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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Ladbrokes make it 2/1 that RLB will finish third behind Starme

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  • Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:


    You may not be her target audience but I possibly am as a voter. And the one thing I have got from the Labour leadership election is that Labour cannot be trusted to defend women’s rights.

    I can get that sort of behaviour under Boris’s Tories. I’d like an alternative please.

    Labour taking a Top Trumps position on women's rights does kinda boggle the mind....
    Somewhat unnoticed in the anti-semitism scandal was the misogyny and bullying towards women. There is I feel an element of that with some of the more extreme trans activists: yet another group of men (by that I do not mean those who have transitioned) telling women that they know best what being a woman is and means. As if we have not had to put up with that sort of nonsense for centuries.

    The shame of it is that there is an obvious compromise position available and a very real issue which does need attention - namely the lack of medical care for those with gender dysphoria. All lost when a small extremist group hijacks an issue and politicians are too scared to stand up to them for fear of not showing the necessary ideological purity.
    Spreading into the courts?

    At least one victim of violence by a transgender woman has been reprimanded in court for using male pronouns while describing the attack. Finding the defendant guilty, the judge refused the victim compensation, saying that when asked to refer to the defendant as ‘she’, the victim had done so with ‘bad grace’ or continued to use ‘he’.

    https://twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1231850565405200384?s=20
    It is nonsense. I am not a “cis” woman whatever that is. I am a woman.

    This babyish belief that people have a right not to be offended is pathetic and dangerous. Respect is earned not imposed. Politeness is something freely given not demanded under pain of something or other.

    A person with a penis is a man until they take steps to remove it. Womanhood is not a “feeling” but an objective reality. If a woman is attacked by a man then she has every right to use the pronoun “he” regardless of his feelings or whether he calls himself Wendy. In court when facts are important and determine outcomes the idea that reality should be ignored in order to spare someone’s feelings is quite absurd. It is happening because too many people are too terrified of being accused of some terrible thought crime or other.

    To coin a phrase, bollocks to that!
    I wonder how the "self-identification brigade" would react if, for argument's sake, a subset of the population self-identified as a different race than the one they were born with.
  • IanB2 said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    It looks like the entire Italian outbreak (hundreds and counting) stems from one guy going to the hospital with symptoms. Where he got it from remains a mystery.
    How did one Italian patient infect so many? Did the virus spread via the hospital's air conditioning system? It is not as if he worked in the hospital kitchens.
  • edmundintokyoedmundintokyo Posts: 17,708
    edited February 2020

    moonshine said:

    Panic buying in Italy reports Mail.

    I knew the Brexit food box would come in handy at some point.

    Panic buying has stopped in Singapore now but it was pretty tedious for a few weeks. All Amazon prime grocery delivery slots were fully booked out unless you kept clicking on the hour, like you need to for Glastonbury tickets. Not a lot on the shelves in supermarkets also. Even the fancy expat butchers ran out of roasting joints one week, the disorganised bastards. Consequence being it could take 75 mins to get a Deliveroo rather than normal 15-20 if you dilly dallied in the evening. Oh it’s been so terrible I can’t begin to tell you!

    If you want to get ahead in the game of stockpile, my top tip is to buy bog roll and then if you are so inclined, hand sanitiser and surgical masks. For some reason cauliflowers here also went MIA, as did instant noodles obvs. It’s quite hard to actually starve due to panic buying but you don’t wanna be resorting to a pail of water, unless you are nostalgic for that exotic backpacking trip.

    You wouldn’t believe how excited we were at the weekend to get a next hour Amazon Prime slot delivery again. Crisis over. Now I just need this suspiciously lingering dry cough and breathlessness to pass...
    British example. A relative works for a firm which sells the masks used by builders when dealing with particularly dusty jobs (Or ought to be used, anyway) They've sold about 6 months stock in one, and are now worried about replacing.
    The Japanese internet is improvising alternatives from available supplies such as nappies:
    https://twitter.com/kz12free/status/1231606445734416384?s=19
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    edited February 2020
    MaxPB said:

    Barnesian said:



    They would be the consolidater. From memory they have a circa 70% share. They own Cunard, Princess, Costa and many others.

    Ok, think that through, how many new shares would be issues and how much would that dilute your own holding etc...

    If I was looking at international travel, it would be flights. I haven't looked but I expect all of the major airlines are down today, but they have the ability to bounce back fairly easily.

    But anyway, this isn't investing advice, it's just a general musing. Don't want to get in trouble...
    People are already cutting back on travel - a Heathrow flight was held this morning because three passengers decided after boarding that they didn't want to travel to Italy after all; two stayed on the plane and the plane was reconnected to the terminal to allow one to get off.

    If the virus continues to spread there's going to be an overhang that lasts for some time, and of course the financial impact on the company will take time to work through.

    I wouldn't be looking to buy back in anytime soon - if you think the panic is overblown, buy those parts of the market going down that aren't in the direct firing line.
  • eristdooferistdoof Posts: 5,065
    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    I flew Alitalia once. The way the pilot threw the plane round the taxiway bends would have impressed even Messers Dancer and Ace.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,390

    Some thoughts on the Labour leadership election, and why Nandy may do well. I'd estimate around 10% of members took part in the nominations. A large sample, if representative - but I don't think those who attend are representative - more on the left, more favourable towards Corbyn etc. Starmer did surprisingly well with these, which suggests to me that RLB has no chance. But we know little about the remaining 90%, most of whom will vote. It's not commented on enough here how many members really think it is time for a female leader. This is not a vote decider if there was a clear 'winner', but if you think two candidates are more or less equally worthy you may go for the woman. I think Starmer will win, but many have been really impressed by Nandy - potentially very appealing to the public, a good sense of humour, a realistic sense of the mess Labour is in, the potential to give BJ a hard time, and some years to grow into the role. If Starmer doesn't get 50% on the first ballot, and Nandy comes second, I think most of those who vote RLB may put Nandy as second preference - partly because of the woman thing, partly because of the northern thing, and partly because of her performances in the hustings, on TV etc. 2/1 on Starmer/Nandy/RLB looks a good bet; 20/1 on Nandy/Starmer/RLB is tempting.

    An excellent first post and one I can whole-heartedly agree with!

    Our nomination meeting had under 10% of members in attendance - and this was a record turnout for a CLP meeting.
    Thank you for your kind words. I've been lurking here for some years, only now found the time (retirement) and courage to post.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605
    edited February 2020

    Barnesian said:

    MaxPB said:

    Barnesian said:

    MaxPB said:

    Barnesian said:

    Pulpstar said:

    IanB2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    kinabalu said:

    FTSE crashing. Annoying because I had decided at the weekend to short it today.

    I did on Friday, and topped up this morning. It's still a credible position - lots of people at work will find out that their shares are sinking when they get home, and there will be further selloffs this week.
    I've got £12-£14k of cash ready to put into stocks and shares once they bottom out.

    The main effect of this virus will be to trigger a recession.

    Anyhow sell anything to do with travel and buy pharma.
    OK - Well selling travel might be a good idea if the stocks aren't overdevalued.

    Speaking of pharma, GSK is the only stock I hold outright.

    Dividend forward yield is 5.58% right now and...

    https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-clover-partners-gsk-coronavirus-083005485.html
    Carnival, the world leader in cruise ships, has been badly hit. 7% down today. 35% down over the last year. Currently yielding 5.3%, PER 8.6 and price further to fall. When this thing is over, this is a quality growth share. I'm watching when to buy. Not for a while yet. But DYOR.
    .

    There won't be an immediate bounce back in the share price. On the contrary I think it will slide much further. Perhaps a buy in a year or two when confidence returns. The bounce back could then be big. Timing is everything. But one to watch if you are a patient long term investor.
    I think the question you need to ask yourself is whether they will exist in two years. I'd need to have a look at the lease and loan terms for their cruise liners but they will need a lot of flexibility in them. As I said, I'd expect a lot of consolidation in the sector.
    They would be the consolidater. From memory they have a circa 70% share. They own Cunard, Princess, Costa and many others.
    So long as they have deep pockets and plenty of cash/confidence. I know nothing about their business model but if they're in Thomas Cook style debt then they may not be the consolidater.
    Their working capital is minus $7 billion! Revenue $16 billion. Debt $10 billion. Net fixed assets $39 billion.
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605
    MaxPB said:

    Barnesian said:



    They would be the consolidater. From memory they have a circa 70% share. They own Cunard, Princess, Costa and many others.

    Ok, think that through, how many new shares would be issues and how much would that dilute your own holding etc...

    If I was looking at international travel, it would be flights. I haven't looked but I expect all of the major airlines are down today, but they have the ability to bounce back fairly easily.

    But anyway, this isn't investing advice, it's just a general musing. Don't want to get in trouble...
    Appreciated. I'm musing too.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    eristdoof said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    I flew Alitalia once. The way the pilot threw the plane round the taxiway bends would have impressed even Messers Dancer and Ace.
    Yep. I remember an Al Italia to Venice some years back, where we were flying straight and level and I was looking out the window at an airport way below, thinking surely that must be Venice Marco Polo, when suddenly the plane turned and dived dramatically downwards as if the pilot himself had just spotted it.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,468

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:


    You may not be her target audience but I possibly am as a voter. And the one thing I have got from the Labour leadership election is that Labour cannot be trusted to defend women’s rights.

    I can get that sort of behaviour under Boris’s Tories. I’d like an alternative please.

    Labour taking a Top Trumps position on women's rights does kinda boggle the mind....
    Somewhat unnoticed in the anti-semitism scandal was the misogyny and bullying towards women. There is I feel an element of that with some of the more extreme trans activists: yet another group of men (by that I do not mean those who have transitioned) telling women that they know best what being a woman is and means. As if we have not had to put up with that sort of nonsense for centuries.

    The shame of it is that there is an obvious compromise position available and a very real issue which does need attention - namely the lack of medical care for those with gender dysphoria. All lost when a small extremist group hijacks an issue and politicians are too scared to stand up to them for fear of not showing the necessary ideological purity.
    Spreading into the courts?

    At least one victim of violence by a transgender woman has been reprimanded in court for using male pronouns while describing the attack. Finding the defendant guilty, the judge refused the victim compensation, saying that when asked to refer to the defendant as ‘she’, the victim had done so with ‘bad grace’ or continued to use ‘he’.

    https://twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1231850565405200384?s=20
    It is nonsense. I am not a “cis” woman whatever that is. I am a woman.

    This babyish belief that people have a right not to be offended is pathetic and dangerous. Respect is earned not imposed. Politeness is something freely given not demanded under pain of something or other.

    A person with a penis is a man until they take steps to remove it. Womanhood is not a “feeling” but an objective reality. If a woman is attacked by a man then she has every right to use the pronoun “he” regardless of his feelings or whether he calls himself Wendy. In court when facts are important and determine outcomes the idea that reality should be ignored in order to spare someone’s feelings is quite absurd. It is happening because too many people are too terrified of being accused of some terrible thought crime or other.

    To coin a phrase, bollocks to that!
    I wonder how the "self-identification brigade" would react if, for argument's sake, a subset of the population self-identified as a different race than the one they were born with.
    You mean, like Elizabeth Warren?
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,868
    IanB2 said:

    MaxPB said:

    Barnesian said:



    They would be the consolidater. From memory they have a circa 70% share. They own Cunard, Princess, Costa and many others.

    Ok, think that through, how many new shares would be issues and how much would that dilute your own holding etc...

    If I was looking at international travel, it would be flights. I haven't looked but I expect all of the major airlines are down today, but they have the ability to bounce back fairly easily.

    But anyway, this isn't investing advice, it's just a general musing. Don't want to get in trouble...
    People are already cutting back on travel - a Heathrow flight was held this morning because three passengers decided after boarding that they didn't want to travel to Italy after all; two stayed on the plane and the plane was reconnected to the terminal to allow one to get off.

    If the virus continues to spread there's going to be an overhang that lasts for some time, and of course the financial impact on the company will take time to work through.

    I wouldn't be looking to buy back in anytime soon - if you think the panic is overblown, buy those parts of the market going down that aren't in the direct firing line.
    Yes, and the issue for cruise companies is that they lose from cancellations now and from people not booking for the winter months which means excess capacity or giveaway prices to fill the boats in October and November. Either way, cruise companies are stuffed. Airlines tend to have enough flexibility on wet and dry lease agreements on planes to ramp down if the flights aren't filling up as expected and if there is a sudden pick up they can ramp up fairly quickly too.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830



    I wonder how the "self-identification brigade" would react if, for argument's sake, a subset of the population self-identified as a different race than the one they were born with.

    It would make no odds because we don't have racially segregated prisons or loos. And it happens all the time (Ali G, Elizabeth Warren) and it is much less absurd because race genuinely is as nebulous a concept as the self-identifiers would like gender to be.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868

    moonshine said:

    Panic buying in Italy reports Mail.

    I knew the Brexit food box would come in handy at some point.

    Panic buying has stopped in Singapore now but it was pretty tedious for a few weeks. All Amazon prime grocery delivery slots were fully booked out unless you kept clicking on the hour, like you need to for Glastonbury tickets. Not a lot on the shelves in supermarkets also. Even the fancy expat butchers ran out of roasting joints one week, the disorganised bastards. Consequence being it could take 75 mins to get a Deliveroo rather than normal 15-20 if you dilly dallied in the evening. Oh it’s been so terrible I can’t begin to tell you!

    If you want to get ahead in the game of stockpile, my top tip is to buy bog roll and then if you are so inclined, hand sanitiser and surgical masks. For some reason cauliflowers here also went MIA, as did instant noodles obvs. It’s quite hard to actually starve due to panic buying but you don’t wanna be resorting to a pail of water, unless you are nostalgic for that exotic backpacking trip.

    You wouldn’t believe how excited we were at the weekend to get a next hour Amazon Prime slot delivery again. Crisis over. Now I just need this suspiciously lingering dry cough and breathlessness to pass...
    British example. A relative works for a firm which sells the masks used by builders when dealing with particularly dusty jobs (Or ought to be used, anyway) They've sold about 6 months stock in one, and are now worried about replacing.
    The Japanese internet is improvising alternatives from available supplies such as nappies:
    https://twitter.com/kz12free/status/1231606445734416384?s=19
    My Thai friend says her daughter has seen people walking around Bangkok with grapefruit skins tied to their face.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    People are.going to have to explain really, really slowly to me why 'cis' is at all controversial.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    edited February 2020
    Barnesian said:

    Their working capital is minus $7 billion! Revenue $16 billion. Debt $10 billion. Net fixed assets $39 billion.

    Hmmm. Before considering to invest in them I'd want to know more about how much confidence to have in their Net fixed assets.

    One risk is if they go down and the 30% of the market tries to consolidate the 70% then one suspects that their assets would in a firesale go for a lot less than what they've got them listed on their books for.
  • eristdoof said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    I flew Alitalia once. The way the pilot threw the plane round the taxiway bends would have impressed even Messers Dancer and Ace.
    It's amazing how fast a jumbo jet can take a bend. I was on an Austrian Airlines flight out of Narita after the Fukushima nuclear accident, it was like something out of Tokyo Drift...
  • eristdooferistdoof Posts: 5,065

    Cyclefree said:



    It is nonsense. I am not a “cis” woman whatever that is. I am a woman.

    This babyish belief that people have a right not to be offended is pathetic and dangerous. Respect is earned not imposed. Politeness is something freely given not demanded under pain of something or other.

    A person with a penis is a man until they take steps to remove it. Womanhood is not a “feeling” but an objective reality. If a woman is attacked by a man then she has every right to use the pronoun “he” regardless of his feelings or whether he calls himself Wendy. In court when facts are important and determine outcomes the idea that reality should be ignored in order to spare someone’s feelings is quite absurd. It is happening because too many people are too terrified of being accused of some terrible thought crime or other.

    To coin a phrase, bollocks to that!

    I wonder how the "self-identification brigade" would react if, for argument's sake, a subset of the population self-identified as a different race than the one they were born with.
    It has already happened
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal
    Ms Dolezal self identified as Afro-American and was president of an organisation for the rights of "Colored People", when she was outed as not being African American, it caused a huge row in the US.
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605
    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
  • Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,821
    edited February 2020
    Alistair said:

    People are.going to have to explain really, really slowly to me why 'cis' is at all controversial.

    Probably because it is conceptual garbage, defined by the utterly bizarre concept of 'gender assigned at birth', as though your sex or gender (the two used to be synonymous, before 'gender' became meaningless) is somehow an arbitrary decision taken by a midwife.
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605
    Alistair said:

    People are.going to have to explain really, really slowly to me why 'cis' is at all controversial.

    What is 'cis'. I really don't know. It sounds painful.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Charles said:

    Nandy has had a difficult fortnight. She’s shown a lot of political naivity and made some silly mistakes that have given me pause for thought. But she’s pondered hard on why Labour keeps losing and she’s strongest on anti-Semitism, so she gets my 1.

    Starmer gets my 2. He has been solid and steady throughout, but has lit no fires. I trust him to assemble a strong shadow cabinet and to provide proper opposition. Boring might be quite a virtue by 2024, but he will never electrify the country or the Labour party.

    I will not use my 3. To be fair, Long-Bailey has been better than I was expecting, but that is a very low bar. She is backed by all the wrong people and would keep them all in place. There is no way I could ever vote for that.

    For deputy it’s Murray 1 and Allin-Khan 2. I like them both a lot, but Murray edges it because he has not pandered to anyone during the campaign and has spoken hard truths. Labour needs that. I won’t vote for Rayner, Butler or Burgon. Rayner has been a huge disappointment.

    How does your vote 3 come into play anyway?

    For your ballot paper above, it would require Starmer not to top the ballot. Then someone has to drop out. If it is Nandy, then the second round "2" vote is for Starmer. If it is RLB who goes in round one, then it is a straight fight between Starmer and Nandy. Nandy still gets your vote in round 2 (as she has not been eliminated to have her vote redistributed). I'm not sure how we get to a third round unless it is eg. Nandy 49.99%, Starmer 49.98%, a David Miliband write-in 0.03%?

    I can't see a scenario where your third choice ever comes into play. So why make it?
    To be fair to @SouthamObserver i voted for about 10 people in the London Mayoral election just so I could put Goldsmith last
    Did Mummy tell you to do that?
    No. Why would she?

  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,468
    IanB2 said:

    moonshine said:

    Panic buying in Italy reports Mail.

    I knew the Brexit food box would come in handy at some point.

    Panic buying has stopped in Singapore now but it was pretty tedious for a few weeks. All Amazon prime grocery delivery slots were fully booked out unless you kept clicking on the hour, like you need to for Glastonbury tickets. Not a lot on the shelves in supermarkets also. Even the fancy expat butchers ran out of roasting joints one week, the disorganised bastards. Consequence being it could take 75 mins to get a Deliveroo rather than normal 15-20 if you dilly dallied in the evening. Oh it’s been so terrible I can’t begin to tell you!

    If you want to get ahead in the game of stockpile, my top tip is to buy bog roll and then if you are so inclined, hand sanitiser and surgical masks. For some reason cauliflowers here also went MIA, as did instant noodles obvs. It’s quite hard to actually starve due to panic buying but you don’t wanna be resorting to a pail of water, unless you are nostalgic for that exotic backpacking trip.

    You wouldn’t believe how excited we were at the weekend to get a next hour Amazon Prime slot delivery again. Crisis over. Now I just need this suspiciously lingering dry cough and breathlessness to pass...
    British example. A relative works for a firm which sells the masks used by builders when dealing with particularly dusty jobs (Or ought to be used, anyway) They've sold about 6 months stock in one, and are now worried about replacing.
    The Japanese internet is improvising alternatives from available supplies such as nappies:
    https://twitter.com/kz12free/status/1231606445734416384?s=19
    My Thai friend says her daughter has seen people walking around Bangkok with grapefruit skins tied to their face.
    The reports I have from Bangkok....... grandchildren at school there....... is that children who went to China for New Year..... which more or less coincided with the school half term....... have been asked to self-quarantine, and school work will be done electronically. There don't seem to be a lot of cases, although there is quite a big ethnic Chinese population;lation, with ancestral links to China.
  • Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 5,288
    We need a Godwin's Law equivalent for Brexit.......

    I'm about to trigger that Law.


    I'll start with Coronavirus spread and the seasonality thing. Human to human spread seemingly similar to other seasonal viruses, thus as absolute humidity goes up with temperature, virus shed duration, spread ought to reduce. Thus Singapore, hot, humid, virus spread under control; Po Valley, cold, dreich, outbreak. Dunno where Iran fits in - warming up but continental dry??

    Anyhow - if it goes dormant, hits in Southern Hemisphere and ramps up again, gradually, from October, what are the chances it really hits globally and in the UK around the turn of the year. As it really hits is the likely time for the supply side of relevant anti-virals to come under strain, especially if there are improved products just coming to market.

    What if a pretty hard Brexit coincides with Coronavirus related food stockpiling and antivirals suplly shortage. Is the enduring image of Brexit going to be an elderly person unable to be treated for Coronavirus because the supply chain has become too strained, despite the medicines ships coming in?
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,167
    edited February 2020
    philiph said:

    Some thoughts on the Labour leadership election, and why Nandy may do well. I'd estimate around 10% of members took part in the nominations. A large sample, if representative - but I don't think those who attend are representative - more on the left, more favourable towards Corbyn etc. Starmer did surprisingly well with these, which suggests to me that RLB has no chance. But we know little about the remaining 90%, most of whom will vote. It's not commented on enough here how many members really think it is time for a female leader. This is not a vote decider if there was a clear 'winner', but if you think two candidates are more or less equally worthy you may go for the woman. I think Starmer will win, but many have been really impressed by Nandy - potentially very appealing to the public, a good sense of humour, a realistic sense of the mess Labour is in, the potential to give BJ a hard time, and some years to grow into the role. If Starmer doesn't get 50% on the first ballot, and Nandy comes second, I think most of those who vote RLB may put Nandy as second preference - partly because of the woman thing, partly because of the northern thing, and partly because of her performances in the hustings, on TV etc. 2/1 on Starmer/Nandy/RLB looks a good bet; 20/1 on Nandy/Starmer/RLB is tempting.

    Agreed, Nandy has a "wildcard" aspect, although I doubt she'll win.

    As mentioned below, I think she actually has a certain amount in common with Rory Stewart. She has an unusual openness and a sort of original, questing curiosity by the standards of many politicians. Stewart is the same, with many voters experiencing this as sex appeal, although he can only return if Brexit is a disaster.

    Will the assessment of any Brexit disaster be comparative with EU states?

    This could be very muddled and difficult to assess with varying dependence on China by EU states (and UK), should SeadricT be anywhere near accurate.
    Indeed, a politician like Stewart needs Brexit to be a very clear-cut disaster in order to return, because only then will the party readmit the expel-ees - both in comparison to the EU, and internally.
  • eristdooferistdoof Posts: 5,065
    eadric said:

    moonshine said:

    I preferred SeanT’s last persona. This one is insufferably dull.

    That’s because I’m not SeanT? He was insufferably drunk. I’m insufferably right. Which is what annoys you.
    Insufferable is sufficient to describe all three personae.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:


    You may not be her target audience but I possibly am as a voter. And the one thing I have got from the Labour leadership election is that Labour cannot be trusted to defend women’s rights.

    I can get that sort of behaviour under Boris’s Tories. I’d like an alternative please.

    Labour taking a Top Trumps position on women's rights does kinda boggle the mind....

    The shame of it is that there is an obvious compromise position available and a very real issue which does need attention - namely the lack of medical care for those with gender dysphoria. All lost when a small extremist group hijacks an issue and politicians are too scared to stand up to them for fear of not showing the necessary ideological purity.
    Spreading into the courts?

    At least one victim of violence by a transgender woman has been reprimanded in court for using male pronouns while describing the attack. Finding the defendant guilty, the judge refused the victim compensation, saying that when asked to refer to the defendant as ‘she’, the victim had done so with ‘bad grace’ or continued to use ‘he’.

    https://twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1231850565405200384?s=20
    It is nonsense. I am not a “cis” woman whatever that is. I am a woman.

    This babyish belief that people have a right not to be offended is pathetic and dangerous. Respect is earned not imposed. Politeness is something freely given not demanded under pain of something or other.

    A person with a penis is a man until they take steps to remove it. Womanhood is not a “feeling” but an objective reality. If a woman is attacked by a man then she has every right to use the pronoun “he” regardless of his feelings or whether he calls himself Wendy. In court when facts are important and determine outcomes the idea that reality should be ignored in order to spare someone’s feelings is quite absurd. It is happening because too many people are too terrified of being accused of some terrible thought crime or other.

    To coin a phrase, bollocks to that!
    I wonder how the "self-identification brigade" would react if, for argument's sake, a subset of the population self-identified as a different race than the one they were born with.
    Wasn’t there that white activist in Washington State who self-identifies as black a couple of years ago? I believe she was roundly mocked
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Good if it makes you happy, but it really isn't a very relevant comparator (why not Italian all-causes mortality, or the road death count where you live?) You are heading for a small subset of Italy where the trouble is concentrated (roughly speaking, assuming the snow is in the North) and doing something which might hospitalise you, and the risk is not just death but death/infection but survival/none of the above but you still get stuck in quarantine for weeks on end. But best of luck.
  • GideonWiseGideonWise Posts: 1,123
    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
  • philiphphiliph Posts: 4,704

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity irresponibility
  • alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    Pro_Rata said:

    We need a Godwin's Law equivalent for Brexit.......

    I'm about to trigger that Law.


    I'll start with Coronavirus spread and the seasonality thing. Human to human spread seemingly similar to other seasonal viruses, thus as absolute humidity goes up with temperature, virus shed duration, spread ought to reduce. Thus Singapore, hot, humid, virus spread under control; Po Valley, cold, dreich, outbreak. Dunno where Iran fits in - warming up but continental dry??

    Anyhow - if it goes dormant, hits in Southern Hemisphere and ramps up again, gradually, from October, what are the chances it really hits globally and in the UK around the turn of the year. As it really hits is the likely time for the supply side of relevant anti-virals to come under strain, especially if there are improved products just coming to market.

    What if a pretty hard Brexit coincides with Coronavirus related food stockpiling and antivirals suplly shortage. Is the enduring image of Brexit going to be an elderly person unable to be treated for Coronavirus because the supply chain has become too strained, despite the medicines ships coming in?

    You're a happy bunny aren't you.
  • alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100
    philiph said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity irresponibility
    I think both apply
  • philiphphiliph Posts: 4,704
    alterego said:

    Pro_Rata said:

    We need a Godwin's Law equivalent for Brexit.......

    I'm about to trigger that Law.


    I'll start with Coronavirus spread and the seasonality thing. Human to human spread seemingly similar to other seasonal viruses, thus as absolute humidity goes up with temperature, virus shed duration, spread ought to reduce. Thus Singapore, hot, humid, virus spread under control; Po Valley, cold, dreich, outbreak. Dunno where Iran fits in - warming up but continental dry??

    Anyhow - if it goes dormant, hits in Southern Hemisphere and ramps up again, gradually, from October, what are the chances it really hits globally and in the UK around the turn of the year. As it really hits is the likely time for the supply side of relevant anti-virals to come under strain, especially if there are improved products just coming to market.

    What if a pretty hard Brexit coincides with Coronavirus related food stockpiling and antivirals suplly shortage. Is the enduring image of Brexit going to be an elderly person unable to be treated for Coronavirus because the supply chain has become too strained, despite the medicines ships coming in?

    You're a happy bunny aren't you.
    The correlation with the highly transmissible and lethal myxomatosis is unfortunate.....
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,037
    Charles said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:


    You may not be her target audience but I possibly am as a voter. And the one thing I have got from the Labour leadership election is that Labour cannot be trusted to defend women’s rights.

    I can get that sort of behaviour under Boris’s Tories. I’d like an alternative please.

    Labour taking a Top Trumps position on women's rights does kinda boggle the mind....

    The shame of it is that there is an obvious compromise position available and a very real issue which does need attention - namely the lack of medical care for those with gender dysphoria. All lost when a small extremist group hijacks an issue and politicians are too scared to stand up to them for fear of not showing the necessary ideological purity.
    Spreading into the courts?

    At least one victim of violence by a transgender woman has been reprimanded in court for using male pronouns while describing the attack. Finding the defendant guilty, the judge refused the victim compensation, saying that when asked to refer to the defendant as ‘she’, the victim had done so with ‘bad grace’ or continued to use ‘he’.

    https://twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1231850565405200384?s=20
    It is nonsense. I am not a “cis” woman whatever that is. I am a woman.

    This babyish belief that people have a right not to be offended is pathetic and dangerous. Respect is earned not imposed. Politeness is something freely given not demanded under pain of something or other.

    A person with a penis is a man until they take steps to remove it. Womanhood is not a “feeling” but an objective reality. If a woman is attacked by a man then she has every right to use the pronoun “he” regardless of his feelings or whether he calls himself Wendy. In court when facts are important and determine outcomes the idea that reality should be ignored in order to spare someone’s feelings is quite absurd. It is happening because too many people are too terrified of being accused of some terrible thought crime or other.

    To coin a phrase, bollocks to that!
    I wonder how the "self-identification brigade" would react if, for argument's sake, a subset of the population self-identified as a different race than the one they were born with.
    Wasn’t there that white activist in Washington State who self-identifies as black a couple of years ago? I believe she was roundly mocked
    I think Ali G got there first.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,210
    edited February 2020
    Why is the delegate count reporting so poor in the US media ?

    From NBC News:

    Candidates have to hit 15 percent both statewide and in congressional districts (1) to receive a share of Nevada's 36 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Sanders won 18 delegates, Biden seven and Buttigieg got two (2).

    (1) No they don't, 23 out of 36 delegates are based on congressional district outcomes
    (2) That lot sums to 27, what about the rest ?

    The final allocation is likely to be

    Sanders 24; Biden 9; Buttigieg 3 by the way.
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830
    HYUFD said:
    22/11/1963

    Man killed in USA

    "Out of a population of 180 million."
  • Alistair said:

    People are.going to have to explain really, really slowly to me why 'cis' is at all controversial.

    Probably because it is conceptual garbage, defined by the utterly bizarre concept of 'gender assigned at birth', as though your sex or gender (the two used to be synonymous, before 'gender' became meaningless) is somehow an arbitrary decision taken by a midwife.
    'Gender' was originally a grammatical concept. Anthropologists in the 1970s borrowed the word to distinguish the behavioural from the biological.
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a day from multiple causes in the UK. The hysteria over this virus amuses me. Why pick on this tiny source of death? Death is all around us. Keep calm and carry on, until you fall over.

    I'm going on a second skiing trip to France in early April.
  • GideonWiseGideonWise Posts: 1,123
    Barnesian said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a day from multiple causes in the UK. The hysteria over this virus amuses me. Why pick on this tiny source of death? Death is all around us. Keep calm and carry on, until you fall over.

    I'm going on a second skiing trip to France in early April.
    I'm equally amused by the ambivalence on here.

    SeanT is correct, it is normalcy bias. People simply cannot comprehend how this virus is going to change most aspects of their life for the foreseeable. I wish I was wrong but I am very sure I am not.

    Those thousand-deaths a day (I assume is correct - I haven't checked) - those will also rocket you know. As the elderly will just not be able to get the care that they need as the health care system implodes.

    However, I can confidently predict there will be far fewer skiing related injuries.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    eadric said:

    philiph said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity irresponibility
    It's also, arguably, irresponsible to go to a risk area, if you have vulnerable friends or family that could catch it from you, when you come back.

    Remember you can be entirely asymptomatic and still be a carrier.

    So you might think: fuck, I'm 30 years old it's not gonna hurt me, but what if you have a 92 year old granny with asthma and diabetes?

    One of the reasons I freaked, when I was a suspected sufferer, is because I have a very close family member with a lifelong affliction, and he/she would be seriously menaced by this



    Since it isn’t yet known how long you remain infectious, i suggest you get yourself tested pronto.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758

    Charles said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:


    You may not be her target audience but I possibly am as a voter. And the one thing I have got from the Labour leadership election is that Labour cannot be trusted to defend women’s rights.

    I can get that sort of behaviour under Boris’s Tories. I’d like an alternative please.

    Labour taking a Top Trumps position on women's rights does kinda boggle the mind....

    The shame of it is that there is an obvious compromise position available and a very real issue which does need attention - namely the lack of medical care for those with gender dysphoria. All lost when a small extremist group hijacks an issue and politicians are too scared to stand up to them for fear of not showing the necessary ideological purity.
    Spreading into the courts?

    At least one victim of violence by a transgender woman has been reprimanded in court for using male pronouns while describing the attack. Finding the defendant guilty, the judge refused the victim compensation, saying that when asked to refer to the defendant as ‘she’, the victim had done so with ‘bad grace’ or continued to use ‘he’.

    https://twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1231850565405200384?s=20
    It is nonsense. I am not a “cis” woman whatever that is. I am a woman.

    This babyish belief that people have a right not to be offended is pathetic and dangerous. Respect is earned not imposed. Politeness is something freely given not demanded under pain of something or other.

    A person with a penis is a man until they take steps to remove it. Womanhood is not a “feeling” but an objective reality. If a woman is attacked by a man then she has every right to use the pronoun “he” regardless of his feelings or whether he calls himself Wendy. In court when facts are important and determine outcomes the idea that reality should be ignored in order to spare someone’s feelings is quite absurd. It is happening because too many people are too terrified of being accused of some terrible thought crime or other.

    To coin a phrase, bollocks to that!
    I wonder how the "self-identification brigade" would react if, for argument's sake, a subset of the population self-identified as a different race than the one they were born with.
    Wasn’t there that white activist in Washington State who self-identifies as black a couple of years ago? I believe she was roundly mocked
    I think Ali G got there first.
    But that was a piss take.
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605
    eadric said:

    philiph said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity irresponibility
    It's also, arguably, irresponsible to go to a risk area, if you have vulnerable friends or family that could catch it from you, when you come back.

    Remember you can be entirely asymptomatic and still be a carrier.

    So you might think: fuck, I'm 30 years old it's not gonna hurt me, but what if you have a 92 year old granny with asthma and diabetes?

    One of the reasons I freaked, when I was a suspected sufferer, is because I have a very close family member with a lifelong affliction, and he/she would be seriously menaced by this



    I think: fuck, I'm 77 years old. I'm not going to succomb to irrational hysteria.

    When is the next PB meet-up? Is it soon?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.

    Yes, but we each assume we can personally avoid the road deaths, because we are all above average drivers and, even if an accident happens in front of us, our above average reactions and some nifty James Bond driving will see us clear.
  • GideonWiseGideonWise Posts: 1,123
    eadric said:

    philiph said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity irresponibility
    It's also, arguably, irresponsible to go to a risk area, if you have vulnerable friends or family that could catch it from you, when you come back.

    Remember you can be entirely asymptomatic and still be a carrier.

    So you might think: fuck, I'm 30 years old it's not gonna hurt me, but what if you have a 92 year old granny with asthma and diabetes?

    One of the reasons I freaked, when I was a suspected sufferer, is because I have a very close family member with a lifelong affliction, and he/she would be seriously menaced by this



    Of course it is. The government / PHE / civil service will switch tack soon from pumping out propaganda saying how well the NHS is prepared to shifting expectations on what the new normal will look like.

    They will have to do this as the public will need educating. It certainly won't be 'keep calm and carry on'.


  • Barnesian said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a day from multiple causes in the UK. The hysteria over this virus amuses me. Why pick on this tiny source of death? Death is all around us. Keep calm and carry on, until you fall over.

    I'm going on a second skiing trip to France in early April.
    I'm equally amused by the ambivalence on here.

    SeanT is correct, it is normalcy bias. People simply cannot comprehend how this virus is going to change most aspects of their life for the foreseeable. I wish I was wrong but I am very sure I am not.

    Those thousand-deaths a day (I assume is correct - I haven't checked) - those will also rocket you know. As the elderly will just not be able to get the care that they need as the health care system implodes.

    However, I can confidently predict there will be far fewer skiing related injuries.
    There may or may not be a disaster in the UK, we cant know the exact chance of it happening nor a detailed view of its impact. Govt and health services should certainly be managing it as a priority, monitoring and planning as much as they can.

    For the rest of us there is very little to be gained from fear. We lack detailed impartial up to date data even if we have the skills to analyse it effectively which very few of us will. Increased stress from worrying about it decreases our immunity.

    Sleep well and wash your hands is all we need to do, and we should be doing that regardless.

    The rational approach is keep calm and carry on.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    eadric said:


    Barnesian said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a day from multiple causes in the UK. The hysteria over this virus amuses me. Why pick on this tiny source of death? Death is all around us. Keep calm and carry on, until you fall over.

    I'm going on a second skiing trip to France in early April.
    I'm equally amused by the ambivalence on here.

    SeanT is correct, it is normalcy bias. People simply cannot comprehend how this virus is going to change most aspects of their life for the foreseeable. I wish I was wrong but I am very sure I am not.

    Those thousand-deaths a day (I assume is correct - I haven't checked) - those will also rocket you know. As the elderly will just not be able to get the care that they need as the health care system implodes.

    However, I can confidently predict there will be far fewer skiing related injuries.
    Just flying is a bit risky now, because of the worldwide scares

    https://twitter.com/trafficbutter/status/1231922610268590081?s=20

    Who would want to be stuck on a plane for 15 hours??!
    London - with its international community, mass transit, global travellers and lack of self sufficiency is going down first....
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605
    IanB2 said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.

    Yes, but we each assume we can personally avoid the road deaths, because we are all above average drivers and, even if an accident happens in front of us, our above average reactions and some nifty James Bond driving will see us clear.
    Quite. People's reaction to the odd terrorist attack or scary virus is always OTT compared with death by cancer, stroke etc. If this virus was called flu rather than a scary name it wouldn't have anything like the same response. I assume there is an evolutionary reason for this OTT reaction.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,729

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    TFL introducing more 20mph zones in Central London from March.

    On roads with lots of cyclists I find it hard to believe it is safer for the cyclists to be overtaking the cars on the inside which is what happens at that speed.
    Its vitually impossible to keep to 20 mph and it must be third gear all the way.. the fuel usage and the exhaust fumes just have to be counter productive...
  • Barnesian said:

    IanB2 said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.

    Yes, but we each assume we can personally avoid the road deaths, because we are all above average drivers and, even if an accident happens in front of us, our above average reactions and some nifty James Bond driving will see us clear.
    Quite. People's reaction to the odd terrorist attack or scary virus is always OTT compared with death by cancer, stroke etc. If this virus was called flu rather than a scary name it wouldn't have anything like the same response. I assume there is an evolutionary reason for this OTT reaction.
    Fear of the unknown.

    Its basically the same as xenophobia.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,148
    edited February 2020
    IanB2 said:

    eadric said:


    Barnesian said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.
    P
    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a day from multiple causes in the UK. The hysteria over this virus amuses me. Why pick on this tiny source of death? Death is all around us. Keep calm and carry on, until you fall over.

    I'm going on a second skiing trip to France in early April.
    I'm equally amused by the ambivalence on here.

    SeanT is correct, it is normalcy bias. People simply cannot comprehend how this virus is going to change most aspects of their life for the foreseeable. I wish I was wrong but I am very sure I am not.

    Those thousand-deaths a day (I assume is correct - I haven't checked) - those will also rocket you know. As the elderly will just not be able to get the care that they need as the health care system implodes.

    However, I can confidently predict there will be far fewer skiing related injuries.
    Just flying is a bit risky now, because of the worldwide scares

    https://twitter.com/trafficbutter/status/1231922610268590081?s=20

    Who would want to be stuck on a plane for 15 hours??!
    London - with its international community, mass transit, global travellers and lack of self sufficiency is going down first....
    Might find Patel's hardline approach comes in useful then when she closes the borders, stops all flights and bans travel outside the M25
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605

    Barnesian said:

    IanB2 said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.

    Yes, but we each assume we can personally avoid the road deaths, because we are all above average drivers and, even if an accident happens in front of us, our above average reactions and some nifty James Bond driving will see us clear.
    Quite. People's reaction to the odd terrorist attack or scary virus is always OTT compared with death by cancer, stroke etc. If this virus was called flu rather than a scary name it wouldn't have anything like the same response. I assume there is an evolutionary reason for this OTT reaction.
    Fear of the unknown.

    Its basically the same as xenophobia.
    Yes. I think that's it. Brrrr
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    eadric said:

    IanB2 said:

    eadric said:


    Barnesian said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a day from multiple causes in the UK. The hysteria over this virus amuses me. Why pick on this tiny source of death? Death is all around us. Keep calm and carry on, until you fall over.

    I'm going on a second skiing trip to France in early April.
    I'm equally ades.

    However, I can confidently predict there will be far fewer skiing related injuries.
    Just flying is a bit risky now, because of the worldwide scares

    https://twitter.com/trafficbutter/status/1231922610268590081?s=20

    Who would want to be stuck on a plane for 15 hours??!
    London - with its international community, mass transit, global travellers and lack of self sufficiency is going down first....
    Yes. I am amazed that it hasn't hit London yet. Or Paris. Or New York, for that matter. Substantial Chinese and Italian populations, loads of coming and going, all in deep winter flu season.

    Hmm.

    That said, I went to Mayfair for a nice dinner on Friday.

    It was a pleasant mild evening, normally Regent Street would be buzzing and 10pm. It was, instead, very eerily deserted. Maybe just a coincidence, or maybe people are already shunning busy places in central London.
    Give it a month and there will be angry hordes taking an axe to your front door if they suspect you are hoarding canned food.... ;)
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228
  • Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    TFL introducing more 20mph zones in Central London from March.

    On roads with lots of cyclists I find it hard to believe it is safer for the cyclists to be overtaking the cars on the inside which is what happens at that speed.
    Its vitually impossible to keep to 20 mph and it must be third gear all the way.. the fuel usage and the exhaust fumes just have to be counter productive...
    In reality you get the odd person who wants to drive at 18mph to be on the safe side, this becomes 16mph once you account for speedos underreading. At that pace cars cant effectively position themselves in traffic against the cyclists.

    Good point on the air quality, apparently running 5k in London in the summer is now bad for you as the pollutants outweigh the fitness benefits.
  • “Keep Calm And Carry On” was an unpopular campaign in World War Two, seen as patronising. The government should find a different message now too.
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605
    eadric said:

    IanB2 said:

    eadric said:


    Barnesian said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a day from multiple causes in the UK. The hysteria over this virus amuses me. Why pick on this tiny source of death? Death is all around us. Keep calm and carry on, until you fall over.

    I'm going on a second skiing trip to France in early April.
    I'm equally ades.

    However, I can confidently predict there will be far fewer skiing related injuries.
    Just flying is a bit risky now, because of the worldwide scares

    https://twitter.com/trafficbutter/status/1231922610268590081?s=20

    Who would want to be stuck on a plane for 15 hours??!
    London - with its international community, mass transit, global travellers and lack of self sufficiency is going down first....
    Yes. I am amazed that it hasn't hit London yet. Or Paris. Or New York, for that matter. Substantial Chinese and Italian populations, loads of coming and going, all in deep winter flu season.

    Hmm.

    That said, I went to Mayfair for a nice dinner on Friday.

    It was a pleasant mild evening, normally Regent Street would be buzzing and 10pm. It was, instead, very eerily deserted. Maybe just a coincidence, or maybe people are already shunning busy places in central London.
    Maybe they knew you were out to dinner.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,729

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    TFL introducing more 20mph zones in Central London from March.

    On roads with lots of cyclists I find it hard to believe it is safer for the cyclists to be overtaking the cars on the inside which is what happens at that speed.
    Its vitually impossible to keep to 20 mph and it must be third gear all the way.. the fuel usage and the exhaust fumes just have to be counter productive...
    ...and another thing... they will generating loads of revenue nicking people for exceeding the limit.... thsts what this is really about ...
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,164
    So the great stock market crash is now barely crossing the pond with futures down between 0.7 and 2.4 % I'm not convinced that a great crash is yet upon us. Oil has dropped a little but it was worse a couple of weeks ago. Currecnies are ok and both the Dax and the FTSE have settled. Maybe time to buy again or better still have some luch and see how things are by tea-time. :)
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228
    edited February 2020
    eadric said:


    Barnesian said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.

    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a day from multiple causes in the UK. The hysteria over this virus amuses me. Why pick on this tiny source of death? Death is all around us. Keep calm and carry on, until you fall over.

    I'm going on a second skiing trip to France in early April.
    I'm equally amused by the ambivalence on here.

    SeanT is correct, it is normalcy bias. People simply cannot comprehend how this virus is going to change most aspects of their life for the foreseeable. I wish I was wrong but I am very sure I am not.

    Those thousand-deaths a day (I assume is correct - I haven't checked) - those will also rocket you know. As the elderly will just not be able to get the care that they need as the health care system implodes.

    However, I can confidently predict there will be far fewer skiing related injuries.
    Just flying is a bit risky now, because of the worldwide scares

    https://twitter.com/trafficbutter/status/1231922610268590081?s=20

    Who would want to be stuck on a plane for 15 hours??!
    With suspected coronavirus carriers...
    Flying is one of the higher risk activities right now.

    Along with teaching and nursing...
  • ParistondaParistonda Posts: 1,843
    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Heart disease kills far more than road deaths. Doesn't mean we don't look both ways when crossing the street. Risks should be mitigated although of course there's no need for mass hysteria at this stage.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    So markets all now wait for Wall Street to open.

    We can be reassured that Americans are globally renowned for their calm level-headedness when faced with anything unknown and foreign.
  • eadric said:

    Barnesian said:

    IanB2 said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.

    Yes, but we each assume we can personally avoid the road deaths, because we are all above average drivers and, even if an accident happens in front of us, our above average reactions and some nifty James Bond driving will see us clear.
    Quite. People's reaction to the odd terrorist attack or scary virus is always OTT compared with death by cancer, stroke etc. If this virus was called flu rather than a scary name it wouldn't have anything like the same response. I assume there is an evolutionary reason for this OTT reaction.
    Fear of the unknown.

    Its basically the same as xenophobia.
    Rubbish. It's because the person who panics in a fire first, gets out of the door, and the others who delay will burn, especially those with normalcy bias (as on this site),. They just sit there thinking, Oh, this could never really happen to me

    So the early panickers live on to spread their panicky genes. Because sometimes there really IS a fire.



    What are these practical steps the early panickers are taking? Besides obsessive posting on the internet with various alter egos?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    eadric said:

    Barnesian said:

    IanB2 said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.

    Yes, but we each assume we can personally avoid the road deaths, because we are all above average drivers and, even if an accident happens in front of us, our above average reactions and some nifty James Bond driving will see us clear.
    Quite. People's reaction to the odd terrorist attack or scary virus is always OTT compared with death by cancer, stroke etc. If this virus was called flu rather than a scary name it wouldn't have anything like the same response. I assume there is an evolutionary reason for this OTT reaction.
    Fear of the unknown.

    Its basically the same as xenophobia.
    Rubbish. It's because the person who panics in a fire first, gets out of the door, and the others who delay will burn, especially those with normalcy bias (as on this site),. They just sit there thinking, Oh, this could never really happen to me

    So the early panickers live on to spread their panicky genes. Because sometimes there really IS a fire.



    You’ve been first out of so many doors that your genes must be spreading as fast as the virus.
  • CharlesCharles Posts: 35,758
    IshmaelZ said:

    HYUFD said:
    22/11/1963

    Man killed in USA

    "Out of a population of 180 million."
    The day Aldous Huxley died
  • IanB2 said:

    So markets all now wait for Wall Street to open.

    We can be reassured that Americans are globally renowned for their calm level-headedness when faced with anything unknown and foreign.

    "When Wall Street sneezes..."
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    felix said:

    So the great stock market crash is now barely crossing the pond with futures down between 0.7 and 2.4 % I'm not convinced that a great crash is yet upon us. Oil has dropped a little but it was worse a couple of weeks ago. Currecnies are ok and both the Dax and the FTSE have settled. Maybe time to buy again or better still have some luch and see how things are by tea-time. :)

    Markets generally settle when Wall Street is about to open.

    Why would a global killer virus affect currencies? Unless a flight to safety, $ and Swiss Fr.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,468
    HYUFD said:

    IanB2 said:

    eadric said:


    Barnesian said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.
    P
    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a day from multiple causes in the UK. The hysteria over this virus amuses me. Why pick on this tiny source of death? Death is all around us. Keep calm and carry on, until you fall over.

    I'm going on a second skiing trip to France in early April.
    I'm equally amused by the ambivalence on here.

    SeanT is correct, it is normalcy bias. People simply cannot comprehend how this virus is going to change most aspects of their life for the foreseeable. I wish I was wrong but I am very sure I am not.

    Those thousand-deaths a day (I assume is correct - I haven't checked) - those will also rocket you know. As the elderly will just not be able to get the care that they need as the health care system implodes.

    However, I can confidently predict there will be far fewer skiing related injuries.
    Just flying is a bit risky now, because of the worldwide scares

    https://twitter.com/trafficbutter/status/1231922610268590081?s=20

    Who would want to be stuck on a plane for 15 hours??!
    London - with its international community, mass transit, global travellers and lack of self sufficiency is going down first....
    Might find Patel's hardline approach comes in useful then when she closes the borders, stops all flights and bans travel outside the M25
    Witham is outside the M25. Although her home, where her husband and son are, isn't.
  • An alternative view to mine on Sander's electability. With great opening line:

    "This Saturday in sunny Las Vegas, the Democrats put their money on red."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/24/bernie-sanders-could-democrat-trump-card/

  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228
    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Of course.

    But that 2-3% of a few hundred is if the disease is stopped in its tracks.
    If you were deliberately to infect the entire UK population, that might be 750k deaths.

    The reality will be somewhere between the two, and where that is depends both on the precise nature of the virus and how effective the response to it is. Which is why it's worth thinking about.
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Heart disease kills far more than road deaths. Doesn't mean we don't look both ways when crossing the street. Risks should be mitigated although of course there's no need for mass hysteria at this stage.
    I agree with that. Sensible precautions. I always use "First Defence" before flying to stop bacteria and viruses getting up my nose. I always wash my hands after travelling in London touching handrails etc. I even have two N95 face masks just in case. But I'm perfectly calm and not altering my plans. But if planes get grounded, then I'll obviously have to alter my plans.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228

    eadric said:

    Barnesian said:

    IanB2 said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.

    Yes, but we each assume we can personally avoid the road deaths, because we are all above average drivers and, even if an accident happens in front of us, our above average reactions and some nifty James Bond driving will see us clear.
    Quite. People's reaction to the odd terrorist attack or scary virus is always OTT compared with death by cancer, stroke etc. If this virus was called flu rather than a scary name it wouldn't have anything like the same response. I assume there is an evolutionary reason for this OTT reaction.
    Fear of the unknown.

    Its basically the same as xenophobia.
    Rubbish. It's because the person who panics in a fire first, gets out of the door, and the others who delay will burn, especially those with normalcy bias (as on this site),. They just sit there thinking, Oh, this could never really happen to me

    So the early panickers live on to spread their panicky genes. Because sometimes there really IS a fire.

    What are these practical steps the early panickers are taking? Besides obsessive posting on the internet with various alter egos?
    Obsessively washing your hands is probably quite sensible.
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,164
    edited February 2020
    IanB2 said:

    felix said:

    So the great stock market crash is now barely crossing the pond with futures down between 0.7 and 2.4 % I'm not convinced that a great crash is yet upon us. Oil has dropped a little but it was worse a couple of weeks ago. Currecnies are ok and both the Dax and the FTSE have settled. Maybe time to buy again or better still have some luch and see how things are by tea-time. :)

    Markets generally settle when Wall Street is about to open.

    Why would a global killer virus affect currencies? Unless a flight to safety, $ and Swiss Fr.
    The Dow futures are down 0.7%. It's not armageddon today.

    Edit Dow down 0.78%
  • Charles said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    HYUFD said:
    22/11/1963

    Man killed in USA

    "Out of a population of 180 million."
    The day Aldous Huxley died
    And C.S.Lewis as it happens.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992
    IanB2 said:

    Give it a month and there will be angry hordes taking an axe to your front door if they suspect you are hoarding canned food.... ;)

    The scariest stat I saw is that it apparently incubates and transmits very quickly in gyms. Although apparently peak infection time was a couple of weeks ago.

    Just as well none of us on here goes to a gym regularly.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    eadric said:

    eadric said:

    Barnesian said:

    IanB2 said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.

    Yes, but we each assume we can personally avoid the road deaths, because we are all above average drivers and, even if an accident happens in front of us, our above average reactions and some nifty James Bond driving will see us clear.
    Quite. People's reaction to the odd terrorist attack or scary virus is always OTT compared with death by cancer, stroke etc. If this virus was called flu rather than a scary name it wouldn't have anything like the same response. I assume there is an evolutionary reason for this OTT reaction.
    Fear of the unknown.

    Its basically the same as xenophobia.
    Rubbish. It's because the person who panics in a fire first, gets out of the door, and the others who delay will burn, especially those with normalcy bias (as on this site),. They just sit there thinking, Oh, this could never really happen to me

    So the early panickers live on to spread their panicky genes. Because sometimes there really IS a fire.



    What are these practical steps the early panickers are taking? Besides obsessive posting on the internet with various alter egos?
    Selling all my shares last week, thus avoiding today's correction.

    Anyone who was noting my remarks, should have done the same. I see that some of you didn't. I tried my best.
    Nevertheless your decision has incurred costs - transaction costs and opportunity costs - as well as timing risk if you reenter the market too early, or too late. So you do have a psychological need to find fellow worriers so as to feel back within the herd, and to spread the panic so that you are eventually vindicated.

    Despite all that, I have been selling too.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,120
    edited February 2020
    Without wanting to sound racist / xenophobic or whatever.

    I am really surprised there hasn't been a large outbreak on the West Coast of the US / Canada. Extremely large Chinese population and much closer to China than East coast, so more likely to have visited the homeland especially for New Year.

    Also a significant illegal / grey area (e.g. education visa overstayers) Chinese immigrant population and add in that US healthcare is more sick-care, so they won't want to interact with the authorities or have cover to go to hospital.

    One legal person bringing it back, it could spread very rapidly without people wanting to talk to the authorities about it.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992
    eadric said:

    Barnesian said:

    IanB2 said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.

    Yes, but we each assume we can personally avoid the road deaths, because we are all above average drivers and, even if an accident happens in front of us, our above average reactions and some nifty James Bond driving will see us clear.
    Quite. People's reaction to the odd terrorist attack or scary virus is always OTT compared with death by cancer, stroke etc. If this virus was called flu rather than a scary name it wouldn't have anything like the same response. I assume there is an evolutionary reason for this OTT reaction.
    Fear of the unknown.

    Its basically the same as xenophobia.
    Rubbish. It's because the person who panics in a fire first, gets out of the door, and the others who delay will burn, especially those with normalcy bias (as on this site),. They just sit there thinking, Oh, this could never really happen to me

    So the early panickers live on to spread their panicky genes. Because sometimes there really IS a fire
    Down to what, about 12 weeks supply by now?
  • Starmer's cabinet?

    Cooper: CoE
    Nandy: Home
    Thornberry: Foreign

    Philips: Social care reform
  • Nigelb said:

    eadric said:

    Barnesian said:

    IanB2 said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.

    Yes, but we each assume we can personally avoid the road deaths, because we are all above average drivers and, even if an accident happens in front of us, our above average reactions and some nifty James Bond driving will see us clear.
    Quite. People's reaction to the odd terrorist attack or scary virus is always OTT compared with death by cancer, stroke etc. If this virus was called flu rather than a scary name it wouldn't have anything like the same response. I assume there is an evolutionary reason for this OTT reaction.
    Fear of the unknown.

    Its basically the same as xenophobia.
    Rubbish. It's because the person who panics in a fire first, gets out of the door, and the others who delay will burn, especially those with normalcy bias (as on this site),. They just sit there thinking, Oh, this could never really happen to me

    So the early panickers live on to spread their panicky genes. Because sometimes there really IS a fire.

    What are these practical steps the early panickers are taking? Besides obsessive posting on the internet with various alter egos?
    Obsessively washing your hands is probably quite sensible.
    Not much more than it always has been sensible though.

    Washing your hands and "catch it, kill it, bin it" are good advice all the time, especially at winter.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,148
    edited February 2020

    HYUFD said:

    IanB2 said:

    eadric said:


    Barnesian said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.
    P
    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a rly April.
    I'm equally amused by the ambivalence on here.

    SeanT is correct, it is normalcy bias. People simply cannot comprehend how this virus is going to change most aspects of their life for the foreseeable. I wish I was wrong but I am very sure I am not.

    Those thousand-deaths a day (I assume is correct - I haven't checked) - those will also rocket you know. As the elderly will just not be able to get the care that they need as the health care system implodes.

    However, I can confidently predict there will be far fewer skiing related injuries.
    Just flying is a bit risky now, because of the worldwide scares

    https://twitter.com/trafficbutter/status/1231922610268590081?s=20

    Who would want to be stuck on a plane for 15 hours??!
    London - with its international community, mass transit, global travellers and lack of self sufficiency is going down first....
    Might find Patel's hardline approach comes in useful then when she closes the borders, stops all flights and bans travel outside the M25
    Witham is outside the M25. Although her home, where her husband and son are, isn't.
    Witham is outside the M25, Uxbridge isn't.

    Patel can direct operations from Witham Tory HQ or council offices if Boris comes down with coronavirus and become Supreme Leader in the ensuing state of emergency with full powers to impose curfews and martial law
  • Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Cyclefree said:


    You may not be her target audience but I possibly am as a voter. And the one thing I have got from the Labour leadership election is that Labour cannot be trusted to defend women’s rights.

    I can get that sort of behaviour under Boris’s Tories.

    Labour taking a Top Trumps position on women's rights does kinda boggle the mind....
    Somewhat unnoticed in the anti-semitism scandal was the misogyny and bullying towards women. There is I feel an element of that with some of the more extreme trans activists: yet another group of men (by that I do not mean those who have transitioned) telling women that they know best what being a woman is and means. As if we have not had to put up with that sort of nonsense for centuries.

    The shame of it is that there is an obvious compromise position available and a very real issue which does need attention - namely the lack of medical care for those with gender dysphoria. All lost when a small extremist group hijacks an issue and politicians are too scared to stand up to them for fear of not showing the necessary ideological purity.
    Spreading into the courts?

    At least one victim of violence by a transgender woman has been reprimanded in court for using male pronouns while describing the attack. Finding the defendant guilty, the judge refused the victim compensation, saying that when asked to refer to the defendant as ‘she’, the victim had done so with ‘bad grace’ or continued to use ‘he’.

    https://twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1231850565405200384?s=20
    It is nonsense. I am not a “cis” woman whatever that is. I am a woman.

    This babyish belief that people have a right not to be offended is pathetic and dangerous. Respect is earned not imposed. Politeness is something freely given not demanded under pain of something or other.

    A person with a penis is a man until they take steps to remove it. Womanhood is not a “feeling” but an objective reality. If a woman is attacked by a man then she has every right to use the pronoun “he” regardless of his feelings or whether he calls himself Wendy. In court when facts are important and determine outcomes the idea that reality should be ignored in order to spare someone’s feelings is quite absurd. It is happening because too many people are too terrified of being accused of some terrible thought crime or other.

    To coin a phrase, bollocks to that!
    I wonder how the "self-identification brigade" would react if, for argument's sake, a subset of the population self-identified as a different race than the one they were born with.
    https://www.newsweek.com/there-no-such-thing-race-283123
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992
    I did, however, unearth a documentary about the last time such a thing hit the UK.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_(1975_TV_series)
  • HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    IanB2 said:

    eadric said:


    Barnesian said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.
    Keep calm and carry on? How about coughs and sneezes spread diseases.

    Flying into areas where there is coronavirus for your jollies is the height of stupidity.
    P
    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a rly April.
    I'm equally amused by the ambivalence on here.

    SeanT is correct, it is normalcy bias. People simply cannot comprehend how this virus is going to change most aspects of their life for the foreseeable. I wish I was wrong but I am very sure I am not.

    Those thousand-deaths a day (I assume is correct - I haven't checked) - those will also rocket you know. As the elderly will just not be able to get the care that they need as the health care system implodes.

    However, I can confidently predict there will be far fewer skiing related injuries.
    Just flying is a bit risky now, because of the worldwide scares

    https://twitter.com/trafficbutter/status/1231922610268590081?s=20

    Who would want to be stuck on a plane for 15 hours??!
    London - with its international community, mass transit, global travellers and lack of self sufficiency is going down first....
    Might find Patel's hardline approach comes in useful then when she closes the borders, stops all flights and bans travel outside the M25
    Witham is outside the M25. Although her home, where her husband and son are, isn't.
    Witham is outside the M25, Uxbridge isn't.

    Patel can direct operations from Witham Tory HQ or council offices if Boris comes down with coronavirus and become Supreme Leader in the ensuing state of emergency with full powers to impose curfews and martial law
    This is a much more scary post than coronavirus.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    edited February 2020

    Without wanting to sound racist / xenophobic or whatever.

    I am really surprised there hasn't been a large outbreak on the West Coast of the US / Canada. Extremely large Chinese population and much closer to China than East coast, so more likely to have visited the homeland especially for New Year.

    Also a significant illegal / grey area (e.g. education visa overstayers) Chinese immigrant population and add in that US healthcare is more sick-care, so they won't want to interact with the authorities or have cover to go to hospital.

    One legal person bringing it back, it could spread very rapidly without people wanting to talk to the authorities about it.

    We’re still at the stage where the spread beyond China is essentially random - the British and French cases owing almost entirely to that one doctor and who happened to share his ski chalet, the Italian outbreak entirely down to one guy who felt unwell and wandered down his local hospital.

    If it continues to spread, the pattern should start to converge with what we might think is logical.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,148
    TOPPING said:

    I did, however, unearth a documentary about the last time such a thing hit the UK.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_(1975_TV_series)

    Though with a much higher death rate
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,468
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:

    IanB2 said:

    eadric said:


    Barnesian said:

    Barnesian said:

    IshmaelZ said:

    Barnesian said:

    John Hopkins now has Italian cases up to 215, second only to Korea (833) outside China (77,150).

    I'm flying to Italy in 12 days time for a skiing holiday. I note that more than 3,000 people a year are killed on Italian roads (not counting pistes) so I'll be sure to look both ways.
    Hope it goes well, but your relative risk point is a bit obscure. I would ski conservatively; you don't want to be looking for intensive care for a broken limb in a Northern Italian hospital atm.
    I was comparing the risk of gettimg the virus - a few hundred in Italy have got it and maybe 2 or 3% will die of it, compared with 3,000 pa road deaths. Just keeping it in perspective. Keeping calm and carrying on.

    P
    If it was up to me you would be quarantined on return for a month.
    :) There are well over 1,000 deaths a rly April.
    I'm equally amused by the ambivalence on here.

    SeanT is correct, it is normalcy bias. People simply cannot comprehend how this virus is going to change most aspects of their life for the foreseeable. I wish I was wrong but I am very sure I am not.

    Those thousand-deaths a day (I assume is correct - I haven't checked) - those will also rocket you know. As the elderly will just not be able to get the care that they need as the health care system implodes.

    However, I can confidently predict there will be far fewer skiing related injuries.
    Just flying is a bit risky now, because of the worldwide scares

    https://twitter.com/trafficbutter/status/1231922610268590081?s=20

    Who would want to be stuck on a plane for 15 hours??!
    London - with its international community, mass transit, global travellers and lack of self sufficiency is going down first....
    Might find Patel's hardline approach comes in useful then when she closes the borders, stops all flights and bans travel outside the M25
    Witham is outside the M25. Although her home, where her husband and son are, isn't.
    Witham is outside the M25, Uxbridge isn't.

    Patel can direct operations from Witham Tory HQ or council offices if Boris comes down with coronavirus and become Supreme Leader in the ensuing state of emergency with full powers to impose curfews and martial law
    Have you actually SEEN Witham Tory HQ? Council offices would be a bit better bet, but only a bit.
  • HYUFD said:

    TOPPING said:

    I did, however, unearth a documentary about the last time such a thing hit the UK.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_(1975_TV_series)

    Though with a much higher death rate
    Reboot was in true bbc style though, as well as been shite.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    felix said:

    IanB2 said:

    felix said:

    So the great stock market crash is now barely crossing the pond with futures down between 0.7 and 2.4 % I'm not convinced that a great crash is yet upon us. Oil has dropped a little but it was worse a couple of weeks ago. Currecnies are ok and both the Dax and the FTSE have settled. Maybe time to buy again or better still have some luch and see how things are by tea-time. :)

    Markets generally settle when Wall Street is about to open.

    Why would a global killer virus affect currencies? Unless a flight to safety, $ and Swiss Fr.
    The Dow futures are down 0.7%. It's not armageddon today.

    Edit Dow down 0.78%
    The screen I am looking at, the Dow is expected to open down about 800 points - roughly 3%
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605
    eadric said:

    We go now to live coverage of Barnesian sitting in the PB Lounge

    This is a classic experiment and a classic display of normalcy bias - mediated by peer group pressure.

    A woman sits in a room filling with smoke. She is surrounded, unknowingly, by actors deliberately ignoring the smoke.

    Because they all ignore it she doesn't want to embarrass herself by saying FIRE, and normalcy bias means she convinces herself nothing is wrong. She sits there as the smoke pours in, it's only after TWENTY MINUTES when someone agrees with her that there's an issue, that she finally exits.

    Et voila


    https://youtu.be/KE5YwN4NW5o

    Another experiment.

    A group sit together and a few of them get hysterical. Gradually they all do. Hysteria is catching.

    At the moment hysteria is the normalcy.
  • I'd be amused in the future to see Patel as our third female Prime Minister ...

    ... If only because the overreactions and horror by the left on here would make eadric seem normal in comparison.
  • BarnesianBarnesian Posts: 8,605
    IanB2 said:

    felix said:

    IanB2 said:

    felix said:

    So the great stock market crash is now barely crossing the pond with futures down between 0.7 and 2.4 % I'm not convinced that a great crash is yet upon us. Oil has dropped a little but it was worse a couple of weeks ago. Currecnies are ok and both the Dax and the FTSE have settled. Maybe time to buy again or better still have some luch and see how things are by tea-time. :)

    Markets generally settle when Wall Street is about to open.

    Why would a global killer virus affect currencies? Unless a flight to safety, $ and Swiss Fr.
    The Dow futures are down 0.7%. It's not armageddon today.

    Edit Dow down 0.78%
    The screen I am looking at, the Dow is expected to open down about 800 points - roughly 3%
    One share that is bucking the trend is YouGov, up 1% today. I wonder why that is?
This discussion has been closed.