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.
Politicians and business leaders never get the luxury of KNOWING with certainty that their decisions are the right ones. They have to operate on the beta available evidence.
The best available evidence indicates that people with non-naive immune systems aren’t going to be causing much concern to wards on aggregate, and that there are plausible reasons to think even naive immune systems will on aggregate fare better than 2020 and 2021. Namely data from SA, improved treatments and the age profile in the Uk of those people.
Further the best available evidence on the infectiousness of this strain and its prevalence by now, means lockdowns are unlikely going to achieve much of anything at all but carry massive cost, not least long term erosion to the relationship between the governed and the governing class.
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.
Mine seems to have been benign: a sore arm overnight. However I am still suffering from a bit of post-COVID fatigue, and although it is improved this week, the rate of improvement has slowed. But it's hard to disentangle that from the possible effects of the booster and a couple of late nights.
”.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.
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.
This is very true.
As the lustre comes off the magician's showmanship we are left with the fact that the Conservatives have been in power for nearly 12 years and it will be 14 by the likely next General Election. Boris rejuvenated the brand for Brexit but that's now a fading (and arguably itself tarnished) reality. He has been dealt a rough hand with covid, which apart from the initial vaccine rollout has been handled pretty slopily. He's chaotic and so therefore is his Government.
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.
Mine seems to have been benign: a sore arm overnight. However I am still suffering from a bit of post-COVID fatigue, and although it is improved this week, the rate of improvement has slowed. But it's hard to disentangle that from the possible effects of the booster and a couple of late nights.
It probably took me about three weeks to feel 100% again after getting Covid. If you got the booster yesterday you may still be due some ill-effects, I didn't get any until over 24 hours had passed.
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!
Exactly my symptoms. I'm wondering if I had an early dose of Omicron, but it was probably too early (12 Nov). Of course both are circulating so yours could be Delta.
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to deal with it.
If you crumble in the face of a crisis then you're not providing any leadership.
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.
Politicians and business leaders never get the luxury of KNOWING with certainty that their decisions are the right ones. They have to operate on the beta available evidence.
The best available evidence indicates that people with non-naive immune systems aren’t going to be causing much concern to wards on aggregate, and that there are plausible reasons to think even naive immune systems will on aggregate fare better than 2020 and 2021. Namely data from SA, improved treatments and the age profile in the Uk of those people.
Further the best available evidence on the infectiousness of this strain and its prevalence by now, means lockdowns are unlikely going to achieve much of anything at all but carry massive cost, not least long term erosion to the relationship between the governed and the governing class.
That's the problem: we don't have 'best available evidence' at the moment. we've got a lot of contradictory evidence: and what is 'best' seems to fit the view of what it is you want. Omicron is just to new to have much certainty.
I am hopeful (I am generally optimistic by nature), but I don't necessarily want to gamble on hope.
I don't want a lockdown: but I sure as heck want them left in our armoury of weapons that can be called on to help us fight the virus. Then there is the issue of people voting with their feet anyway.
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.
That is exactly my plan. In fact I have a pub crawl around plaguey Kingston today. I am hoping my colleagues refuse to work with someone who has been to London recently so I get to work from home next week. Have enough books and videos in the house to keep me amused if I am taken out of action.
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.
In my opinion the current version of the Conservative Party is not the party I remember from years gone by. The former version had generally sensible policies and politicians who had some degree of understanding. I even voted for them a couple of times.
The current version are, IMO, a shower of corrupt, self-serving, arrogant fools.
For the sake of our national politics, this shower needs flushing out of the political system and the Conservative party restored to something more like the 1990s version.
Both of our main parties need to have decent politicians. Labour have ditched their fool and his coterie of fanatics, the Tories need to do the same.
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
I really don't think so. The Brexit effect was always going to subside over time, and Johnson's flaws and lack of management/leadership skills were always going to bite. C19 has probably accelerated matters, though.
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.
Politicians and business leaders never get the luxury of KNOWING with certainty that their decisions are the right ones. They have to operate on the beta available evidence.
The best available evidence indicates that people with non-naive immune systems aren’t going to be causing much concern to wards on aggregate, and that there are plausible reasons to think even naive immune systems will on aggregate fare better than 2020 and 2021. Namely data from SA, improved treatments and the age profile in the Uk of those people.
Further the best available evidence on the infectiousness of this strain and its prevalence by now, means lockdowns are unlikely going to achieve much of anything at all but carry massive cost, not least long term erosion to the relationship between the governed and the governing class.
That's the problem: we don't have 'best available evidence' at the moment. we've got a lot of contradictory evidence: and what is 'best' seems to fit the view of what it is you want. Omicron is just to new to have much certainty.
I am hopeful (I am generally optimistic by nature), but I don't necessarily want to gamble on hope.
I don't want a lockdown: but I sure as heck want them left in our armoury of weapons that can be called on to help us fight the virus. Then there is the issue of people voting with their feet anyway.
Your brain has been addled by the last two years. Even SAGE are talking of hospitalisations peaking at 3k a day. With the severity and average stay of those cases highly likely to be lower than before based upon the real world data from SA and lab serology, it shall be ok. Seat of your pants perhaps but only because in 2 years and with a trillion pounds of new debt on my children’s heads, they haven’t managed to increase supply of care for serious infectious disease.
Further, you don’t give any counter to what you hope a lockdown will achieve. With the rate of transmission within households so high, and the UK not geared up for food drops by the army, it ain’t gonna achieve shit.
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.
About time the old Bullingdon photos got another airing. Maybe the Red Wallers will be less impressed this time
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.
That is exactly my plan. In fact I have a pub crawl around plaguey Kingston today. I am hoping my colleagues refuse to work with someone who has been to London recently so I get to work from home next week. Have enough books and videos in the house to keep me amused if I am taken out of action.
And if you've unknowingly got Covid, what about the people you risk infecting?
(One of the interesting questions about Omicron is the time lags between infection - infectiousness - symptoms. There are glimmers that it is perhaps 'better', in the fact you have less time between infectiousness and symptoms)
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
Agree with both halves of that. I see JJ's point that eventually Boris' chaotic approach would have surfaced and caused ructions but he might have got away with it for one term.
Blair would almost certainly have been excellent. Didn't like him particularly but he'd have handled this very well and provided the right kind of assurance to the nation.
I personally think Margaret Thatcher would have been outstanding. She was brilliant on detail and she would have commanded the nation! She was also a scientist and wouldn't have let anyone push her around. A clear, decisive, plan for the country throughout. Yes, it probably would have seen more people die because she was essentially a believer in private enterprise and capitalism over the social state, but she still would have been bloody brilliant.
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!
Major is a reminder that getting many things right does not necessarily do it.
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.
Mine seems to have been benign: a sore arm overnight. However I am still suffering from a bit of post-COVID fatigue, and although it is improved this week, the rate of improvement has slowed. But it's hard to disentangle that from the possible effects of the booster and a couple of late nights.
It probably took me about three weeks to feel 100% again after getting Covid. If you got the booster yesterday you may still be due some ill-effects, I didn't get any until over 24 hours had passed.
My booster was last Sunday so it will be over by now, but it may have added to last week's tiredness. I could probably have shortened the post-COVID fatigue by not insisting on running 3 times a week, but it's an important part of feeling normal for me and also of my social life. I'm bloody slow but it is keeping my fitness ticking over rather than continue to plummet.
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.
That is exactly my plan. In fact I have a pub crawl around plaguey Kingston today. I am hoping my colleagues refuse to work with someone who has been to London recently so I get to work from home next week. Have enough books and videos in the house to keep me amused if I am taken out of action.
And if you've unknowingly got Covid, what about the people you risk infecting?
(One of the interesting questions about Omicron is the time lags between infection - infectiousness - symptoms. There are glimmers that it is perhaps 'better', in the fact you have less time between infectiousness and symptoms)
The only way of avoiding infection with omicron in the Uk is to die of something else in the next month or two.
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!
Major is a reminder that getting many things right does not necessarily do it.
The economy went very well, but he still lost.
Indeed. I keep thinking about this point. Despite the Black Wednesday fiasco, the Conservatives handed Tony Blair a phenomenal economic legacy by 1997. In fact, much as I am pro-EU it was our exit from the ERM that propelled this country into economic boom.
That's also why I think the tories are in SUCH trouble this time around. No Sir Keir is no Tony Blair, but the country is in a deeply parlous position not just because of the pandemic but fiscally and economically. The tories have contrived to foster a high tax, high spend, debt-ridden, inflationary economy.
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.
Agree with that.
The IB goon blocking the road breaching an Injunction was not charged.
”.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
I wish that were true. I'm pretty certain though that the motivation of the majority was darker than that.
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!
Indeed. Both Peppa Pig and 'Christmas Parties' have become conversational memes.
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
A leader just for happy times, able to gad about opening things and waving at people?
That's not really real world politics, is it? A shame he wasn't born a king, as he originally wanted.
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.
Mine seems to have been benign: a sore arm overnight. However I am still suffering from a bit of post-COVID fatigue, and although it is improved this week, the rate of improvement has slowed. But it's hard to disentangle that from the possible effects of the booster and a couple of late nights.
It probably took me about three weeks to feel 100% again after getting Covid. If you got the booster yesterday you may still be due some ill-effects, I didn't get any until over 24 hours had passed.
My booster was last Sunday so it will be over by now, but it may have added to last week's tiredness. I could probably have shortened the post-COVID fatigue by not insisting on running 3 times a week, but it's an important part of feeling normal for me and also of my social life. I'm bloody slow but it is keeping my fitness ticking over rather than continue to plummet.
That's very dedicated of you. My main exercise is cycling to work, but I've stopped that since getting Covid. Hopefully I'll get back into it after new year, assuming I'm not still WFH then.
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.
Politicians and business leaders never get the luxury of KNOWING with certainty that their decisions are the right ones. They have to operate on the beta available evidence.
The best available evidence indicates that people with non-naive immune systems aren’t going to be causing much concern to wards on aggregate, and that there are plausible reasons to think even naive immune systems will on aggregate fare better than 2020 and 2021. Namely data from SA, improved treatments and the age profile in the Uk of those people.
Further the best available evidence on the infectiousness of this strain and its prevalence by now, means lockdowns are unlikely going to achieve much of anything at all but carry massive cost, not least long term erosion to the relationship between the governed and the governing class.
That's the problem: we don't have 'best available evidence' at the moment. we've got a lot of contradictory evidence: and what is 'best' seems to fit the view of what it is you want. Omicron is just to new to have much certainty.
I am hopeful (I am generally optimistic by nature), but I don't necessarily want to gamble on hope.
I don't want a lockdown: but I sure as heck want them left in our armoury of weapons that can be called on to help us fight the virus. Then there is the issue of people voting with their feet anyway.
Your brain has been addled by the last two years. Even SAGE are talking of hospitalisations peaking at 3k a day. With the severity and average stay of those cases highly likely to be lower than before based upon the real world data from SA and lab serology, it shall be ok. Seat of your pants perhaps but only because in 2 years and with a trillion pounds of new debt on my children’s heads, they haven’t managed to increase supply of care for serious infectious disease.
Further, you don’t give any counter to what you hope a lockdown will achieve. With the rate of transmission within households so high, and the UK not geared up for food drops by the army, it ain’t gonna achieve shit.
"Your brain has been addled by the last two years."
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
I really don't think so. The Brexit effect was always going to subside over time, and Johnson's flaws and lack of management/leadership skills were always going to bite. C19 has probably accelerated matters, though.
I and others have been saying that since the Tories chose him, but there was always quite a queue to disagree.
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.
That is exactly my plan. In fact I have a pub crawl around plaguey Kingston today. I am hoping my colleagues refuse to work with someone who has been to London recently so I get to work from home next week. Have enough books and videos in the house to keep me amused if I am taken out of action.
And if you've unknowingly got Covid, what about the people you risk infecting?
(One of the interesting questions about Omicron is the time lags between infection - infectiousness - symptoms. There are glimmers that it is perhaps 'better', in the fact you have less time between infectiousness and symptoms)
The only way of avoiding infection with omicron in the Uk is to die of something else in the next month or two.
Perhaps. but we have the potential delay that, to get more people vaccinated and boosted. People are voting with their feet anyway...
(Again, I stress I'm not in favour of a lockdown at the moment. But I want the option to remain in our armoury.)
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.”
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
I really don't think so. The Brexit effect was always going to subside over time, and Johnson's flaws and lack of management/leadership skills were always going to bite. C19 has probably accelerated matters, though.
I and others have been saying that since the Tories chose him, but there was always quite a queue to disagree.
I've been saying it all along as well - and using the Garden Bridge as an exemplar.
However, many of his shrillest opponents utterly missed what made him popular - and IMV were attacking in the wrong ways.
Even now, the attacks are not fully on him, but on the party and government that he 'leads'. That's where he's weakest, and no amount of his personal clowning can help that.
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.
This is very true.
As the lustre comes off the magician's showmanship we are left with the fact that the Conservatives have been in power for nearly 12 years and it will be 14 by the likely next General Election. Boris rejuvenated the brand for Brexit but that's now a fading (and arguably itself tarnished) reality. He has been dealt a rough hand with covid, which apart from the initial vaccine rollout has been handled pretty slopily. He's chaotic and so therefore is his Government.
I think there's a mood that the party's over.
I suppose the trick is for the Conservatives to pretend they have nothing to do with Johnson and are a new party, just as Johnson pretended he was a new party and had nothing to do with the Conservatives.
Then they can carry on regardless as the natural party of power.
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.
- “… some MPs fear Mr Johnson is in danger of becoming a political black hole which sucks the party down with him.”
That exactly what is happening.
Time is the one thing the Tories don’t have. Soon it’ll be too late.
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
Agree with both halves of that. I see JJ's point that eventually Boris' chaotic approach would have surfaced and caused ructions but he might have got away with it for one term.
Blair would almost certainly have been excellent. Didn't like him particularly but he'd have handled this very well and provided the right kind of assurance to the nation.
I personally think Margaret Thatcher would have been outstanding. She was brilliant on detail and she would have commanded the nation! She was also a scientist and wouldn't have let anyone push her around. A clear, decisive, plan for the country throughout. Yes, it probably would have seen more people die because she was essentially a believer in private enterprise and capitalism over the social state, but she still would have been bloody brilliant.
Thatcher would have divided the nation, but probably taken the majority with her; Boris appears to have united the country against him.
Matthew Parris in The Times today makes the point that swallowing UKIP was electorally successful for a while, but ultimately poisoned the Conservative Party to the point where the word conservative no longer applies
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 whole point of the vaccinations and boosters was to ensure case rises did not lead to more hospitalisations at anything like the same rate. If most adults in the UK have had their boosters by January there is no excuse whatsoever for another lockdown with all its damaging impact on businesses and the public finances
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!
Major is a reminder that getting many things right does not necessarily do it.
The economy went very well, but he still lost.
That's also why I think the tories are in SUCH trouble this time around. No Sir Keir is no Tony Blair, but the country is in a deeply parlous position not just because of the pandemic but fiscally and economically. The tories have contrived to foster a high tax, high spend, debt-ridden, inflationary economy.
And we will perform rather better than the Eurozone on unemployment etc.
But that may not help either. That is the optics bit. And critics of both Brexit and the Tories are well embedded in media. I'm not sure the current Govt, however changed, can put together an operation to counter that.
For me there would need to be something like the Proportional Property Tax, which is worth several hundred a year to most red wallers, removes Stamp Duty for everyone in the SE, and only hurts a small % at the very top.
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.
Mine seems to have been benign: a sore arm overnight. However I am still suffering from a bit of post-COVID fatigue, and although it is improved this week, the rate of improvement has slowed. But it's hard to disentangle that from the possible effects of the booster and a couple of late nights.
It probably took me about three weeks to feel 100% again after getting Covid. If you got the booster yesterday you may still be due some ill-effects, I didn't get any until over 24 hours had passed.
My booster was last Sunday so it will be over by now, but it may have added to last week's tiredness. I could probably have shortened the post-COVID fatigue by not insisting on running 3 times a week, but it's an important part of feeling normal for me and also of my social life. I'm bloody slow but it is keeping my fitness ticking over rather than continue to plummet.
That's very dedicated of you. My main exercise is cycling to work, but I've stopped that since getting Covid. Hopefully I'll get back into it after new year, assuming I'm not still WFH then.
You could still maintain the routine of cycling to work, just using a circular route?
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
Yes, she is a weak candidate, but in my opinion she would grow in the job. The sad thing is that she’s the best the Tories have left. They’ve scared off most of the sane, diligent, competent ones.
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.
- “… some MPs fear Mr Johnson is in danger of becoming a political black hole which sucks the party down with him.”
That exactly what is happening.
Time is the one thing the Tories don’t have. Soon it’ll be too late.
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
I can't believe they are going to go for Sunak.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
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.
This is very true.
As the lustre comes off the magician's showmanship we are left with the fact that the Conservatives have been in power for nearly 12 years and it will be 14 by the likely next General Election. Boris rejuvenated the brand for Brexit but that's now a fading (and arguably itself tarnished) reality. He has been dealt a rough hand with covid, which apart from the initial vaccine rollout has been handled pretty slopily. He's chaotic and so therefore is his Government.
I think there's a mood that the party's over.
I suppose the trick is for the Conservatives to pretend they have nothing to do with Johnson and are a new party, just as Johnson pretended he was a new party and had nothing to do with the Conservatives.
Then they can carry on regardless as the natural party of power.
Which would suggest Sunak, not Truss.
I think Truss is far from stupid, but she is unserious in the way Johnson is unserious.
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!
Major is a reminder that getting many things right does not necessarily do it.
The economy went very well, but he still lost.
Indeed. I keep thinking about this point. Despite the Black Wednesday fiasco, the Conservatives handed Tony Blair a phenomenal economic legacy by 1997. In fact, much as I am pro-EU it was our exit from the ERM that propelled this country into economic boom.
That's also why I think the tories are in SUCH trouble this time around. No Sir Keir is no Tony Blair, but the country is in a deeply parlous position not just because of the pandemic but fiscally and economically. The tories have contrived to foster a high tax, high spend, debt-ridden, inflationary economy.
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.
This is very true.
As the lustre comes off the magician's showmanship we are left with the fact that the Conservatives have been in power for nearly 12 years and it will be 14 by the likely next General Election. Boris rejuvenated the brand for Brexit but that's now a fading (and arguably itself tarnished) reality. He has been dealt a rough hand with covid, which apart from the initial vaccine rollout has been handled pretty slopily. He's chaotic and so therefore is his Government.
I think there's a mood that the party's over.
I suppose the trick is for the Conservatives to pretend they have nothing to do with Johnson and are a new party, just as Johnson pretended he was a new party and had nothing to do with the Conservatives.
Then they can carry on regardless as the natural party of power.
Risk there is if they have *all* been at 'parties'.
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...
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
Agree with both halves of that. I see JJ's point that eventually Boris' chaotic approach would have surfaced and caused ructions but he might have got away with it for one term.
Blair would almost certainly have been excellent. Didn't like him particularly but he'd have handled this very well and provided the right kind of assurance to the nation.
I personally think Margaret Thatcher would have been outstanding. She was brilliant on detail and she would have commanded the nation! She was also a scientist and wouldn't have let anyone push her around. A clear, decisive, plan for the country throughout. Yes, it probably would have seen more people die because she was essentially a believer in private enterprise and capitalism over the social state, but she still would have been bloody brilliant.
Thatcher would have divided the nation, but probably taken the majority with her; Boris appears to have united the country against him.
Yes, the only public service the PM is doing now is serving as a bad example.
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
Hunt is certainly the dark horse. If the party is in the mood for someone with clean hands to clean out the stables after Johnson's party, then he looks the one to back.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
Especially when they find out he was in California selling off the NHS...
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
I can't believe they are going to go for Sunak.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
They don't actually need Hartlepool to win, though, if they recover the position in the Home Counties. Just a shame about Brexit.
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
I can't believe they are going to go for Sunak.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
Oh come on. They will be broadening the spectrum from old Etonians to include old Wykhamists. What more do the plebs want?
PMQs on Wednesday might have been the last straw for some Conservative backbenchers, when Boris denied that Plan B got through on Labour votes. It was like President Trump boasting about the crowds at his inauguration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sah4SBuo-dE
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.”
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...
Apparently not according to researchers.
That would be Srurgeon lickspittles then.
Why would they say that? COP26 was a Delhi Durbar, nowt to do with the natives.
GLENN: Malcolm, there's a problem TUCKER: With the investigation? GLENN: Yes TUCKER: What? GLENN: There's more than one Xmas Party TUCKER: You're not actually INVESTIGATING are you?! GLENN: You told me to! TUCKER: I've also told you to stop being a twat. That's never stopped you
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
I can't believe they are going to go for Sunak.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
Sunak has by far the highest net favourables of any potential Tory leadership contender and crucially is also the only Tory leadership contender with a higher net favourable rating than Starmer
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
Hunt is certainly the dark horse. If the party is in the mood for someone with clean hands to clean out the stables after Johnson's party, then he looks the one to back.
Yes, Hunt is the only big name untainted by the Johnson administration. Also he has a history of support in the Parliamentary party, making the final 2 just 2 1/2 years ago.
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
Just a case of how low they go, Truss is scraping the barrel big time. Thick as mince and a lying useless toerag to boot.
The more I see of her the more that seems to be correct. Plus I think May has queered the pitch for women-who-aren't-Maggie for the next couple of leaders.
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
I really don't think so. The Brexit effect was always going to subside over time, and Johnson's flaws and lack of management/leadership skills were always going to bite. C19 has probably accelerated matters, though.
I and others have been saying that since the Tories chose him, but there was always quite a queue to disagree.
I've been saying it all along as well - and using the Garden Bridge as an exemplar.
However, many of his shrillest opponents utterly missed what made him popular - and IMV were attacking in the wrong ways.
Even now, the attacks are not fully on him, but on the party and government that he 'leads'. That's where he's weakest, and no amount of his personal clowning can help that.
We were having this discussion previously. The point I was making was that Johnson's dishonesty and incompetence were in plain sight. The reason why parts of the public continued to support him was because his dishonesty and incompetence weren't important to them.
But now they are. What changed? Year old Christmas parties on the face of it seem a minor transgression against the others.
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.
- “… some MPs fear Mr Johnson is in danger of becoming a political black hole which sucks the party down with him.”
That exactly what is happening.
Time is the one thing the Tories don’t have. Soon it’ll be too late.
Labour have a decent lead without doing anything, with no policies and without any coherent vision.
When labour does get its act together, and they have the nucleus of a good team now, the blue team will be under far more scrutiny.
English people tend to look at public affairs and events from an anglocentric perspective, which is your prerogative.
Scottish people tend to look at public affairs and events from a caledonian perspective, which is our prerogative.
Scottish Conservatives and Unionists are observing the current UK leadership aghast and horrified.
If you think the misgovernance of England is going to have serious consequences, they are as nothing compared to the consequences of the misgovernance of the United Kingdom.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
Especially when they find out he was in California selling off the NHS...
Do you think that would have any cut through?
When Hunt was Health Secretary that was a conspiracy theory repeated ad nauseam by the goonish Left. There was a whole series of delightful episodes of such making abject apologies to courts for the lies in that vein that they had repeated, to the people they had defamed.
One of the most surreal things I have seen was Corbyn's entire cabinet at an early campaign press conference sitting in a row whilst the speaker solemnly repeated the lie that the UK US trade deal would cause the NHS to be sold off.
The likes of Momentum and the Labour Representation Committee (a far left ginger group these days, I think, trying to borrow the clout of early Trades Union organisers) may believe that guff, but will anyone else?
We were having this discussion previously. The point I was making was that Johnson's dishonesty and incompetence were in plain sight. The reason why parts of the public continued to support him was because his dishonesty and incompetence weren't important to them.
But now they are. What changed? Year old Christmas parties on the face of it seem a minor transgression against the others.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
Especially when they find out he was in California selling off the NHS...
I don't think so. Don't forget that his dad is a GP, and his mother a pharmacist. I think his California trip was just a holiday and meet up with old friends.
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
I really don't think so. The Brexit effect was always going to subside over time, and Johnson's flaws and lack of management/leadership skills were always going to bite. C19 has probably accelerated matters, though.
I and others have been saying that since the Tories chose him, but there was always quite a queue to disagree.
I've been saying it all along as well - and using the Garden Bridge as an exemplar.
However, many of his shrillest opponents utterly missed what made him popular - and IMV were attacking in the wrong ways.
Even now, the attacks are not fully on him, but on the party and government that he 'leads'. That's where he's weakest, and no amount of his personal clowning can help that.
But now they are. What changed? Year old Christmas parties on the face of it seem a minor transgression against the others.
It's the context.
We sacrificed so much this past two years. It has been bloody tough. In that first lockdown, before Barnard Castle, the country was almost totally united, standing as one outside our homes applauding our NHS staff. Then came the second lockdown and we were prevented again from seeing loved ones, especially over Christmas.
It really really rankles that we went through all of that whilst Johnson and his mob were breaking all of his own rules by partying.
To those who didn't feel the pinch through lockdown it won't mean much. To the rest of us, it really does.
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
Yes, she is a weak candidate, but in my opinion she would grow in the job. The sad thing is that she’s the best the Tories have left. They’ve scared off most of the sane, diligent, competent ones.
Quite an interesting thread from Jon Worth, who (imo ) represents the (relatively) sane end of EU-mania, on this:
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
I really don't think so. The Brexit effect was always going to subside over time, and Johnson's flaws and lack of management/leadership skills were always going to bite. C19 has probably accelerated matters, though.
I and others have been saying that since the Tories chose him, but there was always quite a queue to disagree.
I've been saying it all along as well - and using the Garden Bridge as an exemplar.
However, many of his shrillest opponents utterly missed what made him popular - and IMV were attacking in the wrong ways.
Even now, the attacks are not fully on him, but on the party and government that he 'leads'. That's where he's weakest, and no amount of his personal clowning can help that.
We were having this discussion previously. The point I was making was that Johnson's dishonesty and incompetence were in plain sight. The reason why parts of the public continued to support him was because his dishonesty and incompetence weren't important to them.
But now they are. What changed? Year old Christmas parties on the face of it seem a minor transgression against the others.
Reports from the by-election suggest the Peppa Pig episode cut through as much as the party stuff that followed. Seeing the PM make such a tit of himself when he was supposed to be addressing business leaders on our economic strategy seems to have helped a lot of people see that he's a child in an adult's job.
PMQs on Wednesday might have been the last straw for some Conservative backbenchers, when Boris denied that Plan B got through on Labour votes. It was like President Trump boasting about the crowds at his inauguration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sah4SBuo-dE
Technically he's correct.
I believe if Labour had abstained like the SNP did then the vote would have still passed. I think there were more Conservative Ayes than all Nays combined.
Labour could have voted Nay and rejected it, but they didn't bother, so Conservative votes alone were enough to defeat the Nays.
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.”
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
I can't believe they are going to go for Sunak.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
Sunak has by far the highest net favourables of any potential Tory leadership contender and crucially is also the only Tory leadership contender with a higher net favourable rating than Starmer
That's because all most people know of him is that he's a doe eyed twink who gives them money.
It'll be a different story when he's PM. He'll be surveying (from on top of a wheelie bin) the radioactive, plague stricken wreckage of The Johnson Project and have to put it all right with hard choices.
Andrew Lilico @andrew_lilico · 7h The upshot is that spread may slow dramatically once omicron has infected those for who prior immunity or one vax was their only protection (along with those with no immunity at all) - & perhaps also those few left with only 2 doses of AZ as protection.
We were having this discussion previously. The point I was making was that Johnson's dishonesty and incompetence were in plain sight. The reason why parts of the public continued to support him was because his dishonesty and incompetence weren't important to them.
But now they are. What changed? Year old Christmas parties on the face of it seem a minor transgression against the others.
They used to think BoZo was laughing with them.
Now they see he was always laughing at them.
Astute point. No-one likes being made fools of, even if the realisation comes very late.
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
I really don't think so. The Brexit effect was always going to subside over time, and Johnson's flaws and lack of management/leadership skills were always going to bite. C19 has probably accelerated matters, though.
I and others have been saying that since the Tories chose him, but there was always quite a queue to disagree.
I've been saying it all along as well - and using the Garden Bridge as an exemplar.
However, many of his shrillest opponents utterly missed what made him popular - and IMV were attacking in the wrong ways.
Even now, the attacks are not fully on him, but on the party and government that he 'leads'. That's where he's weakest, and no amount of his personal clowning can help that.
We were having this discussion previously. The point I was making was that Johnson's dishonesty and incompetence were in plain sight. The reason why parts of the public continued to support him was because his dishonesty and incompetence weren't important to them.
But now they are. What changed? Year old Christmas parties on the face of it seem a minor transgression against the others.
I think it's what I said above. Johnson being Johnson was accepted: the public knew what they were getting. The stories attacking him directly just elicited yawns amongst many.
What these scandals have highlighted is that large parts of his government / party also have deep problems. The public may be willing to ignore Johnson's myriad flaws; the rest of his government and party do not have that benefit.
And because Johnson is Johnson, the crowd he has around him is generally of poor quality.
PMQs on Wednesday might have been the last straw for some Conservative backbenchers, when Boris denied that Plan B got through on Labour votes. It was like President Trump boasting about the crowds at his inauguration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sah4SBuo-dE
Technically he's correct.
If Labour had abstained like the SNP did then the vote would have still passed. There were more Conservative Ayes than all Nays combined.
Labour could have voted Nay and rejected it, but they didn't bother, so Conservative votes alone were enough to defeat the Nays.
I don't usually respond to you because I'm afraid I feel you invariably lower the tone of this forum. However, two points.
The measure needed to be passed so Johnson is not technically correct and you really don't want to be getting into his obfuscation of truth like that. If Labour hadn't voted for the measures in the YES lobby, it wouldn't have passed.
The other one is your criticism of Labour and the casual throwaway remark that 'they couldn't be bothered' so they voted for it. Actually the Labour Party cares very deeply about people's lives and they are deeply concerned about this pandemic and its effects. They believed that it was right to bring in these measures to protect the NHS and to save lives.
I like Rishi but I think its fairly reasonable to argue that he wont be able to do the “man of the people” thing that Boris can. He’s basically a billionaire Ed Miliband.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
Especially when they find out he was in California selling off the NHS...
I don't think so. Don't forget that his dad is a GP, and his mother a pharmacist. I think his California trip was just a holiday and meet up with old friends.
The truth is surely that the trip was a holiday/jolly and when it suddenly came under media scrutiny his rescue strategy was to hurriedly arrange some sort of business meeting to offer as thin justification for it?
Andrew Lilico @andrew_lilico · 7h The upshot is that spread may slow dramatically once omicron has infected those for who prior immunity or one vax was their only protection (along with those with no immunity at all) - & perhaps also those few left with only 2 doses of AZ as protection.
At what point does the booster offer protection? Asking for a friend: over 50, double AZ with Pfizer booster, administered 11 days ago.
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.
Agree with that.
The IB goon blocking the road breaching an Injunction was not charged.
The prosecution is right, although the drivers frustration with these morons is understandable she cannot do that. It’s not right and it is dangerous.
It is understandable people take the law into their own hands When the Police treat these people protesting illegally with kid gloves. The policing of these protests was so light handed it merely encouraged more and the legal system didn’t enforce the law or the injunctions against these protesters.
If I was on any jury that was considering the case against this driver, if it went to jury trial, I’d find her not guilty.
Andrew Lilico @andrew_lilico · 7h The upshot is that spread may slow dramatically once omicron has infected those for who prior immunity or one vax was their only protection (along with those with no immunity at all) - & perhaps also those few left with only 2 doses of AZ as protection.
At what point does the booster offer protection? Asking for a friend: over 50, double AZ with Pfizer booster, administered 11 days ago.
From what I've seen, very quickly, and at 11 days surely at max.
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.
Without Covid-19 Johnson may have been able to stay in Downing Street for 10 years. But a crisis like this doesn't suit his style of leadership. Blair probably would have been the best PM to have in this situation.
I really don't think so. The Brexit effect was always going to subside over time, and Johnson's flaws and lack of management/leadership skills were always going to bite. C19 has probably accelerated matters, though.
I and others have been saying that since the Tories chose him, but there was always quite a queue to disagree.
I've been saying it all along as well - and using the Garden Bridge as an exemplar.
However, many of his shrillest opponents utterly missed what made him popular - and IMV were attacking in the wrong ways.
Even now, the attacks are not fully on him, but on the party and government that he 'leads'. That's where he's weakest, and no amount of his personal clowning can help that.
But now they are. What changed? Year old Christmas parties on the face of it seem a minor transgression against the others.
It's the context.
We sacrificed so much this past two years. It has been bloody tough. In that first lockdown, before Barnard Castle, the country was almost totally united, standing as one outside our homes applauding our NHS staff. Then came the second lockdown and we were prevented again from seeing loved ones, especially over Christmas.
It really really rankles that we went through all of that whilst Johnson and his mob were breaking all of his own rules by partying.
To those who didn't feel the pinch through lockdown it won't mean much. To the rest of us, it really does.
It isn't a minor transgression though.
It's BJ setting out to give a moral need to 'save the nation', then smearing his shit all over his own appeals.
Will correctly not be forgiven by those who did not get to see their parents / partners / children / friends for the final time. And there are many, many of them.
Even though the party stories are seriously overexaggerated in many respects, that won't help.
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
Yes, she is a weak candidate, but in my opinion she would grow in the job. The sad thing is that she’s the best the Tories have left. They’ve scared off most of the sane, diligent, competent ones.
Quite an interesting thread from Jon Worth, who (imo ) represents the (relatively) sane end of EU-mania, on this:
The photographs of Boris slumped in a chair looking lost and blaming the media and others for his problems really does make him look like he is sulking and that he is in denial of the personal disaster that is engulfing his premiership
There is no way he will change and if his mps value their seats they need to act swiftly and remove him
I like Rishi but I think its fairly reasonable to argue that he wont be able to do the “man of the people” thing that Boris can. He’s basically a billionaire Ed Miliband.
Funny you should say that. My closest friend is a passionate tory, has never voted anything other than Conservative all her life. But she was contemptuous of Rishi Sunak and really dislikes him on exactly your grounds. 'He and his wife are multi-millionaires' she virtually spat down the phone to me. She said he has nothing in common with any of the rest of us. Mind you, she (still) adores Boris.
In the US a leader can probably get away with it but I'm not too sure it will work over here. There have been well-off and gentrified PMs but comparing like for like and adjusting for the years, would Sunak be the richest PM in our history?
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
I can't believe they are going to go for Sunak.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
Sunak has by far the highest net favourables of any potential Tory leadership contender and crucially is also the only Tory leadership contender with a higher net favourable rating than Starmer
That's because all most people know of him is that he's a doe eyed twink who gives them money.
It'll be a different story when he's PM. He'll be surveying (from on top of a wheelie bin) the radioactive, plague stricken wreckage of The Johnson Project and have to put it all right with hard choices.
Agree. Sunak is the person I fear most as a Tory leader, but actually doing the job may end up as a different kettle of fish.
Andrew Lilico @andrew_lilico · 7h The upshot is that spread may slow dramatically once omicron has infected those for who prior immunity or one vax was their only protection (along with those with no immunity at all) - & perhaps also those few left with only 2 doses of AZ as protection.
At what point does the booster offer protection? Asking for a friend: over 50, double AZ with Pfizer booster, administered 11 days ago.
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.”
'likely successors… are low calibre. Liz Truss ...' Beautifully understated!
I can't believe they are going to go for Sunak.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
Sunak has by far the highest net favourables of any potential Tory leadership contender and crucially is also the only Tory leadership contender with a higher net favourable rating than Starmer
That's because all most people know of him is that he's a doe eyed twink who gives them money.
It'll be a different story when he's PM. He'll be surveying (from on top of a wheelie bin) the radioactive, plague stricken wreckage of The Johnson Project and have to put it all right with hard choices.
Yes, the recent backdown on rail was his work, and the contest will be after the new NI surcharge hits workers with a further cost of living rise.
PMQs on Wednesday might have been the last straw for some Conservative backbenchers, when Boris denied that Plan B got through on Labour votes. It was like President Trump boasting about the crowds at his inauguration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sah4SBuo-dE
Technically he's correct.
If Labour had abstained like the SNP did then the vote would have still passed. There were more Conservative Ayes than all Nays combined.
Labour could have voted Nay and rejected it, but they didn't bother, so Conservative votes alone were enough to defeat the Nays.
I don't usually respond to you because I'm afraid I feel you invariably lower the tone of this forum. However, two points.
The measure needed to be passed so Johnson is not technically correct and you really don't want to be getting into his obfuscation of truth like that. If Labour hadn't voted for the measures in the YES lobby, it wouldn't have passed.
The other one is your criticism of Labour and the casual throwaway remark that 'they couldn't be bothered' so they voted for it. Actually the Labour Party cares very deeply about people's lives and they are deeply concerned about this pandemic and its effects. They believed that it was right to bring in these measures to protect the NHS and to save lives.
"If Labour hadn't voted for the measures in the YES lobby, it wouldn't have passed."
You're wrong. If they hadn't voted for the measures in the AYE lobby (its not called YES), had they all just stayed at home and not turned up for instance, it would have passed. Labour votes were superfluous to defeating the Nays.
Had Labour been in the Nay lobby the result would be different, but they weren't. Labour couldn't be bothered to demand any concessions for instance support for hospitality in exchange for voting Aye or not voting Nay.
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.
Indeed? Who’s seat is he going to nick?
So far only one Con MP has announced not standing for re-election, Douglas Ross. Is Raab going to be the SCon candidate in Highland East & Elgin?
Probably at least 50 Tory MPs will announce their retirement by the time of the election. There's Chris Grayling's seat in Epsom and Ewell for example.
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.
Agree with that.
The IB goon blocking the road breaching an Injunction was not charged.
The prosecution is right, although the drivers frustration with these morons is understandable she cannot do that. It’s not right and it is dangerous.
It is understandable people take the law into their own hands When the Police treat these people protesting illegally with kid gloves. The policing of these protests was so light handed it merely encouraged more and the legal system didn’t enforce the law or the injunctions against these protesters.
If I was on any jury that was considering the case against this driver, if it went to jury trial, I’d find her not guilty.
The problem here is the the IB lot are middle class and it's clear to the police that they know what they are doing.
So while I'm sure the general public don't mind force being used your typical policeman is probably thinking how do I do this in the glare of the media in a way that doesn't come back and bite me. Hence the kid glove approach.
The photographs of Boris slumped in a chair looking lost and blaming the media and others for his problems really does make him look like he is sulking and that he is in denial of the personal disaster that is engulfing his premiership
There is no way he will change and if his mps value their seats they need to act swiftly and remove him
Thinking some more about this, given covid, nobody wants to take over in the middle of the current wave and it will look terribly like internal political games while 1000s are dying every week if there is a challenge.
He staggers on until the local elections, gets battered and then he is toppled.
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.
Agree with that.
The IB goon blocking the road breaching an Injunction was not charged.
The prosecution is right, although the drivers frustration with these morons is understandable she cannot do that. It’s not right and it is dangerous.
It is understandable people take the law into their own hands When the Police treat these people protesting illegally with kid gloves. The policing of these protests was so light handed it merely encouraged more and the legal system didn’t enforce the law or the injunctions against these protesters.
If I was on any jury that was considering the case against this driver, if it went to jury trial, I’d find her not guilty.
Yes. I don't find her a sympathetic character (80k Range Rover ffs in the SE says idiot before we even start), but as I see it she has two options. Firstly, immediate guilty plea. Secondly, go for a Crown Court if she has the option, and hope for the jury to come in innocent. I am not clear on the chance of an innocent finding in a Magistrates Court; I would expect the Clerk to advise 'guilty in law'.
Comments
The best available evidence indicates that people with non-naive immune systems aren’t going to be causing much concern to wards on aggregate, and that there are plausible reasons to think even naive immune systems will on aggregate fare better than 2020 and 2021. Namely data from SA, improved treatments and the age profile in the Uk of those people.
Further the best available evidence on the infectiousness of this strain and its prevalence by now, means lockdowns are unlikely going to achieve much of anything at all but carry massive cost, not least long term erosion to the relationship between the governed and the governing class.
As the lustre comes off the magician's showmanship we are left with the fact that the Conservatives have been in power for nearly 12 years and it will be 14 by the likely next General Election. Boris rejuvenated the brand for Brexit but that's now a fading (and arguably itself tarnished) reality. He has been dealt a rough hand with covid, which apart from the initial vaccine rollout has been handled pretty slopily. He's chaotic and so therefore is his Government.
I think there's a mood that the party's over.
I am hopeful (I am generally optimistic by nature), but I don't necessarily want to gamble on hope.
I don't want a lockdown: but I sure as heck want them left in our armoury of weapons that can be called on to help us fight the virus. Then there is the issue of people voting with their feet anyway.
The current version are, IMO, a shower of corrupt, self-serving, arrogant fools.
For the sake of our national politics, this shower needs flushing out of the political system and the Conservative party restored to something more like the 1990s version.
Both of our main parties need to have decent politicians. Labour have ditched their fool and his coterie of fanatics, the Tories need to do the same.
Further, you don’t give any counter to what you hope a lockdown will achieve. With the rate of transmission within households so high, and the UK not geared up for food drops by the army, it ain’t gonna achieve shit.
(One of the interesting questions about Omicron is the time lags between infection - infectiousness - symptoms. There are glimmers that it is perhaps 'better', in the fact you have less time between infectiousness and symptoms)
Blair would almost certainly have been excellent. Didn't like him particularly but he'd have handled this very well and provided the right kind of assurance to the nation.
I personally think Margaret Thatcher would have been outstanding. She was brilliant on detail and she would have commanded the nation! She was also a scientist and wouldn't have let anyone push her around. A clear, decisive, plan for the country throughout. Yes, it probably would have seen more people die because she was essentially a believer in private enterprise and capitalism over the social state, but she still would have been bloody brilliant.
The economy went very well, but he still lost.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cricket/57164433
That's also why I think the tories are in SUCH trouble this time around. No Sir Keir is no Tony Blair, but the country is in a deeply parlous position not just because of the pandemic but fiscally and economically. The tories have contrived to foster a high tax, high spend, debt-ridden, inflationary economy.
The IB goon blocking the road breaching an Injunction was not charged.
That's not really real world politics, is it? A shame he wasn't born a king, as he originally wanted.
No, not really. Has yours?
(Again, I stress I'm not in favour of a lockdown at the moment. But I want the option to remain in our armoury.)
However, many of his shrillest opponents utterly missed what made him popular - and IMV were attacking in the wrong ways.
Even now, the attacks are not fully on him, but on the party and government that he 'leads'. That's where he's weakest, and no amount of his personal clowning can help that.
Then they can carry on regardless as the natural party of power.
That exactly what is happening.
Time is the one thing the Tories don’t have. Soon it’ll be too late.
Oppositions don’t win elections; governments lose them.
So far only one Con MP has announced not standing for re-election, Douglas Ross. Is Raab going to be the SCon candidate in Highland East & Elgin?
https://www.reuters.com/business/german-wholesale-prices-see-record-jump-raw-material-costs-soar-2021-12-13/
And we will perform rather better than the Eurozone on unemployment etc.
But that may not help either. That is the optics bit. And critics of both Brexit and the Tories are well embedded in media. I'm not sure the current Govt, however changed, can put together an operation to counter that.
For me there would need to be something like the Proportional Property Tax, which is worth several hundred a year to most red wallers, removes Stamp Duty for everyone in the SE, and only hurts a small % at the very top.
Labour have a decent lead without doing anything, with no policies and without any coherent vision.
When labour does get its act together, and they have the nucleus of a good team now, the blue team will be under far more scrutiny.
An Action Man sized Fulbright Scholar Hedge Fund Parasite Wanna Be Tech Bro just isn't going to connect with the shitmunchers in Hartlepool like Johnson can.
I think Truss is far from stupid, but she is unserious in the way Johnson is unserious.
Is there even one who is clean from that charge?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sah4SBuo-dE
TUCKER: With the investigation?
GLENN: Yes
TUCKER: What?
GLENN: There's more than one Xmas Party
TUCKER: You're not actually INVESTIGATING are you?!
GLENN: You told me to!
TUCKER: I've also told you to stop being a twat. That's never stopped you
https://twitter.com/garius/status/1471979066286915593
But now they are. What changed? Year old Christmas parties on the face of it seem a minor transgression against the others.
Scottish people tend to look at public affairs and events from a caledonian perspective, which is our prerogative.
Scottish Conservatives and Unionists are observing the current UK leadership aghast and horrified.
If you think the misgovernance of England is going to have serious consequences, they are as nothing compared to the consequences of the misgovernance of the United Kingdom.
When Hunt was Health Secretary that was a conspiracy theory repeated ad nauseam by the goonish Left. There was a whole series of delightful episodes of such making abject apologies to courts for the lies in that vein that they had repeated, to the people they had defamed.
One of the most surreal things I have seen was Corbyn's entire cabinet at an early campaign press conference sitting in a row whilst the speaker solemnly repeated the lie that the UK US trade deal would cause the NHS to be sold off.
The likes of Momentum and the Labour Representation Committee (a far left ginger group these days, I think, trying to borrow the clout of early Trades Union organisers) may believe that guff, but will anyone else?
https://twitter.com/steverichards14/status/1472123474084782083
https://twitter.com/nickcohen4/status/1472102258867412997
Now they see he was always laughing at them.
James Kirkup:-
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/boris-won-t-change-why-should-he-
Momentum whining about it in a church hall with 4 people watching has no cut though.
Press reports that he missed a call with UK retailers this week because he was meeting with US healthcare execs might.
We sacrificed so much this past two years. It has been bloody tough. In that first lockdown, before Barnard Castle, the country was almost totally united, standing as one outside our homes applauding our NHS staff. Then came the second lockdown and we were prevented again from seeing loved ones, especially over Christmas.
It really really rankles that we went through all of that whilst Johnson and his mob were breaking all of his own rules by partying.
To those who didn't feel the pinch through lockdown it won't mean much. To the rest of us, it really does.
https://twitter.com/jonworth/status/1471853969551073282
I believe if Labour had abstained like the SNP did then the vote would have still passed. I think there were more Conservative Ayes than all Nays combined.
Labour could have voted Nay and rejected it, but they didn't bother, so Conservative votes alone were enough to defeat the Nays.
It'll be a different story when he's PM. He'll be surveying (from on top of a wheelie bin) the radioactive, plague stricken wreckage of The Johnson Project and have to put it all right with hard choices.
@andrew_lilico
·
7h
The upshot is that spread may slow dramatically once omicron has infected those for who prior immunity or one vax was their only protection (along with those with no immunity at all) - & perhaps also those few left with only 2 doses of AZ as protection.
What these scandals have highlighted is that large parts of his government / party also have deep problems. The public may be willing to ignore Johnson's myriad flaws; the rest of his government and party do not have that benefit.
And because Johnson is Johnson, the crowd he has around him is generally of poor quality.
The measure needed to be passed so Johnson is not technically correct and you really don't want to be getting into his obfuscation of truth like that. If Labour hadn't voted for the measures in the YES lobby, it wouldn't have passed.
The other one is your criticism of Labour and the casual throwaway remark that 'they couldn't be bothered' so they voted for it. Actually the Labour Party cares very deeply about people's lives and they are deeply concerned about this pandemic and its effects. They believed that it was right to bring in these measures to protect the NHS and to save lives.
It is understandable people take the law into their own hands When the Police treat these people protesting illegally with kid gloves. The policing of these protests was so light handed it merely encouraged more and the legal system didn’t enforce the law or the injunctions against these protesters.
If I was on any jury that was considering the case against this driver, if it went to jury trial, I’d find her not guilty.
It's BJ setting out to give a moral need to 'save the nation', then smearing his shit all over his own appeals.
Will correctly not be forgiven by those who did not get to see their parents / partners / children / friends for the final time. And there are many, many of them.
Even though the party stories are seriously overexaggerated in many respects, that won't help.
The photographs of Boris slumped in a chair looking lost and blaming the media and others for his problems really does make him look like he is sulking and that he is in denial of the personal disaster that is engulfing his premiership
There is no way he will change and if his mps value their seats they need to act swiftly and remove him
In the US a leader can probably get away with it but I'm not too sure it will work over here. There have been well-off and gentrified PMs but comparing like for like and adjusting for the years, would Sunak be the richest PM in our history?
You're wrong. If they hadn't voted for the measures in the AYE lobby (its not called YES), had they all just stayed at home and not turned up for instance, it would have passed. Labour votes were superfluous to defeating the Nays.
Had Labour been in the Nay lobby the result would be different, but they weren't. Labour couldn't be bothered to demand any concessions for instance support for hospitality in exchange for voting Aye or not voting Nay.
So while I'm sure the general public don't mind force being used your typical policeman is probably thinking how do I do this in the glare of the media in a way that doesn't come back and bite me. Hence the kid glove approach.
He staggers on until the local elections, gets battered and then he is toppled.
Good legal advice required.
https://twitter.com/MSmithsonPB/status/1472127728346447873
We need one of those "It has been 0 days since the last inevitable BoZo fuckup" cartoons...