So, Met will continue to issue fines and may do so before the locals, BUT they’re not going to publicly announce what they’ve done until after, presumably as some sort of respecting of purdah.
Yes. And it does the Tories egregious harm in waiting. Every single candidate running for the Conservative Party is personally pledged to lies, criminality, malfeasance and impropriety.
Its not the best of election platforms. "You can trust us" they say - to back lies and criminality. Up here my Tory opponents have lots of pictures of them with David Duguid. A man so lacking a spine that when the CCS project was awarded to sites in England instead of Peterhead he stood up in PMQ's praising the liar for promising to at least consider Peterhead for future funding rounds in 2025 onwards.
So. Running for council as Tories. Backing the non-funding of mega energy jobs. Backing the criminal and liar. Vote Conservative?
Or the Met could have ended this. Drop the next 7 FPNs on the best acca there is. Position untenable. Removed. "We're cleaning house" as a slogan. More votes.
This all takes me back two years when Mr Roberts, in a previous guise, was ready to die in a ditch for Cummings,
I still don't see anything wrong in what Cummings did. 🤷♂️
I think the curtain twitching is quite distasteful.
I do.
There was pretty widespread compliance with Covid regulations before the Cummings story broke. After that, people were much more inclined to use their own judgement. I attribute the illness of a close relative to this. Whether I am correct to or not, the Cummings incident indicated a shocking disregard for the rules, and fundamental dishonesty by those charged with making the rules.
If you don't see anything wrong in what he did, and the way he lied about it afterwards, maybe you too need to go to Specsavers.
Using your own judgement should have always been what people were doing. If that's what people did afterwards then I see that as an unambiguously good thing, not a bad one. 👍
There is nothing healthy or wise about individuals sacrificing their own judgement. The lack of it, and the way society has been kowtowing to "rules" is my biggest regret of the past couple of years.
SAGE advice also supported empowering people to make their own sensible judgements and was cautious about the value of criminal law.
That's interesting to know.
Was that the case at the time in Spring 2020, or was that changed after the fact?
Oh gosh, I can’t remember! You’d have to dig through all the minutes.
The concerns about criminal law were being expressed that early on. Saying something is a law can be effective because it makes people pay attention (as in our Omicron paper), but prosecutions can be counter-productive. Many of those early police actions, the two women with coffee, SPI-B saw those as mistakes.
Encouraging people to make their own judgements was more a theme later on, when we were coming out of restrictions.
Greetings from a weary but determined Estonia. The official outlook is that we are likely to have a pretty "challenging" summer, and the latest expulsion of all Baltic diplomats in St. Petersburg and Pskov underlines the total collapse of relations with Russia. It is quite probable that the border will be closed soon. The entry of Finland into NATO before the end of May will cast the spotlight on this region, and there are concerns about provocations and attacks against the Baltic. But then the performance of the Russian armed forces so far does not inspire the fear it once did.
Estonia is rushing to collect as much help for Ukraine as it can, and many Estonians are individually sending help to the humanitarian effort. Despite the far right EKRE suggesting that "Estonia has passed the capacity for Ukrainian refugees", places are still being found- eg, one of the large ferries that has space for 3000. I may add that there has been something of a backlash against EKRE. They, like Le Pen, are now seen as close to Putin and as a result their support is fading.
The inability to take the final redoubt in Mariupol underlines the challenges the Russians face. Ukraine is beginning to acquire an advantage in tanks(!) and with more NATO kit and training, the defenders are gaining strength. The great question is is that growing fast enough. We still do not know. Yet there are growing signs of serious trouble in Russia. We hear of mutinies and a total collapse of morale.
Putins appearance has been much commented on, and a medical friend of mine does seem to think that he is in some considerable discomfort, so rumours of terminal illness may be real, when you see how he looked. Likewise the mysterious fires in various Russian defence research facilities may be an inside job. Certainly the economic situation in Russia is getting very bad, and the likely forced default will weaken the brittle Russian economy still more. Yet they continue to double down in every aspect of the war: the savagery, the despicable propaganda and the utter hate now being poured over the entire civilised world. I said in a previous post that it feels like Russia is having a massive nervous breakdown, and honestly this fever dream of nuclear nightmares is a profound sickness.
The turning point of the war may be drawing close, and I now wonder what the impact of a clear defeat of the Russia might be. Without a functioning army, would Putin press the button? Will anyone stop him? No one knows. There are rumours of a tactical nuclear strike in Ukraine or even a planned strategic strike, with the UK or the USA mentioned as targets. My own feeling is that although Western intelligence still thinks that the war will go on for some time (and to be fair they also said that Mariupol could hold out for a considerable time which even Putin now concedes), I now think that the Russians may seek to reduce intensity of the war if they can not win in May. Another frozen conflict?
Interesting as ever. It's quite a lot of doctors who seem to be saying the Putin is not well
I don't think even Putin knows what he is going to do, if this drags on, though. I'm sure that his response to actual defeat would be amusing. If you have a dark enough sense of humour.
Estonia is rushing to collect as much help for Ukraine as it can, and many Estonians are individually sending help to the humanitarian effort. Despite the far right EKRE suggesting that "Estonia has passed the capacity for Ukrainian refugees", places are still being found- eg, one of the large ferries that has space for 3000. I may add that there has been something of a backlash against EKRE. They, like Le Pen, are now seen as close to Putin and as a result their support is fading.
Apologies for snipping large parts of @Cicero's excellent post, I thought I'd add the latest opinion poll from Estonia which is due to vote next March:
With changes from the 2019 election to the Riigikogu:
Reform Party: 25% (-4) Estonia 200: 21% (+17) Conservative People's Party 18% (nc) Centre Party 16% (-7) Social Democrats 9% (-1) Pro Patria (Isamaa): 7% (-4) Greens: 4% (+2)
The two governing parties (Reform and Centre) polled 52% last time but they are down to 41% in the wake of the advance of Estonia 200. That said, I can't obviously see why Estonia 200 couldn't join the coalition but I suspect it's not that simple.
Although Reform and Centre are both nominally Liberal, the wily (read:untrustworthy) Centre Leader Juri Ratas keeps trying to restore his previous coalition with EKRE and Isamaa, despite the obvious lack of popularity. In fact Reform would love to go in with Eesti 200, therefore.
I should say that the polls are pretty volatile, but Kaja Kallas as PM has increased the popularity of Reform and EKRE are declining. We will see what the voters do next year, but at the moment I would say Reform will hold on, Eesti 200 will join them and then its a question of whether either Isamaa (which may not even make it back into the Riigikogu) or the Sotsid are needed for the coalition. Personally I would like to see RE-E200-SD in office, but we will see.
I didn't notice this come by earlier, but according to the BBC "Vladimir Putin orders his troops not to storm the Azovstal steel plant, where the last group of Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol is holding out [but to blockade it instead]"
When two "or else" deadlines pass, and then you don't carry through your threat, you'd have to assume that this means they consider that storming it would be unsuccessful - not merely wasteful of Russian troops' lives, as they haven't been too picky about that up to now.
The question is whether there is any hope of resupply of those holding out?
That isn't the only assumption. It has been previously mentioned by the hold outs that they have civilians with them, including (according to some accounts) women and children. Typically the media hasn't had much to say about why civilians might be there, if not as human shields. The Russians can't bomb the place to ashes without killing these people.
Do you expect the civilians to saunter up the street and get butchered
It may just be the camera angle,, and that a lot more is off to the left, but I'd expect the largest Russian manufacturer of chemical solvents to look rather bigger than that.
I guess all that vodka limits the demand for glue.
I overheard some people discussing Boris this morning in a cafe on the Upper East Side.
Admittedly a rather niche demographic.
They think he’s an idiot, with stupid hair, and that his Churchillian act in Ukraine is pathetic. On the other hand they can’t understand why a “party” could be the end of him.
I’ve heard this before in the USA. Partygate doesn’t travel. The way I’ve tried to explain it before is that he’s lied to the House of Commons which is akin perhaps to lying under oath to a Court of Law.
But for the future history books, the idea of Johnson skulking off in disgrace for lying about some not-very-good parties... that's satisfying. Party because truth matters, but mostly because it would be a stupid end to a stupid premiership.
I feel like the mood has changed again this week. I feel like he’s going to struggle to survive the year.
Which is good, because I don’t want him to be PM in a “London Bridge” event. Call me old fashioned, but he’s not up to it.
"The whole House will, I am sure, join me in expressing great sadness at her Majesty's passing and will of course recall that she always said that I was the Prime Minister who most reminded her of Churchill."
"And errr, I hope my right honourable friends will agree that the best way to honour, um, the Queens passing is by stopping the frivolous investigations on the hard working staff at err, number ten, to allow us focus on what she really would have wanted, for me to make Britain truly great again."
I mean these are spoofs, but sadly Johnson simply cannot be trusted not to make the Queen’s passing all about him.
Indeed; he can’t be trusted to even dress properly for such a solemn occasion. He has not bothered to previously where some gravity or sobriety is required.
I disagree. Doing something, the protocol for which has been established down to each footstep by each participant, is exactly, perhaps the only thing he is good for. It is when he has to make POLICY DECISIONS, especially tricky ones, that he falls flat.
He does have a tendency to go a tad "off piste" if it enters his head, though. Whatever you think of HMtQ it would be unfortunate if her funeral was marred by a Peppa Pig World ramble
I think she's alive, so any kind of funeral for her would be much more worrying than any particular thing said at it.
At least she has achieved the ultimate accolade. Just the present for a Queen who has everything.
'Queen Elizabeth II joins the line-up of Barbie’s Tribute Collection, which was launched last year in celebration of “visionary individuals with an outstanding impact and legacy within society”. The Barbie Queen is presented in a box inspired by the styles of Buckingham Palace, made from a 3D ornate die-cut border framing the figure, and an inner panel showing the throne and the red carpet of the throne room.'
Somebody once said people who are very intelligent often lack common sense. If Johnson had resigned in December, January, even early February we would have "Moved on" by now and it would have all forgotten and not a subject of discussion. Instead he goes on digging a deeper and wider whole for himself and the party. I find the whole thing illogical, irrational, totally stupid and lacking in common sense. What is the matter with the Conservatives?
Comments
The concerns about criminal law were being expressed that early on. Saying something is a law can be effective because it makes people pay attention (as in our Omicron paper), but prosecutions can be counter-productive. Many of those early police actions, the two women with coffee, SPI-B saw those as mistakes.
Encouraging people to make their own judgements was more a theme later on, when we were coming out of restrictions.
I don't think even Putin knows what he is going to do, if this drags on, though. I'm sure that his response to actual defeat would be amusing. If you have a dark enough sense of humour.
lol
I should say that the polls are pretty volatile, but Kaja Kallas as PM has increased the popularity of Reform and EKRE are declining. We will see what the voters do next year, but at the moment I would say Reform will hold on, Eesti 200 will join them and then its a question of whether either Isamaa (which may not even make it back into the Riigikogu) or the Sotsid are needed for the coalition. Personally I would like to see RE-E200-SD in office, but we will see.
Terrible airport and terrible to get to.
Are you sure there hasn't been one before?
If Johnson had resigned in December, January, even early February we would have "Moved on" by now and it would have all forgotten and not a subject of discussion. Instead he goes on digging a deeper and wider whole for himself and the party. I find the whole thing illogical, irrational, totally stupid and lacking in common sense. What is the matter with the Conservatives?