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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Fisking the PM – examining the background to his controversial

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    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    I really think a big part of the rise in cases is pillar 2 finding cases more efficiently than it did previously.
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    Scott_xP said:
    Good. Maybe they can knock some heads together win von der Leyen and Barnier and the EU can accept the UK's entirely reasonable proposals: have fish settled like Norway, have state aid settled like Canada.

    Then we can put all this behind us and move on with our lives.
    I see your problem. You think a Canada-style deal will make our relationship with the EU only as significant to us as Canada's relationship with the EU is to Canada and we won't have to think about it very much anymore. You're ignoring scale and geography.
    Geography is irrelevant, that is why.
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    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,943
    Scott_xP said:
    Tory voters by 50% to 28% and Leave voters by 49% to 25% now think a No Deal Brexit would be a good outcome

    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1302994620331290625?s=20
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    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,909

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
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    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,249

    Scott_xP said:
    Good. Maybe they can knock some heads together win von der Leyen and Barnier and the EU can accept the UK's entirely reasonable proposals: have fish settled like Norway, have state aid settled like Canada.

    Then we can put all this behind us and move on with our lives.
    I see your problem. You think a Canada-style deal will make our relationship with the EU only as significant to us as Canada's relationship with the EU is to Canada and we won't have to think about it very much anymore. You're ignoring scale and geography.
    Geography is irrelevant, that is why.
    Not a fan of the gravity model of trade, then?
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    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100

    On Topic:

    Since we cannot trust anything the Govt says - since we have no idea what is posturing and what is actual intention - then all we can do is let it play out until we get to 1st Jan 2021. After that, the reality of Brexit will be there for all to see. Only then can we really judge.

    I expect there to be a loud burst of jingoist rah-rah on New Year's Eve followed by a wake up call over the first few weeks.

    I am not expecting it to be pleasant.

    You never have.

    But you seem rather more rattled than when you were going rah-rah, waving your Irish passport in the faces of those less fortunate....
    Eire has a dog in the fight.
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    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
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    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    Then why does YG poll say the majority don't support this proposal?
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    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,903
    edited September 2020
    MrEd said:

    What's causing the Donald's price to drift on Betfair? Surely it isn't just the Wisconsin poll from flaky old Rasmussen?

    At a guess, the polling has not been great for him over the past few days and it is a cumulative effect.

    Hell, even if I said the data out of NC didn't look good for him this morning.

    Mind you, good piece on NBC re NC: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/presidential-race-narrows-north-carolina-voters-say-they-want-face-n1239255
    More Trumpers say they're going to head to the polls in person than Biden voters, I'm not sure it quite makes up for the apparent lopsidedness of the absentee requests though. I'd agree it seems to be good data for Biden and poor for Trump.
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    No Deal Brexit unites the Remain base and divides the Leave base.

    I passionately believe there is a majority in the country for EEA
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    AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Pulpstar said:

    https://twitter.com/lindyli/status/1302641204778201088

    No sound here, but seems like a good answer. One does get a slight twinge of Covid US betting related worries seeing him out in the open like this though !

    That's why I am on Dems winning party!
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    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,924

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    So we must just stand and watch our country's good name being dragged through the mud by someone for whom honesty is a rather attractive flower and not both a public as well as private virtue.
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    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,095

    No Deal Brexit unites the Remain base and divides the Leave base.

    I passionately believe there is a majority in the country for EEA

    I passionately believe there is a vast majority in the country who have no idea what EEA is.
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    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
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    No Deal Brexit unites the Remain base and divides the Leave base.

    I passionately believe there is a majority in the country for EEA

    I passionately believe there is a vast majority in the country who have no idea what EEA is.
    The Tories never bothered to explain it.
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    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,129
    edited September 2020

    What's causing the Donald's price to drift on Betfair? Surely it isn't just the Wisconsin poll from flaky old Rasmussen?

    I'd say it's the beginning of the reversal of the overly exuberant - not to say utterly without foundation - betting market rally that brought him in from 3 to 2 in the space of a few weeks.

    I will repeat my forecast. 3.5 by end of Sept. 5 on eve of election.

    Then defeat by about 150 EC.
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    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,692

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    Then why does YG poll say the majority don't support this proposal?
    Johnson got the plurality of the votes (ie more than anyone else), but only a minority of the total. Essentially Johnson engineered a takeover of the Conservative Party by UKIP/Brexit Party thus consolidating the Leave minority. While the neo-Remain majority is split across several parties. As long as that split stays, Johnson sits pretty.
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    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    It's possibly a better opinion poll than yours?
  • Options
    FF43 said:

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    Then why does YG poll say the majority don't support this proposal?
    Johnson got the plurality of the votes (ie more than anyone else), but only a minority of the total. Essentially Johnson engineered a takeover of the Conservative Party by UKIP/Brexit Party thus consolidating the Leave minority. While the neo-Remain majority is split across several parties. As long as that split stays, Johnson sits pretty.
    As I said above, I believe that splits as soon as Brexit becomes defined.
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    alterego said:

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    It's possibly a better opinion poll than yours?
    YouGov is a reliable poster, I trust their findings
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    44% of the vote is not a majority and YouGov finds the majority don't want No Deal. The two match, this isn't controversial
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    WhisperingOracleWhisperingOracle Posts: 8,503
    edited September 2020
    Rexel56 said:

    Regarding COVID cases being brought in by holiday makers... seven Greek islands have today been added to the ‘quarantine’ list. Five have international airports from which one might return and so be identified as a necessary stay-at-homer. Two have no airport (Tinos and Serifo) and so one would almost certainly return from Athens. How does that work? Do you have to effectively volunteer for quarantine? Better not wear the Tinos t-shirt when arriving at Gatwick.

    Some very odd islands included on the list. Mykonos, Santorini and Crete are all regular big tourist destinations, but Tinos tends to be visited more by domestic Greeks on pilgrimages, and Serifos is a still a fairly unspoilt rocky beauty, with not that many tourists altogether.

    I get the feeling that two cases = lockdown and quarantine for the UK govt, or something similar.
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    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    Then why does YG poll say the majority don't support this proposal?
    Because they're an opinion pollster.

    The only poll that matters is the election.
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    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    So we must just stand and watch our country's good name being dragged through the mud by someone for whom honesty is a rather attractive flower and not both a public as well as private virtue.
    Sadly yes. Just as many of us had to stand and watch as Tony Blair killed tens of thousands of innocent people in our name in Iraq. It sucks but it is the system. And as Churchill said it is the worst form of Government apart from all the others.
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    ukpaulukpaul Posts: 649
    edited September 2020
    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
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    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    Then why does YG poll say the majority don't support this proposal?
    Because they're an opinion pollster.

    The only poll that matters is the election.
    But the election confirms YouGov's findings, there isn't a majority for No Deal because as I said, Johnson did not get a majority of the vote.
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    No Deal Brexit unites the Remain base and divides the Leave base.

    I passionately believe there is a majority in the country for EEA

    I wish you were right but I honestly don't think so now. There was. But that time has passed.
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    44% of the vote is not a majority and YouGov finds the majority don't want No Deal. The two match, this isn't controversial

    The Government got 36% more votes than its next closest competitor.

    What YouGov says is immaterial. We had the election already.
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    Rexel56Rexel56 Posts: 807

    Scott_xP said:
    Good. Maybe they can knock some heads together win von der Leyen and Barnier and the EU can accept the UK's entirely reasonable proposals: have fish settled like Norway, have state aid settled like Canada.

    Then we can put all this behind us and move on with our lives.
    I see your problem. You think a Canada-style deal will make our relationship with the EU only as significant to us as Canada's relationship with the EU is to Canada and we won't have to think about it very much anymore. You're ignoring scale and geography.
    Geography is irrelevant, that is why.
    Seems odd then that “geographic proximity” was explicitly written into the political declaration as a factor...
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    felixfelix Posts: 15,124

    No Deal Brexit unites the Remain base and divides the Leave base.

    I passionately believe there is a majority in the country for EEA

    2 things:

    1 We do not have a system of government by opinion poll.
    2 All you need to do is win a GE for your passionate belief and you'll be fine.
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    ukpaul said:

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
    Or your own parents and grandparents.
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    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,692

    FF43 said:

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    Then why does YG poll say the majority don't support this proposal?
    Johnson got the plurality of the votes (ie more than anyone else), but only a minority of the total. Essentially Johnson engineered a takeover of the Conservative Party by UKIP/Brexit Party thus consolidating the Leave minority. While the neo-Remain majority is split across several parties. As long as that split stays, Johnson sits pretty.
    As I said above, I believe that splits as soon as Brexit becomes defined.
    I am less sure of that. As long as he can keep his Brexiteer minority together Johnson can safely ignore the majority. At the very least he and advisers believe this to be case.
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    44% of the vote is not a majority and YouGov finds the majority don't want No Deal. The two match, this isn't controversial

    The Government got 36% more votes than its next closest competitor.

    What YouGov says is immaterial. We had the election already.
    Thank you for confirming that no, Johnson did not get over 50% of the vote and so YouGov is correct.
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    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100

    alterego said:

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    It's possibly a better opinion poll than yours?
    YouGov is a reliable poster, I trust their findings
    More reliable than a vote by the electorate? Let's do away with elections and just have a YouGov poll. Save some money too.
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    OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,924

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    So we must just stand and watch our country's good name being dragged through the mud by someone for whom honesty is a rather attractive flower and not both a public as well as private virtue.
    Sadly yes. Just as many of us had to stand and watch as Tony Blair killed tens of thousands of innocent people in our name in Iraq. It sucks but it is the system. And as Churchill said it is the worst form of Government apart from all the others.
    Agree about Iraq. Actually it's our electoral system that results in what the late Lord Hailsham called 'elective dictatorship'!
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    44% of the vote is not a majority and YouGov finds the majority don't want No Deal. The two match, this isn't controversial

    The Government got 36% more votes than its next closest competitor.

    What YouGov says is immaterial. We had the election already.
    Thank you for confirming that no, Johnson did not get over 50% of the vote and so YouGov is correct.
    Whether YouGov is correct or not is irrelevant.

    The country, by millions of votes, by 36% more votes than the next nearest rival, by a landslide I would say . . . backed this government.

    The rest is fluff until the next election.
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    felix said:

    No Deal Brexit unites the Remain base and divides the Leave base.

    I passionately believe there is a majority in the country for EEA

    2 things:

    1 We do not have a system of government by opinion poll.
    2 All you need to do is win a GE for your passionate belief and you'll be fine.
    In an actual election, Johnson did not get majority support for No Deal.

    We can discuss FPTP all you like - but the reality is that the majority of Brits are not behind Johnson's Brexit plan. YouGov is simply confirming that.
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,226
    I ordered my home virus test last Wednesday, received it Friday lunchtime and booked a Saturday collection that afternoon, did the test Saturday morning, had it collected Saturday lunchtime, and got an SMS with my negative result just now.

    We do appear to have got our act together on testing.
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    alterego said:

    alterego said:

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    It's possibly a better opinion poll than yours?
    YouGov is a reliable poster, I trust their findings
    More reliable than a vote by the electorate? Let's do away with elections and just have a YouGov poll. Save some money too.
    When did Johnson get 50% of the vote in an election?
  • Options
    There has been a lot of talk about Labour facing a dangerous and uncertain future as a political party. That has tended to obscure the fact that, to all intents and purposes, the Conservative and Unionist party no longer exists.
  • Options

    felix said:

    No Deal Brexit unites the Remain base and divides the Leave base.

    I passionately believe there is a majority in the country for EEA

    2 things:

    1 We do not have a system of government by opinion poll.
    2 All you need to do is win a GE for your passionate belief and you'll be fine.
    In an actual election, Johnson did not get majority support for No Deal.

    We can discuss FPTP all you like - but the reality is that the majority of Brits are not behind Johnson's Brexit plan. YouGov is simply confirming that.
    So what?
  • Options

    44% of the vote is not a majority and YouGov finds the majority don't want No Deal. The two match, this isn't controversial

    The Government got 36% more votes than its next closest competitor.

    What YouGov says is immaterial. We had the election already.
    Thank you for confirming that no, Johnson did not get over 50% of the vote and so YouGov is correct.
    Whether YouGov is correct or not is irrelevant.

    The country, by millions of votes, by 36% more votes than the next nearest rival, by a landslide I would say . . . backed this government.

    The rest is fluff until the next election.
    But not a majority.

    Less than 50% = not a majority.

    Thanks for confirming Philip
  • Options
    Hardly surprising when one works out that those 20,000 jobs come at a cost of around £5 million a job.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,129

    No Deal Brexit unites the Remain base and divides the Leave base.

    This is absolutely right. It's why forcing Johnson into an earlier GE on a No Deal platform is one of the (many) better 'alternative history' courses of action that the opposition forces could and should have taken. Such a GE would have been close.
  • Options

    There has been a lot of talk about Labour facing a dangerous and uncertain future as a political party. That has tended to obscure the fact that, to all intents and purposes, the Conservative and Unionist party no longer exists.

    The Tory Party is now UKIP-lite.
  • Options

    On Topic:

    Since we cannot trust anything the Govt says - since we have no idea what is posturing and what is actual intention - then all we can do is let it play out until we get to 1st Jan 2021. After that, the reality of Brexit will be there for all to see. Only then can we really judge.

    I expect there to be a loud burst of jingoist rah-rah on New Year's Eve followed by a wake up call over the first few weeks.

    I am not expecting it to be pleasant.

    You never have.

    But you seem rather more rattled than when you were going rah-rah, waving your Irish passport in the faces of those less fortunate....
    "Less fortunate"? Like Brexit was bad luck?

    Those you support manufactured this f*ck-up to save the Tory Party from Farage. I did not bother getting the passport until the Brexiteers rubbed my nose in the sh*t they made and told me to suck it up because they won.
  • Options

    moonshine said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    One assumes these increases are driven by travellers returning from mainland Europe before schools restart (lots of bosses also gave permission to WFH from overseas until end of August).

    That graph Peston includes is ridiculous and overtly provocative because it ignores the positivity rate and hence gives no indication of overall infection levels. In March the true number must have been something like 150-200k a day.

    And yet the positivity rate now is still very low, under 1%. So how many cases are we really missing now? And perhaps the Track N Trace is actually doing the job and picking up traveller related clusters?

    The real answer will come when the case rates rise to the 2000 a day rate the ONS was seeing on the 25 August - in England.

    Either :

    - The ONS was wrong
    - There was truly massive change in the community infection rate after that date
    - Or the case rate rise will stop.

    for reference -

    image
    Hmm, rather runs against Peston and screechy narrative, doesn't it?
    Prof Peston, screechy narrative, surely not.....expert on everything from chemical engineering to macro-economics.
    Just imagine the crap you would get from someone with degrees in Chemical Engineering and PPE...
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,249
    IanB2 said:

    I ordered my home virus test last Wednesday, received it Friday lunchtime and booked a Saturday collection that afternoon, did the test Saturday morning, had it collected Saturday lunchtime, and got an SMS with my negative result just now.

    We do appear to have got our act together on testing.

    Although interesting to hear @Foxy say that his colleagues were told to go to a centre 110 miles away.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,378
    .

    Afternoon all. Talking to you all as the middle window on my new ultrawide monitor, with two other windows either side. There is literally more space on this monitor than I know what to do with! So much better than the monitor plus laptop screen I had before.

    You sitting in the new Cummings control centre ?
  • Options
    Rexel56 said:

    Scott_xP said:
    Good. Maybe they can knock some heads together win von der Leyen and Barnier and the EU can accept the UK's entirely reasonable proposals: have fish settled like Norway, have state aid settled like Canada.

    Then we can put all this behind us and move on with our lives.
    I see your problem. You think a Canada-style deal will make our relationship with the EU only as significant to us as Canada's relationship with the EU is to Canada and we won't have to think about it very much anymore. You're ignoring scale and geography.
    Geography is irrelevant, that is why.
    Seems odd then that “geographic proximity” was explicitly written into the political declaration as a factor...
    In the explicitly not legally binding political declaration?

    Yes it is mentioned as a reason there should be an LPF.

    Canada has an LPF.

    Therefore its not relevant as a difference.
  • Options

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.

    And if that involves breaking manifesto commitments and promises, so be it.

  • Options

    There has been a lot of talk about Labour facing a dangerous and uncertain future as a political party. That has tended to obscure the fact that, to all intents and purposes, the Conservative and Unionist party no longer exists.

    The Tory Party is now UKIP-lite.
    The Tory party has always adapted and adopted the best bits of other parties.
  • Options

    There has been a lot of talk about Labour facing a dangerous and uncertain future as a political party. That has tended to obscure the fact that, to all intents and purposes, the Conservative and Unionist party no longer exists.

    The Tory Party is now UKIP-lite.
    The Tory party has always adapted and adopted the best bits of other parties.
    There is nothing good about UKIP
  • Options
    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,692

    There has been a lot of talk about Labour facing a dangerous and uncertain future as a political party. That has tended to obscure the fact that, to all intents and purposes, the Conservative and Unionist party no longer exists.

    The Tory Party is now UKIP-lite.
    I challenge that. I don't see anything lite about the Tory Party's UKIPity
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,909
    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    No, I didn’t write that did I?

    Moronic post.
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,226
    TOPPING said:

    IanB2 said:

    I ordered my home virus test last Wednesday, received it Friday lunchtime and booked a Saturday collection that afternoon, did the test Saturday morning, had it collected Saturday lunchtime, and got an SMS with my negative result just now.

    We do appear to have got our act together on testing.

    Although interesting to hear @Foxy say that his colleagues were told to go to a centre 110 miles away.
    If you say you don't have access to a car (true as mine was in the garage) they send it through the post and collect for free
  • Options
    FF43 said:

    There has been a lot of talk about Labour facing a dangerous and uncertain future as a political party. That has tended to obscure the fact that, to all intents and purposes, the Conservative and Unionist party no longer exists.

    The Tory Party is now UKIP-lite.
    I challenge that. I don't see anything lite about the Tory Party's UKIPity
    I was trying to be kind
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100

    ukpaul said:

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
    Or your own parents and grandparents.
    I'd have been worried about other people's relatives too
  • Options

    There has been a lot of talk about Labour facing a dangerous and uncertain future as a political party. That has tended to obscure the fact that, to all intents and purposes, the Conservative and Unionist party no longer exists.

    The Tory Party is now UKIP-lite.
    The Tory party has always adapted and adopted the best bits of other parties.
    There is nothing good about UKIP
    Hence the Tories are not UKIP, they just nicked any sensible policies UKIP had. As they have brazenly done with other parties for hundreds of years.
  • Options

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    So we must just stand and watch our country's good name being dragged through the mud by someone for whom honesty is a rather attractive flower and not both a public as well as private virtue.
    Sadly yes. Just as many of us had to stand and watch as Tony Blair killed tens of thousands of innocent people in our name in Iraq. It sucks but it is the system. And as Churchill said it is the worst form of Government apart from all the others.
    Agree about Iraq. Actually it's our electoral system that results in what the late Lord Hailsham called 'elective dictatorship'!
    Trouble is that any electoral system will still end up with someone in power who got less than 50% of the popular vote.
  • Options

    ukpaul said:

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
    Or your own parents and grandparents.
    What we are asking the young to do is give up a large part of the prime of their lives. Imagine being 18 in March 2020. What have you been able to do?
  • Options

    There has been a lot of talk about Labour facing a dangerous and uncertain future as a political party. That has tended to obscure the fact that, to all intents and purposes, the Conservative and Unionist party no longer exists.

    The Tory Party is now UKIP-lite.
    The Tory party has always adapted and adopted the best bits of other parties.
    There is nothing good about UKIP
    Hence the Tories are not UKIP, they just nicked any sensible policies UKIP had. As they have brazenly done with other parties for hundreds of years.
    UKIP never had any sensible policies
  • Options
    ukpaulukpaul Posts: 649

    ukpaul said:

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
    Or your own parents and grandparents.
    True, although students away from home may rationalise that one away as an impossibility.
  • Options

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.

    And if that involves breaking manifesto commitments and promises, so be it.

    Like Blair implementing tuition fees against his own manifesto?

    Or like Blair having a manifesto policy to hold a referendum on the EU Constitution then binning that and rebranding it the Lisbon Treaty?

    That kind of thing? How horrific.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,378

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    Everyone over 70 is not a tiny minority of the population.

    And the estimated 5% of everyone who gets it, who end up with long term health consequences ?
  • Options

    On Topic:

    Since we cannot trust anything the Govt says - since we have no idea what is posturing and what is actual intention - then all we can do is let it play out until we get to 1st Jan 2021. After that, the reality of Brexit will be there for all to see. Only then can we really judge.

    I expect there to be a loud burst of jingoist rah-rah on New Year's Eve followed by a wake up call over the first few weeks.

    I am not expecting it to be pleasant.

    You never have.

    But you seem rather more rattled than when you were going rah-rah, waving your Irish passport in the faces of those less fortunate....
    "Less fortunate"? Like Brexit was bad luck?

    Those you support manufactured this f*ck-up to save the Tory Party from Farage. I did not bother getting the passport until the Brexiteers rubbed my nose in the sh*t they made and told me to suck it up because they won.
    Funny because I distinctly remember you 'rubbing our noses' in the fact you could get an Irish passport well before the referendum. As it happens I could have got an Irish passport as well. Still could. I wouldn't because even if I thought Brexit were going to be a disaster - which I don't - I also don't believe in running away when things get a little difficult.
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,531
    IanB2 said:

    TOPPING said:

    IanB2 said:

    I ordered my home virus test last Wednesday, received it Friday lunchtime and booked a Saturday collection that afternoon, did the test Saturday morning, had it collected Saturday lunchtime, and got an SMS with my negative result just now.

    We do appear to have got our act together on testing.

    Although interesting to hear @Foxy say that his colleagues were told to go to a centre 110 miles away.
    If you say you don't have access to a car (true as mine was in the garage) they send it through the post and collect for free
    WhaI don't understand is why none of the walking test centres in Leicester didn't show, as we have several. The website simply said no walk in sites within range. Perhaps a software glitch, but not terribly helpful.
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,095

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    Has any research been done about risk at airports? Naively they seem a perfect vector for transmission, 1000s of people all together from all over the world, aircon, plus you have to sit there for several hours.
    Logic would suggest that anybody who gets into contact with Covid early in their holiday (like, at the airport going out) is potentially going to be at their most infectious by the time they again have their return through those same airports.

    For now, I'll stick to the much smaller risk faced by visiting English towns and villages. Although, we have had small outbreaks in Devon in unlikely spots such as Dartington.
  • Options
    felixfelix Posts: 15,124

    felix said:

    No Deal Brexit unites the Remain base and divides the Leave base.

    I passionately believe there is a majority in the country for EEA

    2 things:

    1 We do not have a system of government by opinion poll.
    2 All you need to do is win a GE for your passionate belief and you'll be fine.
    In an actual election, Johnson did not get majority support for No Deal.

    We can discuss FPTP all you like - but the reality is that the majority of Brits are not behind Johnson's Brexit plan. YouGov is simply confirming that.
    I don't dispute the poll - it is just the pretence that it has any significance yo seem unable to grasp - despite numerous people telling you.
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,531

    ukpaul said:

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
    Or your own parents and grandparents.
    What we are asking the young to do is give up a large part of the prime of their lives. Imagine being 18 in March 2020. What have you been able to do?
    Inherit?

    :(
  • Options
    IanB2 said:

    I ordered my home virus test last Wednesday, received it Friday lunchtime and booked a Saturday collection that afternoon, did the test Saturday morning, had it collected Saturday lunchtime, and got an SMS with my negative result just now.

    We do appear to have got our act together on testing.

    All the news does is just pick up one or two isolated cases. We are doing between 150,000-200,000 tests each day which is a fantastic achievement.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,961
    Foxy said:

    IanB2 said:

    TOPPING said:

    IanB2 said:

    I ordered my home virus test last Wednesday, received it Friday lunchtime and booked a Saturday collection that afternoon, did the test Saturday morning, had it collected Saturday lunchtime, and got an SMS with my negative result just now.

    We do appear to have got our act together on testing.

    Although interesting to hear @Foxy say that his colleagues were told to go to a centre 110 miles away.
    If you say you don't have access to a car (true as mine was in the garage) they send it through the post and collect for free
    WhaI don't understand is why none of the walking test centres in Leicester didn't show, as we have several. The website simply said no walk in sites within range. Perhaps a software glitch, but not terribly helpful.
    Fully booked?
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100

    alterego said:

    alterego said:

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    It's possibly a better opinion poll than yours?
    YouGov is a reliable poster, I trust their findings
    More reliable than a vote by the electorate? Let's do away with elections and just have a YouGov poll. Save some money too.
    When did Johnson get 50% of the vote in an election?
    My point, which you ignored, is that if a YouGov poll is a more accurate reflection of public opinion than a General Election, as you seem to think, let's not bother with GEs any more. Simples.
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,129
    edited September 2020
    Good header @Cyclefree. We do seem to be losing any last vestige of the positively correlated relationship one would like to imagine exists between what our government and Prime Minister say about a subject and what is the truth pertaining to said subject. And the most worrying thing of all is that we don't seem to care. Cos it's "Boris" and he's such a boyo.
  • Options
    MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 25,059

    No Deal Brexit unites the Remain base and divides the Leave base.

    I passionately believe there is a majority in the country for EEA

    If only you were right.

    Full-frontal hard Brexit is what the great unwashed now believe they voted for. Take that Johnny Foreigner!
  • Options
    FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,531
    edited September 2020
    RobD said:

    Foxy said:

    IanB2 said:

    TOPPING said:

    IanB2 said:

    I ordered my home virus test last Wednesday, received it Friday lunchtime and booked a Saturday collection that afternoon, did the test Saturday morning, had it collected Saturday lunchtime, and got an SMS with my negative result just now.

    We do appear to have got our act together on testing.

    Although interesting to hear @Foxy say that his colleagues were told to go to a centre 110 miles away.
    If you say you don't have access to a car (true as mine was in the garage) they send it through the post and collect for free
    WhaI don't understand is why none of the walking test centres in Leicester didn't show, as we have several. The website simply said no walk in sites within range. Perhaps a software glitch, but not terribly helpful.
    Fully booked?
    its supposed to show the next 5 days.

    If fully booked, and such low positives, you have to question if we are testing the right people.
  • Options

    ukpaul said:

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
    Or your own parents and grandparents.
    What we are asking the young to do is give up a large part of the prime of their lives. Imagine being 18 in March 2020. What have you been able to do?
    So you think the right to have a drink and a party with your friends is more important than the safety of your elderly relatives? What a nasty, selfish idea.
  • Options
    Cyclefree said:

    alterego said:

    Ms Cyclefree obviously struggles to fill her day

    What a nasty little remark.

    The header took me an hour to write.

    At the moment I am largely bedridden because I am recuperating from a serious and very nasty infection, which required hospital treatment. So, yes, I am limited in what I can do.

    But I will get better.

    You, on the other hand ......
    Nasty little person. Get well soon.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,961
    Foxy said:

    RobD said:

    Foxy said:

    IanB2 said:

    TOPPING said:

    IanB2 said:

    I ordered my home virus test last Wednesday, received it Friday lunchtime and booked a Saturday collection that afternoon, did the test Saturday morning, had it collected Saturday lunchtime, and got an SMS with my negative result just now.

    We do appear to have got our act together on testing.

    Although interesting to hear @Foxy say that his colleagues were told to go to a centre 110 miles away.
    If you say you don't have access to a car (true as mine was in the garage) they send it through the post and collect for free
    WhaI don't understand is why none of the walking test centres in Leicester didn't show, as we have several. The website simply said no walk in sites within range. Perhaps a software glitch, but not terribly helpful.
    Fully booked?
    its supposed to show the next 5 days.
    Might still be fully booked?
  • Options
    AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 19,909
    Cyclefree said:

    alterego said:

    Ms Cyclefree obviously struggles to fill her day

    What a nasty little remark.

    The header took me an hour to write.

    At the moment I am largely bedridden because I am recuperating from a serious and very nasty infection, which required hospital treatment. So, yes, I am limited in what I can do.

    But I will get better.

    You, on the other hand ......
    This poster seems to get a kick from being unpleasant and rude.

    Get well soon Cyclefree.
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,095

    On Topic:

    Since we cannot trust anything the Govt says - since we have no idea what is posturing and what is actual intention - then all we can do is let it play out until we get to 1st Jan 2021. After that, the reality of Brexit will be there for all to see. Only then can we really judge.

    I expect there to be a loud burst of jingoist rah-rah on New Year's Eve followed by a wake up call over the first few weeks.

    I am not expecting it to be pleasant.

    You never have.

    But you seem rather more rattled than when you were going rah-rah, waving your Irish passport in the faces of those less fortunate....
    "Less fortunate"? Like Brexit was bad luck?

    Those you support manufactured this f*ck-up to save the Tory Party from Farage. I did not bother getting the passport until the Brexiteers rubbed my nose in the sh*t they made and told me to suck it up because they won.
    Fake news....
  • Options

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.

    And if that involves breaking manifesto commitments and promises, so be it.

    Like Blair implementing tuition fees against his own manifesto?

    Or like Blair having a manifesto policy to hold a referendum on the EU Constitution then binning that and rebranding it the Lisbon Treaty?

    That kind of thing? How horrific.

    So, yep, in your world manifesto commitments mean nothing. It is helpful to know.
  • Options
    StockyStocky Posts: 9,715

    ukpaul said:

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
    Or your own parents and grandparents.
    What we are asking the young to do is give up a large part of the prime of their lives. Imagine being 18 in March 2020. What have you been able to do?
    If I were 18? I`d say go through a lot of tissues.
  • Options
    alteregoalterego Posts: 1,100

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    No, I didn’t write that did I?

    Moronic post.
    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
  • Options
    ClippPClippP Posts: 1,680

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    So we must just stand and watch our country's good name being dragged through the mud by someone for whom honesty is a rather attractive flower and not both a public as well as private virtue.
    Sadly yes. Just as many of us had to stand and watch as Tony Blair killed tens of thousands of innocent people in our name in Iraq. It sucks but it is the system. And as Churchill said it is the worst form of Government apart from all the others.
    Agree about Iraq. Actually it's our electoral system that results in what the late Lord Hailsham called 'elective dictatorship'!
    Trouble is that any electoral system will still end up with someone in power who got less than 50% of the popular vote.
    Not if they do not have absolute power. But in practce that means reforming the voting system. Good idea, of course.
  • Options

    ukpaul said:

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
    Or your own parents and grandparents.
    What we are asking the young to do is give up a large part of the prime of their lives. Imagine being 18 in March 2020. What have you been able to do?
    So you think the right to have a drink and a party with your friends is more important than the safety of your elderly relatives? What a nasty, selfish idea.
    I did not say it was right, Im just saying we have asked young people to give up a big part of their lives, which by and large they have done which is why deaths are now so low.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,924
    Nigelb said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    Everyone over 70 is not a tiny minority of the population.

    And the estimated 5% of everyone who gets it, who end up with long term health consequences ?
    One of the things that's really interesting about CV-19 is it making very obvious a lot of human cognitive biases.

    There is a dramatic difference in how people feel about CV-19, and the measures that need to be in place to stop it, between those who have seen it first hand, and those who don't know anyone who've had it. Because people are being asked to make sacrifices (i.e. change their behaviour), and that is something they do not want to do, they have internal very high barriers for being persuaded.

    People really want to believe things that mean they don't need to be more careful. Nobody wants to wear masks in shops, and therefore people are predisposed to believe the idea that they are a vector for disease transmission (despite reams of empirical evidence to the contrary).

    Because we'd all like to get back to normal, it's much more comforting to believe that this isn't real, and it's all a conspiracy by Bill Gates and his mates.
  • Options
    Stocky said:

    ukpaul said:

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
    Or your own parents and grandparents.
    What we are asking the young to do is give up a large part of the prime of their lives. Imagine being 18 in March 2020. What have you been able to do?
    If I were 18? I`d say go through a lot of tissues.
    Very handy
  • Options

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.

    And if that involves breaking manifesto commitments and promises, so be it.

    Like Blair implementing tuition fees against his own manifesto?

    Or like Blair having a manifesto policy to hold a referendum on the EU Constitution then binning that and rebranding it the Lisbon Treaty?

    That kind of thing? How horrific.

    So, yep, in your world manifesto commitments mean nothing. It is helpful to know.
    No, they mean something.

    They're not binding, but they definitely mean something.
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,095

    ukpaul said:

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
    Or your own parents and grandparents.
    What we are asking the young to do is give up a large part of the prime of their lives. Imagine being 18 in March 2020. What have you been able to do?
    Er, act responsibly by your fellow citizens?

    Welcome to the rest of your lives, kids.

    Alternatively, drink a quart of bourbon, put on the bald tyres - and go speeding in a thunderstorm.
  • Options
    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,692
    edited September 2020
    Cyclefree said:

    alterego said:

    Ms Cyclefree obviously struggles to fill her day

    What a nasty little remark.

    The header took me an hour to write.

    At the moment I am largely bedridden because I am recuperating from a serious and very nasty infection, which required hospital treatment. So, yes, I am limited in what I can do.

    But I will get better.

    You, on the other hand ......
    Indeed. When people are unable to contribute anything that is useful or kind and in that case don't know to keep quiet, anything they do say just damns themselves.

    I like my thoughts to be provoked, which you do admirably.
  • Options
    ClippP said:

    Scott_xP said:
    So only two to one?

    Given the way people act with such hysteria over No Deal you'd think it'd be a landslide the other way not just two to one.
    You were acting yesterday like Brits were behind Johnson and his Brexit plan
    They are. "There is only one poll that matters".

    Johnson won the polls that mattered (the referendum and the election), now he needs to do whatever he thinks is best, subject to Parliamentary approval where appropriate - then be judged or damned in four years time on the results of that.
    Did he get a majority of the vote in 2019? No.

    Therefore you have no ability to say he has majority support for his Brexit plan
    Majority of the vote doesn't matter.

    He got million more votes than any alternative. Therefore Britain has backed him.
    So we must just stand and watch our country's good name being dragged through the mud by someone for whom honesty is a rather attractive flower and not both a public as well as private virtue.
    Sadly yes. Just as many of us had to stand and watch as Tony Blair killed tens of thousands of innocent people in our name in Iraq. It sucks but it is the system. And as Churchill said it is the worst form of Government apart from all the others.
    Agree about Iraq. Actually it's our electoral system that results in what the late Lord Hailsham called 'elective dictatorship'!
    Trouble is that any electoral system will still end up with someone in power who got less than 50% of the popular vote.
    Not if they do not have absolute power. But in practce that means reforming the voting system. Good idea, of course.
    Voting reforms don't mean whoever gets in power got 50% of the vote.
  • Options
    MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 50,095
    You do begin to wonder if the Russian goons wouldn't be better, you know, using bullets?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54061370
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,249

    ukpaul said:

    alterego said:

    Pulpstar said:

    RobD said:

    Cases really picking up now. I wonder why this wasn't seen in the ONS surveys. Maybe it's a case of more intense but localised clusters, which I would guess are more difficult to pick up via random sampling.
    How many of those cases are sick?
    Its seems half (I am obviously being slightly hyperbolic) the premier league footballers have it on return from their holidays and only being picked up because they are all being tested e.g. two Man City players today.

    Letting everybody go on a foreign summer holiday in August seems a particular idiotic move, along with the ever changing (it has just changed again) series of "air-bridge" countries.
    People do seem particularly able to pick it up on foreign trips even if the prevalence is similiar in their holiday country. I guess interactions are upped compared to staying at home.
    Maybe airports are festering plague pits. Maybe Johnny Foreigner has far greater use of aircon than if staying at home.

    Or maybe too many people get pissed on holiday and enter a "I don't give a shit" phase of denial about the risks?

    Covid-19 just LOVES people consuming alcohol.
    The risks from Covid are minuscule for most people though, so it's more people being emboldened to the reality rather than a "denial of the risks".

    Yes, I know the risks to some groups are very high – but these people are a tiny minority of the population.
    So that's okay then? Let's all party and fuck those poor sods who die as a consequence.
    Building a nation of granny/grandad killers. I think a fair number won't care but surely that realisation is going to stop reckless behaviour in schools, universities, clubs, parties? Would I have cared when I was young? Actually, I'm not sure, especially if peer pressure was affecting group dynamics. Doing dangerous stupid stuff is par for the course, just that now that the consequences hit not you with a killer hangover and no clothes but someone you've probably never met struggling to breathe and with scarred lungs/heart.
    Or your own parents and grandparents.
    Thinking out loud here:

    The problem is if someone not in a risk group, parties on down, contracts Covid (asymptomatically), goes to work in Asda the following day and infects a colleague who then visits their grandparents and infects them.

    Currently the colleague can go to see their grandparents and must socially distance from them.

    In lockdown your colleague can't go to see their grandparents.

    So theoretically, someone behaving irresponsibly doesn't prevent their colleague from going to see their grandparents as the latter must socially distance from them anyway.

    So then the risk is that they give a care worker the virus on the bus. But isn't social distancing in place on public transport?

    So actually, if everyone follows the rules/guidance/regulations/law people not in a risk group can go out and party.

    But then of course if they are reckless then they are unlikely to be careful of other people/socially distance.

    What have I missed?
This discussion has been closed.