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  • It is imperative that MPs demand an extension to the Brexit transition.

    We are about to enter a generation-level economic crisis over the virus and adding a No Deal at end of the year will be insane.
  • Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818

    It is imperative that MPs demand an extension to the Brexit transition.

    We are about to enter a generation-level economic crisis over the virus and adding a No Deal at end of the year will be insane.

    No it makes perfect sense because there's a ready-made excuse.

    It wos Coronavirus what dun it.
  • Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 42,230

    Indeed I expect I can be wrong, everyone can be. Indeed I expect to be wrong quite often, that's why my advice for long-term investing is to "buy and hold" rather than to try and gamble and outbid the market. In the long term making fewer decisions means fewer mistakes.

    Lost count of the number times you have been wrong but this is not one of them.

    The central point - buy and hold is what works over time - is undeniably correct.

    Active trading of the markets is different.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,148
    edited February 2020

    It is imperative that MPs demand an extension to the Brexit transition.

    We are about to enter a generation-level economic crisis over the virus and adding a No Deal at end of the year will be insane.

    Well more jobs might go but the borders could be closed if necessary without free movement once the transition ends if no deal so fewer might contract cv
  • GideonWiseGideonWise Posts: 1,123
    edited February 2020
    Not sure how to post tweets but:

    https://twitter.com/silviast9/status/1233105992541446146?s=20

    Says that ICU is nearly full in Lombardy. 800 out of 900 occupied.

    Anyone know how to build a hospital in a week and train staff to man it?

    Get in touch with Hancock if you do.

  • stjohnstjohn Posts: 1,861
    Maybe a sensible response to the virus would be to cancel audiences at large sporting events but let the events themselves go ahead? Cheltenham to go ahead is 1.55 on Betfair.
  • This is a serious crisis. But surely there was a better use of his 28 hours?
  • stjohnstjohn Posts: 1,861

    It is imperative that MPs demand an extension to the Brexit transition.

    We are about to enter a generation-level economic crisis over the virus and adding a No Deal at end of the year will be insane.

    I've been thinking the same.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228
    And tried to silence the whistleblower.
  • Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    Pence also voted against Bush rescuing the banks at the height of the global financial crisis.
  • justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    I have just voted in the Leadership Election - 1.Keir Starmer 2.Lisa Nandy 3. RLB.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228
    Pulpstar said:

    IanB2 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    For those of us using Betfair exchange there are of course parallels with stocks and shares. Calling the market, laying and cutting losses, buying when the price is favourable, staying green etc. etc. etc.

    No one with any nous ties up their money for a year and waits with their thumb up their bum. You work the market.

    To counter this, normally speaking as a general rule in favourable market conditions you can stick your investment into stocks and shares and play the long game, often in the hands of a middle man investor. Fine.

    The problem comes when the markets hit a big correction, as now. Then if you don't read it and act fast you can face losses from which you may never recover.

    We 'may' be in a situation where some market values don't recover for 5 years or more. For those with pensions this is extremely serious.

    For those with pensions who are
    Like me. :(

    Fortunately a lot of my assets are in cash.

    So I will have to try and continue working, even in the recession which is coming. Fun times, eh!

    Anyway, Daughter - having recovered - has got me face masks and pretty much ordered me to self-isolate (which I am more or less doing) on the grounds, as she put it so eloquently yesterday: “You’re not young, not as fit as you should be and have crap lungs.”

    Out of the mouths of babes .....!
    We here on PB should know all about charts and graphs. What has been the multi-decadal performance of your pension prior to last Monday?

    And as for face masks - I thought they protected those around you from you, not the other way round,
    Re face masks, I know - but Daughter was being cautious and caring and I am touched.

    Re pensions, they’ve done ok. But don’t know figure off top of my head. Have a mixture of final salary and money purchase schemes and have put off claiming them while I can still earn.

    I am not going to react to day to day events. I have an advisor to guide me. It is worrying but I try to keep a cool head in a crisis.
    Don't look at the price of hand sanitizer on Amazon....
    £85.98 a litre !
    Soap works perfectly well.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,210
    stjohn said:

    Maybe a sensible response to the virus would be to cancel audiences at large sporting events but let the events themselves go ahead? Cheltenham to go ahead is 1.55 on Betfair.

    What price the London Marathon to go ahead ?
  • Pulpstar said:

    eek said:

    More from the "only America could be this stupid" department

    https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1232737097892667392

    Bonus points to the first candidate to change their surname to Aardvark at the first opportunity.

    Why oh why do they not just use pencil and paper ballots ?
    I think it's part of the American psyche to believe that there's a technological answer to everything; it produces a man on the moon, but also this.

    Or this.

    https://tinyurl.com/to5puq3
  • eekeek Posts: 28,405
    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    I find it interesting what with the LHR news and now apparently the road building programme will be binned for the same reason - climate. This is what a nation looks like that wants to cut its carbon emissions: forget recycling your yoghurt pot, we now have a multi-billion pound truncation of investment and therefore economic activity.

    We shall see of course whether this is received well or badly by voters.
    Aren’t Boris’s new voters all desperate for Northern infrastructure? So Boris’s Ministers had better start taking the Climate Change Act into account so that their decisions cannot be overturned on challenge or he will have to change/repeal the Act if he wants to get stuff done?
    I must ask our local candidates (all of whom wish to return steel making to Teesside) how that squares with the Climate Change Act and the unappealed Heathrow decision
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,992
    Pulpstar said:

    stjohn said:

    Maybe a sensible response to the virus would be to cancel audiences at large sporting events but let the events themselves go ahead? Cheltenham to go ahead is 1.55 on Betfair.

    What price the London Marathon to go ahead ?
    Logically if they are going to do that they should close down the London Underground.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228
    rkrkrk said:

    Nigelb said:

    eadric said:

    rkrkrk said:

    eadric said:

    FPT for philip T

    Worst case scenario is 2m dead in the UK, if we get 70% infected and a 4% Wuhan style death rate.

    These are not my made up numbers, they are the numbers given by every epidemiologist out there.

    2m dead as a worst case scenario is somewhere beyond “a bad flu season”

    Got a link for that? (Specifically the 2m figure)
    I crunched the numbers yesterday.

    A reasonable worst case scenario for infection is 70% of the population in one year (see my link below)

    A reasonable worst case scenario for mortality rate is 4% (Wuhan)

    NB it could be worse, the resolved case fatality ratio at the moment is 8%

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-rate/

    Apply these numbers to 65m Brits and you get 2m dead. Basic maths.

    Of course this is WORST CASE SCENARIO so it is inherently unlikely, by definition. But it is not impossible.
    As I said, you have put together two numbers which no epidemiologist appears to have done.
    Please show me where one has drawn this conclusion.
    I think this is the key point. The situation is clearly serious and IMO wealthy countries have to take a lot of blame for not properly resourcing WHO with sufficient core funding over the past decades. But let's listen to the experts and not play pandemic.
    And we also stopped funding serious SARS research shortly after that outbreak. Had we done so, we might have been far better prepared.
  • Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    He’s a [moderated]. When he was Governor of Indiana he let a HIV outbreak spread. Given his consistent homophobia played a part.

    Mike Pence, who enabled an HIV outbreak in Indiana, will lead US coronavirus response
    Pence has a track record of ignoring public health evidence

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/26/21155286/mike-pence-coronavirus-response-hiv
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228
    edited February 2020

    Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    He’s a [moderated]. When he was Governor of Indiana he let a HIV outbreak spread. Given his consistent homophobia played a part.

    Mike Pence, who enabled an HIV outbreak in Indiana, will lead US coronavirus response
    Pence has a track record of ignoring public health evidence

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/26/21155286/mike-pence-coronavirus-response-hiv
    Well it is difficult to take science seriously if you're a creationist.
  • Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    He’s a [moderated]. When he was Governor of Indiana he let a HIV outbreak spread. Given his consistent homophobia played a part.

    Mike Pence, who enabled an HIV outbreak in Indiana, will lead US coronavirus response
    Pence has a track record of ignoring public health evidence

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/26/21155286/mike-pence-coronavirus-response-hiv
    You have to look at this response through the eyes of Trump. For him, this isn't a health crisis; it's a stock market (which for him means a political) crisis. That's why he's only bothered to move now. It's also why he thinks all he needs to do is offer reassurance, as per a market panic.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,210
    TOPPING said:

    Pulpstar said:

    stjohn said:

    Maybe a sensible response to the virus would be to cancel audiences at large sporting events but let the events themselves go ahead? Cheltenham to go ahead is 1.55 on Betfair.

    What price the London Marathon to go ahead ?
    Logically if they are going to do that they should close down the London Underground.
    London's efficient public transport system is an almost perfect virus vector conduit.
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 8,720
    Have these been good days to bury bad news?
  • It is imperative that MPs demand an extension to the Brexit transition.

    We are about to enter a generation-level economic crisis over the virus and adding a No Deal at end of the year will be insane.

    As the policies to restrict Covid-19 and to implement a No trade-deal Brexit would be much the same, extending transition might not make all that much difference.

    Not that it matters; the numbers aren't there in parliament to force it on the government, and quite possibly there isn't the mechanism either.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,938
    edited February 2020

    twitter.com/SamCoatesSky/status/1233351719096135680?s=20

    This is a serious crisis. But surely there was a better use of his 28 hours?
    It is clear from the photo that Boris is morphing into Trump, especially with the silly lapel badge to remind him which country he is in.
    https://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/people/boris-johnsons-secret-midnight-visit-kettering-general-hospital-2002603
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    Pulpstar said:

    TOPPING said:

    Pulpstar said:

    stjohn said:

    Maybe a sensible response to the virus would be to cancel audiences at large sporting events but let the events themselves go ahead? Cheltenham to go ahead is 1.55 on Betfair.

    What price the London Marathon to go ahead ?
    Logically if they are going to do that they should close down the London Underground.
    London's efficient public transport system is an almost perfect virus vector conduit.
    One of the ironies is that people may feel safer driving in their cars by themselves than on public transport, even though this probably raises their chance of dying in a car accident, possibly above the chance of dying of coronavirus.
  • fpt
    eadric said:

    Amongst other things, that analysis is a very fine example of scientific writing in plain but lucid English prose, entirely accessible to the intelligent layman.

    It also suggests he knows whereof he speaks. We cannot rely on warmer skies.
    In the last 7 years, the time that PB vanilla comments have been stored, the word "whereof" has only been used about 25 times. Can you guess who used the word more than half of those times?
  • eek said:

    More from the "only America could be this stupid" department

    https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1232737097892667392

    Bonus points to the first candidate to change their surname to Aardvark at the first opportunity.

    Biden and Bloomberg are in the first four. Sanders is 15th on the ballot, alphabetically; Warren is 18th.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    eek said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    I find it interesting what with the LHR news and now apparently the road building programme will be binned for the same reason - climate. This is what a nation looks like that wants to cut its carbon emissions: forget recycling your yoghurt pot, we now have a multi-billion pound truncation of investment and therefore economic activity.

    We shall see of course whether this is received well or badly by voters.
    Aren’t Boris’s new voters all desperate for Northern infrastructure? So Boris’s Ministers had better start taking the Climate Change Act into account so that their decisions cannot be overturned on challenge or he will have to change/repeal the Act if he wants to get stuff done?
    I must ask our local candidates (all of whom wish to return steel making to Teesside) how that squares with the Climate Change Act and the unappealed Heathrow decision
    I have a header on its way on this very topic .....
  • Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    He’s a [moderated]. When he was Governor of Indiana he let a HIV outbreak spread. Given his consistent homophobia played a part.

    Mike Pence, who enabled an HIV outbreak in Indiana, will lead US coronavirus response
    Pence has a track record of ignoring public health evidence

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/26/21155286/mike-pence-coronavirus-response-hiv
    You have to look at this response through the eyes of Trump. For him, this isn't a health crisis; it's a stock market (which for him means a political) crisis. That's why he's only bothered to move now. It's also why he thinks all he needs to do is offer reassurance, as per a market panic.
    Nipping this virus in the bud by identifying, treating and isolating people as we are doing will keep the dangers down and allow the stocks to recover.

    Sticking your head in the sand, saying its all OK then letting the virus go rampant will not allow them to recover by November.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228
    This would be excellent black comedy were it not the real world:
    https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/02/trump-is-fighting-with-advisors-over-pardoning-roger-stone
    ...Inside the West Wing, there’s panic that Trump’s compulsive fictionalizing could trigger an even bigger crisis if the coronavirus truly explodes. “This is a black swan event,” a former West Wing official said. “The White House is concerned because they can’t control the virus and Trump wants everyone to get out there and say positive things, but people inside don’t have confidence the statements are accurate.” The official went on: “It’s one thing to get people out there saying, ‘we’re going to win the election’ or ‘the economy is great.’ It’s another to have the government say, ‘There’s nothing to worry about,’ but then people start dying.” While we spoke, the official told me that he was searching for face masks on Amazon, but the site was sold out. “I have to go,” he said, and hung up....
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    In the very press conference this was announced Pence blew his nose with his hands, not even a hankie, then went on to shake hands with people around him without washing his hands. He appears to have the manners and hygiene sense of a badly-brought up 4 year old.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    eek said:

    More from the "only America could be this stupid" department

    https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1232737097892667392

    Bonus points to the first candidate to change their surname to Aardvark at the first opportunity.

    It's astonishingly awful. It is a one way ticket to lawsuit city.

    I posted a video of what it looks like in previous thread - it truly is as bad as you think it is, if not worse.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228

    fpt

    eadric said:

    Amongst other things, that analysis is a very fine example of scientific writing in plain but lucid English prose, entirely accessible to the intelligent layman.

    It also suggests he knows whereof he speaks. We cannot rely on warmer skies.
    In the last 7 years, the time that PB vanilla comments have been stored, the word "whereof" has only been used about 25 times. Can you guess who used the word more than half of those times?
    That would be trop difficile.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,442
    eek said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    I find it interesting what with the LHR news and now apparently the road building programme will be binned for the same reason - climate. This is what a nation looks like that wants to cut its carbon emissions: forget recycling your yoghurt pot, we now have a multi-billion pound truncation of investment and therefore economic activity.

    We shall see of course whether this is received well or badly by voters.
    Aren’t Boris’s new voters all desperate for Northern infrastructure? So Boris’s Ministers had better start taking the Climate Change Act into account so that their decisions cannot be overturned on challenge or he will have to change/repeal the Act if he wants to get stuff done?
    I must ask our local candidates (all of whom wish to return steel making to Teesside) how that squares with the Climate Change Act and the unappealed Heathrow decision
    If a new/reopened steel plant is more efficient, and therefore emits less carbon than other plants, then that would be easy.
  • MightyAlexMightyAlex Posts: 1,660

    fpt

    eadric said:

    Amongst other things, that analysis is a very fine example of scientific writing in plain but lucid English prose, entirely accessible to the intelligent layman.

    It also suggests he knows whereof he speaks. We cannot rely on warmer skies.
    In the last 7 years, the time that PB vanilla comments have been stored, the word "whereof" has only been used about 25 times. Can you guess who used the word more than half of those times?
    Unmasked by big data and stats, surely the future is now.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    IanB2 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    For those of us using Betfair exchange there are of course parallels with stocks and shares. Calling the market, laying and cutting losses, buying when the price is favourable, staying green etc. etc. etc.

    No one with any nous ties up their money for a year and waits with their thumb up their bum. You work the market.

    To counter this, normally speaking as a general rule in favourable market conditions you can stick your investment into stocks and shares and play the long game, often in the hands of a middle man investor. Fine.

    The problem comes when the markets hit a big correction, as now. Then if you don't read it and act fast you can face losses from which you may never recover.

    We 'may' be in a situation where some market values don't recover for 5 years or more. For those with pensions this is extremely serious.

    For those with pensions who are
    Like me. :(

    Fortunately a lot of my assets are in cash.

    So I will have to try and continue working, even in the recession which is coming. Fun times, eh!

    Anyway, Daughter - having recovered - has got me face masks and pretty much ordered me to self-isolate (which I am more or less doing) on the grounds, as she put it so eloquently yesterday: “You’re not young, not as fit as you should be and have crap lungs.”

    Out of the mouths of babes .....!
    We here on PB should know all about charts and graphs. What has been the multi-decadal performance of your pension prior to last Monday?

    And as for face masks - I thought they protected those around you from you, not the other way round,
    Re face masks, I know - but Daughter was being cautious and caring and I am touched.

    Re pensions, they’ve done ok. But don’t know figure off top of my head. Have a mixture of final salary and money purchase schemes and have put off claiming them while I can still earn.

    I am not going to react to day to day events. I have an advisor to guide me. It is worrying but I try to keep a cool head in a crisis.
    Don't look at the price of hand sanitizer on Amazon....
    Soap and water is perfectly adequate. If it comes to it I could wipe my hands with hubby’s vodka supply I suppose. :)
  • rkrkrkrkrkrk Posts: 8,298
    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    In the very press conference this was announced Pence blew his nose with his hands, not even a hankie, then went on to shake hands with people around him without washing his hands. He appears to have the manners and hygiene sense of a badly-brought up 4 year old.
    Seriously?
  • fpt

    eadric said:

    Amongst other things, that analysis is a very fine example of scientific writing in plain but lucid English prose, entirely accessible to the intelligent layman.

    It also suggests he knows whereof he speaks. We cannot rely on warmer skies.
    In the last 7 years, the time that PB vanilla comments have been stored, the word "whereof" has only been used about 25 times. Can you guess who used the word more than half of those times?
    Unmasked by big data and stats, surely the future is now.
    The "word" "fuckyeah" has been used twice. In seven years. Once by @eadric. Guess who used it the other time.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228
    IanB2 said:

    rkrkrk said:

    Nigelb said:

    eadric said:

    rkrkrk said:

    eadric said:

    FPT for philip T

    Worst case scenario is 2m dead in the UK, if we get 70% infected and a 4% Wuhan style death rate.

    These are not my made up numbers, they are the numbers given by every epidemiologist out there.

    2m dead as a worst case scenario is somewhere beyond “a bad flu season”

    Got a link for that? (Specifically the 2m figure)
    I crunched the numbers yesterday.

    A reasonable worst case scenario for infection is 70% of the population in one year (see my link below)

    A reasonable worst case scenario for mortality rate is 4% (Wuhan)

    NB it could be worse, the resolved case fatality ratio at the moment is 8%

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-rate/

    Apply these numbers to 65m Brits and you get 2m dead. Basic maths.

    Of course this is WORST CASE SCENARIO so it is inherently unlikely, by definition. But it is not impossible.
    As I said, you have put together two numbers which no epidemiologist appears to have done.
    Please show me where one has drawn this conclusion.
    I think this is the key point. The situation is clearly serious and IMO wealthy countries have to take a lot of blame for not properly resourcing WHO with sufficient core funding over the past decades. But let's listen to the experts and not play pandemic.
    Yes, Sean is multiplying risks, taking the worst case on every variable and then multiplying them all together. Whereas a high infection rate but low death rate, or vice versa, are statistically more probable.
    The top end estimate of infection rate partly depends on there being a large number of asymptomatic infected able to pass on the virus - and the high reported death rates for recorded cases are partly due to the asymptomatic infected not appearing in the numbers, as they weren't tested.

    The South Korean outbreak ought to give us much better numbers in due course.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    rkrkrk said:

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    In the very press conference this was announced Pence blew his nose with his hands, not even a hankie, then went on to shake hands with people around him without washing his hands. He appears to have the manners and hygiene sense of a badly-brought up 4 year old.
    Seriously?
    https://twitter.com/newgopforusa/status/1232891149737697280?s=21
  • Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,821
    edited February 2020
    Three former Barclays bankers accused of funnelling secret fees to Qatar in exchange for emergency funding at the height of the 2008 financial crisis have been found not guilty of fraud.

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/28/three-former-barclays-executives-found-not-guilty-of-fraud

    This has been an utter charade of a case. It was a retrial, the SFO having made a complete hash of the first go. The case should never have been brought in the first place. It should certainly never have been brought a second time. There were no victims from the alleged crime - quite the opposite, in fact, it meant people didn't lose their shirt. Of all those executives running major banks at the time of the crash, you could argue that the ones who shouldn't have been prosecuted were the Barclays lot, who hadn't been anything like as irresponsible as those running Lloyds and especially RBS, and who managed to save the bank without recourse to taxpayer money. And yet it's the Barclays lot who have been put through all this multi-year horror.

    The SFO really isn't fit for the purpose, and hasn't been for years. The whole thing needs a complete rethink.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228

    fpt

    eadric said:

    Amongst other things, that analysis is a very fine example of scientific writing in plain but lucid English prose, entirely accessible to the intelligent layman.

    It also suggests he knows whereof he speaks. We cannot rely on warmer skies.
    In the last 7 years, the time that PB vanilla comments have been stored, the word "whereof" has only been used about 25 times. Can you guess who used the word more than half of those times?
    Unmasked by big data and stats, surely the future is now.
    The "word" "fuckyeah" has been used twice. In seven years. Once by @eadric. Guess who used it the other time.
    Was it eadric, and not the Earl of Oxford, who wrote Hamlet ?

  • LennonLennon Posts: 1,779
    Cyclefree said:

    Pulpstar said:

    TOPPING said:

    Pulpstar said:

    stjohn said:

    Maybe a sensible response to the virus would be to cancel audiences at large sporting events but let the events themselves go ahead? Cheltenham to go ahead is 1.55 on Betfair.

    What price the London Marathon to go ahead ?
    Logically if they are going to do that they should close down the London Underground.
    London's efficient public transport system is an almost perfect virus vector conduit.
    One of the ironies is that people may feel safer driving in their cars by themselves than on public transport, even though this probably raises their chance of dying in a car accident, possibly above the chance of dying of coronavirus.
    Total anecdote, but I'm sure that in the last few days I've seen more people cycling than is usual for this time of year - it feels like a proportion of those 'summer' cycle commuters have started early despite the weather. Makes sense I suppose that if you cycle half the time anyway and tube it half the time that you'd avoid the tube...
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    In the very press conference this was announced Pence blew his nose with his hands, not even a hankie, then went on to shake hands with people around him without washing his hands. He appears to have the manners and hygiene sense of a badly-brought up 4 year old.
    When it comes to the American administration, minutae are poured over.

    China? where the crisis started and where economic activity is seizing up?

    Free pass!!
  • Three former Barclays bankers accused of funnelling secret fees to Qatar in exchange for emergency funding at the height of the 2008 financial crisis have been found not guilty of fraud.

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/28/three-former-barclays-executives-found-not-guilty-of-fraud

    This has been an utter charade of a case. It was a retrial, the SFO having made a complete hash of the first go. The case should never have been brought in the first place. It should certainly never have been brought a second time. There were no victims from the alleged crime - quite the opposite, in fact, it meant people didn't lose their shirt. Of all those executives running major banks at the time of the crash, you could argue that the ones who shouldn't have been prosecuted were the Barclays lot, who hadn't been anything like as irresponsible as those running Lloyds and especially RBS, and who managed to save the bank without recourse to taxpayer money.

    The SFO really isn't fit for the purpose, and hasn't been for years. The whole thing needs a complete rethink.

    That the only charges brought were against the bank that didn't need bailing out should already have indicated that something was wrong.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318

    Three former Barclays bankers accused of funnelling secret fees to Qatar in exchange for emergency funding at the height of the 2008 financial crisis have been found not guilty of fraud.

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/28/three-former-barclays-executives-found-not-guilty-of-fraud

    This has been an utter charade of a case. It was a retrial, the SFO having made a complete hash of the first go. The case should never have been brought in the first place. It should certainly never have been brought a second time. There were no victims from the alleged crime - quite the opposite, in fact, it meant people didn't lose their shirt. Of all those executives running major banks at the time of the crash, you could argue that the ones who shouldn't have been prosecuted were the Barclays lot, who hadn't been anything like as irresponsible as those running Lloyds and especially RBS, and who managed to save the bank without recourse to taxpayer money.

    The SFO really isn't fit for the purpose, and hasn't been for years. The whole thing needs a complete rethink.

    It has never been fit for purpose. How fraud is investigated and prosecuted in this country is - and has been - an utter shambles for decades, certainly for my entire working life.

    Fat chance of anything being done about it in the foreseeable future.
  • MightyAlexMightyAlex Posts: 1,660

    eek said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    I find it interesting what with the LHR news and now apparently the road building programme will be binned for the same reason - climate. This is what a nation looks like that wants to cut its carbon emissions: forget recycling your yoghurt pot, we now have a multi-billion pound truncation of investment and therefore economic activity.

    We shall see of course whether this is received well or badly by voters.
    Aren’t Boris’s new voters all desperate for Northern infrastructure? So Boris’s Ministers had better start taking the Climate Change Act into account so that their decisions cannot be overturned on challenge or he will have to change/repeal the Act if he wants to get stuff done?
    I must ask our local candidates (all of whom wish to return steel making to Teesside) how that squares with the Climate Change Act and the unappealed Heathrow decision
    If a new/reopened steel plant is more efficient, and therefore emits less carbon than other plants, then that would be easy.
    The outsourcing of our industry has just shifted emissions to the developing nations allowing us to seem green whilst consuming more for less. Will re-shoring our dirty industry i.e the current XR protests regarding the Durham coal mine

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-51641886

    mean returning these heartland jobs becomes a fight between the leanings of the New-Conservative party and the political desire to seem green.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,864

    Telegraph:

    "Capital Economics said the rate of economic contraction is now likely to be a staggering 25pc (annualised) over the first quarter - using proxy measures of real activity - a level unseen in modern times. “For much of February, economic activity effectively ceased in China,” said Mark Williams, the group’s chief Asia economist."

    25%? Bloody hell.

    It's actually 6.25%. Which is itself pretty staggering. It would only be 25% if February was repeated in the next 3 quarters.
  • "suavity" has been used thrice. Once by @eadric, once by @ydoethur. No prizes for guessing the third user.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,405

    eek said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    I find it interesting what with the LHR news and now apparently the road building programme will be binned for the same reason - climate. This is what a nation looks like that wants to cut its carbon emissions: forget recycling your yoghurt pot, we now have a multi-billion pound truncation of investment and therefore economic activity.

    We shall see of course whether this is received well or badly by voters.
    Aren’t Boris’s new voters all desperate for Northern infrastructure? So Boris’s Ministers had better start taking the Climate Change Act into account so that their decisions cannot be overturned on challenge or he will have to change/repeal the Act if he wants to get stuff done?
    I must ask our local candidates (all of whom wish to return steel making to Teesside) how that squares with the Climate Change Act and the unappealed Heathrow decision
    If a new/reopened steel plant is more efficient, and therefore emits less carbon than other plants, then that would be easy.
    Compared to no steel plant - and no economic reason for it to be here except voter vanity / stupidity?
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    In the very press conference this was announced Pence blew his nose with his hands, not even a hankie, then went on to shake hands with people around him without washing his hands. He appears to have the manners and hygiene sense of a badly-brought up 4 year old.
    When it comes to the American administration, minutae are poured over.

    China? where the crisis started and where economic activity is seizing up?

    Free pass!!
    Don’t be silly. No-one is giving China a free pass on anything.

    But every medical expert has said that the one thing we can and should be doing is basic hygiene - washing hands. And the person put in charge in the US, on camera, wipes his nose like a child, thus giving out absolutely the wrong message. This is not minutiae - it is the single most important thing individuals can do.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,864

    Three former Barclays bankers accused of funnelling secret fees to Qatar in exchange for emergency funding at the height of the 2008 financial crisis have been found not guilty of fraud.

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/28/three-former-barclays-executives-found-not-guilty-of-fraud

    This has been an utter charade of a case. It was a retrial, the SFO having made a complete hash of the first go. The case should never have been brought in the first place. It should certainly never have been brought a second time. There were no victims from the alleged crime - quite the opposite, in fact, it meant people didn't lose their shirt. Of all those executives running major banks at the time of the crash, you could argue that the ones who shouldn't have been prosecuted were the Barclays lot, who hadn't been anything like as irresponsible as those running Lloyds and especially RBS, and who managed to save the bank without recourse to taxpayer money. And yet it's the Barclays lot who have been put through all this multi-year horror.

    The SFO really isn't fit for the purpose, and hasn't been for years. The whole thing needs a complete rethink.

    When you think about the outrageous mis-selling of literally billions of pounds of financial products in the run up to the GFC, the blatant conflicts of interest, the trading against their own customers, the utter negligence, why the hell was steps taken to protect a bank and its shareholders which actually worked and kept them out of the grip of the Treasury picked out? It's a deeply weird mindset that even contemplated that.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 82,120
    edited February 2020
    While the world is worrying about a global pandemic, over in nutty mcnutty land, after digging up lawns, it is now time to free the trees.....

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51666004
  • The Darren Anderton of cricket is injured again....

    England's Mark Wood is ruled out of Sri Lanka tour with injury

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/51671296
  • While the world is worrying about a global pandemic, over in nutty mcnutty land, after digging up lawns, it is now time to free the trees.....

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51666004

    To be fair, it's a pretty pathetic thing to do. Putting ugly nets up.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,210
    Alistair said:

    eek said:

    More from the "only America could be this stupid" department

    https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1232737097892667392

    Bonus points to the first candidate to change their surname to Aardvark at the first opportunity.

    It's astonishingly awful. It is a one way ticket to lawsuit city.

    I posted a video of what it looks like in previous thread - it truly is as bad as you think it is, if not worse.
    On the plus side it looks like candidate order is randomised. Tbh that might help Sanders with his young and tech savvy voters compared to Biden and Bloomberg's boomers.
  • Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    In the very press conference this was announced Pence blew his nose with his hands, not even a hankie, then went on to shake hands with people around him without washing his hands. He appears to have the manners and hygiene sense of a badly-brought up 4 year old.
    And they say he's the smart one.



  • If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

    I've always preferred the improved version, which starts:

    If you can keep your wife, when all about you
    Are losing theirs, and blaming it on you..
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228

    "suavity" has been used thrice. Once by @eadric, once by @ydoethur. No prizes for guessing the third user.

    I'm ashamed not be have done so.

    What about concupiscence ?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228
    DavidL said:

    Telegraph:

    "Capital Economics said the rate of economic contraction is now likely to be a staggering 25pc (annualised) over the first quarter - using proxy measures of real activity - a level unseen in modern times. “For much of February, economic activity effectively ceased in China,” said Mark Williams, the group’s chief Asia economist."

    25%? Bloody hell.

    It's actually 6.25%. Which is itself pretty staggering. It would only be 25% if February was repeated in the next 3 quarters.
    Is that seasonally adjusted ?
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,210
    edited February 2020

    While the world is worrying about a global pandemic, over in nutty mcnutty land, after digging up lawns, it is now time to free the trees.....

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51666004

    I'm with XR and Packham on that one.
  • Nigelb said:

    "suavity" has been used thrice. Once by @eadric, once by @ydoethur. No prizes for guessing the third user.

    I'm ashamed not be have done so.

    What about concupiscence ?
    Apparently only @Theuniondivvie has ever used that word, SandyRentoul replied to him, and you replied to Sandy.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868

    fpt

    eadric said:

    Amongst other things, that analysis is a very fine example of scientific writing in plain but lucid English prose, entirely accessible to the intelligent layman.

    It also suggests he knows whereof he speaks. We cannot rely on warmer skies.
    In the last 7 years, the time that PB vanilla comments have been stored, the word "whereof" has only been used about 25 times. Can you guess who used the word more than half of those times?
    Unmasked by big data and stats, surely the future is now.
    The "word" "fuckyeah" has been used twice. In seven years. Once by @eadric. Guess who used it the other time.
    I remember doing such a search months back on “dullard”, and finding the only PB’ers who had at that point used the phrase were SeanT and Byronic. An amazing coincidence.
  • Nigelb said:

    "suavity" has been used thrice. Once by @eadric, once by @ydoethur. No prizes for guessing the third user.

    I'm ashamed not be have done so.

    What about concupiscence ?
    Apparently only @Theuniondivvie has ever used that word, SandyRentoul replied to him, and you replied to Sandy.
    *blushes prettily*
  • While the world is worrying about a global pandemic, over in nutty mcnutty land, after digging up lawns, it is now time to free the trees.....

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51666004

    Packham is a first rate twat. They say he is a "naturalist". He is actually a cameraman and a TV presenter with a Batchelors degree in Zoology and nothing more. The BBC should sack him for breaching impartiality codes
  • There is no guarantee Liverpool would be crowned Premier League champions if the season was curtailed by the coronavirus, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

    There is also no guarantee the bottom three clubs would not be relegated, with no specific regulation in place governing such a scenario.

    The rapid spread of the virus has raised the prospect of the Government ordering the cancellation of all sporting events in the UK for more than two months, something that could mean some fixtures never being played.

    Were the Premier League season not completed, it is likely crisis talks would take place to determine whether previous results would be allowed to stand or whether the entire campaign was rendered null and void.

    Any final ruling could depend on how many fixtures had been played, similar to the results of abandoned matches in some sporting competitions being allowed to stand if a certain percentage of them have been completed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/02/28/no-guarantee-liverpool-would-crowned-premier-league-champions/
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    Cyclefree said:

    IanB2 said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    Cyclefree said:

    TOPPING said:

    For those of us using Betfair exchange there are of course parallels with stocks and shares. Calling the market, laying and cutting losses, buying when the price is favourable, staying green etc. etc. etc.

    No one with any nous ties up their money for a year and waits with their thumb up their bum. You work the market.

    To counter this, normally speaking as a general rule in favourable market conditions you can stick your investment into stocks and shares and play the long game, often in the hands of a middle man investor. Fine.

    The problem comes when the markets hit a big correction, as now. Then if you don't read it and act fast you can face losses from which you may never recover.

    We 'may' be in a situation where some market values don't recover for 5 years or more. For those with pensions this is extremely serious.

    For those with pensions who are
    Like me. :(

    Fortunately a lot of my assets are in cash.

    So I will have to try and continue working, even in the recession which is coming. Fun times, eh!

    Anyway, Daughter - having recovered - has got me face masks and pretty much ordered me to self-isolate (which I am more or less doing) on the grounds, as she put it so eloquently yesterday: “You’re not young, not as fit as you should be and have crap lungs.”

    Out of the mouths of babes .....!
    We here on PB should know all about charts and graphs. What has been the multi-decadal performance of your pension prior to last Monday?

    And as for face masks - I thought they protected those around you from you, not the other way round,
    Re face masks, I know - but Daughter was being cautious and caring and I am touched.

    Re pensions, they’ve done ok. But don’t know figure off top of my head. Have a mixture of final salary and money purchase schemes and have put off claiming them while I can still earn.

    I am not going to react to day to day events. I have an advisor to guide me. It is worrying but I try to keep a cool head in a crisis.
    Don't look at the price of hand sanitizer on Amazon....
    Soap and water is perfectly adequate. If it comes to it I could wipe my hands with hubby’s vodka supply I suppose. :)
    Sanitizer is great if you are travelling and don’t have access to water that moment. I travel regularly with my dog and fortunately already have a stock of small size sanitizer. Maybe I should go on eBay and sell it for an inflated price.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,148

    Cyclefree said:

    Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    In the very press conference this was announced Pence blew his nose with his hands, not even a hankie, then went on to shake hands with people around him without washing his hands. He appears to have the manners and hygiene sense of a badly-brought up 4 year old.
    And they say he's the smart one.


    I would say Trump is smarter than Pence
  • glwglw Posts: 9,910

    Telegraph:

    "Capital Economics said the rate of economic contraction is now likely to be a staggering 25pc (annualised) over the first quarter - using proxy measures of real activity - a level unseen in modern times. “For much of February, economic activity effectively ceased in China,” said Mark Williams, the group’s chief Asia economist."

    25%? Bloody hell.

    The boss of Maersk estimated that Chinese factory production halved in February, and I think in Wuhan Province car sales were down over 90%. Even it there is an almost immediate resumption of normal life, which is unlikely, a lot of economies may go into recession.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,167
    edited February 2020

    While the world is worrying about a global pandemic, over in nutty mcnutty land, after digging up lawns, it is now time to free the trees.....

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-51666004

    Packham is a first rate twat. They say he is a "naturalist". He is actually a cameraman and a TV presenter with a Batchelors degree in Zoology and nothing more. The BBC should sack him for breaching impartiality codes
    Well, Attenborough is also regarded as a naturalist on account of his probably having seen more of the earth's habitats in the last 60 years than anyone else currently living, and his background is similar.
  • I can't help feeling that we'd all be safer if Jeremy Hunt were Health Secretary rather than Matt Hancock.
  • stjohnstjohn Posts: 1,861
    Pulpstar said:

    stjohn said:

    Maybe a sensible response to the virus would be to cancel audiences at large sporting events but let the events themselves go ahead? Cheltenham to go ahead is 1.55 on Betfair.

    What price the London Marathon to go ahead ?
    My guess is that it will be cancelled. Can't find any odds.

  • Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    He’s a [moderated]. When he was Governor of Indiana he let a HIV outbreak spread. Given his consistent homophobia played a part.

    Mike Pence, who enabled an HIV outbreak in Indiana, will lead US coronavirus response
    Pence has a track record of ignoring public health evidence

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/26/21155286/mike-pence-coronavirus-response-hiv
    You have to look at this response through the eyes of Trump. For him, this isn't a health crisis; it's a stock market (which for him means a political) crisis. That's why he's only bothered to move now. It's also why he thinks all he needs to do is offer reassurance, as per a market panic.
    Nipping this virus in the bud by identifying, treating and isolating people as we are doing will keep the dangers down and allow the stocks to recover.

    Sticking your head in the sand, saying its all OK then letting the virus go rampant will not allow them to recover by November.
    All that is true but also a different point. I don't think Trump thinks that there is a health issue at all.
  • Nigelb said:

    Jesus Christ. Talk about being dumbasses
    Don’t worry Mike Pence will pray away Covid-19.
    Mike 'tobacco doesn't cause cancer' Pence ?

    Not sure he's on good terms with the almighty....
    ... otherwise why would Trump have tried to make him the fall guy for this ?
    He’s a [moderated]. When he was Governor of Indiana he let a HIV outbreak spread. Given his consistent homophobia played a part.

    Mike Pence, who enabled an HIV outbreak in Indiana, will lead US coronavirus response
    Pence has a track record of ignoring public health evidence

    https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/26/21155286/mike-pence-coronavirus-response-hiv
    You have to look at this response through the eyes of Trump. For him, this isn't a health crisis; it's a stock market (which for him means a political) crisis. That's why he's only bothered to move now. It's also why he thinks all he needs to do is offer reassurance, as per a market panic.
    Nipping this virus in the bud by identifying, treating and isolating people as we are doing will keep the dangers down and allow the stocks to recover.

    Sticking your head in the sand, saying its all OK then letting the virus go rampant will not allow them to recover by November.
    All that is true but also a different point. I don't think Trump thinks that there is a health issue at all.
    Trump thinks there's a confidence and hence stock market issue.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868

    fpt

    eadric said:

    Amongst other things, that analysis is a very fine example of scientific writing in plain but lucid English prose, entirely accessible to the intelligent layman.

    It also suggests he knows whereof he speaks. We cannot rely on warmer skies.
    In the last 7 years, the time that PB vanilla comments have been stored, the word "whereof" has only been used about 25 times. Can you guess who used the word more than half of those times?
    Almost all of us here mix in a world where plain English and a limited vocabulary enable us to be clear and understood by the people we come into contact with.

    Exceptionally, authors have the opposite problem, in that writing a long book requires you to draw on a wide range of vocab in order to add character to your writing and avoid using the same words and phrases often enough that your readers begin to tire of the repetition.

    This difference between almost every PB’er and SeanT in his various apparitions is one of the all-so-obvious “tells” that have made it difficult for him to go truly incognito.
  • moonshinemoonshine Posts: 5,751

    I can't help feeling that we'd all be safer if Jeremy Hunt were Health Secretary rather than Matt Hancock.

    Time to bring the experience off the bench. He wasn’t everyone’s cuppa but the man knows the health service
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    glw said:

    Telegraph:

    "Capital Economics said the rate of economic contraction is now likely to be a staggering 25pc (annualised) over the first quarter - using proxy measures of real activity - a level unseen in modern times. “For much of February, economic activity effectively ceased in China,” said Mark Williams, the group’s chief Asia economist."

    25%? Bloody hell.

    The boss of Maersk estimated that Chinese factory production halved in February, and I think in Wuhan Province car sales were down over 90%. Even it there is an almost immediate resumption of normal life, which is unlikely, a lot of economies may go into recession.
    Yet the “will there be a 2020 US recession” has today gone out from 2.85 to 2.90 on BFE.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,167
    edited February 2020

    I can't help feeling that we'd all be safer if Jeremy Hunt were Health Secretary rather than Matt Hancock.

    Hunt was surprisingly good this morning on Today, I have to stay. It also highlighted the strange awkwardness of the govt's s no-Today policy in any , potentially, emergency situation, by appearing with this ministerial experience, at this particular time.
  • stjohnstjohn Posts: 1,861
    Stock market corrections are usually due to a change in investor confidence for no particular reason, if I understand correctly and thus are usually unpredictable.

    This seems very different. The fall in shares is because of fears about a very real event that's happening now. It's a rational response. Even if the spread of the virus does not become a pandemic, it seems obvious to me that there are going to be serious economic consequences for months ahead.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,210
    Imagine if the coronavirus mutates... into something WORSE. What an undignified way for humanity to go it would be

    School in 19,000,000 AD when cat's ancestors rule the earth "Now we'll examine the homo sapiens species, commonly known as humans. Wiped out 19 million years ago by a killer virus"
    At the back of the class "What a bunch of losers, at least the dinosaurs had an actual asteroid to contend with"
  • I can't help feeling that we'd all be safer if Jeremy Hunt were Health Secretary rather than Matt Hancock.

    We’d all be better off if Hunt was PM.
  • WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 9,167
    edited February 2020
    stjohn said:

    Stock market corrections are usually due to a change in investor confidence for no particular reason, if I understand correctly and thus are usually unpredictable.

    This seems very different. The fall in shares is because of fears about a very real event that's happening now. It's a rational response. Even if the spread of the virus does not become a pandemic, it seems obvious to me that there are going to be serious economic consequences for months ahead.

    That much is indeed now much more certain than the progress or non-progress of the disease.

    There are implications both for Brexit and Trump which will have to be thought about.
  • MysticroseMysticrose Posts: 4,688
    stjohn said:

    Stock market corrections are usually due to a change in investor confidence for no particular reason, if I understand correctly and thus are usually unpredictable.

    This seems very different. The fall in shares is because of fears about a very real event that's happening now. It's a rational response. Even if the spread of the virus does not become a pandemic, it seems obvious to me that there are going to be serious economic consequences for months ahead.

    Spot on
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    Pulpstar said:

    Imagine if the coronavirus mutates... into something WORSE. What an undignified way for humanity to go it would be

    School in 19,000,000 AD when cat's ancestors rule the earth "Now we'll examine the homo sapiens species, commonly known as humans. Wiped out 19 million years ago by a killer virus"
    At the back of the class "What a bunch of losers, at least the dinosaurs had an actual asteroid to contend with"

    Dont cats get the same virus?

    Isn't that why the chinese are encouraging their citizens to stop eating them?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    Pulpstar said:

    Imagine if the coronavirus mutates... into something WORSE. What an undignified way for humanity to go it would be

    School in 19,000,000 AD when cat's ancestors rule the earth "Now we'll examine the homo sapiens species, commonly known as humans. Wiped out 19 million years ago by a killer virus"
    At the back of the class "What a bunch of losers, at least the dinosaurs had an actual asteroid to contend with"

    Viruses that mutate into something worse struggle to win the natural selection race against mutations into something better. Thankfully.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228

    Nigelb said:

    "suavity" has been used thrice. Once by @eadric, once by @ydoethur. No prizes for guessing the third user.

    I'm ashamed not be have done so.

    What about concupiscence ?
    Apparently only @Theuniondivvie has ever used that word, SandyRentoul replied to him, and you replied to Sandy.
    We will have to try harder to give the esotericists cover.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    stjohn said:

    Stock market corrections are usually due to a change in investor confidence for no particular reason, if I understand correctly and thus are usually unpredictable.

    This seems very different. The fall in shares is because of fears about a very real event that's happening now. It's a rational response. Even if the spread of the virus does not become a pandemic, it seems obvious to me that there are going to be serious economic consequences for months ahead.

    Which is why the right thing to do was so obvious on Monday.
  • stjohnstjohn Posts: 1,861
    edited February 2020
    IanB2 said:

    stjohn said:

    Stock market corrections are usually due to a change in investor confidence for no particular reason, if I understand correctly and thus are usually unpredictable.

    This seems very different. The fall in shares is because of fears about a very real event that's happening now. It's a rational response. Even if the spread of the virus does not become a pandemic, it seems obvious to me that there are going to be serious economic consequences for months ahead.

    Which is why the right thing to do was so obvious on Monday.
    Indeed!
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    Yep. And that Miami guy only had regular flu. Bet he sure regrets going to the hospital for a test.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,228
    edited February 2020

    Pulpstar said:

    Imagine if the coronavirus mutates... into something WORSE. What an undignified way for humanity to go it would be

    School in 19,000,000 AD when cat's ancestors rule the earth "Now we'll examine the homo sapiens species, commonly known as humans. Wiped out 19 million years ago by a killer virus"
    At the back of the class "What a bunch of losers, at least the dinosaurs had an actual asteroid to contend with"

    Dont cats get the same virus?

    Isn't that why the chinese are encouraging their citizens to stop eating them?
    Cats do suffer badly from coronaviruses - particularly enteric infection.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868

    Pulpstar said:

    Imagine if the coronavirus mutates... into something WORSE. What an undignified way for humanity to go it would be

    School in 19,000,000 AD when cat's ancestors rule the earth "Now we'll examine the homo sapiens species, commonly known as humans. Wiped out 19 million years ago by a killer virus"
    At the back of the class "What a bunch of losers, at least the dinosaurs had an actual asteroid to contend with"

    Dont cats get the same virus?

    Isn't that why the chinese are encouraging their citizens to stop eating them?
    Despite the four drumsticks?
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