My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
HS2 is simple. If we aren't building it, what is plan B to add capacity onto a rail network that is over capacity? There seems to be too much focus on "it only saves 10 minutes" - they aren't building it to make the journeys faster, it's just that if you are building a new railway in the late 20th Century you may as well build high speed.
If Boris / Dominic were serious about a link between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, instead of a bridge it would be a tunnel from Red Bay to Southend, Kintyre, a motorway to Claonaig, a tunnel to Lochranza, another motorway across the Cock of Arran, another tunnel to north Bute, more motorway across Bute, a further tunnel to Cumbrae, continuing the motorway to the final tunnel to Hunterston, to join the motorway from Hunterston to the M74 south of Larkhall. Cheaper and safer than the Boris Bridge. However, if the bridge were built, it would be an ideal site for July 12th marches for HYFUD and his friends, so that normal folk in Belfast and Glasgow could get on with their lives and be able to cross the road.
Tunnels are invisible, and go to bad places like the EU.
Why are we discussing a bridge that will never be built rather than the global pandemic that is about to change globalisation forever and kill many millions of people in the process?
I have that in mind for an article.
I’m 99% sure Coronavirus is not linked to Brexit. Not unless Juncker was trying to take revenge and being smashed, confused London with Wuhan.
Interesting to note that Mr Eagles left out the most important question in his costing of the project. One that renders his analysis useless. Has he considered a job advising Jeremy Corbyn?
I must say i liked the suggestion in the article about the IRA trying to blow up the bridge with by setting off the the dumped munitions. This (among other things) illustrates the authors lack of knowledge of engineering and explosives. But hey.
Fake news, I haven't costed this project.
Quite honestly, I wouldn't even know where to start.
1) You left out the critical part of any analysis for a new transport link - not just the current traffic level, but any analysis of how traffic levels might change with extra capacity.
Imagine an analysis of HS2 that said - we take the existing traffic level and assume that HS2 will carry the same.
2) Non direct benefits not considered. When looking at transport links, the knock on effects must be considered.
I estimated the flows at full capacity 100% of the time all year round.
That isn't realistic even by itself.
Then, I doubled all the traffic just for good measure.
It still comes nowhere close to paying even half of its way.
You don't have to do Uber micro analysis when the conclusions are that stark.
Any rational analysis of such a project would have to take into account potential traffic increases and secondary effects.
IIRC HS2, in terms of tickets that could be sold to 100% of it's capacity does not payback. It is the secondary effects that have been calculated to give its level of return.
That's nonsense. I've explained there's no way a secondary effect (which would be by definition less than the primary) would make up the difference. And I've also explained how a doubling of traffic wouldn't do it either. Neither would both combined.
You like this project, and don't like the business case conclusion.
You don't like HS2, and don't like its business case conclusion.
It really is as simple as that.
Nope - I am not particularly impressed with this idea, as a matter of fact.
Secondary effects on transport projects are often held to be multiples of the value of the extra traffic/reduced travel time, by the way. This is why the HS2 case closes. Hence why the objection to HS2 on the lines of "it just cuts X off the journey between A and B" are missing the point.
The question to be asked of the bridge idea is this - "What would the effect of X increase in capacity and Y decrease in travel time be on the economies of the economically undeveloped areas that would have their connections to more developed areas improved?"
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
HS2 is simple. If we aren't building it, what is plan B to add capacity onto a rail network that is over capacity? There seems to be too much focus on "it only saves 10 minutes" - they aren't building it to make the journeys faster, it's just that if you are building a new railway in the late 20th Century you may as well build high speed.
Yep making it faster adds about 2% to the very gold plated building costs.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
Furthermore I needed to take my wife to the doctors today and the virus came up. I told her my wife and I had sailed on Diamond Princess (the one in quarantine) over 32 days from Vancouver to Beijing and the panic in her face only disappeared after I said it was 5 years ago
She then went on to say if any patient showed any signs of the virus or had been in China recently she would have to lock us in her surgery, close the surgery immediately, and specialists would attend us before we could venture any further
Seems the NHS have got procedures in place, alarming as they may seem
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Here's a story to gladden Leaver hearts. The EU has decided to do away with winter/summer time, and we Brits - if we were still in it - would almost certainly have to choose one or the other, forever
No we wouldn't, because if we were in the EU we could veto it. But we're not. So we can't.
HS2 is simple. If we aren't building it, what is plan B to add capacity onto a rail network that is over capacity? There seems to be too much focus on "it only saves 10 minutes" - they aren't building it to make the journeys faster, it's just that if you are building a new railway in the late 20th Century you may as well build high speed.
Yep making it faster adds about 2% to the very gold plated building costs.
The contractors have been asked to cover 30 years of infrastructure guarantees. If there's a landslide in 2059 Costain or whomever are liable. Which has added vast oceans of £billions which I assume Bozza will have removed and proclaim in triumph that he personally has slashed costs by a third
HS2 is simple. If we aren't building it, what is plan B to add capacity onto a rail network that is over capacity? There seems to be too much focus on "it only saves 10 minutes" - they aren't building it to make the journeys faster, it's just that if you are building a new railway in the late 20th Century you may as well build high speed.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
Here's a story to gladden Leaver hearts. The EU has decided to do away with winter/summer time, and we Brits - if we were still in it - would almost certainly have to choose one or the other, forever
No we wouldn't, because if we were in the EU we could veto it. But we're not. So we can't.
"Take back control"...
How could we veto in when its a QMV decision and why would we want to veto it once we're out?
Interesting to note that Mr Eagles left out the most important question in his costing of the project. One that renders his analysis useless. Has he considered a job advising Jeremy Corbyn?
I must say i liked the suggestion in the article about the IRA trying to blow up the bridge with by setting off the the dumped munitions. This (among other things) illustrates the authors lack of knowledge of engineering and explosives. But hey.
Fake news, I haven't costed this project.
Quite honestly, I wouldn't even know where to start.
Did anyone "cost" the Taj Mahal?
I doubt it would have come in as "value for money"
There's a serious point here. Some projects have a symbolic, emotional or aesthetic value which far outweighs their actual cost, over time.
The bridge would have a tremendous symbolic value - as the final and possibly most ruinous bribe paid to Scotland and Northern Ireland with English taxpayers' money. Finally completed, no doubt, about five minutes before they both vote to sod off.
I am sure Boris has plans for such a long bridge as it would take at least a decade to complete and he can promise Edinburgh and Dublin the bill if they vote to sod off before completion
Small businessmen like me, riding the waves every minute, maybe have more sense of the political and economic weather than captains of industry, who look down on the oceans with a lofty sense of invulnerability, or a ludicrously inflated sense of doom.
Britain has always prospered as an independent trading nation. We shall do so again, God willing.
Well I'm convinced. The zero paperwork and red tape and checks we have now will clearly be more onerous and more expensive than the lots of checks and red tape and paperwork announced by Govey from next January.
Interesting to note that Mr Eagles left out the most important question in his costing of the project. One that renders his analysis useless. Has he considered a job advising Jeremy Corbyn?
I must say i liked the suggestion in the article about the IRA trying to blow up the bridge with by setting off the the dumped munitions. This (among other things) illustrates the authors lack of knowledge of engineering and explosives. But hey.
Fake news, I haven't costed this project.
Quite honestly, I wouldn't even know where to start.
Did anyone "cost" the Taj Mahal?
I doubt it would have come in as "value for money"
There's a serious point here. Some projects have a symbolic, emotional or aesthetic value which far outweighs their actual cost, over time.
The bridge would have a tremendous symbolic value - as the final and possibly most ruinous bribe paid to Scotland and Northern Ireland with English taxpayers' money. Finally completed, no doubt, about five minutes before they both vote to sod off.
I am sure Boris has plans for such a long bridge as it would take at least a decade to complete and he can promise Edinburgh and Dublin the bill if they vote to sod off before completion
Developments on the Nevada Caucuses (from various news sources, mainly NPR and Fox News) –
It’s much the same as Iowa – except that they have early voting.
They have abandoned plans to use a similar app to the one from Iowa.
As of now - For early voting only (starting Saturday and running to Tuesday), the procedure is apparently planned to be, but as yet untested statewide:
1. Every precinct has been given an iPad 2. Voters check in using a pdf file preloaded onto said iPad 3. They are then given a card with a pin number 4. They enter that number into a google docs form 5. They select 3 to 5 preferences on a paper ballot 6. They insert the ballot and cards into a ballot box 7. Volunteers will monitor each ballot box 8. observers and campaign staff can oversee the whole process 9. Ballot boxes are then transported to ’designated ballot processing hubs’ 10. Ballots are scanned and stored 11. Results will be kept secret until actual caucus vote on Feb 22.
The Caucus Day process is yet to be confirmed.
I already checked and it's Not April 1st. I find it hard to believe that this is serious.
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
Here's a story to gladden Leaver hearts. The EU has decided to do away with winter/summer time, and we Brits - if we were still in it - would almost certainly have to choose one or the other, forever
Now, this could be a good or bad thing. I don't have an opinion. But it is an example of the EU imposing an arbitrary, opaque and undemocratic yet very real decision on an entire nation, and doing this in a fundamental aspect of our lives.
F*ck this shit. F*ck the EU. We are out, thank f*ck
And as we can see it's already improving dramatically debating standards.
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Come back to me when one of Boris Johnson’s grand projects actually happens. He’s batting about 0 for 5 at the moment.
Can I ask what involvement you have in business / logistics /import and export etc? I am fine with the "vigour of capitalism" but vast amounts of added red tape costs money and delayed transit costs money and disrupted supply chains cost money and all 3 are now government policy.
When you say "less encumbered with bureaucracy" perhaps you can assist. Right now my company buys stuff with zero checks and zero paperwork. And then sells it with zero checks and zero paperwork. In January there will be lots of checks and paperwork for bits coming in and finished goods going out. I need to be proposing prices for products in the next month for next year and nobody has a clue what the cost will be of the mass of extra bureaucracy.
Perhaps you can advise the British Retail Consortium on their specific detailed real world list of questions that no-one other than you can answer.
I'm a sole trader and in the last tax year I turned over half a million pounds, mainly from the EU, so, yeah, I know what I am talking about.
Fab. You buy and sell stuff. So not in manufacturing at all. And half a million is a drop in the ocean compared to the manufacturing industries providing very detailed commentary on exactly where your lack of knowledge may be wrong.
No checks now, no paperwork now, no bureaucracy now. Vs lots of all of them in January with unspecified £costs. Fun times.
I personally manufacture stuff and sell it to the EU, all by myself. And in the tax year last audited, I turned over half a mill. So, go and shove an artisanal hand carved Yorkshire dildo up yer fecking arse
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
You seem to think "success" here = getting the bridge built where actually it is getting the bridge built and it not turning out to be like
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Can I ask what involvement you have in business / logistics /import and export etc? I am fine with the "vigour of capitalism" but vast amounts of added red tape costs money and delayed transit costs money and disrupted supply chains cost money and all 3 are now government policy.
When you say "less encumbered with bureaucracy" perhaps you can assist. Right now my company buys stuff with zero checks and zero paperwork. And then sells it with zero checks and zero paperwork. In January there will be lots of checks and paperwork for bits coming in and finished goods going out. I need to be proposing prices for products in the next month for next year and nobody has a clue what the cost will be of the mass of extra bureaucracy.
Perhaps you can advise the British Retail Consortium on their specific detailed real world list of questions that no-one other than you can answer.
I'm a sole trader and in the last tax year I turned over half a million pounds, mainly from the EU, so, yeah, I know what I am talking about.
Fab. You buy and sell stuff. So not in manufacturing at all. And half a million is a drop in the ocean compared to the manufacturing industries providing very detailed commentary on exactly where your lack of knowledge may be wrong.
No checks now, no paperwork now, no bureaucracy now. Vs lots of all of them in January with unspecified £costs. Fun times.
I personally manufacture stuff and sell it to the EU, all by myself. And in the tax year last audited, I turned over half a mill. So, go and shove an artisanal hand carved Yorkshire dildo up yer fecking arse
Are you sure your endeavours are legal?
I believe (and know) what you manufacture may actually be a more invisible than a visible export. Much like the software male nude photographs aren't that bulky to export and are probably nowadays sent electronically for that is what I believe your previous incarnation did for a living..
So yes in the same way that the paperwork regime coming next year doesn't really impact me it won't impact you...
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Come back to me when one of Boris Johnson’s grand projects actually happens. He’s batting about 0 for 5 at the moment.
No you come back to me when you've been elected Prime Minister with a stunning victory - the first Conservative landslide in a generation.
He took his party by the scruff of the neck and delivered something that 6 months ago was unthinkable. Especially to you.
Learn from your bitter mistakes and stop regurgitating them.
As someone who has occasionally hired politicians (and others) to give speeches at work one of the reasons you do it, regardless of the speaker, is that big name brings in people in your industry/clients/suppliers you don't normally get to see regularly, if at all.
So your star speaker is a former PM, chuck in some decent food and drinks, and it brings in the people you want to see.
They act as a glorious networking event.
Sure, but for near 100k?
It's a bargain if it brings a client/clients that is/are a big fee earner, something that is annually 10 times that speaking fee.
It's hard for those of us in less august surroundings to image, no doubt.
I hear Mrs May is great speaker when it comes to cricket, she's a huge fan, which explains the knighthoods for Messers Boycott, Strauss, and Cook.
But she wouldn't be in the my top ten speakers I'd hire.
Here's a story to gladden Leaver hearts. The EU has decided to do away with winter/summer time, and we Brits - if we were still in it - would almost certainly have to choose one or the other, forever
No we wouldn't, because if we were in the EU we could veto it. But we're not. So we can't.
"Take back control"...
How could we veto in when its a QMV decision and why would we want to veto it once we're out?
I must admit, I could have sworn that I had read somewhere that it needed all EU members to agree, but I see now that it actually only needed a majority to
Still, I agree with it, as long as we add an hour to our own time zone!
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Come back to me when one of Boris Johnson’s grand projects actually happens. He’s batting about 0 for 5 at the moment.
Uh, clearly you've not heard of "Brexit"
That was one of his "grand projects". AIUI, it got done.
If you seek a monument, look around you at the ugly, diminished, shrivelled, flatlining country he is in charge of.
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Come back to me when one of Boris Johnson’s grand projects actually happens. He’s batting about 0 for 5 at the moment.
No you come back to me when you've been elected Prime Minister with a stunning victory - the first Conservative landslide in a generation.
He took his party by the scruff of the neck and delivered something that 6 months ago was unthinkable. Especially to you.
Learn from your bitter mistakes and stop regurgitating them.
Come off it HYUFD...I mean Mysticrose. Boris has been lucky to have such pathetic opponents as both Mayor and PM.
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Come back to me when one of Boris Johnson’s grand projects actually happens. He’s batting about 0 for 5 at the moment.
You’re being too kind. He’s at -2 surely: the money wasted on the Garden Bridge and that cable car which carries about a passenger a week. Plus the wasted water cannons.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Displacement activities are very comforting. Time to put my spice rack in alphabetical order...
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Calm down, dear. People are dying of stuff all the time and it's not as if there is any shortage of them. The great flu of 1918 was so uninteresting that it is virtually illegal to refer to it without saying that it killed more people than the war, because nobody knows or remembers that. Oh and plague is only one of the four.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
There's a massive North-South divide between how useful or not Daylight Savings is. The closer to the equator you are the less it is useful, the closer to the North/South pole the more valuable it is, which is why the Scots have been most in favour of it in this country.
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Displacement activities are very comforting. Time to put my spice rack in alphabetical order...
Good plan. Whilst sorting out the spices have a little ponder on a bridge that we may or may not build in 30-years.
Here's a story to gladden Leaver hearts. The EU has decided to do away with winter/summer time, and we Brits - if we were still in it - would almost certainly have to choose one or the other, forever
No we wouldn't, because if we were in the EU we could veto it. But we're not. So we can't.
"Take back control"...
How could we veto in when its a QMV decision and why would we want to veto it once we're out?
I must admit, I could have sworn that I had read somewhere that it needed all EU members to agree, but I see now that it actually only needed a majority to
Still, I agree with it, as long as we add an hour to our own time zone!
So you're an idiot. You shouldn't even have had a vote in the referendum
I am indeed. I'm not a smack head though, so that's something
Developments on the Nevada Caucuses (from various news sources, mainly NPR and Fox News) –
It’s much the same as Iowa – except that they have early voting.
They have abandoned plans to use a similar app to the one from Iowa.
As of now - For early voting only (starting Saturday and running to Tuesday), the procedure is apparently planned to be, but as yet untested statewide:
1. Every precinct has been given an iPad 2. Voters check in using a pdf file preloaded onto said iPad 3. They are then given a card with a pin number 4. They enter that number into a google docs form 5. They select 3 to 5 preferences on a paper ballot 6. They insert the ballot and cards into a ballot box 7. Volunteers will monitor each ballot box 8. observers and campaign staff can oversee the whole process 9. Ballot boxes are then transported to ’designated ballot processing hubs’ 10. Ballots are scanned and stored 11. Results will be kept secret until actual caucus vote on Feb 22.
The Caucus Day process is yet to be confirmed.
I already checked and it's Not April 1st. I find it hard to believe that this is serious.
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Come back to me when one of Boris Johnson’s grand projects actually happens. He’s batting about 0 for 5 at the moment.
Uh, clearly you've not heard of "Brexit"
That was one of his "grand projects". AIUI, it got done.
If you seek a monument, look around you at the ugly, diminished, shrivelled, flatlining country he is in charge of.
I used the Latin original of that line - Si monumentum requiris, circumspice - at the start of one of my talks (since we’re talking about inspiring speakers...). It certainly got the audience’s attention, though much to my disappointment no-one knew what it meant let alone where to find it, despite sitting only yards away.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Calm down, dear. People are dying of stuff all the time and it's not as if there is any shortage of them. The great flu of 2018 was so uninteresting that it is virtually illegal to refer too it without saying rust it killed more people thing the war, because nobody knows or remembers that. Oh and plague is only one of the four.
Yes it's great to be really cool and chilled about global pandemics. But in about 2-months time I reckon you might be saying something slightly different. We shall see.
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Come back to me when one of Boris Johnson’s grand projects actually happens. He’s batting about 0 for 5 at the moment.
Uh, clearly you've not heard of "Brexit"
That was one of his "grand projects". AIUI, it got done.
If you seek a monument, look around you at the ugly, diminished, shrivelled, flatlining country he is in charge of.
I hope one day a smart bloke like you will see the benefits and opportunities of Brexit. You are too intelligent to remain mired in bitterness.
If nothing else, endless negativity is pointless in the face of a new reality.
I also hope your partner is continuing his recovery!
The new reality is endlessly shit. Get used to chronic underperformance and chippy paranoia from Leavers derived from FOMO, finding new ways to blame the EU for acts of irksome villainy. Meanwhile, the government will continue with showy distractions like pointless bridges and wildly expensive train lines, few of which will come to fruition and none of which will be worth the money spent on them.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
IT is the very essence of the problem that is the EU. The now over-powerful parliament (and Commission) knows that it is undemocratic (at best) and very much unloved.
The people in it are not evil or mad; I am sure that most of them mean well, want to do good things, even if too many are susceptible to corruption, thanks to a lack of a critical demos and an EU-wide media to scrutinize them.
So there they are. In Strasbourg and Brussels, feeling a bit insecure, somewhat confused, a bit corrupt, politically unjustified, definitely overpaid and morally uncertain of their role. What is their natural reaction? To over-legislate, to gather power, to make diktats and decisions which might be bonkers but make them feel better: changing European lives in whatever way they can, good or bad. Just do it. Justify their lives!
And thus even more power is calamitously gathered in to the least democratic government of Europe: the government of the EU.
The EU is a monstrosity we're well rid of.
I see the EU parliament today has decided to make "gender discrimination" a negotiating red line of any free trade deal they might negotiate with us.
Developments on the Nevada Caucuses (from various news sources, mainly NPR and Fox News) –
It’s much the same as Iowa – except that they have early voting.
They have abandoned plans to use a similar app to the one from Iowa.
As of now - For early voting only (starting Saturday and running to Tuesday), the procedure is apparently planned to be, but as yet untested statewide:
1. Every precinct has been given an iPad 2. Voters check in using a pdf file preloaded onto said iPad 3. They are then given a card with a pin number 4. They enter that number into a google docs form 5. They select 3 to 5 preferences on a paper ballot 6. They insert the ballot and cards into a ballot box 7. Volunteers will monitor each ballot box 8. observers and campaign staff can oversee the whole process 9. Ballot boxes are then transported to ’designated ballot processing hubs’ 10. Ballots are scanned and stored 11. Results will be kept secret until actual caucus vote on Feb 22.
The Caucus Day process is yet to be confirmed.
I already checked and it's Not April 1st. I find it hard to believe that this is serious.
Me too. Are you ribbing us?
Nope. It seems crazy, but I heard it from multiple sources. Early voting starts in less than 3 days. I'm assuming that by the time the 22nd rolls around they'll have something more reasonable. It seems a Rube Goldberg scheme to put it mildly.
Points 10 and 11 sem to be the key - they aren't announcing any results before caucus day so in theory they can do as many recounts or recanvassing as they want before then without telling anybody.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Calm down, dear. People are dying of stuff all the time and it's not as if there is any shortage of them. The great flu of 2018 was so uninteresting that it is virtually illegal to refer too it without saying rust it killed more people thing the war, because nobody knows or remembers that. Oh and plague is only one of the four.
Yes it's great to be really cool and chilled about global pandemics. But in about 2-months time I reckon you might be saying something slightly different. We shall see.
I have survived stage 3 and a bit cancer, and the experience has taught me how little point there is in meeting zombie apocalypses halfway. Calm down.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
There's a massive North-South divide between how useful or not Daylight Savings is. The closer to the equator you are the less it is useful, the closer to the North/South pole the more valuable it is, which is why the Scots have been most in favour of it in this country.
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
You have to understand that everything the EU does is designed to drive a closer common European identify across its member states. This is yet another aspect of that.
Some may yell fruitcake or loony at me for doing that, but it's in black & white in the treaties and precisely how the more idealist Apparatchiks and bureaucrats think behind the scenes, where such views are entirely non contentious.
The really loony view is to think this doesn't really feature because it's just an advanced trading bloc.
So Britain had the 3rd fastest growing economy in the G7 in 2019
LOL@Remainers
3rd out of 7 is, well, it's above average!
It's certainly not the apocalypse. What can possibly explain the below-Brexit performances of France, Germany and Italy???
Brexit???
Also, what ARE Remainers going to do if Brexit turns out OK, indeed pretty good, considering (which I expect). The levels of cognitive dissonance might be actively fatal. We may look upon Jolyon Maugham, in a tiny kimono, hammering a Boxing Day fox to death, as a time of relative Remoaner sanity.
I voted leave, did a Mea Culpa when I realised they were serious about leaving the EEA and became a #remainernow. Brexit isn't going to turn out ok if the Tories are serious about imposing border checks on everything in January. Business who imports and exports- like most business - needs to know what 2021 looks like. And "deal with it" doesn't cut the mustard when Govey says it'll be 2025 before we get back to border process as simple as we have now.
I entirely disagree. I reckon the natural vigour of capitalism will overcome all this trivial shit, and both sides will - in the end - find a begrudging but common cause.
And because Britain will be less encumbered with bureaucracy, and able to elect and eject all those who make our laws, we will do better.
It's that simple.
Except that one of the great masterminds of Brexit (Gove) has pretty much told business that Brexit and non-alignment is going to increase bureaucracy and red tape.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
HMG has impressed me with how well organised they've been though at dealing with this. They've clearly wargamed this and are well prepared.
Gives me confidence we'll weather it as best we can.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Calm down, dear. People are dying of stuff all the time and it's not as if there is any shortage of them. The great flu of 2018 was so uninteresting that it is virtually illegal to refer too it without saying rust it killed more people thing the war, because nobody knows or remembers that. Oh and plague is only one of the four.
Yes it's great to be really cool and chilled about global pandemics. But in about 2-months time I reckon you might be saying something slightly different. We shall see.
I have survived stage 3 and a bit cancer, and the experience has taught me how little point there is in meeting zombie apocalypses halfway. Calm down.
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Nice to know that after spafffing billions of taxpayers money up the wall that "some of them will come off". Easy to be the big "I AM" when it's other peoples' hard earned cash you are gambling with.
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loahe way.
Come back to me when one of Boris Johnson’s grand projects actually happens. He’s batting about 0 for 5 at the moment.
Uh, clearly you've not heard of "Brexit"
That was one of his "grand projects". AIUI, it got done.
If you seek a monument, look around you at the ugly, diminished, shrivelled, flatlining country he is in charge of.
I hope one day a smart bloke like you will see the benefits and opportunities of Brexit. You are too intelligent to remain mired in bitterness.
If nothing else, endless negativity is pointless in the face of a new reality.
I also hope your partner is continuing his recovery!
The new reality is endlessly shit. Get used to chronic underperformance and chippy paranoia from Leavers derived from FOMO, finding new ways to blame the EU for acts of irksome villainy. Meanwhile, the government will continue with showy distractions like pointless bridges and wildly expensive train lines, few of which will come to fruition and none of which will be worth the money spent on them.
*sigh*
I hope one day you will cheer up
And then you and I can guzzle oysters in an undestroyed London in a non-divided UK which is still culturally and blatantly European, just not politically in the EU.
We shall see. I wish you well. Enjoy the figs and cheese, old boy.
On a thread where assorted Leavers, including you, are still baying at the EU moon, it’s going to be a long long time before Britain returns to any equilibrium. By then it will be much poorer and probably only a little wiser. It may well not be Britain at all.
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Come back to me when one of Boris Johnson’s grand projects actually happens. He’s batting about 0 for 5 at the moment.
Uh, clearly you've not heard of "Brexit"
That was one of his "grand projects". AIUI, it got done.
If you seek a monument, look around you at the ugly, diminished, shrivelled, flatlining country he is in charge of.
I hope one day a smart bloke like you will see the benefits and opportunities of Brexit. You are too intelligent to remain mired in bitterness.
If nothing else, endless negativity is pointless in the face of a new reality.
I also hope your partner is continuing his recovery!
The new reality is endlessly shit. Get used to chronic underperformance and chippy paranoia from Leavers derived from FOMO, finding new ways to blame the EU for acts of irksome villainy. Meanwhile, the government will continue with showy distractions like pointless bridges and wildly expensive train lines, few of which will come to fruition and none of which will be worth the money spent on them.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Yes it's great to be really cool and chilled about global pandemics. But in about 2-months time I reckon you might be saying something slightly different. We shall see.
Do you have some inside info?
I have some personal interest in this (having been an alleged sufferer, idiotically untested).
The global rise in infections is markedly slowing (probably thanks to incredibly harsh Chinese restrictions).
The question is whether the infection will similarly grow ex-China and whether other countries have the determination and power to jail their populations in the same way as Beijing.
No inside information. I've read the various medical publications in the Lancet, JAMA etc reporting the early cases from Hubei and associated mortality rates. I've observed the response from the Chinese government, I've looked at the infectious disease models. I'm listening to people like Prof Neil Ferguson from Imperial:
"I think we're in the early phases of a global pandemic at the moment"
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
There's a massive North-South divide between how useful or not Daylight Savings is. The closer to the equator you are the less it is useful, the closer to the North/South pole the more valuable it is, which is why the Scots have been most in favour of it in this country.
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
You have to understand that everything the EU does is designed to drive a closer common European identify across its member states. This is yet another aspect of that.
Some may yell fruitcake or loony at me for doing that, but it's in black & white in the treaties and precisely how the more idealist Apparatchiks and bureaucrats think behind the scenes, where such views are entirely non contentious.
The really loony view is to think this doesn't really feature because it's just an advanced trading bloc.
It isn't. And never has been.
The EU already has a common summer time policy across all its members. This is just an evidence-based development reflecting changes in energy use and transport safety since the 20th century. It is nothing new. What is being called for on this thread is an end to the common policy, despite the benefits to international travellers and to businesses in the computer age.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
HMG has impressed me with how well organised they've been though at dealing with this. They've clearly wargamed this and are well prepared.
Gives me confidence we'll weather it as best we can.
Genuine question. What exactly has impressed you with their response?
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
HMG has impressed me with how well organised they've been though at dealing with this. They've clearly wargamed this and are well prepared.
Gives me confidence we'll weather it as best we can.
Yes, despite the significant cuts that Public Health England has had in the last five years, so far so good.
Small numbers help, but if the numbers in our Flu plan are vaguely correct, we will get swamped pretty quickly. We simply have no spare capacity in ICU.
Can I ask what involvement you have in business / logistics /import and export etc? I am fine with the "vigour of capitalism" but vast amounts of added red tape costs money and delayed transit costs money and disrupted supply chains cost money and all 3 are now government policy.
When you say "less encumbered with bureaucracy" perhaps you can assist. Right now my company buys stuff with zero checks and zero paperwork. And then sells it with zero checks and zero paperwork. In January there will be lots of checks and paperwork for bits coming in and finished goods going out. I need to be proposing prices for products in the next month for next year and nobody has a clue what the cost will be of the mass of extra bureaucracy.
Perhaps you can advise the British Retail Consortium on their specific detailed real world list of questions that no-one other than you can answer.
I'm a sole trader and in the last tax year I turned over half a million pounds, mainly from the EU, so, yeah, I know what I am talking about.
Fab. You buy and sell stuff. So not in manufacturing at all. And half a million is a drop in the ocean compared to the manufacturing industries providing very detailed commentary on exactly where your lack of knowledge may be wrong.
No checks now, no paperwork now, no bureaucracy now. Vs lots of all of them in January with unspecified £costs. Fun times.
I personally manufacture stuff and sell it to the EU, all by myself. And in the tax year last audited, I turned over half a mill. So, go and shove an artisanal hand carved Yorkshire dildo up yer fecking arse
Are you sure your endeavours are legal?
I believe (and know) what you manufacture may actually be a more invisible than a visible export. Much like the software male nude photographs aren't that bulky to export and are probably nowadays sent electronically for that is what I believe your previous incarnation did for a living..
So yes in the same way that the paperwork regime coming next year doesn't really impact me it won't impact you...
You're literally accusing Mexicanpete of exporting "male nude porn"
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Calm down, dear. People are dying of stuff all the time and it's not as if there is any shortage of them. The great flu of 2018 was so uninteresting that it is virtually illegal to refer too it without saying rust it killed more people thing the war, because nobody knows or remembers that. Oh and plague is only one of the four.
Yes it's great to be really cool and chilled about global pandemics. But in about 2-months time I reckon you might be saying something slightly different. We shall see.
I have survived stage 3 and a bit cancer, and the experience has taught me how little point there is in meeting zombie apocalypses halfway. Calm down.
Nothing is as good or bad as at first it seems.
Until it is... On an optimistic note, the epidemiologist from Imperial reckoned we’d be better off than the Chinese as we’re less sociable, which should cut infection rates a bit. Also everyone regularly washing hands is about the most effective public intervention possible (& quite cost effective.....).
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
:
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Come back to me when one of Boris Johnson’s grand projects actually happens. He’s batting about 0 for 5 at the moment.
Uh, clearly you've not heard of "Brexit"
That was one of his "grand projects". AIUI, it got done.
If you seek a monument, look around you at the ugly, diminished, shrivelled, flatlining country he is in charge of.
:
The new reality is endlessly shit. Get used to chronic underperformance and chippy paranoia from Leavers derived from FOMO, finding new ways to blame the EU for acts of irksome villainy. Meanwhile, the government will continue with showy distractions like pointless bridges and wildly expensive train lines, few of which will come to fruition and none of which will be worth the money spent on them.
It is worth noting that all we are hearing on these projects is a succession of rumours.
The exception is HS2 - where it has been formally announced as proceeding. The business case closes for this, despite the increase in costs. Or are you more expert than the experts in this case?
Indeed, it seems that in a number of places the government is carrying out policies based on evidence - the Huawei decision was directly from the report compiled by the NCSC. The rise in minimum wage was straight from the report by the Low Pay Commission on the effects of a rise. The planned ending of ICE cars is based on a study of the probable switch over points in the economics of ZEVs. The changes to child care came out of the reports on certain... breakdowns in child safeguarding in care.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
There's a massive North-South divide between how useful or not Daylight Savings is. The closer to the equator you are the less it is useful, the closer to the North/South pole the more valuable it is, which is why the Scots have been most in favour of it in this country.
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
You have to understand that everything the EU does is designed to drive a closer common European identify across its member states. This is yet another aspect of that.
Some may yell fruitcake or loony at me for doing that, but it's in black & white in the treaties and precisely how the more idealist Apparatchiks and bureaucrats think behind the scenes, where such views are entirely non contentious.
The really loony view is to think this doesn't really feature because it's just an advanced trading bloc.
It isn't. And never has been.
The EU already has a common summer time policy across all its members. This is just an evidence-based development reflecting changes in energy use and transport safety since the 20th century. It is nothing new. What is being called for on this thread is an end to the common policy, despite the benefits to international travellers and to businesses in the computer age.
It switches from winter to summer time on a certain date (and back again) each year.
That's quite different from "all year" time that never changes that doesn't take account of the changing seasons.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
HMG has impressed me with how well organised they've been though at dealing with this. They've clearly wargamed this and are well prepared.
Gives me confidence we'll weather it as best we can.
Genuine question. What exactly has impressed you with their response?
The swift evacuations from China, the prompt government announcements and declarations of emergency, the set up of the isolation facilities, the swift way they've invoked civil contingency measures to stop infected patients leaving, the efficient way they're investigating others whom infected patients may have come into contact with, the rapid swabbing and clean-up of potentially infected areas, like GP surgeries, the way the NHS are aligned to it already and asking the right questions..
+++++ No inside information. I've read the various medical publications in the Lancet, JAMA etc reporting the early cases from Hubei and associated mortality rates. I've observed the response from the Chinese government, I've looked at the infectious disease models. I'm listening to people like Prof Neil Ferguson from Imperial:
"I think we're in the early phases of a global pandemic at the moment" +++++
Sadly, I tend to agree. I am not an epidemiologist, clearly (I design, hand-carve and eagerly sell traditional Yorkshire applewood dildos to the EU) but the stats on corona say this is bloody contagious, moderately lethal, and only the most stringent restrictions (like welding entire cities into their Chinese apartments) have slowed it, for now.
I pray daily that I am wrong. Inshallah!
Let's not forget personal hygiene matters too, as well as gloves (it's one of these videos that make me believe that Buddhism is not that far off) https://twitter.com/Kojoanan/status/1227630429336952833 In the past many people avoided handshakes and wore gloves for health reasons, that will make a comeback.
Ooh here's a surprise. Alastair being negative about a Boris project
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
I thought I’d been fairly friendly to his intentions.
"The ridiculousness of the proposal" you mean?
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
This proposal is ridiculous. The intentions behind putting it forward are not particularly. It’s not a serious proposal.
Like him or loathe him Boris Johnson is an immensely successful politician.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Come back to me when one of Boris Johnson’s grand projects actually happens. He’s batting about 0 for 5 at the moment.
Uh, clearly you've not heard of "Brexit"
That was one of his "grand projects". AIUI, it got done.
If you seek a monument, look around you at the ugly, diminished, shrivelled, flatlining country he is in charge of.
I am looking around myself right now. I am in Knott Bar, close to Deansgate Station, Manchester. I appreciate that my view is partial - but from here all I can see is growth. This area is incomparable* from ten years ago. Cranes litter the skylines. The area is busy with people. Shiny new skyscrapers point at the sky. And yes, this view is partial, and transient. But I don't recognise your view of the gloomy present.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Calm down, dear. People are dying of stuff all the time and it's not as if there is any shortage of them. The great flu of 2018 was so uninteresting that it is virtually illegal to refer too it without saying rust it killed more people thing the war, because nobody knows or remembers that. Oh and plague is only one of the four.
Yes it's great to be really cool and chilled about global pandemics. But in about 2-months time I reckon you might be saying something slightly different. We shall see.
I have survived stage 3 and a bit cancer, and the experience has taught me how little point there is in meeting zombie apocalypses halfway. Calm down.
Nothing is as good or bad as at first it seems.
Until it is... On an optimistic note, the epidemiologist from Imperial reckoned we’d be better off than the Chinese as we’re less sociable, which should cut infection rates a bit. Also everyone regularly washing hands is about the most effective public intervention possible (& quite cost effective.....).
We're less communal, perhaps. We go to the pub but otherwise mind our own business outside work, and head back to our flats or houses if there's a problem.
I suspect it will largely be contained. I'm not sure (yet) it's bad enough to spread to everyone or as good as.
I feel better about it now than I did four days ago, despite the increase in cases.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
There's a massive North-South divide between how useful or not Daylight Savings is. The closer to the equator you are the less it is useful, the closer to the North/South pole the more valuable it is, which is why the Scots have been most in favour of it in this country.
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
You have to understand that everything the EU does is designed to drive a closer common European identify across its member states. This is yet another aspect of that.
Some may yell fruitcake or loony at me for doing that, but it's in black & white in the treaties and precisely how the more idealist Apparatchiks and bureaucrats think behind the scenes, where such views are entirely non contentious.
The really loony view is to think this doesn't really feature because it's just an advanced trading bloc.
It isn't. And never has been.
Its an absurdity.
The Australians and Americans can cope with different timezones, and different daylight savings, without worrying that they lack an identity.
A proper European identity would transcend things like timezone differences.
Neither a trading bloc nor an identity require harmonisation.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Calm down, dear. People are dying of stuff all the time and it's not as if there is any shortage of them. The great flu of 2018 was so uninteresting that it is virtually illegal to refer too it without saying rust it killed more people thing the war, because nobody knows or remembers that. Oh and plague is only one of the four.
Yes it's great to be really cool and chilled about global pandemics. But in about 2-months time I reckon you might be saying something slightly different. We shall see.
I have survived stage 3 and a bit cancer, and the experience has taught me how little point there is in meeting zombie apocalypses halfway. Calm down.
Nothing is as good or bad as at first it seems.
Until it is... On an optimistic note, the epidemiologist from Imperial reckoned we’d be better off than the Chinese as we’re less sociable, which should cut infection rates a bit. Also everyone regularly washing hands is about the most effective public intervention possible (& quite cost effective.....).
Wear gloves at all times, any gloves. It stops you touching your face, which is probably more significant protection than face masks.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
There's a massive North-South divide between how useful or not Daylight Savings is. The closer to the equator you are the less it is useful, the closer to the North/South pole the more valuable it is, which is why the Scots have been most in favour of it in this country.
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
You have to understand that everything the EU does is designed to drive a closer common European identify across its member states. This is yet another aspect of that.
Some may yell fruitcake or loony at me for doing that, but it's in black & white in the treaties and precisely how the more idealist Apparatchiks and bureaucrats think behind the scenes, where such views are entirely non contentious.
The really loony view is to think this doesn't really feature because it's just an advanced trading bloc.
It isn't. And never has been.
Its an absurdity.
The Australians and Americans can cope with different timezones, and different daylight savings, without worrying that they lack an identity.
A proper European identity would transcend things like timezone differences.
Neither a trading bloc nor an identity require harmonisation.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
There's a massive North-South divide between how useful or not Daylight Savings is. The closer to the equator you are the less it is useful, the closer to the North/South pole the more valuable it is, which is why the Scots have been most in favour of it in this country.
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
You have to understand that everything the EU does is designed to drive a closer common European identify across its member states. This is yet another aspect of that.
Some may yell fruitcake or loony at me for doing that, but it's in black & white in the treaties and precisely how the more idealist Apparatchiks and bureaucrats think behind the scenes, where such views are entirely non contentious.
The really loony view is to think this doesn't really feature because it's just an advanced trading bloc.
It isn't. And never has been.
The EU already has a common summer time policy across all its members. This is just an evidence-based development reflecting changes in energy use and transport safety since the 20th century. It is nothing new. What is being called for on this thread is an end to the common policy, despite the benefits to international travellers and to businesses in the computer age.
An end to a common policy would not be a bad idea. That is not what is being proposed.
The proposal is for the common policy across the EU to be no daylight savings. That's not the same thing.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
There's a massive North-South divide between how useful or not Daylight Savings is. The closer to the equator you are the less it is useful, the closer to the North/South pole the more valuable it is, which is why the Scots have been most in favour of it in this country.
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
You have to understand that everything the EU does is designed to drive a closer common European identify across its member states. This is yet another aspect of that.
Some may yell fruitcake or loony at me for doing that, but it's in black & white in the treaties and precisely how the more idealist Apparatchiks and bureaucrats think behind the scenes, where such views are entirely non contentious.
The really loony view is to think this doesn't really feature because it's just an advanced trading bloc.
It isn't. And never has been.
Its an absurdity.
The Australians and Americans can cope with different timezones, and different daylight savings, without worrying that they lack an identity.
A proper European identity would transcend things like timezone differences.
Neither a trading bloc nor an identity require harmonisation.
You guys are obsessed.
Am I obsessed if I call something Trump does absurd?
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Yes it's great to be really cool and chilled about global pandemics. But in about 2-months time I reckon you might be saying something slightly different. We shall see.
Do you have some inside info?
I have some personal interest in this (having been an alleged sufferer, idiotically untested).
The global rise in infections is markedly slowing (probably thanks to incredibly harsh Chinese restrictions).
The question is whether the infection will similarly grow ex-China and whether other countries have the determination and power to jail their populations in the same way as Beijing.
No inside information. I've read the various medical publications in the Lancet, JAMA etc reporting the early cases from Hubei and associated mortality rates. I've observed the response from the Chinese government, I've looked at the infectious disease models. I'm listening to people like Prof Neil Ferguson from Imperial:
"I think we're in the early phases of a global pandemic at the moment"
Pace my cheery optimism about the present, I am morbidly fascinated to see how such a pandemic pans out. Spanish flu claimed 3-6% of the world's population. It's astonishing it is such an unremarked incident in 20th century history. A similar pandemic could see deaths of close to half a billion. There is reason to believe it might not be as bad (better medical care) but also reasons to believe irmight be worse (greater interconnectedness). That's without any understanding of the infeectiousness of this particular strain. Which could bebetter, or worse.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
There's a massive North-South divide between how useful or not Daylight Savings is. The closer to the equator you are the less it is useful, the closer to the North/South pole the more valuable it is, which is why the Scots have been most in favour of it in this country.
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
You have to understand that everything the EU does is designed to drive a closer common European identify across its member states. This is yet another aspect of that.
Some may yell fruitcake or loony at me for doing that, but it's in black & white in the treaties and precisely how the more idealist Apparatchiks and bureaucrats think behind the scenes, where such views are entirely non contentious.
The really loony view is to think this doesn't really feature because it's just an advanced trading bloc.
It isn't. And never has been.
The EU already has a common summer time policy across all its members. This is just an evidence-based development reflecting changes in energy use and transport safety since the 20th century. It is nothing new. What is being called for on this thread is an end to the common policy, despite the benefits to international travellers and to businesses in the computer age.
It switches from winter to summer time on a certain date (and back again) each year.
That's quite different from "all year" time that never changes that doesn't take account of the changing seasons.
That's the evidence-based part - it's no longer clear that the benefit of changing times with the seasons outweighs the costs to health from changing the time, because the connection between energy use and daylight has weakened. What won't change either way is that this is a common EU policy.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
There's a massive North-South divide between how useful or not Daylight Savings is. The closer to the equator you are the less it is useful, the closer to the North/South pole the more valuable it is, which is why the Scots have been most in favour of it in this country.
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
You have to understand that everything the EU does is designed to drive a closer common European identify across its member states. This is yet another aspect of that.
Some may yell fruitcake or loony at me for doing that, but it's in black & white in the treaties and precisely how the more idealist Apparatchiks and bureaucrats think behind the scenes, where such views are entirely non contentious.
The really loony view is to think this doesn't really feature because it's just an advanced trading bloc.
It isn't. And never has been.
Its an absurdity.
The Australians and Americans can cope with different timezones, and different daylight savings, without worrying that they lack an identity.
A proper European identity would transcend things like timezone differences.
Neither a trading bloc nor an identity require harmonisation.
Finland and the Baltic states are one hour ahead of Central European Time and Portugal one hour behind (like UK).
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Calm down, dear. People are dying of stuff all the time and it's not as if there is any shortage of them. The great flu of 2018 was so uninteresting that it is virtually illegal to refer too it without saying rust it killed more people thing the war, because nobody knows or remembers that. Oh and plague is only one of the four.
Yes it's great to be really cool and chilled about global pandemics. But in about 2-months time I reckon you might be saying something slightly different. We shall see.
I have survived stage 3 and a bit cancer, and the experience has taught me how little point there is in meeting zombie apocalypses halfway. Calm down.
Nothing is as good or bad as at first it seems.
Until it is... On an optimistic note, the epidemiologist from Imperial reckoned we’d be better off than the Chinese as we’re less sociable, which should cut infection rates a bit. Also everyone regularly washing hands is about the most effective public intervention possible (& quite cost effective.....).
We're less communal, perhaps. We go to the pub but otherwise mind our own business outside work, and head back to our flats or houses if there's a problem.
I suspect it will largely be contained. I'm not sure (yet) it's bad enough to spread to everyone or as good as.
I feel better about it now than I did four days ago, despite the increase in cases.
We're also rather less, er, spitty than the Chinese.
The idea the EU should all have daylight savings, or none of them should have daylight savings, is an absurd decision that is a great example of the EU overreaching on things that shouldn't concern itself. The US Federal Government doesn't mandate that all states have daylight savings - or none of them - and for good reasons. What's suitable in Arizona and what's suitable in Alaska may differ.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
It's the same as Beijing mandating a single timezone for the whole of China, it's completely ridiculous.
There's a massive North-South divide between how useful or not Daylight Savings is. The closer to the equator you are the less it is useful, the closer to the North/South pole the more valuable it is, which is why the Scots have been most in favour of it in this country.
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
You have to understand that everything the EU does is designed to drive a closer common European identify across its member states. This is yet another aspect of that.
Some may yell fruitcake or loony at me for doing that, but it's in black & white in the treaties and precisely how the more idealist Apparatchiks and bureaucrats think behind the scenes, where such views are entirely non contentious.
The really loony view is to think this doesn't really feature because it's just an advanced trading bloc.
It isn't. And never has been.
Its an absurdity.
The Australians and Americans can cope with different timezones, and different daylight savings, without worrying that they lack an identity.
A proper European identity would transcend things like timezone differences.
Neither a trading bloc nor an identity require harmonisation.
Finland and the Baltic states are one hour ahead of Central European Time and Portugal one hour behind (like UK).
That's a difference of East/West. Daylight savings is a matter of North/South more than East/West.
... the real question is what does a young woman who looks that good in a bikini see in the millionaire Boris Johnson, to paraphrase the late Mrs Merton?
The fieldwork dates for that poll start before even Iowa
The fieldwork ends well after Iowa
OK. But imagine you have two candidates A and B. And there is a poll taken over eight days with Iowa in the middle. If A gets 60% of the vote for every day of sampling before Iowa, and 40% after, then when the results are released you'll think they're doing fine, still on 50%, when in fact they'll be on 40%.
And don't forget there hasn't been just one disastrous result for the Biden candidacy, but two.
He was fourth in Iowa, and fifth in New Hampshire.
The gap between joke candidate Steyer and Biden was 14,000 votes.
The gap between Buttigeg and Biden (and we're not even talking Sanders here) was almost 50,000 votes.
Think about that for a second. Biden was three times nearer Steyer in votes as he was Buttigieg.
The former Vice President flopped with independents. He flopped with Democrats. He flopped in Iowa (where he'd campaigned solidly for weeks prior to the caucus). And then he flopped in New Hampshire.
People say that Buttigieg can't get the votes of minorities. But Biden can't get the votes of anyone. He's clinging on on the back of a hope and prayer that the people of South Carolina will rescue him. But he's probably going to flop in Nevada. And then he'll flop again in South Carolina.
2020 has been like 2008: another disastrously poor bid for the Presidency by Joe Biden.
I knew I should have gone with “to govern is to choo-choose”.
What a remarkable thread, indeed.
Sean's latest incarnation as a humble sole trader; Mr Meeks gaining twitter rep; people finding arguments for the next Boris Bridge; plus someone who thinks that diversifying European timezones should be a vehicle to enhance national identities and who apparently also thinks that Covid has been dealt with and is now basically over just as much as Brexit.
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
Calm down, dear. People are dying of stuff all the time and it's not as if there is any shortage of them. The great flu of 2018 was so uninteresting that it is virtually illegal to refer too it without saying rust it killed more people thing the war, because nobody knows or remembers that. Oh and plague is only one of the four.
Yes it's great to be really cool and chilled about global pandemics. But in about 2-months time I reckon you might be saying something slightly different. We shall see.
I have survived stage 3 and a bit cancer, and the experience has taught me how little point there is in meeting zombie apocalypses halfway. Calm down.
Nothing is as good or bad as at first it seems.
Until it is... On an optimistic note, the epidemiologist from Imperial reckoned we’d be better off than the Chinese as we’re less sociable, which should cut infection rates a bit. Also everyone regularly washing hands is about the most effective public intervention possible (& quite cost effective.....).
Wear gloves at all times, any gloves. It stops you touching your face, which is probably more significant protection than face masks.
Indeed - though in our mobile fixated age that will not be advice universally followed....
My granddaughter (16) phoned to make an appointment with her doctor and she had to confirm she had not been abroad in the last month before the appointment was made
FFP3 masks being fitted and issued by our Infection Prevention team. The Pandemic Flu plan has been dusted off and circulated.
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
I'm amazed people can bother to talk about bridges when the four horsemen are on our way. Can only assume it's a displacement activity.
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
HMG has impressed me with how well organised they've been though at dealing with this. They've clearly wargamed this and are well prepared.
Gives me confidence we'll weather it as best we can.
Genuine question. What exactly has impressed you with their response?
The swift evacuations from China, the prompt government announcements and declarations of emergency, the set up of the isolation facilities, the swift way they've invoked civil contingency measures to stop infected patients leaving, the efficient way they're investigating others whom infected patients may have come into contact with, the rapid swabbing and clean-up of potentially infected areas, like GP surgeries, the way the NHS are aligned to it already and asking the right questions..
Good enough evidence, don't you think?
Not for me. Shutting the stable door when the horse has bolted sums up most of that list unfortunately.
I believe your earlier sentiment has characterised the response: 'it can't be that bad can it?'. Well yes, it absolutely can be that bad.
Anyway, I'm off to bed now. But the idea that the NHS is any way well prepared for this virus will be shown to be a very sad piece of propaganda.
Comments
I'm no fan of Boris but it's all a bit predictable.
Secondary effects on transport projects are often held to be multiples of the value of the extra traffic/reduced travel time, by the way. This is why the HS2 case closes. Hence why the objection to HS2 on the lines of "it just cuts X off the journey between A and B" are missing the point.
The question to be asked of the bridge idea is this - "What would the effect of X increase in capacity and Y decrease in travel time be on the economies of the economically undeveloped areas that would have their connections to more developed areas improved?"
I pretty much loathe Boris and the tories but I'm sick of the pathetic negative whinging mindset of my fellow remainers.
Some of the most advanced countries in the world have a can-do attitude which includes some grand projects. Boris may fail on this but he may well not.
Furthermore I needed to take my wife to the doctors today and the virus came up. I told her my wife and I had sailed on Diamond Princess (the one in quarantine) over 32 days from Vancouver to Beijing and the panic in her face only disappeared after I said it was 5 years ago
She then went on to say if any patient showed any signs of the virus or had been in China recently she would have to lock us in her surgery, close the surgery immediately, and specialists would attend us before we could venture any further
Seems the NHS have got procedures in place, alarming as they may seem
"Take back control"...
I have that Phoney War feeling, sitting on a mine in the Maginot Line...
It's so obvious.
It’s much the same as Iowa – except that they have early voting.
They have abandoned plans to use a similar app to the one from Iowa.
As of now - For early voting only (starting Saturday and running to Tuesday), the procedure is apparently planned to be, but as yet untested statewide:
1. Every precinct has been given an iPad
2. Voters check in using a pdf file preloaded onto said iPad
3. They are then given a card with a pin number
4. They enter that number into a google docs form
5. They select 3 to 5 preferences on a paper ballot
6. They insert the ballot and cards into a ballot box
7. Volunteers will monitor each ballot box
8. observers and campaign staff can oversee the whole process
9. Ballot boxes are then transported to ’designated ballot processing hubs’
10. Ballots are scanned and stored
11. Results will be kept secret until actual caucus vote on Feb 22.
The Caucus Day process is yet to be confirmed.
I already checked and it's Not April 1st. I find it hard to believe that this is serious.
You're not.
I don't like the man but I do begrudgingly admire some things about him. I like his grand projects and can-do attitude. I thought his estuary airport was a brilliant idea with so much to commend it. Yes they're dreamy and they may not be rooted. But I tell you what, some of them will come off.
Boris is the kind of person who changes the world. You're not. I don't mean that to sound nasty, it's just true. Neither am I by the way.
Just as maybe Berlin or Athens don't need daylight savings, but maybe Stockholm does. It should be for each country to decide by itself its own timezone rules.
The one bit of uniformity that makes sense is to say that all states that do have daylight savings, should have it on the same date. That way you're needing to adjust once.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Our_Lady_of_Peace
This virus is tearing China apart and the Chinese have a power system which is about the most perfect to combat this thing.
Where I work in Manchester, 1000s of luxury apartments are being built to be paid for by wealthy Chinese students. Bye bye whoever funded that.
That's just a trivial example of the destruction coming our way.
So yes in the same way that the paperwork regime coming next year doesn't really impact me it won't impact you...
He took his party by the scruff of the neck and delivered something that 6 months ago was unthinkable. Especially to you.
Learn from your bitter mistakes and stop regurgitating them.
Still, I agree with it, as long as we add an hour to our own time zone!
Now the media are awake...
In Melbourne or Tasmania daylight savings is very useful, in Queensland not so much.
The EU covers a vast span of latitude. Trying to foist one solution on the whole area is absurd and unnecessary. There is no reason why the EU should make a single decision which the USA, Australia and other actual countries don't feel the need to make.
I see the EU parliament today has decided to make "gender discrimination" a negotiating red line of any free trade deal they might negotiate with us.
As if that's any business of theirs.
Points 10 and 11 sem to be the key - they aren't announcing any results before caucus day so in theory they can do as many recounts or recanvassing as they want before then without telling anybody.
Some may yell fruitcake or loony at me for doing that, but it's in black & white in the treaties and precisely how the more idealist Apparatchiks and bureaucrats think behind the scenes, where such views are entirely non contentious.
The really loony view is to think this doesn't really feature because it's just an advanced trading bloc.
It isn't. And never has been.
Gives me confidence we'll weather it as best we can.
Let's hope that expert who reckoned it might be 4 weeks not 2 weeks is wrong.
Nice to know that after spafffing billions of taxpayers money up the wall that "some of them will come off". Easy to be the big "I AM" when it's other peoples' hard earned cash you are gambling with.
https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1227680616734482432
Small numbers help, but if the numbers in our Flu plan are vaguely correct, we will get swamped pretty quickly. We simply have no spare capacity in ICU.
On an optimistic note, the epidemiologist from Imperial reckoned we’d be better off than the Chinese as we’re less sociable, which should cut infection rates a bit.
Also everyone regularly washing hands is about the most effective public intervention possible (& quite cost effective.....).
The exception is HS2 - where it has been formally announced as proceeding. The business case closes for this, despite the increase in costs. Or are you more expert than the experts in this case?
Indeed, it seems that in a number of places the government is carrying out policies based on evidence - the Huawei decision was directly from the report compiled by the NCSC. The rise in minimum wage was straight from the report by the Low Pay Commission on the effects of a rise. The planned ending of ICE cars is based on a study of the probable switch over points in the economics of ZEVs. The changes to child care came out of the reports on certain... breakdowns in child safeguarding in care.
That's quite different from "all year" time that never changes that doesn't take account of the changing seasons.
Good enough evidence, don't you think?
https://twitter.com/Kojoanan/status/1227630429336952833
In the past many people avoided handshakes and wore gloves for health reasons, that will make a comeback.
A beautifully melancholy song
https://youtu.be/c3NYWzHLEZw
And yes, this view is partial, and transient. But I don't recognise your view of the gloomy present.
I suspect it will largely be contained. I'm not sure (yet) it's bad enough to spread to everyone or as good as.
I feel better about it now than I did four days ago, despite the increase in cases.
The Australians and Americans can cope with different timezones, and different daylight savings, without worrying that they lack an identity.
A proper European identity would transcend things like timezone differences.
Neither a trading bloc nor an identity require harmonisation.
The proposal is for the common policy across the EU to be no daylight savings. That's not the same thing.
Fools.
They will be just so proud of their self indulgence when Trump is striding to the podium having been called the winner in November.
CAPTION CONTEST: I thought you had to boil gammon not roast it!
He was fourth in Iowa, and fifth in New Hampshire.
The gap between joke candidate Steyer and Biden was 14,000 votes.
The gap between Buttigeg and Biden (and we're not even talking Sanders here) was almost 50,000 votes.
Think about that for a second. Biden was three times nearer Steyer in votes as he was Buttigieg.
The former Vice President flopped with independents. He flopped with Democrats. He flopped in Iowa (where he'd campaigned solidly for weeks prior to the caucus). And then he flopped in New Hampshire.
People say that Buttigieg can't get the votes of minorities. But Biden can't get the votes of anyone. He's clinging on on the back of a hope and prayer that the people of South Carolina will rescue him. But he's probably going to flop in Nevada. And then he'll flop again in South Carolina.
2020 has been like 2008: another disastrously poor bid for the Presidency by Joe Biden.
Sean's latest incarnation as a humble sole trader; Mr Meeks gaining twitter rep; people finding arguments for the next Boris Bridge; plus someone who thinks that diversifying European timezones should be a vehicle to enhance national identities and who apparently also thinks that Covid has been dealt with and is now basically over just as much as Brexit.
Pb.com at its finest.
I believe your earlier sentiment has characterised the response: 'it can't be that bad can it?'. Well yes, it absolutely can be that bad.
Anyway, I'm off to bed now. But the idea that the NHS is any way well prepared for this virus will be shown to be a very sad piece of propaganda.