If those are the top 3 companies they are highlighting, by the time you get to company 36 on the list, it will be "bits, bobs and thing-me-jigs" ltd, operating out of some lock-up.
I love telling my friends kids about the days of dial up internet. They think I am telling a story akin to coming across a unicorn in the woods.
I was using dial up for about 10 years from 1995 to 2005 IIRC.
1995 was very early to be on the internet.
I was on the information superhighway in 1994.
Usually getting bollocked by mother to free up the landline.
Read about Arpanet in 1986, in 1995 at Cadence we used Netscape Navigator which I think was quite new. A colleague put together a company website in HTML. Later I started creating my own websites (first one was for a 17th Century Living History Village) over a Demon Internet dial up line.
If those are the top 3 companies they are highlighting, by the time you get to company 36 on the list, it will be "bits, bobs and thing-me-jigs" ltd, operating out of some lock-up.
Starmer is very good - and frankly Raab does not give confidence
Looks like BigG could vote Labour again for the first time since Blair
At times you are just plain silly.
I support HMG but I am not sycophant and will credit responsible opposition, and right now it is needed and is a refreshing change from the Corbyn toxic year
I am not voting labour
If the government does not extend the transition period though? I can certainly see you at least voting LD
Just stop it.
I am loyal to HMG and will be voting accordingly for as long as I am still able to
My only caveat is that if Boris suddenly became a right wing devotee, or mirrored that idiot Trump, then I would not support him under any circumstances
Judge Trump on what he does not says. Idiot he certainly isn't. The alternative was far worse.
Trump is a disaster for the US and the rest of us. He must go
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
You're milking that one, perhaps condense it a little?
By chance a couple of weeks ago found a small tin of Carnation condensed milk in my garden shed - put it there with some other stuff about six months ago, but still OK going by the best before date
Starmer is very good - and frankly Raab does not give confidence
Looks like BigG could vote Labour again for the first time since Blair
At times you are just plain silly.
I support HMG but I am not sycophant and will credit responsible opposition, and right now it is needed and is a refreshing change from the Corbyn toxic year
I am not voting labour
If the government does not extend the transition period though? I can certainly see you at least voting LD
Just stop it.
I am loyal to HMG and will be voting accordingly for as long as I am still able to
My only caveat is that if Boris suddenly became a right wing devotee, or mirrored that idiot Trump, then I would not support him under any circumstances
Judge Trump on what he does not says. Idiot he certainly isn't. The alternative was far worse.
Trump is a disaster for the US and the rest of us. He must go
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
Nor is there any sign of an end. Five benchmarks were announced for relaxing the measures, the fifth of which is to prevent a second wave of infections in the autumn. But this will not be possible without continuing the lockdown until then and further wrecking the economy.
Starmer is very good - and frankly Raab does not give confidence
Looks like BigG could vote Labour again for the first time since Blair
At times you are just plain silly.
I support HMG but I am not sycophant and will credit responsible opposition, and right now it is needed and is a refreshing change from the Corbyn toxic year
I am not voting labour
If the government does not extend the transition period though? I can certainly see you at least voting LD
Just stop it.
I am loyal to HMG and will be voting accordingly for as long as I am still able to
My only caveat is that if Boris suddenly became a right wing devotee, or mirrored that idiot Trump, then I would not support him under any circumstances
Judge Trump on what he does not says. Idiot he certainly isn't. The alternative was far worse.
Trump is a disaster for the US and the rest of us. He must go
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
The consensus seems to be that after 5 years of toxic Corbynism labour have now acquired a leader in Starmer who will hold HMG to account and the shear relief Corbyn is but a distant memory is a real positive
Of course Starmer has lots of problems within his own party to address, but he does look as if he has managed to improve labour's image, but these are very early days
HMG is missing Boris and maybe his return will re-energise HMG in the coming difficult months
Is that the consensus? I seem to remember you posting this:
I reckon the 100k a day number came from looking at Germany's testing capacity at that time which was about that.
Possibly. I recall Johnson at an early presser riffing around and tossing out both a 100k and a 250k number. Perhaps that was the origin. Loose talk from the boss feeds down to mega stress on subordinates and - ultimately - poor outcomes. A phenomenon I have certainly encountered many times. Bet we all have.
No the 250k was to do with antibody tests. Boris claim was they would get to 25k antigen tests and the rest antibody. And we now know the government had 9 different antibody test kits evaluated and all were busts.
And this is really where the issue have come from. The scientists were really sold on these antibody test kits and the government went along with it, with no real plan B. If it had worked out, nobody would be saying anything now.
The issue is that nobody in the world has a reliable large scale antibody test kit that can be done in the community, and now the UK stuck scrambling to try and devise a widespread antigen testing system on the fly.
We are in the sort of situation where you need to start several plans in parallel because the consequences of choosing the wrong one and it not working are severe.
It's the same with the PPE and joining the EU procurement schemes - we should be using every available avenue in the expectation that some will fail.
Is it worth dealing with anyone apart from actual manufacturers? That is a more key question.
I can get you a list of CMOTD's who'll promise you anything you want. And based on your request will start phoning all the other CMOTD's with a request for what you wanted. Plus profit....
Yes because if I've got a textiles plant, maybe I can produce gowns. If I'm injection moulding plastics, maybe I can produce thousands of visors. And so on. We already know existing suppliers cannot meet unprecedented demand. It may be HMG would need to pay for IP or raw materials but that can be dealt with as and when.
Btw what is cmotd?
What I meant is that sagans of middlemen are claiming that they can source PPE. I would only bother with those who are claiming to *make* PPE or components of PPE.
Starmer is very good - and frankly Raab does not give confidence
Looks like BigG could vote Labour again for the first time since Blair
At times you are just plain silly.
I support HMG but I am not sycophant and will credit responsible opposition, and right now it is needed and is a refreshing change from the Corbyn toxic year
I am not voting labour
If the government does not extend the transition period though? I can certainly see you at least voting LD
Just stop it.
I am loyal to HMG and will be voting accordingly for as long as I am still able to
My only caveat is that if Boris suddenly became a right wing devotee, or mirrored that idiot Trump, then I would not support him under any circumstances
Judge Trump on what he does not says. Idiot he certainly isn't. The alternative was far worse.
Trump is a disaster for the US and the rest of us. He must go
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
Excellent Leaver's Apostrophe in there.
I thought "politics get" was a reference to Trump.
I love telling my friends kids about the days of dial up internet. They think I am telling a story akin to coming across a unicorn in the woods.
I was using dial up for about 10 years from 1995 to 2005 IIRC.
1995 was very early to be on the internet.
I was on the information superhighway in 1994.
Usually getting bollocked by mother to free up the landline.
Read about Arpanet in 1986, in 1995 at Cadence we used Netscape Navigator which I think was quite new. A colleague put together a company website in HTML. Later I started creating my own websites (first one was for a 17th Century Living History Village) over a Demon Internet dial up line.
Also, before DNS there was a single hosts file with every connected domain worldwide. The file was maintained by (iirc) MIT and you'd ask them for a copy.
I love telling my friends kids about the days of dial up internet. They think I am telling a story akin to coming across a unicorn in the woods.
I was using dial up for about 10 years from 1995 to 2005 IIRC.
1995 was very early to be on the internet.
I was on the information superhighway in 1994.
Usually getting bollocked by mother to free up the landline.
Read about Arpanet in 1986, in 1995 at Cadence we used Netscape Navigator which I think was quite new. A colleague put together a company website in HTML. Later I started creating my own websites (first one was for a 17th Century Living History Village) over a Demon Internet dial up line.
Also, before DNS there was a single hosts file with every connected domain worldwide. The file was maintained by (iirc) MIT and you'd ask them for a copy.
I published my first website in, I think, March 1995.
Interesting programme from Tim Harford on R4 this morning. One interesting thought was that if you compare the working population of the UK with the NHS work group the rate of death from Corvid 19 is exactly the same. The group with the highest risk was bus workers.
Starmer is very good - and frankly Raab does not give confidence
Looks like BigG could vote Labour again for the first time since Blair
At times you are just plain silly.
I support HMG but I am not sycophant and will credit responsible opposition, and right now it is needed and is a refreshing change from the Corbyn toxic year
I am not voting labour
If the government does not extend the transition period though? I can certainly see you at least voting LD
Just stop it.
I am loyal to HMG and will be voting accordingly for as long as I am still able to
My only caveat is that if Boris suddenly became a right wing devotee, or mirrored that idiot Trump, then I would not support him under any circumstances
Judge Trump on what he does not says. Idiot he certainly isn't. The alternative was far worse.
Trump is a disaster for the US and the rest of us. He must go
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
Who would have thought Rush Limbaugh contributed to PB?
Is it true he hasn't paid any tax to HMG for 14 years?
More that he like companies structure as follows - Company A, onshore, employees staff. Contracts all lots of work to Companies B,C,D etc offshore.
B, C and D etc are Branson owned (partly).
Company A loses money.
B,C and D charge above the going rate for their services to A.
Yep. Virgin Atlantic (the UK company) made eight-figure losses in each of the last two published sets of annual accounts.
The money ends up with Virgin Group Ltd, based in the British Virgin Islands, and with Delta Airlines in the USA, who are the minority (51/49) shareholder.
It's politically impossible for the UK government to "Bail Out Branson", although the government will obviously support furloughed and redundant employees from the UK company.
In short, the French had a plan - it didn't work. They lost.
The UK had a plan. Parts didn't work. They changed it. Stuff didn't work. They changed it.....
Let me guess; the BBC and the Guardian liked the French response better?
It stayed static long enough that they finally understood it.
There was a surprising amount (to modern believers in the myth of the war) of "Doesn't Churchill realise he's lost?" stuff written. And not just from the right.
The pro-Soviet lot permanently damaged themselves in UK politics with their following the Stalinist line - anti-war and anti-UK until 1941, then suddenly....
There's a body of opinion, I understand, which believes that had Edward VIII remained on the throne, Halifax would have been PM, and there would have been an end to the war. King George VI wasn't a Churchill fan at the beginning, either, I believe.
Halifax was acceptable to Labour in May 1940. I suspect he did not really see himself as a war leader.
Interesting programme from Tim Harford on R4 this morning. One interesting thought was that if you compare the working population of the UK with the NHS work group the rate of death from Corvid 19 is exactly the same. The group with the highest risk was bus workers.
It makes sense things like bus drivers are a high risk, coming into contact with loads of people and sitting in a confined space for hours on end.
What is interesting, is there was a hypothesis that front line healthcare workers were at a higher risk of dying, because they were having to go extremely close to patients and being exposed to "higher viral load". Thus, many younger fitter doctors / nurses were dying.
Be interesting to see if actually the data shows that isn't true. Or is it offset against all the PPE they wear. I don't know.
What I do know is that all these fast takes on it is definitely more dangerous for BAME individuals etc, appear to be fundamentally flawed, as they don't properly control for sample size, location, age, etc etc etc.
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Is it true he hasn't paid any tax to HMG for 14 years?
More that he like companies structure as follows - Company A, onshore, employees staff. Contracts all lots of work to Companies B,C,D etc offshore.
B, C and D etc are Branson owned (partly).
Company A loses money.
B,C and D charge above the going rate for their services to A.
Yep. Virgin Atlantic (the UK company) made eight-figure losses in each of the last two published sets of annual accounts.
The money ends up with Virgin Group Ltd, based in the British Virgin Islands, and with Delta Airlines in the USA, who are the minority (51/49) shareholder.
It's politically impossible for the UK government to "Bail Out Branson", although the government will obviously support furloughed and redundant employees from the UK company.
It has consistently lost money since the start - in fact has the onshore company ever recorded a profit?
Branson should be bailed out by the government of Virgin Islands.
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Wouldn't be surprised if 95% said zero.
Send Hornet squadron round to their trading address - with nice old No.4s
Take any stock and give them the address of the chaps who are flying Sunderland flying boats....
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Well we only have to look at Delboy Trotter mentioned in the Guardian article. I can get you 10 million masks, in 3 weeks, from a bloke in Holland, who can get it from a bloke in China, who knows a bloke who runs a factory...Now I want all the money up front, goods sight unseen.
And what does your company do...erhhh...do you have a website...errhhh...and how much did you make last year....erhhh....£16k.
Trump is a disaster for the US and the rest of us. He must go
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
Always good to get the horticulturalist view of these things.
That suggests to me they think they can meet it. Deluded, perhaps?
That suggests to me that Laura is way more interested in the "gotcha" of the SoS for Health, than she is in rapidly increasing the number of tests performed.
So Starmer's first PMQs outing didn't really hit the spot for the PB glitterati. The fake news outlets seemed to like it though.
I'd say George Osborne isn't the person Starmer wants to win round. It's very much Ed Miliband all over again, with Starmer slightly better than Ed but with a weaker team.
Trump is a disaster for the US and the rest of us. He must go
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
Always good to get the horticulturalist view of these things.
Trump is a larger (in every sense) version of Alan Sugar, who has made a career out of serial failure, but strangely ending up *personally* with money out of it.
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
Always good to get the horticulturalist view of these things.
Blimey, Nick. I though you'd suffered a cranial event until I realised you'd messed up the block quotes.
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Yes but then you'd have thought someone in government would have responded when these companies first contacted them. As SKS said, since some are now sending kit overseas, some at least must have had it.
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
It's all shit and everybody knows it but Der Starmer now has the government trying to win the ball back very deep in their own half. The tories have got fat, lazy and complacent (and their leader literally so) and are not used to having functional opposition.
Hancock said yesterday testing capacity was ahead of the target trajectory.
Yes - "capacity". But how to verify? This could be his escape hatch.
Well at best it buys him say a weeks breathing room. If he claims 100k capacity at the end of April and by the end of the first week of May they are still only doing say 30,000 tests, everybody will call total BS.
Agreed, and it has to be close for him to pull that off, like 85-90k actual tests.
Hancock will be fine if they really start doing that many tests, only the most partisan will be complaining he missed target, as that it basically German levels of testing.
I am not confident he stands much of a chance though, given how long it has taken to roll out 26 drive through centres and they are only promising 50.
If that figure was 500 we might get to 100k tests per day. It's not the queues so much as the distance to travel for people who need to be tested.
There are 2 problems testing NHS Staff with our drive through in Leics.
In order to be tested you need a letter from Head of Ops, Clinical Director or Head of Nursing. All rather busy people at the moment so seems unnecessarily cumbersome. We electronically record the 10% of staff currently on Covid Isolation. Simple enough to give them blanket authorisation IMO.
The second problem is that the lab results do not come back to our computer system or Occupational Health.
No wonder the capacity is under utilised. Our Trust is now reverting to testing by our own Occy Health.
So Starmer's first PMQs outing didn't really hit the spot for the PB glitterati. The fake news outlets seemed to like it though.
I'd say George Osborne isn't the person Starmer wants to win round. It's very much Ed Miliband all over again, with Starmer slightly better than Ed but with a weaker team.
Depends, we will be in hard Brexit by the next general election and maybe a recession unlike 2015.
I would say voters who switched from Labour in 2005 to Tory in 2010 will be more likely to vote Labour or LD under Starmer than Ed Miliband
Going back to this idea of having just 50 drive through testing centres, it really doesn't make any sense because they will all be multiple lane drive throughs, say each one has 5 lanes with 15 staff, better to have 400 single lane centres with three staff with capacity for 250 swabs to be taken per day. At the end of each day the test swabs can be taken to the nearest lab for processing or picked up by whatever logistics firm we have to do this stuff.
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Yes but then you'd have thought someone in government would have responded when these companies first contacted them. As SKS said, since some are now sending kit overseas, some at least must have had it.
They probably looked the company up in Companies House like @CarlottaVance did and thought "naah".
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Yes but then you'd have thought someone in government would have responded when these companies first contacted them. As SKS said, since some are now sending kit overseas, some at least must have had it.
I'll wait and see what the official rebuttal says, but I would take a guess that five minutes of due diligence on each one says that not one of them has ever been a PPE supplier to the government previously, and that they collectively have neither any manufacturing ability nor record of importing such equipment.
They're all a bunch of chancers with no PPE to sell, who are pissed off and going to the press and opposition because the government has seen straight through them.
Hancock said yesterday testing capacity was ahead of the target trajectory.
Yes - "capacity". But how to verify? This could be his escape hatch.
Well at best it buys him say a weeks breathing room. If he claims 100k capacity at the end of April and by the end of the first week of May they are still only doing say 30,000 tests, everybody will call total BS.
Agreed, and it has to be close for him to pull that off, like 85-90k actual tests.
Hancock will be fine if they really start doing that many tests, only the most partisan will be complaining he missed target, as that it basically German levels of testing.
I am not confident he stands much of a chance though, given how long it has taken to roll out 26 drive through centres and they are only promising 50.
If that figure was 500 we might get to 100k tests per day. It's not the queues so much as the distance to travel for people who need to be tested.
There are 2 problems testing NHS Staff with our drive through in Leics.
In order to be tested you need a letter from Head of Ops, Clinical Director or Head of Nursing. All rather busy people at the moment so seems unnecessarily cumbersome. We electronically record the 10% of staff currently on Covid Isolation. Simple enough to give them blanket authorisation IMO.
The second problem is that the lab results do not come back to our computer system or Occupational Health.
No wonder the capacity is under utilised. Our Trust is now reverting to testing by our own Occy Health.
That seems utterly stupid! Ideally staff should be tested on a rotation rather than needing, rather than needing permission in triplicate.
Going back to this idea of having just 50 drive through testing centres, it really doesn't make any sense because they will all be multiple lane drive throughs, say each one has 5 lanes with 15 staff, better to have 400 single lane centres with three staff with capacity for 250 swabs to be taken per day. At the end of each day the test swabs can be taken to the nearest lab for processing or picked up by whatever logistics firm we have to do this stuff.
Maybe the government could approach McDonald's...???
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Yes but then you'd have thought someone in government would have responded when these companies first contacted them. As SKS said, since some are now sending kit overseas, some at least must have had it.
If you read carefully, they have been taking 100s of calls from these chancers. It seems like many just get told they will be passed on, when it looks like they are checking them out and then just parking them. I would hope the civil servant are rather busy trying to get supply from genuine factories, not very the network of spivs making crazy promises e.g. one promised 5,000 ventilators.
It is very easy to say a 3 weeks down the line when somebody claims they did actually get some masks (which we don't know if they are up to scratch).
Would you buy millions of quid of life dependent gear of some bloke who has come out of nowhere, has no track record, and no online presence at all. It would be like Chris Grayling and the ferry contract x1000.
Starmer is very good - and frankly Raab does not give confidence
Looks like BigG could vote Labour again for the first time since Blair
At times you are just plain silly.
I support HMG but I am not sycophant and will credit responsible opposition, and right now it is needed and is a refreshing change from the Corbyn toxic year
I am not voting labour
If the government does not extend the transition period though? I can certainly see you at least voting LD
Just stop it.
I am loyal to HMG and will be voting accordingly for as long as I am still able to
My only caveat is that if Boris suddenly became a right wing devotee, or mirrored that idiot Trump, then I would not support him under any circumstances
Judge Trump on what he does not says. Idiot he certainly isn't. The alternative was far worse.
Trump is a disaster for the US and the rest of us. He must go
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
Trump is part of the problem from Covid-19 to the Climate Emergency. If the US had elected a president in 2016 who had done nothing except play golf they would have been better prepared for Coronavirus. Unfortunately Trump doesn't just play golf. As for 'business acumen' - how many times has he gone bankrupt?
Hancock said yesterday testing capacity was ahead of the target trajectory.
Yes - "capacity". But how to verify? This could be his escape hatch.
Well at best it buys him say a weeks breathing room. If he claims 100k capacity at the end of April and by the end of the first week of May they are still only doing say 30,000 tests, everybody will call total BS.
Agreed, and it has to be close for him to pull that off, like 85-90k actual tests.
Hancock will be fine if they really start doing that many tests, only the most partisan will be complaining he missed target, as that it basically German levels of testing.
I am not confident he stands much of a chance though, given how long it has taken to roll out 26 drive through centres and they are only promising 50.
If that figure was 500 we might get to 100k tests per day. It's not the queues so much as the distance to travel for people who need to be tested.
There are 2 problems testing NHS Staff with our drive through in Leics.
In order to be tested you need a letter from Head of Ops, Clinical Director or Head of Nursing. All rather busy people at the moment so seems unnecessarily cumbersome. We electronically record the 10% of staff currently on Covid Isolation. Simple enough to give them blanket authorisation IMO.
The second problem is that the lab results do not come back to our computer system or Occupational Health.
No wonder the capacity is under utilised. Our Trust is now reverting to testing by our own Occy Health.
That seems utterly stupid! Ideally staff should be tested on a rotation rather than needing, rather than needing permission in triplicate.
Well Raab did say that the government is "managing demand".
Hancock said yesterday testing capacity was ahead of the target trajectory.
Yes - "capacity". But how to verify? This could be his escape hatch.
Well at best it buys him say a weeks breathing room. If he claims 100k capacity at the end of April and by the end of the first week of May they are still only doing say 30,000 tests, everybody will call total BS.
Agreed, and it has to be close for him to pull that off, like 85-90k actual tests.
Hancock will be fine if they really start doing that many tests, only the most partisan will be complaining he missed target, as that it basically German levels of testing.
I am not confident he stands much of a chance though, given how long it has taken to roll out 26 drive through centres and they are only promising 50.
If that figure was 500 we might get to 100k tests per day. It's not the queues so much as the distance to travel for people who need to be tested.
There are 2 problems testing NHS Staff with our drive through in Leics.
In order to be tested you need a letter from Head of Ops, Clinical Director or Head of Nursing. All rather busy people at the moment so seems unnecessarily cumbersome. We electronically record the 10% of staff currently on Covid Isolation. Simple enough to give them blanket authorisation IMO.
The second problem is that the lab results do not come back to our computer system or Occupational Health.
No wonder the capacity is under utilised. Our Trust is now reverting to testing by our own Occy Health.
That rather tallies with the story I told yesterday. Lots of uncertainly of who is eligible, people unsure of what paperwork and who had to fill it in, etc.
Hancock said yesterday testing capacity was ahead of the target trajectory.
Yes - "capacity". But how to verify? This could be his escape hatch.
Well at best it buys him say a weeks breathing room. If he claims 100k capacity at the end of April and by the end of the first week of May they are still only doing say 30,000 tests, everybody will call total BS.
Agreed, and it has to be close for him to pull that off, like 85-90k actual tests.
Hancock will be fine if they really start doing that many tests, only the most partisan will be complaining he missed target, as that it basically German levels of testing.
I am not confident he stands much of a chance though, given how long it has taken to roll out 26 drive through centres and they are only promising 50.
If that figure was 500 we might get to 100k tests per day. It's not the queues so much as the distance to travel for people who need to be tested.
There are 2 problems testing NHS Staff with our drive through in Leics.
In order to be tested you need a letter from Head of Ops, Clinical Director or Head of Nursing. All rather busy people at the moment so seems unnecessarily cumbersome. We electronically record the 10% of staff currently on Covid Isolation. Simple enough to give them blanket authorisation IMO.
The second problem is that the lab results do not come back to our computer system or Occupational Health.
No wonder the capacity is under utilised. Our Trust is now reverting to testing by our own Occy Health.
That seems utterly stupid! Ideally staff should be tested on a rotation rather than needing, rather than needing permission in triplicate.
But if you don't need permission in triplicate you have just made 3 people redundant.
You are not a team player, not organisational minded etc etc....
Like these chain signed letters, it isn't about quality, it is quantity. So what if your letter of scientific "experts" contains lab techs and MSc students, as long as you get a big number and it is clear from the Telegraph and Guardian pieces they either aren't checking or deliberately omitting crucial information.
Hancock said yesterday testing capacity was ahead of the target trajectory.
Yes - "capacity". But how to verify? This could be his escape hatch.
Well at best it buys him say a weeks breathing room. If he claims 100k capacity at the end of April and by the end of the first week of May they are still only doing say 30,000 tests, everybody will call total BS.
Agreed, and it has to be close for him to pull that off, like 85-90k actual tests.
Hancock will be fine if they really start doing that many tests, only the most partisan will be complaining he missed target, as that it basically German levels of testing.
I am not confident he stands much of a chance though, given how long it has taken to roll out 26 drive through centres and they are only promising 50.
If that figure was 500 we might get to 100k tests per day. It's not the queues so much as the distance to travel for people who need to be tested.
There are 2 problems testing NHS Staff with our drive through in Leics.
In order to be tested you need a letter from Head of Ops, Clinical Director or Head of Nursing. All rather busy people at the moment so seems unnecessarily cumbersome. We electronically record the 10% of staff currently on Covid Isolation. Simple enough to give them blanket authorisation IMO.
The second problem is that the lab results do not come back to our computer system or Occupational Health.
No wonder the capacity is under utilised. Our Trust is now reverting to testing by our own Occy Health.
The SoS did appear to say just now in the Commons, that requirements for being allowed tests are being relaxed as the newly-online capacity is under-utilised.
Hopefully that's the case, looking in from outside the inertia caused by needing permissions of senior managers for testing is a silly idea.
Maybe, ironically, if the NHS was more overloaded than it is, this requirement would have been dropped before now?
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
Always good to get the horticulturalist view of these things.
Blimey, Nick. I though you'd suffered a cranial event until I realised you'd messed up the block quotes.
Yes, that was a nasty moment.
I was desperately thinking of a firm but sensitive reply.
That suggests to me they think they can meet it. Deluded, perhaps?
That suggests to me that Laura is way more interested in the "gotcha" of the SoS for Health, than she is in rapidly increasing the number of tests performed.
In what way is a BBC employee responsible for "rapidly increasing the number of tests performed"?
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
Always good to get the horticulturalist view of these things.
Blimey, Nick. I though you'd suffered a cranial event until I realised you'd messed up the block quotes.
Yes, that was a nasty moment.
I was desperately thinking of a firm but sensitive reply.
Given the number of SeanTs kicking about, multiple Nick Palmers was only a matter of time.
Hancock said yesterday testing capacity was ahead of the target trajectory.
Yes - "capacity". But how to verify? This could be his escape hatch.
Well at best it buys him say a weeks breathing room. If he claims 100k capacity at the end of April and by the end of the first week of May they are still only doing say 30,000 tests, everybody will call total BS.
Agreed, and it has to be close for him to pull that off, like 85-90k actual tests.
Hancock will be fine if they really start doing that many tests, only the most partisan will be complaining he missed target, as that it basically German levels of testing.
I am not confident he stands much of a chance though, given how long it has taken to roll out 26 drive through centres and they are only promising 50.
If that figure was 500 we might get to 100k tests per day. It's not the queues so much as the distance to travel for people who need to be tested.
There are 2 problems testing NHS Staff with our drive through in Leics.
In order to be tested you need a letter from Head of Ops, Clinical Director or Head of Nursing. All rather busy people at the moment so seems unnecessarily cumbersome. We electronically record the 10% of staff currently on Covid Isolation. Simple enough to give them blanket authorisation IMO.
The second problem is that the lab results do not come back to our computer system or Occupational Health.
No wonder the capacity is under utilised. Our Trust is now reverting to testing by our own Occy Health.
That seems utterly stupid! Ideally staff should be tested on a rotation rather than needing, rather than needing permission in triplicate.
But if you don't need permission in triplicate you have just made 3 people redundant.
You are not a team player, not organisational minded etc etc....
To be fair the signature of only one of the trio is required!
I would have thought that authorising such testing is what we have an Occy Health department for...
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Yes but then you'd have thought someone in government would have responded when these companies first contacted them. As SKS said, since some are now sending kit overseas, some at least must have had it.
I'll wait and see what the official rebuttal says, but I would take a guess that five minutes of due diligence on each one says that not one of them has ever been a PPE supplier to the government previously, and that they collectively have neither any manufacturing ability nor record of importing such equipment.
They're all a bunch of chancers with no PPE to sell, who are pissed off and going to the press and opposition because the government has seen straight through them.
Dyson?
Holby City has provided more ventilators and PPE than Dyson
Why didnt the Government do due diligence and spot they were chancers and see straight through them
If only they had taken five minutes of due diligence on them and spotted that they had never been a ventilator supplier to the government previously!!
Meanwhile we have exported Millions of pieces of PPE this week as the Government E m=Mail inbox is full
Like these chain signed letters, it isn't about quality, it is quantity. So what if your letter of scientific "experts" contains lab techs and MSc students, as long as you get a big number and it is clear from the Telegraph and Guardian pieces they either aren't checking or deliberately omitting crucial information.
So what? You make it clear yourself - at the very least they're lying by omission. You might get the early headlines, but its not sustainable as a tactic.
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Yes but then you'd have thought someone in government would have responded when these companies first contacted them. As SKS said, since some are now sending kit overseas, some at least must have had it.
I'll wait and see what the official rebuttal says, but I would take a guess that five minutes of due diligence on each one says that not one of them has ever been a PPE supplier to the government previously, and that they collectively have neither any manufacturing ability nor record of importing such equipment.
They're all a bunch of chancers with no PPE to sell, who are pissed off and going to the press and opposition because the government has seen straight through them.
Dyson?
Holby City has provided more ventilators and PPE than Dyson
Why didnt the Government do due diligence and spot they were chancers and see straight through them
If only they had taken five minutes of due diligence on them and spotted that they had never been a ventilator supplier to the government previously!!
Meanwhile we have exported Millions of pieces of PPE this week as the Government E m=Mail inbox is full
They did, that's why they had other options. Ventilators is one area where things have gone well.
Starmer is very good - and frankly Raab does not give confidence
Looks like BigG could vote Labour again for the first time since Blair
At times you are just plain silly.
I support HMG but I am not sycophant and will credit responsible opposition, and right now it is needed and is a refreshing change from the Corbyn toxic year
I am not voting labour
If the government does not extend the transition period though? I can certainly see you at least voting LD
Just stop it.
I am loyal to HMG and will be voting accordingly for as long as I am still able to
My only caveat is that if Boris suddenly became a right wing devotee, or mirrored that idiot Trump, then I would not support him under any circumstances
Judge Trump on what he does not says. Idiot he certainly isn't. The alternative was far worse.
Trump is a disaster for the US and the rest of us. He must go
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
Trump is part of the problem from Covid-19 to the Climate Emergency. If the US had elected a president in 2016 who had done nothing except play golf they would have been better prepared for Coronavirus. Unfortunately Trump doesn't just play golf. As for 'business acumen' - how many times has he gone bankrupt?
Such a business man: The man who started his business off with a "small loan" of $1M from daddy, presumably about 50 years ago. That is the equivalent of $7M today. Wow, I wish my dad had only given me such a small sum to start a business
Oops, perhaps they shouldn't have been on the list in the first place.
It was a genuine question. It maybe that DoH hasn't got back to them and instead they went direct to local NHS Trusts. I have no idea. All I know is their twitter is filled with pictures of NHS (and US medical staff) wearing their kit that has been made in the UK and US.
The Labour site claims (FWIW) that the government ignored the offer of 100k face masks. I'm not taking sides in the PPE bunfight, as it's quite clear that the problems are worldwide, and while one gets the impression of muddle on the government's part, it's nowhere as clearcut as the testing issue.
The Labour site claims (FWIW) that the government ignored the offer of 100k face masks. I'm not taking sides in the PPE bunfight, as it's quite clear that the problems are worldwide, and while one gets the impression of muddle on the government's part, it's nowhere as clearcut as the testing issue.
It was a genuine question. It maybe that DoH hasn't got back to them and instead they went direct to local NHS Trusts. I have no idea. All I know is their twitter is filled with pictures of NHS (and US medical staff) wearing their kit that has been made in the UK and US.
Interesting programme from Tim Harford on R4 this morning. One interesting thought was that if you compare the working population of the UK with the NHS work group the rate of death from Corvid 19 is exactly the same. The group with the highest risk was bus workers.
I was thinking the same yesterday. There are 1.5 Million NHS workers. Dozens must die every month in normal times. The guardian - as ever - is claiming that ‘huge numbers of health workers are dying’ and when I read that I thought: bullshit
And so it is
So that we're clear. You are claiming that "dozens [of NHS workers] must die every month in normal times" from something they have contracted at work whilst doing their duties?
NHS doctor dying in a road traffic collision or of a heart attack in normal times does not equate to an NHS doctor catching a deadly disease from their patient whilst in ICU.
Disagree totally, some business acumen in politics get's results. We need it here rather than the standard Humanities graduates whose only working salary has been paid by taxpayers, or even worse lawyers. Do we want Obama/Clinton back no thanks the world suffered enough in the first carnation.
Always good to get the horticulturalist view of these things.
Blimey, Nick. I though you'd suffered a cranial event until I realised you'd messed up the block quotes.
Yes, that was a nasty moment.
I was desperately thinking of a firm but sensitive reply.
Given the number of SeanTs kicking about, multiple Nick Palmers was only a matter of time.
But you only get one at any given time. Like Doctor Who.
I think that is how it works. Hope so. I couldn't cope otherwise.
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Yes but then you'd have thought someone in government would have responded when these companies first contacted them. As SKS said, since some are now sending kit overseas, some at least must have had it.
I'll wait and see what the official rebuttal says, but I would take a guess that five minutes of due diligence on each one says that not one of them has ever been a PPE supplier to the government previously, and that they collectively have neither any manufacturing ability nor record of importing such equipment.
They're all a bunch of chancers with no PPE to sell, who are pissed off and going to the press and opposition because the government has seen straight through them.
Dyson?
Holby City has provided more ventilators and PPE than Dyson
Why didnt the Government do due diligence and spot they were chancers and see straight through them
If only they had taken five minutes of due diligence on them and spotted that they had never been a ventilator supplier to the government previously!!
Meanwhile we have exported Millions of pieces of PPE this week as the Government E m=Mail inbox is full
They did, that's why they had other options. Ventilators is one area where things have gone well.
The original supplier of ventilators were making numbers like 50 a month. So the government
1) Asked them to make all they could - Which is producing a few ventilators. 2) Got them to license their designs to F1 teams etc to make - Which is producing actual ventilators. 3) Tried to buy abroad - Got some I believe 4) Tried getting new manufacturers (not just Dyson) to make a new design. They then changed the design (government) part way through the process. Still 5) Got the F1 teams et al to make a new type of enhanced oxygen delivery device - loads made and delivered
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Yes but then you'd have thought someone in government would have responded when these companies first contacted them. As SKS said, since some are now sending kit overseas, some at least must have had it.
If you read carefully, they have been taking 100s of calls from these chancers. It seems like many just get told they will be passed on, when it looks like they are checking them out and then just parking them. I would hope the civil servant are rather busy trying to get supply from genuine factories, not very the network of spivs making crazy promises e.g. one promised 5,000 ventilators.
It is very easy to say a 3 weeks down the line when somebody claims they did actually get some masks (which we don't know if they are up to scratch).
Would you buy millions of quid of life dependent gear of some bloke who has come out of nowhere, has no track record, and no online presence at all. It would be like Chris Grayling and the ferry contract x1000.
There's no shortage of chancers ringing businesses to offer vague services in normal circumstances.
Reading the blog of the company that does appear legit, seems like they have have been working their socks off and already delivered 10,000s of face shields.
Nor is there any sign of an end. Five benchmarks were announced for relaxing the measures, the fifth of which is to prevent a second wave of infections in the autumn. But this will not be possible without continuing the lockdown until then and further wrecking the economy.
I assume someone in the Cabinet Office or the Army is going to call them one by one this afternoon, and ask how many PPE items they have in stock if we send transport for them right now?
Yes but then you'd have thought someone in government would have responded when these companies first contacted them. As SKS said, since some are now sending kit overseas, some at least must have had it.
I'll wait and see what the official rebuttal says, but I would take a guess that five minutes of due diligence on each one says that not one of them has ever been a PPE supplier to the government previously, and that they collectively have neither any manufacturing ability nor record of importing such equipment.
They're all a bunch of chancers with no PPE to sell, who are pissed off and going to the press and opposition because the government has seen straight through them.
Dyson?
Holby City has provided more ventilators and PPE than Dyson
Why didnt the Government do due diligence and spot they were chancers and see straight through them
If only they had taken five minutes of due diligence on them and spotted that they had never been a ventilator supplier to the government previously!!
Meanwhile we have exported Millions of pieces of PPE this week as the Government E m=Mail inbox is full
They were a well-known and established company, commissioned by the government to help with one of the many parallel-stream research projects into ventilators, some of which are now approved and delivering to the NHS.
Is there any source for PPE meeting NHS specifications actually being exported from the UK abroad? One of the chancers saying that another country bought what his friend of a friend of a friend of a friend who know a Chinese factory manager who could throw some unlabelled crap out of the side door, doesn't count.
Reading the blog of the company that does appear legit, seems like they have have been working their socks off and already delivered 10,000s of face shields.
Comments
Bet you wouldn't.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/21/government-had-plan-fight-pandemic-lost-nerve/
*innocent face*
https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Cut-Me-Own-Throat_Dibbler
Don't buy the sausages..
IMO, Boris is generally pretty rubbish at PMQs.
/hoaryoldgit
The money ends up with Virgin Group Ltd, based in the British Virgin Islands, and with Delta Airlines in the USA, who are the minority (51/49) shareholder.
It's politically impossible for the UK government to "Bail Out Branson", although the government will obviously support furloughed and redundant employees from the UK company.
What is interesting, is there was a hypothesis that front line healthcare workers were at a higher risk of dying, because they were having to go extremely close to patients and being exposed to "higher viral load". Thus, many younger fitter doctors / nurses were dying.
Be interesting to see if actually the data shows that isn't true. Or is it offset against all the PPE they wear. I don't know.
What I do know is that all these fast takes on it is definitely more dangerous for BAME individuals etc, appear to be fundamentally flawed, as they don't properly control for sample size, location, age, etc etc etc.
Branson should be bailed out by the government of Virgin Islands.
Take any stock and give them the address of the chaps who are flying Sunderland flying boats....
And what does your company do...erhhh...do you have a website...errhhh...and how much did you make last year....erhhh....£16k.
He should be asking his questions from his house as he's over 70.
Always good to get the horticulturalist view of these things.
Trump is a larger (in every sense) version of Alan Sugar, who has made a career out of serial failure, but strangely ending up *personally* with money out of it.
I though you'd suffered a cranial event until I realised you'd messed up the block quotes.
No comment
In order to be tested you need a letter from Head of Ops, Clinical Director or Head of Nursing. All rather busy people at the moment so seems unnecessarily cumbersome. We electronically record the 10% of staff currently on Covid Isolation. Simple enough to give them blanket authorisation IMO.
The second problem is that the lab results do not come back to our computer system or Occupational Health.
No wonder the capacity is under utilised. Our Trust is now reverting to testing by our own Occy Health.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dewi05PUBzA
Conduct unbecoming.
I would say voters who switched from Labour in 2005 to Tory in 2010 will be more likely to vote Labour or LD under Starmer than Ed Miliband
They're all a bunch of chancers with no PPE to sell, who are pissed off and going to the press and opposition because the government has seen straight through them.
Good research, would sell to again.
It is very easy to say a 3 weeks down the line when somebody claims they did actually get some masks (which we don't know if they are up to scratch).
Would you buy millions of quid of life dependent gear of some bloke who has come out of nowhere, has no track record, and no online presence at all. It would be like Chris Grayling and the ferry contract x1000.
As for 'business acumen' - how many times has he gone bankrupt?
You are not a team player, not organisational minded etc etc....
https://twitter.com/behrooz_hm/status/1252937799986102272
Hopefully that's the case, looking in from outside the inertia caused by needing permissions of senior managers for testing is a silly idea.
Maybe, ironically, if the NHS was more overloaded than it is, this requirement would have been dropped before now?
I was desperately thinking of a firm but sensitive reply.
https://www.networkmedical.co.uk/about-us/
I would have thought that authorising such testing is what we have an Occy Health department for...
Holby City has provided more ventilators and PPE than Dyson
Why didnt the Government do due diligence and spot they were chancers and see straight through them
If only they had taken five minutes of due diligence on them and spotted that they had never been a ventilator supplier to the government previously!!
Meanwhile we have exported Millions of pieces of PPE this week as the Government E m=Mail inbox is full
https://twitter.com/NetworkMedical1/status/1250392518686060544?s=20
You make it clear yourself - at the very least they're lying by omission.
You might get the early headlines, but its not sustainable as a tactic.
Those Iranian boats will be shot down like dogs.
I'm not taking sides in the PPE bunfight, as it's quite clear that the problems are worldwide, and while one gets the impression of muddle on the government's part, it's nowhere as clearcut as the testing issue.
NHS doctor dying in a road traffic collision or of a heart attack in normal times does not equate to an NHS doctor catching a deadly disease from their patient whilst in ICU.
I think that is how it works. Hope so. I couldn't cope otherwise.
1) Asked them to make all they could - Which is producing a few ventilators.
2) Got them to license their designs to F1 teams etc to make - Which is producing actual ventilators.
3) Tried to buy abroad - Got some I believe
4) Tried getting new manufacturers (not just Dyson) to make a new design. They then changed the design (government) part way through the process. Still
5) Got the F1 teams et al to make a new type of enhanced oxygen delivery device - loads made and delivered
https://innoviamedical.com/protective-equipment-production-expands-globally/
Is there any source for PPE meeting NHS specifications actually being exported from the UK abroad? One of the chancers saying that another country bought what his friend of a friend of a friend of a friend who know a Chinese factory manager who could throw some unlabelled crap out of the side door, doesn't count.