On topic, I’d disagree with Mike’s assertion re the lack of political news. There has, in fact, been one very big one and it directly ties in with why BJ a may have recovered, namely the decision not to lock down further when Scotland and Wales did. It’s a reasonable assumption to think that has helped BJ.
On a separate note, it will also be interesting to see Scottish / Welsh specific polling to see if Sturgeon / Drakeford have taken a hit from cancelling the New Year. The reported hordes flowing into England from both would suggest there might be some repercussions.
Final point: interesting that Labour is down only 1 and the Lib Dems down 3. Wonder what the regional polling splits are because one read through might be the Tories doing better in the South.
First honeymoon over for SNP of 2022 observed.
It gets earlier every year.
Now, i didn't bet on the market this time out but I'm wondering how everyone's "Sturegon to be replaced as First Minister before end of 2021" bets did?
Ah, and also getting earlier is the sensitivity of any suggestion that the Holy Cause led by Blessed St Nicola may see bumps in the road.
I certainly wouldn’t bet against the SNP. The fact they are polling so well despite multiple fuck-ups suggesting there is a very good chunk of the electorate that will vote for them come Hell or high water. In that regards, the Scottish electorate seems to care less for incompetence than the English one does.
Either that, or a lot of them think that all of the alternatives are worse?
Seriously, the SNP obviously has a large voter coalition, which will include those motivated by one or more of the following: people who back it because they are desperate for independence, and think voting SNP the best vehicle to get there; people who back it because they think it best represents what's good for Scotland; people who back it because they approve of Nicola Sturgeon; people who back it because they are anti-Tory; people who back it because it's rubbish but they think that Labour is even worse. I wouldn't like to venture a guess as to the proportions.
I’d agree with all of that. The SNP voting bloc is a wide coalition, and it has held up remarkably well. What will be interesting is if / when there is still no second referendum in two to three years time. What happens to the coalition then *
Likely a result of Boris correctly refusing any new Covid restrictions over Christmas and New Year for England and just focusing on the boosters. Note the main movement is from LD and RefUK back to the Tories, not the more pro restriction Labour to the Tories.
On the new Redfield poll the Tories would be back as largest party in a hung parliament after the boundary changes, though Starmer could still be PM with SNP confidence and supply
He "correctly refused" any new Covid restrictions over Christmas and the New Year because he had nowhere else to go without a lynching from the CRG.
The purpose of any new restrictions was solely to ease pressure on the health service. It remains to be seen whether they were "correctly refused" or otherwise.
Given the still low rate of hospitalisation for those who have had their booster it was the correct call from a government perspective and a Tory perspective in stopping leakage of anti restriction rightwingers from the Tories
Johnson has today suggested the hospitalisation numbers over the next three weeks could become a little lairy. Maybe he's bull******* us, I don't know?
I am quite frankly disgusted that you have reached the conclusion that it doesn't really matter what this Government do for the common good, just so long as they do enough to retain a poll lead and win the next GE.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
I'm not sure the divide is that clear. I'm clearly not a rightwinger, but I'm sceptical of further restrictions. Likewise, having spoken to a number of friends and relatives over the holiday, a number of other members of the metropolitan liberal elite conspiracy also seem to take a similar view.
More than one tale today of twits going on cruise ships and having their holidays ruined - inevitably - by Covid. One voyage to Madeira that turned back halfway, if memory serves, and now a fiasco on the Italian Med.
I mean, leaving aside one's views on the desirability or otherwise of cruise holidays as a concept, even if you love them why in the name of Christ would you actually risk going on one before the pandemic is over? So long as routine testing and mandatory quarantine for contacts are still in use, you are simply inviting disaster (and an extended term of detention in your poky little cabin.)
They cost a bomb, too. Clearly a hobby beloved of pre-senile oldies with a great deal of money and no common sense.
The pandemic may never be over for the rest of your lifetime if you are well over 70. If you have been triple vaccinated why shouldn't you take the risk and enjoy a cruise in warmer climes? After all you are a pensioner so have no need to worry about returning to work
At the rate we're going the pandemic may be effectively over by Easter. Firstly, because nearly everyone will have had Covid at least once, allowing us to move from the pandemic to the endemic condition. And secondly, because there's no point in maintaining an architecture of mass population testing, contact tracing, and restrictions (whether in the form of isolation, masks or various flavours of social distancing) if the restrictions are no longer effective in managing the disease.
In the meantime, why would you go on one of these ships if you're exposing yourself to a high probability of incarceration? You'd be better off buying some DVDs of exotic locations to stick on the telly and cranking the central heating up.
Well short of certain but there's at least a chance that by Easter a lot of people will be able to live normally, and that by summer everyone apart from anti vaxxers, eccentrics, hermits, troglodytes (and of course some people who are already in tough medical circumstances for other reasons) will be able to join in.
Government moves from policeman law maker role handing over to the NHS as guidance giver as it is on everything else from smoking to bubonic plague. We all queue up once/twice a year for vaccine. We test for Covid as often as we test for colds and flu.
"In the document, Ms Giuffre, also referred to by her unmarried name Roberts, agreed to "release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge" Epstein and "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant".
The settlement's wording says she discharges "potential defendants" from any US legal action, including damages claims dating "from the beginning of the world"."
Whatever the merits of this particular case, I have a distinct dislike of the US system of both plea bargaining and of 'deals'. I don't know if it exists in British law but it just seems wrong to me.
Remember that this is a civil action - in UK law the parties can always make a "deal" and agree to finish the case with an arrangement 'certified' (correct word?) by the Court.
In her previous activities afaik Giuffre has always been after compensation not convictions.
In UK Criminal Law the deals AIUI are normally a little subliminal and revolve around what you are charged with eg "plead guilty to a lesser offence", or the police offering a caution if they are not confident of a conviction.
I have to say that if that agreement was before a Scottish or English court this case would be over. Indeed, it should never have started.
Meaning, the court would chuck her out on the basis of the release? You are the successful practising lawyer, not me, but I hae me doots. You really, really can't tell what the scope of "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant" is without seeing the statement of claim, but if it says, say, people did stuff to me in Florida and the BVI, I don't see that it begins to cover stuff alleged to be done in NY or London.
Yes, it would be chucked out. Her whole story is how Epstein trafficked her and set her up to be used by Andrew. How on earth could it not be connected? If it wasn't for Epstein what on earth was she doing there? If it was of her own volition with no trafficking why on earth would she have a claim?
OK, but courts aren't going to be falling over themselves to interpret ambiguities in his favour. If the 2009 settled case says "stuff in florida" and the instant claim says "stuff in UK/NY" he has to say, in effect, yebbut actually I did stuff to her in Florida too. Attractive line of argument.,
No he doesn't. He simply needs to argue that this settlement was intended to cover all potential defendants which included "Royalty", allegedly.
OK. Let's see.
My view is simply how a UK court would construe such an agreement. I have no knowledge or expertise as to how an American court will address it but surely even if they let this proceed there is a nailed on appeal point?
don't really understand that. The US reckons it's a Common Law jurisdiction, so if as a Scots lawyer you think you can tell how a generic UK court would construe it, you should also be able to have a stab at US courts. It's about strict construction of the "anyone who could be a defendant," and privity of contract, I'd have thought.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
On topic, I’d disagree with Mike’s assertion re the lack of political news. There has, in fact, been one very big one and it directly ties in with why BJ a may have recovered, namely the decision not to lock down further when Scotland and Wales did. It’s a reasonable assumption to think that has helped BJ.
On a separate note, it will also be interesting to see Scottish / Welsh specific polling to see if Sturgeon / Drakeford have taken a hit from cancelling the New Year. The reported hordes flowing into England from both would suggest there might be some repercussions.
Final point: interesting that Labour is down only 1 and the Lib Dems down 3. Wonder what the regional polling splits are because one read through might be the Tories doing better in the South.
First honeymoon over for SNP of 2022 observed.
It gets earlier every year.
Now, i didn't bet on the market this time out but I'm wondering how everyone's "Sturegon to be replaced as First Minister before end of 2021" bets did?
Ah, and also getting earlier is the sensitivity of any suggestion that the Holy Cause led by Blessed St Nicola may see bumps in the road.
I certainly wouldn’t bet against the SNP. The fact they are polling so well despite multiple fuck-ups suggesting there is a very good chunk of the electorate that will vote for them come Hell or high water. In that regards, the Scottish electorate seems to care less for incompetence than the English one does.
Either that, or a lot of them think that all of the alternatives are worse?
Seriously, the SNP obviously has a large voter coalition, which will include those motivated by one or more of the following: people who back it because they are desperate for independence, and think voting SNP the best vehicle to get there; people who back it because they think it best represents what's good for Scotland; people who back it because they approve of Nicola Sturgeon; people who back it because they are anti-Tory; people who back it because it's rubbish but they think that Labour is even worse. I wouldn't like to venture a guess as to the proportions.
I’d agree with all of that. The SNP voting bloc is a wide coalition, and it has held up remarkably well. What will be interesting is if / when there is still no second referendum in two to three years time. What happens to the coalition then *
On topic, I’d disagree with Mike’s assertion re the lack of political news. There has, in fact, been one very big one and it directly ties in with why BJ a may have recovered, namely the decision not to lock down further when Scotland and Wales did. It’s a reasonable assumption to think that has helped BJ.
On a separate note, it will also be interesting to see Scottish / Welsh specific polling to see if Sturgeon / Drakeford have taken a hit from cancelling the New Year. The reported hordes flowing into England from both would suggest there might be some repercussions.
Final point: interesting that Labour is down only 1 and the Lib Dems down 3. Wonder what the regional polling splits are because one read through might be the Tories doing better in the South.
First honeymoon over for SNP of 2022 observed.
It gets earlier every year.
Now, i didn't bet on the market this time out but I'm wondering how everyone's "Sturegon to be replaced as First Minister before end of 2021" bets did?
Ah, and also getting earlier is the sensitivity of any suggestion that the Holy Cause led by Blessed St Nicola may see bumps in the road.
I certainly wouldn’t bet against the SNP. The fact they are polling so well despite multiple fuck-ups suggesting there is a very good chunk of the electorate that will vote for them come Hell or high water. In that regards, the Scottish electorate seems to care less for incompetence than the English one does.
Either that, or a lot of them think that all of the alternatives are worse?
Seriously, the SNP obviously has a large voter coalition, which will include those motivated by one or more of the following: people who back it because they are desperate for independence, and think voting SNP the best vehicle to get there; people who back it because they think it best represents what's good for Scotland; people who back it because they approve of Nicola Sturgeon; people who back it because they are anti-Tory; people who back it because it's rubbish but they think that Labour is even worse. I wouldn't like to venture a guess as to the proportions.
I’d agree with all of that. The SNP voting bloc is a wide coalition, and it has held up remarkably well. What will be interesting is if / when there is still no second referendum in two to three years time. What happens to the coalition then *
* personally, I thin it still largely holds
I'd agree. So we have roughly 45-50% of the country determined to show that the current set up doesn't work, 45-50% determined not to change it and a political class that are almost unique in doing alright out of this mess since they can avoid any of the real questions about how Scotland competes and thrives in the 21st century. It could drive you to despair, it really could.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
The LibDems, though, only want to get rid of restrictions so they can get rid of the Queen.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
The LibDems, though, only want to get rid of restrictions so they can get rid of the Queen.
Just noting that in today's French Presidential polling, Macron leads Pecresse 54-46 in a hypothetical second round but his position against Le Pen has deteriorated suggesting the previous poll was an outlier. Macron still leads 58-42 in a hypothetical run off.
Pecresse has a fight on her hands to make the final two it would seem.
Note too most Pecresse voters would vote for Macron in the runoff polls over Zemmour or Le Pen. However Zemmour voters would vote for Pecresse over Macron but most Le Pen voters would stay home if that was the choice.
So Pecresse needs to win over Le Pen voters both to get to the runoff and have a chance of winning the runoff. Yet Pecresse remains the right's best chance of beating Macron
Meanwhile, off topic - I see Licorice Pizza is getting rave reviews from the critics.
To be fair, I like the trailer (especially as it uses Life on Mars) but none of the critics have commented on the fact that this “delightful rom-com” revolves around a romance between a 15 year old boy and a 25 year old woman. The trailer also has the woman showing the boy her t1ts after saying “do you want to see my breasts” and also asking her friend “is it weird I hang out with (15 year old) Gary and his friends?”
Now, let’s reverse the roles and say we have a “Rom-com” with a 25 year old guy and 15 year old girl, the guy saying “wanna see my d1ck?” and then exposing himself, and then asking his friend whether it’s weird he hangs around with a bunch of 15 year old girls…do we reckon the critics would be praising it to the skies…
One might also include the entire works of Roman Polanski.
Both of which movies always feels slightly disturbing for the same reasons as Licorice Pizza.
Maybe I should give up on the queasiness and just go with the general flow of the critics…
I always find Manhattan particularly disturbing. Although I may be influenced by Allen's subsequent live events.
Anything with Woody Allen has to be viewed in light of his later behaviour. Manhattan particularly feels like the old adage of hiding in plain sight.
Indeed.
My wife and daughter saw Allen and Soon-Yi walking down the street in New York over the summer. He was - apparently - looking very old and infirm, and she was having to help him walk.
It will be interesting to see if anything comes out after his death.
FPT whilke on the subject of ex-vertebrates, did you see the IoW dinohunter piece in the website Graun today? Nice pic of Hanover Point and the chines to the south (I think).
I take the dog down to that beach - Compton Bay - now and again, and there are dinosaur toes (fossils of them) just lying about, if you know what to look for. Often there are fossil hunters down there with bags full of stuff they’ve hunted out. The cliffs are crumbling away and the tides are very strong, which presumably explains the continual supply.
Indeed. We used to take our hosts' hound down there for long walks!
'm very fond of the footprints scattered around at Hanover Point, and the fossil treetrunks some way down towards lower tide.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
The LibDems, though, only want to get rid of restrictions so they can get rid of the Queen.
They don't, Sir Ed Davey is an Anglican unlike Starmer and has always been a supporter of our constitutional monarchy unlike Starmer
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
The LibDems, though, only want to get rid of restrictions so they can get rid of the Queen.
They don't, Sir Ed Davey is an Anglican unlike Starmer and has always been a supporter of our constitutional monarchy unlike Starmer
He sounds like someone you could vote for. Being a Remainer, and all.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
The LibDems, though, only want to get rid of restrictions so they can get rid of the Queen.
They don't, Sir Ed Davey is an Anglican unlike Starmer and has always been a supporter of our constitutional monarchy unlike Starmer
He sounds like someone you could vote for. Being a Remainer, and all.
If we had a French style election and ended up with a runoff of Davey v Starmer, I would vote for Davey
More than one tale today of twits going on cruise ships and having their holidays ruined - inevitably - by Covid. One voyage to Madeira that turned back halfway, if memory serves, and now a fiasco on the Italian Med.
I mean, leaving aside one's views on the desirability or otherwise of cruise holidays as a concept, even if you love them why in the name of Christ would you actually risk going on one before the pandemic is over? So long as routine testing and mandatory quarantine for contacts are still in use, you are simply inviting disaster (and an extended term of detention in your poky little cabin.)
They cost a bomb, too. Clearly a hobby beloved of pre-senile oldies with a great deal of money and no common sense.
The pandemic may never be over for the rest of your lifetime if you are well over 70. If you have been triple vaccinated why shouldn't you take the risk and enjoy a cruise in warmer climes? After all you are a pensioner so have no need to worry about returning to work
At the rate we're going the pandemic may be effectively over by Easter. Firstly, because nearly everyone will have had Covid at least once, allowing us to move from the pandemic to the endemic condition. And secondly, because there's no point in maintaining an architecture of mass population testing, contact tracing, and restrictions (whether in the form of isolation, masks or various flavours of social distancing) if the restrictions are no longer effective in managing the disease.
In the meantime, why would you go on one of these ships if you're exposing yourself to a high probability of incarceration? You'd be better off buying some DVDs of exotic locations to stick on the telly and cranking the central heating up.
Well short of certain but there's at least a chance that by Easter a lot of people will be able to live normally, and that by summer everyone apart from anti vaxxers, eccentrics, hermits, troglodytes (and of course some people who are already in tough medical circumstances for other reasons) will be able to join in.
Government moves from policeman law maker role handing over to the NHS as guidance giver as it is on everything else from smoking to bubonic plague. We all queue up once/twice a year for vaccine. We test for Covid as often as we test for colds and flu.
Logically, that all makes sense.
The fly in the ointment is that whether you support restrictions or not has now become a key defining cultural question as to where you sit on the political spectrum in the same way as Brexit (in fact, from personal observation, there is a strong overlap between the two).
In addition, it is also very likely we will have scientists who will push for restrictions even when it is clear they have outlived their usefulness either to stay in the limelight or because they genuinely believe they are needed or because they have benefited from the pandemic.
So I don't think the Covid restrictions debate goes away. There are too many who would see it as a "loss" to the other side.
Under English law, I'm not sure Prince Andrew would be able to rely on a contract to which he is not a party to have the effect of preventing the claim from proceeding. However whether that is the case for the relevant US laws, I don't know.
A locked-down city in China has turfed 1,000 people out of their homes at midnight and carted them off to grim quarantine facilities, according to local reports.
Just noting that in today's French Presidential polling, Macron leads Pecresse 54-46 in a hypothetical second round but his position against Le Pen has deteriorated suggesting the previous poll was an outlier. Macron still leads 58-42 in a hypothetical run off.
Pecresse has a fight on her hands to make the final two it would seem.
Note too most Pecresse voters would vote for Macron in the runoff polls over Zemmour or Le Pen. However Zemmour voters would vote for Pecresse over Macron but most Le Pen voters would stay home if that was the choice.
So Pecresse needs to win over Le Pen voters both to get to the runoff and have a chance of winning the runoff. Yet Pecresse remains the right's best chance of beating Macron
I'd go further - she's the only chance of defeating Macron at this time (whether right or left).
The fact remains she needs to get through to the second round and that's far from certain at this stage.
Meanwhile, off topic - I see Licorice Pizza is getting rave reviews from the critics.
To be fair, I like the trailer (especially as it uses Life on Mars) but none of the critics have commented on the fact that this “delightful rom-com” revolves around a romance between a 15 year old boy and a 25 year old woman. The trailer also has the woman showing the boy her t1ts after saying “do you want to see my breasts” and also asking her friend “is it weird I hang out with (15 year old) Gary and his friends?”
Now, let’s reverse the roles and say we have a “Rom-com” with a 25 year old guy and 15 year old girl, the guy saying “wanna see my d1ck?” and then exposing himself, and then asking his friend whether it’s weird he hangs around with a bunch of 15 year old girls…do we reckon the critics would be praising it to the skies…
One might also include the entire works of Roman Polanski.
Both of which movies always feels slightly disturbing for the same reasons as Licorice Pizza.
Maybe I should give up on the queasiness and just go with the general flow of the critics…
I always find Manhattan particularly disturbing. Although I may be influenced by Allen's subsequent live events.
Anything with Woody Allen has to be viewed in light of his later behaviour. Manhattan particularly feels like the old adage of hiding in plain sight.
Indeed.
My wife and daughter saw Allen and Soon-Yi walking down the street in New York over the summer. He was - apparently - looking very old and infirm, and she was having to help him walk.
It will be interesting to see if anything comes out after his death.
I suspect a lot. Not sure on the Saville scale but I suspect some of his "practices" have been covered up.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
The LibDems, though, only want to get rid of restrictions so they can get rid of the Queen.
They don't, Sir Ed Davey is an Anglican unlike Starmer and has always been a supporter of our constitutional monarchy unlike Starmer
So what? London Bridge turns us from an n generation constitutional monarchy to an n+1 generation constitutional monarchy. Other things being equal, con mon fans should welcome it.
On topic, I’d disagree with Mike’s assertion re the lack of political news. There has, in fact, been one very big one and it directly ties in with why BJ a may have recovered, namely the decision not to lock down further when Scotland and Wales did. It’s a reasonable assumption to think that has helped BJ.
On a separate note, it will also be interesting to see Scottish / Welsh specific polling to see if Sturgeon / Drakeford have taken a hit from cancelling the New Year. The reported hordes flowing into England from both would suggest there might be some repercussions.
Final point: interesting that Labour is down only 1 and the Lib Dems down 3. Wonder what the regional polling splits are because one read through might be the Tories doing better in the South.
First honeymoon over for SNP of 2022 observed.
It gets earlier every year.
Now, i didn't bet on the market this time out but I'm wondering how everyone's "Sturegon to be replaced as First Minister before end of 2021" bets did?
Ah, and also getting earlier is the sensitivity of any suggestion that the Holy Cause led by Blessed St Nicola may see bumps in the road.
I certainly wouldn’t bet against the SNP. The fact they are polling so well despite multiple fuck-ups suggesting there is a very good chunk of the electorate that will vote for them come Hell or high water. In that regards, the Scottish electorate seems to care less for incompetence than the English one does.
Either that, or a lot of them think that all of the alternatives are worse?
Seriously, the SNP obviously has a large voter coalition, which will include those motivated by one or more of the following: people who back it because they are desperate for independence, and think voting SNP the best vehicle to get there; people who back it because they think it best represents what's good for Scotland; people who back it because they approve of Nicola Sturgeon; people who back it because they are anti-Tory; people who back it because it's rubbish but they think that Labour is even worse. I wouldn't like to venture a guess as to the proportions.
I’d agree with all of that. The SNP voting bloc is a wide coalition, and it has held up remarkably well. What will be interesting is if / when there is still no second referendum in two to three years time. What happens to the coalition then *
* personally, I thin it still largely holds
I'd agree. So we have roughly 45-50% of the country determined to show that the current set up doesn't work, 45-50% determined not to change it and a political class that are almost unique in doing alright out of this mess since they can avoid any of the real questions about how Scotland competes and thrives in the 21st century. It could drive you to despair, it really could.
Not the politicians though. They make a nice bundle out of it.
I think Sturgeon would sh1t her pants if she truly thought Scotland would become independent tomorrow - she knows she would be absolutely f*cked.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
The LibDems, though, only want to get rid of restrictions so they can get rid of the Queen.
They don't, Sir Ed Davey is an Anglican unlike Starmer and has always been a supporter of our constitutional monarchy unlike Starmer
He sounds like someone you could vote for. Being a Remainer, and all.
If we had a French style election and ended up with a runoff of Davey v Starmer, I would vote for Davey
It was sad that our Leanne got knocked out in the earlier round.
A locked-down city in China has turfed 1,000 people out of their homes at midnight and carted them off to grim quarantine facilities, according to local reports.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Quite but the Conservatives for the most part supported the raft of "Plan B" restrictions so it's disingenuous for you to suggest the Conservatives are not supportive of any further restrictions.
Were there to be a clear requirement in terms of reducing hospital admissions, would you support a limited return of restrictions?
The problem with the "vaccinated majority" is they are also vulnerable to Omicron and catching Omicron and while for the majority that will be no real issue the concern must be among older people and especially those whose booster was some weeks back that any infection could be more serious.
For me, that's the only risk at the moment - hospitalisations rising because of older people with other health problems becoming infected with Omicron.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
The LibDems, though, only want to get rid of restrictions so they can get rid of the Queen.
They don't, Sir Ed Davey is an Anglican unlike Starmer and has always been a supporter of our constitutional monarchy unlike Starmer
He sounds like someone you could vote for. Being a Remainer, and all.
If we had a French style election and ended up with a runoff of Davey v Starmer, I would vote for Davey
It was sad that our Leanne got knocked out in the earlier round.
I have seen a number of people on twitter seem to be making a bit of hay that the Daily Express isn't 100% Boris Brexit backing newspaper.
They seemed to have missed the fact that the Mirror Group (Reach) now own it and the current editor is the former editor of the People / Sunday Mirror.
The Daily Star under the same new ownership is probably the one of the most harsh critics of the government.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
The LibDems, though, only want to get rid of restrictions so they can get rid of the Queen.
They don't, Sir Ed Davey is an Anglican unlike Starmer and has always been a supporter of our constitutional monarchy unlike Starmer
He sounds like someone you could vote for. Being a Remainer, and all.
If we had a French style election and ended up with a runoff of Davey v Starmer, I would vote for Davey
It was sad that our Leanne got knocked out in the earlier round.
A locked-down city in China has turfed 1,000 people out of their homes at midnight and carted them off to grim quarantine facilities, according to local reports.
Expected really. I think this year will establish a neck and neck narrative.
I’d go with that. If England continues to be looser than Scotland / Wales on COVID, I think that will help. The more worrying thing for Labour is the lack of enthusiasm for Starmer. I agree you get times when people want just plain (perceived) boring leadership but that doesn’t feel the mood of the nation now.
Covid I think is on its way down the agenda. As for Starmer I think the play is not to bust the buttons giving it the big I Am but rather to establish the Labour front bench team as being a very realistic alternative government. This is the mission for 22.
FPT whilke on the subject of ex-vertebrates, did you see the IoW dinohunter piece in the website Graun today? Nice pic of Hanover Point and the chines to the south (I think).
I take the dog down to that beach - Compton Bay - now and again, and there are dinosaur toes (fossils of them) just lying about, if you know what to look for. Often there are fossil hunters down there with bags full of stuff they’ve hunted out. The cliffs are crumbling away and the tides are very strong, which presumably explains the continual supply.
One of the things the little 'un wants to do is go fossil hunting. There are not many places around here - a few Jurassic-era quarries near Peterborough and Grafham Water - but he really wants to hunt by the sea. I'm considering a trip to the IoW for that and other reasons.
What I'd really like is an organised 'find a fossil' do for kids, where expert(s) are on hand to tell them what they've found in a 'good' area for fossils.
If I see anything like that on offer around here, I’ll let you know.
The dinosaur feet fossils are just lying on the beach, just east of the steps down from the car park to Compton Bay, because they’re too heavy for anyone to carry away. And the dinosaur museum at Sandown gets good reviews, although I haven’t been myself.
Often museums have guided tours by their staff or associates - I know that the Lyme Regis Museum and the Charmouth Coast Centre do for instance. A good start. Presumably Dinosaur Isle (the IoW equivalent) do. And it would be worth checking the Cambridge equivalent, the Sedgwick Museum I think it is.
This rings a dim bell about there being some national organization - here it is -
I have seen a number of people on twitter seem to be making a bit of hay that the Daily Express isn't 100% Boris Brexit backing newspaper.
They seemed to have missed the fact that the Mirror Group (Reach) now own it and the current editor is the former editor of the People / Sunday Mirror.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
More than one tale today of twits going on cruise ships and having their holidays ruined - inevitably - by Covid. One voyage to Madeira that turned back halfway, if memory serves, and now a fiasco on the Italian Med.
I mean, leaving aside one's views on the desirability or otherwise of cruise holidays as a concept, even if you love them why in the name of Christ would you actually risk going on one before the pandemic is over? So long as routine testing and mandatory quarantine for contacts are still in use, you are simply inviting disaster (and an extended term of detention in your poky little cabin.)
They cost a bomb, too. Clearly a hobby beloved of pre-senile oldies with a great deal of money and no common sense.
The pandemic may never be over for the rest of your lifetime if you are well over 70. If you have been triple vaccinated why shouldn't you take the risk and enjoy a cruise in warmer climes? After all you are a pensioner so have no need to worry about returning to work
At the rate we're going the pandemic may be effectively over by Easter. Firstly, because nearly everyone will have had Covid at least once, allowing us to move from the pandemic to the endemic condition. And secondly, because there's no point in maintaining an architecture of mass population testing, contact tracing, and restrictions (whether in the form of isolation, masks or various flavours of social distancing) if the restrictions are no longer effective in managing the disease.
In the meantime, why would you go on one of these ships if you're exposing yourself to a high probability of incarceration? You'd be better off buying some DVDs of exotic locations to stick on the telly and cranking the central heating up.
Well short of certain but there's at least a chance that by Easter a lot of people will be able to live normally, and that by summer everyone apart from anti vaxxers, eccentrics, hermits, troglodytes (and of course some people who are already in tough medical circumstances for other reasons) will be able to join in.
Government moves from policeman law maker role handing over to the NHS as guidance giver as it is on everything else from smoking to bubonic plague. We all queue up once/twice a year for vaccine. We test for Covid as often as we test for colds and flu.
Logically, that all makes sense.
The fly in the ointment is that whether you support restrictions or not has now become a key defining cultural question as to where you sit on the political spectrum in the same way as Brexit (in fact, from personal observation, there is a strong overlap between the two).
In addition, it is also very likely we will have scientists who will push for restrictions even when it is clear they have outlived their usefulness either to stay in the limelight or because they genuinely believe they are needed or because they have benefited from the pandemic.
So I don't think the Covid restrictions debate goes away. There are too many who would see it as a "loss" to the other side.
Yes. The thing which might save normal people is that while the anti-libertarian illiberal majority (both on left and right) on the whole approve of all bans and restrictions on others - a relic of the old puritan fear that someone somewhere might be enjoying themselves - they tend to approve of being allowed to do what they themselves want to be doing; whatever nameless horrors those things might be.
Red Wall voters see Jezza as the preferred option to replace SKS
ROFL
"Jeremy Corbyn backed to REPLACE Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader in jaw-dropping poll THE RETURN of Jeremy Corbyn is the preferred choice of Red Wall voters for Labour leader if Sir Keir Starmer was to step down, a new poll claims.
Mr Corbyn, who led the party to its disastrous 2019 loss, is seen as the best man to step in and take charge of the Opposition should the incumbent resign for any reason. He is tied along with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper according to a survey by DeltaPoll released over the weekend."
So they don't, they see him as joint preferred option, because nobody knows anything about any of the potential runners. Move along.
I have seen a number of people on twitter seem to be making a bit of hay that the Daily Express isn't 100% Boris Brexit backing newspaper.
They seemed to have missed the fact that the Mirror Group (Reach) now own it and the current editor is the former editor of the People / Sunday Mirror.
Who are not Corbynite supporting either
No, my point wasn't that specific headline, it was more that people on social media seem a bit confused that the Express seems to be willing to stick it to the Tories.
"In the document, Ms Giuffre, also referred to by her unmarried name Roberts, agreed to "release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge" Epstein and "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant".
The settlement's wording says she discharges "potential defendants" from any US legal action, including damages claims dating "from the beginning of the world"."
Whatever the merits of this particular case, I have a distinct dislike of the US system of both plea bargaining and of 'deals'. I don't know if it exists in British law but it just seems wrong to me.
Remember that this is a civil action - in UK law the parties can always make a "deal" and agree to finish the case with an arrangement 'certified' (correct word?) by the Court.
In her previous activities afaik Giuffre has always been after compensation not convictions.
In UK Criminal Law the deals AIUI are normally a little subliminal and revolve around what you are charged with eg "plead guilty to a lesser offence", or the police offering a caution if they are not confident of a conviction.
I have to say that if that agreement was before a Scottish or English court this case would be over. Indeed, it should never have started.
Meaning, the court would chuck her out on the basis of the release? You are the successful practising lawyer, not me, but I hae me doots. You really, really can't tell what the scope of "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant" is without seeing the statement of claim, but if it says, say, people did stuff to me in Florida and the BVI, I don't see that it begins to cover stuff alleged to be done in NY or London.
Yes, it would be chucked out. Her whole story is how Epstein trafficked her and set her up to be used by Andrew. How on earth could it not be connected? If it wasn't for Epstein what on earth was she doing there? If it was of her own volition with no trafficking why on earth would she have a claim?
OK, but courts aren't going to be falling over themselves to interpret ambiguities in his favour. If the 2009 settled case says "stuff in florida" and the instant claim says "stuff in UK/NY" he has to say, in effect, yebbut actually I did stuff to her in Florida too. Attractive line of argument.,
No he doesn't. He simply needs to argue that this settlement was intended to cover all potential defendants which included "Royalty", allegedly.
OK. Let's see.
My view is simply how a UK court would construe such an agreement. I have no knowledge or expertise as to how an American court will address it but surely even if they let this proceed there is a nailed on appeal point?
don't really understand that. The US reckons it's a Common Law jurisdiction, so if as a Scots lawyer you think you can tell how a generic UK court would construe it, you should also be able to have a stab at US courts. It's about strict construction of the "anyone who could be a defendant," and privity of contract, I'd have thought.
US contract law is usually found in their Universal Commercial Contract provisions which are adopted to varying degrees by the various states and can be applied to contracts falling outwith its terms by the agreement of the parties. It is wrong to think that all common law jurisdictions interpret contracts the same way. Hence my hesitation.
Red Wall voters see Jezza as the preferred option to replace SKS
ROFL
"Jeremy Corbyn backed to REPLACE Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader in jaw-dropping poll THE RETURN of Jeremy Corbyn is the preferred choice of Red Wall voters for Labour leader if Sir Keir Starmer was to step down, a new poll claims.
Mr Corbyn, who led the party to its disastrous 2019 loss, is seen as the best man to step in and take charge of the Opposition should the incumbent resign for any reason. He is tied along with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper according to a survey by DeltaPoll released over the weekend."
So they don't, they see him as joint preferred option, because nobody knows anything about any of the potential runners. Move along.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
A locked-down city in China has turfed 1,000 people out of their homes at midnight and carted them off to grim quarantine facilities, according to local reports.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Quite but the Conservatives for the most part supported the raft of "Plan B" restrictions so it's disingenuous for you to suggest the Conservatives are not supportive of any further restrictions.
Were there to be a clear requirement in terms of reducing hospital admissions, would you support a limited return of restrictions?
The problem with the "vaccinated majority" is they are also vulnerable to Omicron and catching Omicron and while for the majority that will be no real issue the concern must be among older people and especially those whose booster was some weeks back that any infection could be more serious.
For me, that's the only risk at the moment - hospitalisations rising because of older people with other health problems becoming infected with Omicron.
If over 80s want to stay at home fine, the rest of us can get on with our lives post vaccination and the unvaccinated will have to live with being restricted because of their choice making them more prone to hospitalisation from Covid
I’m very sceptical of polling generally, so not going to overanalyse this one any more than I have other recent polls.
However, it’s possible that the government has shored up some support thanks to its resisting restrictions. The public are sharply moving against them, and have got the memo that omicron is mild.
Selling more restrictions when individuals’ personal risk is low is very difficult indeed. I think people are generally relieved that shutting stuff down is no longer en vogue.
Two minutes on the website of my local cinema disproves this latest horse shit.
I thought of booking a ticket for a week Saturday at Cinemax in Telford.
But it's a shite film so I didn't bother.
Interestingly, Cannock Cinema really does have no shows on at the moment for the rest of the month beyond Thursday. I'm guessing that's because (a) film production has been so disrupted limiting their options on what to show and (b) nobody was coming to see them anyway so cheaper to shut the place down for a few weeks.
I’m very sceptical of polling generally, so not going to overanalyse this one any more than I have other recent polls.
However, it’s possible that the government has shored up some support thanks to its resisting restrictions. The public are sharply moving against them, and have got the memo that omicron is mild.
Selling more restrictions when individuals’ personal risk is low is very difficult indeed. I think people are generally relieved that shutting stuff down is no longer en vogue.
More likely, the LibDems had a mini-spurt having got into the news for a change, which quickly faded away.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Quite but the Conservatives for the most part supported the raft of "Plan B" restrictions so it's disingenuous for you to suggest the Conservatives are not supportive of any further restrictions.
Were there to be a clear requirement in terms of reducing hospital admissions, would you support a limited return of restrictions?
The problem with the "vaccinated majority" is they are also vulnerable to Omicron and catching Omicron and while for the majority that will be no real issue the concern must be among older people and especially those whose booster was some weeks back that any infection could be more serious.
For me, that's the only risk at the moment - hospitalisations rising because of older people with other health problems becoming infected with Omicron.
More than one tale today of twits going on cruise ships and having their holidays ruined - inevitably - by Covid. One voyage to Madeira that turned back halfway, if memory serves, and now a fiasco on the Italian Med.
I mean, leaving aside one's views on the desirability or otherwise of cruise holidays as a concept, even if you love them why in the name of Christ would you actually risk going on one before the pandemic is over? So long as routine testing and mandatory quarantine for contacts are still in use, you are simply inviting disaster (and an extended term of detention in your poky little cabin.)
They cost a bomb, too. Clearly a hobby beloved of pre-senile oldies with a great deal of money and no common sense.
The pandemic may never be over for the rest of your lifetime if you are well over 70. If you have been triple vaccinated why shouldn't you take the risk and enjoy a cruise in warmer climes? After all you are a pensioner so have no need to worry about returning to work
At the rate we're going the pandemic may be effectively over by Easter. Firstly, because nearly everyone will have had Covid at least once, allowing us to move from the pandemic to the endemic condition. And secondly, because there's no point in maintaining an architecture of mass population testing, contact tracing, and restrictions (whether in the form of isolation, masks or various flavours of social distancing) if the restrictions are no longer effective in managing the disease.
In the meantime, why would you go on one of these ships if you're exposing yourself to a high probability of incarceration? You'd be better off buying some DVDs of exotic locations to stick on the telly and cranking the central heating up.
Well short of certain but there's at least a chance that by Easter a lot of people will be able to live normally, and that by summer everyone apart from anti vaxxers, eccentrics, hermits, troglodytes (and of course some people who are already in tough medical circumstances for other reasons) will be able to join in.
Government moves from policeman law maker role handing over to the NHS as guidance giver as it is on everything else from smoking to bubonic plague. We all queue up once/twice a year for vaccine. We test for Covid as often as we test for colds and flu.
Logically, that all makes sense.
The fly in the ointment is that whether you support restrictions or not has now become a key defining cultural question as to where you sit on the political spectrum in the same way as Brexit (in fact, from personal observation, there is a strong overlap between the two).
In addition, it is also very likely we will have scientists who will push for restrictions even when it is clear they have outlived their usefulness either to stay in the limelight or because they genuinely believe they are needed or because they have benefited from the pandemic.
So I don't think the Covid restrictions debate goes away. There are too many who would see it as a "loss" to the other side.
I keep hearing this, but I think it’s wrong. Belief in restrictions isn’t party political - there are hawks and doves in both main parties. Indeed the most dovish party of all is the Liberals - who unanimously voted against Plan B (and who were right to do so, the additional measures are useless against omicron yet have significant social cost).
"In the document, Ms Giuffre, also referred to by her unmarried name Roberts, agreed to "release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge" Epstein and "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant".
The settlement's wording says she discharges "potential defendants" from any US legal action, including damages claims dating "from the beginning of the world"."
Whatever the merits of this particular case, I have a distinct dislike of the US system of both plea bargaining and of 'deals'. I don't know if it exists in British law but it just seems wrong to me.
Remember that this is a civil action - in UK law the parties can always make a "deal" and agree to finish the case with an arrangement 'certified' (correct word?) by the Court.
In her previous activities afaik Giuffre has always been after compensation not convictions.
In UK Criminal Law the deals AIUI are normally a little subliminal and revolve around what you are charged with eg "plead guilty to a lesser offence", or the police offering a caution if they are not confident of a conviction.
I have to say that if that agreement was before a Scottish or English court this case would be over. Indeed, it should never have started.
Meaning, the court would chuck her out on the basis of the release? You are the successful practising lawyer, not me, but I hae me doots. You really, really can't tell what the scope of "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant" is without seeing the statement of claim, but if it says, say, people did stuff to me in Florida and the BVI, I don't see that it begins to cover stuff alleged to be done in NY or London.
Yes, it would be chucked out. Her whole story is how Epstein trafficked her and set her up to be used by Andrew. How on earth could it not be connected? If it wasn't for Epstein what on earth was she doing there? If it was of her own volition with no trafficking why on earth would she have a claim?
OK, but courts aren't going to be falling over themselves to interpret ambiguities in his favour. If the 2009 settled case says "stuff in florida" and the instant claim says "stuff in UK/NY" he has to say, in effect, yebbut actually I did stuff to her in Florida too. Attractive line of argument.,
No he doesn't. He simply needs to argue that this settlement was intended to cover all potential defendants which included "Royalty", allegedly.
OK. Let's see.
My view is simply how a UK court would construe such an agreement. I have no knowledge or expertise as to how an American court will address it but surely even if they let this proceed there is a nailed on appeal point?
don't really understand that. The US reckons it's a Common Law jurisdiction, so if as a Scots lawyer you think you can tell how a generic UK court would construe it, you should also be able to have a stab at US courts. It's about strict construction of the "anyone who could be a defendant," and privity of contract, I'd have thought.
US contract law is usually found in their Universal Commercial Contract provisions which are adopted to varying degrees by the various states and can be applied to contracts falling outwith its terms by the agreement of the parties. It is wrong to think that all common law jurisdictions interpret contracts the same way. Hence my hesitation.
"In the document, Ms Giuffre, also referred to by her unmarried name Roberts, agreed to "release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge" Epstein and "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant".
The settlement's wording says she discharges "potential defendants" from any US legal action, including damages claims dating "from the beginning of the world"."
Whatever the merits of this particular case, I have a distinct dislike of the US system of both plea bargaining and of 'deals'. I don't know if it exists in British law but it just seems wrong to me.
Remember that this is a civil action - in UK law the parties can always make a "deal" and agree to finish the case with an arrangement 'certified' (correct word?) by the Court.
In her previous activities afaik Giuffre has always been after compensation not convictions.
In UK Criminal Law the deals AIUI are normally a little subliminal and revolve around what you are charged with eg "plead guilty to a lesser offence", or the police offering a caution if they are not confident of a conviction.
I have to say that if that agreement was before a Scottish or English court this case would be over. Indeed, it should never have started.
Meaning, the court would chuck her out on the basis of the release? You are the successful practising lawyer, not me, but I hae me doots. You really, really can't tell what the scope of "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant" is without seeing the statement of claim, but if it says, say, people did stuff to me in Florida and the BVI, I don't see that it begins to cover stuff alleged to be done in NY or London.
Yes, it would be chucked out. Her whole story is how Epstein trafficked her and set her up to be used by Andrew. How on earth could it not be connected? If it wasn't for Epstein what on earth was she doing there? If it was of her own volition with no trafficking why on earth would she have a claim?
OK, but courts aren't going to be falling over themselves to interpret ambiguities in his favour. If the 2009 settled case says "stuff in florida" and the instant claim says "stuff in UK/NY" he has to say, in effect, yebbut actually I did stuff to her in Florida too. Attractive line of argument.,
No he doesn't. He simply needs to argue that this settlement was intended to cover all potential defendants which included "Royalty", allegedly.
OK. Let's see.
My view is simply how a UK court would construe such an agreement. I have no knowledge or expertise as to how an American court will address it but surely even if they let this proceed there is a nailed on appeal point?
don't really understand that. The US reckons it's a Common Law jurisdiction, so if as a Scots lawyer you think you can tell how a generic UK court would construe it, you should also be able to have a stab at US courts. It's about strict construction of the "anyone who could be a defendant," and privity of contract, I'd have thought.
US contract law is usually found in their Universal Commercial Contract provisions which are adopted to varying degrees by the various states and can be applied to contracts falling outwith its terms by the agreement of the parties. It is wrong to think that all common law jurisdictions interpret contracts the same way. Hence my hesitation.
Full text. I'd be astonished if it had incorporated Universal Commercial Contract provisions, and it doesn't. And if it had done, English common law would have recognised the incorporation just as US common law would have.
French scientists detect ANOTHER variant linked to travel to Cameroon and say it carries 46 mutations that may make it more vaccine-resistant and infectious (but it is so far NOT outcompeting Omicron)
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
The complaint in the action settled by the 2009 agreement
This is really interesting: the matters complained of are all in the nature of trafficking, procuring, crossing state lines, making pornographic images etc. Anyone who was merely an end user was NOT a "potential defendant" unless the claim were amended; but if you have to read the release as covering "potential defendant including to an amended claim" you are broadening it to a ludicrous extent to cover anyone who had ever wronged the plaintiff in any way, ever.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
thats fair enough but bear in mind many of these are poor ethnic minorities who often have good reasons to distrust govts. If you want to discriminate against them fair enough...personally i think we should offer kindness and support to these people
"In the document, Ms Giuffre, also referred to by her unmarried name Roberts, agreed to "release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge" Epstein and "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant".
The settlement's wording says she discharges "potential defendants" from any US legal action, including damages claims dating "from the beginning of the world"."
Whatever the merits of this particular case, I have a distinct dislike of the US system of both plea bargaining and of 'deals'. I don't know if it exists in British law but it just seems wrong to me.
Remember that this is a civil action - in UK law the parties can always make a "deal" and agree to finish the case with an arrangement 'certified' (correct word?) by the Court.
In her previous activities afaik Giuffre has always been after compensation not convictions.
In UK Criminal Law the deals AIUI are normally a little subliminal and revolve around what you are charged with eg "plead guilty to a lesser offence", or the police offering a caution if they are not confident of a conviction.
I have to say that if that agreement was before a Scottish or English court this case would be over. Indeed, it should never have started.
Meaning, the court would chuck her out on the basis of the release? You are the successful practising lawyer, not me, but I hae me doots. You really, really can't tell what the scope of "any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant" is without seeing the statement of claim, but if it says, say, people did stuff to me in Florida and the BVI, I don't see that it begins to cover stuff alleged to be done in NY or London.
Yes, it would be chucked out. Her whole story is how Epstein trafficked her and set her up to be used by Andrew. How on earth could it not be connected? If it wasn't for Epstein what on earth was she doing there? If it was of her own volition with no trafficking why on earth would she have a claim?
OK, but courts aren't going to be falling over themselves to interpret ambiguities in his favour. If the 2009 settled case says "stuff in florida" and the instant claim says "stuff in UK/NY" he has to say, in effect, yebbut actually I did stuff to her in Florida too. Attractive line of argument.,
No he doesn't. He simply needs to argue that this settlement was intended to cover all potential defendants which included "Royalty", allegedly.
OK. Let's see.
My view is simply how a UK court would construe such an agreement. I have no knowledge or expertise as to how an American court will address it but surely even if they let this proceed there is a nailed on appeal point?
don't really understand that. The US reckons it's a Common Law jurisdiction, so if as a Scots lawyer you think you can tell how a generic UK court would construe it, you should also be able to have a stab at US courts. It's about strict construction of the "anyone who could be a defendant," and privity of contract, I'd have thought.
US contract law is usually found in their Universal Commercial Contract provisions which are adopted to varying degrees by the various states and can be applied to contracts falling outwith its terms by the agreement of the parties. It is wrong to think that all common law jurisdictions interpret contracts the same way. Hence my hesitation.
Not privity of contract. Try estoppel.
Not mutually exclusive. A settlement agreement is a contract.
"First, the so-called normal distribution of statistics assumes that there are default humans who serve as the standard that the rest of us can be accurately measured against."
More than one tale today of twits going on cruise ships and having their holidays ruined - inevitably - by Covid. One voyage to Madeira that turned back halfway, if memory serves, and now a fiasco on the Italian Med.
I mean, leaving aside one's views on the desirability or otherwise of cruise holidays as a concept, even if you love them why in the name of Christ would you actually risk going on one before the pandemic is over? So long as routine testing and mandatory quarantine for contacts are still in use, you are simply inviting disaster (and an extended term of detention in your poky little cabin.)
They cost a bomb, too. Clearly a hobby beloved of pre-senile oldies with a great deal of money and no common sense.
The pandemic may never be over for the rest of your lifetime if you are well over 70. If you have been triple vaccinated why shouldn't you take the risk and enjoy a cruise in warmer climes? After all you are a pensioner so have no need to worry about returning to work
At the rate we're going the pandemic may be effectively over by Easter. Firstly, because nearly everyone will have had Covid at least once, allowing us to move from the pandemic to the endemic condition. And secondly, because there's no point in maintaining an architecture of mass population testing, contact tracing, and restrictions (whether in the form of isolation, masks or various flavours of social distancing) if the restrictions are no longer effective in managing the disease.
In the meantime, why would you go on one of these ships if you're exposing yourself to a high probability of incarceration? You'd be better off buying some DVDs of exotic locations to stick on the telly and cranking the central heating up.
Well short of certain but there's at least a chance that by Easter a lot of people will be able to live normally, and that by summer everyone apart from anti vaxxers, eccentrics, hermits, troglodytes (and of course some people who are already in tough medical circumstances for other reasons) will be able to join in.
Government moves from policeman law maker role handing over to the NHS as guidance giver as it is on everything else from smoking to bubonic plague. We all queue up once/twice a year for vaccine. We test for Covid as often as we test for colds and flu.
Logically, that all makes sense.
The fly in the ointment is that whether you support restrictions or not has now become a key defining cultural question as to where you sit on the political spectrum in the same way as Brexit (in fact, from personal observation, there is a strong overlap between the two).
In addition, it is also very likely we will have scientists who will push for restrictions even when it is clear they have outlived their usefulness either to stay in the limelight or because they genuinely believe they are needed or because they have benefited from the pandemic.
So I don't think the Covid restrictions debate goes away. There are too many who would see it as a "loss" to the other side.
I keep hearing this, but I think it’s wrong. Belief in restrictions isn’t party political - there are hawks and doves in both main parties. Indeed the most dovish party of all is the Liberals - who unanimously voted against Plan B (and who were right to do so, the additional measures are useless against omicron yet have significant social cost).
I did say it was from personal observation. Certainly the people who were most passionate about Brexit - on both sides on the camp - are also the most passionate on this issue as well. Good for Ed Davey on this but I'm not sure how well that represents his base (TBH, though, there are not that many LDs supporters in my network...)
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
again that is good in theory but could be very racially divisive....i dont think we want racial divisions in this country
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
again that is good in theory but could be very racially divisive....i dont think we want racial divisions in this country
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
Othering is a very bad thing
Better that than imposing new restrictions on the vaccinated which I would refuse to accept. At the moment however I think the current government rules are fine
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
thats fair enough but bear in mind many of these are poor ethnic minorities who often have good reasons to distrust govts. If you want to discriminate against them fair enough...personally i think we should offer kindness and support to these people
I think we should nuke them till they glow, and piss on the ashes.
"In the mean time please assume no news from me just means I’m quietly spending the pandemic the way most people are - failing to make sourdough bread (!)...."
Likely a result of Boris correctly refusing any new Covid restrictions over Christmas and New Year for England and just focusing on the boosters. Note the main movement is from LD and RefUK back to the Tories, not the more pro restriction Labour to the Tories.
On the new Redfield poll the Tories would be back as largest party in a hung parliament after the boundary changes, though Starmer could still be PM with SNP confidence and supply
He "correctly refused" any new Covid restrictions over Christmas and the New Year because he had nowhere else to go without a lynching from the CRG.
The purpose of any new restrictions was solely to ease pressure on the health service. It remains to be seen whether they were "correctly refused" or otherwise.
Given the still low rate of hospitalisation for those who have had their booster it was the correct call from a government perspective and a Tory perspective in stopping leakage of anti restriction rightwingers from the Tories
Johnson has today suggested the hospitalisation numbers over the next three weeks could become a little lairy. Maybe he's bull******* us, I don't know?
I am quite frankly disgusted that you have reached the conclusion that it doesn't really matter what this Government do for the common good, just so long as they do enough to retain a poll lead and win the next GE.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Don't be ridiculous. If Labour want to lock us down to exert state control over us I wouldn't vote for them, no one will! I would hope here in Wales Drakeford has put in place additional restrictions like table service at pubs and the closing of nightclubs in the vague, probably vain, hope that it might ease future pressure on the NHS and save lives be they Covid victims or non-Covid related patients.
You are saying sod the hospitals, Steve Baker has spoken. The Conservative Party under a hands-tied Boris Johnson are ideologically opposed to Covid restrictions because that sustains Johnson as PM and could gain him some RedWall votes. If people can't access hospital services and die as a consequence, what the hell, who cares so long as Boris Johnson wins the next GE.
Is there any evidence the Red Wall is more anti- lockdown than elsewhere? Seems to me it is young people and Cities where it is more prevalent.
The complaint in the action settled by the 2009 agreement
This is really interesting: the matters complained of are all in the nature of trafficking, procuring, crossing state lines, making pornographic images etc. Anyone who was merely an end user was NOT a "potential defendant" unless the claim were amended; but if you have to read the release as covering "potential defendant including to an amended claim" you are broadening it to a ludicrous extent to cover anyone who had ever wronged the plaintiff in any way, ever.
Judging from their performance in his police interviews, where they objected to every single police question on the most ludicrous imaginable grounds, that would be about par for the course from his lawyers.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
again that is good in theory but could be very racially divisive....i dont think we want racial divisions in this country
Even most ethnic minority are now vaccinated
not in the same proportion as the whites though...hence the discrimination
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
"In the mean time please assume no news from me just means I’m quietly spending the pandemic the way most people are - failing to make sourdough bread (!)...."
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
again that is good in theory but could be very racially divisive....i dont think we want racial divisions in this country
Sorry, I don’t give a shit if it’s racially divisive. I don’t know what more can be done to persuade people to be jabbed. It’s totally free, effective, safe, taken up by over 90 % of adults already, including most of ethnic extraction. The vast majority who have done what was asked and protected themselves should not be restricted for the benefit of the idiots, even those with ‘genuine’ concerns. Get of Facebook, get of Twitter and look into the real world data.
"In the mean time please assume no news from me just means I’m quietly spending the pandemic the way most people are - failing to make sourdough bread (!)...."
I think that's quite funny.
I did chuckle, especially as I don't think Emma was saying it in an altogether self-parodying manner...
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
again that is good in theory but could be very racially divisive....i dont think we want racial divisions in this country
Even most ethnic minority are now vaccinated
not in the same proportion as the whites though...hence the discrimination
It’s not discrimination. There has been enough time, and more than enough evidence of safety and effectiveness. No excuses left now.
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
again that is good in theory but could be very racially divisive....i dont think we want racial divisions in this country
Even most ethnic minority are now vaccinated
not in the same proportion as the whites though...hence the discrimination
It’s not discrimination. There has been enough time, and more than enough evidence of safety and effectiveness. No excuses left now.
As Quark and Grand Negus Zek both so rightly said, 'stupidity is no excuse.'
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
again that is good in theory but could be very racially divisive....i dont think we want racial divisions in this country
Sorry, I don’t give a shit if it’s racially divisive. I don’t know what more can be done to persuade people to be jabbed. It’s totally free, effective, safe, taken up by over 90 % of adults already, including most of ethnic extraction. The vast majority who have done what was asked and protected themselves should not be restricted for the benefit of the idiots, even those with ‘genuine’ concerns. Get of Facebook, get of Twitter and look into the real world data.
your sentiment may be good in theory...but i dont think its wise to inflame tensions in the ethnic communities....these are good people just like you
I could not care less. Post vaccination we are now in a clear ideological divide of statist leftwingers who want to impose Covid restrictions forever and rightwingers and libertarians who want us to largely live our lives freely again.
Boris has correctly positioned himself on the right side of that divide to motivate his base
Many more Conservative MPs supported the move to introduce covid certification for entry to nightclubs and large venues than opposed it yet all we hear are the "96 rebels". The last I saw, there are 364 Conservative MPs so the 96 represent a minority viewpoint it would seem.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
There is a difference between vaxports to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, who make up most of those in hospital with Covid and imposing restrictions again on the vaccinated majority. I have no problem with the former, I do have a problem with the latter
Classic bully
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
No, beating up the rest would be mandatory vaccination and forcibly holding down the unvaccinated and jabbing them
“I have no problem with [imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated]”
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
If by their choice they are now taking the majority of hospital beds as a result of Covid they must be the ones to face any new restrictions. Not the vaccinated
again that is good in theory but could be very racially divisive....i dont think we want racial divisions in this country
Even most ethnic minority are now vaccinated
not in the same proportion as the whites though...hence the discrimination
It seems to me that the racial minorities are differentially discriminating against vaccinators. Care to tell us which other blatant examples of hatecrime you are comfortable with?
Comments
* personally, I thin it still largely holds
Government moves from policeman law maker role handing over to the NHS as guidance giver as it is on everything else from smoking to bubonic plague. We all queue up once/twice a year for vaccine. We test for Covid as often as we test for colds and flu.
All Liberal Democrats who voted opposed the measure so in effect if you want an end to restrictions and a return to a normal life you should leave the Conservative Party and join the Liberal Democrats.
Covid test distributor handed 2.5m lateral flow kits for pharmacies ... then shut its doors for Christmas
Alliance Healthcare stopped deliveries between December 25-28, despite receiving new supply of tests on Christmas Eve
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/03/covid-test-distributor-shut-christmas-receiving-25-million-lateral/
So Pecresse needs to win over Le Pen voters both to get to the runoff and have a chance of winning the runoff. Yet Pecresse remains the right's best chance of beating Macron
My wife and daughter saw Allen and Soon-Yi walking down the street in New York over the summer. He was - apparently - looking very old and infirm, and she was having to help him walk.
It will be interesting to see if anything comes out after his death.
'm very fond of the footprints scattered around at Hanover Point, and the fossil treetrunks some way down towards lower tide.
The active erosion is great for fossilising.
Putin fears Kremlin insider extradited from Switzerland to US may have DEFECTED: Russian tech tycoon is thought to know secrets of 2016 Democratic Party hack and election manipulation attempts
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10364763/Putin-fears-Kremlin-insider-extradited-Switzerland-DEFECTED.html
The fly in the ointment is that whether you support restrictions or not has now become a key defining cultural question as to where you sit on the political spectrum in the same way as Brexit (in fact, from personal observation, there is a strong overlap between the two).
In addition, it is also very likely we will have scientists who will push for restrictions even when it is clear they have outlived their usefulness either to stay in the limelight or because they genuinely believe they are needed or because they have benefited from the pandemic.
So I don't think the Covid restrictions debate goes away. There are too many who would see it as a "loss" to the other side.
A locked-down city in China has turfed 1,000 people out of their homes at midnight and carted them off to grim quarantine facilities, according to local reports.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10364785/Locked-Chinese-city-evicts-1-000-people-transports-quarantine-facilities.html
The fact remains she needs to get through to the second round and that's far from certain at this stage.
ROFL
I think Sturgeon would sh1t her pants if she truly thought Scotland would become independent tomorrow - she knows she would be absolutely f*cked.
https://twitter.com/Engineer4Health/status/1478072164775600130?s=20
Were there to be a clear requirement in terms of reducing hospital admissions, would you support a limited return of restrictions?
The problem with the "vaccinated majority" is they are also vulnerable to Omicron and catching Omicron and while for the majority that will be no real issue the concern must be among older people and especially those whose booster was some weeks back that any infection could be more serious.
For me, that's the only risk at the moment - hospitalisations rising because of older people with other health problems becoming infected with Omicron.
They seemed to have missed the fact that the Mirror Group (Reach) now own it and the current editor is the former editor of the People / Sunday Mirror.
The Daily Star under the same new ownership is probably the one of the most harsh critics of the government.
This rings a dim bell about there being some national organization - here it is -
https://www.rockwatch.org.uk/
Line up with the majority and beat up the rest
THE RETURN of Jeremy Corbyn is the preferred choice of Red Wall voters for Labour leader if Sir Keir Starmer was to step down, a new poll claims.
Mr Corbyn, who led the party to its disastrous 2019 loss, is seen as the best man to step in and take charge of the Opposition should the incumbent resign for any reason. He is tied along with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper according to a survey by DeltaPoll released over the weekend."
So they don't, they see him as joint preferred option, because nobody knows anything about any of the potential runners. Move along.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-59827047
However, it’s possible that the government has shored up some support thanks to its resisting restrictions. The public are sharply moving against them, and have got the memo that omicron is mild.
Selling more restrictions when individuals’ personal risk is low is very difficult indeed. I think people are generally relieved that shutting stuff down is no longer en vogue.
But it's a shite film so I didn't bother.
Interestingly, Cannock Cinema really does have no shows on at the moment for the rest of the month beyond Thursday. I'm guessing that's because (a) film production has been so disrupted limiting their options on what to show and (b) nobody was coming to see them anyway so cheaper to shut the place down for a few weeks.
The Complicated Legacy of E. O. Wilson
We must reckon with his and other scientists’ racist ideas if we want an equitable future
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-complicated-legacy-of-e-o-wilson/
Rough numbers it’s 100 rebels, 100 payroll, 100 ambitious, 60 statists
Labour Friends of Epstein reckon they are ready for Government
Full text. I'd be astonished if it had incorporated Universal Commercial Contract provisions, and it doesn't. And if it had done, English common law would have recognised the incorporation just as US common law would have.
French scientists detect ANOTHER variant linked to travel to Cameroon and say it carries 46 mutations that may make it more vaccine-resistant and infectious (but it is so far NOT outcompeting Omicron)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10365005/Covid-tracking-scientists-France-spot-variant.html
Not sure why the Mail are reporting it now (clicks I guess), its been 3 weeks since it was first reported.
Edit - I see, its because a preprint paper has come out,
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.24.21268174v1
Lock up anyone that disagrees with me!
The complaint in the action settled by the 2009 agreement
This is really interesting: the matters complained of are all in the nature of trafficking, procuring, crossing state lines, making pornographic images etc. Anyone who was merely an end user was NOT a "potential defendant" unless the claim were amended; but if you have to read the release as covering "potential defendant including to an amended claim" you are broadening it to a ludicrous extent to cover anyone who had ever wronged the plaintiff in any way, ever.
The facts of life are racist. Who knew?
https://twitter.com/EmmaWatson/status/1394399765001998338
"In the mean time please assume no news from me just means I’m quietly spending the pandemic the way most people are - failing to make sourdough bread (!)...."
Seems to me it is young people and Cities where it is more prevalent.
Get of Facebook, get of Twitter and look into the real world data.
But before we get into waters OGH might find uncomfortable I think we will leave it there.
I should emphasise that that emphasis implied nothing about BJO or Corbyn himself.
Your IP address seems to come up in the dnsbl.spfbl.net spam list. (
Can I confirm that I will be able to reach you on the email you gave me?