Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
Nick is literally the only person I have heard of who still uses it. I'm serious. And Nick is A Bloke On The Internet (although admittedly a real person who is also A Bloke In Real Life).
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
(without wanting to insult Nick), he does come across as rather atypical in many respects e.g. the can't cook / won't cook / little enjoyment surrounding food.
Yes, he's a bit of an outlier I think. Still, always interesting to hear from him.
Sturgeon 13% Scottish Government 7% Anas Sarwar 1% Keir Starmer -10 Patrick Harvie -15 Alex Cole-Hamilton -15 Lorna Slater -15 Rishi Sunak -19 Douglas Ross -21 UK Government -50 Alex Salmond -62 Boris Johnson -62
But Starmer is a net 52% better than Johnson on these figures
But that is not what your headline is contending: “Starmer starts his third year as LOTO with positive approval ratings”
He has negative ratings north of the border.
The headline referred to the whole country, not just a small part of it.
The “Scotland is not a country” gambit. How original.
Yesterday it was the “England is not a country” gambit.
I wish you BritNats would learn some more tunes.
Ah, I see you're throwing the BNP slur around again. Do be a good chap and fuck off, won't you?
Calling patriotic Scottish posters ScotNats is perfectly fine.
Calling patriotic British posters BritNats is a foul slur.
Who’d’ve thunk that ‘Muscular Unionism’ would breed intolerance and double-standards? We’ll all have to learn to doff our caps to the British Übermenschen.
So the SNP are as odious as the BNP? Thanks for clarifying that.
Most British nationalists wouldn't touch the BNP with a bargepole. Nationalist is not a dirty word.
"British nationalist" isn't a political term in any significant use, other than by Scot Nats trying to smear unionists as BNP supporters.
Yea, Scots Nats engaging in psychological projection as ever. What they want the world to believe is that their type of bigotry, division and hatred is OK.
Sweaty red faced gammon Brit Nat joins the fray. Frothing at the mouth and spouting lies as ever. Back under your rock creature.
Nasty, rude, prejudiced inarticulate xenophobe accuses someone else of being a "gammon". lol. Now if that is not a great example of psychological projection of a very typical Scottish Nationalist? You, Malcolm are a prejudiced small brained scumbag and are exactly what I was referring to. I am sure many posters on here would like you to crawl back under your rock. You certainly add nothing to this site other than reduce the otherwise high level of debate and average IQ.
As usual pea brain , your thinking is bent. You will not see many wishing me away, that is a figment of your ugly mind. PMSL at you thinking you actually have an IQ. Run along gammon boy.
Good to see another friendly discussion about Scotland on here today! 👍
It's the big issue of the day, innit? Unlike yesterday, when gender identification was the big issue. We are so in touch with the person on the Number 23 omnibus.
There are a lot of people on the 23, and some of them might be interested in things that you aren't. Sorry if that's difficult for you.
Well he wasn't talking to people on the no 23 yesterday, it doesn't run on a Sunday (Guildford to Merrow being Nick's local no 23)
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
I had it last week. Tested positive, had a bit of a cold, stayed away from everyone until today when I felt better and tested negative.
@thetimes 💶The EU has paid Russia nearly €19 billion for energy since the war began on February 24, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air – a European think tank
If they had given Ukraine 19 Billion Euros of military equipment in that time, the war would be over now and we might be enjoying guilt fee gas form a Putin Free Russia.
This link (Guardian report from 2008) goes some way to explaining why Zelinskyy targeted Merkel and Sarkozy in his address.
The usual suspects (France and Germany, with support from Italy) didn't want to put Putin's nose out of joint by agreeing to a path to NATO membership for Ukraine.
UK, US and the Baltics have always been more realistic about Russia.
"At a Nato summit in Bucharest in April President George Bush pressed for Ukraine and Georgia to be awarded the MAP, but he was defeated by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany who argued that such a step would increase friction with Russia.
"The summit agreed a contradictory compromise, denying the two countries the MAP while stating they would eventually become Nato members. The summit instructed today's meeting to review those decisions. With British and east European support, the Americans argued last night that the deadlock could be broken by pushing ahead on the membership path outside the MAP.
"Germany, Spain, Italy and others disagreed, contending that there could be no Nato membership process without it."
At that time I don't think Ukrainians would have wanted Nato membership. If the pro-western President had pushed for it the public may have turned back towards Moscow. 2014 changed everything.
I was surprised Zelensky targeted Sarkozy but maybe this is what he had in mind?
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
I had it last week. Tested positive, had a bit of a cold, stayed away from everyone until today when I felt better and tested negative.
A good and timely thread. https://mobile.twitter.com/im_PULSE/status/1510977554185924610 Thread: On this day, five years ago, the Syrian regime attacked the town of Khan Sheikoun with the nerve agent Sarin. 92 people were killed; many more left scarred for life. The way #Russia and its western sympathisers responded tells us a lot about what to expect in #Ukraine...
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
That's because we deploy the IncorrectHorseBattery - a good bunch of men, over 12 shouting downs a minute.
I am Horse
And yet we are Battery! Ouch!
Oh stop horsing around you
I quite like the Richard Harris film 'A man called horse'. I always rather think of you in that vein given your moniker. Admittedly not all the suffering, but the determination.
Talking of horses, Apple TV's new serial: Slow Horses with Oldman is just brilliant. Only one episode in so far, but the ambiance and down at heel sense of career failure and alcoholism is just fantastic. Early days, but this might be the best thing I have seen in a very long time.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
I had it last week. Tested positive, had a bit of a cold, stayed away from everyone until today when I felt better and tested negative.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
I had it last week. Tested positive, had a bit of a cold, stayed away from everyone until today when I felt better and tested negative.
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
That's because we deploy the IncorrectHorseBattery - a good bunch of men, over 12 shouting downs a minute.
I am Horse
And yet we are Battery! Ouch!
Oh stop horsing around you
I quite like the Richard Harris film 'A man called horse'. I always rather think of you in that vein given your moniker. Admittedly not all the suffering, but the determination.
Talking of horses, Apple TV's new serial: Slow Horses with Oldman is just brilliant. Only one episode in so far, but the ambiance and down at heel sense of career failure and alcoholism is just fantastic. Early days, but this might be the best thing I have seen in a very long time.
I watched first 2 episodes and really enjoyed it. I believe the whole season is only 6 episodes.
Re Covid, neither daughter nor myself have caught it, despite her being around people all the time and me being around her.
I have tended to avoid crowded events but have not been an actual hermit and, yet, so far, have avoided infection. So has eldest son despite working in a customer-facing role and all his work colleagues going down like ninepins.
So either we have some magic ingredient or we we had it without realising or we are just very lucky.
Hope this continues.
On topic, Starmer has done well so far. He doesn't set a room alight mind and I have my doubts about some aspects of his approach. But the country may well be ready for Mr Boring in a couple of years. The "time for a change" impulse (shared by me) will be strong.
The difficulty for him is that economic troubles may well do for the Tories but make the job of a Labour government very difficult and I am not at all sure that he has the cojones of steel needed to deal with whatever mess the Tories leave behind.
Also, I wouldn't rule out the Tories scraping through. Not really sure why. Just feel that it is a mistake to underestimate them.
@thetimes 💶The EU has paid Russia nearly €19 billion for energy since the war began on February 24, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air – a European think tank
If they had given Ukraine 19 Billion Euros of military equipment in that time, the war would be over now and we might be enjoying guilt fee gas form a Putin Free Russia.
Though the Chinese would probably be getting anxious about the approach of the Ukrainian army...
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
That's because we deploy the IncorrectHorseBattery - a good bunch of men, over 12 shouting downs a minute.
I am Horse
And yet we are Battery! Ouch!
Oh stop horsing around you
I quite like the Richard Harris film 'A man called horse'. I always rather think of you in that vein given your moniker. Admittedly not all the suffering, but the determination.
Talking of horses, Apple TV's new serial: Slow Horses with Oldman is just brilliant. Only one episode in so far, but the ambiance and down at heel sense of career failure and alcoholism is just fantastic. Early days, but this might be the best thing I have seen in a very long time.
Yeah. I've heard good reports. The books though weren't recieved so unambiguously well, and I generally like books over tv. I don't have an apple tv account, so not something I'll try on a whim. (I can it seems get 7 days free though)
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Re Covid, neither daughter nor myself have caught it, despite her being around people all the time and me being around her.
I have tended to avoid crowded events but have not been an actual hermit and, yet, so far, have avoided infection. So has eldest son despite working in a customer-facing role and all his work colleagues going down like ninepins.
So either we have some magic ingredient or we we had it without realising or we are just very lucky.
Hope this continues.
On topic, Starmer has done well so far. He doesn't set a room alight mind and I have my doubts about some aspects of his approach. But the country may well be ready for Mr Boring in a couple of years. The "time for a change" impulse (shared by me) will be strong.
The difficulty for him is that economic troubles may well do for the Tories but make the job of a Labour government very difficult and I am not at all sure that he has the cojones of steel needed to deal with whatever mess the Tories leave behind.
Also, I wouldn't rule out the Tories scraping through. Not really sure why. Just feel that it is a mistake to underestimate them.
Palace revolution. Big Dog, Rishi, Liz etc out on their ears. Wallace in control, plus Tugendhat, Hunt etc. In other words the reverse of 2019. That could do it.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
Nick is literally the only person I have heard of who still uses it. I'm serious. And Nick is A Bloke On The Internet (although admittedly a real person who is also A Bloke In Real Life).
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
(without wanting to insult Nick), he does come across as rather atypical in many respects e.g. the can't cook / won't cook / little enjoyment surrounding food.
My father-in-law is like that. A highly idiosyncratic man in many ways. For work reasons, he has spent most of the time I have known him living three hours from 'home'. Never bothered to learn to cook - for the first six years he lived away, the only food he would eat was cod and chips from the local chippy. This was his diet roughly 49 days out of 50. One meal a day. Surprisingly, he is still alive.
He got to know the owners of the chippy quite well, obviously. Ended up writing a letter on their behalf to the home office for some immigration-related reason. They never knew his name, though - they referred to him as 'Mr. Tottenham Hotspur' after his favourite conversation topic. Then one day he moved. I often wonder if they wonder what happened to him.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
Nick is literally the only person I have heard of who still uses it. I'm serious. And Nick is A Bloke On The Internet (although admittedly a real person who is also A Bloke In Real Life).
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
(without wanting to insult Nick), he does come across as rather atypical in many respects e.g. the can't cook / won't cook / little enjoyment surrounding food.
My father-in-law is like that. A highly idiosyncratic man in many ways. For work reasons, he has spent most of the time I have known him living three hours from 'home'. Never bothered to learn to cook - for the first six years he lived away, the only food he would eat was cod and chips from the local chippy. This was his diet roughly 49 days out of 50. One meal a day. Surprisingly, he is still alive.
He got to know the owners of the chippy quite well, obviously. Ended up writing a letter on their behalf to the home office for some immigration-related reason. They never knew his name, though - they referred to him as 'Mr. Tottenham Hotspur' after his favourite conversation topic. Then one day he moved. I often wonder if they wonder what happened to him.
That happens in retail life. Customer comes in regularly for ages, everyone becomes quite friendly. Then all of a sudden they stop. One rarely finds out what happened.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
I had it last week. Tested positive, had a bit of a cold, stayed away from everyone until today when I felt better and tested negative.
Re Covid, neither daughter nor myself have caught it, despite her being around people all the time and me being around her.
I have tended to avoid crowded events but have not been an actual hermit and, yet, so far, have avoided infection. So has eldest son despite working in a customer-facing role and all his work colleagues going down like ninepins.
So either we have some magic ingredient or we we had it without realising or we are just very lucky.
Hope this continues.
On topic, Starmer has done well so far. He doesn't set a room alight mind and I have my doubts about some aspects of his approach. But the country may well be ready for Mr Boring in a couple of years. The "time for a change" impulse (shared by me) will be strong.
The difficulty for him is that economic troubles may well do for the Tories but make the job of a Labour government very difficult and I am not at all sure that he has the cojones of steel needed to deal with whatever mess the Tories leave behind.
Also, I wouldn't rule out the Tories scraping through. Not really sure why. Just feel that it is a mistake to underestimate them.
Palace revolution. Big Dog, Rishi, Liz etc out on their ears. Wallace in control, plus Tugendhat, Hunt etc. In other words the reverse of 2019. That could do it.
Wallace yes but the other two probably too remain for the membership
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
I have long since come to the conclusion that it really is that simple (or should be).
I guess everything has been complicated (all along) by the asymptomatic spread. Without it, you could shut down covid so much easier. So the isolation etc has all been because you can be positive and spreading the disease without knowing it.
According to the BBC, Boris Johnson was given the "wrong information" over whether parties were held in Downing Street during Covid lockdowns, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.
And all of a sudden there's an excuse for making the underlings 'responsible'.
That is course, until Johnson himself gets an FPN.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
Nick is literally the only person I have heard of who still uses it. I'm serious. And Nick is A Bloke On The Internet (although admittedly a real person who is also A Bloke In Real Life).
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
(without wanting to insult Nick), he does come across as rather atypical in many respects e.g. the can't cook / won't cook / little enjoyment surrounding food.
My father-in-law is like that. A highly idiosyncratic man in many ways. For work reasons, he has spent most of the time I have known him living three hours from 'home'. Never bothered to learn to cook - for the first six years he lived away, the only food he would eat was cod and chips from the local chippy. This was his diet roughly 49 days out of 50. One meal a day. Surprisingly, he is still alive.
He got to know the owners of the chippy quite well, obviously. Ended up writing a letter on their behalf to the home office for some immigration-related reason. They never knew his name, though - they referred to him as 'Mr. Tottenham Hotspur' after his favourite conversation topic. Then one day he moved. I often wonder if they wonder what happened to him.
That is basically my diet. Food of the gods. No fan of Spurs though. Occasionally I wonder about a Michelin-starred night out but reading the menus invariably puts me off.
This link (Guardian report from 2008) goes some way to explaining why Zelinskyy targeted Merkel and Sarkozy in his address.
The usual suspects (France and Germany, with support from Italy) didn't want to put Putin's nose out of joint by agreeing to a path to NATO membership for Ukraine.
UK, US and the Baltics have always been more realistic about Russia.
"At a Nato summit in Bucharest in April President George Bush pressed for Ukraine and Georgia to be awarded the MAP, but he was defeated by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany who argued that such a step would increase friction with Russia.
"The summit agreed a contradictory compromise, denying the two countries the MAP while stating they would eventually become Nato members. The summit instructed today's meeting to review those decisions. With British and east European support, the Americans argued last night that the deadlock could be broken by pushing ahead on the membership path outside the MAP.
"Germany, Spain, Italy and others disagreed, contending that there could be no Nato membership process without it."
At that time I don't think Ukrainians would have wanted Nato membership. If the pro-western President had pushed for it the public may have turned back towards Moscow. 2014 changed everything.
I was surprised Zelensky targeted Sarkozy but maybe this is what he had in mind?
Viktor Yushchenko, who was president at the time, recently gave an interview blaming Germany and France for scuppering it.
Re Covid, neither daughter nor myself have caught it, despite her being around people all the time and me being around her.
I have tended to avoid crowded events but have not been an actual hermit and, yet, so far, have avoided infection. So has eldest son despite working in a customer-facing role and all his work colleagues going down like ninepins.
So either we have some magic ingredient or we we had it without realising or we are just very lucky.
Hope this continues.
On topic, Starmer has done well so far. He doesn't set a room alight mind and I have my doubts about some aspects of his approach. But the country may well be ready for Mr Boring in a couple of years. The "time for a change" impulse (shared by me) will be strong.
The difficulty for him is that economic troubles may well do for the Tories but make the job of a Labour government very difficult and I am not at all sure that he has the cojones of steel needed to deal with whatever mess the Tories leave behind.
Also, I wouldn't rule out the Tories scraping through. Not really sure why. Just feel that it is a mistake to underestimate them.
The country may need two more years, but I'm ready for Mr Boring NOW!
@thetimes 💶The EU has paid Russia nearly €19 billion for energy since the war began on February 24, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air – a European think tank
As long as the average cost of the kit they have lost is below 7.8 million Euros, they are still up on the deal.
However, 421 tanks at 25m Euros each would be 10.5 billion Euros for starters. (Although I'm sure you can get some of those destroyed a bit cheaper. Even allowing for the oligarch uplift....)
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
It does not.
Bit more complicated than that, I think.
Eg these 2 scenarios -
Feel sick, testing negative for Covid. Feel ok, testing positive for Covid.
Both imo lead to distancing being a good decision.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
Nick is literally the only person I have heard of who still uses it. I'm serious. And Nick is A Bloke On The Internet (although admittedly a real person who is also A Bloke In Real Life).
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
(without wanting to insult Nick), he does come across as rather atypical in many respects e.g. the can't cook / won't cook / little enjoyment surrounding food.
My father-in-law is like that. A highly idiosyncratic man in many ways. For work reasons, he has spent most of the time I have known him living three hours from 'home'. Never bothered to learn to cook - for the first six years he lived away, the only food he would eat was cod and chips from the local chippy. This was his diet roughly 49 days out of 50. One meal a day. Surprisingly, he is still alive.
He got to know the owners of the chippy quite well, obviously. Ended up writing a letter on their behalf to the home office for some immigration-related reason. They never knew his name, though - they referred to him as 'Mr. Tottenham Hotspur' after his favourite conversation topic. Then one day he moved. I often wonder if they wonder what happened to him.
That is basically my diet. Food of the gods. No fan of Spurs though. Occasionally I wonder about a Michelin-starred night out but reading the menus invariably puts me off.
Fish and chips is a great meal, I agree. I wouldn't go for it every night, but it's a treat. I've never dabbled with Michelin stars, but very occasionally I've had what I consider an expensive meal out. In the £40pp and upwards bracket. Sometimes it's been good, sometimes it's been really good. But it's never been eight times better than a £5 chippy tea.
According to the BBC, Boris Johnson was given the "wrong information" over whether parties were held in Downing Street during Covid lockdowns, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.
And all of a sudden there's an excuse for making the underlings 'responsible'.
That is course, until Johnson himself gets an FPN.
Ignorance is no excuse in matters of the lawmakers
Her Majesty’s Prime Minister ignorant of his own government’s legislation and what is going on at 10 Downing Street? Doesn’t wash.
Re Covid, neither daughter nor myself have caught it, despite her being around people all the time and me being around her.
I have tended to avoid crowded events but have not been an actual hermit and, yet, so far, have avoided infection. So has eldest son despite working in a customer-facing role and all his work colleagues going down like ninepins.
So either we have some magic ingredient or we we had it without realising or we are just very lucky.
Hope this continues.
On topic, Starmer has done well so far. He doesn't set a room alight mind and I have my doubts about some aspects of his approach. But the country may well be ready for Mr Boring in a couple of years. The "time for a change" impulse (shared by me) will be strong.
The difficulty for him is that economic troubles may well do for the Tories but make the job of a Labour government very difficult and I am not at all sure that he has the cojones of steel needed to deal with whatever mess the Tories leave behind.
Also, I wouldn't rule out the Tories scraping through. Not really sure why. Just feel that it is a mistake to underestimate them.
Palace revolution. Big Dog, Rishi, Liz etc out on their ears. Wallace in control, plus Tugendhat, Hunt etc. In other words the reverse of 2019. That could do it.
Wallace yes but the other two probably too remain for the membership
Ben Wallace voted remain too, according to Wiki.
I sort of get Wallace's appeal to Tories, particularly in contrast to Johnson. But I'm not sure he's the answer. He's been an MP since 2005, and hasn't made much impression until recently. ConHome readers may like him, but I suspect most of the public haven't heard of him, and if he replaced Johnson now he wouldn't have long to get known - less time than Starmer, even. Incidentally, he voted against gay marriage.
All of which leads me to conclude that Boris will lead the Tories into the next GE. Not on merit, but because his peers really can't think of anybody better.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
Nick is literally the only person I have heard of who still uses it. I'm serious. And Nick is A Bloke On The Internet (although admittedly a real person who is also A Bloke In Real Life).
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
(without wanting to insult Nick), he does come across as rather atypical in many respects e.g. the can't cook / won't cook / little enjoyment surrounding food.
My father-in-law is like that. A highly idiosyncratic man in many ways. For work reasons, he has spent most of the time I have known him living three hours from 'home'. Never bothered to learn to cook - for the first six years he lived away, the only food he would eat was cod and chips from the local chippy. This was his diet roughly 49 days out of 50. One meal a day. Surprisingly, he is still alive.
He got to know the owners of the chippy quite well, obviously. Ended up writing a letter on their behalf to the home office for some immigration-related reason. They never knew his name, though - they referred to him as 'Mr. Tottenham Hotspur' after his favourite conversation topic. Then one day he moved. I often wonder if they wonder what happened to him.
That is basically my diet. Food of the gods. No fan of Spurs though. Occasionally I wonder about a Michelin-starred night out but reading the menus invariably puts me off.
My neighbour's 8 year old daughter has gone down with Covid. Felt awful since Thursday, but only testing positive today now she is feeling quite a bit better.
Testing seems to be a bit broken early on with this variant.
Yes you should definitely {back/lay} him at that price, it's far too {long/short}!
If my arm was twisted I'd lay, Just. I think he's nailed on, but there may be moments in the betting market where he trades at something like 1.33.
At current prices I think there's no bet. I'm flattish.
I'm long LePen at 10s. Will be laying back at (say) 4 after R1 when it starts to look as if it's going to be quite close and then I'll lump on Macron since I do think he'll be reelected.
Re Covid, neither daughter nor myself have caught it, despite her being around people all the time and me being around her.
I have tended to avoid crowded events but have not been an actual hermit and, yet, so far, have avoided infection. So has eldest son despite working in a customer-facing role and all his work colleagues going down like ninepins.
So either we have some magic ingredient or we we had it without realising or we are just very lucky.
Hope this continues.
On topic, Starmer has done well so far. He doesn't set a room alight mind and I have my doubts about some aspects of his approach. But the country may well be ready for Mr Boring in a couple of years. The "time for a change" impulse (shared by me) will be strong.
The difficulty for him is that economic troubles may well do for the Tories but make the job of a Labour government very difficult and I am not at all sure that he has the cojones of steel needed to deal with whatever mess the Tories leave behind.
Also, I wouldn't rule out the Tories scraping through. Not really sure why. Just feel that it is a mistake to underestimate them.
Palace revolution. Big Dog, Rishi, Liz etc out on their ears. Wallace in control, plus Tugendhat, Hunt etc. In other words the reverse of 2019. That could do it.
Wallace yes but the other two probably too remain for the membership
I'm not at all convinced "too remain" will be anywhere near as big a consideration as it was in 2019, given that "remain" has ceased to be an option.
As a genocide scholar I am an empiricist, I usually dismiss rhetoric. I also take genocide claims with a truckload of salt because activists apply it almost everywhere now.
Philippe Sands' book "East West Street" on how genocide and crimes against humanity developed post-WW2 is essential reading at this time. As is Anne Applebaum's book "Red Famine". I seem to recall that Soviet Russia kicked up a fuss when the legal definition of genocide was being drafted so that it would exclude what Russia did to the Ukrainians with the 1930's famine.
there is no update on the Gov Covid dashboard, normally its at 1600 and if its going to be late there is a banner at the top, but not today, have they changed when they are publishing it?
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
Nick is literally the only person I have heard of who still uses it. I'm serious. And Nick is A Bloke On The Internet (although admittedly a real person who is also A Bloke In Real Life).
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
(without wanting to insult Nick), he does come across as rather atypical in many respects e.g. the can't cook / won't cook / little enjoyment surrounding food.
My father-in-law is like that. A highly idiosyncratic man in many ways. For work reasons, he has spent most of the time I have known him living three hours from 'home'. Never bothered to learn to cook - for the first six years he lived away, the only food he would eat was cod and chips from the local chippy. This was his diet roughly 49 days out of 50. One meal a day. Surprisingly, he is still alive.
He got to know the owners of the chippy quite well, obviously. Ended up writing a letter on their behalf to the home office for some immigration-related reason. They never knew his name, though - they referred to him as 'Mr. Tottenham Hotspur' after his favourite conversation topic. Then one day he moved. I often wonder if they wonder what happened to him.
That is basically my diet. Food of the gods. No fan of Spurs though. Occasionally I wonder about a Michelin-starred night out but reading the menus invariably puts me off.
You live on fish and chips?
Yes. And vitamin pills and the occasional Solero. Never had Covid, although that is probably a coincidence.
@thetimes 💶The EU has paid Russia nearly €19 billion for energy since the war began on February 24, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air – a European think tank
As long as the average cost of the kit they have lost is below 7.8 million Euros, they are still up on the deal.
However, 421 tanks at 25m Euros each would be 10.5 billion Euros for starters. (Although I'm sure you can get some of those destroyed a bit cheaper. Even allowing for the oligarch uplift....)
That 19 billion Euros also has to fund all the things it used to fund before the war, too, of course.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
It does not.
Bit more complicated than that, I think.
Eg these 2 scenarios -
Feel sick, testing negative for Covid. Feel ok, testing positive for Covid.
Both imo lead to distancing being a good decision.
Feel sick, then yes, stay away from others as much as possible - covid isn't the only infectious disease going around.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
Nick is literally the only person I have heard of who still uses it. I'm serious. And Nick is A Bloke On The Internet (although admittedly a real person who is also A Bloke In Real Life).
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
(without wanting to insult Nick), he does come across as rather atypical in many respects e.g. the can't cook / won't cook / little enjoyment surrounding food.
My father-in-law is like that. A highly idiosyncratic man in many ways. For work reasons, he has spent most of the time I have known him living three hours from 'home'. Never bothered to learn to cook - for the first six years he lived away, the only food he would eat was cod and chips from the local chippy. This was his diet roughly 49 days out of 50. One meal a day. Surprisingly, he is still alive.
He got to know the owners of the chippy quite well, obviously. Ended up writing a letter on their behalf to the home office for some immigration-related reason. They never knew his name, though - they referred to him as 'Mr. Tottenham Hotspur' after his favourite conversation topic. Then one day he moved. I often wonder if they wonder what happened to him.
That is basically my diet. Food of the gods. No fan of Spurs though. Occasionally I wonder about a Michelin-starred night out but reading the menus invariably puts me off.
You live on fish and chips?
Yes. And vitamin pills and the occasional Solero. Never had Covid, although that is probably a coincidence.
Ok, respect - and I guess the vitamin pills plug the holes.
Yes you should definitely {back/lay} him at that price, it's far too {long/short}!
If my arm was twisted I'd lay, Just. I think he's nailed on, but there may be moments in the betting market where he trades at something like 1.33.
At current prices I think there's no bet. I'm flattish.
I'm long LePen at 10s. Will be laying back at (say) 4 after R1 when it starts to look as if it's going to be quite close and then I'll lump on Macron since I do think he'll be reelected.
The best laid plans of mice and men ...
I'm all green, but it's peanuts. Like 20 quid, and 130 if Le Pen wins. Slightly kicking myself that I didn't have the proper bet I considered at the time.
According to the BBC, Boris Johnson was given the "wrong information" over whether parties were held in Downing Street during Covid lockdowns, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.
And all of a sudden there's an excuse for making the underlings 'responsible'.
That is course, until Johnson himself gets an FPN.
Ignorance is no excuse in matters of the lawmakers
Her Majesty’s Prime Minister ignorant of his own government’s legislation and what is going on at 10 Downing Street? Doesn’t wash.
Given that his Head of Propriety and Ethics and the Head of the unit which was responsible for drafting the lockdown rules both managed to ignore and breach the rules, I'm not at all surprised that he reportedly thinks he did nothing wrong.
No 10 sounds like a shambles and if those 2 are in any way representative of the advice that was being given it's not surprising.
Yes you should definitely {back/lay} him at that price, it's far too {long/short}!
If my arm was twisted I'd lay, Just. I think he's nailed on, but there may be moments in the betting market where he trades at something like 1.33.
At current prices I think there's no bet. I'm flattish.
I'm long LePen at 10s. Will be laying back at (say) 4 after R1 when it starts to look as if it's going to be quite close and then I'll lump on Macron since I do think he'll be reelected.
The best laid plans of mice and men ...
It's a very interesting election; Macron has basically chosen not to campaign, as it is beneath him in his role as President.
Whether this strategy works or not is another matter altogether.
I wonder which there have been more of? Climate alarmists saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the planet" and demanding we annihiliate our way of living to do so - or Labour election campaigns saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the NHS".
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
My morning newspaper (Seattle Times) is telling me "Easter delays for UK travelers as COVID cancels flights"
Thought from the chatter on here that COVID was over and done with in the UK?
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
It does not.
Bit more complicated than that, I think.
Eg these 2 scenarios -
Feel sick, testing negative for Covid. Feel ok, testing positive for Covid.
Both imo lead to distancing being a good decision.
Feel sick, then yes, stay away from others as much as possible - covid isn't the only infectious disease going around.
But if you feel well, why test?
2 reasons I can think of -
You are going to visit vulnerable friends & family.
Yes you should definitely {back/lay} him at that price, it's far too {long/short}!
If my arm was twisted I'd lay, Just. I think he's nailed on, but there may be moments in the betting market where he trades at something like 1.33.
At current prices I think there's no bet. I'm flattish.
I'm long LePen at 10s. Will be laying back at (say) 4 after R1 when it starts to look as if it's going to be quite close and then I'll lump on Macron since I do think he'll be reelected.
The best laid plans of mice and men ...
It's a very interesting election; Macron has basically chosen not to campaign, as it is beneath him in his role as President.
Whether this strategy works or not is another matter altogether.
It's like not putting the defendant in the dock. Rarely works.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
It does not.
Bit more complicated than that, I think.
Eg these 2 scenarios -
Feel sick, testing negative for Covid. Feel ok, testing positive for Covid.
Both imo lead to distancing being a good decision.
Trouble is we are no longer supporting routine testing for the general population. There never were any 'free' tests, they come at a cost. For healthcare it makes sense to screen staff for infection, for the general population it no longer does. In my opinion this is because with 1 in 13 of people in England testing positive, we have only 15K or so in hospital, of which at least half were admitted for something else.
It may not feel like it, but this wave will recede.
So in a sense I agree - if you know you are positive, then yes restrict your contacts, but we should no longer routinely screen for everyday life.
This link (Guardian report from 2008) goes some way to explaining why Zelinskyy targeted Merkel and Sarkozy in his address.
The usual suspects (France and Germany, with support from Italy) didn't want to put Putin's nose out of joint by agreeing to a path to NATO membership for Ukraine.
UK, US and the Baltics have always been more realistic about Russia.
"At a Nato summit in Bucharest in April President George Bush pressed for Ukraine and Georgia to be awarded the MAP, but he was defeated by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany who argued that such a step would increase friction with Russia.
"The summit agreed a contradictory compromise, denying the two countries the MAP while stating they would eventually become Nato members. The summit instructed today's meeting to review those decisions. With British and east European support, the Americans argued last night that the deadlock could be broken by pushing ahead on the membership path outside the MAP.
"Germany, Spain, Italy and others disagreed, contending that there could be no Nato membership process without it."
Another possible reason why Zelensky called out Merkel and Sarkozy, is that the are no longer in power?
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
It does not.
Bit more complicated than that, I think.
Eg these 2 scenarios -
Feel sick, testing negative for Covid. Feel ok, testing positive for Covid.
Both imo lead to distancing being a good decision.
Feel sick, then yes, stay away from others as much as possible - covid isn't the only infectious disease going around.
But if you feel well, why test?
2 reasons I can think of -
You are going to visit vulnerable friends & family.
You had Covid, feel better, but still positive.
OK. Are you going to test for other infectious diseases as well, or is this the only one you care about?
I wonder which there have been more of? Climate alarmists saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the planet" and demanding we annihiliate our way of living to do so - or Labour election campaigns saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the NHS".
Golly, you still think it is alarmism?
Please tell us that you had a frost last night, how do they explain that, then?
Lithuania has closed the Russian consulate in the port of Klaipeda and expelled the Russian Ambassador. They have also announced that they will not buy any further gas from Russia. Estonia and Latvia are switching to LNG, and refusing any Russian gas or oil supplies. Estonia has banned the ride hailing app Yandex and considering further sanctions imminently.
The point is that it is not just the Baltic that is threatened by Russia, it is all of us. Putin has chosen war and it is going to come, whether you want it or not, unless Russia is comprehensively defeated in Ukraine now. Yes he will use chemical weapons again and quite possibly threaten nuclear too. So they did in the Cold War. If we want to remove the threat, we cannot ignore it, we must actively deter aggression as firmly as possible.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
My morning newspaper (Seattle Times) is telling me "Easter delays for UK travelers as COVID cancels flights"
Thought from the chatter on here that COVID was over and done with in the UK?
Nobody has claimed COVID had been eradicated. Also for instance EasyJet cancelled 100 flights on Monday, which is what I presume they are talking about. Half were because they were starting in EU and couldn't get crews to staff the planes due to very high level of COVID across Europe mainland.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
My morning newspaper (Seattle Times) is telling me "Easter delays for UK travelers as COVID cancels flights"
Thought from the chatter on here that COVID was over and done with in the UK?
It is, but the headline equally works with 'illness' cancels flights, as could have with other bugs.
Besides, covid will never be over. We have though moved to a situation where normal life has resumed for the majority of people. Full sports stadia, cinemas, restaurants. Workplaces back or coming back, but wfh is a genie out of the bottle now. For the immune compromised this is going to be a difficult time for sure, but for most life is back as it was.
I wonder which there have been more of? Climate alarmists saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the planet" and demanding we annihiliate our way of living to do so - or Labour election campaigns saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the NHS".
Golly, you still think it is alarmism?
Nobody yet has convinced me that changes that we can realistically make would make any difference - especially in the light of (in particular) China and India refusing to wreck their own societies to appease the climate gods.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
My morning newspaper (Seattle Times) is telling me "Easter delays for UK travelers as COVID cancels flights"
Thought from the chatter on here that COVID was over and done with in the UK?
It is, but the headline equally works with 'illness' cancels flights, as could have with other bugs.
Besides, covid will never be over. We have though moved to a situation where normal life has resumed for the majority of people. Full sports stadia, cinemas, restaurants. Workplaces back or coming back, but wfh is a genie out of the bottle now. For the immune compromised this is going to be a difficult time for sure, but for most life is back as it was.
What other bug has ever caused the cancellation of 100 flights in one go?
@thetimes 💶The EU has paid Russia nearly €19 billion for energy since the war began on February 24, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air – a European think tank
As long as the average cost of the kit they have lost is below 7.8 million Euros, they are still up on the deal.
However, 421 tanks at 25m Euros each would be 10.5 billion Euros for starters. (Although I'm sure you can get some of those destroyed a bit cheaper. Even allowing for the oligarch uplift....)
That 19 billion Euros also has to fund all the things it used to fund before the war, too, of course.
Well, good luck complaining when your state-subsidised heating goes off....
Yes you should definitely {back/lay} him at that price, it's far too {long/short}!
If my arm was twisted I'd lay, Just. I think he's nailed on, but there may be moments in the betting market where he trades at something like 1.33.
At current prices I think there's no bet. I'm flattish.
I'm long LePen at 10s. Will be laying back at (say) 4 after R1 when it starts to look as if it's going to be quite close and then I'll lump on Macron since I do think he'll be reelected.
The best laid plans of mice and men ...
It's a very interesting election; Macron has basically chosen not to campaign, as it is beneath him in his role as President.
Whether this strategy works or not is another matter altogether.
If LePen wins, plus Orban landslide, plus MAGA in the States, plus proliferating others in the same vein, this will not be the fading of Right National Populism that I was rather hoping to see.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I think there is a massive comms issue going on. Government advice has changed, but the app didn't. People have been testing every day with lateral flow to get released, still testing positive on days 9 and 10 and staying in, yet the original advice had come down to 7 days, or early release on days 5 and 6 if testing clear. Now its just about staying home if symptomatic.
The symptoms list became out of date as soon as omicron arrived, but was never acknowledged. There is a lot to criticise the government for, some fair, some less so, but the communications has been one of the worst features.
Feel ill, coughing, sneezing = stay away from other people as a matter of courtesy Feel fine = no change to behaviour.
Does it need to get more complicated than that?
It does not.
Bit more complicated than that, I think.
Eg these 2 scenarios -
Feel sick, testing negative for Covid. Feel ok, testing positive for Covid.
Both imo lead to distancing being a good decision.
Not according to the virologist bloke on R4 this morning. Feel ok - don't test - no change to behaviour.
Tests now cost money and hence are a luxury that only a certain demographic, albeit a demographic prevalent on PB, can afford.
Or do they give them out for free at that bar. Wouldn't be surprised.
I wonder which there have been more of? Climate alarmists saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the planet" and demanding we annihiliate our way of living to do so - or Labour election campaigns saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the NHS".
Golly, you still think it is alarmism?
Nobody yet has convinced me that changes that we can realistically make would make any difference - especially in the light of (in particular) China and India refusing to wreck their own societies to appease the climate gods.
OK but that makes the situation more alarming not less
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
I never installed it - when it came out I was usuing an old phone that couldn't handle any more apps, and when I got a new phone I never thought I needed to. Why would I? It wasn't compulsory and no good could come from having it. I still occasionally see the QR codes in restaurants and the like, but haven't seen anyone scan one for at least a year, I would think.
Nick is literally the only person I have heard of who still uses it. I'm serious. And Nick is A Bloke On The Internet (although admittedly a real person who is also A Bloke In Real Life).
It sounds like it hasn't been updated for several decades. One for the bin Mr Palmer!
(without wanting to insult Nick), he does come across as rather atypical in many respects e.g. the can't cook / won't cook / little enjoyment surrounding food.
My father-in-law is like that. A highly idiosyncratic man in many ways. For work reasons, he has spent most of the time I have known him living three hours from 'home'. Never bothered to learn to cook - for the first six years he lived away, the only food he would eat was cod and chips from the local chippy. This was his diet roughly 49 days out of 50. One meal a day. Surprisingly, he is still alive.
He got to know the owners of the chippy quite well, obviously. Ended up writing a letter on their behalf to the home office for some immigration-related reason. They never knew his name, though - they referred to him as 'Mr. Tottenham Hotspur' after his favourite conversation topic. Then one day he moved. I often wonder if they wonder what happened to him.
That is basically my diet. Food of the gods. No fan of Spurs though. Occasionally I wonder about a Michelin-starred night out but reading the menus invariably puts me off.
Food is the focus of my life. I love it. I love cooking also. And I really love Michelin star food. To be savoured. Last * meal was Sorrels in Dorking a couple of months ago.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
My morning newspaper (Seattle Times) is telling me "Easter delays for UK travelers as COVID cancels flights"
Thought from the chatter on here that COVID was over and done with in the UK?
It is, but the headline equally works with 'illness' cancels flights, as could have with other bugs.
Besides, covid will never be over. We have though moved to a situation where normal life has resumed for the majority of people. Full sports stadia, cinemas, restaurants. Workplaces back or coming back, but wfh is a genie out of the bottle now. For the immune compromised this is going to be a difficult time for sure, but for most life is back as it was.
What other bug has ever caused the cancellation of 100 flights in one go?
Sadly the ever shriller attempts to grab the headlines do not work in their favour. Its unlikely that a tipping point would be reached that was irreversible. The climate has a huge number of checks and balances. And if you want to see the disagreement about this check out the modelling for the next century. A huge range of possible outcomes from the same assumptions. You can use that as a suite of models and take an average, or they could all be wrong in either direction.
We should and are trying to move on from fossil fuels. I doubt we could go much faster without serious economic harm of the kind we are seeing coming in now. Make no mistake, if the climate was not an issue, prices would not be where they are for petrol, oil etc.
Green tech will save us in the end. A degree of two of warming will not destroy the planet.
I wonder which there have been more of? Climate alarmists saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the planet" and demanding we annihiliate our way of living to do so - or Labour election campaigns saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the NHS".
Golly, you still think it is alarmism?
Nobody yet has convinced me that changes that we can realistically make would make any difference - especially in the light of (in particular) China and India refusing to wreck their own societies to appease the climate gods.
OK but that makes the situation more alarming not less
Well, if you want to live in fear don't let me stop you.
I wonder which there have been more of? Climate alarmists saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the planet" and demanding we annihiliate our way of living to do so - or Labour election campaigns saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the NHS".
Golly, you still think it is alarmism?
Nobody yet has convinced me that changes that we can realistically make would make any difference - especially in the light of (in particular) China and India refusing to wreck their own societies to appease the climate gods.
Our per capita emissions are three times higher than India's. And lower than China's.
According to Mr Simon "ignore COVID nonsense keep travelling 2020" Calder, the cancellations are part down to COVID but also because there has been significant numbers of people who have left the airline industry during the pandemic and they haven't been replaced, so there is no headroom.
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
My morning newspaper (Seattle Times) is telling me "Easter delays for UK travelers as COVID cancels flights"
Thought from the chatter on here that COVID was over and done with in the UK?
It is, but the headline equally works with 'illness' cancels flights, as could have with other bugs.
Besides, covid will never be over. We have though moved to a situation where normal life has resumed for the majority of people. Full sports stadia, cinemas, restaurants. Workplaces back or coming back, but wfh is a genie out of the bottle now. For the immune compromised this is going to be a difficult time for sure, but for most life is back as it was.
What other bug has ever caused the cancellation of 100 flights in one go?
Spanish flu would have done I suspect. Maybe the black death? Probably massive disruption up the old North Road back then.
No doubt a lot of people are ill at the moment. This will pass.
The elusive Tory lead could finally occur today although it could also be the last be the last one for a while.
I said this, this morning and was shouted down
That's because we deploy the IncorrectHorseBattery - a good bunch of men, over 12 shouting downs a minute.
I am Horse
And yet we are Battery! Ouch!
Oh stop horsing around you
I quite like the Richard Harris film 'A man called horse'. I always rather think of you in that vein given your moniker. Admittedly not all the suffering, but the determination.
Talking of horses, Apple TV's new serial: Slow Horses with Oldman is just brilliant. Only one episode in so far, but the ambiance and down at heel sense of career failure and alcoholism is just fantastic. Early days, but this might be the best thing I have seen in a very long time.
The books though weren't recieved so unambiguously well
Really? Who didn't like them? I thoroughly enjoyed them.
For anyone keeping track, here is breakdown of 51 hopefuls - including Sarah Palin & Santa Claus - who successfully filed to be on the June 11 special top-4 primary ballot (source Alaska Division of Elections):
Based on above, my own semi-fearless quasi-forecast is that Top 4 will include > 2 Republicans, 1 Democrat, 1 Nonpartisan OR Undeclared
Alternatively > 3 GOPs, 1 Dem
At any rate, expect for Sarah Palin to make the Top 4 unless her campaign tanks. Which is possible, for while her backing from 45 is a plus, her own popularity & reputation in the Last Frontier have been underwater since she resigned the governorship in order to cash in on her celebrity.
Further note that June 1 is candidate filing for the FULL 2023-25 US House term, would expect that Palin will run for the real deal UNLESS her special election campaign hits the skids before deadline.
Which I am NOT predicting, but anything is possible when you mix together 51-candidate race in 49th State involving 45st POTUS and the Pride of Wasilla.
Re Covid, neither daughter nor myself have caught it, despite her being around people all the time and me being around her.
I have tended to avoid crowded events but have not been an actual hermit and, yet, so far, have avoided infection. So has eldest son despite working in a customer-facing role and all his work colleagues going down like ninepins.
So either we have some magic ingredient or we we had it without realising or we are just very lucky.
Hope this continues.
On topic, Starmer has done well so far. He doesn't set a room alight mind and I have my doubts about some aspects of his approach. But the country may well be ready for Mr Boring in a couple of years. The "time for a change" impulse (shared by me) will be strong.
The difficulty for him is that economic troubles may well do for the Tories but make the job of a Labour government very difficult and I am not at all sure that he has the cojones of steel needed to deal with whatever mess the Tories leave behind.
Also, I wouldn't rule out the Tories scraping through. Not really sure why. Just feel that it is a mistake to underestimate them.
Palace revolution. Big Dog, Rishi, Liz etc out on their ears. Wallace in control, plus Tugendhat, Hunt etc. In other words the reverse of 2019. That could do it.
Wallace yes but the other two probably too remain for the membership
Highlights the dilemma every political party has. Please themselves or please the public?
Normally, parties play out that psychodrama in opposition (Foot, Kinnock, only then Smith and Blair for Labour; Hague, IDS and Howard, only then Cameron for the Conservatives.)
One of the reasons for the current weirdness is that the Conservatives went self-indulgent in office when they went for BoJo and basalt-hard Brexit, the other is that they got away with it in 2019. Largely helped by Labour being even further down their own rabbit hole at the time.
But there's a good question here- if Boris fails and takes the team down with him, who picks up the pieces?
I wonder which there have been more of? Climate alarmists saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the planet" and demanding we annihiliate our way of living to do so - or Labour election campaigns saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the NHS".
Golly, you still think it is alarmism?
Nobody yet has convinced me that changes that we can realistically make would make any difference - especially in the light of (in particular) China and India refusing to wreck their own societies to appease the climate gods.
Our per capita emissions are three times higher than India's. And lower than China's.
"per capita" doing a lot of work there.
One of those thought-substitute clichés, that. You want to explain what work the phrase is doing?
Re Covid, neither daughter nor myself have caught it, despite her being around people all the time and me being around her.
I have tended to avoid crowded events but have not been an actual hermit and, yet, so far, have avoided infection. So has eldest son despite working in a customer-facing role and all his work colleagues going down like ninepins.
So either we have some magic ingredient or we we had it without realising or we are just very lucky.
Hope this continues.
On topic, Starmer has done well so far. He doesn't set a room alight mind and I have my doubts about some aspects of his approach. But the country may well be ready for Mr Boring in a couple of years. The "time for a change" impulse (shared by me) will be strong.
The difficulty for him is that economic troubles may well do for the Tories but make the job of a Labour government very difficult and I am not at all sure that he has the cojones of steel needed to deal with whatever mess the Tories leave behind.
Also, I wouldn't rule out the Tories scraping through. Not really sure why. Just feel that it is a mistake to underestimate them.
Palace revolution. Big Dog, Rishi, Liz etc out on their ears. Wallace in control, plus Tugendhat, Hunt etc. In other words the reverse of 2019. That could do it.
Wallace yes but the other two probably too remain for the membership
Highlights the dilemma every political party has. Please themselves or please the public?
Normally, parties play out that psychodrama in opposition (Foot, Kinnock, only then Smith and Blair for Labour; Hague, IDS and Howard, only then Cameron for the Conservatives.)
One of the reasons for the current weirdness is that the Conservatives went self-indulgent in office when they went for BoJo and basalt-hard Brexit, the other is that they got away with it in 2019. Largely helped by Labour being even further down their own rabbit hole at the time.
But there's a good question here- if Boris fails and takes the team down with him, who picks up the pieces?
An 80 seat majority is a bit more than getting away with it!
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
My morning newspaper (Seattle Times) is telling me "Easter delays for UK travelers as COVID cancels flights"
Thought from the chatter on here that COVID was over and done with in the UK?
Covid restrictions are over. Covid is not over - plenty of people have it - but it's no longer an existential threat. There are an above-average number of people off ill though. But out and about, it doesn't feel much different to pre-covid. Businesses aren't shuttered, towns and cities are busy. More people working from home than three years ago, but a time traveller would have to look quite hard to spot this. There may be flight cancellations - presumably due to crewing shortages - but it's not headline news here. I can, however, give you an anecdote from my local airport, Manchester. Last time I had any interaction with it back in February it seemed to be working entirely fine and just as it had the last time I used it a few years back. But the stories in the local press are of massive queues at security right now. Reason being, Manchester Airports Group (MAG) made many of its staff redundant over covid in the expectation that it could hire them back again when and if the good times returned. Demand to fly has increased a lot over the last couple of months, however, when MAG attempted to rehire security it found that all the people who had been made redundant had found other jobs and that it was attempting to hire in a pretty tight recruiting market. Crudely, it's trying to run a Spring 2019 service but only has Spring 2021 levels of staffing. It may be that this problem is widespread in the industry.
I know Zelenskyy is an actor. But my god. His face here, and this whole thread:
Ukrainian President @ZelenskyyUa has visited the town of Bucha today, where #BuchaMassacre by Russian army took place. His face says a lot. Just think about it: this president came to power with a promise of peace with Russia, he was ready to "talk to Putin" and sign a compromise
According to the BBC, Boris Johnson was given the "wrong information" over whether parties were held in Downing Street during Covid lockdowns, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.
And all of a sudden there's an excuse for making the underlings 'responsible'.
That is course, until Johnson himself gets an FPN.
Ignorance is no excuse in matters of the lawmakers
Her Majesty’s Prime Minister ignorant of his own government’s legislation and what is going on at 10 Downing Street? Doesn’t wash.
Given that his Head of Propriety and Ethics and the Head of the unit which was responsible for drafting the lockdown rules both managed to ignore and breach the rules, I'm not at all surprised that he reportedly thinks he did nothing wrong.
No 10 sounds like a shambles and if those 2 are in any way representative of the advice that was being given it's not surprising.
"Ok, so I told parliament the Covid rules had been followed when in fact there'd been multiple breaches so serious as to be criminal. And, yes, I'm aware that lying to parliament is a resigning matter. But, look, I wasn't lying because my operation is such a shambles that I didn't have a clue what was going on."
This, believe it or not, would appear to be the line emerging.
Odd that the Seattle Times seems to have any interest in a couple hundred flights cancelled from the UK, when in the US, 12,000 flights were cancelled or severely delayed over the weekend.....due to technical issues and staffing shortages.
I know Zelenskyy is an actor. But my god. His face here, and this whole thread:
Ukrainian President @ZelenskyyUa has visited the town of Bucha today, where #BuchaMassacre by Russian army took place. His face says a lot. Just think about it: this president came to power with a promise of peace with Russia, he was ready to "talk to Putin" and sign a compromise
He's mostly a President and he's seeing his country destroyed. He's not acting nor thinking about doing so. (And I don't think you were suggesting that anyway)
The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent · 45m ⚡️Defense Ministry: Russia aims to capture Kharkiv.
The ministry's spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzianyk said that Russia has concentrated its efforts to attack Ukrainian troops in Donbas and capture Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city with a pre-war population of 1.4 million.
New COVID Metric - First episodes and reinfections now shown by age in England
"Counts of first episodes and reinfections by specimen date, split by age, are now available for England, and regions and local authorities in England. 7-day rolling sum and rolling rates are also available."
Just been pinged by the covid app telling me I was in close contact with someone who's tested positive. Happened on Friday when I went to see, with 700 other people, Stewart Lee ('Proper, vicious prejudice - a self-proclaimed inhabitant of the moral high ground' - Sarah Vine. 'A pot-bellied Bernard Manning for snowflakes.' - Tony Parsons) in Leeds. I've dodged the bug so far. Perhaps my time has come.
Lee was excellent, by the way.
I'm actually quite surprised that the covid app is still a thing, tbh.
Very much so. When I caught Covid it urged me to self-isolate for 10 days, and gave me a countdown each day (today says "Good news! You were released from isolation at 23.59 last night") with various links for advice, guidance, current view of symptoms, etc., as well as giving me a ping showing when I'd probably caught it. I thought it very useful but the contrast with the "Oh, whatever" stance that the Government and some here seem to have adopted was quite stark.
My morning newspaper (Seattle Times) is telling me "Easter delays for UK travelers as COVID cancels flights"
Thought from the chatter on here that COVID was over and done with in the UK?
Covid restrictions are over. Covid is not over - plenty of people have it - but it's no longer an existential threat. There are an above-average number of people off ill though. But out and about, it doesn't feel much different to pre-covid. Businesses aren't shuttered, towns and cities are busy. More people working from home than three years ago, but a time traveller would have to look quite hard to spot this. There may be flight cancellations - presumably due to crewing shortages - but it's not headline news here. I can, however, give you an anecdote from my local airport, Manchester. Last time I had any interaction with it back in February it seemed to be working entirely fine and just as it had the last time I used it a few years back. But the stories in the local press are of massive queues at security right now. Reason being, Manchester Airports Group (MAG) made many of its staff redundant over covid in the expectation that it could hire them back again when and if the good times returned. Demand to fly has increased a lot over the last couple of months, however, when MAG attempted to rehire security it found that all the people who had been made redundant had found other jobs and that it was attempting to hire in a pretty tight recruiting market. Crudely, it's trying to run a Spring 2019 service but only has Spring 2021 levels of staffing. It may be that this problem is widespread in the industry.
Here in Seattle over the weekend many Alaska Airline flights (our major air carrier) were cancelled due to crew shortages:
Seattle Times ($) - Short of pilots, Alaska Airlines cancels dozens more weekend flights
Alaska Airlines canceled 73 flights Sunday, an increase over its predictions from earlier, with more than 9,800 passengers affected as a pilot shortage continues to impact the air carrier’s business.
The cancellations included 33 flights at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Sunday.
“Additional cancellations are possible,” the airline posted on its media website Sunday morning.
The airline had previously canceled 92 flights on Saturday, with another 18 flights significantly delayed by what officials said was a mix of weather, mechanical and “other standard issues.”
At Sea-Tac on Saturday, the airline canceled 27 departures and 32 arriving flights were canceled.
On Friday, the airline canceled 68 flights at Sea-Tac and more than 120 overall, affecting at least 15,300 travelers.
Every U.S. airline is facing the impacts of a national pilot shortage, brought on by reductions in staffing during the pandemic and a quicker than expected rebound in air travel this year.
However, Alaska has been hit worse than most.
With pilots now so in demand, they can choose where to work more easily. Alaska, currently in an increasingly bitter standoff with the union representing its pilots over a new contract, has lost dozens of pilots this year to other major U.S. carriers.. . . .
I wonder which there have been more of? Climate alarmists saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the planet" and demanding we annihiliate our way of living to do so - or Labour election campaigns saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the NHS".
Golly, you still think it is alarmism?
Nobody yet has convinced me that changes that we can realistically make would make any difference - especially in the light of (in particular) China and India refusing to wreck their own societies to appease the climate gods.
Our per capita emissions are three times higher than India's. And lower than China's.
"per capita" doing a lot of work there.
One of those thought-substitute clichés, that. You want to explain what work the phrase is doing?
It makes it look like we're the bad guys, whereas in reality even if we cut our emissions to zero overnight it would be very few years before China and India's increases would outweigh that.
I wonder which there have been more of? Climate alarmists saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the planet" and demanding we annihiliate our way of living to do so - or Labour election campaigns saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the NHS".
Golly, you still think it is alarmism?
Nobody yet has convinced me that changes that we can realistically make would make any difference - especially in the light of (in particular) China and India refusing to wreck their own societies to appease the climate gods.
Our per capita emissions are three times higher than India's. And lower than China's.
"per capita" doing a lot of work there.
Yes, it's how we make fair comparisons between countries of hugely different populations. That's how come we know, for example, that it's better to live in Japan than China even though Chinese GDP is three times that of Japan.
George W. Bush has not caught COVID. Barack Obama has caught COVID. Donald Trump caught COVID, and has been a super spreader. Joe Biden has not caught COVID.
I give Bush and Biden pluses, Obama a zero, and Trump a big minus.
So, by the same reasoning, I would give Cyclefree a solid plus, thinking it likely she has not caught COVID because she has behaved in an intelligent and responsible way.
(Those more familiar with your politicians than I am may want to extend this simple scoring to them.)
Yes you should definitely {back/lay} him at that price, it's far too {long/short}!
If my arm was twisted I'd lay, Just. I think he's nailed on, but there may be moments in the betting market where he trades at something like 1.33.
At current prices I think there's no bet. I'm flattish.
I'm long LePen at 10s. Will be laying back at (say) 4 after R1 when it starts to look as if it's going to be quite close and then I'll lump on Macron since I do think he'll be reelected.
The best laid plans of mice and men ...
It's a very interesting election; Macron has basically chosen not to campaign, as it is beneath him in his role as President.
Whether this strategy works or not is another matter altogether.
It's like not putting the defendant in the dock. Rarely works.
(Point of order: I thought the statistics were that Guilty verdicts were very considerably more likely if the defendant took the stand.)
Comments
I was surprised Zelensky targeted Sarkozy but maybe this is what he had in mind?
https://mobile.twitter.com/im_PULSE/status/1510977554185924610
Thread: On this day, five years ago, the Syrian regime attacked the town of Khan Sheikoun with the nerve agent Sarin. 92 people were killed; many more left scarred for life. The way #Russia and its western sympathisers responded tells us a lot about what to expect in #Ukraine...
I have tended to avoid crowded events but have not been an actual hermit and, yet, so far, have avoided infection. So has eldest son despite working in a customer-facing role and all his work colleagues going down like ninepins.
So either we have some magic ingredient or we we had it without realising or we are just very lucky.
Hope this continues.
On topic, Starmer has done well so far. He doesn't set a room alight mind and I have my doubts about some aspects of his approach. But the country may well be ready for Mr Boring in a couple of years. The "time for a change" impulse (shared by me) will be strong.
The difficulty for him is that economic troubles may well do for the Tories but make the job of a Labour government very difficult and I am not at all sure that he has the cojones of steel needed to deal with whatever mess the Tories leave behind.
Also, I wouldn't rule out the Tories scraping through. Not really sure why. Just feel that it is a mistake to underestimate them.
That could do it.
He got to know the owners of the chippy quite well, obviously. Ended up writing a letter on their behalf to the home office for some immigration-related reason. They never knew his name, though - they referred to him as 'Mr. Tottenham Hotspur' after his favourite conversation topic. Then one day he moved. I often wonder if they wonder what happened to him.
(If you can be arsed, of course)
And all of a sudden there's an excuse for making the underlings 'responsible'.
That is course, until Johnson himself gets an FPN.
This economic crisis is going to seriously cripple many, many households. There will be profound political consequences.
However, 421 tanks at 25m Euros each would be 10.5 billion Euros for starters. (Although I'm sure you can get some of those destroyed a bit cheaper. Even allowing for the oligarch uplift....)
At current prices I think there's no bet. I'm flattish.
Eg these 2 scenarios -
Feel sick, testing negative for Covid.
Feel ok, testing positive for Covid.
Both imo lead to distancing being a good decision.
I've never dabbled with Michelin stars, but very occasionally I've had what I consider an expensive meal out. In the £40pp and upwards bracket. Sometimes it's been good, sometimes it's been really good. But it's never been eight times better than a £5 chippy tea.
I sort of get Wallace's appeal to Tories, particularly in contrast to Johnson. But I'm not sure he's the answer. He's been an MP since 2005, and hasn't made much impression until recently. ConHome readers may like him, but I suspect most of the public haven't heard of him, and if he replaced Johnson now he wouldn't have long to get known - less time than Starmer, even. Incidentally, he voted against gay marriage.
All of which leads me to conclude that Boris will lead the Tories into the next GE. Not on merit, but because his peers really can't think of anybody better.
Testing seems to be a bit broken early on with this variant.
Absolute, genuine fury.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60984663
They really sound rather agitated about it
The best laid plans of mice and men ...
Bastards.
If anybody wants a copy of my betting history on this market them I'm more than happy to provide it.
The point, Farooq, was that the pricing implied a real possibility for a radical swing in French politics.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
But if you feel well, why test?
No 10 sounds like a shambles and if those 2 are in any way representative of the advice that was being given it's not surprising.
Whether this strategy works or not is another matter altogether.
I wonder which there have been more of? Climate alarmists saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the planet" and demanding we annihiliate our way of living to do so - or Labour election campaigns saying it's "x hours/days/weeks to save the NHS".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_fourfm
Thought from the chatter on here that COVID was over and done with in the UK?
You are going to visit vulnerable friends & family.
You had Covid, feel better, but still positive.
If I had added the detail I'd have said that i was a new high chance for Le Pen, but that I very vaguely think there might be more to go.
It may not feel like it, but this wave will recede.
So in a sense I agree - if you know you are positive, then yes restrict your contacts, but we should no longer routinely screen for everyday life.
Others may disagree.
POUKR's mom did NOT raise no dummy, far from it!
Please tell us that you had a frost last night, how do they explain that, then?
The point is that it is not just the Baltic that is threatened by Russia, it is all of us. Putin has chosen war and it is going to come, whether you want it or not, unless Russia is comprehensively defeated in Ukraine now. Yes he will use chemical weapons again and quite possibly threaten nuclear too. So they did in the Cold War. If we want to remove the threat, we cannot ignore it, we must actively deter aggression as firmly as possible.
So, over to you Western Europe.
Other than that all correct.
Besides, covid will never be over. We have though moved to a situation where normal life has resumed for the majority of people. Full sports stadia, cinemas, restaurants. Workplaces back or coming back, but wfh is a genie out of the bottle now. For the immune compromised this is going to be a difficult time for sure, but for most life is back as it was.
Godfather 1 and 2 are outstanding films.
Tests now cost money and hence are a luxury that only a certain demographic, albeit a demographic prevalent on PB, can afford.
Or do they give them out for free at that bar. Wouldn't be surprised.
Plus ca change:
Bojan Pancevski
@bopanc
How ordinary Russians feel about their country invading Ukraine
https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1510950346742509570
We should and are trying to move on from fossil fuels. I doubt we could go much faster without serious economic harm of the kind we are seeing coming in now. Make no mistake, if the climate was not an issue, prices would not be where they are for petrol, oil etc.
Green tech will save us in the end. A degree of two of warming will not destroy the planet.
No doubt a lot of people are ill at the moment. This will pass.
For anyone keeping track, here is breakdown of 51 hopefuls - including Sarah Palin & Santa Claus - who successfully filed to be on the June 11 special top-4 primary ballot (source Alaska Division of Elections):
Republican = 17
Nonpartisan = 13
Undeclared = 10
Democratic = 6
Libertarian = 3
Alaska Independence = 1
American Independent = 1
Based on above, my own semi-fearless quasi-forecast is that Top 4 will include
> 2 Republicans, 1 Democrat, 1 Nonpartisan OR Undeclared
Alternatively > 3 GOPs, 1 Dem
At any rate, expect for Sarah Palin to make the Top 4 unless her campaign tanks. Which is possible, for while her backing from 45 is a plus, her own popularity & reputation in the Last Frontier have been underwater since she resigned the governorship in order to cash in on her celebrity.
Further note that June 1 is candidate filing for the FULL 2023-25 US House term, would expect that Palin will run for the real deal UNLESS her special election campaign hits the skids before deadline.
Which I am NOT predicting, but anything is possible when you mix together 51-candidate race in 49th State involving 45st POTUS and the Pride of Wasilla.
Normally, parties play out that psychodrama in opposition (Foot, Kinnock, only then Smith and Blair for Labour; Hague, IDS and Howard, only then Cameron for the Conservatives.)
One of the reasons for the current weirdness is that the Conservatives went self-indulgent in office when they went for BoJo and basalt-hard Brexit, the other is that they got away with it in 2019. Largely helped by Labour being even further down their own rabbit hole at the time.
But there's a good question here- if Boris fails and takes the team down with him, who picks up the pieces?
But out and about, it doesn't feel much different to pre-covid. Businesses aren't shuttered, towns and cities are busy. More people working from home than three years ago, but a time traveller would have to look quite hard to spot this.
There may be flight cancellations - presumably due to crewing shortages - but it's not headline news here.
I can, however, give you an anecdote from my local airport, Manchester. Last time I had any interaction with it back in February it seemed to be working entirely fine and just as it had the last time I used it a few years back. But the stories in the local press are of massive queues at security right now. Reason being, Manchester Airports Group (MAG) made many of its staff redundant over covid in the expectation that it could hire them back again when and if the good times returned. Demand to fly has increased a lot over the last couple of months, however, when MAG attempted to rehire security it found that all the people who had been made redundant had found other jobs and that it was attempting to hire in a pretty tight recruiting market. Crudely, it's trying to run a Spring 2019 service but only has Spring 2021 levels of staffing. It may be that this problem is widespread in the industry.
Ukrainian President
@ZelenskyyUa
has visited the town of Bucha today, where #BuchaMassacre by Russian army took place. His face says a lot. Just think about it: this president came to power with a promise of peace with Russia, he was ready to "talk to Putin" and sign a compromise
https://twitter.com/sumlenny/status/1511003203776794625?s=20&t=TarxjZmue8IeI9OxN7wHlg
This, believe it or not, would appear to be the line emerging.
The Kyiv Independent
@KyivIndependent
·
45m
⚡️Defense Ministry: Russia aims to capture Kharkiv.
The ministry's spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzianyk said that Russia has concentrated its efforts to attack Ukrainian troops in Donbas and capture Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city with a pre-war population of 1.4 million.
New COVID Metric - First episodes and reinfections now shown by age in England
"Counts of first episodes and reinfections by specimen date, split by age, are now available for England, and regions and local authorities in England. 7-day rolling sum and rolling rates are also available."
Seattle Times ($) - Short of pilots, Alaska Airlines cancels dozens more weekend flights
Alaska Airlines canceled 73 flights Sunday, an increase over its predictions from earlier, with more than 9,800 passengers affected as a pilot shortage continues to impact the air carrier’s business.
The cancellations included 33 flights at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Sunday.
“Additional cancellations are possible,” the airline posted on its media website Sunday morning.
The airline had previously canceled 92 flights on Saturday, with another 18 flights significantly delayed by what officials said was a mix of weather, mechanical and “other standard issues.”
At Sea-Tac on Saturday, the airline canceled 27 departures and 32 arriving flights were canceled.
On Friday, the airline canceled 68 flights at Sea-Tac and more than 120 overall, affecting at least 15,300 travelers.
Every U.S. airline is facing the impacts of a national pilot shortage, brought on by reductions in staffing during the pandemic and a quicker than expected rebound in air travel this year.
However, Alaska has been hit worse than most.
With pilots now so in demand, they can choose where to work more easily. Alaska, currently in an increasingly bitter standoff with the union representing its pilots over a new contract, has lost dozens of pilots this year to other major U.S. carriers.. . . .
Barack Obama has caught COVID.
Donald Trump caught COVID, and has been a super spreader.
Joe Biden has not caught COVID.
I give Bush and Biden pluses, Obama a zero, and Trump a big minus.
So, by the same reasoning, I would give Cyclefree a solid plus, thinking it likely she has not caught COVID because she has behaved in an intelligent and responsible way.
(Those more familiar with your politicians than I am may want to extend this simple scoring to them.)