It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
The North East Assembly was meant to be the first step in that, but a certain eggheaded weirdo spent a lot of time organising a campaign to convince people that their interests were best served by people 300 miles away who never liked them. Which has a certain irony about it.
Surprising how unpopular the Christmas Truce is in that polling.
Maybe, for all people are worried about the economic cost, they've got a better grip on the situation than the Conservative right, or the popular press?
Everybody was secretly hoping for an excuse to abandon Christmas, just this once.
Honestly, this idea that Christmas is popular is some bizarre delusion. Young people like the build-up to Xmas (the parties and shindigs - not happening). Old people like the chocolates. I suppose 7 year olds adore the presents but they can still happen.
A lot of people will happily sacrifice a lovely family Xmas for proper freedom in mid-January
You're probably right (and I say that having two middle sized children). Covid Christmas would have been odd, quiet but... somehow right for 2020. And we all know that we will pay for Christmas in January and February's Lockdown 3.
Highlights a curious thing about this government. They have all the hallmarks of populists, but a remarkably tin ear for what the populi want a lot of the time.
Yes, they really don't get it. Too many London poshos who pretend to have the common touch. Same problem that afflicted Cameron.
Labour is just as bad, but in a different, "progressive" way.
They could all learn from the SNP (in this one instance). Sturgeon has an enviable ability to sound normal and sane and Everywoman, hence her popularity.
Though it's worse now than under Cameron. Dave was posh, didn't hide it, and just had an awkward sense of Lord Grantham at the parish Harvest Supper. Whereas a lot of the key players in this government have a strong sense of trying to be something they're not. Boris, obviously. Gove, convolutedly (and I recognise that he has a story that is hard for him, and makes that hard to shake off). JRM, absurdly. Even young Rishi. It's odd, and it can't be good for them.
Yep. The fact the "popular", "relatable" Chancellor happens to be married to a woman richer than the Queen of England says quite something.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
The North East Assembly was meant to be the first step in that, but a certain eggheaded weirdo spent a lot of time organising a campaign to convince people that their interests were best served by people 300 miles away who never liked them. Which has a certain irony about it.
On those lines, perhaps he should have started devolution by offering it to the Western Isles first and then the rest of Scotland in stages.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
The North East Assembly was meant to be the first step in that, but a certain eggheaded weirdo spent a lot of time organising a campaign to convince people that their interests were best served by people 300 miles away who never liked them. Which has a certain irony about it.
On those lines, perhaps he should have started devolution by offering it to the Western Isles first and then the rest of Scotland in stages.
Oh come on, that’s a silly argument. Scotland and the North East have similar populations. If you can show that two large and diverse regions are keen on Devolution you can go into the 2005 election saying “vote for us and we’ll extend this to everyone” which leads to the outcome I think always made sense of a federal UK. Scotland, Wales, NI, London and regions that look like the heptarchy. And if the prospect of the Regional Senator for Mercia standing on the floor of the Lords doesn’t get your pulse racing, you’re probably not as weird as me.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
The North East Assembly was meant to be the first step in that, but a certain eggheaded weirdo spent a lot of time organising a campaign to convince people that their interests were best served by people 300 miles away who never liked them. Which has a certain irony about it.
On those lines, perhaps he should have started devolution by offering it to the Western Isles first and then the rest of Scotland in stages.
Oh come on, that’s a silly argument. Scotland and the North East have similar populations. If you can show that two large and diverse regions are keen on Devolution you can go into the 2005 election saying “vote for us and we’ll extend this to everyone” which leads to the outcome I think always made sense of a federal UK. Scotland, Wales, NI, London and regions that look like the heptarchy. And if the prospect of the Regional Senator for Mercia standing on the floor of the Lords doesn’t get your pulse racing, you’re probably not as weird as me.
A style reminiscent of a certain excitable scrivener that used to haunt these purlieus.
'Reaching a crescendo of incoherence he screams across the loch:
“I love Britain more than anywhere else in the world. With all my heart I declare that those of us born here, or who have made a home here by choice, are the luckiest, most blessed of all people. I am British. I will always be British.”'
The legislative grand committee for England already exists de facto with EVEL, does it not?
EVEL’s another example of damaging tinkering round the edges. It’s not a committee or an assembly it’s a complex set of procedures, in the same chamber, same body, that rightly pissed off everyone else. Even the name is inflammatory.
It should be something like Mondays & Tuesdays the U.K. Commons meets for U.K. business. Wednesdays & Thursdays the English MPs go somewhere physically different (I think that symbolism is important - Westminster Hall maybe, even put them on a train to York) to discuss the exactly the same issues with exactly the same powers as Cardiff, Holyrood and Stormont. Fridays and weekends back to your constituencies unless something important comes up.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
The North East Assembly was meant to be the first step in that, but a certain eggheaded weirdo spent a lot of time organising a campaign to convince people that their interests were best served by people 300 miles away who never liked them. Which has a certain irony about it.
On those lines, perhaps he should have started devolution by offering it to the Western Isles first and then the rest of Scotland in stages.
Oh come on, that’s a silly argument. Scotland and the North East have similar populations. If you can show that two large and diverse regions are keen on Devolution you can go into the 2005 election saying “vote for us and we’ll extend this to everyone” which leads to the outcome I think always made sense of a federal UK. Scotland, Wales, NI, London and regions that look like the heptarchy. And if the prospect of the Regional Senator for Mercia standing on the floor of the Lords doesn’t get your pulse racing, you’re probably not as weird as me.
If you want to break up England then I see no reason why Scotland should not be divided up as well. Highlands, Lowlands, and Central Belt perhaps?
A style reminiscent of a certain excitable scrivener that used to haunt these purlieus.
'Reaching a crescendo of incoherence he screams across the loch:
“I love Britain more than anywhere else in the world. With all my heart I declare that those of us born here, or who have made a home here by choice, are the luckiest, most blessed of all people. I am British. I will always be British.”'
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
Blair's main (only) focus was the fortunes of the Labour Party -- so it is a pleasure to see the rogue hoisted by his own petard.
He took a constitutional settlement that had lasted for centuries (admittedly, it was showing a lot of strain).
And Blair replaced it with a constitutional settlement that will die long before he will. It will be lucky to last more than a quarter of a century.
A style reminiscent of a certain excitable scrivener that used to haunt these purlieus.
'Reaching a crescendo of incoherence he screams across the loch:
“I love Britain more than anywhere else in the world. With all my heart I declare that those of us born here, or who have made a home here by choice, are the luckiest, most blessed of all people. I am British. I will always be British.”'
A style reminiscent of a certain excitable scrivener that used to haunt these purlieus.
'Reaching a crescendo of incoherence he screams across the loch:
“I love Britain more than anywhere else in the world. With all my heart I declare that those of us born here, or who have made a home here by choice, are the luckiest, most blessed of all people. I am British. I will always be British.”'
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
Pree-cisely. The idea that Blair was a committed devolutionist let alone someone who wanted to rub (specifically) English noses in it is for the birds. Also Scottish and Wesh devolution was in the Labour manifesto that English voters backed in a landslide. Still, it feeds into the rising tenor of English victimhood.
A style reminiscent of a certain excitable scrivener that used to haunt these purlieus.
'Reaching a crescendo of incoherence he screams across the loch:
“I love Britain more than anywhere else in the world. With all my heart I declare that those of us born here, or who have made a home here by choice, are the luckiest, most blessed of all people. I am British. I will always be British.”'
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
After 18 years of hostile Tory rule, there was an inevitable desire for Scottish devolution. It was not forced on an unwilling Scotland by Blair.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
After 18 years of hostile Tory rule, there was an inevitable desire for Scottish devolution. It was not forced on an unwilling Scotland by Blair.
Nor indeed an unwilling England. Was in the manifesto that won a 179 majority.
What percentage of the population need to be vaccinated to stop the spread of the virus?
That's a really interesting question, and it depends on lots of things:
1. Does this particular vaccine prevent you from spreading the virus, or does it merely make you asymptomatic? The early evidence from Pfizer is reasonably positive: those people who tested positive for CV19 exhibited much lower level of viral shedding than those in the control group.
2. Which people are you vaccinating? A lonely spinster might come into contact with a dozen people in a month, while a gym going doctor might see hundreds. If you concentrated the vaccine campaign on the people most likely to *spread* the virus, you may well cut transmission faster than if you concentrate on those most likely to die.
My guess (and it's just a guess) is that front line workers (NHS, care homes) and the most at risk will be vaccinated first. And that once we get to 20 million people vaccinated, then CV19 will begin to die out by itself: sure, there'll be outbreaks in student halls of residence, but the most likely to spread it, and the most likely to die from it, will both be protected.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
After 18 years of hostile Tory rule, there was an inevitable desire for Scottish devolution. It was not forced on an unwilling Scotland by Blair.
"hostile Tory rule"
I can't see how this might make sense. Conservatives against conservatism?
18 years of Delusional frothing on your part seems more the mark.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
After 18 years of hostile Tory rule, there was an inevitable desire for Scottish devolution. It was not forced on an unwilling Scotland by Blair.
Nor indeed an unwilling England. Was in the manifesto that won a 179 majority.
Curiously, the Tories were keen to focus on the constitution during the 1997 campaign as they saw it as one of Labour's few vulnerabilities.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
After 18 years of hostile Tory rule, there was an inevitable desire for Scottish devolution. It was not forced on an unwilling Scotland by Blair.
Nor indeed an unwilling England. Was in the manifesto that won a 179 majority.
Curiously, the Tories were keen to focus on the constitution during the 1997 campaign as they saw it as one of Labour's few vulnerabilities.
Also Europe. The Tories did a party political broadcast saying that a vote for Blair was a vote for a federal Europe.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
After 18 years of hostile Tory rule, there was an inevitable desire for Scottish devolution. It was not forced on an unwilling Scotland by Blair.
Nor indeed an unwilling England. Was in the manifesto that won a 179 majority.
Curiously, the Tories were keen to focus on the constitution during the 1997 campaign as they saw it as one of Labour's few vulnerabilities.
Also Europe. The Tories did a party political broadcast saying that a vote for Blair was a vote for a federal Europe.
They also claimed Blair was a demon eyed Socialist. Who had, somewhat mysteriously, also stolen Tory policies...
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
The North East Assembly was meant to be the first step in that, but a certain eggheaded weirdo spent a lot of time organising a campaign to convince people that their interests were best served by people 300 miles away who never liked them. Which has a certain irony about it.
On those lines, perhaps he should have started devolution by offering it to the Western Isles first and then the rest of Scotland in stages.
Oh come on, that’s a silly argument. Scotland and the North East have similar populations. If you can show that two large and diverse regions are keen on Devolution you can go into the 2005 election saying “vote for us and we’ll extend this to everyone” which leads to the outcome I think always made sense of a federal UK. Scotland, Wales, NI, London and regions that look like the heptarchy. And if the prospect of the Regional Senator for Mercia standing on the floor of the Lords doesn’t get your pulse racing, you’re probably not as weird as me.
If you want to break up England then I see no reason why Scotland should not be divided up as well. Highlands, Lowlands, and Central Belt perhaps?
What percentage of the population need to be vaccinated to stop the spread of the virus?
That's a really interesting question, and it depends on lots of things:
1. Does this particular vaccine prevent you from spreading the virus, or does it merely make you asymptomatic? The early evidence from Pfizer is reasonably positive: those people who tested positive for CV19 exhibited much lower level of viral shedding than those in the control group.
2. Which people are you vaccinating? A lonely spinster might come into contact with a dozen people in a month, while a gym going doctor might see hundreds. If you concentrated the vaccine campaign on the people most likely to *spread* the virus, you may well cut transmission faster than if you concentrate on those most likely to die.
My guess (and it's just a guess) is that front line workers (NHS, care homes) and the most at risk will be vaccinated first. And that once we get to 20 million people vaccinated, then CV19 will begin to die out by itself: sure, there'll be outbreaks in student halls of residence, but the most likely to spread it, and the most likely to die from it, will both be protected.
Interesting article on why the US economy thus far has greatly outperformed other western countries hard hit by coronavirus.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/america-failed-covid-economys-ok-why/617223/ ... Washington, improbably, has truly distinguished itself with fiscal policy, at least earlier in the year. The U.S. has fewer, stingier, more complicated, and more conditional safety nets available to people than many other advanced economies—less generous “automatic stabilizers,” in economic parlance. But when COVID-19 hit, congressional Democrats negotiated a series of enormous, highly effective temporary stabilizers with Republicans who were ready to go big, among them Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. In the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, Congress provided forgivable loans to small businesses; sent $1,200 checks to most Americans; added gig workers to the unemployment-insurance system; and put a $600 weekly top-up on unemployment checks.
“We’d never seen such a rapid and massive amount of stimulus being doled out by Congress, ever,” Gregory Daco, an economist at the international forecasting firm Oxford Economics, told me. “Contrast it with what happened in the global financial crisis” that precipitated the Great Recession in 2007. “It took three times longer to get a stimulus package half the size.” Indeed, the U.S. provided fiscal support equivalent to roughly 12 percent of its GDP, data from Moody’s Analytics show, one-third more than Germany and twice as much as the U.K. Other than Australia, no large, wealthy country did more to support its economy...
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
After 18 years of hostile Tory rule, there was an inevitable desire for Scottish devolution. It was not forced on an unwilling Scotland by Blair.
Nor indeed an unwilling England. Was in the manifesto that won a 179 majority.
Curiously, the Tories were keen to focus on the constitution during the 1997 campaign as they saw it as one of Labour's few vulnerabilities.
Also Europe. The Tories did a party political broadcast saying that a vote for Blair was a vote for a federal Europe.
They also claimed Blair was a demon eyed Socialist. Who had, somewhat mysteriously, also stolen Tory policies...
True but not in 1997. Major had a little bit of class.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
After 18 years of hostile Tory rule, there was an inevitable desire for Scottish devolution. It was not forced on an unwilling Scotland by Blair.
Nor indeed an unwilling England. Was in the manifesto that won a 179 majority.
Curiously, the Tories were keen to focus on the constitution during the 1997 campaign as they saw it as one of Labour's few vulnerabilities.
Also Europe. The Tories did a party political broadcast saying that a vote for Blair was a vote for a federal Europe.
They also claimed Blair was a demon eyed Socialist. Who had, somewhat mysteriously, also stolen Tory policies...
True but not in 1997. Major had a little bit of class.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
After 18 years of hostile Tory rule, there was an inevitable desire for Scottish devolution. It was not forced on an unwilling Scotland by Blair.
"hostile Tory rule"
I can't see how this might make sense. Conservatives against conservatism?
18 years of Delusional frothing on your part seems more the mark.
"Hostile Tory rule" I think a fair description of how the majority of Scots felt in the Eighties and nineties, hence the mounting Tory losses at each GE in Scotland, until 1997.
Surprising how unpopular the Christmas Truce is in that polling.
Maybe, for all people are worried about the economic cost, they've got a better grip on the situation than the Conservative right, or the popular press?
The 'Save Xmas' policy has been a total disaster from the day Cummings and co started briefing favoured journalists back weeks ago, but now it turns out that the Great British Public don't want it.
If they really don’t want it then it won’t happen and there will not be the spike we all fear.
Yes, this is what will happen. People are frightened. They don't want to gather in multi-generational households, risking the lives of many. Christmas will cancel itself. This whole effort by HMG is pointless gesturing.
A grow-up HMG would have said it will not be illegal to gather at Xmas in households, but we strongly advise against it.
Instead we have this pathetic attempt to curry populist favour for Lockdown 2.0 by promising all sorts of crap by Xmas and then panicking when they realise the railway system wont cope and there will have to be Lockdown 3.0 to clear up the mess.
I agree with this. Not just for Christmas but until you get vaccinated. The adult way to deal with this is to say this is what you should do, not what the law is. "We cannnot police every single incident and we have to trust you to do the right thing. These are the reasons why" (list of reasons why you need to minimise the number of people each positive person infects) " You should do this for the health of your family, your friends and your colleagues."
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
Thanks @DavidHerdson for a very neat and compelling overview of the current indy debate in the last header.
It was a clever call that emphasising the transactional benefits of Union is of limited value due to the fact that these can change - but a more fundamental reason for me is that it reinforces a sense of otherness (a bogus one imo) between Scotland and the UK. 'The UK gives us this' 'The UK takes that'. For me, the argument shouldn't be about 'giving', but about the entitlements that we all have, as part of a Union. Scotland isn't getting 'handouts', it's getting its entitlement - and there will no doubt be phases, when oil is riding high again, when Scotland is a net contributor. And that's ok too. Nobody is getting anything they shouldn't. That's what a union is.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
Thanks @DavidHerdson for a very neat and compelling overview of the current indy debate in the last header.
It was a clever call that emphasising the transactional benefits of Union is of limited value due to the fact that these can change - but a more fundamental reason for me is that it reinforces a sense of otherness (a bogus one imo) between Scotland and the UK. 'The UK gives us this' 'The UK takes that'. For me, the argument shouldn't be about 'giving', but about the entitlements that we all have, as part of a Union. Scotland isn't getting 'handouts', it's getting its entitlement - and there will no doubt be phases, when oil is riding high again, when Scotland is a net contributor. And that's ok too. Nobody is getting anything they shouldn't. That's what a union is.
That's a genuinely excellent point. Rather than bang on about Scotland being subsidised, emphasise that Scotland gave more than its share during the 80s when the oil was flowing and it's now getting more than its share when it needs it. If the union was defended more in those terms I'd be more inclined to support it. Instead we have shire Tories complaining about the Barnett consequentials and the demanding devolution be reversed. It's entirely the wrong way to approach the situation.
I’m increasingly of the view that it’s probably time for Scotland to go her own way now. English people should wish her well as a friend, neighbour and partner.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
Tam Dalyell was right all along though.
Sure, but unless Scotland becomes independent we will have this divisive dynamic for ever more. Let her go.
But ASDA will currently swap one for a kilo of flour or for 500g of pasta.
Branded stuff as well and with no problem on the BBE date.
Yes, amazing how cheap food is while still in the single market.
Unless prices go up by an order of magnitude, they are still going to be cheap afterwards.
Supply and demand. We're about to reduce demand in a period where the pox creates all kinds of off demand spikes. Prices WILL go up. Increased ingredient costs plus tariffs plus added logistics costs = a chunky price rise.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
Tam Dalyell was right all along though.
Sure, but unless Scotland becomes independent we will have this divisive dynamic for ever more. Let her go.
Not really . Even today in the context of Johnson and Covid the polling figures are pretty close. His departure and the benefits from an anti-Covid vaccine could shift the figures quite a bit. Starmer also needs to actively campaign in Scotland. A Labour message of ' A vote for the SNP and Independence would be a betrayal of John Smith, Donald Dewar and Robin Cook' might also reap dividends.
But ASDA will currently swap one for a kilo of flour or for 500g of pasta.
Branded stuff as well and with no problem on the BBE date.
Yes, amazing how cheap food is while still in the single market.
Unless prices go up by an order of magnitude, they are still going to be cheap afterwards.
Supply and demand. We're about to reduce demand in a period where the pox creates all kinds of off demand spikes. Prices WILL go up. Increased ingredient costs plus tariffs plus added logistics costs = a chunky price rise.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
Tam Dalyell was right all along though.
Sure, but unless Scotland becomes independent we will have this divisive dynamic for ever more. Let her go.
Not really . Even today in the context of Johnson and Covid the polling figures are pretty close. His departure and the benefits from an anti-Covid vaccine could shift the figures quite a bit. Starmer also needs to actively campaign in Scotland. A Labour message of ' A vote for the SNP and Independence would be a betrayal of John Smith, Donald Dewar and Robin Cook' might also reap dividends.
From counting dead voters in '79 to vote for the dead in '21: evolution Lab style.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
The one part of the country which doesn’t elect its own government.
Oh rubbish - of course we do. You do too. The Westminster parliament is just the way it is to you and to me. It's good.
I know we elected the government, it’s just that the we is the whole country, not just England.
We, the whole country, is what I care about. We, the whole country is what you care about, oddly I think that we, the whole country is what Nicola Sturgeon cares about.
Tell me how that whole country should be!
The whole thing is a mess: devolution should have been symmetrical right from the start, with English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish parliaments all given the same powers. Then have Westminster looking after some taxation, defence, trade and foreign policy only. Let the nations look after everything else.
I agree completely. It's almost as if Blair wanted to annoy the English as much as possible with the way it was done in 1997.
I don't think Blair gave it any serious thought. Devolution was just a policy whose time had come and the Scottish Labour establishment were wedded to it.
Tam Dalyell was right all along though.
Sure, but unless Scotland becomes independent we will have this divisive dynamic for ever more. Let her go.
Not really . Even today in the context of Johnson and Covid the polling figures are pretty close. His departure and the benefits from an anti-Covid vaccine could shift the figures quite a bit. Starmer also needs to actively campaign in Scotland. A Labour message of ' A vote for the SNP and Independence would be a betrayal of John Smith, Donald Dewar and Robin Cook' might also reap dividends.
From counting dead voters in '79 to vote for the dead in '21: evolution Lab style.
The dead don't disappoint us. Or at least they didn't before the last few years.
It was reported last time around how useful it was for Putin to have someone so prominent claim american elections are rigged, as a deflection from anything he does and to show people that nowhere is truly free. Now millions of americans believe the same thing Trump has probably been more successful for Putin than he could ever have dreamed.
Good work from Joyce, Dubois obviously a problem with his eye. Appalling fitness for a 23 year old boxer though, looked gassed very early. Joyce vs Usyk next hopefully
They literally posted a document justifying why each region had a specific level. What more do they want?
They don't want anything, that type. Like any measure where people are simply opposed - for good or bad reasons - they for some reason have to pretend to not have a closed mind by asking for more info (or consultation, depending on the issue), when it is perfectly clear evidence inscribed on stone tablets from Mount Sinai would not persuade.
If people are ideologically against or feel the evidence does not support certain things, they can just say so without the pretence they will change their minds.
Thanks @DavidHerdson for a very neat and compelling overview of the current indy debate in the last header.
It was a clever call that emphasising the transactional benefits of Union is of limited value due to the fact that these can change - but a more fundamental reason for me is that it reinforces a sense of otherness (a bogus one imo) between Scotland and the UK. 'The UK gives us this' 'The UK takes that'. For me, the argument shouldn't be about 'giving', but about the entitlements that we all have, as part of a Union. Scotland isn't getting 'handouts', it's getting its entitlement - and there will no doubt be phases, when oil is riding high again, when Scotland is a net contributor. And that's ok too. Nobody is getting anything they shouldn't. That's what a union is.
Quite so. As ever an emotional case like that would be more effective. However, I fear the spirit of the times is such that there are not enough messengers to deliver that message or fertile ground to hear it. But hopefully I am wrong.
What percentage of the population need to be vaccinated to stop the spread of the virus?
That's a really interesting question, and it depends on lots of things:
1. Does this particular vaccine prevent you from spreading the virus, or does it merely make you asymptomatic? The early evidence from Pfizer is reasonably positive: those people who tested positive for CV19 exhibited much lower level of viral shedding than those in the control group.
2. Which people are you vaccinating? A lonely spinster might come into contact with a dozen people in a month, while a gym going doctor might see hundreds. If you concentrated the vaccine campaign on the people most likely to *spread* the virus, you may well cut transmission faster than if you concentrate on those most likely to die.
My guess (and it's just a guess) is that front line workers (NHS, care homes) and the most at risk will be vaccinated first. And that once we get to 20 million people vaccinated, then CV19 will begin to die out by itself: sure, there'll be outbreaks in student halls of residence, but the most likely to spread it, and the most likely to die from it, will both be protected.
Yes, that sounds right, and the Government priority is frontline staff first, which is absolutely the correct policy. My only concern is that the Government will push the Oxford vaccine hard because it's bought a lot, it's British, it's cheap and it's easy to deliver - but it's not clear that it works very well. In normal circs we'd wait for the second trial that they're now doing to see if the low dose variant can be verified, but that will take months and it's obviously urgent. But people will be reluctant to be injected, then told it's not very effective and they have to be injected again with something else.
If we assume the 62% overall figure is correct, and you're offered it, do you take it, or hold out until it's verified or the Pfizer one is available? Probably take it, as 62% is a lot better than nothing, but if people then start relaxing and catching the infection anyway, there will be an anti-vaccine backlash. Genuinely difficult regardless of your politics or attitude to lockdown.
What percentage of the population need to be vaccinated to stop the spread of the virus?
That's a really interesting question, and it depends on lots of things:
1. Does this particular vaccine prevent you from spreading the virus, or does it merely make you asymptomatic? The early evidence from Pfizer is reasonably positive: those people who tested positive for CV19 exhibited much lower level of viral shedding than those in the control group.
2. Which people are you vaccinating? A lonely spinster might come into contact with a dozen people in a month, while a gym going doctor might see hundreds. If you concentrated the vaccine campaign on the people most likely to *spread* the virus, you may well cut transmission faster than if you concentrate on those most likely to die.
My guess (and it's just a guess) is that front line workers (NHS, care homes) and the most at risk will be vaccinated first. And that once we get to 20 million people vaccinated, then CV19 will begin to die out by itself: sure, there'll be outbreaks in student halls of residence, but the most likely to spread it, and the most likely to die from it, will both be protected.
Yes, that sounds right, and the Government priority is frontline staff first, which is absolutely the correct policy. My only concern is that the Government will push the Oxford vaccine hard because it's bought a lot, it's British, it's cheap and it's easy to deliver - but it's not clear that it works very well. In normal circs we'd wait for the second trial that they're now doing to see if the low dose variant can be verified, but that will take months and it's obviously urgent. But people will be reluctant to be injected, then told it's not very effective and they have to be injected again with something else.
If we assume the 62% overall figure is correct, and you're offered it, do you take it, or hold out until it's verified or the Pfizer one is available? Probably take it, as 62% is a lot better than nothing, but if people then start relaxing and catching the infection anyway, there will be an anti-vaccine backlash. Genuinely difficult regardless of your politics or attitude to lockdown.
They've bought a lot of many different vaccines, and it sounds as if the Pfizer one is going to be approved first, and as such will be used for the front line staff. And really, it doesn't work very well? I'm not sure why you are taking the lower value as the true estimate for the effectiveness.
It's certainly not looking good for them. They could be at three times the case numbers of the rest of the UK by mid December, with corresponding death numbers around New Year.
Labour might have just lost the Senedd election in May.
Luckily for them they never get called out on it. From day one, piss poor testing. While Hancock got all the shit over did he hit his target or was it fudged, Wales basically managed no increase in testing at all and wouldn't have anything to do with English labs.
Now there are loads of articles about if English lockdown has worked, was it too.late, are the tiers right etc. Virtually no coverage of a total up f##k in Wales.
The reason is very simple. No one in England is interested in Wales.
But even the Welsh don't seem interested in Wales. They consistently elect terrible Labour governments which are provably shite.
Mind you, the other Celtic UK nation which avoided this, Scotland, has now gone on to consistently elect obviously shite SNP governments.
And then we come to England...
.... which has never been a Tory fiefdom the way Labour have run Wales (and used to run Scotland - until the SNP took over the job of massively mediocre, one-party-government)
This is not healthy, even a Nat can see this.
One of the few things that could persuade me that Scottish independence is a good thing would be the end of SNP hegemony. It really is a recipe for rank corruption and awful governance. The Nats are unchallenged, and any government should and must be challenged.
There won't be a new indyref til past 2024, I hope in that time Scotland chooses against Indy, and the SNP fail. If the Scots don't rethink, then I sincerely hope the SNP wins the ensuing referendum then quickly shatters into pieces soon after, for the good of democracy up North
If you lads broke the habit of a lifetime and thought about it for more than 10 seconds you would probably stop fixating on how crap/corrupt/awful/hegemonic you think the SNP is. The last 14 polls have put Yes ahead by up to 16 points, just think think what it would be if the SNP were just a little bit less crap/corrupt/awful/hegemonic.
Well - yes. Has it occurred to you that it might be 80/20 if any politician at Holyrood was capable of running a bath?
You worry about the pols you can elect or reject and I'll worry about the ones I can.
Comments
They cannot be anything but detached.
Icelandic drama The Valhalla Murders on BBC4 atm.
'Reaching a crescendo of incoherence he screams across the loch:
“I love Britain more than anywhere else in the world. With all my heart I declare that those of us born here, or who have made a home here by choice, are the luckiest, most blessed of all people. I am British. I will always be British.”'
https://tinyurl.com/y6gnsnae
It should be something like Mondays & Tuesdays the U.K. Commons meets for U.K. business. Wednesdays & Thursdays the English MPs go somewhere physically different (I think that symbolism is important - Westminster Hall maybe, even put them on a train to York) to discuss the exactly the same issues with exactly the same powers as Cardiff, Holyrood and Stormont. Fridays and weekends back to your constituencies unless something important comes up.
Quasi-Fascist emo-nationalism.
lol
He took a constitutional settlement that had lasted for centuries (admittedly, it was showing a lot of strain).
And Blair replaced it with a constitutional settlement that will die long before he will. It will be lucky to last more than a quarter of a century.
The idea that Blair was a committed devolutionist let alone someone who wanted to rub (specifically) English noses in it is for the birds. Also Scottish and Wesh devolution was in the Labour manifesto that English voters backed in a landslide. Still, it feeds into the rising tenor of English victimhood.
1. Does this particular vaccine prevent you from spreading the virus, or does it merely make you asymptomatic? The early evidence from Pfizer is reasonably positive: those people who tested positive for CV19 exhibited much lower level of viral shedding than those in the control group.
2. Which people are you vaccinating? A lonely spinster might come into contact with a dozen people in a month, while a gym going doctor might see hundreds. If you concentrated the vaccine campaign on the people most likely to *spread* the virus, you may well cut transmission faster than if you concentrate on those most likely to die.
My guess (and it's just a guess) is that front line workers (NHS, care homes) and the most at risk will be vaccinated first. And that once we get to 20 million people vaccinated, then CV19 will begin to die out by itself: sure, there'll be outbreaks in student halls of residence, but the most likely to spread it, and the most likely to die from it, will both be protected.
Even though polling suggests they won't be particularly thanked.
I can't see how this might make sense. Conservatives against conservatism?
18 years of Delusional frothing on your part seems more the mark.
Who had, somewhat mysteriously, also stolen Tory policies...
Too late to change that now.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/america-failed-covid-economys-ok-why/617223/
... Washington, improbably, has truly distinguished itself with fiscal policy, at least earlier in the year. The U.S. has fewer, stingier, more complicated, and more conditional safety nets available to people than many other advanced economies—less generous “automatic stabilizers,” in economic parlance. But when COVID-19 hit, congressional Democrats negotiated a series of enormous, highly effective temporary stabilizers with Republicans who were ready to go big, among them Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. In the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, Congress provided forgivable loans to small businesses; sent $1,200 checks to most Americans; added gig workers to the unemployment-insurance system; and put a $600 weekly top-up on unemployment checks.
“We’d never seen such a rapid and massive amount of stimulus being doled out by Congress, ever,” Gregory Daco, an economist at the international forecasting firm Oxford Economics, told me. “Contrast it with what happened in the global financial crisis” that precipitated the Great Recession in 2007. “It took three times longer to get a stimulus package half the size.” Indeed, the U.S. provided fiscal support equivalent to roughly 12 percent of its GDP, data from Moody’s Analytics show, one-third more than Germany and twice as much as the U.K. Other than Australia, no large, wealthy country did more to support its economy...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Labour,_New_Danger
https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1332819647884824577
https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1332820110306848769?s=20
https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1332821911517196293?s=20
https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1332822578319200258?s=20
It was a clever call that emphasising the transactional benefits of Union is of limited value due to the fact that these can change - but a more fundamental reason for me is that it reinforces a sense of otherness (a bogus one imo) between Scotland and the UK. 'The UK gives us this' 'The UK takes that'. For me, the argument shouldn't be about 'giving', but about the entitlements that we all have, as part of a Union. Scotland isn't getting 'handouts', it's getting its entitlement - and there will no doubt be phases, when oil is riding high again, when Scotland is a net contributor. And that's ok too. Nobody is getting anything they shouldn't. That's what a union is.
A small unsubstantial thing of little value.
But ASDA will currently swap one for a kilo of flour or for 500g of pasta.
Branded stuff as well and with no problem on the BBE date.
It seems that almost all of Johnson's wizard, schoolboy wheezes bite him back, Dick Dastardly style.
I'm sure Boris would like the image ** of him ruthlessly 'kicking out' people.
But in reality who did he actually 'kick out' ?
** Likewise I'm sure Boris likes the imagery of him being some sort of reborn Thatcher.
Last year their overbought bags of veg were literally free. So 20p is a bit of a rip off
Flour and pasta have been getting cheaper and cheaper since the summer.
ASDA are even flogging Italian gin at half price.
Joyce vs Usyk next hopefully
Is sadly a question his lickspittles in Congress won't ask.
If people are ideologically against or feel the evidence does not support certain things, they can just say so without the pretence they will change their minds.
If we assume the 62% overall figure is correct, and you're offered it, do you take it, or hold out until it's verified or the Pfizer one is available? Probably take it, as 62% is a lot better than nothing, but if people then start relaxing and catching the infection anyway, there will be an anti-vaccine backlash. Genuinely difficult regardless of your politics or attitude to lockdown.