"If all this speculation comes to nothing, the whole government operation will appear incompetent. More incompetent than a government operation that kicks off a campaign with a warning to stockpile food? Who knows. Nothing about today makes any sense."
War with Russia?
Has something happened we are unaware of?
The Kharkiv front is being flattened and Russia are running tactical nuke exercises
Hope everyone's got their three day supply of bottled water sorted...
Does 2 years of wine at pessimistic consumption rates, in UPS protected wine fridges, count?
Depends, what sort of wine goes well with a nice bit of sauteed rat from the neighborhood rat man?
Pretty cynically, I think the new "have 3 days food and water in your house" messaging is just so people die of radiation poisoning in their own homes, rather than stinking up the streets or raiding their neighbours house in search of the last bottle of Evian.
I hate this period. The time between two points, where everything is rumour and there is no solid data, just twitter and journalists being [redacted badword]s. This is the place where the true gamblers live and the statistician must bow out, because I have no solid ground to stand on. This is the time when Susan Hall looks like a winner of LonMayor2024, or Mme. LePen looks like a winner of round 1 of the POTFR2022, when everything is in flux and nothing is known. Good luck and I'll see you when we know something.
Sunak looked far too chipper at PMQs to be in possession of news that the King is very ill/abdicating etc
It would cheer me up.
I think there is too much Kremlinology going on here. It doesn't alter the electoral timetable if Chaz megs it, they just wheel in Baldy Basket Case. If he's all boo-hoo over his bony Mrs then get Phil out of Kirstie 'n' Phil who looks like a less heavily medicated version of the PoW anyway.
Is Sunak about to replace him with Claire Coutinho and make her first female Chancellor
Probably no but why not add to the speculation
As with days like this there are multiple strands of speculation, many of which quickly wither to nothing. There is an odd focus on Hunt, but I do wonder if that's journalistic lensing rather than the intent.
You dont need to drag the Foreign sec back to a special cabinet in order to change the chancellor.
Sunak looked far too chipper at PMQs to be in possession of news that the King is very ill/abdicating etc
It would cheer me up.
I think there is too much Kremlinology going on here. It doesn't alter the electoral timetable if Chaz megs it, they just wheel in Baldy Basket Case. If he's all boo-hoo over his bony Mrs then get Phil out of Kirstie 'n' Phil who looks like a less heavily medicated version of the PoW anyway.
If KC3 pops off during campaign its 14 days delay to election date taking us into all of UK school holidays
A friend of mine with some political connections says Yes there will be an election in July, and it will be announced around 5pm, before the news at 6
He sometimes gets things wildly wrong, and sometimes nails things completely
SeanT ?
Leon's alter ego Heather, surely. Never forget the rumours about new lockdowns...
Didn't you want to make a bet with me, the other day, that Peter "Lab Leak" Daszak would never see a trial or a jail?
You sure?
🚨BREAKING🚨
Last night, based partially on evidence uncovered in @COVIDSelect's recent staff report and public hearing, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commenced individual debarment proceedings against Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.
This move comes one week after @HHSgov issued an immediate, government-wide suspension on all taxpayer funds allocated to EcoHealth.
Dr. Daszak’s individual debarment will prevent him from receiving funds from the U.S. taxpayer."
The conspiracy to gaslight us is finally falling to pieces, and it looks Daszak is in the firing line. And given that TWENTY MILLION PEOPLE are dead, that seems fair
A friend of mine with some political connections says Yes there will be an election in July, and it will be announced around 5pm, before the news at 6
He sometimes gets things wildly wrong, and sometimes nails things completely
Did he predict Brexit?
Yes, and Trump
OTOH he is also predicting that Sunak will scrape a tiny majority, which does rather undermine his crediblity
However he is obsessively political and does know people - and its quite possible he is on the right grapevine for this
Did he predict that Liz Truss was the diamond in the rough who would trounce Starmer?
We've all made duff predictions. I know I certainly have. Poor Liz was undone by the blob. In some ways she was unfortunate. Bright enough to see the problem, too dim to see that her solution would crash and burn.
Sunak looked far too chipper at PMQs to be in possession of news that the King is very ill/abdicating etc
It would cheer me up.
I think there is too much Kremlinology going on here. It doesn't alter the electoral timetable if Chaz megs it, they just wheel in Baldy Basket Case. If he's all boo-hoo over his bony Mrs then get Phil out of Kirstie 'n' Phil who looks like a less heavily medicated version of the PoW anyway.
If KC3 pops off during campaign its 14 days delay to election date taking us into all of UK school holidays
Why? As soon as one king dies, we get another. Like it or not. That's the whole point of the stupid fucking system isn't it?
Sunak looked far too chipper at PMQs to be in possession of news that the King is very ill/abdicating etc
It would cheer me up.
I think there is too much Kremlinology going on here. It doesn't alter the electoral timetable if Chaz megs it, they just wheel in Baldy Basket Case. If he's all boo-hoo over his bony Mrs then get Phil out of Kirstie 'n' Phil who looks like a less heavily medicated version of the PoW anyway.
Kirstie? "A whole lotta woman"? Or could we see a "whole lotta Rosie"?
Here's what @YouGov is polling: Sunak has his lowest score on favourability and other key attributes; the economy as a top concern dips to its lowest level since early 2022 #snapelection #GE2024
Perhaps he thinks he can do a Corbyn with SKS as Mrs May?
That gives us the prospect of another five years of inertia. What will be left by 2029?
Remember 1992 Kinabalu. Remember 1992!
A tiny part of me wants Sunak to win to have to clear up the mess he has made. Tories on 10% in 2028.
Sunak looked far too chipper at PMQs to be in possession of news that the King is very ill/abdicating etc
It would cheer me up.
I think there is too much Kremlinology going on here. It doesn't alter the electoral timetable if Chaz megs it, they just wheel in Baldy Basket Case. If he's all boo-hoo over his bony Mrs then get Phil out of Kirstie 'n' Phil who looks like a less heavily medicated version of the PoW anyway.
If KC3 pops off during campaign its 14 days delay to election date taking us into all of UK school holidays
Why? As soon as one king dies, we get another. Like it or not. That's the whole point of the stupid fucking system isn't it?
I don't make the rules nor understand them! I suspect to suspend campaigning for the period of national mourning
A friend of mine with some political connections says Yes there will be an election in July, and it will be announced around 5pm, before the news at 6
He sometimes gets things wildly wrong, and sometimes nails things completely
SeanT ?
Leon's alter ego Heather, surely. Never forget the rumours about new lockdowns...
Didn't you want to make a bet with me, the other day, that Peter "Lab Leak" Daszak would never see a trial or a jail?
You sure?
🚨BREAKING🚨
Last night, based partially on evidence uncovered in @COVIDSelect's recent staff report and public hearing, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commenced individual debarment proceedings against Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.
This move comes one week after @HHSgov issued an immediate, government-wide suspension on all taxpayer funds allocated to EcoHealth.
Dr. Daszak’s individual debarment will prevent him from receiving funds from the U.S. taxpayer."
The conspiracy to gaslight us is finally falling to pieces, and it looks Daszak is in the firing line. And given that TWENTY MILLION PEOPLE are dead, that seems fair
I believe I said jail and I stand by that. £50 to the charity of your choice if he serves jail time, £50 to mine if not. Might need and end point as this could take a while... By 2030?
If Sunak announces a snap election, can’t help but think slightly better of him.
It’s in the best traditions of British suicidalism, like Captain Scott, and the Charge of the Light Brigade etc.
Thing is, literally everyone on pb keeps saying it will only get worse the longer he leaves it, so now pb is saying he's mad to go now. Which is it folks? 😅
If Sunak announces a snap election, can’t help but think slightly better of him.
It’s in the best traditions of British suicidalism, like Captain Scott, and the Charge of the Light Brigade etc.
Thing is, literally everyone on pb keeps saying it will only get worse the longer he leaves it, so now pb is saying he's mad to go now. Which is it folks? 😅
Is Sunak about to replace him with Claire Coutinho and make her first female Chancellor
Probably no but why not add to the speculation
As with days like this there are multiple strands of speculation, many of which quickly wither to nothing. There is an odd focus on Hunt, but I do wonder if that's journalistic lensing rather than the intent.
You dont need to drag the Foreign sec back to a special cabinet in order to change the chancellor.
A friend of mine with some political connections says Yes there will be an election in July, and it will be announced around 5pm, before the news at 6
He sometimes gets things wildly wrong, and sometimes nails things completely
Did he predict Brexit?
Yes, and Trump
OTOH he is also predicting that Sunak will scrape a tiny majority, which does rather undermine his crediblity
However he is obsessively political and does know people - and its quite possible he is on the right grapevine for this
Did he predict that Liz Truss was the diamond in the rough who would trounce Starmer?
We've all made duff predictions. I know I certainly have. Poor Liz was undone by the blob. In some ways she was unfortunate. Bright enough to see the problem, too dim to see that her solution would crash and burn.
If there was a BLOB, it saved Britain. Personally I think it was, rather ironically, Market Forces.
A friend of mine with some political connections says Yes there will be an election in July, and it will be announced around 5pm, before the news at 6
He sometimes gets things wildly wrong, and sometimes nails things completely
Did he predict Brexit?
Yes, and Trump
OTOH he is also predicting that Sunak will scrape a tiny majority, which does rather undermine his crediblity
However he is obsessively political and does know people - and its quite possible he is on the right grapevine for this
Did he predict that Liz Truss was the diamond in the rough who would trounce Starmer?
We've all made duff predictions. I know I certainly have. Poor Liz was undone by the blob. In some ways she was unfortunate. Bright enough to see the problem, too dim to see that her solution would crash and burn.
Liz thought that leadership involved telling people what to do. Leadership is really about persuading people to follow you.
It's a really massive difference, and it's understanding that difference that, in part, led to Osborne creating the OBR in the first place, and enabled him to borrow mountains more money than he said he would.
🚨 NEW: Ministers expect that Rishi Sunak will tell them in the 4:15pm meeting that he is heading to Buckingham Palace to ask the King to dissolve Parliament for a general election on 4 July
🚨 NEW: Ministers expect that Rishi Sunak will tell them in the 4:15pm meeting that he is heading to Buckingham Palace to ask the King to dissolve Parliament for a general election on 4 July
@nicholaswatt A Tory rebel source tells me: Letters are going in calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak after reports of an imminent general election announcement
Another Tory source: panic in the tea room. Nobody was expecting this. “Everyone mortified,” the source told me
This echoes what a leading Tory Brexiteer told me - as I posted earlier - that an election now would be “madness”. Why go when @Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls goes the thinking
🚨 NEW: Ministers expect that Rishi Sunak will tell them in the 4:15pm meeting that he is heading to Buckingham Palace to ask the King to dissolve Parliament for a general election on 4 July
@nicholaswatt A Tory rebel source tells me: Letters are going in calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak after reports of an imminent general election announcement
Another Tory source: panic in the tea room. Nobody was expecting this. “Everyone mortified,” the source told me
This echoes what a leading Tory Brexiteer told me - as I posted earlier - that an election now would be “madness”. Why go when @Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls goes the thinking
Oh, is this an attempt to avoid a confidence vote?
A friend of mine with some political connections says Yes there will be an election in July, and it will be announced around 5pm, before the news at 6
He sometimes gets things wildly wrong, and sometimes nails things completely
SeanT ?
Leon's alter ego Heather, surely. Never forget the rumours about new lockdowns...
Didn't you want to make a bet with me, the other day, that Peter "Lab Leak" Daszak would never see a trial or a jail?
You sure?
🚨BREAKING🚨
Last night, based partially on evidence uncovered in @COVIDSelect's recent staff report and public hearing, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commenced individual debarment proceedings against Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.
This move comes one week after @HHSgov issued an immediate, government-wide suspension on all taxpayer funds allocated to EcoHealth.
Dr. Daszak’s individual debarment will prevent him from receiving funds from the U.S. taxpayer."
The conspiracy to gaslight us is finally falling to pieces, and it looks Daszak is in the firing line. And given that TWENTY MILLION PEOPLE are dead, that seems fair
I believe I said jail and I stand by that. £50 to the charity of your choice if he serves jail time, £50 to mine if not. Might need and end point as this could take a while... By 2030?
The pressure to see people punished for this will, I predict, become irresistible
Because, even if you still believe it "came from some bat soup at the wetmarket, not from the virology lab trying to create really nasty bat viruses 200 yards down the road" the fact it is is now unquestionably true - as even you concede - that there was a cover up of the possibility it came from the lab, and an attempt to silence all discussion of that, by several key actors. They all need to stand trial, because their stupid self-serving fraudulence probably delayed us getting the truth about the virus, early on, when it might have saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars. And there are serious questions about banned gain-of-function research being funded by America but taking place in China, explicitly to evade the law
"If all this speculation comes to nothing, the whole government operation will appear incompetent. More incompetent than a government operation that kicks off a campaign with a warning to stockpile food? Who knows. Nothing about today makes any sense."
War with Russia?
Has something happened we are unaware of?
The Kharkiv front is being flattened and Russia are running tactical nuke exercises
Hope everyone's got their three day supply of bottled water sorted...
Does 2 years of wine at pessimistic consumption rates, in UPS protected wine fridges, count?
Depends, what sort of wine goes well with a nice bit of sauteed rat from the neighborhood rat man?
Pretty cynically, I think the new "have 3 days food and water in your house" messaging is just so people die of radiation poisoning in their own homes, rather than stinking up the streets or raiding their neighbours house in search of the last bottle of Evian.
Actually, the vast majority of radiation could avoided by waiting a week or 2 in the cellar.
The curious thing is that because of the probable density of targeting, most of the country wouldn’t experience blast, thermal pulse etc. so it would be undamaged. Plants a bit stunted by the radiation. And dead people scattered about.
If Sunak announces a snap election, can’t help but think slightly better of him.
It’s in the best traditions of British suicidalism, like Captain Scott, and the Charge of the Light Brigade etc.
Thing is, literally everyone on pb keeps saying it will only get worse the longer he leaves it, so now pb is saying he's mad to go now. Which is it folks? 😅
There are plenty of us who have been consistent in saying he would be mad to go early even if it gets worse the longer he leaves it.
I don't think that's because we all have a financial interest in a complete Tory wipeout.
@nicholaswatt A Tory rebel source tells me: Letters are going in calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak after reports of an imminent general election announcement
Another Tory source: panic in the tea room. Nobody was expecting this. “Everyone mortified,” the source told me
This echoes what a leading Tory Brexiteer told me - as I posted earlier - that an election now would be “madness”. Why go when @Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls goes the thinking
Off topic, but possibly pertinent to problems in other nations:
"The release of the annual Social Security trustees’ report is usually the occasion for some dolorous lament that we have inched another year closer to disaster. This year, however, I have good news! The industrious actuaries at the Social Security Administration, having ground through all the data, now think our nation’s looming entitlement meltdown looks slightly less catastrophic than it did last year.
They now forecast that the combined Social Security Trust Funds won’t be exhausted until 2035, a year later than they expected in 2023. They also see some improvement in the program’s long-term finances, primarily because of more favorable assumptions about productivity growth and disability rates — though that happy news is, they write, “partially offset by a decrease in the assumed long-term total fertility rate,” which has now gone from 2 children per woman to 1.9." source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/14/social-security-fix-birthrates/ source: https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2024/
🚨 NEW: Ministers expect that Rishi Sunak will tell them in the 4:15pm meeting that he is heading to Buckingham Palace to ask the King to dissolve Parliament for a general election on 4 July
@nicholaswatt A Tory rebel source tells me: Letters are going in calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak after reports of an imminent general election announcement
Another Tory source: panic in the tea room. Nobody was expecting this. “Everyone mortified,” the source told me
This echoes what a leading Tory Brexiteer told me - as I posted earlier - that an election now would be “madness”. Why go when @Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls goes the thinking
A friend of mine with some political connections says Yes there will be an election in July, and it will be announced around 5pm, before the news at 6
He sometimes gets things wildly wrong, and sometimes nails things completely
SeanT ?
Leon's alter ego Heather, surely. Never forget the rumours about new lockdowns...
Didn't you want to make a bet with me, the other day, that Peter "Lab Leak" Daszak would never see a trial or a jail?
You sure?
🚨BREAKING🚨
Last night, based partially on evidence uncovered in @COVIDSelect's recent staff report and public hearing, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commenced individual debarment proceedings against Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.
This move comes one week after @HHSgov issued an immediate, government-wide suspension on all taxpayer funds allocated to EcoHealth.
Dr. Daszak’s individual debarment will prevent him from receiving funds from the U.S. taxpayer."
The conspiracy to gaslight us is finally falling to pieces, and it looks Daszak is in the firing line. And given that TWENTY MILLION PEOPLE are dead, that seems fair
I believe I said jail and I stand by that. £50 to the charity of your choice if he serves jail time, £50 to mine if not. Might need and end point as this could take a while... By 2030?
The pressure to see people punished for this will, I predict, become irresistible
Because, even if you still believe it "came from some bat soup at the wetmarket, not from the virology lab trying to create really nasty bat viruses 200 yards down the road" the fact it is is now unquestionably true - as even you concede - that there was a cover up of the possibility it came from the lab, and an attempt to silence all discussion of that, by several key actors. They all need to stand trial, because their stupid self-serving fraudulence probably delayed us getting the truth about the virus, early on, when it might have saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars. And there are serious questions about banned gain-of-function research being funded by America but taking place in China, explicitly to evade the law
Rishi Sunak being prevented from calling an election because he had to fight a no confidence vote would be the most Rishi Sunak thing that has ever happened.
Treat reports of confidence motions going in to stop Sunak calling election with a pinch of salt. No prospect of triggering a challenge in that way. Couple of rebels just laying markers in off-chance he doesn’t call one, so they can say “we made him back off”.
A friend of mine with some political connections says Yes there will be an election in July, and it will be announced around 5pm, before the news at 6
He sometimes gets things wildly wrong, and sometimes nails things completely
SeanT ?
Leon's alter ego Heather, surely. Never forget the rumours about new lockdowns...
Didn't you want to make a bet with me, the other day, that Peter "Lab Leak" Daszak would never see a trial or a jail?
You sure?
🚨BREAKING🚨
Last night, based partially on evidence uncovered in @COVIDSelect's recent staff report and public hearing, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commenced individual debarment proceedings against Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.
This move comes one week after @HHSgov issued an immediate, government-wide suspension on all taxpayer funds allocated to EcoHealth.
Dr. Daszak’s individual debarment will prevent him from receiving funds from the U.S. taxpayer."
The conspiracy to gaslight us is finally falling to pieces, and it looks Daszak is in the firing line. And given that TWENTY MILLION PEOPLE are dead, that seems fair
I believe I said jail and I stand by that. £50 to the charity of your choice if he serves jail time, £50 to mine if not. Might need and end point as this could take a while... By 2030?
The pressure to see people punished for this will, I predict, become irresistible
Because, even if you still believe it "came from some bat soup at the wetmarket, not from the virology lab trying to create really nasty bat viruses 200 yards down the road" the fact it is is now unquestionably true - as even you concede - that there was a cover up of the possibility it came from the lab, and an attempt to silence all discussion of that, by several key actors. They all need to stand trial, because their stupid self-serving fraudulence probably delayed us getting the truth about the virus, early on, when it might have saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars. And there are serious questions about banned gain-of-function research being funded by America but taking place in China, explicitly to evade the law
Daszak is finished, for a start
And yet the editor of the Lancet will still be there like nothing happened.
@nicholaswatt A Tory rebel source tells me: Letters are going in calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak after reports of an imminent general election announcement
Another Tory source: panic in the tea room. Nobody was expecting this. “Everyone mortified,” the source told me
This echoes what a leading Tory Brexiteer told me - as I posted earlier - that an election now would be “madness”. Why go when @Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls goes the thinking
Could Sunak be hijacked prior to seeing Chas?
Nah, no time for the vote before he goes to the Palace and no way it passes anyway.
@nicholaswatt A Tory rebel source tells me: Letters are going in calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak after reports of an imminent general election announcement
Another Tory source: panic in the tea room. Nobody was expecting this. “Everyone mortified,” the source told me
This echoes what a leading Tory Brexiteer told me - as I posted earlier - that an election now would be “madness”. Why go when @Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls goes the thinking
Could Sunak be hijacked prior to seeing Chas?
Even if could be removed as Tory leader in time, he'd still remain PM. Hard to see that Chas would refuse a dissolution in those circs, given we're so close to the time limit anyway...
A friend of mine with some political connections says Yes there will be an election in July, and it will be announced around 5pm, before the news at 6
He sometimes gets things wildly wrong, and sometimes nails things completely
SeanT ?
Leon's alter ego Heather, surely. Never forget the rumours about new lockdowns...
Didn't you want to make a bet with me, the other day, that Peter "Lab Leak" Daszak would never see a trial or a jail?
You sure?
🚨BREAKING🚨
Last night, based partially on evidence uncovered in @COVIDSelect's recent staff report and public hearing, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commenced individual debarment proceedings against Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.
This move comes one week after @HHSgov issued an immediate, government-wide suspension on all taxpayer funds allocated to EcoHealth.
Dr. Daszak’s individual debarment will prevent him from receiving funds from the U.S. taxpayer."
The conspiracy to gaslight us is finally falling to pieces, and it looks Daszak is in the firing line. And given that TWENTY MILLION PEOPLE are dead, that seems fair
What's the main accusation against him? Working with China?
@nicholaswatt A Tory rebel source tells me: Letters are going in calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak after reports of an imminent general election announcement
Another Tory source: panic in the tea room. Nobody was expecting this. “Everyone mortified,” the source told me
This echoes what a leading Tory Brexiteer told me - as I posted earlier - that an election now would be “madness”. Why go when @Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls goes the thinking
Probably Sunak thinks he can salvage 150 seats or more if he goes now, rather than fewer than 100 if he hangs on until the last possible minute.
If this happens is Sunak not buying his own good news? Okay, Vennells had taken over the news cycle before this, but the drop in inflation was up there.
@nicholaswatt A Tory rebel source tells me: Letters are going in calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak after reports of an imminent general election announcement
Another Tory source: panic in the tea room. Nobody was expecting this. “Everyone mortified,” the source told me
This echoes what a leading Tory Brexiteer told me - as I posted earlier - that an election now would be “madness”. Why go when @Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls goes the thinking
Could Sunak be hijacked prior to seeing Chas?
Even if could be removed as Tory leader in time, he'd still remain PM. Hard to see that Chas would refuse a dissolution in those circs, given we're so close to the time limit anyway...
Yep and the rebels would have to fight a GE leaderless unless they all agree a candidate
@nicholaswatt A Tory rebel source tells me: Letters are going in calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak after reports of an imminent general election announcement
Another Tory source: panic in the tea room. Nobody was expecting this. “Everyone mortified,” the source told me
This echoes what a leading Tory Brexiteer told me - as I posted earlier - that an election now would be “madness”. Why go when @Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls goes the thinking
Could Sunak be hijacked prior to seeing Chas?
A hard stop of the PMs car on The Mall by shotgun wielding masked men dressed in tweeds?
A friend of mine with some political connections says Yes there will be an election in July, and it will be announced around 5pm, before the news at 6
He sometimes gets things wildly wrong, and sometimes nails things completely
SeanT ?
Leon's alter ego Heather, surely. Never forget the rumours about new lockdowns...
Didn't you want to make a bet with me, the other day, that Peter "Lab Leak" Daszak would never see a trial or a jail?
You sure?
🚨BREAKING🚨
Last night, based partially on evidence uncovered in @COVIDSelect's recent staff report and public hearing, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commenced individual debarment proceedings against Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.
This move comes one week after @HHSgov issued an immediate, government-wide suspension on all taxpayer funds allocated to EcoHealth.
Dr. Daszak’s individual debarment will prevent him from receiving funds from the U.S. taxpayer."
The conspiracy to gaslight us is finally falling to pieces, and it looks Daszak is in the firing line. And given that TWENTY MILLION PEOPLE are dead, that seems fair
What's the main accusation against him? Working with China?
An entire textbook of allegations. Richard Ebright has been on the case (a science prof at Rutgers) he's feeling vindicated (quote rightly) and here is his summary:
"Unindicted felon Peter Daszak provably defrauded the US government, provably breached contractual terms of US-government grants, and, through reckless gain-of-function research in Wuhan, probably caused the COVID-19 pandemic, killing 20 million and costing $25 trillion."
🚨 NEW: Ministers expect that Rishi Sunak will tell them in the 4:15pm meeting that he is heading to Buckingham Palace to ask the King to dissolve Parliament for a general election on 4 July
Comments
I hope if Hunt is replaced the GE date is also confirmed
He sometimes gets things wildly wrong, and sometimes nails things completely
Pretty cynically, I think the new "have 3 days food and water in your house" messaging is just so people die of radiation poisoning in their own homes, rather than stinking up the streets or raiding their neighbours house in search of the last bottle of Evian.
It has been feeling like end of term for far too long.
Let’s clear the air, one way or t’other.
OTOH he is also predicting that Sunak will scrape a tiny majority, which does rather undermine his crediblity
However he is obsessively political and does know people - and its quite possible he is on the right grapevine for this
For a Moon Rabbit double header, July election and a Tory victory?
I think there is too much Kremlinology going on here. It doesn't alter the electoral timetable if Chaz megs it, they just wheel in Baldy Basket Case. If he's all boo-hoo over his bony Mrs then get Phil out of Kirstie 'n' Phil who looks like a less heavily medicated version of the PoW anyway.
You sure?
🚨BREAKING🚨
Last night, based partially on evidence uncovered in @COVIDSelect's recent staff report and public hearing, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commenced individual debarment proceedings against Dr. Peter Daszak, President of EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.
This move comes one week after @HHSgov issued an immediate, government-wide suspension on all taxpayer funds allocated to EcoHealth.
Dr. Daszak’s individual debarment will prevent him from receiving funds from the U.S. taxpayer."
https://x.com/COVIDSelect/status/1793251784930066524
The conspiracy to gaslight us is finally falling to pieces, and it looks Daszak is in the firing line. And given that TWENTY MILLION PEOPLE are dead, that seems fair
Bad form of Rishi not to hold off for another 16 hours to give her a rare victory...
It’s in the best traditions of British suicidalism, like Captain Scott, and the Charge of the Light Brigade etc.
By Chris Mason, Political editor, BBC News"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-69048696
I suspect to suspend campaigning for the period of national mourning
Candidates: Truss, Braverman, Patel, Mordaunt.
Personally I think it was, rather ironically, Market Forces.
It's a really massive difference, and it's understanding that difference that, in part, led to Osborne creating the OBR in the first place, and enabled him to borrow mountains more money than he said he would.
https://x.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1793286364856811831
@MoonRabbit was right, fair play all around.
I should have stuck to my guns!
A Tory rebel source tells me: Letters are going in calling for a no confidence vote in Rishi Sunak after reports of an imminent general election announcement
Another Tory source: panic in the tea room. Nobody was expecting this. “Everyone mortified,” the source told me
This echoes what a leading Tory Brexiteer told me - as I posted earlier - that an election now would be “madness”. Why go when @Conservatives are 20 points behind in the polls goes the thinking
Because, even if you still believe it "came from some bat soup at the wetmarket, not from the virology lab trying to create really nasty bat viruses 200 yards down the road" the fact it is is now unquestionably true - as even you concede - that there was a cover up of the possibility it came from the lab, and an attempt to silence all discussion of that, by several key actors. They all need to stand trial, because their stupid self-serving fraudulence probably delayed us getting the truth about the virus, early on, when it might have saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars. And there are serious questions about banned gain-of-function research being funded by America but taking place in China, explicitly to evade the law
Daszak is finished, for a start
Some people working in govt have now been told an election announcement is definitely coming - but without a date!
Lab 381
Con 192
LD 22
SNP 27
https://www.economist.com/interactive/uk-general-election/forecast
The curious thing is that because of the probable density of targeting, most of the country wouldn’t experience blast, thermal pulse etc. so it would be undamaged. Plants a bit stunted by the radiation. And dead people scattered about.
I don't think that's because we all have a financial interest in a complete Tory wipeout.
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/politics/market/1.218024805
I give it 20 minutes from any announcement until a Labour fundraiser hits it.
"The release of the annual Social Security trustees’ report is usually the occasion for some dolorous lament that we have inched another year closer to disaster. This year, however, I have good news! The industrious actuaries at the Social Security Administration, having ground through all the data, now think our nation’s looming entitlement meltdown looks slightly less catastrophic than it did last year.
They now forecast that the combined Social Security Trust Funds won’t be exhausted until 2035, a year later than they expected in 2023. They also see some improvement in the program’s long-term finances, primarily because of more favorable assumptions about productivity growth and disability rates — though that happy news is, they write, “partially offset by a decrease in the assumed long-term total fertility rate,” which has now gone from 2 children per woman to 1.9."
source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/14/social-security-fix-birthrates/
source: https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2024/
The last time the TFR was that high? 2010:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States
And the trend is not encouraging.
(Accidentally posted on previous thread,)
*brave*
Civil servant texts to say everyone has downed tools and is refreshing Twitter
Rishi Sunak being prevented from calling an election because he had to fight a no confidence vote would be the most Rishi Sunak thing that has ever happened.
@DPJHodges
Treat reports of confidence motions going in to stop Sunak calling election with a pinch of salt. No prospect of triggering a challenge in that way. Couple of rebels just laying markers in off-chance he doesn’t call one, so they can say “we made him back off”.
"Unindicted felon Peter Daszak provably defrauded the US government, provably breached contractual terms of US-government grants, and, through reckless gain-of-function research in Wuhan, probably caused the COVID-19 pandemic, killing 20 million and costing $25 trillion."
https://x.com/R_H_Ebright/status/1793263627547423206
Of course in that election the Tories still won.