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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » If TMay hadn’t called GE2017 and lost the CON majority there w

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    isamisam Posts: 40,930
    edited May 2020
    isam said:

    kinabalu said:

    isam said:

    The Mail has been coming out all guns blazing in the run-up to VE Day:

    https://twitter.com/hannahrosewoods/status/1258345696618561538?s=21

    Two world wars and one World Cup and one Coronavirus.

    But I’m sure the pb commentariat will be along shortly to explain why this constant harking back for stolen valour is helpful in 2020.

    Yes, there will be a lot more "Two World Wars and One World Cup" being sung tomorrow than if it were a advertised as a celebration of the war ending rather than a celebration of "victory". A point I tried to make last night without much success in persuading anyone!
    Not by you, I hope. Waters would NOT approve.
    Of course not! He quoted a US President (Eisenhower) on a show I saw years ago on war casualties. Something about every death being ‘a theft’?

    Edit it was the ‘chance for peace’ Speech, and it was about the production of war machinery, not soldiers deaths
    “ Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed . . . . The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a brick school in more than thirty cities . . . . It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals . . . . We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat . . . . We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people . . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron . . . . Is there no other way the world may live?”
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    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,631
    Selebian said:

    Selebian said:

    Nigelb said:

    eadric said:

    Nigelb said:

    The use of facemasks by the general population to prevent transmission of Covid 19 infection: A systematic review.
    https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.01.20087064v1
    ...This systematic review aims to summarize the available evidence regarding the role of face mask in community settings in slowing the spread of respiratory viruses such as SARS- CoV-2. Methods The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were used for this review. A literature search using PUBMED, Google Scholar, and Cochrane database were performed using Medical subject heading (MeSH) words from the year 2000-2020. The articles focused on the use of masks and N95 respirators in healthcare workers were excluded. Results A total of 305 records were identified, out of which 14 articles were included in the review based upon quality and eligibility criteria. All the articles mentioned about the role of face masks in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses like influenza, SARS, and SARS-CoV-2, in the community or experimental setting. Studies also suggested that early initiation of face mask usage was more effective. Masks were also reported to be more effective in viruses that transmit easily from asymptomatic individuals, as is now known in SARS-CoV-2. Conclusion Theoretical, experimental, and clinical evidence suggested that usage of face masks in a general population offered significant benefit in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses especially in the pandemic situation, but its utility is limited by inconsistent adherence to mask usage.

    Of course masks work. It's the simplest, easiest way of slowing a pandemic.

    We learned this painfully during Spanish flu, when masks eventually became mandatory across the West. It is quite incredible that we are having to learn it all over again, very very slowly.
    Naturally.
    But the official line remains that we have insufficient evidence...
    Whatever the rights and wrongs of masks, as someone who had done couple of systematic reviews, supervised ten or so and marked many others (masters dissertations), the search looks, well... really quite bad. Two databases only (ok, and google scholar, but limited to top 30 results), very limited search terms (seems like you have to match 'community' or 'household') and very few results screened. For most things you expect thousands - can be fewer, but low numbers like that should ring alarm bells about a possibly bad search. Also the synthesis is pretty much non-existent. If I was marking this (at masters level) I'm not sure it would even pass.
    Rule of thumb for me is you probably want to at least be title or abstract screening a couple of thousand results, which would suggest the search strategy is awful. Just checked the search strategy. It's awful.

    Genuinely can't see that this would pass a Masters. As you say there's essentially no attempt at synthesis. But it would fail anyway because it lacks any assessment of study quality, not even basic checklist stuff.

    Also the way they've handled mathematical modelling studies is odd. It's pretty common simply to exclude them, but sensible to check how they've populated the model - if the effect of masks wasn't assigned arbitrarily, there's a chance this could lead you on to other studies that have generated relevant evidence. Arguably you could use a modelling study to estimate the effectiveness of masks from observed data (particularly if you had regional data on proportion of people who wear masks and you do some sort of Bayesian synthesis thingy to find a posterior estimate of effectiveness) so perhaps in this case a blanket "no modelling studies" wouldn't be appropriate, but the review suggests (though doesn't make clear - another failing point, as it can't even report the studies adequately!) the modellers just made arbitrary effectiveness numbers up at the individual level and wanted to see the impact at the population level.

    Anyhow a Masters fail wouldn't be too bad considering the second author is described as "Student Grade 11 IB , The Shri Ram School" (a posho Indian boarding school)...
    I was being charitable (and hadn't read as much of it as you). Not that bad for school level, I guess :wink:

    Does raise a point though, about all the stuff getting punted on to pre-pub servers. Has some utility for sharing things quickly, but people do need to be aware that some of it is really low quality. Doesn't really matter for the research community, who will pick out the obviously poor quality studies, but some pre-pubs are getting picked up in the media. The journalists and readers are probably not well equipped to judge quality.

    @Nigelb has posted several pre-pubs here (it's interesting, I like that he does it and I've no objection - most of the ones more or less in my field haven't looked too bad either) but there are some I've glanced at and thought it's not my field and I've no real idea whether the research is any good.
    Fair comment on that particular paper.
    There are relatively few available on mask wearing, and many of them are modelling exercises, but I struggle to find any that don't demonstrate some utility for public mask wearing (& all of the modelling shows that even partially effective masks make a significant difference - particularly at R levels around 1, which is relevant for post lockdown control).
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    TimTTimT Posts: 6,328

    An interesting answer from the press conference:

    Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said up to a third of people with coronavirus do not have a temperature when the illness first hits. She said: "A sizeable proportion, up to about a third of people, do not have a temperature at presentation. They may have it variably through the illness or they don’t have it."

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/may/07/uk-coronavirus-live-boris-johnson-cabinet-meeting-review-lift-lockdown-measures-latest-updates

    I was surprised that she thinks its as high as two-thirds effective.

    My conclusion from that would be the opposite of what the government or its advisers seem to have concluded: if a temperature check can detect two-thirds of cases, and those people can then be quarantined or refused boarding on a plane, then surely it's extremely useful for reducing the overall spread of the disease and particularly reducing the number of new cases introduced into the country. Of course it doesn't mean that someone without a temperature is necessarily safe, but this is all about reducing the spread, not catching every possible case, and it seems to be a fairly cheap and non-disruptive check.

    I'm with you on this one Richard. Of the 3 most prevalent symptoms, none of them are seen in all cases, most have 2 or more symptoms, but very few have all three. This is about reducing risks incrementally on multiple layers.
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    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,477
    isam said:

    isam said:

    isam said:

    @MikeSmithson @TheScreamingEagles

    How many "Dont Knows" in a poll are enough to make the results dodgy?

    Depends on the sample size and the questions.

    You'd expect higher levels of DKs/Wouldn't Says on the supplementaries as some people don't have opinions on all subjects/have no knowledge on the question.
    Current leadership ratings for Starmer

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_approval_opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election

    That's not dodgy, most people really don't know Sir Keir Starmer, for example with David Cameron's first leader ratings 52% of voters were DKs.

    For Ed Miliband it was 37%.

    For Corbyn it was 31%.
    What would you say was the the threshold for it to be not worth taking notice of in terms of cutting through with the public?

    Another question... why is Starmer thrashing Corbyn on leadership ratings, yet a few Points behind him on ‘best PM vs Boris’?
    In normal circumstances I'd say north of 60% for a few months would be not cutting through.

    As for best PM, different circumstances, you could argue this is the apotheosis of Boris Johnson's Premiership.

    Trying to counter a pandemic, his success is our success, plus he was close to death, and just become a father, people like that. Plus he is the PM, it isn't hard to imagine him as best PM as he is the PM.

    Is why satisfaction ratings are better.
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    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,631

    kinabalu said:

    86k tests...BJO incoming...

    I'll do it. It is now undeniable that the 100k was a fiddle. Sad.
    Of course it's deniable. There was latent demand that was satisfied in a peak and since then demand dropped off. Last week if you went to the website to book a test you could be told they were fully booked. Now there is still availability.

    Plus if it was a fiddle they'd just continue to fiddle it. Very lame half hearted fiddle otherwise.
    That is an absurd argument, both on its face (as has bene pointed out), and also for the simple reason that a competent government would be creating its own demand via community testing.

    Add to that the five or more days it's taking to get test results back for some people, and the spin, that the daily capacity for 100k tests definitely exists, is just ridiculous.
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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340

    DavidL said:

    kinabalu said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    We've had two re-elections because two substitute Tory leaders haven't liked the result of the previous one. But nobody was allowed to vote again on the other thing because they didn't like the result. Yay democracy!

    Anyway, we all debated the first Starmer vs Johnson PMQs yesterday. Forensic takedown vs populist bluster.

    Politically I'd say the triumph of Starmer was to force Johnson to make it up on the spot. "200k tests a day" and "big announcement Sunday" will not age well...

    Starmer really does have to play the long game here. The case is that the government is not up to the job that fate has asked it to do - both during the crisis and its aftermath. We are at the very start of the argument and he has not started badly. Right now, though, most people (quite rightly) support the lockdown and the the financial aid the government has come up with. Starmer and the Labour party do as well (quite rightly). This is about years, not weeks or months.
    The latest poll had both Labour and the Govt falling though

    MoE

    When will we be 20% ahead as forecast please?

    Who forecast that?

    The damage done to Labour's standing over the last few years has been immense. It's going to take years to mend. At least we now have a leader who may be able to go some way to doing it. You can see that in his personal ratings.
    But in early 2019 Labour was ahead!
    Yes, people do not give Johnson enough credit. The ghastly guy pulled off an utter triumph, electorally, and he has genuine appeal to lots of people. I think it's because the host of this site, plus many of the more prolific and influential participants, have a very dim view of both him AND Corbyn - thus the preferred narrative is that Johnson is crap but won a landslide because Corbyn was twice as crap. This doesn't ring true to me. It was many things, clearly, but what it mainly was was "Boris" and his all conquering message, Get Brexit Done, which played well to both Leavers and the large number of Remainers who nevertheless were sick and tired of "it" and wanted "it" done.
    Boris's greatest strength as a politician is the dogged determination that his opponents apply to underestimating him.
    Indeed. Those opponents have a bizarre, almost inexplicable superiority complex when it comes to Boris, and therefore being so comprehensively defeated by him has caused a logic error in their brains. As if being beaten by an Eton & Balliol man were somehow beneath them...
    It’s the country that is being defeated. Conservatives on here are chortling that their man is getting away with tens of thousands of avoidable deaths and rank incompetence.

    If they actually cared about the country, as opposed to indulging their tribal loyalty, they’d be incandescent with rage at how this government has let the country down. But partisanship is more important I guess.
    Is our man running France, Spain, and Italy too? The sad truth is that of the five large nations in Western Europe, four are much of a muchness when it comes to death rates both absolute and per capita.

    We are greatly underestimating how little the virus cares about the differing ideologies and personalities of the leadership in those countries - with Germany the only clear exception.
    Britain appears to be doing markedly worse than France. It had the time to learn lessons from Italy and Spain, but failed to do so.

    Conservatives, who started by wildly overpraising the government’s performance, now shrug at this astrological phenomenon.

    Perhaps you should be a bit less blue and try examining with a human intelligence.
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    noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 20,768
    Nigelb said:

    kinabalu said:

    86k tests...BJO incoming...

    I'll do it. It is now undeniable that the 100k was a fiddle. Sad.
    Of course it's deniable. There was latent demand that was satisfied in a peak and since then demand dropped off. Last week if you went to the website to book a test you could be told they were fully booked. Now there is still availability.

    Plus if it was a fiddle they'd just continue to fiddle it. Very lame half hearted fiddle otherwise.
    That is an absurd argument, both on its face (as has bene pointed out), and also for the simple reason that a competent government would be creating its own demand via community testing.

    Add to that the five or more days it's taking to get test results back for some people, and the spin, that the daily capacity for 100k tests definitely exists, is just ridiculous.
    There should be a cut off point, perhaps 48 hours in, where if the test result has not been delivered to the patient then it doesnt count. The capacity is for test track and trace, that policy doesnt work with several days delay.
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    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826


    That you still want to excuse his anti-Semitism even now makes me wonder what you have against Jews. There's no partisan need to defend him anymore.

    When the party I normally support elected a racist in Theresa 'Go Home' May I called it out. It's a shame you aren't prepared to do the same thing for Jeremy 'For The Many Not The Jew' Corbyn.

    Rochdale and I put standing up to racism above partisan politics. You put partisan politics above racism. For shame.

    As one of the many Jewish supporters of Corbyn, fuck you for using us as a way of scoring political points, for abetting genuine antisemitism by constantly crying wolf, and for having the temerity to be self-righteous about it.
    I'm not scoring political points I abhor anti-Semitism as a genuine evil racism. So screw you right back.

    There's no point scoring political points. Corbyn is ancient history now and if I wanted to score points I'd be attacking Starmer. So let me be clear: Starmer is not an anti-Semite. But it will take hard work to purge the anti-Semites that Corbyn let fester within the party - and I wish him all the best in doing so.

    There is no crying wolf. There is no point being partisan. Corbyn and many of his acolytes were vile antisemitic bigots and good riddance to that vile cancer within British politics. I hope it never returns and it's not a partisan matter in the future. Never again should we be in a position where a major party is led by such a vile racist bigot and well done to the Labour party on replacing him with someone who is not.
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    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,477
    A sneeze has made a NSW woman liable for more than $170,000 after her twin sister successfully sued her over a traffic accident.

    Budding lawyer Caitlin Douglas was on Wednesday awarded a six-figure sum by the NSW District Court after she suffered lower back pain as a result of the October 2016 crash.

    Judge Leonard Levy found the 21-year-old's future earning capacity had been reduced by $150,000 because she was unable to lift more than 10kg and would be hindered in her ability to work long hours.

    It is understood the driver was insured and the judgment amount will be paid by the insurance company.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-woman-to-pay-twin-sister-170-000-over-sneeze-20200506-p54qix.html
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    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,201

    Ave_it said:

    Ave_it said:

    So despite all.the filthy comments on here about Boris and the Govt... voting intention is unchanged. Its as well to remember that such comments are not the views of the majority.. not even all Labour voters...

    The loony left (remember them) are always the most vocal! Most people know Boris and his team are doing their best...
    I'll accept that. It's just that their best..........
    But can you imagine if it had been Corbyn, Abbott and people like that running it?!

    :anguished:
    If you recall the coup attempt of last September, the elected by a massive majority deputy leader was to be stripped of powers which were to be handed to the NEC. So lets assume that Labour won the 2019 election and Corbyn like Johnson contracted the virus doing one of his LOOK AT ME cretin clapping shows in the street. Corbyn is in ICU, leaving a designated stand-in (Pidcock) as the spokesperson for an NEC committee made up of Corbyn apparatchiks.

    Its hard to consider a worst bunch of people than the cabinet to be (badly) running the country during this pandemic. Then you remember the alternative on offer last December. Which is why the answer to the GE question was "neither".
    We will file that under Rochdale making further excuses for joining the Swinson Shit show to Campaign against Labour and then claim others dont want to win GEs
    Corbyn didn't deserve to win an election or Rochdale's vote. Rochdale deserves respect for refusing to vote for that vile racist just as I chose not to vote for Theresa "Go Home" May.
    No he doesnt deserve respect and Corbyn wasnt a vile racist either.
    That you still want to excuse his anti-Semitism even now makes me wonder what you have against Jews. There's no partisan need to defend him anymore.

    When the party I normally support elected a racist in Theresa 'Go Home' May I called it out. It's a shame you aren't prepared to do the same thing for Jeremy 'For The Many Not The Jew' Corbyn.

    Rochdale and I put standing up to racism above partisan politics. You put partisan politics above racism. For shame.
    Mrs May is no racist. It is not like she wrote hilarious 'satire', referring to water melon smiles, picanninies, bank robbers and letter boxes over the last thirty years. Hand Boris as many free passes as you wish but don't argue the stories noted were anything short of base racial stereotyping.
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    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,226
    malcolmg said:

    kinabalu said:

    86k tests...BJO incoming...

    I'll do it. It is now undeniable that the 100k was a fiddle. Sad.
    Just what you expect from the lying barstewards and the pathetic sycophancy of their pathetic cheerleaders on here is vomit inducing.
    Well, yes.
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    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,226

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    86k tests...BJO incoming...

    I'll do it. It is now undeniable that the 100k was a fiddle. Sad.
    Of course it's deniable. There was latent demand that was satisfied in a peak and since then demand dropped off. Last week if you went to the website to book a test you could be told they were fully booked. Now there is still availability.

    Plus if it was a fiddle they'd just continue to fiddle it. Very lame half hearted fiddle otherwise.
    Undeniable except by you, I meant.
    If demand isn't the issue then why is there still availability online? Why aren't they fully booked out online like last week?
    Yes - we now have unmanipulated core demand.
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    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,226
    OllyT said:

    DavidL said:

    sure, they can pay for it. They have their own separate tax system now.
    Bluntly every day the lockdown/furlough system remains in place more businesses will never open again and more jobs will be lost. It is an inevitable consequence of fixed costs and minimal income. Scotland's economy is in a parlous state already, not supporting the public sector that we think that we are entitled to. More damage to make some political point is just unacceptable.
    Boris has been stung by criticism of his initial laid-back response because I think he knows there is truth in it. He knows he took his eye off the ball when he went AWOL for the last two weeks of Feb at Chevening and he knows he could probably have avoided getting infected if he had taken distancing seriously.

    The result of that is that he is going to be ultra ultra cautious in easing the lock down.

    The combination of the two will probably result in the UK having about the worst outcome in Europe
    Yes - we could end up with the worst of both worlds.
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    BantermanBanterman Posts: 287

    DavidL said:

    kinabalu said:

    justin124 said:

    isam said:

    We've had two re-elections because two substitute Tory leaders haven't liked the result of the previous one. But nobody was allowed to vote again on the other thing because they didn't like the result. Yay democracy!

    Anyway, we all debated the first Starmer vs Johnson PMQs yesterday. Forensic takedown vs populist bluster.

    Politically I'd say the triumph of Starmer was to force Johnson to make it up on the spot. "200k tests a day" and "big announcement Sunday" will not age well...

    Starmer really does have to play the long game here. The case is that the government is not up to the job that fate has asked it to do - both during the crisis and its aftermath. We are at the very start of the argument and he has not started badly. Right now, though, most people (quite rightly) support the lockdown and the the financial aid the government has come up with. Starmer and the Labour party do as well (quite rightly). This is about years, not weeks or months.
    The latest poll had both Labour and the Govt falling though

    MoE

    When will we be 20% ahead as forecast please?

    Who forecast that?

    The damage done to Labour's standing over the last few years has been immense. It's going to take years to mend. At least we now have a leader who may be able to go some way to doing it. You can see that in his personal ratings.
    But in early 2019 Labour was ahead!
    Yes, people do not give Johnson enough credit. The ghastly guy pulled off an utter triumph, electorally, and he has genuine appeal to lots of people. I think it's because the host of this site, plus many of the more prolific and influential participants, have a very dim view of both him AND Corbyn - thus the preferred narrative is that Johnson is crap but won a landslide because Corbyn was twice as crap. This doesn't ring true to me. It was many things, clearly, but what it mainly was was "Boris" and his all conquering message, Get Brexit Done, which played well to both Leavers and the large number of Remainers who nevertheless were sick and tired of "it" and wanted "it" done.
    Boris's greatest strength as a politician is the dogged determination that his opponents apply to underestimating him.
    Indeed. Those opponents have a bizarre, almost inexplicable superiority complex when it comes to Boris, and therefore being so comprehensively defeated by him has caused a logic error in their brains. As if being beaten by an Eton & Balliol man were somehow beneath them...
    It’s the country that is being defeated. Conservatives on here are chortling that their man is getting away with tens of thousands of avoidable deaths and rank incompetence.

    If they actually cared about the country, as opposed to indulging their tribal loyalty, they’d be incandescent with rage at how this government has let the country down. But partisanship is more important I guess.
    Is our man running France, Spain, and Italy too? The sad truth is that of the five large nations in Western Europe, four are much of a muchness when it comes to death rates both absolute and per capita.

    We are greatly underestimating how little the virus cares about the differing ideologies and personalities of the leadership in those countries - with Germany the only clear exception.
    Avoidable deaths? What utter tosh. Staying under the Hong Kong flu 68/69 numbers of 80,000 will be good.

    It will take probably until 2022 to measure the actual overall impact on all countries to take account of death rates across 2020 and 2021. Average time in a care home is only 2 years anyway.
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    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,477
    edited May 2020
    Hurrah for solicitors, a good education is essential for a great start in life.

    Four families who say their children have received “little or no education” since schools in England were closed to most pupils by the coronavirus lockdown have started legal action against the government.

    Lawyers acting for the families say their intention is to sue the government over its failure to ensure access to the online learning that has largely replaced classroom teaching since March, because the four are unable to afford laptops or internet connections.

    Clare Jennings, a solicitor at Matthew Gold law firm, said the Department for Education’s scheme to provide laptops and internet access for some was restricted to only a small number of pupils, leaving many others without reliable access to online lessons.


    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/07/families-sue-government-over-little-or-no-education-for-their-children
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,284
    isam said:

    The Mail has been coming out all guns blazing in the run-up to VE Day:

    https://twitter.com/hannahrosewoods/status/1258345696618561538?s=21

    Two world wars and one World Cup and one Coronavirus.

    But I’m sure the pb commentariat will be along shortly to explain why this constant harking back for stolen valour is helpful in 2020.

    Yes, there will be a lot more "Two World Wars and One World Cup" being sung tomorrow than if it were a advertised as a celebration of the war ending rather than a celebration of "victory". A point I tried to make last night without much success in persuading anyone!
    As Henning says, I don’t remember the USA ever winning the World Cup?
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    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,668
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    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,983
    RobD said:

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    She is not a nodding donkey like Boris, we already know SAGE are stooges led and told what to do by Boris's rottwieler. She will not be led by the nose.
    Er... but that's her own scientific advisory group, not SAGE. Or has she selected her own bunch of Boris stooges?
    Er..... but did you read it turnip head, it said SAGE evidence, she obviously knows they are lickspittles for Bozo via his bagman and so has not chosen to follow their stupidity in promoting Tory propaganda even if her own diddies are too lazy to do their own evidence.
    You think the evidence presented at SAGE is made up or something?
    They have done so well so far and we know Cummings is the ring leader, Tories love YESmen. I do not trust anything from the current UK government, far too many lies and liars.
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    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,226


    That you still want to excuse his anti-Semitism even now makes me wonder what you have against Jews. There's no partisan need to defend him anymore.

    When the party I normally support elected a racist in Theresa 'Go Home' May I called it out. It's a shame you aren't prepared to do the same thing for Jeremy 'For The Many Not The Jew' Corbyn.

    Rochdale and I put standing up to racism above partisan politics. You put partisan politics above racism. For shame.

    As one of the many Jewish supporters of Corbyn, fuck you for using us as a way of scoring political points, for abetting genuine antisemitism by constantly crying wolf, and for having the temerity to be self-righteous about it.
    +1

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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,284

    On the home testing are we using royal mail or couriers?

    For test track and trace to work surely it needs to be same day couriers, ideally who wait outside the address for you to perform the test and then take it back to the lab.

    If its Royal Mail, you might report symptoms on a Friday, receive the test Monday or Tuesday, then if they are well enough venture out to the post box send it back Wednesday and end up getting the results a week after your test! That surely doesnt work at all?

    I got an offer of a test this morning. Although I would need to self certify as an essential worker to get it, which I won’t do, as I am not.

    In theory there are home tests on offer and, yes, you book a timed slot and the courier waits while you stick the swabs into your orifices and package them up ready for return,

    In practice, there aren’t any home test slots available (I went as far as that on the website, just out of curiosity) and I would have had to travel to one of the regional test sites.
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    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,687
    edited May 2020
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    She is not a nodding donkey like Boris, we already know SAGE are stooges led and told what to do by Boris's rottwieler. She will not be led by the nose.
    Er... but that's her own scientific advisory group, not SAGE. Or has she selected her own bunch of Boris stooges?
    Er..... but did you read it turnip head, it said SAGE evidence, she obviously knows they are lickspittles for Bozo via his bagman and so has not chosen to follow their stupidity in promoting Tory propaganda even if her own diddies are too lazy to do their own evidence.
    I appreciate you'r the expert on turnips but... the tweet said:

    "Nicola Sturgeon's Covid-19 scientific advisory group advised her on Monday to consider relaxing outdoor lockdown restrictions. But Scot Gov yesterday played down any relaxation over next few days after Boris Johnson's said he wanted to start easing some measures from Monday"

    It's her own fecking advisory group she's ignoring if the tweet is correct.
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    tysontyson Posts: 6,050
    Foxy said:
    I wonder why?

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    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,226
    isam said:

    isam said:

    kinabalu said:

    isam said:

    The Mail has been coming out all guns blazing in the run-up to VE Day:

    https://twitter.com/hannahrosewoods/status/1258345696618561538?s=21

    Two world wars and one World Cup and one Coronavirus.

    But I’m sure the pb commentariat will be along shortly to explain why this constant harking back for stolen valour is helpful in 2020.

    Yes, there will be a lot more "Two World Wars and One World Cup" being sung tomorrow than if it were a advertised as a celebration of the war ending rather than a celebration of "victory". A point I tried to make last night without much success in persuading anyone!
    Not by you, I hope. Waters would NOT approve.
    Of course not! He quoted a US President (Eisenhower) on a show I saw years ago on war casualties. Something about every death being ‘a theft’?

    Edit it was the ‘chance for peace’ Speech, and it was about the production of war machinery, not soldiers deaths
    “ Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed . . . . The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a brick school in more than thirty cities . . . . It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals . . . . We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat . . . . We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people . . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron . . . . Is there no other way the world may live?”
    Preach.
  • Options
    ClippPClippP Posts: 1,687
    RobD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Er..... but did you read it turnip head, it said SAGE evidence, she obviously knows they are lickspittles for Bozo via his bagman and so has not chosen to follow their stupidity in promoting Tory propaganda even if her own diddies are too lazy to do their own evidence.

    You think the evidence presented at SAGE is made up or something?
    No, it obviously must have some contact with reality. But it is then spun out of all recognition by Bozo´s bagman, as Malcolm calls him, so that it matches up with the desired outcome. In other words, the desired outcome is identified and then has the scientific evidenced shaped to steer it.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,661

    A sneeze has made a NSW woman liable for more than $170,000 after her twin sister successfully sued her over a traffic accident.

    Budding lawyer Caitlin Douglas was on Wednesday awarded a six-figure sum by the NSW District Court after she suffered lower back pain as a result of the October 2016 crash.

    Judge Leonard Levy found the 21-year-old's future earning capacity had been reduced by $150,000 because she was unable to lift more than 10kg and would be hindered in her ability to work long hours.

    It is understood the driver was insured and the judgment amount will be paid by the insurance company.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-woman-to-pay-twin-sister-170-000-over-sneeze-20200506-p54qix.html

    A world in which a sister sues her twin is really *****-up.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,983
    edited May 2020

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    She is not a nodding donkey like Boris, we already know SAGE are stooges led and told what to do by Boris's rottwieler. She will not be led by the nose.
    Er... but that's her own scientific advisory group, not SAGE. Or has she selected her own bunch of Boris stooges?
    Er..... but did you read it turnip head, it said SAGE evidence, she obviously knows they are lickspittles for Bozo via his bagman and so has not chosen to follow their stupidity in promoting Tory propaganda even if her own diddies are too lazy to do their own evidence.
    I appreciate you'r the expert on turnips but... the tweet said:

    "Nicola Sturgeon's Covid-19 scientific advisory group advised her on Monday to consider relaxing outdoor lockdown restrictions. But Scot Gov yesterday played down any relaxation over next few days after Boris Johnson's said he wanted to start easing some measures from Monday"

    It's her own fecking advisory group she's ignoring if the tweet is correct.
    If you read further than the headline , ie the rest of the very short tweet , you will be able to read that it was SAGE evidence they were showing her, go back and actually read it and not do a SUN reader special on first couple of words only.
    PS: Not up to your usual standard I am afraid.
  • Options
    Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    kinabalu said:

    Chris said:

    kinabalu said:

    R - 05 - 09

    Needs to be < 0.5 for the big unlock.

    Just garden centres for now, I'm thinking.
    Well, there's no reason to think R will decrease further unless the restrictions are actually tightened.

    What's needed is for the number of active cases to drop so that we don't immediately end up back in the same boat if R rises again. The number of new cases per day now is well above the level when the lockdown was introduced, though of course much more testing is now being done.
    I was thinking that R could drop over time as those most likely to get it get it?
    I wouldn't have thought so, assuming that it transpires that the large majority of the population haven't yet contracted the disease. OTOH, R varies considerably between settings and the value in the community at large may be being distorted by much higher R values for hospitals and especially for care homes. If a better job can be done of shielding the care homes then overall R will fall and they'll become a less potent reservoir of reinfection risk for the country at large.

    That said, whilst getting R down to as low a value as possible is clearly desirable, even if it stays static at, say, 0.8 then the total number of cases in the population at large will continue to decline towards a more manageable level. The closer R is to 1.0 the longer that process will take, but so long as R<1.0 it is a mathematical inevitability.

    My understanding of what the National Statistician said at the briefing today - and this is pretty obvious when you think about it - is that we need to think not only about the R value that we're becoming familiar with but also about prevalence, i.e. the proportion of the population that actually has the disease. If R is still 0.8 but the total number of infected persons had been ground down to a sufficiently low level then that is when it should be possible to put a lid on the disease through an effective track and trace program, which can then work to suppress R even as social distancing measures are progressively relaxed.

    This would all be very reassuring were it not for the fact that both the Government and the agencies for which it is responsible appear utterly incompetent, and not at all capable either of effectively shielding elderly care homes or of conducting an effective track and trace program. So we are all totally and irredeemably fucked.

    If my pessimism is borne out by events then the easing of lockdown, which must come because people can't live like this forever and neither can the economy, will lead to a failure of containment and a huge spike in R. Any attempt to reimpose a stricter lockdown will then fail, because a large chunk of the population will have lost both patience with and faith in the strategy and will therefore ignore it, and a tsunami wave of Covid cases will then rip through the country starting at some point between late Summer and early Autumn. We will then finish up with an economy that has been wrecked to no useful effect, Lombardy-like scenes in hospitals all over the land for months on end, and still suffer a death toll higher than the combined civilian and military body count from World War 2 anyway.

    2020: not quite as bad as 1348, but no barrel of laughs.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,969
    ClippP said:

    RobD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Er..... but did you read it turnip head, it said SAGE evidence, she obviously knows they are lickspittles for Bozo via his bagman and so has not chosen to follow their stupidity in promoting Tory propaganda even if her own diddies are too lazy to do their own evidence.

    You think the evidence presented at SAGE is made up or something?
    No, it obviously must have some contact with reality. But it is then spun out of all recognition by Bozo´s bagman, as Malcolm calls him, so that it matches up with the desired outcome. In other words, the desired outcome is identified and then has the scientific evidenced shaped to steer it.
    Yet they were reviewing the evidence, not the opinions.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,226
    rcs1000 said:

    Donald Trump's greatest weakness is that his entire Presidency revolves around trying to undo everything Obama did.

    You see it when it comes to foreign policy, you see it when it comes to healthcare. If Obama liked it, it must be terrible.

    Obamacare has brought affordable health care to tens of millions of Americans - many of then Trump supporters. Had Trump managed to repeal Obamacare then his Presidency would now be over. Mitt Romney saved President Trump.

    If Donald Trump and the Republicans want to spend the next six months arguing over the repeal of Obamacare, then they might as well just hand the keys to the White House to Joe Biden.
    Amazingly you are right. Cancelling the black man who mocked him is what it's all about.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,969
    Andy_JS said:

    A sneeze has made a NSW woman liable for more than $170,000 after her twin sister successfully sued her over a traffic accident.

    Budding lawyer Caitlin Douglas was on Wednesday awarded a six-figure sum by the NSW District Court after she suffered lower back pain as a result of the October 2016 crash.

    Judge Leonard Levy found the 21-year-old's future earning capacity had been reduced by $150,000 because she was unable to lift more than 10kg and would be hindered in her ability to work long hours.

    It is understood the driver was insured and the judgment amount will be paid by the insurance company.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-woman-to-pay-twin-sister-170-000-over-sneeze-20200506-p54qix.html

    A world in which a sister sues her twin is really *****-up.
    Looks like she isn't on the hook, her insurance company is. Suspect both are quite pleased with the outcome.
  • Options
    squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,356
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    She is not a nodding donkey like Boris, we already know SAGE are stooges led and told what to do by Boris's rottwieler. She will not be led by the nose.
    Er... but that's her own scientific advisory group, not SAGE. Or has she selected her own bunch of Boris stooges?
    Er..... but did you read it turnip head, it said SAGE evidence, she obviously knows they are lickspittles for Bozo via his bagman and so has not chosen to follow their stupidity in promoting Tory propaganda even if her own diddies are too lazy to do their own evidence.
    I appreciate you'r the expert on turnips but... the tweet said:

    "Nicola Sturgeon's Covid-19 scientific advisory group advised her on Monday to consider relaxing outdoor lockdown restrictions. But Scot Gov yesterday played down any relaxation over next few days after Boris Johnson's said he wanted to start easing some measures from Monday"

    It's her own fecking advisory group she's ignoring if the tweet is correct.
    If you read further than the headline , ie the rest of the very short tweet , you will be able to read that it was SAGE evidence they were showing her, go back and actually read it and not do a SUN reader special on first couple of words only.
    PS: Not up to your usual standard I am afraid.
    Malc you usually do a daily mirror or guardian special when criticising HMG. You just post bile.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,983
    Andy_JS said:

    A sneeze has made a NSW woman liable for more than $170,000 after her twin sister successfully sued her over a traffic accident.

    Budding lawyer Caitlin Douglas was on Wednesday awarded a six-figure sum by the NSW District Court after she suffered lower back pain as a result of the October 2016 crash.

    Judge Leonard Levy found the 21-year-old's future earning capacity had been reduced by $150,000 because she was unable to lift more than 10kg and would be hindered in her ability to work long hours.

    It is understood the driver was insured and the judgment amount will be paid by the insurance company.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-woman-to-pay-twin-sister-170-000-over-sneeze-20200506-p54qix.html

    A world in which a sister sues her twin is really *****-up.
    She was suing the insurance company really as her sister was never going to pay it, if really injured then perfectly acceptable.
  • Options
    malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 41,983
    edited May 2020

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    She is not a nodding donkey like Boris, we already know SAGE are stooges led and told what to do by Boris's rottwieler. She will not be led by the nose.
    Er... but that's her own scientific advisory group, not SAGE. Or has she selected her own bunch of Boris stooges?
    Er..... but did you read it turnip head, it said SAGE evidence, she obviously knows they are lickspittles for Bozo via his bagman and so has not chosen to follow their stupidity in promoting Tory propaganda even if her own diddies are too lazy to do their own evidence.
    I appreciate you'r the expert on turnips but... the tweet said:

    "Nicola Sturgeon's Covid-19 scientific advisory group advised her on Monday to consider relaxing outdoor lockdown restrictions. But Scot Gov yesterday played down any relaxation over next few days after Boris Johnson's said he wanted to start easing some measures from Monday"

    It's her own fecking advisory group she's ignoring if the tweet is correct.
    If you read further than the headline , ie the rest of the very short tweet , you will be able to read that it was SAGE evidence they were showing her, go back and actually read it and not do a SUN reader special on first couple of words only.
    PS: Not up to your usual standard I am afraid.
    Malc you usually do a daily mirror or guardian special when criticising HMG. You just post bile.
    You just spout bovine excrement, do you deny any of my posts are untrue.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,284
    Our council has just opened an online booking system for visiting the council tip, which is expected to reopen once Bozo has done his turn on Sunday. The first available slot is currently 18 May, and you can only book once a fortnight.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    RobD said:

    Andy_JS said:

    A sneeze has made a NSW woman liable for more than $170,000 after her twin sister successfully sued her over a traffic accident.

    Budding lawyer Caitlin Douglas was on Wednesday awarded a six-figure sum by the NSW District Court after she suffered lower back pain as a result of the October 2016 crash.

    Judge Leonard Levy found the 21-year-old's future earning capacity had been reduced by $150,000 because she was unable to lift more than 10kg and would be hindered in her ability to work long hours.

    It is understood the driver was insured and the judgment amount will be paid by the insurance company.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-woman-to-pay-twin-sister-170-000-over-sneeze-20200506-p54qix.html

    A world in which a sister sues her twin is really *****-up.
    Looks like she isn't on the hook, her insurance company is. Suspect both are quite pleased with the outcome.
    Indeed and if she's seriously hurt then that is what insurance is there for.
  • Options
    IanB2 said:

    Our council has just opened an online booking system for visiting the council tip, which is expected to reopen once Bozo has done his turn on Sunday. The first available slot is currently 18 May, and you can only book once a fortnight.

    They've been open in Manc for a week or so.

    No need for anything on Sunday to allow that elsewhere presumably.
  • Options
    TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 114,477
    IanB2 said:

    Our council has just opened an online booking system for visiting the council tip, which is expected to reopen once Bozo has done his turn on Sunday. The first available slot is currently 18 May, and you can only book once a fortnight.

    Which council is that?

    You don't have to reply if you don't wish to give away your location.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Ave_it said:

    Ave_it said:

    So despite all.the filthy comments on here about Boris and the Govt... voting intention is unchanged. Its as well to remember that such comments are not the views of the majority.. not even all Labour voters...

    The loony left (remember them) are always the most vocal! Most people know Boris and his team are doing their best...
    I'll accept that. It's just that their best..........
    But can you imagine if it had been Corbyn, Abbott and people like that running it?!

    :anguished:
    If you recall the coup attempt of last September, the elected by a massive majority deputy leader was to be stripped of powers which were to be handed to the NEC. So lets assume that Labour won the 2019 election and Corbyn like Johnson contracted the virus doing one of his LOOK AT ME cretin clapping shows in the street. Corbyn is in ICU, leaving a designated stand-in (Pidcock) as the spokesperson for an NEC committee made up of Corbyn apparatchiks.

    Its hard to consider a worst bunch of people than the cabinet to be (badly) running the country during this pandemic. Then you remember the alternative on offer last December. Which is why the answer to the GE question was "neither".
    We will file that under Rochdale making further excuses for joining the Swinson Shit show to Campaign against Labour and then claim others dont want to win GEs
    Corbyn didn't deserve to win an election or Rochdale's vote. Rochdale deserves respect for refusing to vote for that vile racist just as I chose not to vote for Theresa "Go Home" May.
    No he doesnt deserve respect and Corbyn wasnt a vile racist either.
    That you still want to excuse his anti-Semitism even now makes me wonder what you have against Jews. There's no partisan need to defend him anymore.

    When the party I normally support elected a racist in Theresa 'Go Home' May I called it out. It's a shame you aren't prepared to do the same thing for Jeremy 'For The Many Not The Jew' Corbyn.

    Rochdale and I put standing up to racism above partisan politics. You put partisan politics above racism. For shame.
    Mrs May is no racist. It is not like she wrote hilarious 'satire', referring to water melon smiles, picanninies, bank robbers and letter boxes over the last thirty years. Hand Boris as many free passes as you wish but don't argue the stories noted were anything short of base racial stereotyping.
    Some of his language in the past, even as satire, I don't find appropriate.

    But what race makes up bank robbers and letterboxes? I know of no bank robber race.
  • Options
    EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,976
    malcolmg said:

    Andy_JS said:

    A sneeze has made a NSW woman liable for more than $170,000 after her twin sister successfully sued her over a traffic accident.

    Budding lawyer Caitlin Douglas was on Wednesday awarded a six-figure sum by the NSW District Court after she suffered lower back pain as a result of the October 2016 crash.

    Judge Leonard Levy found the 21-year-old's future earning capacity had been reduced by $150,000 because she was unable to lift more than 10kg and would be hindered in her ability to work long hours.

    It is understood the driver was insured and the judgment amount will be paid by the insurance company.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-woman-to-pay-twin-sister-170-000-over-sneeze-20200506-p54qix.html

    A world in which a sister sues her twin is really *****-up.
    She was suing the insurance company really as her sister was never going to pay it, if really injured then perfectly acceptable.
    Correct. The headline is nonsense; the driver was probably furious that her insurers initially refused to pay out for her sister's loss of earnings. The insurer would have been the one defending the action and would likely not have consulted the policyholder before they did so.
  • Options
    logical_songlogical_song Posts: 9,721

    Ave_it said:

    Ave_it said:

    So despite all.the filthy comments on here about Boris and the Govt... voting intention is unchanged. Its as well to remember that such comments are not the views of the majority.. not even all Labour voters...

    The loony left (remember them) are always the most vocal! Most people know Boris and his team are doing their best...
    I'll accept that. It's just that their best..........
    But can you imagine if it had been Corbyn, Abbott and people like that running it?!

    :anguished:
    If you recall the coup attempt of last September, the elected by a massive majority deputy leader was to be stripped of powers which were to be handed to the NEC. So lets assume that Labour won the 2019 election and Corbyn like Johnson contracted the virus doing one of his LOOK AT ME cretin clapping shows in the street. Corbyn is in ICU, leaving a designated stand-in (Pidcock) as the spokesperson for an NEC committee made up of Corbyn apparatchiks.

    Its hard to consider a worst bunch of people than the cabinet to be (badly) running the country during this pandemic. Then you remember the alternative on offer last December. Which is why the answer to the GE question was "neither".
    We will file that under Rochdale making further excuses for joining the Swinson Shit show to Campaign against Labour and then claim others dont want to win GEs
    Corbyn didn't deserve to win an election or Rochdale's vote. Rochdale deserves respect for refusing to vote for that vile racist just as I chose not to vote for Theresa "Go Home" May.
    No he doesnt deserve respect and Corbyn wasnt a vile racist either.
    That you still want to excuse his anti-Semitism even now makes me wonder what you have against Jews. There's no partisan need to defend him anymore.

    When the party I normally support elected a racist in Theresa 'Go Home' May I called it out. It's a shame you aren't prepared to do the same thing for Jeremy 'For The Many Not The Jew' Corbyn.

    Rochdale and I put standing up to racism above partisan politics. You put partisan politics above racism. For shame.
    Mrs May is no racist. It is not like she wrote hilarious 'satire', referring to water melon smiles, picanninies, bank robbers and letter boxes over the last thirty years. Hand Boris as many free passes as you wish but don't argue the stories noted were anything short of base racial stereotyping.
    Some of his language in the past, even as satire, I don't find appropriate.

    But what race makes up bank robbers and letterboxes? I know of no bank robber race.
    But which section of the public dresses in a way that could be compared to letterboxes?
    Church of England?
  • Options
    AndrewAndrew Posts: 2,900
    Guessing we're going to see a lot more of this:

    https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1258453585823764487
  • Options
    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,627
    Just tried to start our car. No joy. Leaving it for over a fortnight not a good idea.

    Good job we've got a charger.

    Not that we are planning a journey, it is just to have it available in case of emergency.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,929

    IanB2 said:

    Our council has just opened an online booking system for visiting the council tip, which is expected to reopen once Bozo has done his turn on Sunday. The first available slot is currently 18 May, and you can only book once a fortnight.

    Which council is that?

    You don't have to reply if you don't wish to give away your location.
    Isle of Wight. Test ground for the app..
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,929

    Just tried to start our car. No joy. Leaving it for over a fortnight not a good idea.

    Good job we've got a charger.

    Not that we are planning a journey, it is just to have it available in case of emergency.

    Thanks just reminded me I haven't turned mine over for a while. All good.
  • Options
    squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,356
    Pulpstar said:

    Just tried to start our car. No joy. Leaving it for over a fortnight not a good idea.

    Good job we've got a charger.

    Not that we are planning a journey, it is just to have it available in case of emergency.

    Thanks just reminded me I haven't turned mine over for a while. All good.
    Be careful what charger you use if you have a smart battery. Check it is compatible first.
  • Options
    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,627
    Foxy said:
    The public has no time for wishy-washy hand-wringing liberals.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,284
    edited May 2020

    IanB2 said:

    Our council has just opened an online booking system for visiting the council tip, which is expected to reopen once Bozo has done his turn on Sunday. The first available slot is currently 18 May, and you can only book once a fortnight.

    Which council is that?

    You don't have to reply if you don't wish to give away your location.
    Wot he said

    An afternoon in the garden and the App hasn’t given me any alerts. Mind you, the phone was in the house.
  • Options
    tysontyson Posts: 6,050
    Can I ask what has happened to Roger?
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,898
    I knew she was famous for opening her mouth wide, but...
  • Options
    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,627

    Pulpstar said:

    Just tried to start our car. No joy. Leaving it for over a fortnight not a good idea.

    Good job we've got a charger.

    Not that we are planning a journey, it is just to have it available in case of emergency.

    Thanks just reminded me I haven't turned mine over for a while. All good.
    Be careful what charger you use if you have a smart battery. Check it is compatible first.
    What's a smart battery?

    Is that what hybrids have?
  • Options
    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340

    IanB2 said:

    Our council has just opened an online booking system for visiting the council tip, which is expected to reopen once Bozo has done his turn on Sunday. The first available slot is currently 18 May, and you can only book once a fortnight.

    Which council is that?

    You don't have to reply if you don't wish to give away your location.
    Norfolk is reopening its tips. (Meanwhile Colchester is furloughing some of its staff.)
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 40,930

    isam said:

    isam said:

    isam said:

    @MikeSmithson @TheScreamingEagles

    How many "Dont Knows" in a poll are enough to make the results dodgy?

    Depends on the sample size and the questions.

    You'd expect higher levels of DKs/Wouldn't Says on the supplementaries as some people don't have opinions on all subjects/have no knowledge on the question.
    Current leadership ratings for Starmer

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership_approval_opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election

    That's not dodgy, most people really don't know Sir Keir Starmer, for example with David Cameron's first leader ratings 52% of voters were DKs.

    For Ed Miliband it was 37%.

    For Corbyn it was 31%.
    What would you say was the the threshold for it to be not worth taking notice of in terms of cutting through with the public?

    Another question... why is Starmer thrashing Corbyn on leadership ratings, yet a few Points behind him on ‘best PM vs Boris’?
    In normal circumstances I'd say north of 60% for a few months would be not cutting through.

    As for best PM, different circumstances, you could argue this is the apotheosis of Boris Johnson's Premiership.

    Trying to counter a pandemic, his success is our success, plus he was close to death, and just become a father, people like that. Plus he is the PM, it isn't hard to imagine him as best PM as he is the PM.

    Is why satisfaction ratings are better.
    Still rather strange to me that Starmer is beating Corbyns leader ratings by 50 points, but further behind Johnson. The polls were before the baby was born.

    Thanks anyway
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Ave_it said:

    Ave_it said:

    So despite all.the filthy comments on here about Boris and the Govt... voting intention is unchanged. Its as well to remember that such comments are not the views of the majority.. not even all Labour voters...

    The loony left (remember them) are always the most vocal! Most people know Boris and his team are doing their best...
    I'll accept that. It's just that their best..........
    But can you imagine if it had been Corbyn, Abbott and people like that running it?!

    :anguished:
    If you recall the coup attempt of last September, the elected by a massive majority deputy leader was to be stripped of powers which were to be handed to the NEC. So lets assume that Labour won the 2019 election and Corbyn like Johnson contracted the virus doing one of his LOOK AT ME cretin clapping shows in the street. Corbyn is in ICU, leaving a designated stand-in (Pidcock) as the spokesperson for an NEC committee made up of Corbyn apparatchiks.

    Its hard to consider a worst bunch of people than the cabinet to be (badly) running the country during this pandemic. Then you remember the alternative on offer last December. Which is why the answer to the GE question was "neither".
    We will file that under Rochdale making further excuses for joining the Swinson Shit show to Campaign against Labour and then claim others dont want to win GEs
    Corbyn didn't deserve to win an election or Rochdale's vote. Rochdale deserves respect for refusing to vote for that vile racist just as I chose not to vote for Theresa "Go Home" May.
    No he doesnt deserve respect and Corbyn wasnt a vile racist either.
    That you still want to excuse his anti-Semitism even now makes me wonder what you have against Jews. There's no partisan need to defend him anymore.

    When the party I normally support elected a racist in Theresa 'Go Home' May I called it out. It's a shame you aren't prepared to do the same thing for Jeremy 'For The Many Not The Jew' Corbyn.

    Rochdale and I put standing up to racism above partisan politics. You put partisan politics above racism. For shame.
    Mrs May is no racist. It is not like she wrote hilarious 'satire', referring to water melon smiles, picanninies, bank robbers and letter boxes over the last thirty years. Hand Boris as many free passes as you wish but don't argue the stories noted were anything short of base racial stereotyping.
    Some of his language in the past, even as satire, I don't find appropriate.

    But what race makes up bank robbers and letterboxes? I know of no bank robber race.
    But which section of the public dresses in a way that could be compared to letterboxes?
    Church of England?
    Oppressive misogynistic cultural cultists. No race.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    Andrew said:

    Guessing we're going to see a lot more of this:

    https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1258453585823764487

    If Biden had even 1% worth of input into that then it would be huge news. His campaign team will be effective, but he is going to be a terrible POTUS. He only looks acceptable because of who does it now.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    MaxPB said:

    Andrew said:

    Guessing we're going to see a lot more of this:

    https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1258453585823764487

    If Biden had even 1% worth of input into that then it would be huge news. His campaign team will be effective, but he is going to be a terrible POTUS. He only looks acceptable because of who does it now.
    He doesn't look acceptable but the incumbent is worse. Truly an awful choice.
  • Options
    OllyTOllyT Posts: 4,913
    tyson said:

    Can I ask what has happened to Roger?

    I was wondering that too. Hope he is OK. His posts were OTT but usually raised a laugh.
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,284
    Sandpit said:

    I knew she was famous for opening her mouth wide, but...
    Truncated titles are dangerous. I saw one recently that read “Covidvirus puts an end to normal fun....” which turned out to be about funerals.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,898
    Ooh, this should be a fun watch - Joe Rogan vs Elon Musk, Part II
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcYjXbSJBN8
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    isamisam Posts: 40,930
    edited May 2020
    A song I find very moving: ‘When The Tigers Broke Free’ by Pink Floyd, about the death of Roger Waters Dad in Anzio 1944 when RW was less than a year old. Eric Waters had only joined up a few months beforehand, having been a conscientious objector for most of the war.

    “It was just before dawn one miserable morning in black forty-four
    When the forward commander was told to sit tight when he asked that his men be withdrawn
    And the generals gave thanks as the other ranks held back the enemy tanks for a while
    And the Anzio Bridgehead was held for the price of a few hundred ordinary lives

    And kind old King George sent mother a note when he heard that father was gone
    It was, I recall, in the form of a scroll with gold leaf and all
    And I found it one day in a drawer of old photographs, hidden away
    And my eyes still grow damp to remember his majesty signed with his own rubber stamp

    It was dark all around, there was frost in the ground when the tigers broke free
    And no one survived from the Royal Fusiliers Company C
    They were all left behind most of them dead, the rest of them dying
    And that's how the High Command took my daddy from me”


    https://youtu.be/YKfwwlEcowk
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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    IanB2 said:

    Sandpit said:

    I knew she was famous for opening her mouth wide, but...
    Truncated titles are dangerous. I saw one recently that read “Covidvirus puts an end to normal fun....” which turned out to be about funerals.
    Professor Fergusson can confirm the truncated version too.
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    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,627
    IanB2 said:

    Sandpit said:

    I knew she was famous for opening her mouth wide, but...
    Truncated titles are dangerous. I saw one recently that read “Covidvirus puts an end to normal fun....” which turned out to be about funerals.
    When I was at Uni, students on the American Studies course had this truncated to American Stud.
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    stodgestodge Posts: 12,857
    Evening all :)

    I'm of the view May would have easily seen off Corbyn in a 2020 election assuming the WA had gone through the Commons and we were well advanced on an FTA deal.

    She would not have been able to breach the "red wall" to the extent Johnson did but I could still imagine a 30-40 seat majority with a better LD performance given Corbyn looking unlikely to be Prime Minister.

    Perhaps interesting to speculating on a post election May Cabinet and whether she would serve a full term as Prime Minister.
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,284
    Anecdotal evidence that islanders are happier to be out and about now that we are ‘protected’ by the government’s super-app:

    Are there more Islanders out and about after Contact Tracing App launch? Some say so

    https://onthewight.com/are-there-more-islanders-out-and-about-after-contact-tracing-app-launch-some-say-so/

    I saw a lot more people out and about today, but assumed it was the weather.
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    AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    Just off the phone to my mum. To my surprise she raised VE Day and how she felt far too much was made of it. “It’s the younger ones who are bothered about it. The ones who were actually there don’t want a fuss.”

    Of all my pb headers that’s the one where I thought I’d be most out of tune with my mum about. It just goes to show that those you love can still surprise you after more than 50 years.
  • Options
    AndrewAndrew Posts: 2,900
    Ahh, 8pm, time for the out-of-tune bagpiper.
  • Options
    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,627
    One minute's banging is all I can manage.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,661
    Clapping the same as usual here.
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    ukpaulukpaul Posts: 649
    edited May 2020
    Gets louder each week, a couple of minutes of non stop fireworks, horns, applause, improvised percussion, dogs barking at fireworks. Sound ringing all around the valley. We didn’t get the rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone like last week, though!
  • Options
    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,627
    I'm sure those with a Sky News camera pointing at them feel obliged to keep clapping way longer than the rest of the nation.
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    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,190
    edited May 2020

    Just off the phone to my mum. To my surprise she raised VE Day and how she felt far too much was made of it. “It’s the younger ones who are bothered about it. The ones who were actually there don’t want a fuss.”

    Of all my pb headers that’s the one where I thought I’d be most out of tune with my mum about. It just goes to show that those you love can still surprise you after more than 50 years.

    Other than the Mail and the BBC, who really is that bothered about it? That Monday wasn't a bank holiday came as a bit of a shock to some of my colleagues when this was pointed out to them last week.

    EDIT: I was only a kid in 1995, but it seemed like quite a big deal back then.
  • Options
    isamisam Posts: 40,930
    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    I'm of the view May would have easily seen off Corbyn in a 2020 election assuming the WA had gone through the Commons and we were well advanced on an FTA deal.

    She would not have been able to breach the "red wall" to the extent Johnson did but I could still imagine a 30-40 seat majority with a better LD performance given Corbyn looking unlikely to be Prime Minister.

    Perhaps interesting to speculating on a post election May Cabinet and whether she would serve a full term as Prime Minister.

    I’ve just learned he was beating her on ‘best PM’ polling by the end
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,661
    tyson said:

    Can I ask what has happened to Roger?

    Hope he's okay. Always enjoyed reading his posts.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,929
    IanB2 said:

    Anecdotal evidence that islanders are happier to be out and about now that we are ‘protected’ by the government’s super-app:

    Are there more Islanders out and about after Contact Tracing App launch? Some say so

    https://onthewight.com/are-there-more-islanders-out-and-about-after-contact-tracing-app-launch-some-say-so/

    I saw a lot more people out and about today, but assumed it was the weather.

    Doesn't the Gov't need to lift the restrictions specifically on the IoW a bit to test out the app properly ?
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,284
    edited May 2020

    One minute's banging is all I can manage.

    Really you should be outside showing your appreciation for our carers.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,284
    Pulpstar said:

    IanB2 said:

    Anecdotal evidence that islanders are happier to be out and about now that we are ‘protected’ by the government’s super-app:

    Are there more Islanders out and about after Contact Tracing App launch? Some say so

    https://onthewight.com/are-there-more-islanders-out-and-about-after-contact-tracing-app-launch-some-say-so/

    I saw a lot more people out and about today, but assumed it was the weather.

    Doesn't the Gov't need to lift the restrictions specifically on the IoW a bit to test out the app properly ?
    Our cafes are certainly expecting to be able to open their outdoor tables on Monday.

    Just as it turns cold again.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285
    WeChat surveils international accounts to decide what to censor for Chinese users, study says

    https://www.scmp.com/tech/apps-social/article/3083230/wechat-surveils-international-accounts-decide-what-censor-chinese
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,226
    Andy_JS said:

    Clapping the same as usual here.

    Absolute racket here. Gets wilder every week. Think I could hear a bassoon.
  • Options
    stodgestodge Posts: 12,857
    isam said:

    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    I'm of the view May would have easily seen off Corbyn in a 2020 election assuming the WA had gone through the Commons and we were well advanced on an FTA deal.

    She would not have been able to breach the "red wall" to the extent Johnson did but I could still imagine a 30-40 seat majority with a better LD performance given Corbyn looking unlikely to be Prime Minister.

    Perhaps interesting to speculating on a post election May Cabinet and whether she would serve a full term as Prime Minister.

    I’ve just learned he was beating her on ‘best PM’ polling by the end
    That was in 2017 - would the 2020 campaign have been the same? History rarely repeats itself except first as tragedy and then as farce.

    May, like Thatcher, lost the confidence of the Parliamentary Party and that was the end for her.

  • Options
    justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    tlg86 said:

    Just off the phone to my mum. To my surprise she raised VE Day and how she felt far too much was made of it. “It’s the younger ones who are bothered about it. The ones who were actually there don’t want a fuss.”

    Of all my pb headers that’s the one where I thought I’d be most out of tune with my mum about. It just goes to show that those you love can still surprise you after more than 50 years.

    Other than the Mail and the BBC, who really is that bothered about it? That Monday wasn't a bank holiday came as a bit of a shock to some of my colleagues when this was pointed out to them last week.

    EDIT: I was only a kid in 1995, but it seemed like quite a big deal back then.
    Oddly enough I do not recall any commemoration in 1970 on the 25th anniversary of VE Day - nor indeed in June 1969 on 25th anniversary of D Day.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,929
    IanB2 said:

    One minute's banging is all I can manage.

    Really you should be outside showing your appreciation for our carers.
    Maybe he is
  • Options
    justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527
    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Clapping the same as usual here.

    Absolute racket here. Gets wilder every week. Think I could hear a bassoon.
    Quieter here this week.
  • Options
    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    WeChat surveils international accounts to decide what to censor for Chinese users, study says

    https://www.scmp.com/tech/apps-social/article/3083230/wechat-surveils-international-accounts-decide-what-censor-chinese

    Duh, is all I can say to that. Of course it does.
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    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,226

    Ave_it said:

    Ave_it said:

    So despite all.the filthy comments on here about Boris and the Govt... voting intention is unchanged. Its as well to remember that such comments are not the views of the majority.. not even all Labour voters...

    The loony left (remember them) are always the most vocal! Most people know Boris and his team are doing their best...
    I'll accept that. It's just that their best..........
    But can you imagine if it had been Corbyn, Abbott and people like that running it?!

    :anguished:
    If you recall the coup attempt of last September, the elected by a massive majority deputy leader was to be stripped of powers which were to be handed to the NEC. So lets assume that Labour won the 2019 election and Corbyn like Johnson contracted the virus doing one of his LOOK AT ME cretin clapping shows in the street. Corbyn is in ICU, leaving a designated stand-in (Pidcock) as the spokesperson for an NEC committee made up of Corbyn apparatchiks.

    Its hard to consider a worst bunch of people than the cabinet to be (badly) running the country during this pandemic. Then you remember the alternative on offer last December. Which is why the answer to the GE question was "neither".
    We will file that under Rochdale making further excuses for joining the Swinson Shit show to Campaign against Labour and then claim others dont want to win GEs
    Corbyn didn't deserve to win an election or Rochdale's vote. Rochdale deserves respect for refusing to vote for that vile racist just as I chose not to vote for Theresa "Go Home" May.
    No he doesnt deserve respect and Corbyn wasnt a vile racist either.
    That you still want to excuse his anti-Semitism even now makes me wonder what you have against Jews. There's no partisan need to defend him anymore.

    When the party I normally support elected a racist in Theresa 'Go Home' May I called it out. It's a shame you aren't prepared to do the same thing for Jeremy 'For The Many Not The Jew' Corbyn.

    Rochdale and I put standing up to racism above partisan politics. You put partisan politics above racism. For shame.
    Mrs May is no racist. It is not like she wrote hilarious 'satire', referring to water melon smiles, picanninies, bank robbers and letter boxes over the last thirty years. Hand Boris as many free passes as you wish but don't argue the stories noted were anything short of base racial stereotyping.
    Some of his language in the past, even as satire, I don't find appropriate.

    But what race makes up bank robbers and letterboxes? I know of no bank robber race.
    But which section of the public dresses in a way that could be compared to letterboxes?
    Church of England?
    Oppressive misogynistic cultural cultists. No race.
    We need to talk about this at some point.
  • Options
    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    That's in relation to the Justice Department dropping the case against Michael Flynn for a crime he's admitted to.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    edited May 2020
    kinabalu said:

    Ave_it said:

    Ave_it said:

    So despite all.the filthy comments on here about Boris and the Govt... voting intention is unchanged. Its as well to remember that such comments are not the views of the majority.. not even all Labour voters...

    The loony left (remember them) are always the most vocal! Most people know Boris and his team are doing their best...
    I'll accept that. It's just that their best..........
    But can you imagine if it had been Corbyn, Abbott and people like that running it?!

    :anguished:
    If you recall the coup attempt of last September, the elected by a massive majority deputy leader was to be stripped of powers which were to be handed to the NEC. So lets assume that Labour won the 2019 election and Corbyn like Johnson contracted the virus doing one of his LOOK AT ME cretin clapping shows in the street. Corbyn is in ICU, leaving a designated stand-in (Pidcock) as the spokesperson for an NEC committee made up of Corbyn apparatchiks.

    Its hard to consider a worst bunch of people than the cabinet to be (badly) running the country during this pandemic. Then you remember the alternative on offer last December. Which is why the answer to the GE question was "neither".
    We will file that under Rochdale making further excuses for joining the Swinson Shit show to Campaign against Labour and then claim others dont want to win GEs
    Corbyn didn't deserve to win an election or Rochdale's vote. Rochdale deserves respect for refusing to vote for that vile racist just as I chose not to vote for Theresa "Go Home" May.
    No he doesnt deserve respect and Corbyn wasnt a vile racist either.
    That you still want to excuse his anti-Semitism even now makes me wonder what you have against Jews. There's no partisan need to defend him anymore.

    When the party I normally support elected a racist in Theresa 'Go Home' May I called it out. It's a shame you aren't prepared to do the same thing for Jeremy 'For The Many Not The Jew' Corbyn.

    Rochdale and I put standing up to racism above partisan politics. You put partisan politics above racism. For shame.
    Mrs May is no racist. It is not like she wrote hilarious 'satire', referring to water melon smiles, picanninies, bank robbers and letter boxes over the last thirty years. Hand Boris as many free passes as you wish but don't argue the stories noted were anything short of base racial stereotyping.
    Some of his language in the past, even as satire, I don't find appropriate.

    But what race makes up bank robbers and letterboxes? I know of no bank robber race.
    But which section of the public dresses in a way that could be compared to letterboxes?
    Church of England?
    Oppressive misogynistic cultural cultists. No race.
    We need to talk about this at some point.
    Any time. I'm an equal opportunities opponent of proponents of Sky Fairies who think they have the right to oppress women, gays or anyone else.

    Or atheists who think it too to be fair.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,929
    I didn't head out to clap at 8, but I did applaud the ambulance that passed me on my run. Also there was a huge A400M Atlas circling about overhead !
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,255
    justin124 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Clapping the same as usual here.

    Absolute racket here. Gets wilder every week. Think I could hear a bassoon.
    Quieter here this week.
    Couple of houses didn't come out here. I almost forgot. A factor of not really knowing which day of the week it is these days.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,255
    justin124 said:

    tlg86 said:

    Just off the phone to my mum. To my surprise she raised VE Day and how she felt far too much was made of it. “It’s the younger ones who are bothered about it. The ones who were actually there don’t want a fuss.”

    Of all my pb headers that’s the one where I thought I’d be most out of tune with my mum about. It just goes to show that those you love can still surprise you after more than 50 years.

    Other than the Mail and the BBC, who really is that bothered about it? That Monday wasn't a bank holiday came as a bit of a shock to some of my colleagues when this was pointed out to them last week.

    EDIT: I was only a kid in 1995, but it seemed like quite a big deal back then.
    Oddly enough I do not recall any commemoration in 1970 on the 25th anniversary of VE Day - nor indeed in June 1969 on 25th anniversary of D Day.
    Me neither.
  • Options
    FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,285

    justin124 said:

    kinabalu said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Clapping the same as usual here.

    Absolute racket here. Gets wilder every week. Think I could hear a bassoon.
    Quieter here this week.
    Couple of houses didn't come out here. I almost forgot. A factor of not really knowing which day of the week it is these days.
    With the lack of sport, makes it much harder. But the human cock fighters are back this weekend, with 3 cards in 7 days, cos to be honest the damage they inflict on one another is rather more than dangers of coronavirus to super fit fighters. Then of course we all have to pick a bundesliga team!.
  • Options
    RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 27,247
    There isn't any whataboutery with racism - its wrong. I was a member of the Labour Party when a passive anti-semite rose to the leadership and gave succour to active anti-semites. I could not condone or excuse the disgrace that was Corbynism by saying "ah but whatabout the Tories". There is much that I find disgusting in the Tory party and racism is part of it.

    But I wasn't a Tory. I wasn't associating myself with their racism. I WAS associated with Corbyn, and that I could n longer tolerate. Chanting foamers like BJO on one side and HYUFD on the other side will excuse everything on their own side and excuse nothing on the other side. If that works for their own personal morality thats their call. I couldn't look myself in the mirror any longer.

    My final straw was the mandatory anti-semitism training the Labour Party insisted upon. We met as a CLP. I read the definition of anti-semitism as issued by the party complete with forward by Corbyn, then looked at the images of Corbynb marching behind and posing for pictures with banners that he defines as anti-semitism. And listed to mouth foamers get angry with anyone citing evidence of it. So I walked.

    Me refusing to be associated with racism in my own party does not condone or excuse the racism in other parties. But something about splinters and planks is relevant before whataboutery is deployed...
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    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,627
    Pulpstar said:

    I didn't head out to clap at 8, but I did applaud the ambulance that passed me on my run. Also there was a huge A400M Atlas circling about overhead !

    Saw an A400M doing figures of 8 over Leeds Bradford earlier. First thing I've seen in the vicinity for several weeks.
  • Options
    justin124justin124 Posts: 11,527

    justin124 said:

    tlg86 said:

    Just off the phone to my mum. To my surprise she raised VE Day and how she felt far too much was made of it. “It’s the younger ones who are bothered about it. The ones who were actually there don’t want a fuss.”

    Of all my pb headers that’s the one where I thought I’d be most out of tune with my mum about. It just goes to show that those you love can still surprise you after more than 50 years.

    Other than the Mail and the BBC, who really is that bothered about it? That Monday wasn't a bank holiday came as a bit of a shock to some of my colleagues when this was pointed out to them last week.

    EDIT: I was only a kid in 1995, but it seemed like quite a big deal back then.
    Oddly enough I do not recall any commemoration in 1970 on the 25th anniversary of VE Day - nor indeed in June 1969 on 25th anniversary of D Day.
    Me neither.

    justin124 said:

    tlg86 said:

    Just off the phone to my mum. To my surprise she raised VE Day and how she felt far too much was made of it. “It’s the younger ones who are bothered about it. The ones who were actually there don’t want a fuss.”

    Of all my pb headers that’s the one where I thought I’d be most out of tune with my mum about. It just goes to show that those you love can still surprise you after more than 50 years.

    Other than the Mail and the BBC, who really is that bothered about it? That Monday wasn't a bank holiday came as a bit of a shock to some of my colleagues when this was pointed out to them last week.

    EDIT: I was only a kid in 1995, but it seemed like quite a big deal back then.
    Oddly enough I do not recall any commemoration in 1970 on the 25th anniversary of VE Day - nor indeed in June 1969 on 25th anniversary of D Day.
    Me neither.
    It surprises me with hindsight - given that so many veterans were still around at that time including some of the senior commanders from World War 2.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,255

    MaxPB said:

    Andrew said:

    Guessing we're going to see a lot more of this:

    https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1258453585823764487

    If Biden had even 1% worth of input into that then it would be huge news. His campaign team will be effective, but he is going to be a terrible POTUS. He only looks acceptable because of who does it now.
    He doesn't look acceptable but the incumbent is worse. Truly an awful choice.
    Great ad. Not convinced it will change a single Trump voter though. But maybe at this stage that isn't the purpose. It is about uniting the Dem base in horror and determination to get rid of the SOB.
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    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,627
    But it kept the 30 000 figure off all but one of the front pages. Job done.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    There isn't any whataboutery with racism - its wrong. I was a member of the Labour Party when a passive anti-semite rose to the leadership and gave succour to active anti-semites. I could not condone or excuse the disgrace that was Corbynism by saying "ah but whatabout the Tories". There is much that I find disgusting in the Tory party and racism is part of it.

    But I wasn't a Tory. I wasn't associating myself with their racism. I WAS associated with Corbyn, and that I could n longer tolerate. Chanting foamers like BJO on one side and HYUFD on the other side will excuse everything on their own side and excuse nothing on the other side. If that works for their own personal morality thats their call. I couldn't look myself in the mirror any longer.

    My final straw was the mandatory anti-semitism training the Labour Party insisted upon. We met as a CLP. I read the definition of anti-semitism as issued by the party complete with forward by Corbyn, then looked at the images of Corbynb marching behind and posing for pictures with banners that he defines as anti-semitism. And listed to mouth foamers get angry with anyone citing evidence of it. So I walked.

    Me refusing to be associated with racism in my own party does not condone or excuse the racism in other parties. But something about splinters and planks is relevant before whataboutery is deployed...

    Very, very well said.

    I quit the Tory Party for the exact same reason. The moment Theresa May was elected I tore up my membership, I never wanted to be associated by anyone who found it acceptable to send vans saying Go Home to minority areas, plus I'd been disgusted by her speech to party conference previously. The fact I saw racism in the other party didn't make me feel comfortable endorsing it in my own.

    If you can't tackle problems in your own side you have no right to complain about the other side.
This discussion has been closed.