Influential backbencher Steve Baker has told colleagues “its inevitable the Prime Minister’s leadership will be on the table" unless lockdown path given. Says: "People are telling me they are losing faith in our Conservative Party leadership.” https://t.co/CC4hsEq5DL
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Boris Johnson's vaccine strategy might be the reason we might all end focussing on domestic matters earlier than most.
His views are much more mainstream in the Tory party than the media; and in many of the safer, Torier parties of the country, an end to lockdown is desired much more than endless furlough.
A chart of the Scottish Independence polling with a line pointing out when Boris Johnson became Minister for the Union.
More like Minister for Scottish Independence.
Is Impfstoffselbstzufriedenheit a word in German?
The bastards on the right always win.
That could all change, natch. Esp if they get one of the exciting new upgraded viruses
There may be a handful of those. But the vast majority of us who favour restrictions absolutely hate them. Any sort of lockdown is abject misery, and to be avoided if at all possible. But needs must, and when thousands are dying and becoming seriously ill we need to do it. They just don't get it.
https://twitter.com/pressgazette/status/1349737759338946564
Baker asking for a timetable is probably a bit previous given we haven't yet got the data we need, but I'd rather have that pressure on than not.
The majority of the time I won't agree with him but see more value in him as a politician than most of his colleagues who will spout whatever dear leader and the press want them to, even when they know its nonsense.
https://twitter.com/Andrew_Adonis/status/1349759811706101761?s=20
This prediction is probably right, but not certain. If they get Supercovid it could run riot. They won't overtake us in total deaths by then for sure, but they could come close to our daily deaths. Germany has been close in recent days.
I absolutely despise them but I see the science and well the greater good.
It is from the right that the pressure for 24/7 vaccinations have come. It was from the right that the pressure for parliamentary scrutiny of new regs has come.
The right are driving better decision making. Starmer might learn something from that....if he wasn't dominated by the union position.
https://twitter.com/EightyFivePoint/status/1349725331977089024?s=19
You know, the ones who decide what Tory policy is going to be in 2 years' time.
My severely autistic son HATES the lockdown period.
I'm not exactly overly fond of it myself.
But it's necessary.
How anyone can look at anything from Young, Yeadon, Sikora, Hartley-Brewer, Pearsson, and Gupta and say "Well, maybe NOW they're right..." beggars belief.
Young's been going around deleting virtually every tweet he wrote on it last year. Someone even put up a snazzy infographic of their greatest hits here: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eq5KU1WXMAAGMgh?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
To me this reads more as - unlock when the vulnerable have been done by early to mid Spring, do not for a moment consider thinking about what Whitty and Valance are going to tell you about keeping lockdown until summer or even autumn i.e. waiting until everyone over 40 has been done.
The latter strategy will not get the votes without embarrassing and possibly fatal (for boris) reliance on Starmer.
I'm pretty sure the votes (from the Tory benches at least) disappear at the end of March. Easter is pushing it.
Starmer of course will keep bravely abstaining or voting with the Govt, which is why only threats of a leadership challenge work. Baker of course knows this. A smart cookie. His positions are only made stronger by people who underestimate him.
Everyone apart from Baker and a handful of nutters (both left and right) know that the one thing you can't do with this crisis is plot a timetable. Understandable a year ago but nor now. It's a non story.
Toby Young writing an article he was clueless about
The Telegraph posting it as it represented their viewpoint
or the IPSO actually saying it was crap.
All 3 seem normal to me given that the IPSO has spent 6 months debating it before publishing their response.
Coalition at risk amid fallout from tax authorities wrongly ‘hunting down’ thousands of families"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/14/dutch-government-faces-collapse-over-child-benefits-scandal
"Italy facing political crisis after ex-PM withdraws party from coalition
Loss of Matteo Renzi’s Italia Viva party comes as country struggles with Covid and economic crises"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/13/italy-facing-fresh-elections-after-ex-pm-withdraws-party-from-coalition
The vaccination centre was very well organised, everything ran very smoothly. They were giving the Pfizer jab which is significantly slower than giving the AZ one. Despite that she did 82 people in just under 4 hours. There were 6 nurses and they got through around 500 people in one afternoon.
I very much doubt we will have a 'normal' this year.
However, it does sort of need the centrist Conservatives to stop being jellyfish and take the party back.
There needs to be an aim. To give those businesses, and employees, and families planning a wedding, some hope. Without hope we're headed for 30%....
Compromise is probably to say 'when we get to fewer than x hospitalisations for Covid'.
As far as the market is concerned, it's as if he has not spoken.
Ian Graham PhD in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge, Tim Waskett, an astrophysicist, and Will Spearman has like ten degrees and worked for NASA.
That's just the head of the data team, they've got dozens of staff as well.