact, some MPs fear Mr Johnson is in danger of becoming a political black hole which sucks the party down with him. He has time to turn the anti-gravity machine back on if he can remember how. But perhaps not as much time as he thinks.
Revellers in Leeds, London and Birmingham pictured enjoying Christmas blowout amid Omicron fears
Hospitality bosses had warned ministers alarmist rhetoric on new mutant strain had hit consumer confidence
But pictures taken on Friday night showed the party spirit was alive and well across Britain's largest cities
Leaked SAGE minutes urge restrictions as two-week circuit breaker lockdown was mooted by ministers
CBI and other groups asked Rishi Sunak for emergency grants, VAT drop and 100% business relief for retail"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10323143/Covid-Covid-Little-sign-Omicron-fears-Brits-enjoy-night-Christmas.html
Perhaps by the time there is another Tory PM, the current crop's careers will be over...
Now everyone who wants jabbed has been jabbed and the boosters are going at a hell of a rate. That makes it all very different
In political terms, Johnson has joined the living dead.
Any one of these three issues [Geidt, parties, wallpaper] would plunge any prime minister into crisis. All three of them coming together mean that his time as prime minister can confidently be said to be over.
Johnson's reputation is shattered: he is held widely in contempt not just by most voters but also by Tory colleagues. If he does not go of his own accord – he has a potential alibi in two small children and could plausibly claim family commitments – Tory MPs will strike with a vote of no-confidence in the New Year.
Johnson, as I told Middle East Eye readers last week, is finished.
The fact that there's a decent fraction of the population that just wants to get on with life and is prepared to risk catching Covid does not make up for the cautious or downright frightened masses all sat at home - people who are afraid of the virus, or of having to isolate over the holiday, or all those cancelled corporate bookings where firms are doubtless having visions of mass staff absences.
Therefore, we are going to be stuck in this doom loop until the virus evolves to be sufficiently transmissible that not even a March 2020-type lockdown will make much difference to its spread - i.e. no matter how much Government tries to stop "non-essential" contact between people, the interactions we still have at work, in health and care settings, within household bubbles and going to the supermarket will still be enough to drive cases upwards.
Restrictions will continue until it becomes obvious to everybody that they don't work, because it is politically impossible to abandon the hospitals to burn.
If Brexit is starting to become a less crucial determinant of voting behaviour, he will need to find another potent argument to hold his electoral coalition together – and many MPs are not convinced “levelling up” is it."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/17/hes-in-real-trouble-now-tory-mps-are-viewing-boris-johnson-as-the-problem
Perhaps the worst possibility for the Tories is that Leavers are not motivated by Brexit, but that Remainers are still. Not to reverse it necessarily but at least to punish the perpetrators.
I voted Conservative in 2010, and supported the coalition government. I won't vote Conservative again in the foreseeable future.
Very understandable, but difficult to argue with the prosecution.
I think if she had dragged her off the road by hand, it would not be prosecuted.
https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1471954637221683202?s=20
The lesson from South Africa seems fairly clear to me by now. Which is that Sweden had the right idea in the long run, though with hindsight wrong idea in the short term because vaccines arrived so quickly.
Simply, anyone triple vaxxed should be living as normally as possibly in the next 90 days, while their T-Cell response from the vaccines is as its strongest, in the hope they get a mild impact natural top to immunity. Double dosers over 50 it’s on them if they’re not boosted by now. Double dosers under 50 will still on aggregate be fine. No dosers; well there’s no reason we should indulge you any longer.
Too willing lazily to repeat anti-semitic claims in their desire to have a go at Israel.
I *hope* that omicron turns out to be fluffy kittens; but if it isn't then many people will die.
And they won't all be sick, elderly or unvaxxed.
I've little idea what the policy should be at the moment; and I'm blooming glad I'm not the one making the decisions. But the idea that life should - and could - continue on as normal is rather odd.
Incidentally, our carol concert went off well last night, we did it outside the church in the end and raised loads of money for the local refugee resettlement charity.
That isn't conservative right now. Based on having tosser #1 as leader.
That is on competence not as punishment.
I was told that if I did not like it here, why not F*** off to your beloved EU?
I too remember the Major advancement, almost out of nowhere, following the cult of Maggie. Something similar may happen here after the cult of Boris.
Last night's HIGNFY was really something. I rarely watch it but, wow, it was brutal on the tories. The hardcore on here may dismiss this as typical BBC etc. but, seriously, listen to me. The tide has really turned. You can feel it in the anger around. When pictures of Boris or Raab appeared there were groans from the audience. But I'm not just basing this on a tv programme. I've got friends who are ardent tories, and previously Boris fans, who have really turned viciously against him. I've been totally taken aback by the strength of feeling. One of them posted this on their facebook account this month. You've probably seen it.
https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2021/07/19/brian-bilston-boris-johnson-takedown-rudyard-kiplings-if/
This is why Boris Johnson is in such trouble. 'His' constituents are telling their MPs what they think ... and in North Shropshire they voted accordingly.
And Good Morning to one and all.
That Case had to step down rather does suggest that our PM doesn't know what's going on under his nose.
Charming man.
Wow there are some sleaze balls in power at the moment.
Booster around 5th November over 65 age group AZ/AZ/Moderna
Positive PCR 16th Dec
Slight sore throat, minor headache, a bit sleepy, hot overnight.
Now wait and see what happens to me!
It isn't hard to be civil to each other.