If Omicron is likely to be far less dangerous and is going to rip through the population in relatively quick time, why not put in place measures to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of a surge in cases?
We have been asked to put together plans for staff absences of up to 50% that keep normal services running. I don't think they will be that high, but quite obviously that isn't a reasonable objective, particularly with 3 days to go until the holidays.
On the other hand, staff have been given free tickets for A Chorus Line at the theatre.
If Omicron is likely to be far less dangerous and is going to rip through the population in relatively quick time, why not put in place measures to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of a surge in cases?
Because they are not cost free
And because they probably won’t make much difference anyway, with a highly infectious virus at a sociable time of year, and especially given lockdown fatigue and the appalling example we’ve all been set.
Seeing the darts clip....I can only imagine the number of COVID infections that are coming from that event. It ticks pretty much every box for a super spreader event. Packed in people in a hot closed room, regularly getting up to squeeze past people to queue to get drinks and constantly chanting and singing.....
So you want all life affirming fun banned and another painful puritan Christmas? 🙁
I went to a get together with wider family in a pub tonight - I think owner and staff pleased it’s not a room and meals cancelled - and it was fun! It’s made me feel happy and alive. To be fair to what you are saying, it has been on my mind as I posted earlier, don’t like idea of family members dying of something because ambulances and hospitals all clogged up with covid victims, but how far to go to now in jabbed up Britain, what to destroy to flatten a predicted/not really predicted spike in hospital emissions? We have to believe in vaccines hype to do that at some point? Is that a fair argument?
I didn't say that, just saying that I think its pretty obvious that will spread Omicron like crazy. I wouldn't go to something like the darts without being triple jabbed and fully aware of the risks, but that's just me. I am confident that the vaccines provide the level of protection for those of us outside of the vulnerable category.
I've been thinking the same thing - as glorious as Ally Pally is I wouldn't be there. Half expecting some of the players to also get it, which would be less disruptive than you might think as there as so many matches and a Christmas break.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
Does that make him a medical doctor? I would have thought no. And is that a particularly relevant PhD for the things he is talking about? Just find it a bit misleading for him to use "Dr" in the circumstances.
He was promoting hydroxychloroquine in at least one video I saw last year, and apparently ivermectin more recently, so I find him generally a bit suspect.
I didn't say it did make him a medical doctor. My cousin has recently qualified as a medical doctor but I'm pretty sure she doesn't know as much about these subjects as John Campbell does.
That doesn't make John Campbell an expert in the subject.
One of my ex-students who has the misfortune to live in the Bura sent me a photo of two otherwise normal young women wearing 'BORIS IS A ****' t-shirts on a night out.
Johnson has transcended physical existence to become nothing more or less than pure meme.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
It's both
His rumoured fondness for the violin means that there is nothing he can do about it.
Meanwhile in America…. Donald Trump revealed he received a booster shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, drawing boos from a crowd of his supporters in Dallas.
It was good of him (or her) upstairs to lay on this global case study to demonstrate the foolishness of excess religiosity and alt-right conspiracy thinking; only, it doesn’t seem to be working…..
Whatever else we may all think of Donald J Trump, at least he’s doing his bit in trying to encourage vaccine take-up among groups that have been sceptical. He knew he was going to get booed, but still said it.
Hardly. He said beforehand that he probably wouldn't get the booster and then did it quietly in private. The only reason he mentioned it was to try and take credit for the vaccine.
If giving him the credit means that more Amercians get vaccinated and fewer die of Covid, then I say let him take the credit.
Take up of the original vaccine is 50% in a lot of communities in the States, letting even the most moronic morons try and encourage more vaccination can only be good in my book.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
It's both
His rumoured fondness for the violin means that there is nothing he can do about it.
Do you mean he's too attached to fiddling with her?
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
It's both
His rumoured fondness for the violin means that there is nothing he can do about it.
Do you mean he's too attached to fiddling with her?
Fairy nuff. Do you want to know what previous Tory successes think of Boris Johnson? I’m sure we can dig up some juicy quotes from Theresa May, David Cameron and John Major.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
It's both
His rumoured fondness for the violin means that there is nothing he can do about it.
Do you mean he's too attached to fiddling with her?
Maybe there are two superflous words, there?
Yes, but if he was detached from her the identified problem would go away.
Thoughts and prayers this morning with the struggles of elitist, metropolitan Brexiteers who had constructed an entire world view of working class peoples and cultures based on a few 1970s comedies, old TV adverts, 1990s lads mags and films about WW2.
Fairy nuff. Do you want to know what previous Tory successes think of Boris Johnson? I’m sure we can dig up some juicy quotes from Theresa May, David Cameron and John Major.
Ouch. Calling him a failure compared to Major? That's got to sting.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
It's both
His rumoured fondness for the violin means that there is nothing he can do about it.
Not only do I not know what you mean, I do not know that I do not know what you mean.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
It's both
His rumoured fondness for the violin means that there is nothing he can do about it.
Do you mean he's too attached to fiddling with her?
Maybe there are two superflous words, there?
Yes, but if he was detached from her the identified problem would go away.
This is a voyage into the hypothetical, but I’m thinking there might be some consequential fallout in such circumstances.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
It's both
His rumoured fondness for the violin means that there is nothing he can do about it.
Do you mean he's too attached to fiddling with her?
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
It's both
His rumoured fondness for the violin means that there is nothing he can do about it.
Do you mean he's too attached to fiddling with her?
Maybe there are two superflous words, there?
Yes, but if he was detached from her the identified problem would go away.
This is a voyage into the hypothetical, but I’m thinking there might be some consequential fallout in such circumstances.
He would doubtless Carrie it off with elan as he has before.
Thoughts and prayers this morning with the struggles of elitist, metropolitan Brexiteers who had constructed an entire world view of working class peoples and cultures based on a few 1970s comedies, old TV adverts, 1990s lads mags and films about WW2.
Know what you mean. Their analysis of Scottish electoral behaviour is based on their profound knowledge of Rab C. Nesbitt, Trainspotting, Andy Murray, and a rainy week in a tent in Strathyre when they were spotty teenagers.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
It's both
His rumoured fondness for the violin means that there is nothing he can do about it.
Do you mean he's too attached to fiddling with her?
2nd. It was always going to end with his erstwhile supporters and fans finding they have a cold fury when they realise they have been monumentally had.
If all you have is magician's tricks and lies, eventually the curtain falls away.
I would say many your erstwhile Boris supporters have never been comfortable with a fuck business agenda. Even thus morning after looking at The Daily Telegraph front page has Pubs and Restaurants £1.5B Xmas bill and braced for waves of bankruptcy - meanwhile the Governments positions is “no extra help because it isn’t a lockdown”.
Surely they have engineered a lock down by stealth by cunningly not giving clarity one way or other? Is this the value set that has people voting Conservative all their lives?
If you feck the small business community that, at least used to be, the absolute backbone of the conservative party then a reckoning is a coming.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
It's both
His rumoured fondness for the violin means that there is nothing he can do about it.
Do you mean he's too attached to fiddling with her?
Maybe there are two superflous words, there?
Yes, but if he was detached from her the identified problem would go away.
This is a voyage into the hypothetical, but I’m thinking there might be some consequential fallout in such circumstances.
He would doubtless Carrie it off with elan as he has before.
Thoughts and prayers this morning with the struggles of elitist, metropolitan Brexiteers who had constructed an entire world view of working class peoples and cultures based on a few 1970s comedies, old TV adverts, 1990s lads mags and films about WW2.
Really? I would have thought that clip pretty much confirmed that view. The mistake was thinking you can fool all the proles all the time
Fairy nuff. Do you want to know what previous Tory successes think of Boris Johnson? I’m sure we can dig up some juicy quotes from Theresa May, David Cameron and John Major.
Ouch. Calling him a failure compared to Major? That's got to sting.
Any objective analysis of the careers of John Major and William Hague would conclude that Major is a giant and Hague a pygmy. Plus John is a lovely chap and William is a repulsive, smelly wee thing that John used to call certain Eurosceptic backbenchers.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Why do newspapers publish articles like this, knowing they’ll end straight up in Private Eye?
My terrible time, having our extended family’s Maldives holiday extended by a fortnight, for free, because of a failed Covid test, but with no-one actually unwell.
Fairy nuff. Do you want to know what previous Tory successes think of Boris Johnson? I’m sure we can dig up some juicy quotes from Theresa May, David Cameron and John Major.
Ouch. Calling him a failure compared to Major? That's got to sting.
Any objective analysis of the careers of John Major and William Hague would conclude that Major is a giant and Hague a pygmy. Plus John is a lovely chap and William is a repulsive, smelly wee thing that John used to call certain Eurosceptic backbenchers.
Why do newspapers publish articles like this, knowing they’ll end straight up in Private Eye?
My terrible time, having our extended family’s Maldives holiday extended by a fortnight, for free, because of a failed Covid test, but with no-one actually unwell.
If Omicron is likely to be far less dangerous and is going to rip through the population in relatively quick time, why not put in place measures to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of a surge in cases?
That's a good idea. What would you do? Clue, this does not include any NPIs to slow the outbreak. It should all be about maximising hospital capacity.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
If Omicron is likely to be far less dangerous and is going to rip through the population in relatively quick time, why not put in place measures to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of a surge in cases?
The initial data looked like Omicron would tear through the population rapidly. That being the case I didn't see the point in restrictions if everyone would get it before they had chance to impose them. There was No Way anything would be imposed before Christmas because "Stand up if you hate Boris".
But, as Omicron appears to be going fast enough to be a big danger but not fast enough to swamp us, the rationale for some kind of action comes back into play. I said they would pull the trigger before New year and it still feels like the right timescale.
"Right" as in when they will do it. Not right in that it will be hateful damaging and destructive
Seeing the darts clip....I can only imagine the number of COVID infections that are coming from that event. It ticks pretty much every box for a super spreader event. Packed in people in a hot closed room, regularly getting up to squeeze past people to queue to get drinks and constantly chanting and singing.....
I thought that we had vaccine passes required for large events over 500 now, and that was why I have seen various idiots from the events' industry dribbling all over the media declaring how unfair it all was, and that there was no more risk from a 4990 crowd than a 499 crowd?
Good morning. Shortest day, and it looks like it through my window. Cooling down, too. My Thai family, who are visiting, will be wondering they will actually see the hoped for (by them) snow.
To me, the worst thing we have is uncertainty, and, a line I don't expect to write often, I have some sympathy for the PM. There is no way he can do the right thing, since no-one know what that is. My head wonders if aforementioned Thai family re-arrange their tickets and go home now, before either our or the Thai government closes borders. My heart looks forward to seeing all my family around me, and especially my wife, at Christmas. And my England-resident son wants his family to meet with their cousins; the 'children' all enjoy each others company. But is it wise to do so? What will the aftermath of the party be like?
So, as I say, what does the PM do? 'Let' families get together and risk more sickness around New Year? Or advise against not and hope for the best? Or close things down and risk the anger of the Mail and the Express? I don't think there's a good answer.
What I do think is an error is just to say to the hospitality industry, and indeed, to retailing 'tough".
Does that make him a medical doctor? I would have thought no. And is that a particularly relevant PhD for the things he is talking about? Just find it a bit misleading for him to use "Dr" in the circumstances.
He was promoting hydroxychloroquine in at least one video I saw last year, and apparently ivermectin more recently, so I find him generally a bit suspect.
If that's the case, then charlatan is the word you're looking for.
If Omicron is likely to be far less dangerous and is going to rip through the population in relatively quick time, why not put in place measures to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of a surge in cases?
We have been asked to put together plans for staff absences of up to 50% that keep normal services running. I don't think they will be that high, but quite obviously that isn't a reasonable objective, particularly with 3 days to go until the holidays.
On the other hand, staff have been given free tickets for A Chorus Line at the theatre.
Fucking hell.
What utter retard thought that one up?
Just a misunderstanding. The person who had that idea clearly thought the instruction was to come up with plans to ensure staff absences of ~50%
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
If the PM's wife has too much influence that's the PM's fault, not the wife's.
It's both
His rumoured fondness for the violin means that there is nothing he can do about it.
Not only do I not know what you mean, I do not know that I do not know what you mean.
That's the way things are supposed to be, and all is well in the world.
Fairy nuff. Do you want to know what previous Tory successes think of Boris Johnson? I’m sure we can dig up some juicy quotes from Theresa May, David Cameron and John Major.
Ouch. Calling him a failure compared to Major? That's got to sting.
Any objective analysis of the careers of John Major and William Hague would conclude that Major is a giant and Hague a pygmy. Plus John is a lovely chap and William is a repulsive, smelly wee thing that John used to call certain Eurosceptic backbenchers.
I thought you were comparing Johnson to Major.
@Chris said “Wise words from a previous Tory failure.” - which can only be referring to the William Hague article Mike headlines with? Or have I misunderstood?
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
The wife, the chief of staff, the press spokesperson and the mayoral candidate. Only one person to blame as the others are all overrated in importance. He rode a wave of populism with a wholly unsustainable coalition on a cause he never really believed in. The damage he will have done to the Tories in ridding it of its one nation wing will take at least a decade to unravel by which time a more sophisticated metropolitan and fairly angry electorate will have facilitated some changes to stop that happening again.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
They had the perfect opportunity last week, to table an amendment which would fall, giving them justification to oppose the restrictions - but they failed to take it, and the bill passed despite 99 votes against from the government benches.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
The wife, the chief of staff, the press spokesperson and the mayoral candidate. Only one person to blame as the others are all overrated in importance. He rode a wave of populism with a wholly unsustainable coalition on a cause he never really believed in. The damage he will have done to the Tories in ridding it of its one nation wing will take at least a decade to unravel by which time a more sophisticated metropolitan and fairly angry electorate will have facilitated some changes to stop that happening again.
The One Nation boys and girls aren’t coming back. Once PR is introduced there will be two centre-right parties and a far-right party split from what was once the Tory Party:
a) the sane ones b) the mad ones c) the frothing mad ones
Feel free to allocate prominent members of the PB herd to the appropriate sect. I’ll start with Richard Nabavi in Sect A. (Nice article yesterday Richard!)
Fairy nuff. Do you want to know what previous Tory successes think of Boris Johnson? I’m sure we can dig up some juicy quotes from Theresa May, David Cameron and John Major.
Ouch. Calling him a failure compared to Major? That's got to sting.
Any objective analysis of the careers of John Major and William Hague would conclude that Major is a giant and Hague a pygmy. Plus John is a lovely chap and William is a repulsive, smelly wee thing that John used to call certain Eurosceptic backbenchers.
I thought you were comparing Johnson to Major.
@Chris said “Wise words from a previous Tory failure.” - which can only be referring to the William Hague article Mike headlines with? Or have I misunderstood?
Well, yes, but the word 'previous' implies Johnson is also a failure.*
So I thought you were agreeing Johnson was a failure and it would be better to judge him against successful leaders like, er, John Major.
Seeing the darts clip....I can only imagine the number of COVID infections that are coming from that event. It ticks pretty much every box for a super spreader event. Packed in people in a hot closed room, regularly getting up to squeeze past people to queue to get drinks and constantly chanting and singing.....
I did laugh when I switched over to it for a few moments and heard the presenter say something along the lines of "...and all covid protocols are being followed here...".
Not that I think those protocols would do much difference (other than presumably ensuring everyone was vaccinated) but it was just a bit funny looking at a room rammed full of boozed up folk singing their heads off and pretending that somehow it's all "covid-secure" because protocols.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
Fairy nuff. Do you want to know what previous Tory successes think of Boris Johnson? I’m sure we can dig up some juicy quotes from Theresa May, David Cameron and John Major.
Ouch. Calling him a failure compared to Major? That's got to sting.
Any objective analysis of the careers of John Major and William Hague would conclude that Major is a giant and Hague a pygmy. Plus John is a lovely chap and William is a repulsive, smelly wee thing that John used to call certain Eurosceptic backbenchers.
I thought you were comparing Johnson to Major.
@Chris said “Wise words from a previous Tory failure.” - which can only be referring to the William Hague article Mike headlines with? Or have I misunderstood?
Well, yes, but the word 'previous' implies Johnson is also a failure.*
So I thought you were agreeing Johnson was a failure and it would be better to judge him against successful leaders like, er, John Major.
*incidentally, I don't disagree with this.
How about agreeing that we are both right. And fine, handsome, upstanding chaps to boot. Can’t say fairer than that.
Why do newspapers publish articles like this, knowing they’ll end straight up in Private Eye?
My terrible time, having our extended family’s Maldives holiday extended by a fortnight, for free, because of a failed Covid test, but with no-one actually unwell.
Sounds like the terrible time when the Icelandic volcano forced me ton spend another week on the South coast of france in the massive house we had rented.
That did actually have some stress though as none of us had smart phones then so trying to book transport out of there was hard.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
So Starmer had the perfect opportunity to inflict a major Parliamentary defeat on the government, and chose not to take it.
This is like Corbyn not abstaining the vote on Mrs May’s EU deal, which would have seen it pass and split the Tories in half. Instead, we got Johnson, Brexit and an 80 majority.
Fairy nuff. Do you want to know what previous Tory successes think of Boris Johnson? I’m sure we can dig up some juicy quotes from Theresa May, David Cameron and John Major.
Ouch. Calling him a failure compared to Major? That's got to sting.
Any objective analysis of the careers of John Major and William Hague would conclude that Major is a giant and Hague a pygmy. Plus John is a lovely chap and William is a repulsive, smelly wee thing that John used to call certain Eurosceptic backbenchers.
I thought you were comparing Johnson to Major.
@Chris said “Wise words from a previous Tory failure.” - which can only be referring to the William Hague article Mike headlines with? Or have I misunderstood?
Well, yes, but the word 'previous' implies Johnson is also a failure.*
So I thought you were agreeing Johnson was a failure and it would be better to judge him against successful leaders like, er, John Major.
*incidentally, I don't disagree with this.
How about agreeing that we are both right. And fine, handsome, upstanding chaps to boot. Can’t say fairer than that.
The key words from the lead are: They have always [previously] moved slowly and agonisingly to act, torn by inner conflict and uncertainty about what to do...This time I detect a cold anger, shorn of much of the agonising, as they begin to set their own private deadlines for the narrative of chaos to end
Seeing the darts clip....I can only imagine the number of COVID infections that are coming from that event. It ticks pretty much every box for a super spreader event. Packed in people in a hot closed room, regularly getting up to squeeze past people to queue to get drinks and constantly chanting and singing.....
I did laugh when I switched over to it for a few moments and heard the presenter say something along the lines of "...and all covid protocols are being followed here...".
Not that I think those protocols would do much difference (other than presumably ensuring everyone was vaccinated) but it was just a bit funny looking at a room rammed full of boozed up folk singing their heads off and pretending that somehow it's all "covid-secure" because protocols.
Remember that the protocols were almost certainly in place before they were made mandatory. Flash a QR code at the door staff who wave you through. A QR code which says you are double vaxxinated which as we're finding out doesn't mean much to our new friend Omicron.
Seeing the darts clip....I can only imagine the number of COVID infections that are coming from that event. It ticks pretty much every box for a super spreader event. Packed in people in a hot closed room, regularly getting up to squeeze past people to queue to get drinks and constantly chanting and singing.....
I did laugh when I switched over to it for a few moments and heard the presenter say something along the lines of "...and all covid protocols are being followed here...".
Not that I think those protocols would do much difference (other than presumably ensuring everyone was vaccinated) but it was just a bit funny looking at a room rammed full of boozed up folk singing their heads off and pretending that somehow it's all "covid-secure" because protocols.
Remember that the protocols were almost certainly in place before they were made mandatory. Flash a QR code at the door staff who wave you through. A QR code which says you are double vaxxinated which as we're finding out doesn't mean much to our new friend Omicron.
Why do newspapers publish articles like this, knowing they’ll end straight up in Private Eye?
My terrible time, having our extended family’s Maldives holiday extended by a fortnight, for free, because of a failed Covid test, but with no-one actually unwell.
Sounds like the terrible time when the Icelandic volcano forced me ton spend another week on the South coast of france in the massive house we had rented.
That did actually have some stress though as none of us had smart phones then so trying to book transport out of there was hard.
Ha. That was actually a fortnight before my sister’s wedding, and she was very nervous at the time that people from all over the place were not going to be able to attend. Thankfully, it all went off without incident in the end.
The wedding date I shall always remember, 11th May 2010, the day Brown resigned and Cameron became PM.
‘The latest from Denmark and #omicron. It appears omicron is associated with less hospitalizations compared to #delta Currently there’s less than 5 pts admitted to ICU. Population of 6 million. 3.5 weeks in.’
Same pattern as Ontario and SA. Many more cases, far fewer deaths and hospitalisations
We should know more for the UK later today.
The same pattern can now be seen in SA, NYC, Denmark, Ontario, and Alberta. Much less lethality
And the UK?
‘Some clever - and sophisticated - analyses indicating that the Omicron wave may be significantly milder than all previous ones, also in the UK (i.e. London). For the first time during the pandemic, there is a clear 'decorrelation' between case numbers and hospital admissions.’
I’m not popping the Bollinger, but it’s worth a cautious Christmas beer. Same pattern everywhere, so far…
Edit: I realize I am citing an anti-vaxxer here, but the data is legit, I think
That illustration is a bit misleading or rather bit of an optical illusion. Your eyes are draw to compare the massive spikes and where the deaths level at that stage. But big O is obviously massively more transmissible, so the ramp up of cases is much faster in days.
If you compare number of days from the start of the wave, it certainly not as large, but not as significant a difference as you might think that you see on first glance.
Sure, but look at Denmark, and New York, and London, and Canada. It’s the same pattern. It is surely milder. And a lot of the hospital admissions are incidental. Robert Smithson Jr was right
Question is: can it still crush health systems by sheer number of cases? Because it is also much more infectious
If it cruses heath systems, it will be because of the large number of medical staff who have it themselves and are off sick, at one point a week or so back I believe 20%
counter intuitive as this may sound the best approach might be to stop/reduce the amount of testing, and only be absent form work if you are showing symptoms, alternatively and slightly less radical, test every day you are off and return to work as soon as you have a negative test.
Do you have a source for that 20% figure?
1.3m FTE staff in the NHS give or take. More than half a million Nurses and Doctors, plus health care assistants and other medical staff.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
So Starmer had the perfect opportunity to inflict a major Parliamentary defeat on the government, and chose not to take it.
This is like Corbyn not abstaining the vote on Mrs May’s EU deal, which would have seen it pass and split the Tories in half. Instead, we got Johnson, Brexit and an 80 majority.
Starmer has Johnson exactly where he wants him. I can understand why this displeases you.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
So Starmer had the perfect opportunity to inflict a major Parliamentary defeat on the government, and chose not to take it.
This is like Corbyn not abstaining the vote on Mrs May’s EU deal, which would have seen it pass and split the Tories in half. Instead, we got Johnson, Brexit and an 80 majority.
Starmer and the Labour front bench have been clear that they are voting for Plan B because they believe it is needed. Opposition for the sake of opposition is not what we need right now - and the remaining Peppa apologists would have been "SEE, HE IS PLAYING PARTY POLITICS".
Personally I would have voted against and pushed forward amendments to force recall of parliament before Peppa does full lockdown, but I'm not a Labour MP so my opinion doesn't matter here.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
The wife, the chief of staff, the press spokesperson and the mayoral candidate. Only one person to blame as the others are all overrated in importance. He rode a wave of populism with a wholly unsustainable coalition on a cause he never really believed in. The damage he will have done to the Tories in ridding it of its one nation wing will take at least a decade to unravel by which time a more sophisticated metropolitan and fairly angry electorate will have facilitated some changes to stop that happening again.
“More sophisticated”. People like you presumably. Sorry to break it to you but the darts crowd aren’t going away. If we have PR, they’ll be voting under those rules too. And I suspect some will be electing candidates that the “sophisticated” part of the electorate won’t like much.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
So Starmer had the perfect opportunity to inflict a major Parliamentary defeat on the government, and chose not to take it.
This is like Corbyn not abstaining the vote on Mrs May’s EU deal, which would have seen it pass and split the Tories in half. Instead, we got Johnson, Brexit and an 80 majority.
Starmer and the Labour front bench have been clear that they are voting for Plan B because they believe it is needed. Opposition for the sake of opposition is not what we need right now - and the remaining Peppa apologists would have been "SEE, HE IS PLAYING PARTY POLITICS".
Personally I would have voted against and pushed forward amendments to force recall of parliament before Peppa does full lockdown, but I'm not a Labour MP so my opinion doesn't matter here.
It's a judgement call. Doing it their way, they get some 'responsibility' brownie points, and leave the clown in place to break a few more vases.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
The 100 aren't shits, they're brave for standing up for our civil liberties and freedom. They're scrutinising and doing their job as Parliamentarians and we should be grateful for them.
What a shame others aren't so interested in doing their job.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
Cummings never steadied any ship. All his qualities were essentially destructive.
The issue is, that Cummings’ departure has left a massive hole where there needs to be someone actually running the show in No.10.
The problem, as discussed a couple of days ago, is that no-one who’s going to be any good wants the job - because of the wife. How do you solve a problem like Carrie?
The wife, the chief of staff, the press spokesperson and the mayoral candidate. Only one person to blame as the others are all overrated in importance. He rode a wave of populism with a wholly unsustainable coalition on a cause he never really believed in. The damage he will have done to the Tories in ridding it of its one nation wing will take at least a decade to unravel by which time a more sophisticated metropolitan and fairly angry electorate will have facilitated some changes to stop that happening again.
The One Nation boys and girls aren’t coming back. Once PR is introduced there will be two centre-right parties and a far-right party split from what was once the Tory Party:
a) the sane ones b) the mad ones c) the frothing mad ones
Feel free to allocate prominent members of the PB herd to the appropriate sect. I’ll start with Richard Nabavi in Sect A. (Nice article yesterday Richard!)
Is it possible to apply to not be put in any of the three post-Conservative sects?
(Having said that, as a wishy-washy liberal type I could potentially live with sect A and I'd be happy to share a ect with Richard; better than sect C of the Labour party, anyway...)
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
So Starmer had the perfect opportunity to inflict a major Parliamentary defeat on the government, and chose not to take it.
This is like Corbyn not abstaining the vote on Mrs May’s EU deal, which would have seen it pass and split the Tories in half. Instead, we got Johnson, Brexit and an 80 majority.
Starmer and the Labour front bench have been clear that they are voting for Plan B because they believe it is needed. Opposition for the sake of opposition is not what we need right now - and the remaining Peppa apologists would have been "SEE, HE IS PLAYING PARTY POLITICS".
Personally I would have voted against and pushed forward amendments to force recall of parliament before Peppa does full lockdown, but I'm not a Labour MP so my opinion doesn't matter here.
He could and should have made his support for Plan B conditional upon support for hospitality (or some other demand) though.
The Government would have had no choice but to concede that as a concession to win his votes knowing they couldn't carry the day on their own. That would have been a major scalp, and given something to the public that Starmer could claim credit for
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
The 100 aren't shits, they're brave for standing up for our civil liberties and freedom. They're scrutinising and doing their job as Parliamentarians and we should be grateful for them.
What a shame others aren't so interested in doing their job.
“ civil liberties and freedom”. Puhrleeese…
Civil liberties and freedom went out the door when you let Nigel Farage change the constitution of the United Kingdom with a parliamentary group of two. It was a classic coup d’état.
The UK is as “civil” and “free” as a bar brawl in one of SeanT’s whorehouses.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
So Starmer had the perfect opportunity to inflict a major Parliamentary defeat on the government, and chose not to take it.
This is like Corbyn not abstaining the vote on Mrs May’s EU deal, which would have seen it pass and split the Tories in half. Instead, we got Johnson, Brexit and an 80 majority.
Starmer and the Labour front bench have been clear that they are voting for Plan B because they believe it is needed. Opposition for the sake of opposition is not what we need right now - and the remaining Peppa apologists would have been "SEE, HE IS PLAYING PARTY POLITICS".
Personally I would have voted against and pushed forward amendments to force recall of parliament before Peppa does full lockdown, but I'm not a Labour MP so my opinion doesn't matter here.
He could and should have made his support for Plan B conditional upon support for hospitality (or some other demand) though.
The Government would have had no choice but to concede that as a concession to win his votes knowing they couldn't carry the day on their own. That would have been a major scalp, and given something to the public that Starmer could claim credit for
Instead he gave a blank cheque unconditionally.
But it would be a bluff, and if called would have put them in a fine pickle.
Why do newspapers publish articles like this, knowing they’ll end straight up in Private Eye?
My terrible time, having our extended family’s Maldives holiday extended by a fortnight, for free, because of a failed Covid test, but with no-one actually unwell.
‘The latest from Denmark and #omicron. It appears omicron is associated with less hospitalizations compared to #delta Currently there’s less than 5 pts admitted to ICU. Population of 6 million. 3.5 weeks in.’
Same pattern as Ontario and SA. Many more cases, far fewer deaths and hospitalisations
We should know more for the UK later today.
The same pattern can now be seen in SA, NYC, Denmark, Ontario, and Alberta. Much less lethality
And the UK?
‘Some clever - and sophisticated - analyses indicating that the Omicron wave may be significantly milder than all previous ones, also in the UK (i.e. London). For the first time during the pandemic, there is a clear 'decorrelation' between case numbers and hospital admissions.’
I’m not popping the Bollinger, but it’s worth a cautious Christmas beer. Same pattern everywhere, so far…
Edit: I realize I am citing an anti-vaxxer here, but the data is legit, I think
That illustration is a bit misleading or rather bit of an optical illusion. Your eyes are draw to compare the massive spikes and where the deaths level at that stage. But big O is obviously massively more transmissible, so the ramp up of cases is much faster in days.
If you compare number of days from the start of the wave, it certainly not as large, but not as significant a difference as you might think that you see on first glance.
Sure, but look at Denmark, and New York, and London, and Canada. It’s the same pattern. It is surely milder. And a lot of the hospital admissions are incidental. Robert Smithson Jr was right
Question is: can it still crush health systems by sheer number of cases? Because it is also much more infectious
If it cruses heath systems, it will be because of the large number of medical staff who have it themselves and are off sick, at one point a week or so back I believe 20%
counter intuitive as this may sound the best approach might be to stop/reduce the amount of testing, and only be absent form work if you are showing symptoms, alternatively and slightly less radical, test every day you are off and return to work as soon as you have a negative test.
Do you have a source for that 20% figure?
1.3m FTE staff in the NHS give or take. More than half a million Nurses and Doctors, plus health care assistants and other medical staff.
The figures that I have seen are around 15% staff absences in Inner London.
So far it hasn't impacted here in Leicester in a big way. Patient numbers 115 yesterday with a dozen on ICU, much the same as the last 3 months.
The harbinger of doom perhaps was that 2 of our three in a key admin role in bookings are off isolating, leaving someone with 2 months experience the last woman standing. She is pretty good though going to be a bit stretched, particularly as the phone never stops with people cancelling and rebooting.
London’s streets deserted: restaurants and pubs empty. The gulf between the people, mindful of the danger of Omicron, and our real governors - Graham Brady and the 1922 committee garnering letters for the next Tory regicide - could not be wider or deeper. https://twitter.com/williamnhutton/status/1473079464045297668
London isn't deserted because people are scared of the personal risk of omicron. London is deserted because they they know that omicron is extremely infectious and they are scared that it might cause them to miss Xmas because of isolation rules.
Mr. Dickson, if that's an EU reference then that did follow a referendum (you might recall it, though I know the SNP is keener on calling such votes than accepting the results).
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
The 100 aren't shits, they're brave for standing up for our civil liberties and freedom. They're scrutinising and doing their job as Parliamentarians and we should be grateful for them.
What a shame others aren't so interested in doing their job.
If only they were as concerned about the threats to freedom in the Changes to Elections and the Anti-Legitimate Protest legislation.
Why do newspapers publish articles like this, knowing they’ll end straight up in Private Eye?
My terrible time, having our extended family’s Maldives holiday extended by a fortnight, for free, because of a failed Covid test, but with no-one actually unwell.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
So Starmer had the perfect opportunity to inflict a major Parliamentary defeat on the government, and chose not to take it.
This is like Corbyn not abstaining the vote on Mrs May’s EU deal, which would have seen it pass and split the Tories in half. Instead, we got Johnson, Brexit and an 80 majority.
Starmer and the Labour front bench have been clear that they are voting for Plan B because they believe it is needed. Opposition for the sake of opposition is not what we need right now - and the remaining Peppa apologists would have been "SEE, HE IS PLAYING PARTY POLITICS".
Personally I would have voted against and pushed forward amendments to force recall of parliament before Peppa does full lockdown, but I'm not a Labour MP so my opinion doesn't matter here.
He could and should have made his support for Plan B conditional upon support for hospitality (or some other demand) though.
The Government would have had no choice but to concede that as a concession to win his votes knowing they couldn't carry the day on their own. That would have been a major scalp, and given something to the public that Starmer could claim credit for
Instead he gave a blank cheque unconditionally.
But it would be a bluff, and if called would have put them in a fine pickle.
No pickle, so long as you're not bluffing. Vote down Plan B and say "come back tomorrow with a plan that has support as well as restrictions and we will vote for it as we already said".
If asked why you're rejecting restrictions say that you're not, but that any restrictions must come with support attached.
Either the Government lets the restrictions fall away, in which case that's the Government's responsibility and they'll carry the can for that, or the Government gives in at which point you show the public what you gained for them and say that you're the real power now.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
So Starmer had the perfect opportunity to inflict a major Parliamentary defeat on the government, and chose not to take it.
This is like Corbyn not abstaining the vote on Mrs May’s EU deal, which would have seen it pass and split the Tories in half. Instead, we got Johnson, Brexit and an 80 majority.
Starmer and the Labour front bench have been clear that they are voting for Plan B because they believe it is needed. Opposition for the sake of opposition is not what we need right now - and the remaining Peppa apologists would have been "SEE, HE IS PLAYING PARTY POLITICS".
Personally I would have voted against and pushed forward amendments to force recall of parliament before Peppa does full lockdown, but I'm not a Labour MP so my opinion doesn't matter here.
Starmer’s actions in recent weeks show he is at best a C List politician. He’s been willing with scant evidence to back damaging restrictions, even though he knows they will do nothing to arrest the spread of covid or encourage vaccine uptake in the vulnerable.
He thought he was being clever. Being clever would have been to seize the agenda and lay out a raft of amendments that actually did some positive good, both in terms of reducing hospitalisations, improving capacity to deal with any uptick in cases and providing an economic safety net. “We are no longer just the government in waiting, we are the ones providing the leadership and clarity of thought lacking from the supposed government”.
What this means for the betting folks, is that with the right leader and Cabinet and a fair rub of the green, at election time a Tory majority will be favourite against a narrowly hung parliament. When really, Labour should be sweeping up in England & Wales and becoming the party of unionism in Scotland.
If you thought the arrogance, incompetence, selfishness, laziness and entitlement of the Prime Minister was only a Westminster Bubble story, then here is the definitive proof that you are 100% wrong. You don’t get better cut-through than this nowadays:
Daily Mail (yes, Daily Mail) headline:
- “He's lost the room! Darts fans sing 'Stand up if you hate Boris' in unison at the World Championships while football fans chant expletives about him as the fallout from the No10 Christmas party rows continues”
His only way out now retaining a modicum of dignity is the Long Covid explanation. Up with your hands Boris and admit the decades of overeating, over drinking and promiscuity had left you woefully ill-prepared for a nasty viral infection. You are not well and you need to focus on your many, many children, and your own health. About 25% of the population will feel sorry for you and wish you well. The other 75% will shout Fuck Off and Good Riddance. The Conservative parliamentary group is in the latter category.
It’s fun to laugh at everyone singing songs about the prime minister - but under almost any other PM, and certainly under a PM from any other party, there wouldn’t be a crowd of 3,000 people at the darts.
1) I’m not laughing.
2) It’s not fun.
3) “3,000 people at the darts” actually gets to the very heart of the problem(s)
At what point Sandpit have you had enough? You’re a good Tory. You are within Johnson’s “constituency” (as in his support base rather than geographically). You share his ideology. You are one of his “season ticket holders”, as @dixiedean put it upthread. So, at what point do you simply have to call it a day for Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, aka Binky the Clown?
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Johnson, but he was a necessary part of getting something that looked like Brexit through.
Happy to see him replaced in the new year - unless he can quickly steady the ship with a new Cummings, there will be a rout in the local elections which will likely be the trigger.
I do laugh at all the people shouting about the PM at an event, unaware of the irony that if the other lot were in charge it would be being held behind closed doors.
How is it irony? So many of them will have voted for Boris. The other lot aren't in government. They're expressing their displeasure at this lot - what does the other lot have to do with it.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
Spot on.
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
So why has the Opposition been voting for all the restrictions?
Because, like John Major before him, Boris Johnson has lost command of his own parliamentary party. John only had 10 backbench shits. Boris has 100.
The 100 aren't shits, they're brave for standing up for our civil liberties and freedom. They're scrutinising and doing their job as Parliamentarians and we should be grateful for them.
What a shame others aren't so interested in doing their job.
“ civil liberties and freedom”. Puhrleeese…
Civil liberties and freedom went out the door when you let Nigel Farage change the constitution of the United Kingdom with a parliamentary group of two. It was a classic coup d’état.
The UK is as “civil” and “free” as a bar brawl in one of SeanT’s whorehouses.
Taking away citizenship and locking up peaceful protestors does not make for "civil liberties and freedom".
What we have is a government that wants us to be docile drunks, tugging our forelocks at the great and good.
London’s streets deserted: restaurants and pubs empty. The gulf between the people, mindful of the danger of Omicron, and our real governors - Graham Brady and the 1922 committee garnering letters for the next Tory regicide - could not be wider or deeper. https://twitter.com/williamnhutton/status/1473079464045297668
London isn't deserted because people are scared of the personal risk of omicron. London is deserted because they are scared they know that omicron is extremely infectious and they are scared that it might cause them to miss Xmas.
Who knows - maybe just a few of them are concerned about the effect on other people rather than just self, self, self?
But I must confess every time I read the comments here, I veer back towards thinking people are concerned only about self, self, self.
Why do newspapers publish articles like this, knowing they’ll end straight up in Private Eye?
My terrible time, having our extended family’s Maldives holiday extended by a fortnight, for free, because of a failed Covid test, but with no-one actually unwell.
London isn't deserted because people are scared of the personal risk of omicron. London is deserted because they they know that omicron is extremely infectious and they are scared that it might cause them to miss Xmas because of isolation rules.
They're not scared of Omicron, they're just scared of catching Omicron...
My understanding is that warrant or no warrant debt enforcers have no power to break into a house through a locked over an unpaid energy bill, especially not in the absence of the owner, and if they do they are committing the crime of breaking and entering.
So how come these people have not been named and prosecuted? £500 goodwill gesture doesn't begin to address the gravity of what they've done.
And how come the CEO and the payments division are not also in the dock for conspiring to gain unlawful entry and pervert the course of justice?
Because that's what it will take to stop this nonsense.
Edit - I'm sure I've asked this question before, but I've forgotten the answer. At the same time, the mere fact it's still ongoing is pretty outrageous.
IDS on R4 talking a lot of sense (yes I know), then a representative of ICU doctors gave the opposite view which was compelling. Difficult stuff isn't it.
Also I have always been in favour of vaccine passports, but not compulsion, but hearing the impact of unvaccinated on ICU and the knock on effect to the NHS in general and others not being able to be treated, I'm coming to the view that the unvaccinated should be strapped down and forcibly jabbed and then slapped.
Does that make him a medical doctor? I would have thought no. And is that a particularly relevant PhD for the things he is talking about? Just find it a bit misleading for him to use "Dr" in the circumstances.
He was promoting hydroxychloroquine in at least one video I saw last year, and apparently ivermectin more recently, so I find him generally a bit suspect.
Categories of people I would listen to on the pandemic, in some kind of order, but certainly interchangeable at each rank 1. CMO etc (largely best info as they are taking advice from all the below) 2. Virologists 3. Anyone from the ONS and equivalents 4. Infectious disease epidemiologists 5. Infectious disease modellers (with the obvious caveats about inputs) 6. NHS chiefs, e.g. at Trust level as they have a better overview than individual clinicians of the wider hospital situation 7. Clinicians (doctors and nurses) but only for reports of situation on the ground, observed severity etc; most are not public health experts 8. Aerosol physicists and others with out-of-medical-field expertise, including others with modelling expertise 9. Epidemiologists in non-infectious disease, who can call out some of the nonsense and explain how some processes/models work, but are not any better placed to predict than e.g. clinicians (this category includes me) ..... 10^9. Most journalists 10^100. The cabinet/PM
Variations, of course. Some modellers are not worth listening to, some clinicians with greater public health experience would go further up etc. A few journalists should be much higher. Aerosol physicists had vital information early on that was ignored for too long.
I've left out SAGE and iSAGE as I'd rather consider individuals' expertise. SAGE behavioural experts have an important role to play, but they're not experts on the pandemic, just on behaviour. Many in iSAGE are in the lower groups due to being out of field for Covid, despite being eminent in their own fields.
If Omicron is likely to be far less dangerous and is going to rip through the population in relatively quick time, why not put in place measures to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of a surge in cases?
Because they are not cost free
And because they probably won’t make much difference anyway, with a highly infectious virus at a sociable time of year, and especially given lockdown fatigue and the appalling example we’ve all been set.
Does that make him a medical doctor? I would have thought no. And is that a particularly relevant PhD for the things he is talking about? Just find it a bit misleading for him to use "Dr" in the circumstances.
He was promoting hydroxychloroquine in at least one video I saw last year, and apparently ivermectin more recently, so I find him generally a bit suspect.
Categories of people I would listen to on the pandemic, in some kind of order, but certainly interchangeable at each rank 1. CMO etc (largely best info as they are taking advice from all the below) 2. Virologists 3. Anyone from the ONS and equivalents 4. Infectious disease epidemiologists 5. Infectious disease modellers (with the obvious caveats about inputs) 6. NHS chiefs, e.g. at Trust level as they have a better overview than individual clinicians of the wider hospital situation 7. Clinicians (doctors and nurses) but only for reports of situation on the ground, observed severity etc; most are not public health experts 8. Aerosol physicists and others with out-of-medical-field expertise, including others with modelling expertise 9. Epidemiologists in non-infectious disease, who can call out some of the nonsense and explain how some processes/models work, but are not any better placed to predict than e.g. clinicians (this category includes me) ..... 10^9. Most journalists 10^100. The cabinet/PM
Variations, of course. Some modellers are not worth listening to, some clinicians with greater public health experience would go further up etc. A few journalists should be much higher. Aerosol physicists had vital information early on that was ignored for too long.
I've left out SAGE and iSAGE as I'd rather consider individuals' expertise. SAGE behavioural experts have an important role to play, but they're not experts on the pandemic, just on behaviour. Many in iSAGE are in the lower groups due to being out of field for Covid, despite being eminent in their own fields.
Not much about the economy or ordinary peoples lives in there.....
London isn't deserted because people are scared of the personal risk of omicron. London is deserted because they they know that omicron is extremely infectious and they are scared that it might cause them to miss Xmas because of isolation rules.
They're not scared of Omicron, they're just scared of catching Omicron...
Righto
No. People aren't scared that Omicron will make them sick, they're scared that the law means they'll have to isolate if they catch it. There's a major difference between the two.
ASAP next year isolation for those who have tested positive needs to be abolished. That's the final step out of this dystopian nightmare we've been living through.
My understanding is that warrant or no warrant debt enforcers have no power to break into a house through a locked over an unpaid energy bill, especially not in the absence of the owner, and if they do they are committing the crime of breaking and entering.
So how come these people have not been named and prosecuted? £500 goodwill gesture doesn't begin to address the gravity of what they've done.
And how come the CEO and the payments division are not also in the dock for conspiring to gain unlawful entry and pervert the course of justice?
Because that's what it will take to stop this nonsense.
Edit - I'm sure I've asked this question before, but I've forgotten the answer. At the same time, the mere fact it's still ongoing is pretty outrageous.
Is it because the only ‘violence’ that Police Scotland cares about, is something written on Twitter?
He was one of the more impressive foreign secretaries of recent times (admittedly a low bar) and is an acclaimed historical biographer.
Even if he didn’t succeed (and I would distinguish that from failing) as Tory leader because he came to the role too early and was up against Blair in his probe, I’m willing to bet that he’s achieved more in his life than you have
IDS on R4 talking a lot of sense (yes I know), then a representative of ICU doctors gave the opposite view which was compelling. Difficult stuff isn't it.
Also I have always been in favour of vaccine passports, but not compulsion, but hearing the impact of unvaccinated on ICU and the knock on effect to the NHS in general and others not being able to be treated, I'm coming to the view that the unvaccinated should be strapped down and forcibly jabbed and then slapped.
So much for my liberal credentials.
It was the slapping element that called your previously impeccable credentials into question.
Does that make him a medical doctor? I would have thought no. And is that a particularly relevant PhD for the things he is talking about? Just find it a bit misleading for him to use "Dr" in the circumstances.
He was promoting hydroxychloroquine in at least one video I saw last year, and apparently ivermectin more recently, so I find him generally a bit suspect.
Categories of people I would listen to on the pandemic, in some kind of order, but certainly interchangeable at each rank 1. CMO etc (largely best info as they are taking advice from all the below) 2. Virologists 3. Anyone from the ONS and equivalents 4. Infectious disease epidemiologists 5. Infectious disease modellers (with the obvious caveats about inputs) 6. NHS chiefs, e.g. at Trust level as they have a better overview than individual clinicians of the wider hospital situation 7. Clinicians (doctors and nurses) but only for reports of situation on the ground, observed severity etc; most are not public health experts 8. Aerosol physicists and others with out-of-medical-field expertise, including others with modelling expertise 9. Epidemiologists in non-infectious disease, who can call out some of the nonsense and explain how some processes/models work, but are not any better placed to predict than e.g. clinicians (this category includes me) ..... 10^9. Most journalists 10^100. The cabinet/PM
Variations, of course. Some modellers are not worth listening to, some clinicians with greater public health experience would go further up etc. A few journalists should be much higher. Aerosol physicists had vital information early on that was ignored for too long.
I've left out SAGE and iSAGE as I'd rather consider individuals' expertise. SAGE behavioural experts have an important role to play, but they're not experts on the pandemic, just on behaviour. Many in iSAGE are in the lower groups due to being out of field for Covid, despite being eminent in their own fields.
Not much about the economy or ordinary peoples lives in there.....
True. I meant a narrow view of the pandemic - what is going to happen next with Covid. A list of who lay members of the public should listen to to find out what is happening/going to happen.
A list for the government would included economists, wider public health experts (negative impacts of lockdown etc). But my government list would be CMO etc + SAGE and make sure the right people are on SAGE, including economists and mental health/public health in general/NHS experts
Edit: and rename SAGE as 'AGE' (or make the S stand for 'Specialist') as economics ain't a science, but it's important here
Does that make him a medical doctor? I would have thought no. And is that a particularly relevant PhD for the things he is talking about? Just find it a bit misleading for him to use "Dr" in the circumstances.
He was promoting hydroxychloroquine in at least one video I saw last year, and apparently ivermectin more recently, so I find him generally a bit suspect.
Categories of people I would listen to on the pandemic, in some kind of order, but certainly interchangeable at each rank 1. CMO etc (largely best info as they are taking advice from all the below) 2. Virologists 3. Anyone from the ONS and equivalents 4. Infectious disease epidemiologists 5. Infectious disease modellers (with the obvious caveats about inputs) 6. NHS chiefs, e.g. at Trust level as they have a better overview than individual clinicians of the wider hospital situation 7. Clinicians (doctors and nurses) but only for reports of situation on the ground, observed severity etc; most are not public health experts 8. Aerosol physicists and others with out-of-medical-field expertise, including others with modelling expertise 9. Epidemiologists in non-infectious disease, who can call out some of the nonsense and explain how some processes/models work, but are not any better placed to predict than e.g. clinicians (this category includes me) ..... 10^9. Most journalists 10^100. The cabinet/PM
Variations, of course. Some modellers are not worth listening to, some clinicians with greater public health experience would go further up etc. A few journalists should be much higher. Aerosol physicists had vital information early on that was ignored for too long.
I've left out SAGE and iSAGE as I'd rather consider individuals' expertise. SAGE behavioural experts have an important role to play, but they're not experts on the pandemic, just on behaviour. Many in iSAGE are in the lower groups due to being out of field for Covid, despite being eminent in their own fields.
That's a completely one-sided list. So all you're interested in are those with a vested interest in 'protecting the NHS' above all other concerns and with nobody else at all related.
So businesses affected or the people they're speaking through and so on are not worth listening to?
Thoughts and prayers this morning with the struggles of elitist, metropolitan Brexiteers who had constructed an entire world view of working class peoples and cultures based on a few 1970s comedies, old TV adverts, 1990s lads mags and films about WW2.
Really? I would have thought that clip pretty much confirmed that view. The mistake was thinking you can fool all the proles all the time
Our disrespect for our leaders is a very healthy part of the British psyche
Thoughts and prayers this morning with the struggles of elitist, metropolitan Brexiteers who had constructed an entire world view of working class peoples and cultures based on a few 1970s comedies, old TV adverts, 1990s lads mags and films about WW2.
Really? I would have thought that clip pretty much confirmed that view. The mistake was thinking you can fool all the proles all the time
I see that some folk are trying to get 'Boris Johnson is still a ******** ****' into the hit parade No 1 for Christmas:
Comments
What utter retard thought that one up?
Johnson has transcended physical existence to become nothing more or less than pure meme.
Take up of the original vaccine is 50% in a lot of communities in the States, letting even the most moronic morons try and encourage more vaccination can only be good in my book.
Also worth noting. This government wants to ban protest. Soon chanting at the football / darts will be all we can do that is safe before Priti Vacant comes along with her Tory thought police to have you arrested.
My terrible time, having our extended family’s Maldives holiday extended by a fortnight, for free, because of a failed Covid test, but with no-one actually unwell.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/maldives/quarantined-maldivian-villa-sounds-dreamy-turning-nightmare/
And have the antivirals been taken into account?
The problem for Sandpit and his ilk is that the Conservative Party has been in government for over 11 years. Pointing at the Opposition and trying to claim that it is all their fault just doesn’t wash it.
Governments govern. Oppositions oppose.
But, as Omicron appears to be going fast enough to be a big danger but not fast enough to swamp us, the rationale for some kind of action comes back into play. I said they would pull the trigger before New year and it still feels like the right timescale.
"Right" as in when they will do it. Not right in that it will be hateful damaging and destructive
From 15 December, certain venues and events will be required by law to check that all visitors aged 18 years or over are fully vaccinated, have proof of a negative test in the last 48 hours, or have an exemption.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-coronavirus-restrictions-what-you-can-and-cannot-do
AIUI the Ally Pally event started on 15 Dec.
Not perfect, but one of the few sensible restrictions we have in place.
To me, the worst thing we have is uncertainty, and, a line I don't expect to write often, I have some sympathy for the PM. There is no way he can do the right thing, since no-one know what that is. My head wonders if aforementioned Thai family re-arrange their tickets and go home now, before either our or the Thai government closes borders. My heart looks forward to seeing all my family around me, and especially my wife, at Christmas.
And my England-resident son wants his family to meet with their cousins; the 'children' all enjoy each others company.
But is it wise to do so? What will the aftermath of the party be like?
So, as I say, what does the PM do? 'Let' families get together and risk more sickness around New Year? Or advise against not and hope for the best? Or close things down and risk the anger of the Mail and the Express? I don't think there's a good answer.
What I do think is an error is just to say to the hospitality industry, and indeed, to retailing 'tough".
And OGH can sleep soundly, in his own bed.
They had the perfect opportunity last week, to table an amendment which would fall, giving them justification to oppose the restrictions - but they failed to take it, and the bill passed despite 99 votes against from the government benches.
If Johnson has lost the darts community I reckon he's finished.
a) the sane ones
b) the mad ones
c) the frothing mad ones
Feel free to allocate prominent members of the PB herd to the appropriate sect. I’ll start with Richard Nabavi in Sect A. (Nice article yesterday Richard!)
So I thought you were agreeing Johnson was a failure and it would be better to judge him against successful leaders like, er, John Major.
*incidentally, I don't disagree with this.
Not that I think those protocols would do much difference (other than presumably ensuring everyone was vaccinated) but it was just a bit funny looking at a room rammed full of boozed up folk singing their heads off and pretending that somehow it's all "covid-secure" because protocols.
That did actually have some stress though as none of us had smart phones then so trying to book transport out of there was hard.
This is like Corbyn not abstaining the vote on Mrs May’s EU deal, which would have seen it pass and split the Tories in half. Instead, we got Johnson, Brexit and an 80 majority.
The wedding date I shall always remember, 11th May 2010, the day Brown resigned and Cameron became PM.
1.3m FTE staff in the NHS give or take.
More than half a million Nurses and Doctors, plus health care assistants and other medical staff.
BMA warns that without further measures, NHS could face almost 50,000 staff off sick with Covid-19 by Christmas Day
https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/bma-warns-that-without-further-measures-nhs-could-face-almost-50-000-staff-off-sick-with-covid-19-by-christmas-day
That is not 20%, Professor Moriarty.
Could you clarify? Thanks.
Personally I would have voted against and pushed forward amendments to force recall of parliament before Peppa does full lockdown, but I'm not a Labour MP so my opinion doesn't matter here.
Johnson is toast.
Any Tory councillors up for re-election in May about? Feel free to share your angst. We are sympathetic listeners.
What a shame others aren't so interested in doing their job.
(Having said that, as a wishy-washy liberal type I could potentially live with sect A and I'd be happy to share a ect with Richard; better than sect C of the Labour party, anyway...)
The Government would have had no choice but to concede that as a concession to win his votes knowing they couldn't carry the day on their own. That would have been a major scalp, and given something to the public that Starmer could claim credit for
Instead he gave a blank cheque unconditionally.
Civil liberties and freedom went out the door when you let Nigel Farage change the constitution of the United Kingdom with a parliamentary group of two. It was a classic coup d’état.
The UK is as “civil” and “free” as a bar brawl in one of SeanT’s whorehouses.
So far it hasn't impacted here in Leicester in a big way. Patient numbers 115 yesterday with a dozen on ICU, much the same as the last 3 months.
The harbinger of doom perhaps was that 2 of our three in a key admin role in bookings are off isolating, leaving someone with 2 months experience the last woman standing. She is pretty good though going to be a bit stretched, particularly as the phone never stops with people cancelling and rebooting.
Mr. Dickson, if that's an EU reference then that did follow a referendum (you might recall it, though I know the SNP is keener on calling such votes than accepting the results).
If asked why you're rejecting restrictions say that you're not, but that any restrictions must come with support attached.
Either the Government lets the restrictions fall away, in which case that's the Government's responsibility and they'll carry the can for that, or the Government gives in at which point you show the public what you gained for them and say that you're the real power now.
He thought he was being clever. Being clever would have been to seize the agenda and lay out a raft of amendments that actually did some positive good, both in terms of reducing hospitalisations, improving capacity to deal with any uptick in cases and providing an economic safety net. “We are no longer just the government in waiting, we are the ones providing the leadership and clarity of thought lacking from the supposed government”.
What this means for the betting folks, is that with the right leader and Cabinet and a fair rub of the green, at election time a Tory majority will be favourite against a narrowly hung parliament. When really, Labour should be sweeping up in England & Wales and becoming the party of unionism in Scotland.
Wrong on the referendum, wrong on covid.
What we have is a government that wants us to be docile drunks, tugging our forelocks at the great and good.
What the hell does that fat, lazy oaf do all day? Is he shagging more burds behind his wife’s back?
But I must confess every time I read the comments here, I veer back towards thinking people are concerned only about self, self, self.
Righto
Scottish Power debt team filmed raiding wrong home
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59733043
My understanding is that warrant or no warrant debt enforcers have no power to break into a house through a locked over an unpaid energy bill, especially not in the absence of the owner, and if they do they are committing the crime of breaking and entering.
So how come these people have not been named and prosecuted? £500 goodwill gesture doesn't begin to address the gravity of what they've done.
And how come the CEO and the payments division are not also in the dock for conspiring to gain unlawful entry and pervert the course of justice?
Because that's what it will take to stop this nonsense.
Edit - I'm sure I've asked this question before, but I've forgotten the answer. At the same time, the mere fact it's still ongoing is pretty outrageous.
Also I have always been in favour of vaccine passports, but not compulsion, but hearing the impact of unvaccinated on ICU and the knock on effect to the NHS in general and others not being able to be treated, I'm coming to the view that the unvaccinated should be strapped down and forcibly jabbed and then slapped.
So much for my liberal credentials.
1. CMO etc (largely best info as they are taking advice from all the below)
2. Virologists
3. Anyone from the ONS and equivalents
4. Infectious disease epidemiologists
5. Infectious disease modellers (with the obvious caveats about inputs)
6. NHS chiefs, e.g. at Trust level as they have a better overview than individual clinicians of the wider hospital situation
7. Clinicians (doctors and nurses) but only for reports of situation on the ground, observed severity etc; most are not public health experts
8. Aerosol physicists and others with out-of-medical-field expertise, including others with modelling expertise
9. Epidemiologists in non-infectious disease, who can call out some of the nonsense and explain how some processes/models work, but are not any better placed to predict than e.g. clinicians (this category includes me)
.....
10^9. Most journalists
10^100. The cabinet/PM
Variations, of course. Some modellers are not worth listening to, some clinicians with greater public health experience would go further up etc. A few journalists should be much higher. Aerosol physicists had vital information early on that was ignored for too long.
I've left out SAGE and iSAGE as I'd rather consider individuals' expertise. SAGE behavioural experts have an important role to play, but they're not experts on the pandemic, just on behaviour. Many in iSAGE are in the lower groups due to being out of field for Covid, despite being eminent in their own fields.
ASAP next year isolation for those who have tested positive needs to be abolished. That's the final step out of this dystopian nightmare we've been living through.
Even if he didn’t succeed (and I would distinguish that from failing) as Tory leader because he came to the role too early and was up against Blair in his probe, I’m willing to bet that he’s achieved more in his life than you have
PM asked him to share his views anyway, Sunak hs d short speech
Liz Truss had to leave meeting early to make a call - as a result she didn’t Make contribution
https://twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1473210684909539330
A list for the government would included economists, wider public health experts (negative impacts of lockdown etc). But my government list would be CMO etc + SAGE and make sure the right people are on SAGE, including economists and mental health/public health in general/NHS experts
Edit: and rename SAGE as 'AGE' (or make the S stand for 'Specialist') as economics ain't a science, but it's important here
So businesses affected or the people they're speaking through and so on are not worth listening to?