Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I don't want to start a panic at a time like this ... but Waitrose failed to deliver an order of bog roll yesterday.
I heard a rumour that Waitrose ran out of pre-flaked Parmesan. An Albanian Black Cab driver told me this, so it must be true.
My Waitrose had Pecorino Romano, Grana Padano and three sorts of Parmesan to choose from the other day. And that was just the prepacked stuff, in blocks. So no panic when it comes to seasoning a bolognese.
I was trying to start a riotous panic, damn it!
Incidentally, producers, sellers and purchasers of pre-flaked Parmesan will go on The List, when I am unDictator.
For me, it is people who put Marmite in the fridge.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
Which chimes with the header that people think the government is moving too fast, despite what many on even as representative a platform as pb might tell you.
There are lots of immunocompromised and other vulnerable people out there, and all their families and friends will want to test before visiting.
No I think there are two separate issues here and people have different opinions on them.
Should the Government have lifted the last restrictions and started to treat this disease like any other? - yes I think now is the right time to do that (whatever the dodgy motives of Johnson that have driven it)
But entirely separately
Should the Government have ended free testing? No absolutely not.
The success of the first policy - of ending all restrictions and allowing people to make sensible decisions - has to be based upon those people being able to obtain the necessary information to allow them to make those decisions. Ending free testing removes that ability to a large extent. If, after April, I go down with symptoms which could be covid or which could just be a cold, am I going to spend money on a test kit? Probably not. I am more likely to either ignore it and get on with life - in which case I could be spreading it to others more at risk - or I am going to be cautious and self isolate of my own back for a week - in which case I am possibly unnecessarily removing myself from the workforce for that period.
Free tests allow exactly the sorts of informed decisions the Government is asking us to make. It allows us to take personal responsibility. Removing those free tests removes, for many people, the ability to make those informed decisions.
I’d only say this - the tests are not free. We are paying billions a month, and frankly some people have been abusing the system. It’s not uncommon to see people testing multiple times a day, for instance. I think a system where testing is available for genuine need is fine. But making vast numbers available to the worried well has to stop.
Perhaps such people could be discouraged by a few well-placed articles about a mysterious syndrome affecting people who have been scraping their nostrils too often. Symptoms include brain fog, irrational thinking, and depression.
There is a rumour going round that the testing fluid is a carcinogen.
Whether it's true or not I don't know, and frankly it shouldn't matter as it shouldn't be getting on your skin. But that might take off at some point.
It won’t be true, but it doesn’t matter anyway as you don’t touch it.
Biden's response is looking weak, which is what matters most. He threatened to cut Russia out of the SWIFT network, and hasn't.
"Never issue a threat unless you're prepared to carry it out", as my father used to say.
Putin threatened to roll across Ukraine and hasn't.
Well, he's already rolled into eastern Ukraine, and the sanctions announced so far won't do anything to discourage him from continuing further.
I agree with you and said so recently. If Putin rolls into Kyiv, even cutting Russia out of Swift is going to look weak, and then Biden is two for two.
Couldn't stop the Taliban from taking Kabul. Couldn't stop Putin from taking Kyiv. Where next?
No way a US President wins re-election when being demonstrated to be so weak.
It feels that way, but rolling into Kyiv is the beginning. Just like rolling into Baghdad was for Bush. The trouble for Putin starts then, and not from Western sanctions.
That might well be the case, but it isn't going to do Biden's reputation any good though.
And as I said when I mentioned this before, it's not just on foreign policy that Biden looks weak. He lost most of his legislative agenda in Congress thanks to a couple of Democrat senators.
The only plus for the Democrats is that this should also torpedo VP Harris' chances of winning the nomination too. So there's a chance they might find a decent outsider. Some Governor or other.
It's time for some meaningful sanctions against Russia.
Time for Max Kilman to announce that, after consulting with his Ukrainian parents, he's not going to sign for Russian oligarch-owned Chelski whatever they might offer for him in the Summer.
A win for Wolves fans if not for our Chinese owners who might have wished to cash in.
PS. Chelski 1-0 up. Wall to wall electronic Gazprom advertising all round the ground.
I'm really not sure what I'm more horrified by with the Belmarsh story: that we allow convicted terrorists to be together in prison or that the media were asked not to report on it.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
Which chimes with the header that people think the government is moving too fast, despite what many on even as representative a platform as pb might tell you.
There are lots of immunocompromised and other vulnerable people out there, and all their families and friends will want to test before visiting.
No I think there are two separate issues here and people have different opinions on them.
Should the Government have lifted the last restrictions and started to treat this disease like any other? - yes I think now is the right time to do that (whatever the dodgy motives of Johnson that have driven it)
But entirely separately
Should the Government have ended free testing? No absolutely not.
The success of the first policy - of ending all restrictions and allowing people to make sensible decisions - has to be based upon those people being able to obtain the necessary information to allow them to make those decisions. Ending free testing removes that ability to a large extent. If, after April, I go down with symptoms which could be covid or which could just be a cold, am I going to spend money on a test kit? Probably not. I am more likely to either ignore it and get on with life - in which case I could be spreading it to others more at risk - or I am going to be cautious and self isolate of my own back for a week - in which case I am possibly unnecessarily removing myself from the workforce for that period.
Free tests allow exactly the sorts of informed decisions the Government is asking us to make. It allows us to take personal responsibility. Removing those free tests removes, for many people, the ability to make those informed decisions.
I’d only say this - the tests are not free. We are paying billions a month, and frankly some people have been abusing the system. It’s not uncommon to see people testing multiple times a day, for instance. I think a system where testing is available for genuine need is fine. But making vast numbers available to the worried well has to stop.
Perhaps such people could be discouraged by a few well-placed articles about a mysterious syndrome affecting people who have been scraping their nostrils too often. Symptoms include brain fog, irrational thinking, and depression.
There is a rumour going round that the testing fluid is a carcinogen.
Whether it's true or not I don't know, and frankly it shouldn't matter as it shouldn't be getting on your skin. But that might take off at some point.
I think you mean the rumour about Ethylene oxide - which is used as a *sterilising agent* for some swabs. Others use RADIATION!!!!!!!
As a trained scientist, my advice is that if you encounter people purveying such rumours, set them on fire.
Cardiff University "defended messages referring to academics as an ”ignorant fuckface” and a call to kneecap them as legitimate expressions of free speech, even after one of the signatories had his car window smashed."
These violent threats were a direct result of staff writing a letter asking for a review of Cardiff Uni's Stonewall membership, pointing out that affiliation with Stonewall exposes dissenters to harassment.
The thread header dispenses with the usual QTWAIN and instead has a STWAIN: Statement To Which the Answer Is NO!
"He’s got to hope this doesn’t lead to more cases" - No.
Cases don't matter anymore. When are people going to stop obsessing over cases?
Why do you think the polls are so negative about Freedom Day 2 though? PB last night was very much the other way, saying No, Mike, not a mistake.
1. There is a strong authoritarian streak in British society that approves of people being bossed about 2. Not entirely uncoincidentally, the population also contains a vast number of old people
Polling on COVID measures tends to be "more restrictions are always awesome".
This is not necessarily connected with whether the measures are a good idea or not.
Nor is connected to the long term polling effect, if the measures are eased and it is a success.
There’s a sizeable minority who would keep restrictions indefinitely.
They all seem to follow Cristina Pagel on Twitter. If you want to take the pulse of the Covid terrified, that’s the place to go.
It’s such a dark place, I often wonder if some/most of her followers are spoofs. I encountered a guy the other day who claimed not to have left his own house in 600-odd days.
I know someone who hasn't, it's sad case. One hopes it is not even rare, but vanishingly rare.
I don't think it's much of a thing. It is heavily exaggerated on here by posters who think they qualify as the biggest swinging dicks on the planet because they are the kinda guy who goes Out To The Pub Without A Mask, sometimes as much as twice a week. Edgelords.
Cardiff University "defended messages referring to academics as an ”ignorant fuckface” and a call to kneecap them as legitimate expressions of free speech, even after one of the signatories had his car window smashed."
These violent threats were a direct result of staff writing a letter asking for a review of Cardiff Uni's Stonewall membership, pointing out that affiliation with Stonewall exposes dissenters to harassment.
The thread header dispenses with the usual QTWAIN and instead has a STWAIN: Statement To Which the Answer Is NO!
"He’s got to hope this doesn’t lead to more cases" - No.
Cases don't matter anymore. When are people going to stop obsessing over cases?
Why do you think the polls are so negative about Freedom Day 2 though? PB last night was very much the other way, saying No, Mike, not a mistake.
1. There is a strong authoritarian streak in British society that approves of people being bossed about 2. Not entirely uncoincidentally, the population also contains a vast number of old people
Polling on COVID measures tends to be "more restrictions are always awesome".
This is not necessarily connected with whether the measures are a good idea or not.
Nor is connected to the long term polling effect, if the measures are eased and it is a success.
There’s a sizeable minority who would keep restrictions indefinitely.
They all seem to follow Cristina Pagel on Twitter. If you want to take the pulse of the Covid terrified, that’s the place to go.
It’s such a dark place, I often wonder if some/most of her followers are spoofs. I encountered a guy the other day who claimed not to have left his own house in 600-odd days.
I think these are real. Sad. But real. There is a subset of people who have adopted the mask as the next great virtue signal. Without wishing to be too political the labour parties performance over masks in the commons, but not at conference fits this.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I don't want to start a panic at a time like this ... but Waitrose failed to deliver an order of bog roll yesterday.
I heard a rumour that Waitrose ran out of pre-flaked Parmesan. An Albanian Black Cab driver told me this, so it must be true.
My Waitrose had Pecorino Romano, Grana Padano and three sorts of Parmesan to choose from the other day. And that was just the prepacked stuff, in blocks. So no panic when it comes to seasoning a bolognese.
I was trying to start a riotous panic, damn it!
Incidentally, producers, sellers and purchasers of pre-flaked Parmesan will go on The List, when I am unDictator.
For me, it is people who put Marmite in the fridge.
I'm really not sure what I'm more horrified by with the Belmarsh story: that we allow convicted terrorists to be together in prison or that the media were asked not to report on it.
Cardiff University "defended messages referring to academics as an ”ignorant fuckface” and a call to kneecap them as legitimate expressions of free speech, even after one of the signatories had his car window smashed."
These violent threats were a direct result of staff writing a letter asking for a review of Cardiff Uni's Stonewall membership, pointing out that affiliation with Stonewall exposes dissenters to harassment.
Can’t we send Stonewall to war against Putin. Tell them he’s a TERF and hope there are no survivors on either side.
Putin does claim to be a feminist IIRC (of the Feminists-Who-Think-Women-Love-The-KItchen type, of course) and he *is* very trans-excluding. And he is definitely radical.....
Cardiff University "defended messages referring to academics as an ”ignorant fuckface” and a call to kneecap them as legitimate expressions of free speech, even after one of the signatories had his car window smashed."
These violent threats were a direct result of staff writing a letter asking for a review of Cardiff Uni's Stonewall membership, pointing out that affiliation with Stonewall exposes dissenters to harassment.
So, at work it was trailed by the government they were going to target Kremlin allied Russians/Brits in the UK via the financial services system.
What was announced today is so minimal and ineffective the government may as well of not bothered.
For this is alone Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak need to quit or be removed.
Boris described this as a barrage. To keep the analogy going this looks more like a warning shot but a barrage gives him more options when (as it seems inevitable) the next escalation comes. Bit odd he seemed to think that Abramovitch was already sanctioned. Maybe 20 points deducted from Chelsea would do the trick?
The Nord 2 suspension is by far the most material sanction to date, for all our criticism of Germany's mealy mouth to date.
Anybody remotely paying attention would never have let NordStream2 happen.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I don't want to start a panic at a time like this ... but Waitrose failed to deliver an order of bog roll yesterday.
I heard a rumour that Waitrose ran out of pre-flaked Parmesan. An Albanian Black Cab driver told me this, so it must be true.
My Waitrose had Pecorino Romano, Grana Padano and three sorts of Parmesan to choose from the other day. And that was just the prepacked stuff, in blocks. So no panic when it comes to seasoning a bolognese.
I was trying to start a riotous panic, damn it!
Incidentally, producers, sellers and purchasers of pre-flaked Parmesan will go on The List, when I am unDictator.
For me, it is people who put Marmite in the fridge.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
The worried well test spamming is definitely a thing. I disapprove of paying for prescriptions because the NHS should be free at the point of need, but long since made my peace with it. Given that we have a means-tested, subsidised charging system for prescriptions, why not do similarly for tests? Would seem an obvious and fair compromise.
Note however Tories and Leavers support Boris' lifting of Covid restrictions. 56% of Conservative voters and 51% of Leave voters think the lifting of Covid restrictions is either about right or too late. So Boris knows what his core vote want.
67% of Labour voters think the lifting of restrictions is too soon but the vast majority of them would not vote for Boris anyway.
O/T - a hoax email was sent out from my daughter's school on Sunday night saying that the school would be closed for two days. The school managed to send out another email clarifying that this was not the case, and that they were looking into how this happened. They've just sent another email with, attached, a letter setting out a further explanation of the incident. Except what's actually attached is not a letter but the database containing all parents' email addresses. I'm agog to see what the next instalment will be.
Ohshit. That is bad.
The next thing will almost certainly be the resignations of the data controller and whoever sent the email.
Then a very heavy fine from the ICO.
Quite possibly followed by an OFSTED inspection which will not go well, because that's a disastrous safeguarding breach.
Fecking hell, that's awful.
Seems like a massive overreaction if it is just email addresses. Its a bad mistake sure, but what is the real danger of parents having each others email addresses? If its a big issue for anyone, it takes 5 mins to set up a new one anyway.
Ummmm...you do know how many people use email addresses as usernames for various websites? Which makes it much easier to hack them? Or spam them?
I have actually lost count of the number of pointless, boring time wasting lectures Inset days I have had where it has been drummed into me I must not email multiple parents for GDPR reasons. The office must do it using clearly defined protocols of which BCC is a massive part.
Email addresses of parents must also be deleted when there is not further need for them e.g. when children have left plus a few months.
People already get loads of spam. Not quite sure why parent x will decide to spam parent y, but if it happens it is still trivial, person y will get dozens of spam emails each week regardless.
Of course it is a silly and bad mistake but not something that needs two people to resign and the whole school to be marked down. Things happen.
Well, for a start, someone could use the list of parents' email addresses to send a hoax mail saying the school is shut, which is of course where we came in.
Serious question. What could be the potential consequences if the data found its way to a paedophile ring?
O/T - a hoax email was sent out from my daughter's school on Sunday night saying that the school would be closed for two days. The school managed to send out another email clarifying that this was not the case, and that they were looking into how this happened. They've just sent another email with, attached, a letter setting out a further explanation of the incident. Except what's actually attached is not a letter but the database containing all parents' email addresses. I'm agog to see what the next instalment will be.
Ohshit. That is bad.
The next thing will almost certainly be the resignations of the data controller and whoever sent the email.
Then a very heavy fine from the ICO.
Quite possibly followed by an OFSTED inspection which will not go well, because that's a disastrous safeguarding breach.
Fecking hell, that's awful.
Seems like a massive overreaction if it is just email addresses. Its a bad mistake sure, but what is the real danger of parents having each others email addresses? If its a big issue for anyone, it takes 5 mins to set up a new one anyway.
Ummmm...you do know how many people use email addresses as usernames for various websites? Which makes it much easier to hack them? Or spam them?
I have actually lost count of the number of pointless, boring time wasting lectures Inset days I have had where it has been drummed into me I must not email multiple parents for GDPR reasons. The office must do it using clearly defined protocols of which BCC is a massive part.
Email addresses of parents must also be deleted when there is not further need for them e.g. when children have left plus a few months.
People already get loads of spam. Not quite sure why parent x will decide to spam parent y, but if it happens it is still trivial, person y will get dozens of spam emails each week regardless.
Of course it is a silly and bad mistake but not something that needs two people to resign and the whole school to be marked down. Things happen.
Well, for a start, someone could use the list of parents' email addresses to send a hoax mail saying the school is shut, which is of course where we came in.
Serious question. What could be the potential consequences if the data found its way to a paedophile ring?
As they appear to be parents' email addresses, that's not likely to be a significant risk factor.
I'd be more worried about them getting into the hands of scammers trying to use them to pull off stunts about say, child benefit.
Of course, if the extra information turns out to include safeguarding information then your question has a number of very disturbing possible answers. But it shouldn't.
The worried well test spamming is definitely a thing. I disapprove of paying for prescriptions because the NHS should be free at the point of need, but long since made my peace with it. Given that we have a means-tested, subsidised charging system for prescriptions, why not do similarly for tests? Would seem an obvious and fair compromise.
The worried well test spamming is definitely a thing. I disapprove of paying for prescriptions because the NHS should be free at the point of need, but long since made my peace with it. Given that we have a means-tested, subsidised charging system for prescriptions, why not do similarly for tests? Would seem an obvious and fair compromise.
With prescriptions where they are free some patients don’t respect the costs (as it’s zero for them) and end up wasting vast amounts of medication that cannot be given to anyone else. I also think that administer the system may not be worth the money recouped from charging some people for prescriptions. So it’s not simple. I can afford to pay for the bits I use, but would be nice if it was made free as in Scotland.
So @MoonRabbit the clock is ticking on your Johnson defenestration prediction. How do you think it’s going?😀
The night is young. 😘
I still think Johnson has already jumped off a high building and is falling past the 5th floor and people are saying If he can fall past the second floor he is safe, no credible challengers blah blah
If Boris is still there in the morning, I might have to shout loudly, waggle my chipolata as a diversionary tactic. In nothing but my cowboy boots and a Gillian Anderson mask.
Or put my hand up and say, yeah, yeah fair enough, but. When I picked the day after half term two weeks ago, I couldn’t be sure Russian tanks would roll across Europe in the night. In a way though, today may prove the day patience in lazy Johnson finally ran out.
Cardiff University "defended messages referring to academics as an ”ignorant fuckface” and a call to kneecap them as legitimate expressions of free speech, even after one of the signatories had his car window smashed."
These violent threats were a direct result of staff writing a letter asking for a review of Cardiff Uni's Stonewall membership, pointing out that affiliation with Stonewall exposes dissenters to harassment.
Note however Tories and Leavers support Boris' lifting of Covid restrictions. 56% of Conservative voters and 51% of Leave voters think the lifting of Covid restrictions is either about right or too late. So Boris knows what his core vote want.
67% of Labour voters think the lifting of restrictions is too soon but the vast majority of them would not vote for Boris anyway.
Interestingly the numbers from Scotland and London are the same. Not surprising really both have a lot in common
Also interesting that a plurality of all age groups oppose the change (unlike the suggestion that it was just old folk), although opposition is a bit stronger with age. Very little difference by social class.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I don't think they are hypocrites or liars. Just that the actual effect on polling, in the medium term will be the *result* of relaxation. Not the immediate numbers.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I’ve learned to be extremely sceptical of Covid polls since YouGov released one that found 26% of people think nightclubs should be closed permanently. I cannot believe that a quarter of Brits really think that, can you? Maybe I just have too much faith in human nature.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I didn't believe these polls even when I agreed with retaining restrictions etc
Of course it is possible the figure is more representative than people on here. But I go back to the summer relaxation, which no one has corrected my recollection that polls were against it. Yet people did not turn agains the government over it, once it was clear things did not fall to pieces the public moved on. So even if it was an accurate view of what people felt, it didn't matter as their fears were not realised. If the fears are not realised here, it is not a mere dismissal to think they will not care this time either.
Note however Tories and Leavers support Boris' lifting of Covid restrictions. 56% of Conservative voters and 51% of Leave voters think the lifting of Covid restrictions is either about right or too late. So Boris knows what his core vote want.
67% of Labour voters think the lifting of restrictions is too soon but the vast majority of them would not vote for Boris anyway.
Interestingly the numbers from Scotland and London are the same. Not surprising really both have a lot in common
Also interesting that a plurality of all age groups oppose the change (unlike the suggestion that it was just old folk), although opposition is a bit stronger with age. Very little difference by social class.
The worried well test spamming is definitely a thing. I disapprove of paying for prescriptions because the NHS should be free at the point of need, but long since made my peace with it. Given that we have a means-tested, subsidised charging system for prescriptions, why not do similarly for tests? Would seem an obvious and fair compromise.
Insofar as testing is in the interest of others (because it makes it less likely that people will go out infecting others), it's different from most prescriptions. But I agree that if we're going to charge that'd be better.
The glaring issue though is the loss of sick pay - that seems entirely counter-productive.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I didn't believe these polls even when I agreed with retaining restrictions etc
Of course it is possible the figure is more representative than people on here. But I go back to the summer relaxation, which no one has corrected my recollection that polls were against it. Yet people did not turn agains the government over it, once it was clear things did not fall to pieces the public moved on. So even if it was an accurate view of what people felt, it didn't matter as their fears were not realised. If the fears are not realised here, it is not a mere dismissal to think they will not care this time either.
Indeed where were these millions of people who opposed the summer liberalisation? Down the beach, in the beer gardens, camping with friends, that’s where.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
If there's one thing that we've learnt this past two years is that restrictions on other people always polls well.
The worried well test spamming is definitely a thing. I disapprove of paying for prescriptions because the NHS should be free at the point of need, but long since made my peace with it. Given that we have a means-tested, subsidised charging system for prescriptions, why not do similarly for tests? Would seem an obvious and fair compromise.
Insofar as testing is in the interest of others (because it makes it less likely that people will go out infecting others), it's different from most prescriptions. But I agree that if we're going to charge that'd be better.
The glaring issue though is the loss of sick pay - that seems entirely counter-productive.
Just watched Dr John's video from Monday, he reckons it's better for people to get it now rather than in a month or two's time when their immunity has worn off a bit more. So I think it's more the case we're relaxed about people getting it. Just as we're relaxed about people getting the flu.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I stocked up last week. It was obviously coming.
Have your trust any plans to keep testing for staff?
Not seen anything about it yet. No change for us, masks and 1m social distancing in the waiting area. More staff off again this week.
I do quite often get patients say to me in outpatients that this is the first time that they have left the house in six months, and often not particularly vulnerable patients. Quite a few are becoming quite agoraphobic.
The worried well test spamming is definitely a thing. I disapprove of paying for prescriptions because the NHS should be free at the point of need, but long since made my peace with it. Given that we have a means-tested, subsidised charging system for prescriptions, why not do similarly for tests? Would seem an obvious and fair compromise.
Insofar as testing is in the interest of others (because it makes it less likely that people will go out infecting others), it's different from most prescriptions. But I agree that if we're going to charge that'd be better.
The glaring issue though is the loss of sick pay - that seems entirely counter-productive.
Just watched Dr John's video from Monday, he reckons it's better for people to get it now rather than in a month or two's time when their immunity has worn off a bit more. So I think it's more the case we're relaxed about people getting it. Just as we're relaxed about people getting the flu.
I’m not sure how scientifically correct this idea is. For sure nABs gonna wane always, so the chances are you will actually develop Covid. But the rest of the immune response is much more robust, and that’s what counts. There is no need to maintain a constant high level of nABs circulating all the time.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I’ve learned to be extremely sceptical of Covid polls since YouGov released one that found 26% of people think nightclubs should be closed permanently. I cannot believe that a quarter of Brits really think that, can you? Maybe I just have too much faith in human nature.
26% of people live within earshot of nightclubs? Possible, but it does sound rather high.
I'm really not sure what I'm more horrified by with the Belmarsh story: that we allow convicted terrorists to be together in prison or that the media were asked not to report on it.
Are you sure? I read it as only relating to not prejudicing the trial. It's normal for the media not to describe previous convictions of people on trial. There doesn't seem to have been an attempt to stop it being mentioned after the verdicts, and that's why we're reading about it now.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I’ve learned to be extremely sceptical of Covid polls since YouGov released one that found 26% of people think nightclubs should be closed permanently. I cannot believe that a quarter of Brits really think that, can you? Maybe I just have too much faith in human nature.
Who are the 74% who want to keep them open? I don’t know any that sell decent ale.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I didn't believe these polls even when I agreed with retaining restrictions etc
Of course it is possible the figure is more representative than people on here. But I go back to the summer relaxation, which no one has corrected my recollection that polls were against it. Yet people did not turn agains the government over it, once it was clear things did not fall to pieces the public moved on. So even if it was an accurate view of what people felt, it didn't matter as their fears were not realised. If the fears are not realised here, it is not a mere dismissal to think they will not care this time either.
Indeed where were these millions of people who opposed the summer liberalisation? Down the beach, in the beer gardens, camping with friends, that’s where.
Quite obviously you don't see those who are not hypocrites out and about!
I walked my pup past the pub last Saturday early evening. There were 4 people in there.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I stocked up last week. It was obviously coming.
Have your trust any plans to keep testing for staff?
Not seen anything about it yet. No change for us, masks and 1m social distancing in the waiting area. More staff off again this week.
I do quite often get patients say to me in outpatients that this is the first time that they have left the house in six months, and often not particularly vulnerable patients. Quite a few are becoming quite agoraphobic.
Interesting - thank you. Do you think the nhs will ever stop social distancing and masks? I kinda of think masks at the go surgery and in hospital is not a bad thing for patients. Thats where all the sick people are mainly. The flip side of ‘keeping people safe’ from Covid is the other impacts. It’s horrible to hear of people not going outside. The risks of a walk are surely minimal.
I'm really not sure what I'm more horrified by with the Belmarsh story: that we allow convicted terrorists to be together in prison or that the media were asked not to report on it.
Are you sure? I read it as only relating to not prejudicing the trial. It's normal for the media not to describe previous convictions of people on trial. There doesn't seem to have been an attempt to stop it being mentioned after the verdicts, and that's why we're reading about it now.
US style supermax needed for islamic terrorists who are clearly a very very dangerous bunch.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I’ve learned to be extremely sceptical of Covid polls since YouGov released one that found 26% of people think nightclubs should be closed permanently. I cannot believe that a quarter of Brits really think that, can you? Maybe I just have too much faith in human nature.
26% of people live within earshot of nightclubs? Possible, but it does sound rather high.
Our local nightclub seems to cause most of the crime and disorder in town. Any pub that did the same would lose its licence. I always suspected night clubs were there to keep police stats looking good but they seem to keep themselves scarce and don't do obvious things like raid it for drugs every 2 weeks.
I'm really not sure what I'm more horrified by with the Belmarsh story: that we allow convicted terrorists to be together in prison or that the media were asked not to report on it.
Are you sure? I read it as only relating to not prejudicing the trial. It's normal for the media not to describe previous convictions of people on trial. There doesn't seem to have been an attempt to stop it being mentioned after the verdicts, and that's why we're reading about it now.
I guessed that was the reason. Presumably the jury knew these were inmates. I wonder if they got to hear their names - Abedi might have rang a few bells.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I stocked up last week. It was obviously coming.
Have your trust any plans to keep testing for staff?
Not seen anything about it yet. No change for us, masks and 1m social distancing in the waiting area. More staff off again this week.
I do quite often get patients say to me in outpatients that this is the first time that they have left the house in six months, and often not particularly vulnerable patients. Quite a few are becoming quite agoraphobic.
There's going to be an enormous burden of mental illness arising from the pandemic, lasting for many years and for which the available care services are hopelessly ill-equipped to deal. Certainly the notion that there may be several million hermits out there who never leave the house anymore except when compelled by circumstances doesn't sound at all fanciful.
Note however Tories and Leavers support Boris' lifting of Covid restrictions. 56% of Conservative voters and 51% of Leave voters think the lifting of Covid restrictions is either about right or too late. So Boris knows what his core vote want.
67% of Labour voters think the lifting of restrictions is too soon but the vast majority of them would not vote for Boris anyway.
Interestingly the numbers from Scotland and London are the same. Not surprising really both have a lot in common
Also interesting that a plurality of all age groups oppose the change (unlike the suggestion that it was just old folk), although opposition is a bit stronger with age. Very little difference by social class.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I didn't believe these polls even when I agreed with retaining restrictions etc
Of course it is possible the figure is more representative than people on here. But I go back to the summer relaxation, which no one has corrected my recollection that polls were against it. Yet people did not turn agains the government over it, once it was clear things did not fall to pieces the public moved on. So even if it was an accurate view of what people felt, it didn't matter as their fears were not realised. If the fears are not realised here, it is not a mere dismissal to think they will not care this time either.
Indeed where were these millions of people who opposed the summer liberalisation? Down the beach, in the beer gardens, camping with friends, that’s where.
Quite obviously you don't see those who are not hypocrites out and about!
I walked my pup past the pub last Saturday early evening. There were 4 people in there.
You always make Leicester sound so exciting! Four is buzzing nightlife by Leicester standards.
So, at work it was trailed by the government they were going to target Kremlin allied Russians/Brits in the UK via the financial services system.
What was announced today is so minimal and ineffective the government may as well of not bothered.
For this is alone Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak need to quit or be removed.
Boris described this as a barrage. To keep the analogy going this looks more like a warning shot but a barrage gives him more options when (as it seems inevitable) the next escalation comes. Bit odd he seemed to think that Abramovitch was already sanctioned. Maybe 20 points deducted from Chelsea would do the trick?
The Nord 2 suspension is by far the most material sanction to date, for all our criticism of Germany's mealy mouth to date.
Yup, the Germans dropped an A bomb, we fired an empty water pistol.
Nord Stream 1 is still operational and Germany will continue to be the biggest purchaser of Russian gas.
If they turn that off as well then William, it hurts in UK as well doesn’t it?
It hurts the UK and Germany equally: because both of us would be bidding for spot LNG cargoes.
And to where in Germany, would these cargoes be delivered? They haven’t yet built the import facility.
They could be delivered anywhere in Europe - there's ample intra-Europe gas pipeline capacity. They'll just be paying 0.30-0.45c/mmcf in transit fees.
Note however Tories and Leavers support Boris' lifting of Covid restrictions. 56% of Conservative voters and 51% of Leave voters think the lifting of Covid restrictions is either about right or too late. So Boris knows what his core vote want.
67% of Labour voters think the lifting of restrictions is too soon but the vast majority of them would not vote for Boris anyway.
Interestingly the numbers from Scotland and London are the same. Not surprising really both have a lot in common
Also interesting that a plurality of all age groups oppose the change (unlike the suggestion that it was just old folk), although opposition is a bit stronger with age. Very little difference by social class.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I didn't believe these polls even when I agreed with retaining restrictions etc
Of course it is possible the figure is more representative than people on here. But I go back to the summer relaxation, which no one has corrected my recollection that polls were against it. Yet people did not turn agains the government over it, once it was clear things did not fall to pieces the public moved on. So even if it was an accurate view of what people felt, it didn't matter as their fears were not realised. If the fears are not realised here, it is not a mere dismissal to think they will not care this time either.
Indeed where were these millions of people who opposed the summer liberalisation? Down the beach, in the beer gardens, camping with friends, that’s where.
Quite obviously you don't see those who are not hypocrites out and about!
I walked my pup past the pub last Saturday early evening. There were 4 people in there.
You always make Leicester sound so exciting! Four is buzzing nightlife by Leicester standards.
The weather was so disgusting here no-one was going to go to the pub. Indeed I contemplated doing so because my daytime plans had been cancelled (lack of trains) but one look out of the window and I made do with a G&T at home.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I stocked up last week. It was obviously coming.
Have your trust any plans to keep testing for staff?
Not seen anything about it yet. No change for us, masks and 1m social distancing in the waiting area. More staff off again this week.
I do quite often get patients say to me in outpatients that this is the first time that they have left the house in six months, and often not particularly vulnerable patients. Quite a few are becoming quite agoraphobic.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I didn't believe these polls even when I agreed with retaining restrictions etc
Of course it is possible the figure is more representative than people on here. But I go back to the summer relaxation, which no one has corrected my recollection that polls were against it. Yet people did not turn agains the government over it, once it was clear things did not fall to pieces the public moved on. So even if it was an accurate view of what people felt, it didn't matter as their fears were not realised. If the fears are not realised here, it is not a mere dismissal to think they will not care this time either.
You recollect correctly:
An Opinium poll for the Observer found that 73% of people now believe wearing masks on public transport should continue while 50% said that “freedom day”, when the vast majority of other controls are due to end, should be pushed back again beyond 19 July. This compared with just under a third (31%) who think the government should go ahead as planned. Only 10% think restrictions should have been lifted earlier.
But there are growing fears that the move will cause chaos, confusion and anger as more organisations and business go their own way and impose rules out of line with the new relaxed government regime. Last week it emerged that several restaurant and pub chains, including Rare Restaurants and City Pub Group, were planning to insist on mask-wearing and social distancing after 19 July.
O/T - a hoax email was sent out from my daughter's school on Sunday night saying that the school would be closed for two days. The school managed to send out another email clarifying that this was not the case, and that they were looking into how this happened. They've just sent another email with, attached, a letter setting out a further explanation of the incident. Except what's actually attached is not a letter but the database containing all parents' email addresses. I'm agog to see what the next instalment will be.
Ohshit. That is bad.
The next thing will almost certainly be the resignations of the data controller and whoever sent the email.
Then a very heavy fine from the ICO.
Quite possibly followed by an OFSTED inspection which will not go well, because that's a disastrous safeguarding breach.
Fecking hell, that's awful.
Seems like a massive overreaction if it is just email addresses. Its a bad mistake sure, but what is the real danger of parents having each others email addresses? If its a big issue for anyone, it takes 5 mins to set up a new one anyway.
Think, for example, if a couple have divorced after a domestic incident.
If these stories are genuine, and we really do have millions of people who haven’t left their homes for months on end, we have a very serious problem on our hands. A major social problem and a potential severe physical and mental health problem. I suspect - but don’t know - that it’s being overstated.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I’ve learned to be extremely sceptical of Covid polls since YouGov released one that found 26% of people think nightclubs should be closed permanently. I cannot believe that a quarter of Brits really think that, can you? Maybe I just have too much faith in human nature.
Hmm, I think there probably are a fair few older people who would like them closed forever. As much as a quarter of the population I'm not sure. What we have is a class of older people who are more than happy to sacrifice the freedom of young people for a bit of additional perceived safety for them. The 60-85 generation is probably the most selfish in the country.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I stocked up last week. It was obviously coming.
Have your trust any plans to keep testing for staff?
Not seen anything about it yet. No change for us, masks and 1m social distancing in the waiting area. More staff off again this week.
I do quite often get patients say to me in outpatients that this is the first time that they have left the house in six months, and often not particularly vulnerable patients. Quite a few are becoming quite agoraphobic.
Interesting - thank you. Do you think the nhs will ever stop social distancing and masks? I kinda of think masks at the go surgery and in hospital is not a bad thing for patients. Thats where all the sick people are mainly. The flip side of ‘keeping people safe’ from Covid is the other impacts. It’s horrible to hear of people not going outside. The risks of a walk are surely minimal.
I don't know when the restrictions in hospital will go, but the architecture prevents the "pile 'em high and sell them cheap" approach to NHS productivity needed to get the waiting lists down unless we pack 'em in like sardines.
O/T - a hoax email was sent out from my daughter's school on Sunday night saying that the school would be closed for two days. The school managed to send out another email clarifying that this was not the case, and that they were looking into how this happened. They've just sent another email with, attached, a letter setting out a further explanation of the incident. Except what's actually attached is not a letter but the database containing all parents' email addresses. I'm agog to see what the next instalment will be.
Ohshit. That is bad.
The next thing will almost certainly be the resignations of the data controller and whoever sent the email.
Then a very heavy fine from the ICO.
Quite possibly followed by an OFSTED inspection which will not go well, because that's a disastrous safeguarding breach.
Fecking hell, that's awful.
Seems like a massive overreaction if it is just email addresses. Its a bad mistake sure, but what is the real danger of parents having each others email addresses? If its a big issue for anyone, it takes 5 mins to set up a new one anyway.
Think, for example, if a couple have divorced after a domestic incident.
It could facilitate a restart of any harrassment.
Should be reported to the ICO. Massive breach of GDPR
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I didn't believe these polls even when I agreed with retaining restrictions etc
Of course it is possible the figure is more representative than people on here. But I go back to the summer relaxation, which no one has corrected my recollection that polls were against it. Yet people did not turn agains the government over it, once it was clear things did not fall to pieces the public moved on. So even if it was an accurate view of what people felt, it didn't matter as their fears were not realised. If the fears are not realised here, it is not a mere dismissal to think they will not care this time either.
You recollect correctly:
An Opinium poll for the Observer found that 73% of people now believe wearing masks on public transport should continue while 50% said that “freedom day”, when the vast majority of other controls are due to end, should be pushed back again beyond 19 July. This compared with just under a third (31%) who think the government should go ahead as planned. Only 10% think restrictions should have been lifted earlier.
But there are growing fears that the move will cause chaos, confusion and anger as more organisations and business go their own way and impose rules out of line with the new relaxed government regime. Last week it emerged that several restaurant and pub chains, including Rare Restaurants and City Pub Group, were planning to insist on mask-wearing and social distancing after 19 July.
Note however Tories and Leavers support Boris' lifting of Covid restrictions. 56% of Conservative voters and 51% of Leave voters think the lifting of Covid restrictions is either about right or too late. So Boris knows what his core vote want.
67% of Labour voters think the lifting of restrictions is too soon but the vast majority of them would not vote for Boris anyway.
Interestingly the numbers from Scotland and London are the same. Not surprising really both have a lot in common
Also interesting that a plurality of all age groups oppose the change (unlike the suggestion that it was just old folk), although opposition is a bit stronger with age. Very little difference by social class.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I didn't believe these polls even when I agreed with retaining restrictions etc
Of course it is possible the figure is more representative than people on here. But I go back to the summer relaxation, which no one has corrected my recollection that polls were against it. Yet people did not turn agains the government over it, once it was clear things did not fall to pieces the public moved on. So even if it was an accurate view of what people felt, it didn't matter as their fears were not realised. If the fears are not realised here, it is not a mere dismissal to think they will not care this time either.
Indeed where were these millions of people who opposed the summer liberalisation? Down the beach, in the beer gardens, camping with friends, that’s where.
Quite obviously you don't see those who are not hypocrites out and about!
I walked my pup past the pub last Saturday early evening. There were 4 people in there.
You always make Leicester sound so exciting! Four is buzzing nightlife by Leicester standards.
It wasn't in Leicester I was walking in a popular village.
When I was out in Leicester on Friday 10 days ago the pubs were all packed, and not just with people having a few before the Tigers match. The friend I was with has a heavily pregnant wife so wanted us to sit outside. It was rather chilly, but we weren't the only ones there.
The thread header dispenses with the usual QTWAIN and instead has a STWAIN: Statement To Which the Answer Is NO!
"He’s got to hope this doesn’t lead to more cases" - No.
Cases don't matter anymore. When are people going to stop obsessing over cases?
Why do you think the polls are so negative about Freedom Day 2 though? PB last night was very much the other way, saying No, Mike, not a mistake.
People virtue signalling/bullshitting and/or simple unjustified fear.
People have said told pollsters from day one of this that restrictions need to be harder and tougher. Never has the public come on the side of liberty, which is depressing. However given the choice, revealed preferences are the polar opposite - only a tiny proportion, typically elderly, actually bother to wear masks or do this crap that pollster act like the public wants.
There's also long been a theory that the opinion pollsters, since they now use panels, are disproportionately dominated by people who follow and over-react to the news. See how often the same people like TSE on here get repeatedly polled. Just a hypothesis but perhaps news obsessives are more concerned with Covid than the general population? Maybe people who sit at home and fill in opinion polls for fun are not 100% representative of those who would rather be down the pub? Just a hypothesis, without any evidence for it at all.
Cardiff University "defended messages referring to academics as an ”ignorant fuckface” and a call to kneecap them as legitimate expressions of free speech, even after one of the signatories had his car window smashed."
These violent threats were a direct result of staff writing a letter asking for a review of Cardiff Uni's Stonewall membership, pointing out that affiliation with Stonewall exposes dissenters to harassment.
If the academics didn’t have ‘wrongthink’ they wouldnt have forced the peaceful TRA’s to carry out such acts. They’d be able to harmoniously co-exist as long as they have the right views.
Its remarkable how expressing that a woman is a woman is horrid metaphorical violence that people need a safe space from, but that expressing that you're going to kneecap someone is an expression of free speech.
O/T - a hoax email was sent out from my daughter's school on Sunday night saying that the school would be closed for two days. The school managed to send out another email clarifying that this was not the case, and that they were looking into how this happened. They've just sent another email with, attached, a letter setting out a further explanation of the incident. Except what's actually attached is not a letter but the database containing all parents' email addresses. I'm agog to see what the next instalment will be.
Ohshit. That is bad.
The next thing will almost certainly be the resignations of the data controller and whoever sent the email.
Then a very heavy fine from the ICO.
Quite possibly followed by an OFSTED inspection which will not go well, because that's a disastrous safeguarding breach.
Fecking hell, that's awful.
Seems like a massive overreaction if it is just email addresses. Its a bad mistake sure, but what is the real danger of parents having each others email addresses? If its a big issue for anyone, it takes 5 mins to set up a new one anyway.
Think, for example, if a couple have divorced after a domestic incident.
It could facilitate a restart of any harrassment.
Yes it is bad and a mistake but really not the end of the world requiring multiple resignations, unless there is a sustained pattern of carelessness. Sometimes people make mistakes that they should not.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I stocked up last week. It was obviously coming.
Have your trust any plans to keep testing for staff?
Not seen anything about it yet. No change for us, masks and 1m social distancing in the waiting area. More staff off again this week.
I do quite often get patients say to me in outpatients that this is the first time that they have left the house in six months, and often not particularly vulnerable patients. Quite a few are becoming quite agoraphobic.
Interesting - thank you. Do you think the nhs will ever stop social distancing and masks? I kinda of think masks at the go surgery and in hospital is not a bad thing for patients. Thats where all the sick people are mainly. The flip side of ‘keeping people safe’ from Covid is the other impacts. It’s horrible to hear of people not going outside. The risks of a walk are surely minimal.
I don't know when the restrictions in hospital will go, but the architecture prevents the "pile 'em high and sell them cheap" approach to NHS productivity needed to get the waiting lists down unless we pack 'em in like sardines.
Maybe we need to review our practice of not having infection control measures for other illnesses. I can be sitting in the doctor's surgery coughing and spluttering with H1N1 or something that won't do me much harm but might kill any of the rest of the occupants of the doctor's surgery many of whom will be vulnerable.
Or we accept that Covid is now no more dangerous than flu (I think the IFR is now similar, or getting close to it and declining) and therefore we don't need to take precautions.
Or it might be sensible to adopt a halfway house. Maybe anyone who enters a doctor's surgery or a hospital should always wear a mask, just because of the concentration of vulnerable people there.
The thread header dispenses with the usual QTWAIN and instead has a STWAIN: Statement To Which the Answer Is NO!
"He’s got to hope this doesn’t lead to more cases" - No.
Cases don't matter anymore. When are people going to stop obsessing over cases?
Why do you think the polls are so negative about Freedom Day 2 though? PB last night was very much the other way, saying No, Mike, not a mistake.
People virtue signalling/bullshitting and/or simple unjustified fear.
People have said told pollsters from day one of this that restrictions need to be harder and tougher. Never has the public come on the side of liberty, which is depressing. However given the choice, revealed preferences are the polar opposite - only a tiny proportion, typically elderly, actually bother to wear masks or do this crap that pollster act like the public wants.
There's also long been a theory that the opinion pollsters, since they now use panels, are disproportionately dominated by people who follow and over-react to the news. See how often the same people like TSE on here get repeatedly polled. Just a hypothesis but perhaps news obsessives are more concerned with Covid than the general population? Maybe people who sit at home and fill in opinion polls for fun are not 100% representative of those who would rather be down the pub? Just a hypothesis, without any evidence for it at all.
49% thinking lifting of restrictions is too soon is also still a minority.
Plus as I posted over 50% of Tory voters think the lifting of restrictions is either about right or even too late.
We have a Tory government therefore delivering for its voters, why should Boris care if 2/3 of Labour voters think restrictions have been lifted too soon?
NEW: Police questionnaire leaked to PaulBrandITV shows questions Boris Johnson was likely asked in parties inquiry - and confirms respondents are replying "under caution" - making him the first PM to do so.
This is interesting. I seem to recall reading elsewhere that Tony Blair was questioned over cash for honours back in the day - but not under caution. He is supposed to have remarked at the time that if he had been questioned under caution he would've felt obliged to resign.
I doubt if Johnson would resign even if whacked with a £10,000 fine. Actually, I doubt if he'd resign if he ended up in the clink. And his party wouldn't force him to, either.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
Which chimes with the header that people think the government is moving too fast, despite what many on even as representative a platform as pb might tell you.
There are lots of immunocompromised and other vulnerable people out there, and all their families and friends will want to test before visiting.
Of course, this merely brings us back round the question of when said persons are going to feel comfortable about going about their business without constantly swabbing their noses - and, if the answer (as is quite possible) is "never," then is spending £2bn a month in perpetuity to keep them in free LFTs a wise use of finite public funds?
For context, £24bn represents the entire annual amount raised by the Exchequer in business rates according to the 2021 Budget, or slightly more either than the £21.5bn spent on policing, or the estimated revenue that would be raised by a 4p hike in the basic rate of income tax (£22bn.) It is not a trivial sum.
The Government is correct that full population mass testing for Covid has to go. An approach that targets testing at the most vulnerable (with the intention of hitting the virus with therapeutics as soon as possible after the onset of symptoms) seems sensible and proportionate to me.
How sure are we about that £2bn a month figure? It presumably covers not just LFTs but also the more expensive PCRs and the laboratory facilities to process PCRs, and computer systems to record results, and possibly even some of the trace part of test and trace.
There might be a case for sourcing tests from British firms rather than propping up Chinese pharma but that is a separate question.
Note however Tories and Leavers support Boris' lifting of Covid restrictions. 56% of Conservative voters and 51% of Leave voters think the lifting of Covid restrictions is either about right or too late. So Boris knows what his core vote want.
67% of Labour voters think the lifting of restrictions is too soon but the vast majority of them would not vote for Boris anyway.
Interestingly the numbers from Scotland and London are the same. Not surprising really both have a lot in common
Also interesting that a plurality of all age groups oppose the change (unlike the suggestion that it was just old folk), although opposition is a bit stronger with age. Very little difference by social class.
The PB consensus seems to be that the opinion poll in the header isn't meaningful, and that those (49%) who think relaxations are coming too soon are hypocrites and/or liars. Aren't we falling prey to the old adage of not believing polls we don't like the findings of? I don't think the poll would have attracted any opprobrium on here if it had found that the vast majority thought the relaxation was timely, even though that could have been equally meaningless. One should at least consider the possibility that the 49% are more representative than PB posters, that they mean what they say, and that they are not hypocrites. (Before anybody says it, no I'm not one of the 49%).
I didn't believe these polls even when I agreed with retaining restrictions etc
Of course it is possible the figure is more representative than people on here. But I go back to the summer relaxation, which no one has corrected my recollection that polls were against it. Yet people did not turn agains the government over it, once it was clear things did not fall to pieces the public moved on. So even if it was an accurate view of what people felt, it didn't matter as their fears were not realised. If the fears are not realised here, it is not a mere dismissal to think they will not care this time either.
Indeed where were these millions of people who opposed the summer liberalisation? Down the beach, in the beer gardens, camping with friends, that’s where.
Quite obviously you don't see those who are not hypocrites out and about!
I walked my pup past the pub last Saturday early evening. There were 4 people in there.
You always make Leicester sound so exciting! Four is buzzing nightlife by Leicester standards.
It wasn't in Leicester I was walking in a popular village.
When I was out in Leicester on Friday 10 days ago the pubs were all packed, and not just with people having a few before the Tigers match. The friend I was with has a heavily pregnant wife so wanted us to sit outside. It was rather chilly, but we weren't the only ones there.
Ah, so your original anecdote was rather pointless and unrepresentative then! Your local pub in the sticks was probably empty because they weather was crap.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I stocked up last week. It was obviously coming.
Have your trust any plans to keep testing for staff?
Not seen anything about it yet. No change for us, masks and 1m social distancing in the waiting area. More staff off again this week.
I do quite often get patients say to me in outpatients that this is the first time that they have left the house in six months, and often not particularly vulnerable patients. Quite a few are becoming quite agoraphobic.
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I stocked up last week. It was obviously coming.
Have your trust any plans to keep testing for staff?
Not seen anything about it yet. No change for us, masks and 1m social distancing in the waiting area. More staff off again this week.
I do quite often get patients say to me in outpatients that this is the first time that they have left the house in six months, and often not particularly vulnerable patients. Quite a few are becoming quite agoraphobic.
Interesting - thank you. Do you think the nhs will ever stop social distancing and masks? I kinda of think masks at the go surgery and in hospital is not a bad thing for patients. Thats where all the sick people are mainly. The flip side of ‘keeping people safe’ from Covid is the other impacts. It’s horrible to hear of people not going outside. The risks of a walk are surely minimal.
It does seem bizarre as well as depressing.
There's been plenty of media reports on people who are scared to leave home because of medical vulnerabilities but the terrified without good reason types aren't reported on.
Perhaps another example of how mental illness is ignored.
The thread header dispenses with the usual QTWAIN and instead has a STWAIN: Statement To Which the Answer Is NO!
"He’s got to hope this doesn’t lead to more cases" - No.
Cases don't matter anymore. When are people going to stop obsessing over cases?
Why do you think the polls are so negative about Freedom Day 2 though? PB last night was very much the other way, saying No, Mike, not a mistake.
1. There is a strong authoritarian streak in British society that approves of people being bossed about 2. Not entirely uncoincidentally, the population also contains a vast number of old people
Polling on COVID measures tends to be "more restrictions are always awesome".
This is not necessarily connected with whether the measures are a good idea or not.
Nor is connected to the long term polling effect, if the measures are eased and it is a success.
There’s a sizeable minority who would keep restrictions indefinitely.
They all seem to follow Cristina Pagel on Twitter. If you want to take the pulse of the Covid terrified, that’s the place to go.
It’s such a dark place, I often wonder if some/most of her followers are spoofs. I encountered a guy the other day who claimed not to have left his own house in 600-odd days.
I saw an article on the news where they were interviewing someone (from a great distance, she was masked of course) who said that she hadn't left her home since this began. She was objecting to the lifting of final restrictions as she feels like "the world is leaving her behind".
No love, if you've not left the house in 600 days, you've left the world behind already.
I feel sorry for these people, but we should call it for what it is, which is a form of mental illness now like agoraphobia.
The thread header dispenses with the usual QTWAIN and instead has a STWAIN: Statement To Which the Answer Is NO!
"He’s got to hope this doesn’t lead to more cases" - No.
Cases don't matter anymore. When are people going to stop obsessing over cases?
Why do you think the polls are so negative about Freedom Day 2 though? PB last night was very much the other way, saying No, Mike, not a mistake.
1. There is a strong authoritarian streak in British society that approves of people being bossed about 2. Not entirely uncoincidentally, the population also contains a vast number of old people
Polling on COVID measures tends to be "more restrictions are always awesome".
This is not necessarily connected with whether the measures are a good idea or not.
Nor is connected to the long term polling effect, if the measures are eased and it is a success.
There’s a sizeable minority who would keep restrictions indefinitely.
They all seem to follow Cristina Pagel on Twitter. If you want to take the pulse of the Covid terrified, that’s the place to go.
It’s such a dark place, I often wonder if some/most of her followers are spoofs. I encountered a guy the other day who claimed not to have left his own house in 600-odd days.
I saw an article on the news where they were interviewing someone (from a great distance, she was masked of course) who said that she hadn't left her home since this began. She was objecting to the lifting of final restrictions as she feels like "the world is leaving her behind".
No love, if you've not left the house in 600 days, you've left the world behind already.
I feel sorry for these people, but we should call it for what it is, which is a form of mental illness now like agoraphobia.
I’ve learned to be extremely sceptical of Covid polls since YouGov released one that found 26% of people think nightclubs should be closed permanently. I cannot believe that a quarter of Brits really think that, can you? Maybe I just have too much faith in human nature.
Stupid questions get stupid answers. That's not unusual with polling.
1. The Absurd Opinion-Poll Question Award is won by YouGov, for asking: “Do you think Jesus would support or oppose renationalising the railways, so they are run in the public sector rather than by private companies?”
Most people (56 per cent) said they didn't know, which was a rough approximation of the obvious answer, but the only one available; 38 per cent said He would support nationalisation, and 6 per cent that He would oppose it, which seems to confuse “What Would Jesus Do?” with “What Do I Agree With?”
He’s suggesting the US could do the same to Mexico.
“Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine.
"I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border”.
The thread header dispenses with the usual QTWAIN and instead has a STWAIN: Statement To Which the Answer Is NO!
"He’s got to hope this doesn’t lead to more cases" - No.
Cases don't matter anymore. When are people going to stop obsessing over cases?
Why do you think the polls are so negative about Freedom Day 2 though? PB last night was very much the other way, saying No, Mike, not a mistake.
1. There is a strong authoritarian streak in British society that approves of people being bossed about 2. Not entirely uncoincidentally, the population also contains a vast number of old people
Polling on COVID measures tends to be "more restrictions are always awesome".
This is not necessarily connected with whether the measures are a good idea or not.
Nor is connected to the long term polling effect, if the measures are eased and it is a success.
There’s a sizeable minority who would keep restrictions indefinitely.
They all seem to follow Cristina Pagel on Twitter. If you want to take the pulse of the Covid terrified, that’s the place to go.
It’s such a dark place, I often wonder if some/most of her followers are spoofs. I encountered a guy the other day who claimed not to have left his own house in 600-odd days.
I saw an article on the news where they were interviewing someone (from a great distance, she was masked of course) who said that she hadn't left her home since this began. She was objecting to the lifting of final restrictions as she feels like "the world is leaving her behind".
No love, if you've not left the house in 600 days, you've left the world behind already.
I feel sorry for these people, but we should call it for what it is, which is a form of mental illness now like agoraphobia.
Had she been vaccinated?
She didn't say, this was on Sky and they didn't ask. She did say she was "extremely vulnerable" but didn't say any more, and they didn't ask or challenge her on anything. Her whole thing though was about how she was being "left behind" - without someone forcing her out of her home against her will, I don't see any way to avoid her being "left behind" if that's how she wants to act though.
He’s suggesting the US could do the same to Mexico.
“Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine.
"I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border”.
Should've held off on building that wall then.....
He’s suggesting the US could do the same to Mexico.
“Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine.
"I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border”.
Didn't he build a wall that might make that a bit tricky?
He’s suggesting the US could do the same to Mexico.
“Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine.
"I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border”.
Great Trumptalk.
edit: I assume it's mimicking. But is it an actual quote?
He’s suggesting the US could do the same to Mexico.
“Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine.
"I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border”.
Thank f**k that moron has gone and isn't the President anymore.
Next to Trump, Biden is the lovechild of Washington and Lincoln.
When you deny that another nation exists, as in Putin's myth about #Ukraine, you're making a claim that it's okay to destroy that other nation. This kind of language is something we have to pay attention to because it usually precedes atrocious actions. https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1496195708122193924
The thread header dispenses with the usual QTWAIN and instead has a STWAIN: Statement To Which the Answer Is NO!
"He’s got to hope this doesn’t lead to more cases" - No.
Cases don't matter anymore. When are people going to stop obsessing over cases?
Why do you think the polls are so negative about Freedom Day 2 though? PB last night was very much the other way, saying No, Mike, not a mistake.
1. There is a strong authoritarian streak in British society that approves of people being bossed about 2. Not entirely uncoincidentally, the population also contains a vast number of old people
Polling on COVID measures tends to be "more restrictions are always awesome".
This is not necessarily connected with whether the measures are a good idea or not.
Nor is connected to the long term polling effect, if the measures are eased and it is a success.
There’s a sizeable minority who would keep restrictions indefinitely.
They all seem to follow Cristina Pagel on Twitter. If you want to take the pulse of the Covid terrified, that’s the place to go.
It’s such a dark place, I often wonder if some/most of her followers are spoofs. I encountered a guy the other day who claimed not to have left his own house in 600-odd days.
I saw an article on the news where they were interviewing someone (from a great distance, she was masked of course) who said that she hadn't left her home since this began. She was objecting to the lifting of final restrictions as she feels like "the world is leaving her behind".
No love, if you've not left the house in 600 days, you've left the world behind already.
I feel sorry for these people, but we should call it for what it is, which is a form of mental illness now like agoraphobia.
Had she been vaccinated?
She would have been offered it, not the rest of the world's problem if she refused it. They will get on with their lives
Announce the end of free tests and everyone starts to stockpile.
I stocked up last week. It was obviously coming.
Have your trust any plans to keep testing for staff?
Not seen anything about it yet. No change for us, masks and 1m social distancing in the waiting area. More staff off again this week.
I do quite often get patients say to me in outpatients that this is the first time that they have left the house in six months, and often not particularly vulnerable patients. Quite a few are becoming quite agoraphobic.
Interesting - thank you. Do you think the nhs will ever stop social distancing and masks? I kinda of think masks at the go surgery and in hospital is not a bad thing for patients. Thats where all the sick people are mainly. The flip side of ‘keeping people safe’ from Covid is the other impacts. It’s horrible to hear of people not going outside. The risks of a walk are surely minimal.
It does seem bizarre as well as depressing.
There's been plenty of media reports on people who are scared to leave home because of medical vulnerabilities but the terrified without good reason types aren't reported on.
Perhaps another example of how mental illness is ignored.
Yes, there is a poor correlation between level of clinical risk and this sort of behaviour at least in my experience.
There are some rightly cautious. My cousin on chemo for metastatic cancer is extremely careful. I have lost a few patients over the last years who were rather reckless.
He’s suggesting the US could do the same to Mexico.
“Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine.
"I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border”.
That was how General Pershing made his name a century ago, pursuing Pancho Villa.
A few disparate observations on the state of the political world this evening.
Coronavirus - it's quite clear for the vast majority it is or appears to be over. Masks are being discarded and while life will ever be exactly as it was, a new normality of sorts has emerged. I'm interested the fourth vaccination is now only for the immuno-suppressed and the over-75s (I suspect there may be some push back on that from other older people especially those in the 65-74 age range who may consider and especially those with other health conditions they should continue to be fully protected).
Is there any evidence the efficacy of the booster deteriorates unusually quickly - clearly, we're coming out of winter into spring which will help but the virus is still around and I'm left to muse on the wisdom of limiting a fourth booster at this time.
Ukraine - I managed to catch a few minutes of the Commons coverage at lunchtime. I thought the Prime Minister was very good in his prepared remarks. I was encouraged he spoke warmly of Macron's efforts to broker a deal and the support given by the EU in the sanctions. Starmer asked some highly pertinent questions about the penetration of Russian money into property, politics and other areas and to be honest Johnson retreated into waffle and blustering which was curious as it was a question likely to be asked.
It will be interesting to see the extent to which the public vaunting of sanctions on unknown banks and little-known individuals is followed or matched by a concomitant purging of Russian money from both the body politic and the London property market as well as sport and other fields.
I've often thought sanctions aren't working unless the power imposing them also feels the pain - should we for example order any British club reaching the Champions League Final to forfeit the match if it's still being played in St Petersburg?
He’s suggesting the US could do the same to Mexico.
“Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine.
"I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border”.
Is Northern Mexico populated by Americans? No, I thought not!
Yes, there is a poor correlation between level of clinical risk and this sort of behaviour at least in my experience.
There are some rightly cautious. My cousin on chemo for metastatic cancer is extremely careful. I have lost a few patients over the last years who were rather reckless.
Surely that's not a Covid-exclusive problem, though? Someone with a very weak immune system is presumably at risk from 'flu or other infectious diseases which most of us don't need to worry about too much. Is Covid really a game-changer in that respect, now we have the vaccines and some effective treatments?
A few disparate observations on the state of the political world this evening.
Coronavirus - it's quite clear for the vast majority it is or appears to be over. Masks are being discarded and while life will ever be exactly as it was, a new normality of sorts has emerged. I'm interested the fourth vaccination is now only for the immuno-suppressed and the over-75s (I suspect there may be some push back on that from other older people especially those in the 65-74 age range who may consider and especially those with other health conditions they should continue to be fully protected).
Is there any evidence the efficacy of the booster deteriorates unusually quickly - clearly, we're coming out of winter into spring which will help but the virus is still around and I'm left to muse on the wisdom of limiting a fourth booster at this time.
Ukraine - I managed to catch a few minutes of the Commons coverage at lunchtime. I thought the Prime Minister was very good in his prepared remarks. I was encouraged he spoke warmly of Macron's efforts to broker a deal and the support given by the EU in the sanctions. Starmer asked some highly pertinent questions about the penetration of Russian money into property, politics and other areas and to be honest Johnson retreated into waffle and blustering which was curious as it was a question likely to be asked.
It will be interesting to see the extent to which the public vaunting of sanctions on unknown banks and little-known individuals is followed or matched by a concomitant purging of Russian money from both the body politic and the London property market as well as sport and other fields.
I've often thought sanctions aren't working unless the power imposing them also feels the pain - should we for example order any British club reaching the Champions League Final to forfeit the match if it's still being played in St Petersburg?
He’s suggesting the US could do the same to Mexico.
“Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine.
"I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border”.
Is Northern Mexico populated by Americans? No, I thought not!
The thread header dispenses with the usual QTWAIN and instead has a STWAIN: Statement To Which the Answer Is NO!
"He’s got to hope this doesn’t lead to more cases" - No.
Cases don't matter anymore. When are people going to stop obsessing over cases?
Why do you think the polls are so negative about Freedom Day 2 though? PB last night was very much the other way, saying No, Mike, not a mistake.
1. There is a strong authoritarian streak in British society that approves of people being bossed about 2. Not entirely uncoincidentally, the population also contains a vast number of old people
Polling on COVID measures tends to be "more restrictions are always awesome".
This is not necessarily connected with whether the measures are a good idea or not.
Nor is connected to the long term polling effect, if the measures are eased and it is a success.
There’s a sizeable minority who would keep restrictions indefinitely.
They all seem to follow Cristina Pagel on Twitter. If you want to take the pulse of the Covid terrified, that’s the place to go.
It’s such a dark place, I often wonder if some/most of her followers are spoofs. I encountered a guy the other day who claimed not to have left his own house in 600-odd days.
I saw an article on the news where they were interviewing someone (from a great distance, she was masked of course) who said that she hadn't left her home since this began. She was objecting to the lifting of final restrictions as she feels like "the world is leaving her behind".
No love, if you've not left the house in 600 days, you've left the world behind already.
I feel sorry for these people, but we should call it for what it is, which is a form of mental illness now like agoraphobia.
How forceful you are, Brad.
Do you not get bored about being so rantily right about everything?
He’s suggesting the US could do the same to Mexico.
“Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine.
"I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border”.
Is Northern Mexico populated by Americans? No, I thought not!
Spanish speakers in Texas are about as populus as ethnic russians in Ukraine, so you could potentially spin some really weird & odd convuluted argument. It'd be even madder than Putin's justifications mind.
He’s suggesting the US could do the same to Mexico.
“Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine.
"I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border”.
Is Northern Mexico populated by Americans? No, I thought not!
Spanish speakers in Texas are about as populus as ethnic russians in Ukraine, so you could potentially spin some really weird & odd convuluted argument. It'd be even madder than Putin's justifications mind.
Comments
My wife does not read these forums. Which is probably a good thing.
And as I said when I mentioned this before, it's not just on foreign policy that Biden looks weak. He lost most of his legislative agenda in Congress thanks to a couple of Democrat senators.
The only plus for the Democrats is that this should also torpedo VP Harris' chances of winning the nomination too. So there's a chance they might find a decent outsider. Some Governor or other.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/manchester-arena-parsons-green-bombers-terrorist-guilty-belmarsh-prison-guard-attack-b983902.html
As a trained scientist, my advice is that if you encounter people purveying such rumours, set them on fire.
There is a subset of people who have adopted the mask as the next great virtue signal. Without wishing to be too political the labour parties performance over masks in the commons, but not at conference fits this.
Where he was only stopped by a rehabilitated murderer armed with a narwal tusk....
So he *is* a TERF.
I'd be more worried about them getting into the hands of scammers trying to use them to pull off stunts about say, child benefit.
Of course, if the extra information turns out to include safeguarding information then your question has a number of very disturbing possible answers. But it shouldn't.
I also think that administer the system may not be worth the money recouped from charging some people for prescriptions.
So it’s not simple.
I can afford to pay for the bits I use, but would be nice if it was made free as in Scotland.
Or put my hand up and say, yeah, yeah fair enough, but. When I picked the day after half term two weeks ago, I couldn’t be sure Russian tanks would roll across Europe in the night. In a way though, today may prove the day patience in lazy Johnson finally ran out.
Or I could just go shopping and not log on. 😆
In the end we have to say You are Freaks. Freaks are Great! The Glory of the Garden, and all that
But if you get murderously aggressive....
Of course it is possible the figure is more representative than people on here. But I go back to the summer relaxation, which no one has corrected my recollection that polls were against it. Yet people did not turn agains the government over it, once it was clear things did not fall to pieces the public moved on. So even if it was an accurate view of what people felt, it didn't matter as their fears were not realised. If the fears are not realised here, it is not a mere dismissal to think they will not care this time either.
The glaring issue though is the loss of sick pay - that seems entirely counter-productive.
I do quite often get patients say to me in outpatients that this is the first time that they have left the house in six months, and often not particularly vulnerable patients. Quite a few are becoming quite agoraphobic.
I walked my pup past the pub last Saturday early evening. There were 4 people in there.
The flip side of ‘keeping people safe’ from Covid is the other impacts. It’s horrible to hear of people not going outside. The risks of a walk are surely minimal.
https://ibb.co/vm985Pb
It's notable that they've been exporting more electricity than they generate with gas throughout this week.
Edit: Oh, I give up. How the hell do you link to images on this site?
An Opinium poll for the Observer found that 73% of people now believe wearing masks on public transport should continue while 50% said that “freedom day”, when the vast majority of other controls are due to end, should be pushed back again beyond 19 July. This compared with just under a third (31%) who think the government should go ahead as planned. Only 10% think restrictions should have been lifted earlier.
But there are growing fears that the move will cause chaos, confusion and anger as more organisations and business go their own way and impose rules out of line with the new relaxed government regime. Last week it emerged that several restaurant and pub chains, including Rare Restaurants and City Pub Group, were planning to insist on mask-wearing and social distancing after 19 July.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/10/public-alarm-grows-at-boris-johnsons-plan-for-covid-freedom-day
Anyone know if this Rare Restaurants and City Pub Group actually insist on mask wearing and social distancing ?
I think this is a list of their pubs:
https://www.citypubcompany.com/
It could facilitate a restart of any harrassment.
Gosh, what a surprise!
When I was out in Leicester on Friday 10 days ago the pubs were all packed, and not just with people having a few before the Tigers match. The friend I was with has a heavily pregnant wife so wanted us to sit outside. It was rather chilly, but we weren't the only ones there.
People have said told pollsters from day one of this that restrictions need to be harder and tougher. Never has the public come on the side of liberty, which is depressing. However given the choice, revealed preferences are the polar opposite - only a tiny proportion, typically elderly, actually bother to wear masks or do this crap that pollster act like the public wants.
There's also long been a theory that the opinion pollsters, since they now use panels, are disproportionately dominated by people who follow and over-react to the news. See how often the same people like TSE on here get repeatedly polled. Just a hypothesis but perhaps news obsessives are more concerned with Covid than the general population? Maybe people who sit at home and fill in opinion polls for fun are not 100% representative of those who would rather be down the pub? Just a hypothesis, without any evidence for it at all.
Through the looking glass.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60454795
Or we accept that Covid is now no more dangerous than flu (I think the IFR is now similar, or getting close to it and declining) and therefore we don't need to take precautions.
Or it might be sensible to adopt a halfway house. Maybe anyone who enters a doctor's surgery or a hospital should always wear a mask, just because of the concentration of vulnerable people there.
https://twitter.com/milkgapes/status/1495932322427949069?s=21
Plus as I posted over 50% of Tory voters think the lifting of restrictions is either about right or even too late.
We have a Tory government therefore delivering for its voters, why should Boris care if 2/3 of Labour voters think restrictions have been lifted too soon?
https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1496189059751886853
This is interesting. I seem to recall reading elsewhere that Tony Blair was questioned over cash for honours back in the day - but not under caution. He is supposed to have remarked at the time that if he had been questioned under caution he would've felt obliged to resign.
I doubt if Johnson would resign even if whacked with a £10,000 fine. Actually, I doubt if he'd resign if he ended up in the clink. And his party wouldn't force him to, either.
There might be a case for sourcing tests from British firms rather than propping up Chinese pharma but that is a separate question.
There's been plenty of media reports on people who are scared to leave home because of medical vulnerabilities but the terrified without good reason types aren't reported on.
Perhaps another example of how mental illness is ignored.
No love, if you've not left the house in 600 days, you've left the world behind already.
I feel sorry for these people, but we should call it for what it is, which is a form of mental illness now like agoraphobia.
Most people (56 per cent) said they didn't know, which was a rough approximation of the obvious answer, but the only one available; 38 per cent said He would support nationalisation, and 6 per cent that He would oppose it, which seems to confuse “What Would Jesus Do?” with “What Do I Agree With?”
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/daily-catchup-stupid-questions-in-opinion-polls-in-the-house-of-commons-and-in-job-interviews-9885854.html
“Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine - of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, ‘It’s independent,’ a large section of Ukraine.
"I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force … We could use that on our southern border”.
(And messages will be sorted the other way.)
edit: I assume it's mimicking. But is it an actual quote?
Next to Trump, Biden is the lovechild of Washington and Lincoln.
https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1496195708122193924
There are some rightly cautious. My cousin on chemo for metastatic cancer is extremely careful. I have lost a few patients over the last years who were rather reckless.
A few disparate observations on the state of the political world this evening.
Coronavirus - it's quite clear for the vast majority it is or appears to be over. Masks are being discarded and while life will ever be exactly as it was, a new normality of sorts has emerged. I'm interested the fourth vaccination is now only for the immuno-suppressed and the over-75s (I suspect there may be some push back on that from other older people especially those in the 65-74 age range who may consider and especially those with other health conditions they should continue to be fully protected).
Is there any evidence the efficacy of the booster deteriorates unusually quickly - clearly, we're coming out of winter into spring which will help but the virus is still around and I'm left to muse on the wisdom of limiting a fourth booster at this time.
Ukraine - I managed to catch a few minutes of the Commons coverage at lunchtime. I thought the Prime Minister was very good in his prepared remarks. I was encouraged he spoke warmly of Macron's efforts to broker a deal and the support given by the EU in the sanctions. Starmer asked some highly pertinent questions about the penetration of Russian money into property, politics and other areas and to be honest Johnson retreated into waffle and blustering which was curious as it was a question likely to be asked.
It will be interesting to see the extent to which the public vaunting of sanctions on unknown banks and little-known individuals is followed or matched by a concomitant purging of Russian money from both the body politic and the London property market as well as sport and other fields.
I've often thought sanctions aren't working unless the power imposing them also feels the pain - should we for example order any British club reaching the Champions League Final to forfeit the match if it's still being played in St Petersburg?
Do you not get bored about being so rantily right about everything?
Hiding in plain sight.