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Working out Covid-19 and the political classes – politicalbetting.com
Working out Covid-19 and the political classes – politicalbetting.com
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Did I beat Ydoethur to that one?
Scott_xP said:
When Baroness Diana “Dido” Harding was handed the job of leading NHS test and trace, the dizzying brief that ministers set her was to beat the world. But it was not, she says, to save Britain. It may have seemed that her £12bn programme had the star role in keeping Covid-19 at bay and protecting the nation from a return to lockdown. Not so, she says.
“Everyone wants to believe that test and trace is a silver bullet,” she said last week in a rare interview. “It has never been and it never will be. The virus unfortunately doesn’t behave in such a way that there is a silver bullet. The only way that we’re going to learn how to live with Covid is through a number of different interventions, of which test and trace is undoubtedly a very important one.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/test-and-waste-dido-harding-boss-of-12bn-tracing-scheme-says-it-was-never-a-silver-bullet-s5n66rnjc
Surely that is no more than common sense? It doesn't mean, of course, that T&T should not be more effective part of our armoury than it is right now.
As a matter of interest a "self cleaning" T&T facility has now been set up by Mitie in Dundee. It is "generally" expected to give you a result within 12 hours using the QR code that you book it under. It's the first in Scotland but others are to be rolled out. It will employ 40 people so it will not be cheap but it does look a step in the right direction.
Is it genetic? Is there something programmed into the male brain to yell and scream as a ball gets kicked about?
[Edit: and to sit around for 2 or 3 hours before the match talking about it and then to sit around after the match talking about it even more. Why?]
Ah, my coat.
Have a good morning.
Even before Covid I would wipe down equipment and weights before I used them but I did not delude myself that this was sterilising them. I have just not persuaded myself it would be safe.
Very hard to disagree with Alastair's more general point though. Ignoring such concerns will undermine support for the regimes that are brought in on a weekly basis now more than anything else. I was talking to the owner of our cheese shop yesterday about Christmas where he does serious trade. His view was that it would be the same as normal because even if there were regulations banning family gatherings people would just ignore them. I think that is probably right. Politicians need to learn to work with people again as, in fairness, they did in the early weeks of this.
https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/spin-class-covid-outbreak
Spin classes of closely situated heavy breathing aerobic exercise sound hazardous to me. Isometric exercise like weights are probably pretty safe.
The government could do more to give gyms money to compensate, but that won't satisfy the people who can't go to the gym. There's no way to satisfy these people consistent with public health, because they want to do something in the middle of a pandemic, and the thing they want to do spreads the pandemic.
The tiers are solely based on where cases are rising most
https://twitter.com/DavidHerdson/status/1317737832333660160?s=20
https://twitter.com/IanDunt/status/1317748272715399173
I suspended gym membership because I wasn't happy at being in the same room as several other people, all breathing heavily. And cases are rising locally (Essex generally, and in this and the next district) TBH, if I (and my wife) could be shown evidence which suggested that gyms are, as Mr Meeks suggests, as safe as anywhere else I'd be ready to go back; it would be wrong to suggest I 'enjoy' my workout but I do think it does me good.
As far as the test is concerned, I'm reasonably certain it'll come back negative, but I'd be rather p[leased if it suggested I'd had it, mildly, and as a consequence had the antibodies.
But for that I shall have to wait for the results.
I would like to see some research results, though.
London 780 per 100k
England 1063 per 100k
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/cases
Plus where cases are rising does not necessarily mean where they are highest.
Plus of course the Mayor of London practically begged for this to be put in.
FWIW I’ve just completed a 12 km walk. It’s still possible for people to exercise in a way that it isn’t possible for football fans to watch their team play.
Gove on Sky saying no circuit breaker, Farrar saying circuit breaker essential and we are now in the worst case scenario in the non forecast forecast.
https://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/1317752467556388864
Absence of evidence is not ... you know how it goes.
A few months back, there was no evidence that schools spread Covid-19. Given the virus is just coming up to its first birthday, not every possible research angle has been explored.
There is no evidence that yodelling or opera singing lessons or Trump-ian rallies spread Covid-19.
Still, they are activities that the prudent person avoids ... along with the gym.
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1317657222504239105?s=20
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54588025
I think what really pissed off the northern leaders was that the original ‘discussions’ before these restrictions weren’t discussion at all, and that government refused even to listen to any points they wanted to make.
Absolutely - one reason why Italian ski-break holiday makers in the Spring among others were not quarantined on return and why the UK has made a complete shambles of its borders.
There's always been a tendency for people to shift rightwards as they get older, but that effect has become massive in recent years. Is that a blip, or can the Conservatives keep converting lots of people to their cause, as their core vote literally dies off?
Same with Brexit. The 1975 referendum is interesting from that point of view; it was the younger voters who were most anti-EEC. Crudely, the ones who experienced WW2 as stories, rather than something lived through. Makes sense, really.
Those same baby boomers were the core Brexit demographic in 2016, including (I think) the extremely old being less keen on the idea than the less old. But the younger generations- the ones who have grown up with the EU as part of the furniture- simply aren't as bothered about the issues that animate Brexit.
So whilst the coming generations may become more Conservative and Brexitty as they age, it's not a given. And Father Time means that both causes have to run awfully fast to stand still.
I am not sure why you say the arts is a minority interest? Where do you think the actors who appear on TV and film come from? How do chart acts get exposure before being signed without venues? TV and Hollywood need theatres and drama schools like Premier League clubs need grassroots football. Without them both would be starved of talent.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gym+clusters+covid&ia=web
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/europe/united-kingdom-coronavirus-cases.html
Much of the North is still in neither Tier 2 or 3, that includes Cumbria, North Yorkshire, Hull and Humberside while London and Essex are in Tier 2
Football is a great game, both to play and to watch. The rules are simple, the equipment minimal, and subtlety immense. It needs to be watched live to really get the bug.
Being in a football crowd gives a sense of social solidarity and belonging, as well as a waypoint in the week. The structure of the game means that few teams can win a trophy, so there are endless talking points about what should be done to improve the team.
There is also the pantomime element of crowd involvement, booing the villans, (though I don't like to boo my own side until the final whistle) and cheering the heros. Football chants can be mindless but can also be very witty. Being in a football crowd is one of few socially acceptable places to shout at people in public, a great way of letting off steam.
I also find it a great icebreaker with patients, and many regulars do discuss LCFC with me in consultations. The students are sometimes bemused, but the art of consultation is to establish rapport, and having football knowledge works very well, particularly across social clases and ages. You can only discuss the weather so far.
I really miss going to games. Leicester play Villa tonight, and we really love to beat the Villa*. The last match I went to was a week before the lockdown and we thrashed them. It was only 7 months ago, but being in a crowd of 32000 loudly singing "that's why you're going down!" seems a lifetime ago.
*tonight seems tricky. We have a defensive injury crisis, and Vardy may not be fit. It's not going to be a nil nil. Villa look value to win.
People who lived through the war or fought in it were pro-Europe. They had seen the senseless horrors and knew that safety and progress lay in togetherness and cooperation, not in building walls or shouting at your nearest neighbours.
In the meantime we have Covid which helps disguise the fact that the Great Brexit C*ck-up is approaching its dénoument ...
Can someone enlighten me on the Tier 2 regulations? A mate has agreed to give a family member (of mine) a lift to a GP for an appointment. The mate is now wondering whether that breaks the rules (they live in another household) and is worried that they may technically be breaking the law.
I'm pretty sure that there is a general exemption for helping people in medical situations. But I need to be a bit firmer.
The alternative is a taxi, which seems actually more risky to me, as god knows who has been in the cab that morning.
The UK has a class problem but is obsessed with convincing itself it has the same race problem as America instead. The common thread are middle class lobbyists, think tanks, academics and intellectuals.
As far as the working class go, and particularly the WWC, there's no party in Westminster that really speaks for them and their lifestyle interests anymore - they are the lowest priority group in the intersectional culture wars.
The Tories have made a complete and utter mess of Brexit.
Thank you!
I'm not usual though.
There is now a "No to No Deal" group of Cabinet ministers.
Let's hope they prevail and stop Cummings lunacy.
EDIT: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-safer-travel-guidance-for-passengers#private-cars-and-other-vehicles , https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-covid-alert-level-high#travel
*SHOULD* avoid, not *MUST* avoid. Fill your boots.
https://twitter.com/RichardNewby3/status/1317727010190479361?s=20
If it was "too large" why the feck are people like Jo Johnson, Claire Fox or Lebedev there?
What level of dissent from 'the North' would require an armed intervention d'ye think?
I think he should be given a peerage because he's a retiring archbishop and has made an extraordinary contribution to public debate - which he will continue to do in the Lords - including speaking out sensibly for cultural conservatism when rather few of his colleagues in the Synod were doing so.
He's intelligent, rational, moderate and sensible - Boris should be bending over backwards to honour him appropriately.
https://twitter.com/JenWilliamsMEN/status/1317544791274590208?s=20
https://twitter.com/JenWilliamsMEN/status/1317736426306404354?s=20
https://twitter.com/JenWilliamsMEN/status/1317745983657226241?s=20
https://members.parliament.uk/member/3762/voting
He has consistently voted against all Brexit legislation.