The BBC are not covering themselves in glory today.
On a day when they could have led with the budget, the first minister of Scotland being accused of perjury, a global pandemic, schools being sent back with impossible safety measures, an academy chain going bust and all hell breaking loose in and over Northern Ireland...
...they led with the Duchess of Sussex giving an interview.
I sometimes wonder if they want to keep the licence fee.
Royals = big press. Even the publicly funded bits cannot help themselves.
Honestly the whole thing is just a nonsense - clearly there have been leaks against Harry and Meghan in recent days no doubt because of their interview, but equally clearly you cant expect a great deal of sympathy when your whole deal appears to be complaining about media attention and royal status whilst making use of both of those things.
If you are happier out of it, fine. If you have takes to tell, just do it already not this orchestrated media game of hints and clips and build up. That just makes it look like it's not important to them. And the rest of the royals can remember that playing things with a straight bat is preferable - just ignore it, as getting engaged will only rebound.
Meghan & Harry don't count as Royals anymore. She is the new Mrs Simpson - irrelevant.
Except that they are trying to leverage off something they have walked away from, and are not happy with the consequences of their chosen course of action.
She is stirring the pot for her own reasons. It won't end well.
And after the disgusting way they've both been treated, why shouldn't they?
Good for them.
To quote Nicola, 'I don't accept that characterisation.'
In which case you'd be as full of shit as Nicola.
Well, pressing on, they have not been treated like anything, except Royalty. As I think I said before, if you become a royal, you are going to be persistently bored, subjected to endless scrutiny, and live somewhere with drafts. On the plus side, you will be very wealthy, receive constant fawning adulation, have a title that will get you in anywhere, and have the fabulous trinkets of antiquity bestowed upon you. That's the deal. The Sussex's evidently thought the deal was that they could be Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and the Royal family would thank them for updating the institution. They're just a bit daft. The best thing they could do now is enjoy the obscurity that they say they crave.
The BBC are not covering themselves in glory today.
On a day when they could have led with the budget, the first minister of Scotland being accused of perjury, a global pandemic, schools being sent back with impossible safety measures, an academy chain going bust and all hell breaking loose in and over Northern Ireland...
...they led with the Duchess of Sussex giving an interview.
I sometimes wonder if they want to keep the licence fee.
Royals = big press. Even the publicly funded bits cannot help themselves.
Honestly the whole thing is just a nonsense - clearly there have been leaks against Harry and Meghan in recent days no doubt because of their interview, but equally clearly you cant expect a great deal of sympathy when your whole deal appears to be complaining about media attention and royal status whilst making use of both of those things.
If you are happier out of it, fine. If you have takes to tell, just do it already not this orchestrated media game of hints and clips and build up. That just makes it look like it's not important to them. And the rest of the royals can remember that playing things with a straight bat is preferable - just ignore it, as getting engaged will only rebound.
Meghan & Harry don't count as Royals anymore. She is the new Mrs Simpson - irrelevant.
Except that they are trying to leverage off something they have walked away from, and are not happy with the consequences of their chosen course of action.
She is stirring the pot for her own reasons. It won't end well.
And after the disgusting way they've both been treated, why shouldn't they?
Good for them.
Whatever. I don't buy your narrative.
Fishing in things you say you have left is never a good idea.
If you are leaving something behind you ... leave it behind you.
So they can be abused, treated like shit and are just supposed to take it and not speak about their own lives?
They're free people, free to make their own choices and do whatever they damn please. They don't owe the UK media or the monarchy anything. After the way they've been treated they absolutely can and should do whatever they want.
Their lives, their choice.
They essentially have the Hobson's choice of:
1. Letting the gutter media (it used to be gutter press) say what it likes about them.
2. Trying to set the record straight, using the media to do so, and then being accused of being rank hypocrites for not taking it all lying down.
All this about completely overhauling their lives, giving up all privileges and royal funding, and breaking irretrievably with their family in an effort to escape scrutiny, only to still find themselves still being pursued relentlessly.
They stir it up themselves with there ever more bizarre money grasping schemes. They are loaded , why not just live in their 10 Million , 30 bathroom mansion and get the adulation of the LA nutjob luvvies instead of wanting the whole world to gush over them. A more odious pair I have yet to see.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley say hi!
OK, and if you includes the West's and limit to UK , 3rd worst.
Top five maybe. Epstein and Maxwell, Trump and Melania...oh wait top six, Tony and Cherie...oh wait Gove and Vine...oh wait (and here's one for you Malc, Nippy and Peter.
I don’t think she will be now. Even the Scottish press have gone quiet, so the Greens and her own party rebels have no reason to bring her down.
The only way that could change is if something else comes out during the campaign and that causes SNP voters to stay at home, leaving her well short on forming a government. But that doesn’t seem likely at the moment either.
The two reports due to be concluded will be the moment for Sturgeon to survive or go
But the apparent lack of interest in the Tory VoNC has already given us the answer, sadly. She has been badly wounded but will go on until at least after the election when Angus Robertson will be in situ to take over.
I agree that now is not the time to VONC but as I understand it the Greens have said this morning they will await the conclusions of the two reports before taking further action
Sturgeon may well survive but her future must be in doubt and it is too early to detect just how this will impact Holyrood 21 but I still expect the SNP to win a majority
Replace a wrong un with another useless twat , there is a real coven ensconced in there. Hopefully he gets a bloody nose and is chased, yet another carpetbagger.
The BBC are not covering themselves in glory today.
On a day when they could have led with the budget, the first minister of Scotland being accused of perjury, a global pandemic, schools being sent back with impossible safety measures, an academy chain going bust and all hell breaking loose in and over Northern Ireland...
...they led with the Duchess of Sussex giving an interview.
I sometimes wonder if they want to keep the licence fee.
Royals = big press. Even the publicly funded bits cannot help themselves.
Honestly the whole thing is just a nonsense - clearly there have been leaks against Harry and Meghan in recent days no doubt because of their interview, but equally clearly you cant expect a great deal of sympathy when your whole deal appears to be complaining about media attention and royal status whilst making use of both of those things.
If you are happier out of it, fine. If you have takes to tell, just do it already not this orchestrated media game of hints and clips and build up. That just makes it look like it's not important to them. And the rest of the royals can remember that playing things with a straight bat is preferable - just ignore it, as getting engaged will only rebound.
Meghan & Harry don't count as Royals anymore. She is the new Mrs Simpson - irrelevant.
Except that they are trying to leverage off something they have walked away from, and are not happy with the consequences of their chosen course of action.
She is stirring the pot for her own reasons. It won't end well.
And after the disgusting way they've both been treated, why shouldn't they?
Good for them.
Whatever. I don't buy your narrative.
Fishing in things you say you have left is never a good idea.
If you are leaving something behind you ... leave it behind you.
So they can be abused, treated like shit and are just supposed to take it and not speak about their own lives?
They're free people, free to make their own choices and do whatever they damn please. They don't owe the UK media or the monarchy anything. After the way they've been treated they absolutely can and should do whatever they want.
Their lives, their choice.
They essentially have the Hobson's choice of:
1. Letting the gutter media (it used to be gutter press) say what it likes about them.
2. Trying to set the record straight, using the media to do so, and then being accused of being rank hypocrites for not taking it all lying down.
All this about completely overhauling their lives, giving up all privileges and royal funding, and breaking irretrievably with their family in an effort to escape scrutiny, only to still find themselves still being pursued relentlessly.
They stir it up themselves with there ever more bizarre money grasping schemes. They are loaded , why not just live in their 10 Million , 30 bathroom mansion and get the adulation of the LA nutjob luvvies instead of wanting the whole world to gush over them. A more odious pair I have yet to see.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley say hi!
OK, and if you includes the West's and limit to UK , 3rd worst.
Top five maybe. Epstein and Maxwell, Trump and Melania...oh wait top six, Tony and Cherie...oh wait Gove and Vine...oh wait (and here's one for you Malc, Nippy and Peter.
OK, I was talking complete bollox even if a couple of yours were USA.
The BBC are not covering themselves in glory today.
On a day when they could have led with the budget, the first minister of Scotland being accused of perjury, a global pandemic, schools being sent back with impossible safety measures, an academy chain going bust and all hell breaking loose in and over Northern Ireland...
...they led with the Duchess of Sussex giving an interview.
I sometimes wonder if they want to keep the licence fee.
Royals = big press. Even the publicly funded bits cannot help themselves.
Honestly the whole thing is just a nonsense - clearly there have been leaks against Harry and Meghan in recent days no doubt because of their interview, but equally clearly you cant expect a great deal of sympathy when your whole deal appears to be complaining about media attention and royal status whilst making use of both of those things.
If you are happier out of it, fine. If you have takes to tell, just do it already not this orchestrated media game of hints and clips and build up. That just makes it look like it's not important to them. And the rest of the royals can remember that playing things with a straight bat is preferable - just ignore it, as getting engaged will only rebound.
Meghan & Harry don't count as Royals anymore. She is the new Mrs Simpson - irrelevant.
Except that they are trying to leverage off something they have walked away from, and are not happy with the consequences of their chosen course of action.
She is stirring the pot for her own reasons. It won't end well.
And after the disgusting way they've both been treated, why shouldn't they?
Good for them.
Whatever. I don't buy your narrative.
Fishing in things you say you have left is never a good idea.
If you are leaving something behind you ... leave it behind you.
So they can be abused, treated like shit and are just supposed to take it and not speak about their own lives?
They're free people, free to make their own choices and do whatever they damn please. They don't owe the UK media or the monarchy anything. After the way they've been treated they absolutely can and should do whatever they want.
Their lives, their choice.
They essentially have the Hobson's choice of:
1. Letting the gutter media (it used to be gutter press) say what it likes about them.
2. Trying to set the record straight, using the media to do so, and then being accused of being rank hypocrites for not taking it all lying down.
All this about completely overhauling their lives, giving up all privileges and royal funding, and breaking irretrievably with their family in an effort to escape scrutiny, only to still find themselves still being pursued relentlessly.
They stir it up themselves with there ever more bizarre money grasping schemes. They are loaded , why not just live in their 10 Million , 30 bathroom mansion and get the adulation of the LA nutjob luvvies instead of wanting the whole world to gush over them. A more odious pair I have yet to see.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley say hi!
OK, and if you includes the West's and limit to UK , 3rd worst.
Top five maybe. Epstein and Maxwell, Trump and Melania...oh wait top six, Tony and Cherie...oh wait Gove and Vine...oh wait (and here's one for you Malc, Nippy and Peter.
OK, I was talking complete bollox even if a couple of yours were USA.
I respect them more than the rest of the family.
You'd rather they were still here getting paid by taxpayers? Seriously is that your preference?
They've renounced the taxpayer money and are making their own instead. Good for them!
It's sometimes worth stating the obvious, and that is that Rishi is a slam dunk for PM if Boris stands down.
Note - he is "Rishi", not Sunak. His brand is already well-established and immensely well-received.
He does human. I think his bird-like frame, a touch of vulnerability, helps quite considerably. Not a touch of arrogance so far as I can see which is a significant attribute. Also some dashes of humour and self-deprecation.
It's a killer combination.
Reminds me (a bit) of Reagan. Voters will give him slack because they like him and want him to do well, even if things go less than optimally.
Huge task for Labour to take him down. Remarkable after 11 years of Tory Government.
Hence all they have to aim at him is his "eat out to stay fat" initiative - which, let it be remembered, was almost universally applauded at the time including on here (I was a rare dissenter).
Meanwhile, the unbelievable sums he is borrowing and to a large degree wasting on fraudsters and uneven eligibility issues goes under the radar. It is difficult for the LP to criticise such things when they would likely borrow even more given the chance.
The BBC are not covering themselves in glory today.
On a day when they could have led with the budget, the first minister of Scotland being accused of perjury, a global pandemic, schools being sent back with impossible safety measures, an academy chain going bust and all hell breaking loose in and over Northern Ireland...
...they led with the Duchess of Sussex giving an interview.
I sometimes wonder if they want to keep the licence fee.
Royals = big press. Even the publicly funded bits cannot help themselves.
Honestly the whole thing is just a nonsense - clearly there have been leaks against Harry and Meghan in recent days no doubt because of their interview, but equally clearly you cant expect a great deal of sympathy when your whole deal appears to be complaining about media attention and royal status whilst making use of both of those things.
If you are happier out of it, fine. If you have takes to tell, just do it already not this orchestrated media game of hints and clips and build up. That just makes it look like it's not important to them. And the rest of the royals can remember that playing things with a straight bat is preferable - just ignore it, as getting engaged will only rebound.
Meghan & Harry don't count as Royals anymore. She is the new Mrs Simpson - irrelevant.
Except that they are trying to leverage off something they have walked away from, and are not happy with the consequences of their chosen course of action.
She is stirring the pot for her own reasons. It won't end well.
And after the disgusting way they've both been treated, why shouldn't they?
Good for them.
To quote Nicola, 'I don't accept that characterisation.'
In which case you'd be as full of shit as Nicola.
Well, pressing on, they have not been treated like anything, except Royalty. As I think I said before, if you become a royal, you are going to be persistently bored, subjected to endless scrutiny, and live somewhere with drafts. On the plus side, you will be very wealthy, receive constant fawning adulation, have a title that will get you in anywhere, and have the fabulous trinkets of antiquity bestowed upon you. That's the deal. The Sussex's evidently thought the deal was that they could be Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and the Royal family would thank them for updating the institution. They're just a bit daft. The best thing they could do now is enjoy the obscurity that they say they crave.
If they are getting obscurity why are they being attacked on the news? 🙄
The way to give them obscurity is to STFU about them. Let Oprah and celebrity gossip rags talk about them and the rest of us can forget all about it.
It's not as if they're giving BBC interviews is it?
The BBC are not covering themselves in glory today.
On a day when they could have led with the budget, the first minister of Scotland being accused of perjury, a global pandemic, schools being sent back with impossible safety measures, an academy chain going bust and all hell breaking loose in and over Northern Ireland...
...they led with the Duchess of Sussex giving an interview.
I sometimes wonder if they want to keep the licence fee.
Royals = big press. Even the publicly funded bits cannot help themselves.
Honestly the whole thing is just a nonsense - clearly there have been leaks against Harry and Meghan in recent days no doubt because of their interview, but equally clearly you cant expect a great deal of sympathy when your whole deal appears to be complaining about media attention and royal status whilst making use of both of those things.
If you are happier out of it, fine. If you have takes to tell, just do it already not this orchestrated media game of hints and clips and build up. That just makes it look like it's not important to them. And the rest of the royals can remember that playing things with a straight bat is preferable - just ignore it, as getting engaged will only rebound.
Meghan & Harry don't count as Royals anymore. She is the new Mrs Simpson - irrelevant.
Except that they are trying to leverage off something they have walked away from, and are not happy with the consequences of their chosen course of action.
She is stirring the pot for her own reasons. It won't end well.
And after the disgusting way they've both been treated, why shouldn't they?
Good for them.
Whatever. I don't buy your narrative.
Fishing in things you say you have left is never a good idea.
If you are leaving something behind you ... leave it behind you.
So they can be abused, treated like shit and are just supposed to take it and not speak about their own lives?
They're free people, free to make their own choices and do whatever they damn please. They don't owe the UK media or the monarchy anything. After the way they've been treated they absolutely can and should do whatever they want.
Their lives, their choice.
They essentially have the Hobson's choice of:
1. Letting the gutter media (it used to be gutter press) say what it likes about them.
2. Trying to set the record straight, using the media to do so, and then being accused of being rank hypocrites for not taking it all lying down.
All this about completely overhauling their lives, giving up all privileges and royal funding, and breaking irretrievably with their family in an effort to escape scrutiny, only to still find themselves still being pursued relentlessly.
They stir it up themselves with there ever more bizarre money grasping schemes. They are loaded , why not just live in their 10 Million , 30 bathroom mansion and get the adulation of the LA nutjob luvvies instead of wanting the whole world to gush over them. A more odious pair I have yet to see.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley say hi!
OK, and if you includes the West's and limit to UK , 3rd worst.
Top five maybe. Epstein and Maxwell, Trump and Melania...oh wait top six, Tony and Cherie...oh wait Gove and Vine...oh wait (and here's one for you Malc, Nippy and Peter.
OK, I was talking complete bollox even if a couple of yours were USA.
The BBC are not covering themselves in glory today.
On a day when they could have led with the budget, the first minister of Scotland being accused of perjury, a global pandemic, schools being sent back with impossible safety measures, an academy chain going bust and all hell breaking loose in and over Northern Ireland...
...they led with the Duchess of Sussex giving an interview.
I sometimes wonder if they want to keep the licence fee.
Royals = big press. Even the publicly funded bits cannot help themselves.
Honestly the whole thing is just a nonsense - clearly there have been leaks against Harry and Meghan in recent days no doubt because of their interview, but equally clearly you cant expect a great deal of sympathy when your whole deal appears to be complaining about media attention and royal status whilst making use of both of those things.
If you are happier out of it, fine. If you have takes to tell, just do it already not this orchestrated media game of hints and clips and build up. That just makes it look like it's not important to them. And the rest of the royals can remember that playing things with a straight bat is preferable - just ignore it, as getting engaged will only rebound.
Meghan & Harry don't count as Royals anymore. She is the new Mrs Simpson - irrelevant.
Except that they are trying to leverage off something they have walked away from, and are not happy with the consequences of their chosen course of action.
She is stirring the pot for her own reasons. It won't end well.
And after the disgusting way they've both been treated, why shouldn't they?
Good for them.
Whatever. I don't buy your narrative.
Fishing in things you say you have left is never a good idea.
If you are leaving something behind you ... leave it behind you.
So they can be abused, treated like shit and are just supposed to take it and not speak about their own lives?
They're free people, free to make their own choices and do whatever they damn please. They don't owe the UK media or the monarchy anything. After the way they've been treated they absolutely can and should do whatever they want.
Their lives, their choice.
They essentially have the Hobson's choice of:
1. Letting the gutter media (it used to be gutter press) say what it likes about them.
2. Trying to set the record straight, using the media to do so, and then being accused of being rank hypocrites for not taking it all lying down.
All this about completely overhauling their lives, giving up all privileges and royal funding, and breaking irretrievably with their family in an effort to escape scrutiny, only to still find themselves still being pursued relentlessly.
They stir it up themselves with there ever more bizarre money grasping schemes. They are loaded , why not just live in their 10 Million , 30 bathroom mansion and get the adulation of the LA nutjob luvvies instead of wanting the whole world to gush over them. A more odious pair I have yet to see.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley say hi!
OK, and if you includes the West's and limit to UK , 3rd worst.
Top five maybe. Epstein and Maxwell, Trump and Melania...oh wait top six, Tony and Cherie...oh wait Gove and Vine...oh wait (and here's one for you Malc, Nippy and Peter.
OK, I was talking complete bollox even if a couple of yours were USA.
THE HAGUE — AstraZeneca subcontractor Halix has not sent any Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine doses to the U.K. after the EU implemented export controls, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said Wednesday.....
Some confusion remains over whether the plant is actually producing doses for the EU. It hasn't been approved to make drug substance in the EU, according to the company's conditional marketing authorization from the EMA, updated most recently on February 18.
Officials with knowledge of the U.K.-AstraZeneca contract say Halix has long been part of the U.K. supply chain, and note that it agreed last April to make the vaccine with the University of Oxford. It later announced another deal with AstraZeneca in December. Furthermore, the British government sent a team to the plant in November to help boost manufacturing there, Kate Bingham, the former chair of the U.K. vaccine task force, told European media in February.
Sturgeon’s performance was a masterclass. As an exercise in open government, transparency and accountability, her performance and that of her government throughout this enquiry was lamentable. As the best debater in Holyrood, with skills honed over a career in adversarial politics, she knows how to parry, obfuscate and shape agendas. She used the same skills before the enquiry.
From her opening statement, the First Minister set out to deflect her government’s failings onto matters beyond the committee’s remit.
Where's the detailed plan on getting FTTP to all by 2025 Johnson, you know one of the pillars of your election campaign in the first place? Absolutely nothing, kick the can down the road as always.
We want to recover, we need big investment in infrastructure, FTTP is by far the cheapest and best. Get to it, we need detail
Where's the detailed plan on getting FTTP to all by 2025 Johnson, you know one of the pillars of your election campaign in the first place? Absolutely nothing, kick the can down the road as always.
We want to recover, we need big investment in infrastructure, FTTP is by far the cheapest and best. Get to it, we need detail
Why do you keep saying nothing when there's the biggest ever 130% infrastructure investment tax break announced yesterday?
Are you just ranting and not reading the replies? Did you not listen to the budget? Did you miss the infrastructure announcement?
This is like your complaining yesterday about hurting house buyers by . . . not taxing house buyers as much. 😂
Where's the detailed plan on getting FTTP to all by 2025 Johnson, you know one of the pillars of your election campaign in the first place? Absolutely nothing, kick the can down the road as always.
We want to recover, we need big investment in infrastructure, FTTP is by far the cheapest and best. Get to it, we need detail
While I understand wanting to see manifesto promises delivered, I think in this case events have rather changed things.
By my calculation, the UK now has a lower case rate than Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Germany or the Netherlands.
Hopefully they will be able to get their rates down, particularly France, Spain and Italy where the numbers are not under control.
Not quite better than Germany yet. The rate of decline for ourselves and Ireland, who had the worst B1117 waves, is much faste than those that have not. We have harsher NPI's of course.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
I think psychologically this will be key to the recovery.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
The first shot takes longer than 3 weeks to reach peak effectiveness, I believe.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
The first shot takes longer than 3 weeks to reach peak effectiveness, I believe.
Dad had Pfizer 6 weeks ago. Mum AZ 4 weeks ago. I know the science, and I know there is still risk, but I'm not proposing a party...
Where's the detailed plan on getting FTTP to all by 2025 Johnson, you know one of the pillars of your election campaign in the first place? Absolutely nothing, kick the can down the road as always.
We want to recover, we need big investment in infrastructure, FTTP is by far the cheapest and best. Get to it, we need detail
While I understand wanting to see manifesto promises delivered, I think in this case events have rather changed things.
Should have had an army of socially distanced furloughed workers with spades digging trenches, fitting conduit and threading fibre cables through. With a few specially trained people to connect up the ends.
On a day when they could have led with the budget, the first minister of Scotland being accused of perjury, a global pandemic ...
...they led with the Duchess of Sussex giving an interview.
Royals = big press. Even the publicly funded bits cannot help themselves.
Honestly the whole thing is just a nonsense - clearly there have been leaks against Harry and Meghan in recent days no doubt because of their interview, but equally clearly you cant expect a great deal of sympathy when your whole deal appears to be complaining about media attention and royal status whilst making use of both of those things.
If you are happier out of it, fine. If you have takes to tell, just do it already not this orchestrated media game of hints and clips and build up. That just makes it look like it's not important to them. And the rest of the royals can remember that playing things with a straight bat is preferable - just ignore it, as getting engaged will only rebound.
Meghan & Harry don't count as Royals anymore. She is the new Mrs Simpson - irrelevant.
Except that they are trying to leverage off something they have walked away from, and are not happy with the consequences of their chosen course of action.
She is stirring the pot for her own reasons. It won't end well.
And after the disgusting way they've both been treated, why shouldn't they?
Good for them.
Whatever. I don't buy your narrative.
If you are leaving something behind you ... leave it behind you.
So they can be abused, treated like shit and are just supposed to take it and not speak about their own lives?
They're free people, free to make their own choices and do whatever they damn please. They don't owe the UK media or the monarchy anything. After the way they've been treated they absolutely can and should do whatever they want.
Their lives, their choice.
Oh bollocks to this being treated like shit nonsense. Harry finding love was welcomed with open arms: media interviews, ecstatic crowds at their first visits outside the capital, invitations to Sandringham, a fairy tale wedding & wall-to-wall coverage, successful tours, a cottage provided & renovated at vast expense (now repaid, TBF), Meghan invited to go on visits with HMQ, a courtesy not extended to others who married in (see Kate or Fergie or Sophie Wessex etc).
Sure there were BTL trolls who didn't like her & wrote bitchy & racist comments. Despicable. But every single person marrying in & many members of the royal family itself have suffered hurtful & offensive comments & bad press & worse (bread rolls thrown at Camilla), including at times HMQ herself. The idea that it was always sweetness & light for everyone else & uniquely awful for Meghan is just not true.
They want a private life & not to be part of the Firm: fine. Get on with it. But if they want endlessly to criticise what happened to them they should not be in the least bit surprised that others may also want to criticise how they were treated by them. The danger is not so much from other royals but from staff who are expected to serve but not answer back & in return their employers are quiet about them. If that unspoken compact is broken why shouldn't the staff answer back?
I have no idea whether in private they were treated with condescension by hoity toity courtiers or whether they shouted at or bullied staff. Women with a mind of their own tend to be called aggressive & bullies, often unfairly, in a way that men would not be. So I have some sympathy with the possibility that Meghan was being unfairly criticised for trying to do her best. And I can see why Harry would wanted to protect his wife.
But I say only this: there was high staff turnover in their team. All other things being equal that is not a sign of a happy ship nor of good management from the top. I employed 2 nannies: each of them stayed for 7 years. It was not the vast money & exotic foreign holidays which made them stay &, frankly, my children (& no doubt me) could be a bit of a nightmare. But still it says something.
When people lose staff quickly that suggests something wrong. There will be different perspectives. The truth will rarely be simple. If you want a private non-royal life best not to air such things in public. Once you do you cannot guarantee that you will get the only or the last word. The irony is that Harry - who makes so much of not wanting to follow the Diana route - is in danger of making exactly the same mistake she did: using the press to get his say & then finding that he has unleashed a tiger he cannot ride.
They have talent, charm, a profile. They should use it for good. This endless harping back suggests that either they haven't really come to terms with giving it up or realise that only by harping on about it can they sell themselves. The first is sad; the second unworthy.
By my calculation, the UK now has a lower case rate than Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Germany or the Netherlands.
Hopefully they will be able to get their rates down, particularly France, Spain and Italy where the numbers are not under control.
Not quite better than Germany yet. The rate of decline for ourselves and Ireland, who had the worst B1117 waves, is much faste than those that have not. We have harsher NPI's of course.
Both France and Germany are now going up, slowly.
The EU, overall is starting to climb....
Worth remembering that we are testing 4x more than Germany, But their positivity rate seems to be about 3x higher....
Christ. Does that just bring HK into line with China, or is that more draconian even than China? If I was HK Chinese with any leeway at all to do so I would be getting out now.
THE HAGUE — AstraZeneca subcontractor Halix has not sent any Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine doses to the U.K. after the EU implemented export controls, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said Wednesday.....
Some confusion remains over whether the plant is actually producing doses for the EU. It hasn't been approved to make drug substance in the EU, according to the company's conditional marketing authorization from the EMA, updated most recently on February 18.
Officials with knowledge of the U.K.-AstraZeneca contract say Halix has long been part of the U.K. supply chain, and note that it agreed last April to make the vaccine with the University of Oxford. It later announced another deal with AstraZeneca in December. Furthermore, the British government sent a team to the plant in November to help boost manufacturing there, Kate Bingham, the former chair of the U.K. vaccine task force, told European media in February.
Where's the detailed plan on getting FTTP to all by 2025 Johnson, you know one of the pillars of your election campaign in the first place? Absolutely nothing, kick the can down the road as always.
We want to recover, we need big investment in infrastructure, FTTP is by far the cheapest and best. Get to it, we need detail
While I understand wanting to see manifesto promises delivered, I think in this case events have rather changed things.
The funny thing is they've not reneged on that commitment; theyve gone above and beyond.
If anyone thinks BT, Openreach and everyone else will be excluded from the investment tax break then that would be rather strange.
BT etc have just been given an absolutely massive incentive to get as much investment as possible done in the next 2 years. They have to do it anyway so do it now while the tax break is there.
Christ. Does that just bring HK into line with China, or is that more draconian even than China? If I was HK Chinese with any leeway at all to do so I would be getting out now.
Surely it brings HK/China into line with the UK? Haven't we just had that for the past 12 months?
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
Where's the detailed plan on getting FTTP to all by 2025 Johnson, you know one of the pillars of your election campaign in the first place? Absolutely nothing, kick the can down the road as always.
We want to recover, we need big investment in infrastructure, FTTP is by far the cheapest and best. Get to it, we need detail
While I understand wanting to see manifesto promises delivered, I think in this case events have rather changed things.
Should have had an army of socially distanced furloughed workers with spades digging trenches, fitting conduit and threading fibre cables through. With a few specially trained people to connect up the ends.
I jest - or at least, I think I do.
One thing that was happening, right through the lockdowns etc. was workmen out on the streets, stringing fibre, working on cabinets etc.
Asked various people - seemed to be happening all over the country.
Bit like a lot of maintenance/ugrade work got done on the railways.
Christ. Does that just bring HK into line with China, or is that more draconian even than China? If I was HK Chinese with any leeway at all to do so I would be getting out now.
Surely it brings HK/China into line with the UK? Haven't we just had that for the past 12 months?
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
It's a risk assessment of local curtain twitchers. I wouldn't like to be living next to many PB-ers for precisely that reason.
The only relief would be when @FrancisUrquhart takes up position in a bush close to LHR to log the comings and goings.
By my calculation, the UK now has a lower case rate than Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Germany or the Netherlands.
Hopefully they will be able to get their rates down, particularly France, Spain and Italy where the numbers are not under control.
Not quite better than Germany yet. The rate of decline for ourselves and Ireland, who had the worst B1117 waves, is much faste than those that have not. We have harsher NPI's of course.
Both France and Germany are now going up, slowly.
The EU, overall is starting to climb....
Worth remembering that we are testing 4x more than Germany, But their positivity rate seems to be about 3x higher....
Hmmmmm....
And yet German deaths remain resolutely low. Is this just Germans being healthier? Are they dealing with it better in hospitals? Are their variants less lethal? Are they reporting differently? Granted there is a three week lag between positives and deaths, but still. Germany's worst stats appear only slightly worse than the UK's best stats. (Vaccines aside, of course.)
Christ. Does that just bring HK into line with China, or is that more draconian even than China? If I was HK Chinese with any leeway at all to do so I would be getting out now.
Surely it brings HK/China into line with the UK? Haven't we just had that for the past 12 months?
Fair point.
Oh I liked your post but just saw your avatar! I am on S3 of P&R. Ron absolutely makes the whole thing. Although it's all brilliant.
He (Nick Offerman) is excellent in S2 of Fargo also.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
This lockdown certainly isn't like the others. The only things missing are thee non-essential shops, the pubs and other entertainments. The sheer number of cars on the road during the day in my town is astonishing. Certainly people are not 'staying home'. And yet currently, with the vaccine's help, we are getting there.
The BBC are not covering themselves in glory today.
On a day when they could have led with the budget, the first minister of Scotland being accused of perjury, a global pandemic, schools being sent back with impossible safety measures, an academy chain going bust and all hell breaking loose in and over Northern Ireland...
...they led with the Duchess of Sussex giving an interview.
I sometimes wonder if they want to keep the licence fee.
Royals = big press. Even the publicly funded bits cannot help themselves.
Honestly the whole thing is just a nonsense - clearly there have been leaks against Harry and Meghan in recent days no doubt because of their interview, but equally clearly you cant expect a great deal of sympathy when your whole deal appears to be complaining about media attention and royal status whilst making use of both of those things.
If you are happier out of it, fine. If you have takes to tell, just do it already not this orchestrated media game of hints and clips and build up. That just makes it look like it's not important to them. And the rest of the royals can remember that playing things with a straight bat is preferable - just ignore it, as getting engaged will only rebound.
Meghan & Harry don't count as Royals anymore. She is the new Mrs Simpson - irrelevant.
Except that they are trying to leverage off something they have walked away from, and are not happy with the consequences of their chosen course of action.
She is stirring the pot for her own reasons. It won't end well.
And after the disgusting way they've both been treated, why shouldn't they?
Good for them.
Whatever. I don't buy your narrative.
Fishing in things you say you have left is never a good idea.
If you are leaving something behind you ... leave it behind you.
So they can be abused, treated like shit and are just supposed to take it and not speak about their own lives?
They're free people, free to make their own choices and do whatever they damn please. They don't owe the UK media or the monarchy anything. After the way they've been treated they absolutely can and should do whatever they want.
Their lives, their choice.
Allegedly abused. Allegedly treated like shit etc.
Of course they are free to do whatever they want, however starting a so-called "new chapter" (BBC headline) by giving high profile interviews 15 months after "moving on" does not seem wise.
I've made 2 points:
1 - This couple are minor celebs and I don't think relevant. 2 - Not moving on does not seem very wise.
If you have issues with your family, playing out the drama in the press is questionable.
"Allegedly"?
His mother was hounded to death in Paris. His wife's privacy was illegally invaded by the Mail as convicted by the courts.
Neither of that is "allegedly". The press are acting like scum, good for them moving on and dealing with the likes of Oprah instead.
Moving on by dealing with classier elements of the media seems entirely reasonable. That Oprah is classier than our own gutter press says a lot.
Diana was not hounded to death by the press. She was offered police protection on her divorce. She refused it. Her own brother refused her shelter on his vast estate when she asked for it and then hypocritically attacked the press. People with the money and aristocratic connections she did could easily have found a a luxurious place to live out of reach of the press. She wanted press attention - partly to get her own backs and partly for her causes. She was in a luxurious hotel the night she died, a place which would certainly have been able to accommodate her. But instead those she was with put her in a car driven by a drunk driver at speed. Her sons would have had a bloody good case for negligence against Fayed, instead of which he spent years making ludicrous and hurtful allegations against their family.
The press often behave badly. But let's not pretend that celebrities, including royals and ex-royals, don't use it for their own purposes. They are not quite the innocents and victims they claim. Often it is not press attention they dislike but the fact that the press attention they get is not the press attention they want.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
This lockdown certainly isn't like the others. The only things missing are thee non-essential shops, the pubs and other entertainments. The sheer number of cars on the road during the day in my town is astonishing. Certainly people are not 'staying home'. And yet currently, with the vaccine's help, we are getting there.
That said, pedestrian shopping precincts are empty. So people are staying at home-ish.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
This lockdown certainly isn't like the others. The only things missing are thee non-essential shops, the pubs and other entertainments. The sheer number of cars on the road during the day in my town is astonishing. Certainly people are not 'staying home'. And yet currently, with the vaccine's help, we are getting there.
That said, pedestrian shopping precincts are empty. So people are staying at home-ish.
Plenty of cars, though, yes you are right.
I always wonder where they are going, given that everything is closed... Then I realise - friends and family...
Some people seem to have a much more vocal and visceral dislike of Meghan & Harry than they do of Prince Andrew, who as far as I know is still taking money from the public purse.
Weird and irrational.
If Andy is guilty of what many people seem to think he's guilty of, then clearly he is worthy of a lot more contempt.
But he's not in the news at the moment. They are.
Andrew has very poor judgment. But he has not been charged with anything let alone found guilty. The only attempt made in a court in the US to have him named was thrown out by a judge. Idiot he may be but he too benefits from the principle of "innocent until found guilty" presumption, of-fashioned and stuffy as that might sound.
Some people seem to have a much more vocal and visceral dislike of Meghan & Harry than they do of Prince Andrew, who as far as I know is still taking money from the public purse.
Weird and irrational.
If Andy is guilty of what many people seem to think he's guilty of, then clearly is worthy of a lot more contempt.
But he's not in the news at the moment. They are.
They're in the news for committing a crime or doing something wrong are they? What?
It seems to me they are in the news for the evil crime of *checks notes* speaking to Oprah.
Does every guest who speaks to Oprah get attacked and criticised this much? They should be able to speak to Oprah as much as they want with the same amount of criticism for it that any other guest Oprah has gets.
Personally I don't care, but our media does so I'm inclined to form a view. They want me to have sympathy for them. I don't.
The media was responsible for the death of his mother and criminally harassing his wife.
If that doesn't deserve sympathy what does?
"Criminal harassment"? Really? Please provide details of when, by whom, conviction dates etc.
Earlier in the pandemic, I remember some of us on here saying the otherwise-perplexing differences in death rates - eg rich elderly Japan doing well, likewise poor young Vietnam - might largely be down to obesity. Japan and Vietnam are two of the thinnest countries in the world, few have died. America, probably the fattest, has the biggest death toll of all. Britain is almost as fat, and here we are.
“About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from Covid were in countries with high levels of overweight people, says the report from the World Obesity Federation. Countries such as the UK, US and Italy, where more than 50% of adults are overweight, have the biggest proportions of deaths linked to coronavirus”
This might, incidentally, partly explain the elevated death rates in some BAME communities, which have an even worse weight problem
This should also put to bed, forever, the idea you can be fat and still healthy. We all need to eat fish and salad
By my calculation, the UK now has a lower case rate than Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Germany or the Netherlands.
Hopefully they will be able to get their rates down, particularly France, Spain and Italy where the numbers are not under control.
Not quite better than Germany yet. The rate of decline for ourselves and Ireland, who had the worst B1117 waves, is much faste than those that have not. We have harsher NPI's of course.
Both France and Germany are now going up, slowly.
The EU, overall is starting to climb....
Worth remembering that we are testing 4x more than Germany, But their positivity rate seems to be about 3x higher....
Hmmmmm....
It is starting to climb which is worrying. Nevetheless in the two biggest countries, France and Germany, it's been creeping up for weeks now. We have still yet to see the kind of explosive Kent Variant take off we saw in December - there are even some signs flattening.
I am not a huge believer in seasonality but I am clearly a big believer that the virus goes where humans go. Masks and social distancing clearly work, but in the winter, when people tend to congregate in warm, enclosed, unventilated areas anyway, an overall lockdown pushes them together, thus potentially making matters worse. Lockdowns could, in many cases, shift the risk onto the most vulnerable who simply cannot socially distance. That is why I think that the South African townships have been devastated over their recent summer, with the ultimate result that cases there are plummeting as they move into Autumn because those same townships now have a degree of population immunity.
It is arguable that we got hit by that variant at exactly the wrong time of year when the weather is coldest, days shortest, and people are naturally wanting to congregate indoors. Mainland Europe is dealing with this variant but with the luxury that windows will be opened, people will be spending more time outside, and that just might help them. The country that concerns me most at the moment is Italy who simply can't catch a break with this thing.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
This lockdown certainly isn't like the others. The only things missing are thee non-essential shops, the pubs and other entertainments. The sheer number of cars on the road during the day in my town is astonishing. Certainly people are not 'staying home'. And yet currently, with the vaccine's help, we are getting there.
It does make me wonder where everyone is going given that nothing except supermarkets are supposed to be open.
Earlier in the pandemic, I remember some of us on here saying the otherwise-perplexing differences in death rates - eg rich elderly Japan doing well, likewise poor young Vietnam - might largely be down to obesity. Japan and Vietnam are two of the thinnest countries in the world, few have died. America, probably the fattest, has the biggest death toll of all. Britain is almost as fat, and here we are.
“About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from Covid were in countries with high levels of overweight people, says the report from the World Obesity Federation. Countries such as the UK, US and Italy, where more than 50% of adults are overweight, have the biggest proportions of deaths linked to coronavirus”
This might, incidentally, partly explain the elevated death rates in some BAME communities, which have an even worse weight problem
This should also put to bed, forever, the idea you can be fat and still healthy. We all need to eat fish and salad
You were not on this board "Earlier in the pandemic". You joined in December. Unless you have another identity...
Christ. Does that just bring HK into line with China, or is that more draconian even than China? If I was HK Chinese with any leeway at all to do so I would be getting out now.
Surely it brings HK/China into line with the UK? Haven't we just had that for the past 12 months?
One hopes that our situation is temporary and we'll be let loose on the world to drink up all of the beer and drunkenly piss in swimming pools in Greece and Spain some time in June or July. The HK exit control looks rather more permanent.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
This lockdown certainly isn't like the others. The only things missing are thee non-essential shops, the pubs and other entertainments. The sheer number of cars on the road during the day in my town is astonishing. Certainly people are not 'staying home'. And yet currently, with the vaccine's help, we are getting there.
That said, pedestrian shopping precincts are empty. So people are staying at home-ish.
Plenty of cars, though, yes you are right.
I always wonder where they are going, given that everything is closed... Then I realise - friends and family...
Same here. The road is very busy and I wonder where on earth everyone is going.
Athough the queue for Maccy D's drive thru might suggest a partial answer...
I'd just like to say on Harry and Meghan - good luck to them. If people want to watch 30 minutes of a fawning interview then that's fine, if they don't want to then that's also fine. Just get it off the front page of the papers.
Earlier in the pandemic, I remember some of us on here saying the otherwise-perplexing differences in death rates - eg rich elderly Japan doing well, likewise poor young Vietnam - might largely be down to obesity. Japan and Vietnam are two of the thinnest countries in the world, few have died. America, probably the fattest, has the biggest death toll of all. Britain is almost as fat, and here we are.
“About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from Covid were in countries with high levels of overweight people, says the report from the World Obesity Federation. Countries such as the UK, US and Italy, where more than 50% of adults are overweight, have the biggest proportions of deaths linked to coronavirus”
This might, incidentally, partly explain the elevated death rates in some BAME communities, which have an even worse weight problem
This should also put to bed, forever, the idea you can be fat and still healthy. We all need to eat fish and salad
You were not on this board "Earlier in the pandemic". You joined in December. Unless you have another identity...
I did. Earlier on I self-identified as a fit healthy man. Now, I fear, like so many, after months of lockdown, I am a bit of a fattie
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
This lockdown certainly isn't like the others. The only things missing are thee non-essential shops, the pubs and other entertainments. The sheer number of cars on the road during the day in my town is astonishing. Certainly people are not 'staying home'. And yet currently, with the vaccine's help, we are getting there.
It does make me wonder where everyone is going given that nothing except supermarkets are supposed to be open.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
This lockdown certainly isn't like the others. The only things missing are thee non-essential shops, the pubs and other entertainments. The sheer number of cars on the road during the day in my town is astonishing. Certainly people are not 'staying home'. And yet currently, with the vaccine's help, we are getting there.
That said, pedestrian shopping precincts are empty. So people are staying at home-ish.
Plenty of cars, though, yes you are right.
I always wonder where they are going, given that everything is closed... Then I realise - friends and family...
Same here. The road is very busy and I wonder where on earth everyone is going.
Except when I see the queue for Maccy D's drive thru.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
This lockdown certainly isn't like the others. The only things missing are thee non-essential shops, the pubs and other entertainments. The sheer number of cars on the road during the day in my town is astonishing. Certainly people are not 'staying home'. And yet currently, with the vaccine's help, we are getting there.
That said, pedestrian shopping precincts are empty. So people are staying at home-ish.
Plenty of cars, though, yes you are right.
I always wonder where they are going, given that everything is closed... Then I realise - friends and family...
Same here. The road is very busy and I wonder where on earth everyone is going.
Except when I see the queue for Maccy D's drive thru.
Armies of tradesmen have never been busier.
True, there are lot of white vans out there too.
In a way, it is good. We've got plenty of activity of some sort or other going on, but the virus is still being suppressed.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
This lockdown certainly isn't like the others. The only things missing are thee non-essential shops, the pubs and other entertainments. The sheer number of cars on the road during the day in my town is astonishing. Certainly people are not 'staying home'. And yet currently, with the vaccine's help, we are getting there.
Also missing are all the ways my kids spend their time - schools (which were still open in LD2), gyms, the possibility of socialising with friends. Feels like lockdown to me.
In my experience, people are being more observant of LD3 than LD2 but less than of LD1. In LD1, things were new and scary. In LD2, things were no longer anything like so scary, just tedious. In LD3, things were even less scary and more tedious, but there was - possibly - an end in sight. Having the end in sight is a motivator, of sorts, to follow the rules - or at least to follow them more than one ordinarily might.
The only way this feels like anything other than a slow death is the promise that it will come to an end soon-ish. Hopefully
Earlier in the pandemic, I remember some of us on here saying the otherwise-perplexing differences in death rates - eg rich elderly Japan doing well, likewise poor young Vietnam - might largely be down to obesity. Japan and Vietnam are two of the thinnest countries in the world, few have died. America, probably the fattest, has the biggest death toll of all. Britain is almost as fat, and here we are.
“About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from Covid were in countries with high levels of overweight people, says the report from the World Obesity Federation. Countries such as the UK, US and Italy, where more than 50% of adults are overweight, have the biggest proportions of deaths linked to coronavirus”
This might, incidentally, partly explain the elevated death rates in some BAME communities, which have an even worse weight problem
This should also put to bed, forever, the idea you can be fat and still healthy. We all need to eat fish and salad
You were not on this board "Earlier in the pandemic". You joined in December. Unless you have another identity...
I did. Earlier on I self-identified as a fit healthy man. Now, I fear, like so many, after months of lockdown, I am a bit of a fattie
Earlier in the pandemic, I remember some of us on here saying the otherwise-perplexing differences in death rates - eg rich elderly Japan doing well, likewise poor young Vietnam - might largely be down to obesity. Japan and Vietnam are two of the thinnest countries in the world, few have died. America, probably the fattest, has the biggest death toll of all. Britain is almost as fat, and here we are.
“About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from Covid were in countries with high levels of overweight people, says the report from the World Obesity Federation. Countries such as the UK, US and Italy, where more than 50% of adults are overweight, have the biggest proportions of deaths linked to coronavirus”
This might, incidentally, partly explain the elevated death rates in some BAME communities, which have an even worse weight problem
This should also put to bed, forever, the idea you can be fat and still healthy. We all need to eat fish and salad
You were not on this board "Earlier in the pandemic". You joined in December. Unless you have another identity...
I did. Earlier on I self-identified as a fit healthy man. Now, I fear, like so many, after months of lockdown, I am a bit of a fattie
But it is coming off. I hope
Losing the lockdown lard is quite a challenge. Especially this time, when linked to that subliminal caveman instinct to fatten up for winter.
Verdict on the budget and EFO - We're all fucked, the numbers don't make any sense and the chancellor has hidden a lot of the pain with a CT rise that will literally never yield what he thinks it will because if it does then domestic companies all turn into takeover targets for multinationals who will offshore the profits and avoid the new rate of tax.
I fear that this is all going to come apart at the seams very badly in the run up to the election and Starmer might just become PM by default because of job losses due to business investment dropping off a cliff.
Earlier in the pandemic, I remember some of us on here saying the otherwise-perplexing differences in death rates - eg rich elderly Japan doing well, likewise poor young Vietnam - might largely be down to obesity. Japan and Vietnam are two of the thinnest countries in the world, few have died. America, probably the fattest, has the biggest death toll of all. Britain is almost as fat, and here we are.
“About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from Covid were in countries with high levels of overweight people, says the report from the World Obesity Federation. Countries such as the UK, US and Italy, where more than 50% of adults are overweight, have the biggest proportions of deaths linked to coronavirus”
This might, incidentally, partly explain the elevated death rates in some BAME communities, which have an even worse weight problem
This should also put to bed, forever, the idea you can be fat and still healthy. We all need to eat fish and salad
You were not on this board "Earlier in the pandemic". You joined in December. Unless you have another identity...
I did. Earlier on I self-identified as a fit healthy man. Now, I fear, like so many, after months of lockdown, I am a bit of a fattie
But it is coming off. I hope
You need the Boris Diet.
7 miles cycle rides. Daily.
I’m doing HIIT 5 days a week and lots of walking. Perhaps more importantly I’ve stopped having frankly enormous meals followed by 2 kilos of fine cheese
By my calculation, the UK now has a lower case rate than Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Germany or the Netherlands.
Hopefully they will be able to get their rates down, particularly France, Spain and Italy where the numbers are not under control.
Not quite better than Germany yet. The rate of decline for ourselves and Ireland, who had the worst B1117 waves, is much faste than those that have not. We have harsher NPI's of course.
Both France and Germany are now going up, slowly.
The EU, overall is starting to climb....
Worth remembering that we are testing 4x more than Germany, But their positivity rate seems to be about 3x higher....
Hmmmmm....
It is starting to climb which is worrying. Nevetheless in the two biggest countries, France and Germany, it's been creeping up for weeks now. We have still yet to see the kind of explosive Kent Variant take off we saw in December - there are even some signs flattening.
I am not a huge believer in seasonality but I am clearly a big believer that the virus goes where humans go. Masks and social distancing clearly work, but in the winter, when people tend to congregate in warm, enclosed, unventilated areas anyway, an overall lockdown pushes them together, thus potentially making matters worse. Lockdowns could, in many cases, shift the risk onto the most vulnerable who simply cannot socially distance. That is why I think that the South African townships have been devastated over their recent summer, with the ultimate result that cases there are plummeting as they move into Autumn because those same townships now have a degree of population immunity.
It is arguable that we got hit by that variant at exactly the wrong time of year when the weather is coldest, days shortest, and people are naturally wanting to congregate indoors. Mainland Europe is dealing with this variant but with the luxury that windows will be opened, people will be spending more time outside, and that just might help them. The country that concerns me most at the moment is Italy who simply can't catch a break with this thing.
I think that the SA experience reminds me of what happened in Peru. The lockdown turned into a shit storm and then people implemented their own social distancing.
The problem is that slowly creeping up doesn't seem to last long in this. Either measures are introduced to drop numbers or they go out of control.
Christ. Does that just bring HK into line with China, or is that more draconian even than China? If I was HK Chinese with any leeway at all to do so I would be getting out now.
Surely it brings HK/China into line with the UK? Haven't we just had that for the past 12 months?
One hopes that our situation is temporary and we'll be let loose on the world to drink up all of the beer and drunkenly piss in swimming pools in Greece and Spain some time in June or July. The HK exit control looks rather more permanent.
Yes true and yes it does. Although the headlines reporting our passing of the same kind of laws last March would have been spun by those who don't like us.
Fantastic advert on the radio just now. Telling cow and sheep farmers that brilliant new trade deals will help them export their products around the world. Yes - lets ignore the catastrofuck that has been imposed on their existing EU market, and instead shine a light on the no new deals signed that bring about no changes from the old deals.
And we're paying for this! Farmers know that its bollox which means that its not aimed at them. We are spending £lots advertising something that isn't true so that people who don't know or care about reality can be impressed about how brilliantly Brexit has been for cow and sheep farmers.
Verdict on the budget and EFO - We're all fucked, the numbers don't make any sense and the chancellor has hidden a lot of the pain with a CT rise that will literally never yield what he thinks it will because if it does then domestic companies all turn into takeover targets for multinationals who will offshore the profits and avoid the new rate of tax.
I fear that this is all going to come apart at the seams very badly in the run up to the election and Starmer might just become PM by default because of job losses due to business investment dropping off a cliff.
Thanks for doing the crunching. Oh for the worst outcome of a budget to be the status of pasties.
I'm surprised its not more. I feel pretty good about my folks vaccine status, plus I had my first shot over three weeks ago. Should be minimal risk meeting them now. Despite dire gov warnings.
Yes. The household mixing rules have become of very limited interest now. They are not policed and I bet many people are making decisions based on personal risk assessment. In fact tbh I consider "lockdown" a misnomer for where we are. We are not locked down. In many ways we never were and we certainly aren't now. So long as there are no nasty variant surprises the pandemic feels over in the UK. Not saying it is, just that it feels that way to me. And post the April 12th reopening of shops etc I predict most people will feel the same. We'll be over Covid. Will we miss it? Probably not.
This lockdown certainly isn't like the others. The only things missing are thee non-essential shops, the pubs and other entertainments. The sheer number of cars on the road during the day in my town is astonishing. Certainly people are not 'staying home'. And yet currently, with the vaccine's help, we are getting there.
It does make me wonder where everyone is going given that nothing except supermarkets are supposed to be open.
Verdict on the budget and EFO - We're all fucked, the numbers don't make any sense and the chancellor has hidden a lot of the pain with a CT rise that will literally never yield what he thinks it will because if it does then domestic companies all turn into takeover targets for multinationals who will offshore the profits and avoid the new rate of tax.
I fear that this is all going to come apart at the seams very badly in the run up to the election and Starmer might just become PM by default because of job losses due to business investment dropping off a cliff.
There is a lot of tax options hidden away in the consultations to be announced on the 23rd..
However given the way the Tories continually box themselves in in their manifestos there was very little Rishi could actually do in the budget that would keep the wheels spinning.
I suspect the hope is that the Super Deduction will encourage enough investment that our productivity (so return on investment) improves significantly.
The issue was that they were advertising that the mask would stop you getting the virus, and there had been some legitimate studies showing that this didn't work very well unless they were used in a controlled setting. So in that sense the ban was correct.
When Van Tam et al were missing was that wearing a mask stops other people getting it from you.
Perhaps if they'd paid more attention to Japan the mess could have been avoided, assuming there was actually sufficient supply at the time.
As I recall: 1) The reason to not push masks was more that we were worried there would be insufficient supply for clinical staff if everybody started wearing one, than because we thought they didn't help; 2) The main benefit of masks is they reduce the likelihood of transmitting the virus to someone else, and there is still limited evidence that they reduce the likelihood of the mask wearer catching the virus from someone else.
On a day when they could have led with the budget, the first minister of Scotland being accused of perjury, a global pandemic ...
...they led with the Duchess of Sussex giving an interview.
Royals = big press. Even the publicly funded bits cannot help themselves.
Honestly the whole thing is just a nonsense - clearly there have been leaks against Harry and Meghan in recent days no doubt because of their interview, but equally clearly you cant expect a great deal of sympathy when your whole deal appears to be complaining about media attention and royal status whilst making use of both of those things.
If you are happier out of it, fine. If you have takes to tell, just do it already not this orchestrated media game of hints and clips and build up. That just makes it look like it's not important to them. And the rest of the royals can remember that playing things with a straight bat is preferable - just ignore it, as getting engaged will only rebound.
Meghan & Harry don't count as Royals anymore. She is the new Mrs Simpson - irrelevant.
Except that they are trying to leverage off something they have walked away from, and are not happy with the consequences of their chosen course of action.
She is stirring the pot for her own reasons. It won't end well.
And after the disgusting way they've both been treated, why shouldn't they?
Good for them.
Whatever. I don't buy your narrative.
If you are leaving something behind you ... leave it behind you.
So they can be abused, treated like shit and are just supposed to take it and not speak about their own lives?
They're free people, free to make their own choices and do whatever they damn please. They don't owe the UK media or the monarchy anything. After the way they've been treated they absolutely can and should do whatever they want.
Their lives, their choice.
Oh bollocks to this being treated like shit nonsense. Harry finding love was welcomed with open arms: media interviews, ecstatic crowds at their first visits outside the capital, invitations to Sandringham, a fairy tale wedding & wall-to-wall coverage, successful tours, a cottage provided & renovated at vast expense (now repaid, TBF), Meghan invited to go on visits with HMQ, a courtesy not extended to others who married in (see Kate or Fergie or Sophie Wessex etc).
Sure there were BTL trolls who didn't like her & wrote bitchy & racist comments. Despicable. But every single person marrying in & many members of the royal family itself have suffered hurtful & offensive comments & bad press & worse (bread rolls thrown at Camilla), including at times HMQ herself. The idea that it was always sweetness & light for everyone else & uniquely awful for Meghan is just not true.
They want a private life & not to be part of the Firm: fine. Get on with it. But if they want endlessly to criticise what happened to them they should not be in the least bit surprised that others may also want to criticise how they were treated by them. The danger is not so much from other royals but from staff who are expected to serve but not answer back & in return their employers are quiet about them. If that unspoken compact is broken why shouldn't the staff answer back?
I have no idea whether in private they were treated with condescension by hoity toity courtiers or whether they shouted at or bullied staff. Women with a mind of their own tend to be called aggressive & bullies, often unfairly, in a way that men would not be. So I have some sympathy with the possibility that Meghan was being unfairly criticised for trying to do her best. And I can see why Harry would wanted to protect his wife.
But I say only this: there was high staff turnover in their team. All other things being equal that is not a sign of a happy ship nor of good management from the top. I employed 2 nannies: each of them stayed for 7 years. It was not the vast money & exotic foreign holidays which made them stay &, frankly, my children (& no doubt me) could be a bit of a nightmare. But still it says something.
When people lose staff quickly that suggests something wrong. There will be different perspectives. The truth will rarely be simple. If you want a private non-royal life best not to air such things in public. Once you do you cannot guarantee that you will get the only or the last word. The irony is that Harry - who makes so much of not wanting to follow the Diana route - is in danger of making exactly the same mistake she did: using the press to get his say & then finding that he has unleashed a tiger he cannot ride.
They have talent, charm, a profile. They should use it for good. This endless harping back suggests that either they haven't really come to terms with giving it up or realise that only by harping on about it can they sell themselves. The first is sad; the second unworthy.
I thought that muppet who compared their son to a chimpanzee was vile, and was rightfully sacked for it, and some of comments made against Meghan Markle have been pretty spiteful.
OTOH, some of their complaints come over very much as rich peoples' problems.
I think that the SA experience reminds me of what happened in Peru. The lockdown turned into a shit storm and then people implemented their own social distancing.
The problem is that slowly creeping up doesn't seem to last long in this. Either measures are introduced to drop numbers or they go out of control.
Not sure I agree that "slowly creepling up doesn't seem to last long". Obviously we will have to wait and see but it has been true of France for three months now and there is even a tentative sign of a downtick in the seven day average. You may turn out to be correct that there is a sudden explosion but I would not want to be making policy on NPIs in France at the mo. It was clear cut here in early-Jan (or at least should have been) but not in France.
Verdict on the budget and EFO - We're all fucked, the numbers don't make any sense and the chancellor has hidden a lot of the pain with a CT rise that will literally never yield what he thinks it will because if it does then domestic companies all turn into takeover targets for multinationals who will offshore the profits and avoid the new rate of tax.
I fear that this is all going to come apart at the seams very badly in the run up to the election and Starmer might just become PM by default because of job losses due to business investment dropping off a cliff.
There is a lot of tax options hidden away in the consultations to be announced on the 23rd..
However given the way the Tories continually box themselves in in their manifestos there was very little Rishi could actually do in the budget that would keep the wheels spinning.
I suspect the hope is that the Super Deduction will encourage enough investment that our productivity (so return on investment) improves significantly.
There's always been a school of thought that pushes up CT coupled with very generous investment tax breaks, it looks like we're trying to see how it works for the next two years. The idea is that a company funnels it's cash into capital investment which then leads to share price growth and allows investors to profit take at 20% rather than paying dividend taxes which are much higher. In addition capital investment by companies has a much more positive effect on jobs, productivity and wage growth than dividends so any loss in tax revenue for companies not paying CT or individuals paying less CGT than they would in dividend tax is made up for higher revenue in income tax, NI and VAT as people have more money for discretionary spending.
I've always said this is the model we should be following and frankly we could live with a permanent CT rate of 25% or even 30% if a 100% deduction for investment was made permanent. Unfortunately that's not what's happening, it's the opposite, we're raising CT and removing the deduction at the same time, it's a real recipe for disaster.
These days is any tax rise not a stealth rax raid in media parlance? Dishy Rishi literally stood at the dispatch box yesterday and said I an freezing thresholds for 5 years, its a tax rise, and I want tell you this as otherwise some might claim it was a stealth one.
Earlier in the pandemic, I remember some of us on here saying the otherwise-perplexing differences in death rates - eg rich elderly Japan doing well, likewise poor young Vietnam - might largely be down to obesity. Japan and Vietnam are two of the thinnest countries in the world, few have died. America, probably the fattest, has the biggest death toll of all. Britain is almost as fat, and here we are.
“About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from Covid were in countries with high levels of overweight people, says the report from the World Obesity Federation. Countries such as the UK, US and Italy, where more than 50% of adults are overweight, have the biggest proportions of deaths linked to coronavirus”
This might, incidentally, partly explain the elevated death rates in some BAME communities, which have an even worse weight problem
This should also put to bed, forever, the idea you can be fat and still healthy. We all need to eat fish and salad
You were not on this board "Earlier in the pandemic". You joined in December. Unless you have another identity...
I did. Earlier on I self-identified as a fit healthy man. Now, I fear, like so many, after months of lockdown, I am a bit of a fattie
But it is coming off. I hope
Conversely it's the one thing I score on. I eat and drink too much. I smoke. I'm sedentary. I'm knocking on. I have a tense neurotic personality. But I'm slim. Bit of a clothes horse in fact. Wouldn't look out of place on the catwalk.
As I recall: 1) The reason to not push masks was more that we were worried there would be insufficient supply for clinical staff if everybody started wearing one, than because we thought they didn't help; 2) The main benefit of masks is they reduce the likelihood of transmitting the virus to someone else, and there is still limited evidence that they reduce the likelihood of the mask wearer catching the virus from someone else.
No. You’re wrong. Go back and google, they genuinely thought masks were worse than useless because they hasn’t grasped THAT basic fact - as mentioned below - that you wear a mask to protect others
And of course they protect you, as well, if you have a proper FFP2 or above
Jenny Harries, one of the top boffins, actually said THIS:
‘Wearing a face mask to protect from the coronavirus could actually increase the risk of becoming infected, England’s deputy chief medical officer has warned.‘
The stupid twats hadn’t looked at Asia and wondered why they were all wearing masks? These are supposedly top scientists. They made a fundamental howling error which cost many lives. They should be sacked and driven from public life
Verdict on the budget and EFO - We're all fucked, the numbers don't make any sense and the chancellor has hidden a lot of the pain with a CT rise that will literally never yield what he thinks it will because if it does then domestic companies all turn into takeover targets for multinationals who will offshore the profits and avoid the new rate of tax.
I fear that this is all going to come apart at the seams very badly in the run up to the election and Starmer might just become PM by default because of job losses due to business investment dropping off a cliff.
Budgets are largely theatre and often bear limited resemblance to what actually happens in practice. Yesterday will make little difference to the Tories prospects in 2024.
Christ. Does that just bring HK into line with China, or is that more draconian even than China? If I was HK Chinese with any leeway at all to do so I would be getting out now.
HK is now, to all intents and purposes, part of mainland China - and whatever the Chinese government wants is effectively the law, so more/less draconian is a purely contingent matter. There is a very short timeframe for anyone who doesn't like that to decide whether they want to get out.
Verdict on the budget and EFO - We're all fucked, the numbers don't make any sense and the chancellor has hidden a lot of the pain with a CT rise that will literally never yield what he thinks it will because if it does then domestic companies all turn into takeover targets for multinationals who will offshore the profits and avoid the new rate of tax.
I fear that this is all going to come apart at the seams very badly in the run up to the election and Starmer might just become PM by default because of job losses due to business investment dropping off a cliff.
There is a lot of tax options hidden away in the consultations to be announced on the 23rd..
However given the way the Tories continually box themselves in in their manifestos there was very little Rishi could actually do in the budget that would keep the wheels spinning.
I suspect the hope is that the Super Deduction will encourage enough investment that our productivity (so return on investment) improves significantly.
There's always been a school of thought that pushes up CT coupled with very generous investment tax breaks, it looks like we're trying to see how it works for the next two years. The idea is that a company funnels it's cash into capital investment which then leads to share price growth and allows investors to profit take at 20% rather than paying dividend taxes which are much higher. In addition capital investment by companies has a much more positive effect on jobs, productivity and wage growth than dividends so any loss in tax revenue for companies not paying CT or individuals paying less CGT than they would in dividend tax is made up for higher revenue in income tax, NI and VAT as people have more money for discretionary spending.
I've always said this is the model we should be following and frankly we could live with a permanent CT rate of 25% or even 30% if a 100% deduction for investment was made permanent. Unfortunately that's not what's happening, it's the opposite, we're raising CT and removing the deduction at the same time, it's a real recipe for disaster.
Verdict on the budget and EFO - We're all fucked, the numbers don't make any sense and the chancellor has hidden a lot of the pain with a CT rise that will literally never yield what he thinks it will because if it does then domestic companies all turn into takeover targets for multinationals who will offshore the profits and avoid the new rate of tax.
I fear that this is all going to come apart at the seams very badly in the run up to the election and Starmer might just become PM by default because of job losses due to business investment dropping off a cliff.
There is a lot of tax options hidden away in the consultations to be announced on the 23rd..
However given the way the Tories continually box themselves in in their manifestos there was very little Rishi could actually do in the budget that would keep the wheels spinning.
I suspect the hope is that the Super Deduction will encourage enough investment that our productivity (so return on investment) improves significantly.
There's always been a school of thought that pushes up CT coupled with very generous investment tax breaks, it looks like we're trying to see how it works for the next two years. The idea is that a company funnels it's cash into capital investment which then leads to share price growth and allows investors to profit take at 20% rather than paying dividend taxes which are much higher. In addition capital investment by companies has a much more positive effect on jobs, productivity and wage growth than dividends so any loss in tax revenue for companies not paying CT or individuals paying less CGT than they would in dividend tax is made up for higher revenue in income tax, NI and VAT as people have more money for discretionary spending.
I've always said this is the model we should be following and frankly we could live with a permanent CT rate of 25% or even 30% if a 100% deduction for investment was made permanent. Unfortunately that's not what's happening, it's the opposite, we're raising CT and removing the deduction at the same time, it's a real recipe for disaster.
This appears to be written in Elvish and I understand none of it.
So my question is: Why do you think the RS did it? Short term exigency? Erroneous judgment? Something to do with having the bone density of a nightingale?
Earlier in the pandemic, I remember some of us on here saying the otherwise-perplexing differences in death rates - eg rich elderly Japan doing well, likewise poor young Vietnam - might largely be down to obesity. Japan and Vietnam are two of the thinnest countries in the world, few have died. America, probably the fattest, has the biggest death toll of all. Britain is almost as fat, and here we are.
“About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from Covid were in countries with high levels of overweight people, says the report from the World Obesity Federation. Countries such as the UK, US and Italy, where more than 50% of adults are overweight, have the biggest proportions of deaths linked to coronavirus”
This might, incidentally, partly explain the elevated death rates in some BAME communities, which have an even worse weight problem
This should also put to bed, forever, the idea you can be fat and still healthy. We all need to eat fish and salad
You were not on this board "Earlier in the pandemic". You joined in December. Unless you have another identity...
I did. Earlier on I self-identified as a fit healthy man. Now, I fear, like so many, after months of lockdown, I am a bit of a fattie
But it is coming off. I hope
Conversely it's the one thing I score on. I eat and drink too much. I smoke. I'm sedentary. I'm knocking on. I have a tense neurotic personality. But I'm slim. Bit of a clothes horse in fact. Wouldn't look out of place on the catwalk.
Me too (this one has a certain Glasgow vibe if you're familiar with Billy Connolly's ouevre).
Comments
https://youtu.be/34um-wGRwPg
I am shocked!
You'd rather they were still here getting paid by taxpayers? Seriously is that your preference?
They've renounced the taxpayer money and are making their own instead. Good for them!
Meanwhile, the unbelievable sums he is borrowing and to a large degree wasting on fraudsters and uneven eligibility issues goes under the radar. It is difficult for the LP to criticise such things when they would likely borrow even more given the chance.
Edit: remove "likely".
https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/news-release-scotland’s-census-be-moved-march-2022
The way to give them obscurity is to STFU about them. Let Oprah and celebrity gossip rags talk about them and the rest of us can forget all about it.
It's not as if they're giving BBC interviews is it?
THE HAGUE — AstraZeneca subcontractor Halix has not sent any Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine doses to the U.K. after the EU implemented export controls, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said Wednesday.....
Some confusion remains over whether the plant is actually producing doses for the EU. It hasn't been approved to make drug substance in the EU, according to the company's conditional marketing authorization from the EMA, updated most recently on February 18.
Officials with knowledge of the U.K.-AstraZeneca contract say Halix has long been part of the U.K. supply chain, and note that it agreed last April to make the vaccine with the University of Oxford. It later announced another deal with AstraZeneca in December. Furthermore, the British government sent a team to the plant in November to help boost manufacturing there, Kate Bingham, the former chair of the U.K. vaccine task force, told European media in February.
https://www.politico.eu/article/breton-no-astrazeneca-jabs-exported-from-netherlands-after-eu-export-controls/
It appears stopping the UK getting vaccines is of more import than getting them into EU citizens.....
From her opening statement, the First Minister set out to deflect her government’s failings onto matters beyond the committee’s remit.
https://www.holyrood.com/comment/view,comment-sturgeons-performance-was-a-masterclass-in-obfuscation-and-deflection
Hopefully they will be able to get their rates down, particularly France, Spain and Italy where the numbers are not under control.
We want to recover, we need big investment in infrastructure, FTTP is by far the cheapest and best. Get to it, we need detail
Are you just ranting and not reading the replies? Did you not listen to the budget? Did you miss the infrastructure announcement?
This is like your complaining yesterday about hurting house buyers by . . . not taxing house buyers as much. 😂
I jest - or at least, I think I do.
Sure there were BTL trolls who didn't like her & wrote bitchy & racist comments. Despicable. But every single person marrying in & many members of the royal family itself have suffered hurtful & offensive comments & bad press & worse (bread rolls thrown at Camilla), including at times HMQ herself. The idea that it was always sweetness & light for everyone else & uniquely awful for Meghan is just not true.
They want a private life & not to be part of the Firm: fine. Get on with it. But if they want endlessly to criticise what happened to them they should not be in the least bit surprised that others may also want to criticise how they were treated by them. The danger is not so much from other royals but from staff who are expected to serve but not answer back & in return their employers are quiet about them. If that unspoken compact is broken why shouldn't the staff answer back?
I have no idea whether in private they were treated with condescension by hoity toity courtiers or whether they shouted at or bullied staff. Women with a mind of their own tend to be called aggressive & bullies, often unfairly, in a way that men would not be. So I have some sympathy with the possibility that Meghan was being unfairly criticised for trying to do her best. And I can see why Harry would wanted to protect his wife.
But I say only this: there was high staff turnover in their team. All other things being equal that is not a sign of a happy ship nor of good management from the top. I employed 2 nannies: each of them stayed for 7 years. It was not the vast money & exotic foreign holidays which made them stay &, frankly, my children (& no doubt me) could be a bit of a nightmare. But still it says something.
When people lose staff quickly that suggests something wrong. There will be different perspectives. The truth will rarely be simple. If you want a private non-royal life best not to air such things in public. Once you do you cannot guarantee that you will get the only or the last word. The irony is that Harry - who makes so much of not wanting to follow the Diana route - is in danger of making exactly the same mistake she did: using the press to get his say & then finding that he has unleashed a tiger he cannot ride.
They have talent, charm, a profile. They should use it for good. This endless harping back suggests that either they haven't really come to terms with giving it up or realise that only by harping on about it can they sell themselves. The first is sad; the second unworthy.
The EU, overall is starting to climb....
Worth remembering that we are testing 4x more than Germany, But their positivity rate seems to be about 3x higher....
Hmmmmm....
If I was HK Chinese with any leeway at all to do so I would be getting out now.
If anyone thinks BT, Openreach and everyone else will be excluded from the investment tax break then that would be rather strange.
BT etc have just been given an absolutely massive incentive to get as much investment as possible done in the next 2 years. They have to do it anyway so do it now while the tax break is there.
Asked various people - seemed to be happening all over the country.
Bit like a lot of maintenance/ugrade work got done on the railways.
https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1367420884248653826?s=20
The only relief would be when @FrancisUrquhart takes up position in a bush close to LHR to log the comings and goings.
He (Nick Offerman) is excellent in S2 of Fargo also.
The press often behave badly. But let's not pretend that celebrities, including royals and ex-royals, don't use it for their own purposes. They are not quite the innocents and victims they claim. Often it is not press attention they dislike but the fact that the press attention they get is not the press attention they want.
Plenty of cars, though, yes you are right.
Make Rishi look like a wishy-washy liberal, and present yourself as the true standard bearer of Thatcher's legacy.
Priti or The Truss have to aim for that market.
Turns out this is probably true
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/03/covid-deaths-high-in-countries-with-more-overweight-people-says-report?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
“About 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from Covid were in countries with high levels of overweight people, says the report from the World Obesity Federation. Countries such as the UK, US and Italy, where more than 50% of adults are overweight, have the biggest proportions of deaths linked to coronavirus”
This might, incidentally, partly explain the elevated death rates in some BAME communities, which have an even worse weight problem
This should also put to bed, forever, the idea you can be fat and still healthy. We all need to eat fish and salad
I am not a huge believer in seasonality but I am clearly a big believer that the virus goes where humans go. Masks and social distancing clearly work, but in the winter, when people tend to congregate in warm, enclosed, unventilated areas anyway, an overall lockdown pushes them together, thus potentially making matters worse. Lockdowns could, in many cases, shift the risk onto the most vulnerable who simply cannot socially distance. That is why I think that the South African townships have been devastated over their recent summer, with the ultimate result that cases there are plummeting as they move into Autumn because those same townships now have a degree of population immunity.
It is arguable that we got hit by that variant at exactly the wrong time of year when the weather is coldest, days shortest, and people are naturally wanting to congregate indoors. Mainland Europe is dealing with this variant but with the luxury that windows will be opened, people will be spending more time outside, and that just might help them. The country that concerns me most at the moment is Italy who simply can't catch a break with this thing.
https://twitter.com/rwynjones/status/1367380113084547073?s=21
Athough the queue for Maccy D's drive thru might suggest a partial answer...
But it is coming off. I hope
In a way, it is good. We've got plenty of activity of some sort or other going on, but the virus is still being suppressed.
In my experience, people are being more observant of LD3 than LD2 but less than of LD1.
In LD1, things were new and scary.
In LD2, things were no longer anything like so scary, just tedious.
In LD3, things were even less scary and more tedious, but there was - possibly - an end in sight. Having the end in sight is a motivator, of sorts, to follow the rules - or at least to follow them more than one ordinarily might.
The only way this feels like anything other than a slow death is the promise that it will come to an end soon-ish. Hopefully
https://twitter.com/talkradio/status/1367419953176010758?s=21
7 miles cycle rides. Daily.
They want it to be quietly forgotten. It should not. Possibly cost thousands of lives
https://twitter.com/andrew_lilico/status/1367431681469276164?s=21
I fear that this is all going to come apart at the seams very badly in the run up to the election and Starmer might just become PM by default because of job losses due to business investment dropping off a cliff.
The problem is that slowly creeping up doesn't seem to last long in this. Either measures are introduced to drop numbers or they go out of control.
And we're paying for this! Farmers know that its bollox which means that its not aimed at them. We are spending £lots advertising something that isn't true so that people who don't know or care about reality can be impressed about how brilliantly Brexit has been for cow and sheep farmers.
However given the way the Tories continually box themselves in in their manifestos there was very little Rishi could actually do in the budget that would keep the wheels spinning.
I suspect the hope is that the Super Deduction will encourage enough investment that our productivity (so return on investment) improves significantly.
When Van Tam et al were missing was that wearing a mask stops other people getting it from you.
Perhaps if they'd paid more attention to Japan the mess could have been avoided, assuming there was actually sufficient supply at the time.
1) The reason to not push masks was more that we were worried there would be insufficient supply for clinical staff if everybody started wearing one, than because we thought they didn't help;
2) The main benefit of masks is they reduce the likelihood of transmitting the virus to someone else, and there is still limited evidence that they reduce the likelihood of the mask wearer catching the virus from someone else.
OTOH, some of their complaints come over very much as rich peoples' problems.
I've always said this is the model we should be following and frankly we could live with a permanent CT rate of 25% or even 30% if a 100% deduction for investment was made permanent. Unfortunately that's not what's happening, it's the opposite, we're raising CT and removing the deduction at the same time, it's a real recipe for disaster.
And of course they protect you, as well, if you have a proper FFP2 or above
Jenny Harries, one of the top boffins, actually said THIS:
‘Wearing a face mask to protect from the coronavirus could actually increase the risk of becoming infected, England’s deputy chief medical officer has warned.‘
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wearing-mask-may-increase-risk-of-infection-jzz6t0m2t
The stupid twats hadn’t looked at Asia and wondered why they were all wearing masks? These are supposedly top scientists. They made a fundamental howling error which cost many lives. They should be sacked and driven from public life
Yesterday will make little difference to the Tories prospects in 2024.
There is a very short timeframe for anyone who doesn't like that to decide whether they want to get out.
So my question is: Why do you think the RS did it? Short term exigency? Erroneous judgment? Something to do with having the bone density of a nightingale?