This moment does remind me of when some Labour supporters who had so long wished Brown to take over from Blair started the slow realisation that their man was a crock of shit. I had the advantage of a little inside knowledge on Boris Johnson. He is even more unsuited to the job of PM than Gordy. People thought that TMay was poor. She is a colossus compared to her hopeless successor.
Rubbish, Boris won a bigger majority than any Tory leader since Thatcher and the biggest of any leader since Blair in 2001.
Neither Brown nor May won a majority.
As long as the Tories still lead most polls Boris is going nowhere
Winning an election is not proof of being suited to the job of prime-minister.
On the contrary, it is the only generally-accepted criterion for the job.
Prediction - neither the Liaison Committee nor PMQs will exist in their current form by the end of this Parliament. Both will be changed to ensure that Johnson faces less scrutiny.
First they came for Regulation 6 of the Covid laws and I did nothing. Then they came for the Liaison Committee and I did nothing. ....
Prediction - neither the Liaison Committee nor PMQs will exist in their current form by the end of this Parliament. Both will be changed to ensure that Johnson faces less scrutiny.
Already happening:
Meets less often. Members of the committee no longer allowed to pick their own chair. Prominent senior critics of the PM excluded.
Could I just say I find it absolutely barking mad that you are all still debating Cummings as if it will matter in four years time when the economic depression bites later this year.
I really wish I could share some of the data I have seen under NDA, because it would terrify all of you. Suffice to say nobody is going to give a s*it about Cummings in six months time. Certainly not in 2024.
If you have a job at the end of all this, or are lucky enough to not need a job for a year or two, you will be thanking your lucky stars.
We are in serious, serious trouble and the government has literally no idea what to do about it. That is the real story. Everything else is what I believe IT consultants call "bike shedding".
Do you also have the figures for how screwed the economy would have been had there been the Corona pandemic but no lockdown?
What I'm wondering is how much more screwed the British economy will be if we have a second lockdown.
Same as every other economy I suppose.
Not if the other countries don't have a second lockdown.
The virus isn't picking on the UK. If we have a second lockdown it is exceedingly likely other countries suffering as we are now will do also. No one has eradicated it and it takes just one person to set it all off again.
This moment does remind me of when some Labour supporters who had so long wished Brown to take over from Blair started the slow realisation that their man was a crock of shit. I had the advantage of a little inside knowledge on Boris Johnson. He is even more unsuited to the job of PM than Gordy. People thought that TMay was poor. She is a colossus compared to her hopeless successor.
Rubbish, Boris won a bigger majority than any Tory leader since Thatcher and the biggest of any leader since Blair in 2001.
Neither Brown nor May won a majority.
As long as the Tories still lead most polls Boris is going nowhere
Winning an election is not proof of being suited to the job of prime-minister.
On the contrary, it is the only generally-accepted criterion for the job.
Winston Churchill wouldn’t have thanked you for that remark.
This is a lose-lose for Bozo now. If he fires him he will look weak. if he keeps him he looks weak. POBWAS
Cummings is clever but arrogant, he needs to stay, Boris comes over as a fool, he needs to take a rest until the end of the pandemic.
"Boris" as you affectionately refer to him does not just come over as a fool, he is a fool. Not necessarily educationally (though an Eton education always helps), but from every aspect of leadership that one would expect from a PM he is an idiot. Cummings is clever, in that he is riding a donkey for as long as said donkey thinks it needs him and not the other way around.
I previously regularly referred to him as Johnson, I have been criticised for using his surname for being agressively partisan as everyone knows him as Boris.
It’s funny, but I think I’m the only poster who refers to him consistently as ‘Johnson.’ Never called him ‘Boris’ since he became FS.
Just doesn’t feel right to me to call the PM by their first name.
I always call him Johnson. As a friend put it on Facebook once, he couldn't call him "Boris" because he wasn't his mate, and he was a dick. Also as others have noted, the whole "Boris" thing is part of his PR operation, and isn't even his actual name.
Tories and Leavers call him Boris, left-wingers and Remainers call him Johnson.
Same as Labour supporters called Corbyn Jeremy and Tories called him by his surname
Not that this matters, but I call him Boris and everyone I know calls him Boris and I don't know any leavers (that I am aware of). I don't think it has anything to do with your politics it is just easily identifiable (not many people named Boris) and short (so May, Boris). Nothing to do with your opinion of them.
Could I just say I find it absolutely barking mad that you are all still debating Cummings as if it will matter in four years time when the economic depression bites later this year.
I really wish I could share some of the data I have seen under NDA, because it would terrify all of you. Suffice to say nobody is going to give a s*it about Cummings in six months time. Certainly not in 2024.
If you have a job at the end of all this, or are lucky enough to not need a job for a year or two, you will be thanking your lucky stars.
We are in serious, serious trouble and the government has literally no idea what to do about it. That is the real story. Everything else is what I believe IT consultants call "bike shedding".
Do you also have the figures for how screwed the economy would have been had there been the Corona pandemic but no lockdown?
What I'm wondering is how much more screwed the British economy will be if we have a second lockdown.
Same as every other economy I suppose.
Not if the other countries don't have a second lockdown.
The virus isn't picking on the UK. If we have a second lockdown it is exceedingly likely other countries suffering as we are now will do also. No one has eradicated it and it takes just one person to set it all off again.
You need to look at the numbers some time if you think the probability of our having a second lockdown is the same as for other countries.
As for "just one person" to set it off again, according to the ONS we currently have 140,000.
As a matter of interest, I have collated a table of the numbers of Covid-19 inpatients in Leics. This is from published figures, using all the dates when our comms team sent out an update:
There seems to be a weekend effect, with a slight uptick both BH Weekend (8-10 May) and the following one (16-17 May).
There seems to be a peak 10 days after the VE day BH, and we end the three weeks no better than we started. Not much of a downward trend here.
Deaths up from 256 to 332 over the period, discharged up from 558 to 738
Are these how many in patients there are, or how many were admitted on that day?
Inpatients at midnight on the day enumerated, so 155 at midnight on Sunday 17th May etc. Our communications team sends an email to all staff at about 1700 most weekdays.
We have a population of just over a million in Leics and Rutland. There are around 15 patients in our ECMO unit, many of whom are out of region transfers, so counting as our inpatients, not sure about mortality, or whether that is credited to the sending unit.
Could I just say I find it absolutely barking mad that you are all still debating Cummings as if it will matter in four years time when the economic depression bites later this year.
I really wish I could share some of the data I have seen under NDA, because it would terrify all of you. Suffice to say nobody is going to give a s*it about Cummings in six months time. Certainly not in 2024.
If you have a job at the end of all this, or are lucky enough to not need a job for a year or two, you will be thanking your lucky stars.
We are in serious, serious trouble and the government has literally no idea what to do about it. That is the real story. Everything else is what I believe IT consultants call "bike shedding".
Do you also have the figures for how screwed the economy would have been had there been the Corona pandemic but no lockdown?
What I'm wondering is how much more screwed the British economy will be if we have a second lockdown.
Same as every other economy I suppose.
Not if the other countries don't have a second lockdown.
The virus isn't picking on the UK. If we have a second lockdown it is exceedingly likely other countries suffering as we are now will do also. No one has eradicated it and it takes just one person to set it all off again.
You need to look at the numbers some time if you think the probability of our having a second lockdown is the same as for other countries.
As for "just one person" to set it off again, according to the ONS we currently have 140,000.
Hang on, the last three days you've been telling us that that regulation was guided by instinct and could be ignored if there are issues such as childcare.
It is just bollocks now. Totall bollocks. I don't know how they keep a straight face.
This moment does remind me of when some Labour supporters who had so long wished Brown to take over from Blair started the slow realisation that their man was a crock of shit. I had the advantage of a little inside knowledge on Boris Johnson. He is even more unsuited to the job of PM than Gordy. People thought that TMay was poor. She is a colossus compared to her hopeless successor.
Rubbish, Boris won a bigger majority than any Tory leader since Thatcher and the biggest of any leader since Blair in 2001.
Neither Brown nor May won a majority.
As long as the Tories still lead most polls Boris is going nowhere
Winning an election is not proof of being suited to the job of prime-minister.
On the contrary, it is the only generally-accepted criterion for the job.
Indeed, most party members and MPs would rather have a crap PM who wins the party a general election than a great PM who loses a general election.
Brutal but true.
Competence and electoral appeal is the ideal but on a forced choice most would prefer the latter
Oh Scott, twitter isn't going to get you what you want I'm afraid.
I for one want him to stay right where he is.
He has single-handedly brought Labour right back into the game in the space of 5 short days. What a hero.
You do know the next GE is fours years from now?
What difference does that make?
I thought it was going to take a good 12-24 months for Starmer to get back in contention. Nice of the monkey and the organ grinder to have done so much of the heavy lifting for him.
Sure loads can happen before the next GE but elections really aren't just decided in the last couple of weeks and from what I've seen so far I can see things getting a whole lot worse with Bozo at the helm. I very much doubt that Hunt would have made such an unholy mess of things.
Could I just say I find it absolutely barking mad that you are all still debating Cummings as if it will matter in four years time when the economic depression bites later this year.
I really wish I could share some of the data I have seen under NDA, because it would terrify all of you. Suffice to say nobody is going to give a s*it about Cummings in six months time. Certainly not in 2024.
If you have a job at the end of all this, or are lucky enough to not need a job for a year or two, you will be thanking your lucky stars.
We are in serious, serious trouble and the government has literally no idea what to do about it. That is the real story. Everything else is what I believe IT consultants call "bike shedding".
Do you also have the figures for how screwed the economy would have been had there been the Corona pandemic but no lockdown?
What I'm wondering is how much more screwed the British economy will be if we have a second lockdown.
Same as every other economy I suppose.
Not if the other countries don't have a second lockdown.
The virus isn't picking on the UK. If we have a second lockdown it is exceedingly likely other countries suffering as we are now will do also. No one has eradicated it and it takes just one person to set it all off again.
You need to look at the numbers some time if you think the probability of our having a second lockdown is the same as for other countries.
As for "just one person" to set it off again, according to the ONS we currently have 140,000.
Ok Lt Onoda..
You really are too moronic to absorb the meaning of just two sentences of simple English, aren't you?
Could I just say I find it absolutely barking mad that you are all still debating Cummings as if it will matter in four years time when the economic depression bites later this year.
I really wish I could share some of the data I have seen under NDA, because it would terrify all of you. Suffice to say nobody is going to give a s*it about Cummings in six months time. Certainly not in 2024.
If you have a job at the end of all this, or are lucky enough to not need a job for a year or two, you will be thanking your lucky stars.
We are in serious, serious trouble and the government has literally no idea what to do about it. That is the real story. Everything else is what I believe IT consultants call "bike shedding".
Do you also have the figures for how screwed the economy would have been had there been the Corona pandemic but no lockdown?
What I'm wondering is how much more screwed the British economy will be if we have a second lockdown.
Same as every other economy I suppose.
Not if the other countries don't have a second lockdown.
Why would we have a second lockdown and not others who are doing pretty much the same as us?
Apart from those naughty Swedes of course. I guess in your book a second lockdown for them is pretty much nailed on, so loose has been their lockdown.
Oh Scott, twitter isn't going to get you what you want I'm afraid.
I for one want him to stay right where he is.
He has single-handedly brought Labour right back into the game in the space of 5 short days. What a hero.
You do know the next GE is fours years from now?
What difference does that make?
I thought it was going to take a good 12-24 months for Starmer to get back in contention. Nice of the monkey and the organ grinder to have done so much of the heavy lifting for him.
Sure loads can happen before the next GE but elections really aren't just decided in the last couple of weeks and from what I've seen so far I can see things getting a whole lot worse with Bozo at the helm. I very much doubt that Hunt would have made such an unholy mess of things.
"...elections really aren't just decided in the last couple of weeks".
I'm wondering how many people speaking about the instruction to stay at home would have done so if their fire alarm was going off and the building was being engulfed in flames.
Using your own personal judgement is what any sentient intelligent person should do. People banging on as if there's one rule for every situation don't just insult our intelligence they're insulting their own.
The regulations specifically allow you to leave home in order to prevent injury. Very specific aren't they?
Indeed and having a young infant with no childcare is harmful. QED it is reasonable to leave the home to get childcare.
In all your comments, you seem to pretend there was only one beach of regulations, not three or more.
Forget the trips (plural) between London and Durham, and tell me how the Castle Bernard sojourn was in the rules.
I think it's logical before you go for a long cross country drive if you've just recovered from illness to take a half hour drive to see that you're up to the pressures of driving.
I believe that's what Cummings meant but not what he said. The way it was phrased was awful but the logic I understood.
If I wanted to take a drive to test my eyesight* I would probably prefer not to stray too far from home, in case I decided it wasn't up to a long drive. It's a bit risky going 25 miles away, IMHO, because what do you do in this CV-19 world if you get to Castle Bernard and decide your eyesight is not good enough?
* Which, I would assume, the DVLA does not recommend
Durham to Barnard Castle is about 30 miles, depending on where you start from and which route you take. If he did it in half an hour he was driving at 60 mph. As a test drive? On those roads? When he was unsure of his eyesight?
The whole story is nonsense. And anyone believing it really needs help getting dressed.
Why he said it is much more interesting. But no-one is following up on that.
Anyway, it scarcely matters now. The affair has shown us what the two men at the top of government are like and what they think of us.
What happens next is what interests me - and I expect them to mess that up too.
Boris nearly died and has gone straight back to work, probably 14-16 hours per day. His government is funding millions of people on Furlough to protect their jobs. Yes he has not sacked someone but to say that he is treating the public like shit is nonsense.
Don't make me laugh, Johnson's never worked 14-16 hours a day in his life.
Hang on, the last three days you've been telling us that that regulation was guided by instinct and could be ignored if there are issues such as childcare.
It is just bollocks now. Totall bollocks. I don't know how they keep a straight face.
Surely if you find out you might have covid thru the test track and trace system the responsible thing to do is find out where is 350 miles away and drive there without stopping hoping you dont fall asleep?
Michael Portillo was very interesting on the PM programme about 30 minutes ago. He described Johnson as being like a "spectator".
Yes, very interesting.
Also of interest was his opinion that the pursuit of Cummings was a bit of a waste of time now since the PM has decided that he will not be sacked come what may.
Starmer is a very lucky General!
Portillo is one of the best political analysts around IMO. He gets to the heart of the issues at hand without being overly partisan, at the same time as not pretending he doesn't have opinions of his own. In other words he gets the balance just right, something which most journalists and pundits seem to be increasingly incapable of.
So let me get this straight: undermining the lockdown / T&T is a moral outrage and the crime of the century when Cummings does it once (in private), but no problem at all when Piers Morgan does it all day, every single day, in public to his vast audience.
Michael Portillo was very interesting on the PM programme about 30 minutes ago. He described Johnson as being like a "spectator".
Yes, very interesting.
Also of interest was his opinion that the pursuit of Cummings was a bit of a waste of time now since the PM has decided that he will not be sacked come what may.
Starmer is a very lucky General!
Portillo is one of the best political analysts around IMO. He gets to the heart of the issues at hand without being overly partisan, at the same time as not pretending he doesn't have opinions of his own. In other words he gets the balance just right, something which most journalists and pundits seem to be increasingly incapable of.
All those contacted in England sent to get a test - unlike Scotland.
We've been through this before. The tests don't work till the infection develops, and that can take almost 14 days. And self testing is not reliable. Simpler and safer to isolate.
I'm wondering how many people speaking about the instruction to stay at home would have done so if their fire alarm was going off and the building was being engulfed in flames.
Using your own personal judgement is what any sentient intelligent person should do. People banging on as if there's one rule for every situation don't just insult our intelligence they're insulting their own.
The regulations specifically allow you to leave home in order to prevent injury. Very specific aren't they?
Indeed and having a young infant with no childcare is harmful. QED it is reasonable to leave the home to get childcare.
In all your comments, you seem to pretend there was only one beach of regulations, not three or more.
Forget the trips (plural) between London and Durham, and tell me how the Castle Bernard sojourn was in the rules.
I think it's logical before you go for a long cross country drive if you've just recovered from illness to take a half hour drive to see that you're up to the pressures of driving.
I believe that's what Cummings meant but not what he said. The way it was phrased was awful but the logic I understood.
If I wanted to take a drive to test my eyesight* I would probably prefer not to stray too far from home, in case I decided it wasn't up to a long drive. It's a bit risky going 25 miles away, IMHO, because what do you do in this CV-19 world if you get to Castle Bernard and decide your eyesight is not good enough?
* Which, I would assume, the DVLA does not recommend
Durham to Barnard Castle is about 30 miles, depending on where you start from and which route you take. If he did it in half an hour he was driving at 60 mph. As a test drive? On those roads? When he was unsure of his eyesight?
The whole story is nonsense. And anyone believing it really needs help getting dressed.
Why he said it is much more interesting. But no-one is following up on that.
Anyway, it scarcely matters now. The affair has shown us what the two men at the top of government are like and what they think of us.
What happens next is what interests me - and I expect them to mess that up too.
Boris nearly died and has gone straight back to work, probably 14-16 hours per day. His government is funding millions of people on Furlough to protect their jobs. Yes he has not sacked someone but to say that he is treating the public like shit is nonsense.
Don't make me laugh, Johnson's never worked 14-16 hours a day in his life.
Could I just say I find it absolutely barking mad that you are all still debating Cummings as if it will matter in four years time when the economic depression bites later this year.
I really wish I could share some of the data I have seen under NDA, because it would terrify all of you. Suffice to say nobody is going to give a s*it about Cummings in six months time. Certainly not in 2024.
If you have a job at the end of all this, or are lucky enough to not need a job for a year or two, you will be thanking your lucky stars.
We are in serious, serious trouble and the government has literally no idea what to do about it. That is the real story. Everything else is what I believe IT consultants call "bike shedding".
Do you also have the figures for how screwed the economy would have been had there been the Corona pandemic but no lockdown?
What I'm wondering is how much more screwed the British economy will be if we have a second lockdown.
Same as every other economy I suppose.
Not if the other countries don't have a second lockdown.
Why would we have a second lockdown and not others who are doing pretty much the same as us?
Look. You've been spouting the same drivel here for weeks, and people have been patiently trying to explain things to you.
Do you really expect me to waste my time on someone so absolutely ineducable?
Hang on, the last three days you've been telling us that that regulation was guided by instinct and could be ignored if there are issues such as childcare.
It is just bollocks now. Totall bollocks. I don't know how they keep a straight face.
Surely if you find out you might have covid thru the test track and trace system the responsible thing to do is find out where is 350 miles away and drive there without stopping hoping you dont fall asleep?
Yep. Obviously you will also need to check your eyesight.
And don't forget peeps to throw in a visit to the local, rural A&E when your symptoms are at their height as that will only add to the joys of your little country break.
So let me get this straight: undermining the lockdown / T&T is a moral outrage and the crime of the century when Cummings does it once (in private), but no problem at all when Piers Morgan does it all day, every single day, in public to his vast audience.
Have I got this pious moralizing thing right yet?
With the amount of sweat he seems to excrete on every TV appearance I'm surprised Schtarmer hasn't been confined to appearing in a biohazard suit.
Hang on, the last three days you've been telling us that that regulation was guided by instinct and could be ignored if there are issues such as childcare.
It is just bollocks now. Totall bollocks. I don't know how they keep a straight face.
The Cummins family was isolated. In London. In the car. In County Durham.
At no point did they come in contact with Joe Public or put them at any additional risk.
We received a message today saying that a couple of our offices will reopen in early July, rest to follow later. Expecting that no greater than 40% occupancy will be possible. WFH for the foreseeable future.
Presumably the company has been advised of future government easing of policy.
Hang on, the last three days you've been telling us that that regulation was guided by instinct and could be ignored if there are issues such as childcare.
It is just bollocks now. Totall bollocks. I don't know how they keep a straight face.
The Cummins family was isolated. In London. In the car. In County Durham.
At no point did they come in contact with Joe Public or put them at any additional risk.
Hang on, the last three days you've been telling us that that regulation was guided by instinct and could be ignored if there are issues such as childcare.
It is just bollocks now. Totall bollocks. I don't know how they keep a straight face.
The Cummins family was isolated. In London. In the car. In County Durham.
At no point did they come in contact with Joe Public or put them at any additional risk.
How is driving 350 miles after a stressful period at work without stopping not reckless driving? He was putting anyone on those roads at great risk. Or more likely stopped, probably more than once given they couldnt last 30 minutes without a stop on their next journey, when they were well.
Hang on, the last three days you've been telling us that that regulation was guided by instinct and could be ignored if there are issues such as childcare.
It is just bollocks now. Totall bollocks. I don't know how they keep a straight face.
The Cummins family was isolated. In London. In the car. In County Durham.
At no point did they come in contact with Joe Public or put them at any additional risk.
Apart from the hospital visit, and their daytrip to Barnard Castle.
Perhaps they should have gone to South Devon instead, like the other Londoners with second homes...
We received a message today saying that a couple of our offices will reopen in early July, rest to follow later. Expecting that no greater than 40% occupancy will be possible. WFH for the foreseeable future.
Presumably the company has been advised of future government easing of policy.
Would love to know your company's advice source ! Is there some backchannel for larger firms ?
Guidelines are guidelines. Laws are laws. Unless and until the Government passes specific laws with specific penalties for transgressing those laws then all Government guidance is open to interpretation.
Cummings was wrong to do what he did because as someone in a position of authority he should have been leading by example and because in not doing so he has made it seem as if the guidance actually doesn't matter. Of course it does. But the idea that there was no interpretation involved until Cummings performed his idiocy is just humbug.
If there are points at which the Government thinks it really is vital that its guidance is followed - such as the 14 day quarantine for new arrivals - then they should pass it into law. If they chose not to do that then people will indeed interpret it - or just ignore it - because that is the nature of our system of governance and law. If something is not explicitly forbidden then it is allowed.
Richard, there are Laws, and it appears that Cummings may have broken them, notably in connection with the Castle excursion.
The rest of your drift is absolutely right though. Someone one in his position should have been leading by example, Law or no Law.
The premise of Alastair's piece is that Cummings broke 'guidelines' not laws. And that as a result any future Government action is put in jeopardy.
If the Government thinks something is serious enough that it needs to be enforced then that should be a law not a guideline. This is why we have the sad spectacle of all those prosecutions being thrown out when certainly some of them should have stood.
This Government, just like so many others, seems to have a very poor grasp of what laws mean, not in their individual detail, but in terms of the philosophy of Governance. If something is serious enough that it needs to be legislated for this should be done through an explicit set of crystal clear laws. Anything else means either judicial overreach by either the police or the courts or uncertainty and the exploitation of loopholes on the part of the public.
"Maitlis’s speech, which she wrote herself, was praised by the Labour MP as an example of “public service broadcasting”, and by Ed Davey, the acting Lib Dem leader, as “brilliant journalism”. Maitlis retweeted praise from a viewer who called the monologue “savage brilliance”.
The BBC has not responded to a request for comment"
Hang on, the last three days you've been telling us that that regulation was guided by instinct and could be ignored if there are issues such as childcare.
It is just bollocks now. Totall bollocks. I don't know how they keep a straight face.
The Cummins family was isolated. In London. In the car. In County Durham.
At no point did they come in contact with Joe Public or put them at any additional risk.
How is driving 350 miles after a stressful period at work without stopping not reckless driving? He was putting anyone on those roads at great risk. Or more likely stopped, probably more than once given they couldnt last 30 minutes without a stop on their next journey, when they were well.
Some people regularly drive 250 miles. I think people in London think driving is impossible or something.
The Rules are not the Law. The Law states what we are required to do, what defences we are allowed if we breach it, and what penalties we will suffer if we are convicted. It does not say you must keep a specific distance, not go to parks, wear face masks, etc. Those are separate Rules that politicians have announced. They are sensible Rules which I have tried to follow at all times, but I always knew that I could break them if necessary based on my judgement of Risk to myself and others, being prepared to take the consequences.
The Rules are not the Law. The Law states what we are required to do, what defences we are allowed if we breach it, and what penalties we will suffer if we are convicted. It does not say you must keep a specific distance, not go to parks, wear face masks, etc. Those are separate Rules that politicians have announced. They are sensible Rules which I have tried to follow at all times, but I always knew that I could break them if necessary based on my judgement of Risk to myself and others, being prepared to take the consequences.
You might like to look at the FT piece I quoted earlier, Exiled:
It's long (though instructive) so the Executive Summary is that in order to be on the right side of the Law (Regulation 6, apparently) Cummings had to have a reasonable excuse for his excursions. He offered three for journey North, and it is possible but by no means certain that one of these or a combination may have sufficed.
As regards the Castle expedition, only one excuse was offered, i.e. the much ridiculed 'eyesight' reason. This was so implausible that it would be unlikely to stand up in a court of Law.
Those arguing that Cummings broke no Law may well be wrong.
I agree with you. The Barnard Castle excursion was foolish - he could/should have left the child playing socially distanced in the garden with a niece and then just driven nearby for 10 minutes or so on a loop route. Anyway, he did what he did.
We received a message today saying that a couple of our offices will reopen in early July, rest to follow later. Expecting that no greater than 40% occupancy will be possible. WFH for the foreseeable future.
Presumably the company has been advised of future government easing of policy.
Would love to know your company's advice source ! Is there some backchannel for larger firms ?
I dislike Claire Fox. I don't support her, never have.
Except, you know, when you voted for her.
I'm not sure you understand this democracy business at all...
I didn't vote for her. I voted a protest vote and I voted for there to be no MEPs.
My protest was acknowledged and there are no MEPs. Job done.
But you did vote for her. You marked a ballot paper in support of her party, in the constituency where she was top of the list. She was duly elected as your representative. Job done.
She's not my representative. I have no EU representative. So I couldn't care less.
If she was my EU representative and if that job mattered you'd have a point.
"Maitlis’s speech, which she wrote herself, was praised by the Labour MP as an example of “public service broadcasting”, and by Ed Davey, the acting Lib Dem leader, as “brilliant journalism”. Maitlis retweeted praise from a viewer who called the monologue “savage brilliance”.
The BBC has not responded to a request for comment"
It isn't just the BBC to be fair. I watched ITV News at TEn a fortnight or so ago, and the presenter introduced the first item, a poll they had carried out of BAME NHS workers in the style of the host of Watchdog rather than an impartial news bulletin.
Maybe the days of impartialty are over, and we will become even more Americanised.
Mr. kinabalu, Maitlis' intro was subjective and opinionated. It isn't the role of current affairs coverage to tell people the personal views of presenters and how the audience should think, but to provide information objectively and in a neutral fashion.
The PM's a vacillating coward of ill-judgement, and Cummings should have resigned. None of that justifies Newsnight deciding presenting things in a balanced way is unnecessary.
Hang on, the last three days you've been telling us that that regulation was guided by instinct and could be ignored if there are issues such as childcare.
It is just bollocks now. Totall bollocks. I don't know how they keep a straight face.
The Cummins family was isolated. In London. In the car. In County Durham.
At no point did they come in contact with Joe Public or put them at any additional risk.
How is driving 350 miles after a stressful period at work without stopping not reckless driving? He was putting anyone on those roads at great risk. Or more likely stopped, probably more than once given they couldnt last 30 minutes without a stop on their next journey, when they were well.
Some people regularly drive 250 miles. I think people in London think driving is impossible or something.
The highway code recommends 15 mins break every 2 hours. Driving 350 miles without stopping, with an ill family, when you think you might be ill yourself and after an extremely stressful week at work puts others at risk.
Oh Scott, twitter isn't going to get you what you want I'm afraid.
I for one want him to stay right where he is.
He has single-handedly brought Labour right back into the game in the space of 5 short days. What a hero.
You do know the next GE is fours years from now?
Yes.
Four years of Dominic Cummings doing this level of damage and it won’t be a new Thatcher the Tories need but a new Clement Davies.
I seem to remember multiple times last year that both Cummings and Johnson were written off. Using much the same language as now. Remember the Prorogation that was going to end the dastardly careers of both of them?
I also remember a winning 80 seat majority in a "close" (at least as Twitter was concerned) election.
Political fortunes twist and turn. Four years from now sweaty Starmer could be looking at reducing his pitiful MP count even further,. Who knows?
A lot of people, including a good number of Tories, did not believe Johnson was up to being PM. Many also recognised that he was extremely lucky to be facing Corbyn.
The way this government is panning out is no surprise to me at all, just the speed with which it is being found out. I grant you events may yet throw up more surprises but nothing is going to suddenly turn Johnson into a competent leader. Personally I don't think he will even be PM by the next GE>
Mr. kinabalu, Maitlis' intro was subjective and opinionated. It isn't the role of current affairs coverage to tell people the personal views of presenters and how the audience should think, but to provide information objectively and in a neutral fashion.
The PM's a vacillating coward of ill-judgement, and Cummings should have resigned. None of that justifies Newsnight deciding presenting things in a balanced way is unnecessary.
Balance doesn't require giving a load of old bollocks equal weighting with the truth.
When it comes to the misreporting / still total misunderstanding of these figures but the media, i can't work out if it is deliberate or just they are morons. Prof Cricket has been on R4 a load of times to explain things and is widely quoted on twitter, yet Piers Moron still gets it wrong. Sky did yesterday with excess deaths using daily announced figures (not when died) vs average deaths in each calendar week.
Could I just say I find it absolutely barking mad that you are all still debating Cummings as if it will matter in four years time when the economic depression bites later this year.
I really wish I could share some of the data I have seen under NDA, because it would terrify all of you. Suffice to say nobody is going to give a s*it about Cummings in six months time. Certainly not in 2024.
If you have a job at the end of all this, or are lucky enough to not need a job for a year or two, you will be thanking your lucky stars.
We are in serious, serious trouble and the government has literally no idea what to do about it. That is the real story. Everything else is what I believe IT consultants call "bike shedding".
I very much agree,
Cummings has bade some tragic errers:
1) He pushed for schools to be closed 2) He pushed for the lock-down
Both of theses where largely a result of his opinion and not IAW the siantific evidence.
he also missed 2 possible opportunitys to intervene
1) He could/should have countered PHE ban of the prvet sector doing testing at the start. 2) He could/should have stopped old people being returned from hospitals to care homes and taking the virus with them.
To be fire the last to apply to the whole government, but his is meant to be the outside thinker out of the box, countering the government blob, and he failed.
What he did with his family, is an irrelevance, he pushed the rules to the point of absurdity, but largely to help his family, I do not care.
Mr. Rentool, aye. And Maitlis just had to avoid telling us her very important views on the 'lazy label of elite' and so forth. The facts and polling are all against the Government. I think the PM's totally wrong on this.
That doesn't mean slanted current affairs riddled with personal views is a good thing.
And with that, I must be off. Play nicely, everyone.
So if 42 Conservative MPs think Dominic Cummings should stand down, that’s the majority gone. Sounds like there’s scope for an imaginative Opposition motion there.
So let me get this straight: undermining the lockdown / T&T is a moral outrage and the crime of the century when Cummings does it once (in private), but no problem at all when Piers Morgan does it all day, every single day, in public to his vast audience.
Have I got this pious moralizing thing right yet?
With the amount of sweat he seems to excrete on every TV appearance I'm surprised Schtarmer hasn't been confined to appearing in a biohazard suit.
Oh dear. What an unfortunate comment. A window to the soul and the view is murky.
So if 42 Conservative MPs think Dominic Cummings should stand down, that’s the majority gone. Sounds like there’s scope for an imaginative Opposition motion there.
How many are standing down and fighting a bye election as an independent ?
I mean if they were really serious they would do so ?
For the record I dont think Maitlis should go, but now that her bosses have said she got it wrong, perhaps she should apologise. After calling for Cumming's head it only seems fair.
Comments
Then they came for the Liaison Committee and I did nothing.
....
Meets less often.
Members of the committee no longer allowed to pick their own chair.
Prominent senior critics of the PM excluded.
"We must follow the track and trace guidelines" says Hancock.
Good luck with that mate! Not a bloody chance in hell now. I doubt the public will even read them or the stupid letter that is probably coming.
Bad news for snitchers.
As for "just one person" to set it off again, according to the ONS we currently have 140,000.
We have a population of just over a million in Leics and Rutland. There are around 15 patients in our ECMO unit, many of whom are out of region transfers, so counting as our inpatients, not sure about mortality, or whether that is credited to the sending unit.
Hang on, the last three days you've been telling us that that regulation was guided by instinct and could be ignored if there are issues such as childcare.
It is just bollocks now. Totall bollocks. I don't know how they keep a straight face.
I wonder if Cameron now regrets abdicating his responsibilty as he did? We could have done with a PM of 6 -10 years experience in the period 2016-2020
https://twitter.com/cricketwyvern/status/1265637066802696195/photo/1
Brutal but true.
Competence and electoral appeal is the ideal but on a forced choice most would prefer the latter
What difference does that make?
I thought it was going to take a good 12-24 months for Starmer to get back in contention. Nice of the monkey and the organ grinder to have done so much of the heavy lifting for him.
Sure loads can happen before the next GE but elections really aren't just decided in the last couple of weeks and from what I've seen so far I can see things getting a whole lot worse with Bozo at the helm. I very much doubt that Hunt would have made such an unholy mess of things.
"DO NOT LEAVE HOME"
Says NHS head.
LOL. Just hilarious.
Do not leave home, but you can drive to Durham.
Apart from those naughty Swedes of course. I guess in your book a second lockdown for them is pretty much nailed on, so loose has been their lockdown.
More often than not they actually are.
(Surely it should be BBC 3, that's were they break all the new comedy shows isn't it?)
Have I got this pious moralizing thing right yet?
Do you really expect me to waste my time on someone so absolutely ineducable?
And don't forget peeps to throw in a visit to the local, rural A&E when your symptoms are at their height as that will only add to the joys of your little country break.
Because its impossible to take seriously anyone who could post this:
https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/1265662409995423745
Sweden went for that and failed. Lower antibody numbers than London. But their deaths per million still below ours
Now why is that Chris?
At no point did they come in contact with Joe Public or put them at any additional risk.
Presumably the company has been advised of future government easing of policy.
trouble at BBC mill
Perhaps they should have gone to South Devon instead, like the other Londoners with second homes...
No evidence that the end of lockdown and the increased number working has increased R.
If the Government thinks something is serious enough that it needs to be enforced then that should be a law not a guideline. This is why we have the sad spectacle of all those prosecutions being thrown out when certainly some of them should have stood.
This Government, just like so many others, seems to have a very poor grasp of what laws mean, not in their individual detail, but in terms of the philosophy of Governance. If something is serious enough that it needs to be legislated for this should be done through an explicit set of crystal clear laws. Anything else means either judicial overreach by either the police or the courts or uncertainty and the exploitation of loopholes on the part of the public.
The BBC has not responded to a request for comment"
Talk about growing in stature with each passing week.
I was never a fan but these days - gosh - one senses a national treasure in the making.
If she was my EU representative and if that job mattered you'd have a point.
Goodall is a young Paul Mason in the making, wasn't taken seriously at Sky but I guess he comes fairly cheap.
But what a step down Maitlis is from the golden days of Paxo. From a universally lauded journalist to a female James O'Brien impersonator.
Maybe the days of impartialty are over, and we will become even more Americanised.
The PM's a vacillating coward of ill-judgement, and Cummings should have resigned. None of that justifies Newsnight deciding presenting things in a balanced way is unnecessary.
I've never had a problem with her before, but I'm afraid she's definitely Emily No-Mates to me now.
Hancock recoils in surprise.
A lot of people, including a good number of Tories, did not believe Johnson was up to being PM. Many also recognised that he was extremely lucky to be facing Corbyn.
The way this government is panning out is no surprise to me at all, just the speed with which it is being found out. I grant you events may yet throw up more surprises but nothing is going to suddenly turn Johnson into a competent leader. Personally I don't think he will even be PM by the next GE>
Did that come as a surprise for him ?
In other news...
https://twitter.com/tomgara/status/1265638547551379456
But even before that, Bradby's daft aside and Peston's rambling opinions were not exactly compelling.
Ironically, one of the last things I saw was Rageh Omar[sp] and a piece about people turning away from the mainstream media and watching more Youtube.
Cummings has bade some tragic errers:
1) He pushed for schools to be closed
2) He pushed for the lock-down
Both of theses where largely a result of his opinion and not IAW the siantific evidence.
he also missed 2 possible opportunitys to intervene
1) He could/should have countered PHE ban of the prvet sector doing testing at the start.
2) He could/should have stopped old people being returned from hospitals to care homes and taking the virus with them.
To be fire the last to apply to the whole government, but his is meant to be the outside thinker out of the box, countering the government blob, and he failed.
What he did with his family, is an irrelevance, he pushed the rules to the point of absurdity, but largely to help his family, I do not care.
Pathetic.
That doesn't mean slanted current affairs riddled with personal views is a good thing.
And with that, I must be off. Play nicely, everyone.
I mean if they were really serious they would do so ?
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1265664405502558208?s=20