It sounds like Whitty and Vallance are absolutely the drivers for more lockdown from that Telegraph report
IF - and this is a huge IF - it turns out their advice is ignored, and the nation survives, and there aren’t “6,000 deaths a day” or whatever bollox they are predicting, then they must be driven from public life, and forced to live in Wick, in Scotland.
There must be a price to pay for being SOOOOOO wrong. Seriously. If the boffins want to run the place, they must accept there is a cost to being a fucking idiot and getting it all wrong
That is: IF they are wrong
What is wrong with Wick
We have family there
Clearly you haven’t been?
ON OUR WICK ‘We escaped Taliban but hated life in depressing Wick – please don’t send us back to Scotland’, say Afghan refugees Graham Mann 9:00, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:41, 9 Dec 2021
AN Afghan refugee who revealed he’d rather risk being beheaded by the Taliban than stay any longer in Wick, Scotland, has fled to London, we can reveal.
Nothing wrong with Wick in that piece other than a lack of Afghani speakers. Which is unsurprising.
Mate, I’ve been to Wick. I went this “summer”, when it was perpetually overcast like a kind of Satanic torture.
Now, I love lots of Scotland, and I can even tolerate the climate, for a while. I am glad this beautiful land is part of Britain
But, Jesus, Wick. Don’t be an eejit. It is horrific. And the buildings are so incredibly ugly and dark. Wick, like other towns in Scotland, is one of the most depressing corners of this green earth. Right up there with the worst parts of the ex Soviet Union, or northern Peru, or Romania in winter. Hideous
I actually find London depressingly grimy and grey! I don't like being there on my own and only really feel comfortable when escorted by my friend (ironically enough he lives not far from you). And as for Wick, chacun a son gout, but I adore the local Old Red Sandstone, and the Pulteneytown fisherfolk quarter is a minor truimph of urban planning:
London is Sui generis. In the right mood and the right light - usually spring or summer, but also misty autumn and Christmas - it can be literally the most exhilarating place on earth. Nowhere else has the unique combination of enormous history - 2000 years of it - plus absolute modernity, plus elegant and fascinating architecture and history from all stages between
Stand downstream of Tower Bridge and look west and you will see Roman Walls, the Norman Tower of London, Wren steeples, Victorian marvels (Tower Bridge itself) and startling skyscrapers - the Shard, the Gherkin
What other city does that? Nowhere, that’s where. Not even Paris
PLUS London has that incredible variety of urban villages, from Greenwich to Camden to Brixton to Highgate to Borough to Mayfair to Notting Hill to Chelsea to Wapping to Shoreditch to Soho to Hempstead to Primrose Hill to Deptford to Canary Wharf to the City to to to to to
It is an extreme place. When it is desolate it can be extremely desolate. But, my word, what a city
The Guardian is often not much more nuanced than the Telegraph these days. I think part of it is its supporters' funding model, which makes it much more likely to preach to the choir. They still have some excellent opinion columnists, like Polly Toynbee, George Monbiot, Rafael Behr, John Harris and others, but daily news and culture coverage is on a somewhat downward, very outspokenly opinionated slope.
The vast majority of Guardian readers are Labour or LD voters as the vast majority of Telegraph readers are Conservative voters. The Times is the swing paper of the broadsheets and generally the most centrist.
If any paper switches from backing Boris in 2019 to backing Starmer next time it would likely be the Times
I get the Times and I sense it is having a think about that.
As a paper delivered? I'm sort of thinking that I need to do that (not specific to the Times)
They still have some excellent opinion columnists, like Polly Toynbee, George Monbiot..
Dear God. Speechless.
Polly Toynbee is perhaps more responsible for wrecking the Guardian brand, such as it was, than any other single individual. Imo.
Indeed. Probably the only articles on there I would never bother with.
I skip the Toynbee screeds too, but quite the worst op-ed articles in the Guardian are those written by 23-year olds called something like Charlotte Rhian Williams who grew up in Llanelli and now live in Hackney and feel that somehow this gives them a unique insight into the human condition.
Pathetic. They won **** all, and poor Southgate had to acknowledge that.
Daley and Lee should have won that.
The most ridiculous opinion aired on here for quite some time. Bravo.
Why ?
A gallant loser is still a loser.
That's stupid Trump talk.
I go down in a 5 set thriller in the Wimbledon final.
I come 1st in the Hampstead annual crepe tossing contest.
Which is the greater achievement?
They lost, pathetically. On penalties, again. Despite being the better team in terms of talent
England is the home of football, with the world’s greatest football league, and now an embarrassment of young footballing skill
We should be expecting to WIN tournaments - like Germany, France, Italy or Spain - not pitifully grateful for a silver medal
It’s this loser attitude that means we lose. When we ditch this attitude, we win. See various English/British teams in rugby, cricket, golf, Olympic sports etc
On this I have to agree with you. It’s celebrating mediocrity..A gallant loser is still a loser.
It's celebrating a great achievement.
You are welcome to see losing as an achievement just as I am welcome to see it as celebrating failure.
I fail to see how,it is ‘’Trump talk’ though. Many sports coaches would say the same.
It's Trumpy talk to boil everything down to winners and losers.
The key to sports improvement is to focus on process not outcome. Coaches will confirm.
And no you are not welcome to view anything other than being the best in the world at something as failure. It's a bullshit view from which you need to evolve.
No, it’s nothing to do with trump or being Trumpian. You’re just making an absurd comment for effect. You want to celebrate Mediocrity knock yourself out, I’d rather celebrate winning something.
Reaching our first footy final since 1966 is mediocrity? Seriously?
I know! Have you ever heard such a strange take. Ah well.
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
Anointed by ++cantuar Shirley? Why are you confident that anointment by that blethering old goat equates to anointment by God?
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
"I anoint you, via this churchman with a vat of olive oil, to have a largely symbolic role with your government run by a serial adulterer"
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
Anointed by ++cantuar Shirley? Why are you confident that anointment by that blethering old goat equates to anointment by God?
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
It's great to have someone who believes what generations of vicars and headmasters merely pretend to believe, because we can ask the important questions.
Did God anoint all the popes up to and including the one who wouldn't let Henry VIII divorce, or was he also anointing the previous monarchs, but they just didn't know it?
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
"I anoint you, via this churchman with a vat of olive oil, to have a largely symbolic role with your government run by a serial adulterer"
Telegraph reporting that Johnson is considering an 8pm curfew for hospitality trade.
Bonkers on stilts with bells on.
That’s our New Year’s Eve meal screwed as we were due to eat at 7.45
What are we supposed to do between dinner and midnight mass? Freeze to death?
Um, you are meant to fast before communion? Don't tell me let me guess, you didn't know that because you only do it once a year, as a fashion statement?
Absolutely, got me in one.
I'm a carol loving atheist.
Fine, but you aren't very good at it. How hard is it to spin dinner out till say 11.15 given that midnight mass services tend to start at 1130?
Oh I was working on the basis we get kicked out the restaurant at 8pm. That's how it worked in pubs last time that rule was in place.
Telegraph reporting that Johnson is considering an 8pm curfew for hospitality trade.
Bonkers on stilts with bells on.
That’s our New Year’s Eve meal screwed as we were due to eat at 7.45
What are we supposed to do between dinner and midnight mass? Freeze to death?
Um, you are meant to fast before communion? Don't tell me let me guess, you didn't know that because you only do it once a year, as a fashion statement?
Absolutely, got me in one.
I'm a carol loving atheist.
Fine, but you aren't very good at it. How hard is it to spin dinner out till say 11.15 given that midnight mass services tend to start at 1130?
Thrown out of the pub at 2000.
So pre dinner drinks till 2000, then home for dinner. Not difficult.
It sounds like Whitty and Vallance are absolutely the drivers for more lockdown from that Telegraph report
IF - and this is a huge IF - it turns out their advice is ignored, and the nation survives, and there aren’t “6,000 deaths a day” or whatever bollox they are predicting, then they must be driven from public life, and forced to live in Wick, in Scotland.
There must be a price to pay for being SOOOOOO wrong. Seriously. If the boffins want to run the place, they must accept there is a cost to being a fucking idiot and getting it all wrong
That is: IF they are wrong
What is wrong with Wick
We have family there
Clearly you haven’t been?
ON OUR WICK ‘We escaped Taliban but hated life in depressing Wick – please don’t send us back to Scotland’, say Afghan refugees Graham Mann 9:00, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:41, 9 Dec 2021
AN Afghan refugee who revealed he’d rather risk being beheaded by the Taliban than stay any longer in Wick, Scotland, has fled to London, we can reveal.
Nothing wrong with Wick in that piece other than a lack of Afghani speakers. Which is unsurprising.
Mate, I’ve been to Wick. I went this “summer”, when it was perpetually overcast like a kind of Satanic torture.
Now, I love lots of Scotland, and I can even tolerate the climate, for a while. I am glad this beautiful land is part of Britain
But, Jesus, Wick. Don’t be an eejit. It is horrific. And the buildings are so incredibly ugly and dark. Wick, like other towns in Scotland, is one of the most depressing corners of this green earth. Right up there with the worst parts of the ex Soviet Union, or northern Peru, or Romania in winter. Hideous
I actually find London depressingly grimy and grey! I don't like being there on my own and only really feel comfortable when escorted by my friend (ironically enough he lives not far from you). And as for Wick, chacun a son gout, but I adore the local Old Red Sandstone, and the Pulteneytown fisherfolk quarter is a minor truimph of urban planning:
London is Sui generis. In the right mood and the right light - usually spring or summer, but also misty autumn and Christmas - it can be literally the most exhilarating place on earth. Nowhere else has the unique combination of enormous history - 2000 years of it - plus absolute modernity, plus elegant and fascinating architecture and history from all stages between
Stand downstream of Tower Bridge and look west and you will see Roman Walls, the Norman Tower of London, Wren steeples, Victorian marvels (Tower Bridge itself) and startling skyscrapers - the Shard, the Gherkin
What other city does that? Nowhere, that’s where. Not even Paris
PLUS London has that incredible variety of urban villages, from Greenwich to Camden to Brixton to Highgate to Borough to Mayfair to Notting Hill to Chelsea to Wapping to Shoreditch to Soho to Hempstead to Primrose Hill to Deptford to Canary Wharf to the City to to to to to
It is an extreme place. When it is desolate it can be extremely desolate. But, my word, what a city
Wick, it is not
It's with my friend that I can see (to some extent) that side of London - last time I was with him we spent a morning tracing the remains of the dockyard in between modern light industry and residential flats as a sort of urban palimpsest at Woolwich before going along to the Arsenal to see where cannon used to be cast and engineer officer cadets trained at the Arsenal.
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
It's always quite jarring when you come across religion this naked. We live in such a secular age that we tend to assume the genuinely religious are essentially the same as us, with some additional motions-going-through. It's something of a revelation when you see such naked certainty of something you are personally certain not to be the case. I hope I've written that in a sufficiently non-pejorative way as not to be rude! Apologies if so: it really isn't meant - I comment more on the surpriseI feel when encountering it than the nature of the belief.
Lewis Goodall @lewis_goodall One source in the devolved governments said of the PM: “He called the meeting. No one had actually asked for it. Then he didn't turn up.”
Telegraph reporting that Johnson is considering an 8pm curfew for hospitality trade.
Bonkers on stilts with bells on.
That’s our New Year’s Eve meal screwed as we were due to eat at 7.45
What are we supposed to do between dinner and midnight mass? Freeze to death?
Um, you are meant to fast before communion? Don't tell me let me guess, you didn't know that because you only do it once a year, as a fashion statement?
Absolutely, got me in one.
I'm a carol loving atheist.
Fine, but you aren't very good at it. How hard is it to spin dinner out till say 11.15 given that midnight mass services tend to start at 1130?
Oh I was working on the basis we get kicked out the restaurant at 8pm. That's how it worked in pubs last time that rule was in place.
Lewis Goodall @lewis_goodall One source in the devolved governments said of the PM: “He called the meeting. No one had actually asked for it. Then he didn't turn up.”
Hm, how impartial do you reckon this source might be?
Pathetic. They won **** all, and poor Southgate had to acknowledge that.
Daley and Lee should have won that.
The most ridiculous opinion aired on here for quite some time. Bravo.
Why ?
A gallant loser is still a loser.
That's stupid Trump talk.
I go down in a 5 set thriller in the Wimbledon final.
I come 1st in the Hampstead annual crepe tossing contest.
Which is the greater achievement?
They lost, pathetically. On penalties, again. Despite being the better team in terms of talent
England is the home of football, with the world’s greatest football league, and now an embarrassment of young footballing skill
We should be expecting to WIN tournaments - like Germany, France, Italy or Spain - not pitifully grateful for a silver medal
It’s this loser attitude that means we lose. When we ditch this attitude, we win. See various English/British teams in rugby, cricket, golf, Olympic sports etc
That's drivel. Stop it.
No, he’s right,
Do you think Sir Alex Ferguson would Have been happy had Man Utd finished second in the premier league rather than winning it ? Of course he wouldn’t he’d be driving his team to win.
We celebrate mediocrity and plucky losers in this country. We should want to be winners not satisfied with being a plucky loser.
For a few weeks this summer, the England football team put a smile on my face and restored a bit of lost innocence to us all. That they lost in the end by a whisker is of little relevance to what they really achieved. Namely, letting a depressed nation build some positive shared memories of cheering, singing and dancing with friends, family and children.
Very well said. I forgive you all the rest now and that will last for at least 24 hours.
Pathetic. They won **** all, and poor Southgate had to acknowledge that.
Daley and Lee should have won that.
The most ridiculous opinion aired on here for quite some time. Bravo.
Why ?
A gallant loser is still a loser.
That's stupid Trump talk.
I go down in a 5 set thriller in the Wimbledon final.
I come 1st in the Hampstead annual crepe tossing contest.
Which is the greater achievement?
They lost, pathetically. On penalties, again. Despite being the better team in terms of talent
England is the home of football, with the world’s greatest football league, and now an embarrassment of young footballing skill
We should be expecting to WIN tournaments - like Germany, France, Italy or Spain - not pitifully grateful for a silver medal
It’s this loser attitude that means we lose. When we ditch this attitude, we win. See various English/British teams in rugby, cricket, golf, Olympic sports etc
That's drivel. Stop it.
No, he’s right,
Do you think Sir Alex Ferguson would Have been happy had Man Utd finished second in the premier league rather than winning it ? Of course he wouldn’t he’d be driving his team to win.
We celebrate mediocrity and plucky losers in this country. We should want to be winners not satisfied with being a plucky loser.
For a few weeks this summer, the England football team put a smile on my face and restored a bit of lost innocence to us all. That they lost in the end by a whisker is of little relevance to what they really achieved. Namely, letting a depressed nation build some positive shared memories of cheering, singing and dancing with friends, family and children.
Very well said. I forgive you all the rest now and that will last for at least 24 hours.
He will consider it. Until he makes a decision on, erm... Boxing Day.
This shows every sign of being a repeat of last year when the rules were changed so close to Christmas that no-one had time to react even if they noticed. Five days to go and Boris is still only considering it.
Telegraph reporting that Johnson is considering an 8pm curfew for hospitality trade.
Bonkers on stilts with bells on.
That’s our New Year’s Eve meal screwed as we were due to eat at 7.45
What are we supposed to do between dinner and midnight mass? Freeze to death?
Um, you are meant to fast before communion? Don't tell me let me guess, you didn't know that because you only do it once a year, as a fashion statement?
Absolutely, got me in one.
I'm a carol loving atheist.
Fine, but you aren't very good at it. How hard is it to spin dinner out till say 11.15 given that midnight mass services tend to start at 1130?
Oh I was working on the basis we get kicked out the restaurant at 8pm. That's how it worked in pubs last time that rule was in place.
I was thinking, go home for dinner.
Have you ever been on a social night out?
You don't generally invite everyone back to your place halfway through it.
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
It's great to have someone who believes what generations of vicars and headmasters merely pretend to believe, because we can ask the important questions.
Did God anoint all the popes up to and including the one who wouldn't let Henry VIII divorce, or was he also anointing the previous monarchs, but they just didn't know it?
God anoints all Popes still as head of the Roman Catholic Church on earth. However he anoints our monarch as head of the established church here in England
He will consider it. Until he makes a decision on, erm... Boxing Day.
This shows every sign of being a repeat of last year when the rules were changed so close to Christmas that no-one had time to react even if they noticed. Five days to go and Boris is still only considering it.
There's nothing to consider.
Hopefully he "considers" it all the way into February.
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
It's great to have someone who believes what generations of vicars and headmasters merely pretend to believe, because we can ask the important questions.
Did God anoint all the popes up to and including the one who wouldn't let Henry VIII divorce, or was he also anointing the previous monarchs, but they just didn't know it?
God anoints all Popes still as head of the Roman Catholic Church on earth. However he anoints our monarch as head of the established church here in England
We just have to hope those two events never happen on the same day.
Lewis Goodall @lewis_goodall One source in the devolved governments said of the PM: “He called the meeting. No one had actually asked for it. Then he didn't turn up.”
Hm, how impartial do you reckon this source might be?
This tussle over Christmas is obviously expectation management for full lockdown from the 27th.
We're meant to be grateful for the delay.
Better not - I’ve got ice hockey and a meal with uni friends in Glasgow on the 27th. 28th would be fine though
I know you're being flippant, but this is the problem. So many people thinking 'well January'll be ok, I won't be going out much anyway' or some variant of it. Yet so much life will be missed. So many children's birthday parties unmarked. So many days uncelebrated. So many young people not meeting other young people and doing what happens on such occasions. Now I personally probably wouldn't be going to the pub for a good six weeks anyway, but that's because I'm 46 and have three young children. But that doesn't mean I'll be phlegmatic. 8pm curfew a long way beyond the pale for me.
Just watched it. Amazing. His dad looked good too. Maybe one more comeback.
I don't know about Snr, but Jnr, that lad can not only play, the pressure of playing in front of those crowds doesn't seem to bother him. You can't teach that. The truly great players welcome it.
Lewis Goodall @lewis_goodall One source in the devolved governments said of the PM: “He called the meeting. No one had actually asked for it. Then he didn't turn up.”
Hm, how impartial do you reckon this source might be?
Not impartial but rather annoyed I suspect.
Why, if the meeting took place? It's unlikely there wasn't someone representing HMG there.
The Guardian is often not much more nuanced than the Telegraph these days. I think part of it is its supporters' funding model, which makes it much more likely to preach to the choir. They still have some excellent opinion columnists, like Polly Toynbee, George Monbiot, Rafael Behr, John Harris and others, but daily news and culture coverage is on a somewhat downward, very outspokenly opinionated slope.
The vast majority of Guardian readers are Labour or LD voters as the vast majority of Telegraph readers are Conservative voters. The Times is the swing paper of the broadsheets and generally the most centrist.
If any paper switches from backing Boris in 2019 to backing Starmer next time it would likely be the Times
I get the Times and I sense it is having a think about that.
As a paper delivered? I'm sort of thinking that I need to do that (not specific to the Times)
They still have some excellent opinion columnists, like Polly Toynbee, George Monbiot..
Dear God. Speechless.
Polly Toynbee is perhaps more responsible for wrecking the Guardian brand, such as it was, than any other single individual. Imo.
Indeed. Probably the only articles on there I would never bother with.
I skip the Toynbee screeds too, but quite the worst op-ed articles in the Guardian are those written by 23-year olds called something like Charlotte Rhian Williams who grew up in Llanelli and now live in Hackney and feel that somehow this gives them a unique insight into the human condition.
She knows more about avocado and artisanal bread than any one alive.
It sounds like Whitty and Vallance are absolutely the drivers for more lockdown from that Telegraph report
IF - and this is a huge IF - it turns out their advice is ignored, and the nation survives, and there aren’t “6,000 deaths a day” or whatever bollox they are predicting, then they must be driven from public life, and forced to live in Wick, in Scotland.
There must be a price to pay for being SOOOOOO wrong. Seriously. If the boffins want to run the place, they must accept there is a cost to being a fucking idiot and getting it all wrong
That is: IF they are wrong
What is wrong with Wick
We have family there
Clearly you haven’t been?
ON OUR WICK ‘We escaped Taliban but hated life in depressing Wick – please don’t send us back to Scotland’, say Afghan refugees Graham Mann 9:00, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:41, 9 Dec 2021
AN Afghan refugee who revealed he’d rather risk being beheaded by the Taliban than stay any longer in Wick, Scotland, has fled to London, we can reveal.
Nothing wrong with Wick in that piece other than a lack of Afghani speakers. Which is unsurprising.
Mate, I’ve been to Wick. I went this “summer”, when it was perpetually overcast like a kind of Satanic torture.
Now, I love lots of Scotland, and I can even tolerate the climate, for a while. I am glad this beautiful land is part of Britain
But, Jesus, Wick. Don’t be an eejit. It is horrific. And the buildings are so incredibly ugly and dark. Wick, like other towns in Scotland, is one of the most depressing corners of this green earth. Right up there with the worst parts of the ex Soviet Union, or northern Peru, or Romania in winter. Hideous
I actually find London depressingly grimy and grey! I don't like being there on my own and only really feel comfortable when escorted by my friend (ironically enough he lives not far from you). And as for Wick, chacun a son gout, but I adore the local Old Red Sandstone, and the Pulteneytown fisherfolk quarter is a minor truimph of urban planning:
London is Sui generis. In the right mood and the right light - usually spring or summer, but also misty autumn and Christmas - it can be literally the most exhilarating place on earth. Nowhere else has the unique combination of enormous history - 2000 years of it - plus absolute modernity, plus elegant and fascinating architecture and history from all stages between
Stand downstream of Tower Bridge and look west and you will see Roman Walls, the Norman Tower of London, Wren steeples, Victorian marvels (Tower Bridge itself) and startling skyscrapers - the Shard, the Gherkin
What other city does that? Nowhere, that’s where. Not even Paris
PLUS London has that incredible variety of urban villages, from Greenwich to Camden to Brixton to Highgate to Borough to Mayfair to Notting Hill to Chelsea to Wapping to Shoreditch to Soho to Hempstead to Primrose Hill to Deptford to Canary Wharf to the City to to to to to
It is an extreme place. When it is desolate it can be extremely desolate. But, my word, what a city
It sounds like Whitty and Vallance are absolutely the drivers for more lockdown from that Telegraph report
IF - and this is a huge IF - it turns out their advice is ignored, and the nation survives, and there aren’t “6,000 deaths a day” or whatever bollox they are predicting, then they must be driven from public life, and forced to live in Wick, in Scotland.
There must be a price to pay for being SOOOOOO wrong. Seriously. If the boffins want to run the place, they must accept there is a cost to being a fucking idiot and getting it all wrong
That is: IF they are wrong
What is wrong with Wick
We have family there
Clearly you haven’t been?
ON OUR WICK ‘We escaped Taliban but hated life in depressing Wick – please don’t send us back to Scotland’, say Afghan refugees Graham Mann 9:00, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:41, 9 Dec 2021
AN Afghan refugee who revealed he’d rather risk being beheaded by the Taliban than stay any longer in Wick, Scotland, has fled to London, we can reveal.
Nothing wrong with Wick in that piece other than a lack of Afghani speakers. Which is unsurprising.
Mate, I’ve been to Wick. I went this “summer”, when it was perpetually overcast like a kind of Satanic torture.
Now, I love lots of Scotland, and I can even tolerate the climate, for a while. I am glad this beautiful land is part of Britain
But, Jesus, Wick. Don’t be an eejit. It is horrific. And the buildings are so incredibly ugly and dark. Wick, like other towns in Scotland, is one of the most depressing corners of this green earth. Right up there with the worst parts of the ex Soviet Union, or northern Peru, or Romania in winter. Hideous
I actually find London depressingly grimy and grey! I don't like being there on my own and only really feel comfortable when escorted by my friend (ironically enough he lives not far from you). And as for Wick, chacun a son gout, but I adore the local Old Red Sandstone, and the Pulteneytown fisherfolk quarter is a minor truimph of urban planning:
London is Sui generis. In the right mood and the right light - usually spring or summer, but also misty autumn and Christmas - it can be literally the most exhilarating place on earth. Nowhere else has the unique combination of enormous history - 2000 years of it - plus absolute modernity, plus elegant and fascinating architecture and history from all stages between
Stand downstream of Tower Bridge and look west and you will see Roman Walls, the Norman Tower of London, Wren steeples, Victorian marvels (Tower Bridge itself) and startling skyscrapers - the Shard, the Gherkin
What other city does that? Nowhere, that’s where. Not even Paris
PLUS London has that incredible variety of urban villages, from Greenwich to Camden to Brixton to Highgate to Borough to Mayfair to Notting Hill to Chelsea to Wapping to Shoreditch to Soho to Hempstead to Primrose Hill to Deptford to Canary Wharf to the City to to to to to
It is an extreme place. When it is desolate it can be extremely desolate. But, my word, what a city
Wick, it is not
It's with my friend that I can see (to some extent) that side of London - last time I was with him we spent a morning tracing the remains of the dockyard in between modern light industry and residential flats as a sort of urban palimpsest at Woolwich before going along to the Arsenal to see where cannon used to be cast and engineer officer cadets trained at the Arsenal.
I love London. It’s home. But it lacks sunshine, mountains and a beach.
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
It's great to have someone who believes what generations of vicars and headmasters merely pretend to believe, because we can ask the important questions.
Did God anoint all the popes up to and including the one who wouldn't let Henry VIII divorce, or was he also anointing the previous monarchs, but they just didn't know it?
God anoints all Popes still as head of the Roman Catholic Church on earth. However he anoints our monarch as head of the established church here in England
And again, this is the problem - as a nation we will roll over and accept cancelling New Year if it means we can do Christmas, because they have spent the last three weeks trying to frighten us. When so much of what they are proposing would have been dismissed as CCP-style draconia any time before 2020 and should still be considered so.
This tussle over Christmas is obviously expectation management for full lockdown from the 27th.
We're meant to be grateful for the delay.
Better not - I’ve got ice hockey and a meal with uni friends in Glasgow on the 27th. 28th would be fine though
I know you're being flippant, but this is the problem. So many people thinking 'well January'll be ok, I won't be going out much anyway' or some variant of it. Yet so much life will be missed. So many children's birthday parties unmarked. So many days uncelebrated. So many young people not meeting other young people and doing what happens on such occasions. Now I personally probably wouldn't be going to the pub for a good six weeks anyway, but that's because I'm 46 and have three young children. But that doesn't mean I'll be phlegmatic. 8pm curfew a long way beyond the pale for me.
And again, this is the problem - as a nation we will roll over and accept cancelling New Year if it means we can do Christmas, because they have spent the last three weeks trying to frighten us. When so much of what they are proposing would have been dismissed as CCP-style draconia any time before 2020 and should still be considered so.
100% this. 💯
I have a holiday booked for the first week of January. I'm really worried they're going to do something stupid like lockdown for the sake of having done something and the country will live with it because at least it isn't Christmas ruined.
James Ward @JamesWard73 · 31m this is interesting from South Africa: supporting the idea that Omicron is more transmissible than Delta, as well as having a significant degree of immune escape
It sounds like Whitty and Vallance are absolutely the drivers for more lockdown from that Telegraph report
IF - and this is a huge IF - it turns out their advice is ignored, and the nation survives, and there aren’t “6,000 deaths a day” or whatever bollox they are predicting, then they must be driven from public life, and forced to live in Wick, in Scotland.
There must be a price to pay for being SOOOOOO wrong. Seriously. If the boffins want to run the place, they must accept there is a cost to being a fucking idiot and getting it all wrong
That is: IF they are wrong
What is wrong with Wick
We have family there
Clearly you haven’t been?
ON OUR WICK ‘We escaped Taliban but hated life in depressing Wick – please don’t send us back to Scotland’, say Afghan refugees Graham Mann 9:00, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:41, 9 Dec 2021
AN Afghan refugee who revealed he’d rather risk being beheaded by the Taliban than stay any longer in Wick, Scotland, has fled to London, we can reveal.
Nothing wrong with Wick in that piece other than a lack of Afghani speakers. Which is unsurprising.
Mate, I’ve been to Wick. I went this “summer”, when it was perpetually overcast like a kind of Satanic torture.
Now, I love lots of Scotland, and I can even tolerate the climate, for a while. I am glad this beautiful land is part of Britain
But, Jesus, Wick. Don’t be an eejit. It is horrific. And the buildings are so incredibly ugly and dark. Wick, like other towns in Scotland, is one of the most depressing corners of this green earth. Right up there with the worst parts of the ex Soviet Union, or northern Peru, or Romania in winter. Hideous
I actually find London depressingly grimy and grey! I don't like being there on my own and only really feel comfortable when escorted by my friend (ironically enough he lives not far from you). And as for Wick, chacun a son gout, but I adore the local Old Red Sandstone, and the Pulteneytown fisherfolk quarter is a minor truimph of urban planning:
London is Sui generis. In the right mood and the right light - usually spring or summer, but also misty autumn and Christmas - it can be literally the most exhilarating place on earth. Nowhere else has the unique combination of enormous history - 2000 years of it - plus absolute modernity, plus elegant and fascinating architecture and history from all stages between
Stand downstream of Tower Bridge and look west and you will see Roman Walls, the Norman Tower of London, Wren steeples, Victorian marvels (Tower Bridge itself) and startling skyscrapers - the Shard, the Gherkin
What other city does that? Nowhere, that’s where. Not even Paris
PLUS London has that incredible variety of urban villages, from Greenwich to Camden to Brixton to Highgate to Borough to Mayfair to Notting Hill to Chelsea to Wapping to Shoreditch to Soho to Hempstead to Primrose Hill to Deptford to Canary Wharf to the City to to to to to
It is an extreme place. When it is desolate it can be extremely desolate. But, my word, what a city
Wick, it is not
It's with my friend that I can see (to some extent) that side of London - last time I was with him we spent a morning tracing the remains of the dockyard in between modern light industry and residential flats as a sort of urban palimpsest at Woolwich before going along to the Arsenal to see where cannon used to be cast and engineer officer cadets trained at the Arsenal.
I love London. It’s home. But it lacks sunshine, mountains and a beach.
But seriously, folks, I know that she’s accepted the WILL OF THE PEOPLE but I wonder whether the Brexiteers will be slightly discomfited by a Remainer getting the gig, no matter how much she appears to have recanted.
I suppose it’ll give them yet another excuse as Brexit conspicuously fails to deliver any of its promises for the bulk of its voters - ‘It was a Remainer wot ruined it.’
But then again the same applies to Frosty, doesn’t it? Nothing like the zeal of the convert, I suppose.
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
It's great to have someone who believes what generations of vicars and headmasters merely pretend to believe, because we can ask the important questions.
Did God anoint all the popes up to and including the one who wouldn't let Henry VIII divorce, or was he also anointing the previous monarchs, but they just didn't know it?
God anoints all Popes still as head of the Roman Catholic Church on earth. However he anoints our monarch as head of the established church here in England
How does he do that then
I think you’ll find, as confirmed by the great prophet Ariana, that God is a woman.
And again, this is the problem - as a nation we will roll over and accept cancelling New Year if it means we can do Christmas, because they have spent the last three weeks trying to frighten us. When so much of what they are proposing would have been dismissed as CCP-style draconia any time before 2020 and should still be considered so.
100% this. 💯
I have a holiday booked for the first week of January. I'm really worried they're going to do something stupid like lockdown for the sake of having done something and the country will live with it because at least it isn't Christmas ruined.
Fuckers.
I think the Cabinet not backing him is more of an issue than the letters to 1922.
Although these things are obviously related.
No PM can push thru measures very often against most of his/her Cabinet.
And again, this is the problem - as a nation we will roll over and accept cancelling New Year if it means we can do Christmas, because they have spent the last three weeks trying to frighten us. When so much of what they are proposing would have been dismissed as CCP-style draconia any time before 2020 and should still be considered so.
100% this. 💯
I have a holiday booked for the first week of January. I'm really worried they're going to do something stupid like lockdown for the sake of having done something and the country will live with it because at least it isn't Christmas ruined.
Fuckers.
Here's the thing - I'm currently recovering from surgery, so not too bothered by lockdown (it won't curtail my day to day activities too much given my condition).
It's remarkable how quickly this has influenced my view on lockdowns generally, and a good reminder of how instinctively selfish we all are.
But seriously, folks, I know that she’s accepted the WILL OF THE PEOPLE but I wonder whether the Brexiteers will be slightly discomfited by a Remainer getting the gig, no matter how much she appears to have recanted.
I suppose it’ll give them yet another excuse as Brexit conspicuously fails to deliver any of its promises for the bulk of its voters - ‘It was a Remainer wot ruined it.’
But then again the same applies to Frosty, doesn’t it? Nothing like the zeal of the convert, I suppose.
Not really. She seemed to get on with the job at hand in Trade.
And again, this is the problem - as a nation we will roll over and accept cancelling New Year if it means we can do Christmas, because they have spent the last three weeks trying to frighten us. When so much of what they are proposing would have been dismissed as CCP-style draconia any time before 2020 and should still be considered so.
100% this. 💯
I have a holiday booked for the first week of January. I'm really worried they're going to do something stupid like lockdown for the sake of having done something and the country will live with it because at least it isn't Christmas ruined.
Fuckers.
I think the Cabinet not backing him is more of an issue than the letters to 1922.
Although these things are obviously related.
No PM can push thru measures very often against most of his/her Cabinet.
Of the Cabinet only Gove and Javid would back another lockdown, Boris could not it through
Telegraph reporting that Johnson is considering an 8pm curfew for hospitality trade.
Bonkers on stilts with bells on.
The utter imbecility of that is that it would increase congestion between 5pm and 8pm.
And mean every true freeborn english man and woman would leave the pub at 8pm and go straight to a mate's house for a pissup on the sofa until 11pm.
These people have absolutely no idea how ordinary humans actually behave.
We are 2 years into this crisis and they still have no fecking idea what they are talking about.
The absolute madness is that they don't realise everyone is going to ignore any restriction they don't like because they know that's what Boris and his gang do.
On topic, I think Britain is running out of corruption.
They're outside. The virus doesn't transmit much outside. It's fine. You don't get it from wine.
Put on some warm clothes and go outside and drink some wine.
That's a good reason why the rule (law?) not to meet people socially outside was stupid and unnecessary, but since thy made the rule (law?) and expected everyone to follow it, and empowered the police to fine people for not doing so, then they should certainly have been following the rule (law?) themselves instead of taking the piss.
In a way, it's even *worse* that the rule/law was a waste of time.
It sounds like Whitty and Vallance are absolutely the drivers for more lockdown from that Telegraph report
IF - and this is a huge IF - it turns out their advice is ignored, and the nation survives, and there aren’t “6,000 deaths a day” or whatever bollox they are predicting, then they must be driven from public life, and forced to live in Wick, in Scotland.
There must be a price to pay for being SOOOOOO wrong. Seriously. If the boffins want to run the place, they must accept there is a cost to being a fucking idiot and getting it all wrong
That is: IF they are wrong
What is wrong with Wick
We have family there
Clearly you haven’t been?
ON OUR WICK ‘We escaped Taliban but hated life in depressing Wick – please don’t send us back to Scotland’, say Afghan refugees Graham Mann 9:00, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:41, 9 Dec 2021
AN Afghan refugee who revealed he’d rather risk being beheaded by the Taliban than stay any longer in Wick, Scotland, has fled to London, we can reveal.
Not only have I been many times, my wife stayed there during the war, and we have family living there
I like Wick. Great train journey
I mean, this is PB contrarianism taken to the ultimate level. By any metric Wick is a hideous and depressing place to live. Why bother disputing this?
That Afghan guy would literally rather risk being beheaded in Kabul than live in Wick, Scotland. Doesn’t that kind of say something? To even the deafest of PB-ears?
Cheap beer in the Pub I stayed in
I suspect the refugee wouldn't fully appreciate the Real Ale.
Nothing better than Rail Ale and Real Ale
On Whitty/Vallance: they need restrictions now: they can't risk infections peaking then starting to subside without them doing anything - because then what's the point of them?
On Wick: this absolutely is pb contrarianism at its best: well done to all involved. Like everyone, apparently, I've been to Wick. It was even bleaker than I expected. But it was grey and overcast on the day I visited; I've looked at it since on Streetview and it has a certain dour grandeur. Still - in all honesty, I'd rank it slightly lower than London in places I'd like to spend time.
But seriously, folks, I know that she’s accepted the WILL OF THE PEOPLE but I wonder whether the Brexiteers will be slightly discomfited by a Remainer getting the gig, no matter how much she appears to have recanted.
I suppose it’ll give them yet another excuse as Brexit conspicuously fails to deliver any of its promises for the bulk of its voters - ‘It was a Remainer wot ruined it.’
But then again the same applies to Frosty, doesn’t it? Nothing like the zeal of the convert, I suppose.
Not really. She seemed to get on with the job at hand in Trade.
Ah yes, all those fantastic trade deals. Great stuff.
But seriously, folks, I know that she’s accepted the WILL OF THE PEOPLE but I wonder whether the Brexiteers will be slightly discomfited by a Remainer getting the gig, no matter how much she appears to have recanted.
I suppose it’ll give them yet another excuse as Brexit conspicuously fails to deliver any of its promises for the bulk of its voters - ‘It was a Remainer wot ruined it.’
But then again the same applies to Frosty, doesn’t it? Nothing like the zeal of the convert, I suppose.
Not really. She seemed to get on with the job at hand in Trade.
Ah yes, all those fantastic trade deals. Great stuff.
This tussle over Christmas is obviously expectation management for full lockdown from the 27th.
We're meant to be grateful for the delay.
Better not - I’ve got ice hockey and a meal with uni friends in Glasgow on the 27th. 28th would be fine though
I know you're being flippant, but this is the problem. So many people thinking 'well January'll be ok, I won't be going out much anyway' or some variant of it. Yet so much life will be missed. So many children's birthday parties unmarked. So many days uncelebrated. So many young people not meeting other young people and doing what happens on such occasions. Now I personally probably wouldn't be going to the pub for a good six weeks anyway, but that's because I'm 46 and have three young children. But that doesn't mean I'll be phlegmatic. 8pm curfew a long way beyond the pale for me.
My viewpoint is that with omicron it’s already way too late initiate a lockdown that works but that isn’t going to stop the,.
We really need to focus on what the White House has just published and tell the unvaccinated that they are the people at real risk.
It sounds like Whitty and Vallance are absolutely the drivers for more lockdown from that Telegraph report
IF - and this is a huge IF - it turns out their advice is ignored, and the nation survives, and there aren’t “6,000 deaths a day” or whatever bollox they are predicting, then they must be driven from public life, and forced to live in Wick, in Scotland.
There must be a price to pay for being SOOOOOO wrong. Seriously. If the boffins want to run the place, they must accept there is a cost to being a fucking idiot and getting it all wrong
That is: IF they are wrong
What is wrong with Wick
We have family there
Clearly you haven’t been?
ON OUR WICK ‘We escaped Taliban but hated life in depressing Wick – please don’t send us back to Scotland’, say Afghan refugees Graham Mann 9:00, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:41, 9 Dec 2021
AN Afghan refugee who revealed he’d rather risk being beheaded by the Taliban than stay any longer in Wick, Scotland, has fled to London, we can reveal.
Nothing wrong with Wick in that piece other than a lack of Afghani speakers. Which is unsurprising.
Mate, I’ve been to Wick. I went this “summer”, when it was perpetually overcast like a kind of Satanic torture.
Now, I love lots of Scotland, and I can even tolerate the climate, for a while. I am glad this beautiful land is part of Britain
But, Jesus, Wick. Don’t be an eejit. It is horrific. And the buildings are so incredibly ugly and dark. Wick, like other towns in Scotland, is one of the most depressing corners of this green earth. Right up there with the worst parts of the ex Soviet Union, or northern Peru, or Romania in winter. Hideous
I actually find London depressingly grimy and grey! I don't like being there on my own and only really feel comfortable when escorted by my friend (ironically enough he lives not far from you). And as for Wick, chacun a son gout, but I adore the local Old Red Sandstone, and the Pulteneytown fisherfolk quarter is a minor truimph of urban planning:
London is Sui generis. In the right mood and the right light - usually spring or summer, but also misty autumn and Christmas - it can be literally the most exhilarating place on earth. Nowhere else has the unique combination of enormous history - 2000 years of it - plus absolute modernity, plus elegant and fascinating architecture and history from all stages between
Stand downstream of Tower Bridge and look west and you will see Roman Walls, the Norman Tower of London, Wren steeples, Victorian marvels (Tower Bridge itself) and startling skyscrapers - the Shard, the Gherkin
What other city does that? Nowhere, that’s where. Not even Paris
PLUS London has that incredible variety of urban villages, from Greenwich to Camden to Brixton to Highgate to Borough to Mayfair to Notting Hill to Chelsea to Wapping to Shoreditch to Soho to Hempstead to Primrose Hill to Deptford to Canary Wharf to the City to to to to to
It is an extreme place. When it is desolate it can be extremely desolate. But, my word, what a city
Wick, it is not
It's with my friend that I can see (to some extent) that side of London - last time I was with him we spent a morning tracing the remains of the dockyard in between modern light industry and residential flats as a sort of urban palimpsest at Woolwich before going along to the Arsenal to see where cannon used to be cast and engineer officer cadets trained at the Arsenal.
I love London. It’s home. But it lacks sunshine, mountains and a beach.
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
It's great to have someone who believes what generations of vicars and headmasters merely pretend to believe, because we can ask the important questions.
Did God anoint all the popes up to and including the one who wouldn't let Henry VIII divorce, or was he also anointing the previous monarchs, but they just didn't know it?
God anoints all Popes still as head of the Roman Catholic Church on earth.
Prof Francois Balloux @BallouxFrancois · 1h Actually, more recent data from Denmark looks more encouraging. Based on a far larger sample size, Omicron hospitalisations are at ~0.6% vs. ~1.5% for Delta (~60% down).
It sounds like Whitty and Vallance are absolutely the drivers for more lockdown from that Telegraph report
IF - and this is a huge IF - it turns out their advice is ignored, and the nation survives, and there aren’t “6,000 deaths a day” or whatever bollox they are predicting, then they must be driven from public life, and forced to live in Wick, in Scotland.
There must be a price to pay for being SOOOOOO wrong. Seriously. If the boffins want to run the place, they must accept there is a cost to being a fucking idiot and getting it all wrong
That is: IF they are wrong
What is wrong with Wick
We have family there
Clearly you haven’t been?
ON OUR WICK ‘We escaped Taliban but hated life in depressing Wick – please don’t send us back to Scotland’, say Afghan refugees Graham Mann 9:00, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:41, 9 Dec 2021
AN Afghan refugee who revealed he’d rather risk being beheaded by the Taliban than stay any longer in Wick, Scotland, has fled to London, we can reveal.
Nothing wrong with Wick in that piece other than a lack of Afghani speakers. Which is unsurprising.
Mate, I’ve been to Wick. I went this “summer”, when it was perpetually overcast like a kind of Satanic torture.
Now, I love lots of Scotland, and I can even tolerate the climate, for a while. I am glad this beautiful land is part of Britain
But, Jesus, Wick. Don’t be an eejit. It is horrific. And the buildings are so incredibly ugly and dark. Wick, like other towns in Scotland, is one of the most depressing corners of this green earth. Right up there with the worst parts of the ex Soviet Union, or northern Peru, or Romania in winter. Hideous
I actually find London depressingly grimy and grey! I don't like being there on my own and only really feel comfortable when escorted by my friend (ironically enough he lives not far from you). And as for Wick, chacun a son gout, but I adore the local Old Red Sandstone, and the Pulteneytown fisherfolk quarter is a minor truimph of urban planning:
London is Sui generis. In the right mood and the right light - usually spring or summer, but also misty autumn and Christmas - it can be literally the most exhilarating place on earth. Nowhere else has the unique combination of enormous history - 2000 years of it - plus absolute modernity, plus elegant and fascinating architecture and history from all stages between
Stand downstream of Tower Bridge and look west and you will see Roman Walls, the Norman Tower of London, Wren steeples, Victorian marvels (Tower Bridge itself) and startling skyscrapers - the Shard, the Gherkin
What other city does that? Nowhere, that’s where. Not even Paris
PLUS London has that incredible variety of urban villages, from Greenwich to Camden to Brixton to Highgate to Borough to Mayfair to Notting Hill to Chelsea to Wapping to Shoreditch to Soho to Hempstead to Primrose Hill to Deptford to Canary Wharf to the City to to to to to
It is an extreme place. When it is desolate it can be extremely desolate. But, my word, what a city
Wick, it is not
It's with my friend that I can see (to some extent) that side of London - last time I was with him we spent a morning tracing the remains of the dockyard in between modern light industry and residential flats as a sort of urban palimpsest at Woolwich before going along to the Arsenal to see where cannon used to be cast and engineer officer cadets trained at the Arsenal.
I love London. It’s home. But it lacks sunshine, mountains and a beach.
Primrose Hill is quite a climb.
Living near the Appalachians, it is hard to consider even Ben Nevis as anything more than a big hill.
It sounds like Whitty and Vallance are absolutely the drivers for more lockdown from that Telegraph report
IF - and this is a huge IF - it turns out their advice is ignored, and the nation survives, and there aren’t “6,000 deaths a day” or whatever bollox they are predicting, then they must be driven from public life, and forced to live in Wick, in Scotland.
There must be a price to pay for being SOOOOOO wrong. Seriously. If the boffins want to run the place, they must accept there is a cost to being a fucking idiot and getting it all wrong
That is: IF they are wrong
What is wrong with Wick
We have family there
Clearly you haven’t been?
ON OUR WICK ‘We escaped Taliban but hated life in depressing Wick – please don’t send us back to Scotland’, say Afghan refugees Graham Mann 9:00, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:41, 9 Dec 2021
AN Afghan refugee who revealed he’d rather risk being beheaded by the Taliban than stay any longer in Wick, Scotland, has fled to London, we can reveal.
Nothing wrong with Wick in that piece other than a lack of Afghani speakers. Which is unsurprising.
Mate, I’ve been to Wick. I went this “summer”, when it was perpetually overcast like a kind of Satanic torture.
Now, I love lots of Scotland, and I can even tolerate the climate, for a while. I am glad this beautiful land is part of Britain
But, Jesus, Wick. Don’t be an eejit. It is horrific. And the buildings are so incredibly ugly and dark. Wick, like other towns in Scotland, is one of the most depressing corners of this green earth. Right up there with the worst parts of the ex Soviet Union, or northern Peru, or Romania in winter. Hideous
I actually find London depressingly grimy and grey! I don't like being there on my own and only really feel comfortable when escorted by my friend (ironically enough he lives not far from you). And as for Wick, chacun a son gout, but I adore the local Old Red Sandstone, and the Pulteneytown fisherfolk quarter is a minor truimph of urban planning:
London is Sui generis. In the right mood and the right light - usually spring or summer, but also misty autumn and Christmas - it can be literally the most exhilarating place on earth. Nowhere else has the unique combination of enormous history - 2000 years of it - plus absolute modernity, plus elegant and fascinating architecture and history from all stages between
Stand downstream of Tower Bridge and look west and you will see Roman Walls, the Norman Tower of London, Wren steeples, Victorian marvels (Tower Bridge itself) and startling skyscrapers - the Shard, the Gherkin
What other city does that? Nowhere, that’s where. Not even Paris
PLUS London has that incredible variety of urban villages, from Greenwich to Camden to Brixton to Highgate to Borough to Mayfair to Notting Hill to Chelsea to Wapping to Shoreditch to Soho to Hempstead to Primrose Hill to Deptford to Canary Wharf to the City to to to to to
It is an extreme place. When it is desolate it can be extremely desolate. But, my word, what a city
Wick, it is not
It's with my friend that I can see (to some extent) that side of London - last time I was with him we spent a morning tracing the remains of the dockyard in between modern light industry and residential flats as a sort of urban palimpsest at Woolwich before going along to the Arsenal to see where cannon used to be cast and engineer officer cadets trained at the Arsenal.
i recommend - seriously - doing a daytime tour of Jack the Ripper murder sites
It’s a tiny corner of the eastern edge of the City, where it meets Whitechapel, Spitalfields, but it is absolutely electric with life. Skyscrapers collide with the rag trade and Brick Lane curry houses. Bengalis meet the bankers. Shoreditch hipster bars wrestle with bagel joints, sweat shops, Michelin star restaurants and Islamic primary schools. it is equally brilliant, alarming, unique, depressing, uplifting and surreal and you can see it all by following the brutal murders of the Ripper as he stalked the streets, butchering hookers
Prof Francois Balloux @BallouxFrancois · 1h Actually, more recent data from Denmark looks more encouraging. Based on a far larger sample size, Omicron hospitalisations are at ~0.6% vs. ~1.5% for Delta (~60% down).
Denmark is also about 15 days behind the UK on boosters and I assume has much lower acquired immunity.
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
"I anoint you, via this churchman with a vat of olive oil, to have a largely symbolic role with your government run by a serial adulterer"
Care to identify anyone perfect who could be appointed?
There's aparable about that - let the one without sin etc.
Amidst the gloom, it's worth noting that by Richard Lister's analysis, as UK Covid deaths continue to decline, we're now at a lower level for deaths-by-day-of-death than we've been since mid-August (we're not yet there by the data on the dashboard, who allow an extra couple of days for lag, but I'd expect to get there tomorrow); and worldwide, tomorrow, by worldometers data (yes, I know, but it does at least compare like with like and if anything as a planet we have got better at identifying covd deaths) we will bet at a point where the 7-day average of deaths is lower than at any point since October 2020.
But seriously, folks, I know that she’s accepted the WILL OF THE PEOPLE but I wonder whether the Brexiteers will be slightly discomfited by a Remainer getting the gig, no matter how much she appears to have recanted.
I suppose it’ll give them yet another excuse as Brexit conspicuously fails to deliver any of its promises for the bulk of its voters - ‘It was a Remainer wot ruined it.’
But then again the same applies to Frosty, doesn’t it? Nothing like the zeal of the convert, I suppose.
Not really. She seemed to get on with the job at hand in Trade.
Ah yes, all those fantastic trade deals. Great stuff.
Couldn't agree more.
So you’re genuinely not concerned that someone who was seemingly such a vociferous opponent of Brexit might, despite her undoubtedly genuine obeisance before the unlimited wisdom of 37% of the 2016 British electorate, might not still think, deep down, that Brexit is a bit, well, rubbish? Because I honestly find it hard to believe that someone could change their view so dramatically and so unequivocally.
No doubt she’ll do her best but if she isn’t, deep down in the core of her being, a True Believer, then will she meet the exacting demands of the Brexit Hard Man and his cronies? I suspect not.
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
Even I don't believe in absolute monarchy. Does not change the fact our constitutional monarch is anointed by God
This tussle over Christmas is obviously expectation management for full lockdown from the 27th.
We're meant to be grateful for the delay.
Better not - I’ve got ice hockey and a meal with uni friends in Glasgow on the 27th. 28th would be fine though
I know you're being flippant, but this is the problem. So many people thinking 'well January'll be ok, I won't be going out much anyway' or some variant of it. Yet so much life will be missed. So many children's birthday parties unmarked. So many days uncelebrated. So many young people not meeting other young people and doing what happens on such occasions. Now I personally probably wouldn't be going to the pub for a good six weeks anyway, but that's because I'm 46 and have three young children. But that doesn't mean I'll be phlegmatic. 8pm curfew a long way beyond the pale for me.
While I don't share your increasing gloom (though I do obviously share your glints of hope), I think you're right that it's what is being set up. The demands specifically to save Christmas make a populist like Johnson inevitably tempted to split the difference from the scientists and say "OK, 3 days of festive joy, then lockdown from the 27th".
That will I think (as you say) be seen as a fair deal by many, probably most people. The dangers are (a) SAGE is right and we need to lock down immediately and especially avoid Christmas gatherings or (b) Omicron really is mild and lockdown turns out to be dragged on unnecessarily.
I honestly don't know. But I'll be surprised if we don't get a "just be careful" warning through Christmas, and then a circuit-breaker for a couple of weeks.
This tussle over Christmas is obviously expectation management for full lockdown from the 27th.
We're meant to be grateful for the delay.
Better not - I’ve got ice hockey and a meal with uni friends in Glasgow on the 27th. 28th would be fine though
I know you're being flippant, but this is the problem. So many people thinking 'well January'll be ok, I won't be going out much anyway' or some variant of it. Yet so much life will be missed. So many children's birthday parties unmarked. So many days uncelebrated. So many young people not meeting other young people and doing what happens on such occasions. Now I personally probably wouldn't be going to the pub for a good six weeks anyway, but that's because I'm 46 and have three young children. But that doesn't mean I'll be phlegmatic. 8pm curfew a long way beyond the pale for me.
While I don't share your increasing gloom (though I do obviously share your glints of hope), I think you're right that it's what is being set up. The demands specifically to save Christmas make a populist like Johnson inevitably tempted to split the difference from the scientists and say "OK, 3 days of festive joy, then lockdown from the 27th".
That will I think (as you say) be seen as a fair deal by many, probably most people. The dangers are (a) SAGE is right and we need to lock down immediately and especially avoid Christmas gatherings or (b) Omicron really is mild and lockdown turns out to be dragged on unnecessarily.
I honestly don't know. But I'll be surprised if we don't get a "just be careful" warning through Christmas, and then a circuit-breaker for a couple of weeks.
People will do as they want from now on and why shouldn't they.
As to restrictions after Christmas by then it will be too late one way or another.
The only sensible course of action is to ask people to minimise contact until five days after they've had their booster.
The big question of our time, IMO, is why have the left become so puritanical recently?
Let me give an example: when you hear someone calling for a long prison sentence these days, they're almost as likely to be from the left as from the right — which is the opposite of what used to be the case until about 5 or 10 years ago.
Truss once supported a republic? And now Truss is a strong supporter of monarchy?
A conveniently adjustable Truss for quick if temporary support.
A potential leader after HYUFD’s own heart.
Though inexplicably he’s backing Sunak.
Sunak has always been a constitutional monarchist and backed Leave in 2016 too. Truss simply had a Damascene conversion to both from being a former Remainer and republican
Oh? How many Tories believe in the Divine Right and absolute monarchy, like the good old days of Henry VIII and the Stuart malignants? Do tell.
That was WHY Sacheverell was THE Tory of the Year 1709, when he was THE most vociferous and vocal supporter of the Divine Right this side of the Palace of Versailles.
Which is why the Whig ministry suppressed his reverend rear.
Or tried to, Sacheverell's trial turned out to be HUGE political blunder, the result being a big Tory victory in the 1710 general election. Which was much welcomed by Queen Anne, High Anglicans, Low Tories, Papists, Jacobites, Oxford University, the French, most Irish and other assorted riff-raff. Likely including the Vicar of Epping?
The Queen (of that day) was in a tricky position re: Divine Right, as she was only Queen because she, her big sister and her bro-in-law conspired against, fought and overthrew her own father, himself the elected and anointed of God.
Contradictory? Confusing? Cringe-making? Three Centuries of Conservative Commitment to Consistency!
Telegraph reporting that Johnson is considering an 8pm curfew for hospitality trade.
Bonkers on stilts with bells on.
That’s our New Year’s Eve meal screwed as we were due to eat at 7.45
If this goes through could the PM please announce it tomorrow am so that Daughter does not have to spend her one day off planning for non-existent trade. Thanks.
This evening - after last night's good evening - the revenue was all of £150 between 5 - 11 pm. A Sunday evening when food is not on, very frosty and misty and many regulars had come yesterday to hear the band. Still - for the last Sunday before Xmas not good at all.
So if there is a curfew there is little point opening at all. Tonight will have been its effective closure. Two week circuit breakers are a cruel deception. They last months.
It sounds like Whitty and Vallance are absolutely the drivers for more lockdown from that Telegraph report
IF - and this is a huge IF - it turns out their advice is ignored, and the nation survives, and there aren’t “6,000 deaths a day” or whatever bollox they are predicting, then they must be driven from public life, and forced to live in Wick, in Scotland.
There must be a price to pay for being SOOOOOO wrong. Seriously. If the boffins want to run the place, they must accept there is a cost to being a fucking idiot and getting it all wrong
That is: IF they are wrong
What is wrong with Wick
We have family there
Clearly you haven’t been?
ON OUR WICK ‘We escaped Taliban but hated life in depressing Wick – please don’t send us back to Scotland’, say Afghan refugees Graham Mann 9:00, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:41, 9 Dec 2021
AN Afghan refugee who revealed he’d rather risk being beheaded by the Taliban than stay any longer in Wick, Scotland, has fled to London, we can reveal.
Nothing wrong with Wick in that piece other than a lack of Afghani speakers. Which is unsurprising.
Mate, I’ve been to Wick. I went this “summer”, when it was perpetually overcast like a kind of Satanic torture.
Now, I love lots of Scotland, and I can even tolerate the climate, for a while. I am glad this beautiful land is part of Britain
But, Jesus, Wick. Don’t be an eejit. It is horrific. And the buildings are so incredibly ugly and dark. Wick, like other towns in Scotland, is one of the most depressing corners of this green earth. Right up there with the worst parts of the ex Soviet Union, or northern Peru, or Romania in winter. Hideous
I actually find London depressingly grimy and grey! I don't like being there on my own and only really feel comfortable when escorted by my friend (ironically enough he lives not far from you). And as for Wick, chacun a son gout, but I adore the local Old Red Sandstone, and the Pulteneytown fisherfolk quarter is a minor truimph of urban planning:
London is Sui generis. In the right mood and the right light - usually spring or summer, but also misty autumn and Christmas - it can be literally the most exhilarating place on earth. Nowhere else has the unique combination of enormous history - 2000 years of it - plus absolute modernity, plus elegant and fascinating architecture and history from all stages between
Stand downstream of Tower Bridge and look west and you will see Roman Walls, the Norman Tower of London, Wren steeples, Victorian marvels (Tower Bridge itself) and startling skyscrapers - the Shard, the Gherkin
What other city does that? Nowhere, that’s where. Not even Paris
PLUS London has that incredible variety of urban villages, from Greenwich to Camden to Brixton to Highgate to Borough to Mayfair to Notting Hill to Chelsea to Wapping to Shoreditch to Soho to Hempstead to Primrose Hill to Deptford to Canary Wharf to the City to to to to to
It is an extreme place. When it is desolate it can be extremely desolate. But, my word, what a city
Wick, it is not
It's with my friend that I can see (to some extent) that side of London - last time I was with him we spent a morning tracing the remains of the dockyard in between modern light industry and residential flats as a sort of urban palimpsest at Woolwich before going along to the Arsenal to see where cannon used to be cast and engineer officer cadets trained at the Arsenal.
I love London. It’s home. But it lacks sunshine, mountains and a beach.
Primrose Hill is quite a climb.
Living near the Appalachians, it is hard to consider even Ben Nevis as anything more than a big hill.
If you walk up the tourist path in July, probably. The Càrn Mòr Dearg Arête or Tower Ridge in winter? Definitely not just a hill.
I thought the Appalachians were mostly quite rounded though? Not really mountaineering territory.
But seriously, folks, I know that she’s accepted the WILL OF THE PEOPLE but I wonder whether the Brexiteers will be slightly discomfited by a Remainer getting the gig, no matter how much she appears to have recanted.
I suppose it’ll give them yet another excuse as Brexit conspicuously fails to deliver any of its promises for the bulk of its voters - ‘It was a Remainer wot ruined it.’
But then again the same applies to Frosty, doesn’t it? Nothing like the zeal of the convert, I suppose.
Not really. She seemed to get on with the job at hand in Trade.
Ah yes, all those fantastic trade deals. Great stuff.
Couldn't agree more.
So you’re genuinely not concerned that someone who was seemingly such a vociferous opponent of Brexit might, despite her undoubtedly genuine obeisance before the unlimited wisdom of 37% of the 2016 British electorate, might not still think, deep down, that Brexit is a bit, well, rubbish? Because I honestly find it hard to believe that someone could change their view so dramatically and so unequivocally.
No doubt she’ll do her best but if she isn’t, deep down in the core of her being, a True Believer, then will she meet the exacting demands of the Brexit Hard Man and his cronies? I suspect not.
What's that saying about the zeal of a convert? I believe Frosty too in a former life sang the praises of EU membership (though he later insisted on renegotiating).
[EDIT] I see I'm repeating a point already made in almost identical language. Must be time for bed.
It sounds like Whitty and Vallance are absolutely the drivers for more lockdown from that Telegraph report
IF - and this is a huge IF - it turns out their advice is ignored, and the nation survives, and there aren’t “6,000 deaths a day” or whatever bollox they are predicting, then they must be driven from public life, and forced to live in Wick, in Scotland.
There must be a price to pay for being SOOOOOO wrong. Seriously. If the boffins want to run the place, they must accept there is a cost to being a fucking idiot and getting it all wrong
That is: IF they are wrong
What is wrong with Wick
We have family there
Clearly you haven’t been?
ON OUR WICK ‘We escaped Taliban but hated life in depressing Wick – please don’t send us back to Scotland’, say Afghan refugees Graham Mann 9:00, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:41, 9 Dec 2021
AN Afghan refugee who revealed he’d rather risk being beheaded by the Taliban than stay any longer in Wick, Scotland, has fled to London, we can reveal.
Nothing wrong with Wick in that piece other than a lack of Afghani speakers. Which is unsurprising.
Mate, I’ve been to Wick. I went this “summer”, when it was perpetually overcast like a kind of Satanic torture.
Now, I love lots of Scotland, and I can even tolerate the climate, for a while. I am glad this beautiful land is part of Britain
But, Jesus, Wick. Don’t be an eejit. It is horrific. And the buildings are so incredibly ugly and dark. Wick, like other towns in Scotland, is one of the most depressing corners of this green earth. Right up there with the worst parts of the ex Soviet Union, or northern Peru, or Romania in winter. Hideous
I actually find London depressingly grimy and grey! I don't like being there on my own and only really feel comfortable when escorted by my friend (ironically enough he lives not far from you). And as for Wick, chacun a son gout, but I adore the local Old Red Sandstone, and the Pulteneytown fisherfolk quarter is a minor truimph of urban planning:
London is Sui generis. In the right mood and the right light - usually spring or summer, but also misty autumn and Christmas - it can be literally the most exhilarating place on earth. Nowhere else has the unique combination of enormous history - 2000 years of it - plus absolute modernity, plus elegant and fascinating architecture and history from all stages between
Stand downstream of Tower Bridge and look west and you will see Roman Walls, the Norman Tower of London, Wren steeples, Victorian marvels (Tower Bridge itself) and startling skyscrapers - the Shard, the Gherkin
What other city does that? Nowhere, that’s where. Not even Paris
PLUS London has that incredible variety of urban villages, from Greenwich to Camden to Brixton to Highgate to Borough to Mayfair to Notting Hill to Chelsea to Wapping to Shoreditch to Soho to Hempstead to Primrose Hill to Deptford to Canary Wharf to the City to to to to to
It is an extreme place. When it is desolate it can be extremely desolate. But, my word, what a city
Wick, it is not
It's with my friend that I can see (to some extent) that side of London - last time I was with him we spent a morning tracing the remains of the dockyard in between modern light industry and residential flats as a sort of urban palimpsest at Woolwich before going along to the Arsenal to see where cannon used to be cast and engineer officer cadets trained at the Arsenal.
I love London. It’s home. But it lacks sunshine, mountains and a beach.
Primrose Hill is quite a climb.
Living near the Appalachians, it is hard to consider even Ben Nevis as anything more than a big hill.
If you walk up the tourist path in July, probably. The Càrn Mòr Dearg Arête or Tower Ridge in winter? Definitely not just a hill.
I thought the Appalachians were mostly quite rounded though? Not really mountaineering territory.
The Appalachian Mountains are seriously eroded and often look rounded from affair, being mostly covered with But PLENTY of rocks, slopes, gorges, cliffs, outcrops, etc., etc, all the way from Georgia to Maine and beyond.
Vegetation covers most of these mountains, except for the highest and northern-most summits, which softens the view from affair. Up close, however, trees, bushes, brambles, vines and other growth are quite often serious impediments to fast travel let alone gracious living.
Same goes for most of the wildlife . . . and many of the inhabitants!
Fun fact: the New River, which flows north via a spectacular gorge through the heart of southern Appalachia to reach the Ohio River (as the Kanawha), is the OLDEST river in North America, and is older than the really old Appalachian Mountains.
The big question of our time, IMO, is why have the left become so puritanical recently?
Let me give an example: when you hear someone calling for a long prison sentence these days, they're almost as likely to be from the left as from the right — which is the opposite of what used to be the case until about 5 or 10 years ago.
Yeah, but it tends to be about certain crimes.
I recently heard Ayesha Hazarika say that rape had been decriminalised. I get that people are keen to see more rapes prosecuted/convicted, but that sort of statement suggests that some people have completely lost the plot.
- “Jamie Wallis, the MP for Bridgend in Wales said he was “assisting police with their enquiries” following the collision on November 28, when a car hit a lamppost.”
Comments
Stand downstream of Tower Bridge and look west and you will see Roman Walls, the Norman Tower of London, Wren steeples, Victorian marvels (Tower Bridge itself) and startling skyscrapers - the Shard, the Gherkin
What other city does that? Nowhere, that’s where. Not even Paris
PLUS London has that incredible variety of urban villages, from Greenwich to Camden to Brixton to Highgate to Borough to Mayfair to Notting Hill to Chelsea to Wapping to Shoreditch to Soho to Hempstead to Primrose Hill to Deptford to Canary Wharf to the City to to to to to
It is an extreme place. When it is desolate it can be extremely desolate. But, my word, what a city
Wick, it is not
Did God anoint all the popes up to and including the one who wouldn't let Henry VIII divorce, or was he also anointing the previous monarchs, but they just didn't know it?
Made me chuckle anyway.
Tiger and Charlie Woods shoot 15-under 57
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pO0Qn1dJ84
I hope I've written that in a sufficiently non-pejorative way as not to be rude! Apologies if so: it really isn't meant - I comment more on the surpriseI feel when encountering it than the nature of the belief.
They're outside. The virus doesn't transmit much outside. It's fine. You don't get it from wine.
Put on some warm clothes and go outside and drink some wine.
@lewis_goodall
One source in the devolved governments said of the PM: “He called the meeting. No one had actually asked for it. Then he didn't turn up.”
You don't generally invite everyone back to your place halfway through it.
Hopefully he "considers" it all the way into February.
Yet so much life will be missed. So many children's birthday parties unmarked. So many days uncelebrated. So many young people not meeting other young people and doing what happens on such occasions.
Now I personally probably wouldn't be going to the pub for a good six weeks anyway, but that's because I'm 46 and have three young children. But that doesn't mean I'll be phlegmatic.
8pm curfew a long way beyond the pale for me.
I have a holiday booked for the first week of January. I'm really worried they're going to do something stupid like lockdown for the sake of having done something and the country will live with it because at least it isn't Christmas ruined.
Fuckers.
James Ward
@JamesWard73
·
31m
this is interesting from South Africa: supporting the idea that Omicron is more transmissible than Delta, as well as having a significant degree of immune escape
https://twitter.com/JamesWard73/status/1472703563419860992
Labour ahead in the polls? Keir Starmer the most popular leader of the opposition since Blair?
I know, let's have a debate about socialism
Sorry, last one I promise.
But seriously, folks, I know that she’s accepted the WILL OF THE PEOPLE but I wonder whether the Brexiteers will be slightly discomfited by a Remainer getting the gig, no matter how much she appears to have recanted.
I suppose it’ll give them yet another excuse as Brexit conspicuously fails to deliver any of its promises for the bulk of its voters - ‘It was a Remainer wot ruined it.’
But then again the same applies to Frosty, doesn’t it? Nothing like the zeal of the convert, I suppose.
BREAKING: It appears that the man drinking wine in the photo is DOMINIC CUMMINGS
https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1472679626380034050?s=20
Although these things are obviously related.
No PM can push thru measures very often against most of his/her Cabinet.
If so, rip up your Sunak for PM betting slips.
It's remarkable how quickly this has influenced my view on lockdowns generally, and a good reminder of how instinctively selfish we all are.
In a way, it's even *worse* that the rule/law was a waste of time.
On Wick: this absolutely is pb contrarianism at its best: well done to all involved. Like everyone, apparently, I've been to Wick. It was even bleaker than I expected. But it was grey and overcast on the day I visited; I've looked at it since on Streetview and it has a certain dour grandeur. Still - in all honesty, I'd rank it slightly lower than London in places I'd like to spend time.
But preventing ordinary people going about their lawful business, and harming them, is not "annoyance".
Leaving your young child at school for hours, for example, because you are caught in a demonstrator-created traffic jam miles away.
We really need to focus on what the White House has just published and tell the unvaccinated that they are the people at real risk.
(Except all the non-RC Popes)
Prof Francois Balloux
@BallouxFrancois
·
1h
Actually, more recent data from Denmark looks more encouraging. Based on a far larger sample size, Omicron hospitalisations are at ~0.6% vs. ~1.5% for Delta (~60% down).
It’s a tiny corner of the eastern edge of the City, where it meets Whitechapel, Spitalfields, but it is absolutely electric with life. Skyscrapers collide with the rag trade and Brick Lane curry houses. Bengalis meet the bankers. Shoreditch hipster bars wrestle with bagel joints, sweat shops, Michelin star restaurants and Islamic primary schools. it is equally brilliant, alarming, unique, depressing, uplifting and surreal and you can see it all by following the brutal murders of the Ripper as he stalked the streets, butchering hookers
Also, great food. Everywhere
Start with an injunction relating to the Vaccine Booking system. That criminalises deliberately gumming it up, if worded appropriately.
Thpugh I expect there are offences under civil contingencies legislation, and perhaps under some of the Covid laws.
There's aparable about that - let the one without sin etc.
No doubt she’ll do her best but if she isn’t, deep down in the core of her being, a True Believer, then will she meet the exacting demands of the Brexit Hard Man and his cronies? I suspect not.
Was it the aura of menace and power I exuded ?
Or maybe it was because I was wearing a flat cap and long coat.
(Courtesy of Dave Allen)
That will I think (as you say) be seen as a fair deal by many, probably most people. The dangers are (a) SAGE is right and we need to lock down immediately and especially avoid Christmas gatherings or (b) Omicron really is mild and lockdown turns out to be dragged on unnecessarily.
I honestly don't know. But I'll be surprised if we don't get a "just be careful" warning through Christmas, and then a circuit-breaker for a couple of weeks.
As to restrictions after Christmas by then it will be too late one way or another.
The only sensible course of action is to ask people to minimise contact until five days after they've had their booster.
Let me give an example: when you hear someone calling for a long prison sentence these days, they're almost as likely to be from the left as from the right — which is the opposite of what used to be the case until about 5 or 10 years ago.
Which is why the Whig ministry suppressed his reverend rear.
Or tried to, Sacheverell's trial turned out to be HUGE political blunder, the result being a big Tory victory in the 1710 general election. Which was much welcomed by Queen Anne, High Anglicans, Low Tories, Papists, Jacobites, Oxford University, the French, most Irish and other assorted riff-raff. Likely including the Vicar of Epping?
The Queen (of that day) was in a tricky position re: Divine Right, as she was only Queen because she, her big sister and her bro-in-law conspired against, fought and overthrew her own father, himself the elected and anointed of God.
Contradictory? Confusing? Cringe-making? Three Centuries of Conservative Commitment to Consistency!
This evening - after last night's good evening - the revenue was all of £150 between 5 - 11 pm. A Sunday evening when food is not on, very frosty and misty and many regulars had come yesterday to hear the band. Still - for the last Sunday before Xmas not good at all.
So if there is a curfew there is little point opening at all. Tonight will have been its effective closure. Two week circuit breakers are a cruel deception. They last months.
Ah well ....
I thought the Appalachians were mostly quite rounded though? Not really mountaineering territory.
A bunch of saddos shout at people working retail, what a boring life they must lead
[EDIT] I see I'm repeating a point already made in almost identical language. Must be time for bed.
Vegetation covers most of these mountains, except for the highest and northern-most summits, which softens the view from affair. Up close, however, trees, bushes, brambles, vines and other growth are quite often serious impediments to fast travel let alone gracious living.
Same goes for most of the wildlife . . . and many of the inhabitants!
Fun fact: the New River, which flows north via a spectacular gorge through the heart of southern Appalachia to reach the Ohio River (as the Kanawha), is the OLDEST river in North America, and is older than the really old Appalachian Mountains.
I recently heard Ayesha Hazarika say that rape had been decriminalised. I get that people are keen to see more rapes prosecuted/convicted, but that sort of statement suggests that some people have completely lost the plot.
Current plans would see the age at which people are eligible for the state pension go up to 67 by 2028, and then eventually to 68.
Consultant LCP says life expectancy has stalled and no changes should be made for 30 years.
The government has just launched its latest review of the state pension age.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59698732
- “Jamie Wallis, the MP for Bridgend in Wales said he was “assisting police with their enquiries” following the collision on November 28, when a car hit a lamppost.”
Lamppost man 18,193
Labour 17,036
Lib Dem 2,368
Plaid Cymru 2,013
Brexit 1,811
Green 815
Bridgend result Welsh GE 2021
Labour 12,388
Lamppost man’s syndicate accomplice 8,324
Plaid Cymru 3,091
Ind 3,046
Ind 1,064
Lib Dem 782
Refuk 534
Gwlad 232
Looks like an easy Lab Gain in the current Johnson zeitgeist.
My tissue would be;
Lab 1/8
Con 6/1
Ld 10/1
Pc 20/1