And so, the end is near. The final day of a memorable year. My movers and shakers -
Worst moment: Nov 4th. Early hours. The incumbent wins Florida, Texas, Ohio, all easily. I crawl off to bed thinking I’m £3k down, Donald J Trump is not Toast but POTUS for another 4 years. The world is sick and fucked up beyond redemption and I have lost all cred on PB, having blogged ad nausea that this was a Not Happening Event.
Best moment: Nov 4th. Late morning. The big switcheroo. The postman delivers. It’s a lagged Blue Wave and all is well. Trump IS Toast. I’m UP £3k. Let there be light. The world is a fine and dandy place and I can show my face again, kitted out with suitably wise and mellow expression.
Bubbling under worst moment: Couple of weeks ago, Health Sec on the Marr show, usual open-book cheeriness replaced by a demeanour one could only describe as lugubrious, telling me that “The Mutant Variant Is Out Of Control”, words that would be thrilling coming from somebody like Denzil Washington in a sci-fi film but are not what you want to hear from Matt Hancock on a Sunday morning. Bloody hell! Stomach lurched at my end.
Bubbling under best moment: My birthday. Fell right in the middle of the summer respite. Couple of pints in a Cornish pub then fish & chips unplugged, from the wrapping, stood up next to a convenient shelf, gazing out to sea. A close to perfect 15 minutes.
Anyway, c’est tout, and I will do a donation, of course I will. Time I’ve spent on here. C’mon.
Wishing all PBers a very HNY21. It’s going to be great.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
I suppose Jeremy Thorpe was a bit early for you. And Antony Wedgewood/Tony Benn
I'm told that Farage, in his trader days, used to make new members of staff sing Jerusalem or some such 'patriotic' ditty.
Obviously peerages are an obscenity and anybody who has one should get the Qaddafi treatment from a baying mob but...
If Farage doesn't get one then the whole thing is meaningless as well as iniquitous. He is, by some distance, the most effective British politician of the past two decades.
But Farage didn't deliver Brexit. Couldn't have delivered Brexit. Too many would not have voted for a Brexit where he was the figurehead. Myself amongst them.
The person that made Brexit viable was not Farage, but Boris Johnson.
Its chicken and egg, without Farage Bozos path to the top wouldnt have been Brexit.
I don't think that he would have had much difficulty in coming up with something else. Despite a deliberate policy of not appearing so he is a very clever chap and seriously good at this politics stuff.
Good at half of it, campaigning. Shit at half of it, governing. But yes, he had ambitions for the top job before Brexit was an issue and would have eventually been a strong contender at some point regardless.
Those saying he is shit at governing seem to do so largely from the perspective of hating what he is doing.
In 18 months I think from my perspective (and I know I'm in a minority) he's been better at governing than any predecessor in decades. He's clearly infinitely better than May at governing.
On Brexit his predecessor failed objectively to get a deal she could get through Parliament. Boris has managed to get not one but now two that he has been able to agree with our neighbours and get through Parliament. That is powerful governance in action.
On Covid its fair to say mistakes were made especially in the first wave. The UK was rather caught with its pants down not realising until too late how serious Covid was. But in the second half of the year the governance has gotten much better, the excess death rates in the UK in the second wave are below most of our neighbours and the UK is leading the continent and one of the best in the world on vaccinations.
On the economy putting Sunak in charge of the Treasury and leaving him alone to get on with it has been a masterstroke.
On international trade Truss has done wonders this year doing the basics Liam Fox should have tackled years ago, while teeing up future negotiations.
The failures during covid would almost certainly have happened whoever was in charge.
PPE would have been in short supply initially No UK politicians would have closed the borders The NHS would still have sent patients back to care homes Ignoring regulations and fat slobbery would still have been endemic
What the government did manage to do was get large scale testing in place and vaccines ordered.
One of the government's biggest mistakes was not locking down a week earlier in March due, presumably, to worries about the effect on the economy. This mistake was then repeated in September.
I think a Labour government would have been quicker to lock down and more cautious generally - they would have been less likely to be swayed by business arguments. This would ultimately have led to a better outcome.
Other than on that, and perhaps schools policy, I don't think the government has done so badly. The vaccine procurement programme seems to have been a particular success.
I've met both John Major and Boris and found Major far more attractive and charming.
The only two politicians of any moment I've ever met were ACL Blair and GW Bush. Blair was excruciatingly uncomfortable around military types so we never really got to see his famous Fuhrerkontakt in action. Bush was a good laugh in a very natural way and I would have liked to have gone mountain biking with him and Lance at his ranch in Texas.
John Major is the only uncharismatic clear election winner in the past 40 years (I don't count May as a clear election winner).
John Major was alright.
Charisma is such a subjective thing . For instance most people believe it is something akin to being slightly show -offy and slightly bossy. Others think it is somebody who is extroverted and jolly. Most people think they are personally charismatic . I don't think John Major was lacking in this mysterious virtue - he certainly had a colourful early life and could converse very easily with all people (probably what won him the largest number of votes for years)
Do most people think they are charismatic? I would be surprised.
I think too that there can be a lot of retrospective judgement on these things.
John Major in 1992 was seen as a fresh face of normality who listened to people. This was a sharp contrast to the high handed arrogant autocracy of 3rd term Maggie, with her Poll Tax etc. Charisma is relative, and by 1990 become negative for Maggie, hence the defenestration by her own party. By 1997 John Major was seen as dull, and no longer in control of events.
I am not sure Maggie scored well for charisma prior to 1979 either, and Sunny Jim Callaghan was ahead of her. Possibly that changed by May '79, but if so, was it events that changed perceptions of her rather than charisma? Indeed I remember a Tory voting uncle ranting about her in the late Seventies, and how he would emigrate if she won. His objection was to having a female PM, rather than her politics.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
Stuff takes longer to happen than you think it will.
2023 is value.
I don't expect an Independence Referendum during this Parliament. The calling of such a binding vote is Ultra Vires re- Holyrood- and election pledges made by parties seeking election to that body are neither here nor there.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
Homeopathic Neil. Stephen Kinnock seems to have shut up recently, wasn't there a period when he was seen as the great white hope for reuniting Brexit riven England (and Wales)? Maybe it was just all part of the speculative guff leading up to the Lab leadership election.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
His speech about Militant in 1985 is probably the best speech I have heard by a UK politician in my lifetime. I liked his "thousand generations" one too.
Personally, I think Tony Benn was a better speaker than his son.
I've broken the habit of a lifetime and donated to a website to keep it going. I mostly just lurk nowadays as life gets in the way, but keep up the good work and may your pizza always be topped with pineapple.
I hope your wife is well?
Yes, thank you. She is wonderfully, beautifully, exceptionally well. Lockdown has actually been very good for her. She managed 2 days back at work before her school furloughed her and so she has been able to have a much longer recovery and focus on herself-I'm now married to a vegan, teetotal yoga/pilates/gym bunny- but that has made me fitter and healthier too. Things are all heading in the right direction, with her latest scan clear. She has had a couple of reconstruction operations cancelled due to covid pressures, and we expect the rescheduled one in February to also be cancelled but if that's the only thing we have to complain about, we'll take that! I hope the new year brings us all relief from this damned virus, and all our children can get back into work!
That’s great news. BTW, I managed to give you a fat fingered off topic, before a like. Apologies.
On topic ... I'm surprised there are no free marketeers willing to cross swords with OGH and advance the merits of advertising. Conversely, if disdain for advertising is the only thing that unites us all, how does anyone make money out of it?
I'd say that for blogs advertising is the bottom of the pile in terms of disturbance vs revenue.
Sponsorship is far better, but if the donation model will work so much the that's even better.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
My hopes for the new year is that now a deal is signed we will have less verbal warfare here, less talk of brexit and far more talk of other events as they happen.
I've broken the habit of a lifetime and donated to a website to keep it going. I mostly just lurk nowadays as life gets in the way, but keep up the good work and may your pizza always be topped with pineapple.
I hope your wife is well?
Yes, thank you. She is wonderfully, beautifully, exceptionally well. Lockdown has actually been very good for her. She managed 2 days back at work before her school furloughed her and so she has been able to have a much longer recovery and focus on herself-I'm now married to a vegan, teetotal yoga/pilates/gym bunny- but that has made me fitter and healthier too. Things are all heading in the right direction, with her latest scan clear. She has had a couple of reconstruction operations cancelled due to covid pressures, and we expect the rescheduled one in February to also be cancelled but if that's the only thing we have to complain about, we'll take that! I hope the new year brings us all relief from this damned virus, and all our children can get back into work!
I'm told that Farage, in his trader days, used to make new members of staff sing Jerusalem or some such 'patriotic' ditty.
Obviously peerages are an obscenity and anybody who has one should get the Qaddafi treatment from a baying mob but...
If Farage doesn't get one then the whole thing is meaningless as well as iniquitous. He is, by some distance, the most effective British politician of the past two decades.
But Farage didn't deliver Brexit. Couldn't have delivered Brexit. Too many would not have voted for a Brexit where he was the figurehead. Myself amongst them.
The person that made Brexit viable was not Farage, but Boris Johnson.
Its chicken and egg, without Farage Bozos path to the top wouldnt have been Brexit.
I don't think that he would have had much difficulty in coming up with something else. Despite a deliberate policy of not appearing so he is a very clever chap and seriously good at this politics stuff.
Good at half of it, campaigning. Shit at half of it, governing. But yes, he had ambitions for the top job before Brexit was an issue and would have eventually been a strong contender at some point regardless.
Those saying he is shit at governing seem to do so largely from the perspective of hating what he is doing.
In 18 months I think from my perspective (and I know I'm in a minority) he's been better at governing than any predecessor in decades. He's clearly infinitely better than May at governing.
On Brexit his predecessor failed objectively to get a deal she could get through Parliament. Boris has managed to get not one but now two that he has been able to agree with our neighbours and get through Parliament. That is powerful governance in action.
On Covid its fair to say mistakes were made especially in the first wave. The UK was rather caught with its pants down not realising until too late how serious Covid was. But in the second half of the year the governance has gotten much better, the excess death rates in the UK in the second wave are below most of our neighbours and the UK is leading the continent and one of the best in the world on vaccinations.
On the economy putting Sunak in charge of the Treasury and leaving him alone to get on with it has been a masterstroke.
On international trade Truss has done wonders this year doing the basics Liam Fox should have tackled years ago, while teeing up future negotiations.
The failures during covid would almost certainly have happened whoever was in charge.
PPE would have been in short supply initially No UK politicians would have closed the borders The NHS would still have sent patients back to care homes Ignoring regulations and fat slobbery would still have been endemic
What the government did manage to do was get large scale testing in place and vaccines ordered.
One of the government's biggest mistakes was not locking down a week earlier in March due, presumably, to worries about the effect on the economy. This mistake was then repeated in September.
I think a Labour government would have been quicker to lock down and more cautious generally - they would have been less likely to be swayed by business arguments. This would ultimately have led to a better outcome.
Other than on that, and perhaps schools policy, I don't think the government has done so badly. The vaccine procurement programme seems to have been a particular success.
We've seen that European countries which were almost untouched in the spring have been hammered in the autumn.
So I suspect an earlier lockdown in March would have merely shifted the deaths to later in the year and possibly made things worse overall.
Lockdowns follow the law of diminishing returns so I suspect that one in September would have had little effect.
I would say though that the government should have brought all of the country into tier 3 before the November restrictions - that would have made it easier to put the country back into tier 3 in December.
I agree with his conclusion that, while the clinical trials for the vaccine have been a hot mess, at a minimum they have delivered a cheap and fairly effective vaccine - and that it’s also quite possible that the longer booster interval might make it as effective as the mRNA vaccines,
Possibly due to subsiding vector immunity over the longer period of time. The HD/FD version probably has a similar effect that the HD doesn't produce a strong immune response to the vector allowing the FD to work properly and get a strong immune response to the active vaccine.
If there's strong evidence that the 12 week gap makes sense for AZ then it would probably be worth doing it. In an immunological sense the longer gap makes sense to me, but then I'm chemistry and pharmacology, not biology. It also gives the government breathing room to get many, many millions of first jabs done from now to March and allow for manufacturing to ramp up a bit more. The only downside is that clearly one jab doesn't proffer a very strong immune response so even if we're able to do 30m first jabs we might not see a big drop in the hospitalisation rate.
70% immunity for 30m people should have a mammoth impact on hospitalisation rates shouldn't it?
On a collective basis it does the most for helping hospitalisation surely? Though on an individual basis people are more at risk, collectively the communal protection should be greater I would have thought?
Plus if it does stop asymptomatic spread and not just hospitalisations then it should massive reduce R as more people are immune. Though we won't know that for a while.
That 70% figure hasn't been properly verified so I wouldn't want to use it for anything.
Just a reminder of my earlier betting tip which I fully accept goes into the faintly ridiculous category ...
Jon Ossoff for 2024 Presidency at 250/1 with Ladbrokes if you boost it.
I'd have been happier at 1000/1 but they clearly see what I do: a highly effective orator with a turn of phrase and pretty devastating debating skills.
Doesn't mean he will even get into the Senate next week. I'm on at 3/1 for that and not particularly confident.
TBH that seems like a reasonable punt. It assumes: 1. Ossoff wins the seat. Plausible 2. Ossoff is as good as he has come across so far 3. Harris isn't a shoo-in for the 2024 nomination
Could happen!
I can't see it myself. Possibly 2028.
The presidential campaign begins in 2 years time, albeit with the primaries in 3.
On topic ... I'm surprised there are no free marketeers willing to cross swords with OGH and advance the merits of advertising. Conversely, if disdain for advertising is the only thing that unites us all, how does anyone make money out of it?
I'd say that for blogs advertising is the bottom of the pile in terms of disturbance vs revenue.
Sponsorship is far better, but if the donation model will work so much the that's even better.
Lots more options available now, though.
I'm all in favour of advertising - the banners have never bothered me, but I mostly post on Vanilla and only hop on to the main site to read the headers (and of those not all) so I'm not really contributing any revenue that way.
A solution that lies between ad revenue and donations might be for PB to get an Amazon partner (or whatever they are) account, and produce a link to Amazon, and periodically ask us to use that link to shop on Amazon (around Christmas time would work) and get commission? I am pretty sure that works. It would be for shopping we already wanted, so the donation would be courtesy of Amazon.
Just a reminder of my earlier betting tip which I fully accept goes into the faintly ridiculous category ...
Jon Ossoff for 2024 Presidency at 250/1 with Ladbrokes if you boost it.
I'd have been happier at 1000/1 but they clearly see what I do: a highly effective orator with a turn of phrase and pretty devastating debating skills.
Doesn't mean he will even get into the Senate next week. I'm on at 3/1 for that and not particularly confident.
TBH that seems like a reasonable punt. It assumes: 1. Ossoff wins the seat. Plausible 2. Ossoff is as good as he has come across so far 3. Harris isn't a shoo-in for the 2024 nomination
Could happen!
I can't see it myself. Possibly 2028.
The presidential campaign begins in 2 years time, albeit with the primaries in 3.
At 1000/1 I’d be interested - and looking then to lay at 250/1.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
Indeed - though Churchill always relied on detailed notes when delivering his speeches.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Shocked that you have not troubled to read it, perhaps.
"The complaint that the programme represented Mr Cummings as “a liar who grossly misrepresented statistics in order to further his political aims” related to a section of the programme which discussed his work for Business for Sterling" was not upheld.
Sure, some aspects of the complaint were upheld. If you want to embrace that as an overall win, knock yourself out. And note that this all dates from March, before the whole Dom Dom Heads North episode and the whole sexist bully thing came to light. What a hero.
On topic ... I'm surprised there are no free marketeers willing to cross swords with OGH and advance the merits of advertising. Conversely, if disdain for advertising is the only thing that unites us all, how does anyone make money out of it?
It’s possible to click on ads by accident.
And it’s bloody annoying.
It's more than a passing nuisance. Once upon a time I must inadvertently have clicked onto an advert for ladies' underwear. A not-so-clever algorithm has now decided that it's the one product in all the world that I'm really interested in buying (in spite of its evident lack of thermal insulation).
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
Daughter had been expecting it. She has been watching the case figures like a hawk for months.
The problem is in North East Cumbria - Penrith and Carlisle and the Eden valley especially. Round here cases are still very low. It takes a good 2 and a half hours to get to Penrith and Carlisle from here. Manchester is closer. People think of Cumbria as one area but forget the geography and that population density and ease of movement are very different to what it is in other parts of the country.
But it is what it is. The focus needs to be on supporting businesses through this. The government seems to have gone silent on this. This is their biggest failing. It will be the government's deliberate inaction which will cause significant business failures, especially in parts of the country which they claim to want to "level up". That phrase is already a sick joke round here judging by the chatter in the pub. It's not just hospitality and tourism - in the widest sense - but agriculture too. And all the other businesses dependant on these. The government simply has no idea.
Daughter is now looking forward to her meeting with the local Tory MP (and the PM's PPS). She is very well prepared.
I agree with his conclusion that, while the clinical trials for the vaccine have been a hot mess, at a minimum they have delivered a cheap and fairly effective vaccine - and that it’s also quite possible that the longer booster interval might make it as effective as the mRNA vaccines,
Possibly due to subsiding vector immunity over the longer period of time. The HD/FD version probably has a similar effect that the HD doesn't produce a strong immune response to the vector allowing the FD to work properly and get a strong immune response to the active vaccine.
If there's strong evidence that the 12 week gap makes sense for AZ then it would probably be worth doing it. In an immunological sense the longer gap makes sense to me, but then I'm chemistry and pharmacology, not biology. It also gives the government breathing room to get many, many millions of first jabs done from now to March and allow for manufacturing to ramp up a bit more. The only downside is that clearly one jab doesn't proffer a very strong immune response so even if we're able to do 30m first jabs we might not see a big drop in the hospitalisation rate.
I think the HD/FD bit of the trial also had a delay in giving the booster as a confounding factor, so it’s possible/likely the effectiveness was down to that rather than the first lower dose.
Given the very high rates of current infection, prioritising immunising as many people as quickly as possible seems a sensible gamble. For countries with low rates of infection, it probably wouldn’t be - particularly as they can wait to see our data.
I agree with his conclusion that, while the clinical trials for the vaccine have been a hot mess, at a minimum they have delivered a cheap and fairly effective vaccine - and that it’s also quite possible that the longer booster interval might make it as effective as the mRNA vaccines,
Possibly due to subsiding vector immunity over the longer period of time. The HD/FD version probably has a similar effect that the HD doesn't produce a strong immune response to the vector allowing the FD to work properly and get a strong immune response to the active vaccine.
If there's strong evidence that the 12 week gap makes sense for AZ then it would probably be worth doing it. In an immunological sense the longer gap makes sense to me, but then I'm chemistry and pharmacology, not biology. It also gives the government breathing room to get many, many millions of first jabs done from now to March and allow for manufacturing to ramp up a bit more. The only downside is that clearly one jab doesn't proffer a very strong immune response so even if we're able to do 30m first jabs we might not see a big drop in the hospitalisation rate.
70% immunity for 30m people should have a mammoth impact on hospitalisation rates shouldn't it?
On a collective basis it does the most for helping hospitalisation surely? Though on an individual basis people are more at risk, collectively the communal protection should be greater I would have thought?
Plus if it does stop asymptomatic spread and not just hospitalisations then it should massive reduce R as more people are immune. Though we won't know that for a while.
That 70% figure hasn't been properly verified so I wouldn't want to use it for anything.
Isn't the MHRA literally the people whose responsibility it is to do proper verification?
If the MHRA say 70% then that seems reasonable to believe. I take their word at face value, do we have a reason not to do so?
On topic ... I'm surprised there are no free marketeers willing to cross swords with OGH and advance the merits of advertising. Conversely, if disdain for advertising is the only thing that unites us all, how does anyone make money out of it?
I'd say that for blogs advertising is the bottom of the pile in terms of disturbance vs revenue.
Sponsorship is far better, but if the donation model will work so much the that's even better.
Lots more options available now, though.
I'm all in favour of advertising - the banners have never bothered me, but I mostly post on Vanilla and only hop on to the main site to read the headers (and of those not all) so I'm not really contributing any revenue that way.
A solution that lies between ad revenue and donations might be for PB to get an Amazon partner (or whatever they are) account, and produce a link to Amazon, and periodically ask us to use that link to shop on Amazon (around Christmas time would work) and get commission? I am pretty sure that works. It would be for shopping we already wanted, so the donation would be courtesy of Amazon.
Hm. I would not visit here if the site was, effectively, sponsored by Amazon. Anyway, hopefully all our donations will preclude any such possibility (which I'm sure wouldn't interest the host anyway).
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
That's true. His Labour conference assault on Militant was one of the great speeches of my lifetime.
He tends to be judged through the prism of the excruciating Sheffield moment.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
Shocked that you have not troubled to read it, perhaps.
"The complaint that the programme represented Mr Cummings as “a liar who grossly misrepresented statistics in order to further his political aims” related to a section of the programme which discussed his work for Business for Sterling" was not upheld.
Sure, some aspects of the complaint were upheld. If you want to embrace that as an overall win, knock yourself out. And note that this all dates from March, before the whole Dom Dom Heads North episode and the whole sexist bully thing came to light. What a hero.
Looks as though they have said he's violent and dishonest, but not Islamophic or racist.
Which, to be truthful, even I have never thought he was, so it was bizarre to suggest he might be.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
His speech about Militant in 1985 is probably the best speech I have heard by a UK politician in my lifetime. I liked his "thousand generations" one too.
I thought the thousand generations one rubbish. Either nonsense or innumerate, if you think about it.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
His speech about Militant in 1985 is probably the best speech I have heard by a UK politician in my lifetime. I liked his "thousand generations" one too.
Personally, I think Tony Benn was a better speaker than his son.
Just saw this. And whilst I don't agree about the Benns I do agree about that Militant speech. It was outstanding. And very courageous.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
That's true. His Labour conference assault on Militant was one of the great speeches of my lifetime.
He tends to be judged through the prism of the excruciating Sheffield moment.
True - Another thing I always remember is him stumbling at the beach.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
That's true. His Labour conference assault on Militant was one of the great speeches of my lifetime.
He tends to be judged through the prism of the excruciating Sheffield moment.
True - Another thing I always remember is him stumbling at the beach.
Shocked that you have not troubled to read it, perhaps.
"The complaint that the programme represented Mr Cummings as “a liar who grossly misrepresented statistics in order to further his political aims” related to a section of the programme which discussed his work for Business for Sterling" was not upheld.
Sure, some aspects of the complaint were upheld. If you want to embrace that as an overall win, knock yourself out. And note that this all dates from March, before the whole Dom Dom Heads North episode and the whole sexist bully thing came to light. What a hero.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
His speech about Militant in 1985 is probably the best speech I have heard by a UK politician in my lifetime. I liked his "thousand generations" one too.
I thought the thousand generations one rubbish. Either nonsense or innumerate, if you think about it.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
I agree with his conclusion that, while the clinical trials for the vaccine have been a hot mess, at a minimum they have delivered a cheap and fairly effective vaccine - and that it’s also quite possible that the longer booster interval might make it as effective as the mRNA vaccines,
Possibly due to subsiding vector immunity over the longer period of time. The HD/FD version probably has a similar effect that the HD doesn't produce a strong immune response to the vector allowing the FD to work properly and get a strong immune response to the active vaccine.
If there's strong evidence that the 12 week gap makes sense for AZ then it would probably be worth doing it. In an immunological sense the longer gap makes sense to me, but then I'm chemistry and pharmacology, not biology. It also gives the government breathing room to get many, many millions of first jabs done from now to March and allow for manufacturing to ramp up a bit more. The only downside is that clearly one jab doesn't proffer a very strong immune response so even if we're able to do 30m first jabs we might not see a big drop in the hospitalisation rate.
I think the HD/FD bit of the trial also had a delay in giving the booster as a confounding factor, so it’s possible/likely the effectiveness was down to that rather than the first lower dose.
Given the very high rates of current infection, prioritising immunising as many people as quickly as possible seems a sensible gamble. For countries with low rates of infection, it probably wouldn’t be - particularly as they can wait to see our data.
Yes, it could be a combination of both for the HD/FD trial. If AZ wanted to test all of these variables the trial size needed to be much bigger, the CI on all of these different trials must be terrible, especially when it's drilled down to different age ranges or ethnicities.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
I believe this has been debunked....Hancock wasn't clear, AZN say they have made 4 million and can do another 15 million in days. 500k is the first batch thay have been accredited, 3.5 million are sitting waiting to be signed off.
On topic ... I'm surprised there are no free marketeers willing to cross swords with OGH and advance the merits of advertising. Conversely, if disdain for advertising is the only thing that unites us all, how does anyone make money out of it?
The problem is that internet advertising has become increasingly obnoxious (autoplaying video, with sound, when on a mobile connection, WTF?), that adblocking has gone mainstream.
The only way news websites get away from this, is either subscriptions or hosting their own ads, from their own domains, without all the third-party tracking and analytics from Google and Facebook that they have grown to love so much - but are hated by their audience.
If I were advising OGH, I would suggest keeping the donate button, and getting some sponsored 'advertorial' posts from bookmakers highlighting their good odds on political markets at appropriate times.
Shocked that you have not troubled to read it, perhaps.
"The complaint that the programme represented Mr Cummings as “a liar who grossly misrepresented statistics in order to further his political aims” related to a section of the programme which discussed his work for Business for Sterling" was not upheld.
Sure, some aspects of the complaint were upheld. If you want to embrace that as an overall win, knock yourself out. And note that this all dates from March, before the whole Dom Dom Heads North episode and the whole sexist bully thing came to light. What a hero.
Presumably the programme was also before it the whole 'Dom rewrites sections of his blog to make himself look prescient' episode came to light.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
That's true. His Labour conference assault on Militant was one of the great speeches of my lifetime.
He tends to be judged through the prism of the excruciating Sheffield moment.
True - Another thing I always remember is him stumbling at the beach.
Haha that was so bad!
We've talked about charisma but gravitas must be every bit as important. Kinnock didn't have it, at least by the time the tabloids had set to work Nor did EdM. The bacon sarnie finished him off.
It would be quite funny (for us) this NYE to recall single moments which finished off a politician's aspirations.
On topic ... I'm surprised there are no free marketeers willing to cross swords with OGH and advance the merits of advertising. Conversely, if disdain for advertising is the only thing that unites us all, how does anyone make money out of it?
The problem is that internet advertising has become increasingly obnoxious (autoplaying video, with sound, when on a mobile connection, WTF?), that adblocking has gone mainstream.
The only way news websites get away from this, is either subscriptions or hosting their own ads, from their own domains, without all the third-party tracking and analytics from Google and Facebook that they have grown to love so much - but are hated by their audience.
If I were advising OGH, I would suggest keeping the donate button, and getting some sponsored 'advertorial' posts from bookmakers highlighting their good odds on political markets at appropriate times.
I love The Athletic approach with no ads and top quality content. If they can make it work long term, still to be determined.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The government should honestly be looking to do 19m first doses by the end of January if this is the case. To quote Rishi from earlier this year "do whatever it takes" to see it through. This 2m per week idea is just awful and it's going to take a whole year to get everyone jabbed twice. We need to be doing 5-7m per week. The lack of ambition by the people in charge is lamentable.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The government should honestly be looking to do 19m first doses by the end of January if this is the case. To quote Rishi from earlier this year "do whatever it takes" to see it through. This 2m per week idea is just awful and it's going to take a whole year to get everyone jabbed twice. We need to be doing 5-7m per week. The lack of ambition by the people in charge is lamentable.
I'm hoping it is a rare case of underpromising and overdelivering.
This country has shown it can scale up when needed. The 100k tests a day was laughed at when it was announced and we were doing 5k - its now 500k. A million a week was announced a few weeks ago, now talk of 2 million a week. Hopefully before long 7m a week is reality.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
Indeed - though Churchill always relied on detailed notes when delivering his speeches.
I do talks and speeches. (Well I did before Covid.😡 And hope to again.) Good ones too.
You need to prepare and know what you are going to say but reading is death to a speech. For them to work there needs to be some extemporising, some element of danger, some communication between speaker and audience beyond the actual speech. The best speakers read their audience, respond to them, adjust what they are saying as they go along as they gauge the reaction. There is a dialogue. Not literal but it is there. A talk has an element of performance about it. I would often walk onto a stage and not know what my first words would be and then they would come to me as I stood there.
I appreciate that politicians and others feel the need to write everything down in case they put a word out of place. But it deadens the talk. Not least because so many forget to make eye contact with people in the audience. The skill I suppose is to make something prepared feel alive and as if it is personal between you and each person listening.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
His speech about Militant in 1985 is probably the best speech I have heard by a UK politician in my lifetime. I liked his "thousand generations" one too.
I thought the thousand generations one rubbish. Either nonsense or innumerate, if you think about it.
It was certainly innumerate but as an explanation as to how opportunity was good for society as well as the individual it spoke to me. (Disclosure, I was the first of my family ever to go to University myself).
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The government should honestly be looking to do 19m first doses by the end of January if this is the case. To quote Rishi from earlier this year "do whatever it takes" to see it through. This 2m per week idea is just awful and it's going to take a whole year to get everyone jabbed twice. We need to be doing 5-7m per week. The lack of ambition by the people in charge is lamentable.
I'm hoping it is a rare case of underpromising and overdelivering.
This country has shown it can scale up when needed. The 100k tests a day was laughed at when it was announced and we were doing 5k - its now 500k. A million a week was announced a few weeks ago, now talk of 2 million a week. Hopefully before long 7m a week is reality.
After a year of disappointment from Hancock and Boris I'm inclined to believe they won't get to 2m.
Best political speech. It has to be Reg Keys, the father of Lance Corporal Tom Keys, speaking after the declaration at Sedgefield in the General Election of 2005.
The camera cut to Blair. We saw his slabbed face and haunted eyes, as he listened expressionless to a former Labour voter, the father of the man his actions had killed.
It is one of the very few times in my life when a politician has been directly & publicly confronted by a victim of the terrible consequences of his actions.
It had something close to the tension of the very best theatre.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
Indeed - though Churchill always relied on detailed notes when delivering his speeches.
I do talks and speeches. (Well I did before Covid.😡 And hope to again.) Good ones too.
You need to prepare and know what you are going to say but reading is death to a speech. For them to work there needs to be some extemporising, some element of danger, some communication between speaker and audience beyond the actual speech. The best speakers read their audience, respond to them, adjust what they are saying as they go along as they gauge the reaction. There is a dialogue. Not literal but it is there. A talk has an element of performance about it. I would often walk onto a stage and not know what my first words would be and then they would come to me as I stood there.
I appreciate that politicians and others feel the need to write everything down in case they put a word out of place. But it deadens the talk. Not least because so many forget to make eye contact with people in the audience. The skill I suppose is to make something prepared feel alive and as if it is personal between you and each person listening.
And in the Commons Enoch Powell would famously speak with immaculate grammar and no notes. Michael Foot was also brilliant in the chamber. They were the two speakers of their time in whose presence the chamber would fall silent.
Very good points about speaking. I've done a fair bit in my time. I'm going to say something arrogant for a moment: I know I can have an audience in the palm of my hand within 60 seconds. The metaphorical pin drop.
It's why I seldom now speak in public. It's dangerous. I'm dangerous.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock was good in small doses.
His speech about Militant in 1985 is probably the best speech I have heard by a UK politician in my lifetime. I liked his "thousand generations" one too.
I thought the thousand generations one rubbish. Either nonsense or innumerate, if you think about it.
It was certainly innumerate but as an explanation as to how opportunity was good for society as well as the individual it spoke to me. (Disclosure, I was the first of my family ever to go to University myself).
Whilst I agree about Kinnock's speech, he obviously didn't write it himself.
It is his speech writer who deserves the real credit.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The government should honestly be looking to do 19m first doses by the end of January if this is the case. To quote Rishi from earlier this year "do whatever it takes" to see it through. This 2m per week idea is just awful and it's going to take a whole year to get everyone jabbed twice. We need to be doing 5-7m per week. The lack of ambition by the people in charge is lamentable.
I'm hoping it is a rare case of underpromising and overdelivering.
This country has shown it can scale up when needed. The 100k tests a day was laughed at when it was announced and we were doing 5k - its now 500k. A million a week was announced a few weeks ago, now talk of 2 million a week. Hopefully before long 7m a week is reality.
After a year of disappointment from Hancock and Boris I'm inclined to believe they won't get to 2m.
To be fair, once the got the man from delmonte onboard they did get the testing capacity right up fairly quickly...then sent him back to the day job and took the foot off the gas.
They need a similar approach for vaccinations. Throw everything at it, no let up.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The government should honestly be looking to do 19m first doses by the end of January if this is the case. To quote Rishi from earlier this year "do whatever it takes" to see it through. This 2m per week idea is just awful and it's going to take a whole year to get everyone jabbed twice. We need to be doing 5-7m per week. The lack of ambition by the people in charge is lamentable.
I'm hoping it is a rare case of underpromising and overdelivering.
This country has shown it can scale up when needed. The 100k tests a day was laughed at when it was announced and we were doing 5k - its now 500k. A million a week was announced a few weeks ago, now talk of 2 million a week. Hopefully before long 7m a week is reality.
After a year of disappointment from Hancock and Boris I'm inclined to believe they won't get to 2m.
I'm hopeful 2m will be like 100k earlier this year. We get to it, but don't stop there and keep going. Want we don't need is to rest on our laurels, once get to 2m the next step should be 3m then 4m.
The most charismatic politician I ever met was Jo Grimond - and he could make a good speech. Paddy Ashdown also had it. Alec Douglas-Hume was better in real life than his TV image.
Donated - I find the headers relentlessly one-sided but the site is overall way better than most other media options for information and political gossip. You have to take the rough with the smooth.
I have written a few. Mike and TSE welcome headers as contributions as well financial ones, particularly when there is a betting angle.
Yes, if you mention that, upon scrutiny, the polling for a Leader shows they might not catch the public's imagination, its worth a thread...
Yes, I have never been a Starmer fan, and think it very likely that he will be challenged, possibly even this year.
If Labour just support government policy, what is the point? And he is fabulously dull and wooden. My money is on Rayner, but I have always had a soft spot for the flame haired firebrand!
Personally I think Jess Phillips mixes the passion of the Corbynites with the policies of the Blairites best. 50/1 monster monster!
Jess would definitely get my vote.
Sad to say, charisma is a big factor in determining whether a person can become a successful leader these days.
Johnson, for all his faults, clearly has it; Starmer, sadly, clearly doesn't.
John Major is the only uncharismatic clear election winner in the past 40 years (I don't count May as a clear election winner).
A bit further back , but Heath was not seen as charismatic in 1970 . The same was true of Attlee in 1945 and 1950.
Problem is now live in an X-Factor world where being a bit of a laugh matters more to many voters than being competent or telling the truth.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The government should honestly be looking to do 19m first doses by the end of January if this is the case. To quote Rishi from earlier this year "do whatever it takes" to see it through. This 2m per week idea is just awful and it's going to take a whole year to get everyone jabbed twice. We need to be doing 5-7m per week. The lack of ambition by the people in charge is lamentable.
I'm hoping it is a rare case of underpromising and overdelivering.
This country has shown it can scale up when needed. The 100k tests a day was laughed at when it was announced and we were doing 5k - its now 500k. A million a week was announced a few weeks ago, now talk of 2 million a week. Hopefully before long 7m a week is reality.
After a year of disappointment from Hancock and Boris I'm inclined to believe they won't get to 2m.
I'm hopeful 2m will be like 100k earlier this year. We get to it, but don't stop there and keep going. Want we don't need is to rest on our laurels, once get to 2m the next step should be 3m then 4m.
As max says whatever it takes. I don't give a stuff if Tescos is doing the distribution or we pay people from Deloitte to organize it or i get jabbed by a squaddie who only just did his training last week in a football stadium car park...if that means millions get vaccinated every week.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The government should honestly be looking to do 19m first doses by the end of January if this is the case. To quote Rishi from earlier this year "do whatever it takes" to see it through. This 2m per week idea is just awful and it's going to take a whole year to get everyone jabbed twice. We need to be doing 5-7m per week. The lack of ambition by the people in charge is lamentable.
I'm hoping it is a rare case of underpromising and overdelivering.
This country has shown it can scale up when needed. The 100k tests a day was laughed at when it was announced and we were doing 5k - its now 500k. A million a week was announced a few weeks ago, now talk of 2 million a week. Hopefully before long 7m a week is reality.
After a year of disappointment from Hancock and Boris I'm inclined to believe they won't get to 2m.
I'm hopeful 2m will be like 100k earlier this year. We get to it, but don't stop there and keep going. Want we don't need is to rest on our laurels, once get to 2m the next step should be 3m then 4m.
As max says whatever it takes. I don't give a stuff if Tescos is doing the distribution or we pay people from Deloitte to organize it or i get jabbed by a squaddie who only just did his training last week.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
Indeed - though Churchill always relied on detailed notes when delivering his speeches.
I do talks and speeches. (Well I did before Covid.😡 And hope to again.) Good ones too.
You need to prepare and know what you are going to say but reading is death to a speech. For them to work there needs to be some extemporising, some element of danger, some communication between speaker and audience beyond the actual speech. The best speakers read their audience, respond to them, adjust what they are saying as they go along as they gauge the reaction. There is a dialogue. Not literal but it is there. A talk has an element of performance about it. I would often walk onto a stage and not know what my first words would be and then they would come to me as I stood there.
I appreciate that politicians and others feel the need to write everything down in case they put a word out of place. But it deadens the talk. Not least because so many forget to make eye contact with people in the audience. The skill I suppose is to make something prepared feel alive and as if it is personal between you and each person listening.
Absolutely! The keys to public speaking are knowing your material and knowing your audience.
I think the difference is that you and I have spent a long time in our respective fields, and can quite happily talk for an hour with a short briefing or go off-piste in response to a question.
A government minister is often constrained by needing to say something very specific and unambiguous, in many cases has only a year or two of experience in a particular department, and doesn't necessarily understand the nuances and verbiage of those to whom that department is a lifelong profession.
Hence they insist on a full script, from which they don't expect to deviate a single word - because most ministers don't know what the hell they're actually talking about!
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
Indeed - though Churchill always relied on detailed notes when delivering his speeches.
I do talks and speeches. (Well I did before Covid.😡 And hope to again.) Good ones too.
You need to prepare and know what you are going to say but reading is death to a speech. For them to work there needs to be some extemporising, some element of danger, some communication between speaker and audience beyond the actual speech. The best speakers read their audience, respond to them, adjust what they are saying as they go along as they gauge the reaction. There is a dialogue. Not literal but it is there. A talk has an element of performance about it. I would often walk onto a stage and not know what my first words would be and then they would come to me as I stood there.
I appreciate that politicians and others feel the need to write everything down in case they put a word out of place. But it deadens the talk. Not least because so many forget to make eye contact with people in the audience. The skill I suppose is to make something prepared feel alive and as if it is personal between you and each person listening.
And in the Commons Enoch Powell would famously speak with immaculate grammar and no notes. Michael Foot was also brilliant in the chamber. They were the two speakers of their time in whose presence the chamber would fall silent.
Very good points about speaking. I've done a fair bit in my time. I'm going to say something arrogant for a moment: I know I can have an audience in the palm of my hand within 60 seconds. The metaphorical pin drop.
It's why I seldom now speak in public. It's dangerous. I'm dangerous.
Well now that you've said it, I'm going to say it too. So can I.
But I am, as everyone knows, warm and cuddly. And not dangerous at all. 😌
"The crucial point is surely this. Private enterprise has shown it has the spirit, creativity and energy to deliver a vaccine. It should be trusted to deliver the roll-out as well."
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
Indeed - though Churchill always relied on detailed notes when delivering his speeches.
I do talks and speeches. (Well I did before Covid.😡 And hope to again.) Good ones too.
You need to prepare and know what you are going to say but reading is death to a speech. For them to work there needs to be some extemporising, some element of danger, some communication between speaker and audience beyond the actual speech. The best speakers read their audience, respond to them, adjust what they are saying as they go along as they gauge the reaction. There is a dialogue. Not literal but it is there. A talk has an element of performance about it. I would often walk onto a stage and not know what my first words would be and then they would come to me as I stood there.
I appreciate that politicians and others feel the need to write everything down in case they put a word out of place. But it deadens the talk. Not least because so many forget to make eye contact with people in the audience. The skill I suppose is to make something prepared feel alive and as if it is personal between you and each person listening.
Absolutely! The keys to public speaking are knowing your material and knowing your audience.
[...] A government minister is often constrained by needing to say something very specific and unambiguous, in many cases has only a year or two of experience in a particular department, and doesn't necessarily understand the nuances and verbiage of those to whom that department is a lifelong profession.
All true what you wrote, which I cut slightly for space.
However I also, genuinely, think most MPs are odd people with dysfunctional personalities. I'm sorry if that causes any offence on here but I've met and known a number and most of them have been socially autistic. Some of them have been really very odd indeed.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
Pubs have been closed on a few hours notice thus losing any stock they had bought in for NY because the government could not be arsed to announce the change before the last day for making orders, something which would have been obvious to anyone with a calendar and the wit to ring somebody up in this business. So clearly well beyond the grasp of this government.
They cannot claim on insurance and pubs in England get far less help than those in Wales and Scotland. Even the grants announced back in November have still to be paid out. The government seems to expect everyone working in this sector to live permanently on 80% of their previous wages. The grants which have been announced don't go remotely near covering fixed costs. Basically every closed pub and hotel and restaurant and other hospitality venue is now loss-making.
Whether they will ever reopen again depends on whether (a) they have any savings to use and (b) they whether they think it worth using up their savings. The latter depends trusting the government to manage the vaccination programme effectively so that venues can reopen by Easter latest.
Effectiveness is not the word one first associates with this government, however.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
This is very much more positive than the discussion of yesterday.
Where did we find this information out, just out of curiosity?
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The government should honestly be looking to do 19m first doses by the end of January if this is the case. To quote Rishi from earlier this year "do whatever it takes" to see it through. This 2m per week idea is just awful and it's going to take a whole year to get everyone jabbed twice. We need to be doing 5-7m per week. The lack of ambition by the people in charge is lamentable.
I'm hoping it is a rare case of underpromising and overdelivering.
This country has shown it can scale up when needed. The 100k tests a day was laughed at when it was announced and we were doing 5k - its now 500k. A million a week was announced a few weeks ago, now talk of 2 million a week. Hopefully before long 7m a week is reality.
After a year of disappointment from Hancock and Boris I'm inclined to believe they won't get to 2m.
I'm hopeful 2m will be like 100k earlier this year. We get to it, but don't stop there and keep going. Want we don't need is to rest on our laurels, once get to 2m the next step should be 3m then 4m.
As max says whatever it takes. I don't give a stuff if Tescos is doing the distribution or we pay people from Deloitte to organize it or i get jabbed by a squaddie who only just did his training last week in a football stadium car park...if that means millions get vaccinated every week.
Why don't we use dentists and vets. They know how to give injections.
Hell, even I know how to. Had to inject myself every day during 3 pregnancies.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
Indeed - though Churchill always relied on detailed notes when delivering his speeches.
I do talks and speeches. (Well I did before Covid.😡 And hope to again.) Good ones too.
You need to prepare and know what you are going to say but reading is death to a speech. For them to work there needs to be some extemporising, some element of danger, some communication between speaker and audience beyond the actual speech. The best speakers read their audience, respond to them, adjust what they are saying as they go along as they gauge the reaction. There is a dialogue. Not literal but it is there. A talk has an element of performance about it. I would often walk onto a stage and not know what my first words would be and then they would come to me as I stood there.
I appreciate that politicians and others feel the need to write everything down in case they put a word out of place. But it deadens the talk. Not least because so many forget to make eye contact with people in the audience. The skill I suppose is to make something prepared feel alive and as if it is personal between you and each person listening.
And in the Commons Enoch Powell would famously speak with immaculate grammar and no notes. Michael Foot was also brilliant in the chamber. They were the two speakers of their time in whose presence the chamber would fall silent.
Very good points about speaking. I've done a fair bit in my time. I'm going to say something arrogant for a moment: I know I can have an audience in the palm of my hand within 60 seconds. The metaphorical pin drop.
It's why I seldom now speak in public. It's dangerous. I'm dangerous.
Well now that you've said it, I'm going to say it too. So can I.
But I am, as everyone knows, warm and cuddly. And not dangerous at all. 😌
So says Kweku Mawuli Adoboli - from his prison cell.
I’m amazed no one has mentioned Heseltine. He had both charisma and speaking ability in spades - and it was almost enough to propel him to the leadership of a Tory party whose views were directly at odds with his own.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
Indeed - though Churchill always relied on detailed notes when delivering his speeches.
I do talks and speeches. (Well I did before Covid.😡 And hope to again.) Good ones too.
You need to prepare and know what you are going to say but reading is death to a speech. For them to work there needs to be some extemporising, some element of danger, some communication between speaker and audience beyond the actual speech. The best speakers read their audience, respond to them, adjust what they are saying as they go along as they gauge the reaction. There is a dialogue. Not literal but it is there. A talk has an element of performance about it. I would often walk onto a stage and not know what my first words would be and then they would come to me as I stood there.
I appreciate that politicians and others feel the need to write everything down in case they put a word out of place. But it deadens the talk. Not least because so many forget to make eye contact with people in the audience. The skill I suppose is to make something prepared feel alive and as if it is personal between you and each person listening.
Absolutely! The keys to public speaking are knowing your material and knowing your audience.
I think the difference is that you and I have spent a long time in our respective fields, and can quite happily talk for an hour with a short briefing or go off-piste in response to a question.
A government minister is often constrained by needing to say something very specific and unambiguous, in many cases has only a year or two of experience in a particular department, and doesn't necessarily understand the nuances and verbiage of those to whom that department is a lifelong profession.
Hence they insist on a full script, from which they don't expect to deviate a single word - because most ministers don't know what the hell they're actually talking about!
"The keys to public speaking are knowing your material and knowing your audience."
My material is boring and my audience is a bunch of middle - aged engineers. Oh well...
"The crucial point is surely this. Private enterprise has shown it has the spirit, creativity and energy to deliver a vaccine. It should be trusted to deliver the roll-out as well."
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The government should honestly be looking to do 19m first doses by the end of January if this is the case. To quote Rishi from earlier this year "do whatever it takes" to see it through. This 2m per week idea is just awful and it's going to take a whole year to get everyone jabbed twice. We need to be doing 5-7m per week. The lack of ambition by the people in charge is lamentable.
I'm hoping it is a rare case of underpromising and overdelivering.
This country has shown it can scale up when needed. The 100k tests a day was laughed at when it was announced and we were doing 5k - its now 500k. A million a week was announced a few weeks ago, now talk of 2 million a week. Hopefully before long 7m a week is reality.
After a year of disappointment from Hancock and Boris I'm inclined to believe they won't get to 2m.
I'm hopeful 2m will be like 100k earlier this year. We get to it, but don't stop there and keep going. Want we don't need is to rest on our laurels, once get to 2m the next step should be 3m then 4m.
As max says whatever it takes. I don't give a stuff if Tescos is doing the distribution or we pay people from Deloitte to organize it or i get jabbed by a squaddie who only just did his training last week in a football stadium car park...if that means millions get vaccinated every week.
Why don't we use dentists and vets. They know how to give injections.
Hell, even I know how to. Had to inject myself every day during 3 pregnancies.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
Indeed - though Churchill always relied on detailed notes when delivering his speeches.
I do talks and speeches. (Well I did before Covid.😡 And hope to again.) Good ones too.
You need to prepare and know what you are going to say but reading is death to a speech. For them to work there needs to be some extemporising, some element of danger, some communication between speaker and audience beyond the actual speech. The best speakers read their audience, respond to them, adjust what they are saying as they go along as they gauge the reaction. There is a dialogue. Not literal but it is there. A talk has an element of performance about it. I would often walk onto a stage and not know what my first words would be and then they would come to me as I stood there.
I appreciate that politicians and others feel the need to write everything down in case they put a word out of place. But it deadens the talk. Not least because so many forget to make eye contact with people in the audience. The skill I suppose is to make something prepared feel alive and as if it is personal between you and each person listening.
And in the Commons Enoch Powell would famously speak with immaculate grammar and no notes. Michael Foot was also brilliant in the chamber. They were the two speakers of their time in whose presence the chamber would fall silent.
Very good points about speaking. I've done a fair bit in my time. I'm going to say something arrogant for a moment: I know I can have an audience in the palm of my hand within 60 seconds. The metaphorical pin drop.
It's why I seldom now speak in public. It's dangerous. I'm dangerous.
Well now that you've said it, I'm going to say it too. So can I.
But I am, as everyone knows, warm and cuddly. And not dangerous at all. 😌
So says Kweku Mawuli Adoboli - from his prison cell.
He's been deported to Ghana now.
Yeah - during the trial he complained (the great baby) that my team were too quick off the mark providing info to the prosecution to counter his points. He called us The Machine. The following day we had Pink Floyd's poster pinned up in our office.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The government should honestly be looking to do 19m first doses by the end of January if this is the case. To quote Rishi from earlier this year "do whatever it takes" to see it through. This 2m per week idea is just awful and it's going to take a whole year to get everyone jabbed twice. We need to be doing 5-7m per week. The lack of ambition by the people in charge is lamentable.
I'm hoping it is a rare case of underpromising and overdelivering.
This country has shown it can scale up when needed. The 100k tests a day was laughed at when it was announced and we were doing 5k - its now 500k. A million a week was announced a few weeks ago, now talk of 2 million a week. Hopefully before long 7m a week is reality.
After a year of disappointment from Hancock and Boris I'm inclined to believe they won't get to 2m.
I'm hopeful 2m will be like 100k earlier this year. We get to it, but don't stop there and keep going. Want we don't need is to rest on our laurels, once get to 2m the next step should be 3m then 4m.
As max says whatever it takes. I don't give a stuff if Tescos is doing the distribution or we pay people from Deloitte to organize it or i get jabbed by a squaddie who only just did his training last week in a football stadium car park...if that means millions get vaccinated every week.
Why don't we use dentists and vets. They know how to give injections.
Hell, even I know how to. Had to inject myself every day during 3 pregnancies.
That looks like the kind of breakfast in a greasy spoon in London I haven't seen for a while. "The full English" can look a lot better than that.
At last, a subject on which I can speak with authority
That isn't anywhere near a "Full English" - it's a "Third English" at best. From the cafe in the Barking Road yesterday, my takeaway order was:
2 fried eggs 1 slice fried bread ("fried slice" as we call it) 2 Sausages Mushrooms Bubble & Squeak
For those who enjoy bacon, black or white pudding I would welcome you at the table any time. Wanting your eggs scrambled rather than fried is decadent but acceptable. Baked beans or chips with breakfast are an abomination and the very work of the Devil himself.
Obviously, those who prefer a well smoked kipper or proper kedgeree have my respect - it's not standard fare in East Ham but I've sampled them elsewhere and they make a more than pleasant change and those who enjoy them are more than welcome to them especially if they have the advantage of being able to source the proper ingredients.
The strange thing is I don't miss the commute, the office, the colleagues or even the family that much - what I've missed is sitting in the cafe with the Racing Post with the band of socially distanced antisocial old gits.
Baked beans are perfectly acceptable if done right, as long as not in excess. Cooked with the addition of some pomegranate molasses and extra tomato purée, they are tastier than ketchup in providing a hit of astringency to cut through the grease.
Baked beans and brown sauce - a marriage made in heaven.....
On a well-buttered butty. Yum. Takes me back to my childhood diet.
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
Indeed - though Churchill always relied on detailed notes when delivering his speeches.
I do talks and speeches. (Well I did before Covid.😡 And hope to again.) Good ones too.
You need to prepare and know what you are going to say but reading is death to a speech. For them to work there needs to be some extemporising, some element of danger, some communication between speaker and audience beyond the actual speech. The best speakers read their audience, respond to them, adjust what they are saying as they go along as they gauge the reaction. There is a dialogue. Not literal but it is there. A talk has an element of performance about it. I would often walk onto a stage and not know what my first words would be and then they would come to me as I stood there.
I appreciate that politicians and others feel the need to write everything down in case they put a word out of place. But it deadens the talk. Not least because so many forget to make eye contact with people in the audience. The skill I suppose is to make something prepared feel alive and as if it is personal between you and each person listening.
And in the Commons Enoch Powell would famously speak with immaculate grammar and no notes. Michael Foot was also brilliant in the chamber. They were the two speakers of their time in whose presence the chamber would fall silent.
Very good points about speaking. I've done a fair bit in my time. I'm going to say something arrogant for a moment: I know I can have an audience in the palm of my hand within 60 seconds. The metaphorical pin drop.
It's why I seldom now speak in public. It's dangerous. I'm dangerous.
Well now that you've said it, I'm going to say it too. So can I.
But I am, as everyone knows, warm and cuddly. And not dangerous at all. 😌
So says Kweku Mawuli Adoboli - from his prison cell.
He's been deported to Ghana now.
Yeah - during the trial he complained (the great baby) that my team were too quick off the mark providing info to the prosecution to counter his points. He called us The Machine. The following day we had Pink Floyd's poster pinned up in our office.
Oh no, how dare the investigation team be too quick off the mark, when some scumbag trader just blew through more than $2bn of the bank's money!
Enoch Powell. Which also shows you that being a great speaker is a dangerous thing as his views are reprehensible to me.
Michael Foot. In his prime before he went quite senile.
Tam Dalyell. Superb in the Commons.
Hillary Benn. Can be a brilliant speaker.
That's about it. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. David Cameron gave a great speech to wow the Conservative party conference in the leadership hustings. Margaret Thatcher, when she wasn't hectoring, could be brilliant. Her climate change speech at the UN was outstanding even if I don't agree with her assessment that private companies are the solution.
Kinnock's Militant speech to conference is one I remember. Electrifying.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
Indeed - though Churchill always relied on detailed notes when delivering his speeches.
I do talks and speeches. (Well I did before Covid.😡 And hope to again.) Good ones too.
You need to prepare and know what you are going to say but reading is death to a speech. For them to work there needs to be some extemporising, some element of danger, some communication between speaker and audience beyond the actual speech. The best speakers read their audience, respond to them, adjust what they are saying as they go along as they gauge the reaction. There is a dialogue. Not literal but it is there. A talk has an element of performance about it. I would often walk onto a stage and not know what my first words would be and then they would come to me as I stood there.
I appreciate that politicians and others feel the need to write everything down in case they put a word out of place. But it deadens the talk. Not least because so many forget to make eye contact with people in the audience. The skill I suppose is to make something prepared feel alive and as if it is personal between you and each person listening.
Absolutely! The keys to public speaking are knowing your material and knowing your audience.
I think the difference is that you and I have spent a long time in our respective fields, and can quite happily talk for an hour with a short briefing or go off-piste in response to a question.
A government minister is often constrained by needing to say something very specific and unambiguous, in many cases has only a year or two of experience in a particular department, and doesn't necessarily understand the nuances and verbiage of those to whom that department is a lifelong profession.
Hence they insist on a full script, from which they don't expect to deviate a single word - because most ministers don't know what the hell they're actually talking about!
"The keys to public speaking are knowing your material and knowing your audience."
My material is boring and my audience is a bunch of middle - aged engineers. Oh well...
I've had to give talks about Suspicious Transaction Reports. To a bunch of traders. Neither are on the face of it scintillating.
Presumably loyalty to the big family project (Brexit BJ) prevented him from saying that he was also applying for a passport to all of the rich and varied countries of the EU.
To be fair he is just being consistent - a former Euro-MP and a passionate European and environmentalist who happens to be the dad of the PM. People aren't responsible for the opinions of their children or their parents.
I'm pretty sure Stanley wouldn't be such a ubiquitous sight and sound on our airwaves if he wasn't BJ's dad, so swings and roundabouts. Still, he seems less in demand lately, perhaps they've realised amplifying a self indulgent, over entitled flouter of Covid rules isn't a good look.
Or just maybe for all the things that are, its not Boris's fault his dad is a complete arse.
If true, a chip off the old block.
Personally speaking, I find Stanley more coherent than Alexander.
For God's sake, why on earth do people giving vaccinations need to do a training course on how to prevent radicalisation?!
You can blame America for that.
One of the ways they tracked down Osama Bin Laden was by using a fake vaccination drive to get the DNA of the Bin Laden family.*
It caused some doubts among some communities about taking up vaccines and well I think you can imagine the rest.
FWIW I think the NHS will bypass this, I think they will take will take on any Doctor who was registered in the last five years and can pass a DBS check.
That's what was has been communicated to my father anyway.
*Personally living in a house with three wives and that many kids and not being able to leave for years I reckon Bin Laden called the SEALs and told them his location.
Presumably loyalty to the big family project (Brexit BJ) prevented him from saying that he was also applying for a passport to all of the rich and varied countries of the EU.
To be fair he is just being consistent - a former Euro-MP and a passionate European and environmentalist who happens to be the dad of the PM. People aren't responsible for the opinions of their children or their parents.
I'm pretty sure Stanley wouldn't be such a ubiquitous sight and sound on our airwaves if he wasn't BJ's dad, so swings and roundabouts. Still, he seems less in demand lately, perhaps they've realised amplifying a self indulgent, over entitled flouter of Covid rules isn't a good look.
Or just maybe for all the things that are, its not Boris's fault his dad is a complete arse.
If true, a chip off the old block.
Personally speaking, I find Stanley more coherent than Alexander.
Rather pitiable that Stanley feels a need to create a media circus around it.
Apparently, there are only 3 pubs open in England today, all on the Scilly Isles.
I thought if you when I saw Cumbria was going from tier 2 to tier 4. Not good, and as you say, awful timing.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up. Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
What worries me is the difference between promises of 4 million doses and Hancock admitting that they have only actually received half a million.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Be careful mixing up numbers. The MHRA only just issued authorisation.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The government should honestly be looking to do 19m first doses by the end of January if this is the case. To quote Rishi from earlier this year "do whatever it takes" to see it through. This 2m per week idea is just awful and it's going to take a whole year to get everyone jabbed twice. We need to be doing 5-7m per week. The lack of ambition by the people in charge is lamentable.
I'm hoping it is a rare case of underpromising and overdelivering.
This country has shown it can scale up when needed. The 100k tests a day was laughed at when it was announced and we were doing 5k - its now 500k. A million a week was announced a few weeks ago, now talk of 2 million a week. Hopefully before long 7m a week is reality.
After a year of disappointment from Hancock and Boris I'm inclined to believe they won't get to 2m.
I'm hopeful 2m will be like 100k earlier this year. We get to it, but don't stop there and keep going. Want we don't need is to rest on our laurels, once get to 2m the next step should be 3m then 4m.
As max says whatever it takes. I don't give a stuff if Tescos is doing the distribution or we pay people from Deloitte to organize it or i get jabbed by a squaddie who only just did his training last week in a football stadium car park...if that means millions get vaccinated every week.
Why don't we use dentists and vets. They know how to give injections.
Hell, even I know how to. Had to inject myself every day during 3 pregnancies.
For God's sake, why on earth do people giving vaccinations need to do a training course on how to prevent radicalisation?!
Because that’s the established procedure ? Which, of course, could and should have been temporarily swept aside by the minister under current emergency powers.
Once Stanley Johnson has his French passport his kids can apply for one too. I believe Rachel Johnson plans to get one. I predict that Boris Johnson will get one too eventually, so that his various kids can get one and work easily in the EU.
Comments
The two immutable principles governing life are:
Stuff happens.
Stuff takes longer to happen than you think it will.
2023 is value.
Worst moment: Nov 4th. Early hours. The incumbent wins Florida, Texas, Ohio, all easily. I crawl off to bed thinking I’m £3k down, Donald J Trump is not Toast but POTUS for another 4 years. The world is sick and fucked up beyond redemption and I have lost all cred on PB, having blogged ad nausea that this was a Not Happening Event.
Best moment: Nov 4th. Late morning. The big switcheroo. The postman delivers. It’s a lagged Blue Wave and all is well. Trump IS Toast. I’m UP £3k. Let there be light. The world is a fine and dandy place and I can show my face again, kitted out with suitably wise and mellow expression.
Bubbling under worst moment: Couple of weeks ago, Health Sec on the Marr show, usual open-book cheeriness replaced by a demeanour one could only describe as lugubrious, telling me that “The Mutant Variant Is Out Of Control”, words that would be thrilling coming from somebody like Denzil Washington in a sci-fi film but are not what you want to hear from Matt Hancock on a Sunday morning. Bloody hell! Stomach lurched at my end.
Bubbling under best moment: My birthday. Fell right in the middle of the summer respite. Couple of pints in a Cornish pub then fish & chips unplugged, from the wrapping, stood up next to a convenient shelf, gazing out to sea. A close to perfect 15 minutes.
Anyway, c’est tout, and I will do a donation, of course I will. Time I’ve spent on here. C’mon.
Wishing all PBers a very HNY21. It’s going to be great.
I think a Labour government would have been quicker to lock down and more cautious generally - they would have been less likely to be swayed by business arguments. This would ultimately have led to a better outcome.
Other than on that, and perhaps schools policy, I don't think the government has done so badly. The vaccine procurement programme seems to have been a particular success.
I'm sure all those ex RCP members understand the concept of permanent revolution.
I think too that there can be a lot of retrospective judgement on these things.
John Major in 1992 was seen as a fresh face of normality who listened to people. This was a sharp contrast to the high handed arrogant autocracy of 3rd term Maggie, with her Poll Tax etc. Charisma is relative, and by 1990 become negative for Maggie, hence the defenestration by her own party. By 1997 John Major was seen as dull, and no longer in control of events.
I am not sure Maggie scored well for charisma prior to 1979 either, and Sunny Jim Callaghan was ahead of her. Possibly that changed by May '79, but if so, was it events that changed perceptions of her rather than charisma? Indeed I remember a Tory voting uncle ranting about her in the late Seventies, and how he would emigrate if she won. His objection was to having a female PM, rather than her politics.
FWIW, I think the vaccination program will be fine despite the government. As Nick pointed out earlier, the long established infrastructure of the NHS is very well organised to deliver vaccinations and would make it hard for any government to truly fuck up.
Easter is tight, but I think it should happen.
Stephen Kinnock seems to have shut up recently, wasn't there a period when he was seen as the great white hope for reuniting Brexit riven England (and Wales)? Maybe it was just all part of the speculative guff leading up to the Lab leadership election.
Personally, I think Tony Benn was a better speaker than his son.
BTW, I managed to give you a fat fingered off topic, before a like. Apologies.
Sponsorship is far better, but if the donation model will work so much the that's even better.
Lots more options available now, though.
Reputedly Brian Walden's speeches in the Commons were worth listening to.
I'm always surprised by how many MPs cannot make a basic short speech without reading it out or having to refer extensively to notes. Inevitably makes for a poorer speech.
My hopes for the new year is that now a deal is signed we will have less verbal warfare here, less talk of brexit and far more talk of other events as they happen.
So I suspect an earlier lockdown in March would have merely shifted the deaths to later in the year and possibly made things worse overall.
Lockdowns follow the law of diminishing returns so I suspect that one in September would have had little effect.
I would say though that the government should have brought all of the country into tier 3 before the November restrictions - that would have made it easier to put the country back into tier 3 in December.
The presidential campaign begins in 2 years time, albeit with the primaries in 3.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/ecu/taking-control-the-dominic-cummings-story-bbc-two-18-march-2020
A solution that lies between ad revenue and donations might be for PB to get an Amazon partner (or whatever they are) account, and produce a link to Amazon, and periodically ask us to use that link to shop on Amazon (around Christmas time would work) and get commission? I am pretty sure that works. It would be for shopping we already wanted, so the donation would be courtesy of Amazon.
He was asked a question and answered no, but you could swear the answer he gave had been yes.
It was mesmerising.
"The complaint that the programme represented Mr Cummings as “a liar who grossly misrepresented statistics in order to further his political aims” related to a section of the programme which discussed his work for Business for Sterling" was not upheld.
Sure, some aspects of the complaint were upheld. If you want to embrace that as an overall win, knock yourself out. And note that this all dates from March, before the whole Dom Dom Heads North episode and the whole sexist bully thing came to light. What a hero.
The problem is in North East Cumbria - Penrith and Carlisle and the Eden valley especially. Round here cases are still very low. It takes a good 2 and a half hours to get to Penrith and Carlisle from here. Manchester is closer. People think of Cumbria as one area but forget the geography and that population density and ease of movement are very different to what it is in other parts of the country.
But it is what it is. The focus needs to be on supporting businesses through this. The government seems to have gone silent on this. This is their biggest failing. It will be the government's deliberate inaction which will cause significant business failures, especially in parts of the country which they claim to want to "level up". That phrase is already a sick joke round here judging by the chatter in the pub. It's not just hospitality and tourism - in the widest sense - but agriculture too. And all the other businesses dependant on these. The government simply has no idea.
Daughter is now looking forward to her meeting with the local Tory MP (and the PM's PPS). She is very well prepared.
Given the very high rates of current infection, prioritising immunising as many people as quickly as possible seems a sensible gamble.
For countries with low rates of infection, it probably wouldn’t be - particularly as they can wait to see our data.
If the MHRA say 70% then that seems reasonable to believe. I take their word at face value, do we have a reason not to do so?
https://twitter.com/catharinehoey/status/1344453416555319296?s=21
He tends to be judged through the prism of the excruciating Sheffield moment.
NHS infrastructure may be fine but if the doses don't actually arrive on time and/or in the quantities needed, what use is the infrastructure.
I hope to be proved wrong.
Which, to be truthful, even I have never thought he was, so it was bizarre to suggest he might be.
Either nonsense or innumerate, if you think about it.
Half a million are approved and ready to use next week.
About 4 million have already been bottled up but they need authorisation.
About 15 million doses have already been produced and need bottling up and authorising.
The only way news websites get away from this, is either subscriptions or hosting their own ads, from their own domains, without all the third-party tracking and analytics from Google and Facebook that they have grown to love so much - but are hated by their audience.
If I were advising OGH, I would suggest keeping the donate button, and getting some sponsored 'advertorial' posts from bookmakers highlighting their good odds on political markets at appropriate times.
We've talked about charisma but gravitas must be every bit as important. Kinnock didn't have it, at least by the time the tabloids had set to work
It would be quite funny (for us) this NYE to recall single moments which finished off a politician's aspirations.
This country has shown it can scale up when needed. The 100k tests a day was laughed at when it was announced and we were doing 5k - its now 500k. A million a week was announced a few weeks ago, now talk of 2 million a week. Hopefully before long 7m a week is reality.
You need to prepare and know what you are going to say but reading is death to a speech. For them to work there needs to be some extemporising, some element of danger, some communication between speaker and audience beyond the actual speech. The best speakers read their audience, respond to them, adjust what they are saying as they go along as they gauge the reaction. There is a dialogue. Not literal but it is there. A talk has an element of performance about it. I would often walk onto a stage and not know what my first words would be and then they would come to me as I stood there.
I appreciate that politicians and others feel the need to write everything down in case they put a word out of place. But it deadens the talk. Not least because so many forget to make eye contact with people in the audience. The skill I suppose is to make something prepared feel alive and as if it is personal between you and each person listening.
Fantastic fireworks display in Sydney, really impressive. Much better than New Zealand's.
Best political speech. It has to be Reg Keys, the father of Lance Corporal Tom Keys, speaking after the declaration at Sedgefield in the General Election of 2005.
The camera cut to Blair. We saw his slabbed face and haunted eyes, as he listened expressionless to a former Labour voter, the father of the man his actions had killed.
It is one of the very few times in my life when a politician has been directly & publicly confronted by a victim of the terrible consequences of his actions.
It had something close to the tension of the very best theatre.
Very good points about speaking. I've done a fair bit in my time. I'm going to say something arrogant for a moment: I know I can have an audience in the palm of my hand within 60 seconds. The metaphorical pin drop.
It's why I seldom now speak in public. It's dangerous. I'm dangerous.
It is his speech writer who deserves the real credit.
We do need to scale up very fast. I hope we do.
They need a similar approach for vaccinations. Throw everything at it, no let up.
Whatever it takes.
JFDI.
On the other hand, the EU just signed a deal with China. So glass houses spring to mind.
I think the difference is that you and I have spent a long time in our respective fields, and can quite happily talk for an hour with a short briefing or go off-piste in response to a question.
A government minister is often constrained by needing to say something very specific and unambiguous, in many cases has only a year or two of experience in a particular department, and doesn't necessarily understand the nuances and verbiage of those to whom that department is a lifelong profession.
Hence they insist on a full script, from which they don't expect to deviate a single word - because most ministers don't know what the hell they're actually talking about!
But I am, as everyone knows, warm and cuddly. And not dangerous at all. 😌
A 2 minute silence would be more fitting.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/30/dont-leave-vaccine-roll-out-lumbering-nhs/
However I also, genuinely, think most MPs are odd people with dysfunctional personalities. I'm sorry if that causes any offence on here but I've met and known a number and most of them have been socially autistic. Some of them have been really very odd indeed.
Where did we find this information out, just out of curiosity?
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-nightingale-hospitals-being-readied-for-use-as-covid-patient-numbers-rise-12176338
Hell, even I know how to. Had to inject myself every day during 3 pregnancies.
Get volunteers as was done last March.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSRhR23mCwc
He had both charisma and speaking ability in spades - and it was almost enough to propel him to the leadership of a Tory party whose views were directly at odds with his own.
My material is boring and my audience is a bunch of middle - aged engineers. Oh well...
https://twitter.com/Maureenprsb/status/1344350581348036608?s=19
Yeah - during the trial he complained (the great baby) that my team were too quick off the mark providing info to the prosecution to counter his points. He called us The Machine. The following day we had Pink Floyd's poster pinned up in our office.
You can make pretty much anything interesting.
Personally speaking, I find Stanley more coherent than Alexander.
One of the ways they tracked down Osama Bin Laden was by using a fake vaccination drive to get the DNA of the Bin Laden family.*
It caused some doubts among some communities about taking up vaccines and well I think you can imagine the rest.
FWIW I think the NHS will bypass this, I think they will take will take on any Doctor who was registered in the last five years and can pass a DBS check.
That's what was has been communicated to my father anyway.
*Personally living in a house with three wives and that many kids and not being able to leave for years I reckon Bin Laden called the SEALs and told them his location.
Which, of course, could and should have been temporarily swept aside by the minister under current emergency powers.