Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
It's a shame it wasn't a better film, as "Don't look up" could have had the same resonance as "ok boomer". Let's see if it catches on.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
I'm sure Kiwi headbangers like yourself would have said the same thing decades ago when they scrapped subsidies.
If you have confidence in our British agricultural sector they should be able to be competitive without subsidies or tariffs. In which case, that's great.
If they're not and you hold our agricultural sector in contempt and think they can't survive on their own basis then why are we trying to keep them afloat? Move on and accept reality, and let the land be used for more productive purposes.
If less productive farmers go out of business and get replaced by more productive ones, then we have more food security, less subsidies and are more competitive economically. Win/win/win in that scenario.
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
The people out there who are still unvaccinated have made their choice. When I (rarely) meet someone who says they are unvaccinated (such as airport transfer driver the other day) I always point out that they are taking a personal risk and should reconsider their position (even though the risk of serious illness is very low even for the unvaccinated).
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
James Rebanks guest editing the show this am, sounding like a socialist red in tooth and claw and putting the boot into this government with gusto - ‘I wouldn’t trust a word George Eustice says’.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
I'm sure Kiwi headbangers like yourself would have said the same thing decades ago when they scrapped subsidies.
If you have confidence in our British agricultural sector they should be able to be competitive without subsidies or tariffs. In which case, that's great.
If they're not and you hold our agricultural sector in contempt and think they can't survive on their own basis then why are we trying to keep them afloat? Move on and accept reality, and let the land be used for more productive purposes.
If less productive farmers go out of business and get replaced by more productive ones, then we have more food security, less subsidies and are more competitive economically. Win/win/win in that scenario.
Or, re-wild our pastoral land while supporting arable farming with the re-directed subsidies. Hits a few objective - calorie security, environmental gains, reduced meat consumption etc
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
It's a shame it wasn't a better film, as "Don't look up" could have had the same resonance as "ok boomer". Let's see if it catches on.
It was a *sensational* film. Brilliantly cast and acted, multi-layered high parody. Mark Rylance as a Bezos / Zuckerberg guy who seems to be off his tits most of the time until he gets called a mere "businessman" a particular highlight.
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
The people out there who are still unvaccinated have made their choice. When I (rarely) meet someone who says they are unvaccinated (such as airport transfer driver the other day) I always point out that they are taking a personal risk and should reconsider their position (even though the risk of serious illness is very low even for the unvaccinated).
I'm largely ignoring the unvaxxed - they made their choice. But Covid is still serious enough to do egregious damage to our economy through absence if nothing else.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
Why do you think the Lib Dems were given a free(ish) run in North Staffordshire?
I pointed out a couple of weeks ago the impact the Australia deal (and CAP replacement schemes) would be and that impact is only beginning to be noticed and felt by farmers. They won’t by themselves change a seat but the farmer / rural vote is way more than the 0.5% HYUFD claims it to be.
IIRC it’s 8% although that definition includes a lot of what you might consider semi-rural
The 0.5% is the percentage of the population directly involved in agriculture
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
It's a shame it wasn't a better film, as "Don't look up" could have had the same resonance as "ok boomer". Let's see if it catches on.
It was a *sensational* film. Brilliantly cast and acted, multi-layered high parody. Mark Rylance as a Bezos / Zuckerberg guy who seems to be off his tits most of the time until he gets called a mere "businessman" a particular highlight.
It could have been the Death of Stalin. Far too heavy handed in the end, though I suppose it has greater reach as a result.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
I'm sure Kiwi headbangers like yourself would have said the same thing decades ago when they scrapped subsidies.
If you have confidence in our British agricultural sector they should be able to be competitive without subsidies or tariffs. In which case, that's great.
If they're not and you hold our agricultural sector in contempt and think they can't survive on their own basis then why are we trying to keep them afloat? Move on and accept reality, and let the land be used for more productive purposes.
If less productive farmers go out of business and get replaced by more productive ones, then we have more food security, less subsidies and are more competitive economically. Win/win/win in that scenario.
Or, re-wild our pastoral land while supporting arable farming with the re-directed subsidies. Hits a few objective - calorie security, environmental gains, reduced meat consumption etc
Yep. Its been a success in North Korea. Definitely the policy to save Boris Johnson. "you voted for Brexit to have a greatly reduced calorie consumption as we can't grow our own food and imports are crazy expensive"
Meanwhile "deaths" are still trending down according to latest data though that may be disrupted by the holidays.
As a leading indicator, patients in MV beds is still trending down too. As first spotted by @Alistair in SA weeks ago I think that's still the case here.
I hope you're correct - and there are indications that is the case.
But if you're wrong, it's going to be really, really nasty.
However much Doctor Death says "let them die" it isn't just about his personal quest for bodies. Omicron presents a significant and growing threat to business and services due to staff absence. When you are infected with Covid, you are not going to work. Cases are well past 100k a day, we'll see 150k and then some. That's a lot of people not going to work for a week...
Not going to work for a week is better than not going to work for three months.
Though its worth remembering too as to whether its people not going to work for a week because they're actually sick and bed bound, or not going to work for a week due to regulations. If its the latter, that's fixable.
They're not going to work because they're not sociopathic twunts. You want to kill people, they don't.
No. They're not going to work because its the law.
Within a few months I expect that law will (quite rightly!) be dropped. Lets see how many people continue to stay off work "as they're not a sociopathic twunt" when its no longer a legal requirement. 🤔
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
Why do you think it passes me by? It doesn’t. I just think the trade offs you are expecting from everyone else are unreasonable and counterproductive to ensuring a healthy and prosperous society.
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
Can we strip the England cricket team of their citizenship and not let them back in the country?
As Patel refuses to inform us on the criteria she requires to remove citizenship, the frightening thing is that your jest could become reality in a future dystopian England. Promptly revoking dangerous Tory legislation which enables the rebirth of fascism must be a priority for the incoming government.
The 'future dystopian England' is already here, we just don't necessarily want to see it. The idea that citizenship should be something that can be revoked by the arbitrary whims of politicians, without recourse to a meaningful legal process or published criteria, crosses a rubicon. It was crossed unnoticed by many, as the nation sleepwalks in to tyranny and madness in a deranged pursuit of safety.
I've said before that the only thing that politicians may understand is the threat to use the same legislation against them. So perhaps someone should start a campaign to revoke the citizenship of the cabinet with foreign ancestry, after they have left office.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
It's a shame it wasn't a better film, as "Don't look up" could have had the same resonance as "ok boomer". Let's see if it catches on.
“Let’s go, Brandon” managed to catch on, which was rather amusing for everyone except Brandon Brown.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
I'm sure Kiwi headbangers like yourself would have said the same thing decades ago when they scrapped subsidies.
If you have confidence in our British agricultural sector they should be able to be competitive without subsidies or tariffs. In which case, that's great.
If they're not and you hold our agricultural sector in contempt and think they can't survive on their own basis then why are we trying to keep them afloat? Move on and accept reality, and let the land be used for more productive purposes.
If less productive farmers go out of business and get replaced by more productive ones, then we have more food security, less subsidies and are more competitive economically. Win/win/win in that scenario.
Or, re-wild our pastoral land while supporting arable farming with the re-directed subsidies. Hits a few objective - calorie security, environmental gains, reduced meat consumption etc
Yep. Its been a success in North Korea. Definitely the policy to save Boris Johnson. "you voted for Brexit to have a greatly reduced calorie consumption as we can't grow our own food and imports are crazy expensive"
You've misunderstood me. Afaik, most calories in the UK come from the flat, arable lands on the east coast (Lincolnshire etc), while the hillier areas are fairly unproductive.
If we concentrate our subsidies and farming over there, food costs in aggregate come down. Meat is more expensive, but I think we should reduce our consumption anyway on health and environmental grounds.
Also re-wilding is cool. Glen Feshie, Affric, Creag Meagaidh etc. Obviously politically not ideal, but maybe a way to get some Lib Dems back?
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
I'm sure Kiwi headbangers like yourself would have said the same thing decades ago when they scrapped subsidies.
If you have confidence in our British agricultural sector they should be able to be competitive without subsidies or tariffs. In which case, that's great.
If they're not and you hold our agricultural sector in contempt and think they can't survive on their own basis then why are we trying to keep them afloat? Move on and accept reality, and let the land be used for more productive purposes.
If less productive farmers go out of business and get replaced by more productive ones, then we have more food security, less subsidies and are more competitive economically. Win/win/win in that scenario.
There is plenty of marginal land which isn’t really economically viable to farm, but for which there are positive externalities (eg water management / environmental). Subsidies in this case can be justified but not necessarily tied to production. It’s why Gove’s reforms were so interesting
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
We really need to be producing more food here not less.
Subsidies are a fact of life.
It isn't just subsidies, but rather price stabilisation that matters to farmers. In order to have a viable harvest they need to have some idea of the selling price. Otherwise they are just gambling on the weather, vs the weather in other parts of the world.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
I'm sure Kiwi headbangers like yourself would have said the same thing decades ago when they scrapped subsidies.
If you have confidence in our British agricultural sector they should be able to be competitive without subsidies or tariffs. In which case, that's great.
If they're not and you hold our agricultural sector in contempt and think they can't survive on their own basis then why are we trying to keep them afloat? Move on and accept reality, and let the land be used for more productive purposes.
If less productive farmers go out of business and get replaced by more productive ones, then we have more food security, less subsidies and are more competitive economically. Win/win/win in that scenario.
Or, re-wild our pastoral land while supporting arable farming with the re-directed subsidies. Hits a few objective - calorie security, environmental gains, reduced meat consumption etc
Not completely sure it works that way; grain is a problem (bread wheats tend to be imported). And in an earlier era of free trade (within the Empire), the farms abandoned grain and went for cattle and milk instead. Caused huge problems changing over in 1939 with the coming of war. And some upland is only good for sheep (which produce wool too). But some impact on intensive stockrearing seems likely. Yet why close it down in the UK for the benefit of intensive stockrearers in other countries?
Not saying you are wrong - just that it's a huge problem.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
It's a shame it wasn't a better film, as "Don't look up" could have had the same resonance as "ok boomer". Let's see if it catches on.
“Let’s go, Brandon” managed to catch on, which was rather amusing for everyone except Brandon Brown.
I guess I’m not the demographic, as I had to look up what was so amusing about Biden saying it. Again, I’m not the demographic, but do people actually say ‘ok, boomer’, or is that just people being rude on social media?
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
We really need to be producing more food here not less.
Subsidies are a fact of life.
It isn't just subsidies, but rather price stabilisation that matters to farmers. In order to have a viable harvest they need to have some idea of the selling price. Otherwise they are just gambling on the weather, vs the weather in other parts of the world.
Which is true for many other sectors in the economy too. They should operate in the world as it is, not in the world they wish it was. Perhaps the financial sector can aid with futures contracts if its worthwhile and they're prepared to pay for it?
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
Why do you think it passes me by? It doesn’t. I just think the trade offs you are expecting from everyone else are unreasonable and counterproductive to ensuring a healthy and prosperous society.
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
Don't Look Up!
Name me one other virus which infects 120k people every day and threatens the ability of business and essential services to provide enough staff to function.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
I'm sure Kiwi headbangers like yourself would have said the same thing decades ago when they scrapped subsidies.
If you have confidence in our British agricultural sector they should be able to be competitive without subsidies or tariffs. In which case, that's great.
If they're not and you hold our agricultural sector in contempt and think they can't survive on their own basis then why are we trying to keep them afloat? Move on and accept reality, and let the land be used for more productive purposes.
If less productive farmers go out of business and get replaced by more productive ones, then we have more food security, less subsidies and are more competitive economically. Win/win/win in that scenario.
Or, re-wild our pastoral land while supporting arable farming with the re-directed subsidies. Hits a few objective - calorie security, environmental gains, reduced meat consumption etc
Not completely sure it works that way; grain is a problem (bread wheats tend to be imported). And in an earlier era of free trade (within the Empire), the farms abandoned grain and went for cattle and milk instead. Caused huge problems changing over in 1939 with the coming of war. And some upland is only good for sheep (which produce wool too). But some impact on intensive stockrearing seems likely. Yet why close it down in the UK for the benefit of intensive stockrearers in other countries?
Not saying you are wrong - just that it's a huge problem.
I'm definitely being a bit idealistic on this - primarily because no politician will risk shaking things up.
It's a fun discussion though, particularly with walking friends. Another: should there really be a hydro scheme in Glen Etive when it will only produce the same energy as one giant turbine in the Thames estuary? It's just environmental signalling by SG.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
We really need to be producing more food here not less.
Subsidies are a fact of life.
It isn't just subsidies, but rather price stabilisation that matters to farmers. In order to have a viable harvest they need to have some idea of the selling price. Otherwise they are just gambling on the weather, vs the weather in other parts of the world.
Which is true for many other sectors in the economy too. They should operate in the world as it is, not in the world they wish it was. Perhaps the financial sector can aid with futures contracts if its worthwhile and they're prepared to pay for it?
Yes, it does affect other sectors too, but farming is particularly prone to price fluctuations.
New Zealand is a very different place, with possibly the cheapest high quality agricultural land in the world.
If you think people voted Brexit to shut down British farming then you are likely to not like the next election result.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
We really need to be producing more food here not less.
Subsidies are a fact of life.
It isn't just subsidies, but rather price stabilisation that matters to farmers. In order to have a viable harvest they need to have some idea of the selling price. Otherwise they are just gambling on the weather, vs the weather in other parts of the world.
Well price stability matters to all industries, not just farming. I’m afraid that is just something they have to live with just as any other business has to live with it and manage it to the best of their ability.
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
Why do you think it passes me by? It doesn’t. I just think the trade offs you are expecting from everyone else are unreasonable and counterproductive to ensuring a healthy and prosperous society.
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
Don't Look Up!
Name me one other virus which infects 120k people every day and threatens the ability of business and essential services to provide enough staff to function.
That's precisely @moonshine point. The isolation period is causing more harm than good.
I don't agree, I think there is a compromise around 5 days or only applying it to symptomatic people.
Does it matter who the England coach is when, with a few noble exceptions, the talent just is not there. Especially in the batting.
I’m sure the talent is there, but one day cricket has corroded the art of defence. So what does the eco do? Invent another form of short cricket... Our county 4 day cricket is not at the same standard as Sheffield Shield in Aussie, partly as there are 18 counties. The two divisions was an attempt to change this, but it didn’t work. I think the ecb is using the hundred as a back door to 8 franchises for the long form of the game. It would benefit the England test team, but the counties will fight to the bitter end. There is a huge amount of history and tradition to lose.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Relax, Huyfd. Boris isn't going anywhere.
If I were betting on the matter (I'm not), I would be a layer of both Sunak and Truss. I have no idea who it will be but I don't expect a change anytime soon.
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
Why do you think it passes me by? It doesn’t. I just think the trade offs you are expecting from everyone else are unreasonable and counterproductive to ensuring a healthy and prosperous society.
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
Don't Look Up!
Name me one other virus which infects 120k people every day and threatens the ability of business and essential services to provide enough staff to function.
That's precisely @moonshine point. The isolation period is causing more harm than good.
"Mass deaths and hospitalisations are now history': Vaccines expert backs PM's light-touch Covid measures as hospital admissions fall to half of level last Christmas despite record-breaking Omicron infection surge
A leading vaccines expert backed Boris Johnson's refusal to toughen England's Covid restrictions, saying that mass deaths and hospitalisations from the deadly disease are 'history'. Professor Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and a member of the Vaccines Taskforce, said the public had been 'pretty responsible' in its response to the spread of the Omicron variant. It came as new figures showed the number of people in hospital with Covid in England is less than half the same time last year – despite cases being three times higher."
They are- but there's no obvious "solve this problem" button to press.
Sunak only helps a bit. Which, given his part in the "Boris for Leader" campaign, and the Johnson government, is how it should be.
Other suggested candidates make things even worse.
Everyone who let Johnson into their campaign- whether it was to win in 2008, 2016 or 2019- knew they were riding a tiger. They knew who they were promoting. (And that includes me, though London Mayor is the kind of job BoJo has a talent for. Lots of noise while others do the real work.)
And the trouble with tiger riding is both that the tiger makes it hard to dismount and that you get the Roger's fleas.
Rewilding is a handy cover for unfettered wankerdom, mind, and results in civil servants wanting to re-wet Dartmoor because it is not yet sufficiently wet (anyone who has ever been there will see how funny this is) and remove all grazing stock from it, reverting it to a time which probably never existed since the evolution of mammals, and ensuring it degenerates into impenetrable jungle.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
It's a shame it wasn't a better film, as "Don't look up" could have had the same resonance as "ok boomer". Let's see if it catches on.
“Let’s go, Brandon” managed to catch on, which was rather amusing for everyone except Brandon Brown.
I guess I’m not the demographic, as I had to look up what was so amusing about Biden saying it. Again, I’m not the demographic, but do people actually say ‘ok, boomer’, or is that just people being rude on social media?
Brandon Brown is a NASCAR driver, who was being interviewed after winning a race, when the crowd behind him decided to make a political chant not in support of the President “F… Joe Biden!”. The lady interviewing him tried to cover the offensive language going out live, by suggesting the crowd were chanting “Let’s go, Brandon” - and within a couple of days, Republicans everywhere were new supporters of Brandon!
Does it matter who the England coach is when, with a few noble exceptions, the talent just is not there. Especially in the batting.
It isn't the quality, Taz. It's there in abundance. The problem is that the players have so little experience of competitive long-form cricket these days.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Sunak on a 3% deficit is quite a strong result given we’re mid term and the current govt travails. He’s also providing the cabinet level leadership against further restrictions.
I was struck a couple of weeks ago hearing Chris Evans say on his radio show that the Tories should just replace Boris with Rishi Sunak if they want to win the next election. He almost never talks about politics. It’s pretty clear Sunak is seen as a trusted and competent pair of hands.
The Tories should get rid of Boris as soon as, and cook up the leadership election so the members don’t get the chance to do anything stupid.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
The indications that I'm getting from 2019 Boris fans is that his appeal has gone - completely - and it is very unlikely that it will return. The CP has a big decision to make and the sooner the better I think - would provide a couple of years for a new leader to re-fashion things.
Hypothetical polling is actually probably the most important polling of all in determining whether PMs are kept in place as leader by their parties.
It was polling showing Major and Heseltine beating Kinnock while Thatcher trailed as they promised to drop the poll tax that sealed Maggie's fate in 1990. Similarly it was polling showing Boris beating Corbyn as he promised to get Brexit done while May trailed that sealed her fate in 2019.
By contrast Major survived in 1995 as the polls showed Redwood doing even worse against Blair than him and Portillo and Heseltine doing no better. Brown too survived until the 2010 election as no alternative leader, including David Miliband, led Cameron either.
The more polls show no alternative leader beating Starmer and some like Truss or Gove doing even worse, the safer Boris will be as Tory leader and PM
It's an RN vessel and they are going to have to pay for it and crew it. Only £200m has been approved and it's going to need double that and more. It's planned crew is 70. Every naval vessel ever built ends up needing more crew that planned and this will be no different. So basically it's going to consume an entire T31 crew. It's designed to operate unescorted (because there is nothing available to escort it) with demountable weapons for self protection. Everybody look forward to the spectacle of Queen Camilla brassing up some Quds Force nutters in fast boats with a Browning M2.
Obviously only a particular subset of gammony tories with massively enlarged red, white and blue prostates care about this thing but it'll be politically impossible to cancel it once a construction contract is awarded. The only place in the UK it can be built is CL at Birkenhead and it will be priced to reflect that.
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
Why do you think it passes me by? It doesn’t. I just think the trade offs you are expecting from everyone else are unreasonable and counterproductive to ensuring a healthy and prosperous society.
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
Don't Look Up!
Name me one other virus which infects 120k people every day and threatens the ability of business and essential services to provide enough staff to function.
That's precisely @moonshine point. The isolation period is causing more harm than good.
I don't agree, I think there is a compromise around 5 days or only applying it to symptomatic people.
That would depend on whether asymptomatic people can spread the virus. I'm unsure if this has been looked into for omicron, but ISTR the consensus for previous variants was that they could.
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
Why do you think it passes me by? It doesn’t. I just think the trade offs you are expecting from everyone else are unreasonable and counterproductive to ensuring a healthy and prosperous society.
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
Don't Look Up!
Name me one other virus which infects 120k people every day and threatens the ability of business and essential services to provide enough staff to function.
That's precisely @moonshine point. The isolation period is causing more harm than good.
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
Why do you think it passes me by? It doesn’t. I just think the trade offs you are expecting from everyone else are unreasonable and counterproductive to ensuring a healthy and prosperous society.
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
Don't Look Up!
Name me one other virus which infects 120k people every day and threatens the ability of business and essential services to provide enough staff to function.
The common cold infects more than that every day.
The only difference is we're not telling people to stay at home for it. It isn't the virus that is threatening the ability of business and services to provide staff to function, its telling people by law they have to stay at home even if asymptomatic that is doing it.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Relax, Huyfd. Boris isn't going anywhere.
If I were betting on the matter (I'm not), I would be a layer of both Sunak and Truss. I have no idea who it will be but I don't expect a change anytime soon.
Certainly I don't expect Johnson to go willingly. He will have to be dragged out screaming. He knows that it is the end of his political life and a twighlight world of repeating the same after dinner speech for eternity awaits.
I think there will be a summer challenge, but there may be some scheming over the VONC by various plotting courtiers that may well lead to him surviving a further year to trash the brand.
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
Why do you think it passes me by? It doesn’t. I just think the trade offs you are expecting from everyone else are unreasonable and counterproductive to ensuring a healthy and prosperous society.
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
Don't Look Up!
Name me one other virus which infects 120k people every day and threatens the ability of business and essential services to provide enough staff to function.
That's precisely @moonshine point. The isolation period is causing more harm than good.
300k new cases a day would do more harm.
I edited my post after, apologies.
Yes, I suppose. A balancing act: minimise some function of (Isolation time X number of infections).
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
How on earth you can be so blind sided by Boris amazes me, especially on the day Conhome puts him way out on his own at the bottom of their cabinet league table at -33.8 with Mark Spencer at -24.1
As I have said before, you need to wake up and smell the coffee
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
I'm sure Kiwi headbangers like yourself would have said the same thing decades ago when they scrapped subsidies.
If you have confidence in our British agricultural sector they should be able to be competitive without subsidies or tariffs. In which case, that's great.
If they're not and you hold our agricultural sector in contempt and think they can't survive on their own basis then why are we trying to keep them afloat? Move on and accept reality, and let the land be used for more productive purposes.
If less productive farmers go out of business and get replaced by more productive ones, then we have more food security, less subsidies and are more competitive economically. Win/win/win in that scenario.
Or, re-wild our pastoral land while supporting arable farming with the re-directed subsidies. Hits a few objective - calorie security, environmental gains, reduced meat consumption etc
Not completely sure it works that way; grain is a problem (bread wheats tend to be imported). And in an earlier era of free trade (within the Empire), the farms abandoned grain and went for cattle and milk instead. Caused huge problems changing over in 1939 with the coming of war. And some upland is only good for sheep (which produce wool too). But some impact on intensive stockrearing seems likely. Yet why close it down in the UK for the benefit of intensive stockrearers in other countries?
Not saying you are wrong - just that it's a huge problem.
But surely the farming community is happy now that we are out of the EU? It supported leaving in a big way. Now that it has happened, surely the UK's farming problems have disappeared.
Hypothetical polling is actually probably the most important polling of all in determining whether PMs are kept in place as leader by their parties.
It was polling showing Major and Heseltine beating Kinnock while Thatcher trailed as they promised to drop the poll tax that sealed Maggie's fate in 1990. Similarly it was polling showing Boris beating Corbyn as he promised to get Brexit done while May trailed that sealed her fate in 2019.
By contrast Major survived in 1995 as the polls showed Redwood doing even worse against Blair than him and Portillo and Heseltine doing no better. Brown too survived until the 2010 election as no alternative leader, including David Miliband, led Cameron either.
The more polls show no alternative leader beating Starmer and some like Truss or Gove doing even worse, the safer Boris will be as Tory leader and PM
Ultimately if you keep Peppa, you lose. Once that sinks in then swapping to a better option and giving them time is the obvious play. The idea that we enter 2022 and there are no more scandals, no more self-inflicted disasters and people start feeling warm again about the PM is fantasy island.
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
Why do you think it passes me by? It doesn’t. I just think the trade offs you are expecting from everyone else are unreasonable and counterproductive to ensuring a healthy and prosperous society.
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
Don't Look Up!
Name me one other virus which infects 120k people every day and threatens the ability of business and essential services to provide enough staff to function.
That's precisely @moonshine point. The isolation period is causing more harm than good.
300k new cases a day would do more harm.
We get about 550k daily cases of common cold without reacting with mass hysteria. Possibly more given the lack of widespread testing for asymptomatic cases.
300k cases of covid if treated like the common cold (stay at home if you need to) would be better than 120k cases where we tell the asymptomatic to stay at home for a week.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
It's a shame it wasn't a better film, as "Don't look up" could have had the same resonance as "ok boomer". Let's see if it catches on.
“Let’s go, Brandon” managed to catch on, which was rather amusing for everyone except Brandon Brown.
I guess I’m not the demographic, as I had to look up what was so amusing about Biden saying it. Again, I’m not the demographic, but do people actually say ‘ok, boomer’, or is that just people being rude on social media?
Brandon Brown is a NASCAR driver, who was being interviewed after winning a race, when the crowd behind him decided to make a political chant not in support of the President “F… Joe Biden!”. The lady interviewing him tried to cover the offensive language going out live, by suggesting the crowd were chanting “Let’s go, Brandon” - and within a couple of days, Republicans everywhere were new supporters of Brandon!
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
Why do you think the Lib Dems were given a free(ish) run in North Staffordshire?
I pointed out a couple of weeks ago the impact the Australia deal (and CAP replacement schemes) would be and that impact is only beginning to be noticed and felt by farmers. They won’t by themselves change a seat but the farmer / rural vote is way more than the 0.5% HYUFD claims it to be.
“They won’t by themselves change a seat”?
Are you absolutely sure about that? Is there not one single seat in the UK where the farming vote is decisive? I find that hard to believe.
Does it matter who the England coach is when, with a few noble exceptions, the talent just is not there. Especially in the batting.
Although alarm bells should be ringing about some of the things Root has said. 'These are the best 18 county players?' Not really a feasible statement. Foakes, for a start, would be ahead of Buttler and Bairstow for both batting and keeping, as would Sam Billings. Chris Dent has more runs at a better average than Haseeb Hameed or Zak Crawley. James Vince is the best county No. 3 out there. Matt Critchley and Matt Parkinson are both excellent spinners.
Of course, there are counter arguments that these would struggle in Tests (except for Foakes, whose record in Tests is excellent). Dent is weak just outside off with a tendency to chop on, and Vince has been tried and found wanting a great many times. Critchley and Parkinson are both very inexperienced.
But it's the attitude in that statement that concerns me. It shows England have become a clique, and moreover, a clique where too many failures are being carried.
That's not tenable. Certainly not against Aus or India, or New Zealand.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Sunak on a 3% deficit is quite a strong result given we’re mid term and the current govt travails. He’s also providing the cabinet level leadership against further restrictions.
I was struck a couple of weeks ago hearing Chris Evans say on his radio show that the Tories should just replace Boris with Rishi Sunak if they want to win the next election. He almost never talks about politics. It’s pretty clear Sunak is seen as a trusted and competent pair of hands.
The Tories should get rid of Boris as soon as, and cook up the leadership election so the members don’t get the chance to do anything stupid.
I think that coronations of new leaders produce bad choices. All the major parties have made this mistake in recent times.
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
Why do you think it passes me by? It doesn’t. I just think the trade offs you are expecting from everyone else are unreasonable and counterproductive to ensuring a healthy and prosperous society.
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
Don't Look Up!
Name me one other virus which infects 120k people every day and threatens the ability of business and essential services to provide enough staff to function.
That's precisely @moonshine point. The isolation period is causing more harm than good.
300k new cases a day would do more harm.
Unless you just let it rip, let the unvaccinated take their chance, and have no isolation period.
Not that I advocate that, I agree with you. The risk isn’t so much the disease it’s the people having to isolate and not work. I can’t see how people don’t see it. It’s Already affected some train services and bus services although there is an element of businesses using Covid as an excuse.
Rewilding is a handy cover for unfettered wankerdom, mind, and results in civil servants wanting to re-wet Dartmoor because it is not yet sufficiently wet (anyone who has ever been there will see how funny this is) and remove all grazing stock from it, reverting it to a time which probably never existed since the evolution of mammals, and ensuring it degenerates into impenetrable jungle.
Big fan of unfettered wankerdom
I'm from up north so all I see is the environmental deserts of grouse moors and deer forests (which don't have trees). I think it's different in England where you have cultural elements to consider.
Does it matter who the England coach is when, with a few noble exceptions, the talent just is not there. Especially in the batting.
I’m sure the talent is there, but one day cricket has corroded the art of defence. So what does the eco do? Invent another form of short cricket... Our county 4 day cricket is not at the same standard as Sheffield Shield in Aussie, partly as there are 18 counties. The two divisions was an attempt to change this, but it didn’t work. I think the ecb is using the hundred as a back door to 8 franchises for the long form of the game. It would benefit the England test team, but the counties will fight to the bitter end. There is a huge amount of history and tradition to lose.
The other question is, would they pick the right 8 or 10 counties? For example, no way should Glamorgan, Middlesex or Kent be in that number on merit, but you can bet they would be as they have the right friends. Meanwhile Somerset, one of the strongest sides in the country, and Gloucestershire, with an international venue, have been deliberately overlooked in the Hundred. Durham, not so long ago one of the best sides in the land and the home of Ben Stokes, have been shafted so often for specious reasons you wonder if their chairman actually killed Tom Harrison's cat.
There is a reason the counties are sceptical of the ECB's plans, and it's simply because the ECB can't be trusted to do what's right for the game instead of what's right for their mates.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Sunak on a 3% deficit is quite a strong result given we’re mid term and the current govt travails. He’s also providing the cabinet level leadership against further restrictions.
I was struck a couple of weeks ago hearing Chris Evans say on his radio show that the Tories should just replace Boris with Rishi Sunak if they want to win the next election. He almost never talks about politics. It’s pretty clear Sunak is seen as a trusted and competent pair of hands.
The Tories should get rid of Boris as soon as, and cook up the leadership election so the members don’t get the chance to do anything stupid.
I think that coronations of new leaders produce bad choices. All the major parties have made this mistake in recent times.
Doesn’t need to be a coronation and nor would it be given the other egos. I’m just talking about cutting out the members, who represent the extremist view points on either end of the spectrum.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
Why do you think the Lib Dems were given a free(ish) run in North Staffordshire?
I pointed out a couple of weeks ago the impact the Australia deal (and CAP replacement schemes) would be and that impact is only beginning to be noticed and felt by farmers. They won’t by themselves change a seat but the farmer / rural vote is way more than the 0.5% HYUFD claims it to be.
“They won’t by themselves change a seat”?
Are you absolutely sure about that? Is there not one single seat in the UK where the farming vote is decisive? I find that hard to believe.
A lot of the shires are so blue that it won't change things, but it could matter in places which are more mixed, particularly in the West Country for example.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
It's a shame it wasn't a better film, as "Don't look up" could have had the same resonance as "ok boomer". Let's see if it catches on.
“Let’s go, Brandon” managed to catch on, which was rather amusing for everyone except Brandon Brown.
I guess I’m not the demographic, as I had to look up what was so amusing about Biden saying it. Again, I’m not the demographic, but do people actually say ‘ok, boomer’, or is that just people being rude on social media?
Brandon Brown is a NASCAR driver, who was being interviewed after winning a race, when the crowd behind him decided to make a political chant not in support of the President “F… Joe Biden!”. The lady interviewing him tried to cover the offensive language going out live, by suggesting the crowd were chanting “Let’s go, Brandon” - and within a couple of days, Republicans everywhere were new supporters of Brandon!
Is it a big thing? No relevance in the U.K.
Nah, we were just wondering if the phrase "don't look up" would have cut through. I can see Greta picking it up.
Polls like this are important. In the last Tory leadership contest Johnson's victory was a dead cert after polls showed he and he alone produced a clear lead on VI for a GE.
But it's probably irrelevant atm because there isn't going to be a Tory leadership contest.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Sunak on a 3% deficit is quite a strong result given we’re mid term and the current govt travails. He’s also providing the cabinet level leadership against further restrictions.
I was struck a couple of weeks ago hearing Chris Evans say on his radio show that the Tories should just replace Boris with Rishi Sunak if they want to win the next election. He almost never talks about politics. It’s pretty clear Sunak is seen as a trusted and competent pair of hands.
The Tories should get rid of Boris as soon as, and cook up the leadership election so the members don’t get the chance to do anything stupid.
I think that coronations of new leaders produce bad choices. All the major parties have made this mistake in recent times.
Brown and May vs Corbyn and Johnson. Looks pretty even to me.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
How on earth you can be so blind sided by Boris amazes me, especially on the day Conhome puts him way out on his own at the bottom of their cabinet league table at -33.8 with Mark Spencer at -24.1
As I have said before, you need to wake up and smell the coffee
HYUFD has a point. If the tories novichok Johnson now they are stuck with his successor right up to the next GE. Far better to let him take a few more arrows first and change closer to the election.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Sunak on a 3% deficit is quite a strong result given we’re mid term and the current govt travails. He’s also providing the cabinet level leadership against further restrictions.
I was struck a couple of weeks ago hearing Chris Evans say on his radio show that the Tories should just replace Boris with Rishi Sunak if they want to win the next election. He almost never talks about politics. It’s pretty clear Sunak is seen as a trusted and competent pair of hands.
The Tories should get rid of Boris as soon as, and cook up the leadership election so the members don’t get the chance to do anything stupid.
I think that coronations of new leaders produce bad choices. All the major parties have made this mistake in recent times.
Brown and May vs Corbyn and Johnson. Looks pretty even to me.
Sure, not having a coronation doesn't guarantee a good choice. Far from it!
Does it matter who the England coach is when, with a few noble exceptions, the talent just is not there. Especially in the batting.
I’m sure the talent is there, but one day cricket has corroded the art of defence. So what does the eco do? Invent another form of short cricket... Our county 4 day cricket is not at the same standard as Sheffield Shield in Aussie, partly as there are 18 counties. The two divisions was an attempt to change this, but it didn’t work. I think the ecb is using the hundred as a back door to 8 franchises for the long form of the game. It would benefit the England test team, but the counties will fight to the bitter end. There is a huge amount of history and tradition to lose.
The other question is, would they pick the right 8 or 10 counties? For example, no way should Glamorgan, Middlesex or Kent be in that number on merit, but you can bet they would be as they have the right friends. Meanwhile Somerset, one of the strongest sides in the country, and Gloucestershire, with an international venue, have been deliberately overlooked in the Hundred. Durham, not so long ago one of the best sides in the land and the home of Ben Stokes, have been shafted so often for specious reasons you wonder if their chairman actually killed Tom Harrison's cat.
There is a reason the counties are sceptical of the ECB's plans, and it's simply because the ECB can't be trusted to do what's right for the game instead of what's right for their mates.
Well quite. I think this is the plan, or outline idea, but I’m not in favour. I hoped that two divisions and promotion/relegation would work. I got endlessly fed up with radio 5 not understanding that division 1 was above division 2. How often did they report on second division games ahead of first? They would never report on championship football ahead of the premiership. I think the ecb needs to look at what it wants to achieve. It’s clear the main focus has been world cups (T20 and one day), and fair enough we won one, and lost the other on the toss. But the test team is being done no favours. Back in the day of 17 counties all playing each other home and away (more or less), batsmen got time in the middle. It’s easy to mock Boycott, but by god he’d be first on the sheet right now.
And yes you do need a password management tool as every one of your online passwords should be different but there are tools beyond LasPass. Bitwarden is free
I use PasswordSafe, and encrypt the master password with Yubikey
I am expecting a spike in cases in the vulnerable groups and over 60s soon. They hunkered down with the rise of Omicron prior to Christmas but then obviously and naturally met up with family and friends during the festive period.
Then you probably will see a spike when the school's go back, Omicron can easily 'reinfect' and there are million of kids out there to spread it about.
Some difficult days ahead for sure.
Know someone who came down with rona a couple of months ago while double vaxxed. Since had a booster. Tested positive again a week or so ago, after a bet with his wife that he couldn’t possibly have it again, this time only with a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day were it not for govt mandated isolation requirements.
The only way out of this looks to me to totally let rip in a boosted population, by stopping the continual testing and the self isolation of positive cases and removing all other mandates like masks. Otherwise we’re going to be talking about this forever. And just treat this as another annoying virus that you get every year or so.
Sensible precautions ahead of time should be made, for what is largely a reverse psyops campaign given the low hospital stats caused by omicron. FFP3 masks for the clinically vulnerable that want them, 4th doses for them if they’re past 12 weeks, anti virals and oximeters already sitting in their bathroom cabinets.
It wouldn’t go down well with the scaredy cats (you know who you are). But so what. Time to rip off the plaster.
The basic problem with "rip off the plaster" is this. "a scratchy throat that wouldn’t have interfered with his day" is perfectly capable of making someone seriously ill or dead. Or scores of people ill enough to not be at work. People with critical jobs.
When people have Covid - even if they are lucky enough to only have a scratchy throat - they need to self-isolate to protect *other people*.
I really struggle with how this rather basic consideration seems to pass some of you by.
Why do you think it passes me by? It doesn’t. I just think the trade offs you are expecting from everyone else are unreasonable and counterproductive to ensuring a healthy and prosperous society.
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
Don't Look Up!
Name me one other virus which infects 120k people every day and threatens the ability of business and essential services to provide enough staff to function.
That's precisely @moonshine point. The isolation period is causing more harm than good.
300k new cases a day would do more harm.
Unless you just let it rip, let the unvaccinated take their chance, and have no isolation period.
Not that I advocate that, I agree with you. The risk isn’t so much the disease it’s the people having to isolate and not work. I can’t see how people don’t see it. It’s Already affected some train services and bus services although there is an element of businesses using Covid as an excuse.
It’s going to take until 2024 for people to fully return to their senses I reckon. To stop being scared of the spectre of the invisible bringer of doom. Even now when the hospitalisation data (and transmission stats) are plain to see, some of the weaker minded here are still clinging to the idea that mandates restrictions are desirable and worthwhile. I predict most will look back in the same way they look back on backing Corbyn. “What was I thinking?”.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
I'm sure Kiwi headbangers like yourself would have said the same thing decades ago when they scrapped subsidies.
If you have confidence in our British agricultural sector they should be able to be competitive without subsidies or tariffs. In which case, that's great.
If they're not and you hold our agricultural sector in contempt and think they can't survive on their own basis then why are we trying to keep them afloat? Move on and accept reality, and let the land be used for more productive purposes.
If less productive farmers go out of business and get replaced by more productive ones, then we have more food security, less subsidies and are more competitive economically. Win/win/win in that scenario.
Political history suggests people don’t react very kindly to being told that their historical occupations aren’t efficient and that they’ll have to be more productive (or retrain to work in a call centre)
China reports 182 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase since early 2020, as officials try to contain Xian outbreak
I presume we translate these figures by adding a zero or two on the end....no way they would be going full wuhan repeat for couple hundred cases. Only one family member allowed out for food every other day and that's it.
Disagree, the point of the zero-covid type of responses is that you nip the outbreaks in the bud. The logic of it is that if you have to do what's necessary to bring the spread of the virus down below 1, it's less disruptive to do that for a relatively small contained area early on than to do the same for the entire country when your hospital system is about to fall over. It also has the benefit that you avoid killing a load of people in the meantime.
What's hard about this kind of response is that the government needs to get people to change their behaviour even though the chances of you as an individual getting sick are very low. So you for it to work you need the population to either be irrationally hypochondriac, very considerate, or government-controllable.
The other implication is that the policy is easier to implement if people think they're more likely to get sick, so if you were going to lie about the scale of the outbreak, you'd be better lying on the upside than lying on the downside.
Have you seeen the pictures for this particular response? They have had small outbreak before and they test everybody, work from home, isolate the sick etc.
The scenes here are back to Wuhan. Nobody allowed out for any reason. No cars to be driven anywhere. Second round of testing of the whole population of 13 million in 3 days. 1000s of specialists sent in by the state. 10s of local officials have been "disciplined" i.e Probably sent to a work camp.
Its a different order of magnitude response. All because of total of 200 cases. Nah even with zero covid approach, the reaction is of somewhere with a much bigger problem.
And yes you do need a password management tool as every one of your online passwords should be different but there are tools beyond LasPass. Bitwarden is free
I use PasswordSafe, and encrypt the master password with Yubikey
I use whatever the default password manager is with Chrome and Firefox, plus Samsung Pass on my phone.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
I'm sure Kiwi headbangers like yourself would have said the same thing decades ago when they scrapped subsidies.
If you have confidence in our British agricultural sector they should be able to be competitive without subsidies or tariffs. In which case, that's great.
If they're not and you hold our agricultural sector in contempt and think they can't survive on their own basis then why are we trying to keep them afloat? Move on and accept reality, and let the land be used for more productive purposes.
If less productive farmers go out of business and get replaced by more productive ones, then we have more food security, less subsidies and are more competitive economically. Win/win/win in that scenario.
Political history suggests people don’t react very kindly to being told that their historical occupations aren’t efficient and that they’ll have to be more productive (or retrain to work in a call centre)
True, but economic history suggests standing up to such Luddites is the right thing to do.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
Why do you think the Lib Dems were given a free(ish) run in North Staffordshire?
I pointed out a couple of weeks ago the impact the Australia deal (and CAP replacement schemes) would be and that impact is only beginning to be noticed and felt by farmers. They won’t by themselves change a seat but the farmer / rural vote is way more than the 0.5% HYUFD claims it to be.
I don't know whether it counts as a Freudian slip but North Shropshire is somewhat different from North Staffordshire.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
We really need to be producing more food here not less.
Subsidies are a fact of life.
It isn't just subsidies, but rather price stabilisation that matters to farmers. In order to have a viable harvest they need to have some idea of the selling price. Otherwise they are just gambling on the weather, vs the weather in other parts of the world.
I follow the pork price index relatively closely. Agriculture is a commodity with all the volatility in pricing that implies.
Fascinating interview with George Eustice, England’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on R4 Today.
Farmers are not happy bunnies regarding, among other things, the free trade deal with Australia.
Can’t see many farmers switching straight to Labour, but could we see widespread protest via:
- abstaining? - voting LibDem in England and Wales? - voting SNP in Scotland?
A lot will depend on how the Tory party responds.
At the moment they have patronising lickspittles like David Duguid telling farmers and fishermen that actually Brexit has been brilliant and actually naysayer voices like Banff and Buchan famers and fishermen are ignoring all the amazing things he and his government are doing. Unsurprisingly this seat will fall to the SNP according to the polls.
If the government keep saying Don't Look Up to businesses and rural communities they are going to get pummelled. They know that we remain completely aligned to the single market and customs union and that it is only the government tying them in knots and threatening their subsidies threatening their way of life. They will vote for parties who will fix this.
Or, the government wakes up. Realises the ERG have led them down the garden path. And take a giant pair of scissors to "european" red tape and claim victory as they free business and farmers and fishermen from pointless red tape done by that failed lying clown who has just been fired.
Subsidises have been cut in half and the criteria for them has completely changed. I don’t have the details as that’s a wormhole I don’t wish to go down and something that it’s easier to deny knowledge about given Mrs Eek’s areas
That sounds like a Brexit positive then. 👍
So not only are we not paying subsidies to French farmers anymore, we've rid ourselves of half the burden of subsidising British ones too. Fantastic!
Most British farms will no longer be economically viable and will stop producing food! Fantastic!
We really need to be producing more food here not less.
Subsidies are a fact of life.
It isn't just subsidies, but rather price stabilisation that matters to farmers. In order to have a viable harvest they need to have some idea of the selling price. Otherwise they are just gambling on the weather, vs the weather in other parts of the world.
I follow the pork price index relatively closely. Agriculture is a commodity with all the volatility in pricing that implies.
Is that the price of pork the food or pork the Prime Minister...?
And yes you do need a password management tool as every one of your online passwords should be different but there are tools beyond LasPass. Bitwarden is free
The idea of a cloud based password manager always seems bonkers to me.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
The indications that I'm getting from 2019 Boris fans is that his appeal has gone - completely - and it is very unlikely that it will return. The CP has a big decision to make and the sooner the better I think - would provide a couple of years for a new leader to re-fashion things.
All those months of those of us who knew what he was like being told that he would always be enduring electoral magic, and here we are, just as we always said we would be…..
Rewilding is a handy cover for unfettered wankerdom, mind, and results in civil servants wanting to re-wet Dartmoor because it is not yet sufficiently wet (anyone who has ever been there will see how funny this is) and remove all grazing stock from it, reverting it to a time which probably never existed since the evolution of mammals, and ensuring it degenerates into impenetrable jungle.
Big fan of unfettered wankerdom
I'm from up north so all I see is the environmental deserts of grouse moors and deer forests (which don't have trees). I think it's different in England where you have cultural elements to consider.
"environmental deserts" is, with respect, unfettered wankerspeak. I thought you said you had climbed all sorts of munros, which tend to be deer forests. Do they look like deserts to you? They don't to me. And here's the RSPB (not a pro-grouse front organisation) saying basically it's really really hard to tell whether grouse moors are a net gain or loss environmentally
"Deer forests don't have trees" and a good thing too. People think in the abstract woods are lovely. In fact they create a true environmental desert at ground level because all the light is stolen by the canopy, they are hopeless at sequestering carbon because they fail to duplicate the afungal environment which used to turn them into coal, when felled they leave a landscape as horrible as the Somme, and the only sound reasons for planting them are to build wooden navies, or for cricket bats.
Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Johnson is not focusing on anything other than self-preservation. He is not in control, he is not making decisions based on evidence or possible outcomes for the NHS.
Johnson is being held hostage by the CRG and ambitious cabinet colleagues. He is Prime Minister in name only. He is a PM with no decision making power.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Relax, Huyfd. Boris isn't going anywhere.
If I were betting on the matter (I'm not), I would be a layer of both Sunak and Truss. I have no idea who it will be but I don't expect a change anytime soon.
The thing is - as I keep pointing out - it is not clear that Truss has the quantity of MP support to put her in the last two. I'm sure Sunak does. Hunt and Gove and Baker (possibly Mordaunt and Javid even) may have a better chance of making the last two than Truss does. Have I got this wrong?
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
The indications that I'm getting from 2019 Boris fans is that his appeal has gone - completely - and it is very unlikely that it will return. The CP has a big decision to make and the sooner the better I think - would provide a couple of years for a new leader to re-fashion things.
All those months of those of us who knew what he was like being told that he would always be enduring electoral magic, and here we are, just as we always said we would be…..
Nobody is ever "enduring" electoral magic.
Saying that a political career will end doesn't make you wise or insightful.
Does it matter who the England coach is when, with a few noble exceptions, the talent just is not there. Especially in the batting.
I’m sure the talent is there, but one day cricket has corroded the art of defence. So what does the eco do? Invent another form of short cricket... Our county 4 day cricket is not at the same standard as Sheffield Shield in Aussie, partly as there are 18 counties. The two divisions was an attempt to change this, but it didn’t work. I think the ecb is using the hundred as a back door to 8 franchises for the long form of the game. It would benefit the England test team, but the counties will fight to the bitter end. There is a huge amount of history and tradition to lose.
The other question is, would they pick the right 8 or 10 counties? For example, no way should Glamorgan, Middlesex or Kent be in that number on merit, but you can bet they would be as they have the right friends. Meanwhile Somerset, one of the strongest sides in the country, and Gloucestershire, with an international venue, have been deliberately overlooked in the Hundred. Durham, not so long ago one of the best sides in the land and the home of Ben Stokes, have been shafted so often for specious reasons you wonder if their chairman actually killed Tom Harrison's cat.
There is a reason the counties are sceptical of the ECB's plans, and it's simply because the ECB can't be trusted to do what's right for the game instead of what's right for their mates.
Well quite. I think this is the plan, or outline idea, but I’m not in favour. I hoped that two divisions and promotion/relegation would work. I got endlessly fed up with radio 5 not understanding that division 1 was above division 2. How often did they report on second division games ahead of first? They would never report on championship football ahead of the premiership. I think the ecb needs to look at what it wants to achieve. It’s clear the main focus has been world cups (T20 and one day), and fair enough we won one, and lost the other on the toss. But the test team is being done no favours. Back in the day of 17 counties all playing each other home and away (more or less), batsmen got time in the middle. It’s easy to mock Boycott, but by god he’d be first on the sheet right now.
The 18 county system was able to provide the players that have done well in limited overs cricket. Not sure why it isn't possible for it to do the same for the Test side.
If we are to reduce the number of first-class sides then I hope there is an explicit link to the counties in the tier of cricket below them. I'd think a Wessex team, explicitly linked to counties like Somerset and Hampshire, would be a more sensible approach than the city-based franchises they invented for the decimal competition.
Polls like this are important. In the last Tory leadership contest Johnson's victory was a dead cert after polls showed he and he alone produced a clear lead on VI for a GE.
But it's probably irrelevant atm because there isn't going to be a Tory leadership contest.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Relax, Huyfd. Boris isn't going anywhere.
If I were betting on the matter (I'm not), I would be a layer of both Sunak and Truss. I have no idea who it will be but I don't expect a change anytime soon.
The thing is - as I keep pointing out - it is not clear that Truss has the quantity of MP support to put her in the last two. I'm sure Sunak does. Hunt and Gove and Baker (possibly Mordaunt and Javid even) may have a better chance of making the last two than Truss does. Have I got this wrong?
After this polling Sunak v Baker is a possibility if Boris goes
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
The indications that I'm getting from 2019 Boris fans is that his appeal has gone - completely - and it is very unlikely that it will return. The CP has a big decision to make and the sooner the better I think - would provide a couple of years for a new leader to re-fashion things.
All those months of those of us who knew what he was like being told that he would always be enduring electoral magic, and here we are, just as we always said we would be…..
Nobody is ever "enduring" electoral magic.
Saying that a political career will end doesn't make you wise or insightful.
All political careers end in failure, as Enoch Powell once said.
Johnson is currently vying with Eden, Chamberlain and Asquith for the most spectacular career ending implosion since householder suffrage was brought in in 1884-85.
Hypothetical polling is actually probably the most important polling of all in determining whether PMs are kept in place as leader by their parties.
It was polling showing Major and Heseltine beating Kinnock while Thatcher trailed as they promised to drop the poll tax that sealed Maggie's fate in 1990. Similarly it was polling showing Boris beating Corbyn as he promised to get Brexit done while May trailed that sealed her fate in 2019.
By contrast Major survived in 1995 as the polls showed Redwood doing even worse against Blair than him and Portillo and Heseltine doing no better. Brown too survived until the 2010 election as no alternative leader, including David Miliband, led Cameron either.
The more polls show no alternative leader beating Starmer and some like Truss or Gove doing even worse, the safer Boris will be as Tory leader and PM
Ultimately if you keep Peppa, you lose. Once that sinks in then swapping to a better option and giving them time is the obvious play. The idea that we enter 2022 and there are no more scandals, no more self-inflicted disasters and people start feeling warm again about the PM is fantasy island.
Actually all alternative leaders bar Sunak poll worse than Boris and the Tory membership do not want Sunak on the latest ConHome survey
Does it matter who the England coach is when, with a few noble exceptions, the talent just is not there. Especially in the batting.
I’m sure the talent is there, but one day cricket has corroded the art of defence. So what does the eco do? Invent another form of short cricket... Our county 4 day cricket is not at the same standard as Sheffield Shield in Aussie, partly as there are 18 counties. The two divisions was an attempt to change this, but it didn’t work. I think the ecb is using the hundred as a back door to 8 franchises for the long form of the game. It would benefit the England test team, but the counties will fight to the bitter end. There is a huge amount of history and tradition to lose.
Lot of ill-feeling on Essex unofficial website about a) The Hundred and b) the attitude of cricket's (current) Great and Good to counties without Test Grounds, especially when those counties do a lot better than those with such grounds. It's about the only thing we agree with Somerset upon.
Not much mention from OGH of the fact the current Tory position of only a 7% deficit under Boris is made significantly worse under a Truss leadership, which would see a 16% Labour lead and even worse defeat than 1997. Making Truss a Tory Kim Campbell. Gove does even worse.
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Relax, Huyfd. Boris isn't going anywhere.
If I were betting on the matter (I'm not), I would be a layer of both Sunak and Truss. I have no idea who it will be but I don't expect a change anytime soon.
The thing is - as I keep pointing out - it is not clear that Truss has the quantity of MP support to put her in the last two. I'm sure Sunak does. Hunt and Gove and Baker (possibly Mordaunt and Javid even) may have a better chance of making the last two than Truss does. Have I got this wrong?
After this polling Sunak v Baker is a possibility if Boris goes
Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Johnson is not focusing on anything other than self-preservation. He is not in control, he is not making decisions based on evidence or possible outcomes for the NHS.
Johnson is being held hostage by the CRG and ambitious cabinet colleagues. He is Prime Minister in name only. He is a PM with no decision making power.
Yes, the reason that he hasn't made a decision on new measures is not some masterful strategy. It is the impossibility of him banning parties and socialising after recent stories, coupled with his own lack of intrinsic decision making skills.
Comments
If you have confidence in our British agricultural sector they should be able to be competitive without subsidies or tariffs. In which case, that's great.
If they're not and you hold our agricultural sector in contempt and think they can't survive on their own basis then why are we trying to keep them afloat? Move on and accept reality, and let the land be used for more productive purposes.
If less productive farmers go out of business and get replaced by more productive ones, then we have more food security, less subsidies and are more competitive economically. Win/win/win in that scenario.
Nadine will be sending the culture warriors in.
The 0.5% is the percentage of the population directly involved in agriculture
Conhome cabinet league table this morning has Boris bottom with his worst ever score of -33.8, Mark Spencer at -24.1 and then Priti Patel at -1.5
Apparently his only consolation is that Theresa May scored -75
This cannot continue
Interesting piece suggesting that SF will be running Ireland in 3 years.
Within a few months I expect that law will (quite rightly!) be dropped. Lets see how many people continue to stay off work "as they're not a sociopathic twunt" when its no longer a legal requirement. 🤔
Why aren’t you writing to your MP and marching on parliament to require everyone also home test for influenza, norovirus and the long list of other infectious diseases that kill thousands of old and vulnerable a year? Because you’ve not been subjected to a deliberate psyops campaign about those things to elevate them in your mind to the only thing that matters in life.
If we concentrate our subsidies and farming over there, food costs in aggregate come down. Meat is more expensive, but I think we should reduce our consumption anyway on health and environmental grounds.
Also re-wilding is cool. Glen Feshie, Affric, Creag Meagaidh etc. Obviously politically not ideal, but maybe a way to get some Lib Dems back?
Not saying you are wrong - just that it's a huge problem.
Again, I’m not the demographic, but do people actually say ‘ok, boomer’, or is that just people being rude on social media?
Sunak does a bit better but even he only cuts the Labour lead to 3%, he does not take the lead so Starmer would still end up PM albeit in a hung parliament. Better therefore for the party to focus on avoiding any further restrictions as Boris is doing and getting people boosted rather than focusing too much on personalities
Name me one other virus which infects 120k people every day and threatens the ability of business and essential services to provide enough staff to function.
It's a fun discussion though, particularly with walking friends. Another: should there really be a hydro scheme in Glen Etive when it will only produce the same energy as one giant turbine in the Thames estuary? It's just environmental signalling by SG.
New Zealand is a very different place, with possibly the cheapest high quality agricultural land in the world.
If you think people voted Brexit to shut down British farming then you are likely to not like the next election result.
I don't agree, I think there is a compromise around 5 days or only applying it to symptomatic people.
Our county 4 day cricket is not at the same standard as Sheffield Shield in Aussie, partly as there are 18 counties. The two divisions was an attempt to change this, but it didn’t work. I think the ecb is using the hundred as a back door to 8 franchises for the long form of the game. It would benefit the England test team, but the counties will fight to the bitter end. There is a huge amount of history and tradition to lose.
If I were betting on the matter (I'm not), I would be a layer of both Sunak and Truss. I have no idea who it will be but I don't expect a change anytime soon.
A leading vaccines expert backed Boris Johnson's refusal to toughen England's Covid restrictions, saying that mass deaths and hospitalisations from the deadly disease are 'history'.
Professor Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and a member of the Vaccines Taskforce, said the public had been 'pretty responsible' in its response to the spread of the Omicron variant.
It came as new figures showed the number of people in hospital with Covid in England is less than half the same time last year – despite cases being three times higher."
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10349579/Mass-deaths-hospitalisations-history-Vaccines-expert-backs-PMs-Covid-measures.html
Sunak only helps a bit. Which, given his part in the "Boris for Leader" campaign, and the Johnson government, is how it should be.
Other suggested candidates make things even worse.
Everyone who let Johnson into their campaign- whether it was to win in 2008, 2016 or 2019- knew they were riding a tiger. They knew who they were promoting. (And that includes me, though London Mayor is the kind of job BoJo has a talent for. Lots of noise while others do the real work.)
And the trouble with tiger riding is both that the tiger makes it hard to dismount and that you get the Roger's fleas.
https://www.nao.org.uk/report/the-environmental-land-management-scheme/
Rewilding is a handy cover for unfettered wankerdom, mind, and results in civil servants wanting to re-wet Dartmoor because it is not yet sufficiently wet (anyone who has ever been there will see how funny this is) and remove all grazing stock from it, reverting it to a time which probably never existed since the evolution of mammals, and ensuring it degenerates into impenetrable jungle.
I was struck a couple of weeks ago hearing Chris Evans say on his radio show that the Tories should just replace Boris with Rishi Sunak if they want to win the next election. He almost never talks about politics. It’s pretty clear Sunak is seen as a trusted and competent pair of hands.
The Tories should get rid of Boris as soon as, and cook up the leadership election so the members don’t get the chance to do anything stupid.
It was polling showing Major and Heseltine beating Kinnock while Thatcher trailed as they promised to drop the poll tax that sealed Maggie's fate in 1990. Similarly it was polling showing Boris beating Corbyn as he promised to get Brexit done while May trailed that sealed her fate in 2019.
By contrast Major survived in 1995 as the polls showed Redwood doing even worse against Blair than him and Portillo and Heseltine doing no better. Brown too survived until the 2010 election as no alternative leader, including David Miliband, led Cameron either.
The more polls show no alternative leader beating Starmer and some like Truss or Gove doing even worse, the safer Boris will be as Tory leader and PM
It's an RN vessel and they are going to have to pay for it and crew it. Only £200m has been approved and it's going to need double that and more. It's planned crew is 70. Every naval vessel ever built ends up needing more crew that planned and this will be no different. So basically it's going to consume an entire T31 crew. It's designed to operate unescorted (because there is nothing available to escort it) with demountable weapons for self protection. Everybody look forward to the spectacle of Queen Camilla brassing up some Quds Force nutters in fast boats with a Browning M2.
Obviously only a particular subset of gammony tories with massively enlarged red, white and blue prostates care about this thing but it'll be politically impossible to cancel it once a construction contract is awarded. The only place in the UK it can be built is CL at Birkenhead and it will be priced to reflect that.
The only difference is we're not telling people to stay at home for it. It isn't the virus that is threatening the ability of business and services to provide staff to function, its telling people by law they have to stay at home even if asymptomatic that is doing it.
Drop the regulations and then lets talk.
I think there will be a summer challenge, but there may be some scheming over the VONC by various plotting courtiers that may well lead to him surviving a further year to trash the brand.
Yes, I suppose. A balancing act: minimise some function of (Isolation time X number of infections).
@moonshine achieves this with no isolation time.
You go for it by minimising infection - but I think that is impossible with Omi.
As I have said before, you need to wake up and smell the coffee
300k cases of covid if treated like the common cold (stay at home if you need to) would be better than 120k cases where we tell the asymptomatic to stay at home for a week.
Are you absolutely sure about that? Is there not one single seat in the UK where the farming vote is decisive? I find that hard to believe.
Of course, there are counter arguments that these would struggle in Tests (except for Foakes, whose record in Tests is excellent). Dent is weak just outside off with a tendency to chop on, and Vince has been tried and found wanting a great many times. Critchley and Parkinson are both very inexperienced.
But it's the attitude in that statement that concerns me. It shows England have become a clique, and moreover, a clique where too many failures are being carried.
That's not tenable. Certainly not against Aus or India, or New Zealand.
Not that I advocate that, I agree with you. The risk isn’t so much the disease it’s the people having to isolate and not work. I can’t see how people don’t see it. It’s Already affected some train services and bus services although there is an element of businesses using Covid as an excuse.
I'm from up north so all I see is the environmental deserts of grouse moors and deer forests (which don't have trees). I think it's different in England where you have cultural elements to consider.
There is a reason the counties are sceptical of the ECB's plans, and it's simply because the ECB can't be trusted to do what's right for the game instead of what's right for their mates.
But it's probably irrelevant atm because there isn't going to be a Tory leadership contest.
I think the ecb needs to look at what it wants to achieve. It’s clear the main focus has been world cups (T20 and one day), and fair enough we won one, and lost the other on the toss. But the test team is being done no favours. Back in the day of 17 counties all playing each other home and away (more or less), batsmen got time in the middle. It’s easy to mock Boycott, but by god he’d be first on the sheet right now.
The scenes here are back to Wuhan. Nobody allowed out for any reason. No cars to be driven anywhere. Second round of testing of the whole population of 13 million in 3 days. 1000s of specialists sent in by the state. 10s of local officials have been "disciplined" i.e
Probably sent to a work camp.
Its a different order of magnitude response. All because of total of 200 cases. Nah even with zero covid approach, the reaction is of somewhere with a much bigger problem.
Any of that affected by this hack?
...get down to the MCG
http://ww2.rspb.org.uk/images/grant_mallord_stephen_thompson_2012_tcm9-318973.pdf
"Deer forests don't have trees" and a good thing too. People think in the abstract woods are lovely. In fact they create a true environmental desert at ground level because all the light is stolen by the canopy, they are hopeless at sequestering carbon because they fail to duplicate the afungal environment which used to turn them into coal, when felled they leave a landscape as horrible as the Somme, and the only sound reasons for planting them are to build wooden navies, or for cricket bats.
Johnson is being held hostage by the CRG and ambitious cabinet colleagues. He is Prime Minister in name only. He is a PM with no decision making power.
Saying that a political career will end doesn't make you wise or insightful.
Unless you are an Aussie, but even they must be a bit annoyed.
If we are to reduce the number of first-class sides then I hope there is an explicit link to the counties in the tier of cricket below them. I'd think a Wessex team, explicitly linked to counties like Somerset and Hampshire, would be a more sensible approach than the city-based franchises they invented for the decimal competition.
Johnson is currently vying with Eden, Chamberlain and Asquith for the most spectacular career ending implosion since householder suffrage was brought in in 1884-85.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/28/david-lammy-apologises-for-nominating-corbyn-to-be-labour-leader