99.1% visited, so the number vaccinated is probably as high as it is going to get.
But only 80% of residents vaccinated.
If the Scottish figure is indeed correct (and I truly find it hard to believe it true) that is an astonishing difference.
You are going off the total number, rather than the number eligible?
Yes because that is what Sturgeon is claiming has been achieved in Scotland.
And I find that fairly unbelievable.
Absolutely.
I'd be extremely surprised if the sum of all Care residents who (A) refused the vaccine, (B) currently have [or are suspected to have] Covid so can't receive the vaccine yet and (C) are allergic to or otherwise incapable of receiving the vaccine . . . are all combined less than 2%.
Yes, it's not plausible.
They (https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/ ) say 29,482 older person care home residents have been given the first dose. That would imply a population of 30,083 care home residents which initially seems low by a couple of thousand until you factor in how many of residents would have died over the last year.
Here it seems to be based on an estimated population of exactly 30,000. Is it down to the precision of the population estimate? The NHS England one looks to be precise.
My suggestion was about 2k combined tax and ni circa 18k income....or volunteer work and yes you can mix and match so 1k combined plus 100 hours a year....didnt think it that onerous....if I had said 10k or 2000 hours yes and its more the principle something not earned is not valued
So someone on benefits due to say, permanent disability, is excluded from the vote. As are most pensioners.
Pensioners and the disabled are obviously cases that need to be thought about. This don't forget is a thumbnail outline not a complete blueprint and no we would not want to disadvantage them. Pensioners for example as an off the cuff thought and not one I have thought about deeply so bear with me would get an automatic vote if they had earned it in say 4 of the last 7 elections once retiring
I do sense from the header and other postings that you have a very deep dislike of the idea of people receiving benefits.
It's a view you are fully entitled to hold of course but my view is very different.
Where has the header imply that. I suggested there should be different ways to earn your vote. I would hope not to disenfranchise anyone in point of fact. What I rather hope to do is make them value their vote and be more thoughtful about it
If you want people to value their vote you have to do something about safe seats. PR maybe, or some other method the details of which are beyond me at the moment.
My North Dorset constituency is always going to be Tory because the large majority of those who live here are conservative. Fair enough, but the safeness of the seat makes it genuinely a bit pointless for an individual to vote. (I still do but my vote is valueless.)
My suggestion was about 2k combined tax and ni circa 18k income....or volunteer work and yes you can mix and match so 1k combined plus 100 hours a year....didnt think it that onerous....if I had said 10k or 2000 hours yes and its more the principle something not earned is not valued
So someone on benefits due to say, permanent disability, is excluded from the vote. As are most pensioners.
Pensioners and the disabled are obviously cases that need to be thought about. This don't forget is a thumbnail outline not a complete blueprint and no we would not want to disadvantage them. Pensioners for example as an off the cuff thought and not one I have thought about deeply so bear with me would get an automatic vote if they had earned it in say 4 of the last 7 elections once retiring
I do sense from the header and other postings that you have a very deep dislike of the idea of people receiving benefits.
It's a view you are fully entitled to hold of course but my view is very different.
Where has the header imply that. I suggested there should be different ways to earn your vote. I would hope not to disenfranchise anyone in point of fact. What I rather hope to do is make them value their vote and be more thoughtful about it
If you want people to value your vote you have to do something about safe seats. PR maybe, or some other method the details of which are beyond me at the moment.
In the system proposed each executive member gets elected on a national vote. I suggested av earlier. The legislature is drawn by lot from each constituencies eligible voters and they serve a single term of one or two years and their role is merely to make the executive think about the edge cases. Where do you think pr is needed in that?
I like the idea of a pick and mix, department by department. If you want to Ban the Bomb and Bring Back Hanging, then you can vote for candidates that fit the bill.
If we are going to restrict the franchise, then I suggest a 'Voter Proficiency Test'. Fail, and no vote for you this year. If you are 7 years old and pass, here's your ballot.
My suggestion was about 2k combined tax and ni circa 18k income....or volunteer work and yes you can mix and match so 1k combined plus 100 hours a year....didnt think it that onerous....if I had said 10k or 2000 hours yes and its more the principle something not earned is not valued
As a very high earner in the additional tax band I'd be one of the people to benefit from such a system but I find the idea quite disturbing. Money shouldn't be able to buy more of a say in who governs the country. The donation system is already a mess of influence buying, this directly links wealth to having more of a say.
One of the great things about this country is that I have exactly the same amount of votes (1) as someone who has a billion pounds in a bank or someone who is on the dole (1).
I can see merit in some of the other ideas and I think a more direct democracy like Switzerland can be beneficial, I don't see any merit in restrictions on the franchise for citizens.
You might have the same number of votes but the relationship between the wealthy and the governing parties of all flavours shows that is irrelevant, money buys policy already.
Firstly influence buying is completely different to receiving more votes by virtue of income, secondly a person would need to choose to buy influence with large donations to parties, this would be automatic and reward higher earners and very high earners with much more of a say over public life than lower income earners.
It would completely break the current social contract this country maintains between the wealthy and less wealthy. It's already at breaking point with tax evasion and avoidance by billionaires which the government turns a blind eye to.
Come on, pagan is suggesting earning £18k or volunteering or retired or disabilities or other things. It is hardly about restricting voting to the wealthy.
And also increased votes for people who have higher contributions. A sort of incentive to earn more money I guess.
Even the idea of a threshold is completely unpalatable to me. How could I look someone in the eye knowing that I have a say on our government and they don't. It's completely wrong.
Have you ever been canvassing with a candidate, in a less than rich area? I have.
It is pretty sobering. About every 3rd house you think, OMFG these people are deciding the future of the nation. They haven't got a clue. They can barely boil an egg.
I love the idea of democracy but I wonder if it has peaked. I'm serious. First, we have the success of China, clearly out-performing the USA, in almost every way now (including pandemic-management, despite starting a pandemic). In China, the technocratic Party decides. but as the Party can take a longer view than any individual, the Party is wiser. This model becomes increasingly seductive to many, as America declines and China ascends. Cf Singapore. Basically a one party state which has beautifully married English Common Law to Chinese autocracy.
Second, AI. How far away is the moment when a computer will make a better political choice than any average human? About 10 minutes, I reckon.
The future will be special, neutral, bespoke voting robots, deciding our elections.
I am serious. I think democracy, as we know it, is nearly done. The machines know better, that's why they fly our planes and will soon drive our cars. After that, they select our government
Anyone who has been involved in active politics has similar stories to tell.
But you do overlook that it’s as much about the process as the outcome.
A big part of the idea is that, having participated on an equal basis with your fellow citizens, you are then willing (and obliged) to accept the outcome, and its consequences. Hence government by consent.
It’s another reason why our voting system is so poisonous, since it casts so many votes into the bin and leaves so many people’s opinions un- or woefully under-represented.
Interesting ideas except removing the idea of an automatic right to vote.
From the Chartists to the Suffragettes people fought for universal suffrage and it should be preserved
Happy to support you in this, my friend.
The competing Parties put forward programmes of legislation which affect us all and which we are all bound to obey and deal with once enacted.
We should therefore all have the right to decide between these competing visions as we all have a stake in their outcome, successful or otherwise.
Whilst the parties have too much power, and their visions are far from the ideologically coherent positions their tribal supporters pretend, parties are probably important for at least given us some broad coalitions with some idea of what they intend.
My objection to the parties is the role they have in choosing the leaders. In our FPTP system the members of the 2 big parties effectively choose the PM.
The combined membership of the 2 parties is tiny and very much tends towards the political extremes yet they get the power to decide which 2 individuals the rest of us get to vote for as PM.
If the elected members of parliament still made the decision I very much doubt we would have been presented with the truly awful choice of Corbyn or Johnson at the last GE.
I like the idea of a pick and mix, department by department. If you want to Ban the Bomb and Bring Back Hanging, then you can vote for candidates that fit the bill.
If we are going to restrict the franchise, then I suggest a 'Voter Proficiency Test'. Fail, and no vote for you this year. If you are 7 years old and pass, here's your ballot.
That would certainly be an option, how you would write a voter proficiency test however I suspect would be the issue
Re government spending, the problem is that government deficits tend to rise during recessions (lower taxes, more income support and equivalent) and fall during booms. If governments try and balance budgets during recessions, they tend to exacerbate problems (see Greece) as they create a negative feedback loop. The difficulty is, of course, how do you enforce through the cycle discipline?
I also don't see how you avoid the electorate voting for contradictory things - ultimately in government about day to day compromise: what if the education person had a policy of getting more doctors by importing them from France, and the immigration person promised a complete halt on all new immigration?
My suggestion was about 2k combined tax and ni circa 18k income....or volunteer work and yes you can mix and match so 1k combined plus 100 hours a year....didnt think it that onerous....if I had said 10k or 2000 hours yes and its more the principle something not earned is not valued
As a very high earner in the additional tax band I'd be one of the people to benefit from such a system but I find the idea quite disturbing. Money shouldn't be able to buy more of a say in who governs the country. The donation system is already a mess of influence buying, this directly links wealth to having more of a say.
One of the great things about this country is that I have exactly the same amount of votes (1) as someone who has a billion pounds in a bank or someone who is on the dole (1).
I can see merit in some of the other ideas and I think a more direct democracy like Switzerland can be beneficial, I don't see any merit in restrictions on the franchise for citizens.
You might have the same number of votes but the relationship between the wealthy and the governing parties of all flavours shows that is irrelevant, money buys policy already.
Firstly influence buying is completely different to receiving more votes by virtue of income, secondly a person would need to choose to buy influence with large donations to parties, this would be automatic and reward higher earners and very high earners with much more of a say over public life than lower income earners.
It would completely break the current social contract this country maintains between the wealthy and less wealthy. It's already at breaking point with tax evasion and avoidance by billionaires which the government turns a blind eye to.
Come on, pagan is suggesting earning £18k or volunteering or retired or disabilities or other things. It is hardly about restricting voting to the wealthy.
And also increased votes for people who have higher contributions. A sort of incentive to earn more money I guess.
Even the idea of a threshold is completely unpalatable to me. How could I look someone in the eye knowing that I have a say on our government and they don't. It's completely wrong.
Have you ever been canvassing with a candidate, in a less than rich area? I have.
It is pretty sobering. About every 3rd house you think, OMFG these people are deciding the future of the nation. They haven't got a clue. They can barely boil an egg.
I love the idea of democracy but I wonder if it has peaked. I'm serious. First, we have the success of China, clearly out-performing the USA, in almost every way now (including pandemic-management, despite starting a pandemic). In China, the technocratic Party decides. but as the Party can take a longer view than any individual, the Party is wiser. This model becomes increasingly seductive to many, as America declines and China ascends. Cf Singapore. Basically a one party state which has beautifully married English Common Law to Chinese autocracy.
Second, AI. How far away is the moment when a computer will make a better political choice than any average human? About 10 minutes, I reckon.
The future will be special, neutral, bespoke voting robots, deciding our elections.
I am serious. I think democracy, as we know it, is nearly done. The machines know better, that's why they fly our planes and will soon drive our cars. After that, they select our government
There's an argument that, for so long as the UK was in the EU, it was worth our making a fuss over its pretentions to statehood - but that now we're out of the way that's something for the 27 to worry about (or not.) Consequently, we might as well indulge the Commission in this regard and avoid hurting anyone's feelings, because its mission creep no longer applies here.
I like the idea of a pick and mix, department by department. If you want to Ban the Bomb and Bring Back Hanging, then you can vote for candidates that fit the bill.
If we are going to restrict the franchise, then I suggest a 'Voter Proficiency Test'. Fail, and no vote for you this year. If you are 7 years old and pass, here's your ballot.
Yes, I like the idea of a Voter Proficiency Test, though the bar needs to be fairly low.
No questions on the de Hondt method or outcomes of the 1951 General Election.
Re government spending, the problem is that government deficits tend to rise during recessions (lower taxes, more income support and equivalent) and fall during booms. If governments try and balance budgets during recessions, they tend to exacerbate problems (see Greece) as they create a negative feedback loop. The difficulty is, of course, how do you enforce through the cycle discipline?
I also don't see how you avoid the electorate voting for contradictory things - ultimately in government about day to day compromise: what if the education person had a policy of getting more doctors by importing them from France, and the immigration person promised a complete halt on all new immigration?
I would expect cross department issues to be raised prior to the election. In your example though I would expect it more to be the other way the education person promising more med school places to be opened and the immigration person saying we will give an extra 40000 work visa's to doctors. However I would like to see conflicts like that noted by the civil service on the prospectus pages for all candidates
Ten years ago, these robots would have seem magical. If not Satanically miraculous. Yours is a brave call.
In ten years those guys will turn into a car and then back into a robot whenever they want. And probably fight with another bunch of similar vehicular-based robots.
Re government spending, the problem is that government deficits tend to rise during recessions (lower taxes, more income support and equivalent) and fall during booms. If governments try and balance budgets during recessions, they tend to exacerbate problems (see Greece) as they create a negative feedback loop. The difficulty is, of course, how do you enforce through the cycle discipline?
I also don't see how you avoid the electorate voting for contradictory things - ultimately in government about day to day compromise: what if the education person had a policy of getting more doctors by importing them from France, and the immigration person promised a complete halt on all new immigration?
On the topic of cylical recessions and booms yes you are right I need to think about how to address that
I like the idea of a pick and mix, department by department. If you want to Ban the Bomb and Bring Back Hanging, then you can vote for candidates that fit the bill.
If we are going to restrict the franchise, then I suggest a 'Voter Proficiency Test'. Fail, and no vote for you this year. If you are 7 years old and pass, here's your ballot.
Sounds to me like a recipe for a really erratic course over the years. Never knowingly consistent, we're bloodthirsty pacifists this year and the reverse next year.
Interesting ideas except removing the idea of an automatic right to vote.
From the Chartists to the Suffragettes people fought for universal suffrage and it should be preserved
Happy to support you in this, my friend.
The competing Parties put forward programmes of legislation which affect us all and which we are all bound to obey and deal with once enacted.
We should therefore all have the right to decide between these competing visions as we all have a stake in their outcome, successful or otherwise.
Whilst the parties have too much power, and their visions are far from the ideologically coherent positions their tribal supporters pretend, parties are probably important for at least given us some broad coalitions with some idea of what they intend.
My objection to the parties is the role they have in choosing the leaders. In our FPTP system the members of the 2 big parties effectively choose the PM.
The combined membership of the 2 parties is tiny and very much tends towards the political extremes yet they get the power to decide which 2 individuals the rest of us get to vote for as PM.
If the elected members of parliament still made the decision I very much doubt we would have been presented with the truly awful choice of Corbyn or Johnson at the last GE.
There's an argument that, for so long as the UK was in the EU, it was worth our making a fuss over its pretentions to statehood - but that now we're out of the way that's something for the 27 to worry about (or not.) Consequently, we might as well indulge the Commission in this regard and avoid hurting anyone's feelings, because its mission creep no longer applies here.
Official recognition would be a small price to pay to oil the wheels of the Irish protocol and solve the shellfish issue.
I'm considering adding Democracy to the list of things which when I was young I thought would last forever but as I get older look set to disappear. Democracy nearly got wiped out in the US last month, it seems pretty moribund here and across much of the west.
Other items on my 'list' (most but not all of which I mourn) include: - The United Kingdom - Printed newspapers - The BBC - The Iron Curtain - Yellow Pages - Village pubs - Cinemas
... there are lots of others. It must have been the same for many previous generations.
Ooh, good game
I'd take pubs off the list, I reckon they will be much treasured after this plague, and I think the UK is more resilient than you assume, but otherwise, yes. Haven't Yellow Pages already gone?
What else would I add? What else would PB-ers add?
I would add, to the List of the Doomed
Personally owned cars (obvs) Therefore all car parks and parking (a much bigger deal than people realise) Most average shops (they just can't compete with amazon, and never will) Therefore: the High Street as we know it - which will become mostly cafes, hairdressers, pubs etc Human deliveries and postmen etc (drones will do it) Human driven taxis, planes, trains, trucks Summer holidays in the southern Med (just too hot)
Gainers
anything that has an irreducible human element: higher forms of art, craft, cooking, writing, architecture, hairdressing, bartending, nursing, vicars and being the Pope, or the holy anointed Sovereign of Great Britain. I predict a surge in religious faith, as the robots take over
I hope you're right on village pubs, although they will all become restuarant/pubs, not really the boozers I remember form my youth.
I am not sure about privately owned cars - I could see them persisting as hobbies (c.f. horses long after the ceased to be common form of transport).
Other entries on my list of things I thought would last forever but haven't or probably won't: - Coal mines - Individual GPs - Smoking in offfices (yay!) - Casual (and not so casual) sexism, rascism, homophobia - Britian being crap at the Olympics - Doorstep milk deliveries (we've still got one to be fair)
There's an argument that, for so long as the UK was in the EU, it was worth our making a fuss over its pretentions to statehood - but that now we're out of the way that's something for the 27 to worry about (or not.) Consequently, we might as well indulge the Commission in this regard and avoid hurting anyone's feelings, because its mission creep no longer applies here.
Official recognition would be a small price to pay to oil the wheels of the Irish protocol and solve the shellfish issue.
Na, they expect it so it wouldn't get the UK anywhere.
I like the idea of a pick and mix, department by department. If you want to Ban the Bomb and Bring Back Hanging, then you can vote for candidates that fit the bill.
If we are going to restrict the franchise, then I suggest a 'Voter Proficiency Test'. Fail, and no vote for you this year. If you are 7 years old and pass, here's your ballot.
Sounds to me like a recipe for a really erratic course over the years. Never knowingly consistent, we're bloodthirsty pacifists this year and the reverse next year.
I think personally that it is a recipe for a much less erratic course, currently we get a new secretary of state for education he can choose to try and change everything on a whim. Under my scheme you get a new secretary of state for education that has been elected and has a mandate only for those proposals he got elected on. Trying to change other things except if there turns out to be a real problem should be forbidden.
I'm considering adding Democracy to the list of things which when I was young I thought would last forever but as I get older look set to disappear. Democracy nearly got wiped out in the US last month, it seems pretty moribund here and across much of the west.
Other items on my 'list' (most but not all of which I mourn) include: - The United Kingdom - Printed newspapers - The BBC - The Iron Curtain - Yellow Pages - Village pubs - Cinemas
... there are lots of others. It must have been the same for many previous generations.
Ooh, good game
I'd take pubs off the list, I reckon they will be much treasured after this plague, and I think the UK is more resilient than you assume, but otherwise, yes. Haven't Yellow Pages already gone?
What else would I add? What else would PB-ers add?
I would add, to the List of the Doomed
Personally owned cars (obvs) Therefore all car parks and parking (a much bigger deal than people realise) Most average shops (they just can't compete with amazon, and never will) Therefore: the High Street as we know it - which will become mostly cafes, hairdressers, pubs etc Human deliveries and postmen etc (drones will do it) Human driven taxis, planes, trains, trucks Summer holidays in the southern Med (just too hot)
Gainers
anything that has an irreducible human element: higher forms of art, craft, cooking, writing, architecture, hairdressing, bartending, nursing, vicars and being the Pope, or the holy anointed Sovereign of Great Britain. I predict a surge in religious faith, as the robots take over
I hope you're right on village pubs, although they will all become restuarant/pubs, not really the boozers I remember form my youth.
I am not sure about privately owned cars - I could see them persisting as hobbies (c.f. horses long after the ceased to be common form of transport).
Other entries on my list of things I thought would last forever but haven't or probably won't: - Coal mines - Individual GPs - Smoking in offfices (yay!) - Casual (and not so casual) sexism, rascism, homophobia - Britian being crap at the Olympics - Doorstep milk deliveries (we've still got one to be fair)
I thought I read something recently that with lockdown, doorstep milk deliveries were back in fashion.
Very good header. On 1 what happens if someone costs up a proposal which only does 1 thing but is very popular, they implement it and it is successful within 6 months. Does that person then get paid for the next n years with nothing to do or does the post get put out for re-proposal & re-election? Also the other side of putting a long timescale to be confident it's worked and that post doesn't get looked at again for a long time?
Ten years ago, these robots would have seem magical. If not Satanically miraculous. Yours is a brave call.
In ten years those guys will turn into a car and then back into a robot whenever they want. And probably fight with another bunch of similar vehicular-based robots.
Ten years ago, these robots would have seem magical. If not Satanically miraculous. Yours is a brave call.
Correct, they will not.
The problem of self driving cars is filled with a series of incredibly challenging hard problems. Over the last decade people have made tremendous strides defeating hard problem after hard problem only to discover there are yet more hard problems.
AI is not magic, it is just an encoding of a human solution run on processors with far less computational power than the human brain.
Likewise language translation. Automatic language translation is a forever improving field but we are still no closer to the death of the professional translator than we were a decade ago.
There is an infinite number of hard problems between here and there.
And as a society we are improved by meeting and beating those problems but they don't move us appreciably closer to the purported goal.
I'm considering adding Democracy to the list of things which when I was young I thought would last forever but as I get older look set to disappear. Democracy nearly got wiped out in the US last month, it seems pretty moribund here and across much of the west.
Other items on my 'list' (most but not all of which I mourn) include: - The United Kingdom - Printed newspapers - The BBC - The Iron Curtain - Yellow Pages - Village pubs - Cinemas
... there are lots of others. It must have been the same for many previous generations.
Ooh, good game
I'd take pubs off the list, I reckon they will be much treasured after this plague, and I think the UK is more resilient than you assume, but otherwise, yes. Haven't Yellow Pages already gone?
What else would I add? What else would PB-ers add?
I would add, to the List of the Doomed
Personally owned cars (obvs) Therefore all car parks and parking (a much bigger deal than people realise) Most average shops (they just can't compete with amazon, and never will) Therefore: the High Street as we know it - which will become mostly cafes, hairdressers, pubs etc Human deliveries and postmen etc (drones will do it) Human driven taxis, planes, trains, trucks Summer holidays in the southern Med (just too hot)
Gainers
anything that has an irreducible human element: higher forms of art, craft, cooking, writing, architecture, hairdressing, bartending, nursing, vicars and being the Pope, or the holy anointed Sovereign of Great Britain. I predict a surge in religious faith, as the robots take over
I hope you're right on village pubs, although they will all become restuarant/pubs, not really the boozers I remember form my youth.
I am not sure about privately owned cars - I could see them persisting as hobbies (c.f. horses long after the ceased to be common form of transport).
Other entries on my list of things I thought would last forever but haven't or probably won't: - Coal mines - Individual GPs - Smoking in offfices (yay!) - Casual (and not so casual) sexism, rascism, homophobia - Britian being crap at the Olympics - Doorstep milk deliveries (we've still got one to be fair)
I agree on cars/horses, and have said so before. Owning a self driven car will become an ostentatious symbol of wealth, like owning horses now. Or indeed writing with a vintage ink pen, rather than a ballpoint or whatever (if you ever hand-write at all)
But that means car ownership will go down to the levels of horse ownership. Tiny, tiny numbers.
Boozers will endure. Indeed country pubs will likely prosper, as drink driving is no longer an issue. The boring robot car will pick you up, and drop you off, no matter how shellacked you are. The more scenic rural pubs will Prosper, Mightily
Ten years ago, these robots would have seem magical. If not Satanically miraculous. Yours is a brave call.
Correct, they will not.
The problem of self driving cars is filled with a series of incredibly challenging hard problems. Over the last decade people have made tremendous strides defeating hard problem after hard problem only to discover there are yet more hard problems.
AI is not magic, it is just an encoding of a human solution run on processors with far less computational power than the human brain.
Likewise language translation. Automatic language translation is a forever improving field but we are still no closer to the death of the professional translator than we were a decade ago.
There is an infinite number of hard problems between here and there.
And as a society we are improved by meeting and beating those problems but they don't move us appreciably closer to the purported goal.
Very good header. On 1 what happens if someone costs up a proposal which only does 1 thing but is very popular, they implement it and it is successful within 6 months. Does that person then get paid for the next n years with nothing to do or does the post get put out for re-proposal & re-election? Also the other side of putting a long timescale to be confident it's worked and that post doesn't get looked at again for a long time?
As I was at pains to point out my proposal was a thumbnail, however to answer your point.
I dont think the terms should be fixed at 5 years. People in their proposal should ask for 3 to 7 years
Each proposal should have a success point and when its reached job done, so if reached early they go
Each election for a post should have a none of the above option. Most want none of the new education proposals then none get elected for 3 years and the dfe just keeps things running as they are with no policy changes
How does anyone ever read that site? On my laptop there's about 10% of the screen not plastered in ads - and it keeps moving around all over the place. Those fucking web designers must have 32" screens and think 'yeah, that looks fine - a few ads round the side, no issues'. Grrrr!
PS Driverless cars - never happening - not in our lifetime.
I'm considering adding Democracy to the list of things which when I was young I thought would last forever but as I get older look set to disappear. Democracy nearly got wiped out in the US last month, it seems pretty moribund here and across much of the west.
Other items on my 'list' (most but not all of which I mourn) include: - The United Kingdom - Printed newspapers - The BBC - The Iron Curtain - Yellow Pages - Village pubs - Cinemas
... there are lots of others. It must have been the same for many previous generations.
Ooh, good game
I'd take pubs off the list, I reckon they will be much treasured after this plague, and I think the UK is more resilient than you assume, but otherwise, yes. Haven't Yellow Pages already gone?
What else would I add? What else would PB-ers add?
I would add, to the List of the Doomed
Personally owned cars (obvs) Therefore all car parks and parking (a much bigger deal than people realise) Most average shops (they just can't compete with amazon, and never will) Therefore: the High Street as we know it - which will become mostly cafes, hairdressers, pubs etc Human deliveries and postmen etc (drones will do it) Human driven taxis, planes, trains, trucks Summer holidays in the southern Med (just too hot)
Gainers
anything that has an irreducible human element: higher forms of art, craft, cooking, writing, architecture, hairdressing, bartending, nursing, vicars and being the Pope, or the holy anointed Sovereign of Great Britain. I predict a surge in religious faith, as the robots take over
I hope you're right on village pubs, although they will all become restuarant/pubs, not really the boozers I remember form my youth.
I am not sure about privately owned cars - I could see them persisting as hobbies (c.f. horses long after the ceased to be common form of transport).
Other entries on my list of things I thought would last forever but haven't or probably won't: - Coal mines - Individual GPs - Smoking in offfices (yay!) - Casual (and not so casual) sexism, rascism, homophobia - Britian being crap at the Olympics - Doorstep milk deliveries (we've still got one to be fair)
I thought I read something recently that with lockdown, doorstep milk deliveries were back in fashion.
Yup, we started getting out milk delivered. Ludicrously expensive but a delight to have milk on the doorstep just like my childhood.
Very good header. On 1 what happens if someone costs up a proposal which only does 1 thing but is very popular, they implement it and it is successful within 6 months. Does that person then get paid for the next n years with nothing to do or does the post get put out for re-proposal & re-election? Also the other side of putting a long timescale to be confident it's worked and that post doesn't get looked at again for a long time?
As I was at pains to point out my proposal was a thumbnail, however to answer your point.
I dont think the terms should be fixed at 5 years. People in their proposal should ask for 3 to 7 years
Each proposal should have a success point and when its reached job done, so if reached early they go
Each election for a post should have a none of the above option. Most want none of the new education proposals then none get elected for 3 years and the dfe just keeps things running as they are with no policy changes
Thanks - I'd not considered the none of the above option.
Anecdata South London Category 6 (underlying health condition) friend getting jabbed tomorrow - despite the lower numbers they do seem to be motoring......
I like the idea of a pick and mix, department by department. If you want to Ban the Bomb and Bring Back Hanging, then you can vote for candidates that fit the bill.
If we are going to restrict the franchise, then I suggest a 'Voter Proficiency Test'. Fail, and no vote for you this year. If you are 7 years old and pass, here's your ballot.
Sounds to me like a recipe for a really erratic course over the years. Never knowingly consistent, we're bloodthirsty pacifists this year and the reverse next year.
I think personally that it is a recipe for a much less erratic course, currently we get a new secretary of state for education he can choose to try and change everything on a whim. Under my scheme you get a new secretary of state for education that has been elected and has a mandate only for those proposals he got elected on. Trying to change other things except if there turns out to be a real problem should be forbidden.
The thing is, using Bring Back Hanging as an example, that policy could well be popular enough to win. At the next election, those who find it abhorrent would be all fired up so someone who promised to repeal it would win.
Everybody would need something eye catching as a USP, which (I would expect) to lead to more extremist positions.
Ten years ago, these robots would have seem magical. If not Satanically miraculous. Yours is a brave call.
Humans are going to resolve global warming by creating our robot exterminators. Yes, I am serious.
Robots are fine and can make our lives easier, as long as we can turn them off when needed.
Also found out my late great uncle's wife has passed away from Covid at 97 from my mother, not a very close relative or someone I knew very well but like most families I suppose it has now affected us sadly too
It is quite absurd how long this scheme is taking to realise. Over the past 12 months, has the government not thought to perhaps have a few civil servants come up with such a plan , you know just in case....
It may be significant that Nicola would not give details of her managed quarantine scheme announced by her yesterday, saying she is hoping to give more details next week
It would be a welcome change if Boris and Nicola could, for once, agree a scheme rather than continual point scoring
Hoiw do you know it's point scoring on Ms Sturgeon's side?
I like the idea of a pick and mix, department by department. If you want to Ban the Bomb and Bring Back Hanging, then you can vote for candidates that fit the bill.
If we are going to restrict the franchise, then I suggest a 'Voter Proficiency Test'. Fail, and no vote for you this year. If you are 7 years old and pass, here's your ballot.
Sounds to me like a recipe for a really erratic course over the years. Never knowingly consistent, we're bloodthirsty pacifists this year and the reverse next year.
I think personally that it is a recipe for a much less erratic course, currently we get a new secretary of state for education he can choose to try and change everything on a whim. Under my scheme you get a new secretary of state for education that has been elected and has a mandate only for those proposals he got elected on. Trying to change other things except if there turns out to be a real problem should be forbidden.
The thing is, using Bring Back Hanging as an example, that policy could well be popular enough to win. At the next election, those who find it abhorrent would be all fired up so someone who promised to repeal it would win.
Everybody would need something eye catching as a USP, which (I would expect) to lead to more extremist positions.
Which is why I suggested av for the executive positions, while I am sure hanging would win primary votes it would lose on secondary votes
How is it vital for EU-UK relations that a couple of their staff can dodge taxes and get off parking tickets?
The key impact on EU-UK relations appear to be that they won't talk to our chap in Brussels until we call their chap 'Ambassador'.....just as well there's nothing critical going on at the 'mo.....
I'm considering adding Democracy to the list of things which when I was young I thought would last forever but as I get older look set to disappear. Democracy nearly got wiped out in the US last month, it seems pretty moribund here and across much of the west.
Other items on my 'list' (most but not all of which I mourn) include: - The United Kingdom - Printed newspapers - The BBC - The Iron Curtain - Yellow Pages - Village pubs - Cinemas
... there are lots of others. It must have been the same for many previous generations.
Ooh, good game
I'd take pubs off the list, I reckon they will be much treasured after this plague, and I think the UK is more resilient than you assume, but otherwise, yes. Haven't Yellow Pages already gone?
What else would I add? What else would PB-ers add?
I would add, to the List of the Doomed
Personally owned cars (obvs) Therefore all car parks and parking (a much bigger deal than people realise) Most average shops (they just can't compete with amazon, and never will) Therefore: the High Street as we know it - which will become mostly cafes, hairdressers, pubs etc Human deliveries and postmen etc (drones will do it) Human driven taxis, planes, trains, trucks Summer holidays in the southern Med (just too hot)
Gainers
anything that has an irreducible human element: higher forms of art, craft, cooking, writing, architecture, hairdressing, bartending, nursing, vicars and being the Pope, or the holy anointed Sovereign of Great Britain. I predict a surge in religious faith, as the robots take over
I hope you're right on village pubs, although they will all become restuarant/pubs, not really the boozers I remember form my youth.
I am not sure about privately owned cars - I could see them persisting as hobbies (c.f. horses long after the ceased to be common form of transport).
Other entries on my list of things I thought would last forever but haven't or probably won't: - Coal mines - Individual GPs - Smoking in offfices (yay!) - Casual (and not so casual) sexism, rascism, homophobia - Britian being crap at the Olympics - Doorstep milk deliveries (we've still got one to be fair)
I thought I read something recently that with lockdown, doorstep milk deliveries were back in fashion.
Actually, yes, Covid present a big uncertainty challenge to my list of certainties that now seem doomed.
For those tracking closely, are we still accelerating overall?
470k and yes.
The vaccination numbers seem presently to be adhering to a pattern whereby they gradually ramp up throughout the week, reaching a peak on Saturday before dropping sharply on Sunday, and then building back up again.
It's still early days, of course, but the Sunday trough does appear to be getting shallower, and the Saturday peak higher, with each passing week at the moment.
The seven day average for first doses administered, which is computed as far as January 31st on the gov.uk dashboard, is still rising steadily most of the time and the most recent reported value stands at a little over 430k per day, which is a record high.
Nice one @Pagan2. Thought provoking and provocative. Definitely not dull nor predictable.
I try to be neither, sometimes though though I merely speak my mind I fear some think me just a right wing troll, it was a chance for people to understand where I am coming from too
Anecdata South London Category 6 (underlying health condition) friend getting jabbed tomorrow - despite the lower numbers they do seem to be motoring......
Category 6 is a big chunk 7.3m, so that could take 2-3 weeks.
It is quite absurd how long this scheme is taking to realise. Over the past 12 months, has the government not thought to perhaps have a few civil servants come up with such a plan , you know just in case....
It may be significant that Nicola would not give details of her managed quarantine scheme announced by her yesterday, saying she is hoping to give more details next week
It would be a welcome change if Boris and Nicola could, for once, agree a scheme rather than continual point scoring
Hoiw do you know it's point scoring on Ms Sturgeon's side? SHe did a much better job of Christmas.
I said it is better than point scoring, and as for Christmas all four nations had the same regulations, just allowing mixing on Christmas day only
They did not and do not have the same regulations. Scotland was more restrictive even on Christmas Day.
Anecdata South London Category 6 (underlying health condition) friend getting jabbed tomorrow - despite the lower numbers they do seem to be motoring......
I believe that London's per capita dose rate is about on a par with Scotland's. I do hope that's not because London is full of ethnic minority people who are refusing the vaccines. That'd be storing up all kinds of potential problems for the future.
I'm considering adding Democracy to the list of things which when I was young I thought would last forever but as I get older look set to disappear. Democracy nearly got wiped out in the US last month, it seems pretty moribund here and across much of the west.
Other items on my 'list' (most but not all of which I mourn) include: - The United Kingdom - Printed newspapers - The BBC - The Iron Curtain - Yellow Pages - Village pubs - Cinemas
... there are lots of others. It must have been the same for many previous generations.
Ooh, good game
I'd take pubs off the list, I reckon they will be much treasured after this plague, and I think the UK is more resilient than you assume, but otherwise, yes. Haven't Yellow Pages already gone?
What else would I add? What else would PB-ers add?
I would add, to the List of the Doomed
Personally owned cars (obvs) Therefore all car parks and parking (a much bigger deal than people realise) Most average shops (they just can't compete with amazon, and never will) Therefore: the High Street as we know it - which will become mostly cafes, hairdressers, pubs etc Human deliveries and postmen etc (drones will do it) Human driven taxis, planes, trains, trucks Summer holidays in the southern Med (just too hot)
Gainers
anything that has an irreducible human element: higher forms of art, craft, cooking, writing, architecture, hairdressing, bartending, nursing, vicars and being the Pope, or the holy anointed Sovereign of Great Britain. I predict a surge in religious faith, as the robots take over
I hope you're right on village pubs, although they will all become restuarant/pubs, not really the boozers I remember form my youth.
I am not sure about privately owned cars - I could see them persisting as hobbies (c.f. horses long after the ceased to be common form of transport).
Other entries on my list of things I thought would last forever but haven't or probably won't: - Coal mines - Individual GPs - Smoking in offfices (yay!) - Casual (and not so casual) sexism, rascism, homophobia - Britian being crap at the Olympics - Doorstep milk deliveries (we've still got one to be fair)
I thought I read something recently that with lockdown, doorstep milk deliveries were back in fashion.
Yup, we started getting out milk delivered. Ludicrously expensive but a delight to have milk on the doorstep just like my childhood.
We get our milk as part of the Riverford and Abel & Cole deliveries. Organic, natch.
Ten years ago, these robots would have seem magical. If not Satanically miraculous. Yours is a brave call.
Correct, they will not.
The problem of self driving cars is filled with a series of incredibly challenging hard problems. Over the last decade people have made tremendous strides defeating hard problem after hard problem only to discover there are yet more hard problems.
AI is not magic, it is just an encoding of a human solution run on processors with far less computational power than the human brain.
Likewise language translation. Automatic language translation is a forever improving field but we are still no closer to the death of the professional translator than we were a decade ago.
There is an infinite number of hard problems between here and there.
And as a society we are improved by meeting and beating those problems but they don't move us appreciably closer to the purported goal.
lol.
Would you seriously advise your, say, 16 year old child, to seek a career in "professional translation"?
Of course not. We all know it is doomed. As with the car (discussed below) a few ultra-wealthy individuals may keep a human translator for the sheer, vulgar, blingy display value (like horses, or antique ink pens, or other outdated tech) but the vast majority of translation will be done by computer tech, which already, even at iPhone level, is now remarkably good at translating
It's done. It is over. It will happen. The advantages of self driving electric cars in particular (near zero deaths, no drunk driving, zero pollution, an end to parking problems, forget insurance and MOTS, freeing of streets, greening of all cities) are so overwhelming they are near certain.
It is quite absurd how long this scheme is taking to realise. Over the past 12 months, has the government not thought to perhaps have a few civil servants come up with such a plan , you know just in case....
It may be significant that Nicola would not give details of her managed quarantine scheme announced by her yesterday, saying she is hoping to give more details next week
It would be a welcome change if Boris and Nicola could, for once, agree a scheme rather than continual point scoring
Hoiw do you know it's point scoring on Ms Sturgeon's side? SHe did a much better job of Christmas.
I said it is better than point scoring, and as for Christmas all four nations had the same regulations, just allowing mixing on Christmas day only
They did not and do not have the same regulations. Scotland was more restrictive even on Christmas Day.
I like the idea of a pick and mix, department by department. If you want to Ban the Bomb and Bring Back Hanging, then you can vote for candidates that fit the bill.
If we are going to restrict the franchise, then I suggest a 'Voter Proficiency Test'. Fail, and no vote for you this year. If you are 7 years old and pass, here's your ballot.
Sounds to me like a recipe for a really erratic course over the years. Never knowingly consistent, we're bloodthirsty pacifists this year and the reverse next year.
I think personally that it is a recipe for a much less erratic course, currently we get a new secretary of state for education he can choose to try and change everything on a whim. Under my scheme you get a new secretary of state for education that has been elected and has a mandate only for those proposals he got elected on. Trying to change other things except if there turns out to be a real problem should be forbidden.
The thing is, using Bring Back Hanging as an example, that policy could well be popular enough to win. At the next election, those who find it abhorrent would be all fired up so someone who promised to repeal it would win.
Everybody would need something eye catching as a USP, which (I would expect) to lead to more extremist positions.
Which is why I suggested av for the executive positions, while I am sure hanging would win primary votes it would lose on secondary votes
Yes, perhaps.
Anyway, I must go to bed. Thank you for stimulating some really interesting and varied discussions.
There's an argument that, for so long as the UK was in the EU, it was worth our making a fuss over its pretentions to statehood - but that now we're out of the way that's something for the 27 to worry about (or not.) Consequently, we might as well indulge the Commission in this regard and avoid hurting anyone's feelings, because its mission creep no longer applies here.
That would be my view too.
(And it's not like there aren't things the EU does that are normally the preserve of nation states where do have embassies. If we wanted to lodge a formal complaint to the US regarding a tariff being misapplied, HMG would do it at the US Embassy in London. Where would we lodge a complain about the EU misapplying a tariff?)
There's an argument that, for so long as the UK was in the EU, it was worth our making a fuss over its pretentions to statehood - but that now we're out of the way that's something for the 27 to worry about (or not.) Consequently, we might as well indulge the Commission in this regard and avoid hurting anyone's feelings, because its mission creep no longer applies here.
That would be my view too.
(And it's not like there aren't things the EU does that are normally the preserve of nation states where do have embassies. If we wanted to lodge a formal complaint to the US regarding a tariff being misapplied, HMG would do it at the US Embassy in London. Where would we lodge a complain about the EU misapplying a tariff?)
With the EU mission. It isn't as if they aren't going to have a presence.
Anecdata South London Category 6 (underlying health condition) friend getting jabbed tomorrow - despite the lower numbers they do seem to be motoring......
Category 6 is a big chunk 7.3m, so that could take 2-3 weeks.
Then category 7 which is very important.
(Personal disclosure - cat 7 includes me!)
I wonder what the most common categories are here.
I'm guessing I'll be the not-yet-announced category 12.
No chance on the idea that you pay to play as a natural born citizen. Right there you are going against the liberal democratic foundations. The potential to disenfranchise is all too easy. Volunteering is all well and good but you think that would encourage the non tax paying to vote? Not a chance. They may well be the ones with the lowest participation rates to start with. Unless they take themselves out of normal society the right to vote is there even if they do not use it
The idea that people need to be clear on the tax makes sense because it will hopefully balance the 'government, do something' approach with the reality of paying for it. This, perhaps, fits it very well about how it may go.
I talked about the franchise on the principle that something not earned is not valued mostly. Something I think many would accept, I am not ultra set on conditions
I get it and its got its attractions and indeed could be said to be populist, a term that gets a unfair branding. If someone, for example, is a lazy fleckless bollocks who takes without contribution then why should they have the rights? But therein lies the problem on that one, its all too easy for it to be utilised to create the idea of the acceptable citizen and by earning power being a possible starting point of elitism. You only have to look at the total headers post Brexit referendum concluding that some people shouldn't have the franchise because they were effectively not educated enough. The entire motivation was they didn't like the result.
Certain things do & should come with societal contribution and I think as a concept that needs more focus in politics & society. But the basic franchise is a bit too much of a pillar to remove.
I dont intend it to be about earning power. I see it more as people who contribute to the public well being get a say. People that don't contribute don't. How that is done is a subject for debate and I threw out some obvious ones to start the debate
I get it, its a concept or a hypothesis. The difficulty comes that you create a system of potential enfranchisement. The key word there is 'system', and where you have a system you will get those who will seek to exploit it. What's potentially more problematic is that those who are comparatively privileged may be the ones to exploit it. For something so fundamental that's a risky proposition.
I like the idea of a pick and mix, department by department. If you want to Ban the Bomb and Bring Back Hanging, then you can vote for candidates that fit the bill.
If we are going to restrict the franchise, then I suggest a 'Voter Proficiency Test'. Fail, and no vote for you this year. If you are 7 years old and pass, here's your ballot.
Sounds to me like a recipe for a really erratic course over the years. Never knowingly consistent, we're bloodthirsty pacifists this year and the reverse next year.
I think personally that it is a recipe for a much less erratic course, currently we get a new secretary of state for education he can choose to try and change everything on a whim. Under my scheme you get a new secretary of state for education that has been elected and has a mandate only for those proposals he got elected on. Trying to change other things except if there turns out to be a real problem should be forbidden.
The thing is, using Bring Back Hanging as an example, that policy could well be popular enough to win. At the next election, those who find it abhorrent would be all fired up so someone who promised to repeal it would win.
Everybody would need something eye catching as a USP, which (I would expect) to lead to more extremist positions.
Which is why I suggested av for the executive positions, while I am sure hanging would win primary votes it would lose on secondary votes
Yes, perhaps.
Anyway, I must go to bed. Thank you for stimulating some really interesting and varied discussions.
Good night, all.
My pleasure and I must admit I enjoyed them so mine too
Anecdata South London Category 6 (underlying health condition) friend getting jabbed tomorrow - despite the lower numbers they do seem to be motoring......
Category 6 is a big chunk 7.3m, so that could take 2-3 weeks.
Then category 7 which is very important.
(Personal disclosure - cat 7 includes me!)
I wonder what the most common categories are here.
I'm guessing I'll be the not-yet-announced category 12.
Ten years ago, these robots would have seem magical. If not Satanically miraculous. Yours is a brave call.
Correct, they will not.
The problem of self driving cars is filled with a series of incredibly challenging hard problems. Over the last decade people have made tremendous strides defeating hard problem after hard problem only to discover there are yet more hard problems.
AI is not magic, it is just an encoding of a human solution run on processors with far less computational power than the human brain.
Likewise language translation. Automatic language translation is a forever improving field but we are still no closer to the death of the professional translator than we were a decade ago.
There is an infinite number of hard problems between here and there.
And as a society we are improved by meeting and beating those problems but they don't move us appreciably closer to the purported goal.
lol.
Would you seriously advise your, say, 16 year old child, to seek a career in "professional translation"?
Of course not. We all know it is doomed. As with the car (discussed below) a few ultra-wealthy individuals may keep a human translator for the sheer, vulgar, blingy display value (like horses, or antique ink pens, or other outdated tech) but the vast majority of translation will be done by computer tech, which already, even at iPhone level, is now remarkably good at translating
It's done. It is over. It will happen. The advantages of self driving electric cars in particular (near zero deaths, no drunk driving, zero pollution, an end to parking problems, forget insurance and MOTS, freeing of streets, greening of all cities) are so overwhelming they are near certain.
Driverless cars... The advantages aren't questioned; the actual achievement, that's the issue.
There's an argument that, for so long as the UK was in the EU, it was worth our making a fuss over its pretentions to statehood - but that now we're out of the way that's something for the 27 to worry about (or not.) Consequently, we might as well indulge the Commission in this regard and avoid hurting anyone's feelings, because its mission creep no longer applies here.
That would be my view too.
(And it's not like there aren't things the EU does that are normally the preserve of nation states where do have embassies. If we wanted to lodge a formal complaint to the US regarding a tariff being misapplied, HMG would do it at the US Embassy in London. Where would we lodge a complain about the EU misapplying a tariff?)
With the EU mission. It isn't as if they aren't going to have a presence.
You know what: I'd call it an Embassy, but I wouldn't give Diplomatic Immunity to its staff.
If true, then the fact that they think they need 28,000 rooms just to cope with the red list indicates the ludicrous total number of people that must still be coming into the country through the airports. Even if one disregards the continuous flow of truck drivers through the Channel Tunnel and the ports, that must still leave several hundred thousand flying in every month.
You could argue that locking up people arriving from Brazil is better than nothing at all, but what's meant to stop anyone who's determined to get in and has the time and money to do it from simply travelling to a non-red list neighbour and flying from there, Lord alone knows.
If true, then the fact that they think they need 28,000 rooms just to cope with the red list indicates the ludicrous total number of people that must still be coming into the country through the airports. Even if one disregards the continuous flow of truck drivers through the Channel Tunnel and the ports, that must still leave several hundred thousand flying in every month.
You could argue that locking up people arriving from Brazil is better than nothing at all, but what's meant to stop anyone who's determined to get in and has the time and money to do it from simply travelling to a non-red list neighbour and flying from there, Lord alone knows.
2,000 people a day? Maybe 1,500 with a bit of a buffer. That number will likely drop like a stone once the policy is in place though.
If true, then the fact that they think they need 28,000 rooms just to cope with the red list indicates the ludicrous total number of people that must still be coming into the country through the airports. Even if one disregards the continuous flow of truck drivers through the Channel Tunnel and the ports, that must still leave several hundred thousand flying in every month.
You could argue that locking up people arriving from Brazil is better than nothing at all, but what's meant to stop anyone who's determined to get in and has the time and money to do it from simply travelling to a non-red list neighbour and flying from there, Lord alone knows.
At immigration, they know the countries you transited, even if you bought separate tickets (with separate airlines).
There would be a potential issue with Schengen, however, where you could drive or train from (say) Sweden to Denmark and fly from there. But the simple solution would be to treat Schengen according to the worst country,
I'm considering adding Democracy to the list of things which when I was young I thought would last forever but as I get older look set to disappear. Democracy nearly got wiped out in the US last month, it seems pretty moribund here and across much of the west.
Other items on my 'list' (most but not all of which I mourn) include: - The United Kingdom - Printed newspapers - The BBC - The Iron Curtain - Yellow Pages - Village pubs - Cinemas
... there are lots of others. It must have been the same for many previous generations.
Ooh, good game
I'd take pubs off the list, I reckon they will be much treasured after this plague, and I think the UK is more resilient than you assume, but otherwise, yes. Haven't Yellow Pages already gone?
What else would I add? What else would PB-ers add?
I would add, to the List of the Doomed
Personally owned cars (obvs) Therefore all car parks and parking (a much bigger deal than people realise) Most average shops (they just can't compete with amazon, and never will) Therefore: the High Street as we know it - which will become mostly cafes, hairdressers, pubs etc Human deliveries and postmen etc (drones will do it) Human driven taxis, planes, trains, trucks Summer holidays in the southern Med (just too hot)
Gainers
anything that has an irreducible human element: higher forms of art, craft, cooking, writing, architecture, hairdressing, bartending, nursing, vicars and being the Pope, or the holy anointed Sovereign of Great Britain. I predict a surge in religious faith, as the robots take over
I hope you're right on village pubs, although they will all become restuarant/pubs, not really the boozers I remember form my youth.
I am not sure about privately owned cars - I could see them persisting as hobbies (c.f. horses long after the ceased to be common form of transport).
Other entries on my list of things I thought would last forever but haven't or probably won't: - Coal mines - Individual GPs - Smoking in offfices (yay!) - Casual (and not so casual) sexism, rascism, homophobia - Britian being crap at the Olympics - Doorstep milk deliveries (we've still got one to be fair)
I thought I read something recently that with lockdown, doorstep milk deliveries were back in fashion.
Yup, we started getting out milk delivered. Ludicrously expensive but a delight to have milk on the doorstep just like my childhood.
We get our milk as part of the Riverford and Abel & Cole deliveries. Organic, natch.
If true, then the fact that they think they need 28,000 rooms just to cope with the red list indicates the ludicrous total number of people that must still be coming into the country through the airports. Even if one disregards the continuous flow of truck drivers through the Channel Tunnel and the ports, that must still leave several hundred thousand flying in every month.
You could argue that locking up people arriving from Brazil is better than nothing at all, but what's meant to stop anyone who's determined to get in and has the time and money to do it from simply travelling to a non-red list neighbour and flying from there, Lord alone knows.
Don't forget, though, that (a) you will need a buffer to make sure they're not all used at any particular airport, so your average utilisation might only be 65-75%; and (b) if people are staying five days, plus one for deep cleaning, then you have to divide the amount by six to see daily numbers.
I'm considering adding Democracy to the list of things which when I was young I thought would last forever but as I get older look set to disappear. Democracy nearly got wiped out in the US last month, it seems pretty moribund here and across much of the west.
Other items on my 'list' (most but not all of which I mourn) include: - The United Kingdom - Printed newspapers - The BBC - The Iron Curtain - Yellow Pages - Village pubs - Cinemas
... there are lots of others. It must have been the same for many previous generations.
Ooh, good game
I'd take pubs off the list, I reckon they will be much treasured after this plague, and I think the UK is more resilient than you assume, but otherwise, yes. Haven't Yellow Pages already gone?
What else would I add? What else would PB-ers add?
I would add, to the List of the Doomed
Personally owned cars (obvs) Therefore all car parks and parking (a much bigger deal than people realise) Most average shops (they just can't compete with amazon, and never will) Therefore: the High Street as we know it - which will become mostly cafes, hairdressers, pubs etc Human deliveries and postmen etc (drones will do it) Human driven taxis, planes, trains, trucks Summer holidays in the southern Med (just too hot)
Gainers
anything that has an irreducible human element: higher forms of art, craft, cooking, writing, architecture, hairdressing, bartending, nursing, vicars and being the Pope, or the holy anointed Sovereign of Great Britain. I predict a surge in religious faith, as the robots take over
I hope you're right on village pubs, although they will all become restuarant/pubs, not really the boozers I remember form my youth.
I am not sure about privately owned cars - I could see them persisting as hobbies (c.f. horses long after the ceased to be common form of transport).
Other entries on my list of things I thought would last forever but haven't or probably won't: - Coal mines - Individual GPs - Smoking in offfices (yay!) - Casual (and not so casual) sexism, rascism, homophobia - Britian being crap at the Olympics - Doorstep milk deliveries (we've still got one to be fair)
I thought I read something recently that with lockdown, doorstep milk deliveries were back in fashion.
Actually, yes, Covid present a big uncertainty challenge to my list of certainties that now seem doomed.
Whither cinemas? Do cinemas wither?
Oh that's a good question.
The industry survives, but is seriously diminished. Audiences eventually pick up again but only to sustain what is the new norm for cinema and a considerably smaller range of theatres/chains.
Ten years ago, these robots would have seem magical. If not Satanically miraculous. Yours is a brave call.
Correct, they will not.
The problem of self driving cars is filled with a series of incredibly challenging hard problems. Over the last decade people have made tremendous strides defeating hard problem after hard problem only to discover there are yet more hard problems.
AI is not magic, it is just an encoding of a human solution run on processors with far less computational power than the human brain.
Likewise language translation. Automatic language translation is a forever improving field but we are still no closer to the death of the professional translator than we were a decade ago.
There is an infinite number of hard problems between here and there.
And as a society we are improved by meeting and beating those problems but they don't move us appreciably closer to the purported goal.
lol.
Would you seriously advise your, say, 16 year old child, to seek a career in "professional translation"?
Of course not. We all know it is doomed. As with the car (discussed below) a few ultra-wealthy individuals may keep a human translator for the sheer, vulgar, blingy display value (like horses, or antique ink pens, or other outdated tech) but the vast majority of translation will be done by computer tech, which already, even at iPhone level, is now remarkably good at translating
It's done. It is over. It will happen. The advantages of self driving electric cars in particular (near zero deaths, no drunk driving, zero pollution, an end to parking problems, forget insurance and MOTS, freeing of streets, greening of all cities) are so overwhelming they are near certain.
Driverless cars... The advantages aren't questioned; the actual achievement, that's the issue.
Hofstadter's law coined in 1979 said that the time when a computer beat a grandmaster at chess would always be ten years away, and Hofstadter was an unbelievably smart cookie. 1997, Deep Blue beats Kasparov.
I like the idea of a pick and mix, department by department. If you want to Ban the Bomb and Bring Back Hanging, then you can vote for candidates that fit the bill.
If we are going to restrict the franchise, then I suggest a 'Voter Proficiency Test'. Fail, and no vote for you this year. If you are 7 years old and pass, here's your ballot.
Sounds to me like a recipe for a really erratic course over the years. Never knowingly consistent, we're bloodthirsty pacifists this year and the reverse next year.
I think personally that it is a recipe for a much less erratic course, currently we get a new secretary of state for education he can choose to try and change everything on a whim. Under my scheme you get a new secretary of state for education that has been elected and has a mandate only for those proposals he got elected on. Trying to change other things except if there turns out to be a real problem should be forbidden.
The thing is, using Bring Back Hanging as an example, that policy could well be popular enough to win. At the next election, those who find it abhorrent would be all fired up so someone who promised to repeal it would win.
Everybody would need something eye catching as a USP, which (I would expect) to lead to more extremist positions.
Which is why I suggested av for the executive positions, while I am sure hanging would win primary votes it would lose on secondary votes
Yes, perhaps.
Anyway, I must go to bed. Thank you for stimulating some really interesting and varied discussions.
Good night, all.
My pleasure and I must admit I enjoyed them so mine too
Just had a quick squint, Pagan, and although I think I could drive a coach and horses through some of it I admire the ambition and thought behind the piece.
Well done, and I look forward to your next thread header, when hopefully I will have more time to digest it and reply.
Nice one @Pagan2. Thought provoking and provocative. Definitely not dull nor predictable.
I try to be neither, sometimes though though I merely speak my mind I fear some think me just a right wing troll, it was a chance for people to understand where I am coming from too
You don't come across at all that way. To me at least. Right wing, but not a troll, that is. At least you don't parrot the CCHQ line. Nor deflect any legitimate criticisms by simply pointing to government x, or opposition politician y, and saying "well, they've done worse."
Comments
My North Dorset constituency is always going to be Tory because the large majority of those who live here are conservative. Fair enough, but the safeness of the seat makes it genuinely a bit pointless for an individual to vote. (I still do but my vote is valueless.)
I wonder how it is being observed.
If we are going to restrict the franchise, then I suggest a 'Voter Proficiency Test'. Fail, and no vote for you this year. If you are 7 years old and pass, here's your ballot.
But you do overlook that it’s as much about the process as the outcome.
A big part of the idea is that, having participated on an equal basis with your fellow citizens, you are then willing (and obliged) to accept the outcome, and its consequences. Hence government by consent.
It’s another reason why our voting system is so poisonous, since it casts so many votes into the bin and leaves so many people’s opinions un- or woefully under-represented.
The combined membership of the 2 parties is tiny and very much tends towards the political extremes yet they get the power to decide which 2 individuals the rest of us get to vote for as PM.
If the elected members of parliament still made the decision I very much doubt we would have been presented with the truly awful choice of Corbyn or Johnson at the last GE.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/technology-inventions-self-driving-car-hydrogen-power-carbon-capture-virtual-reality-top-10-b1051966.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn3KWM1kuAw
Ten years ago, these robots would have seem magical. If not Satanically miraculous. Yours is a brave call.
Interesting piece.
Re government spending, the problem is that government deficits tend to rise during recessions (lower taxes, more income support and equivalent) and fall during booms. If governments try and balance budgets during recessions, they tend to exacerbate problems (see Greece) as they create a negative feedback loop. The difficulty is, of course, how do you enforce through the cycle discipline?
I also don't see how you avoid the electorate voting for contradictory things - ultimately in government about day to day compromise: what if the education person had a policy of getting more doctors by importing them from France, and the immigration person promised a complete halt on all new immigration?
No questions on the de Hondt method or outcomes of the 1951 General Election.
Someone who cared enough to write a letter......
I am not sure about privately owned cars - I could see them persisting as hobbies (c.f. horses long after the ceased to be common form of transport).
Other entries on my list of things I thought would last forever but haven't or probably won't:
- Coal mines
- Individual GPs
- Smoking in offfices (yay!)
- Casual (and not so casual) sexism, rascism, homophobia
- Britian being crap at the Olympics
- Doorstep milk deliveries (we've still got one to be fair)
For those tracking closely, are we still accelerating overall?
It is hard to believe that team topped the table a month ago.
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
"469,016 people had a first vaccine dose yesterday, taking the UK total of initial inoculations to 10,490,487."
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-another-915-die-with-coronavirus-in-uk-as-one-in-five-adults-has-first-vaccine-dose-12208600
The problem of self driving cars is filled with a series of incredibly challenging hard problems. Over the last decade people have made tremendous strides defeating hard problem after hard problem only to discover there are yet more hard problems.
AI is not magic, it is just an encoding of a human solution run on processors with far less computational power than the human brain.
Likewise language translation. Automatic language translation is a forever improving field but we are still no closer to the death of the professional translator than we were a decade ago.
There is an infinite number of hard problems between here and there.
And as a society we are improved by meeting and beating those problems but they don't move us appreciably closer to the purported goal.
But that means car ownership will go down to the levels of horse ownership. Tiny, tiny numbers.
Boozers will endure. Indeed country pubs will likely prosper, as drink driving is no longer an issue. The boring robot car will pick you up, and drop you off, no matter how shellacked you are. The more scenic rural pubs will Prosper, Mightily
I dont think the terms should be fixed at 5 years. People in their proposal should ask for 3 to 7 years
Each proposal should have a success point and when its reached job done, so if reached early they go
Each election for a post should have a none of the above option. Most want none of the new education proposals then none get elected for 3 years and the dfe just keeps things running as they are with no policy changes
On that basis, I suspect that the same applies to the others on the list.
How does anyone ever read that site? On my laptop there's about 10% of the screen not plastered in ads - and it keeps moving around all over the place. Those fucking web designers must have 32" screens and think 'yeah, that looks fine - a few ads round the side, no issues'. Grrrr!
PS Driverless cars - never happening - not in our lifetime.
Plus the curfew seems to be extremely strictly imposed.
Everybody would need something eye catching as a USP, which (I would expect) to lead to more extremist positions.
Also found out my late great uncle's wife has passed away from Covid at 97 from my mother, not a very close relative or someone I knew very well but like most families I suppose it has now affected us sadly too
Thought provoking and provocative.
Definitely not dull nor predictable.
Whither cinemas? Do cinemas wither?
It's still early days, of course, but the Sunday trough does appear to be getting shallower, and the Saturday peak higher, with each passing week at the moment.
The seven day average for first doses administered, which is computed as far as January 31st on the gov.uk dashboard, is still rising steadily most of the time and the most recent reported value stands at a little over 430k per day, which is a record high.
Then category 7 which is very important.
(Personal disclosure - cat 7 includes me!)
Would you seriously advise your, say, 16 year old child, to seek a career in "professional translation"?
Of course not. We all know it is doomed. As with the car (discussed below) a few ultra-wealthy individuals may keep a human translator for the sheer, vulgar, blingy display value (like horses, or antique ink pens, or other outdated tech) but the vast majority of translation will be done by computer tech, which already, even at iPhone level, is now remarkably good at translating
It's done. It is over. It will happen. The advantages of self driving electric cars in particular (near zero deaths, no drunk driving, zero pollution, an end to parking problems, forget insurance and MOTS, freeing of streets, greening of all cities) are so overwhelming they are near certain.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-55941787
Anyway, I must go to bed. Thank you for stimulating some really interesting and varied discussions.
Good night, all.
(And it's not like there aren't things the EU does that are normally the preserve of nation states where do have embassies. If we wanted to lodge a formal complaint to the US regarding a tariff being misapplied, HMG would do it at the US Embassy in London. Where would we lodge a complain about the EU misapplying a tariff?)
I'm guessing I'll be the not-yet-announced category 12.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwC_IaY3BmY&ab_channel=MovieDeaths2000
You could argue that locking up people arriving from Brazil is better than nothing at all, but what's meant to stop anyone who's determined to get in and has the time and money to do it from simply travelling to a non-red list neighbour and flying from there, Lord alone knows.
Golf on the moon: Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and show how far he hit it
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/55927727
Who will then think "Why are we doing this shit?"
Mankind's last meals will be as cannibals.
Just not too much.
There would be a potential issue with Schengen, however, where you could drive or train from (say) Sweden to Denmark and fly from there. But the simple solution would be to treat Schengen according to the worst country,
Well done
😳
The industry survives, but is seriously diminished. Audiences eventually pick up again but only to sustain what is the new norm for cinema and a considerably smaller range of theatres/chains.
Probably.
Well done, and I look forward to your next thread header, when hopefully I will have more time to digest it and reply.
Moronic.
At least you don't parrot the CCHQ line.
Nor deflect any legitimate criticisms by simply pointing to government x, or opposition politician y, and saying "well, they've done worse."
(Joke!
Ow....)