I have to say, I think I'm with @contrarian this evening. Whilst I agree with the measures taken - and, indeed, I wish we'd been locked down since October - the reality is that this is pretty much over. Sure, the government isn't allowing commercial activities to return for another month, but you can ask only so much of people.
We're going to my sister's for Sunday lunch tomorrow. Whereas I was really worried about Christmas, and I was angry at the government for not cancelling it sooner, we're now in a completely different world. My parents had their first doses six weeks ago. They want to see the grandchildren.
Yet a dear family friend (who has had her jab) when visiting my mum (who has also had a jab) in her nursing home (where all the carers have had jabs) has to put up with a fixed floor-to-ceiling perspex screen AND they both have to wear masks.
I had a conversation yesterday with a business colleague who asked what precautions he thought we ought to take for an event in September.
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
You missed this morning’s thread. Which is a mercy to you, I can assure you. I wouldn’t look it up to be honest!
I see a tussle has broken out at the Sarah Everand memorial.
The met is in serious trouble, isn’t it?
We can but hope. That would be some good to come out of this terrible tragedy.
Robert Mark began his reform of the Met with the words ‘a good police force catches more criminals than it employs.’ On that basis, the Met is clearly not a good police force.
I have to say, I think I'm with @contrarian this evening. Whilst I agree with the measures taken - and, indeed, I wish we'd been locked down since October - the reality is that this is pretty much over. Sure, the government isn't allowing commercial activities to return for another month, but you can ask only so much of people.
We're going to my sister's for Sunday lunch tomorrow. Whereas I was really worried about Christmas, and I was angry at the government for not cancelling it sooner, we're now in a completely different world. My parents had their first doses six weeks ago. They want to see the grandchildren.
Yet a dear family friend (who has had her jab) when visiting my mum (who has also had a jab) in her nursing home (where all the carers have had jabs) has to put up with a fixed floor-to-ceiling perspex screen AND they both have to wear masks.
I had a conversation yesterday with a business colleague who asked what precautions he thought we ought to take for an event in September.
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
I'd still ban anyone coming in straight from Brazil.
I have to say, I think I'm with @contrarian this evening. Whilst I agree with the measures taken - and, indeed, I wish we'd been locked down since October - the reality is that this is pretty much over. Sure, the government isn't allowing commercial activities to return for another month, but you can ask only so much of people.
We're going to my sister's for Sunday lunch tomorrow. Whereas I was really worried about Christmas, and I was angry at the government for not cancelling it sooner, we're now in a completely different world. My parents had their first doses six weeks ago. They want to see the grandchildren.
Yet a dear family friend (who has had her jab) when visiting my mum (who has also had a jab) in her nursing home (where all the carers have had jabs) has to put up with a fixed floor-to-ceiling perspex screen AND they both have to wear masks.
I had a conversation yesterday with a business colleague who asked what precautions he thought we ought to take for an event in September.
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
You missed this morning’s thread. Which is a mercy to you, I can assure you. I wouldn’t look it up to be honest!
I'm going to guess that a few PBers are going to stay at home for a few years more, just to be on the safe side, and can't fathom why anyone would want to go to a shop/cinema/gig/pub until around 2030?
I have to say, I think I'm with @contrarian this evening. Whilst I agree with the measures taken - and, indeed, I wish we'd been locked down since October - the reality is that this is pretty much over. Sure, the government isn't allowing commercial activities to return for another month, but you can ask only so much of people.
We're going to my sister's for Sunday lunch tomorrow. Whereas I was really worried about Christmas, and I was angry at the government for not cancelling it sooner, we're now in a completely different world. My parents had their first doses six weeks ago. They want to see the grandchildren.
Yet a dear family friend (who has had her jab) when visiting my mum (who has also had a jab) in her nursing home (where all the carers have had jabs) has to put up with a fixed floor-to-ceiling perspex screen AND they both have to wear masks.
I had a conversation yesterday with a business colleague who asked what precautions he thought we ought to take for an event in September.
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
You missed this morning’s thread. Which is a mercy to you, I can assure you. I wouldn’t look it up to be honest!
I'm going to guess that a few PBers are going to stay at home for a few years more, just to be on the safe side, and can't fathom why anyone would want to go to a shop/cinema/gig/pub until around 2030?
I think all those prosecuted for breaching lockdown rules (Piers Corbyn etc.) have a right to be seriously pissed off.
I agree.
Banning congregating outside was perhaps the most egregious needless breach of civil liberties that our government has managed.
Banning it may or may not have been needless. Probably it was but it was understandable.
But a law inconsistently applied as with Corbyn vs the Colston demonstrators, for example, is not a law, it’s spite. And it brings the law into disrepute.
I know there are some extenuating circumstances but after almost a year in charge, Starmer is a whole 1% above Corbyn. Does this mean he is under threat? I would say not at the moment but he needs to be ruthless after the May elections and kick most of the shadow cabinet to the curb.
Corbyn wasn’t under threat when five sixths of his party voted against him in a confidence motion and he was exposed for having repeatedly spun his story on train travel and lied about his support for Islamic terrorism.
The last Labour leader to have been toppled by main force was George Lansbury in 1935. And some failed or superannuated leaders in the meanwhile clung on when most wanted them out - Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Brown...
I don’t think the one wing which might be a threat have the votes to force a challenge - certainly they have no candidate.
For good or ill Labour are stuck with Starmer unless he quits. And I don’t think he will.
The question is, whether and how he can improve his personal ratings.
We should all be making suggestion to help dull old SKS out.
We need another round of flag-shagging from Keir.
Plus the whole Shadow Cabinet dressing up in Union Jack lingerie. Challenge the Tories to match that.
The big YouGov lead definitely looking prescient, rather than an outlier.
Starmer is going to be worried on Brexit with those creeping LD and Green shares, I think. Pro-EU millennials and SME's in trouble with export red tape may be turning to to the Greens and Lib Dems respectively.
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
That's just complete nonsense - people are being careful now and I'm certainly ging to be careful until three weeks after my vaccination but I intend to resume some degree of normality in mid April (starting with a de-thatching followed by a socially distanced full English).
I hope after June 21st we will be moving into the full post-Covid world. Does that mean I'll never wear a mask again? Does that mean I'll never use hand sanitiser again? No, because one of the benefits of all this should be a little bit of personal public health awareness and knowledge.
This "Stockholm Syndrome" crap that you and @MaxPB are parroting is just provocative nonsense. For now, for this time, people need to be careful - in time and it's only a few weeks (hopefully), we can be less risk averse.
Tomorrow is definitely MOTHERS DAY. Never ever heard of "Mothering Sunday" before.
FYI, Mothers Day (by that name) was founded in 1908 by a woman from West Virginia, Anna Maria Jarvis, in honor of the memory of her own mother, who was also named Anna Maria.
BTW, the holiday soon became very popular in the US, and was quickly commericalized and monetized, for example by the emerging greeting card industry. So much so that Mrs Reeves went so far as to call for its abolition! However, she soon ended up in a sanatorium, with bills paid for by . . . . wait for it . . . greeting card companies!
Is "Mothering Sunday" a reaction against this now rampant commericalization?
Whatever the answer, Happy Mothers Day 2021 to all you mothers!
AND here is a musical tribute, by the late, great Jerry Jeff Walker: "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mothers"
I think all those prosecuted for breaching lockdown rules (Piers Corbyn etc.) have a right to be seriously pissed off.
The police should have got serious about the BLM protests tbh.
Or just let it all go.
Why did they bother going to court then ?
What do you mean? I'm saying that the politicians should have taken the view that "we're too scared to upset virtue signallers, so anyone can protest about anything they want."
I know we had the most non-white MEPs, but this seems a remarkable stat if even close to true - though even given how few 'high ministerial' posts exist total it seems surprising if it is. https://twitter.com/holland_tom/status/1370802345081249792
Excellent piece. This gets to the nub of it for me:
"We need Ministers to have no truck with the all too prevalent belief that the police’s job is to provide therapy for victims, to believe them without question rather than properly investigate their allegations, that it is their job to police “hate” and, rather than investigate crimes, record matters which are not."
It feels to me like the police have simply become a self-serving highly-unionised public sector body, whose chief purpose is to lazily pursue their own priorities and interests (and it is far easier to snare motorists and sit online browsing Twitter than it is to investigate serious and disgusting crime) rather than those of the public. Elected P&C commissioners were supposed to do something about this but have been a total and abject failure, with almost all going native.
I know from my sister that the police can attract the bossiest and most borish of people, that gross incompetence and poor performance is routinely tolerated, for a variety of reasons, whilst high performance is sometimes viewed as 'bad form' on the basis it might show everyone else up and make them work harder.
It stinks. And I hope it is Gove because whilst no-one likes him much, and he won't make many friends, at least he'll try to do something about it.
I thought Contrarian’s comments on the earlier thread were characteristically intemperate and blunt. He will probably soften them later.
However, Big G’s original post about his shopping trip brought to mind the archetypal guy who criticises the traffic ahead for holding him up on the M6. You aren’t looking at the traffic, mate, you are the traffic.
I'm not sure I see the relevance. He's done/doing his part, he was complaining that others aren't.
“I went shopping and the shop was busy.”
So? People are allowed to go shopping. Had he been ignoring social distancing himself you might have a point.
He’s allowed to go shopping, sure. We all are. Yet social distancing isn’t possible in supermarkets on Saturdays, in my experience.
I've seen couples going shopping who really don't need to be going together, but those with kids often have little choice but to take them.
And the idea that we were going to be made to queue up outside in the winter was always a non-starter.
We have to at our Waitrose. I did this morning, in shorts (my choice - no one mandates the shorts...)
'Excuse me sir, those legs are just too covered up for this establishment....'
'Oh God, why can't Covid be transmissible via exposed skin?'
I thought Contrarian’s comments on the earlier thread were characteristically intemperate and blunt. He will probably soften them later.
However, Big G’s original post about his shopping trip brought to mind the archetypal guy who criticises the traffic ahead for holding him up on the M6. You aren’t looking at the traffic, mate, you are the traffic.
I'm not sure I see the relevance. He's done/doing his part, he was complaining that others aren't.
“I went shopping and the shop was busy.”
So? People are allowed to go shopping. Had he been ignoring social distancing himself you might have a point.
He’s allowed to go shopping, sure. We all are. Yet social distancing isn’t possible in supermarkets on Saturdays, in my experience.
I've seen couples going shopping who really don't need to be going together, but those with kids often have little choice but to take them.
And the idea that we were going to be made to queue up outside in the winter was always a non-starter.
We have to at our Waitrose. I did this morning, in shorts (my choice - no one mandates the shorts...)
'Excuse me sir, those legs are just too covered up for this establishment....'
I’ve only got short legs, so I’m usually in danger of straying into the weird 3/4 length jobs...
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
That's just complete nonsense - people are being careful now and I'm certainly ging to be careful until three weeks after my vaccination but I intend to resume some degree of normality in mid April (starting with a de-thatching followed by a socially distanced full English).
I hope after June 21st we will be moving into the full post-Covid world. Does that mean I'll never wear a mask again? Does that mean I'll never use hand sanitiser again? No, because one of the benefits of all this should be a little bit of personal public health awareness and knowledge.
This "Stockholm Syndrome" crap that you and @MaxPB are parroting is just provocative nonsense. For now, for this time, people need to be careful - in time and it's only a few weeks (hopefully), we can be less risk averse.
I am witnessing it daily. Bodies who used to relish doing things, now using Covid as an excuse. 'Lets see what its like when the schools go back' is turning into 'lets see what its like after June, then we'll make a decision'. I hear relatively sane people saying 'things won't ever be normal again, what if you encounter an unvaccinated person'. It is truly troubling.
I have to say, I think I'm with @contrarian this evening. Whilst I agree with the measures taken - and, indeed, I wish we'd been locked down since October - the reality is that this is pretty much over. Sure, the government isn't allowing commercial activities to return for another month, but you can ask only so much of people.
We're going to my sister's for Sunday lunch tomorrow. Whereas I was really worried about Christmas, and I was angry at the government for not cancelling it sooner, we're now in a completely different world. My parents had their first doses six weeks ago. They want to see the grandchildren.
Yet a dear family friend (who has had her jab) when visiting my mum (who has also had a jab) in her nursing home (where all the carers have had jabs) has to put up with a fixed floor-to-ceiling perspex screen AND they both have to wear masks.
I had a conversation yesterday with a business colleague who asked what precautions he thought we ought to take for an event in September.
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
You missed this morning’s thread. Which is a mercy to you, I can assure you. I wouldn’t look it up to be honest!
My uni is currently planning full on graduation in July, assuming no restrictions. I’m tangentially involved with the planning and it’s a frickin nightmare. But by September we should be pretty much at normal behaviour, albeit personal choice might be going on re masks and all the other behaviours.
I know we had the most non-white MEPs, but this seems a remarkable stat if even close to true - though even given how few 'high ministerial' posts exist total it seems surprising if it is. https://twitter.com/holland_tom/status/1370802345081249792
I think that the "Ministerial Positions" one may be a bit of a stretch.
However, when we left the Europarl of 750 members, the number of Muslim MEPs went down from 7 to 3.
At Westminster of 650 members currently, there are 18 Muslim MEPs. Which is a whisker away from matching the % in the population ie is probably an over-representation for the age group who comprise MPs.
I have to say, I think I'm with @contrarian this evening. Whilst I agree with the measures taken - and, indeed, I wish we'd been locked down since October - the reality is that this is pretty much over. Sure, the government isn't allowing commercial activities to return for another month, but you can ask only so much of people.
We're going to my sister's for Sunday lunch tomorrow. Whereas I was really worried about Christmas, and I was angry at the government for not cancelling it sooner, we're now in a completely different world. My parents had their first doses six weeks ago. They want to see the grandchildren.
Yet a dear family friend (who has had her jab) when visiting my mum (who has also had a jab) in her nursing home (where all the carers have had jabs) has to put up with a fixed floor-to-ceiling perspex screen AND they both have to wear masks.
I had a conversation yesterday with a business colleague who asked what precautions he thought we ought to take for an event in September.
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
You missed this morning’s thread. Which is a mercy to you, I can assure you. I wouldn’t look it up to be honest!
I'm going to guess that a few PBers are going to stay at home for a few years more, just to be on the safe side, and can't fathom why anyone would want to go to a shop/cinema/gig/pub until around 2030?
I have booked 3 staycations for later this year.
My wife and I need it and to be honest so does the economy
The big YouGov lead definitely looking prescient, rather than an outlier.
Starmer is going to be worried on Brexit with those creeping LD and Green shares, I think. Pro-EU millennials and SME's in trouble with export red tape may be turning to to the Greens and Lib Dems respectively.
Incidentally, the hiccoughs on exports seem to have resolved themselves.
A few colleagues had a few parcels returned. On further investigation it turned out to be because either a) they had made mistakes on the 9 line forms or b) they didn't know they had to fill in the forms or c) couriers didn't know the rules themselves. One has decided to stop selling to Europe at all (this was the one who didn't know they had to fill forms in at all). The others learned to do it correctly and haven't faced any problems.
Outside of the very small number of business sectors which have basically become unviable since leaving the customs union, it seems like business has coped. Bizarrely, I am actually selling more to Europe this year than usual.
I think all those prosecuted for breaching lockdown rules (Piers Corbyn etc.) have a right to be seriously pissed off.
The police should have got serious about the BLM protests tbh.
If enough people gather for a peaceful protest like this then, in a society like ours, the police are essentially powerless. They weren't going to start using shields and batons on these people and they can't even go around inflicting huge fines on the organisers because there aren't any.
I have to say, I think I'm with @contrarian this evening. Whilst I agree with the measures taken - and, indeed, I wish we'd been locked down since October - the reality is that this is pretty much over. Sure, the government isn't allowing commercial activities to return for another month, but you can ask only so much of people.
We're going to my sister's for Sunday lunch tomorrow. Whereas I was really worried about Christmas, and I was angry at the government for not cancelling it sooner, we're now in a completely different world. My parents had their first doses six weeks ago. They want to see the grandchildren.
Yet a dear family friend (who has had her jab) when visiting my mum (who has also had a jab) in her nursing home (where all the carers have had jabs) has to put up with a fixed floor-to-ceiling perspex screen AND they both have to wear masks.
I had a conversation yesterday with a business colleague who asked what precautions he thought we ought to take for an event in September.
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
You missed this morning’s thread. Which is a mercy to you, I can assure you. I wouldn’t look it up to be honest!
I'm going to guess that a few PBers are going to stay at home for a few years more, just to be on the safe side, and can't fathom why anyone would want to go to a shop/cinema/gig/pub until around 2030?
I have booked 3 staycations for later this year.
My wife and I need it and to be honest so does the economy
Good stuff! I have several dinners in nice restaurants booked in for May, and am starting a lunch club with colleagues because we've missed socialising so much. Fairs are being planned apace. Really looking forward to seeing my Godson in Edinburgh, too.
On topic, a brilliant thread header @Cyclefree, as always.
What a tragedy that your diagnosis that nothing will change is so very plausible.
Very much agree with the article; thank you. I think it needs pointing out that there are a large number of decent police officers doing a difficult and thankless job in impossible circumstances.
The clear up rate in homicide cases shows just what can be achieved if the people and hours and intelligence were available for other matters too.
The closure of massive numbers of police stations is a continuing huge mistake.
As to solutions; it is hard to see one without an effective Home Secretary, and crucially, this isn't going to be possible without an effective and ultra competent Home Office. I don't see that as likely. It may not now be possible.
I thought Contrarian’s comments on the earlier thread were characteristically intemperate and blunt. He will probably soften them later.
However, Big G’s original post about his shopping trip brought to mind the archetypal guy who criticises the traffic ahead for holding him up on the M6. You aren’t looking at the traffic, mate, you are the traffic.
I'm not sure I see the relevance. He's done/doing his part, he was complaining that others aren't.
“I went shopping and the shop was busy.”
So? People are allowed to go shopping. Had he been ignoring social distancing himself you might have a point.
He’s allowed to go shopping, sure. We all are. Yet social distancing isn’t possible in supermarkets on Saturdays, in my experience.
I've seen couples going shopping who really don't need to be going together, but those with kids often have little choice but to take them.
And the idea that we were going to be made to queue up outside in the winter was always a non-starter.
We have to at our Waitrose. I did this morning, in shorts (my choice - no one mandates the shorts...)
'Excuse me sir, those legs are just too covered up for this establishment....'
I’ve only got short legs, so I’m usually in danger of straying into the weird 3/4 length jobs...
I mean, those 3/4 length trousers should have been banned on the grounds of unfashionability years ago. Maybe the Govt. could do some lasting good to public taste with the immense powers that public health laws have given them?
Excellent piece. This gets to the nub of it for me:
"We need Ministers to have no truck with the all too prevalent belief that the police’s job is to provide therapy for victims, to believe them without question rather than properly investigate their allegations, that it is their job to police “hate” and, rather than investigate crimes, record matters which are not."
It feels to me like the police have simply become a self-serving highly-unionised public sector body, whose chief purpose is to lazily pursue their own priorities and interests (and it is far easier to snare motorists and sit online browsing Twitter than it is to investigate serious and disgusting crime) rather than those of the public. Elected P&C commissioners were supposed to do something about this but have been a total and abject failure, with almost all going native.
I know from my sister that the police can attract the bossiest and most borish of people, that gross incompetence and poor performance is routinely tolerated, for a variety of reasons, whilst high performance is sometimes viewed as 'bad form' on the basis it might show everyone else up and make them work harder.
It stinks. And I hope it is Gove because whilst no-one likes him much, and he won't make many friends, at least he'll try to do something about it.
I do agree with all of this but is this not partly down to the further politicising of policing due to the elected PCCS who will help determine agendas.
Have the PCCS gone native or have they set agendas for the local Police. A local one to me when elected said hate crimes were going to be a priority.
It also sticks in my craw that the Police can just increase their portion of the council tax at a colossal level with no real accountability.
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
That's just complete nonsense - people are being careful now and I'm certainly ging to be careful until three weeks after my vaccination but I intend to resume some degree of normality in mid April (starting with a de-thatching followed by a socially distanced full English).
I hope after June 21st we will be moving into the full post-Covid world. Does that mean I'll never wear a mask again? Does that mean I'll never use hand sanitiser again? No, because one of the benefits of all this should be a little bit of personal public health awareness and knowledge.
This "Stockholm Syndrome" crap that you and @MaxPB are parroting is just provocative nonsense. For now, for this time, people need to be careful - in time and it's only a few weeks (hopefully), we can be less risk averse.
I am witnessing it daily. Bodies who used to relish doing things, now using Covid as an excuse. 'Lets see what its like when the schools go back' is turning into 'lets see what its like after June, then we'll make a decision'. I hear relatively sane people saying 'things won't ever be normal again, what if you encounter an unvaccinated person'. It is truly troubling.
I reckon that you're right, although I wouldn't like to put a firm number on the proportion of the population that are going to come out the other end of this as hermits and/or with an excessive fear of illness. But there'll certainly be some, and there'll be others who will be anxious and will need gently and patiently coaxing back out of Covid habits.
I think all those prosecuted for breaching lockdown rules (Piers Corbyn etc.) have a right to be seriously pissed off.
The police should have got serious about the BLM protests tbh.
If enough people gather for a peaceful protest like this then, in a society like ours, the police are essentially powerless. They weren't going to start using shields and batons on these people and they can't even go around inflicting huge fines on the organisers because there aren't any.
Indeed they are. Although they manage to take down anti lockdown protests. In essence protests at their own authority.
It was amusing to see them, last summer, run from the ‘mostly peaceful’ BLM protests.
I think all those prosecuted for breaching lockdown rules (Piers Corbyn etc.) have a right to be seriously pissed off.
The police should have got serious about the BLM protests tbh.
If enough people gather for a peaceful protest like this then, in a society like ours, the police are essentially powerless. They weren't going to start using shields and batons on these people and they can't even go around inflicting huge fines on the organisers because there aren't any.
Safety in numbers. Which is hugely ironic given the current situation.
Tomorrow is definitely MOTHERS DAY. Never ever heard of "Mothering Sunday" before.
FYI, Mothers Day (by that name) was founded in 1908 by a woman from West Virginia, Anna Maria Jarvis, in honor of the memory of her own mother, who was also named Anna Maria.
BTW, the holiday soon became very popular in the US, and was quickly commericalized and monetized, for example by the emerging greeting card industry. So much so that Mrs Reeves went so far as to call for its abolition! However, she soon ended up in a sanatorium, with bills paid for by . . . . wait for it . . . greeting card companies!
Is "Mothering Sunday" a reaction against this now rampant commericalization?
Whatever the answer, Happy Mothers Day 2021 to all you mothers!
AND here is a musical tribute, by the late, great Jerry Jeff Walker: "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mothers"
The Mothers Day you mention is on the second Sunday in May for our friends in the USA.
Mothering Sunday is an extension of Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent (which can fall on 35 different dates) in which commemorating our mother church embraces thankfulness for mothers as well. Works OK, and some people call it mothers day.
I thought Contrarian’s comments on the earlier thread were characteristically intemperate and blunt. He will probably soften them later.
However, Big G’s original post about his shopping trip brought to mind the archetypal guy who criticises the traffic ahead for holding him up on the M6. You aren’t looking at the traffic, mate, you are the traffic.
I'm not sure I see the relevance. He's done/doing his part, he was complaining that others aren't.
“I went shopping and the shop was busy.”
So? People are allowed to go shopping. Had he been ignoring social distancing himself you might have a point.
He’s allowed to go shopping, sure. We all are. Yet social distancing isn’t possible in supermarkets on Saturdays, in my experience.
I've seen couples going shopping who really don't need to be going together, but those with kids often have little choice but to take them.
And the idea that we were going to be made to queue up outside in the winter was always a non-starter.
We have to at our Waitrose. I did this morning, in shorts (my choice - no one mandates the shorts...)
'Excuse me sir, those legs are just too covered up for this establishment....'
I’ve only got short legs, so I’m usually in danger of straying into the weird 3/4 length jobs...
I mean, those 3/4 length trousers should have been banned on the grounds of unfashionability years ago. Maybe the Govt. could do some lasting good to public taste with the immense powers that public health laws have given them?
Nah, men showing their ankles is fashionable these days
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
That's just complete nonsense - people are being careful now and I'm certainly ging to be careful until three weeks after my vaccination but I intend to resume some degree of normality in mid April (starting with a de-thatching followed by a socially distanced full English).
I hope after June 21st we will be moving into the full post-Covid world. Does that mean I'll never wear a mask again? Does that mean I'll never use hand sanitiser again? No, because one of the benefits of all this should be a little bit of personal public health awareness and knowledge.
This "Stockholm Syndrome" crap that you and @MaxPB are parroting is just provocative nonsense. For now, for this time, people need to be careful - in time and it's only a few weeks (hopefully), we can be less risk averse.
I am witnessing it daily. Bodies who used to relish doing things, now using Covid as an excuse. 'Lets see what its like when the schools go back' is turning into 'lets see what its like after June, then we'll make a decision'. I hear relatively sane people saying 'things won't ever be normal again, what if you encounter an unvaccinated person'. It is truly troubling.
I reckon that you're right, although I wouldn't like to put a firm number on the proportion of the population that are going to come out the other end of this as hermits and/or with an excessive fear of illness. But there'll certainly be some, and there'll be others who will be anxious and will need gently and patiently coaxing back out of Covid habits.
I'm sure its a small %, but just I hope it isn't enough to change policy or deliver a mental health crisis.
I freely admit that last year I was incredibly anxious about the whole pandemic. I think my Peloton and the dog probably saved me from the deep pit of anxiety induced depression that I've been in before. Managing to cut down on covid news and not worrying about fomites was utterly liberating. The first takeaway coffee I had in late May opened the floodgates, and since then I've been able to slowly get back to normal. Mum and Dad being jabbed was the last step. I cannot wait for normality now.
I know there are some extenuating circumstances but after almost a year in charge, Starmer is a whole 1% above Corbyn. Does this mean he is under threat? I would say not at the moment but he needs to be ruthless after the May elections and kick most of the shadow cabinet to the curb.
Corbyn wasn’t under threat when five sixths of his party voted against him in a confidence motion and he was exposed for having repeatedly spun his story on train travel and lied about his support for Islamic terrorism.
The last Labour leader to have been toppled by main force was George Lansbury in 1935. And some failed or superannuated leaders in the meanwhile clung on when most wanted them out - Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Brown...
I don’t think the one wing which might be a threat have the votes to force a challenge - certainly they have no candidate.
For good or ill Labour are stuck with Starmer unless he quits. And I don’t think he will.
The question is, whether and how he can improve his personal ratings.
We should all be making suggestion to help dull old SKS out.
We need another round of flag-shagging from Keir.
Plus the whole Shadow Cabinet dressing up in Union Jack lingerie. Challenge the Tories to match that.
We'll soon see which party is more patriotic.
This whole ‘flag shagging’ thing really is ridiculous. It’s seems to be a fixation of parts of the online left as occupied by Owen Jones and Novara Media. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any politician sitting by our national flag.
I saw a bit of a zoom call with all european leaders and each and every one of them, left right and centre, sat by their national flag.
During international soccer tournaments the English flag is proudly displayed by people of all creeds and colours. Rightly so.
Still, posting crap for likes and retweets is nothing new.
I think all those prosecuted for breaching lockdown rules (Piers Corbyn etc.) have a right to be seriously pissed off.
The police should have got serious about the BLM protests tbh.
If enough people gather for a peaceful protest like this then, in a society like ours, the police are essentially powerless. They weren't going to start using shields and batons on these people and they can't even go around inflicting huge fines on the organisers because there aren't any.
Police arresting women protesting the murder of a woman apparently by a policeman?
I thought Contrarian’s comments on the earlier thread were characteristically intemperate and blunt. He will probably soften them later.
However, Big G’s original post about his shopping trip brought to mind the archetypal guy who criticises the traffic ahead for holding him up on the M6. You aren’t looking at the traffic, mate, you are the traffic.
I'm not sure I see the relevance. He's done/doing his part, he was complaining that others aren't.
“I went shopping and the shop was busy.”
So? People are allowed to go shopping. Had he been ignoring social distancing himself you might have a point.
He’s allowed to go shopping, sure. We all are. Yet social distancing isn’t possible in supermarkets on Saturdays, in my experience.
I've seen couples going shopping who really don't need to be going together, but those with kids often have little choice but to take them.
And the idea that we were going to be made to queue up outside in the winter was always a non-starter.
We have to at our Waitrose. I did this morning, in shorts (my choice - no one mandates the shorts...)
'Excuse me sir, those legs are just too covered up for this establishment....'
I’ve only got short legs, so I’m usually in danger of straying into the weird 3/4 length jobs...
I mean, those 3/4 length trousers should have been banned on the grounds of unfashionability years ago. Maybe the Govt. could do some lasting good to public taste with the immense powers that public health laws have given them?
Nah, men showing their ankles is fashionable these days
Thank you Cyclefree for yet another excellent topic for discussion. The first post covid PB gathering really needs to be in your daughter’s pub! Worrying question. Why would anyone without authoritarian or facistic tendencies choose the police as a career?
Tomorrow is definitely MOTHERS DAY. Never ever heard of "Mothering Sunday" before.
FYI, Mothers Day (by that name) was founded in 1908 by a woman from West Virginia, Anna Maria Jarvis, in honor of the memory of her own mother, who was also named Anna Maria.
BTW, the holiday soon became very popular in the US, and was quickly commericalized and monetized, for example by the emerging greeting card industry. So much so that Mrs Reeves went so far as to call for its abolition! However, she soon ended up in a sanatorium, with bills paid for by . . . . wait for it . . . greeting card companies!
Is "Mothering Sunday" a reaction against this now rampant commericalization?
Whatever the answer, Happy Mothers Day 2021 to all you mothers!
AND here is a musical tribute, by the late, great Jerry Jeff Walker: "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mothers"
My understanding is that Motherinf Sunday is a Church of England thing, a celebration of the mother church - i. e. the church in which you were baptised. I don't know how old it is.
I thought Contrarian’s comments on the earlier thread were characteristically intemperate and blunt. He will probably soften them later.
However, Big G’s original post about his shopping trip brought to mind the archetypal guy who criticises the traffic ahead for holding him up on the M6. You aren’t looking at the traffic, mate, you are the traffic.
I'm not sure I see the relevance. He's done/doing his part, he was complaining that others aren't.
“I went shopping and the shop was busy.”
So? People are allowed to go shopping. Had he been ignoring social distancing himself you might have a point.
He’s allowed to go shopping, sure. We all are. Yet social distancing isn’t possible in supermarkets on Saturdays, in my experience.
I've seen couples going shopping who really don't need to be going together, but those with kids often have little choice but to take them.
And the idea that we were going to be made to queue up outside in the winter was always a non-starter.
We have to at our Waitrose. I did this morning, in shorts (my choice - no one mandates the shorts...)
'Excuse me sir, those legs are just too covered up for this establishment....'
I’ve only got short legs, so I’m usually in danger of straying into the weird 3/4 length jobs...
I mean, those 3/4 length trousers should have been banned on the grounds of unfashionability years ago. Maybe the Govt. could do some lasting good to public taste with the immense powers that public health laws have given them?
Such trousers should be banned. English men of a certain age dress badly enough already without wearing cargo shorts.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
Tomorrow is definitely MOTHERS DAY. Never ever heard of "Mothering Sunday" before.
FYI, Mothers Day (by that name) was founded in 1908 by a woman from West Virginia, Anna Maria Jarvis, in honor of the memory of her own mother, who was also named Anna Maria.
BTW, the holiday soon became very popular in the US, and was quickly commericalized and monetized, for example by the emerging greeting card industry. So much so that Mrs Reeves went so far as to call for its abolition! However, she soon ended up in a sanatorium, with bills paid for by . . . . wait for it . . . greeting card companies!
Is "Mothering Sunday" a reaction against this now rampant commericalization?
Whatever the answer, Happy Mothers Day 2021 to all you mothers!
AND here is a musical tribute, by the late, great Jerry Jeff Walker: "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mothers"
My understanding is that Motherinf Sunday is a Church of England thing, a celebration of the mother church - i. e. the church in which you were baptised. I don't know how old it is.
I think all those prosecuted for breaching lockdown rules (Piers Corbyn etc.) have a right to be seriously pissed off.
The police should have got serious about the BLM protests tbh.
If enough people gather for a peaceful protest like this then, in a society like ours, the police are essentially powerless. They weren't going to start using shields and batons on these people and they can't even go around inflicting huge fines on the organisers because there aren't any.
Police arresting women protesting the murder of a woman apparently by a policeman?
I wouldn't want to be the copper ordering that.
Well quite, but I think it would only be fair to hand back the fines dished out to other protesters.
I think all those prosecuted for breaching lockdown rules (Piers Corbyn etc.) have a right to be seriously pissed off.
The police should have got serious about the BLM protests tbh.
If enough people gather for a peaceful protest like this then, in a society like ours, the police are essentially powerless. They weren't going to start using shields and batons on these people and they can't even go around inflicting huge fines on the organisers because there aren't any.
Police arresting women protesting the murder of a woman apparently by a policeman?
I wouldn't want to be the copper ordering that.
Nor the person arguing it was in the public interest.
East Lancashire Railway Diesel Gala is the previous weekend. I had planned a visit last February but had to call it off as I had a *mystery illness*. So this is my target for a return to normality. (Yes, I know that many will think that attending such an event is far from normal.)
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
What is consistent, Tories comfortably north of 40% now. The gap is really based on how far / if Labour have fallen back i.e. is it as low as 32 or it is still 36-37. At the turn of the year both parties were sub 40.
Coincidentally I was looking at the Wikipedia article on the killing of Jean-Charles de Menezes today.
Bizarre to think that the inquest found that the police witnesses perjured themselves, while a separate enquiry criticised the Met for trying to deceive the public over the case.
At one stage, after leaks to press, the Met went so far as to raid and arrest someone from the IPCC, a journalist from ITV, and his girlfriend.
Jed Mercurio has said he was inspired to write “Line of Duty” by the case.
Cressida Dick now runs the Met.
Her boss at the time, Sir Ian Blair, now sits as a crossbencher in the HoL.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
Perhaps it's time for Dick to be removed.
Put like that, it sounds like a severe case of coitus interruptus.
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
That's just complete nonsense - people are being careful now and I'm certainly ging to be careful until three weeks after my vaccination but I intend to resume some degree of normality in mid April (starting with a de-thatching followed by a socially distanced full English).
I hope after June 21st we will be moving into the full post-Covid world. Does that mean I'll never wear a mask again? Does that mean I'll never use hand sanitiser again? No, because one of the benefits of all this should be a little bit of personal public health awareness and knowledge.
This "Stockholm Syndrome" crap that you and @MaxPB are parroting is just provocative nonsense. For now, for this time, people need to be careful - in time and it's only a few weeks (hopefully), we can be less risk averse.
I am witnessing it daily. Bodies who used to relish doing things, now using Covid as an excuse. 'Lets see what its like when the schools go back' is turning into 'lets see what its like after June, then we'll make a decision'. I hear relatively sane people saying 'things won't ever be normal again, what if you encounter an unvaccinated person'. It is truly troubling.
I reckon that you're right, although I wouldn't like to put a firm number on the proportion of the population that are going to come out the other end of this as hermits and/or with an excessive fear of illness. But there'll certainly be some, and there'll be others who will be anxious and will need gently and patiently coaxing back out of Covid habits.
Personally I'm "trying not to fall at the last Covid hurdle" - should be early on in group 11, whenever that is - hopefully near the start of May
Thank you Cyclefree for yet another excellent topic for discussion. The first post covid PB gathering really needs to be in your daughter’s pub! Worrying question. Why would anyone without authoritarian or facistic tendencies choose the police as a career?
The country needs a police force. It's a job where those doing it are on a hiding to nothing, and I'm grateful that anyone quite honestly wants to go into it.
East Lancashire Railway Diesel Gala is the previous weekend. I had planned a visit last February but had to call it off as I had a *mystery illness*. So this is my target for a return to normality. (Yes, I know that many will think that attending such an event is far from normal.)
I have had a passion for steam since my young days watching the flying scotsman pass our school in Berwick before it crossed the border bridge
I have not lost the love for it and have been to the East Lancashire Railway a few times
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
That wasn’t on her watch, was it? Wasn’t that Sir Ian Blair?
Thank you Cyclefree for yet another excellent topic for discussion. The first post covid PB gathering really needs to be in your daughter’s pub! Worrying question. Why would anyone without authoritarian or facistic tendencies choose the police as a career?
Because, have you watched police interceptors? In amongst a difficult job, it looks more exciting than most jobs.Who wouldn't want to spend their days catching baddies? Granted the real world is more complex than that. But I can see the attraction.
I know there are some extenuating circumstances but after almost a year in charge, Starmer is a whole 1% above Corbyn. Does this mean he is under threat? I would say not at the moment but he needs to be ruthless after the May elections and kick most of the shadow cabinet to the curb.
Corbyn wasn’t under threat when five sixths of his party voted against him in a confidence motion and he was exposed for having repeatedly spun his story on train travel and lied about his support for Islamic terrorism.
The last Labour leader to have been toppled by main force was George Lansbury in 1935. And some failed or superannuated leaders in the meanwhile clung on when most wanted them out - Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Brown...
I don’t think the one wing which might be a threat have the votes to force a challenge - certainly they have no candidate.
For good or ill Labour are stuck with Starmer unless he quits. And I don’t think he will.
The question is, whether and how he can improve his personal ratings.
We should all be making suggestion to help dull old SKS out.
We need another round of flag-shagging from Keir.
Plus the whole Shadow Cabinet dressing up in Union Jack lingerie. Challenge the Tories to match that.
We'll soon see which party is more patriotic.
This whole ‘flag shagging’ thing really is ridiculous. It’s seems to be a fixation of parts of the online left as occupied by Owen Jones and Novara Media. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any politician sitting by our national flag.
I saw a bit of a zoom call with all european leaders and each and every one of them, left right and centre, sat by their national flag.
During international soccer tournaments the English flag is proudly displayed by people of all creeds and colours. Rightly so.
Still, posting crap for likes and retweets is nothing new.
But your post betrays the confusion at the heart of all this. You first talk of "our national flag" and then you say "the English flag".
They are of course not the same thing. That is the whole point.
SKS absolutely needs to make some progress in Scotland to win an election.
If he (or you) really believe the way to make progress in Wales or Scotland is by bathing in a sea of Union Jacks, then he (or you) are in for a very disagreeable surprise.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
That wasn’t on her watch, was it? Wasn’t that Sir Iain Blair?
She was the officer in direct command of the operation.
Tomorrow is definitely MOTHERS DAY. Never ever heard of "Mothering Sunday" before.
FYI, Mothers Day (by that name) was founded in 1908 by a woman from West Virginia, Anna Maria Jarvis, in honor of the memory of her own mother, who was also named Anna Maria.
BTW, the holiday soon became very popular in the US, and was quickly commericalized and monetized, for example by the emerging greeting card industry. So much so that Mrs Reeves went so far as to call for its abolition! However, she soon ended up in a sanatorium, with bills paid for by . . . . wait for it . . . greeting card companies!
Is "Mothering Sunday" a reaction against this now rampant commericalization?
Whatever the answer, Happy Mothers Day 2021 to all you mothers!
AND here is a musical tribute, by the late, great Jerry Jeff Walker: "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mothers"
The Mothers Day you mention is on the second Sunday in May for our friends in the USA.
Mothering Sunday is an extension of Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent (which can fall on 35 different dates) in which commemorating our mother church embraces thankfulness for mothers as well. Works OK, and some people call it mothers day.
My wife, in her year in the US, missed Mother's Day as a result of b the date difference. something that caused such ructions that she refused to have anything to do with the event for the next 10 years. It's settled down a bit, although I had to volunteer to purchase the card to call truce and I still have the job of purchasing my mother-in-law's card to b this day.
What is consistent, Tories comfortably north of 40% now. The gap is really based on how far / if Labour have fallen back i.e. is it as low as 32 or it is still 36-37. At the turn of the year both parties were sub 40.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
There is a degree of Stockholm syndrome setting in; a good % of the population seem to enjoy the restrictions, the rules, and the doomongering. Odd.
That's just complete nonsense - people are being careful now and I'm certainly ging to be careful until three weeks after my vaccination but I intend to resume some degree of normality in mid April (starting with a de-thatching followed by a socially distanced full English).
I hope after June 21st we will be moving into the full post-Covid world. Does that mean I'll never wear a mask again? Does that mean I'll never use hand sanitiser again? No, because one of the benefits of all this should be a little bit of personal public health awareness and knowledge.
This "Stockholm Syndrome" crap that you and @MaxPB are parroting is just provocative nonsense. For now, for this time, people need to be careful - in time and it's only a few weeks (hopefully), we can be less risk averse.
I am witnessing it daily. Bodies who used to relish doing things, now using Covid as an excuse. 'Lets see what its like when the schools go back' is turning into 'lets see what its like after June, then we'll make a decision'. I hear relatively sane people saying 'things won't ever be normal again, what if you encounter an unvaccinated person'. It is truly troubling.
I reckon that you're right, although I wouldn't like to put a firm number on the proportion of the population that are going to come out the other end of this as hermits and/or with an excessive fear of illness. But there'll certainly be some, and there'll be others who will be anxious and will need gently and patiently coaxing back out of Covid habits.
Personally I'm "trying not to fall at the last Covid hurdle" - should be early on in group 11, whenever that is - hopefully near the start of May
At the moment I'm in a similar position myself, though I'm a fortysomething so hoping I might get sorted out by about Easter. What I was thinking about was the medium term, i.e. I concur that a certain number of folk are going to find it hard adjusting back to life after the threat of Covid has been minimised by as much as it's going to be.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
Perhaps it's time for Dick to be removed.
Put like that, it sounds like a severe case of coitus interruptus.
Dick has had many ups and downs, but it does seem like we might be seeing the end.
I know there are some extenuating circumstances but after almost a year in charge, Starmer is a whole 1% above Corbyn. Does this mean he is under threat? I would say not at the moment but he needs to be ruthless after the May elections and kick most of the shadow cabinet to the curb.
Corbyn wasn’t under threat when five sixths of his party voted against him in a confidence motion and he was exposed for having repeatedly spun his story on train travel and lied about his support for Islamic terrorism.
The last Labour leader to have been toppled by main force was George Lansbury in 1935. And some failed or superannuated leaders in the meanwhile clung on when most wanted them out - Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Brown...
I don’t think the one wing which might be a threat have the votes to force a challenge - certainly they have no candidate.
For good or ill Labour are stuck with Starmer unless he quits. And I don’t think he will.
The question is, whether and how he can improve his personal ratings.
We should all be making suggestion to help dull old SKS out.
We need another round of flag-shagging from Keir.
Plus the whole Shadow Cabinet dressing up in Union Jack lingerie. Challenge the Tories to match that.
We'll soon see which party is more patriotic.
This whole ‘flag shagging’ thing really is ridiculous. It’s seems to be a fixation of parts of the online left as occupied by Owen Jones and Novara Media. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any politician sitting by our national flag.
I saw a bit of a zoom call with all european leaders and each and every one of them, left right and centre, sat by their national flag.
Significant in hindsight, but it was only after the 2016 referendum that I noticed at speeches/press conferences almost every European head of government has the EU flag alongside their national flag, something that never really happened in the UK.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
Perhaps it's time for Dick to be removed.
Put like that, it sounds like a severe case of coitus interruptus.
Dick has had many ups and downs, but it does seem like we might be seeing the end.
I know we had the most non-white MEPs, but this seems a remarkable stat if even close to true - though even given how few 'high ministerial' posts exist total it seems surprising if it is. https://twitter.com/holland_tom/status/1370802345081249792
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
Perhaps it's time for Dick to be removed.
Put like that, it sounds like a severe case of coitus interruptus.
Dick has had many ups and downs, but it does seem like we might be seeing the end.
What is consistent, Tories comfortably north of 40% now. The gap is really based on how far / if Labour have fallen back i.e. is it as low as 32 or it is still 36-37. At the turn of the year both parties were sub 40.
Tonight Survation has Labour on 33% - but that is a UK poll. The GB equivalent - as per Opinium - would be 34%. Survation also implies a Tory 44% share for GB.
I know there are some extenuating circumstances but after almost a year in charge, Starmer is a whole 1% above Corbyn. Does this mean he is under threat? I would say not at the moment but he needs to be ruthless after the May elections and kick most of the shadow cabinet to the curb.
Corbyn wasn’t under threat when five sixths of his party voted against him in a confidence motion and he was exposed for having repeatedly spun his story on train travel and lied about his support for Islamic terrorism.
The last Labour leader to have been toppled by main force was George Lansbury in 1935. And some failed or superannuated leaders in the meanwhile clung on when most wanted them out - Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Brown...
I don’t think the one wing which might be a threat have the votes to force a challenge - certainly they have no candidate.
For good or ill Labour are stuck with Starmer unless he quits. And I don’t think he will.
The question is, whether and how he can improve his personal ratings.
We should all be making suggestion to help dull old SKS out.
We need another round of flag-shagging from Keir.
Plus the whole Shadow Cabinet dressing up in Union Jack lingerie. Challenge the Tories to match that.
We'll soon see which party is more patriotic.
This whole ‘flag shagging’ thing really is ridiculous. It’s seems to be a fixation of parts of the online left as occupied by Owen Jones and Novara Media. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any politician sitting by our national flag.
I saw a bit of a zoom call with all european leaders and each and every one of them, left right and centre, sat by their national flag.
During international soccer tournaments the English flag is proudly displayed by people of all creeds and colours. Rightly so.
Still, posting crap for likes and retweets is nothing new.
But your post betrays the confusion at the heart of all this. You first talk of "our national flag" and then you say "the English flag".
They are of course not the same thing. That is the whole point.
SKS absolutely needs to make some progress in Scotland to win an election.
If he (or you) really believe the way to make progress in Wales or Scotland is by bathing in a sea of Union Jacks, then he (or you) are in for a very disagreeable surprise.
We will have to see what happens with both. There is no appetite in Wales for independence, aside from the west and parts of the north. In Scotland support for Indy is receding and that remains to be seen if that is a blip or a trend.
Labour does need to make gains in Scotland as do the Tories and the Lib Dem’s.
There is nothing wrong with labour figures standing by our national flag. Much of the talk of so called flag shagging, a perverse comment, seems to come online from the momentum brigade and those on the left who seem to see it in terms of pandering to the far right.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
Perhaps it's time for Dick to be removed.
Put like that, it sounds like a severe case of coitus interruptus.
Dick has had many ups and downs, but it does seem like we might be seeing the end.
I think Dick risks climaxing too soon.
But there's little doubt that many people in high places seem to be huge fans of Dick.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
That wasn’t on her watch, was it? Wasn’t that Sir Ian Blair?
She was gold commander that day and authorised police actions.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
That wasn’t on her watch, was it? Wasn’t that Sir Iain Blair?
She was the officer in direct command of the operation.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
I know there are some extenuating circumstances but after almost a year in charge, Starmer is a whole 1% above Corbyn. Does this mean he is under threat? I would say not at the moment but he needs to be ruthless after the May elections and kick most of the shadow cabinet to the curb.
Corbyn wasn’t under threat when five sixths of his party voted against him in a confidence motion and he was exposed for having repeatedly spun his story on train travel and lied about his support for Islamic terrorism.
The last Labour leader to have been toppled by main force was George Lansbury in 1935. And some failed or superannuated leaders in the meanwhile clung on when most wanted them out - Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Brown...
I don’t think the one wing which might be a threat have the votes to force a challenge - certainly they have no candidate.
For good or ill Labour are stuck with Starmer unless he quits. And I don’t think he will.
The question is, whether and how he can improve his personal ratings.
We should all be making suggestion to help dull old SKS out.
We need another round of flag-shagging from Keir.
Plus the whole Shadow Cabinet dressing up in Union Jack lingerie. Challenge the Tories to match that.
We'll soon see which party is more patriotic.
This whole ‘flag shagging’ thing really is ridiculous. It’s seems to be a fixation of parts of the online left as occupied by Owen Jones and Novara Media. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any politician sitting by our national flag.
I saw a bit of a zoom call with all european leaders and each and every one of them, left right and centre, sat by their national flag.
Significant in hindsight, but it was only after the 2016 referendum that I noticed at speeches/press conferences almost every European head of government has the EU flag alongside their national flag, something that never really happened in the UK.
Very true. It's ubiquitous in Bulgaria, and I remember commenting on it to my father-in-law.
I know we had the most non-white MEPs, but this seems a remarkable stat if even close to true - though even given how few 'high ministerial' posts exist total it seems surprising if it is. https://twitter.com/holland_tom/status/1370802345081249792
I won't believe it until Scott'n'Paste posts it!
I guess the Cabinet. So Patel, Sunak, Kwateng and Sharma are full members out of 21 (I think). Any more?
Coincidentally I was looking at the Wikipedia article on the killing of Jean-Charles de Menezes today.
Bizarre to think that the inquest found that the police witnesses perjured themselves, while a separate enquiry criticised the Met for trying to deceive the public over the case.
At one stage, after leaks to press, the Met went so far as to raid and arrest someone from the IPCC, a journalist from ITV, and his girlfriend.
Jed Mercurio has said he was inspired to write “Line of Duty” by the case.
Cressida Dick now runs the Met.
Her boss at the time, Sir Ian Blair, now sits as a crossbencher in the HoL.
Her PM at the time was Tony Blair. Much more interesting....
How much of this media narrative that women feel unsafe is not uniquely women and more in the places like London violent crime is up over the past 5 years, with particulse issue with stabbings, street robbery problem etc?
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
The only one issue I’d take with the OP is the comment on Cressida Dick. She has also had good fortune and fallen upwards. The death of Jean-Charles De Menezes on her watch did nothing to harm her career trajectory either.
You reap what you sow. Perhaps if they hadn't been so keen to arrest the likes of Piers Corbyn, they wouldn't feel the need to apply the law in difficult situations like this.
I know we had the most non-white MEPs, but this seems a remarkable stat if even close to true - though even given how few 'high ministerial' posts exist total it seems surprising if it is. https://twitter.com/holland_tom/status/1370802345081249792
Comments
Robert Mark began his reform of the Met with the words ‘a good police force catches more criminals than it employs.’ On that basis, the Met is clearly not a good police force.
https://twitter.com/sophie_mzy/status/1370814488539234306
I think all those prosecuted for breaching lockdown rules (Piers Corbyn etc.) have a right to be seriously pissed off.
Banning congregating outside was perhaps the most egregious needless breach of civil liberties that our government has managed.
That really did hit home I think.
But a law inconsistently applied as with Corbyn vs the Colston demonstrators, for example, is not a law, it’s spite. And it brings the law into disrepute.
We need another round of flag-shagging from Keir.
Plus the whole Shadow Cabinet dressing up in Union Jack lingerie. Challenge the Tories to match that.
We'll soon see which party is more patriotic.
I hope after June 21st we will be moving into the full post-Covid world. Does that mean I'll never wear a mask again? Does that mean I'll never use hand sanitiser again? No, because one of the benefits of all this should be a little bit of personal public health awareness and knowledge.
This "Stockholm Syndrome" crap that you and @MaxPB are parroting is just provocative nonsense. For now, for this time, people need to be careful - in time and it's only a few weeks (hopefully), we can be less risk averse.
FYI, Mothers Day (by that name) was founded in 1908 by a woman from West Virginia, Anna Maria Jarvis, in honor of the memory of her own mother, who was also named Anna Maria.
BTW, the holiday soon became very popular in the US, and was quickly commericalized and monetized, for example by the emerging greeting card industry. So much so that Mrs Reeves went so far as to call for its abolition! However, she soon ended up in a sanatorium, with bills paid for by . . . . wait for it . . . greeting card companies!
Is "Mothering Sunday" a reaction against this now rampant commericalization?
Whatever the answer, Happy Mothers Day 2021 to all you mothers!
AND here is a musical tribute, by the late, great Jerry Jeff Walker: "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mothers"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcBOcwgb4OA
https://twitter.com/holland_tom/status/1370802345081249792
"We need Ministers to have no truck with the all too prevalent belief that the police’s job is to provide therapy for victims, to believe them without question rather than properly investigate their allegations, that it is their job to police “hate” and, rather than investigate crimes, record matters which are not."
It feels to me like the police have simply become a self-serving highly-unionised public sector body, whose chief purpose is to lazily pursue their own priorities and interests (and it is far easier to snare motorists and sit online browsing Twitter than it is to investigate serious and disgusting crime) rather than those of the public. Elected P&C commissioners were supposed to do something about this but have been a total and abject failure, with almost all going native.
I know from my sister that the police can attract the bossiest and most borish of people, that gross incompetence and poor performance is routinely tolerated, for a variety of reasons, whilst high performance is sometimes viewed as 'bad form' on the basis it might show everyone else up and make them work harder.
It stinks. And I hope it is Gove because whilst no-one likes him much, and he won't make many friends, at least he'll try to do something about it.
However, when we left the Europarl of 750 members, the number of Muslim MEPs went down from 7 to 3.
At Westminster of 650 members currently, there are 18 Muslim MEPs. Which is a whisker away from matching the % in the population ie is probably an over-representation for the age group who comprise MPs.
My wife and I need it and to be honest so does the economy
A few colleagues had a few parcels returned. On further investigation it turned out to be because either a) they had made mistakes on the 9 line forms or b) they didn't know they had to fill in the forms or c) couriers didn't know the rules themselves. One has decided to stop selling to Europe at all (this was the one who didn't know they had to fill forms in at all). The others learned to do it correctly and haven't faced any problems.
Outside of the very small number of business sectors which have basically become unviable since leaving the customs union, it seems like business has coped. Bizarrely, I am actually selling more to Europe this year than usual.
The clear up rate in homicide cases shows just what can be achieved if the people and hours and intelligence were available for other matters too.
The closure of massive numbers of police stations is a continuing huge mistake.
As to solutions; it is hard to see one without an effective Home Secretary, and crucially, this isn't going to be possible without an effective and ultra competent Home Office. I don't see that as likely. It may not now be possible.
Have the PCCS gone native or have they set agendas for the local Police. A local one to me when elected said hate crimes were going to be a priority.
It also sticks in my craw that the Police can just increase their portion of the council tax at a colossal level with no real accountability.
It was amusing to see them, last summer, run from the ‘mostly peaceful’ BLM protests.
Mothering Sunday is an extension of Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent (which can fall on 35 different dates) in which commemorating our mother church embraces thankfulness for mothers as well. Works OK, and some people call it mothers day.
I freely admit that last year I was incredibly anxious about the whole pandemic. I think my Peloton and the dog probably saved me from the deep pit of anxiety induced depression that I've been in before. Managing to cut down on covid news and not worrying about fomites was utterly liberating. The first takeaway coffee I had in late May opened the floodgates, and since then I've been able to slowly get back to normal. Mum and Dad being jabbed was the last step. I cannot wait for normality now.
I saw a bit of a zoom call with all european leaders and each and every one of them, left right and centre, sat by their national flag.
During international soccer tournaments the English flag is proudly displayed by people of all creeds and colours. Rightly so.
Still, posting crap for likes and retweets is nothing new.
So it 6 points or 10 points?
https://www.railwaytouring.net/the-end-of-southern-steamb823a354
I cannot wait.
I wouldn't want to be the copper ordering that.
He must be feeling rather downhearted after the result in Rome even if he is mildly gratified by the result at Twickenham.
It's medeival, apparently.
Dad and I are hoping to finally get to see a Worcs county championship match from start to finish at New Road.
Coincidentally I was looking at the Wikipedia article on the killing of Jean-Charles de Menezes today.
Bizarre to think that the inquest found that the police witnesses perjured themselves, while a separate enquiry criticised the Met for trying to deceive the public over the case.
At one stage, after leaks to press, the Met went so far as to raid and arrest someone from the IPCC, a journalist from ITV, and his girlfriend.
Jed Mercurio has said he was inspired to write “Line of Duty” by the case.
Cressida Dick now runs the Met.
Her boss at the time, Sir Ian Blair, now sits as a crossbencher in the HoL.
I have not lost the love for it and have been to the East Lancashire Railway a few times
Granted the real world is more complex than that. But I can see the attraction.
They are of course not the same thing. That is the whole point.
SKS absolutely needs to make some progress in Scotland to win an election.
If he (or you) really believe the way to make progress in Wales or Scotland is by bathing in a sea of Union Jacks, then he (or you) are in for a very disagreeable surprise.
Labour does need to make gains in Scotland as do the Tories and the Lib Dem’s.
There is nothing wrong with labour figures standing by our national flag. Much of the talk of so called flag shagging, a perverse comment, seems to come online from the momentum brigade and those on the left who seem to see it in terms of pandering to the far right.
https://twitter.com/liamyoung/status/1370819072368246786?s=21
Hope you get a nice pleasant few hours on the beach in Weymouth too.
Maybe we just weren't that into it all along?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46984559