If I were a Labour voting Brexiteer I would now be conflicted HY.
Would being a member of Leave.EU mean one can no longer support the Labour Party.
Is Leave.EU really a membership organisation anyway? I thought it was just a campaign group funded largely by Arron Banks and other individuals who have entirely earned the money they donate and have no links to Russia whatsoever - they are so unrelated to Russia, in fact, that I don't even know why I mentioned it as it simply isn't an issue at all and I doubt they could point to the Kremlin on a map.
This is the problem with having different rules in different areas...all of a sudden everybody is an expert in transmission and it is never their venue.
Gym chain Pure Gym has said it is considering legal action over the British government's decision to close gyms and fitness centres in the Liverpool area as part of the city being placed in the "very high" level of risk.
Humphrey Cobbold, chief executive of the company, said the group was "extremely disappointed" about the move, which will force it to close seven sites in the Liverpool City Region. He said there was "no evidence of Covid-19 transmission in gyms" and called on the government to publish the data on it.
People not exercising, and therefore getting fat, is going to be another Covid worry. It's easy to lose weight/keep trim in the summer - it's just dawned on me as the rain pours how often I run inside on the treadmill down the gym during the winter
I am currently pondering to go or not on one of my usual three cycles per day from indoors looking at the steady rain.
This is going to be a world away from Lockdown 1.0. Then it was glorious weather and people could exercise often (apart from in Wales) and did. I certainly did.
I had the same realisation as you did just now that things are going to get bad and sad and the country will suffer. As much as Covid? Who knows.
There is so much more to regular gym going than the obvious benefit of improved fitness, especially if you are working from home and live alone. Bit of banter with others (or at least SEEING others!) bright lights when the weather is dreary and the sun sets in mid afternoon... yes, this is going to be a world away from Lockdown 1.0 in areas where gyms and pubs close, no doubt
I get Black Dog about 5pm (ESPECIALLY in winter) - 30-40 minutes hard graft at the gym, with a few chats and waves with regular gym-going friends, followed by a hot shower and a brisk walk home, does wonders for my mental state. Transforms my mood.
Without that, fuck. I seriously wonder.
Looking like a prat in front of your telly isn't quite the same, is it?
A new currency before joining the Euro? Simple - Pound Scots. Like all of the other issues of the pound externally to the UK it would be bound 1:1 to Sterling for the period needed to transition into the Euro. Not that big a deal. How does it work in a small poor country I hear the usual suspects sneer? Ask the Irish, worked for them.
I seem to remember trading sterling for about 10% more punts the last time we went to Eire before the euro arrived.
You have to ask Robert Jenrick if you want to take a statue down? Sounds inefficient and authoritarian at the same time. And what an odd thing to highlight at this time. Surely Johnson & Cummings want the public to be focusing on the virus emergency not on statues.
Another oddity, I see this tweet is from Leave.EU and yet it appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with Brexit. How does that work? Has Brexit become some sort of cypher for not wanting statues changed? Why would people who are passionate about us regaining our sovereignty as an independent island nation feel protective about statues?
Feel a bit sad about the Daily Express. It was the family paper when I was a kid. Had some very good writers, got the basic news across well, was literate and coherent, circulation about 5 million. It's a pathetic rag now. It's even stretching a point to call it a newspaper. Circulation is about 300,000 and you wonder how money of them are really readers. I only ever see it left on the counter at my local cafe.
I was doing up the spare room a few months back, which involved clearing some rubble from an old fireplace that had at some point in my house's life been turned into a small cupboard.
Inside was a copy of the Daily Express from the 1950s, which the bloke doing the original work had used to block up the soot.
I found far more insight on the world's key issues in that edition than in a copy of the same paper that I found on the train last week.
Giles. Beachcomber.
I don't get this – I even googled it and still don't get it!
If I were a Labour voting Brexiteer I would now be conflicted HY.
Would being a member of Leave.EU mean one can no longer support the Labour Party.
Is Leave.EU really a membership organisation anyway? I thought it was just a campaign group funded largely by Arron Banks and other individuals who have entirely earned the money they donate and have no links to Russia whatsoever - they are so unrelated to Russia, in fact, that I don't even know why I mentioned it as it simply isn't an issue at all and I doubt they could point to the Kremlin on a map.
They don't need to point the Kremlin out on a map, because Putin provides a chauffeur driven Mercedes from the airport.
A new currency before joining the Euro? Simple - Pound Scots. Like all of the other issues of the pound externally to the UK it would be bound 1:1 to Sterling for the period needed to transition into the Euro. Not that big a deal. How does it work in a small poor country I hear the usual suspects sneer? Ask the Irish, worked for them.
If Scotland left the UK then joined not only the EU but the Euro too it would in effect not be an independent nation anyway, see Greece, its economic policy would be determined ultimately by Frankfurt and Berlin.
Scotland would not be voting for true independence as it would be if it voted to leave the UK and the EU, it would be voting to leave the UK and become a region of a Federal EU superstate
This is the problem with having different rules in different areas...all of a sudden everybody is an expert in transmission and it is never their venue.
Gym chain Pure Gym has said it is considering legal action over the British government's decision to close gyms and fitness centres in the Liverpool area as part of the city being placed in the "very high" level of risk.
Humphrey Cobbold, chief executive of the company, said the group was "extremely disappointed" about the move, which will force it to close seven sites in the Liverpool City Region. He said there was "no evidence of Covid-19 transmission in gyms" and called on the government to publish the data on it.
People not exercising, and therefore getting fat, is going to be another Covid worry. It's easy to lose weight/keep trim in the summer - it's just dawned on me as the rain pours how often I run inside on the treadmill down the gym during the winter
I am currently pondering to go or not on one of my usual three cycles per day from indoors looking at the steady rain.
This is going to be a world away from Lockdown 1.0. Then it was glorious weather and people could exercise often (apart from in Wales) and did. I certainly did.
I had the same realisation as you did just now that things are going to get bad and sad and the country will suffer. As much as Covid? Who knows.
Lance used to love the rain. If it was raining he knew that 80% of the peleton would have mentally given up before they got to the départ réel.
Get out and ride. And always wax the chain on your wet weather bike.
I was an all weather and I mean all weather Boris bike commuter sheet rain, soaked through the waterproofs if those were the conditions. I went to and from the office and I would have gone in any weather than take the tube.
But this is me not having to go anywhere so it is voluntary and hence so much more difficult.
But thanks v much for your words of encouragement which I will heed (managed to get out between this and my last post so it's already working)!
I'm more uncomfortable going to a shopping centre than the other items on that list.
And the only reason I'm not going to the cinema more often is because there is nothing to see as was demonstrated by the single trailer shown before Akira last week.
O/t but this has appeared on the Guardian site 'Oslo police seize tuned electric scooter with top speed of 36mph' One wonders, to some extent, how they managed to catch it!
You have to ask Robert Jenrick if you want to take a statue down? Sounds inefficient and authoritarian at the same time. And what an odd thing to highlight at this time. Surely Johnson & Cummings want the public to be focusing on the virus emergency not on statues.
Another oddity, I see this tweet is from Leave.EU and yet it appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with Brexit. How does that work? Has Brexit become some sort of cypher for not wanting statues changed? Why would people who are passionate about us regaining our sovereignty as an independent island nation feel protective about statues?
A new currency before joining the Euro? Simple - Pound Scots. Like all of the other issues of the pound externally to the UK it would be bound 1:1 to Sterling for the period needed to transition into the Euro. Not that big a deal. How does it work in a small poor country I hear the usual suspects sneer? Ask the Irish, worked for them.
More complicated than that. The Irish pound became free-floating as a condition of joining the European exchange rate mechanism, so it was worth quite a bit less than GBP by the time it was replaced with Euros. I assume similar would apply to a Scots Pound - and it's considerably harder to peg a currency today then it was in the 1950s, anyway.
One amusing twist in the tale is that the weakness of Sterling in recent years means that an Irish Pound would now be worth more than a British one.
You have to ask Robert Jenrick if you want to take a statue down? Sounds inefficient and authoritarian at the same time. And what an odd thing to highlight at this time. Surely Johnson & Cummings want the public to be focusing on the virus emergency not on statues.
Another oddity, I see this tweet is from Leave.EU and yet it appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with Brexit. How does that work? Has Brexit become some sort of cypher for not wanting statues changed? Why would people who are passionate about us regaining our sovereignty as an independent island nation feel protective about statues?
Strange times, they really are.
Leave.EU is keen to stoke the fires of culture wars in the UK.
Some people with suspicious minds would think, "That's funny - it doesn't seem to be in the UK's interests at all and is more the sort of thing Putin would want." But actually, Leave.EU has no Russian links, and they are acting in what they genuinely see to be the UK's best interests for reasons too complex to explain here.
Feel a bit sad about the Daily Express. It was the family paper when I was a kid. Had some very good writers, got the basic news across well, was literate and coherent, circulation about 5 million. It's a pathetic rag now. It's even stretching a point to call it a newspaper. Circulation is about 300,000 and you wonder how money of them are really readers. I only ever see it left on the counter at my local cafe.
I was doing up the spare room a few months back, which involved clearing some rubble from an old fireplace that had at some point in my house's life been turned into a small cupboard.
Inside was a copy of the Daily Express from the 1950s, which the bloke doing the original work had used to block up the soot.
I found far more insight on the world's key issues in that edition than in a copy of the same paper that I found on the train last week.
Giles. Beachcomber.
I don't get this – I even googled it and still don't get it!
Beachcomber was a genuinely funny comic writer/satirist. Wasn't Mr Justice Cocklecarrot one of his?. Even as a youth I was amused, and I think, educated.
J B Morton seems to have been in post for about half a century, so it's little surprise that towards the end he became something of an anachronism.
But anyone who could leave dozens of empty bottles of brown ale on Virginia Woolf's doorstep as a prank has a genuine sense of humour.
This is the problem with having different rules in different areas...all of a sudden everybody is an expert in transmission and it is never their venue.
Gym chain Pure Gym has said it is considering legal action over the British government's decision to close gyms and fitness centres in the Liverpool area as part of the city being placed in the "very high" level of risk.
Humphrey Cobbold, chief executive of the company, said the group was "extremely disappointed" about the move, which will force it to close seven sites in the Liverpool City Region. He said there was "no evidence of Covid-19 transmission in gyms" and called on the government to publish the data on it.
People not exercising, and therefore getting fat, is going to be another Covid worry. It's easy to lose weight/keep trim in the summer - it's just dawned on me as the rain pours how often I run inside on the treadmill down the gym during the winter
I am currently pondering to go or not on one of my usual three cycles per day from indoors looking at the steady rain.
This is going to be a world away from Lockdown 1.0. Then it was glorious weather and people could exercise often (apart from in Wales) and did. I certainly did.
I had the same realisation as you did just now that things are going to get bad and sad and the country will suffer. As much as Covid? Who knows.
Lance used to love the rain. If it was raining he knew that 80% of the peleton would have mentally given up before they got to the départ réel.
Get out and ride. And always wax the chain on your wet weather bike.
Yes, but he did have certain pharmaceutical advantages.
All GC contenders dope. Lance was just more organised and was a hyper responder to oxygen vector doping.
Thanks Bob. Pretty mixed bag! South Carolina and Ohio are pretty good for The Orange One. Ariz/Min/Mich/Georgia are all pretty much washes in States unlikely to play a crucial role. Colorado/NC/Penn/Wisc are all bad for him, and Florida is a shocker.
I may have to revise my opinion of The Sunshine State as a likely ray of sunlight for him. Perhaps the locals are upset with him orginising a superspreader event in their parish.
Florida is interesting, as it is one of the states which seems to manage its count quite rapidly, so unless there is a Bush/Gore style squeaker, it ought to declare on election night. MN and NC are other fast counting states.
PN, WI, MI will all take a while.
(Might be worth making a note of these things if one is going to be punting though election night itself.)
Texans could do us all a favor and vote for Biden. We could all go to bed early then.
If Texas goes blue then surely in play betting opportunities open up all over the board.
This is the problem with having different rules in different areas...all of a sudden everybody is an expert in transmission and it is never their venue.
Gym chain Pure Gym has said it is considering legal action over the British government's decision to close gyms and fitness centres in the Liverpool area as part of the city being placed in the "very high" level of risk.
Humphrey Cobbold, chief executive of the company, said the group was "extremely disappointed" about the move, which will force it to close seven sites in the Liverpool City Region. He said there was "no evidence of Covid-19 transmission in gyms" and called on the government to publish the data on it.
People not exercising, and therefore getting fat, is going to be another Covid worry. It's easy to lose weight/keep trim in the summer - it's just dawned on me as the rain pours how often I run inside on the treadmill down the gym during the winter
I am currently pondering to go or not on one of my usual three cycles per day from indoors looking at the steady rain.
This is going to be a world away from Lockdown 1.0. Then it was glorious weather and people could exercise often (apart from in Wales) and did. I certainly did.
I had the same realisation as you did just now that things are going to get bad and sad and the country will suffer. As much as Covid? Who knows.
Lance used to love the rain. If it was raining he knew that 80% of the peleton would have mentally given up before they got to the départ réel.
Get out and ride. And always wax the chain on your wet weather bike.
Yes, but he did have certain pharmaceutical advantages.
All GC contenders dope. Lance was just more organised and was a hyper responder to oxygen vector doping.
This is the problem with having different rules in different areas...all of a sudden everybody is an expert in transmission and it is never their venue.
Gym chain Pure Gym has said it is considering legal action over the British government's decision to close gyms and fitness centres in the Liverpool area as part of the city being placed in the "very high" level of risk.
Humphrey Cobbold, chief executive of the company, said the group was "extremely disappointed" about the move, which will force it to close seven sites in the Liverpool City Region. He said there was "no evidence of Covid-19 transmission in gyms" and called on the government to publish the data on it.
People not exercising, and therefore getting fat, is going to be another Covid worry. It's easy to lose weight/keep trim in the summer - it's just dawned on me as the rain pours how often I run inside on the treadmill down the gym during the winter
I am currently pondering to go or not on one of my usual three cycles per day from indoors looking at the steady rain.
This is going to be a world away from Lockdown 1.0. Then it was glorious weather and people could exercise often (apart from in Wales) and did. I certainly did.
I had the same realisation as you did just now that things are going to get bad and sad and the country will suffer. As much as Covid? Who knows.
Lance used to love the rain. If it was raining he knew that 80% of the peleton would have mentally given up before they got to the départ réel.
Get out and ride. And always wax the chain on your wet weather bike.
I thought that was Sean Kelly?
Anyway, mud, rain and snow is what a mountain bike is for. If you get cold, pedal harder.
I did panic buy a trainer in March (before they all sold out) though...
Feel a bit sad about the Daily Express. It was the family paper when I was a kid. Had some very good writers, got the basic news across well, was literate and coherent, circulation about 5 million. It's a pathetic rag now. It's even stretching a point to call it a newspaper. Circulation is about 300,000 and you wonder how money of them are really readers. I only ever see it left on the counter at my local cafe.
I was doing up the spare room a few months back, which involved clearing some rubble from an old fireplace that had at some point in my house's life been turned into a small cupboard.
Inside was a copy of the Daily Express from the 1950s, which the bloke doing the original work had used to block up the soot.
I found far more insight on the world's key issues in that edition than in a copy of the same paper that I found on the train last week.
Giles. Beachcomber.
I don't get this – I even googled it and still don't get it!
Beachcomber was a genuinely funny comic writer/satirist. Wasn't Mr Justice Cocklecarrot one of his?. Even as a youth I was amused, and I think, educated.
Yes, and the ineffable Dr Strabismus (whom God preserve) of Utrecht.
Beachcomber was a brilliant writer with a unique style - witty, ironic, mildly satirical and unfailingly original.
Thanks Bob. Pretty mixed bag! South Carolina and Ohio are pretty good for The Orange One. Ariz/Min/Mich/Georgia are all pretty much washes in States unlikely to play a crucial role. Colorado/NC/Penn/Wisc are all bad for him, and Florida is a shocker.
I may have to revise my opinion of The Sunshine State as a likely ray of sunlight for him. Perhaps the locals are upset with him orginising a superspreader event in their parish.
Florida is interesting, as it is one of the states which seems to manage its count quite rapidly, so unless there is a Bush/Gore style squeaker, it ought to declare on election night. MN and NC are other fast counting states.
PN, WI, MI will all take a while.
(Might be worth making a note of these things if one is going to be punting though election night itself.)
Texans could do us all a favor and vote for Biden. We could all go to bed early then.
If Texas goes blue then surely in play betting opportunities open up all over the board.
For you, maybe. I'm about maxed out. Just waiting now for the blue wave to carry me to nirvana.
The really stand out point of those figures is how incredibly stable they are. Everyone made their mind up about Trump for good or ill some time ago and no one seems to be changing their mind.
Yes I think so. 2018 midterms national vote share, Dem 53.4 v Rep 44.8. That was before Covid and I reckon it will be close to what we see on 3/11. My view is that Trump has been Toast for ages and that Covid actually gave him an opportunity to turn things around. He just needed not to be a dick about it and his ratings and chances of reelection would have improved no end. Sadly (for him) any sort of "presidential" response proved impossible. It was - apologies for cliche - "not in the DNA". Instead he doubled down on "dick" and sealed his fate. He'll struggle to avoid humiliation now.
There does seem to be a political gap opening between the lockdown left and the new 'balanced' Tory approach.
Interesting to see how this plays out in America soon, where the gap between the two parties is much wider.
Lockdown Joe vs let it rip Trump
If, as expected, Biden and the Dems clean up, it'll be interesting to see how things change in the states. Will the Dems try to shutdown the country to slow the spread of the virus?
Damn, that’s an annoying one for someone who doesn’t want to see statues torn down by a mob, but also believes that all government decisions should be made as locally as possible.
I always liked the Feynman Problem Solving algorithm coined by Murray Gell-Mann.
1. Write down the problem. 2.Think very hard. 3.Write down the answer.
Actually that isn't right. Feynman's approach was more like this:
1. Write down the problem 2. Try to find a better notation in which to express the problem. 3. If you succeed in 2, the answer to the problem will be obvious.
There does seem to be a political gap opening between the lockdown left and the new 'balanced' Tory approach.
Interesting to see how this plays out in America soon, where the gap between the two parties is much wider.
Lockdown Joe vs let it rip Trump
If, as expected, Biden and the Dems clean up, it'll be interesting to see how things change in the states. Will the Dems try to shutdown the country to slow the spread of the virus?
Almost certainly yes I would have thought. This is starting to become a left/right issue in a way it really wasn't even a month ago.
CNN: There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future.
And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
CNN: There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans. Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future. And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
See. Its definitely becoming a left/right issue now.
Trump in some ways is sort of making it that way. Everlasting on-off lockdown or live with the risk is suddenly a live issue politically. The consensus is really breaking up.
Damn, that’s an annoying one for someone who doesn’t want to see statues torn down by a mob, but also believes that all government decisions should be made as locally as possible.
If, as @Nigelb has suggested, statue removal/preservation can be linked to donations then maybe those decisions (and donations) can be made locally over dinner at a venue close to the statue under discussion?
There does seem to be a political gap opening between the lockdown left and the new 'balanced' Tory approach.
Interesting to see how this plays out in America soon, where the gap between the two parties is much wider.
Lockdown Joe vs let it rip Trump
If, as expected, Biden and the Dems clean up, it'll be interesting to see how things change in the states. Will the Dems try to shutdown the country to slow the spread of the virus?
Almost certainly yes I would have thought. This is starting to become a left/right issue in a way it really wasn't even a month ago.
Depends where the virus has got to in the US. It's back on an upward trajectory and there's time for a considerable increase before its friend leaves the White House. There is a very good chance that by then Shutdown will be the only feasible policy. It may even be welcomed by the populace.
I'm more uncomfortable going to a shopping centre than the other items on that list.
And the only reason I'm not going to the cinema more often is because there is nothing to see as was demonstrated by the single trailer shown before Akira last week.
The shopping centre would be the one I was, by a distance, the least uncomfortable with, putting aside the usual male antipathy for a minute.
Why? Fundamentally, because you are mobile, not stuck with the same strangers for a period of time, and more in control of your own 2m.
Thanks Bob. Pretty mixed bag! South Carolina and Ohio are pretty good for The Orange One. Ariz/Min/Mich/Georgia are all pretty much washes in States unlikely to play a crucial role. Colorado/NC/Penn/Wisc are all bad for him, and Florida is a shocker.
I may have to revise my opinion of The Sunshine State as a likely ray of sunlight for him. Perhaps the locals are upset with him orginising a superspreader event in their parish.
Florida is interesting, as it is one of the states which seems to manage its count quite rapidly, so unless there is a Bush/Gore style squeaker, it ought to declare on election night. MN and NC are other fast counting states.
PN, WI, MI will all take a while.
(Might be worth making a note of these things if one is going to be punting though election night itself.)
Texans could do us all a favor and vote for Biden. We could all go to bed early then.
If Texas goes blue then surely in play betting opportunities open up all over the board.
For you, maybe. I'm about maxed out. Just waiting now for the blue wave to carry me to nirvana.
A new currency before joining the Euro? Simple - Pound Scots. Like all of the other issues of the pound externally to the UK it would be bound 1:1 to Sterling for the period needed to transition into the Euro. Not that big a deal. How does it work in a small poor country I hear the usual suspects sneer? Ask the Irish, worked for them.
If it’s bound to another currency, then it doesn’t meet the Euro entry criteria.
You have to ask Robert Jenrick if you want to take a statue down? Sounds inefficient and authoritarian at the same time. And what an odd thing to highlight at this time. Surely Johnson & Cummings want the public to be focusing on the virus emergency not on statues.
Another oddity, I see this tweet is from Leave.EU and yet it appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with Brexit. How does that work? Has Brexit become some sort of cypher for not wanting statues changed? Why would people who are passionate about us regaining our sovereignty as an independent island nation feel protective about statues?
Strange times, they really are.
Leave.EU is keen to stoke the fires of culture wars in the UK.
Some people with suspicious minds would think, "That's funny - it doesn't seem to be in the UK's interests at all and is more the sort of thing Putin would want." But actually, Leave.EU has no Russian links, and they are acting in what they genuinely see to be the UK's best interests for reasons too complex to explain here.
Mmm. Well I suppose at heart it is a hankering for what Britain once was and can be again - if free of diktat from Brussels. But Brussels has never, as far as I can recall, interfered with our statues. Our statutes, yes, but not our statues. Odd one.
Damn, that’s an annoying one for someone who doesn’t want to see statues torn down by a mob, but also believes that all government decisions should be made as locally as possible.
If, as @Nigelb has suggested, statue removal/preservation can be linked to donations then maybe those decisions (and donations) can be made locally over dinner at a venue close to the statue under discussion?
This is the problem with having different rules in different areas...all of a sudden everybody is an expert in transmission and it is never their venue.
Gym chain Pure Gym has said it is considering legal action over the British government's decision to close gyms and fitness centres in the Liverpool area as part of the city being placed in the "very high" level of risk.
Humphrey Cobbold, chief executive of the company, said the group was "extremely disappointed" about the move, which will force it to close seven sites in the Liverpool City Region. He said there was "no evidence of Covid-19 transmission in gyms" and called on the government to publish the data on it.
People not exercising, and therefore getting fat, is going to be another Covid worry. It's easy to lose weight/keep trim in the summer - it's just dawned on me as the rain pours how often I run inside on the treadmill down the gym during the winter
I am currently pondering to go or not on one of my usual three cycles per day from indoors looking at the steady rain.
This is going to be a world away from Lockdown 1.0. Then it was glorious weather and people could exercise often (apart from in Wales) and did. I certainly did.
I had the same realisation as you did just now that things are going to get bad and sad and the country will suffer. As much as Covid? Who knows.
Lance used to love the rain. If it was raining he knew that 80% of the peleton would have mentally given up before they got to the départ réel.
Get out and ride. And always wax the chain on your wet weather bike.
Yes, but he did have certain pharmaceutical advantages.
All GC contenders dope. Lance was just more organised and was a hyper responder to oxygen vector doping.
Indeed, but I remain concern for TOPPING.
Topping surely not a doper. Never even been tested and that's because there's absolutely no need.
CNN: There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future.
And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
I am not at all sure that there will be a public inquiry. I suspect that this will treated very much like a war, and I do not recall a public inquiry into any such. There were Inquiries into aspects of the Iraq War, admittedly, and a partially at least private Privy Council one into the events leading up to the Falklands, There certainly wasn't an Inquiry after the Suez Affair.
You have to ask Robert Jenrick if you want to take a statue down? Sounds inefficient and authoritarian at the same time. And what an odd thing to highlight at this time. Surely Johnson & Cummings want the public to be focusing on the virus emergency not on statues.
Another oddity, I see this tweet is from Leave.EU and yet it appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with Brexit. How does that work? Has Brexit become some sort of cypher for not wanting statues changed? Why would people who are passionate about us regaining our sovereignty as an independent island nation feel protective about statues?
Strange times, they really are.
Leave.EU is keen to stoke the fires of culture wars in the UK.
Some people with suspicious minds would think, "That's funny - it doesn't seem to be in the UK's interests at all and is more the sort of thing Putin would want." But actually, Leave.EU has no Russian links, and they are acting in what they genuinely see to be the UK's best interests for reasons too complex to explain here.
Hankering to recover an imagined past doesn’t seem all that complicated.
Thanks Bob. Pretty mixed bag! South Carolina and Ohio are pretty good for The Orange One. Ariz/Min/Mich/Georgia are all pretty much washes in States unlikely to play a crucial role. Colorado/NC/Penn/Wisc are all bad for him, and Florida is a shocker.
I may have to revise my opinion of The Sunshine State as a likely ray of sunlight for him. Perhaps the locals are upset with him orginising a superspreader event in their parish.
Florida is interesting, as it is one of the states which seems to manage its count quite rapidly, so unless there is a Bush/Gore style squeaker, it ought to declare on election night. MN and NC are other fast counting states.
PN, WI, MI will all take a while.
(Might be worth making a note of these things if one is going to be punting though election night itself.)
Texans could do us all a favor and vote for Biden. We could all go to bed early then.
If Texas goes blue then surely in play betting opportunities open up all over the board.
For you, maybe. I'm about maxed out. Just waiting now for the blue wave to carry me to nirvana.
Or Hell
You think the Devil would put up with the likes of me?
I'm more uncomfortable going to a shopping centre than the other items on that list.
And the only reason I'm not going to the cinema more often is because there is nothing to see as was demonstrated by the single trailer shown before Akira last week.
The likely highest transmission channel in our area is shopping according to public health chiefs.
There does seem to be a political gap opening between the lockdown left and the new 'balanced' Tory approach.
Interesting to see how this plays out in America soon, where the gap between the two parties is much wider.
Lockdown Joe vs let it rip Trump
If, as expected, Biden and the Dems clean up, it'll be interesting to see how things change in the states. Will the Dems try to shutdown the country to slow the spread of the virus?
Almost certainly yes I would have thought. This is starting to become a left/right issue in a way it really wasn't even a month ago.
Depends where the virus has got to in the US. It's back on an upward trajectory and there's time for a considerable increase before its friend leaves the White House. There is a very good chance that by then Shutdown will be the only feasible policy. It may even be welcomed by the populace.
It will depend however on how bad it has got.
Just flicking through the Worldometer data and it appears to be trundling along at the moment. I'm not sure it is a left/right issue, but given the amount of focus it has received from the Dems makes me think that they have no choice but to try to do something to slow it down considerably.
Plenty of people want to go to NFL matches, and I doubt they're all Trump fans. Similarly, I doubt all those at the Palladium last night are Boris fans. I think there's a big divide between what people tell the pollsters and what they really think, so it'll be interesting to see how America reacts if the Dems try to lockdown the country.
You have to ask Robert Jenrick if you want to take a statue down? Sounds inefficient and authoritarian at the same time. And what an odd thing to highlight at this time. Surely Johnson & Cummings want the public to be focusing on the virus emergency not on statues.
Another oddity, I see this tweet is from Leave.EU and yet it appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with Brexit. How does that work? Has Brexit become some sort of cypher for not wanting statues changed? Why would people who are passionate about us regaining our sovereignty as an independent island nation feel protective about statues?
Strange times, they really are.
Brexit is a desire to go back to the 1950's...
Much truth in that, I sense. Or a bit further back even.
This is the problem with having different rules in different areas...all of a sudden everybody is an expert in transmission and it is never their venue.
Gym chain Pure Gym has said it is considering legal action over the British government's decision to close gyms and fitness centres in the Liverpool area as part of the city being placed in the "very high" level of risk.
Humphrey Cobbold, chief executive of the company, said the group was "extremely disappointed" about the move, which will force it to close seven sites in the Liverpool City Region. He said there was "no evidence of Covid-19 transmission in gyms" and called on the government to publish the data on it.
People not exercising, and therefore getting fat, is going to be another Covid worry. It's easy to lose weight/keep trim in the summer - it's just dawned on me as the rain pours how often I run inside on the treadmill down the gym during the winter
I am currently pondering to go or not on one of my usual three cycles per day from indoors looking at the steady rain.
This is going to be a world away from Lockdown 1.0. Then it was glorious weather and people could exercise often (apart from in Wales) and did. I certainly did.
I had the same realisation as you did just now that things are going to get bad and sad and the country will suffer. As much as Covid? Who knows.
Lance used to love the rain. If it was raining he knew that 80% of the peleton would have mentally given up before they got to the départ réel.
Get out and ride. And always wax the chain on your wet weather bike.
Yes, but he did have certain pharmaceutical advantages.
All GC contenders dope. Lance was just more organised and was a hyper responder to oxygen vector doping.
Indeed, but I remain concern for TOPPING.
Topping surely not a doper. Never even been tested and that's because there's absolutely no need.
I wasn't suggesting any such thing; quite the opposite. I feared @Dura_Ace 's siren words might lead him astray.
There does seem to be a political gap opening between the lockdown left and the new 'balanced' Tory approach.
Interesting to see how this plays out in America soon, where the gap between the two parties is much wider.
Lockdown Joe vs let it rip Trump
I think the winner of that contest is bound to be The Grim Reaper.
Indeed. Permanent on/off lockdown and let-it-rip are both killers, economically as well as literally. The obvious solution is a short, hard lockdown to reduce cases to a manageable level, followed by the use of a proper system for testing, tracing and isolating. We know it works - we've seen it done in the Far East.
Unfortunately, the political capital needed to implement the necessary lockdown has been frittered away, and we seem to be incapable of implementing an efficient test, trace and isolate system. So it looks like we're screwed :-(
CNN: There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future.
And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
I am not at all sure that there will be a public inquiry. I suspect that this will treated very much like a war, and I do not recall a public inquiry into any such. There were Inquiries into aspects of the Iraq War, admittedly, and a partially at least privater Privy Council one into the events leading up to the Falklands, There certainly wasn't an Inquiry after the Suez Affair.
There is absolutely no god given reason why scientific advise about public health issues arising specifically from one virus should automatically outweigh all other medical, economic, social and value considerations. And it is not the job of the scientists but of the government and parliament to find what balance is most appropriate for our society at this time between all those - and other legitimate - considerations.
Given that there is massive disagreement within society generally - with or without a pandemic - on all those other considerations, it would be gobsmacking if there were not major disagreements with the government's decisions (whoever that government might be, not just Johnson's government) on what that balance should be. And given that there is no one right answer to what that balance should be, most members of society will have a different balance that, based on their individual values for each of those considerations, would be better than the one chosen by the government.
Could the government be doing better? Nearly every voter, including Tories, will find a way to say yes to that question. Does that warrant an Inquiry? Not unless there is suspicion of anything criminal going on - particularly as decision-making seems to be happening in a pretty public (and messy) way. So what would a public inquiry achieve? Nothing more than is in current newspaper headlines - there are a lot of pissed off people.
The longer this pandemic goes on, the more and more convinced I am that "successful" management of the outbreak is correlated mostly to national culture, and almost nothing to do with the actual interventions of the respective governments. Those cultures with a combination of strong social commitment and individual discipline, such as the Far East and Nordic Countries, are faring relatively well, those with strong individualism and scepticism of authority (such as the US and UK) are faring relatively less well. The rest, once we get past the incredibly simple oral and hand hygiene and social distancing, is for the birds.
CNN: There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future.
And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
I am not at all sure that there will be a public inquiry. I suspect that this will treated very much like a war, and I do not recall a public inquiry into any such. There were Inquiries into aspects of the Iraq War, admittedly, and a partially at least private Privy Council one into the events leading up to the Falklands, There certainly wasn't an Inquiry after the Suez Affair.
I know it’s only the word of a clown, but the PM has committed to an independent public inquiry.
I think we can guess the cliffnotes....government are crap, message is confused, test and trace is broken, I wouldn't do the same, I would lockdown, but I am still supporting the government measures, perhaps, maybe sort of.
CNN: There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future.
And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
I am not at all sure that there will be a public inquiry. I suspect that this will treated very much like a war, and I do not recall a public inquiry into any such. There were Inquiries into aspects of the Iraq War, admittedly, and a partially at least privater Privy Council one into the events leading up to the Falklands, There certainly wasn't an Inquiry after the Suez Affair.
(snip)....The longer this pandemic goes on, the more and more convinced I am that "successful" management of the outbreak is correlated mostly to national culture, and almost nothing to do with the actual interventions of the respective governments. Those cultures with a combination of strong social commitment and individual discipline, such as the Far East and Nordic Countries, are faring relatively well, those with strong individualism and scepticism of authority (such as the US and UK) are faring relatively less well. The rest, once we get past the incredibly simple oral and hand hygiene and social distancing, is for the birds.
I've thought that from quite early on.
Though I think that you would also have to include systems in place alongside culture (the extreme example of this might be S Korea holding a SARS pandemic exercise a month before the actual outbreak).
CNN: There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future.
And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
I am not at all sure that there will be a public inquiry. I suspect that this will treated very much like a war, and I do not recall a public inquiry into any such. There were Inquiries into aspects of the Iraq War, admittedly, and a partially at least private Privy Council one into the events leading up to the Falklands, There certainly wasn't an Inquiry after the Suez Affair.
I know it’s only the word of a clown, but the PM has committed to an independent public inquiry.
A new currency before joining the Euro? Simple - Pound Scots. Like all of the other issues of the pound externally to the UK it would be bound 1:1 to Sterling for the period needed to transition into the Euro. Not that big a deal. How does it work in a small poor country I hear the usual suspects sneer? Ask the Irish, worked for them.
I seem to remember trading sterling for about 10% more punts the last time we went to Eire before the euro arrived.
It used to be 1:1. You could spend Sterling notes in Irish shops. The reverse was a little more tricky. But then the Punt decoupled and moved to about 1.1:1 as you say.
CNN: There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future.
And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
I am not at all sure that there will be a public inquiry. I suspect that this will treated very much like a war, and I do not recall a public inquiry into any such. There were Inquiries into aspects of the Iraq War, admittedly, and a partially at least privater Privy Council one into the events leading up to the Falklands, There certainly wasn't an Inquiry after the Suez Affair.
(snip)....The longer this pandemic goes on, the more and more convinced I am that "successful" management of the outbreak is correlated mostly to national culture, and almost nothing to do with the actual interventions of the respective governments. Those cultures with a combination of strong social commitment and individual discipline, such as the Far East and Nordic Countries, are faring relatively well, those with strong individualism and scepticism of authority (such as the US and UK) are faring relatively less well. The rest, once we get past the incredibly simple oral and hand hygiene and social distancing, is for the birds.
I've thought that from quite early on.
Though I think that you would also have to include systems in place alongside culture (the extreme example of this might be S Korea holding a SARS pandemic exercise a month before the actual outbreak).
In the West, you can't track people in the way they can in South Korea or China (or weld them in their homes), and you can't fine people into adhering to the rules. So you need a culture that is big on adhering to rules without too much questioning e.g. Sweden and Germany.
Instead here we have the media and the public immediately finding edge cases and trying to find loopholes, rather than taking onboard the general message. Any suggestion of use your common sense is met with outrage. Where as listening to Swedish chief egghead that normally seems his general message.
And in the USA it is all comes down to an attitude is what about MY freedom, the state doesn't have a say in that, I refuse to be told what I can and can't do.
Australia to me seems the biggest success case. They traditionally don't have that Swedish culture and unlike New Zealand are a major transportation hub, especially with China.
CNN: There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future.
And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
I am not at all sure that there will be a public inquiry. I suspect that this will treated very much like a war, and I do not recall a public inquiry into any such. There were Inquiries into aspects of the Iraq War, admittedly, and a partially at least privater Privy Council one into the events leading up to the Falklands, There certainly wasn't an Inquiry after the Suez Affair.
There is absolutely no god given reason why scientific advise about public health issues arising specifically from one virus should automatically outweigh all other medical, economic, social and value considerations. And it is not the job of the scientists but of the government and parliament to find what balance is most appropriate for our society at this time between all those - and other legitimate - considerations.
Given that there is massive disagreement within society generally - with or without a pandemic - on all those other considerations, it would be gobsmacking if there were not major disagreements with the government's decisions (whoever that government might be, not just Johnson's government) on what that balance should be. And given that there is no one right answer to what that balance should be, most members of society will have a different balance that, based on their individual values for each of those considerations, would be better than the one chosen by the government.
Could the government be doing better? Nearly every voter, including Tories, will find a way to say yes to that question. Does that warrant an Inquiry? Not unless there is suspicion of anything criminal going on - particularly as decision-making seems to be happening in a pretty public (and messy) way. So what would a public inquiry achieve? Nothing more than is in current newspaper headlines - there are a lot of pissed off people.
The longer this pandemic goes on, the more and more convinced I am that "successful" management of the outbreak is correlated mostly to national culture, and almost nothing to do with the actual interventions of the respective governments. Those cultures with a combination of strong social commitment and individual discipline, such as the Far East and Nordic Countries, are faring relatively well, those with strong individualism and scepticism of authority (such as the US and UK) are faring relatively less well. The rest, once we get past the incredibly simple oral and hand hygiene and social distancing, is for the birds.
Super post. Very close to my own POV.
One further point about a public inquiry is that it would also have to investigate the Scottish & Welsh responses -- so there will be plenty of pissed off people blaming all the parties.
This is the problem with having different rules in different areas...all of a sudden everybody is an expert in transmission and it is never their venue.
Gym chain Pure Gym has said it is considering legal action over the British government's decision to close gyms and fitness centres in the Liverpool area as part of the city being placed in the "very high" level of risk.
Humphrey Cobbold, chief executive of the company, said the group was "extremely disappointed" about the move, which will force it to close seven sites in the Liverpool City Region. He said there was "no evidence of Covid-19 transmission in gyms" and called on the government to publish the data on it.
People not exercising, and therefore getting fat, is going to be another Covid worry. It's easy to lose weight/keep trim in the summer - it's just dawned on me as the rain pours how often I run inside on the treadmill down the gym during the winter
I am currently pondering to go or not on one of my usual three cycles per day from indoors looking at the steady rain.
This is going to be a world away from Lockdown 1.0. Then it was glorious weather and people could exercise often (apart from in Wales) and did. I certainly did.
I had the same realisation as you did just now that things are going to get bad and sad and the country will suffer. As much as Covid? Who knows.
There is so much more to regular gym going than the obvious benefit of improved fitness, especially if you are working from home and live alone. Bit of banter with others (or at least SEEING others!) bright lights when the weather is dreary and the sun sets in mid afternoon... yes, this is going to be a world away from Lockdown 1.0 in areas where gyms and pubs close, no doubt
I get Black Dog about 5pm (ESPECIALLY in winter) - 30-40 minutes hard graft at the gym, with a few chats and waves with regular gym-going friends, followed by a hot shower and a brisk walk home, does wonders for my mental state. Transforms my mood.
Without that, fuck. I seriously wonder.
Can you swap it for another form of exercise, or is it the social element that counts?
Feel a bit sad about the Daily Express. It was the family paper when I was a kid. Had some very good writers, got the basic news across well, was literate and coherent, circulation about 5 million. It's a pathetic rag now. It's even stretching a point to call it a newspaper. Circulation is about 300,000 and you wonder how money of them are really readers. I only ever see it left on the counter at my local cafe.
I was doing up the spare room a few months back, which involved clearing some rubble from an old fireplace that had at some point in my house's life been turned into a small cupboard.
Inside was a copy of the Daily Express from the 1950s, which the bloke doing the original work had used to block up the soot.
I found far more insight on the world's key issues in that edition than in a copy of the same paper that I found on the train last week.
Giles. Beachcomber.
I don't get this – I even googled it and still don't get it!
If you go for a circuit breaker you've got to get the psychology right. From locking down in March, it took until mid June before case numbers returned to pre-lockdown levels (albeit with expanded testing).
We are at a lower R rate and testing won't be expanding the detections at the same rate now, but it would still be 4-6 weeks before cases came back down to even their current levels., so a 2 week circuit breaker that is lifted before you even see the results is a leap of faith that even a popular government would have to be on its mettle to carry the public with them.
If you go for a circuit breaker you've got to get the psychology right. From locking down in March, it took until mid June before case numbers returned to pre-lockdown levels (albeit with expanded testing).
We are at a lower R rate and testing won't be expanding the detections at the same rate now, but it would still be 4-6 weeks before cases came back down to even their current levels., so a 2 week circuit breaker that is lifted before you even see the results is a leap of faith that even a popular government would have to be on its mettle to carry the public with them.
The logic makes me question wisdom of SAGE. As you say, there will be no data after 2 weeks if it is working or not. And stop / starting for businesses is hugely costly. So we are going to implement a policy that we can't test the outcome of much later and whose negative impact is significant. That is just bad science.
CNN: There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future.
And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
I am not at all sure that there will be a public inquiry. I suspect that this will treated very much like a war, and I do not recall a public inquiry into any such. There were Inquiries into aspects of the Iraq War, admittedly, and a partially at least privater Privy Council one into the events leading up to the Falklands, There certainly wasn't an Inquiry after the Suez Affair.
(snip)....The longer this pandemic goes on, the more and more convinced I am that "successful" management of the outbreak is correlated mostly to national culture, and almost nothing to do with the actual interventions of the respective governments. Those cultures with a combination of strong social commitment and individual discipline, such as the Far East and Nordic Countries, are faring relatively well, those with strong individualism and scepticism of authority (such as the US and UK) are faring relatively less well. The rest, once we get past the incredibly simple oral and hand hygiene and social distancing, is for the birds.
I've thought that from quite early on.
Though I think that you would also have to include systems in place alongside culture (the extreme example of this might be S Korea holding a SARS pandemic exercise a month before the actual outbreak).
In the West, you can't track people in the way they can in South Korea or China (or weld them in their homes), and you can't fine people into adhering to the rules. So you need a culture that is big on adhering to rules without too much questioning e.g. Sweden and Germany.
Instead here we have the media and the public immediately finding edge cases and trying to find loopholes, rather than taking onboard the general message. Any suggestion of use your common sense is met with outrage. Where as listening to Swedish chief egghead that normally seems his general message.
And in the USA it is all comes down to an attitude is what about MY freedom, the state doesn't have a say in that, I refuse to be told what I can and can't do.
Australia to me seems the biggest success case. They traditionally don't have that Swedish culture and unlike New Zealand are a major transportation hub, especially with China.
True. But I do wonder how much better we might have done with a consistent policy and message from early on (masks, for example) ? After all, the degree of compliance for the first lockdown surprised the government and scientists.
- But not from "neighbourhood rulebook section 5 clause 10 subsection 3".
The Land of the Free, where you can walk around carrying a gun, but woe-betide anyone who crosses the street where they want, parks facing the traffic, or doesn’t mow their lawn or paint their fence.
CNN: There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with the coronavirus.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future.
And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
I am not at all sure that there will be a public inquiry. I suspect that this will treated very much like a war, and I do not recall a public inquiry into any such. There were Inquiries into aspects of the Iraq War, admittedly, and a partially at least privater Privy Council one into the events leading up to the Falklands, There certainly wasn't an Inquiry after the Suez Affair.
(snip)....The longer this pandemic goes on, the more and more convinced I am that "successful" management of the outbreak is correlated mostly to national culture, and almost nothing to do with the actual interventions of the respective governments. Those cultures with a combination of strong social commitment and individual discipline, such as the Far East and Nordic Countries, are faring relatively well, those with strong individualism and scepticism of authority (such as the US and UK) are faring relatively less well. The rest, once we get past the incredibly simple oral and hand hygiene and social distancing, is for the birds.
I've thought that from quite early on.
Though I think that you would also have to include systems in place alongside culture (the extreme example of this might be S Korea holding a SARS pandemic exercise a month before the actual outbreak).
In the West, you can't track people in the way they can in South Korea or China (or weld them in their homes), and you can't fine people into adhering to the rules. So you need a culture that is big on adhering to rules without too much questioning e.g. Sweden and Germany.
Instead here we have the media and the public immediately finding edge cases and trying to find loopholes, rather than taking onboard the general message. Any suggestion of use your common sense is met with outrage. Where as listening to Swedish chief egghead that normally seems his general message.
And in the USA it is all comes down to an attitude is what about MY freedom, the state doesn't have a say in that, I refuse to be told what I can and can't do.
Australia to me seems the biggest success case. They traditionally don't have that Swedish culture and unlike New Zealand are a major transportation hub, especially with China.
True. But I do wonder how much better we might have done with a consistent policy and message from early on (masks, for example) ? After all, the degree of compliance for the first lockdown surprised the government and scientists.
Doesn't the compliance kind of reduce the impact masks would have had?
The biggest mistake was not going earlier - I'm still not sure why they waited - the moment people businesses started doing it themselves, the government should have said, "right, let's get on with it."
Comments
Another oddity, I see this tweet is from Leave.EU and yet it appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with Brexit. How does that work? Has Brexit become some sort of cypher for not wanting statues changed? Why would people who are passionate about us regaining our sovereignty as an independent island nation feel protective about statues?
Strange times, they really are.
Scotland would not be voting for true independence as it would be if it voted to leave the UK and the EU, it would be voting to leave the UK and become a region of a Federal EU superstate
But this is me not having to go anywhere so it is voluntary and hence so much more difficult.
But thanks v much for your words of encouragement which I will heed (managed to get out between this and my last post so it's already working)!
And the only reason I'm not going to the cinema more often is because there is nothing to see as was demonstrated by the single trailer shown before Akira last week.
One wonders, to some extent, how they managed to catch it!
One amusing twist in the tale is that the weakness of Sterling in recent years means that an Irish Pound would now be worth more than a British one.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_pound
Some people with suspicious minds would think, "That's funny - it doesn't seem to be in the UK's interests at all and is more the sort of thing Putin would want." But actually, Leave.EU has no Russian links, and they are acting in what they genuinely see to be the UK's best interests for reasons too complex to explain here.
But anyone who could leave dozens of empty bottles of brown ale on Virginia Woolf's doorstep as a prank has a genuine sense of humour.
Edit: http://db.tattersalls.com:8080/4DCGI/Sale/Live?site=NMT
Clean.
Anyway, mud, rain and snow is what a mountain bike is for. If you get cold, pedal harder.
I did panic buy a trainer in March (before they all sold out) though...
Beachcomber was a brilliant writer with a unique style - witty, ironic, mildly satirical and unfailingly original.
There does seem to be a political gap opening between the lockdown left and the new 'balanced' Tory approach.
Interesting to see how this plays out in America soon, where the gap between the two parties is much wider.
Lockdown Joe vs let it rip Trump
If, as people have suggested, I was betting with my heart over my head every single penny I had would be staked on Graham losing.
1. Write down the problem
2. Try to find a better notation in which to express the problem.
3. If you succeed in 2, the answer to the problem will be obvious.
But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response.
His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of very cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of the coronavirus in the UK. And On Tuesday he was facing further criticism after it emerged that his group of top scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago a significantly tougher package of measures than even he now plans.
Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party -- faced down by the hawks, such as his finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.
All of these arguments between politics and science will -- eventually -- become known to the public when the UK's coronavirus response is scrutinized at the inevitable public inquiry, at some point in the future.
And however much merit protecting the economy might have in the long run, creating a perception that you are ignoring scientific advice could be dangerous, should the virus run riot and the UK's already massive death toll rise still further.
Trump in some ways is sort of making it that way. Everlasting on-off lockdown or live with the risk is suddenly a live issue politically. The consensus is really breaking up.
It will depend however on how bad it has got.
Why? Fundamentally, because you are mobile, not stuck with the same strangers for a period of time, and more in control of your own 2m.
And if the Joe landslide comes in I'll be buying.
Plenty of people want to go to NFL matches, and I doubt they're all Trump fans. Similarly, I doubt all those at the Palladium last night are Boris fans. I think there's a big divide between what people tell the pollsters and what they really think, so it'll be interesting to see how America reacts if the Dems try to lockdown the country.
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1316017992229036033
I feared @Dura_Ace 's siren words might lead him astray.
Unfortunately, the political capital needed to implement the necessary lockdown has been frittered away, and we seem to be incapable of implementing an efficient test, trace and isolate system. So it looks like we're screwed :-(
I'm tempted to buy a copy, rip it up and spread it round the hedgerows of my neighbourhood out of sheer nostalgia.
Given that there is massive disagreement within society generally - with or without a pandemic - on all those other considerations, it would be gobsmacking if there were not major disagreements with the government's decisions (whoever that government might be, not just Johnson's government) on what that balance should be. And given that there is no one right answer to what that balance should be, most members of society will have a different balance that, based on their individual values for each of those considerations, would be better than the one chosen by the government.
Could the government be doing better? Nearly every voter, including Tories, will find a way to say yes to that question. Does that warrant an Inquiry? Not unless there is suspicion of anything criminal going on - particularly as decision-making seems to be happening in a pretty public (and messy) way. So what would a public inquiry achieve? Nothing more than is in current newspaper headlines - there are a lot of pissed off people.
The longer this pandemic goes on, the more and more convinced I am that "successful" management of the outbreak is correlated mostly to national culture, and almost nothing to do with the actual interventions of the respective governments. Those cultures with a combination of strong social commitment and individual discipline, such as the Far East and Nordic Countries, are faring relatively well, those with strong individualism and scepticism of authority (such as the US and UK) are faring relatively less well. The rest, once we get past the incredibly simple oral and hand hygiene and social distancing, is for the birds.
And the million $ dollar question about the polls in general. Are they picking up the "shy Trumpers" such as this sweetly reticent lady -
https://twitter.com/i/status/1315624667193974787
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1316021755316563968
Biden (-1%)
Trump (-1%)
Just proves the adage that you read what you think is written rather than what is actually written.
“Right now, I think it’s very clear the Nevada race for president is wide open,” said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster and WPA Intelligence CEO.
Though I think that you would also have to include systems in place alongside culture (the extreme example of this might be S Korea holding a SARS pandemic exercise a month before the actual outbreak).
“Right now, I think it’s very clear the Nevada race for president is wide open,” said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster and WPA Intelligence CEO.
You at the back - do pay attention please!!!
Instead here we have the media and the public immediately finding edge cases and trying to find loopholes, rather than taking onboard the general message. Any suggestion of use your common sense is met with outrage. Where as listening to Swedish chief egghead that normally seems his general message.
And in the USA it is all comes down to an attitude is what about MY freedom, the state doesn't have a say in that, I refuse to be told what I can and can't do.
Australia to me seems the biggest success case. They traditionally don't have that Swedish culture and unlike New Zealand are a major transportation hub, especially with China.
One further point about a public inquiry is that it would also have to investigate the Scottish & Welsh responses -- so there will be plenty of pissed off people blaming all the parties.
Crazy name, crazy gu ... pollsters!
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1315991731612143616?s=20
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1315991204690042880?s=20
We are at a lower R rate and testing won't be expanding the detections at the same rate now, but it would still be 4-6 weeks before cases came back down to even their current levels., so a 2 week circuit breaker that is lifted before you even see the results is a leap of faith that even a popular government would have to be on its mettle to carry the public with them.
But I do wonder how much better we might have done with a consistent policy and message from early on (masks, for example) ? After all, the degree of compliance for the first lockdown surprised the government and scientists.
The biggest mistake was not going earlier - I'm still not sure why they waited - the moment people businesses started doing it themselves, the government should have said, "right, let's get on with it."