The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said the evening had "plainly gone badly" and the chances of the UK leaving the post-Brexit transition period at the end of the year without a firm arrangement was a "big step closer".
The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said the evening had "plainly gone badly" and the chances of the UK leaving the post-Brexit transition period at the end of the year without a firm arrangement was a "big step closer".
Until I read that, I thought there was a serious chance of No Deal happening.
The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said the evening had "plainly gone badly" and the chances of the UK leaving the post-Brexit transition period at the end of the year without a firm arrangement was a "big step closer".
Until I read that, I thought there was a serious chance of No Deal happening.
Waiting for Peston's take....and then betting on the opposite.
One thing he doesn’t mention is that for a large number of countries, it will be available in bulk a good six months before the two which have been demonstrated to be more significantly effective. Which moves the risk/benefit calculation significantly in its favour.
One thing that hasn't got anywhere near coverage is the 0% hospitalisation from those who got the vaccine.
Indeed. That was actually pushed heavily on the BBC One 6 and 10 Main News though.
One thing he doesn’t mention is that for a large number of countries, it will be available in bulk a good six months before the two which have been demonstrated to be more significantly effective. Which moves the risk/benefit calculation significantly in its favour.
One thing that hasn't got anywhere near coverage is the 0% hospitalisation from those who got the vaccine.
Indeed. That was actually pushed heavily on the BBC One 6 and 10 Main News though.
I think the strategy will be "Moderna and Pfizer for the oldies, carehomes and hospitals; and AZN for the plebs."
It's important to remember that Ursula von der Leyen has no authority to make material changes to the EU's agreed position. So there was zero possibility of this cosy dinner producing any concessions from EU side. The most it could have produced is an undertaking from her to consult with the EU premiers to see whether any UK proposal for a possible way out of the impasse might be acceptable. It's very hard to know if the UK did make any such proposal; if Boris simply repeated the Brexiteer nonsense about sovereignty without proposing anything new, then we're heading for no-deal crash-out. In that scenario, bad for the EU and disastrous for the UK, the EU will simply wait for the UK to come to its senses.
If the EU don't want to put it's principle decision makers who have authority to compromise in the room then what is Boris supposed to do?
If someone doesn't have authority to compromise then it should be escalated to whoever does and they should be in the room.
Rule number 1 of any half-decent sales or negotiating course: understand who makes the decisions. The UK has got this wrong all along. It's not Barnier, or the Commission, or Ursula van der Leyen. Nor is it Merkel, or Macron, individually, so there's no point trying to deal with them on the side. Instead you have to work with the internal horse-trading dynamics of the EU, which are complex.
We used to have people who understood all this. They got booted out. People like Sir Ivan Rogers:
On 11 October 2018, in Cambridge, Rogers delivered a lecture on "Brexit as Revolution", in which he said that he continued to think that the risks of an accidental "no deal" Brexit caused by persistent British misreading of others' incentives and views, and by the EU's frequent inability to comprehend UK politics, were higher than was in the price.
The UK has not got this wrong. The EU is you are right a terrible organisation that can't organise a piss up in a brewery that much is true. That is also why we are leaving. Good riddance.
Really? The EU employs about 32,000 civil servants. Since the Brexit referendum, the UK Government has taken on an extra 40,000 civil servants.
Are you suggesting that the countries in the EU employ zero civil servants? That the EU 32k do the lot?
It's important to remember that Ursula von der Leyen has no authority to make material changes to the EU's agreed position. So there was zero possibility of this cosy dinner producing any concessions from EU side. The most it could have produced is an undertaking from her to consult with the EU premiers to see whether any UK proposal for a possible way out of the impasse might be acceptable. It's very hard to know if the UK did make any such proposal; if Boris simply repeated the Brexiteer nonsense about sovereignty without proposing anything new, then we're heading for no-deal crash-out. In that scenario, bad for the EU and disastrous for the UK, the EU will simply wait for the UK to come to its senses.
If the EU don't want to put it's principle decision makers who have authority to compromise in the room then what is Boris supposed to do?
If someone doesn't have authority to compromise then it should be escalated to whoever does and they should be in the room.
Rule number 1 of any half-decent sales or negotiating course: understand who makes the decisions. The UK has got this wrong all along. It's not Barnier, or the Commission, or Ursula van der Leyen. Nor is it Merkel, or Macron, individually, so there's no point trying to deal with them on the side. Instead you have to work with the internal horse-trading dynamics of the EU, which are complex.
We used to have people who understood all this. They got booted out. People like Sir Ivan Rogers:
On 11 October 2018, in Cambridge, Rogers delivered a lecture on "Brexit as Revolution", in which he said that he continued to think that the risks of an accidental "no deal" Brexit caused by persistent British misreading of others' incentives and views, and by the EU's frequent inability to comprehend UK politics, were higher than was in the price.
The UK has not got this wrong. The EU is you are right a terrible organisation that can't organise a piss up in a brewery that much is true. That is also why we are leaving. Good riddance.
Really? The EU employs about 32,000 civil servants. Since the Brexit referendum, the UK Government has taken on an extra 40,000 civil servants.
Are you suggesting that the countries in the EU employ zero civil servants? That the EU 32k do the lot?
Did you know that the EXCELLENT The Gravy Train stars a very young Christoph Waltz and is available to stream legally for free?
I foolishly engaged in an argument on Twitter about the US election, and had thrown in my face "how can you know anything about the US when your own country can't deal with Islamic terrorism"...
They then claimed that the UK government imprisoned anyone who dared tell the truth about Islamic terrorism in the UK.
I suggested they tried their analytical skills here, but they didn't seem keen.
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I foolishly engaged in an argument on Twitter about the US election, and had thrown in my face "how can you know anything about the US when your own country can't deal with Islamic terrorism"...
They then claimed that the UK government imprisoned anyone who dared tell the truth about Islamic terrorism in the UK.
I suggested they tried their analytical skills here, but they didn't seem keen.
That sounds like a Tommy Robinson reference. He was jailed for contempt of court, and nearly caused a trial to be abandoned.
How do American judges deal with people intentionally disrupting court proceedings?
One thing he doesn’t mention is that for a large number of countries, it will be available in bulk a good six months before the two which have been demonstrated to be more significantly effective. Which moves the risk/benefit calculation significantly in its favour.
One thing that hasn't got anywhere near coverage is the 0% hospitalisation from those who got the vaccine.
Indeed. That was actually pushed heavily on the BBC One 6 and 10 Main News though.
I think the strategy will be "Moderna and Pfizer for the oldies, carehomes and hospitals; and AZN for the plebs."
As I said here from the day the AZ test results came out. Not least because we only have enough Pfizer orders for the first 20 million on the list, which puts the break point at about age 65.
One thing he doesn’t mention is that for a large number of countries, it will be available in bulk a good six months before the two which have been demonstrated to be more significantly effective. Which moves the risk/benefit calculation significantly in its favour.
One thing that hasn't got anywhere near coverage is the 0% hospitalisation from those who got the vaccine.
Indeed. That was actually pushed heavily on the BBC One 6 and 10 Main News though.
I think the strategy will be "Moderna and Pfizer for the oldies, carehomes and hospitals; and AZN for the plebs."
As I said here from the day the AZ test results came out. Not least because we only have enough Pfizer orders for the first 20 million on the list, which puts the break point at about age 65.
I don't think that's correct: your figures are a bit out there.
The Gov't are hinting that everyone over 55 may be given the Pfizer vaccine, which is c. 20 million people.
One thing he doesn’t mention is that for a large number of countries, it will be available in bulk a good six months before the two which have been demonstrated to be more significantly effective. Which moves the risk/benefit calculation significantly in its favour.
One thing that hasn't got anywhere near coverage is the 0% hospitalisation from those who got the vaccine.
Indeed. That was actually pushed heavily on the BBC One 6 and 10 Main News though.
I think the strategy will be "Moderna and Pfizer for the oldies, carehomes and hospitals; and AZN for the plebs."
As I said here from the day the AZ test results came out. Not least because we only have enough Pfizer orders for the first 20 million on the list, which puts the break point at about age 65.
I don't think that's correct: your figures are a bit out there.
The Gov't are hinting that everyone over 55 may be given the Pfizer vaccine, which is c. 20 million people.
Basically everyone in Categories 1-8 will be offered Pfizer / Moderna. Not everyone will take it up, of course. There may be sufficient to offer it to category 9 but my understanding is that under 55's will be offered AZN-Oxford.
I foolishly engaged in an argument on Twitter about the US election, and had thrown in my face "how can you know anything about the US when your own country can't deal with Islamic terrorism"...
They then claimed that the UK government imprisoned anyone who dared tell the truth about Islamic terrorism in the UK.
I suggested they tried their analytical skills here, but they didn't seem keen.
That sounds like a Tommy Robinson reference. He was jailed for contempt of court, and nearly caused a trial to be abandoned.
How do American judges deal with people intentionally disrupting court proceedings?
I think their solution is to sequester the jury. That's a PITA for the jury but the First Amendment prevents them from using the British solution of letting the jury do what they like and sequestering everybody else.
I foolishly engaged in an argument on Twitter about the US election, and had thrown in my face "how can you know anything about the US when your own country can't deal with Islamic terrorism"...
They then claimed that the UK government imprisoned anyone who dared tell the truth about Islamic terrorism in the UK.
I suggested they tried their analytical skills here, but they didn't seem keen.
I foolishly engaged in an argument on Twitter about the US election, and had thrown in my face "how can you know anything about the US when your own country can't deal with Islamic terrorism"...
They then claimed that the UK government imprisoned anyone who dared tell the truth about Islamic terrorism in the UK.
I suggested they tried their analytical skills here, but they didn't seem keen.
Trump supporters that use a degree of reason or sanity are like rocking horse shit on twitter
With reference to last night’s debate on the American Civil War, @Alistair was quite correct to point out that comparatively few soldiers died in battle in that war. In fact, just one third of them died in battle or of wounds received in battle, with cholera, dysentery, typhus, pneumonia and measles accounting for the rest. So it’s not at all implausible that the current pandemic is killing more every day than died on almost any given day of the Civil War.
As for Towton, contemporary sources put the dead at around 25,000 which seems a little unlikely (to put it in context, that’s the number that died in the bombing of Dresden and 25% more than died on the first day of the Somme). And only one mass grave with 37 dead in it has ever been found.
However 3000 dead seems on the low side given that the Lancastrian army was almost completely destroyed - it took four years to form another one, and even then it was pitifully small by comparison. So given the likely size of the army ten thousand dead does not seem a ridiculous figure.
In this the Yorkists were helped by the weather - allowing them to shoot their arrows downwind shielded by snow, virtually without reply - and by the geography of the battlefield, which trapped the Lancastrians between two cliffs and a swollen brook that couldn’t be forded. Even today, you look at the site and wince at how easy it would be for an army to be trapped and annihilated there.
And the UK is a fully functioning democracy. The EU is 27 disperse nations that can't between them agree anyone to sit in a room with Boris as equals able to make a decision or compromise.
Oh, Mr Thompson! "A fully functioning democracy" indeed....... This country is a long way from that.....
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
One thing he doesn’t mention is that for a large number of countries, it will be available in bulk a good six months before the two which have been demonstrated to be more significantly effective. Which moves the risk/benefit calculation significantly in its favour.
One thing that hasn't got anywhere near coverage is the 0% hospitalisation from those who got the vaccine.
Indeed. That was actually pushed heavily on the BBC One 6 and 10 Main News though.
I think the strategy will be "Moderna and Pfizer for the oldies, carehomes and hospitals; and AZN for the plebs."
As I said here from the day the AZ test results came out. Not least because we only have enough Pfizer orders for the first 20 million on the list, which puts the break point at about age 65.
I don't think that's correct: your figures are a bit out there.
The Gov't are hinting that everyone over 55 may be given the Pfizer vaccine, which is c. 20 million people.
Possibly; my assessment was rough and ready. But I did make allowance for those health workers, care homes workers, and people with existing medical conditions, which will use up some of the 20 million before it is fully distributed by age.
On the other hand, there may be a level of refusals, enabling the doses to be spread further down the profile - although anecdotally it seems mainly younger people who are those more likely to refuse.
One thing he doesn’t mention is that for a large number of countries, it will be available in bulk a good six months before the two which have been demonstrated to be more significantly effective. Which moves the risk/benefit calculation significantly in its favour.
One thing that hasn't got anywhere near coverage is the 0% hospitalisation from those who got the vaccine.
Indeed. That was actually pushed heavily on the BBC One 6 and 10 Main News though.
I think the strategy will be "Moderna and Pfizer for the oldies, carehomes and hospitals; and AZN for the plebs."
As I said here from the day the AZ test results came out. Not least because we only have enough Pfizer orders for the first 20 million on the list, which puts the break point at about age 65.
I don't think that's correct: your figures are a bit out there.
The Gov't are hinting that everyone over 55 may be given the Pfizer vaccine, which is c. 20 million people.
Possibly; my assessment was rough and ready. But I did make allowance for those health workers, care homes workers, and people with existing medical conditions, which will use up some of the 20 million before it is fully distributed by age.
On the other hand, there may be a level of refusals, enabling the doses to be spread further down the profile - although anecdotally it seems mainly younger people who are those more likely to refuse.
My wife went to the hairdressers yesterday and was remarking that she hoped to have the vaccine as soon as. The hairdresser, a woman in the 30's said that no way was she having it, look at what was in it, and she'd told her mother, who is apparently a care home worker, to refuse it. Sad.
With reference to last night’s debate on the American Civil War, @Alistair was quite correct to point out that comparatively few soldiers died in battle in that war. In fact, just one third of them died in battle or of wounds received in battle, with cholera, dysentery, typhus, pneumonia and measles accounting for the rest. So it’s not at all implausible that the current pandemic is killing more every day than died on almost any given day of the Civil War.
As for Towton, contemporary sources put the dead at around 25,000 which seems a little unlikely (to put it in context, that’s the number that died in the bombing of Dresden and 25% more than died on the first day of the Somme). And only one mass grave with 37 dead in it has ever been found.
However 3000 dead seems on the low side given that the Lancastrian army was almost completely destroyed - it took four years to form another one, and even then it was pitifully small by comparison. So given the likely size of the army ten thousand dead does not seem a ridiculous figure.
In this the Yorkists were helped by the weather - allowing them to shoot their arrows downwind shielded by snow, virtually without reply - and by the geography of the battlefield, which trapped the Lancastrians between two cliffs and a swollen brook that couldn’t be forded. Even today, you look at the site and wince at how easy it would be for an army to be trapped and annihilated there.
Perhaps the most appalling US Civil War casualty stat was the number dying in prison camps such as Andersonville and Camp Douglas.
It's important to remember that Ursula von der Leyen has no authority to make material changes to the EU's agreed position. So there was zero possibility of this cosy dinner producing any concessions from EU side. The most it could have produced is an undertaking from her to consult with the EU premiers to see whether any UK proposal for a possible way out of the impasse might be acceptable. It's very hard to know if the UK did make any such proposal; if Boris simply repeated the Brexiteer nonsense about sovereignty without proposing anything new, then we're heading for no-deal crash-out. In that scenario, bad for the EU and disastrous for the UK, the EU will simply wait for the UK to come to its senses.
If the EU don't want to put it's principle decision makers who have authority to compromise in the room then what is Boris supposed to do?
If someone doesn't have authority to compromise then it should be escalated to whoever does and they should be in the room.
Rule number 1 of any half-decent sales or negotiating course: understand who makes the decisions. The UK has got this wrong all along. It's not Barnier, or the Commission, or Ursula van der Leyen. Nor is it Merkel, or Macron, individually, so there's no point trying to deal with them on the side. Instead you have to work with the internal horse-trading dynamics of the EU, which are complex.
We used to have people who understood all this. They got booted out. People like Sir Ivan Rogers:
On 11 October 2018, in Cambridge, Rogers delivered a lecture on "Brexit as Revolution", in which he said that he continued to think that the risks of an accidental "no deal" Brexit caused by persistent British misreading of others' incentives and views, and by the EU's frequent inability to comprehend UK politics, were higher than was in the price.
The UK has not got this wrong. The EU is you are right a terrible organisation that can't organise a piss up in a brewery that much is true. That is also why we are leaving. Good riddance.
Really? The EU employs about 32,000 civil servants. Since the Brexit referendum, the UK Government has taken on an extra 40,000 civil servants.
Are you suggesting that the countries in the EU employ zero civil servants? That the EU 32k do the lot?
And the UK is a fully functioning democracy. The EU is 27 disperse nations that can't between them agree anyone to sit in a room with Boris as equals able to make a decision or compromise.
Oh, Mr Thompson! "A fully functioning democracy" indeed....... This country is a long way from that.....
You've been chatting in the telephone box again with your party's MPs - spoiler, sandals are no longer a thing!
With reference to last night’s debate on the American Civil War, @Alistair was quite correct to point out that comparatively few soldiers died in battle in that war. In fact, just one third of them died in battle or of wounds received in battle, with cholera, dysentery, typhus, pneumonia and measles accounting for the rest. So it’s not at all implausible that the current pandemic is killing more every day than died on almost any given day of the Civil War.
As for Towton, contemporary sources put the dead at around 25,000 which seems a little unlikely (to put it in context, that’s the number that died in the bombing of Dresden and 25% more than died on the first day of the Somme). And only one mass grave with 37 dead in it has ever been found.
However 3000 dead seems on the low side given that the Lancastrian army was almost completely destroyed - it took four years to form another one, and even then it was pitifully small by comparison. So given the likely size of the army ten thousand dead does not seem a ridiculous figure.
In this the Yorkists were helped by the weather - allowing them to shoot their arrows downwind shielded by snow, virtually without reply - and by the geography of the battlefield, which trapped the Lancastrians between two cliffs and a swollen brook that couldn’t be forded. Even today, you look at the site and wince at how easy it would be for an army to be trapped and annihilated there.
Yet the US civil war casualties, even those in or consequential to battle, are of the same magnitude as those in WW2, at a time when US population was very significantly lower, and there were some very bloody battles. Add in those who died from disease and the civil war death toll was much greater.
So what was the purpose and outcome of Boris's late night dinner in Brussels? Presumably not to get an agreement. Von der Leyen has no power or mandate to make such an agreement, even with Barnier alongside. The focus had to be the next 2 days of the EU summit (which they want to be about other things such as their budget discussions), making it clear where the UK was not willing to budge and where there might be some room for manoeuvre.
Will this have the desired effect? Its looking increasingly unlikely but its not impossible. I quite liked the unnamed diplomat's analysis quoted on the BBC. The UK is demanding the right to do things it will never do and the EU is demanding the right to stop things that the UK would not contemplate.
I do think that we are right at the point where the smart thing to do is to give up and focus on the practicalities. So we need mini agreements that will facilitate border arrangements such as Gove's NI trusted trader regime, visa free travel, mutual recognition of standards where they remain the same etc. My understanding that flight arrangements etc have already been agreed but I am not clear if that is caught up in the nothing is agreed until everything has been agreed trap. If so that will need sorted out too. Time is short.
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
We have one of their places a mile from where I live near Mojacar in SE Spain. Been effectively closed all year due to Covid. You really need to be pretty well heeled as it is very upmarket - I'd be surprised if many members will struggle for the few further months of Covid restrictions. I'd also expect Spain to be one of the first countries to ease the passage for tourists back into the country post Covid. The country's tourist trade cannot survive without British tourists in fairly large numbers.
The earlier chat about Civil WEar deaths. I belive the total of deaths included the hundreds of thousands who died of disease not bullets. The death toll amongst that group was horrific, both sides washed and bathed , ofen in the same river, one upstream polluting the other with their throwaways and excrement!.
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
I am surprised that yesterday Cunard cancelled almost all of its May 2021 cruises, so far ahead. We can reasonably expect most of their demographic in both the UK and US to be vaccinated by then.
Really - is that what we call informed political comment these days - fat shaming and undertones of xenophobia?
Not so much xenophobia but hatred and contempt for our own country. If only we could be as clever and as sleek and as cosmopolitan as the EU elite. Its sad.
One thing he doesn’t mention is that for a large number of countries, it will be available in bulk a good six months before the two which have been demonstrated to be more significantly effective. Which moves the risk/benefit calculation significantly in its favour.
One thing that hasn't got anywhere near coverage is the 0% hospitalisation from those who got the vaccine.
Indeed. That was actually pushed heavily on the BBC One 6 and 10 Main News though.
I think the strategy will be "Moderna and Pfizer for the oldies, carehomes and hospitals; and AZN for the plebs."
As I said here from the day the AZ test results came out. Not least because we only have enough Pfizer orders for the first 20 million on the list, which puts the break point at about age 65.
I don't think that's correct: your figures are a bit out there.
The Gov't are hinting that everyone over 55 may be given the Pfizer vaccine, which is c. 20 million people.
Possibly; my assessment was rough and ready. But I did make allowance for those health workers, care homes workers, and people with existing medical conditions, which will use up some of the 20 million before it is fully distributed by age.
On the other hand, there may be a level of refusals, enabling the doses to be spread further down the profile - although anecdotally it seems mainly younger people who are those more likely to refuse.
My wife went to the hairdressers yesterday and was remarking that she hoped to have the vaccine as soon as. The hairdresser, a woman in the 30's said that no way was she having it, look at what was in it, and she'd told her mother, who is apparently a care home worker, to refuse it. Sad.
Sounds like there needs to be a concerted public information campaign, with the media onside, about vaccination.
There’s a small window of opportunity, with a couple of high profile TV journalists in trouble over their behaviour, for government to strong-arm the media into some semblance of responsibility.
The gold standard for a public information campaign is probably the AIDS campaign in the 1980s, I suggest we get Saachi and Saachi back to come up with something similar.
Also really important to flood Facebook - this is where the anti-vaxxers are hanging out, talking to each other. Publically shame Facebook as a company if they won’t do this for free.
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
We have one of their places a mile from where I live near Mojacar in SE Spain. Been effectively closed all year due to Covid. You really need to be pretty well heeled as it is very upmarket - I'd be surprised if many members will struggle for the few further months of Covid restrictions. I'd also expect Spain to be one of the first countries to ease the passage for tourists back into the country post Covid. The country's tourist trade cannot survive without British tourists in fairly large numbers.
A lot of the members are early/recent retirees, who like to go South for the winter, or at least a couple of weeks. Although we once met a couple who'd booked three places, one after the other, to spend three months in the warm! Retired bus driver, IIRC!
Nowhere in that article does anyone accuse Boris Johnson of failure - other than the headline writer.
Trash journalism. Retweeted by Scott.
Or trash PB’ing given these extracts from that very article?:
Boris Johnson is being accused of failure....
Labour is claiming that a year after Mr Johnson promised an "oven-ready deal" he has failed to deliver what he promised...
....were billed as a make-or-break attempt to salvage a Brexit deal... failed to achieve the breakthrough hoped for by both sides
Angela Rayner tweeted: "One year after Boris Johnson promised us an oven-ready deal he has completely failed”
Ian Blackford tweeted: "A no deal would be a massive failure of diplomacy and leadership which @BorisJohnson has to take ownership of.”
When Johnson spoke of the oven-ready deal referred, that referred to the WA. As for Blackford's tweet, there is a conditional in there.
You and I both know that isn't true. Various government minsters made to look like utter tits trying to make that line stick - they get paid to be laughed at. You don't.
Nowhere in that article does anyone accuse Boris Johnson of failure - other than the headline writer.
Trash journalism. Retweeted by Scott.
Or trash PB’ing given these extracts from that very article?:
Boris Johnson is being accused of failure....
Labour is claiming that a year after Mr Johnson promised an "oven-ready deal" he has failed to deliver what he promised...
....were billed as a make-or-break attempt to salvage a Brexit deal... failed to achieve the breakthrough hoped for by both sides
Angela Rayner tweeted: "One year after Boris Johnson promised us an oven-ready deal he has completely failed”
Ian Blackford tweeted: "A no deal would be a massive failure of diplomacy and leadership which @BorisJohnson has to take ownership of.”
When Johnson spoke of the oven-ready deal referred, that referred to the WA. As for Blackford's tweet, there is a conditional in there.
You and I both know that isn't true. Various government minsters made to look like utter tits trying to make that line stick - they get paid to be laughed at. You don't.
I was just going by what he said in the Telegraph article, the debut of that phrase.
Really - is that what we call informed political comment these days - fat shaming and undertones of xenophobia?
Not so much xenophobia but hatred and contempt for our own country. If only we could be as clever and as sleek and as cosmopolitan as the EU elite. Its sad.
Have to say they look like two tramps dragged off the street. It does really highlight how far the UK has fallen on every level. Led by lying fat tramp like donkeys or lying slimeball odious creeps. The inbreeding at the top has gone on a bit too long I am afraid.
Spectacular test of Starship last night. So many major milestones ticked off in a single flight. For all the talk of "NASA will be on the moon in 2024" they need to get a move on. SLS - unflown, untested and 4 years behind schedule...
Nowhere in that article does anyone accuse Boris Johnson of failure - other than the headline writer.
Trash journalism. Retweeted by Scott.
Or trash PB’ing given these extracts from that very article?:
Boris Johnson is being accused of failure....
Labour is claiming that a year after Mr Johnson promised an "oven-ready deal" he has failed to deliver what he promised...
....were billed as a make-or-break attempt to salvage a Brexit deal... failed to achieve the breakthrough hoped for by both sides
Angela Rayner tweeted: "One year after Boris Johnson promised us an oven-ready deal he has completely failed”
Ian Blackford tweeted: "A no deal would be a massive failure of diplomacy and leadership which @BorisJohnson has to take ownership of.”
When Johnson spoke of the oven-ready deal referred, that referred to the WA. As for Blackford's tweet, there is a conditional in there.
So apart from the journalist who wrote the article, and the political correspondent and a stack of politicians quoted within it, it was “just the headline writer”?
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
We have one of their places a mile from where I live near Mojacar in SE Spain. Been effectively closed all year due to Covid. You really need to be pretty well heeled as it is very upmarket - I'd be surprised if many members will struggle for the few further months of Covid restrictions. I'd also expect Spain to be one of the first countries to ease the passage for tourists back into the country post Covid. The country's tourist trade cannot survive without British tourists in fairly large numbers.
A lot of the members are early/recent retirees, who like to go South for the winter, or at least a couple of weeks. Although we once met a couple who'd booked three places, one after the other, to spend three months in the warm! Retired bus driver, IIRC!
It's very expensive - prices way above the norm in our area - we use a restaurant just outside the complex and I've met many of them. Tourists on the bread line they are not. Either way - once the Covid restrictions are eased they will be back - regardless of Brexit. If not it'll go bust which would be hard on the local economy and the reason why Spain will ease the path for British tourism.
Really - is that what we call informed political comment these days - fat shaming and undertones of xenophobia?
Not so much xenophobia but hatred and contempt for our own country. If only we could be as clever and as sleek and as cosmopolitan as the EU elite. Its sad.
You may see Boris Johnson and David Frost as great symbols of the UK, David, but others see them as grubby, second-raters who have made promises to the British people that they are not capable of keeping. There is nothing xenophobic or unpatriotic about the scorning them when their incompetence, mediocrity and, in the case of Johnson, demonstrable mendacity are not only putting this country's well-being at stake, but also its very future.
Nowhere in that article does anyone accuse Boris Johnson of failure - other than the headline writer.
Trash journalism. Retweeted by Scott.
Or trash PB’ing given these extracts from that very article?:
Boris Johnson is being accused of failure....
Labour is claiming that a year after Mr Johnson promised an "oven-ready deal" he has failed to deliver what he promised...
....were billed as a make-or-break attempt to salvage a Brexit deal... failed to achieve the breakthrough hoped for by both sides
Angela Rayner tweeted: "One year after Boris Johnson promised us an oven-ready deal he has completely failed”
Ian Blackford tweeted: "A no deal would be a massive failure of diplomacy and leadership which @BorisJohnson has to take ownership of.”
When Johnson spoke of the oven-ready deal referred, that referred to the WA. As for Blackford's tweet, there is a conditional in there.
You and I both know that isn't true. Various government minsters made to look like utter tits trying to make that line stick - they get paid to be laughed at. You don't.
I was just going by what he said in the Telegraph article, the debut of that phrase.
Tory 2019 manifesto explicitly promised to deliver a Brexit deal including a trade deal this year. Three weeks to go.
Spectacular test of Starship last night. So many major milestones ticked off in a single flight. For all the talk of "NASA will be on the moon in 2024" they need to get a move on. SLS - unflown, untested and 4 years behind schedule...
Wasn’t it just! They came damn close to nailing that pivot landing on the first attempt, astonishing what they’ve done for space travel in a few short years.
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
I am surprised that yesterday Cunard cancelled almost all of its May 2021 cruises, so far ahead. We can reasonably expect most of their demographic in both the UK and US to be vaccinated by then.
The ships need to be crewed, though, and given where crews mostly come from that does present significant covid risk.
Really - is that what we call informed political comment these days - fat shaming and undertones of xenophobia?
Not so much xenophobia but hatred and contempt for our own country. If only we could be as clever and as sleek and as cosmopolitan as the EU elite. Its sad.
You may see Boris Johnson and David Frost as great symbols of the UK, David, but others see them as grubby, second-raters who have made promises to the British people that they are not capable of keeping. There is nothing xenophobic or unpatriotic about the scorning them when their incompetence, mediocrity and, in the case of Johnson, demonstrable mendacity are not only putting this country's well-being at stake, but also its very future.
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
We have one of their places a mile from where I live near Mojacar in SE Spain. Been effectively closed all year due to Covid. You really need to be pretty well heeled as it is very upmarket - I'd be surprised if many members will struggle for the few further months of Covid restrictions. I'd also expect Spain to be one of the first countries to ease the passage for tourists back into the country post Covid. The country's tourist trade cannot survive without British tourists in fairly large numbers.
A lot of the members are early/recent retirees, who like to go South for the winter, or at least a couple of weeks. Although we once met a couple who'd booked three places, one after the other, to spend three months in the warm! Retired bus driver, IIRC!
It's very expensive - prices way above the norm in our area - we use a restaurant just outside the complex and I've met many of them. Tourists on the bread line they are not. Either way - once the Covid restrictions are eased they will be back - regardless of Brexit. If not it'll go bust which would be hard on the local economy and the reason why Spain will ease the path for British tourism.
There will be big insurance premium rises to deal with for all UK travellers to the EU as from next year. For the elderly, the costs could become prohibitive.
Spectacular test of Starship last night. So many major milestones ticked off in a single flight. For all the talk of "NASA will be on the moon in 2024" they need to get a move on. SLS - unflown, untested and 4 years behind schedule...
It still remains the mystery of modern life, a technology the Human Race had in 1969 which it does not have now.
So what was the purpose and outcome of Boris's late night dinner in Brussels? Presumably not to get an agreement. Von der Leyen has no power or mandate to make such an agreement, even with Barnier alongside. The focus had to be the next 2 days of the EU summit (which they want to be about other things such as their budget discussions), making it clear where the UK was not willing to budge and where there might be some room for manoeuvre.
Will this have the desired effect? Its looking increasingly unlikely but its not impossible. I quite liked the unnamed diplomat's analysis quoted on the BBC. The UK is demanding the right to do things it will never do and the EU is demanding the right to stop things that the UK would not contemplate.
I do think that we are right at the point where the smart thing to do is to give up and focus on the practicalities. So we need mini agreements that will facilitate border arrangements such as Gove's NI trusted trader regime, visa free travel, mutual recognition of standards where they remain the same etc. My understanding that flight arrangements etc have already been agreed but I am not clear if that is caught up in the nothing is agreed until everything has been agreed trap. If so that will need sorted out too. Time is short.
The withdrawal of the contentious clauses in the IMB will have made a No Deal on less than openly hostile terms much more feasible. Where the EU sees advantages in striking mini deals, there is much more chance of it happening now. That is a good thing.
Spectacular test of Starship last night. So many major milestones ticked off in a single flight. For all the talk of "NASA will be on the moon in 2024" they need to get a move on. SLS - unflown, untested and 4 years behind schedule...
It still remains the mystery of modern life, a technology the Human Race had in 1969 which it does not have now.
Same as supersonic commercial air travel. (Not that I see the biggest failure of my life so far, as being the failure to call the bank manager and ask for a loan when they announced the retirement of Concorde. Not at all).
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
I am surprised that yesterday Cunard cancelled almost all of its May 2021 cruises, so far ahead. We can reasonably expect most of their demographic in both the UK and US to be vaccinated by then.
Really - is that what we call informed political comment these days - fat shaming and undertones of xenophobia?
Not so much xenophobia but hatred and contempt for our own country. If only we could be as clever and as sleek and as cosmopolitan as the EU elite. Its sad.
You may see Boris Johnson and David Frost as great symbols of the UK, David, but others see them as grubby, second-raters who have made promises to the British people that they are not capable of keeping.
Spectacular test of Starship last night. So many major milestones ticked off in a single flight. For all the talk of "NASA will be on the moon in 2024" they need to get a move on. SLS - unflown, untested and 4 years behind schedule...
It still remains the mystery of modern life, a technology the Human Race had in 1969 which it does not have now.
A technology we had no real use for.
The space race led to a myriad of developments that were useful but man on the moon was done to show they could do it. Once they had continuing to go there lacked any great feasible purpose.
SpaceX mean that when man returns to the moon it will be affordable and repeatable much more. Going on to Mars or building a lunar base becomes much more viable.
Spectacular test of Starship last night. So many major milestones ticked off in a single flight. For all the talk of "NASA will be on the moon in 2024" they need to get a move on. SLS - unflown, untested and 4 years behind schedule...
It still remains the mystery of modern life, a technology the Human Race had in 1969 which it does not have now.
Because it seems pretty pointless.
Okay okay I know I know ... one day when we get a ship that gets close to light speed it'll be worth it but the fact is that we're nowhere near that. Pottering around our own solar system for most people is very 'meh.' The universe is vast. So is our galaxy.
I write this by the way as a keen amateur astronomer. I'd rather see the investment going into telescopes. I have next to zero interest in Elon Musk's latest venture.
Spectacular test of Starship last night. So many major milestones ticked off in a single flight. For all the talk of "NASA will be on the moon in 2024" they need to get a move on. SLS - unflown, untested and 4 years behind schedule...
It still remains the mystery of modern life, a technology the Human Race had in 1969 which it does not have now.
In 1969 an extraordinary percentage of the US economy was devoted to a vanity project, putting a man on the moon.
Fifty years later, a wealthy individual looks likely to be able to achieve the same thing.
What was once the preserve of governments has become the preseve of the rich, and in time will be common place.
On the subject of vaccine nationalism, I thought it was a real faux pas and a crying shame that Boris Johnson cheapened Tuesday by saying that it was 'a great day for the UK.' It was but a politician of gravitas would have said that it was a great day for the world.
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
We have one of their places a mile from where I live near Mojacar in SE Spain. Been effectively closed all year due to Covid. You really need to be pretty well heeled as it is very upmarket - I'd be surprised if many members will struggle for the few further months of Covid restrictions. I'd also expect Spain to be one of the first countries to ease the passage for tourists back into the country post Covid. The country's tourist trade cannot survive without British tourists in fairly large numbers.
A lot of the members are early/recent retirees, who like to go South for the winter, or at least a couple of weeks. Although we once met a couple who'd booked three places, one after the other, to spend three months in the warm! Retired bus driver, IIRC!
It's very expensive - prices way above the norm in our area - we use a restaurant just outside the complex and I've met many of them. Tourists on the bread line they are not. Either way - once the Covid restrictions are eased they will be back - regardless of Brexit. If not it'll go bust which would be hard on the local economy and the reason why Spain will ease the path for British tourism.
Yes, the rich will always have freedom of movement in practice, if not in law. Money to pay for visas, insurances and agents fees helps a great deal. Perhaps global warming will make Skegness more appealing to the rest.
Really - is that what we call informed political comment these days - fat shaming and undertones of xenophobia?
BoZo could get a suit that fits and a hairbrush. He is a national embarrassment.
Indeed - someone who lies so frequently to the British people and with such abandon demonstrates total contempt for them. The fact he deliberately chooses to dress like a tramp is the icing on the cake.
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
We have one of their places a mile from where I live near Mojacar in SE Spain. Been effectively closed all year due to Covid. You really need to be pretty well heeled as it is very upmarket - I'd be surprised if many members will struggle for the few further months of Covid restrictions. I'd also expect Spain to be one of the first countries to ease the passage for tourists back into the country post Covid. The country's tourist trade cannot survive without British tourists in fairly large numbers.
A lot of the members are early/recent retirees, who like to go South for the winter, or at least a couple of weeks. Although we once met a couple who'd booked three places, one after the other, to spend three months in the warm! Retired bus driver, IIRC!
It's very expensive - prices way above the norm in our area - we use a restaurant just outside the complex and I've met many of them. Tourists on the bread line they are not. Either way - once the Covid restrictions are eased they will be back - regardless of Brexit. If not it'll go bust which would be hard on the local economy and the reason why Spain will ease the path for British tourism.
There will be big insurance premium rises to deal with for all UK travellers to the EU as from next year. For the elderly, the costs could become prohibitive.
Then Spain will suffer - as ever it takes to - in this case - not tango.
It's hardly surprising that Johnson getting officially involved in the talks has made no difference, given that all previous evidence suggests that he understands almost none of the issues, and certainly not at a sufficient level of detail to make him any help whatsoever.
All he does is deal in broad brush slogans, which can only be any good for advancing general positions for use in political sloganising and campaigns, and absolutely useless for the nitty gritty of trade negotiations where the devil is (or always should be) in the detail, especially where there is a need to find paths between apparently irreconcilable positions.
Imagine, for one hypothetical moment, that there was some magical deal that emerged over the next few days. Does anyone seriously think that it wouldn't fall apart in ten minutes once anybody actually explained to him what he had agreed, and his backbenchers started sounding off about it?
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
I am surprised that yesterday Cunard cancelled almost all of its May 2021 cruises, so far ahead. We can reasonably expect most of their demographic in both the UK and US to be vaccinated by then.
Yes. But their crew won’t be.
Question: at what point in the vaccine program, is it going to be considered ethical by the media for them to be available privately? The context being international business travellers and those working in hospitality.
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
We have one of their places a mile from where I live near Mojacar in SE Spain. Been effectively closed all year due to Covid. You really need to be pretty well heeled as it is very upmarket - I'd be surprised if many members will struggle for the few further months of Covid restrictions. I'd also expect Spain to be one of the first countries to ease the passage for tourists back into the country post Covid. The country's tourist trade cannot survive without British tourists in fairly large numbers.
A lot of the members are early/recent retirees, who like to go South for the winter, or at least a couple of weeks. Although we once met a couple who'd booked three places, one after the other, to spend three months in the warm! Retired bus driver, IIRC!
It's very expensive - prices way above the norm in our area - we use a restaurant just outside the complex and I've met many of them. Tourists on the bread line they are not. Either way - once the Covid restrictions are eased they will be back - regardless of Brexit. If not it'll go bust which would be hard on the local economy and the reason why Spain will ease the path for British tourism.
There will be big insurance premium rises to deal with for all UK travellers to the EU as from next year. For the elderly, the costs could become prohibitive.
Then Spain will suffer - as ever it takes to - in this case - not tango.
It will get rich older Brits and slightly fewer of the rest of us. And the rest of Europe in the usual way. I can't see that being a huge issue.
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
We have one of their places a mile from where I live near Mojacar in SE Spain. Been effectively closed all year due to Covid. You really need to be pretty well heeled as it is very upmarket - I'd be surprised if many members will struggle for the few further months of Covid restrictions. I'd also expect Spain to be one of the first countries to ease the passage for tourists back into the country post Covid. The country's tourist trade cannot survive without British tourists in fairly large numbers.
A lot of the members are early/recent retirees, who like to go South for the winter, or at least a couple of weeks. Although we once met a couple who'd booked three places, one after the other, to spend three months in the warm! Retired bus driver, IIRC!
It's very expensive - prices way above the norm in our area - we use a restaurant just outside the complex and I've met many of them. Tourists on the bread line they are not. Either way - once the Covid restrictions are eased they will be back - regardless of Brexit. If not it'll go bust which would be hard on the local economy and the reason why Spain will ease the path for British tourism.
There will be big insurance premium rises to deal with for all UK travellers to the EU as from next year. For the elderly, the costs could become prohibitive.
Then Spain will suffer - as ever it takes to - in this case - not tango.
It will get rich older Brits and slightly fewer of the rest of us. And the rest of Europe in the usual way. I can't see that being a huge issue.
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
We have one of their places a mile from where I live near Mojacar in SE Spain. Been effectively closed all year due to Covid. You really need to be pretty well heeled as it is very upmarket - I'd be surprised if many members will struggle for the few further months of Covid restrictions. I'd also expect Spain to be one of the first countries to ease the passage for tourists back into the country post Covid. The country's tourist trade cannot survive without British tourists in fairly large numbers.
A lot of the members are early/recent retirees, who like to go South for the winter, or at least a couple of weeks. Although we once met a couple who'd booked three places, one after the other, to spend three months in the warm! Retired bus driver, IIRC!
It's very expensive - prices way above the norm in our area - we use a restaurant just outside the complex and I've met many of them. Tourists on the bread line they are not. Either way - once the Covid restrictions are eased they will be back - regardless of Brexit. If not it'll go bust which would be hard on the local economy and the reason why Spain will ease the path for British tourism.
There will be big insurance premium rises to deal with for all UK travellers to the EU as from next year. For the elderly, the costs could become prohibitive.
I'm not sure if this is true or not, but i heard suggestions that EHIC was going to continue for pensioners.
It's hardly surprising that Johnson getting officially involved in the talks has made no difference, given that all previous evidence suggests that he understands almost none of the issues, and certainly not at a sufficient level of detail to make him any help whatsoever.
All he does is deal in broad brush slogans, which can only be any good for advancing general positions for use in political sloganising and campaigns, and absolutely useless for the nitty gritty of trade negotiations where the devil is (or always should be) in the detail, especially where there is a need to find paths between apparently irreconcilable positions.
Imagine, for one hypothetical moment, that there was some magical deal that emerged over the next few days. Does anyone seriously think that it wouldn't fall apart in ten minutes once anybody actually explained to him what he had agreed, and his backbenchers started sounding off about it?
You do realise don't you that David Frost with him in the talks is rather involved in the nitty gritty?
I am trying to work out how BJ will spin this.....apart from blame Berlin/Paris/Brussels (delete as applicable) he will need to explain to the wider Conservative party (CBI backers, old school Tories, the city financers,) what will have gone wrong if things turn out badly - the JCB crashing through the "Get Brexit done" wall aint going to cut it and I cant see any political wins from this situation for No.10.
I have an investment in Holiday Property Bonds, a company which owns a number of holiday sites across Britain and (mainly Western) Europe. It's not timeshare, in that one can go at any time..... provided of course there is space. Members tend to be older, although of course some early members have passed on their holdings to younger people. The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
We have one of their places a mile from where I live near Mojacar in SE Spain. Been effectively closed all year due to Covid. You really need to be pretty well heeled as it is very upmarket - I'd be surprised if many members will struggle for the few further months of Covid restrictions. I'd also expect Spain to be one of the first countries to ease the passage for tourists back into the country post Covid. The country's tourist trade cannot survive without British tourists in fairly large numbers.
A lot of the members are early/recent retirees, who like to go South for the winter, or at least a couple of weeks. Although we once met a couple who'd booked three places, one after the other, to spend three months in the warm! Retired bus driver, IIRC!
It's very expensive - prices way above the norm in our area - we use a restaurant just outside the complex and I've met many of them. Tourists on the bread line they are not. Either way - once the Covid restrictions are eased they will be back - regardless of Brexit. If not it'll go bust which would be hard on the local economy and the reason why Spain will ease the path for British tourism.
There will be big insurance premium rises to deal with for all UK travellers to the EU as from next year. For the elderly, the costs could become prohibitive.
Then Spain will suffer - as ever it takes to - in this case - not tango.
Mine (AXA) have already told me that it will remain unchanged, actually this year's quote was slightly lower. Although I am admittedly not elderly.
Comments
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55254182
I'm not convinced the EU will back down, which is presumably why they think the ball is in Johnson's court.
They then claimed that the UK government imprisoned anyone who dared tell the truth about Islamic terrorism in the UK.
I suggested they tried their analytical skills here, but they didn't seem keen.
Cyberpunk seems to have taken down the Internet.
How do American judges deal with people intentionally disrupting court proceedings?
The Gov't are hinting that everyone over 55 may be given the Pfizer vaccine, which is c. 20 million people.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/281174/uk-population-by-age/
The Gov't are hinting that everyone over 55 may be given the Pfizer vaccine, which is c. 20 million people.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/281174/uk-population-by-age/
Soros behind it, perhaps ?
As for Towton, contemporary sources put the dead at around 25,000 which seems a little unlikely (to put it in context, that’s the number that died in the bombing of Dresden and 25% more than died on the first day of the Somme). And only one mass grave with 37 dead in it has ever been found.
However 3000 dead seems on the low side given that the Lancastrian army was almost completely destroyed - it took four years to form another one, and even then it was pitifully small by comparison. So given the likely size of the army ten thousand dead does not seem a ridiculous figure.
In this the Yorkists were helped by the weather - allowing them to shoot their arrows downwind shielded by snow, virtually without reply - and by the geography of the battlefield, which trapped the Lancastrians between two cliffs and a swollen brook that couldn’t be forded. Even today, you look at the site and wince at how easy it would be for an army to be trapped and annihilated there.
Trash journalism. Retweeted by Scott.
The news about not be able to go to to the Western European sites is beginning to spread alarm and despondency on the Bondholders Facebook page.
On the other hand, there may be a level of refusals, enabling the doses to be spread further down the profile - although anecdotally it seems mainly younger people who are those more likely to refuse.
Sad.
Will this have the desired effect? Its looking increasingly unlikely but its not impossible. I quite liked the unnamed diplomat's analysis quoted on the BBC. The UK is demanding the right to do things it will never do and the EU is demanding the right to stop things that the UK would not contemplate.
I do think that we are right at the point where the smart thing to do is to give up and focus on the practicalities. So we need mini agreements that will facilitate border arrangements such as Gove's NI trusted trader regime, visa free travel, mutual recognition of standards where they remain the same etc. My understanding that flight arrangements etc have already been agreed but I am not clear if that is caught up in the nothing is agreed until everything has been agreed trap. If so that will need sorted out too. Time is short.
Boris Johnson is being accused of failure....
Labour is claiming that a year after Mr Johnson promised an "oven-ready deal" he has failed to deliver what he promised...
....were billed as a make-or-break attempt to salvage a Brexit deal... failed to achieve the breakthrough hoped for by both sides
Angela Rayner tweeted: "One year after Boris Johnson promised us an oven-ready deal he has completely failed”
Ian Blackford tweeted: "A no deal would be a massive failure of diplomacy and leadership which @BorisJohnson has to take ownership of.”
There’s a small window of opportunity, with a couple of high profile TV journalists in trouble over their behaviour, for government to strong-arm the media into some semblance of responsibility.
The gold standard for a public information campaign is probably the AIDS campaign in the 1980s, I suggest we get Saachi and Saachi back to come up with something similar.
Also really important to flood Facebook - this is where the anti-vaxxers are hanging out, talking to each other. Publically shame Facebook as a company if they won’t do this for free.
Retired bus driver, IIRC!
Right.
(Not that I see the biggest failure of my life so far, as being the failure to call the bank manager and ask for a loan when they announced the retirement of Concorde. Not at all).
Johnson is a ninth-rate chancer.
The space race led to a myriad of developments that were useful but man on the moon was done to show they could do it. Once they had continuing to go there lacked any great feasible purpose.
SpaceX mean that when man returns to the moon it will be affordable and repeatable much more. Going on to Mars or building a lunar base becomes much more viable.
Okay okay I know I know ... one day when we get a ship that gets close to light speed it'll be worth it but the fact is that we're nowhere near that. Pottering around our own solar system for most people is very 'meh.' The universe is vast. So is our galaxy.
I write this by the way as a keen amateur astronomer. I'd rather see the investment going into telescopes. I have next to zero interest in Elon Musk's latest venture.
Fifty years later, a wealthy individual looks likely to be able to achieve the same thing.
What was once the preserve of governments has become the preseve of the rich, and in time will be common place.
Presumably it’s still full of asbestos today?
All he does is deal in broad brush slogans, which can only be any good for advancing general positions for use in political sloganising and campaigns, and absolutely useless for the nitty gritty of trade negotiations where the devil is (or always should be) in the detail, especially where there is a need to find paths between apparently irreconcilable positions.
Imagine, for one hypothetical moment, that there was some magical deal that emerged over the next few days. Does anyone seriously think that it wouldn't fall apart in ten minutes once anybody actually explained to him what he had agreed, and his backbenchers started sounding off about it?
Johnson quoted £60mn at the cost of refitting it. The EU spent £625mn.
Maybe that’s why we voted to leave.
A bit more than his backbenchers are.