This is not a Soviet tractor factory. There is a need for testing, but first there needs to be a plan on who to test and why. Numbers mean nothing without that.
I don't mind Hancock, but I suspect he will be the first one chucked out of the sinking balloon.
"What I'm finding surprising is talking to contacts in local authorities there's no real sense of the fiscal armageddon approaching...."
In which case you're talking to the wrong people. In my own authority the burn rate is over £1m per month when I take into account extra costs of working [running 7 days, homelessness etc], reductions in income [parking, leisure income], for example.
Next year could be just as hard. Lack of New Homes Bonus for house completions and lack of increase in Business Rates income with drag us for years.
And then there is the uncertainty over commercial income from trading - successive Governments have driven municipal entrepreneurialism. I have no sympathy for those who speculated on distressed assets on cheap borrowed money from the PWLB like pound-shop hedge funds.
But, depending on how long this goes on, I'm looking at losing income representing 50-75% of my annual net budget. And I'm one of the better ones. One Hertfordshire authority is looking at an £11m shortfall on an annual net budget of £9.5m
Rishi Sunak's £1.6bn lifeboat will be essential to us provided it doesn't get purloined by the Health Service to back fill social care pressures and the inflated value of PPE.
Bunnco - Your Man on the Spot - who just donated too.
For the first time in a long while, I am worried about money. And I have a decent amount, by the standards of most people.
But what will my future income be? I simply don’t know. And I am the breadwinner for three people. They all depend on me. If I got this bug and croaked they’d be screwed.
I find myself pondering the price of a bottle of really nice wine, and thinking, hmm, maybe not. Dial it down
If that is happening to me it must be happening to 99.9% of humanity. Consumer demand is going to nosedive
Wine growers of France start panicking now!
It’s not calamitous. Yet. But I’ve gone from daily drinking wines in the £20-£40 bracket to the £10-£20 range.
Indeed I reckon absurdly expensive French wine is going to take a big hit in this crisis. It is wildly overpriced. The Chinese are staring at their first recession in 50 years. And they are huge buyers of hideously expensive claret.
Coming soon to a Lidl near you, Haut Brion for a fiver
If it follows oil, bottles may be more expensive than the contents....
"What I'm finding surprising is talking to contacts in local authorities there's no real sense of the fiscal armageddon approaching...."
In which case you're talking to the wrong people. In my own authority the burn rate is over £1m per month when I take into account extra costs of working [running 7 days, homelessness etc], reductions in income [parking, leisure income], for example.
Next year could be just as hard. Lack of New Homes Bonus for house completions and lack of increase in Business Rates income with drag us for years.
And then there is the uncertainty over commercial income from trading - successive Governments have driven municipal entrepreneurialism. I have no sympathy for those who speculated on distressed assets on cheap borrowed money from the PWLB like pound-shop hedge funds.
But, depending on how long this goes on, I'm looking at losing income representing 50-75% of my annual net budget. And I'm one of the better ones. One Hertfordshire authority is looking at an £11m shortfall on an annual net budget of £9.5m
Rishi Sunak's £1.6bn lifeboat will be essential to us provided it doesn't get purloined by the Health Service to back fill social care pressures and the inflated value of PPE.
Bunnco - Your Man on the Spot - who just donated too.
I tend to deal with County Councils, my friend, so some of what you say won't apply but some of it will.
Those Councils will also be looking for the Chancellor's help in dealing with adult social care. As I said earlier, I don't know what the future of elderly care looks like - it's not my field but the appalling publicity over deaths in homes will surely be a huge disincentive .
He looks shattered and maybe a change is a possibility
In all seriousness, are there any likely replacements available whose stock has risen during this crisis? A lot of people seem to be finding good things to say about the Chancellor but needless to say he's not going anywhere. Dumping a (very cheesed off) unionised workforce with Gove looks like a non-starter.
Being "log", the bottom line of the chart is 1. If you're below 1, it means 0. Yet that chart seems to have two different "points" below 0. Which makes no sense.
Being "log", the bottom line of the chart is 1. If you're below 1, it means 0. Yet that chart seems to have two different "points" below 0. Which makes no sense.
I was sort of joking....based on dodgy chinese numbers and how can the oil price go negative.
Being "log", the bottom line of the chart is 1. If you're below 1, it means 0. Yet that chart seems to have two different "points" below 0. Which makes no sense.
He looks shattered and maybe a change is a possibility
In all seriousness, are there any likely replacements available whose stock has risen during this crisis? A lot of people seem to be finding good things to say about the Chancellor but needless to say he's not going anywhere. Dumping a (very cheesed off) unionised workforce with Gove looks like a non-starter.
Who else is there?
Jeremy Hunt, obv.
But to be fair, I think Matt Hancock has done well, barring that one misspeak about NHS staff not being frugal enough with the PPE.
He should be kicked off the force for being terminally fucking stupid.
What sort of imbecile promises to lie, claiming that he will be believed, while being filmed?
Before we crucify the officer, I’d like to see the full context of the video. Just how provocative were those kids being?
I am well aware the police can be arseholes. I’ve seen it myself. But right now I’d err on the side of caution before condemning.
I just wish they’d stop these absurd virtue signaling videos of dancing and clapping.
However provocative they were being, there is no way a police officer can threaten to commit perjury as part of an incident. None. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
But doing it on camera - that’s utterly cretinous.
Ffs he’s a human. He didn’t punch or kick anyone. In America he would have shot someone and then got away with it.
His mouth was bigger than his brain. It’s not good. Demote him. Whatever. But a career should not end over a stupid statement, and we do need to see the bigger video if we can.
A school friend of mine got chucked out of the force for crashing a party while drunk. Mind you he did smash the front door off its hinges to do so.
He was a a bit Constable Savage so no one was too surprised.
Being "log", the bottom line of the chart is 1. If you're below 1, it means 0. Yet that chart seems to have two different "points" below 0. Which makes no sense.
My first instinct was that it's a parody of negative oil prices!
Being "log", the bottom line of the chart is 1. If you're below 1, it means 0. Yet that chart seems to have two different "points" below 0. Which makes no sense.
Hunt has been a critic of Boris and was SoS when the Exercise Cygnus findings on lack of preparedness for pandemics were suppressed rather than acted on. I'd be a layer of Hunt for anything above lollipop man, and even that assumes the schools ever reopen.
Or, we don't destroy our economy by unlocking sooner rather than later, and looking to Sweden.
It's also a consequence of there being bugger all spare oil storage capacity.
The US government buying up private storage facilities to increase resilience to external shocks is resulting in the US system having less resilience...
He should be kicked off the force for being terminally fucking stupid.
What sort of imbecile promises to lie, claiming that he will be believed, while being filmed?
Before we crucify the officer, I’d like to see the full context of the video. Just how provocative were those kids being?
I am well aware the police can be arseholes. I’ve seen it myself. But right now I’d err on the side of caution before condemning.
I just wish they’d stop these absurd virtue signaling videos of dancing and clapping.
However provocative they were being, there is no way a police officer can threaten to commit perjury as part of an incident. None. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
But doing it on camera - that’s utterly cretinous.
I'm surprised that he hasn't submitted a statement from a passerby, which is a copy of his typed statement, and entirely co-incidentally from a retired copper friend.
If, as is rumoured, one of the main conclusions of Exercise Cygnus was that the NHS would run out of PPE in the event of a major epidemic - and the report was then buried with no corrective action having been take to address the problem - then the man who so happened to be Health Secretary at the time might not be considered the optimal candidate to re-occupy the position.
The state of Georgia announces it will open barber shops and gyms on Friday, restaurants on Monday, although rest in place for the elderly will remain in place until May 13. At least a light at the end of the tunnel.
He should be kicked off the force for being terminally fucking stupid.
What sort of imbecile promises to lie, claiming that he will be believed, while being filmed?
Before we crucify the officer, I’d like to see the full context of the video. Just how provocative were those kids being?
I am well aware the police can be arseholes. I’ve seen it myself. But right now I’d err on the side of caution before condemning.
I just wish they’d stop these absurd virtue signaling videos of dancing and clapping.
However provocative they were being, there is no way a police officer can threaten to commit perjury as part of an incident. None. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
But doing it on camera - that’s utterly cretinous.
Ffs he’s a human. He didn’t punch or kick anyone. In America he would have shot someone and then got away with it.
His mouth was bigger than his brain. It’s not good. Demote him. Whatever. But a career should not end over a stupid statement, and we do need to see the bigger video if we can.
Trouble is, as iirc @Cyclefree intimated, this means any case where this copper gave evidence is now up for review. Depending how adventurous your brief is, possibly any involving his whole team or even station.
He looks shattered and maybe a change is a possibility
In all seriousness, are there any likely replacements available whose stock has risen during this crisis? A lot of people seem to be finding good things to say about the Chancellor but needless to say he's not going anywhere. Dumping a (very cheesed off) unionised workforce with Gove looks like a non-starter.
Who else is there?
Only Hunt but his role in the 2016 pandemic is controversial
Coming soon to a Lidl near you, Haut Brion for a fiver
You jest, Sir, but there was a major wine-price crash in the mid 1970s. I bought Ch Margaux from auction at £1.95 a bottle, a fraction of the original release price.
Now, to be clear, it was of an awful year (1972). But, kept for 25 years, it actually turned out remarkably fine.
I'm moderately hopeful that there will be some superb bargains coming up later this year, and of far, far better vintages...
Or, we don't destroy our economy by unlocking sooner rather than later, and looking to Sweden.
It's also a consequence of there being bugger all spare oil storage capacity.
The US government buying up private storage facilities to increase resilience to external shocks is resulting in the US system having less resilience...
Sigh.
If they're paying me to take it I'm happy to store ten barrels of Brent crude in my garden.
What you have to understand is that the oil market is very different from any other.
Reminded of a lovely software engineering story about a commodities futures trader who setup in disused Dock buildings.
New trading system was built and a test order was sent which, due to a bad test environment configuration, unfortunately hit the actual real live exchange.
Come end of month a barge laden with coal turned up looking to unload.
What you have to understand is that the oil market is very different from any other.
The replies under that thread, from people who clearly know nothing about oil, are terribly amusing.
No, it doesn’t arrive in single barrels worth more than the contents. Yes, storage needs planning permission and needs to be in regulated vessels. No, the price doesn’t include delivery, you have to pick it up yourself. No, you can’t ‘buy’ it at a negative price then just pour it away.
I tend to deal with County Councils, my friend, so some of what you say won't apply but some of it will.
There's a tricky one. The Counties are saddled with social care and some extraordinary difficulties as some just have acquiesced to the demands to increase the per diem rates from care homes. On that basis the typical £26m awarded to each upper-tier authority was burned in 3 weeks. My own County Authority has spent £33m of it already ... and counting. It will be impossible to row-back from those rate increases agreed in desparation.
Another tranche of funding was awarded on Saturday by Robert Jenrick but the more astute Counties like Warwickshire who maintained contract rates but granted exceptional forebearance grants. They stand to be more finanically resilient as time passes.
There is a school of thought that, when the eye of the storm passes, care homes will be temporarily short of customers, which might deflate prices. I don;t subscribe to that view because the Government announced a move to the minimum wage of £10.50 by 2024 [60pc of median wage], which will increase wage costs by 18pc over the next 4 years.
And anyone with an eye for the figures in County Councils knows that.
A recasting of local Government might be coming that coincides a more nimble locally focused NHS on one hand as a role for groupings of former County Councils with reformed districts explicitly focused on economic growth, housing & the environment doing the final mile stuff.
Since the advent of smart phones there has been a precipitous drop in reported UFO/BigFoot/BigCat sightings and a massive rise in documented police malfeasance.
Sounds like the very definition of deflation to me.
No, it's not deflation. It's a particular feature of the oil futures market, which is entirely based on the assumption that traders do not actually takes delivery of the oil they have contracted to buy. Normally this is no issue - it's just a question of whether the oil is worth more or less than they paid when they close the contract. However, if they can't find someone to take the contract off their hands, they are in deep, deep trouble - which is why the price can go negative. Otherwise the oil turns up at Cushing and it's their problem to find somewhere to store the stuff.
Or, we don't destroy our economy by unlocking sooner rather than later, and looking to Sweden.
It's also a consequence of there being bugger all spare oil storage capacity.
The US government buying up private storage facilities to increase resilience to external shocks is resulting in the US system having less resilience...
Sigh.
If they're paying me to take it I'm happy to store ten barrels of Brent crude in my garden.
You have to collect them in Cushing. So right now, the price is being set by the cost of getting trucks capable of storing oil to Cushing...
Apparently, HMG only paid for the PPE yesterday, hence the delay.
"Show me the money."
"Show me the goods."
"Show me the money."
The world of PPE as small-time drug hoodlums....
It is clear the UK (and other countries) have been repeatedly burned over the past few weeks. There was story today how UK ordered a load of gowns and actually got a few gowns and instead a load of masks.
I had never heard of Cushing, until a comment down thread.
"Cushing, Oklahoma, 70 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, is a sleepy town with a population just under 8,000. It’s also the intense focus of every major player in the American oil market right now.
North American crude oil is pouring into Cushing, where dozens of steel storage tanks fan out from the outskirts of town, tank farms that march on for miles and connect to every major oil patch in North America through an maze of pipelines. Cushing’s nickname is “The Pipeline Crossroads of the World.”
It’s one of the largest crude oil storage hubs on Earth, and in the U.S. arguably the most important. Delivery for West Texas Intermediate crude is taken here, priced for Nymex contracts and stored before it’s shipped to refineries."
What you have to understand is that the oil market is very different from any other.
The replies under that thread, from people who clearly know nothing about oil, are terribly amusing.
No, it doesn’t arrive in single barrels worth more than the contents. Yes, storage needs planning permission and needs to be in regulated vessels. No, the price doesn’t include delivery, you have to pick it up yourself. No, you can’t ‘buy’ it at a negative price then just pour it away.
I mentioned down thread, the occasion that some traders at one oil company screwed over some bankers who thought they could raid the oil market. They got cheap oil, all right. Then found out that the only available storage was owned by the company the traders they had dealt with, worked for.....
Apparently, HMG only paid for the PPE yesterday, hence the delay.
Looks like some shenanigans going on down there. One of our A400s just took off from Istanbul and is flying apparently the same route east as the C17. Hrrrm.
Apparently, HMG only paid for the PPE yesterday, hence the delay.
Looks like some shenanigans going on down there. One of our A400s just took off from Istanbul and is flying apparently the same route east as the C17. Hrrrm.
He should be kicked off the force for being terminally fucking stupid.
What sort of imbecile promises to lie, claiming that he will be believed, while being filmed?
Before we crucify the officer, I’d like to see the full context of the video. Just how provocative were those kids being?
I am well aware the police can be arseholes. I’ve seen it myself. But right now I’d err on the side of caution before condemning.
I just wish they’d stop these absurd virtue signaling videos of dancing and clapping.
However provocative they were being, there is no way a police officer can threaten to commit perjury as part of an incident. None. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
But doing it on camera - that’s utterly cretinous.
Ffs he’s a human. He didn’t punch or kick anyone. In America he would have shot someone and then got away with it.
His mouth was bigger than his brain. It’s not good. Demote him. Whatever. But a career should not end over a stupid statement, and we do need to see the bigger video if we can.
A school friend of mine got chucked out of the force for crashing a party while drunk. Mind you he did smash the front door off its hinges to do so.
He was a a bit Constable Savage so no one was too surprised.
Without being too virtuous - I hope - we are entering an epoch when we all need to be a bit more understanding of each other, and the perils of the human condition.
The absurd snitching and cancel culture of social media needs to end. People are going to say mad things from all ends of politics. We need to cut some slack for the Labour activist nurse who fibs about PPE just as we tolerate the cop who gets a bit mouthy in Cumbria.
We don’t have time for this shit. Let people say sorry and let them keep their jobs.
“Cancel culture”???? Are you f**king kidding? This isn’t some YouTube nonentity called out for 11 year old tweets. This is potentially someone’s livelihood and liberty. The power invested in the constabulary means they must be held to a much higher standard. How many times had he done this without someone videoing it? If you get sent down on the perjured testimony of a bent cop don’t come crying. It happens. This kid could have ended up with a criminal record or worse. I hope every single defendant convicted on the basis of this tosser’s evidence has their case reviewed and then appealed.
Apparently, HMG only paid for the PPE yesterday, hence the delay.
Looks like some shenanigans going on down there. One of our A400s just took off from Istanbul and is flying apparently the same route east as the C17. Hrrrm.
My my, what a happy conversation we are having this evening. I spent most of the day trying to reforecast our business for the next 15 months - a fun exercise in trying to best guess how people's changed eating habits will continue or not and to what extent.
I don't fear my job particularly - but clearly the economy looks to be in a right old state. The various comments about spending up thread - we paid a deposit on getting our en suite done because it's tatty and we have an eye on selling up and moving north. No idea if the housing market will still function or in what way, and will press ahead with the work as it's needed.
Beyond that? Spending a little more on groceries but zero on commuting/hotels, and have appraised"stuff" and realised I don't need any more. Which having happily pushed the boat out in the past isn't great news for people flogging discretionary spend stuff.
What you have to understand is that the oil market is very different from any other.
The replies under that thread, from people who clearly know nothing about oil, are terribly amusing.
No, it doesn’t arrive in single barrels worth more than the contents. Yes, storage needs planning permission and needs to be in regulated vessels. No, the price doesn’t include delivery, you have to pick it up yourself. No, you can’t ‘buy’ it at a negative price then just pour it away.
I mentioned down thread, the occasion that some traders at one oil company screwed over some bankers who thought they could raid the oil market. They got cheap oil, all right. Then found out that the only available storage was owned by the company the traders they had dealt with, worked for.....
How much does an oil tanker cost? In for a penny, in for a pound.
Apparently, HMG only paid for the PPE yesterday, hence the delay.
Looks like some shenanigans going on down there. One of our A400s just took off from Istanbul and is flying apparently the same route east as the C17. Hrrrm.
What you have to understand is that the oil market is very different from any other.
The replies under that thread, from people who clearly know nothing about oil, are terribly amusing.
No, it doesn’t arrive in single barrels worth more than the contents. Yes, storage needs planning permission and needs to be in regulated vessels. No, the price doesn’t include delivery, you have to pick it up yourself. No, you can’t ‘buy’ it at a negative price then just pour it away.
I mentioned down thread, the occasion that some traders at one oil company screwed over some bankers who thought they could raid the oil market. They got cheap oil, all right. Then found out that the only available storage was owned by the company the traders they had dealt with, worked for.....
How much does an oil tanker cost? In for a penny, in for a pound.
An actual oil tanker (as in the ship) is very expensive to run. You can buy a dodgy one quite cheap.
The bank guys got screwed by telling them the price on the storage was going up massively, while the oil was on the ship. If they had said no - either they would have had to give up the cargo, or pay for storage on the ship. Either way they would have got wiped out....
Apparently, HMG only paid for the PPE yesterday, hence the delay.
Looks like some shenanigans going on down there. One of our A400s just took off from Istanbul and is flying apparently the same route east as the C17. Hrrrm.
Air-to-air transfer?
A400M is indeed refuelling, no?
They passed close to each other, but at different altitudes.
What you have to understand is that the oil market is very different from any other.
The replies under that thread, from people who clearly know nothing about oil, are terribly amusing.
No, it doesn’t arrive in single barrels worth more than the contents. Yes, storage needs planning permission and needs to be in regulated vessels. No, the price doesn’t include delivery, you have to pick it up yourself. No, you can’t ‘buy’ it at a negative price then just pour it away.
I mentioned down thread, the occasion that some traders at one oil company screwed over some bankers who thought they could raid the oil market. They got cheap oil, all right. Then found out that the only available storage was owned by the company the traders they had dealt with, worked for.....
How much does an oil tanker cost? In for a penny, in for a pound.
Ed Thorpe, who invented and popularised card-counting to win at Blackjack, once part-owned an oil tanker bought when storage was cheap but hedged by its scrap value, or something like that.
Why is a military aircraft visible on this website?
All military aircraft travel with transponders switched on in peace time.
Apart from the Russians, who turn them off because they think it is macho. It isn't.
Turning off un-necessarily marks you out as the kind of knob who thinks that driving fast at night with the lights off as "cool"....
The cops used to do that on the M54 near Telford, to catch speeding motorists.
And yet you want to throw out a gobby copper having his chain yanked by snotty kids?
Being macho in the air kills people. The Russian behaviour is considered bad airmanship. Bit like their old one of driving a destroyer in front of an aircraft carrier conducting flight ops - they thought it was edgy, everyone else thinks "they aren't good sailors, then".
As to the copper. If he can get his chain yanked by a kid to the point of proclaiming on camera he will fit them up... What use is he? He can't give evidence in court - a lawyer will get the video introduced as evidence that he is untrustworthy.
I had never heard of Cushing, until a comment down thread.
"Cushing, Oklahoma, 70 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, is a sleepy town with a population just under 8,000. It’s also the intense focus of every major player in the American oil market right now.
North American crude oil is pouring into Cushing, where dozens of steel storage tanks fan out from the outskirts of town, tank farms that march on for miles and connect to every major oil patch in North America through an maze of pipelines. Cushing’s nickname is “The Pipeline Crossroads of the World.”
It’s one of the largest crude oil storage hubs on Earth, and in the U.S. arguably the most important. Delivery for West Texas Intermediate crude is taken here, priced for Nymex contracts and stored before it’s shipped to refineries."
On spending for as long as I'm getting a full salary my plan is to spend as normally as possible - I'm conscious others depend on it.
I'm also fortunate enough to be in a good position for the time being, but there's bugger all beyond groceries actually to spend the money on. There is no point in planning a holiday of any significance until this is all over, I don't drive (not that one could go to a showroom at the moment and buy a car anyway,) needless to say there's nowhere to go for a nice day or even a meal out, our little flat is already stuffed to the gunwales with clothes, books, furniture and ornaments and we really don't need any new electronic gizmos and gadgets either. I've just paid off my latest credit card bill and about 90% of it was spent in Tesco and M&S Food.
I think I'd probably like to spend some more money propping up the local retailers, but again all of the small local businesses are shut apart from the corner shop (a bit like a supermarket only with small ranges of yucky processed food at inflated prices, and incredibly slow till queues,) the bakery in town (opens after I start work and already closed again by the time I finish,) and the wine shop, which has closed to customers on foot but is advertising a home delivery service. Now that I've been reminded of the existence of said service I might avail myself of it, actually, but even so one can really only spend so much on booze in the middle of a lockdown without risking cirrhosis, which I'm reasonably sure would count as a dangerous comorbidity were one ultimately to contract the Plague.
In short, I get paid at the end of this week and half my salary will get swept straight into savings. I suppose at least that'll help to cushion the blow a little if a bout of inflation really is on its way.
What you have to understand is that the oil market is very different from any other.
The replies under that thread, from people who clearly know nothing about oil, are terribly amusing.
No, it doesn’t arrive in single barrels worth more than the contents. Yes, storage needs planning permission and needs to be in regulated vessels. No, the price doesn’t include delivery, you have to pick it up yourself. No, you can’t ‘buy’ it at a negative price then just pour it away.
I mentioned down thread, the occasion that some traders at one oil company screwed over some bankers who thought they could raid the oil market. They got cheap oil, all right. Then found out that the only available storage was owned by the company the traders they had dealt with, worked for.....
How much does an oil tanker cost? In for a penny, in for a pound.
Ed Thorpe, who invented and popularised card-counting to win at Blackjack, once part-owned an oil tanker bought when storage was cheap but hedged by its scrap value, or something like that.
You can buy rust buckets for pennies. Providing you are OK with killing some of the crew now and then.
And you have the financial structure that Rob Lowe's character in the West Wing setup - ship is owned by a company which has no assets apart from the ship. The company is then controlled via a stack of shell companies via offshore.
So when the ship sinks and fucks up half the coastline of a country, the 1st company declares bankruptcy and you walk away untouched.
Cummings returns and Downing Street starts leaking poison again. He, not Hancock, should be first out the door. But if Hancock does get the boot he may well have a few tales to tell.
Mind you how can the PM accept the loss of the bloke who promised we will soon be doing 100,000 tests a day when he himself promised a rapid move to 250,000 a day in his brief on 18.3.20
This is by far the bigger news. If this is true then.... most western nations have made an historic error based on weird Chinese behaviour and a health system break down in Lombardy
I don't understand this false dichotomy between systems. Sweden is 75% less travel, the UK 85% and Italy and Spain deployed the Caribineiri. It's all a scale.
This is by far the bigger news. If this is true then.... most western nations have made an historic error based on weird Chinese behaviour and a health system break down in Lombardy
Is there any reason to believe that the Cushing situation won't also play out like this in late May? Late June? Because it is hard to see how the tanks in Cushing are going to be drained in coming weeks.
This is by far the bigger news. If this is true then.... most western nations have made an historic error based on weird Chinese behaviour and a health system break down in Lombardy
He should be kicked off the force for being terminally fucking stupid.
What sort of imbecile promises to lie, claiming that he will be believed, while being filmed?
Before we crucify the officer, I’d like to see the full context of the video. Just how provocative were those kids being?
I am well aware the police can be arseholes. I’ve seen it myself. But right now I’d err on the side of caution before condemning.
I just wish they’d stop these absurd virtue signaling videos of dancing and clapping.
They are scrotey chavs. So probably very.
But that's besides the point. Provocations like that are bread and butter if you're a police officer.
You are trained (or should be) how to handle it and it should never be like that.
That guy totally lost his cool and some of the arrogant stuff he said was deeply disturbing.
Sure. I just wouldn’t end his career and his family’s livelihood on the basis of one video
The clamor of social media crucifixions needs to be confronted. And now is the time. I would likewise spare the NHS activists caught lying for Labour
These people could destroy lives given a chance.
Live by the sword - die by it
I am nasty. So I would give them a choice - go on national television, in front of the hack, admit what they have done and apologise. *Or* loose the job.
This is by far the bigger news. If this is true then.... most western nations have made an historic error based on weird Chinese behaviour and a health system break down in Lombardy
I don't understand this false dichotomy between systems. Sweden is 75% less travel, the UK 85% and Italy and Spain deployed the Caribineiri. It's all a scale.
Yes, it's also not necessarily the case that the Swedish approach is better for the economy.
Comments
This is not a Soviet tractor factory. There is a need for testing, but first there needs to be a plan on who to test and why. Numbers mean nothing without that.
I don't mind Hancock, but I suspect he will be the first one chucked out of the sinking balloon.
In which case you're talking to the wrong people. In my own authority the burn rate is over £1m per month when I take into account extra costs of working [running 7 days, homelessness etc], reductions in income [parking, leisure income], for example.
Next year could be just as hard. Lack of New Homes Bonus for house completions and lack of increase in Business Rates income with drag us for years.
And then there is the uncertainty over commercial income from trading - successive Governments have driven municipal entrepreneurialism. I have no sympathy for those who speculated on distressed assets on cheap borrowed money from the PWLB like pound-shop hedge funds.
But, depending on how long this goes on, I'm looking at losing income representing 50-75% of my annual net budget. And I'm one of the better ones. One Hertfordshire authority is looking at an £11m shortfall on an annual net budget of £9.5m
Rishi Sunak's £1.6bn lifeboat will be essential to us provided it doesn't get purloined by the Health Service to back fill social care pressures and the inflated value of PPE.
Bunnco - Your Man on the Spot - who just donated too.
What sort of imbecile promises to lie, claiming that he will be believed, while being filmed?
Those Councils will also be looking for the Chancellor's help in dealing with adult social care. As I said earlier, I don't know what the future of elderly care looks like - it's not my field but the appalling publicity over deaths in homes will surely be a huge disincentive .
But doing it on camera - that’s utterly cretinous.
I shall go off to bed.
Goodnight.
Who else is there?
Or, we don't destroy our economy by unlocking sooner rather than later, and looking to Sweden.
https://twitter.com/gilbeaq/status/1252293724215762950
What you have to understand is that the oil market is very different from any other.
But to be fair, I think Matt Hancock has done well, barring that one misspeak about NHS staff not being frugal enough with the PPE.
He was a a bit Constable Savage so no one was too surprised.
This does not extend to South Western Railway.
The US government buying up private storage facilities to increase resilience to external shocks is resulting in the US system having less resilience...
Sigh.
Does anyone have links to other European countries ONS like pages.
I want to look at overall mortality figures for countries, not Covid specific figures.
But that's besides the point. Provocations like that are bread and butter if you're a police officer.
You are trained (or should be) how to handle it and it should never be like that.
That guy totally lost his cool and some of the arrogant stuff he said was deeply disturbing.
Sounds like the very definition of deflation to me.
However, it would be hard on Hancock
Now, to be clear, it was of an awful year (1972). But, kept for 25 years, it actually turned out remarkably fine.
I'm moderately hopeful that there will be some superb bargains coming up later this year, and of far, far better vintages...
Is that the Peter principle?
New trading system was built and a test order was sent which, due to a bad test environment configuration, unfortunately hit the actual real live exchange.
Come end of month a barge laden with coal turned up looking to unload.
Apart from the Russians, who turn them off because they think it is macho. It isn't.
Turning off un-necessarily marks you out as the kind of knob who thinks that driving fast at night with the lights off as "cool"....
No, it doesn’t arrive in single barrels worth more than the contents. Yes, storage needs planning permission and needs to be in regulated vessels. No, the price doesn’t include delivery, you have to pick it up yourself. No, you can’t ‘buy’ it at a negative price then just pour it away.
There's a tricky one. The Counties are saddled with social care and some extraordinary difficulties as some just have acquiesced to the demands to increase the per diem rates from care homes. On that basis the typical £26m awarded to each upper-tier authority was burned in 3 weeks. My own County Authority has spent £33m of it already ... and counting. It will be impossible to row-back from those rate increases agreed in desparation.
Another tranche of funding was awarded on Saturday by Robert Jenrick but the more astute Counties like Warwickshire who maintained contract rates but granted exceptional forebearance grants. They stand to be more finanically resilient as time passes.
There is a school of thought that, when the eye of the storm passes, care homes will be temporarily short of customers, which might deflate prices. I don;t subscribe to that view because the Government announced a move to the minimum wage of £10.50 by 2024 [60pc of median wage], which will increase wage costs by 18pc over the next 4 years.
And anyone with an eye for the figures in County Councils knows that.
A recasting of local Government might be coming that coincides a more nimble locally focused NHS on one hand as a role for groupings of former County Councils with reformed districts explicitly focused on economic growth, housing & the environment doing the final mile stuff.
Stranger things have happened.
Bunnco - Your Man on the Spot
"Show me the goods."
"Show me the money."
The world of PPE as small-time drug hoodlums....
She answered me, "Nay,
custom like yours I can get anyday"
"Cushing, Oklahoma, 70 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, is a sleepy town with a population just under 8,000. It’s also the intense focus of every major player in the American oil market right now.
North American crude oil is pouring into Cushing, where dozens of steel storage tanks fan out from the outskirts of town, tank farms that march on for miles and connect to every major oil patch in North America through an maze of pipelines. Cushing’s nickname is “The Pipeline Crossroads of the World.”
It’s one of the largest crude oil storage hubs on Earth, and in the U.S. arguably the most important. Delivery for West Texas Intermediate crude is taken here, priced for Nymex contracts and stored before it’s shipped to refineries."
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/05/cushing-oklahoma-small-town-is-holding-illions-in-black-gold.html
Truly PB is educational!!!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/20/exclusivemillions-pieces-ppe-shipped-britain-europe-despite/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8238131/Lancashire-policeman-caught-video-threatening-make-arrest-man-suspended.html
And yet you want to throw out a gobby copper having his chain yanked by snotty kids?
I don't fear my job particularly - but clearly the economy looks to be in a right old state. The various comments about spending up thread - we paid a deposit on getting our en suite done because it's tatty and we have an eye on selling up and moving north. No idea if the housing market will still function or in what way, and will press ahead with the work as it's needed.
Beyond that? Spending a little more on groceries but zero on commuting/hotels, and have appraised"stuff" and realised I don't need any more. Which having happily pushed the boat out in the past isn't great news for people flogging discretionary spend stuff.
https://twitter.com/JimBoardman/status/1252319591952519168
There was a marvellous episode where he buys some cheddar made from un-processed (and hence illegal) milk. Done exactly as drug deal...
The bank guys got screwed by telling them the price on the storage was going up massively, while the oil was on the ship. If they had said no - either they would have had to give up the cargo, or pay for storage on the ship. Either way they would have got wiped out....
As to the copper. If he can get his chain yanked by a kid to the point of proclaiming on camera he will fit them up... What use is he? He can't give evidence in court - a lawyer will get the video introduced as evidence that he is untrustworthy.
Live by the sword - die by it
I think I'd probably like to spend some more money propping up the local retailers, but again all of the small local businesses are shut apart from the corner shop (a bit like a supermarket only with small ranges of yucky processed food at inflated prices, and incredibly slow till queues,) the bakery in town (opens after I start work and already closed again by the time I finish,) and the wine shop, which has closed to customers on foot but is advertising a home delivery service. Now that I've been reminded of the existence of said service I might avail myself of it, actually, but even so one can really only spend so much on booze in the middle of a lockdown without risking cirrhosis, which I'm reasonably sure would count as a dangerous comorbidity were one ultimately to contract the Plague.
In short, I get paid at the end of this week and half my salary will get swept straight into savings. I suppose at least that'll help to cushion the blow a little if a bout of inflation really is on its way.
And you have the financial structure that Rob Lowe's character in the West Wing setup - ship is owned by a company which has no assets apart from the ship. The company is then controlled via a stack of shell companies via offshore.
So when the ship sinks and fucks up half the coastline of a country, the 1st company declares bankruptcy and you walk away untouched.
Mind you how can the PM accept the loss of the bloke who promised we will soon be doing 100,000 tests a day when he himself promised a rapid move to 250,000 a day in his brief on 18.3.20
Walk of shame etc.....