As PB's relevant expert, I can definitively say that that is, indeed, a bird.
As Pb.com's resident twitcher, I would go so far as to say of the family Columbidae.
I once drove over one out of a pair of doves of some kind. Not my fault guv, either run it over or swerve dangerously, but I did feel supremely guilty because the other one was left on its own. And they are very much paired animals aren't they?
You have good reason to feel guilty. That is one of a pair that returns to my balcony in France every time I visit. Their colouring is quite distinctive and they both do exactly the same things as though one is imitating the other. Whether one is male and the other female I couldn't say. I don't have binoculars powerful enough
It's rather a handsome photo. At least, I think so.
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I've lived and worked around the world so none of this, Trump - Murrell, gets my pulse moving.
I'm used to corruption. It's what politicians and leaders, especially male ones, do. It's in their DNA. Be cynical about the lot of them and I find you don't get disappointed.
OT. After the defenestration of Maggie John Sergent (I think) said of Ted Heath it brings to mind the old Spanish saying 'If you sit by the river long enough the body of your enemy will come floating by'. It then became one of my favourite sayings which I have used on here before now but oddly I'd never heard it used anywhere else until this morning....
.....Nick Robinson used it in relation to the Sturgeon affair and attributed it to Sun Tzu. If correct it's quite disappointing.
The charm of the Spanish peasant sitting by the river is a big part of what makes it work. A Chinese philosopher General of the pre-Ming dynasty is something altogether less attractive
Deffo Sun Tzu, but he may just have been quoting an exisiting saying.
I'm not sure Alex Salmond gives a damn, though, as he sits patiently by the Clyde....
OT. After the defenestration of Maggie John Sergent (I think) said of Ted Heath it brings to mind the old Spanish saying 'If you sit by the river long enough the body of your enemy will come floating by'. It then became one of my favourite sayings which I have used on here before now but oddly I'd never heard it used anywhere else until this morning....
.....Nick Robinson used it in relation to the Sturgeon affair and attributed it to Sun Tzu. If correct it's quite disappointing.
The charm of the Spanish peasant sitting by the river is a big part of what makes it work. A Chinese philosopher General of the pre-Ming dynasty is something altogether less attractive
Deffo Sun Tzu, but he may just have been quoting an exisiting saying.
I'm not sure Alex Salmond gives a damn, though, as he sits patiently by the Clyde....
He would more likely be by the Dee or the Don
And quiet flows the Don, with Sturgeon's career in it...
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
You say that almost as though you think it's a good thing ...
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
Do the Africans have to bring their own guns and ammo with them, as the Russians don’t have enough?
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
They contracted the *time* taken for the process. Not the process itself. By spending more money on people to review data etc.
So the process was quicker and more expensive.
“Waste everything except time.”
Yes I'm sure it was fantastic. No doubts whatsoever. But it was a hugely contracted process to develop a vaccine vs usual. Trebles all round.
But it was a hugely contracted process.
What are the 2yr-, 5yr- and 10yr effects. Oh it doesn't matter because the side effects manifest immediately.
That is true of pretty well any new treatment, however quickly or slowly the clinical trials take. Such effects almost always only become clear after the new treatment has been approved, as is in widespread use.
What are the 5 and 10 year effects of Covid infection ? You don't know that either.
What we do know is that the long term effects of unvaccinated Covid infection appear significantly worse than those for the vaccinated infected on the evidence so far.
“Indyref2 never happened, and for years there have been questions about what became of £600,000 that was donated to the SNP’s campaign fund. Some donors demanded their money back when the referendum turned out to be a pipe dream, and it has now been suggested the money may have been spent elsewhere.
“For the past two years, Operation Branchform, the Police Scotland investigation into SNP finances, has been looking into the circumstances.
“Police are now understood to be concentrating on around five transactions made while Mr Murrell was still chief executive of the party, including at least one that involved the purchase of a car.”
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
OT. After the defenestration of Maggie John Sergent (I think) said of Ted Heath it brings to mind the old Spanish saying 'If you sit by the river long enough the body of your enemy will come floating by'. It then became one of my favourite sayings which I have used on here before now but oddly I'd never heard it used anywhere else until this morning....
.....Nick Robinson used it in relation to the Sturgeon affair and attributed it to Sun Tzu. If correct it's quite disappointing.
The charm of the Spanish peasant sitting by the river is a big part of what makes it work. A Chinese philosopher General of the pre-Ming dynasty is something altogether less attractive
Deffo Sun Tzu, but he may just have been quoting an exisiting saying.
I'm not sure Alex Salmond gives a damn, though, as he sits patiently by the Clyde....
He would more likely be by the Dee or the Don
And quiet flows the Don, with Sturgeon's career in it...
We need more Sholokov based witticisms and fewer low intellectual wattage puns.
OT. After the defenestration of Maggie John Sergent (I think) said of Ted Heath it brings to mind the old Spanish saying 'If you sit by the river long enough the body of your enemy will come floating by'. It then became one of my favourite sayings which I have used on here before now but oddly I'd never heard it used anywhere else until this morning....
.....Nick Robinson used it in relation to the Sturgeon affair and attributed it to Sun Tzu. If correct it's quite disappointing.
The charm of the Spanish peasant sitting by the river is a big part of what makes it work. A Chinese philosopher General of the pre-Ming dynasty is something altogether less attractive
Deffo Sun Tzu, but he may just have been quoting an exisiting saying.
I'm not sure Alex Salmond gives a damn, though, as he sits patiently by the Clyde....
He would more likely be by the Dee or the Don
Thought he might be watching out for ferries being launched....
OT. After the defenestration of Maggie John Sergent (I think) said of Ted Heath it brings to mind the old Spanish saying 'If you sit by the river long enough the body of your enemy will come floating by'. It then became one of my favourite sayings which I have used on here before now but oddly I'd never heard it used anywhere else until this morning....
.....Nick Robinson used it in relation to the Sturgeon affair and attributed it to Sun Tzu. If correct it's quite disappointing.
The charm of the Spanish peasant sitting by the river is a big part of what makes it work. A Chinese philosopher General of the pre-Ming dynasty is something altogether less attractive
Deffo Sun Tzu, but he may just have been quoting an exisiting saying.
I'm not sure Alex Salmond gives a damn, though, as he sits patiently by the Clyde....
He would more likely be by the Dee or the Don
Thought he might be watching out for ferries being launched....
He’s in Scotland, of course there won’t be ferries launching any time soon.
Allow Russia to buy Crimea? It's been suggested before.
300 Billion
$300bn, per year.
I would want all the money up front from Putin.
$200 billion and Russia can probably pay on the nail since it started with $400 billion foreign exchange reserves and has since sold a lot of oil and can't buy anything owing to sanctions.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
Wagner should strike then. Or work-to-rule. Just do the very basics of meting out death and destruction until their employer at least agrees to come to the table and talk about an improved package.
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
Wagner should strike then. Or work-to-rule. Just do the very basics of meting out death and destruction until their employer at least agrees to come to the table and talk about an improved package.
No war crimes after hours or weekends until management agrees to negotiate?
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
Wagner should strike then. Or work-to-rule. Just do the very basics of meting out death and destruction until their employer at least agrees to come to the table and talk about an improved package.
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
Wagner should strike then. Or work-to-rule. Just do the very basics of meting out death and destruction until their employer at least agrees to come to the table and talk about an improved package.
No war crimes after hours or weekends until management agrees to negotiate?
That's how I'd kick things off, yes. Then escalate if necessary.
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
Wagner should strike then. Or work-to-rule. Just do the very basics of meting out death and destruction until their employer at least agrees to come to the table and talk about an improved package.
Absolutely. Join a Union!
I think their problem is that Ukraine left the Union...
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
Wagner should strike then. Or work-to-rule. Just do the very basics of meting out death and destruction until their employer at least agrees to come to the table and talk about an improved package.
I thought the idea of mercenaries was that if they're not happy with their wages instead they visit death and destruction on their employers?
“Indyref2 never happened, and for years there have been questions about what became of £600,000 that was donated to the SNP’s campaign fund. Some donors demanded their money back when the referendum turned out to be a pipe dream, and it has now been suggested the money may have been spent elsewhere.
“For the past two years, Operation Branchform, the Police Scotland investigation into SNP finances, has been looking into the circumstances.
“Police are now understood to be concentrating on around five transactions made while Mr Murrell was still chief executive of the party, including at least one that involved the purchase of a car.”
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
Wagner should strike then. Or work-to-rule. Just do the very basics of meting out death and destruction until their employer at least agrees to come to the table and talk about an improved package.
I thought the idea of mercenaries was that if they're not happy with their wages instead they visit death and destruction on their employers?
That would be a shame. Someone should tell them that while they are on $100/day, the new African guys are on $200/day.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
Your question about effects at 2 years, 5 years and 10 years is of interest. How long would you want a medication to be have tested before you would be prepared to take it? Its possible that some new medications and vaccines may cause harm, but in almost all cases it would be rapidly apparent. The idea of a ticking time bomb is much less likely.
This a school basement in a Chernihiv village that Russians turned into a concentration camp. I visited it today. And I listened to survivors for hours, shocked, in disbelief. The media narratives do not do the justice to what happened there. 1/ https://mobile.twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1643614498807324674
As long as that is their chosen offer to the practical difficulty and not an external imposition from allies I dont think many would be surprised they might do that, notwithstanding rhetoric.
The difference from the 'peace' brigade suggestions would as Nigelb notes this would still presume on a Ukrainian military success, not a capitulation.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
I was once in a rather drunken and aggressive argument in a poorly arranged queue at a taxi rank around midnight, in Durham. "What are you inferring?", the other fella asked, snarling. Perhaps unwisely, I replied "I'm inferring that you don't know the difference between inference and implication." Fortunately, this was not countered with a punch in the face but a weary reply of "eh? you fuckin' ponce", and the incident petered out.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
That depends what is meant by accelerated though. Less downtime between stages or running things concurrently etc is accelerated but no less rigorous for example.
I think contracted gives the impression of cutting corners, whereas accelerated might just mean same thing but faster.
More efficient might be a better way of putting it, unless arguing the faster process was achieved by trimming times or steps.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
So do you have skin in this game? Maybe a Rabbit pelt.
Aksyonov, the head of the Crimean Republic, has started his own Wagner-lite organisation called PMC Convoy in anticipation of whatever and they are heavily recruiting in Africa by paying more than Wagner.
Wagner should strike then. Or work-to-rule. Just do the very basics of meting out death and destruction until their employer at least agrees to come to the table and talk about an improved package.
No war crimes after hours or weekends until management agrees to negotiate?
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
Your question about effects at 2 years, 5 years and 10 years is of interest. How long would you want a medication to be have tested before you would be prepared to take it? Its possible that some new medications and vaccines may cause harm, but in almost all cases it would be rapidly apparent. The idea of a ticking time bomb is much less likely.
The classic case is painkillers, though. Stuff we buy over the counter (ibuprofen for example) kills thousands every year.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
That depends what is meant by accelerated though. Less downtime between stages or running things concurrently etc is accelerated but no less rigorous for example.
I think contracted gives the impression of cutting corners, whereas accelerated might just mean same thing but faster.
More efficient might be a better way of putting it, unless arguing the faster process was achieved by trimming times or steps.
More efficient. That depends one your measure of efficiency. It cost more.
The British shipbuilding industry laughed at the American mass production of Liberty ships - "Ha, ha, look at how much that costs per ton". But forgot that this was about building ships in a ludicrously short period of time.
When the manning levels were reduced, it turned out that you could build ships faster than the old methods *and* cheaper. Mind you, the American industry missed that one as well, mostly.
This a school basement in a Chernihiv village that Russians turned into a concentration camp. I visited it today. And I listened to survivors for hours, shocked, in disbelief. The media narratives do not do the justice to what happened there. 1/ https://mobile.twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1643614498807324674
JC is the only source of expiation in all Xtian traditions; the routes available vary, with most churches being fond of policing it in one form or another. This is not all bad. Humans like systems, and all forgiveness is kind.
However, IMHO, dealing direct with the manufacturer, and bypassing all wholesalers and retailers (and quacks) works fine when it works. St Paul - much misunderstood - is this view's finest spokesman.
Feeling a bit emotional today. First cricket match since my Dad died. I've only ever been to two matches without him, and we always used to ring up to slag off Gloucestershire's batsmen discuss the day's play during matches.
So, the championship off to the traditional start. Four balls at Cardiff and they're off for rain.
When the season, such as it is, runs from April - end September instead of basically May-August with a few extra days, what on earth can you expect.
While the planet and the sun ought to adjust itself to cricket's demands (obvs), the indications are that it isn't going to until global warming is substantially advanced.
This a school basement in a Chernihiv village that Russians turned into a concentration camp. I visited it today. And I listened to survivors for hours, shocked, in disbelief. The media narratives do not do the justice to what happened there. 1/ https://mobile.twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1643614498807324674
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
Your question about effects at 2 years, 5 years and 10 years is of interest. How long would you want a medication to be have tested before you would be prepared to take it? Its possible that some new medications and vaccines may cause harm, but in almost all cases it would be rapidly apparent. The idea of a ticking time bomb is much less likely.
The classic case is painkillers, though. Stuff we buy over the counter (ibuprofen for example) kills thousands every year.
Well alcohol and tobacco would never make it to market either - old medicines get a free pass. I don't dispute that there can be effects at long time scales, but there will never be picked up in clinical trials (or at best after approval). The whole accelerated/cut corners is just classic anti-vaxx bullshit from anti-vaxxers and winds me up.
So, the championship off to the traditional start. Four balls at Cardiff and they're off for rain.
What do you expect - its April. Season should start in May like the good old days!
At least they had some play. Other counties, eg Somerset have had none.
Apologies for the late good morning, but BT have only done half a job of upgrading our internet. The engineers have set everything up, but the new router hasn’t arrived.
Feeling a bit emotional today. First cricket match since my Dad died. I've only ever been to two matches without him, and we always used to ring up to slag off Gloucestershire's batsmen discuss the day's play during matches.
It is, if I might make the comment, indeed disconcerting. For me it was whenever some book came out about one of my dad's old ships in the Navy, and it took me a while to stop thinking 'oh, I'll get that for his birthday/Christmas'.
On topic, we owe the SNP a huge debt of gratitude for yesterday's events.
If Police Scotland were to arrest to Nicola Sturgeon I'm not sure the internet could cope.
(Note that's not a prediction, more of an observation.)
Whilst it was a good day for popcorn sales, if our gallant law enforcement officers really want to dig people's gardens, perhaps they could start looking for the few billion by various Tory cronies for PPE which was never delivered.
It didn't get enough attention yesterday because of the AC12 raid on Sturgeon. But the Scott Mince Benton story is beautiful. Caught red handed attempting to whore himself to a pretend gambling investor. Not just cash for questions but illegal access to unpublished reports.
What a spanner - doesn't he understand that you can't do that kind of thing? Extraordinarily he claims another 10 such lobbying operations are happening at any given time.
One of the joys of the Major era was buying the Sunday Times (which I used to do) and devouring mega scoops like the last Tory cash for questions scandal.
If I remember that and know you can't ask questions for cash, why don't actual MPs like Mr Mince?
Don't you think the Johnson years so debased the notion of political public service that Scott Benton loses the whip for five minutes and we just shrug our shoulders? In his case fate has taken a hand and as a result of boundary changes he most likely won't be standing next time.
Perhaps Scotland has taught us that there may be consequences for those suspected of pilfering the cash register, and expect a circus bigtop to be erected in the front gardens of suspects when the police come looking for bank statements. Maybe normal service is being resumed.
Or maybe not... how has no one involved in the PPE scandal had a blue tent erected on their lawn?
The stench of Tory corruption over PPE will be strong enough to allow for a big enquiry to be commissioned by PM Starmer.
The usual howler monkeys will screech about how Labour backed PPE companies who didn't have any PPE. Even if that was the case - and it isn't - what is the excuse for handing out £107m contracts to a company formed days ago by someone with no clue about PPE which had no clawback clauses?
When they failed to deliver useable PPE the money should have been returned. Even a boilerplate emergency contract would have that inserted into it.
No, what we have instead is open corruption. Cash for nothing, stolen from taxpayers and handed to the right people in exchange for nothing. With the excuse of "saving lives" even as the PPE shortage their unusable shit created killed medics.
There was one interview I saw last year. I can't recall the source.
A woman in her twenties was being interviewed, she had no prior experience of PPE supply but applied to join the fast track suppliers list. She explained she won a contract to supply a specified number of masks at her quoted price of circa £800k for the delivered consignment. She made an order through Ali Baba and her invoice from the Chinese Supplier was circa £400k. NHS procurement paid half the full fee on confirmation of their order to her, so she duly Swift paid her invoice to the Chinese supplier requesting a direct delivery to the prescribed NHS stores address. So are you still with me? This lady has at this point paid not a penny of her money to her supplier, she has only paid her supplier with NHS money. All she now has to do is wait for the shipment to arrive with NHS stores and the NHS will pay her a £400k free-money profit. Now I don't blame the lady, infact hats off to her. My question is; why did we need start-up companies with connections to Ministers taking an enormous cut of public funds behind the safety curtain of "an emergency", when NHS procurement officers could have themselves logged on to Ali Baba and ordered masks at half the price?
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
Your question about effects at 2 years, 5 years and 10 years is of interest. How long would you want a medication to be have tested before you would be prepared to take it? Its possible that some new medications and vaccines may cause harm, but in almost all cases it would be rapidly apparent. The idea of a ticking time bomb is much less likely.
The classic case is painkillers, though. Stuff we buy over the counter (ibuprofen for example) kills thousands every year.
I am now wildly allergic to the stuff. Definitely had no problem taking it years back, then started getting a rash which I didn't attribute to it, then once in hospital with a cricketing injury had a full on anaphylactic incident!
It didn't get enough attention yesterday because of the AC12 raid on Sturgeon. But the Scott Mince Benton story is beautiful. Caught red handed attempting to whore himself to a pretend gambling investor. Not just cash for questions but illegal access to unpublished reports.
What a spanner - doesn't he understand that you can't do that kind of thing? Extraordinarily he claims another 10 such lobbying operations are happening at any given time.
One of the joys of the Major era was buying the Sunday Times (which I used to do) and devouring mega scoops like the last Tory cash for questions scandal.
If I remember that and know you can't ask questions for cash, why don't actual MPs like Mr Mince?
Don't you think the Johnson years so debased the notion of political public service that Scott Benton loses the whip for five minutes and we just shrug our shoulders? In his case fate has taken a hand and as a result of boundary changes he most likely won't be standing next time.
Perhaps Scotland has taught us that there may be consequences for those suspected of pilfering the cash register, and expect a circus bigtop to be erected in the front gardens of suspects when the police come looking for bank statements. Maybe normal service is being resumed.
Or maybe not... how has no one involved in the PPE scandal had a blue tent erected on their lawn?
The stench of Tory corruption over PPE will be strong enough to allow for a big enquiry to be commissioned by PM Starmer.
The usual howler monkeys will screech about how Labour backed PPE companies who didn't have any PPE. Even if that was the case - and it isn't - what is the excuse for handing out £107m contracts to a company formed days ago by someone with no clue about PPE which had no clawback clauses?
When they failed to deliver useable PPE the money should have been returned. Even a boilerplate emergency contract would have that inserted into it.
No, what we have instead is open corruption. Cash for nothing, stolen from taxpayers and handed to the right people in exchange for nothing. With the excuse of "saving lives" even as the PPE shortage their unusable shit created killed medics.
There was one interview I saw last year. I can't recall the source.
A woman in her twenties was being interviewed, she had no prior experience of PPE supply but applied to join the fast track suppliers list. She explained she won a contract to supply a specified number of masks at her quoted price of circa £800k for the delivered consignment. She made an order through Ali Baba and her invoice from the Chinese Supplier was circa £400k. NHS procurement paid half the full fee on confirmation of their order to her, so she duly Swift paid her invoice to the Chinese supplier requesting a direct delivery to the prescribed NHS stores address. So are you still with me? This lady has at this point paid not a penny of her money to her supplier, she has only paid her supplier with NHS money. All she now has to do is wait for the shipment to arrive with NHS stores and the NHS will pay her a £400k free-money profit. Now I don't blame the lady, infact hats off to her. My question is; why did we need start-up companies with connections to Ministers taking an enormous cut of public funds behind the safety curtain of "an emergency", when NHS procurement officers could have themselves logged on to Ali Baba and ordered masks at half the price?
Did the order actually arrive? And was it actually suitable for use?
It didn't get enough attention yesterday because of the AC12 raid on Sturgeon. But the Scott Mince Benton story is beautiful. Caught red handed attempting to whore himself to a pretend gambling investor. Not just cash for questions but illegal access to unpublished reports.
What a spanner - doesn't he understand that you can't do that kind of thing? Extraordinarily he claims another 10 such lobbying operations are happening at any given time.
One of the joys of the Major era was buying the Sunday Times (which I used to do) and devouring mega scoops like the last Tory cash for questions scandal.
If I remember that and know you can't ask questions for cash, why don't actual MPs like Mr Mince?
I do suspect that many Conservative politicians think that receiving (and making) payments for vague services is what 'business' and 'trade' is all about.
Partly that, but also...
You're a Conservative MP with a small majority who can read the polls. Even if the party recovers a bit, you will still be out on your ear. What's the sanction that stops you making out while you still can?
Fair point but ...
... getting caught at illegal money grubbing rather tarnishes the reputation.
And while being a former MP might be good for future earnings being a disgraced former MP really wont be.
Morning all.
I can't recall a close parallel - except perhaps Cash for Influence.
I pointed out the analogy to Tim Smith.
Cash for influence was Despatches 2010, where Geoff the Hoon, Patricia Hewitt, Stephen Byers and Margaret Moran were caught 'offering to use their influential positions for reward'. Hoon and Byers heavily disciplined (multiyear bans from Parliament), Moran I am not sure, and Hewitt was NFA and just taken back as a Govt adviser.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
I was once in a rather drunken and aggressive argument in a poorly arranged queue at a taxi rank around midnight, in Durham. "What are you inferring?", the other fella asked, snarling. Perhaps unwisely, I replied "I'm inferring that you don't know the difference between inference and implication." Fortunately, this was not countered with a punch in the face but a weary reply of "eh? you fuckin' ponce", and the incident petered out.
Talking of ponces, two incidents within a mile on the Sarfend Arterial Road. 1. Ponce in a BMW 430d takes umbridge at a Ford Ka on the M25 roundabout. Floors it to weave past crossing lanes, almost bins it, then has to come to a screeching halt alongside said Ka at the lights. Then nearly bins it again flooring it down the slip road, only to then have to drop anchor to immediately take the Upminster exit 2. Ponce in an ancient Mercedes G-Wagon sitting at 55pmh in lane 2 (of 2). Guy in an old Astra undertakes. G-Wagon floors it to re-overtake, then pulls in front and slows down in front of Astra who then overtakes. Rinse, repeat.
What is the point? Other than advertising their possession of a micro-penis to the rest of us?
So, the championship off to the traditional start. Four balls at Cardiff and they're off for rain.
What do you expect - its April. Season should start in May like the good old days!
At least they had some play. Other counties, eg Somerset have had none.
Apologies for the late good morning, but BT have only done half a job of upgrading our internet. The engineers have set everything up, but the new router hasn’t arrived.
That's interesting. Our new router from BT hasn't arrived either (after five weeks). Just an empty-handed engineer who was easily persuaded that I could install it myself if only I could get my hands on it.
It didn't get enough attention yesterday because of the AC12 raid on Sturgeon. But the Scott Mince Benton story is beautiful. Caught red handed attempting to whore himself to a pretend gambling investor. Not just cash for questions but illegal access to unpublished reports.
What a spanner - doesn't he understand that you can't do that kind of thing? Extraordinarily he claims another 10 such lobbying operations are happening at any given time.
One of the joys of the Major era was buying the Sunday Times (which I used to do) and devouring mega scoops like the last Tory cash for questions scandal.
If I remember that and know you can't ask questions for cash, why don't actual MPs like Mr Mince?
Don't you think the Johnson years so debased the notion of political public service that Scott Benton loses the whip for five minutes and we just shrug our shoulders? In his case fate has taken a hand and as a result of boundary changes he most likely won't be standing next time.
Perhaps Scotland has taught us that there may be consequences for those suspected of pilfering the cash register, and expect a circus bigtop to be erected in the front gardens of suspects when the police come looking for bank statements. Maybe normal service is being resumed.
Or maybe not... how has no one involved in the PPE scandal had a blue tent erected on their lawn?
The stench of Tory corruption over PPE will be strong enough to allow for a big enquiry to be commissioned by PM Starmer.
The usual howler monkeys will screech about how Labour backed PPE companies who didn't have any PPE. Even if that was the case - and it isn't - what is the excuse for handing out £107m contracts to a company formed days ago by someone with no clue about PPE which had no clawback clauses?
When they failed to deliver useable PPE the money should have been returned. Even a boilerplate emergency contract would have that inserted into it.
No, what we have instead is open corruption. Cash for nothing, stolen from taxpayers and handed to the right people in exchange for nothing. With the excuse of "saving lives" even as the PPE shortage their unusable shit created killed medics.
There was one interview I saw last year. I can't recall the source.
A woman in her twenties was being interviewed, she had no prior experience of PPE supply but applied to join the fast track suppliers list. She explained she won a contract to supply a specified number of masks at her quoted price of circa £800k for the delivered consignment. She made an order through Ali Baba and her invoice from the Chinese Supplier was circa £400k. NHS procurement paid half the full fee on confirmation of their order to her, so she duly Swift paid her invoice to the Chinese supplier requesting a direct delivery to the prescribed NHS stores address. So are you still with me? This lady has at this point paid not a penny of her money to her supplier, she has only paid her supplier with NHS money. All she now has to do is wait for the shipment to arrive with NHS stores and the NHS will pay her a £400k free-money profit. Now I don't blame the lady, infact hats off to her. My question is; why did we need start-up companies with connections to Ministers taking an enormous cut of public funds behind the safety curtain of "an emergency", when NHS procurement officers could have themselves logged on to Ali Baba and ordered masks at half the price?
Did the order actually arrive? And was it actually suitable for use?
I believe it did, and there was no mention that it failed any specification tests. So let's assume it was all good. We the taxpayer still spent on a 100% mark up for a minimum of effort.
This a school basement in a Chernihiv village that Russians turned into a concentration camp. I visited it today. And I listened to survivors for hours, shocked, in disbelief. The media narratives do not do the justice to what happened there. 1/ https://mobile.twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1643614498807324674
That’s utterly horrific.
Only a few days until Ivan in Moscow comes back on to tell us how all the poor buggers in that basement were actually nazis actually.
It didn't get enough attention yesterday because of the AC12 raid on Sturgeon. But the Scott Mince Benton story is beautiful. Caught red handed attempting to whore himself to a pretend gambling investor. Not just cash for questions but illegal access to unpublished reports.
What a spanner - doesn't he understand that you can't do that kind of thing? Extraordinarily he claims another 10 such lobbying operations are happening at any given time.
One of the joys of the Major era was buying the Sunday Times (which I used to do) and devouring mega scoops like the last Tory cash for questions scandal.
If I remember that and know you can't ask questions for cash, why don't actual MPs like Mr Mince?
Don't you think the Johnson years so debased the notion of political public service that Scott Benton loses the whip for five minutes and we just shrug our shoulders? In his case fate has taken a hand and as a result of boundary changes he most likely won't be standing next time.
Perhaps Scotland has taught us that there may be consequences for those suspected of pilfering the cash register, and expect a circus bigtop to be erected in the front gardens of suspects when the police come looking for bank statements. Maybe normal service is being resumed.
Or maybe not... how has no one involved in the PPE scandal had a blue tent erected on their lawn?
The stench of Tory corruption over PPE will be strong enough to allow for a big enquiry to be commissioned by PM Starmer.
The usual howler monkeys will screech about how Labour backed PPE companies who didn't have any PPE. Even if that was the case - and it isn't - what is the excuse for handing out £107m contracts to a company formed days ago by someone with no clue about PPE which had no clawback clauses?
When they failed to deliver useable PPE the money should have been returned. Even a boilerplate emergency contract would have that inserted into it.
No, what we have instead is open corruption. Cash for nothing, stolen from taxpayers and handed to the right people in exchange for nothing. With the excuse of "saving lives" even as the PPE shortage their unusable shit created killed medics.
There was one interview I saw last year. I can't recall the source.
A woman in her twenties was being interviewed, she had no prior experience of PPE supply but applied to join the fast track suppliers list. She explained she won a contract to supply a specified number of masks at her quoted price of circa £800k for the delivered consignment. She made an order through Ali Baba and her invoice from the Chinese Supplier was circa £400k. NHS procurement paid half the full fee on confirmation of their order to her, so she duly Swift paid her invoice to the Chinese supplier requesting a direct delivery to the prescribed NHS stores address. So are you still with me? This lady has at this point paid not a penny of her money to her supplier, she has only paid her supplier with NHS money. All she now has to do is wait for the shipment to arrive with NHS stores and the NHS will pay her a £400k free-money profit. Now I don't blame the lady, infact hats off to her. My question is; why did we need start-up companies with connections to Ministers taking an enormous cut of public funds behind the safety curtain of "an emergency", when NHS procurement officers could have themselves logged on to Ali Baba and ordered masks at half the price?
Did the order actually arrive? And was it actually suitable for use?
I believe it did, and there was no mention that it failed any specification tests. So let's assume it was all good. We the taxpayer still spent on a 100% mark up for a minimum of effort.
Yes, you do wonder why no-one in the NHS etc purchasing team couldn't have just placed the order.
I hope this stuff comes out in the enquiries. There may be reasonable answers (possible - don't laugh at the back) but it would be good to hear them.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
Your question about effects at 2 years, 5 years and 10 years is of interest. How long would you want a medication to be have tested before you would be prepared to take it? Its possible that some new medications and vaccines may cause harm, but in almost all cases it would be rapidly apparent. The idea of a ticking time bomb is much less likely.
The classic case is painkillers, though. Stuff we buy over the counter (ibuprofen for example) kills thousands every year.
I am now wildly allergic to the stuff. Definitely had no problem taking it years back, then started getting a rash which I didn't attribute to it, then once in hospital with a cricketing injury had a full on anaphylactic incident!
What's happening at the Hawthorns Mortimer? And talking of medication, it is looking very like we could be doing a Hereford United on steroids! The biggest football club to fully fail to date? The Midlands Combination beckons West Bromwich FC.
This a school basement in a Chernihiv village that Russians turned into a concentration camp. I visited it today. And I listened to survivors for hours, shocked, in disbelief. The media narratives do not do the justice to what happened there. 1/ https://mobile.twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1643614498807324674
That’s utterly horrific.
Some friends just returned from Ukraine a couple of days ago. This horror is the tip of the iceberg. The thuggish brutality against the Ukrainian population is of a piece with the simply appalling way the Russian high command treats even its own soldiers. The complete contempt for human life is utterly sickening. The Russians don´t necessarily medievac their wounded, so they often die, even with survivable injuries, and bodies of Russian soldiers are left to rot. Apparently the smell of death is discernible even some distance from the front line. Even apart from the war crimes being committed against Ukrainians, the Russian people should place their own commanders on trial for what they have done to their own troops.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
I was once in a rather drunken and aggressive argument in a poorly arranged queue at a taxi rank around midnight, in Durham. "What are you inferring?", the other fella asked, snarling. Perhaps unwisely, I replied "I'm inferring that you don't know the difference between inference and implication." Fortunately, this was not countered with a punch in the face but a weary reply of "eh? you fuckin' ponce", and the incident petered out.
I'm a long term lurker. My partner complains I read your site far too often. Anyway, I'd like to just call out Foxy. Anyone with that name who wants freer range for chickens should be mistrusted.
Hi Horse_B
I think someone already did that joke.
And I'll prempt the Russian troll accusations too. People who are anti vaxxers are fools. Putin is a bad man.
Welcome. You don't sound (write) like anyone else on here (yet) so I have no comment on this.
However, I would say that people who don't like the government telling them what chemicals, chemicals which have been developed at an unprecedented rapid rate, they must put inside their body are not necessarily fools.
And I know, seat belts.
Any evidence for that? Simply not true. All testing was completed on the vaccines as per any other.
It was a massively contracted process. The authorities bragged about this. It is a feature not a bug. As far as you are concerned, right?
Accelerated. But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time. In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut. That's really not the case.
I didn't imply anything. You inferred from my post.
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
I was once in a rather drunken and aggressive argument in a poorly arranged queue at a taxi rank around midnight, in Durham. "What are you inferring?", the other fella asked, snarling. Perhaps unwisely, I replied "I'm inferring that you don't know the difference between inference and implication." Fortunately, this was not countered with a punch in the face but a weary reply of "eh? you fuckin' ponce", and the incident petered out.
Talking of ponces, two incidents within a mile on the Sarfend Arterial Road. 1. Ponce in a BMW 430d takes umbridge at a Ford Ka on the M25 roundabout. Floors it to weave past crossing lanes, almost bins it, then has to come to a screeching halt alongside said Ka at the lights. Then nearly bins it again flooring it down the slip road, only to then have to drop anchor to immediately take the Upminster exit 2. Ponce in an ancient Mercedes G-Wagon sitting at 55pmh in lane 2 (of 2). Guy in an old Astra undertakes. G-Wagon floors it to re-overtake, then pulls in front and slows down in front of Astra who then overtakes. Rinse, repeat.
What is the point? Other than advertising their possession of a micro-penis to the rest of us?
Feeling a bit emotional today. First cricket match since my Dad died. I've only ever been to two matches without him, and we always used to ring up to slag off Gloucestershire's batsmen discuss the day's play during matches.
It is, if I might make the comment, indeed disconcerting. For me it was whenever some book came out about one of my dad's old ships in the Navy, and it took me a while to stop thinking 'oh, I'll get that for his birthday/Christmas'.
Today is the actual day of my Dad’s funeral. So I win the filial grief poker game?
I am grateful to the Sturgeons for providing light entertainment
Feeling a bit emotional today. First cricket match since my Dad died. I've only ever been to two matches without him, and we always used to ring up to slag off Gloucestershire's batsmen discuss the day's play during matches.
It is, if I might make the comment, indeed disconcerting. For me it was whenever some book came out about one of my dad's old ships in the Navy, and it took me a while to stop thinking 'oh, I'll get that for his birthday/Christmas'.
Today is the actual day of my Dad’s funeral. So I win the filial grief poker game?
I am grateful to the Sturgeons for providing light entertainment
I don't know whether 'like' is the right response, but I've given it a like anyway. Sympathies.
It didn't get enough attention yesterday because of the AC12 raid on Sturgeon. But the Scott Mince Benton story is beautiful. Caught red handed attempting to whore himself to a pretend gambling investor. Not just cash for questions but illegal access to unpublished reports.
What a spanner - doesn't he understand that you can't do that kind of thing? Extraordinarily he claims another 10 such lobbying operations are happening at any given time.
One of the joys of the Major era was buying the Sunday Times (which I used to do) and devouring mega scoops like the last Tory cash for questions scandal.
If I remember that and know you can't ask questions for cash, why don't actual MPs like Mr Mince?
Don't you think the Johnson years so debased the notion of political public service that Scott Benton loses the whip for five minutes and we just shrug our shoulders? In his case fate has taken a hand and as a result of boundary changes he most likely won't be standing next time.
Perhaps Scotland has taught us that there may be consequences for those suspected of pilfering the cash register, and expect a circus bigtop to be erected in the front gardens of suspects when the police come looking for bank statements. Maybe normal service is being resumed.
Or maybe not... how has no one involved in the PPE scandal had a blue tent erected on their lawn?
The stench of Tory corruption over PPE will be strong enough to allow for a big enquiry to be commissioned by PM Starmer.
The usual howler monkeys will screech about how Labour backed PPE companies who didn't have any PPE. Even if that was the case - and it isn't - what is the excuse for handing out £107m contracts to a company formed days ago by someone with no clue about PPE which had no clawback clauses?
When they failed to deliver useable PPE the money should have been returned. Even a boilerplate emergency contract would have that inserted into it.
No, what we have instead is open corruption. Cash for nothing, stolen from taxpayers and handed to the right people in exchange for nothing. With the excuse of "saving lives" even as the PPE shortage their unusable shit created killed medics.
There was one interview I saw last year. I can't recall the source.
A woman in her twenties was being interviewed, she had no prior experience of PPE supply but applied to join the fast track suppliers list. She explained she won a contract to supply a specified number of masks at her quoted price of circa £800k for the delivered consignment. She made an order through Ali Baba and her invoice from the Chinese Supplier was circa £400k. NHS procurement paid half the full fee on confirmation of their order to her, so she duly Swift paid her invoice to the Chinese supplier requesting a direct delivery to the prescribed NHS stores address. So are you still with me? This lady has at this point paid not a penny of her money to her supplier, she has only paid her supplier with NHS money. All she now has to do is wait for the shipment to arrive with NHS stores and the NHS will pay her a £400k free-money profit. Now I don't blame the lady, infact hats off to her. My question is; why did we need start-up companies with connections to Ministers taking an enormous cut of public funds behind the safety curtain of "an emergency", when NHS procurement officers could have themselves logged on to Ali Baba and ordered masks at half the price?
Did the order actually arrive? And was it actually suitable for use?
I believe it did, and there was no mention that it failed any specification tests. So let's assume it was all good. We the taxpayer still spent on a 100% mark up for a minimum of effort.
Yes, you do wonder why no-one in the NHS etc purchasing team couldn't have just placed the order.
I hope this stuff comes out in the enquiries. There may be reasonable answers (possible - don't laugh at the back) but it would be good to hear them.
I doubt Alibaba is on the list of their preferred suppliers.
In theory she should have been liable if the order didn't turn up or was unsuitable (not exactly uncommon). An insurance premium of 100% might not be far off given the normal failure rate.
The problem is not that this happened, it is what happened when the supplies turned out to be unsuitable. Was anyone pursued for costs?
I don't think I'd have made a 50/50 gamble on a random Chinese supplier getting it right first time.
So, the championship off to the traditional start. Four balls at Cardiff and they're off for rain.
What do you expect - its April. Season should start in May like the good old days!
At least they had some play. Other counties, eg Somerset have had none.
Apologies for the late good morning, but BT have only done half a job of upgrading our internet. The engineers have set everything up, but the new router hasn’t arrived.
That's interesting. Our new router from BT hasn't arrived either (after five weeks). Just an empty-handed engineer who was easily persuaded that I could install it myself if only I could get my hands on it.
That’s alarming. We had quite a satisfactory service…..I don’t do gaming….. but were persuaded to upgrade when we rang BT to report a scam. “You’ll get the new router before the engineer comes” we were told. Now the engineer’s been and set up the new modem, and the old router no longer works so we’re having to manage on our phone’s hotspots. I rang BT service and was told by the helpful Indian lady that “there was a delay. Sorry! No, she didn’t know how long!”
OT. After the defenestration of Maggie John Sergent (I think) said of Ted Heath it brings to mind the old Spanish saying 'If you sit by the river long enough the body of your enemy will come floating by'. It then became one of my favourite sayings which I have used on here before now but oddly I'd never heard it used anywhere else until this morning....
.....Nick Robinson used it in relation to the Sturgeon affair and attributed it to Sun Tzu. If correct it's quite disappointing.
The charm of the Spanish peasant sitting by the river is a big part of what makes it work. A Chinese philosopher General of the pre-Ming dynasty is something altogether less attractive
Deffo Sun Tzu, but he may just have been quoting an exisiting saying.
I'm not sure Alex Salmond gives a damn, though, as he sits patiently by the Clyde....
He would more likely be by the Dee or the Don
Thought he might be watching out for ferries being launched....
Don't think he will be around to see those two launch unless it is to go to scrappie
Feeling a bit emotional today. First cricket match since my Dad died. I've only ever been to two matches without him, and we always used to ring up to slag off Gloucestershire's batsmen discuss the day's play during matches.
It is, if I might make the comment, indeed disconcerting. For me it was whenever some book came out about one of my dad's old ships in the Navy, and it took me a while to stop thinking 'oh, I'll get that for his birthday/Christmas'.
Today is the actual day of my Dad’s funeral. So I win the filial grief poker game?
I am grateful to the Sturgeons for providing light entertainment
Respectful condolences.
The White Hotel was an epic work:
‘A remarkable and original novel . . . there is no novel to my knowledge which resembles this in technique or ideas. It stands alone’ Graham Greene
‘Astonishing . . . A forthright sensuality mixed with a fine historical feeling for the nightmare moments in modern history, a dreamlike fluidity and quickness’ John Updike
Feeling a bit emotional today. First cricket match since my Dad died. I've only ever been to two matches without him, and we always used to ring up to slag off Gloucestershire's batsmen discuss the day's play during matches.
It is, if I might make the comment, indeed disconcerting. For me it was whenever some book came out about one of my dad's old ships in the Navy, and it took me a while to stop thinking 'oh, I'll get that for his birthday/Christmas'.
Today is the actual day of my Dad’s funeral. So I win the filial grief poker game?
I am grateful to the Sturgeons for providing light entertainment
Hope everything goes well for you and yours, @Leon.
Feeling a bit emotional today. First cricket match since my Dad died. I've only ever been to two matches without him, and we always used to ring up to slag off Gloucestershire's batsmen discuss the day's play during matches.
So sorry for your loss. Losing a loved parent is tough. Not sure what your taste in music is, but I find this thought provoking and lovely:
This a school basement in a Chernihiv village that Russians turned into a concentration camp. I visited it today. And I listened to survivors for hours, shocked, in disbelief. The media narratives do not do the justice to what happened there. 1/ https://mobile.twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1643614498807324674
That’s utterly horrific.
Some friends just returned from Ukraine a couple of days ago. This horror is the tip of the iceberg. The thuggish brutality against the Ukrainian population is of a piece with the simply appalling way the Russian high command treats even its own soldiers. The complete contempt for human life is utterly sickening. The Russians don´t necessarily medievac their wounded, so they often die, even with survivable injuries, and bodies of Russian soldiers are left to rot. Apparently the smell of death is discernible even some distance from the front line. Even apart from the war crimes being committed against Ukrainians, the Russian people should place their own commanders on trial for what they have done to their own troops.
I know it’s been said many times before, but alongside the shenanigans yesterday at the UN it’s very clear the Russian state has become a pure organised crime outfit. A cartel. That’s the closest analogy I can think of.
The lack of ideology, the sickening and often gratuitous violence, the blood feuds within the leadership, this willingness to flout any kind of norms for fun and then lie about it, the regular resorting to blackmail. Above all, the business model that looks to establish “turf” and layers of loyalty by creating financial dependency in other despotic leaders. It’s all exactly what cartels and mafia organisations do.
The worst most amoral violence in the world takes place in places dominated by organised crime, but this is the first time a country as big as Russia has essentially turned into one big crime syndicate.
No local by-elections today- or next week. Further to the comments on candidates on May 4th there are some strange cases if you dig down into the local authorities. So for example Lab in Newbury have gone from 43 candidates last time to 15 this time; Conservatives are 16 short in Stockport; and Lib Dems have soared to 65 in Eat Yorkshire. Hours of fun!
On topic, we owe the SNP a huge debt of gratitude for yesterday's events.
If Police Scotland were to arrest to Nicola Sturgeon I'm not sure the internet could cope.
(Note that's not a prediction, more of an observation.)
Whilst it was a good day for popcorn sales, if our gallant law enforcement officers really want to dig people's gardens, perhaps they could start looking for the few billion by various Tory cronies for PPE which was never delivered.
Yes, the police should definitely only investigate the people you oppose most politically.
It didn't get enough attention yesterday because of the AC12 raid on Sturgeon. But the Scott Mince Benton story is beautiful. Caught red handed attempting to whore himself to a pretend gambling investor. Not just cash for questions but illegal access to unpublished reports.
What a spanner - doesn't he understand that you can't do that kind of thing? Extraordinarily he claims another 10 such lobbying operations are happening at any given time.
One of the joys of the Major era was buying the Sunday Times (which I used to do) and devouring mega scoops like the last Tory cash for questions scandal.
If I remember that and know you can't ask questions for cash, why don't actual MPs like Mr Mince?
Don't you think the Johnson years so debased the notion of political public service that Scott Benton loses the whip for five minutes and we just shrug our shoulders? In his case fate has taken a hand and as a result of boundary changes he most likely won't be standing next time.
Perhaps Scotland has taught us that there may be consequences for those suspected of pilfering the cash register, and expect a circus bigtop to be erected in the front gardens of suspects when the police come looking for bank statements. Maybe normal service is being resumed.
Or maybe not... how has no one involved in the PPE scandal had a blue tent erected on their lawn?
The stench of Tory corruption over PPE will be strong enough to allow for a big enquiry to be commissioned by PM Starmer.
The usual howler monkeys will screech about how Labour backed PPE companies who didn't have any PPE. Even if that was the case - and it isn't - what is the excuse for handing out £107m contracts to a company formed days ago by someone with no clue about PPE which had no clawback clauses?
When they failed to deliver useable PPE the money should have been returned. Even a boilerplate emergency contract would have that inserted into it.
No, what we have instead is open corruption. Cash for nothing, stolen from taxpayers and handed to the right people in exchange for nothing. With the excuse of "saving lives" even as the PPE shortage their unusable shit created killed medics.
There was one interview I saw last year. I can't recall the source.
A woman in her twenties was being interviewed, she had no prior experience of PPE supply but applied to join the fast track suppliers list. She explained she won a contract to supply a specified number of masks at her quoted price of circa £800k for the delivered consignment. She made an order through Ali Baba and her invoice from the Chinese Supplier was circa £400k. NHS procurement paid half the full fee on confirmation of their order to her, so she duly Swift paid her invoice to the Chinese supplier requesting a direct delivery to the prescribed NHS stores address. So are you still with me? This lady has at this point paid not a penny of her money to her supplier, she has only paid her supplier with NHS money. All she now has to do is wait for the shipment to arrive with NHS stores and the NHS will pay her a £400k free-money profit. Now I don't blame the lady, infact hats off to her. My question is; why did we need start-up companies with connections to Ministers taking an enormous cut of public funds behind the safety curtain of "an emergency", when NHS procurement officers could have themselves logged on to Ali Baba and ordered masks at half the price?
Did the order actually arrive? And was it actually suitable for use?
I believe it did, and there was no mention that it failed any specification tests. So let's assume it was all good. We the taxpayer still spent on a 100% mark up for a minimum of effort.
Yes, you do wonder why no-one in the NHS etc purchasing team couldn't have just placed the order.
I hope this stuff comes out in the enquiries. There may be reasonable answers (possible - don't laugh at the back) but it would be good to hear them.
I doubt Alibaba is on the list of their preferred suppliers.
In theory she should have been liable if the order didn't turn up or was unsuitable (not exactly uncommon). An insurance premium of 100% might not be far off given the normal failure rate.
The problem is not that this happened, it is what happened when the supplies turned out to be unsuitable. Was anyone pursued for costs?
I don't think I'd have made a 50/50 gamble on a random Chinese supplier getting it right first time.
If she did it as a brand new ltd co then not a 50/50 gamble but a free bet, just let ltd co go bust if it doesnt work out.
Feeling a bit emotional today. First cricket match since my Dad died. I've only ever been to two matches without him, and we always used to ring up to slag off Gloucestershire's batsmen discuss the day's play during matches.
So sorry for your loss. Losing a loved parent is tough. Not sure what your taste in music is, but I find this thought provoking and lovely:
On topic, we owe the SNP a huge debt of gratitude for yesterday's events.
If Police Scotland were to arrest to Nicola Sturgeon I'm not sure the internet could cope.
(Note that's not a prediction, more of an observation.)
Whilst it was a good day for popcorn sales, if our gallant law enforcement officers really want to dig people's gardens, perhaps they could start looking for the few billion by various Tory cronies for PPE which was never delivered.
Yes, the police should definitely only investigate the people you oppose most politically.
If Labour had been in power for 13 years then it would make sense to investigate Labour cronies for government corruption. But given they have not been in power and can't spend the (at least central govts) money, then it is indeed Tory corruption that should be focused on.
Similarly in Scottish govt funds and cronies, the focus should be on SNP cronies, rather than Tory cronies.
This is an analogy of something, but I am not sure what. Inability to do strategy?
On the left, road closed for a Council Gang to repair damage done to the pavement / cycle track by a big lorry parking on it to deliver some time ago.
On the right, a big lorry parked on the pavement / cycle track to deliver.
(This is Edinburgh, but it's just what came to hand and I'm not having a pop - it's the same everywhere afaics. It's like elements of schemes not being to current standards because it was designed 10 years ago and they are locked in.)
It didn't get enough attention yesterday because of the AC12 raid on Sturgeon. But the Scott Mince Benton story is beautiful. Caught red handed attempting to whore himself to a pretend gambling investor. Not just cash for questions but illegal access to unpublished reports.
What a spanner - doesn't he understand that you can't do that kind of thing? Extraordinarily he claims another 10 such lobbying operations are happening at any given time.
One of the joys of the Major era was buying the Sunday Times (which I used to do) and devouring mega scoops like the last Tory cash for questions scandal.
If I remember that and know you can't ask questions for cash, why don't actual MPs like Mr Mince?
Don't you think the Johnson years so debased the notion of political public service that Scott Benton loses the whip for five minutes and we just shrug our shoulders? In his case fate has taken a hand and as a result of boundary changes he most likely won't be standing next time.
Perhaps Scotland has taught us that there may be consequences for those suspected of pilfering the cash register, and expect a circus bigtop to be erected in the front gardens of suspects when the police come looking for bank statements. Maybe normal service is being resumed.
Or maybe not... how has no one involved in the PPE scandal had a blue tent erected on their lawn?
The stench of Tory corruption over PPE will be strong enough to allow for a big enquiry to be commissioned by PM Starmer.
The usual howler monkeys will screech about how Labour backed PPE companies who didn't have any PPE. Even if that was the case - and it isn't - what is the excuse for handing out £107m contracts to a company formed days ago by someone with no clue about PPE which had no clawback clauses?
When they failed to deliver useable PPE the money should have been returned. Even a boilerplate emergency contract would have that inserted into it.
No, what we have instead is open corruption. Cash for nothing, stolen from taxpayers and handed to the right people in exchange for nothing. With the excuse of "saving lives" even as the PPE shortage their unusable shit created killed medics.
There was one interview I saw last year. I can't recall the source.
A woman in her twenties was being interviewed, she had no prior experience of PPE supply but applied to join the fast track suppliers list. She explained she won a contract to supply a specified number of masks at her quoted price of circa £800k for the delivered consignment. She made an order through Ali Baba and her invoice from the Chinese Supplier was circa £400k. NHS procurement paid half the full fee on confirmation of their order to her, so she duly Swift paid her invoice to the Chinese supplier requesting a direct delivery to the prescribed NHS stores address. So are you still with me? This lady has at this point paid not a penny of her money to her supplier, she has only paid her supplier with NHS money. All she now has to do is wait for the shipment to arrive with NHS stores and the NHS will pay her a £400k free-money profit. Now I don't blame the lady, infact hats off to her. My question is; why did we need start-up companies with connections to Ministers taking an enormous cut of public funds behind the safety curtain of "an emergency", when NHS procurement officers could have themselves logged on to Ali Baba and ordered masks at half the price?
Did the order actually arrive? And was it actually suitable for use?
I believe it did, and there was no mention that it failed any specification tests. So let's assume it was all good. We the taxpayer still spent on a 100% mark up for a minimum of effort.
Yes, you do wonder why no-one in the NHS etc purchasing team couldn't have just placed the order.
I hope this stuff comes out in the enquiries. There may be reasonable answers (possible - don't laugh at the back) but it would be good to hear them.
I doubt Alibaba is on the list of their preferred suppliers.
In theory she should have been liable if the order didn't turn up or was unsuitable (not exactly uncommon). An insurance premium of 100% might not be far off given the normal failure rate.
The problem is not that this happened, it is what happened when the supplies turned out to be unsuitable. Was anyone pursued for costs?
I don't think I'd have made a 50/50 gamble on a random Chinese supplier getting it right first time.
I believe the order was delivered and the product adequate. Everyone fulfilled their obligation at an additional cost to the NHS of £400k.
And Rochdale's earlier point is no one reimbursed the NHS for unusable Chinese tat.
In my anecdote, the lady in question gambled with taxpayers' money not her own, and quite legitimately. It paid off for her.
Comments
But every phase of testing was undergone, nonetheless.
Clinical trial normally take much, much longer not because they're designed that way, but because recruiting volunteers, and producing meaningful results takes a very long time.
In a pandemic, the condition mean that it's both much easier to find volunteers, and the results form the trial happen far more quickly.
You're implying that corners were cut.
That's really not the case.
Such effects almost always only become clear after the new treatment has been approved, as is in widespread use.
What are the 5 and 10 year effects of Covid infection ?
You don't know that either.
What we do know is that the long term effects of unvaccinated Covid infection appear significantly worse than those for the vaccinated infected on the evidence so far.
“Indyref2 never happened, and for years there have been questions about what became of £600,000 that was donated to the SNP’s campaign fund. Some donors demanded their money back when the referendum turned out to be a pipe dream, and it has now been suggested the money may have been spent elsewhere.
“For the past two years, Operation Branchform, the Police Scotland investigation into SNP finances, has been looking into the circumstances.
“Police are now understood to be concentrating on around five transactions made while Mr Murrell was still chief executive of the party, including at least one that involved the purchase of a car.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/05/indyref2-peter-murrell-nicola-sturgeon-snp-scotland-police/
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/03/24/7394933/
More of a problem for post conflict Russia, probably.
Inauguration ceremony of Bundeswehr Space Command.
https://twitter.com/clashreport/status/1643905623069736961
I just said that the process was hugely contracted. I mean accelerated.
After a few days in Northern Ireland I am back in the office and I have stopped for Popmaster. Ken Bruce rocks! Greatest Hits Radio rocks!
Sitting on the stool of *repentance*, at least in the old days, that was a different matter, of course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stool_of_repentance#/media/File:Repentance_stool_and_branks,_Holy_Trinity_Church,_St._Andrews.JPG
Its possible that some new medications and vaccines may cause harm, but in almost all cases it would be rapidly apparent. The idea of a ticking time bomb is much less likely.
This a school basement in a Chernihiv village that Russians turned into a concentration camp. I visited it today. And I listened to survivors for hours, shocked, in disbelief. The media narratives do not do the justice to what happened there. 1/
https://mobile.twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1643614498807324674
If Police Scotland were to arrest to Nicola Sturgeon I'm not sure the internet could cope.
(Note that's not a prediction, more of an observation.)
The difference from the 'peace' brigade suggestions would as Nigelb notes this would still presume on a Ukrainian military success, not a capitulation.
An alternative to, or commutation of, the stool of repentance was payment of buttock mail.
What a name.
Intreresting idea. HMRC oir the local authority charging people extra tax in lieu of public repentance.
I think contracted gives the impression of cutting corners, whereas accelerated might just mean same thing but faster.
More efficient might be a better way of putting it, unless arguing the faster process was achieved by trimming times or steps.
Stuff we buy over the counter (ibuprofen for example) kills thousands every year.
The British shipbuilding industry laughed at the American mass production of Liberty ships - "Ha, ha, look at how much that costs per ton". But forgot that this was about building ships in a ludicrously short period of time.
When the manning levels were reduced, it turned out that you could build ships faster than the old methods *and* cheaper. Mind you, the American industry missed that one as well, mostly.
https://twitter.com/search?q=#BoycottNike&src=trend_click&vertical=trends
However, IMHO, dealing direct with the manufacturer, and bypassing all wholesalers and retailers (and quacks) works fine when it works. St Paul - much misunderstood - is this view's finest spokesman.
They do realise one of the inspirations for the Empire ?
slag off Gloucestershire's batsmendiscuss the day's play during matches.While the planet and the sun ought to adjust itself to cricket's demands (obvs), the indications are that it isn't going to until global warming is substantially advanced.
Apologies for the late good morning, but BT have only done half a job of upgrading our internet. The engineers have set everything up, but the new router hasn’t arrived.
A woman in her twenties was being interviewed, she had no prior experience of PPE supply but applied to join the fast track suppliers list. She explained she won a contract to supply a specified number of masks at her quoted price of circa £800k for the delivered consignment. She made an order through Ali Baba and her invoice from the Chinese Supplier was circa £400k. NHS procurement paid half the full fee on confirmation of their order to her, so she duly Swift paid her invoice to the Chinese supplier requesting a direct delivery to the prescribed NHS stores address. So are you still with me? This lady has at this point paid not a penny of her money to her supplier, she has only paid her supplier with NHS money. All she now has to do is wait for the shipment to arrive with NHS stores and the NHS will pay her a £400k free-money profit. Now I don't blame the lady, infact hats off to her. My question is; why did we need start-up companies with connections to Ministers taking an enormous cut of public funds behind the safety curtain of "an emergency", when NHS procurement officers could have themselves logged on to Ali Baba and ordered masks at half the price?
I can't recall a close parallel - except perhaps Cash for Influence.
I pointed out the analogy to Tim Smith.
Cash for influence was Despatches 2010, where Geoff the Hoon, Patricia Hewitt, Stephen Byers and Margaret Moran were caught 'offering to use their influential positions for reward'. Hoon and Byers heavily disciplined (multiyear bans from Parliament), Moran I am not sure, and Hewitt was NFA and just taken back as a Govt adviser.
Any more similars?
1. Ponce in a BMW 430d takes umbridge at a Ford Ka on the M25 roundabout. Floors it to weave past crossing lanes, almost bins it, then has to come to a screeching halt alongside said Ka at the lights. Then nearly bins it again flooring it down the slip road, only to then have to drop anchor to immediately take the Upminster exit
2. Ponce in an ancient Mercedes G-Wagon sitting at 55pmh in lane 2 (of 2). Guy in an old Astra undertakes. G-Wagon floors it to re-overtake, then pulls in front and slows down in front of Astra who then overtakes. Rinse, repeat.
What is the point? Other than advertising their possession of a micro-penis to the rest of us?
I hope this stuff comes out in the enquiries. There may be reasonable answers (possible - don't laugh at the back) but it would be good to hear them.
I am grateful to the Sturgeons for providing light entertainment
In theory she should have been liable if the order didn't turn up or was unsuitable (not exactly uncommon). An insurance premium of 100% might not be far off given the normal failure rate.
The problem is not that this happened, it is what happened when the supplies turned out to be unsuitable. Was anyone pursued for costs?
I don't think I'd have made a 50/50 gamble on a random Chinese supplier getting it right first time.
I rang BT service and was told by the helpful Indian lady that “there was a delay. Sorry! No, she didn’t know how long!”
The White Hotel was an epic work:
‘A remarkable and original novel . . . there is no novel to my knowledge which resembles this in technique or ideas. It stands alone’ Graham Greene
‘Astonishing . . . A forthright sensuality mixed with a fine historical feeling for the nightmare moments in modern history, a dreamlike fluidity and quickness’ John Updike
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BKHCIVzV38
of.
The lack of ideology, the sickening and often gratuitous violence, the blood feuds within the leadership, this willingness to flout any kind of norms for fun and then lie about it, the regular resorting to blackmail. Above all, the business model that looks to establish “turf” and layers of loyalty by creating financial dependency in other despotic leaders. It’s all exactly what cartels and mafia organisations do.
The worst most amoral violence in the world takes place in places dominated by organised crime, but this is the first time a country as big as Russia has essentially turned into one big crime syndicate.
Similarly in Scottish govt funds and cronies, the focus should be on SNP cronies, rather than Tory cronies.
Not sure why this is difficult.
On the left, road closed for a Council Gang to repair damage done to the pavement / cycle track by a big lorry parking on it to deliver some time ago.
On the right, a big lorry parked on the pavement / cycle track to deliver.
(This is Edinburgh, but it's just what came to hand and I'm not having a pop - it's the same everywhere afaics. It's like elements of schemes not being to current standards because it was designed 10 years ago and they are locked in.)
And Rochdale's earlier point is no one reimbursed the NHS for unusable Chinese tat.
In my anecdote, the lady in question gambled with taxpayers' money not her own, and quite legitimately. It paid off for her.