Nothing from Raab so far on the Hong Kong arrests......
I sort of feel for him. Theres nothing anyone can do, China has won and the world isn't about to stop dealing with them, so his job will be to impotently protest. At best.
We could decide to reduce the amount we deal with them. A China Repression Tariff Escalator. A general tariff of x% on Chinese goods, increase it by x% a year while they violate standards on the rule of law and human rights.
It would give time for people to find alternatives as the tariffs ramped up over the years.
Apparently, according to an HK friend, the next expected move from the Chinese government will be to make dual nationality illegal. Except for the rich and powerful, of course.
And the courts are in their sights. Removing judicial independence and dismantling the largely English legal system will be next.
We shouldn't have expectations management, we should have ambition.
Who would the Boris-haters rather have in charge of our vaccine roll-out - Macron?
Why can't we have someone competent and British? As the Tories are in government I would say "and Tory". But almost all of the competent and clever Tories have been booted.
Jeremy Hunt is the obvious candidate. Hunt is everything that Johnson is not. I would have a lot more confidence if he were in charge.
That Hunt is now the obvious candidate shows how shallow the candidate list now is. I'm sure the NHS hasn't forgiven or forgotten his efforts last time round as health secretary. How many of the Junior Doctors he went to war with are now critical to our front line efforts?
I'd be quite interested to see whether Hunt of Rishi played better in the Northern seats the Tories need to keep.
Don't forget just how much of the Hunt demonisation (and NHS privatisation) stuff last time around was conspiracy theories / lies. I'll post the text of Dr Eoin's apology to Virgin Healthcare for the lies he was boostering in a minute - it was glorious.
On Hunt as post-Boris Tory leader. Not sure. He drips London Stockbroker Belt, but he is also self-made unlike so many politicos who made their money from house price inflation on places funded by expenses. Not sure how that averages out in the red wall.
There would be a lot of performances a la Rosina Allin-Khan though .. repeating an outright lie about the Vaccine Rollout Minister to 200k people as part of the poke in the eye strategy (see her feed over time). That was a bigger blooper than the one that did for Katie Hopkins. A lot of people have internalised much of the made up anti-Hunt stuff.
Nothing from Raab so far on the Hong Kong arrests......
I sort of feel for him. Theres nothing anyone can do, China has won and the world isn't about to stop dealing with them, so his job will be to impotently protest. At best.
We could decide to reduce the amount we deal with them. A China Repression Tariff Escalator. A general tariff of x% on Chinese goods, increase it by x% a year while they violate standards on the rule of law and human rights.
It would give time for people to find alternatives as the tariffs ramped up over the years.
Apparently, according to an HK friend, the next expected move from the Chinese government will be to make dual nationality illegal. Except for the rich and powerful, of course.
Seems like they got really spooked by those parish elections revealing people were not meekly buying their guff, and quickly ramped up into repression mode. Depressingly effectively.
Kent still seems (from Google maps) to be unnervingly quiet, both on the Manston route and down the M20. Not sure whether that is the efficient implementation of Brexit or (I suspect) that COVID and Brexit have combined and short straights transport has essentially collapsed. (Do all lorry drivers need testing at Manston or just ones who didn't get a COVID certificate before setting off?)
I'd be more reassured by queues showing up at this stage tbh, and those empty shelves in Paris and Ireland, I guess must be happening here too. Many of us won't see what is happening till after lockdown.
Btw, I don't think it is likely any more, but Brussels not giving leeway on Rules of Origin for cross UK transit... I do still hold a little to my old pet theory of Ireland ending up in Customs Union with us (even if temporarily s part of a crisis) (note: that would not be a new status, EU, SM, Euro, but not CU is as per the Canary Isles) - Brussels inflexibility and lack of riding to Ireland's rescue could force such an issue, and it is a more than viable status to be put on the table for an independent Scotland too.
Geographically (which is what CUs usually come down to) there is sense, politically it would be a massive failure for Ireland: SF would be rubbing their hands.
Have just had the DVLA letter reminding me of my vehicle tax bill due at the end of the month. That'll teach me to buy nice things
I have started a very convuluted experiment to try to register my LHD car in Czechia. Luxembourg is the backup plan but that's considerably more expensive and less accessible to bribery.
A Georgia exit poll by CNN showed that 3 in 4 GOP voters believe the presidential was rigged against Trump. And that's a poll, presumably, of voters who showed up for the run-offs. The percentage among those repubs who didn't is probably higher.
Given the vote suppressing implications of that attitude, a civil war in the party, and add in up to 20 million brand new citizens and the chances of the repubs winning anything in, ever, that's in any way meaningful are remote. In 2022 or 3022.
One of the amusing things is how the media are now latching on to so called moderate slightly pink dem senators, presumably not to frighten the investment horses...??
Senator no-mark, of no-marksburg, now a crucial power broker, blah blah blah. Thompson et al and the other Boris rampers on here swallowing it whole of course.
Who single-handedly created that 'vote-suppressing attitude' amongst Republicans, and thus deliberately threw away Republican control of the Senate just to spite McConnell for not helping him steal the Presidency?
Was it Trump? Yep, it was Trump all right.
and up to 80% of Repubs believe him!
What a genius! Has anybody been able to sway republican hearts and minds like this in the past!
Nobody denies Trump is a talented snake oil salesman. But to what effect? If he actually wants to preserve and extend his legacy, he's best ensuring Republicans control the Senate. Now they don't. He still has a load of people who will lick up anything he pukes out, but his political leverage is over people who aren't actually in power at the national level.
Oh, Trump can easily sway this result in Georgia to say that he was right and that the Republicans need to ignore the RINOs and listen to him. His arguments will be why the Republicans lost:
- McConnell opposed the $2K handout - he should have listened to me; - Kemp and the SoS has allowed the Democrats to steal the election by agreeing to Stacey Abrams' demands (more on that below); - The SoS released the tapes, allowing the media to run with the story about Trump pressuring Georgia; - Georgia has allowed voting fraud to run rampant; - If it wasn't for me campaigning, the margin of error would have been worse;
He will also use the results breakdown to push his arguments on fraud and that Republican legislatures should be doing more to limit mail-in ballots. NYT has the early vote essentially tied, the Republicans winning the election day ballots by 26/27% but the Democrats winning mail-in ballots by 34/35%..
Funnily enough, on this, he might get an ally in McConnell. If McConnell plans to stay around being leader and wants to win back the Senate in 2022, he might be more supportive to calls to limit mail-in ballots by state legislatures (which I'd expect to happen).
Sure, Trump can no doubt spin it - as I say, fantasticc snake oil salesman. But the point is the MUCH better outcome for him would be for Republicans to retain control of the Senare.
Trump has great leverage within the GOP. But that's no good in terms of keeping the flame of Trumpism alive if they aren't in power anywhere. Losing the Senate means Republicans are purely reactive to someone else's agenda or two years at least. Perhaps that will change in 2022 - but not necessarily, and Trump is an old man who will be older still, he has a lot of legal issues, and the world does move on so he won't be quite as powerful as he is now.
He's maintained his leverage... but over what exactly?
Well, it's easy to write off the Republicans after this result and say, at face value, the Democrats have the trifecta of the Presidency and Congress. But the Republicans still control the majority of state legislatures, which gives them the upper hand in redistricting in 2021, and the Democrats' grip on all three levers is weak - a limited majority in the House, a split Senate and a Presidency where there will be continued questioning on the vote.
As for Trump, while it will be spun as a blow for him, within Republican circles, it's more likely to be seen as fuelling calls for McConnell to quit. There are plenty of Senators like Hawley, Cruz and Cotton who are positioning themselves for 2024 (or 2028, if Trump goes for the nomination again and they decide to be his wing-man, given Pence is unlikely to get that role). It's an easy line to take that McConnell cocked up by not backing the £2K proposal and the three quarters of Republican voters who think the election was stolen not need much persuading in believing the narrative that he has been complicit in allowing the election to be stolen.
Does anyone actually want McConnell's job though?
Group leader is a poisoned chalice if you've Presidential ambitions. It's powerful, but it's all about deal-making and disappointing people - you have to be flexible and thick skinned. If an ideologue fancies it, then bloody good luck to them brow-beating Collins, Murkowski, Romney etc. Biden has a lot to offer to a GOP Senator who wants infrastructure work in their state, or their name on legislation - what has the Senate Minority Leader got?
So again, what is the plan for Trump? Install a loyalist as Group leader to be ritually humiliated by swing Republicans? What's the point?
Even many Trump loyalist Republicans have to be thinking now "what if he dies? What if his legal problems worsen?" Spin only gets Trump so far with this - if he's serious on maintaining influence, he needs to think about what he's influencing and to what end.
You can see in the actions of Hawley and Cruz (interestingly not Cotton) that they think there is a boost to their presidential ambitions by tying themselves to Trump and I think that is right. I 'm not a great fan of the view that, if the Republicans bring in a Romney-style figure, they will see their fortunes improve. Politics has become increasingly tribal and it's about turnout. Bear in mind, this is an issue for the Democrats as well. Let's say Trump doesn't run again and you get, e.g. Hawley. What motivates the base?
There seems to be some confusion this morning if the elections are going ahead or not in May.
Surely worth delaying them to July. No need to have a mass superspreading event just as we're tipping the balance in our favour. Two more months means 20m more people jabbed and 14m more people immunised.
Just make them all-postal.
Counting will have to take a bit longer, but we delayed a whole heap of elections from last spring. There's no need to delay again.
Would 100% postal voting favour anybody in particular in Scotland?
Perhaps SCons and LDs delivering postal forms and generously offering themselves as return addresses gives a hint?
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
They've given up on the subtlety now. It's blatant cronyism. They may as well tear up the Nolan Principles for Public Life and put them in the bin.
Because of course Labour didn't use their patronage to stuff every public sector and quango post with their own placemen during their tenure? It's taken ten years of Conservative government to clear some of them out, and no doubt many still remain.
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
They've given up on the subtlety now. It's blatant cronyism. They may as well tear up the Nolan Principles for Public Life and put them in the bin.
That would please many politicians I know.
As would attacking the courts and judicial independence, which China is going to do next in HK.
The inability to even start vaccinating until next week is absolutely unforgivable.
I predict that the more Brexity end of the market is going to continue obsessing about what’s going on in the EU for a very, very long time.
Nothing to do with Brexit. This is just comparing large advanced nations with each other, especially if they are culturally similar. If Canada had fucked up like the Dutch I’d make the same comparison. And everyone compares European countries (in and out of the EU) with Australia and NZ
Meanwhile the day you stop obsessively comparing Scotland with England will be the day you snuff it. Which I hope is a long distant moment, of course.
Couple of questions about the vaccination. Will those vaccinated have some sort of certificate to say that the =vaccination has taken place? I can't imagine rocking up to a, for example, Thai airport and them happily accepting my word that I've been 'done'. and Has the Govt. done another U turn. It was reported the morning that pharmacies wouldn't be involved, but I'm sure I've seen somewhere, from later today, that they will?
You do get a card to say you have been vaccinated
The Government have not said they will not use Pharmacies. There are issues with the Pfizer vaccine as the whole stock must be used within a certain time and the Government requires Pharmacies to confirm that they will use them so as not waste any. Pharmacies will be fully involved in the Astrazeneca rollout as it lasts 6 months in a fridge.
Very revealing of some people's attitude....a person of a certain skin colour must have a certain opinion on particular issues because of their skin colour, they either just can't say it, they are lying or worst they are an Uncle Tom.
It could well have you going back to read the statement he released after the police killing of George Floyd and how far out of the way it went to empathize with law enforcement who “train so diligently to understand how, when and where to use force.” Those words, typical Woods, seemed so cautious and even cowardly then – especially when compared to the more assertive tone struck by Michael Jordan, the greatest political fence sitter of all time until last summer. But after watching the doc you appreciate the statement for what it is – the words of a man who is just trying to survive another day in America. Sounds mighty black to me.
Maybe like Billy Vunipola he isn't exactly on board with all of the BLM movement demands and prefers to be diplomatic / doesn't believe some of the demonstrable false claims in terms of how likely an unarmed black man will get gunned down by the police.
When my (black) wife worked in Hollywood when the OJ trial was going on, she mentioned to her co-workers that she thought OJ was guilty. One of them said "I always knew X wasn't Black"
Awful stuff.
Yup, mind you it did have its upside in a perverse way. She lived in Santa Monica at the time and drove through the areas with riots. The rioters didn't hassle her at all. Different case with her white colleagues who were being pulled out of cars and beaten.
Nothing from Raab so far on the Hong Kong arrests......
I sort of feel for him. Theres nothing anyone can do, China has won and the world isn't about to stop dealing with them, so his job will be to impotently protest. At best.
We could decide to reduce the amount we deal with them. A China Repression Tariff Escalator. A general tariff of x% on Chinese goods, increase it by x% a year while they violate standards on the rule of law and human rights.
It would give time for people to find alternatives as the tariffs ramped up over the years.
Apparently, according to an HK friend, the next expected move from the Chinese government will be to make dual nationality illegal. Except for the rich and powerful, of course.
And the courts are in their sights. Removing judicial independence and dismantling the largely English legal system will be next.
One of the magnificent achievements of the Patten deal for HK was that the Chinese government went from
- Round up all the police officers, magistrates, civil servants who collaborated with the British occupiers for the re-education camps. Yes, that was really what they were thinking of.....
and replacing it with
- They can all stay in post.
Which had massive effect on the *culture* of the law/government in HK.
The inability to even start vaccinating until next week is absolutely unforgivable.
I predict that the more Brexity end of the market is going to continue obsessing about what’s going on in the EU for a very, very long time.
Nothing to do with Brexit. This is just comparing large advanced nations with each other, especially if they are culturally similar. If Canada had fucked up like the Dutch I’d make the same comparison. And everyone compares European countries (in and out of the EU) with Australia and NZ
Meanwhile the day you stop obsessively comparing Scotland with England will be the day you snuff it. Which I hope is a long distant moment, of course.
How many spookily similar identities will you have gone through in that time? Looking like a three a year monkey on your back at the moment.
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
They've given up on the subtlety now. It's blatant cronyism. They may as well tear up the Nolan Principles for Public Life and put them in the bin.
Because of course Labour didn't use their patronage to stuff every public sector and quango post with their own placemen during their tenure? It's taken ten years of Conservative government to clear some of them out, and no doubt many still remain.
Do you really think that the answer to cronyism and corruption is more of it?
Perhaps you do. If so, it would explain a lot about the current Tory party.
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
They've given up on the subtlety now. It's blatant cronyism. They may as well tear up the Nolan Principles for Public Life and put them in the bin.
Because of course Labour didn't use their patronage to stuff every public sector and quango post with their own placemen during their tenure? It's taken ten years of Conservative government to clear some of them out, and no doubt many still remain.
In the example you are using the person Blair appointed was Gavyn Davies - who you can't really call a Labour placeman.
So does the GOP fall into civil war or does it reorganise and retake the House in 2022 ?
The GOP have got themselves into a dire position. Many of them know that the Trump core are batshit crazy / QAnon types but there are too many of them to ignore so they keep quiet because they are scared of them.
I don't see an easy path for any moderately sane Republican to win a GOP Primary. That's why we still have 10 GOP Senators about to humiliate themselves by still pretending Trump won the election.
IDK, parties nearly always pick a moderate against an incumbent, not least because if the governing side isn't contested then politics enthusiasts vote in the opposition race, especially where there are open primaries. It's not clear that Trump will be willing and able to run, and if he's not then it's not clear that anybody similar can pull off what he did.
In some cases you may be correct but I believe the GOP will be dancing to Trump's tune for the next 4 years.
Trump is a malign, vindictive and bullying individual who will take great pleasure in trying to destroy any Republican who has displeased him. The right really have taken the US into a very dark place and now the genii is out of the bottle it's not going to be easy to put it back.
I totally share your opinion on the damage done but I do not think Trump & Clan will be the ongoing political force that many fear (or hope if they're on the dark side). Soon he will out of the White House. He'll be an impeached and disgraced one term ex-president with big legal and money troubles who managed the remarkable negative feat of failing to win a 2nd term after just 4 years of his party in power and while he's at it losing both houses of Congress to the hated other.
From 20 Jan his world will shrink beyond recognition. The difference between being the American president and not being the American president is almost as stark as that between being dead or alive. He'll lose all the trappings of that great office - the most important of which was to have his bullshit piped into people's heads 24/7. Supporters will drift away, not to be replaced by new ones. It will be one way traffic. Drip drip drip until what's left is something not to be taken seriously. He might even realize this himself before too long and concentrate just on cashflow and staying out of jail. Perhaps a deal? Not sure on that one. We'll see.
But Donald Trump the fearsome politician is over. No doubt there will be other grisly characters (the lizard Ted Cruz?) who will battle to own the MAGA space in the GOP, and one will prevail and be a live contender for the 24 nomination, but that person will not be called Trump and they won't be able to recreate what he did in 15/16 because that stunning achievement owed so much to his personal brand and persona. So they won't win the nomination. The Republican Party might look beyond the pale now but my money is on them detoxifying. Looking forward to the opening of the WH24 betting.
I think even if Trump and Trump Jnr do not run in 2024 one of Pence or Cruz will be the GOP nominee, the GOP base are not going to pick an establishment and moderate 'RINO' as their nominee anytime soon
Trump is a cult.* His support will wane now but it won't readily transfer anywhere and certainly not to traditional Republicans. The GoP has a massive problem, very much of its own creation. It will do well to avoid a long period in the wilderness.
* For the avoidance of doubt this is not a typo.
It should be noted that the last time a party lost the White House after only 1 term, when Carter lost in 1980, it took the Democrats 12 years until Bill Clinton in 1992 before they won the White House again.
Which is not encouraging for the GOP, at least at the Presidential level
It should be noted that the last time I flipped 3 tails in a row on a Wednesday when the President-elect's surname began with B, it was followed by a run of two heads and a tail.
Couple of questions about the vaccination. Will those vaccinated have some sort of certificate to say that the =vaccination has taken place? I can't imagine rocking up to a, for example, Thai airport and them happily accepting my word that I've been 'done'. and Has the Govt. done another U turn. It was reported the morning that pharmacies wouldn't be involved, but I'm sure I've seen somewhere, from later today, that they will?
You do get a card to say you have been vaccinated
The Government have not said they will not use Pharmacies. There are issues with the Pfizer vaccine as the whole stock must be used within a certain time and the Government requires Pharmacies to confirm that they will use them so as not waste any. Pharmacies will be fully involved in the Astrazeneca rollout as it lasts 6 months in a fridge.
Thanks for info about the card.
Pharmacies and Pfizer was never a runner; it's needed new, suitable fridges in surgeries, and I wouldn't be too surprised if not all hospitals had adequate ones, either. Oxford/AstraZeneca (and the others coming on stream), shouldn't be a problem.
So does the GOP fall into civil war or does it reorganise and retake the House in 2022 ?
The GOP have got themselves into a dire position. Many of them know that the Trump core are batshit crazy / QAnon types but there are too many of them to ignore so they keep quiet because they are scared of them.
I don't see an easy path for any moderately sane Republican to win a GOP Primary. That's why we still have 10 GOP Senators about to humiliate themselves by still pretending Trump won the election.
IDK, parties nearly always pick a moderate against an incumbent, not least because if the governing side isn't contested then politics enthusiasts vote in the opposition race, especially where there are open primaries. It's not clear that Trump will be willing and able to run, and if he's not then it's not clear that anybody similar can pull off what he did.
In some cases you may be correct but I believe the GOP will be dancing to Trump's tune for the next 4 years.
Trump is a malign, vindictive and bullying individual who will take great pleasure in trying to destroy any Republican who has displeased him. The right really have taken the US into a very dark place and now the genii is out of the bottle it's not going to be easy to put it back.
I totally share your opinion on the damage done but I do not think Trump & Clan will be the ongoing political force that many fear (or hope if they're on the dark side). Soon he will out of the White House. He'll be an impeached and disgraced one term ex-president with big legal and money troubles who managed the remarkable negative feat of failing to win a 2nd term after just 4 years of his party in power and while he's at it losing both houses of Congress to the hated other.
From 20 Jan his world will shrink beyond recognition. The difference between being the American president and not being the American president is almost as stark as that between being dead or alive. He'll lose all the trappings of that great office - the most important of which was to have his bullshit piped into people's heads 24/7. Supporters will drift away, not to be replaced by new ones. It will be one way traffic. Drip drip drip until what's left is something not to be taken seriously. He might even realize this himself before too long and concentrate just on cashflow and staying out of jail. Perhaps a deal? Not sure on that one. We'll see.
But Donald Trump the fearsome politician is over. No doubt there will be other grisly characters (the lizard Ted Cruz?) who will battle to own the MAGA space in the GOP, and one will prevail and be a live contender for the 24 nomination, but that person will not be called Trump and they won't be able to recreate what he did in 15/16 because that stunning achievement owed so much to his personal brand and persona. So they won't win the nomination. The Republican Party might look beyond the pale now but my money is on them detoxifying. Looking forward to the opening of the WH24 betting.
I think even if Trump and Trump Jnr do not run in 2024 one of Pence or Cruz will be the GOP nominee, the GOP base are not going to pick an establishment and moderate 'RINO' as their nominee anytime soon
I'll be looking to lay all the MAGA types if that's the consensus view. I especially hope Trump himself and/or his offspring gets quoted at a layable price. But just to clarify, when I say the GOP will detoxify I don't mean they'll go back to a traditional Romney type necessarily. I can see the obstacles to that. What I mean is, they will junk softhead right populism of the Trump variety. They need a new offering and I'm expecting they will come up with one. The Dems will go with New American Dream, which will be powerful. MAGA has no chance against that.
There seems to be some confusion this morning if the elections are going ahead or not in May.
Surely worth delaying them to July. No need to have a mass superspreading event just as we're tipping the balance in our favour. Two more months means 20m more people jabbed and 14m more people immunised.
Just make them all-postal.
Counting will have to take a bit longer, but we delayed a whole heap of elections from last spring. There's no need to delay again.
Would 100% postal voting favour anybody in particular in Scotland?
Hard to tell. You'd expect it to increase turnout, so would favour those with stronger support in lower turnout groups. So perhaps the young, so perhaps the SNP.
But then, if enthusiasm to vote is stronger generally for SNP voters, eager to vote to free themselves from the yoke of Johnsonite oppression, it might favour parties whose supporters are currently a bit less enthused, perhaps Labour.
And then, voters more worried about Covid will be most likely to avoid polling stations, and although you can request a postal vote on demand that requires acting in advance - making the decisionuniversal catches some who would miss the deadline. But I don't know whether that breaks down on party lines much in Scotland.
Obviously your red pen is in constant action with all those ambitious targets never met.
Still, it makes for a great boardroom atmosphere until reality bites.
Boardroom ... ?
When someone is obviously too slow and pedestrian -- like an enormous reticulated truck trundling in the middle of the road and blocking speedier traffic -- it is only then do I suggest that they may need to look elsewhere.
Perhaps, I say, you may have a future in senior management in a UK boardroom.
Look, at these opportunities ... the Topping Fine Wine Company are looking to hire at a senior level. Just the job for you.
And here, what about Topping Hot Air Dirigibles -- they have ambitious plans to harness all the Topping Hot Air for balloons at children's parties. Could be the opportunity for you to make your name at an executive level?
Of course, they're making one plastic ballon at a time, but they could ramp up, if they hire someone of your ... err, talents ...
In the example you are using the person Blair appointed was Gavyn Davies - who you can't really call a Labour placeman.
Really? From the Font of All Human Knowledge:
Upon becoming Chairman Davies resigned his membership of the Labour Party.... Davies has in the past donated part of his wealth to the Labour Party, of which he had been a long-term supporter. His appointment as BBC chairman sparked allegations of cronyism from Opposition political parties - Davies' wife Sue Nye was a private secretary of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the pair are known to be good friends.
The inability to even start vaccinating until next week is absolutely unforgivable.
I think the issue in the countries that are in this position, is that they saw the vaccination as just another vaccination, at the fundamental organisational level. Normal process, important, but no rush.
In Germany there seem to be 2 problems: First a severe shortage of supply. This is going to be ongoing til some time in March, at the earliest. Second: administering the doses available. There are a bunch of issues. Health care is very fragmented, with all kinds of different organisations doing things. State governments are supposedly responsible, but the federal government is involved with the vaccine rollout. Care homes are supposed to be doing the first vaccinations, but don't necessarily have the ability to do it. Sometimes the GPs responsible closed their practices for the holidays and nothing could happen. Doses were supposed to be redirected to hospitals where frontline staff could have been vaccinated, but it seems there is nobody who can make that happen. Hopefully things will pick up this week, but the NHS should be much better placed to get this kind of thing going. Germany also in a normal year vaccinates far fewer older people against flu than the NHS manages.
Having said all that, several people have said to that they are happy that Britain and Israel are acting as "Guinea pigs" before everyone here gets vaccinated.
The inability to even start vaccinating until next week is absolutely unforgivable.
I predict that the more Brexity end of the market is going to continue obsessing about what’s going on in the EU for a very, very long time.
Nothing to do with Brexit. This is just comparing large advanced nations with each other, especially if they are culturally similar. If Canada had fucked up like the Dutch I’d make the same comparison. And everyone compares European countries (in and out of the EU) with Australia and NZ
Meanwhile the day you stop obsessively comparing Scotland with England will be the day you snuff it. Which I hope is a long distant moment, of course.
How many spookily similar identities will you have gone through in that time? Looking like a three a year monkey on your back at the moment.
We know the SE is fecked. More notable is the way Supercovid is SPREADING (and it is Supercovid doing this). Down into Cornwall, up into Scotland, across the Irish Sea (where 25% of cases are now Supercovid - and rising fast)
That’s the unnerving thing. I still believe we can outrun it with vaccines. Unless it mutates again....
Couple of questions about the vaccination. Will those vaccinated have some sort of certificate to say that the =vaccination has taken place? I can't imagine rocking up to a, for example, Thai airport and them happily accepting my word that I've been 'done'. and Has the Govt. done another U turn. It was reported the morning that pharmacies wouldn't be involved, but I'm sure I've seen somewhere, from later today, that they will?
You do get a card to say you have been vaccinated
The Government have not said they will not use Pharmacies. There are issues with the Pfizer vaccine as the whole stock must be used within a certain time and the Government requires Pharmacies to confirm that they will use them so as not waste any. Pharmacies will be fully involved in the Astrazeneca rollout as it lasts 6 months in a fridge.
Thanks for info about the card.
Pharmacies and Pfizer was never a runner; it's needed new, suitable fridges in surgeries, and I wouldn't be too surprised if not all hospitals had adequate ones, either. Oxford/AstraZeneca (and the others coming on stream), shouldn't be a problem.
Just had the online briefing from the Head Coach at the gym. Back into lockdown mode ("you all know the routine"), zoom workouts, discounted membership for anyone who needs it, individual online coaching and the rest.
Very unfortunate - we have just held the membership to the same as last March, and we were planning a January promotion.
Try again in May .
For me this is now the first anniversary of my personal lockdown, having had a nasty winter bug last year.
In the example you are using the person Blair appointed was Gavyn Davies - who you can't really call a Labour placeman.
Really? From the Font of All Human Knowledge:
Upon becoming Chairman Davies resigned his membership of the Labour Party.... Davies has in the past donated part of his wealth to the Labour Party, of which he had been a long-term supporter. His appointment as BBC chairman sparked allegations of cronyism from Opposition political parties - Davies' wife Sue Nye was a private secretary of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the pair are known to be good friends.
It would be very hard to argue that the Covid management, appointments and contracts over the last year haven't won an all-time, gold star for cronyism of all postwar UK governance. There might have been exceptional pressures, but they've revealed something rotten ; I can't think of anything like it.
Couple of questions about the vaccination. Will those vaccinated have some sort of certificate to say that the =vaccination has taken place? I can't imagine rocking up to a, for example, Thai airport and them happily accepting my word that I've been 'done'. and Has the Govt. done another U turn. It was reported the morning that pharmacies wouldn't be involved, but I'm sure I've seen somewhere, from later today, that they will?
You do get a card to say you have been vaccinated
The Government have not said they will not use Pharmacies. There are issues with the Pfizer vaccine as the whole stock must be used within a certain time and the Government requires Pharmacies to confirm that they will use them so as not waste any. Pharmacies will be fully involved in the Astrazeneca rollout as it lasts 6 months in a fridge.
Thanks for info about the card.
Pharmacies and Pfizer was never a runner; it's needed new, suitable fridges in surgeries, and I wouldn't be too surprised if not all hospitals had adequate ones, either. Oxford/AstraZeneca (and the others coming on stream), shouldn't be a problem.
The inability to even start vaccinating until next week is absolutely unforgivable.
I think the issue in the countries that are in this position, is that they saw the vaccination as just another vaccination, at the fundamental organisational level. Normal process, important, but no rush.
In Germany there seem to be 2 problems: First a severe shortage of supply. This is going to be ongoing til some time in March, at the earliest. Second: administering the doses available. There are a bunch of issues. Health care is very fragmented, with all kinds of different organisations doing things. State governments are supposedly responsible, but the federal government is involved with the vaccine rollout. Care homes are supposed to be doing the first vaccinations, but don't necessarily have the ability to do it. Sometimes the GPs responsible closed their practices for the holidays and nothing could happen. Doses were supposed to be redirected to hospitals where frontline staff could have been vaccinated, but it seems there is nobody who can make that happen. Hopefully things will pick up this week, but the NHS should be much better placed to get this kind of thing going. Germany also in a normal year vaccinates far fewer older people against flu than the NHS manages.
Having said all that, several people have said to that they are happy that Britain and Israel are acting as "Guinea pigs" before everyone here gets vaccinated.
What you are describing seems to be a collection of organisations that is proceeding on the "how we usually do it" basis.
If Perdue does lose I wonder if it will be the highest anyone has ever received in a first round before going on to lose. He got 49.7%
That is harrowing. He had the flake unwrapped and grazing the lips.
He will not be happy with the Donald, I wouldn't imagine.
Looking at which counties appear to have votes left to count, and comparing directly counties which appear to have completed counting, I think it's more likely than not that Perdue will lose by more than 1%. Not even close to recount terrritory, greater than Biden's margin over Trump and a marked turnaround from Perdue's November margin.
Trump will probably spin that along the lines that his presence on the ballot improved Republican chances in November compared to now. Sane Republicans (including the Trump bottom wipers like Perdue who only appear insane due to their sycophancy) will realise that they have gone backwards since November and it is reasonable for them to attribute at least some of that to Trump's attempts to subvert democracy.
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
They've given up on the subtlety now. It's blatant cronyism. They may as well tear up the Nolan Principles for Public Life and put them in the bin.
Because of course Labour didn't use their patronage to stuff every public sector and quango post with their own placemen during their tenure? It's taken ten years of Conservative government to clear some of them out, and no doubt many still remain.
Do you really think that the answer to cronyism and corruption is more of it?
Perhaps you do. If so, it would explain a lot about the current Tory party.
It's not even about partisan cronyism. The really striking thing is the extent to which a pretty tiny clique, most of them either married to each other or previously employed by each other, take all the plum roles.
And yes, it's happened before (Peter Jay, anyone?) but not to this extent.
As would attacking the courts and judicial independence, which China is going to do next in HK.
TBH I'm surprised that the original settlement has lasted as long as it has. But China under Xi Jinping is a whole new level of tyranny, not just in Hong Kong of course.
Quite how the Chinese government thinks that it can retain Hong Kong's position as a major financial centre and trading hub whilst arbitrarily arresting people, including foreigners, is a complete mystery. They seem to be spectacularly dumb.
In the example you are using the person Blair appointed was Gavyn Davies - who you can't really call a Labour placeman.
Really? From the Font of All Human Knowledge:
Upon becoming Chairman Davies resigned his membership of the Labour Party.... Davies has in the past donated part of his wealth to the Labour Party, of which he had been a long-term supporter. His appointment as BBC chairman sparked allegations of cronyism from Opposition political parties - Davies' wife Sue Nye was a private secretary of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the pair are known to be good friends.
It would be very hard to argue that the Covid management, appointments and contracts over the last year haven't won an all-time, gold star for cronyism in all postwar UK governance. There might have been exceptional pressures, but they've revealed something rotten ; I can't think of anything like it.
We have just had a letter in the post saying that my husband's 2nd vax due to be given next Tuesday is now postponed to March. Not happy.
Allowing another person to be immunised. Deal with it.
+1 - it's an example of common sense being followed to maximize the number of people vaccinated.
And, yes, the communication of this has been crap but hey our PM is a Mr B Johnson who has been shown to continually leave things to the last second in the hope that he doesn't need to announce anything awkward.
I've not been shouting about it, there is far too much chicken counting on here as elsewhere, but there have been some reasonably encouraging signs in Kent. The rate of increase in Swale, specifically Sheppy, ground zero for the new variant, has been dropping steadily, as have rates in neighbouring Canterbury and a number of other districts. So, fingers crossed, this lockdown will at least maintain that decline.
In the example you are using the person Blair appointed was Gavyn Davies - who you can't really call a Labour placeman.
Really? From the Font of All Human Knowledge:
Upon becoming Chairman Davies resigned his membership of the Labour Party.... Davies has in the past donated part of his wealth to the Labour Party, of which he had been a long-term supporter. His appointment as BBC chairman sparked allegations of cronyism from Opposition political parties - Davies' wife Sue Nye was a private secretary of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the pair are known to be good friends.
It would be very hard to argue that the Covid management, appointments and contracts over the last year haven't won an all-time, gold star for cronyism in all postwar UK governance. There might have been exceptional pressures, but they've revealed something rotten ; I can't think of anything like it.
New Labour was very similar.
New Labour produced nothing like the package of the cronyism of the government of the last 12 months. It had its own flaws, and it didn't face the same exceptional pressure ; but it didn't.
As mentioned below, the New Labour corruption tended to be via typical political patronage networks. This has often been more like the family-and-friend nepotism of other countries that Britain tended to avoid ; but not Trump's America, which has been the most relevant and current historical model.
We have just had a letter in the post saying that my husband's 2nd vax due to be given next Tuesday is now postponed to March. Not happy.
Allowing another person to be immunised. Deal with it.
+1 - it's an example of common sense being followed to maximize the number of people vaccinated.
And, yes, the communication of this has been crap but hey our PM is a Mr B Johnson who has been shown to continually leave things to the last second in the hope that he doesn't need to announce anything awkward.
Even though Pfizer has expressed concern about the effectiveness with this delay?
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
They've given up on the subtlety now. It's blatant cronyism. They may as well tear up the Nolan Principles for Public Life and put them in the bin.
Because of course Labour didn't use their patronage to stuff every public sector and quango post with their own placemen during their tenure? It's taken ten years of Conservative government to clear some of them out, and no doubt many still remain.
Do you really think that the answer to cronyism and corruption is more of it?
Perhaps you do. If so, it would explain a lot about the current Tory party.
I certainly don't believe in unilateral disarmament in politics based on nothing more than self-defeating naivety.
Perhaps you do - it would explain why the electoral causes you support keep losing.
Couple of questions about the vaccination. Will those vaccinated have some sort of certificate to say that the =vaccination has taken place? I can't imagine rocking up to a, for example, Thai airport and them happily accepting my word that I've been 'done'. and Has the Govt. done another U turn. It was reported the morning that pharmacies wouldn't be involved, but I'm sure I've seen somewhere, from later today, that they will?
You do get a card to say you have been vaccinated
The Government have not said they will not use Pharmacies. There are issues with the Pfizer vaccine as the whole stock must be used within a certain time and the Government requires Pharmacies to confirm that they will use them so as not waste any. Pharmacies will be fully involved in the Astrazeneca rollout as it lasts 6 months in a fridge.
Thanks for info about the card.
Pharmacies and Pfizer was never a runner; it's needed new, suitable fridges in surgeries, and I wouldn't be too surprised if not all hospitals had adequate ones, either. Oxford/AstraZeneca (and the others coming on stream), shouldn't be a problem.
God bless Oxford/AZ.
And the Govt. that bought 100 million doses.....
Everyone on this site applauds a winning bet. Unless of course, it's between two members!
It's absolutely not just the SE anymore. A selection of places with trajectories that will take them to SE levels (and beyond) within 14 days: all but 1 NI area, D&G, Inverclyde, Shetland (though % increase so much at the high end, this one likely not come to pass), Cumbria, Liverpool accent region (from Wrexham to West Lancs through Cheshire), much of Ribble Lancs, North Yorkshire, York, Sunderland, S. Tyneside, Hartlepool, W. Mids conurbation, S. Staffs, Northampton, Hampshire, IoW, Bournemouth, Cornwall, a number of areas from Thames Valley around to Norfolk. If today's figures are bad a whole bucket of others places will be added.
From Derry to the central belt, from Carlisle to Truro, we're in a terrible way. On hospital deaths measure, we will surpass the spring wave (split at the minimum deaths point at end of August) this week, with many deaths in the post before vaccination suppresses things.
In the example you are using the person Blair appointed was Gavyn Davies - who you can't really call a Labour placeman.
Really? From the Font of All Human Knowledge:
Upon becoming Chairman Davies resigned his membership of the Labour Party.... Davies has in the past donated part of his wealth to the Labour Party, of which he had been a long-term supporter. His appointment as BBC chairman sparked allegations of cronyism from Opposition political parties - Davies' wife Sue Nye was a private secretary of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the pair are known to be good friends.
It would be very hard to argue that the Covid management, appointments and contracts over the last year haven't won an all-time, gold star for cronyism in all postwar UK governance. There might have been exceptional pressures, but they've revealed something rotten ; I can't think of anything like it.
New Labour was very similar.
New Labour produced nothing like the package of the cronyism of the government of the last 12 months. It had its own flaws, and it didn't this this exceptional pressure ; but it didn't.
It really did. Look at all those quango appointments, including some which really should have been apolitical by any standard: head of Ofcom, head of BBC. And look at the dodgy links with Capita. It was very striking at the time.
As would attacking the courts and judicial independence, which China is going to do next in HK.
TBH I'm surprised that the original settlement has lasted as long as it has. But China under Xi Jinping is a whole new level of tyranny, not just in Hong Kong of course.
Quite how the Chinese government thinks that it can retain Hong Kong's position as a major financial centre and trading hub whilst arbitrarily arresting people, including foreigners, is a complete mystery. They seem to be spectacularly dumb.
One thing that seems to be becoming clearer, and it also involves what is happening with Jack Ma, is that China is turning inwards and that it's policy of trying to win hearts and minds by funding infrastructure projects, promising to uphold the international order etc now seems to have been ditched. I think it's likely what we see now is a China which is very much sui generis in many ways, and increasingly belligerent in how it gets its way (although I don't see them going for Taiwan - that's too much of a slap in the face for the US).
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
Perhaps take a look at the most corrupt country in Western Europe.
Wales ... where the Labour Party refused even to have a register of lobbyists in the Parliament (unlike England, Scotland or Stormont).
"It needs more thought", said Labour.
It would be nice if Labour actually practised what they preached in the one country in which they are in Government.
All public positions of any prominence in Wales are determined by closeness to Welsh Government ministers.
The inability to even start vaccinating until next week is absolutely unforgivable.
I predict that the more Brexity end of the market is going to continue obsessing about what’s going on in the EU for a very, very long time.
Nothing to do with Brexit. This is just comparing large advanced nations with each other, especially if they are culturally similar. If Canada had fucked up like the Dutch I’d make the same comparison. And everyone compares European countries (in and out of the EU) with Australia and NZ
Meanwhile the day you stop obsessively comparing Scotland with England will be the day you snuff it. Which I hope is a long distant moment, of course.
How many spookily similar identities will you have gone through in that time? Looking like a three a year monkey on your back at the moment.
There seems to be some confusion this morning if the elections are going ahead or not in May.
Surely worth delaying them to July. No need to have a mass superspreading event just as we're tipping the balance in our favour. Two more months means 20m more people jabbed and 14m more people immunised.
Just make them all-postal.
Counting will have to take a bit longer, but we delayed a whole heap of elections from last spring. There's no need to delay again.
Would 100% postal voting favour anybody in particular in Scotland?
Perhaps SCons and LDs delivering postal forms and generously offering themselves as return addresses gives a hint?
I hope there's not going to be any Big Steal type stuff going on! If Nicola goes Trumpy I'll give up.
But seriously, how do you mean? They deliver a ballot and ask the voter to send it to THEM instead of to the count centre?
In the example you are using the person Blair appointed was Gavyn Davies - who you can't really call a Labour placeman.
Really? From the Font of All Human Knowledge:
Upon becoming Chairman Davies resigned his membership of the Labour Party.... Davies has in the past donated part of his wealth to the Labour Party, of which he had been a long-term supporter. His appointment as BBC chairman sparked allegations of cronyism from Opposition political parties - Davies' wife Sue Nye was a private secretary of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the pair are known to be good friends.
It would be very hard to argue that the Covid management, appointments and contracts over the last year haven't won an all-time, gold star for cronyism in all postwar UK governance. There might have been exceptional pressures, but they've revealed something rotten ; I can't think of anything like it.
New Labour was very similar.
New Labour produced nothing like the package of the cronyism of the government of the last 12 months. It had its own flaws, and it didn't this this exceptional pressure ; but it didn't.
It really did. Look at all those quango appointments, including some which really should have been apolitical by any standard: head of Ofcom, head of BBC. And look at the dodgy links with Capita. It was very striking at the time.
These were cronyism of political and corporate networks. Johnson's government has introduced a regular cronyism of family and friend networks into contracts worth tens of billions of pounds ; that's new to Britain, at least in public sight ; which, again and most importantly, it seems completely untroubled by.
As would attacking the courts and judicial independence, which China is going to do next in HK.
TBH I'm surprised that the original settlement has lasted as long as it has. But China under Xi Jinping is a whole new level of tyranny, not just in Hong Kong of course.
Quite how the Chinese government thinks that it can retain Hong Kong's position as a major financial centre and trading hub whilst arbitrarily arresting people, including foreigners, is a complete mystery. They seem to be spectacularly dumb.
One thing that seems to be becoming clearer, and it also involves what is happening with Jack Ma, is that China is turning inwards and that it's policy of trying to win hearts and minds by funding infrastructure projects, promising to uphold the international order etc now seems to have been ditched. I think it's likely what we see now is a China which is very much sui generis in many ways, and increasingly belligerent in how it gets its way (although I don't see them going for Taiwan - that's too much of a slap in the face for the US).
Yes, I think that's right, although I'm not so confident about Taiwan.
Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine has become the second to receive approval from Europe’s medicines regulator, as authorities accelerate the roll-out of jabs aimed at curbing the pandemic amid worries about more infectious variants.
We haven't got any, and won't for months...but its approved.
We have just had a letter in the post saying that my husband's 2nd vax due to be given next Tuesday is now postponed to March. Not happy.
Allowing another person to be immunised. Deal with it.
+1 - it's an example of common sense being followed to maximize the number of people vaccinated.
And, yes, the communication of this has been crap but hey our PM is a Mr B Johnson who has been shown to continually leave things to the last second in the hope that he doesn't need to announce anything awkward.
Even though Pfizer has expressed concern about the effectiveness with this delay?
They would because the actual experimental evidence is with the delay it had so the frequentist approach is indeed "we don't have the evidence".
But Nate Silver has called this one correctly, I think. The Brits are taking a perfectly sensible Bayesian approach - frequentists aren't "wrong" as such but this is a situation to which Bayesian statistics are most applicable. There are reasonable a priori reasons to think a longer delay will be at least as effective if not more so - that might be wrong, but you tweak the strategy as data comes in.
We have just had a letter in the post saying that my husband's 2nd vax due to be given next Tuesday is now postponed to March. Not happy.
Allowing another person to be immunised. Deal with it.
+1 - it's an example of common sense being followed to maximize the number of people vaccinated.
And, yes, the communication of this has been crap but hey our PM is a Mr B Johnson who has been shown to continually leave things to the last second in the hope that he doesn't need to announce anything awkward.
Even though Pfizer has expressed concern about the effectiveness with this delay?
The regulator and leading scientists all over the world suggest a single jab has upwards of 70% efficacy, some think it could be as higher as 89%. It's also why Germany are seeking an extension to the 42 day maximum gap between jabs to 84 days as we've approved here.
We're all in this together and simply vaccinating a larger number people is better than vaccinating a smaller number. If that means people have to be careful for another 12 weeks (which is what people seem to be bitching about) then tough luck. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure that the health service keeps functioning for cancer patients, people who suffer strokes and heart attacks and all sorts of other life threatening medical problems that are being overlooked right now.
In the example you are using the person Blair appointed was Gavyn Davies - who you can't really call a Labour placeman.
Really? From the Font of All Human Knowledge:
Upon becoming Chairman Davies resigned his membership of the Labour Party.... Davies has in the past donated part of his wealth to the Labour Party, of which he had been a long-term supporter. His appointment as BBC chairman sparked allegations of cronyism from Opposition political parties - Davies' wife Sue Nye was a private secretary of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the pair are known to be good friends.
It would be very hard to argue that the Covid management, appointments and contracts over the last year haven't won an all-time, gold star for cronyism in all postwar UK governance. There might have been exceptional pressures, but they've revealed something rotten ; I can't think of anything like it.
New Labour was very similar.
New Labour produced nothing like the package of the cronyism of the government of the last 12 months. It had its own flaws, and it didn't this this exceptional pressure ; but it didn't.
It really did. Look at all those quango appointments, including some which really should have been apolitical by any standard: head of Ofcom, head of BBC. And look at the dodgy links with Capita. It was very striking at the time.
These were cronyism of political and corporate networks. Johnson's government has introduced regular cronyism of family and friend networks into contracts worth tens of billions of pounds ; it's new to Britain.
The contracts awarded to Capita under New Labour were massively bigger than anything the current government has awarded to cronies. Again from the Font of All Human Knowledge:
In 2006 Aldridge resigned as Executive Chairman of Capita after it was revealed that he had lent the Labour Party £1 million.[4] The loan, which was secret at the time it was made,[5] was controversial, in part, because Capita is a major public sector supplier.
As for family and friends, there were plenty of husbands/wives of Labour figures appointed to quangos.
Do any wine buffs know whether Barossa Valley Shiraz is any good?
Laithwaites are trying to sell me a case at half price.
Yes very good. Snap it up and I am heading to the site now.
Agreed! We are probably right at the sweet spot for online wine deals, before demand naturally spikes when people realise that Dry January is incompatible with being locked in our own homes for eight more weeks of winter.
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
They've given up on the subtlety now. It's blatant cronyism. They may as well tear up the Nolan Principles for Public Life and put them in the bin.
Because of course Labour didn't use their patronage to stuff every public sector and quango post with their own placemen during their tenure? It's taken ten years of Conservative government to clear some of them out, and no doubt many still remain.
Do you really think that the answer to cronyism and corruption is more of it?
Perhaps you do. If so, it would explain a lot about the current Tory party.
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
Perhaps take a look at the most corrupt country in Western Europe.
Wales ... where the Labour Party refused even to have a register of lobbyists in the Parliament (unlike England, Scotland or Stormont).
"It needs more thought", said Labour.
It would be nice if Labour actually practised what they preached in the one country in which they are in Government.
All public positions of any prominence in Wales are determined by closeness to Welsh Government ministers.
Many years ago I was part of a professional delegation to a small Mediterranean country. Our professional colleagues complained bitterly to us about the corruption locally. However, listening to them I formed the impression that it wasn't the corruption per se to which they objected; rather that as 'their friends' were out of office, they didn't get the benefit of it.
As would attacking the courts and judicial independence, which China is going to do next in HK.
TBH I'm surprised that the original settlement has lasted as long as it has. But China under Xi Jinping is a whole new level of tyranny, not just in Hong Kong of course.
Quite how the Chinese government thinks that it can retain Hong Kong's position as a major financial centre and trading hub whilst arbitrarily arresting people, including foreigners, is a complete mystery. They seem to be spectacularly dumb.
One thing that seems to be becoming clearer, and it also involves what is happening with Jack Ma, is that China is turning inwards and that it's policy of trying to win hearts and minds by funding infrastructure projects, promising to uphold the international order etc now seems to have been ditched. I think it's likely what we see now is a China which is very much sui generis in many ways, and increasingly belligerent in how it gets its way (although I don't see them going for Taiwan - that's too much of a slap in the face for the US).
Yes, I think that's right, although I'm not so confident about Taiwan.
If they go for Taiwan, then that is pretty much a declaration of war with the US.
At which point, the US tearing up all their Chinese owned debt would be legal - and customary....
As would attacking the courts and judicial independence, which China is going to do next in HK.
TBH I'm surprised that the original settlement has lasted as long as it has. But China under Xi Jinping is a whole new level of tyranny, not just in Hong Kong of course.
Quite how the Chinese government thinks that it can retain Hong Kong's position as a major financial centre and trading hub whilst arbitrarily arresting people, including foreigners, is a complete mystery. They seem to be spectacularly dumb.
One thing that seems to be becoming clearer, and it also involves what is happening with Jack Ma, is that China is turning inwards and that it's policy of trying to win hearts and minds by funding infrastructure projects, promising to uphold the international order etc now seems to have been ditched. I think it's likely what we see now is a China which is very much sui generis in many ways, and increasingly belligerent in how it gets its way (although I don't see them going for Taiwan - that's too much of a slap in the face for the US).
Yes, I think that's right, although I'm not so confident about Taiwan.
Yes, I'm not so confident on that. I don't think outright invasion as that would be too confrontational to the US but definitely far more pressure.
The NYSE also reversed the delisting of three Chinese telco companies which is not exactly a great signal.
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
Perhaps take a look at the most corrupt country in Western Europe.
Wales ... where the Labour Party refused even to have a register of lobbyists in the Parliament (unlike England, Scotland or Stormont).
"It needs more thought", said Labour.
It would be nice if Labour actually practised what they preached in the one country in which they are in Government.
All public positions of any prominence in Wales are determined by closeness to Welsh Government ministers.
If you are correct that should be more of a scandal indeed.
Couple of questions about the vaccination. Will those vaccinated have some sort of certificate to say that the =vaccination has taken place? I can't imagine rocking up to a, for example, Thai airport and them happily accepting my word that I've been 'done'. and Has the Govt. done another U turn. It was reported the morning that pharmacies wouldn't be involved, but I'm sure I've seen somewhere, from later today, that they will?
You do get a card to say you have been vaccinated
The Government have not said they will not use Pharmacies. There are issues with the Pfizer vaccine as the whole stock must be used within a certain time and the Government requires Pharmacies to confirm that they will use them so as not waste any. Pharmacies will be fully involved in the Astrazeneca rollout as it lasts 6 months in a fridge.
Thanks for info about the card.
Pharmacies and Pfizer was never a runner; it's needed new, suitable fridges in surgeries, and I wouldn't be too surprised if not all hospitals had adequate ones, either. Oxford/AstraZeneca (and the others coming on stream), shouldn't be a problem.
God bless Oxford/AZ.
And the Govt. that bought 100 million doses.....
Not to be churlish but how hard was that? Putting a big order in.
We have just had a letter in the post saying that my husband's 2nd vax due to be given next Tuesday is now postponed to March. Not happy.
Allowing another person to be immunised. Deal with it.
+1 - it's an example of common sense being followed to maximize the number of people vaccinated.
And, yes, the communication of this has been crap but hey our PM is a Mr B Johnson who has been shown to continually leave things to the last second in the hope that he doesn't need to announce anything awkward.
Even though Pfizer has expressed concern about the effectiveness with this delay?
The regulator and leading scientists all over the world suggest a single jab has upwards of 70% efficacy, some think it could be as higher as 89%. It's also why Germany are seeking an extension to the 42 day maximum gap between jabs to 84 days as we've approved here.
We're all in this together and simply vaccinating a larger number people is better than vaccinating a smaller number. If that means people have to be careful for another 12 weeks (which is what people seem to be bitching about) then tough luck. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure that the health service keeps functioning for cancer patients, people who suffer strokes and heart attacks and all sorts of other life threatening medical problems that are being overlooked right now.
OK. I am reassured a bit. I thought one jab was just 50 per cent effective. (I heard that on the BBC news)
As would attacking the courts and judicial independence, which China is going to do next in HK.
TBH I'm surprised that the original settlement has lasted as long as it has. But China under Xi Jinping is a whole new level of tyranny, not just in Hong Kong of course.
Quite how the Chinese government thinks that it can retain Hong Kong's position as a major financial centre and trading hub whilst arbitrarily arresting people, including foreigners, is a complete mystery. They seem to be spectacularly dumb.
Maybe they are prepared to take the hit. Emperor Xi may not care.
We have just had a letter in the post saying that my husband's 2nd vax due to be given next Tuesday is now postponed to March. Not happy.
Allowing another person to be immunised. Deal with it.
+1 - it's an example of common sense being followed to maximize the number of people vaccinated.
And, yes, the communication of this has been crap but hey our PM is a Mr B Johnson who has been shown to continually leave things to the last second in the hope that he doesn't need to announce anything awkward.
Even though Pfizer has expressed concern about the effectiveness with this delay?
The regulator and leading scientists all over the world suggest a single jab has upwards of 70% efficacy, some think it could be as higher as 89%. It's also why Germany are seeking an extension to the 42 day maximum gap between jabs to 84 days as we've approved here.
We're all in this together and simply vaccinating a larger number people is better than vaccinating a smaller number. If that means people have to be careful for another 12 weeks (which is what people seem to be bitching about) then tough luck. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure that the health service keeps functioning for cancer patients, people who suffer strokes and heart attacks and all sorts of other life threatening medical problems that are being overlooked right now.
OK. I am reassured a bit. I thought one jab was just 50 per cent effective. (I heard that on the BBC news)
It'll probably work out OK but I do share your concerns of essentially running a new single unblind, no placebo phase 3 trial on our most vulnerable.
Exactly. A more likely scenario is that McConnell is booted out.
And his supporters primaried where they can be over the next two years. In the real world, republican voters are appalled by the way some repubs are happy to work with the most hostile, left wing democrat party, well, ever.
Couple of questions about the vaccination. Will those vaccinated have some sort of certificate to say that the =vaccination has taken place? I can't imagine rocking up to a, for example, Thai airport and them happily accepting my word that I've been 'done'. and Has the Govt. done another U turn. It was reported the morning that pharmacies wouldn't be involved, but I'm sure I've seen somewhere, from later today, that they will?
You do get a card to say you have been vaccinated
The Government have not said they will not use Pharmacies. There are issues with the Pfizer vaccine as the whole stock must be used within a certain time and the Government requires Pharmacies to confirm that they will use them so as not waste any. Pharmacies will be fully involved in the Astrazeneca rollout as it lasts 6 months in a fridge.
Thanks for info about the card.
Pharmacies and Pfizer was never a runner; it's needed new, suitable fridges in surgeries, and I wouldn't be too surprised if not all hospitals had adequate ones, either. Oxford/AstraZeneca (and the others coming on stream), shouldn't be a problem.
God bless Oxford/AZ.
And the Govt. that bought 100 million doses.....
Not to be churlish but how hard was that? Putting a big order in.
Very, especially since our order involved a domestic manufacturing requirement rather than relying on the Serum Institute of India which has just been slapped with an export ban. We've basically grown a vaccine manufacturing industry in 9 months, something many thought would be impossible.
Couple of questions about the vaccination. Will those vaccinated have some sort of certificate to say that the =vaccination has taken place? I can't imagine rocking up to a, for example, Thai airport and them happily accepting my word that I've been 'done'. and Has the Govt. done another U turn. It was reported the morning that pharmacies wouldn't be involved, but I'm sure I've seen somewhere, from later today, that they will?
You do get a card to say you have been vaccinated
The Government have not said they will not use Pharmacies. There are issues with the Pfizer vaccine as the whole stock must be used within a certain time and the Government requires Pharmacies to confirm that they will use them so as not waste any. Pharmacies will be fully involved in the Astrazeneca rollout as it lasts 6 months in a fridge.
Thanks for info about the card.
Pharmacies and Pfizer was never a runner; it's needed new, suitable fridges in surgeries, and I wouldn't be too surprised if not all hospitals had adequate ones, either. Oxford/AstraZeneca (and the others coming on stream), shouldn't be a problem.
God bless Oxford/AZ.
And the Govt. that bought 100 million doses.....
Not to be churlish but how hard was that? Putting a big order in.
Too hard for any other single country on Earth, apparently.
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
They've given up on the subtlety now. It's blatant cronyism. They may as well tear up the Nolan Principles for Public Life and put them in the bin.
Because of course Labour didn't use their patronage to stuff every public sector and quango post with their own placemen during their tenure? It's taken ten years of Conservative government to clear some of them out, and no doubt many still remain.
Do you really think that the answer to cronyism and corruption is more of it?
Perhaps you do. If so, it would explain a lot about the current Tory party.
It's not even about partisan cronyism. The really striking thing is the extent to which a pretty tiny clique, most of them either married to each other or previously employed by each other, take all the plum roles.
And yes, it's happened before (Peter Jay, anyone?) but not to this extent.
The Red Wall types just love to see Goldman Sachs bankers who have mates in government get plum jobs running the BBC.
In the example you are using the person Blair appointed was Gavyn Davies - who you can't really call a Labour placeman.
Really? From the Font of All Human Knowledge:
Upon becoming Chairman Davies resigned his membership of the Labour Party.... Davies has in the past donated part of his wealth to the Labour Party, of which he had been a long-term supporter. His appointment as BBC chairman sparked allegations of cronyism from Opposition political parties - Davies' wife Sue Nye was a private secretary of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the pair are known to be good friends.
It would be very hard to argue that the Covid management, appointments and contracts over the last year haven't won an all-time, gold star for cronyism in all postwar UK governance. There might have been exceptional pressures, but they've revealed something rotten ; I can't think of anything like it.
New Labour was very similar.
New Labour produced nothing like the package of the cronyism of the government of the last 12 months. It had its own flaws, and it didn't this this exceptional pressure ; but it didn't.
It really did. Look at all those quango appointments, including some which really should have been apolitical by any standard: head of Ofcom, head of BBC. And look at the dodgy links with Capita. It was very striking at the time.
These were cronyism of political and corporate networks. Johnson's government has introduced regular cronyism of family and friend networks into contracts worth tens of billions of pounds ; it's new to Britain.
The contracts awarded to Capita under New Labour were massively bigger than anything the current government has awarded to cronies. Again from the Font of All Human Knowledge:
In 2006 Aldridge resigned as Executive Chairman of Capita after it was revealed that he had lent the Labour Party £1 million.[4] The loan, which was secret at the time it was made,[5] was controversial, in part, because Capita is a major public sector supplier.
As for family and friends, there were plenty of husbands/wives of Labour figures appointed to quangos.
I'm afraid not. The scale of the contracts awarded to personal networks this year far exceed any of those, partly because the once-in-a-century scale of the pandemic challenge has far exceeded any of those. The second reason is that the prevailing conservative political model from the USA, which British conservatives have closely shadowed for 50 years, has licensed that public lack of shame.
A former Goldman Sachs banker will this week be installed by Boris Johnson as the next BBC chairman amid a deepening debate about the fate of the television licence fee and unprecedented competition from commercial rivals.
Sky News has learnt that the government is preparing to announce the appointment of Richard Sharp as Sir David Clementi's successor as soon as Thursday.
Mr Sharp, who during his long career at Goldman was once Rishi Sunak's boss, has spent much of the past year as an unpaid adviser to the chancellor on the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic...
Mr Sharp was an adviser to the PM during the latter's time as mayor of London, and has historically been a donor to the Conservative Party, although one ally of the new BBC chair said he had given just £2,500 to it in the last decade.
The Guardian are going to have fits....and again it looks like jobs for your mates.
There's an incredibly casual, almost careless - in fact, almost proud - quality to the govrnment's cronyism. And again, it does have to be said that the current western government that most reminds of, is Trump's ; in a politer and subtler English version.
Perhaps take a look at the most corrupt country in Western Europe.
Wales ... where the Labour Party refused even to have a register of lobbyists in the Parliament (unlike England, Scotland or Stormont).
"It needs more thought", said Labour.
It would be nice if Labour actually practised what they preached in the one country in which they are in Government.
All public positions of any prominence in Wales are determined by closeness to Welsh Government ministers.
Many years ago I was part of a professional delegation to a small Mediterranean country. Our professional colleagues complained bitterly to us about the corruption locally. However, listening to them I formed the impression that it wasn't the corruption per se to which they objected; rather that as 'their friends' were out of office, they didn't get the benefit of it.
We have just had a letter in the post saying that my husband's 2nd vax due to be given next Tuesday is now postponed to March. Not happy.
Allowing another person to be immunised. Deal with it.
+1 - it's an example of common sense being followed to maximize the number of people vaccinated.
And, yes, the communication of this has been crap but hey our PM is a Mr B Johnson who has been shown to continually leave things to the last second in the hope that he doesn't need to announce anything awkward.
Even though Pfizer has expressed concern about the effectiveness with this delay?
The regulator and leading scientists all over the world suggest a single jab has upwards of 70% efficacy, some think it could be as higher as 89%. It's also why Germany are seeking an extension to the 42 day maximum gap between jabs to 84 days as we've approved here.
We're all in this together and simply vaccinating a larger number people is better than vaccinating a smaller number. If that means people have to be careful for another 12 weeks (which is what people seem to be bitching about) then tough luck. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure that the health service keeps functioning for cancer patients, people who suffer strokes and heart attacks and all sorts of other life threatening medical problems that are being overlooked right now.
OK. I am reassured a bit. I thought one jab was just 50 per cent effective. (I heard that on the BBC news)
That's based on a BMJ paper which looked at the downside and included infections during the initial 10 days after the jab, but we know there is a delay between day 0 of being jabbed and the the immune system being equipped to respond, we think it's about two weeks. Looking at the data for two weeks onwards after the first jab scientists think the single jab has 70-90% efficacy.
Still in your husband's position I'd be staying indoors and being careful for the next 12 weeks and then for another 2 weeks after the second jab. Just to be sure.
"The industry has been scathing, not just over the detail of the deal, but over Johnson’s “transparent attempt to present the meagre gains as a transformational leap forward”." Such guff also parroted on here. These fishermen should Know Their Place.
Given the orientation of the site, we can surely get someone to defend the EU's investment accord with China, following the latest moves to destroy democracy in Hong Kong.
Comments
(quickly checks...)
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Whether other countries are doing a meaningfully better job of axe-sharpening remains to be seen.
Don't forget just how much of the Hunt demonisation (and NHS privatisation) stuff last time around was conspiracy theories / lies. I'll post the text of Dr Eoin's apology to Virgin Healthcare for the lies he was boostering in a minute - it was glorious.
On Hunt as post-Boris Tory leader. Not sure. He drips London Stockbroker Belt, but he is also self-made unlike so many politicos who made their money from house price inflation on places funded by expenses. Not sure how that averages out in the red wall.
There would be a lot of performances a la Rosina Allin-Khan though .. repeating an outright lie about the Vaccine Rollout Minister to 200k people as part of the poke in the eye strategy (see her feed over time). That was a bigger blooper than the one that did for Katie Hopkins. A lot of people have internalised much of the made up anti-Hunt stuff.
I'd be more reassured by queues showing up at this stage tbh, and those empty shelves in Paris and Ireland, I guess must be happening here too. Many of us won't see what is happening till after lockdown.
Btw, I don't think it is likely any more, but Brussels not giving leeway on Rules of Origin for cross UK transit... I do still hold a little to my old pet theory of Ireland ending up in Customs Union with us (even if temporarily s part of a crisis) (note: that would not be a new status, EU, SM, Euro, but not CU is as per the Canary Isles) - Brussels inflexibility and lack of riding to Ireland's rescue could force such an issue, and it is a more than viable status to be put on the table for an independent Scotland too.
Geographically (which is what CUs usually come down to) there is sense, politically it would be a massive failure for Ireland: SF would be rubbing their hands.
Meanwhile the day you stop obsessively comparing Scotland with England will be the day you snuff it. Which I hope is a long distant moment, of course.
The Government have not said they will not use Pharmacies. There are issues with the Pfizer vaccine as the whole stock must be used within a certain time and the Government requires Pharmacies to confirm that they will use them so as not waste any. Pharmacies will be fully involved in the Astrazeneca rollout as it lasts 6 months in a fridge.
- Round up all the police officers, magistrates, civil servants who collaborated with the British occupiers for the re-education camps. Yes, that was really what they were thinking of.....
and replacing it with
- They can all stay in post.
Which had massive effect on the *culture* of the law/government in HK.
How many spookily similar identities will you have gone through in that time? Looking like a three a year monkey on your back at the moment.
Good job no-one lives there....
https://twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/1346791433123074048?s=20
Perhaps you do. If so, it would explain a lot about the current Tory party.
Portentous.
Pharmacies and Pfizer was never a runner; it's needed new, suitable fridges in surgeries, and I wouldn't be too surprised if not all hospitals had adequate ones, either. Oxford/AstraZeneca (and the others coming on stream), shouldn't be a problem.
But then, if enthusiasm to vote is stronger generally for SNP voters, eager to vote to free themselves from the yoke of Johnsonite oppression, it might favour parties whose supporters are currently a bit less enthused, perhaps Labour.
And then, voters more worried about Covid will be most likely to avoid polling stations, and although you can request a postal vote on demand that requires acting in advance - making the decisionuniversal catches some who would miss the deadline. But I don't know whether that breaks down on party lines much in Scotland.
When someone is obviously too slow and pedestrian -- like an enormous reticulated truck trundling in the middle of the road and blocking speedier traffic -- it is only then do I suggest that they may need to look elsewhere.
Perhaps, I say, you may have a future in senior management in a UK boardroom.
Look, at these opportunities ... the Topping Fine Wine Company are looking to hire at a senior level. Just the job for you.
And here, what about Topping Hot Air Dirigibles -- they have ambitious plans to harness all the Topping Hot Air for balloons at children's parties. Could be the opportunity for you to make your name at an executive level?
Of course, they're making one plastic ballon at a time, but they could ramp up, if they hire someone of your ... err, talents ...
Upon becoming Chairman Davies resigned his membership of the Labour Party.... Davies has in the past donated part of his wealth to the Labour Party, of which he had been a long-term supporter. His appointment as BBC chairman sparked allegations of cronyism from Opposition political parties - Davies' wife Sue Nye was a private secretary of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the pair are known to be good friends.
First a severe shortage of supply. This is going to be ongoing til some time in March, at the earliest.
Second: administering the doses available. There are a bunch of issues. Health care is very fragmented, with all kinds of different organisations doing things. State governments are supposedly responsible, but the federal government is involved with the vaccine rollout. Care homes are supposed to be doing the first vaccinations, but don't necessarily have the ability to do it. Sometimes the GPs responsible closed their practices for the holidays and nothing could happen. Doses were supposed to be redirected to hospitals where frontline staff could have been vaccinated, but it seems there is nobody who can make that happen. Hopefully things will pick up this week, but the NHS should be much better placed to get this kind of thing going.
Germany also in a normal year vaccinates far fewer older people against flu than the NHS manages.
Having said all that, several people have said to that they are happy that Britain and Israel are acting as "Guinea pigs" before everyone here gets vaccinated.
The US is doing a lot of vaccinations, but proportionately, not well. The whole process is fucked up, there.
That’s the unnerving thing. I still believe we can outrun it with vaccines. Unless it mutates again....
"Well, it's a marathon, don't you know, not a spri.... erk! Aaagh!"
Very unfortunate - we have just held the membership to the same as last March, and we were planning a January promotion.
Try again in May
For me this is now the first anniversary of my personal lockdown, having had a nasty winter bug last year.
https://twitter.com/mrkenshabby/status/1346790022545100800?s=21
Trump will probably spin that along the lines that his presence on the ballot improved Republican chances in November compared to now. Sane Republicans (including the Trump bottom wipers like Perdue who only appear insane due to their sycophancy) will realise that they have gone backwards since November and it is reasonable for them to attribute at least some of that to Trump's attempts to subvert democracy.
And yes, it's happened before (Peter Jay, anyone?) but not to this extent.
Quite how the Chinese government thinks that it can retain Hong Kong's position as a major financial centre and trading hub whilst arbitrarily arresting people, including foreigners, is a complete mystery. They seem to be spectacularly dumb.
And, yes, the communication of this has been crap but hey our PM is a Mr B Johnson who has been shown to continually leave things to the last second in the hope that he doesn't need to announce anything awkward.
Laithwaites are trying to sell me a case at half price.
As mentioned below, the New Labour corruption tended to be via typical political patronage networks. This has often been more like the family-and-friend nepotism of other countries that Britain tended to avoid ; but not Trump's America, which has been the most relevant and current historical model.
https://twitter.com/suzjamieson/status/1346788021161648131?s=21
Perhaps you do - it would explain why the electoral causes you support keep losing.
From Derry to the central belt, from Carlisle to Truro, we're in a terrible way. On hospital deaths measure, we will surpass the spring wave (split at the minimum deaths point at end of August) this week, with many deaths in the post before vaccination suppresses things.
https://twitter.com/HotlineJosh/status/1346774491247108097
Wales ... where the Labour Party refused even to have a register of lobbyists in the Parliament (unlike England, Scotland or Stormont).
"It needs more thought", said Labour.
It would be nice if Labour actually practised what they preached in the one country in which they are in Government.
All public positions of any prominence in Wales are determined by closeness to Welsh Government ministers.
Over 75s with pre-existing conditions like "camping out for a Grateful Dead concert" in a queue at 1.30am in the morning.
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/health/2021/01/05/dr-sanjay-gupta-parents-vaccine-florida-newday-vpx.cnn
But seriously, how do you mean? They deliver a ballot and ask the voter to send it to THEM instead of to the count centre?
We haven't got any, and won't for months...but its approved.
But Nate Silver has called this one correctly, I think. The Brits are taking a perfectly sensible Bayesian approach - frequentists aren't "wrong" as such but this is a situation to which Bayesian statistics are most applicable. There are reasonable a priori reasons to think a longer delay will be at least as effective if not more so - that might be wrong, but you tweak the strategy as data comes in.
We're all in this together and simply vaccinating a larger number people is better than vaccinating a smaller number. If that means people have to be careful for another 12 weeks (which is what people seem to be bitching about) then tough luck. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure that the health service keeps functioning for cancer patients, people who suffer strokes and heart attacks and all sorts of other life threatening medical problems that are being overlooked right now.
Trump has more
In 2006 Aldridge resigned as Executive Chairman of Capita after it was revealed that he had lent the Labour Party £1 million.[4] The loan, which was secret at the time it was made,[5] was controversial, in part, because Capita is a major public sector supplier.
As for family and friends, there were plenty of husbands/wives of Labour figures appointed to quangos.
A more likely scenario is that McConnell is booted out.
At which point, the US tearing up all their Chinese owned debt would be legal - and customary....
The NYSE also reversed the delisting of three Chinese telco companies which is not exactly a great signal.
I think JVT explained it thusly
If you give 10 people 2 jabs, 9 of them are protected.
If you give 20 people 1 jab, 12 of them are protected.
The second one sounds better, except you have to work on the assumption that all of them are not protected so you are still locked down
Still in your husband's position I'd be staying indoors and being careful for the next 12 weeks and then for another 2 weeks after the second jab. Just to be sure.
Scott?
TSE?