Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
I have never, ever said that lab leak is impossible. I have consistently said that I believed zoonosis highly likely, just as SARS and MERS and all other viruses that emerge from nature to infect mankind emerge. You lack the humility to know what you know and don’t know. You also seem to have a bizarre obsession with winning and being right. I still don’t know how covid arose. Could be a lab leak, could be zoonosis. It’s impossible to be certain. That does not diminish the fact that a lot of behind behaved badly in trying to suppress the lab leak theory. You’re right about that. It doesn’t mean lab leak is proven.
"Tuffer Sentensiz" has been kicked around so much that it's just meaningless.
It doesn't work either - pointless and stupid.
Quite. In particular we really do need to kill short, pointless sentences and replace them with community service or some alternative. But that makes sweaty sun-lounger dwellers unhappy so it won't happen.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger when surrounded and outnumbered by attacking Apaches, who, exactly are 'we' in this context?
Anyone with a fucking brain and a backbone who is angry about 20 million dead people killed by a virus almost certainly caused by extremely dodgy science leaking out of a Chinese laboratory and covered up by other scientists for years
And they all "need" grovelling apologies from three or four anonymous posters on a slightly nerdy politics discussion board? It's not exactly Judgment at Nuremberg is it?
No, I agree, it’s not
The next step is actual trials. Fauci to Daszak, Andersen to Farrar. All the people that tried to cover this up - and all the people that promoted and sponsored this insane virology - need to go on trial. With big jail sentences at the end
That is the only way to re-establish trust in science - which is so crucial. We need to see the liars and the villains being punished
It hasn't been an inordinately interesting day for news or surprising policy announcements. The LD manifesto is long ; Refuk have apologised for the Hitler deal incident and the Tories don't seem to be pursuing it hard ; and Charlie Mullins of Pimlico Plumbers is asking Boris Johnson to join Farage in Reform. "That way they'll get to Number 10".
Any more polls, waiter ? I'm getting hungry again.
I thought Charlie Mullins was an arch-Europhile? Why would he want Johnson/Farage to be in Downing Street?
There's a forgetten segment of Remainers in the mould of Jeremy Clarkson who are not fond of managerial centrism.
I don’t think that's true. I think Clarkson's harumphing rebel image is a complete facade, much like the euroskepticism of David Cameron, a person with whom he has much in common.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger when surrounded and outnumbered by attacking Apaches, who, exactly are 'we' in this context?
Anyone with a fucking brain and a backbone who is angry about 20 million dead people killed by a virus almost certainly caused by extremely dodgy science leaking out of a Chinese laboratory and covered up by other scientists for years
There's an election on, no one's interested in your ramblings, go away.
Defence * National service for 18 year olds * Defence to 2.5% by 2030
Benefits * Welfare reform to save £12bn * Taking sick note responsibility away from GPs
Crime * 8,000 new police offices * Increased sentences for the most serious offences * US-style system of first and second degree murder
Housing * Permanently scrapping stamp duty on purchases up to £425k * Ending no-fault evictions * Protecting green belt
Immigration * Cap on work and family visas
Illegal immigration * Double down on Rwanda * Talks with other third countries
ECHR * Reform but leaving 'all options on table'
Health * Investing another £2.4bn to expand training places to new doctors and nurses * Pledging to reduce waiting lists * Using AI to speed up diagnostics
Social care * Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package
Net zero * Hitting net zero in a way that 'limits costs to consumers'
I notice the education bit contains absolutely zilch about school age kids.
Well, there's not much more they can do there.
They've destroyed all governance mechanisms, wrecked the exam system, turned the inspection regime into a tool of policy staffed by a bunch of crooks, literally overseen the collapse of school buildings, made teacher training much more difficult while driving teachers out through damaging their pensions, and put a series of hapless drunks in charge of policy making.
I mean - what more could they actually do?
I'm hoping Bridget Phillipson didn't just say 'hold my beer...' but I wonder!
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
I have never, ever said that lab leak is impossible. I have consistently said that I believed zoonosis highly likely, just as SARS and MERS and all other viruses that emerge from nature to infect mankind emerge. You lack the humility to know what you know and don’t know. You also seem to have a bizarre obsession with winning and being right. I still don’t know how covid arose. Could be a lab leak, could be zoonosis. It’s impossible to be certain. That does not diminish the fact that a lot of behind behaved badly in trying to suppress the lab leak theory. You’re right about that. It doesn’t mean lab leak is proven.
Defence * National service for 18 year olds * Defence to 2.5% by 2030
Benefits * Welfare reform to save £12bn * Taking sick note responsibility away from GPs
Crime * 8,000 new police offices * Increased sentences for the most serious offences * US-style system of first and second degree murder
Housing * Permanently scrapping stamp duty on purchases up to £425k * Ending no-fault evictions * Protecting green belt
Immigration * Cap on work and family visas
Illegal immigration * Double down on Rwanda * Talks with other third countries
ECHR * Reform but leaving 'all options on table'
Health * Investing another £2.4bn to expand training places to new doctors and nurses * Pledging to reduce waiting lists * Using AI to speed up diagnostics
Social care * Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package
Net zero * Hitting net zero in a way that 'limits costs to consumers'
What is possible on this list is not desirable. What is desirable is not possible.
So true. Who now trusts any of these lying fucks? They cancelled and destroyed people for a year or more, for simply stating the obvious. The weird bat virus probably came from the weird bat virus lab 209 yards away
They called that “a racist conspiracy theory”
Why should we trust any of them again? That is the tragedy
Interestingly most of the article is about other aspects, such as where the 2m rule came from and whether covid was aerosol (not airborne as she writes) or droplet based. There is a point in their about scientists interacting with media. True scientists acknowledge what we don’t know. They lack certainty. Anyone who is 100% sure of things raises alarm bells. In the pandemic too many public advisers etc tried to be 100% sure as they didn’t want to seem like they didn’t know the answers. I think this was a big mistake. We learned rapidly about how covid worked. It was pretty quickly apparent that it was aerosol spread in the main yet we still had the wrong measures in place everywhere (screens in shops that reduced air circulation, for instance). I put a lot of blame on the media for this.
You pathetic spineless fool
You need to spend a year pouring ashes over your head and apologising for your putrid fibs
I’ll take no advice from a spineless fool who pretends not to be a well known Spectator writer when we all know exactly who he is…
It hasn't been an inordinately interesting day for news or surprising policy announcements. The LD manifesto is long ; Refuk have apologised for the Hitler deal incident and the Tories don't seem to be pursuing it hard ; and Charlie Mullins of Pimlico Plumbers is asking Boris Johnson to join Farage in Reform. "That way they'll get to Number 10".
Any more polls, waiter ? I'm getting hungry again.
I thought Charlie Mullins was an arch-Europhile? Why would he want Johnson/Farage to be in Downing Street?
There's a forgetten segment of Remainers in the mould of Jeremy Clarkson who are not fond of managerial centrism.
Charlie Mullins was an arch Remainer for very practical reasons - his business margins depended on keeping wages low with FoM. Not sure he loves the EU for any deeper reason. Clarkson's arguments ISTR were similarly practical: the difficulty of moving cars and film crews across europe.
I suppose you could argue FoM is contra centralism, if you liked.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger when surrounded and outnumbered by attacking Apaches, who, exactly are 'we' in this context?
Anyone with a fucking brain and a backbone who is angry about 20 million dead people killed by a virus almost certainly caused by extremely dodgy science leaking out of a Chinese laboratory and covered up by other scientists for years
There's an election on, no one's interested in your ramblings, go away.
Well said!
Leon is such a child & hates it when he’s not in the limelight.
Reform do hold a number of the councillors in some of the wards of the seat. and have been canvassing actively
I live in a ward which has only returned Labour councillors in the last 20 years and Baggy Shanker has canvassed my street twice since the start of the campaign. I think he's worried about keeping RefUK at bay. I've had 4 bits of stuff through the door from labour
Looking, I hadn't realised how long those have been held by UKIP / Brexit Party / RefUK (whatever they are called). They've had nearly a decade in most of it to dig themselves in.
I've bet a VERY speculative fiver at 34 (bf) on Reform in North West Leicestershire. I know the area well - it is very conservative and I think Reform is a more likely repository of disaffected votes compared to Labour. It's a close-knit area and my friends were the other day saying they had read the Reform manifesto (which surprised me) and liked it a lot - the word could spread. They hate Bridgen despite voting him in.
"Tuffer Sentensiz" has been kicked around so much that it's just meaningless.
And nobody can actually get sentenced.
What we need is “fast track sentencing for young offenders”.
He's already announced national service as the punishment for the abominable crime of being young.
I am irresistibly reminded of my William Pitt:*
'As to the crime of being a young man, which the honourable member has with such spirit and decency charged me, I shall attempt neither to palliate nor deny, but content myself with saying I trust I shall be numbered among those whose follies cease with their youth, and not those who remain ignorant in spite of experience.'
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
I have never, ever said that lab leak is impossible. I have consistently said that I believed zoonosis highly likely, just as SARS and MERS and all other viruses that emerge from nature to infect mankind emerge. You lack the humility to know what you know and don’t know. You also seem to have a bizarre obsession with winning and being right. I still don’t know how covid arose. Could be a lab leak, could be zoonosis. It’s impossible to be certain. That does not diminish the fact that a lot of behind behaved badly in trying to suppress the lab leak theory. You’re right about that. It doesn’t mean lab leak is proven.
Just apologise you deluded fuck
For what? Have you taken drink, you anonymous/not anonymous, hack.
I don't know if anyone's watching Rishi but he's not looking like a Prime Minister.
I am watching. Its pretty unpleasant, sunak pleading it will be different next time for policy failure after policy failure.
Bake off here.
Sunak has lost. He has nothing of any interest to say now. The more people see him the less they seem to like him.
The longer this goes on the more I remember Major with admiration - who could win with a degree of humility and modesty, and lose (bigly) with a degree of grace, after running a determined though hopeless campaign.
..and could govern modestly, gracefully and politely ( I mean that, even if I didn't agree with his politics ), while also bonking Edwina Currie in a cupboard.
Sunak extraordinarily rubbish on housing, runs out the classic NIMBY lines - and he's wrong about the deposit being the issue... it's the income multiples often these days.
That's certainly the case in London - rules on income multiples will mean that two people both earning a median salary will need a deposit of around £100k to be able to buy an average 1 bed flat. Hard to do when you're paying £25k a year or more in rent...
But I suspect Sunak has long since given up on attracting votes from anyone under the age of 70 in those areas.
As Sunak said, "I was able to put down a deposit for an apartment with just my second Goldman bonus. And if I can do it, anyone can do it."
I don't want my justice system modelled on theirs. The tories already went down this route with the failed PCC system, attempting to ape the US.
And do you even understand the historical importance of 4th July "Independence Day" to us Brits? Did you really think picking an election for that day would give proud Brits a warm fuzzy feeling?
We're a fucking different country, don't you understand?
The man is an embarassment to his family.
He should have followed his father's advice and become a doctor.
I actually respect his parents far more than I respect him. I think they're more British.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger when surrounded and outnumbered by attacking Apaches, who, exactly are 'we' in this context?
Anyone with a fucking brain and a backbone who is angry about 20 million dead people killed by a virus almost certainly caused by extremely dodgy science leaking out of a Chinese laboratory and covered up by other scientists for years
And they all "need" grovelling apologies from three or four anonymous posters on a slightly nerdy politics discussion board? It's not exactly Judgment at Nuremberg is it?
No, I agree, it’s not
The next step is actual trials. Fauci to Daszak, Andersen to Farrar. All the people that tried to cover this up - and all the people that promoted and sponsored this insane virology - need to go on trial. With big jail sentences at the end
That is the only way to re-establish trust in science - which is so crucial. We need to see the liars and the villains being punished
I haven't been following this closely, but whilst the programme is American, Daszak and Farrar are British, no? So I suspect we'll see this hung around their necks - showtrial, evidence emerging of how they once kicked a puppy, cousins saying they never liked them etc. Think Randy Andy being the whipping boy for the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.
Sunak extraordinarily rubbish on housing, runs out the classic NIMBY lines - and he's wrong about the deposit being the issue... it's the income multiples often these days.
That's certainly the case in London - rules on income multiples will mean that two people both earning a median salary will need a deposit of around £100k to be able to buy an average 1 bed flat. Hard to do when you're paying £25k a year or more in rent...
But I suspect Sunak has long since given up on attracting votes from anyone under the age of 70 in those areas.
There are lots of 1 bed flats in London that can be bought by people on low incomes. 2 median incomes at 44k = 88k. On a cautious multiple of 4 that gives you £350k which is more than sufficient to buy a flat in many parts of London. You are not far off being able to afford to buy a house in some unfashionable areas for that amount. There are also various new build discounted market purchase schemes. With shared ownership you can buy a newbuild flat with a household income of around £35k and a deposit of around £3500.
Except the median salary is only £35k and mainstream mortgages will be limited to 3.5x combined income - so that's a £105k deposit needed to get that £350k flat.
Borrowing on a higher multiple is possible, but requires a larger deposit, so doesn't solve the problem.
No amount of tinkering with artificial discounts, first time buyer guarantees, or other other form of demand support will help - we need to increase supply.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
I have never, ever said that lab leak is impossible. I have consistently said that I believed zoonosis highly likely, just as SARS and MERS and all other viruses that emerge from nature to infect mankind emerge. You lack the humility to know what you know and don’t know. You also seem to have a bizarre obsession with winning and being right. I still don’t know how covid arose. Could be a lab leak, could be zoonosis. It’s impossible to be certain. That does not diminish the fact that a lot of behind behaved badly in trying to suppress the lab leak theory. You’re right about that. It doesn’t mean lab leak is proven.
Just apologise you deluded fuck
For what? Have you taken drink, you anonymous/not anonymous, hack.
I'm assuming that customs restrictions on tools make it difficult for him to have his daily knap.
I've bet a VERY speculative fiver at 34 (bf) on Reform in North West Leicestershire. I know the area well - it is very conservative and I think Reform is a more likely repository of disaffected votes compared to Labour. It's a close-knit area and my friends were the other day saying they had read the Reform manifesto (which surprised me) and liked it a lot - the word could spread. They hate Bridgen despite voting him in.
Isnt he standing as an indie? Rather like him personally
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger when surrounded and outnumbered by attacking Apaches, who, exactly are 'we' in this context?
Anyone with a fucking brain and a backbone who is angry about 20 million dead people killed by a virus almost certainly caused by extremely dodgy science leaking out of a Chinese laboratory and covered up by other scientists for years
And they all "need" grovelling apologies from three or four anonymous posters on a slightly nerdy politics discussion board? It's not exactly Judgment at Nuremberg is it?
No, I agree, it’s not
The next step is actual trials. Fauci to Daszak, Andersen to Farrar. All the people that tried to cover this up - and all the people that promoted and sponsored this insane virology - need to go on trial. With big jail sentences at the end
That is the only way to re-establish trust in science - which is so crucial. We need to see the liars and the villains being punished
Trials for @bondegezou, @turbotubbs,@Farooq, and maybe @JosiasJessop? Seriously? Can we prosecute you for crimes against the English Language and felony hyperbole at the same time? Been a while since I did any criminal prosecution* but count me IN!
*used to act for an east London council trading standards prosecuting those people who used to sell knock off DVDs in car parks. We all have to start somewhere. SKS fans eat your heart out.
Sunak extraordinarily rubbish on housing, runs out the classic NIMBY lines - and he's wrong about the deposit being the issue... it's the income multiples often these days.
That's certainly the case in London - rules on income multiples will mean that two people both earning a median salary will need a deposit of around £100k to be able to buy an average 1 bed flat. Hard to do when you're paying £25k a year or more in rent...
But I suspect Sunak has long since given up on attracting votes from anyone under the age of 70 in those areas.
As Sunak said, "I was able to put down a deposit for an apartment with just my second Goldman bonus. And if I can do it, anyone can do it."
Times were hard when he was a boy, but with a small loan of a million dollars from his father, he started a modest business.
"Tuffer Sentensiz" has been kicked around so much that it's just meaningless.
It doesn't work either - pointless and stupid.
Quite. In particular we really do need to kill short, pointless sentences and replace them with community service or some alternative. But that makes sweaty sun-lounger dwellers unhappy so it won't happen.
I am genuinely at a loss as to what demographic is being caricatured as "sweaty sun-lounger dwellers". Speaking as someone who has done a night in the cells for d&d in my younger days I would say "short, pointless sentences" was almost certainly dead wrong though. The first twelve hours of being locked up is horrible. I imagine that thereafter you adapt, like you adapt to anything, and it's long sentences which is pointless.
So true. Who now trusts any of these lying fucks? They cancelled and destroyed people for a year or more, for simply stating the obvious. The weird bat virus probably came from the weird bat virus lab 209 yards away
They called that “a racist conspiracy theory”
Why should we trust any of them again? That is the tragedy
Interestingly most of the article is about other aspects, such as where the 2m rule came from and whether covid was aerosol (not airborne as she writes) or droplet based. There is a point in their about scientists interacting with media. True scientists acknowledge what we don’t know. They lack certainty. Anyone who is 100% sure of things raises alarm bells. In the pandemic too many public advisers etc tried to be 100% sure as they didn’t want to seem like they didn’t know the answers. I think this was a big mistake. We learned rapidly about how covid worked. It was pretty quickly apparent that it was aerosol spread in the main yet we still had the wrong measures in place everywhere (screens in shops that reduced air circulation, for instance). I put a lot of blame on the media for this.
You pathetic spineless fool
You need to spend a year pouring ashes over your head and apologising for your putrid fibs
I’ll take no advice from a spineless fool who pretends not to be a well known Spectator writer when we all know exactly who he is…
Is that it? Is that your defence of “the science” that killed 20 million people? Some half arsed personal semi doxxing that does nothing? Look at yourself
Seriously. You claim to be a scientist
Think how this whole tragic catastrophe has damaged science and how you - a scientist - have played your small but not entirely trivial role in that. Go away and consider this. Then return with due contrition
I respect the strategy of realise that they have very little agency in this election so might as well try and win the picture editors over.
Our media strategy has been absolutely fucking inspired. Take everything Davey said. Stood still. Looking serious. Would anyone have paid the slightest bit of attention?
How do stop the media squeezing you to death? Create You Have To Run This visuals to go with the story.
I don't know if anyone's watching Rishi but he's not looking like a Prime Minister.
I am watching. Its pretty unpleasant, sunak pleading it will be different next time for policy failure after policy failure.
Bake off here.
Sunak has lost. He has nothing of any interest to say now. The more people see him the less they seem to like him.
The longer this goes on the more I remember Major with admiration - who could win with a degree of humility and modesty, and lose (bigly) with a degree of grace, after running a determined though hopeless campaign.
..and could govern modestly, gracefully and politely ( I mean that, even if I didn't agree with his politics ), while also bonking Edwina Currie in a cupboard.
The halcyon days of the '90s, for the Tories.
I do love that Spitting Image had a choice between precisely two female Tory MPs to set Major up with in the show and they picked the wrong one.
Sunak extraordinarily rubbish on housing, runs out the classic NIMBY lines - and he's wrong about the deposit being the issue... it's the income multiples often these days.
That's certainly the case in London - rules on income multiples will mean that two people both earning a median salary will need a deposit of around £100k to be able to buy an average 1 bed flat. Hard to do when you're paying £25k a year or more in rent...
But I suspect Sunak has long since given up on attracting votes from anyone under the age of 70 in those areas.
As Sunak said, "I was able to put down a deposit for an apartment with just my second Goldman bonus. And if I can do it, anyone can do it."
Times were hard when he was a boy, but with a small loan of a million dollars from his father, he started a modest business.
I don't know if anyone's watching Rishi but he's not looking like a Prime Minister.
I am watching. Its pretty unpleasant, sunak pleading it will be different next time for policy failure after policy failure.
Bake off here.
Sunak has lost. He has nothing of any interest to say now. The more people see him the less they seem to like him.
The longer this goes on the more I remember Major with admiration - who could win with a degree of humility and modesty, and lose (bigly) with a degree of grace, after running a determined though hopeless campaign.
..and could govern modestly, gracefully and politely ( I mean that, even if I didn't agree with his politics ), while also bonking Edwina Currie in a cupboard.
The halcyon days of the '90s, for the Tories.
De gustibus non est disputandum nisi equos terret.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
The thing is, you treat it as a certainty - as your post shows. I assume you demand apologies from people who look at the evidence and come to a different conclusion because you are actually uncertain. Or because you need to stroke your ego. Or that you are actually utterly stoopid.
It's obvious why you want people to think it was a lab-leak: as it's a short hop, skip and a jump to the more DRAMATIC! theory of it being an engineered virus. Which is where you want this to end up.
But as I've said passim: the thing we can 100% blame the Chinese for is their secrecy and lies at the beginning of this hideous mess. In a way the origins of the virus matter little: what matters is that, if China had acted differently in late 2019 or early 2020, the outbreak might have been localised and the world might have been spared this tragedy.
And that is what they should be excoriated for. And it's something that is, IMO, beyond doubt. They acted appallingly and let the virus spread.
(And for clarity: it could have been a lab-leak. Or it could have been a 'natural' occurrence from the wet market. I don't know. And only fools would say they know for sure.
I don't know if anyone's watching Rishi but he's not looking like a Prime Minister.
I am watching. Its pretty unpleasant, sunak pleading it will be different next time for policy failure after policy failure.
Bake off here.
Sunak has lost. He has nothing of any interest to say now. The more people see him the less they seem to like him.
The longer this goes on the more I remember Major with admiration - who could win with a degree of humility and modesty, and lose (bigly) with a degree of grace, after running a determined though hopeless campaign.
..and could govern modestly, gracefully and politely ( I mean that, even if I didn't agree with his politics ), while also bonking Edwina Currie in a cupboard.
The halcyon days of the '90s, for the Tories.
I do love that Spitting Image had a choice between precisely two female Tory MPs to set Major up with in the show and they picked the wrong one.
There was a certain logic though.
I mean, who could ever believe that anyone could be attracted to Edwina Currie?
I don't want my justice system modelled on theirs. The tories already went down this route with the failed PCC system, attempting to ape the US.
And do you even understand the historical importance of 4th July "Independence Day" to us Brits? Did you really think picking an election for that day would give proud Brits a warm fuzzy feeling?
We're a fucking different country, don't you understand?
The man is an embarassment to his family.
He should have followed his father's advice and become a doctor.
I actually respect his parents far more than I respect him. I think they're more British.
Genuinely.
The Yanks justice system was originally modelled on ours. Ironically.
I respect the strategy of realise that they have very little agency in this election so might as well try and win the picture editors over.
Our media strategy has been absolutely fucking inspired. Take everything Davey said. Stood still. Looking serious. Would anyone have paid the slightest bit of attention?
How do stop the media squeezing you to death? Create You Have To Run This visuals to go with the story.
Hard to deny that. I thought it was crazy but it seems to be working.
(There's an added plus that it's pissed Rory Stewart off royally.)
So true. Who now trusts any of these lying fucks? They cancelled and destroyed people for a year or more, for simply stating the obvious. The weird bat virus probably came from the weird bat virus lab 209 yards away
They called that “a racist conspiracy theory”
Why should we trust any of them again? That is the tragedy
Interestingly most of the article is about other aspects, such as where the 2m rule came from and whether covid was aerosol (not airborne as she writes) or droplet based. There is a point in their about scientists interacting with media. True scientists acknowledge what we don’t know. They lack certainty. Anyone who is 100% sure of things raises alarm bells. In the pandemic too many public advisers etc tried to be 100% sure as they didn’t want to seem like they didn’t know the answers. I think this was a big mistake. We learned rapidly about how covid worked. It was pretty quickly apparent that it was aerosol spread in the main yet we still had the wrong measures in place everywhere (screens in shops that reduced air circulation, for instance). I put a lot of blame on the media for this.
You pathetic spineless fool
You need to spend a year pouring ashes over your head and apologising for your putrid fibs
It's puzzling that those people who were the first to hector and chide people for even minor breaches of stupid and illiberal Covid laws are the same people who now show little interest in where Covid actually came from and how to guard again a similar disaster.
Sunak extraordinarily rubbish on housing, runs out the classic NIMBY lines - and he's wrong about the deposit being the issue... it's the income multiples often these days.
That's certainly the case in London - rules on income multiples will mean that two people both earning a median salary will need a deposit of around £100k to be able to buy an average 1 bed flat. Hard to do when you're paying £25k a year or more in rent...
But I suspect Sunak has long since given up on attracting votes from anyone under the age of 70 in those areas.
As Sunak said, "I was able to put down a deposit for an apartment with just my second Goldman bonus. And if I can do it, anyone can do it."
Times were hard when he was a boy, but with a small loan of a million dollars from his father, he started a modest business.
Who was that said of?
The Orange One?
Bingo.
A Year 9 I was teaching wrote it for a school assembly on the 2020 election.
Defence * National service for 18 year olds * Defence to 2.5% by 2030
Benefits * Welfare reform to save £12bn * Taking sick note responsibility away from GPs
Crime * 8,000 new police offices * Increased sentences for the most serious offences * US-style system of first and second degree murder
Housing * Permanently scrapping stamp duty on purchases up to £425k * Ending no-fault evictions * Protecting green belt
Immigration * Cap on work and family visas
Illegal immigration * Double down on Rwanda * Talks with other third countries
ECHR * Reform but leaving 'all options on table'
Health * Investing another £2.4bn to expand training places to new doctors and nurses * Pledging to reduce waiting lists * Using AI to speed up diagnostics
Social care * Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package
Net zero * Hitting net zero in a way that 'limits costs to consumers'
What is possible on this list is not desirable. What is desirable is not possible.
I'd go further - everything explicitly explained here is not desirable. I don't think any of these things would be good for the country. Sunak and his miserable crew are pretending (badly) to be Tories and this manifesto is pretending (badly) to be a Tory manifesto.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
I have never, ever said that lab leak is impossible. I have consistently said that I believed zoonosis highly likely, just as SARS and MERS and all other viruses that emerge from nature to infect mankind emerge. You lack the humility to know what you know and don’t know. You also seem to have a bizarre obsession with winning and being right. I still don’t know how covid arose. Could be a lab leak, could be zoonosis. It’s impossible to be certain. That does not diminish the fact that a lot of behind behaved badly in trying to suppress the lab leak theory. You’re right about that. It doesn’t mean lab leak is proven.
Just apologise you deluded fuck
You’re not half as bright as you tell people you are. Even if you had all the ‘evidence’ in the world to marshall and multiple degrees, were published in peer-reviewed journals, and were a world renowned expert on viral biology, it still would not give you the right to try and shut down any counter theory - let alone so abusively. Scientific evidence is always hypothetically founded. Its opposite is religious certainty. I have never seen a person of science, or indeed any academic ability, use your kind of language for an opposing theory.
It’s profoundly unscientific of you and pretty scary behaviour. All part of your black-shirt dystopia no doubt.
But of course you’re not a world renowned scientist either but a has-been author of tawdry tales describing your sexual exploitation, drug taking, and abuse of minors and prostitutes managing to win that esteemed Scientific accolade the ‘Bad Sex Writing Award.'
Defence * National service for 18 year olds * Defence to 2.5% by 2030
Benefits * Welfare reform to save £12bn * Taking sick note responsibility away from GPs
Crime * 8,000 new police offices * Increased sentences for the most serious offences * US-style system of first and second degree murder
Housing * Permanently scrapping stamp duty on purchases up to £425k * Ending no-fault evictions * Protecting green belt
Immigration * Cap on work and family visas
Illegal immigration * Double down on Rwanda * Talks with other third countries
ECHR * Reform but leaving 'all options on table'
Health * Investing another £2.4bn to expand training places to new doctors and nurses * Pledging to reduce waiting lists * Using AI to speed up diagnostics
Social care * Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package
Net zero * Hitting net zero in a way that 'limits costs to consumers'
So, you're saying they will allow people to Self ID as sick?
I've bet a VERY speculative fiver at 34 (bf) on Reform in North West Leicestershire. I know the area well - it is very conservative and I think Reform is a more likely repository of disaffected votes compared to Labour. It's a close-knit area and my friends were the other day saying they had read the Reform manifesto (which surprised me) and liked it a lot - the word could spread. They hate Bridgen despite voting him in.
Isnt he standing as an indie? Rather like him personally
Defence * National service for 18 year olds * Defence to 2.5% by 2030
Benefits * Welfare reform to save £12bn * Taking sick note responsibility away from GPs
Crime * 8,000 new police offices * Increased sentences for the most serious offences * US-style system of first and second degree murder
Housing * Permanently scrapping stamp duty on purchases up to £425k * Ending no-fault evictions * Protecting green belt
Immigration * Cap on work and family visas
Illegal immigration * Double down on Rwanda * Talks with other third countries
ECHR * Reform but leaving 'all options on table'
Health * Investing another £2.4bn to expand training places to new doctors and nurses * Pledging to reduce waiting lists * Using AI to speed up diagnostics
Social care * Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package
Net zero * Hitting net zero in a way that 'limits costs to consumers'
So, you're saying they will allow people to Self ID as sick?
Defence * National service for 18 year olds * Defence to 2.5% by 2030
Benefits * Welfare reform to save £12bn * Taking sick note responsibility away from GPs
Crime * 8,000 new police offices * Increased sentences for the most serious offences * US-style system of first and second degree murder
Housing * Permanently scrapping stamp duty on purchases up to £425k * Ending no-fault evictions * Protecting green belt
Immigration * Cap on work and family visas
Illegal immigration * Double down on Rwanda * Talks with other third countries
ECHR * Reform but leaving 'all options on table'
Health * Investing another £2.4bn to expand training places to new doctors and nurses * Pledging to reduce waiting lists * Using AI to speed up diagnostics
Social care * Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package
Net zero * Hitting net zero in a way that 'limits costs to consumers'
So, you're saying they will allow people to Self ID as sick?
"Social care * Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package"
I don't believe them. It is due Oct 2025. Well the cut down version. Sunak himself scrapped the 1p on NI to pay for social care when he became PM.
If (ha,ha) Sunak is reelected this will be kicked into the long grass once again.
So true. Who now trusts any of these lying fucks? They cancelled and destroyed people for a year or more, for simply stating the obvious. The weird bat virus probably came from the weird bat virus lab 209 yards away
They called that “a racist conspiracy theory”
Why should we trust any of them again? That is the tragedy
Interestingly most of the article is about other aspects, such as where the 2m rule came from and whether covid was aerosol (not airborne as she writes) or droplet based. There is a point in their about scientists interacting with media. True scientists acknowledge what we don’t know. They lack certainty. Anyone who is 100% sure of things raises alarm bells. In the pandemic too many public advisers etc tried to be 100% sure as they didn’t want to seem like they didn’t know the answers. I think this was a big mistake. We learned rapidly about how covid worked. It was pretty quickly apparent that it was aerosol spread in the main yet we still had the wrong measures in place everywhere (screens in shops that reduced air circulation, for instance). I put a lot of blame on the media for this.
You pathetic spineless fool
You need to spend a year pouring ashes over your head and apologising for your putrid fibs
I’ll take no advice from a spineless fool who pretends not to be a well known Spectator writer when we all know exactly who he is…
Is that it? Is that your defence of “the science” that killed 20 million people? Some half arsed personal semi doxxing that does nothing? Look at yourself
Seriously. You claim to be a scientist
Think how this whole tragic catastrophe has damaged science and how you - a scientist - have played your small but not entirely trivial role in that. Go away and consider this. Then return with due contrition
I have played no role whatsoever in how covid has played out. I post stuff on pb, a community of mostly friendly people with an interest in politics (and for a select few, betting ON politics). I have been a scientist for over thirty years, if you include my First Class honours degree, PhD and subsequent employment at three internationally well regarded universities. When covid emerged it was natural to assume zoonosis. That’s been happening to mankind right back to the first time humans started domesticating animals (and thus being in close proximity for lengthy periods). It’s how SARS and MERS and all other viruses have come into humans from animal reservoirs. It’s called evolution. Then people suggested that it could have come from a lab leak, and pointed fingers are the WIV, as if no other universities research viruses. There has been a large circumstantial case built for lab leak. There have been other studies that suggest a different origin. The case is not decided either way. It probably won’t ever be. I stand by everything I have posted on covid. I won’t apologise for being scientific, rather than wanting to jump to the most exciting version of events.
Defence * National service for 18 year olds * Defence to 2.5% by 2030
Benefits * Welfare reform to save £12bn * Taking sick note responsibility away from GPs
Crime * 8,000 new police offices * Increased sentences for the most serious offences * US-style system of first and second degree murder
Housing * Permanently scrapping stamp duty on purchases up to £425k * Ending no-fault evictions * Protecting green belt
Immigration * Cap on work and family visas
Illegal immigration * Double down on Rwanda * Talks with other third countries
ECHR * Reform but leaving 'all options on table'
Health * Investing another £2.4bn to expand training places to new doctors and nurses * Pledging to reduce waiting lists * Using AI to speed up diagnostics
Social care * Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package
Net zero * Hitting net zero in a way that 'limits costs to consumers'
So, you're saying they will allow people to Self ID as sick?
"Social care * Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package"
I don't believe them. It is due Oct 2025. Well the cut down version. Sunak himself scrapped the 1p on NI to pay for social care when he became PM.
If (ha,ha) Sunak is reelected this will be kicked into the long grass once again.
Johnson was never noted for delaying his package, as Petronella Wyatt can testify.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
The thing is, you treat it as a certainty - as your post shows. I assume you demand apologies from people who look at the evidence and come to a different conclusion because you are actually uncertain. Or because you need to stroke your ego. Or that you are actually utterly stoopid.
It's obvious why you want people to think it was a lab-leak: as it's a short hop, skip and a jump to the more DRAMATIC! theory of it being an engineered virus. Which is where you want this to end up.
But as I've said passim: the thing we can 100% blame the Chinese for is their secrecy and lies at the beginning of this hideous mess. In a way the origins of the virus matter little: what matters is that, if China had acted differently in late 2019 or early 2020, the outbreak might have been localised and the world might have been spared this tragedy.
And that is what they should be excoriated for. And it's something that is, IMO, beyond doubt. They acted appallingly and let the virus spread.
(And for clarity: it could have been a lab-leak. Or it could have been a 'natural' occurrence from the wet market. I don't know. And only fools would say they know for sure.
Out of this incoherent low iq bleating I will pluck just one sentence for scrutiny
“The origins of the virus matter little”
So that is your new position? It doesn’t matter where it came from? So yeah it might have been a lizard humping a squirrel in a Shanghai stew by accident but also it may have been a leak from a dangerously insecure virology lab trying to make newly dangerous viruses for humans - but what does it matter?
WHAT DOES IT MATTER
Just let the labs carry on doing this science and if another one leaks then oops 400 million dead people eek shit happens
At this point PB is beyond parody. Reflect on what you are all saying. Goodnight from Kyiv
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
The thing is, you treat it as a certainty - as your post shows. I assume you demand apologies from people who look at the evidence and come to a different conclusion because you are actually uncertain. Or because you need to stroke your ego. Or that you are actually utterly stoopid.
It's obvious why you want people to think it was a lab-leak: as it's a short hop, skip and a jump to the more DRAMATIC! theory of it being an engineered virus. Which is where you want this to end up.
But as I've said passim: the thing we can 100% blame the Chinese for is their secrecy and lies at the beginning of this hideous mess. In a way the origins of the virus matter little: what matters is that, if China had acted differently in late 2019 or early 2020, the outbreak might have been localised and the world might have been spared this tragedy.
And that is what they should be excoriated for. And it's something that is, IMO, beyond doubt. They acted appallingly and let the virus spread.
(And for clarity: it could have been a lab-leak. Or it could have been a 'natural' occurrence from the wet market. I don't know. And only fools would say they know for sure.
A perfect response, although it’s sad that we feel we have to give this clown the light of day.
It’s a General Election campaign and little Leon isn’t in the limelight.
Sunak extraordinarily rubbish on housing, runs out the classic NIMBY lines - and he's wrong about the deposit being the issue... it's the income multiples often these days.
That's certainly the case in London - rules on income multiples will mean that two people both earning a median salary will need a deposit of around £100k to be able to buy an average 1 bed flat. Hard to do when you're paying £25k a year or more in rent...
But I suspect Sunak has long since given up on attracting votes from anyone under the age of 70 in those areas.
There are lots of 1 bed flats in London that can be bought by people on low incomes. 2 median incomes at 44k = 88k. On a cautious multiple of 4 that gives you £350k which is more than sufficient to buy a flat in many parts of London. You are not far off being able to afford to buy a house in some unfashionable areas for that amount. There are also various new build discounted market purchase schemes. With shared ownership you can buy a newbuild flat with a household income of around £35k and a deposit of around £3500.
Except the median salary is only £35k and mainstream mortgages will be limited to 3.5x combined income - so that's a £105k deposit needed to get that £350k flat.
Borrowing on a higher multiple is possible, but requires a larger deposit, so doesn't solve the problem.
No amount of tinkering with artificial discounts, first time buyer guarantees, or other other form of demand support will help - we need to increase supply.
Are they planning on any new people for the offices? Also, aren't they usually called "Stations", and didn't the Conservatives close an absolute boatload of them?
Are they planning on any new people for the offices? Also, aren't they usually called "Stations", and didn't the Conservatives close an absolute boatload of them?
Defence * National service for 18 year olds * Defence to 2.5% by 2030
Benefits * Welfare reform to save £12bn * Taking sick note responsibility away from GPs
Crime * 8,000 new police offices * Increased sentences for the most serious offences * US-style system of first and second degree murder
Housing * Permanently scrapping stamp duty on purchases up to £425k * Ending no-fault evictions * Protecting green belt
Immigration * Cap on work and family visas
Illegal immigration * Double down on Rwanda * Talks with other third countries
ECHR * Reform but leaving 'all options on table'
Health * Investing another £2.4bn to expand training places to new doctors and nurses * Pledging to reduce waiting lists * Using AI to speed up diagnostics
Social care * Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package
Net zero * Hitting net zero in a way that 'limits costs to consumers'
So, you're saying they will allow people to Self ID as sick?
"Social care * Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package"
I don't believe them. It is due Oct 2025. Well the cut down version. Sunak himself scrapped the 1p on NI to pay for social care when he became PM.
If (ha,ha) Sunak is reelected this will be kicked into the long grass once again.
The IFS are going to have a field day with this manifesto aren't they?
Sunak must be feeling awfully releaved that after his D-Day commemoration debacle that some Reform candidates are running on a pro-Hitler platform.
It is hard to keep up to be honest.
Farage: It's an absolute disgrace he did not fully honour D-Day.
Reform candidates: Our lads should never have been there in the first place.
There's not much that could be used to rebut criticism of skipping out of the international ceremonies, but incredibly Reform have delivered the goods to Sunak.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
I have never, ever said that lab leak is impossible. I have consistently said that I believed zoonosis highly likely, just as SARS and MERS and all other viruses that emerge from nature to infect mankind emerge. You lack the humility to know what you know and don’t know. You also seem to have a bizarre obsession with winning and being right. I still don’t know how covid arose. Could be a lab leak, could be zoonosis. It’s impossible to be certain. That does not diminish the fact that a lot of behind behaved badly in trying to suppress the lab leak theory. You’re right about that. It doesn’t mean lab leak is proven.
Just apologise you deluded fuck
You’re not half as bright as you tell people you are. Even if you had all the ‘evidence’ in the world to marshall and multiple degrees, were published in peer-reviewed journals, and were a world renowned expert on viral biology, it still would not give you the right to try and shut down any counter theory - let alone so abusively. Scientific evidence is always hypothetically founded. Its opposite is religious certainty. I have never seen a person of science, or indeed any academic ability, use your kind of language for an opposing theory.
It’s profoundly unscientific of you and pretty scary behaviour. All part of your black-shirt dystopia no doubt.
But of course you’re not a world renowned scientist either but a has-been author of tawdry tales describing your sexual exploitation, drug taking, and abuse of minors and prostitutes managing to win that esteemed Scientific accolade the ‘Bad Sex Writing Award.'
Multiple degrees, peer review, world renown as evidence of being right? You sound like someone who thinks that equal weight should be given to the geocentric hypothesis, because that's what St Karl Popper pbuh would have wanted.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
The thing is, you treat it as a certainty - as your post shows. I assume you demand apologies from people who look at the evidence and come to a different conclusion because you are actually uncertain. Or because you need to stroke your ego. Or that you are actually utterly stoopid.
It's obvious why you want people to think it was a lab-leak: as it's a short hop, skip and a jump to the more DRAMATIC! theory of it being an engineered virus. Which is where you want this to end up.
But as I've said passim: the thing we can 100% blame the Chinese for is their secrecy and lies at the beginning of this hideous mess. In a way the origins of the virus matter little: what matters is that, if China had acted differently in late 2019 or early 2020, the outbreak might have been localised and the world might have been spared this tragedy.
And that is what they should be excoriated for. And it's something that is, IMO, beyond doubt. They acted appallingly and let the virus spread.
(And for clarity: it could have been a lab-leak. Or it could have been a 'natural' occurrence from the wet market. I don't know. And only fools would say they know for sure.
Out of this incoherent low iq bleating
The irony
As I said above, no one with any academic standing would ever address an opposing view with the language you do.
You’re not an academic. You’re not an expert on viral biology. You are a past author of sex books, one of which did well in an age when people wanted that sort of thing, which they no longer do.
And because that lies in the past you now spend all your time on a minor political forum constantly trying to engineer the spotlight back onto you.
I respect the strategy of realise that they have very little agency in this election so might as well try and win the picture editors over.
Our media strategy has been absolutely fucking inspired. Take everything Davey said. Stood still. Looking serious. Would anyone have paid the slightest bit of attention?
How do stop the media squeezing you to death? Create You Have To Run This visuals to go with the story.
I want a post-lunch one on the Pirate Ship at Alton Towers.
So true. Who now trusts any of these lying fucks? They cancelled and destroyed people for a year or more, for simply stating the obvious. The weird bat virus probably came from the weird bat virus lab 209 yards away
They called that “a racist conspiracy theory”
Why should we trust any of them again? That is the tragedy
Interestingly most of the article is about other aspects, such as where the 2m rule came from and whether covid was aerosol (not airborne as she writes) or droplet based. There is a point in their about scientists interacting with media. True scientists acknowledge what we don’t know. They lack certainty. Anyone who is 100% sure of things raises alarm bells. In the pandemic too many public advisers etc tried to be 100% sure as they didn’t want to seem like they didn’t know the answers. I think this was a big mistake. We learned rapidly about how covid worked. It was pretty quickly apparent that it was aerosol spread in the main yet we still had the wrong measures in place everywhere (screens in shops that reduced air circulation, for instance). I put a lot of blame on the media for this.
You pathetic spineless fool
You need to spend a year pouring ashes over your head and apologising for your putrid fibs
I’ll take no advice from a spineless fool who pretends not to be a well known Spectator writer when we all know exactly who he is…
Is that it? Is that your defence of “the science” that killed 20 million people? Some half arsed personal semi doxxing that does nothing? Look at yourself
Seriously. You claim to be a scientist
Think how this whole tragic catastrophe has damaged science and how you - a scientist - have played your small but not entirely trivial role in that. Go away and consider this. Then return with due contrition
I have played no role whatsoever in how covid has played out. I post stuff on pb, a community of mostly friendly people with an interest in politics (and for a select few, betting ON politics). I have been a scientist for over thirty years, if you include my First Class honours degree, PhD and subsequent employment at three internationally well regarded universities. When covid emerged it was natural to assume zoonosis. That’s been happening to mankind right back to the first time humans started domesticating animals (and thus being in close proximity for lengthy periods). It’s how SARS and MERS and all other viruses have come into humans from animal reservoirs. It’s called evolution. Then people suggested that it could have come from a lab leak, and pointed fingers are the WIV, as if no other universities research viruses. There has been a large circumstantial case built for lab leak. There have been other studies that suggest a different origin. The case is not decided either way. It probably won’t ever be. I stand by everything I have posted on covid. I won’t apologise for being scientific, rather than wanting to jump to the most exciting version of events.
I think this is a good summary, but it does miss a few things out, in particular the tendency of people early on in the pandemic to downplay the possibility of lableak.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
The thing is, you treat it as a certainty - as your post shows. I assume you demand apologies from people who look at the evidence and come to a different conclusion because you are actually uncertain. Or because you need to stroke your ego. Or that you are actually utterly stoopid.
It's obvious why you want people to think it was a lab-leak: as it's a short hop, skip and a jump to the more DRAMATIC! theory of it being an engineered virus. Which is where you want this to end up.
But as I've said passim: the thing we can 100% blame the Chinese for is their secrecy and lies at the beginning of this hideous mess. In a way the origins of the virus matter little: what matters is that, if China had acted differently in late 2019 or early 2020, the outbreak might have been localised and the world might have been spared this tragedy.
And that is what they should be excoriated for. And it's something that is, IMO, beyond doubt. They acted appallingly and let the virus spread.
(And for clarity: it could have been a lab-leak. Or it could have been a 'natural' occurrence from the wet market. I don't know. And only fools would say they know for sure.
Out of this incoherent low iq bleating I will pluck just one sentence for scrutiny
“The origins of the virus matter little”
So that is your new position? It doesn’t matter where it came from? So yeah it might have been a lizard humping a squirrel in a Shanghai stew by accident but also it may have been a leak from a dangerously insecure virology lab trying to make newly dangerous viruses for humans - but what does it matter?
WHAT DOES IT MATTER
Just let the labs carry on doing this science and if another one leaks then oops 400 million dead people eek shit happens
At this point PB is beyond parody. Reflect on what you are all saying. Goodnight from Kyiv
Leaving aside the insults: I think what you are saying that we need better controls on what is done in labs.
Cool. I agree. We do.
But: since the wet market is a possibility (and such natural vectors are hardly unprecedented), then surely you'd agree that we need better rules and regulations about such markets. And better controls of other possible vectors as well.
And also, ensure that if an outbreak starts, it is not covered up, allowing it to spread.
The origins of the virus matter little, as the next outbreak might be a 'natural' one, and we need to ensure against that as much as against an accidental or purposeful leak from a lab, or even a terrorist attack with a bioengineered doowacky. And oddly enough, there is some commonality between these areas.
However this outbreak started, we need improved controls in a whole host of areas. Your one-eyed insistence on one hypothesis will not do that.
Sunak extraordinarily rubbish on housing, runs out the classic NIMBY lines - and he's wrong about the deposit being the issue... it's the income multiples often these days.
That's certainly the case in London - rules on income multiples will mean that two people both earning a median salary will need a deposit of around £100k to be able to buy an average 1 bed flat. Hard to do when you're paying £25k a year or more in rent...
But I suspect Sunak has long since given up on attracting votes from anyone under the age of 70 in those areas.
There are lots of 1 bed flats in London that can be bought by people on low incomes. 2 median incomes at 44k = 88k. On a cautious multiple of 4 that gives you £350k which is more than sufficient to buy a flat in many parts of London. You are not far off being able to afford to buy a house in some unfashionable areas for that amount. There are also various new build discounted market purchase schemes. With shared ownership you can buy a newbuild flat with a household income of around £35k and a deposit of around £3500.
Except the median salary is only £35k and mainstream mortgages will be limited to 3.5x combined income - so that's a £105k deposit needed to get that £350k flat.
Borrowing on a higher multiple is possible, but requires a larger deposit, so doesn't solve the problem.
No amount of tinkering with artificial discounts, first time buyer guarantees, or other other form of demand support will help - we need to increase supply.
I just dont think you are correct about this, the mortgages are 4-4.5 multiple. The problem is that few developers are building new flats for sale because it is not viable to do so. Sales volumes have completely collapsed and prices have frozen whilst other costs have escalated dramatically. The most common way in which supply is increasing in London (outside prime areas) in the current market is through subsidy/grant for subsidised/affordable housing and institutional investors building student accommodation and housing to rent out. The idea that supply can somehow increase by itself and prices come down is incoherant.
So true. Who now trusts any of these lying fucks? They cancelled and destroyed people for a year or more, for simply stating the obvious. The weird bat virus probably came from the weird bat virus lab 209 yards away
They called that “a racist conspiracy theory”
Why should we trust any of them again? That is the tragedy
Interestingly most of the article is about other aspects, such as where the 2m rule came from and whether covid was aerosol (not airborne as she writes) or droplet based. There is a point in their about scientists interacting with media. True scientists acknowledge what we don’t know. They lack certainty. Anyone who is 100% sure of things raises alarm bells. In the pandemic too many public advisers etc tried to be 100% sure as they didn’t want to seem like they didn’t know the answers. I think this was a big mistake. We learned rapidly about how covid worked. It was pretty quickly apparent that it was aerosol spread in the main yet we still had the wrong measures in place everywhere (screens in shops that reduced air circulation, for instance). I put a lot of blame on the media for this.
You pathetic spineless fool
You need to spend a year pouring ashes over your head and apologising for your putrid fibs
I’ll take no advice from a spineless fool who pretends not to be a well known Spectator writer when we all know exactly who he is…
Is that it? Is that your defence of “the science” that killed 20 million people? Some half arsed personal semi doxxing that does nothing? Look at yourself
Seriously. You claim to be a scientist
Think how this whole tragic catastrophe has damaged science and how you - a scientist - have played your small but not entirely trivial role in that. Go away and consider this. Then return with due contrition
I have played no role whatsoever in how covid has played out. I post stuff on pb, a community of mostly friendly people with an interest in politics (and for a select few, betting ON politics). I have been a scientist for over thirty years, if you include my First Class honours degree, PhD and subsequent employment at three internationally well regarded universities. When covid emerged it was natural to assume zoonosis. That’s been happening to mankind right back to the first time humans started domesticating animals (and thus being in close proximity for lengthy periods). It’s how SARS and MERS and all other viruses have come into humans from animal reservoirs. It’s called evolution. Then people suggested that it could have come from a lab leak, and pointed fingers are the WIV, as if no other universities research viruses. There has been a large circumstantial case built for lab leak. There have been other studies that suggest a different origin. The case is not decided either way. It probably won’t ever be. I stand by everything I have posted on covid. I won’t apologise for being scientific, rather than wanting to jump to the most exciting version of events.
I think this is a good summary, but it does miss a few things out, in particular the tendency of people early on in the pandemic to downplay the possibility of lableak.
Yes. Where Leon is right is that some people were worried that it might be a lab leak with rather negative consequences for them, and they clearly tried to suppress this idea. Where he is wrong is that he thinks the debate is settled.
Labour has dropped a plan to reintroduce a cap on how much people are allowed to save into their pensions before paying tax.
Under the pensions lifetime allowance, pension pots over £1.07m faced an annual tax of £40,000 on average.
The cap was scrapped in April but Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves had vowed to bring it back, saying it could raise £800m a year.
However, her party has now reversed the decision ahead of the release of its manifesto on Thursday, reportedly because the cap would add uncertainty for savers and be complex to reintroduce.
So true. Who now trusts any of these lying fucks? They cancelled and destroyed people for a year or more, for simply stating the obvious. The weird bat virus probably came from the weird bat virus lab 209 yards away
They called that “a racist conspiracy theory”
Why should we trust any of them again? That is the tragedy
Interestingly most of the article is about other aspects, such as where the 2m rule came from and whether covid was aerosol (not airborne as she writes) or droplet based. There is a point in their about scientists interacting with media. True scientists acknowledge what we don’t know. They lack certainty. Anyone who is 100% sure of things raises alarm bells. In the pandemic too many public advisers etc tried to be 100% sure as they didn’t want to seem like they didn’t know the answers. I think this was a big mistake. We learned rapidly about how covid worked. It was pretty quickly apparent that it was aerosol spread in the main yet we still had the wrong measures in place everywhere (screens in shops that reduced air circulation, for instance). I put a lot of blame on the media for this.
You pathetic spineless fool
You need to spend a year pouring ashes over your head and apologising for your putrid fibs
I’ll take no advice from a spineless fool who pretends not to be a well known Spectator writer when we all know exactly who he is…
Is that it? Is that your defence of “the science” that killed 20 million people? Some half arsed personal semi doxxing that does nothing? Look at yourself
Seriously. You claim to be a scientist
Think how this whole tragic catastrophe has damaged science and how you - a scientist - have played your small but not entirely trivial role in that. Go away and consider this. Then return with due contrition
I have played no role whatsoever in how covid has played out. I post stuff on pb, a community of mostly friendly people with an interest in politics (and for a select few, betting ON politics). I have been a scientist for over thirty years, if you include my First Class honours degree, PhD and subsequent employment at three internationally well regarded universities. When covid emerged it was natural to assume zoonosis. That’s been happening to mankind right back to the first time humans started domesticating animals (and thus being in close proximity for lengthy periods). It’s how SARS and MERS and all other viruses have come into humans from animal reservoirs. It’s called evolution. Then people suggested that it could have come from a lab leak, and pointed fingers are the WIV, as if no other universities research viruses. There has been a large circumstantial case built for lab leak. There have been other studies that suggest a different origin. The case is not decided either way. It probably won’t ever be. I stand by everything I have posted on covid. I won’t apologise for being scientific, rather than wanting to jump to the most exciting version of events.
I think this is a good summary, but it does miss a few things out, in particular the tendency of people early on in the pandemic to downplay the possibility of lableak.
Yes. Where Leon is right is that some people were worried that it might be a lab leak with rather negative consequences for them, and they clearly tried to suppress this idea. Where he is wrong is that he thinks the debate is settled.
I think the overwhelming likelihood is that it was some variety of lab leak*. But that is really just balance of probabilities stuff, that the first cases all happened to be in one of the few cities in the world where there was a lot of research on bat viruses.
But, as you say, we will probably never know for sure, absent a confession from someone in China, or us both finding a natural host, and a plausible route for it to have gotten to that wet market.
* I use the phrase "lab leak" to include all scenarios where the leak occurred as a consequence of virology research in Wuhan
My wife did this and got an email. Tories 19 Labour 41.
Can’t see the number for Reform but it’s certainly closer to the Tories than hitherto. Lib Dem’s seem to have got a small boost as well but still only 11.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
The thing is, you treat it as a certainty - as your post shows. I assume you demand apologies from people who look at the evidence and come to a different conclusion because you are actually uncertain. Or because you need to stroke your ego. Or that you are actually utterly stoopid.
It's obvious why you want people to think it was a lab-leak: as it's a short hop, skip and a jump to the more DRAMATIC! theory of it being an engineered virus. Which is where you want this to end up.
But as I've said passim: the thing we can 100% blame the Chinese for is their secrecy and lies at the beginning of this hideous mess. In a way the origins of the virus matter little: what matters is that, if China had acted differently in late 2019 or early 2020, the outbreak might have been localised and the world might have been spared this tragedy.
And that is what they should be excoriated for. And it's something that is, IMO, beyond doubt. They acted appallingly and let the virus spread.
(And for clarity: it could have been a lab-leak. Or it could have been a 'natural' occurrence from the wet market. I don't know. And only fools would say they know for sure.
Out of this incoherent low iq bleating
The irony
As I said above, no one with any academic standing would ever address an opposing view with the language you do.
You’re not an academic. You’re not an expert on viral biology. You are a past author of sex books, one of which did well in an age when people wanted that sort of thing, which they no longer do.
And because that lies in the past you now spend all your time on a minor political forum constantly trying to engineer the spotlight back onto you.
You are the king (or queen?} of the category mistake.
Do you routinely attack verdicts in murder trials because the jurors have no history of publication in peer reviewed journals of murderology? Or do you not usually do so, but you would if the accused and victim were distinguished microbiologists? If yes, would you criticize the jury for not being murderologists or for not being microbiologists?
If they Tories cannot get closer to 30% than 20%, 100 seats may be the best they can hope for.
If it's less than 20% than they will get less than 50. Simply because they can't fall further down in some seats (the Liverpool's and Welsh Valleys) and so will have even bigger falls in the seats they can fall A bit like the libdems in 2015.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
The thing is, you treat it as a certainty - as your post shows. I assume you demand apologies from people who look at the evidence and come to a different conclusion because you are actually uncertain. Or because you need to stroke your ego. Or that you are actually utterly stoopid.
It's obvious why you want people to think it was a lab-leak: as it's a short hop, skip and a jump to the more DRAMATIC! theory of it being an engineered virus. Which is where you want this to end up.
But as I've said passim: the thing we can 100% blame the Chinese for is their secrecy and lies at the beginning of this hideous mess. In a way the origins of the virus matter little: what matters is that, if China had acted differently in late 2019 or early 2020, the outbreak might have been localised and the world might have been spared this tragedy.
And that is what they should be excoriated for. And it's something that is, IMO, beyond doubt. They acted appallingly and let the virus spread.
(And for clarity: it could have been a lab-leak. Or it could have been a 'natural' occurrence from the wet market. I don't know. And only fools would say they know for sure.
Out of this incoherent low iq bleating
The irony
As I said above, no one with any academic standing would ever address an opposing view with the language you do.
You’re not an academic. You’re not an expert on viral biology. You are a past author of sex books, one of which did well in an age when people wanted that sort of thing, which they no longer do.
And because that lies in the past you now spend all your time on a minor political forum constantly trying to engineer the spotlight back onto you.
You are the king (or queen?} of the category mistake.
Do you routinely attack verdicts in murder trials because the jurors have no history of publication in peer reviewed journals of murderology? Or do you not usually do so, but you would if the accused and victim were distinguished microbiologists? If yes, would you criticize the jury for not being murderologists or for not being microbiologists?
This would be fine if we were an actual jury weighing evidence for both possibilities, but we are not. Leon endlessly reads and posts only on lableak. Others have posted and linked to other evidence that supports zoonosis.
Absolute fucking wankers. We need groveling apologies
The thing is, you treat it as a certainty - as your post shows. I assume you demand apologies from people who look at the evidence and come to a different conclusion because you are actually uncertain. Or because you need to stroke your ego. Or that you are actually utterly stoopid.
It's obvious why you want people to think it was a lab-leak: as it's a short hop, skip and a jump to the more DRAMATIC! theory of it being an engineered virus. Which is where you want this to end up.
But as I've said passim: the thing we can 100% blame the Chinese for is their secrecy and lies at the beginning of this hideous mess. In a way the origins of the virus matter little: what matters is that, if China had acted differently in late 2019 or early 2020, the outbreak might have been localised and the world might have been spared this tragedy.
And that is what they should be excoriated for. And it's something that is, IMO, beyond doubt. They acted appallingly and let the virus spread.
(And for clarity: it could have been a lab-leak. Or it could have been a 'natural' occurrence from the wet market. I don't know. And only fools would say they know for sure.
Out of this incoherent low iq bleating
The irony
As I said above, no one with any academic standing would ever address an opposing view with the language you do.
You’re not an academic. You’re not an expert on viral biology. You are a past author of sex books, one of which did well in an age when people wanted that sort of thing, which they no longer do.
And because that lies in the past you now spend all your time on a minor political forum constantly trying to engineer the spotlight back onto you.
You are the king (or queen?} of the category mistake.
Are you another SeanT alias rising? You’ve been on here but a few days.
I’m not responding re. the trial Q because it’s an invalid comparison. The jury doesn’t given evidence in a trial. Experts do and they often contradict one another. But what they don’t do is shut down discourse and tell other experts to ‘shut the fuck up and apologise.’
Anyway, I refer you back to my considered answers and suggest you re-read them, reflect on them and consider more carefully.
Comments
That does not diminish the fact that a lot of behind behaved badly in trying to suppress the lab leak theory. You’re right about that. It doesn’t mean lab leak is proven.
The next step is actual trials. Fauci to Daszak, Andersen to Farrar. All the people that tried to cover this up - and all the people that promoted and sponsored this insane virology - need to go on trial. With big jail sentences at the end
That is the only way to re-establish trust in science - which is so crucial. We need to see the liars and the villains being punished
"Welfare reform to save £12bn".
Will this be 12 million voters losing £1000 a year, 6 million voters losing £2000 a year, or what?
They've destroyed all governance mechanisms, wrecked the exam system, turned the inspection regime into a tool of policy staffed by a bunch of crooks, literally overseen the collapse of school buildings, made teacher training much more difficult while driving teachers out through damaging their pensions, and put a series of hapless drunks in charge of policy making.
I mean - what more could they actually do?
I'm hoping Bridget Phillipson didn't just say 'hold my beer...' but I wonder!
I suppose you could argue FoM is contra centralism, if you liked.
Leon is such a child & hates it when he’s not in the limelight.
No IHT cut no @HYUFD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_City_Council_elections
I am irresistibly reminded of my William Pitt:*
'As to the crime of being a young man, which the honourable member has with such spirit and decency charged me, I shall attempt neither to palliate nor deny, but content myself with saying I trust I shall be numbered among those whose follies cease with their youth, and not those who remain ignorant in spite of experience.'
*Ironically, the one now known as 'the Elder.'
The halcyon days of the '90s, for the Tories.
I don't want my justice system modelled on theirs. The tories already went down this route with the failed PCC system, attempting to ape the US.
And do you even understand the historical importance of 4th July "Independence Day" to us Brits? Did you really think picking an election for that day would give proud Brits a warm fuzzy feeling?
We're a fucking different country, don't you understand?
The man is an embarassment to his family.
He should have followed his father's advice and become a doctor.
I actually respect his parents far more than I respect him. I think they're more British.
Genuinely.
Borrowing on a higher multiple is possible, but requires a larger deposit, so doesn't solve the problem.
No amount of tinkering with artificial discounts, first time buyer guarantees, or other other form of demand support will help - we need to increase supply.
*used to act for an east London council trading standards prosecuting those people who used to sell knock off DVDs in car parks. We all have to start somewhere. SKS fans eat your heart out.
Who was that said of?
Seriously. You claim to be a scientist
Think how this whole tragic catastrophe has damaged science and how you - a scientist - have played your small but not entirely trivial role in that. Go away and consider this. Then return with due contrition
How do stop the media squeezing you to death? Create You Have To Run This visuals to go with the story.
The Orange One?
It's obvious why you want people to think it was a lab-leak: as it's a short hop, skip and a jump to the more DRAMATIC! theory of it being an engineered virus. Which is where you want this to end up.
But as I've said passim: the thing we can 100% blame the Chinese for is their secrecy and lies at the beginning of this hideous mess. In a way the origins of the virus matter little: what matters is that, if China had acted differently in late 2019 or early 2020, the outbreak might have been localised and the world might have been spared this tragedy.
And that is what they should be excoriated for. And it's something that is, IMO, beyond doubt. They acted appallingly and let the virus spread.
(And for clarity: it could have been a lab-leak. Or it could have been a 'natural' occurrence from the wet market. I don't know. And only fools would say they know for sure.
I mean, who could ever believe that anyone could be attracted to Edwina Currie?
(There's an added plus that it's pissed Rory Stewart off royally.)
A Year 9 I was teaching wrote it for a school assembly on the 2020 election.
He came up with it all by himself as well.
It’s profoundly unscientific of you and pretty scary behaviour. All part of your black-shirt dystopia no doubt.
But of course you’re not a world renowned scientist either but a has-been author of tawdry tales describing your sexual exploitation, drug taking, and abuse of minors and prostitutes managing to win that esteemed Scientific accolade the ‘Bad Sex Writing Award.'
* Committing to Boris Johnson's delayed package"
I don't believe them. It is due Oct 2025. Well the cut down version. Sunak himself scrapped the 1p on NI to pay for social care when he became PM.
If (ha,ha) Sunak is reelected this will be kicked into the long grass once again.
When covid emerged it was natural to assume zoonosis. That’s been happening to mankind right back to the first time humans started domesticating animals (and thus being in close proximity for lengthy periods). It’s how SARS and MERS and all other viruses have come into humans from animal reservoirs. It’s called evolution.
Then people suggested that it could have come from a lab leak, and pointed fingers are the WIV, as if no other universities research viruses. There has been a large circumstantial case built for lab leak. There have been other studies that suggest a different origin.
The case is not decided either way. It probably won’t ever be.
I stand by everything I have posted on covid. I won’t apologise for being scientific, rather than wanting to jump to the most exciting version of events.
“The origins of the virus matter little”
So that is your new position? It doesn’t matter where it came from? So yeah it might have been a lizard humping a squirrel in a Shanghai stew by accident but also it may have been a leak from a dangerously insecure virology lab trying to make newly dangerous viruses for humans - but what does it matter?
WHAT DOES IT MATTER
Just let the labs carry on doing this science and if another one leaks then oops 400 million dead people eek shit happens
At this point PB is beyond parody. Reflect on what you are all saying. Goodnight from Kyiv
It’s a General Election campaign and little Leon isn’t in the limelight.
Farage: It's an absolute disgrace he did not fully honour D-Day.
Reform candidates: Our lads should never have been there in the first place.
They have *all* the County seats in Ashfield, which is 10 out of 66 total. Plus there are 6 more Independents.
Currently Tory have 35, and Labour 15. Plus odds'n'sods.
Which I think will make it interesting for Labour to take control, as Ashfield has traditionally been part of their base.
I read this and thought of him - https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/social-instincts/201911/why-some-narcissists-are-obsessed-iq
It would happen on *my* thread
Creatives and absinthe - see Van Gogh.
As I said above, no one with any academic standing would ever address an opposing view with the language you do.
You’re not an academic. You’re not an expert on viral biology. You are a past author of sex books, one of which did well in an age when people wanted that sort of thing, which they no longer do.
And because that lies in the past you now spend all your time on a minor political forum constantly trying to engineer the spotlight back onto you.
He can say whatever he likes. His party has broken the legal system and the rule of law.
Cool. I agree. We do.
But: since the wet market is a possibility (and such natural vectors are hardly unprecedented), then surely you'd agree that we need better rules and regulations about such markets. And better controls of other possible vectors as well.
And also, ensure that if an outbreak starts, it is not covered up, allowing it to spread.
The origins of the virus matter little, as the next outbreak might be a 'natural' one, and we need to ensure against that as much as against an accidental or purposeful leak from a lab, or even a terrorist attack with a bioengineered doowacky. And oddly enough, there is some commonality between these areas.
However this outbreak started, we need improved controls in a whole host of areas. Your one-eyed insistence on one hypothesis will not do that.
The problem is that few developers are building new flats for sale because it is not viable to do so. Sales volumes have completely collapsed and prices have frozen whilst other costs have escalated dramatically. The most common way in which supply is increasing in London (outside prime areas) in the current market is through subsidy/grant for subsidised/affordable housing and institutional investors building student accommodation and housing to rent out.
The idea that supply can somehow increase by itself and prices come down is incoherant.
But I’m not sure the source is accurate?
Lab 46%
Con 21%
Reform 15%
Don’t have the LibDem figure and this may be rubbish. If so, I apologise.
“Woe is me - my pension is full. So further contributions don’t get tax relief.”
https://youtu.be/iUfLg2hBVRw?feature=shared
I mean, if it isn't a typo, CON 46 sure would be a turn up for the books
I do of course mean
Lab 46%
Con 21%
Ref 15%
But I’m now doubting the source for this.
ETA: Ah, no, never mind.
But, as you say, we will probably never know for sure, absent a confession from someone in China, or us both finding a natural host, and a plausible route for it to have gotten to that wet market.
* I use the phrase "lab leak" to include all scenarios where the leak occurred as a consequence of virology research in Wuhan
Tories will implore that the sick need to go back to work
Unless their name is David Duguid
A record number of candidates are standing in this year's general election.
More than 4,500 candidates are standing to be elected in the 650 constituencies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
It means that the election, on 4 July, sees a 35.7% increase on the 2019 poll.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ggeng6kqxo
Do you routinely attack verdicts in murder trials because the jurors have no history of publication in peer reviewed journals of murderology? Or do you not usually do so, but you would if the accused and victim were distinguished microbiologists? If yes, would you criticize the jury for not being murderologists or for not being microbiologists?
Do we have the full yougov yet?
Good to be back although I’m turning in xx
p.s. apologies @James_M if I came across as critical of your decision-making. I was trying to make a broader point, clumsily.
Simply because they can't fall further down in some seats (the Liverpool's and Welsh Valleys) and so will have even bigger falls in the seats they can fall
A bit like the libdems in 2015.
I’m not responding re. the trial Q because it’s an invalid comparison. The jury doesn’t given evidence in a trial. Experts do and they often contradict one another. But what they don’t do is shut down discourse and tell other experts to ‘shut the fuck up and apologise.’
Anyway, I refer you back to my considered answers and suggest you re-read them, reflect on them and consider more carefully.
Night night xx