"the basis on which they won power has been discredited."
!
!!
!!!
As the Tories basis on which they won power has been discredited, that must mean that Labour won the argument so they should have Keith as the PM in a GNU. Or some such bollocks....
its the most insane reconfiguration of "we won the arguments" I've seen yet
But experts now believe the jab is pointless for most children, who are at very low risk of the disease anyway.
Thankfully they never grow up.
The vaccine isn't for life.
So I went through all that for nothing?!
Indeed. That's why it was stopped. From that article:
Experts believe if you are not in one of the high risk groups, your chances of getting TB are one in 100,000.
The BCG vaccine is thought to offer protection for around 15 years.
However, it is not effective for everyone. In the UK, only around two thirds of those who receive the vaccination are believed to be protected. Some trials have suggested protection could be as low as 30%.
Therefore, for every 5,000 children vaccinated, one case of TB would be prevented over the following 15 years.
Experts say that is hugely cost-ineffective.
The British Thoracic Society said it supported the decision to stop the school BCG programme.
The article doesn't say that at all: it says the vaccine was unnecessary, not that it was ineffective. Anyway, who is interested in its effectiveness *against TB* just at the moment?
There was a study saying those with the BCG vaccine might be less at risk from coronavirus (see the first comment in the nested replies).
Yes, I am well aware of that. But why would its effectiveness against CV necessarily be coterminous with its efectiveness against TB?
Well, if the vaccine lasts only a decade or so that might be relevant? Sorry for wandering off topic!
No, because "lasts" in this context only means (because there is only any evidence for it to mean) "appears to be effective *in preventing **TB**.*"
Who knows how the protection against coronavirus is linked to the protection against TB. I don't think it can be immediately dismissed as irrelevant.
Which is why I wasn't doing that, I was objecting to treating it as conclusive.
I don't think anyone was doing that. I just said it might be relevant. The discussion about BCG came about because I was wondering why the vaccination program was stopped, that's the context of the comments about effectiveness, not the relation to coronavirus.
Would the BCG connection explain the higher Covid-19 rates of ethnic minorities who came here from countries that did not vaccinate, rather than "all" Muslims wherever they grew up?
A whole way of life being destroyed...... Without government support, how will gangs survive? Protection rackets will have collapsed with the shutting of the shops. Drug imports have probably collapsed as well. No one is going out, so street robbery is probably failing sector. Burglary won't work - except as violent home invasions, which the average British Legally Challenged Person (LCP*) is untrained and ill equipped for.
The Legally Challenged sector is looking for help and support from the Government, I'm sure.
*Criminal is a very pejorative word.
Move the whole of the Legally Challenged Sector to Gruinard Island. There the person eventually voted Leader will receive £10m. To make it more like what they've left, caches of knives, guns, crossbows, machetes, drugs, booze and the keys to a speedboat will be hidden around the island.
Food? Not so much... You'll really want that speedboat. But here's the kicker - if you leave before the vote, you lose any rights to that £10m... We could televise it - as Hate Island.
No no.
Gruinard Island is too small. Move them to South Georgia - breath taking landscape. World Heritage grade wildlife refuge. Great opportunities to learn new skills* and explore an open environment.
And in seas around, a constant patrol of haddock. Very, very large haddock.
*Such as how to stand up in 90 mile an hour snow storm when it is -40c
You could have saved yourself a keystroke there, you don't have to specify c in -40°c.
Eh? You either need ° or c, to give no units at all woud be sloppy. As Malmesbury used c and you used °c you were the one who could have saved a keystroke. In fact I'll be impertiant enough to say could have saved yourself 86 keystrokes.
He means it's the same in fahrenheit and celsius, the two most frequently used temperature scales.
And its not possible to get -40 Kelvin.
in some of my experiments, I regularly get population distributions consistent with negative temperatures.
I also like Atkins' attempt to discuss temperature solely in terms of increments of 1/kT
Such brazen admission of breaking the laws of thermodynamics. Aren't you worried that you'll get your collar felt?
read what I wrote.
Any laser, for example, generates a population inversion to get the stimulated emission.
Nuclear spins are very easily to manipulate into states consistent with negative temperatures.
When do the measures that we are imposing start killing more people than they are saving?
Probably at around 3 months. I have never been able to see this lockdown going on past June and still can't...
In three months there won;t be a British economy in the way that we know it. Thousands of businesses, as Lord Hague said recently ,will have simply given up, never to restart.
"the basis on which they won power has been discredited."
!
!!
!!!
As the Tories basis on which they won power has been discredited, that must mean that Labour won the argument so they should have Keith as the PM in a GNU. Or some such bollocks....
Labour supporters have given up on winning elections so now want their people in government by stealth via the back door.
I suppose global once in a century pandemics are now more likely than Labour majorities...
In what I accept will cause some amusement, I have applied to rejoin the Labour Party...
A whole way of life being destroyed...... Without government support, how will gangs survive? Protection rackets will have collapsed with the shutting of the shops. Drug imports have probably collapsed as well. No one is going out, so street robbery is probably failing sector. Burglary won't work - except as violent home invasions, which the average British Legally Challenged Person (LCP*) is untrained and ill equipped for.
The Legally Challenged sector is looking for help and support from the Government, I'm sure.
*Criminal is a very pejorative word.
Move the whole of the Legally Challenged Sector to Gruinard Island. There the person eventually voted Leader will receive £10m. To make it more like what they've left, caches of knives, guns, crossbows, machetes, drugs, booze and the keys to a speedboat will be hidden around the island.
Food? Not so much... You'll really want that speedboat. But here's the kicker - if you leave before the vote, you lose any rights to that £10m... We could televise it - as Hate Island.
No no.
Gruinard Island is too small. Move them to South Georgia - breath taking landscape. World Heritage grade wildlife refuge. Great opportunities to learn new skills* and explore an open environment.
And in seas around, a constant patrol of haddock. Very, very large haddock.
*Such as how to stand up in 90 mile an hour snow storm when it is -40c
You could have saved yourself a keystroke there, you don't have to specify c in -40°c.
Eh? You either need ° or c, to give no units at all woud be sloppy. As Malmesbury used c and you used °c you were the one who could have saved a keystroke. In fact I'll be impertiant enough to say could have saved yourself 86 keystrokes.
He means it's the same in fahrenheit and celsius, the two most frequently used temperature scales.
And its not possible to get -40 Kelvin.
in some of my experiments, I regularly get population distributions consistent with negative temperatures.
I also like Atkins' attempt to discuss temperature solely in terms of increments of 1/kT
Such brazen admission of breaking the laws of thermodynamics. Aren't you worried that you'll get your collar felt?
read what I wrote.
Any laser, for example, generates a population inversion to get the stimulated emission.
Nuclear spins are very easily to manipulate into states consistent with negative temperatures.
When do the measures that we are imposing start killing more people than they are saving?
You think the anti-virus measures are likely to kill half a million people?
Very unlikely now, but after a year? I doubt the NHS would be getting as much money after that, so the implications could be significant and very long lasting in terms of preventable deaths.
"the basis on which they won power has been discredited."
!
!!
!!!
As the Tories basis on which they won power has been discredited, that must mean that Labour won the argument so they should have Keith as the PM in a GNU. Or some such bollocks....
Labour supporters have given up on winning elections so now want their people in government by stealth via the back door.
I suppose global once in a century pandemics are now more likely than Labour majorities...
In what I accept will cause some amusement, I have applied to rejoin the Labour Party...
That`s interesting. Ideologically, are you a liberal or a collectivist? I thought you`d seen the light as the former?
A whole way of life being destroyed...... Without government support, how will gangs survive? Protection rackets will have collapsed with the shutting of the shops. Drug imports have probably collapsed as well. No one is going out, so street robbery is probably failing sector. Burglary won't work - except as violent home invasions, which the average British Legally Challenged Person (LCP*) is untrained and ill equipped for.
The Legally Challenged sector is looking for help and support from the Government, I'm sure.
*Criminal is a very pejorative word.
Move the whole of the Legally Challenged Sector to Gruinard Island. There the person eventually voted Leader will receive £10m. To make it more like what they've left, caches of knives, guns, crossbows, machetes, drugs, booze and the keys to a speedboat will be hidden around the island.
Food? Not so much... You'll really want that speedboat. But here's the kicker - if you leave before the vote, you lose any rights to that £10m... We could televise it - as Hate Island.
No no.
Gruinard Island is too small. Move them to South Georgia - breath taking landscape. World Heritage grade wildlife refuge. Great opportunities to learn new skills* and explore an open environment.
And in seas around, a constant patrol of haddock. Very, very large haddock.
*Such as how to stand up in 90 mile an hour snow storm when it is -40c
You could have saved yourself a keystroke there, you don't have to specify c in -40°c.
Eh? You either need ° or c, to give no units at all woud be sloppy. As Malmesbury used c and you used °c you were the one who could have saved a keystroke. In fact I'll be impertiant enough to say could have saved yourself 86 keystrokes.
He means it's the same in fahrenheit and celsius, the two most frequently used temperature scales.
And its not possible to get -40 Kelvin.
in some of my experiments, I regularly get population distributions consistent with negative temperatures.
I also like Atkins' attempt to discuss temperature solely in terms of increments of 1/kT
Such brazen admission of breaking the laws of thermodynamics. Aren't you worried that you'll get your collar felt?
read what I wrote.
Any laser, for example, generates a population inversion to get the stimulated emission.
Nuclear spins are very easily to manipulate into states consistent with negative temperatures.
When do the measures that we are imposing start killing more people than they are saving?
Probably at around 3 months. I have never been able to see this lockdown going on past June and still can't...
In three months there won;t be a British economy in the way that we know it. Thousands of businesses, as Lord Hague said recently ,will have simply given up, never to restart.
I don't see the need for a unity government but the Opposition should be involved to the extent of having open access to all expert briefings and access as required to the ministers that they are shadowing. Parliament was eventually closed after a frightening number of them got the virus but the government still needs to be held to account, challenged by different points of view and made to address awkward facts. This needs to be done more one to one at the moment but it also needs to be done on an informed basis.
This need is all the more urgent given the lamentable performance by the Westminster press pack. Why they are still giving questions to people who may (or may not) know about politics but who seem essentially innumerate and unable to grasp the clear explanations being presented by the experts is beyond me. Surely the media employ some people with science degrees?
This government has made and will continue to make mistakes. Frankly, if they are not making mistakes they are not moving nearly fast enough. The priority is to spot and correct those mistakes early. An opposition led by someone with a brain can assist with that. Its a really important role.
The government is refusing point blank to discuss how it is even making decisions just now. The idea that different questions will elicit answers with any meaning when it is so contemptuous of being held to account and so readily supported by gullible followers is fanciful.
But they have. Cabinet are meeting and cabinet are making decisions.
Collective responsibility is a polite fiction not a decision-making process. Unless you believe that all decisions are inevitably unanimous because no other decision could be reached on the evidence.
Whose finger is on the button?
Raab through Cobra.
Cobra make the decisions and the first ministers implement the same decisions more or less across the devolved nations
Just what is so difficult to understand
Roll forward six months. Imagine the Prime Minister has neither died nor recovered sufficiently to resume his duties. Britain has neither a Prime Minister in reality nor any person taking responsibility for decisions. Who resigns if the government fails? How is that person replaced?
That is the position today. Who does the buck stop with, if that is not an obsolete idea? Because as of right now the answer is no one.
I don’t accept your premise
If Boris is now well enough to resume his duties within 6 months he will resign.
It's like waiting for a bus, though, isn't it? You don't know when it would have been worthwhile to give up and walk (not that you take buses, obvs, Charles).
When within that six months would he resign? Five months 29 days? Two months? Six weeks? Six days?
An indefinite extension? A year or so is probably sufficient.
I agree that a year or so - with emphasis on the last 2 words - is probably sufficient. By "indefinite" I just mean don't hardcode another deadline. There's no rush so why give yourself that additional and needless pressure? We've seen how events can intrude.
"the basis on which they won power has been discredited."
!
!!
!!!
As the Tories basis on which they won power has been discredited, that must mean that Labour won the argument so they should have Keith as the PM in a GNU. Or some such bollocks....
Labour supporters have given up on winning elections so now want their people in government by stealth via the back door.
I suppose global once in a century pandemics are now more likely than Labour majorities...
In what I accept will cause some amusement, I have applied to rejoin the Labour Party...
When do the measures that we are imposing start killing more people than they are saving?
You think the anti-virus measures are likely to kill half a million people?
Half a million is a pie in the sky number thrown out by a discredited expert who now now longer even believes them himself.
Of course we needed a lockdown period for the NHS to gear itself to respond, to build extra capacity.
They have done so, in some cases admirably.
The economy may only shrink 6 or seven per cent if we start relaxing now.
in a month's time it will be 25 under current circumstances. Dole queues a mile long, public finances completely out of control, tax receipts through the floor.
Money for schoolsnhospitals? Money for life saving drugs for a hole host of diseases?
I see at least one police bigwig is trying to lose hearts and minds.
How many million officers do they have standing idle that there are men to waste on that nonsense?
I just went shopping. Got some fruit and vegetables, some chips, a little chicken. Got myself some cake too. Is that going to be verboten? Will it be confiscated by the rozzers stationed at the checkout?
I'm all for adhering to the lockdown. Stopping people shopping at supermarkets because they have the temerity to buy something deemed a luxury rather than a necessity is demented. Will jaffa cakes be forbidden but digestive biscuits permitted?
Kinabalu is motivated by two very strong wishes: 1) that we don`t leave the EU (even tho we already have) and 2) a Lab government. He is weaving a narrative that fits these two wishes.
Yes, it's not fantasy, it's logical analysis with a heavy and perfectly understandable bias.
What's weird is the way nearly all the Brexit warnings have actually come true... for something entirely unexpected, unforeseen and non-Brexit related.
An indefinite extension? A year or so is probably sufficient.
I agree that a year or so - with emphasis on the last 2 words - is probably sufficient. By "indefinite" I just mean don't hardcode another deadline. There's no rush so why give yourself that additional and needless pressure? We've seen how events can intrude.
An indefinite extension? A year or so is probably sufficient.
I agree that a year or so - with emphasis on the last 2 words - is probably sufficient. By "indefinite" I just mean don't hardcode another deadline. There's no rush so why give yourself that additional and needless pressure? We've seen how events can intrude.
An indefinite extension? A year or so is probably sufficient.
I agree that a year or so - with emphasis on the last 2 words - is probably sufficient. By "indefinite" I just mean don't hardcode another deadline. There's no rush so why give yourself that additional and needless pressure? We've seen how events can intrude.
If 'these circumstances' or ones like them continue to be prevalent, there is no point in staying in the EU anyway - the whole reason for extending the transition period is to get a great trade deal and try to maintain some of the 'benefits'. As there are presently zero benefits, and the EU is proving to be about as useful to be a member of in this situation as tits on a fish, I'm unsure as to the argument for continuing to lob in our hard-earned groat. We should quite literally 'fund our NHS' with that money instead.
Wild prediction: this crisis is so grim America may be forced to move to a nationwide health care system, and universal insurance. It will be the only way to deal with the problems.
Trump could end up running to the left of Joe Biden.
11:49am Progress on groundbreaking German antibody test This just in from Justin Huggler, our man in Berlin:
A groundbreaking study in Germany has found that far more people may have been infected with the coronavirus than previously thought, suggesting the real death rate is as low as 0.37 per cent and that 15 per cent of people may already have immunity.
"This means a gradual relaxation of the lockdown is now possible," Prof Hendrik Streeck, the leader of the study said.
Prof Streeck and his team are testing over 400 households in Gangelt, the town at the centre of Germany's most serious outbreak, for antibodies to the virus.
It should be noted that the evaluation of the Gangelt testing programme is still ongoing. A number of 1,000 people out of a population of 12,000 had been selected as representative. 400 results are only a subset. An even clearer picture may emerge from the other testing programmes. On Sunday a study in Munich has begun, testing 3,000 households. Other testing programmes are to start in Baden-Württemberg (Freiburg), Hesse (near Frankfurt) and here in Hamburg, over the next weeks.
That's a perfectly believable figure for the true infection fatality rate, but in that case 15% must relate to that specific area, and the percentage in Germany as a whole must be much smaller. In which case I don't see how "this means" anything whatsoever for the prospect of a relaxation of the lockdown. It would mean little enough even if 15% were the national figure.
And of course I'm sure he has a lovely place set up in France for when he gets his French citizenship sorted out.
I think that article is saying that his main home is in Exmoor, unless I'm reading it wrong? As for having two houses, so what?
The Telegraph article linked to earlier appears to mean Boris never lived in the house, despite its headline saying he did. The Johnsons first lived in the exclusive neighbourhood of Primrose Hill in the 1970s, with a young Boris and Rachel Johnson attending Primrose Hill Primary School.
Which I read as Boris was brought up in another house in the same area, but Number 60 was occupied by Stanley's second family. If so, it is a shocking indictment of British journalism and estate agency PR. All very mysterious although tangential.
The truly frightening thing about the US jobless data is that many of these 16 million people only got health insurance through work.
So they now have NO health insurance, during a lethal pandemic.
Wild prediction: this crisis is so grim America may be forced to move to a nationwide health care system, and universal insurance. It will be the only way to deal with the problems.
So, some good may yet come of this horror
Bernie Sanders platform might come to be after all, with universal healthcare and much more protectionist approach to manufacturing in the U S of A.
If the US public were unhappy about manufacturing moving abroad before, I think the pressure is going to be even more to ensure crucial sectors aren't at the mercy of China.
The truly frightening thing about the US jobless data is that many of these 16 million people only got health insurance through work.
So they now have NO health insurance, during a lethal pandemic.
Wild prediction: this crisis is so grim America may be forced to move to a nationwide health care system, and universal insurance. It will be the only way to deal with the problems.
So, some good may yet come of this horror
Alternatively, Trump may see sense and take them out of lockdown soon.
When do the measures that we are imposing start killing more people than they are saving?
You think the anti-virus measures are likely to kill half a million people?
Lockdown should last longer in Tory than in Labour seats. House arrest is easier to take in a large detached house in its own garden looking out on rolling green hills.
A lot of oldies are in that situation; they need more protection but they also have nice surroundings to enjoy while the curfew lasts.
Isn't it reassuring in these troubled times to see a small segment of the population bringing normality into things. The Premiership footballers will raise money for the NHS by er … raising from money from the fans.
Obviously being paid more in a week than the fans earn in a year means they can't afford a pay-cut. I think I'll go and racially abuse them next season … "You greedy white bastards."
I wonder if the pandemic will prove to be what stops the BBC from being attacked by the government .
Regardless of what people think of the BBC for many it’s more trusted than any other resource and I think the Tories really will be playing with fire especially as the over 65s which is their strongest voter base might not take kindly to seeing the BBC sent to a subscription model which will in effect finish it .
24hrs to save the NHS might be replaced with 24 hrs to save the BBC by Labour .
Really.. most people would be happy not to.pay the "telly tax".. extremely short sighted of course....
It might not need the government to take out the tv. While only an anecdote, I shared my amazon prime account with my elderly father and my son his netflix account when this kicked off. Things he always refused before because he didn't see the point.
However the other day he was saying he was planning on dropping the tv license as he was finding both better than broadcast tv.
How many other luddites have been converted during lockdown?
When do the measures that we are imposing start killing more people than they are saving?
You think the anti-virus measures are likely to kill half a million people?
Lockdown should last longer in Tory than in Labour seats. House arrest is easier to take in a large detached house in its own garden looking out on rolling green hills.
A lot of oldies are in that situation; they need more protection but they also have nice surroundings to enjoy while the curfew lasts.
The lockdown will lift in stages - old people will indeed be the last to be let out.
Wild prediction: this crisis is so grim America may be forced to move to a nationwide health care system, and universal insurance. It will be the only way to deal with the problems.
Trump could end up running to the left of Joe Biden.
Exactly. Just as the Tories are now running a Corbynite war economy.
These crises make cultures move right - closed borders, nationalism, ethnocentrism - but the economic reality moves left.
"the basis on which they won power has been discredited."
!
!!
!!!
As the Tories basis on which they won power has been discredited, that must mean that Labour won the argument so they should have Keith as the PM in a GNU. Or some such bollocks....
Labour supporters have given up on winning elections so now want their people in government by stealth via the back door.
I suppose global once in a century pandemics are now more likely than Labour majorities...
In what I accept will cause some amusement, I have applied to rejoin the Labour Party...
"the basis on which they won power has been discredited."
!
!!
!!!
As the Tories basis on which they won power has been discredited, that must mean that Labour won the argument so they should have Keith as the PM in a GNU. Or some such bollocks....
Labour supporters have given up on winning elections so now want their people in government by stealth via the back door.
I suppose global once in a century pandemics are now more likely than Labour majorities...
In what I accept will cause some amusement, I have applied to rejoin the Labour Party...
That`s interesting. Ideologically, are you a liberal or a collectivist? I thought you`d seen the light as the former?
Having talked it through with my friend the CLP chair I don't regret quitting Labour last summer. But I joined the LibDems on the rebound and then did a lot of work talking myself into why it was a good idea. Once we got past Christmas and started to settle into normality, it was increasingly clear that I wasn't an obvious fit in the party. I'm small l liberal on a whole number of fronts but I can't define what Liberalism is.
I am - and was - a Social Democrat. So I could fit into the LibDems but didn't. I used to fit in Labour and hope to do so again now Corbyn has gone. I'll be somewhat on the right of the party and not pretend otherwise. As for Collectivism isn't that now Tory policy...
Given 1) we've left and 2) current Conservative VI is at historic highs, I think fantasy is understating it....
On the EU, the point I'm making - which Leavers should IMO be concerned about - is that once something slides one can never be certain that it will actually happen. This is the origin of the saying "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".
And if I were a Leaver (like you?) I would be thanking my lucky stars that Boris did get Brexit the Event done on 31/1/20. If he hadn't, with the virus striking there would have been a real chance of it being placed into the "can't be arsed now" basket and cancelled.
So this leaves Brexit the Process. This has not happened and it is about to be delayed for quite some time. Time is the key word here. With time comes "time risk", the risk that things occur which change everything. Time risk is why any financial option with a long way to maturity is more valuable than its equivalent maturing next week.
Same applies here with Brexit (the Process). The time risk is increasing and thus the chance of it never occurring is becoming less negligible.
Wild prediction: this crisis is so grim America may be forced to move to a nationwide health care system, and universal insurance. It will be the only way to deal with the problems.
Trump could end up running to the left of Joe Biden.
Exactly. Just as the Tories are now running a Corbynite war economy.
These crises make cultures move right - closed borders, nationalism, ethnocentrism - but the economic reality moves left.
Utter and complete rubbish.
Economic realities are economic realities. At some point international investors will realise that the UK economy has shrunk fart too much to pay for Sunak's giveaways. Watch our debt plunge then. Along with sterling.
We won;t be able to afford medicines and equipment for a whole range of diseases then.
That's when the bodies will really start to pile up.
When do the measures that we are imposing start killing more people than they are saving?
Probably at around 3 months. I have never been able to see this lockdown going on past June and still can't...
In three months there won;t be a British economy in the way that we know it. Thousands of businesses, as Lord Hague said recently ,will have simply given up, never to restart.
Its now. Its yesterday.
Aha, you’ve got it. We will never go back to the normal we had and things will change out of all recognition. People will lose and gain fortunes, businesses will shutter only to be replaced by new businesses. People will need to take on different roles and, indeed, completely different jobs. The world will have had to press the reset button and, in the meantime, many lives will have been saved. People are still desperately clinging to what they had, whereas a change of mindset is needed,
You’ll be accused of saying it’s all a fuss about nothing. Or you would be if you were a leave voter.
If the musics on at 10/10 volume and you say it’s crossed your mind it might be too loud, but you’ll put up with it, people accuse you of wanting to sit in silence.
"the basis on which they won power has been discredited."
!
!!
!!!
As the Tories basis on which they won power has been discredited, that must mean that Labour won the argument so they should have Keith as the PM in a GNU. Or some such bollocks....
Labour supporters have given up on winning elections so now want their people in government by stealth via the back door.
I suppose global once in a century pandemics are now more likely than Labour majorities...
In what I accept will cause some amusement, I have applied to rejoin the Labour Party...
That`s interesting. Ideologically, are you a liberal or a collectivist? I thought you`d seen the light as the former?
Having talked it through with my friend the CLP chair I don't regret quitting Labour last summer. But I joined the LibDems on the rebound and then did a lot of work talking myself into why it was a good idea. Once we got past Christmas and started to settle into normality, it was increasingly clear that I wasn't an obvious fit in the party. I'm small l liberal on a whole number of fronts but I can't define what Liberalism is.
I am - and was - a Social Democrat. So I could fit into the LibDems but didn't. I used to fit in Labour and hope to do so again now Corbyn has gone. I'll be somewhat on the right of the party and not pretend otherwise. As for Collectivism isn't that now Tory policy...
"the basis on which they won power has been discredited."
!
!!
!!!
As the Tories basis on which they won power has been discredited, that must mean that Labour won the argument so they should have Keith as the PM in a GNU. Or some such bollocks....
Labour supporters have given up on winning elections so now want their people in government by stealth via the back door.
I suppose global once in a century pandemics are now more likely than Labour majorities...
In what I accept will cause some amusement, I have applied to rejoin the Labour Party...
That`s interesting. Ideologically, are you a liberal or a collectivist? I thought you`d seen the light as the former?
Having talked it through with my friend the CLP chair I don't regret quitting Labour last summer. But I joined the LibDems on the rebound and then did a lot of work talking myself into why it was a good idea. Once we got past Christmas and started to settle into normality, it was increasingly clear that I wasn't an obvious fit in the party. I'm small l liberal on a whole number of fronts but I can't define what Liberalism is.
I am - and was - a Social Democrat. So I could fit into the LibDems but didn't. I used to fit in Labour and hope to do so again now Corbyn has gone. I'll be somewhat on the right of the party and not pretend otherwise. As for Collectivism isn't that now Tory policy...
Apart from (true) socialists and libertarians, everyone`s a social democrat - so saying that it not saying much. Even conservatives are social democrats, accepting that the state has some role in ameliorating inequalities, it`s just a question of degree.
The three parties are founded on three ideologies, and I believe that one is generally best advised to stick with one`s ideology. That`s why I asked. It`s a big question because liberals and collectivists (and conservatives of course) are each points on a triangle. For example you can`t be both liberal and collectivist. They are diametrically opposed. Collectivists recognise group interests over the individual; liberals prioritise the individual over the group. Very different lenses through which to see the world.
If the BBC has had the guts to grasp the nettle, get control of the world wide rights to the content they pay for (!), go encrypted... Studies suggested that in the US alone there would be enough paying subscribers to exceed the current license fee...
Which opens an interesting possibility - The BBC. Free to UK nationals. Paid for by foreigners - willingly.
Now *that* would have been a grand vision.
I would suggest the awful Britbox proves those studies to be hogwash. Last time I saw figures there were a mere 300,000 us subscribers to it and that includes itv and channel 4 content too I believe.
"“It’s a disgrace for the Eurogroup and for Europe,” exploded France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire. “While we are counting thousands of deaths, the finance ministers play with words and adjectives. We’re going to be judged severely by the markets and by our own populations.”"
"Italy’s premier says Europe will lose its “raison d’etre” if it fails to come through with anything beyond loans on insulting Dutch terms in the greatest peace-time shock for a hundred years or more. Why should Italy continue to give up the sovereign tools of self-defence if the EU will not act? "
Seems that the Dutch are the sole obstructors to an EU wide rescue package, against the wishes of, among others, Germany? Funny, we were constantly told small(er) countries were powerless in the face of the Germanic juggernaut.
The Dutch have taken the place of the Brits as the German's fall guys. You think that they would conceivably hold to such a position without covert support from Germany?
That is not what I found during my professional career. Deadlines usually acted to create destructive stress which manifested in poor (not quicker) outcomes.
If 'these circumstances' or ones like them continue to be prevalent, there is no point in staying in the EU anyway - the whole reason for extending the transition period is to get a great trade deal and try to maintain some of the 'benefits'. As there are presently zero benefits, and the EU is proving to be about as useful to be a member of in this situation as tits on a fish, I'm unsure as to the argument for continuing to lob in our hard-earned groat. We should quite literally 'fund our NHS' with that money instead.
Well that is utter tosh. You do write quite well, though, on occasions.
I wonder if the pandemic will prove to be what stops the BBC from being attacked by the government.
Given the shockingly poor performance by the BBC, I think it only delays the inevitable. The BBC had the choice to become a proper public service broadcaster, and flunked it.
Regardless of what people think of the BBC for many it’s more trusted than any other resource.
Anecdotally the BBC is treated no different (i.e. held in equal contempt) as any other media source. The BBC is the only one we are forced by law to pay for.
24hrs to save the NHS might be replaced with 24 hrs to save the BBC by Labour .
The unstated assumption that Labour will support the BBC says a great deal...
The question is not supporting the BBC - it is that, in the age of trivial digital encryption, is the TV license still acceptable as a solution?
Did you know that scrambling BBC TV was proposed? The current system was only implemented because the scrambling technology at the time was easily breakable. That has been fixed.
When TV went digital, a chap at the BBC was very proud that he had amended the spec for digital receivers for the UK - instead of mandating that every receiver would support encryption, it allowed ones that didn't.
He was proud because that would mean that there would be some TVs/boxes that couldn't receive am encrypted broadcast. Which in turn meant that the BBC was "safe" from the lIcense fee being replaced with encryption.
The license fee is an accident of the history of technology that has become a totem. Who thinks that clogging up the courts with license fee cases makes any sense?
If the BBC has had the guts to grasp the nettle, get control of the world wide rights to the content they pay for (!), go encrypted... Studies suggested that in the US alone there would be enough paying subscribers to exceed the current license fee...
Which opens an interesting possibility - The BBC. Free to UK nationals. Paid for by foreigners - willingly.
Now *that* would have been a grand vision.
The amazing thing is that there's a huge market for the BBC's output in other countries, yet most of it is either not available at all, condensed onto one satellite channel or accessed through 'other' means in various expat communities. The occasional programme (Top Gear, Bake Off) makes it onto a local channel.
There would be a need to block out a few programmes (mostly live sport), but there's a global market of seven billion people for the iPlayer if they have the balls to offer it to everyone.
There are a ton of BBC and other UK programmes shown on the Spanish networks - you just have to change the language from the Spanish dub back to English.
That's one big advantage of digital TV, that it's now possible to offer multiple audio tracks on a programme. I remember when I was in Spain a couple of decades ago chasing down V.O. (original audio, usually subtitled) movies in cinemas, to avoid the dubbed versions in most of the multiplexes.
Fund it from taxation, like DW and our very own World Service.
That reduces the annual cost to about £100 per household because the admin costs drop to near-zero and we all pay, including those like me who only use R3 and R4.
The BBC and the British Council: soft power.
You want bbc and broadcast you pay for it, don't dip your hand in the pockets of those of us that don't want it and don't use it.
"the basis on which they won power has been discredited."
!
!!
!!!
As the Tories basis on which they won power has been discredited, that must mean that Labour won the argument so they should have Keith as the PM in a GNU. Or some such bollocks....
Labour supporters have given up on winning elections so now want their people in government by stealth via the back door.
I suppose global once in a century pandemics are now more likely than Labour majorities...
Labour hasn't given up on winning elections and you would have to be terminally stupid to think the Tories will remain in power for ever.
That is not what I found during my professional career. Deadlines usually acted to create destructive stress which manifested in poor (not quicker) outcomes.
Douglas Adams. of Hitchiker fame, is alleged to have opined that 'he loved deadlines; it was the whooshing sound they made as they went past'!
Given 1) we've left and 2) current Conservative VI is at historic highs, I think fantasy is understating it....
On the EU, the point I'm making - which Leavers should IMO be concerned about - is that once something slides one can never be certain that it will actually happen. This is the origin of the saying "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush".
And if I were a Leaver (like you?) I would be thanking my lucky stars that Boris did get Brexit the Event done on 31/1/20. If he hadn't, with the virus striking there would have been a real chance of it being placed into the "can't be arsed now" basket and cancelled.
So this leaves Brexit the Process. This has not happened and it is about to be delayed for quite some time. Time is the key word here. With time comes "time risk", the risk that things occur which change everything. Time risk is why any financial option with a long way to maturity is more valuable than its equivalent maturing next week.
Same applies here with Brexit (the Process). The time risk is increasing and thus the chance of it never occurring is becoming less negligible.
"the basis on which they won power has been discredited."
!
!!
!!!
As the Tories basis on which they won power has been discredited, that must mean that Labour won the argument so they should have Keith as the PM in a GNU. Or some such bollocks....
Labour supporters have given up on winning elections so now want their people in government by stealth via the back door.
I suppose global once in a century pandemics are now more likely than Labour majorities...
In what I accept will cause some amusement, I have applied to rejoin the Labour Party...
I voted Lib Dem in December but have now done the same. As long as we have an electoral system that means you may as well stay at home unless you vote for one of the big two it is the logical thing to do.
11:49am Progress on groundbreaking German antibody test This just in from Justin Huggler, our man in Berlin:
A groundbreaking study in Germany has found that far more people may have been infected with the coronavirus than previously thought, suggesting the real death rate is as low as 0.37 per cent and that 15 per cent of people may already have immunity.
"This means a gradual relaxation of the lockdown is now possible," Prof Hendrik Streeck, the leader of the study said.
Prof Streeck and his team are testing over 400 households in Gangelt, the town at the centre of Germany's most serious outbreak, for antibodies to the virus.
This suggests those who have survived an infection have immunity to the virus, the scientists said.
"The 15 percent is not that far from the 60 percent we need for herd immunity," Prof Gunther Hartmann, another member of the study, said. "With 60 to 70 percent herd immunity, the virus will completely disappear from the population. Then the elderly are no longer at risk."
Am I missing something here? 15% is a long way from 60%.
Am I missing something as well? 0.37% of 67 million is just shy of 250,000 At 60% infected/immune, that's 150,000; at 80% it's 200,000
That's a lot of deaths needed.
(Or, to work backwards, if we come out of this wave with 20,000 deaths, that would equate to 8% infected (5.4 million)
I wonder if the pandemic will prove to be what stops the BBC from being attacked by the government.
Given the shockingly poor performance by the BBC, I think it only delays the inevitable. The BBC had the choice to become a proper public service broadcaster, and flunked it.
Regardless of what people think of the BBC for many it’s more trusted than any other resource.
Anecdotally the BBC is treated no different (i.e. held in equal contempt) as any other media source. The BBC is the only one we are forced by law to pay for.
24hrs to save the NHS might be replaced with 24 hrs to save the BBC by Labour .
The unstated assumption that Labour will support the BBC says a great deal...
The question is not supporting the BBC - it is that, in the age of trivial digital encryption, is the TV license still acceptable as a solution?
Did you know that scrambling BBC TV was proposed? The current system was only implemented because the scrambling technology at the time was easily breakable. That has been fixed.
When TV went digital, a chap at the BBC was very proud that he had amended the spec for digital receivers for the UK - instead of mandating that every receiver would support encryption, it allowed ones that didn't.
He was proud because that would mean that there would be some TVs/boxes that couldn't receive am encrypted broadcast. Which in turn meant that the BBC was "safe" from the lIcense fee being replaced with encryption.
The license fee is an accident of the history of technology that has become a totem. Who thinks that clogging up the courts with license fee cases makes any sense?
If the BBC has had the guts to grasp the nettle, get control of the world wide rights to the content they pay for (!), go encrypted... Studies suggested that in the US alone there would be enough paying subscribers to exceed the current license fee...
Which opens an interesting possibility - The BBC. Free to UK nationals. Paid for by foreigners - willingly.
Now *that* would have been a grand vision.
The amazing thing is that there's a huge market for the BBC's output in other countries, yet most of it is either not available at all, condensed onto one satellite channel or accessed through 'other' means in various expat communities. The occasional programme (Top Gear, Bake Off) makes it onto a local channel.
There would be a need to block out a few programmes (mostly live sport), but there's a global market of seven billion people for the iPlayer if they have the balls to offer it to everyone.
There are a ton of BBC and other UK programmes shown on the Spanish networks - you just have to change the language from the Spanish dub back to English.
That's one big advantage of digital TV, that it's now possible to offer multiple audio tracks on a programme. I remember when I was in Spain a couple of decades ago chasing down V.O. (original audio, usually subtitled) movies in cinemas, to avoid the dubbed versions in most of the multiplexes.
Fund it from taxation, like DW and our very own World Service.
That reduces the annual cost to about £100 per household because the admin costs drop to near-zero and we all pay, including those like me who only use R3 and R4.
The BBC and the British Council: soft power.
You want bbc and broadcast you pay for it, don't dip your hand in the pockets of those of us that don't want it and don't use it.
Same then for the British Council, overseas aid, the NHS, higher education, libraries.
Doubtless US politicians still argue that the ultra-fit and lucky shouldn't pay for the healthcare of the unlucky. All other developed countries have accepted the need to spread risk - totally, via socialised systems or almost totally via govt-regulated insurance systems.
Doubtless you also object to the BBC World Service. But most of its life it's been funded from taxation. It's free to the world at the point of use - just like DW TV.
He’s entitled to his medical privacy. I doubt anyone is taking the public reports as gospel.
That is an excellent point. We are not next-of-kin. We have no right to be provided with anything remotely sensitive about Boris' condition, and neither do the media outlets.
The media frenzy to lockdown the country on the grounds of medical necessity has been followed just over two weeks later by a clamour to reopen the country on the grounds of economic necessity.
It would be a change if news outlets would report rather than try to generate the next news story.
Everything they say can be read two ways. It even sounds like the sort of thing a social worker might say about an elderly person in the earlier stages of dementia. It makes me fear the worst tbh.
Re: The BBC, they overreached with the number of stations and websites. Nobody who just uses Radio 4, Newsnight and occasional things such as election night coverage wants to pay £157 odd quid a year for it, and it's not exactly an easy tax to enforce. Just on practical terms it needs changed, a lot.
He’s entitled to his medical privacy. I doubt anyone is taking the public reports as gospel.
That is an excellent point. We are not next-of-kin. We have no right to be provided with anything remotely sensitive about Boris' condition, and neither do the media outlets.
The media frenzy to lockdown the country on the grounds of medical necessity has been followed just over two weeks later by a clamour to reopen the country on the grounds of economic necessity.
It would be a change if news outlets would report rather than try to generate the next news story.
It's quickly rectified, just issue a law restricting News output to 3 hours a day per channel.
Then they won't have 24 hours of TV to fill with 30 minutes of content.
Comments
https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1212679425629859840
The 500 acre farm is located in Nethercote, near Winsford in West Somerset, and is still owned by the Johnson family.
If you want to defend a journo who can't even get the county right, feel free. If it allows you to get your Johnson-hate out in public....
https://twitter.com/rtayloruk/status/1248204770977996800?s=21
Any laser, for example, generates a population inversion to get the stimulated emission.
Nuclear spins are very easily to manipulate into states consistent with negative temperatures.
Its now. Its yesterday.
1: Brexit
2: Corona
3: the shit one where nothing really happens
4. The Big Bang
When within that six months would he resign? Five months 29 days? Two months? Six weeks? Six days?
Edit: no, I'm wrong here - it's mainly in Somerset!
Of course we needed a lockdown period for the NHS to gear itself to respond, to build extra capacity.
They have done so, in some cases admirably.
The economy may only shrink 6 or seven per cent if we start relaxing now.
in a month's time it will be 25 under current circumstances. Dole queues a mile long, public finances completely out of control, tax receipts through the floor.
Money for schoolsnhospitals? Money for life saving drugs for a hole host of diseases?
From where?
How many million officers do they have standing idle that there are men to waste on that nonsense?
I just went shopping. Got some fruit and vegetables, some chips, a little chicken. Got myself some cake too. Is that going to be verboten? Will it be confiscated by the rozzers stationed at the checkout?
I'm all for adhering to the lockdown. Stopping people shopping at supermarkets because they have the temerity to buy something deemed a luxury rather than a necessity is demented. Will jaffa cakes be forbidden but digestive biscuits permitted?
What a twerp.
Just wondering.
https://twitter.com/RTaylorUK/status/1248212344871817221
What's weird is the way nearly all the Brexit warnings have actually come true... for something entirely unexpected, unforeseen and non-Brexit related.
It's always the things you don't see coming.
How many Americans at the bottom of the rung is that Depression going to kill?
Which will certainly shoot up this year.
The Johnsons first lived in the exclusive neighbourhood of Primrose Hill in the 1970s, with a young Boris and Rachel Johnson attending Primrose Hill Primary School.
After moving to Brussels and then to Oxford to pursue his career in the European Commission, Johnson Sr returned to Primrose Hill in 1994 with his second wife Jenny and their two youngest children Julia and Max, moving to 60 Regent’s Park Road.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/uk/inside-boris-johnsons-huge-family-home-market-1125m/
Which I read as Boris was brought up in another house in the same area, but Number 60 was occupied by Stanley's second family. If so, it is a shocking indictment of British journalism and estate agency PR. All very mysterious although tangential.
If the US public were unhappy about manufacturing moving abroad before, I think the pressure is going to be even more to ensure crucial sectors aren't at the mercy of China.
A lot of oldies are in that situation; they need more protection but they also have nice surroundings to enjoy while the curfew lasts.
Obviously being paid more in a week than the fans earn in a year means they can't afford a pay-cut. I think I'll go and racially abuse them next season …
"You greedy white bastards."
However the other day he was saying he was planning on dropping the tv license as he was finding both better than broadcast tv.
How many other luddites have been converted during lockdown?
NEW THREAD
I am - and was - a Social Democrat. So I could fit into the LibDems but didn't. I used to fit in Labour and hope to do so again now Corbyn has gone. I'll be somewhat on the right of the party and not pretend otherwise. As for Collectivism isn't that now Tory policy...
And if I were a Leaver (like you?) I would be thanking my lucky stars that Boris did get Brexit the Event done on 31/1/20. If he hadn't, with the virus striking there would have been a real chance of it being placed into the "can't be arsed now" basket and cancelled.
So this leaves Brexit the Process. This has not happened and it is about to be delayed for quite some time. Time is the key word here. With time comes "time risk", the risk that things occur which change everything. Time risk is why any financial option with a long way to maturity is more valuable than its equivalent maturing next week.
Same applies here with Brexit (the Process). The time risk is increasing and thus the chance of it never occurring is becoming less negligible.
Economic realities are economic realities. At some point international investors will realise that the UK economy has shrunk fart too much to pay for Sunak's giveaways. Watch our debt plunge then. Along with sterling.
We won;t be able to afford medicines and equipment for a whole range of diseases then.
That's when the bodies will really start to pile up.
You’ll be accused of saying it’s all a fuss about nothing. Or you would be if you were a leave voter.
If the musics on at 10/10 volume and you say it’s crossed your mind it might be too loud, but you’ll put up with it, people accuse you of wanting to sit in silence.
You will see it on the card you cut up last year
Welcome back Comrade
The three parties are founded on three ideologies, and I believe that one is generally best advised to stick with one`s ideology. That`s why I asked. It`s a big question because liberals and collectivists (and conservatives of course) are each points on a triangle. For example you can`t be both liberal and collectivist. They are diametrically opposed. Collectivists recognise group interests over the individual; liberals prioritise the individual over the group. Very different lenses through which to see the world.
Let's see how they feel about Doris in a year or two's time
And if I were a Leaver (like you?) I would be thanking my lucky stars that Boris did get Brexit the Event done on 31/1/20. If he hadn't, with the virus striking there would have been a real chance of it being placed into the "can't be arsed now" basket and cancelled.
So this leaves Brexit the Process. This has not happened and it is about to be delayed for quite some time. Time is the key word here. With time comes "time risk", the risk that things occur which change everything. Time risk is why any financial option with a long way to maturity is more valuable than its equivalent maturing next week.
Same applies here with Brexit (the Process). The time risk is increasing and thus the chance of it never occurring is becoming less negligible.
Whatever gets you through.
At 60% infected/immune, that's 150,000; at 80% it's 200,000
That's a lot of deaths needed.
(Or, to work backwards, if we come out of this wave with 20,000 deaths, that would equate to 8% infected (5.4 million)
Doubtless US politicians still argue that the ultra-fit and lucky shouldn't pay for the healthcare of the unlucky. All other developed countries have accepted the need to spread risk - totally, via socialised systems or almost totally via govt-regulated insurance systems.
Doubtless you also object to the BBC World Service. But most of its life it's been funded from taxation. It's free to the world at the point of use - just like DW TV.
The media frenzy to lockdown the country on the grounds of medical necessity has been followed just over two weeks later by a clamour to reopen the country on the grounds of economic necessity.
It would be a change if news outlets would report rather than try to generate the next news story.
Then they won't have 24 hours of TV to fill with 30 minutes of content.