Thinking about Labour's task, I think the word that they should be promoting is 'real'. Remember 'real' politics and 'real' politicians helping 'real' people. Holyrood, and arguably Westminster (let's leave the shambles of Wales to one side...) are ruled by caricature Governments, fighting ideological battles.
Which brings us to an interesting point - his overtly racist stuff is de-emphasised or not published. So younger, recent readers don't realise quite you bad some of his stuff is.
Bit like Kipling. I found a complete works of his, in a library sale, years ago. The stories in India and the journalism range from insightful and very empathetic to stuff that was Der Sturmer grade.
Kipling was an absolutely fantastic and very varied writer, nothing like the caricature of him which has become accepted wisdom in the UK. Definitely worth anyone's time: Kim is sheer genius from beginning to end, enjoyable on so many different levels (and an amazing introduction to India, one which remains relevant even today). Plain Tales from the Raj and the other short stories of that era are wonderfully sly observations of the British in India. And the late short stories are different again, the diametric opposite of tub-thumping Jingoism of which he's wrongly accused. Some of them are small masterpieces of anti-war polemic, like this wonderfully chilling and thought-provoking gem:
There's a very good TV drama of the tragedy of his son in WW1 with Daniel Ratcliffe. Kipling apparently pulled strings to get his son enlisted after he was initially turned down on health grounds.
The poor young man then either perished or went MIA on the Western Front.
It haunted Kipling until his own passing, sadly
A dead statesman
I could not dig: I dared not rob: Therefore I lied to please the mob. Now all my lies are proved untrue And I must face the men I slew. What tale shall serve me here among Mine angry and defrauded young?
Which brings us to an interesting point - his overtly racist stuff is de-emphasised or not published. So younger, recent readers don't realise quite you bad some of his stuff is.
Bit like Kipling. I found a complete works of his, in a library sale, years ago. The stories in India and the journalism range from insightful and very empathetic to stuff that was Der Sturmer grade.
Kipling was an absolutely fantastic and very varied writer, nothing like the caricature of him which has become accepted wisdom in the UK. Definitely worth anyone's time: Kim is sheer genius from beginning to end, enjoyable on so many different levels (and an amazing introduction to India, one which remains relevant even today). Plain Tales from the Raj and the other short stories of that era are wonderfully sly observations of the British in India. And the late short stories are different again, the diametric opposite of tub-thumping Jingoism of which he's wrongly accused. Some of them are small masterpieces of anti-war polemic, like this wonderfully chilling and thought-provoking gem:
There's a very good TV drama of the tragedy of his son in WW1 with Daniel Ratcliffe. Kipling apparently pulled strings to get his son enlisted after he was initially turned down on health grounds.
The poor young man then either perished or went MIA on the Western Front.
It haunted Kipling until his own passing, sadly
A dead statesman
I could not dig: I dared not rob: Therefore I lied to please the mob. Now all my lies are proved untrue And I must face the men I slew. What tale shall serve me here among Mine angry and defrauded young?
It's the EU's insistence that the border must be enforced which is the issue.
NI is part of the UK customs zone. Have a "trusted trader" process that allows shipping from NI to RoI.
The amount of "non-compliant" product that will be smuggled from the UK to the EU via NI and RoI will be minimal. But if volumes start going up suspiciously in Belfast then you take action at that point.
Just turn a blind eye to the small abuses.
Which provisions of the EU Treaties would give the Commission or the Republic the power to do that?
Their ability to negotiate agreements.
Negotiate a trusted trader scheme and self declaration. Negotiate mutual recognition of SPS.
It's the EU's insistence that the border must be enforced which is the issue.
NI is part of the UK customs zone. Have a "trusted trader" process that allows shipping from NI to RoI.
The amount of "non-compliant" product that will be smuggled from the UK to the EU via NI and RoI will be minimal. But if volumes start going up suspiciously in Belfast then you take action at that point.
Just turn a blind eye to the small abuses.
Which provisions of the EU Treaties would give the Commission or the Republic the power to do that?
Their ability to negotiate agreements.
Negotiate a trusted trader scheme and self declaration. Negotiate mutual recognition of SPS.
In extremely confused MSM news, it now transpires that our hero's demise may been caused by an infection he contracted whilst in the care of our wonderful NHS.
Which.....er.......he campaigned so heroically to fund.
Oh......umm......
My dad died from covid he caught in hospital
I can't blame them for that - are you saying I should?
Sorry to hear of your loss.
My sister's partner also died of Covid, not caught in hospital.
Everyone's had it offered. People have the right to refuse it though. Do you want them to jab people who've refused it?
What kind of frigging point are you trying to make? Have Scottish doctors been jabbing people who refused to give consent? Is that a difference?
Calm down, you're not even on your 12th coffee yet. Shouldn't you be asking what frigging point is Ch4 journo Alex Thomson trying to make?
Not sure what your obsession is about my coffees lately. I haven't mentioned coffee in ages. I've probably only had about 6 or 7 so far today, but I don't keep count. Typically 1 an hour on average for most of the day, what's the big deal about that? 🤷🏻♂️
It's just the 'unmooring' effect it has on you, that's all. It's a worry. We have each other's backs on here.
Duty done, OxAZ. Like nothing. Hard to believe such a miniscule prick could so important to self and community.
Look, we've done Gove already today.
Very funny. But seriously, why are the Belgies and the Swiss following the Germans and French in denying it to the over 60s in the midst of an epidemic? Just the time 'any port in a storm' should be the watchword.
It's the EU's insistence that the border must be enforced which is the issue.
NI is part of the UK customs zone. Have a "trusted trader" process that allows shipping from NI to RoI.
The amount of "non-compliant" product that will be smuggled from the UK to the EU via NI and RoI will be minimal. But if volumes start going up suspiciously in Belfast then you take action at that point.
Just turn a blind eye to the small abuses.
Which provisions of the EU Treaties would give the Commission or the Republic the power to do that?
Their ability to negotiate agreements.
Negotiate a trusted trader scheme and self declaration. Negotiate mutual recognition of SPS.
To do otherwise was a choice.
The UK refused to negotiate mutual recognition of SPS, and was in far too much of a completely unnecessary hurry to agree anything else. The choice was the UK's. Everyone said it was barmy, the EU made it clear that more time was required, but, no, Boris blundered into an agreement cobbled together without thought and which he doesn't seem to have read or understood, with just a couple of days for parliament to 'scrutinise' and for business to make preparations, without the administrative systems being ready.
There ain't no getting away from where the blame lies: Boris.
Of course you can be left-wing and patriotic. Jim Callaghan, Harold Wilson, Clement Atlee, George Orwell, etc.
Telling that one has to reach for figures from 40, 50, and 80 years ago...
Yep. Before we became an oligarchy.
Now anybody who threatens the ruling class's grip on assets is attacked on "patriotic" grounds (I suppose they always were, but now there's really no right or power of reply).
It works, of course. Look at the dumbass flag-waving even on here, among people who are quite erudite and measured on many matters.
Unfortunately for your thesis, the Corbyn period demonstrated quite clearly that the types who want to steal our assets are very often also anti-patriots. Tell the British that you want to take their cash and their country, and those supposed 'few' will crush you at the ballot box in their millions.
Well that's a bit of revolving bow-tie nonsense. In 17 it was close and 19 was a quasi rerun of the Brexit referendum in a climate where the only question was how big the Con majority would be.
It's just as valid to say that 19 was not close and that 17 was a quasi rerun of the Brexit referendum in a climate where half the electorate wanted to give the Tories a good kicking by any means necessary, and the usual non-voters who swung the referendum for Leave went back to their usual patterns of Not Turning Up.
A very fair comment. Brexit flattered Labour in 17 and killed them in 19. Their "par score" (if you will) was between the two - but nearer 17 since Brexit was a stronger factor in 19 than it was then. So about 250 seats. A Left Labour offering with a wildly unsuitable leader scores 250 seats. This means if you replace the leader with an upgrade (done) but stay to the Left (although not with exactly the same policies) you can win. You might not, but you most certainly can. That's my analysis and it's bulletproof. No amount of waffle or facetious one-liners from Tory Story propaganda merchants changes a damn thing about it or detracts from its essential truth.
I can't tell.
Starmer may make Labour acceptable (not for me, because dangling off TU apron strings and the remaining cabal of very questionable MPs anti-semitism wise are show stoppers for me), but the next Election is the Tories' to win or lose.
Which will be determined imo by if they deliver (Red Wall needs to have seen something tangible - one reason the South-shifting Council Tax proposals look interesting), and there are COVID effects, and Post-Brexit effects.
I have no idea how it will turn out, which is why I stopped betting on Elections after a slightly expensive 2017.
No, me neither. I have not developed an intuition of any sort about GE24. It's ages away. Could be another Con landslide, could be a Labour outright win, could be a hung parliament. The only thing I've ruled out is a Labour landslide. The core of Tory/Leave support precludes that. Re betting, I'm starting to place modest money on Cons largest party at 1.8 (which I think is too big) but that's all.
I agree and nobody can have a clue how 2024 pans out at this time
Duty done, OxAZ. Like nothing. Hard to believe such a miniscule prick could so important to self and community.
Look, we've done Gove already today.
Very funny. But seriously, why are the Belgies and the Swiss following the Germans and French in denying it to the over 60s in the midst of an epidemic? Just the time 'any port in a storm' should be the watchword.
My guess is that since they can't actually deliver vaccine yet, they are making a virtue out of reality.
Sounds like a coordinated masterstroke by Johnson and Gove exploiting the EU being on the back foot for all it's worth. Good.
He is absolutely 100% correct the solution needs to be political not technical. Technicalities can follow the politics once agreed, the political principles need agreeing first.
Which brings us to an interesting point - his overtly racist stuff is de-emphasised or not published. So younger, recent readers don't realise quite you bad some of his stuff is.
Bit like Kipling. I found a complete works of his, in a library sale, years ago. The stories in India and the journalism range from insightful and very empathetic to stuff that was Der Sturmer grade.
Kipling was an absolutely fantastic and very varied writer, nothing like the caricature of him which has become accepted wisdom in the UK. Definitely worth anyone's time: Kim is sheer genius from beginning to end, enjoyable on so many different levels (and an amazing introduction to India, one which remains relevant even today). Plain Tales from the Raj and the other short stories of that era are wonderfully sly observations of the British in India. And the late short stories are different again, the diametric opposite of tub-thumping Jingoism of which he's wrongly accused. Some of them are small masterpieces of anti-war polemic, like this wonderfully chilling and thought-provoking gem:
There's a very good TV drama of the tragedy of his son in WW1 with Daniel Ratcliffe. Kipling apparently pulled strings to get his son enlisted after he was initially turned down on health grounds.
The poor young man then either perished or went MIA on the Western Front.
It haunted Kipling until his own passing, sadly
A dead statesman
I could not dig: I dared not rob: Therefore I lied to please the mob. Now all my lies are proved untrue And I must face the men I slew. What tale shall serve me here among Mine angry and defrauded young?
That is quite brilliant
Yes... and another favourite -
Fight To A Finish
The boys came back. Bands played and flags were flying, And Yellow-Pressmen thronged the sunlit street To cheer the soldiers who’d refrained from dying, And hear the music of returning feet. ‘Of all the thrills and ardours War has brought, This moment is the finest.’ (So they thought.)
Snapping their bayonets on to charge the mob, Grim Fusiliers broke ranks with glint of steel, At last the boys had found a cushy job.
I heard the Yellow-Pressmen grunt and squeal; And with my trusty bombers turned and went To clear those Junkers out of Parliament.
If Keir really has 'clocked' Johnson it will boost his personality rating, I'd have thought. The thing you (imo astutely) reckon is needed to have a chance of winning elections these days.
In extremely confused MSM news, it now transpires that our hero's demise may been caused by an infection he contracted whilst in the care of our wonderful NHS.
Which.....er.......he campaigned so heroically to fund.
Oh......umm......
My dad died from covid he caught in hospital
I can't blame them for that - are you saying I should?
Sorry to hear of your loss.
My sister's partner also died of Covid, not caught in hospital.
And the blame lies with the Prime Minister.
Don't blame anyone. That way is a bad place.
Both my parents has "hospital contracted infection" as one of several on the death certificates.
They may well have gone similarly without the hosp. bits.
Of course Starmer was livid - because his own words firmly put him on the wrong side of the EU vaccine debate. A more toxic position it is hard to imagine in the current atmosphere. No wonder he blew a fuse.
Why doesn't the sun set on the British Empire? Because God doesn't trust them in the dark!
The Arabs preferred:
It is better to be an enemy of the British than their friend. They buy their enemies - and sell their friends
Interesting that the Egyptians are separated from the Arabs ...
The comments were from the end of the 19th century/early 20th century when "Arabs" referred to inhabitants of Arabia rather than the wider definition that it has subsequently(?) developed.
Of course Starmer was livid - because his own words firmly put him on the wrong side of the EU vaccine debate. A more toxic position it is hard to imagine in the current atmosphere. No wonder he blew a fuse.
What do you mean the "wrong side"?
I thought we would have been better joining the EU vaccine procurement programme. Clearly that position was simply wrong and I am now fully supportive of our own vaccine procurement programme, and indeed grateful for it.
In extremely confused MSM news, it now transpires that our hero's demise may been caused by an infection he contracted whilst in the care of our wonderful NHS.
Which.....er.......he campaigned so heroically to fund.
Oh......umm......
My dad died from covid he caught in hospital
I can't blame them for that - are you saying I should?
Sorry to hear of your loss.
My sister's partner also died of Covid, not caught in hospital.
And the blame lies with the Prime Minister.
Don't blame anyone. That way is a bad place.
Both my parents has "hospital contracted infection" as one of several on the death certificates.
They may well have gone similarly without the hosp. bits.
Life's too short to chase something so nebulous.
I think we all know someone whose elderly relative went into hospital with something relatively minor or routine, and ended up declining and dying due to hospital acquired illnesses. It would be wrong, and wholly self-defeating, to seek personal vengeance, but it is not wrong to hope, work, or campaign for situation where this stops happening.
Of course Starmer was livid - because his own words firmly put him on the wrong side of the EU vaccine debate. A more toxic position it is hard to imagine in the current atmosphere. No wonder he blew a fuse.
What do you mean the "wrong side"?
I thought we would have been better joining the EU vaccine procurement programme. Clearly that position was simply wrong and I am now fully supportive of our own vaccine procurement programme, and indeed grateful for it.
What about that is particularly controversial?
His instinctive reaction was wrong.
And he has now admitted he said what Boris said he said.
Why doesn't the sun set on the British Empire? Because God doesn't trust them in the dark!
The Arabs preferred:
It is better to be an enemy of the British than their friend. They buy their enemies - and sell their friends
Would be good to see a translation of what exactly was asked in each language. “Trust” might have been interpreted as “do what they tell you they are going to do”. Our worst enemies would agree with that.
I was reading about the Anglo-Zanzibar War earlier this week.
It was pretty cheeky to send the Zanzibar government an invoice for the cost of the shells!
Of course Starmer was livid - because his own words firmly put him on the wrong side of the EU vaccine debate. A more toxic position it is hard to imagine in the current atmosphere. No wonder he blew a fuse.
Very nicely played by Boris: outdo the EU on vaccines, then tie Starmer to them in the chamber.
Of course Starmer was livid - because his own words firmly put him on the wrong side of the EU vaccine debate. A more toxic position it is hard to imagine in the current atmosphere. No wonder he blew a fuse.
What do you mean the "wrong side"?
I thought we would have been better joining the EU vaccine procurement programme. Clearly that position was simply wrong and I am now fully supportive of our own vaccine procurement programme, and indeed grateful for it.
What about that is particularly controversial?
His instinctive reaction was wrong.
And he has now admitted he said what Boris said he said.
Why doesn't the sun set on the British Empire? Because God doesn't trust them in the dark!
The Arabs preferred:
It is better to be an enemy of the British than their friend. They buy their enemies - and sell their friends
Interesting that the Egyptians are separated from the Arabs ...
The comments were from the end of the 19th century/early 20th century when "Arabs" referred to inhabitants of Arabia rather than the wider definition that it has subsequently(?) developed.
IANAE, but I'd have thought Egyptians today wouldn't think of themselves as Arabs, would they? Certainly in English I wouldn't think that the word Arab included them.
Which brings us to an interesting point - his overtly racist stuff is de-emphasised or not published. So younger, recent readers don't realise quite you bad some of his stuff is.
Bit like Kipling. I found a complete works of his, in a library sale, years ago. The stories in India and the journalism range from insightful and very empathetic to stuff that was Der Sturmer grade.
Kipling was an absolutely fantastic and very varied writer, nothing like the caricature of him which has become accepted wisdom in the UK. Definitely worth anyone's time: Kim is sheer genius from beginning to end, enjoyable on so many different levels (and an amazing introduction to India, one which remains relevant even today). Plain Tales from the Raj and the other short stories of that era are wonderfully sly observations of the British in India. And the late short stories are different again, the diametric opposite of tub-thumping Jingoism of which he's wrongly accused. Some of them are small masterpieces of anti-war polemic, like this wonderfully chilling and thought-provoking gem:
Orwell said that 80 years ago. There's a reason the "caricature" persists, including among people who have actually read this stuff. The difficulty with Kim is putting in the right order the extent to which all the non-European characters are patronised and caricatured. The priest? The horse-dealer? Kim himself? The rani they meet on the road?
And you gotta love someone who thought this poem merited writing, never mind publication
"THE COWARD
I could not look on Death, which being known, Men led me to him, blindfold and alone."
If a picture paints a thousand words Then why can't I paint you? The words will never show The you I've come to know And if a face could launch a thousand ships
Then where am I to go? There's no one home but you You're all that's left me too And when my love for life is running dry
You come and pour yourself on me If a man could be two places at one time I'd be with you tomorrow and today
Beside you all the way If the world should stop revolving Spinning Spinning slowly down to die
I'd spend the end with you And when the world was through Then one by one the stars would all go out Then you and I would simply fly away
Sounds like a coordinated masterstroke by Johnson and Gove exploiting the EU being on the back foot for all it's worth. Good.
He is absolutely 100% correct the solution needs to be political not technical. Technicalities can follow the politics once agreed, the political principles need agreeing first.
Insightful stuff from a top journalist. Love the way 'a few things stand out' followed by 28 points. It all suggests that in a number of curious ways the EU/Brexit negotiations are not at an end but are reaching an interesting stage where implications of 'final' deals become unavoidable and reality begins to take its shape.
The population of Scotland may be finding all this not without interest too.
If a picture paints a thousand words Then why can't I paint you? The words will never show The you I've come to know And if a face could launch a thousand ships
Then where am I to go? There's no one home but you You're all that's left me too And when my love for life is running dry
You come and pour yourself on me If a man could be two places at one time I'd be with you tomorrow and today
Beside you all the way If the world should stop revolving Spinning Spinning slowly down to die
I'd spend the end with you And when the world was through Then one by one the stars would all go out Then you and I would simply fly away
Why doesn't the sun set on the British Empire? Because God doesn't trust them in the dark!
The Arabs preferred:
It is better to be an enemy of the British than their friend. They buy their enemies - and sell their friends
Would be good to see a translation of what exactly was asked in each language. “Trust” might have been interpreted as “do what they tell you they are going to do”. Our worst enemies would agree with that.
I was reading about the Anglo-Zanzibar War earlier this week.
It was pretty cheeky to send the Zanzibar government an invoice for the cost of the shells!
Isn't extracting reparations from the losing side the usual thing? Probably not usually able to be itemised so precisely.
Of course you can be left-wing and patriotic. Jim Callaghan, Harold Wilson, Clement Atlee, George Orwell, etc.
Telling that one has to reach for figures from 40, 50, and 80 years ago...
Yep. Before we became an oligarchy.
Now anybody who threatens the ruling class's grip on assets is attacked on "patriotic" grounds (I suppose they always were, but now there's really no right or power of reply).
It works, of course. Look at the dumbass flag-waving even on here, among people who are quite erudite and measured on many matters.
Unfortunately for your thesis, the Corbyn period demonstrated quite clearly that the types who want to steal our assets are very often also anti-patriots. Tell the British that you want to take their cash and their country, and those supposed 'few' will crush you at the ballot box in their millions.
Well that's a bit of revolving bow-tie nonsense. In 17 it was close and 19 was a quasi rerun of the Brexit referendum in a climate where the only question was how big the Con majority would be.
It's just as valid to say that 19 was not close and that 17 was a quasi rerun of the Brexit referendum in a climate where half the electorate wanted to give the Tories a good kicking by any means necessary, and the usual non-voters who swung the referendum for Leave went back to their usual patterns of Not Turning Up.
A very fair comment. Brexit flattered Labour in 17 and killed them in 19. Their "par score" (if you will) was between the two - but nearer 17 since Brexit was a stronger factor in 19 than it was then. So about 250 seats. A Left Labour offering with a wildly unsuitable leader scores 250 seats. This means if you replace the leader with an upgrade (done) but stay to the Left (although not with exactly the same policies) you can win. You might not, but you most certainly can. That's my analysis and it's bulletproof. No amount of waffle or facetious one-liners from Tory Story propaganda merchants changes a damn thing about it or detracts from its essential truth.
I can't tell.
Starmer may make Labour acceptable (not for me, because dangling off TU apron strings and the remaining cabal of very questionable MPs anti-semitism wise are show stoppers for me), but the next Election is the Tories' to win or lose.
Which will be determined imo by if they deliver (Red Wall needs to have seen something tangible - one reason the South-shifting Council Tax proposals look interesting), and there are COVID effects, and Post-Brexit effects.
I have no idea how it will turn out, which is why I stopped betting on Elections after a slightly expensive 2017.
No, me neither. I have not developed an intuition of any sort about GE24. It's ages away. Could be another Con landslide, could be a Labour outright win, could be a hung parliament. The only thing I've ruled out is a Labour landslide. The core of Tory/Leave support precludes that. Re betting, I'm starting to place modest money on Cons largest party at 1.8 (which I think is too big) but that's all.
I`ve said before that 3.8 BF Labour 2024 majority is ridiculously short. I`d be laying LP majority big time if it wasn`t tying my money up for so long.
I`d want 10/1 or more for LP to win an outright majority.
Of course Starmer was livid - because his own words firmly put him on the wrong side of the EU vaccine debate. A more toxic position it is hard to imagine in the current atmosphere. No wonder he blew a fuse.
Starmers original comments were nothing to do with vaccines though. They were regarding whether or not to stay in the EMA when we left the EU. If we had stayed in the EMA we could still have procured and used the AZ vaccine separate to EMA approval.
If a picture paints a thousand words Then why can't I paint you? The words will never show The you I've come to know And if a face could launch a thousand ships
Then where am I to go? There's no one home but you You're all that's left me too And when my love for life is running dry
You come and pour yourself on me If a man could be two places at one time I'd be with you tomorrow and today
Beside you all the way If the world should stop revolving Spinning Spinning slowly down to die
I'd spend the end with you And when the world was through Then one by one the stars would all go out Then you and I would simply fly away
It's the EU's insistence that the border must be enforced which is the issue.
NI is part of the UK customs zone. Have a "trusted trader" process that allows shipping from NI to RoI.
The amount of "non-compliant" product that will be smuggled from the UK to the EU via NI and RoI will be minimal. But if volumes start going up suspiciously in Belfast then you take action at that point.
Just turn a blind eye to the small abuses.
Which provisions of the EU Treaties would give the Commission or the Republic the power to do that?
Their ability to negotiate agreements.
Negotiate a trusted trader scheme and self declaration. Negotiate mutual recognition of SPS.
To do otherwise was a choice.
The UK refused to negotiate mutual recognition of SPS, and was in far too much of a completely unnecessary hurry to agree anything else. The choice was the UK's. Everyone said it was barmy, the EU made it clear that more time was required, but, no, Boris blundered into an agreement cobbled together without thought and which he doesn't seem to have read or understood, with just a couple of days for parliament to 'scrutinise' and for business to make preparations, without the administrative systems being ready.
There ain't no getting away from where the blame lies: Boris.
He dealt with it quite right. If he did what you wanted we'd have just extended Article 50 for the 9th time and we'd be no closer to a solution.
Did the UK refuse mutual recognition? Or did we refuse to be tied down to their standards? By mutual recognition, I am referring to equivalence - where we may have one set of rules, the EU might have a different set of rules, but we accept each others rules as 'good enough' and accept them as if they were our own. I am not aware of the UK refusing that, in fact I was under the impression the EU wanting to "protect" their Single Market were the ones refusing that.
The right thing to do is to just get on with it, agree what we can and kick any problems we can't solve into a box named 'grace period' and move on. Then keep iterating that - in the next grace period agree what we can and whatever we can't agree on perhaps have a slightly longer grace period for that. Then we will reduce the number of problems to progressively fewer and fewer issues.
The idea of "nothing agreed until everything is agreed" was part of the problem until we left the EU. Now that idea is eliminated, now we can actually tackle the issues head on, on their own merits. That is progress - and not a thing to "blame" Boris for.
Yes it's Guido. Even if true, not on the same scale as Johnson and Guppie's little "arrangement".
You mean like how one allegedly happened today and the other allegedly happened 31 years ago? 🤔
One was a minor (not even) scuffle, whereas one was a fully blown conspiracy. Anyway, do we have a statue of limitations in the UK?
Statute
No, the Statue of Limitations is the time elapsed before you can no longer pull down a statue....
Forgive me, but I think it is the other way around. The Statue of Limitations is the period after which no-one knows who the hell the person portrayed in the statue was and why they deserved a statue in the first place, and hence whose time basking in the sun has come to an end.
Of course Starmer was livid - because his own words firmly put him on the wrong side of the EU vaccine debate. A more toxic position it is hard to imagine in the current atmosphere. No wonder he blew a fuse.
What do you mean the "wrong side"?
I thought we would have been better joining the EU vaccine procurement programme. Clearly that position was simply wrong and I am now fully supportive of our own vaccine procurement programme, and indeed grateful for it.
What about that is particularly controversial?
Nothing wrong in the actual world. In the world of politics (and law, Mr Gallowgate) everything. good luck with the applications BTW.
In extremely confused MSM news, it now transpires that our hero's demise may been caused by an infection he contracted whilst in the care of our wonderful NHS.
Which.....er.......he campaigned so heroically to fund.
Oh......umm......
My dad died from covid he caught in hospital
I can't blame them for that - are you saying I should?
Sorry to hear of your loss.
My sister's partner also died of Covid, not caught in hospital.
Target 15,000,000 Thru 10,520,433 Required 4,479,564 Days to target 12
Yesterday's rate 376,922 Required rate 373,297
Lovely, though maybe adjust the number to reflect first doses as the target is based on that.
What is good news is that the weekend seems to be less of an issue than I first thought it would be, this weekend just gone had 320k and 350k first doses done which isn't too far off the current required rate and it does seem as though capacity is still ramping up in some parts of the country.
If a picture paints a thousand words Then why can't I paint you? The words will never show The you I've come to know And if a face could launch a thousand ships
Then where am I to go? There's no one home but you You're all that's left me too And when my love for life is running dry
You come and pour yourself on me If a man could be two places at one time I'd be with you tomorrow and today
Beside you all the way If the world should stop revolving Spinning Spinning slowly down to die
I'd spend the end with you And when the world was through Then one by one the stars would all go out Then you and I would simply fly away
Not part of the classical canon, I think.
No. But that Savalas at the absolute zenith of his Kojak fame found time to pen something like this. Well.
Sounds like a coordinated masterstroke by Johnson and Gove exploiting the EU being on the back foot for all it's worth. Good.
He is absolutely 100% correct the solution needs to be political not technical. Technicalities can follow the politics once agreed, the political principles need agreeing first.
Insightful stuff from a top journalist. Love the way 'a few things stand out' followed by 28 points. It all suggests that in a number of curious ways the EU/Brexit negotiations are not at an end but are reaching an interesting stage where implications of 'final' deals become unavoidable and reality begins to take its shape.
The population of Scotland may be finding all this not without interest too.
Negotiations will never end. They should never end. The idea that we have a set of fixed arrangements that are locked in place forever is rather . . . sclerotic.
The Swiss have the right solution. They're constantly tweaking their arrangements.
Yesterday's vax return was within a rounding error of the required rate this morning, which was probably a decent haul given the snowy weather up north.
What could perhaps scupper us is the extended period of widespread snowy weather forecast for next week...
Target 15,000,000 Thru 10,520,433 Required 4,479,564 Days to target 12
Yesterday's rate 376,922 Required rate 373,297
Lovely, though maybe adjust the number to reflect first doses as the target is based on that.
What is good news is that the weekend seems to be less of an issue than I first thought it would be, this weekend just gone had 320k and 350k first doses done which isn't too far off the current required rate and it does seem as though capacity is still ramping up in some parts of the country.
How many priority categories does that 15m represent?
Which brings us to an interesting point - his overtly racist stuff is de-emphasised or not published. So younger, recent readers don't realise quite you bad some of his stuff is.
Bit like Kipling. I found a complete works of his, in a library sale, years ago. The stories in India and the journalism range from insightful and very empathetic to stuff that was Der Sturmer grade.
Kipling was an absolutely fantastic and very varied writer, nothing like the caricature of him which has become accepted wisdom in the UK. Definitely worth anyone's time: Kim is sheer genius from beginning to end, enjoyable on so many different levels (and an amazing introduction to India, one which remains relevant even today). Plain Tales from the Raj and the other short stories of that era are wonderfully sly observations of the British in India. And the late short stories are different again, the diametric opposite of tub-thumping Jingoism of which he's wrongly accused. Some of them are small masterpieces of anti-war polemic, like this wonderfully chilling and thought-provoking gem:
Orwell said that 80 years ago. There's a reason the "caricature" persists, including among people who have actually read this stuff. The difficulty with Kim is putting in the right order the extent to which all the non-European characters are patronised and caricatured. The priest? The horse-dealer? Kim himself? The rani they meet on the road?
And you gotta love someone who thought this poem merited writing, never mind publication
"THE COWARD
I could not look on Death, which being known, Men led me to him, blindfold and alone."
That is a strange one - it can be taken, as being against or in favour of what happened to too many.
Orwell said that 80 years ago. There's a reason the "caricature" persists, including among people who have actually read this stuff. The difficulty with Kim is putting in the right order the extent to which all the non-European characters are patronised and caricatured. The priest? The horse-dealer? Kim himself? The rani they meet on the road?
And you gotta love someone who thought this poem merited writing, never mind publication
"THE COWARD
I could not look on Death, which being known, Men led me to him, blindfold and alone."
It's nonsense to say that the non-European characters are patronised and caricatured. Certainly no more than the English characters. To the contrary, it's a fantastically vivid portrayal of the different strands of Indian life and the different religions; when I first visited India I was struck by how much of it still applied. Of course he's not trying to be like George Eliot or Henry James in subtle character portrayals; it's a boy's adventure story, after all, but the wonderful thing about it is that it transcends that. Kipling knew one hell of a lot more about India and Indians than any of his modern-day critics do.
As for the doggerel, yes, well, I've seen a lot worse from other great poets:
Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
or my favourite of all:
O all the instruments agree The day of his death was a dark cold day.
Of course you can be left-wing and patriotic. Jim Callaghan, Harold Wilson, Clement Atlee, George Orwell, etc.
Telling that one has to reach for figures from 40, 50, and 80 years ago...
Yep. Before we became an oligarchy.
Now anybody who threatens the ruling class's grip on assets is attacked on "patriotic" grounds (I suppose they always were, but now there's really no right or power of reply).
It works, of course. Look at the dumbass flag-waving even on here, among people who are quite erudite and measured on many matters.
Unfortunately for your thesis, the Corbyn period demonstrated quite clearly that the types who want to steal our assets are very often also anti-patriots. Tell the British that you want to take their cash and their country, and those supposed 'few' will crush you at the ballot box in their millions.
Well that's a bit of revolving bow-tie nonsense. In 17 it was close and 19 was a quasi rerun of the Brexit referendum in a climate where the only question was how big the Con majority would be.
It's just as valid to say that 19 was not close and that 17 was a quasi rerun of the Brexit referendum in a climate where half the electorate wanted to give the Tories a good kicking by any means necessary, and the usual non-voters who swung the referendum for Leave went back to their usual patterns of Not Turning Up.
A very fair comment. Brexit flattered Labour in 17 and killed them in 19. Their "par score" (if you will) was between the two - but nearer 17 since Brexit was a stronger factor in 19 than it was then. So about 250 seats. A Left Labour offering with a wildly unsuitable leader scores 250 seats. This means if you replace the leader with an upgrade (done) but stay to the Left (although not with exactly the same policies) you can win. You might not, but you most certainly can. That's my analysis and it's bulletproof. No amount of waffle or facetious one-liners from Tory Story propaganda merchants changes a damn thing about it or detracts from its essential truth.
I can't tell.
Starmer may make Labour acceptable (not for me, because dangling off TU apron strings and the remaining cabal of very questionable MPs anti-semitism wise are show stoppers for me), but the next Election is the Tories' to win or lose.
Which will be determined imo by if they deliver (Red Wall needs to have seen something tangible - one reason the South-shifting Council Tax proposals look interesting), and there are COVID effects, and Post-Brexit effects.
I have no idea how it will turn out, which is why I stopped betting on Elections after a slightly expensive 2017.
No, me neither. I have not developed an intuition of any sort about GE24. It's ages away. Could be another Con landslide, could be a Labour outright win, could be a hung parliament. The only thing I've ruled out is a Labour landslide. The core of Tory/Leave support precludes that. Re betting, I'm starting to place modest money on Cons largest party at 1.8 (which I think is too big) but that's all.
I`ve said before that 3.8 BF Labour 2024 majority is ridiculously short. I`d be laying LP majority big time if it wasn`t tying my money up for so long.
I`d want 10/1 or more for LP to win an outright majority.
Target 15,000,000 Thru 10,520,433 Required 4,479,564 Days to target 12
Yesterday's rate 376,922 Required rate 373,297
Lovely, though maybe adjust the number to reflect first doses as the target is based on that.
What is good news is that the weekend seems to be less of an issue than I first thought it would be, this weekend just gone had 320k and 350k first doses done which isn't too far off the current required rate and it does seem as though capacity is still ramping up in some parts of the country.
How many priority categories does that 15m represent?
Top 4 categories (which is in itself essentially 6 categories).
All over 70s, all NHS and care staff, all clinically extremely vulnerable.
One of my friends undergoing chemo has received his dose until the latter category - in his 30s.
Orwell said that 80 years ago. There's a reason the "caricature" persists, including among people who have actually read this stuff. The difficulty with Kim is putting in the right order the extent to which all the non-European characters are patronised and caricatured. The priest? The horse-dealer? Kim himself? The rani they meet on the road?
And you gotta love someone who thought this poem merited writing, never mind publication
"THE COWARD
I could not look on Death, which being known, Men led me to him, blindfold and alone."
It's nonsense to say that the non-European characters are patronised and caricatured. Certainly no more than the English characters. To the contrary, it's a fantastically vivid portrayal of the different strands of Indian life and the different religions; when I first visited India I was struck by how much of it still applied. Of course he's not trying to be like George Eliot or Henry James in subtle character portrayals; it's a boy's adventure story, after all, but the wonderful thing about it is that it transcends that. Kipling knew one hell of a lot more about India and Indians than any of his modern-day critics do.
As for the doggerel, yes, well, I've seen a lot worse from other great poets:
Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
or my favourite of all:
O all the instruments agree The day of his death was a dark cold day.
The first one is about dandelions. Don't know if that makes it better or worse. The second one, that is far from the worst bit of that poem.
Target 15,000,000 Thru 10,520,433 Required 4,479,564 Days to target 12
Yesterday's rate 376,922 Required rate 373,297
Lovely, though maybe adjust the number to reflect first doses as the target is based on that.
What is good news is that the weekend seems to be less of an issue than I first thought it would be, this weekend just gone had 320k and 350k first doses done which isn't too far off the current required rate and it does seem as though capacity is still ramping up in some parts of the country.
Ah! I must admit I didn't know that... will revise it.
- Survey of a million ZOE users about vaccine hesitancy: 95% want it, 5% are hesitant (worried about side effects, adverse reactions, and not knowing enough); BAME and poorer people are more hesitant;
- study of vaccinated healthcare workers: relative COVID positivity rate reduces after two weeks and runs at about half that of unvaccinated healthcare workers thru to four weeks. But vaccinated people are still getting infected four weeks after their first dose;
- AZN in the over-65s: issue is lack of reliable data (because the elderly were shielding and mostly not invited onto the trials), rather than any actual evidence that it is less effective;
- for all the vaccines, statistics on avoiding hospitalisations are very impressive (near total);
- development of new vaccines for new variants will be much quicker than initial development;
- reaction to vaccine is personal: studies of identical twins find different responses in each;
- adverse vaccine reactions (side effects) are on average greater at the second dose, and in people who have had covid already. Most only last a day, and 80% of people have none;
- new idea that those who have had Covid may not need a second dose: this could accelerate vaccination programmes - a current research topic (currently people are only denied vaccination if they have tested positive within previous three weeks);
- anyone with lasting symptoms (>48 hours) after the vaccine should get a covid test, as they may have been infected just prior.
Target 15,000,000 Thru 10,520,433 Required 4,479,564 Days to target 12
Yesterday's rate 376,922 Required rate 373,297
Lovely, though maybe adjust the number to reflect first doses as the target is based on that.
What is good news is that the weekend seems to be less of an issue than I first thought it would be, this weekend just gone had 320k and 350k first doses done which isn't too far off the current required rate and it does seem as though capacity is still ramping up in some parts of the country.
How many priority categories does that 15m represent?
It's the EU's insistence that the border must be enforced which is the issue.
NI is part of the UK customs zone. Have a "trusted trader" process that allows shipping from NI to RoI.
The amount of "non-compliant" product that will be smuggled from the UK to the EU via NI and RoI will be minimal. But if volumes start going up suspiciously in Belfast then you take action at that point.
Just turn a blind eye to the small abuses.
Which provisions of the EU Treaties would give the Commission or the Republic the power to do that?
Their ability to negotiate agreements.
Negotiate a trusted trader scheme and self declaration. Negotiate mutual recognition of SPS.
To do otherwise was a choice.
The UK refused to negotiate mutual recognition of SPS, and was in far too much of a completely unnecessary hurry to agree anything else. The choice was the UK's. Everyone said it was barmy, the EU made it clear that more time was required, but, no, Boris blundered into an agreement cobbled together without thought and which he doesn't seem to have read or understood, with just a couple of days for parliament to 'scrutinise' and for business to make preparations, without the administrative systems being ready.
There ain't no getting away from where the blame lies: Boris.
He dealt with it quite right. If he did what you wanted we'd have just extended Article 50 for the 9th time and we'd be no closer to a solution.
Did the UK refuse mutual recognition? Or did we refuse to be tied down to their standards? By mutual recognition, I am referring to equivalence - where we may have one set of rules, the EU might have a different set of rules, but we accept each others rules as 'good enough' and accept them as if they were our own. I am not aware of the UK refusing that, in fact I was under the impression the EU wanting to "protect" their Single Market were the ones refusing that.
The right thing to do is to just get on with it, agree what we can and kick any problems we can't solve into a box named 'grace period' and move on. Then keep iterating that - in the next grace period agree what we can and whatever we can't agree on perhaps have a slightly longer grace period for that. Then we will reduce the number of problems to progressively fewer and fewer issues.
The idea of "nothing agreed until everything is agreed" was part of the problem until we left the EU. Now that idea is eliminated, now we can actually tackle the issues head on, on their own merits. That is progress - and not a thing to "blame" Boris for.
You are right, he got the deal he asked for, albeit many months too late to implement it. So, why are we bitching about it and asking for it to be changed, just days later?
Helpful question from member of public at start - gives Whitty the opportunity to reassure us that vaccination and hospitalisation records are being closely watched and matched up, so the data that are needed on vaccine efficacy and transmission rates after vaccination can be gathered.
- Survey of a million ZOE users about vaccine hesitancy: 95% want it, 5% are hesitant (worried about side effects, adverse reactions, and not knowing enough); BAME and poorer people are more hesitant;
- study of vaccinated healthcare workers: relative COVID positivity rate reduces after two weeks and runs at about half that of unvaccinated healthcare workers thru to four weeks. But vaccinated people are still getting infected four weeks after their first dose;
- AZN in the over-65s: issue is lack of reliable data (because the elderly were shielding and mostly not invited onto the trials), rather than any actual evidence that it is less effective;
- for all the vaccines, statistics on avoiding hospitalisations are very impressive (near total);
- development of new vaccines for new variants will be much quicker than initial development;
- reaction to vaccine is personal: studies of identical twins find different responses in each;
- adverse vaccine reactions (side effects) are on average greater at the second dose, and in people who have had covid already. Most only last a day, and 80% of people have none;
- new idea that those who have had Covid may not need a second dose: this could accelerate vaccination programmes - a current research topic (currently people are only denied vaccination if they have tested positive within previous three weeks);
- anyone with lasting symptoms (>48 hours) after the vaccine should get a covid test, as they may have been infected just prior.
Excellent. Is ZOE tracking vaccination and type for all its users then? That should really allow us to see the affect of the vaccines quickly. Will be especially good if there is some variation in dose interval amongst its users.
You don't have to look that hard to find Starmer statements / actions at odds with his current inage. I mean he played up how much of a leftie he was during the leadership race, then immediately switched.
Starmer is a "nice guy" but views politics as a real-time tactical challenge of presentation and triangulation.
He risks losing everyone with that approach.
And the risk isn't all to his right. Too much RW chasing could lose support in the MML (which is bigger than the RW). For example, on PT you told me that in order to win an election these days a Labour Party core value needs to be not just "loving your country" - which makes me squirm a bit but I can totally live with - but something rather more and rather different.
It must be OPENLY loving your country (you said).
I don't like that. I don't like that one bit. If that becomes a core Labour value I won't be voting Labour.
Lol - there goes the majority. Purity, purity and keep the naffs out.
You seem to make the same response regardless of what you're responding to. It's a neat trick. Frees up much time, I imagine.
Just in your case - why would I waste the time?
But it's not just in my case, is it? Anyway, just an observation. And tbf it is only on certain subjects.
Of course Starmer was livid - because his own words firmly put him on the wrong side of the EU vaccine debate. A more toxic position it is hard to imagine in the current atmosphere. No wonder he blew a fuse.
What do you mean the "wrong side"?
I thought we would have been better joining the EU vaccine procurement programme. Clearly that position was simply wrong and I am now fully supportive of our own vaccine procurement programme, and indeed grateful for it.
What about that is particularly controversial?
Nothing at all is wrong. However, Starmer denied he'd ever said anything in support of the EU scheme. He blundered and lost his rag. Not the end of the world but he lost his cool.
Helpful question from member of public at start - gives Whitty the opportunity to reassure us that vaccination and hospitalisation records are being closely watched and matched up, so the data that are needed on vaccine efficacy and transmission rates after vaccination can be gathered.
They do this exercise on a weekly basis, every Thursday I think. This week's data should give some more definitive answers as we're now up to 3.2m people given at least one jab that now have partial or full immunity. It's a pretty large pool to work from.
- Survey of a million ZOE users about vaccine hesitancy: 95% want it, 5% are hesitant (worried about side effects, adverse reactions, and not knowing enough); BAME and poorer people are more hesitant;
- study of vaccinated healthcare workers: relative COVID positivity rate reduces after two weeks and runs at about half that of unvaccinated healthcare workers thru to four weeks. But vaccinated people are still getting infected four weeks after their first dose;
- AZN in the over-65s: issue is lack of reliable data (because the elderly were shielding and mostly not invited onto the trials), rather than any actual evidence that it is less effective;
- for all the vaccines, statistics on avoiding hospitalisations are very impressive (near total);
- development of new vaccines for new variants will be much quicker than initial development;
- reaction to vaccine is personal: studies of identical twins find different responses in each;
- adverse vaccine reactions (side effects) are on average greater at the second dose, and in people who have had covid already. Most only last a day, and 80% of people have none;
- new idea that those who have had Covid may not need a second dose: this could accelerate vaccination programmes - a current research topic (currently people are only denied vaccination if they have tested positive within previous three weeks);
- anyone with lasting symptoms (>48 hours) after the vaccine should get a covid test, as they may have been infected just prior.
NB ZOE base is entirely self-selected, so there's biases in there. There won't be many Covid deniers have signed up, and it's heavily weighted to the techno savvy.
Comments
Negotiate a trusted trader scheme and self declaration. Negotiate mutual recognition of SPS.
To do otherwise was a choice.
Negotiate a trusted trader scheme and self declaration. Negotiate mutual recognition of SPS.
To do otherwise was a choice.
https://twitter.com/tconnellyRTE/status/1357000717425381378?s=20
https://twitter.com/SepsisUK/status/1356978994726510592
There ain't no getting away from where the blame lies: Boris.
https://twitter.com/CoronaTurkeyEN/status/1356998930207285250
He is absolutely 100% correct the solution needs to be political not technical. Technicalities can follow the politics once agreed, the political principles need agreeing first.
Fight To A Finish
The boys came back. Bands played and flags were flying,
And Yellow-Pressmen thronged the sunlit street
To cheer the soldiers who’d refrained from dying,
And hear the music of returning feet.
‘Of all the thrills and ardours War has brought,
This moment is the finest.’ (So they thought.)
Snapping their bayonets on to charge the mob,
Grim Fusiliers broke ranks with glint of steel,
At last the boys had found a cushy job.
I heard the Yellow-Pressmen grunt and squeal;
And with my trusty bombers turned and went
To clear those Junkers out of Parliament.
https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1356912872241119232?s=20
This looks like a scenario where the UK needs a lot, and knows this is the best card it has had, or will have, for ages.
Temptation to overplay things must be huge.
They may well have gone similarly without the hosp. bits.
Life's too short to chase something so nebulous.
https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1357002666027712515
She also did a very good thread yesterday summarising the latest Oxford/AZ study.
I thought we would have been better joining the EU vaccine procurement programme. Clearly that position was simply wrong and I am now fully supportive of our own vaccine procurement programme, and indeed grateful for it.
What about that is particularly controversial?
And he has now admitted he said what Boris said he said.
Not a good day at the office for Skyr.
It was pretty cheeky to send the Zanzibar government an invoice for the cost of the shells!
And you gotta love someone who thought this poem merited writing, never mind publication
"THE COWARD
I could not look on Death, which being known,
Men led me to him, blindfold and alone."
Dueling banjos on the Kipling
If a picture paints a thousand words
Then why can't I paint you?
The words will never show
The you I've come to know
And if a face could launch a thousand ships
Then where am I to go?
There's no one home but you
You're all that's left me too
And when my love for life is running dry
You come and pour yourself on me
If a man could be two places at one time
I'd be with you tomorrow and today
Beside you all the way
If the world should stop revolving
Spinning
Spinning slowly down to die
I'd spend the end with you
And when the world was through
Then one by one the stars would all go out
Then you and I would simply fly away
The population of Scotland may be finding all this not without interest too.
I`d want 10/1 or more for LP to win an outright majority.
(All doses, all nations)
Target 15,000,000
Thru 10,520,433
Required 4,479,564
Days to target 12
Yesterday's rate 376,922
Required rate 373,297
Did the UK refuse mutual recognition? Or did we refuse to be tied down to their standards? By mutual recognition, I am referring to equivalence - where we may have one set of rules, the EU might have a different set of rules, but we accept each others rules as 'good enough' and accept them as if they were our own. I am not aware of the UK refusing that, in fact I was under the impression the EU wanting to "protect" their Single Market were the ones refusing that.
The right thing to do is to just get on with it, agree what we can and kick any problems we can't solve into a box named 'grace period' and move on. Then keep iterating that - in the next grace period agree what we can and whatever we can't agree on perhaps have a slightly longer grace period for that. Then we will reduce the number of problems to progressively fewer and fewer issues.
The idea of "nothing agreed until everything is agreed" was part of the problem until we left the EU. Now that idea is eliminated, now we can actually tackle the issues head on, on their own merits. That is progress - and not a thing to "blame" Boris for.
@BritainElects
Westminster voting intention:
CON: 41% (+1)
LAB: 38% (+1)
LDEM: 6% (-2)
GRN: 3% (-)
via
@SavantaComRes
, 29 - 31 Jan
Chgs. w/ 24 Jan
Is that 11 Tory leads in last 12 polls.
Sir Abstainalot failing miserably against the crappest of crap Govts.
Where is flagshagging bounce?
UK third in the world on vaccinations
What is good news is that the weekend seems to be less of an issue than I first thought it would be, this weekend just gone had 320k and 350k first doses done which isn't too far off the current required rate and it does seem as though capacity is still ramping up in some parts of the country.
The Swiss have the right solution. They're constantly tweaking their arrangements.
What could perhaps scupper us is the extended period of widespread snowy weather forecast for next week...
https://youtu.be/LZElFONQTO8
Exactly who is included in "We"?
Some of his MPs and shadow minsters certainly had some things to say on this matter.
As for the doggerel, yes, well, I've seen a lot worse from other great poets:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
or my favourite of all:
O all the instruments agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.
All over 70s, all NHS and care staff, all clinically extremely vulnerable.
One of my friends undergoing chemo has received his dose until the latter category - in his 30s.
- Survey of a million ZOE users about vaccine hesitancy: 95% want it, 5% are hesitant (worried about side effects, adverse reactions, and not knowing enough); BAME and poorer people are more hesitant;
- study of vaccinated healthcare workers: relative COVID positivity rate reduces after two weeks and runs at about half that of unvaccinated healthcare workers thru to four weeks. But vaccinated people are still getting infected four weeks after their first dose;
- AZN in the over-65s: issue is lack of reliable data (because the elderly were shielding and mostly not invited onto the trials), rather than any actual evidence that it is less effective;
- for all the vaccines, statistics on avoiding hospitalisations are very impressive (near total);
- development of new vaccines for new variants will be much quicker than initial development;
- reaction to vaccine is personal: studies of identical twins find different responses in each;
- adverse vaccine reactions (side effects) are on average greater at the second dose, and in people who have had covid already. Most only last a day, and 80% of people have none;
- new idea that those who have had Covid may not need a second dose: this could accelerate vaccination programmes - a current research topic (currently people are only denied vaccination if they have tested positive within previous three weeks);
- anyone with lasting symptoms (>48 hours) after the vaccine should get a covid test, as they may have been infected just prior.
(First doses only, all nations)
Target 15,000,000
Thru 10,021,471
Required 4,978,529
Days to target 12
Yesterday's rate 374,756
Required rate 414,877
REVISED FOR FIRST DOSES ONLY
from cases
from hospitalisations