Far be it for me to give him advice but dressing up as a policeman and going on a pretend drugs raid serves no purpose other than remind people that he doesn't take his job seriously. He's just an attention seeker which is not an attractive look at the best of times but a calamity when the public can see the roof falling in.
Mind you 2021 can be backed at 90 on betfair, might have a tenner. 10 days is a long time in politics
Check the rules. Are you betting on when Boris announces he will step down, or is it when he is formally replaced? Then add a fudge factor because Betfair could settle it based on what colour tie he is wearing; Betfair has form!
At odds of 90 or even 200 on betfair laying 2021 makes sense. The only way Boris leaves office in 2021 is via a fatal heart attack.
He's a fat muscular old fck, with Xmas dinner to come. I wouldn't be laying the heart attack.
Genes tho. His dad, who he increasingly resembles, is still hale and hearty and tippling wine and slapping female arses in his early 80s. They both have that stocky, enduring, prop forward physique. It can take a lot of punishment
Thank God there is no question of heavy cocaine use, that can really fck your heart.
I have no personal knowledge of this, but I would lay odds that Boris does not do a lot of ‘ooter
Petronella in the speccie says Carrie and cohort party like fck in no 10 while Bojo is the grumpy old man in the corner. My guess is it gets pressed on him.
Yes, I believe all that, and I believe he refuses the chang
More wine? Sure
There are few 50-somethings who actively enjoy cocaine
Tbh, there's not a lot of 30 somethings that do either. At least judging by my own friends who are all mid or late 30s, I think we're more likely to go down the party drug route like mandy or 2cp rather than something that just makes everyone cunty like coke.
The other thing that's been putting people off is the reports that party drugs are being laced with fentanyl to get people addicted. The guy we bought from has ended up in jail and now we don't have anyone who we trust to not fuck us over. We really need to legalise it.
Fentanyl is fucking lovely stuff, though. That is not a stab at edginess, I get it off the NHS while they are sticking cameras up my arse. Mad for it I am.
I had that done once, but they never invited me to make a series.
Pulp Fiction ... when they shot the pilot they found a stage 3 and a bit out of 4 thang, so they like to keep looking.
I went to a neighbour's Christmas party a few years back. A cheerful man whom I'd never met (though I vaguely knew his wife) was telling me about his colonocopy. Apparently during the procedure - due, presumably to the fentanyl - he started hallucinating that he was in Star Wars, as one of the pilots attacking the death star, and the screen in front of him showing the progress of the camera up his arse was his ship making its way down the valleys of the death star. (If I knew my star wars better I could probably explain it.) Apparently a first for the operators of the camera. He went on to add me on linkedin, and has had the odd piece of work out of me since.
It is rivetting, seeing the camera feed in real time. And my benchmark for cool is the doctor who was in charge of proceedings when they found my cancer. Hmmm, she said, I'm not sure what we are looking at now, but I'm pretty certain it is not meant to be there.
I had a similar experience over ten years ago (cystoscopy rather than colonoscopy) which found a bladder tumour in real time on the screen in front of me.
Fuck, I don't want to know about how a cytoscopy works. But yay for the nhs in both our cases.
The camera is outside the body and they use fibre-optic cables, but yes, it goes in the way you think.
Mind you 2021 can be backed at 90 on betfair, might have a tenner. 10 days is a long time in politics
Check the rules. Are you betting on when Boris announces he will step down, or is it when he is formally replaced? Then add a fudge factor because Betfair could settle it based on what colour tie he is wearing; Betfair has form!
At odds of 90 or even 200 on betfair laying 2021 makes sense. The only way Boris leaves office in 2021 is via a fatal heart attack.
He's a fat muscular old fck, with Xmas dinner to come. I wouldn't be laying the heart attack.
Genes tho. His dad, who he increasingly resembles, is still hale and hearty and tippling wine and slapping female arses in his early 80s. They both have that stocky, enduring, prop forward physique. It can take a lot of punishment
Thank God there is no question of heavy cocaine use, that can really fck your heart.
I have no personal knowledge of this, but I would lay odds that Boris does not do a lot of ‘ooter
Petronella in the speccie says Carrie and cohort party like fck in no 10 while Bojo is the grumpy old man in the corner. My guess is it gets pressed on him.
Yes, I believe all that, and I believe he refuses the chang
More wine? Sure
There are few 50-somethings who actively enjoy cocaine
Tbh, there's not a lot of 30 somethings that do either. At least judging by my own friends who are all mid or late 30s, I think we're more likely to go down the party drug route like mandy or 2cp rather than something that just makes everyone cunty like coke.
The other thing that's been putting people off is the reports that party drugs are being laced with fentanyl to get people addicted. The guy we bought from has ended up in jail and now we don't have anyone who we trust to not fuck us over. We really need to legalise it.
Fentanyl is fucking lovely stuff, though. That is not a stab at edginess, I get it off the NHS while they are sticking cameras up my arse. Mad for it I am.
I had that done once, but they never invited me to make a series.
Pulp Fiction ... when they shot the pilot they found a stage 3 and a bit out of 4 thang, so they like to keep looking.
I went to a neighbour's Christmas party a few years back. A cheerful man whom I'd never met (though I vaguely knew his wife) was telling me about his colonocopy. Apparently during the procedure - due, presumably to the fentanyl - he started hallucinating that he was in Star Wars, as one of the pilots attacking the death star, and the screen in front of him showing the progress of the camera up his arse was his ship making its way down the valleys of the death star. (If I knew my star wars better I could probably explain it.) Apparently a first for the operators of the camera. He went on to add me on linkedin, and has had the odd piece of work out of me since.
Feeling a bit short changed, I didn't get any pharmaceuticals during my colonoscopy. On the upside the nurse said I had one of the cleanest colons she'd seen. I (probably exceptionally) drank all the disgusting prep the night before, 10l I think, so was wrung out like a dishcloth.
The best cooking tip I can give is when cooking pasta, save some of the pasta water and add it to the sauce
I used to keep some really starchy water in an ice-cube tray to add to sauces if I hadn't cooked the pasta yet. Until it accidentally ended up in a G&T.
General feeling down here in mighty Wigan is that a lockdown after Christmas is priced in now. Folk are resigned to it.
This could be something that turns the voting intentions around. People seem to have become miserable and resigned to restrictions for New Years and the New Year.
However the data really isn't there and every day that goes by lessons the slim evidence as to why there should be any. Scandalously dodgy reporting by SAGE and a ludicrous overabundance of "the precautionary principle" are the only reason why it was even considered surely.
Every day that passes provides clarity on the data that lessons the so-called "precautionary principle" argument and dispels the dodgy SAGE reporting.
Every day that passes without a lockdown removes the arguments as to why there should be one. As a result, why have one?
People might be pleasantly surprised for a change. Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, Germany and more may be introducing restrictions but people might be pleasantly surprised to see that England doesn't - and more importantly doesn't need them.
Be interesting to see what happens if the case numbers continue to plateau at 90k, if people go bonkers over Christmas or not, once they have got the visit to nan out the way.
General feeling down here in mighty Wigan is that a lockdown after Christmas is priced in now. Folk are resigned to it.
This could be something that turns the voting intentions around. People seem to have become miserable and resigned to restrictions for New Years and the New Year.
However the data really isn't there and every day that goes by lessons the slim evidence as to why there should be any. Scandalously dodgy reporting by SAGE and a ludicrous overabundance of "the precautionary principle" are the only reason why it was even considered surely.
Every day that passes provides clarity on the data that lessons the so-called "precautionary principle" argument and dispels the dodgy SAGE reporting.
Every day that passes without a lockdown removes the arguments as to why there should be one. As a result, why have one?
People might be pleasantly surprised for a change. Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, Germany and more may be introducing restrictions but people might be pleasantly surprised to see that England doesn't - and more importantly doesn't need them.
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
As a anti state near anarchist I do have a soft spot for the Royal family and the EU.I voted Remain not because i love the EU but like no borders for individuals
General feeling down here in mighty Wigan is that a lockdown after Christmas is priced in now. Folk are resigned to it.
This could be something that turns the voting intentions around. People seem to have become miserable and resigned to restrictions for New Years and the New Year.
However the data really isn't there and every day that goes by lessons the slim evidence as to why there should be any. Scandalously dodgy reporting by SAGE and a ludicrous overabundance of "the precautionary principle" are the only reason why it was even considered surely.
Every day that passes provides clarity on the data that lessons the so-called "precautionary principle" argument and dispels the dodgy SAGE reporting.
Every day that passes without a lockdown removes the arguments as to why there should be one. As a result, why have one?
People might be pleasantly surprised for a change. Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, Germany and more may be introducing restrictions but people might be pleasantly surprised to see that England doesn't - and more importantly doesn't need them.
Well, I'm with you Philip - but I don't know if the government will get any credit for opening up if it does so. The broadcast media will continue to call for lockdowns.
General feeling down here in mighty Wigan is that a lockdown after Christmas is priced in now. Folk are resigned to it.
This could be something that turns the voting intentions around. People seem to have become miserable and resigned to restrictions for New Years and the New Year.
However the data really isn't there and every day that goes by lessons the slim evidence as to why there should be any. Scandalously dodgy reporting by SAGE and a ludicrous overabundance of "the precautionary principle" are the only reason why it was even considered surely.
Every day that passes provides clarity on the data that lessons the so-called "precautionary principle" argument and dispels the dodgy SAGE reporting.
Every day that passes without a lockdown removes the arguments as to why there should be one. As a result, why have one?
People might be pleasantly surprised for a change. Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, Germany and more may be introducing restrictions but people might be pleasantly surprised to see that England doesn't - and more importantly doesn't need them.
I said folk are resigned to it. Not necessarily opposed to it. They were opposed if they thought it meant no Xmas. I detect no great opposition in January for ideological reasons.
General feeling down here in mighty Wigan is that a lockdown after Christmas is priced in now. Folk are resigned to it.
This could be something that turns the voting intentions around. People seem to have become miserable and resigned to restrictions for New Years and the New Year.
However the data really isn't there and every day that goes by lessons the slim evidence as to why there should be any. Scandalously dodgy reporting by SAGE and a ludicrous overabundance of "the precautionary principle" are the only reason why it was even considered surely.
Every day that passes provides clarity on the data that lessons the so-called "precautionary principle" argument and dispels the dodgy SAGE reporting.
Every day that passes without a lockdown removes the arguments as to why there should be one. As a result, why have one?
People might be pleasantly surprised for a change. Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, Germany and more may be introducing restrictions but people might be pleasantly surprised to see that England doesn't - and more importantly doesn't need them.
I said folk are resigned to it. Not necessarily opposed to it. They were opposed if they thought it meant no Xmas. I detect no great opposition in January for ideological reasons.
Closing schools again would be a disaster, particularly for Y11 and Y13.
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
I'm not sure what my political tradition is - I would say libertarian. I'd happily introduce the death sentence for graffiti, but that probably goes along with the property rights angle of libertarianism. I'm wildly in favour of public transport, and of spending public money on public transport- I suppose that would be it.
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
I'm not sure what my political tradition is - I would say libertarian. I'd happily introduce the death sentence for graffiti, but that probably goes along with the property rights angle of libertarianism. I'm wildly in favour of public transport, and of spending public money on public transport- I suppose that would be it.
General feeling down here in mighty Wigan is that a lockdown after Christmas is priced in now. Folk are resigned to it.
This could be something that turns the voting intentions around. People seem to have become miserable and resigned to restrictions for New Years and the New Year.
However the data really isn't there and every day that goes by lessons the slim evidence as to why there should be any. Scandalously dodgy reporting by SAGE and a ludicrous overabundance of "the precautionary principle" are the only reason why it was even considered surely.
Every day that passes provides clarity on the data that lessons the so-called "precautionary principle" argument and dispels the dodgy SAGE reporting.
Every day that passes without a lockdown removes the arguments as to why there should be one. As a result, why have one?
People might be pleasantly surprised for a change. Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, Germany and more may be introducing restrictions but people might be pleasantly surprised to see that England doesn't - and more importantly doesn't need them.
I said folk are resigned to it. Not necessarily opposed to it. They were opposed if they thought it meant no Xmas. I detect no great opposition in January for ideological reasons.
Closing schools again would be a disaster, particularly for Y11 and Y13.
Yes. That should be the very last resort. Especially for Year 13. They sat no GCSE's. They can't go to Uni never having sat a marked exam.
General feeling down here in mighty Wigan is that a lockdown after Christmas is priced in now. Folk are resigned to it.
I have a horrible feeling they’re right. If it happens though (short of some huge explosion in hospitalisations and deaths in the next 3 days) it will be the first lockdown that I personally will not begrudgingly accept as necessary. I cannot see the circumstances, at present, to deprive people of visiting loved ones indoors.
General feeling down here in mighty Wigan is that a lockdown after Christmas is priced in now. Folk are resigned to it.
I have a horrible feeling they’re right. If it happens though (short of some huge explosion in hospitalisations and deaths in the next 3 days) it will be the first lockdown that I personally will not begrudgingly accept as necessary. I cannot see the circumstances, at present, to deprive people of visiting loved ones indoors.
It will be widely ignored partly because sensible people realise it is futile and secondly because if the government cannot follow it sown rules then nobody else needs to
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Great question. I would say two things. One. I'm a genuine Keynesian on the economy. That means paying down debt in the good times equally as much as deficit spending in bad times. The Left likes to ignore one half of that. Two. I am personally opposed to abortion. Though I don't think it ought to be illegal.
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
As a anti state near anarchist I do have a soft spot for the Royal family and the EU.I voted Remain not because i love the EU but like no borders for individuals
In principle I'm quite firmly a republican. In practice, I think the royal family we have is no worse than a presidency, and I think the queen is the greatest political figure of my lifetime.
My head says the EU is sclerotic, unfixable and the the UK is better off out. My heart yearns for an idealised Europe of the 1950s and 60s (characterised by the imagery from a game I used to have, below), in the political and philosophical traditions of Socrates, Erasmus, Rousseau and Hume.
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Great question. I would say two things. One. I'm a genuine Keynesian on the economy. That means paying down debt in the good times equally as much as deficit spending in bad times. The Left likes to ignore one half of that. Two. I am personally opposed to abortion. Though I don't think it ought to be illegal.
I don't think anyone outside the fringes is in favour of abortion. That's not to say there aren't occasions when it's the least worst option, and certainly not that it ought to be illegal. But it's an awful thing to go through for all concerned.
General feeling down here in mighty Wigan is that a lockdown after Christmas is priced in now. Folk are resigned to it.
This could be something that turns the voting intentions around. People seem to have become miserable and resigned to restrictions for New Years and the New Year.
However the data really isn't there and every day that goes by lessons the slim evidence as to why there should be any. Scandalously dodgy reporting by SAGE and a ludicrous overabundance of "the precautionary principle" are the only reason why it was even considered surely.
Every day that passes provides clarity on the data that lessons the so-called "precautionary principle" argument and dispels the dodgy SAGE reporting.
Every day that passes without a lockdown removes the arguments as to why there should be one. As a result, why have one?
People might be pleasantly surprised for a change. Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, Germany and more may be introducing restrictions but people might be pleasantly surprised to see that England doesn't - and more importantly doesn't need them.
I said folk are resigned to it. Not necessarily opposed to it. They were opposed if they thought it meant no Xmas. I detect no great opposition in January for ideological reasons.
Yes its entirely possible that there's no great opposition to it, and its equally possible that the Government won't get credit from avoiding them either.
However there's the old expression Success = Performance - Expectations . . . Expectations now are so dire, that its entirely possible that the performance will seem a success in contrast in a few months time.
Possible, but not by any means certain. Just a possibility.
PS I've just re-read my own post and I want to make clear I know how to spell the word lessen, no idea why I misspelt that twice. 🤨
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
I'm not sure what my political tradition is - I would say libertarian. I'd happily introduce the death sentence for graffiti, but that probably goes along with the property rights angle of libertarianism. I'm wildly in favour of public transport, and of spending public money on public transport- I suppose that would be it.
Banksy's fucked in Cookieland.
He certainly is. Smug self-righteous fucker. Get your half-arsed daubings off that perfectly nice bridge.
Harvard Professor Charles Lieber Found Guilty of Lying About China Ties https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/12/22/lieber-verdict-day6/ … Lieber’s conviction marks a high-profile victory for the Department of Justice’s China Initiative, which critics have accused of targeting individuals of Chinese descent and prosecutorial misconduct.
Lieber was arrested on Harvard’s campus in January 2020 on suspicion of lying to federal officials about his involvement in the TTP, a state-sponsored Chinese recruitment program that seeks to bring academic talent to the country. Prosecutors charged that Lieber lied about his ties to the program in interviews with the Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health, which funded his research with millions of dollars in grant money.
Prosecutors have maintained that Lieber was aware of the falsehood of his statements. During the fourth day of the trial, jurors viewed excerpts from an FBI interrogation of Lieber following his arrest in which the former Harvard Chemistry chair told agents it “looks like I was very dishonest” in a separate interview with DOD investigators in 2018.
“I wasn’t completely transparent by any stretch of the imagination,” Lieber said in the interrogation, which was shown to jurors on Friday.
During the same interrogation, investigators presented Lieber with a contract he had signed with the TTP, which dictated he would be paid $50,000 per month for his work with the Wuhan Institute of Technology.…
Philip desperate for BoJo's reputation to recover, not quite sure why he cares so much
I'm not at all. I said it might, not that I want it to.
Politicalbetting is all about forecasting what could happen, before it does. Its also about forecasting what could happen, not what you want to happen.
Besides, I'm a geek and I love to be right. If I call this now, and it happens, I get to be smug in three months time, not because it happened and I wanted it to - but because I was right again.
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Council house sales were halfway to being a good policy. I like the idea of mixed communities. If the proceeds of the sales had gone towards building new social housing, perhaps in private estates we would be a far less polarised society today.
Whilst it was originally a Labour idea , it’s not popular today on the left for a variety of reasons.
Philip desperate for BoJo's reputation to recover, not quite sure why he cares so much
I'm not at all. I said it might.
Politicalbetting is all about forecasting what could happen, before it does.
Besides, I'm a geek and I love to be right. If I call this now, and it happens, I get to be smug in three months time, not because it happened and I wanted it to - but because I was right again.
Philip desperate for BoJo's reputation to recover, not quite sure why he cares so much
I'm not at all. I said it might.
Politicalbetting is all about forecasting what could happen, before it does.
Besides, I'm a geek and I love to be right. If I call this now, and it happens, I get to be smug in three months time, not because it happened and I wanted it to - but because I was right again.
You'd never admit to being wrong even if you were
Actually as some others will acknowledge I frequently admit to being wrong, if I am.
Last time I did so was to @TOPPING IIRC only a few days ago I did a mea culpa and said I was wrong.
Philip desperate for BoJo's reputation to recover, not quite sure why he cares so much
Philip has been as furious with Boris as anyone on here of late. What I think he would like - and what I would certainly like - is for: - government to avoid lockdown - it to turn out that there was no need for lockdown - people to decide that this was the right thing to do, and be happier as a result than they would have been locked down.
I give the first a 50% chance, the second a 75% chance and the third a 50% chance, though it will be the sort of opinion which doesn't get aired as freely as its opposite.
Philip desperate for BoJo's reputation to recover, not quite sure why he cares so much
Philip has been as furious with Boris as anyone on here of late. What I think he would like - and I certainly would is for: - government to avoid lockdown - it to turn out that there was no need for lockdown - people to decide that this was the right thing to do, and be happier as a result than they would have been locked down.
I give the first a 50% chance, the second a 75% chance and the third a 50% chance, though it will be the sort of opinion which doesn't get aired as freely as its opposite.
He called BoJo the best PM since Thatcher, don't make me laugh Cookie
I'm actually very pro defence, which maybe isn't at odds with social democracy historically but I feel has been in the UK over the last few years
Don’t buy the Corbynite interpretation of Labour history. Defence has been a key part of Labour thought.
That was the implication I made in the post. I feel within the membership of the Labour Party - I left the idea of "tradition" deliberately open-ended - it sadly has been a minority view to support defence.
You and I are fairly aligned on the politics, from what I can recall.
I'm probably somewhere naturally, between a Blairite and soft leftist
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Here are some of my heretical opinions: I'm a monarchist. I think the free market is an incredibly efficient mechanism for allocating scarce resources. I am a big believer in free trade. I am suspicious of producer interests in the public sector. I love the new Ed Sheeran and Elton John Christmas song.
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Here are some of my heretical opinions: I'm a monarchist. I think the free market is an incredibly efficient mechanism for allocating scarce resources. I am a big believer in free trade. I am suspicious of producer interests in the public sector. I love the new Ed Sheeran and Elton John Christmas song.
I'm very much pro free market too, just with the right regulations. I also think you can take a completely logical and sensible argument on the left or the right, that certain things don't belong in the free market, like for example, railways
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Great question. I would say two things. One. I'm a genuine Keynesian on the economy. That means paying down debt in the good times equally as much as deficit spending in bad times. The Left likes to ignore one half of that. Two. I am personally opposed to abortion. Though I don't think it ought to be illegal.
I don't think anyone outside the fringes is in favour of abortion. That's not to say there aren't occasions when it's the least worst option, and certainly not that it ought to be illegal. But it's an awful thing to go through for all concerned.
Yeah. I get your point there. I suppose I mean that "my body my choice" is a message I support in pretty much every area of life. Unlike many on the Left I put abortion alongside shooting heroin or becoming addicted to coke. Something you ought to be entitled to do. But one which would make one fall in my estimation, I guess. Unlike drinking or smoking dope which I regard as morally neutral. I'm probably not consistent there, but horse did ask.
Eric Topol @EricTopol · 3h A/The big unknown for Omicron is the magnitude of reduction in illness severity compared with Delta and prior variants. The South African preprint data today says 70%, adjusted. In a population with high Covid exposure,
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Great question. I would say two things. One. I'm a genuine Keynesian on the economy. That means paying down debt in the good times equally as much as deficit spending in bad times. The Left likes to ignore one half of that. Two. I am personally opposed to abortion. Though I don't think it ought to be illegal.
I don't think anyone outside the fringes is in favour of abortion. That's not to say there aren't occasions when it's the least worst option, and certainly not that it ought to be illegal. But it's an awful thing to go through for all concerned.
Yeah. I get your point there. I suppose I mean that "my body my choice" is a message I support in pretty much every area of life. Unlike many on the Left I put abortion alongside shooting heroin or becoming addicted to coke. Something you ought to be entitled to do. But one which would make one fall in my estimation, I guess. Unlike drinking or smoking dope which I regard as morally neutral. I'm probably not consistent there, but horse did ask.
You're probably more anti-abortion than me then. And possibly more pro-dope. Internal consistency is overrated, anyway!
I am anti the Royal Family in principle but I have no interest in seeing them replaced, nor do I have a more sensible replacement for them.
I'm anti private schools in principle but again I have no interest in seeing them banned.
In fact I'm anti a lot of things but I suppose like a wishy washy Blairite I am not sure the state is always the answer.
I am outraged by the way this country cares for its poor and most vulnerable. If wejudge ourselves on how we look after the weakest, our current society and culture is seriously wanting. People are scrapped. Our political class needs to hang its head in shame. Radical change is needed. A more equal society is required.
Not something you usually hear from the centre left. We need more outrage at this injustice.
Philip desperate for BoJo's reputation to recover, not quite sure why he cares so much
Philip has been as furious with Boris as anyone on here of late. What I think he would like - and I certainly would is for: - government to avoid lockdown - it to turn out that there was no need for lockdown - people to decide that this was the right thing to do, and be happier as a result than they would have been locked down.
I give the first a 50% chance, the second a 75% chance and the third a 50% chance, though it will be the sort of opinion which doesn't get aired as freely as its opposite.
He called BoJo the best PM since Thatcher, don't make me laugh Cookie
And I've also called for him to go. Just as Thatcher had a time where she had to go. Boris's expiry has come within two years instead of ten.
Boris has had some good points and some bad points. The problem for me is all his plus points are in the past and all the negatives are building up, so it's time for him to go.
Prime Minister's who were very clearly (in my eyes) worse than Boris, in reverse order: Theresa May: Where to begin? Absolutely no positives whatsoever. Worst PM since Lord North.
Gordon Brown: Utterly trashed the economy, though that was to be fair mainly as Chancellor. Signed Lisbon against the manifesto commitment not to. Ensured there was no money left.
Tony Blair: Had Gordon Brown as Chancellor, which wrecked the economy. That only came to light after he moved on, but he needs the share of the blame. Iraq. WMDs. Detention without trial. ID cards. Introduced Tuition Fees. Asymmetrical devolution. Sparked the housing crisis, the entire rise in house price to earnings ratios took place under his Premiership.
John Major: On the plus side he did a good job with the economy and left it in a good state for Blair to inherit. On the other hand the way he handled Maastricht created divisions that never healed in society leading ultimately to European divisions for decades ending in Brexit. Black Wednesday.
The only PM I might rate ahead of Boris (and I would today, I go back and forth on this) is Cameron.
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Always a good question!
I think I'd go with ...
Whilst we need a financial sector, the amount the UK scoops off from it does us more harm than good- a bit like the way that very few oil producing nations are run well.
Eran Segal @segal_eran Israel will recommend a 4th booster shot to people above the age of 60
Good. No pratting around, book the 4th for the Spring and the 5th for the Autumn now. Rather than panicking and doing everything at the last minute again. Offer them to everybody too.👍
Only reason to delay a bit would be if next-gen vaccines might be available, in which case it might be worth waiting for them.
I'm actually very pro defence, which maybe isn't at odds with social democracy historically but I feel has been in the UK over the last few years
Don’t buy the Corbynite interpretation of Labour history. Defence has been a key part of Labour thought.
Corbynites will disown Attlee when they find out what his Government did in Israel
What are you on about? Atlee's Government did everything possible to renege on previous UK pledges to establish an Israeli state with sensible borders - he is not remembered fondly by Israel. Arguably, a lot of today's problems are because the British army played silly games when they left the mandate, most of which were designed to benefit the Jordanian army.
Eran Segal @segal_eran Israel will recommend a 4th booster shot to people above the age of 60
Good. No pratting around, book the 4th for the Spring and the 5th for the Autumn now. Rather than panicking and doing everything at the last minute again. Offer them to everybody too.👍
Only reason to delay a bit would be if next-gen vaccines might be available, in which case it might be worth waiting for them.
The issue is how they will be delivered. We can't keep asking GPs to suspend normal service to jab millions in a few weeks.
Perhaps more needs to be done by pharmacy network? Pay them to take on an extra member of staff?
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Smoking ban indoors.
Despite my political tradition being a case of saying let people decide what they want to do, and to let businesses decide what they want to do, I strongly supported the smoking ban indoors. Based not on policy or principle but purely on a selfish, personal dislike of smoking and especially its noxious smell. Smokers don't notice the smell of tobacco, but to me its utterly vile.
One thing I don't miss from before the ban is going to pubs and clubs and the next day my clothes would all stink of tobacco. Not that I go to clubs anymore anyway, but still nice to go to pubs and I don't mind being outside talking to friends who are smoking but its a different thing indoors.
Happy to admit I put my own selfish concerns ahead of principle or political tradition there.
Prof Francois Balloux @BallouxFrancois · 26m There is a silver lining to the current 'fall of the epi-models'. Modelling the spread and toll of a pathogen in a largely immune-naïve is reasonably easy. Modelling what happens when a bug transitions into endemicity is a nightmare, mathematically.
Thus, the more the - competent - epidemiological models fail, the closer we are to the end of the pandemic, and the merrier.
Eran Segal @segal_eran Israel will recommend a 4th booster shot to people above the age of 60
Good. No pratting around, book the 4th for the Spring and the 5th for the Autumn now. Rather than panicking and doing everything at the last minute again. Offer them to everybody too.👍
Only reason to delay a bit would be if next-gen vaccines might be available, in which case it might be worth waiting for them.
The issue is how they will be delivered. We can't keep asking GPs to suspend normal service to jab millions in a few weeks.
Perhaps more needs to be done by pharmacy network? Pay them to take on an extra member of staff?
That's part of my point. If we plan it properly now then there'd be no need to get it done in a few weeks. Plan for it to be done again next spring and next autumn and it can be spread out rather than a mad rush.
Yes pharmacists make sense to me. An extra income stream for them I'm sure they'd be happy to have.
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
I'm a Scottish nationalist, despite being very pro the Union. You can't argue with a thousand years of history.
Which thousand years?
Scotland's history. I know it goes back further than that, but a thousand years recognisably the country it is today.
So we shouldn’t be one country because the Romans only got an LNER apex super saver as far as Berwick?
Surely we can make our own history.
Berwick is Scottish, of course.
Going back to Horse's question, I believe in the Union, for all that it's getting frayed now. That's my political tradition. But from my perspective as a Scot, Scotland comes first and the Union comes by consent. I think the English perspective on the Union is a little different, which causes some tension, but it's OK as long as both parties think it's worth having.
"UK’s first gaming addiction centre swamped by demand during pandemic Over a third of patients stuck on waiting list after referrals double in a year" (via google search)
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Smoking ban indoors.
Despite my political tradition being a case of saying let people decide what they want to do, and to let businesses decide what they want to do, I strongly supported the smoking ban indoors. Based not on policy or principle but purely on a selfish, personal dislike of smoking and especially its noxious smell. Smokers don't notice the smell of tobacco, but to me its utterly vile.
One thing I don't miss from before the ban is going to pubs and clubs and the next day my clothes would all stink of tobacco. Not that I go to clubs anymore anyway, but still nice to go to pubs and I don't mind being outside talking to friends who are smoking but its a different thing indoors.
Happy to admit I put my own selfish concerns ahead of principle or political tradition there.
That doesn't count. Does anyone propose bringing back smoking indoors? We are talking about now.
Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson · 1h I heard from a good source that supermarkets have been told by the Government that lockdown lite starts on 28 December.
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Smoking ban indoors.
Despite my political tradition being a case of saying let people decide what they want to do, and to let businesses decide what they want to do, I strongly supported the smoking ban indoors. Based not on policy or principle but purely on a selfish, personal dislike of smoking and especially its noxious smell. Smokers don't notice the smell of tobacco, but to me its utterly vile.
One thing I don't miss from before the ban is going to pubs and clubs and the next day my clothes would all stink of tobacco. Not that I go to clubs anymore anyway, but still nice to go to pubs and I don't mind being outside talking to friends who are smoking but its a different thing indoors.
Happy to admit I put my own selfish concerns ahead of principle or political tradition there.
That doesn't count. Does anyone propose bringing back smoking indoors?
Fair enough, but when it was introduced it went against my traditions and I supported it at the time despite that.
Would have to have a rethink if you're not counting that.
Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson · 1h I heard from a good source that supermarkets have been told by the Government that lockdown lite starts on 28 December.
That would involve Parliament being recalled on Boxing day or something?
What is your political opinion that you consider most at odds with your political tradition?
Here are some of my heretical opinions: I'm a monarchist. I think the free market is an incredibly efficient mechanism for allocating scarce resources. I am a big believer in free trade. I am suspicious of producer interests in the public sector. I love the new Ed Sheeran and Elton John Christmas song.
A nice question to think about. I've come to accept the free market as the best default option, with regulation where required rather than the norm, though I still favour state ownership of natural monopolies. I'm uninterested in most of the culture wars - dubious about the intense interest in transsexuality, I don't care whose statues are where and think rewriting history is largely a waste of time. Not personally attracted by the environment - I know it's important, but I could spend my life in a treeless concrete jungle and it'd be fine with me.
And, perhaps unusually these days, I like America, for all its alien religious mania, voracious corporations and rural Trumpery - they have something special in generosity and optimism that we've largely mislaid.
Alastair Grant @AlastairGrant4 #Omicron makes up 72% of cases in England for 19th December The peak total number is still for specimens from 15th December, with both Omicron and Delta now declining Omicron down from about 55k on 15th to 42k on 18th Delta from 43k on 13th to 19.4k on 18th
Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson · 1h I heard from a good source that supermarkets have been told by the Government that lockdown lite starts on 28 December.
That would involve Parliament being recalled on Boxing day or something?
All sources must be suspect at the moment. Does anyone really believe the government knows what it is doing?
Comments
But better with each cycle.
How are you?
https://www.londonworld.com/health/coronavirus/omicron-covid-wave-london-worst-in-england-for-booster-jab-uptake-3500333
Its an impact of antivaxxery instead.
Folk are resigned to it.
However the data really isn't there and every day that goes by lessons the slim evidence as to why there should be any. Scandalously dodgy reporting by SAGE and a ludicrous overabundance of "the precautionary principle" are the only reason why it was even considered surely.
Every day that passes provides clarity on the data that lessons the so-called "precautionary principle" argument and dispels the dodgy SAGE reporting.
Every day that passes without a lockdown removes the arguments as to why there should be one. As a result, why have one?
People might be pleasantly surprised for a change. Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, Germany and more may be introducing restrictions but people might be pleasantly surprised to see that England doesn't - and more importantly doesn't need them.
I detect no great opposition in January for ideological reasons.
I hope you are too and that you and everybody else here has a very merry Christmas
That should be the very last resort. Especially for Year 13. They sat no GCSE's. They can't go to Uni never having sat a marked exam.
I would say two things. One. I'm a genuine Keynesian on the economy. That means paying down debt in the good times equally as much as deficit spending in bad times.
The Left likes to ignore one half of that.
Two. I am personally opposed to abortion. Though I don't think it ought to be illegal.
I'm still waiting on the result of my PCR test but since the symptoms started last Monday/Tuesday, it's not going to make a lot of difference now
In practice, I think the royal family we have is no worse than a presidency, and I think the queen is the greatest political figure of my lifetime.
My head says the EU is sclerotic, unfixable and the the UK is better off out.
My heart yearns for an idealised Europe of the 1950s and 60s (characterised by the imagery from a game I used to have, below), in the political and philosophical traditions of Socrates, Erasmus, Rousseau and Hume.
Maybe I've got that wrong. I did read it while I had COVID. It could have said owt really.
That's not to say there aren't occasions when it's the least worst option, and certainly not that it ought to be illegal. But it's an awful thing to go through for all concerned.
I'm isolating for the full 10 days regardless, I'm not going to stop earlier.
However there's the old expression Success = Performance - Expectations . . . Expectations now are so dire, that its entirely possible that the performance will seem a success in contrast in a few months time.
Possible, but not by any means certain. Just a possibility.
PS I've just re-read my own post and I want to make clear I know how to spell the word lessen, no idea why I misspelt that twice. 🤨
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/12/22/lieber-verdict-day6/
… Lieber’s conviction marks a high-profile victory for the Department of Justice’s China Initiative, which critics have accused of targeting individuals of Chinese descent and prosecutorial misconduct.
Lieber was arrested on Harvard’s campus in January 2020 on suspicion of lying to federal officials about his involvement in the TTP, a state-sponsored Chinese recruitment program that seeks to bring academic talent to the country. Prosecutors charged that Lieber lied about his ties to the program in interviews with the Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health, which funded his research with millions of dollars in grant money.
Prosecutors have maintained that Lieber was aware of the falsehood of his statements. During the fourth day of the trial, jurors viewed excerpts from an FBI interrogation of Lieber following his arrest in which the former Harvard Chemistry chair told agents it “looks like I was very dishonest” in a separate interview with DOD investigators in 2018.
“I wasn’t completely transparent by any stretch of the imagination,” Lieber said in the interrogation, which was shown to jurors on Friday.
During the same interrogation, investigators presented Lieber with a contract he had signed with the TTP, which dictated he would be paid $50,000 per month for his work with the Wuhan Institute of Technology.…
Not just any old scientist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_M._Lieber
Politicalbetting is all about forecasting what could happen, before it does. Its also about forecasting what could happen, not what you want to happen.
Besides, I'm a geek and I love to be right. If I call this now, and it happens, I get to be smug in three months time, not because it happened and I wanted it to - but because I was right again.
Whilst it was originally a Labour idea , it’s not popular today on the left for a variety of reasons.
Last time I did so was to @TOPPING IIRC only a few days ago I did a mea culpa and said I was wrong.
I'm actually very pro defence, which maybe isn't at odds with social democracy historically but I feel has been in the UK over the last few years
@theipaper
·
6h
@chrischirp One of the most reassuring, popular faces of pandemic information
===
Prof Pagel has many talents, but I'm not sure I would put 'reassuring' as one of them.
What I think he would like - and what I would certainly like - is for:
- government to avoid lockdown
- it to turn out that there was no need for lockdown
- people to decide that this was the right thing to do, and be happier as a result than they would have been locked down.
I give the first a 50% chance, the second a 75% chance and the third a 50% chance, though it will be the sort of opinion which doesn't get aired as freely as its opposite.
You and I are fairly aligned on the politics, from what I can recall.
I'm probably somewhere naturally, between a Blairite and soft leftist
I suppose I mean that "my body my choice" is a message I support in pretty much every area of life.
Unlike many on the Left I put abortion alongside shooting heroin or becoming addicted to coke. Something you ought to be entitled to do. But one which would make one fall in my estimation, I guess.
Unlike drinking or smoking dope which I regard as morally neutral.
I'm probably not consistent there, but horse did ask.
I'm anti private schools in principle but again I have no interest in seeing them banned.
In fact I'm anti a lot of things but I suppose like a wishy washy Blairite I am not sure the state is always the answer.
@EricTopol
·
3h
A/The big unknown for Omicron is the magnitude of reduction in illness severity compared with Delta and prior variants. The South African preprint data today says 70%, adjusted. In a population with high Covid exposure,
Internal consistency is overrated, anyway!
Not something you usually hear from the centre left. We need more outrage at this injustice.
Boris has had some good points and some bad points. The problem for me is all his plus points are in the past and all the negatives are building up, so it's time for him to go.
Prime Minister's who were very clearly (in my eyes) worse than Boris, in reverse order:
Theresa May: Where to begin? Absolutely no positives whatsoever. Worst PM since Lord North.
Gordon Brown: Utterly trashed the economy, though that was to be fair mainly as Chancellor. Signed Lisbon against the manifesto commitment not to. Ensured there was no money left.
Tony Blair: Had Gordon Brown as Chancellor, which wrecked the economy. That only came to light after he moved on, but he needs the share of the blame. Iraq. WMDs. Detention without trial. ID cards. Introduced Tuition Fees. Asymmetrical devolution. Sparked the housing crisis, the entire rise in house price to earnings ratios took place under his Premiership.
John Major: On the plus side he did a good job with the economy and left it in a good state for Blair to inherit. On the other hand the way he handled Maastricht created divisions that never healed in society leading ultimately to European divisions for decades ending in Brexit. Black Wednesday.
The only PM I might rate ahead of Boris (and I would today, I go back and forth on this) is Cameron.
Hospitalisations = 129
Deaths = 14
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1043098/20211221_OS_Daily_Omicron_Overview.pdf
I think I'd go with ...
Whilst we need a financial sector, the amount the UK scoops off from it does us more harm than good- a bit like the way that very few oil producing nations are run well.
Surely we can make our own history.
Eran Segal
@segal_eran
Israel will recommend a 4th booster shot to people above the age of 60
Only reason to delay a bit would be if next-gen vaccines might be available, in which case it might be worth waiting for them.
Perhaps more needs to be done by pharmacy network? Pay them to take on an extra member of staff?
Despite my political tradition being a case of saying let people decide what they want to do, and to let businesses decide what they want to do, I strongly supported the smoking ban indoors. Based not on policy or principle but purely on a selfish, personal dislike of smoking and especially its noxious smell. Smokers don't notice the smell of tobacco, but to me its utterly vile.
One thing I don't miss from before the ban is going to pubs and clubs and the next day my clothes would all stink of tobacco. Not that I go to clubs anymore anyway, but still nice to go to pubs and I don't mind being outside talking to friends who are smoking but its a different thing indoors.
Happy to admit I put my own selfish concerns ahead of principle or political tradition there.
Prof Francois Balloux
@BallouxFrancois
·
26m
There is a silver lining to the current 'fall of the epi-models'. Modelling the spread and toll of a pathogen in a largely immune-naïve is reasonably easy. Modelling what happens when a bug transitions into endemicity is a nightmare, mathematically.
Thus, the more the - competent - epidemiological models fail, the closer we are to the end of the pandemic, and the merrier.
Yes pharmacists make sense to me. An extra income stream for them I'm sure they'd be happy to have.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/22/five-million-families-in-england-face-big-social-housing-rent-hike-warns-thinktank
Going back to Horse's question, I believe in the Union, for all that it's getting frayed now. That's my political tradition. But from my perspective as a Scot, Scotland comes first and the Union comes by consent. I think the English perspective on the Union is a little different, which causes some tension, but it's OK as long as both parties think it's worth having.
I have a similar take on the European Union.
Over a third of patients stuck on waiting list after referrals double in a year" (via google search)
https://www.ft.com/content/14ba3a5a-8d3b-49bb-bddd-d157d09c9863
We are talking about now.
Allison Pearson
@AllisonPearson
·
1h
I heard from a good source that supermarkets have been told by the Government that lockdown lite starts on 28 December.
Would have to have a rethink if you're not counting that.
And, perhaps unusually these days, I like America, for all its alien religious mania, voracious corporations and rural Trumpery - they have something special in generosity and optimism that we've largely mislaid.
(1) Are all hospitalisations sequenced? And if they are, is there a lag? We could be looking at just the known hospitalisations up until last Weds.
(2) There is inevitably a lag. Now, the lag (from South Africa) appears to be a short one, but we do need to keep an eye on it.
Alastair Grant
@AlastairGrant4
#Omicron makes up 72% of cases in England for 19th December
The peak total number is still for specimens from 15th December, with both Omicron and Delta now declining
Omicron down from about 55k on 15th to 42k on 18th
Delta from 43k on 13th to 19.4k on 18th