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AOC-2024? Yes, the Democrats really could go from their oldest nominee to their youngest – political

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  • YBarddCwscYBarddCwsc Posts: 7,172
    kle4 said:

    kle4 said:



    By the way, as a thoroughly woke leftist, I'm struggling to understand what critics think is so terrible about the centrist Hartlepool candidate having talked about Tory MILFs who he fancied 10 years ago. I remember the Nottingham Post doing a poll on Most Fanciable East Midlands MP" (yeah, was a slow news week) - IIRC I came second (to Alan Simpson in the not very challenging contest and was amused rather than insulted. The MILF term is a bit crude but not really objectifying.

    Fanciable and MILF are NOT the same.

    Are you really so dense that you can't understand that a porn grouping is offensive?

    Not least, the underlying sub-text is Mums are not worth shagging after giving birth, they are too ancient and haggard, but even so here is a MILF, one I'd like to fuck.

    MILF might be excusable if said by a sad-sack , teenage virgin ... but by a Labour PPC, no way.

    After a few years of wokeness, we are unfortunately back to 'Iraq War' Palmer, justifying the unjustifiable on pb.com because it is the Labour party doing it.

    Go on, say it Nick, it was just bantz.
    Seems overly harsh to me.
    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?
    I don't think whether it is offensive matters a great deal (nor did I say it was inoffensive). I don't think someone having used a term that is offensive at some point is itself particularly offensive as people are not automatons. Because it is twitter offensive things will be more visible, but everyone will have said or done something offensive before. He'd probably say he regrets that, and means it, so case closed. There are also degrees of offensiveness.

    And I don't believe you really think we should leave that judgement up to mothers, because I have zero doubt some mothers could be found who don't think it is offensive, with whom you would disagree as is perfectly reasonable to do whether you or I are mothers or not.
    It is not really the job of a white person to say whether a racial slur or insinuation is offensive or inoffensive.

    It is not really the job of a man to say whether a porno term is offensive or inoffensive.

    Nick's original post was both disingenuous and dishonest because it conflated 'fanciable' with 'fuckable'.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,756
    Charles said:

    Political imagery is so tediously derivative

    Couldn’t they think up with something bother than “the new Obama”?

    Perhaps you could offer up some fresh, avant garde ideas on political imagery? After all avant garde freshness is very much your trademark.

    https://images.app.goo.gl/pFDJHu8ecnUKbGAu6
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,408
    gealbhan said:

    MattW said:

    gealbhan said:

    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Roger said:

    Foxy said:

    Jonathan said:

    This discussion cements my view that the Dems look very week going into 2024.

    There is a certain tendency to assume that the players in 2024 will be the same as 2020.

    Sure we had heard of Biden in 2016, and Sanders, Warren too, but who had heard of Buttigeig, O'Rorke, Harris or Klobuchar?

    It isn't quite true that there are no second acts in American lives, but second chances are rare.
    I was just going to say what a good idea to use a selfie as your avatar and then you changed it
    Just feeling a bit more Puritanical this morning, in the long and honourable tradition of English Radicalism. 🙂
    What did I read Puritanism defined as the other day - the desperate fear that somebody, somewhere, might be having fun? Or is that socialism?

    Anyway, hopefully it will pass for you. :smiley:
    No, Puritanism is about the inner life, standing apart from the corruption of the world.

    There are a lot of secular Puritans now, particularly but not exclusively on the Left and Greens.

    It is a contrasting strand of English tradition to the aristocratic cavaliers. Different labels now but the same tradition. One of my favourite Cromwell quotes on the subject:

    "I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a Gentle-man and is nothing else."

    And that is how he won...
    He lost. A wobbly Protectorate very much in office but not in power (financially hamstrung and living in likelihood of of counter revolution in other words) unsustainable after his death. The radicals and socialist who helped put him there he thoroughly stitched up and used his militia to hunt down.

    Puritanism is basically just protest to what they saw as a Catholic faith which had lost its way and a religion needing reform to the degree of a reset. Defined by not what it is, but by what it’s determined not to be.
    No, that's a cardboard cutout. Foxy has it.

    To understand the mind of the Puritan I would say read Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress or Grace Abounding. There is an emotional side combined with a rigid self-discipline. Canterbury Tales are a good contrast to show Catholic "style" imo.

    Puritanism was partly about a democratisation of priest-style spirituality away from the priesthood.

    For modern politics, my chosen comparison would be the doctrinaire side of Militant. Dave Nellist and similar, with a strong link between belief and personal practice. For a community the most recent I would compare would be the Boer Voortrekkers, though I am sure there are many contemporary similars.

    There are a couple of intriguing MPs who self-consciously lived simply rather than engage in expenses-farming a few years ago. They may be of a similar spirit.

    As a titbit, as far as I am aware it was a Non-conformist Minister who first defended freedom of conscience for atheists, just after 1600.

    Must be Saturday :smile: .
    And was the Protectorate not weak and wobbly? What was it actually for. Did it actually want to behead the King, was it for that? Would it have happened if the King had been less determined to die a martyr? We can see from the Putney Debates and the violence against radicals that followed, the protectorate had no interest in going radical. And through its diplomacy it was quite happy to build bridges with Catholic powerhouses across Europe. If it had lasted another 10 years, where was it actually going?
    You mean regimes established chaotically during epochal moments of religious, socio-political strife are somewhat inconsistent and confused?

    Matters of state are complicated. Even religious and political radicals discover that when they take power they have to be more pragmatic, particularly when no one major planned for such an outcome like that when things kicked off late 30s and 40s.

    Where would it have gone? God only knows. I imagine it would have been like any other state - it would have sought to secure its borders, prevent rebellion, exert its power overseas where it could, and push its religious imperatives onto the nation as much as it could without sparking further conflict.
  • YBarddCwscYBarddCwsc Posts: 7,172
    Roger said:

    kle4 said:



    By the way, as a thoroughly woke leftist, I'm struggling to understand what critics think is so terrible about the centrist Hartlepool candidate having talked about Tory MILFs who he fancied 10 years ago. I remember the Nottingham Post doing a poll on Most Fanciable East Midlands MP" (yeah, was a slow news week) - IIRC I came second (to Alan Simpson in the not very challenging contest and was amused rather than insulted. The MILF term is a bit crude but not really objectifying.

    Fanciable and MILF are NOT the same.

    Are you really so dense that you can't understand that a porn grouping is offensive?

    Not least, the underlying sub-text is Mums are not worth shagging after giving birth, they are too ancient and haggard, but even so here is a MILF, one I'd like to fuck.

    MILF might be excusable if said by a sad-sack , teenage virgin ... but by a Labour PPC, no way.

    After a few years of wokeness, we are unfortunately back to 'Iraq War' Palmer, justifying the unjustifiable on pb.com because it is the Labour party doing it.

    Go on, say it Nick, it was just bantz.
    Seems overly harsh to me.
    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?
    Further congratulations. You've now won first prize for the two least attractive posts since early SeanT (but without his wit)
    I have spelt out the acronym. That is all.
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,267



    By the way, as a thoroughly woke leftist, I'm struggling to understand what critics think is so terrible about the centrist Hartlepool candidate having talked about Tory MILFs who he fancied 10 years ago. I remember the Nottingham Post doing a poll on Most Fanciable East Midlands MP" (yeah, was a slow news week) - IIRC I came second (to Alan Simpson in the not very challenging contest and was amused rather than insulted. The MILF term is a bit crude but not really objectifying.

    Fanciable and MILF are NOT the same.

    Are you really so dense that you can't understand that a porn grouping is offensive?

    Not least, the underlying sub-text is Mums are not worth shagging after giving birth, they are too ancient and haggard, but even so here is a MILF, one I'd like to fuck.

    MILF might be excusable if said by a sad-sack , teenage virgin ... but by a Labour PPC, no way.

    After a few years of wokeness, we are unfortunately back to 'Iraq War' Palmer, justifying the unjustifiable on pb.com because it is the Labour party doing it.

    Go on, say it Nick, it was just bantz.
    No, I'm allowing myself in semi-retirement to be honest about things I don't get. I've heard MILF used in non-porn contexts, and it's obviously crude but not usually intended to be insulting. That said, I see what you mean about the subtext - thanks.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    Sandpit said:

    MaxPB said:

    On that paper, it's absolutely galling that my wife, who has no scientific or medical education, was able to make the link while supposedly top scientific regulators across Europe weren't. Honestly wtf kind of processes to they have?

    Why on Earth wouldn’t they look for things like that?

    Do they not look at the demographics of the people with the same issue, nor ask them if they are taking any other medication?

    The lady who did my vaccine (young junior doctor) asked a load of questions in the couple of minutes we were in the room together.
    As my wife said at the time, it's political and the European politicians are playing out a vendetta against AZ rather than sticking to the facts. They've got this new "issue" and instead of investigating it they're casting doubt on the vaccine provided by the company who's reputation they want to trash. It's given them exactly what they want, a new way to bash brexit Britain and one of brexit Britain's top companies, who cares about all the people who will die from COVID because of the unnecessary pause and undermining of the a vaccine that provides >90% immunity.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,082



    By the way, as a thoroughly woke leftist, I'm struggling to understand what critics think is so terrible about the centrist Hartlepool candidate having talked about Tory MILFs who he fancied 10 years ago. I remember the Nottingham Post doing a poll on Most Fanciable East Midlands MP" (yeah, was a slow news week) - IIRC I came second (to Alan Simpson in the not very challenging contest and was amused rather than insulted. The MILF term is a bit crude but not really objectifying.

    Fanciable and MILF are NOT the same.

    Are you really so dense that you can't understand that a porn grouping is offensive?

    Not least, the underlying sub-text is Mums are not worth shagging after giving birth, they are too ancient and haggard, but even so here is a MILF, one I'd like to fuck.

    MILF might be excusable if said by a sad-sack , teenage virgin ... but by a Labour PPC, no way.

    After a few years of wokeness, we are unfortunately back to 'Iraq War' Palmer, justifying the unjustifiable on pb.com because it is the Labour party doing it.

    Go on, say it Nick, it was just bantz.
    No, I'm allowing myself in semi-retirement to be honest about things I don't get. I've heard MILF used in non-porn contexts, and it's obviously crude but not usually intended to be insulting. That said, I see what you mean about the subtext - thanks.
    I think Labour will lose in Hartlepool, but if they win with such a candidate, after such a selection, then it is a flag that would suggest a major electoral revival. Starmer will be vindicated.
  • CookieCookie Posts: 11,184



    By the way, as a thoroughly woke leftist, I'm struggling to understand what critics think is so terrible about the centrist Hartlepool candidate having talked about Tory MILFs who he fancied 10 years ago. I remember the Nottingham Post doing a poll on Most Fanciable East Midlands MP" (yeah, was a slow news week) - IIRC I came second (to Alan Simpson in the not very challenging contest and was amused rather than insulted. The MILF term is a bit crude but not really objectifying.

    Fanciable and MILF are NOT the same.

    Are you really so dense that you can't understand that a porn grouping is offensive?

    Not least, the underlying sub-text is Mums are not worth shagging after giving birth, they are too ancient and haggard, but even so here is a MILF, one I'd like to fuck.

    MILF might be excusable if said by a sad-sack , teenage virgin ... but by a Labour PPC, no way.

    After a few years of wokeness, we are unfortunately back to 'Iraq War' Palmer, justifying the unjustifiable on pb.com because it is the Labour party doing it.

    Go on, say it Nick, it was just bantz.
    No, I'm allowing myself in semi-retirement to be honest about things I don't get. I've heard MILF used in non-porn contexts, and it's obviously crude but not usually intended to be insulting. That said, I see what you mean about the subtext - thanks.
    I'm with Nick. Milf has crossed over from porn to just mid-level crude. Cruder than 'totty'. Less crude than 'crack'. (Both of which feel curiously dated now).
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    Foxy said:

    MattW said:

    MaxPB said:
    Perhaps he just got his decimal in the wrong place?

    That's rather similar to the simple type of error that drove the 8% newspaper thing.
    Though if using the incidence of CVST in younger women as the numerator, then the same population needs to be the denominator. How many women in this age range were immunised, then developed the Thrombocytopenia/CVST in the 2 weeks post immunisation?

    In Europe we know the AZ programme was being used mainly for younger people and that medical and care staff are disproportionately female and between the ages of 20 and 50. The published cases seem to fit this profile as well, that's how my wife made the initial link.
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 60,933
    Half of UK adults have had at least one shot, according to Hancock a few minutes ago.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,632
    MaxPB said:

    Sandpit said:

    MaxPB said:

    On that paper, it's absolutely galling that my wife, who has no scientific or medical education, was able to make the link while supposedly top scientific regulators across Europe weren't. Honestly wtf kind of processes to they have?

    Why on Earth wouldn’t they look for things like that?

    Do they not look at the demographics of the people with the same issue, nor ask them if they are taking any other medication?

    The lady who did my vaccine (young junior doctor) asked a load of questions in the couple of minutes we were in the room together.
    As my wife said at the time, it's political and the European politicians are playing out a vendetta against AZ rather than sticking to the facts. They've got this new "issue" and instead of investigating it they're casting doubt on the vaccine provided by the company who's reputation they want to trash. It's given them exactly what they want, a new way to bash brexit Britain and one of brexit Britain's top companies, who cares about all the people who will die from COVID because of the unnecessary pause and undermining of the a vaccine that provides >90% immunity.
    I don't think it is a conscious vendetta - more that they have a a certain view, which means that evidence that proves that view gets instinctively promoted.

    I am performing an interesting social experiment on a Polish friend at the moment. She has a clear bias of "AZN is BAD" in her comments and statements. Every now and then, I drop links to studies in to the WhatsApp groups etc... the Scottish one showing AZN as good as (or better!) than Pfizer, for example.

    Each time I do this, she moves the "neutral between vaccines" position. Then a few days latter, the pull of the anti-vax memes she reads is too strong and she reverts. So I drop another peer reviewed paper....
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,195
    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,408
    edited March 2021

    kle4 said:

    kle4 said:



    By the way, as a thoroughly woke leftist, I'm struggling to understand what critics think is so terrible about the centrist Hartlepool candidate having talked about Tory MILFs who he fancied 10 years ago. I remember the Nottingham Post doing a poll on Most Fanciable East Midlands MP" (yeah, was a slow news week) - IIRC I came second (to Alan Simpson in the not very challenging contest and was amused rather than insulted. The MILF term is a bit crude but not really objectifying.

    Fanciable and MILF are NOT the same.

    Are you really so dense that you can't understand that a porn grouping is offensive?

    Not least, the underlying sub-text is Mums are not worth shagging after giving birth, they are too ancient and haggard, but even so here is a MILF, one I'd like to fuck.

    MILF might be excusable if said by a sad-sack , teenage virgin ... but by a Labour PPC, no way.

    After a few years of wokeness, we are unfortunately back to 'Iraq War' Palmer, justifying the unjustifiable on pb.com because it is the Labour party doing it.

    Go on, say it Nick, it was just bantz.
    Seems overly harsh to me.
    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?
    I don't think whether it is offensive matters a great deal (nor did I say it was inoffensive). I don't think someone having used a term that is offensive at some point is itself particularly offensive as people are not automatons. Because it is twitter offensive things will be more visible, but everyone will have said or done something offensive before. He'd probably say he regrets that, and means it, so case closed. There are also degrees of offensiveness.

    And I don't believe you really think we should leave that judgement up to mothers, because I have zero doubt some mothers could be found who don't think it is offensive, with whom you would disagree as is perfectly reasonable to do whether you or I are mothers or not.
    It is not really the job of a white person to say whether a racial slur or insinuation is offensive or inoffensive.

    It is not really the job of a man to say whether a porno term is offensive or inoffensive.
    Well I didn't do so. And well done for sidestepping that if a mother were to disagree with you about its offensiveness who am I supposed to listen to about whether it is offensive?

    That's precisely why we cannot simply delegate the 'job' of deciding offence to a gender or person of colour, though clearly they will be very important factors. I doubt we could find many people of colour who thought the n word was inoffensive, but there are other terms people might disagree with, and do you think it is a good idea if a generally considered offensive term was used because someone found an example of a person of colour not minding it? Would we need to poll all people of colour to determine what the majority view of offensiveness was? Should all women be polled to determine if a majority thought specific terms were offensive of not? If 25% found a term offensive would that be ok to use?

    Would it be ok if I called someone a paki if I could find a person of colour who said they thought it was ok? I don't think so, I'd rightly expect to be called out for being racist.

    As it happens I think milf is probably an offensive term, not that I am permitted an opinion on the matter apparently, and the views of women and mothers will be very relevant to my thinking that - but it's just plain silly to pretend that we can just declare group X must decide offensiveness. Groups do not all think the same. It's a tactic to say 'You cannot disagree with me'.

    And none of it really has any bearing on that someone said something probably offensive quite a while ago. Unless he is still being a complete arse now and consistently throughout, should he need to be punished for saying stupid and offensive things?
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603
    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Well, they've now moved away from trying to block Pfizer exports. I'm sure the PM pointing out how reliant Pfizer are on imports from the UK had no effect on that whatsoever.

    Ultimately all they're doing is trashing their own reputation for being a business friendly environment and AZ and other pharma companies will decide that operating under these conditions isn't worth it.
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,267
    MattW said:

    gealbhan said:

    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Roger said:

    Foxy said:

    Jonathan said:

    This discussion cements my view that the Dems look very week going into 2024.

    There is a certain tendency to assume that the players in 2024 will be the same as 2020.

    Sure we had heard of Biden in 2016, and Sanders, Warren too, but who had heard of Buttigeig, O'Rorke, Harris or Klobuchar?

    It isn't quite true that there are no second acts in American lives, but second chances are rare.
    I was just going to say what a good idea to use a selfie as your avatar and then you changed it
    Just feeling a bit more Puritanical this morning, in the long and honourable tradition of English Radicalism. 🙂
    What did I read Puritanism defined as the other day - the desperate fear that somebody, somewhere, might be having fun? Or is that socialism?

    Anyway, hopefully it will pass for you. :smiley:
    No, Puritanism is about the inner life, standing apart from the corruption of the world.

    There are a lot of secular Puritans now, particularly but not exclusively on the Left and Greens.

    It is a contrasting strand of English tradition to the aristocratic cavaliers. Different labels now but the same tradition. One of my favourite Cromwell quotes on the subject:

    "I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a Gentle-man and is nothing else."

    And that is how he won...
    He lost. A wobbly Protectorate very much in office but not in power (financially hamstrung and living in likelihood of of counter revolution in other words) unsustainable after his death. The radicals and socialist who helped put him there he thoroughly stitched up and used his militia to hunt down.

    Puritanism is basically just protest to what they saw as a Catholic faith which had lost its way and a religion needing reform to the degree of a reset. Defined by not what it is, but by what it’s determined not to be.
    No, that's a cardboard cutout. Foxy has it.

    To understand the mind of the Puritan I would say read Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress or Grace Abounding. There is an emotional side combined with a rigid self-discipline. Canterbury Tales are a good contrast to show Catholic "style" imo.

    Puritanism was partly about a democratisation of priest-style spirituality away from the priesthood.

    For modern politics, my chosen comparison would be the doctrinaire side of Militant. Dave Nellist and similar, with a strong link between belief and personal practice. For a community the most recent I would compare would be the Boer Voortrekkers, though I am sure there are many contemporary similars.

    There are a couple of intriguing MPs who self-consciously lived simply rather than engage in expenses-farming a few years ago. They may be of a similar spirit.

    As a titbit, as far as I am aware it was a Non-conformist Minister who first defended freedom of conscience for atheists, just after 1600.

    Must be Saturday :smile: .
    There are quite different strands of Puritan. There are some like ex-MP Judy Mallaber who just quietly choose to live simply and give the rest of her income away - she got mentioned as one of the "saints" by the Telegraph for claiming less than she was entitled to (didn't help her save her seat though) but otherwise I've never seen it referred to, and she certainly doesn't press it on others (I only know about her lifestyle as I know her personally).

    In the non-political content, the art historian Alan Clark mentioned someone he was fond of who decided to live on the average global income, and modestly looked forward to the annual UNO statistics to see if he'd got a rise. Clark commented that after decades of living among people who relished luxury, his friend in his cottage with a leaky roof seemed increasingly appealing. The other kind are the noisy sort who try to make everyone live as they do - they may well be right but are of course annoying, and perhaps not only motivated by being right but also by bossy self-assertiveness.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100

    MattW said:

    gealbhan said:

    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Roger said:

    Foxy said:

    Jonathan said:

    This discussion cements my view that the Dems look very week going into 2024.

    There is a certain tendency to assume that the players in 2024 will be the same as 2020.

    Sure we had heard of Biden in 2016, and Sanders, Warren too, but who had heard of Buttigeig, O'Rorke, Harris or Klobuchar?

    It isn't quite true that there are no second acts in American lives, but second chances are rare.
    I was just going to say what a good idea to use a selfie as your avatar and then you changed it
    Just feeling a bit more Puritanical this morning, in the long and honourable tradition of English Radicalism. 🙂
    What did I read Puritanism defined as the other day - the desperate fear that somebody, somewhere, might be having fun? Or is that socialism?

    Anyway, hopefully it will pass for you. :smiley:
    No, Puritanism is about the inner life, standing apart from the corruption of the world.

    There are a lot of secular Puritans now, particularly but not exclusively on the Left and Greens.

    It is a contrasting strand of English tradition to the aristocratic cavaliers. Different labels now but the same tradition. One of my favourite Cromwell quotes on the subject:

    "I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a Gentle-man and is nothing else."

    And that is how he won...
    He lost. A wobbly Protectorate very much in office but not in power (financially hamstrung and living in likelihood of of counter revolution in other words) unsustainable after his death. The radicals and socialist who helped put him there he thoroughly stitched up and used his militia to hunt down.

    Puritanism is basically just protest to what they saw as a Catholic faith which had lost its way and a religion needing reform to the degree of a reset. Defined by not what it is, but by what it’s determined not to be.
    No, that's a cardboard cutout. Foxy has it.

    To understand the mind of the Puritan I would say read Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress or Grace Abounding. There is an emotional side combined with a rigid self-discipline. Canterbury Tales are a good contrast to show Catholic "style" imo.

    Puritanism was partly about a democratisation of priest-style spirituality away from the priesthood.

    For modern politics, my chosen comparison would be the doctrinaire side of Militant. Dave Nellist and similar, with a strong link between belief and personal practice. For a community the most recent I would compare would be the Boer Voortrekkers, though I am sure there are many contemporary similars.

    There are a couple of intriguing MPs who self-consciously lived simply rather than engage in expenses-farming a few years ago. They may be of a similar spirit.

    As a titbit, as far as I am aware it was a Non-conformist Minister who first defended freedom of conscience for atheists, just after 1600.

    Must be Saturday :smile: .
    The really extraordinary aspect of PP is it’s a masterpiece that has the Bible as just about its sole intertext, as though Bunyan had literally read nothing else. Chaucer’s Tales has an infinitely richer field of reference.
    Good comment.

    There's a lot there about their difference in backgrounds - Chaucer was a minor polymath with a career in public life, whilst Bunyan was a tinker with access to as you say the Bible and a few spiritual books. I love that one was by Arthur Dent.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,632

    Half of UK adults have had at least one shot, according to Hancock a few minutes ago.

    State of play *reported* up to the 18th was

    image

    So add on 2-3 days for each of those
  • CarlottaVanceCarlottaVance Posts: 59,540
    MaxPB said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Well, they've now moved away from trying to block Pfizer exports. I'm sure the PM pointing out how reliant Pfizer are on imports from the UK had no effect on that whatsoever.

    Ultimately all they're doing is trashing their own reputation for being a business friendly environment and AZ and other pharma companies will decide that operating under these conditions isn't worth it.
    Boris also had a chat with the Belgian PM - who would be the one to initiate such a block - not UvdL - I'm sure the Belgian PM is alert to the folly.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,769
    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Will be funny when AZ points out that they *are* fulfilling the contract, it’s just that UVDL appears to be functionally illiterate and can’t understand it.

    I wonder if there might be a move to strike her off the medical register due to causing unnecessary harm? Wouldn’t happen but would add somewhat to the gaiety of public discourse.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,756
    Does ‘stop employing’ mean sack ‘em or just that the BBC should institute a pledge of allegiance to the flag for employees henceforth?

    https://twitter.com/jimmfelton/status/1373228789178769411?s=21
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 12,884



    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?

    It's LIKE not LOVE. The implied ambivalence is crucial.

    Please review all of Stifler's dialogue in American Pie.

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,082
    edited March 2021
    MaxPB said:

    Foxy said:

    MattW said:

    MaxPB said:
    Perhaps he just got his decimal in the wrong place?

    That's rather similar to the simple type of error that drove the 8% newspaper thing.
    Though if using the incidence of CVST in younger women as the numerator, then the same population needs to be the denominator. How many women in this age range were immunised, then developed the Thrombocytopenia/CVST in the 2 weeks post immunisation?

    In Europe we know the AZ programme was being used mainly for younger people and that medical and care staff are disproportionately female and between the ages of 20 and 50. The published cases seem to fit this profile as well, that's how my wife made the initial link.
    That maybe so, though there have been previous episodes of a rare connection between vaccination ant ITP, which seems linked to the CVST in these cases:

    https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/138/6/e20160124

    Though usually ITP is triggered by virus. Indeed it is a well recognised feature of covid.

    I would be more interested in knowing the covid status of these cases, as we know that infection seems more common in the first week post vaccination.

    This may be a statistical fluke, or that they caught covid before the vaccine worked, or a rare but genuine side effect, but it certainly merits investigation.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,769
    Dura_Ace said:



    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?

    It's LIKE not LOVE. The implied ambivalence is crucial.

    Please review all of Stifler's dialogue in American Pie.
    Must we? It wasn’t a very good film and we all have better things to do.

    Or was it intended as a very extreme punishment?
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,725
    MaxPB said:

    Sandpit said:

    MaxPB said:

    On that paper, it's absolutely galling that my wife, who has no scientific or medical education, was able to make the link while supposedly top scientific regulators across Europe weren't. Honestly wtf kind of processes to they have?

    Why on Earth wouldn’t they look for things like that?

    Do they not look at the demographics of the people with the same issue, nor ask them if they are taking any other medication?

    The lady who did my vaccine (young junior doctor) asked a load of questions in the couple of minutes we were in the room together.
    As my wife said at the time, it's political and the European politicians are playing out a vendetta against AZ rather than sticking to the facts. They've got this new "issue" and instead of investigating it they're casting doubt on the vaccine provided by the company who's reputation they want to trash. It's given them exactly what they want, a new way to bash brexit Britain and one of brexit Britain's top companies, who cares about all the people who will die from COVID because of the unnecessary pause and undermining of the a vaccine that provides >90% immunity.
    I'm inclined to agree it was 'political' but I suspect that there's a sub-text that we haven't yet identified. As someone else pointed out on here, AZN is part Swedish and yet the Swedes stopped using it as well.
    And we have to remember that a significant part of the British Press and of British politicians have been virulently anti-EU for a while.The Telegraph, for example, had for a while a correspondent called Johnson who highlighted anything unpleasant he could find.
    We haven't exactly gone out of our way to win friends.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,044
    Foxy said:

    MaxPB said:

    Foxy said:

    MattW said:

    MaxPB said:
    Perhaps he just got his decimal in the wrong place?

    That's rather similar to the simple type of error that drove the 8% newspaper thing.
    Though if using the incidence of CVST in younger women as the numerator, then the same population needs to be the denominator. How many women in this age range were immunised, then developed the Thrombocytopenia/CVST in the 2 weeks post immunisation?

    In Europe we know the AZ programme was being used mainly for younger people and that medical and care staff are disproportionately female and between the ages of 20 and 50. The published cases seem to fit this profile as well, that's how my wife made the initial link.
    That maybe so, though there have been previous episodes of a rare connection between vaccination ant ITP, which seems linked to the CVST in these cases:

    https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/138/6/e20160124

    Though usually ITP is triggered by virus. Indeed it is a well recognised feature of covid.

    I would be more interested in knowing the covid status of these cases, as we know that infection seems more common in the first week post vaccination.

    This may be a statistical fluke, or that they caught covid before the vaccine worked, or a rare but genuine side effect, but it certainly merits investigation.
    Clearly it merits investigation. What seems plain bonkers to me, is halting the vaccine roll out whilst the investigation is undertaken and data analysed.
  • Nigelb said:

    gealbhan said:

    gealbhan said:

    Scott_xP said:
    Inevitable? 😆

    Wee Krankie is safe as houses. She’ll just tough it out blaming bias opposition in hysterical election mode.
    It's not the opposition in front of her that's the problem, it's the enemy behind her.

    She'll survive the week and the election. But the tide within her party does appear to have turned against her. She's lost the sheen of competence and invincibility, and it does appear to be when rather than if. I'm reminded of Blair in 2005 - a fairly comfortable election win but clearly heading to the exit door.
    I think you have hit the nail on the head, is she losing support in party and in voters.

    If the best opponents can come up with is the impregnable sheen is now off, politicians have a habit of coming back from that.

    The thing to watch for is not just there needs to be a slide in her popularity within party and country, but what happens to it when this story burns up and blows away?

    Politicians don't really have a habit of coming back when the sheen is gone.

    They can hang around for months, sometimes years. But you underestimate how much power is a con trick. When you're no longer the future, people look elsewhere and authority drains away. It's really hard to get back, and you're a prisoner - in office, but not in power.

    May in 2017, Blair in 2005. They'd passed the tipping point and it took a while but you rarely get it back.
    Biden after Kinnockgate....
    Biden was a candidate, not a leader at that point.

    So he could terminate his campaign and rebuild his career from the relative anonymity of being a Senator for a tiny state.

    That just isn't an option for a First Minister or Prime Minister. You are the boss and have to go on.

    My point isn't that nobody can survive a scandal... plainly politicians do. It's that it's incredibly hard to rebuild when you're in the hot seat and the vultures around you have the whiff of slow death in their nostrils.
    Rutte and his government in the Netherlands resigned after a very serious scandal, and he has just been returned for a 4th term.
  • gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362
    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Haven’t the Indians actually done and got away with what the EU merely threaten? The manufacturer should have been supplying external customer, but it’s been diverted for internal consumption instead - or am I interpreting the news explanations of April lumpyness incorrectly?

  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,632
    ydoethur said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Will be funny when AZ points out that they *are* fulfilling the contract, it’s just that UVDL appears to be functionally illiterate and can’t understand it.

    I wonder if there might be a move to strike her off the medical register due to causing unnecessary harm? Wouldn’t happen but would add somewhat to the gaiety of public discourse.
    Perhaps someone should ask her about the *other times* that she lost the government a pile of money by starting legal bun fights with companies over contracts.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,408

    Does ‘stop employing’ mean sack ‘em or just that the BBC should institute a pledge of allegiance to the flag for employees henceforth?

    https://twitter.com/jimmfelton/status/1373228789178769411?s=21

    They'll just add a 'Do you hate this country?' box on application forms, like those border questions about whether people plan to commit genocide in the United States.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 91,408
    edited March 2021
    ydoethur said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Will be funny when AZ points out that they *are* fulfilling the contract, it’s just that UVDL appears to be functionally illiterate and can’t understand it.

    I wonder if there might be a move to strike her off the medical register due to causing unnecessary harm? Wouldn’t happen but would add somewhat to the gaiety of public discourse.
    She does have tremendous boldness to continue to make the same stern pronouncements with utter confidence, despite having been shown to be categorically wrong about past pronouncements on the contracts.

    I kid, because we overuse the term, but such certainty despite being wrong is near Trumpian levels.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,044
    edited March 2021

    Does ‘stop employing’ mean sack ‘em or just that the BBC should institute a pledge of allegiance to the flag for employees henceforth?

    https://twitter.com/jimmfelton/status/1373228789178769411?s=21

    Jeez. This gets my goat. Where these two comment pieces written by the same person? No.

    Why can't other commentators or in this case comedians understand that newspapers print a range of voices and, shockingly, they may not all agree with each other
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,769
    edited March 2021
    Would be interested to see the figure for Ireland, particularly given many seem to be slipping across the border to get vaccinated there if they can.

    Edited because on reflection my language was unfairly slanted.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,082
    Dura_Ace said:



    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?

    It's LIKE not LOVE. The implied ambivalence is crucial.

    Please review all of Stifler's dialogue in American Pie.

    Worth noting that that MILF has now entered the language as a term in its own right. Also that other similar pornification of language occurs, even in the hallowed place of PB, such as discussion of Step-Mums* on Pornhub.

    *Step Incest fantasy does seem to be a popular genre which strikes me as very odd.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,769
    kle4 said:

    ydoethur said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Will be funny when AZ points out that they *are* fulfilling the contract, it’s just that UVDL appears to be functionally illiterate and can’t understand it.

    I wonder if there might be a move to strike her off the medical register due to causing unnecessary harm? Wouldn’t happen but would add somewhat to the gaiety of public discourse.
    She does have tremendous boldness to continue to make the same stern pronouncements with utter confidence, despite having been shown to be categorically wrong about past pronouncements on the contracts.

    I kid, because we overuse the term, but such certainty despite being wrong is near Trumpian levels.
    She is undoubtedly, as Sir Humphrey would say, very courageous.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905

    Half of UK adults have had at least one shot, according to Hancock a few minutes ago.

    Approximately half. According to the vaccine rollout plan, the adult population of the UK is approximately 52.8m people; the current first dose total of about 26.2m means we're marginally short of halfway, but should pass that milestone when today's update is published.

    Due to the much-increased number of second doses recently administered, the entire project is probably just a shade over one-quarter of the way to completion, although one could reasonably argue that we're effectively a third of the way to the finish line: we clearly need to get around to doing the second doses for healthy people under 50 as required, for the sake of prolonging immunity, but one would imagine that all those boosters would make almost no difference to rates of serious illness and mortality amongst cohorts 10-12.
  • gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362

    Foxy said:

    MaxPB said:

    Foxy said:

    MattW said:

    MaxPB said:
    Perhaps he just got his decimal in the wrong place?

    That's rather similar to the simple type of error that drove the 8% newspaper thing.
    Though if using the incidence of CVST in younger women as the numerator, then the same population needs to be the denominator. How many women in this age range were immunised, then developed the Thrombocytopenia/CVST in the 2 weeks post immunisation?

    In Europe we know the AZ programme was being used mainly for younger people and that medical and care staff are disproportionately female and between the ages of 20 and 50. The published cases seem to fit this profile as well, that's how my wife made the initial link.
    That maybe so, though there have been previous episodes of a rare connection between vaccination ant ITP, which seems linked to the CVST in these cases:

    https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/138/6/e20160124

    Though usually ITP is triggered by virus. Indeed it is a well recognised feature of covid.

    I would be more interested in knowing the covid status of these cases, as we know that infection seems more common in the first week post vaccination.

    This may be a statistical fluke, or that they caught covid before the vaccine worked, or a rare but genuine side effect, but it certainly merits investigation.
    Clearly it merits investigation. What seems plain bonkers to me, is halting the vaccine roll out whilst the investigation is undertaken and data analysed.
    For bonkers you could say criminal manslaughter. Makes you think of the French Socialists jailed for a similar thing?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,082
    kle4 said:

    Does ‘stop employing’ mean sack ‘em or just that the BBC should institute a pledge of allegiance to the flag for employees henceforth?

    https://twitter.com/jimmfelton/status/1373228789178769411?s=21

    They'll just add a 'Do you hate this country?' box on application forms, like those border questions about whether people plan to commit genocide in the United States.
    Yes, but is it fair to make it a condition of employment? 🤔
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,769
    Foxy said:

    Dura_Ace said:



    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?

    It's LIKE not LOVE. The implied ambivalence is crucial.

    Please review all of Stifler's dialogue in American Pie.

    Worth noting that that MILF has now entered the language as a term in its own right. Also that other similar pornification of language occurs, even in the hallowed place of PB, such as discussion of Step-Mums* on Pornhub.

    *Step Incest fantasy does seem to be a popular genre which strikes me as very odd.
    For a terrible moment, I misread that and was appalled to think that you, as a medical professional, thought fantasies about stopping incest are ‘odd.’
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,842
    edited March 2021

    Half of UK adults have had at least one shot, according to Hancock a few minutes ago.

    Approximately half. According to the vaccine rollout plan, the adult population of the UK is approximately 52.8m people; the current first dose total of about 26.2m means we're marginally short of halfway, but should pass that milestone when today's update is published.

    Due to the much-increased number of second doses recently administered, the entire project is probably just a shade over one-quarter of the way to completion, although one could reasonably argue that we're effectively a third of the way to the finish line: we clearly need to get around to doing the second doses for healthy people under 50 as required, for the sake of prolonging immunity, but one would imagine that all those boosters would make almost no difference to rates of serious illness and mortality amongst cohorts 10-12.
    I have 52,673,433 as the denominator for my workings. We'll have passed both that and 52.8M today. Of course in terms of deaths prevented it'll be over 90%.
  • Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 12,884
    ydoethur said:



    Or was it intended as a very extreme punishment?

    No, that would be a figging administered by Therese Coffey while Alok Sharma watches.


  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,769
    Dura_Ace said:

    ydoethur said:



    Or was it intended as a very extreme punishment?

    No, that would be a figging administered by Therese Coffey while Alok Sharma watches.


    :hushed:
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,756
    The Microsoft hit squad have been at their deadly trade again.

    https://twitter.com/mattletiss7/status/1372522338600812546?s=21
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,632
    From my analysis of the weekly release of the vaccination data for England. Take-up per age group using the NIMIS population estimates (based on ONS 2019)

    Under 55 20%
    55-59 49%
    60-64 76%
    65-69 88%
    70-74 93%
    75-79 94%
    80+ 94%

    Original spreadsheet here

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Ss-wULsziT6YqtyCYIq5NnYCa2IEyCh/view?usp=sharing

    source data

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/03/COVID-19-weekly-announced-vaccinations-18-March-2021.xlsx
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,267


    I guess Biden is just unlucky then, to have done so in his first couple of months in office....

    Doesn't address the issue that the US media is already bitching that Biden is being hidden away. They are already questioning why - and making up their own narrative.

    As I say, any such narrative (and you are massively overplaying this) isn’t hurting him. His approval ratings are sky high.
    I'm just ahead of the curve.
    Mmm. The curve seems to be going the other way at the moment. not just Biden's rating (he's cruising at 55-60% approval) but "Direction of country", which has delivered morose figures for many years (many people always say the country's going to the dogs), is now moving back toward level pegging:

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/direction_of_country-902.html

    Even congressional approval is out of the depths. Partly it's a vaccine bounce, maybe, but mainly passing the recovery Bill. People aren't following all the details but the sense is that things are getting better. If that feeling persists, worrying about whether Biden is physically fit isn't going to matter at all.
  • TresTres Posts: 2,165
    Charles said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    AOC (she even has a 'brand') has absolutely stellar social media engagement numbers and is the Queen of Clapback. That's probably going to matter even more in 2024 than it did in 2020. She'd be a good Veep pick for Harris.

    Aren’t they too similar?

    Female lawyers from urban coastal states with minority background (I’m assuming for AOC).
    She's not a lawyer. Another plus point!
  • gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362
    Foxy said:

    Dura_Ace said:



    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?

    It's LIKE not LOVE. The implied ambivalence is crucial.

    Please review all of Stifler's dialogue in American Pie.

    Worth noting that that MILF has now entered the language as a term in its own right. Also that other similar pornification of language occurs, even in the hallowed place of PB, such as discussion of Step-Mums* on Pornhub.

    *Step Incest fantasy does seem to be a popular genre which strikes me as very odd.
    Of course it’s odd. Barely dripping through your veins is tepid Puritan blood.

    Meanwhile, she’s no relation to you, you’ve never met her before, but she is hotter than Venus and makes you throb like a blind cobblers finger.

    Which side of the toast is the oddness buttered?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,082
    gealbhan said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Haven’t the Indians actually done and got away with what the EU merely threaten? The manufacturer should have been supplying external customer, but it’s been diverted for internal consumption instead - or am I interpreting the news explanations of April lumpyness incorrectly?

    Presumably India want to punish us for Brexit...

    Incidentally it does seem as if the mysterious disappearance of Indian Covid has reversed.

    https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1373062813091041280?s=19

    I wonder if it is down to a different variant, perhaps the South African?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,769

    The Microsoft hit squad have been at their deadly trade again.

    And of course, when done they leave via windows.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,632
    kle4 said:

    Does ‘stop employing’ mean sack ‘em or just that the BBC should institute a pledge of allegiance to the flag for employees henceforth?

    https://twitter.com/jimmfelton/status/1373228789178769411?s=21

    They'll just add a 'Do you hate this country?' box on application forms, like those border questions about whether people plan to commit genocide in the United States.
    I remember stopping my flatmate ticking the "Have you ever been a member of the German National Socialist Workers Party?" one the US immigration card.

    I pointed out that he would either be shot by TSA, or forcibly recruited into NASA.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,082
    gealbhan said:

    Foxy said:

    Dura_Ace said:



    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?

    It's LIKE not LOVE. The implied ambivalence is crucial.

    Please review all of Stifler's dialogue in American Pie.

    Worth noting that that MILF has now entered the language as a term in its own right. Also that other similar pornification of language occurs, even in the hallowed place of PB, such as discussion of Step-Mums* on Pornhub.

    *Step Incest fantasy does seem to be a popular genre which strikes me as very odd.
    Of course it’s odd. Barely dripping through your veins is tepid Puritan blood.

    Meanwhile, she’s no relation to you, you’ve never met her before, but she is hotter than Venus and makes you throb like a blind cobblers finger.

    Which side of the toast is the oddness buttered?
    When I did psychiatry in a young adult facility, step-incest was very common as an underlying cause. Usually step daughters though.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 61,591
    .
    gealbhan said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Haven’t the Indians actually done and got away with what the EU merely threaten? The manufacturer should have been supplying external customer, but it’s been diverted for internal consumption instead - or am I interpreting the news explanations of April lumpyness incorrectly?

    Not really.
    They too are experiencing production problems - in this case because they can’t procure sufficient raw materials and disposable equipment (eg culture medium, and filters).
    With sufficient supplies, they could be producing a lot more.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,082

    kle4 said:

    Does ‘stop employing’ mean sack ‘em or just that the BBC should institute a pledge of allegiance to the flag for employees henceforth?

    https://twitter.com/jimmfelton/status/1373228789178769411?s=21

    They'll just add a 'Do you hate this country?' box on application forms, like those border questions about whether people plan to commit genocide in the United States.
    I remember stopping my flatmate ticking the "Have you ever been a member of the German National Socialist Workers Party?" one the US immigration card.

    I pointed out that he would either be shot by TSA, or forcibly recruited into NASA.
    The purpose of the questionnaire is to enable easy deportation, as if you do any of the proscribed things, you can be deported without further ado, as a visa violation.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    MaxPB said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Well, they've now moved away from trying to block Pfizer exports. I'm sure the PM pointing out how reliant Pfizer are on imports from the UK had no effect on that whatsoever.

    Ultimately all they're doing is trashing their own reputation for being a business friendly environment and AZ and other pharma companies will decide that operating under these conditions isn't worth it.
    One might say that’s a great opportunity for the UK to make a virtue of necessity, and provide the environment to attract pharma company R&D and manufacturing facilities back onshore.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,769
    Foxy said:

    kle4 said:

    Does ‘stop employing’ mean sack ‘em or just that the BBC should institute a pledge of allegiance to the flag for employees henceforth?

    https://twitter.com/jimmfelton/status/1373228789178769411?s=21

    They'll just add a 'Do you hate this country?' box on application forms, like those border questions about whether people plan to commit genocide in the United States.
    I remember stopping my flatmate ticking the "Have you ever been a member of the German National Socialist Workers Party?" one the US immigration card.

    I pointed out that he would either be shot by TSA, or forcibly recruited into NASA.
    The purpose of the questionnaire is to enable easy deportation, as if you do any of the proscribed things, you can be deported without further ado, as a visa violation.
    Yes, although it is quite amusing that they offer the ‘yes’ option.

    Worth pointing out of course that members of Sinn Fein and the IRA were allowed to visit the States in the 1980s and 1990s despite the fact that they were involved in terrorism.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,756

    Does ‘stop employing’ mean sack ‘em or just that the BBC should institute a pledge of allegiance to the flag for employees henceforth?

    https://twitter.com/jimmfelton/status/1373228789178769411?s=21

    Jeez. This gets my goat. Where these two comment pieces written by the same person? No.

    Why can't other commentators or in this case comedians understand that newspapers print a range of voices and, shockingly, they may not all agree with each other
    I can’t be bothered wading through the sewagey mess that is the Tele archive but I’d be quite surprised if there were a lot of pieces on Piers being a creepy, stalky rsole who should shut his geggie about H&M and that the BBC should allow its employees to express whatever opinions they wish on queen and flag. I’d imagine that there’s a remarkable conformity of opinion on those subjects.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,098

    Half of UK adults have had at least one shot, according to Hancock a few minutes ago.

    It feels like we've moved a mountain already, yet the job is only a quarter done
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,756
    ydoethur said:

    The Microsoft hit squad have been at their deadly trade again.

    And of course, when done they leave via windows.
    Which take fcuking ages to open...
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,769

    kle4 said:

    Does ‘stop employing’ mean sack ‘em or just that the BBC should institute a pledge of allegiance to the flag for employees henceforth?

    https://twitter.com/jimmfelton/status/1373228789178769411?s=21

    They'll just add a 'Do you hate this country?' box on application forms, like those border questions about whether people plan to commit genocide in the United States.
    I remember stopping my flatmate ticking the "Have you ever been a member of the German National Socialist Workers Party?" one the US immigration card.

    I pointed out that he would either be shot by TSA, or forcibly recruited into NASA.
    https://youtu.be/QEJ9HrZq7Ro
  • gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362
    Nigelb said:

    .

    gealbhan said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Haven’t the Indians actually done and got away with what the EU merely threaten? The manufacturer should have been supplying external customer, but it’s been diverted for internal consumption instead - or am I interpreting the news explanations of April lumpyness incorrectly?

    Not really.
    They too are experiencing production problems - in this case because they can’t procure sufficient raw materials and disposable equipment (eg culture medium, and filters).
    With sufficient supplies, they could be producing a lot more.
    That’s good then. Because the moment a nation does go and do it, it sets a precedent.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,719
    AOC would be the most leftwing Democratic candidate since McGovern in 1972, who was beaten by Nixon in a landslide.

    Her nomination would virtually guarantee a GOP win in 2024.

    If Biden does not run again the Democrats would be better running a more centrist younger candidate like Joe Kennedy III or Beto O'Rourke if they win the Massachusetts or Texas governors races in 2022 respectively
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,756
    Dura_Ace said:

    ydoethur said:



    Or was it intended as a very extreme punishment?

    No, that would be a figging administered by Therese Coffey while Alok Sharma watches.


    Ken Clarke’s let himself go..
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    gealbhan said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Haven’t the Indians actually done and got away with what the EU merely threaten? The manufacturer should have been supplying external customer, but it’s been diverted for internal consumption instead - or am I interpreting the news explanations of April lumpyness incorrectly?

    India (and the USA) were completely upfront about it from the start, which is I think the difference.

    Contrast with the EU approach, talking later about contracts and enforcement rather than being up front about nationalism, against a backdrop of their own failure to procure sufficient supplies themselves, having taken over that authority from the nation states.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905

    The Microsoft hit squad have been at their deadly trade again.

    https://twitter.com/mattletiss7/status/1372522338600812546?s=21

    It's not a surprise. Somebody in poor President Magufuli's entourage had evidently received the vaccination clandestinely. Then all Gates had to do was activate the microchips and the assassin slipped the nerve agent into the President's tea. A cruel and tragic fate.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,769

    ydoethur said:

    The Microsoft hit squad have been at their deadly trade again.

    And of course, when done they leave via windows.
    Which take fcuking ages to open...
    Not really, you just ram ‘em.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,842
    Foxy said:

    gealbhan said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Haven’t the Indians actually done and got away with what the EU merely threaten? The manufacturer should have been supplying external customer, but it’s been diverted for internal consumption instead - or am I interpreting the news explanations of April lumpyness incorrectly?

    Presumably India want to punish us for Brexit...

    Incidentally it does seem as if the mysterious disappearance of Indian Covid has reversed.

    https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1373062813091041280?s=19

    I wonder if it is down to a different variant, perhaps the South African?
    It seems a big number but it's still only the equivalent of 2006 UK cases. Direction of travel is key though.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 14,775
    gealbhan said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Haven’t the Indians actually done and got away with what the EU merely threaten? The manufacturer should have been supplying external customer, but it’s been diverted for internal consumption instead - or am I interpreting the news explanations of April lumpyness incorrectly?
    Yes I think that's right. And it's something we expected to happen, which is why so much effort was put into creating new production capacity in the UK.

    So why is the EU's behaviour so much more grating than that of India or the US?

    Firstly, there is the feeling that they are freeloading to an extent. The UK and the US put a lot more money per capita into vaccine development and expanding supply than the EU. It's easy to view the priority on supply as a reward for this foresight.

    Secondly, it is the moralistic tone. The whine that they don't want to ban exports, but are being forced to do so by the unreasonable behaviour of others. They are wanting to avoid feeling selfish, but they want to act selfishly to repair the damage caused by their earlier failure to spend on vaccines.

    Take some responsibility for your actions.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,072
    HYUFD said:

    AOC would be the most leftwing Democratic candidate since McGovern in 1972, who was beaten by Nixon in a landslide.

    Her nomination would virtually guarantee a GOP win in 2024.

    If Biden does not run again the Democrats would be better running a more centrist younger candidate like Joe Kennedy III or Beto O'Rourke if they win the Massachusetts or Texas governors races in 2022 respectively

    I doubt they would give up the governorship after only 2 years.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 43,632
    Foxy said:

    kle4 said:

    Does ‘stop employing’ mean sack ‘em or just that the BBC should institute a pledge of allegiance to the flag for employees henceforth?

    https://twitter.com/jimmfelton/status/1373228789178769411?s=21

    They'll just add a 'Do you hate this country?' box on application forms, like those border questions about whether people plan to commit genocide in the United States.
    I remember stopping my flatmate ticking the "Have you ever been a member of the German National Socialist Workers Party?" one the US immigration card.

    I pointed out that he would either be shot by TSA, or forcibly recruited into NASA.
    The purpose of the questionnaire is to enable easy deportation, as if you do any of the proscribed things, you can be deported without further ado, as a visa violation.
    Yes, but it's that vision of Standartenführers queuing up politely, declaring their Party ranks etc....
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,776



    By the way, as a thoroughly woke leftist, I'm struggling to understand what critics think is so terrible about the centrist Hartlepool candidate having talked about Tory MILFs who he fancied 10 years ago. I remember the Nottingham Post doing a poll on Most Fanciable East Midlands MP" (yeah, was a slow news week) - IIRC I came second (to Alan Simpson in the not very challenging contest and was amused rather than insulted. The MILF term is a bit crude but not really objectifying.

    Fanciable and MILF are NOT the same.

    Are you really so dense that you can't understand that a porn grouping is offensive?

    Not least, the underlying sub-text is Mums are not worth shagging after giving birth, they are too ancient and haggard, but even so here is a MILF, one I'd like to fuck.

    MILF might be excusable if said by a sad-sack , teenage virgin ... but by a Labour PPC, no way.

    After a few years of wokeness, we are unfortunately back to 'Iraq War' Palmer, justifying the unjustifiable on pb.com because it is the Labour party doing it.

    Go on, say it Nick, it was just bantz.
    In porn terms, MILF means any woman over the age of 25.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100
    gealbhan said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Haven’t the Indians actually done and got away with what the EU merely threaten? The manufacturer should have been supplying external customer, but it’s been diverted for internal consumption instead - or am I interpreting the news explanations of April lumpyness incorrectly?

    Quite possibly, but I would expect that to be in our contract for that batch with India.

    I expect exports from India potentially to fall as their own rollout ramps up. If they had already been beyond vaccinating people who are part of the delivery infrastructure, I would have been surprised had they been able to do it unless there was a clause in their original agreement with AZ.
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,776
    Foxy said:

    Dura_Ace said:



    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?

    It's LIKE not LOVE. The implied ambivalence is crucial.

    Please review all of Stifler's dialogue in American Pie.

    Worth noting that that MILF has now entered the language as a term in its own right. Also that other similar pornification of language occurs, even in the hallowed place of PB, such as discussion of Step-Mums* on Pornhub.

    *Step Incest fantasy does seem to be a popular genre which strikes me as very odd.
    Incest has become a very popular variant of porn, probably due to A Game of Thrones and Frozen.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603

    gealbhan said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Haven’t the Indians actually done and got away with what the EU merely threaten? The manufacturer should have been supplying external customer, but it’s been diverted for internal consumption instead - or am I interpreting the news explanations of April lumpyness incorrectly?
    Yes I think that's right. And it's something we expected to happen, which is why so much effort was put into creating new production capacity in the UK.

    So why is the EU's behaviour so much more grating than that of India or the US?

    Firstly, there is the feeling that they are freeloading to an extent. The UK and the US put a lot more money per capita into vaccine development and expanding supply than the EU. It's easy to view the priority on supply as a reward for this foresight.

    Secondly, it is the moralistic tone. The whine that they don't want to ban exports, but are being forced to do so by the unreasonable behaviour of others. They are wanting to avoid feeling selfish, but they want to act selfishly to repair the damage caused by their earlier failure to spend on vaccines.

    Take some responsibility for your actions.
    There's also the fact that India is a developing nation that has invested huge resources into vaccine manufacturing and is still exporting to other developing nations. I don't take issue with the SII placing our orders on a lesser priority than India's own programme given how much money the Indian government has thrown at vaccine manufacturing over the last 5-10 years and that the Indian government is continuing to prioritise developing nations.

    We're in a relatively good position wrt our own programme and vaccine production, the issue with the EU blocking Pfizer is that we provide a huge part of the manufacturing supply chain for it that seems to have gone completely unrecognised by the EU and around 13m people are due second Pfizer doses over the next 12 weeks and it would be completely unethical by the EU to block exports to the UK.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614
    Sean_F said:



    By the way, as a thoroughly woke leftist, I'm struggling to understand what critics think is so terrible about the centrist Hartlepool candidate having talked about Tory MILFs who he fancied 10 years ago. I remember the Nottingham Post doing a poll on Most Fanciable East Midlands MP" (yeah, was a slow news week) - IIRC I came second (to Alan Simpson in the not very challenging contest and was amused rather than insulted. The MILF term is a bit crude but not really objectifying.

    Fanciable and MILF are NOT the same.

    Are you really so dense that you can't understand that a porn grouping is offensive?

    Not least, the underlying sub-text is Mums are not worth shagging after giving birth, they are too ancient and haggard, but even so here is a MILF, one I'd like to fuck.

    MILF might be excusable if said by a sad-sack , teenage virgin ... but by a Labour PPC, no way.

    After a few years of wokeness, we are unfortunately back to 'Iraq War' Palmer, justifying the unjustifiable on pb.com because it is the Labour party doing it.

    Go on, say it Nick, it was just bantz.
    In porn terms, MILF means any woman over the age of 25.
    At the risk of coming across as knowledgable on the subject matter, there does seem to be a increasingly small gap between ‘teen’ and ‘MILF’ among the performers. Presumably, once they can’t get away with looking 18 any longer, they go with the fake chest and the tattoos.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,842
    Wales, 745k UK Equivalent
    1st 27,729
    2nd 10,554
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100
    edited March 2021
    Dura_Ace said:



    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?

    It's LIKE not LOVE. The implied ambivalence is crucial.

    Please review all of Stifler's dialogue in American Pie.

    Isn't it also Mother not Mum?

    Not that I'd know...
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 47,789
    MaxPB said:

    We're in a relatively good position wrt our own programme and vaccine production, the issue with the EU blocking Pfizer is that we provide a huge part of the manufacturing supply chain for it that seems to have gone completely unrecognised by the EU and around 13m people are due second Pfizer doses over the next 12 weeks and it would be completely unethical by the EU to block exports to the UK.

    This total lie is still online in an official newsletter from the President of the European Council:

    https://nsl.consilium.europa.eu/104100/GeneralNewsletter/4od5l4siyvf7z5zx5ai27sxp5i/Html

    The United Kingdom and the United States have imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced on their territory.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,842
    Wales has done 61.9 jabs per 100 people. Northern Ireland is just under 50
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,603

    MaxPB said:

    We're in a relatively good position wrt our own programme and vaccine production, the issue with the EU blocking Pfizer is that we provide a huge part of the manufacturing supply chain for it that seems to have gone completely unrecognised by the EU and around 13m people are due second Pfizer doses over the next 12 weeks and it would be completely unethical by the EU to block exports to the UK.

    This total lie is still online in an official newsletter from the President of the European Council:

    https://nsl.consilium.europa.eu/104100/GeneralNewsletter/4od5l4siyvf7z5zx5ai27sxp5i/Html

    The United Kingdom and the United States have imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced on their territory.
    Yes, it's genuinely a complete falsehood. The UK exports lipid nanoparticles and the US exports very crucial bioreactor components, both are necessary for the Pfizer process.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,351

    Teachers have criticised the government for failing to create a national strategy to tackle sexism in schools, as thousands of students come forward to share experiences of sexual harassment and abuse at school and university as part of a new initiative to tackle rape culture.


    From the Guardian.

    Question: Why would teachers think the government is better at doing this than schools and teachers? What exactly are they waiting for?
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,725
    MattW said:

    gealbhan said:

    Floater said:

    If this is true - then fuck them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383491/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-threatens-halt-exports-vaccines-bloc-doesnt-deliveries-first.html

    Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to halt exports of AstraZeneca vaccines if the EU does not receive its deliveries first, in a worsening row over delayed shipments that has caused international tensions.

    The EU chief told the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company it has to come through on deliveries to the bloc.

    In an interview with Germany's Funke media group she said: 'We have the option of banning a planned export.

    'That's the message to AstraZeneca: you fulfil your contract with Europe first before you start delivering to other countries.'

    Rejoin? forget that shit

    Haven’t the Indians actually done and got away with what the EU merely threaten? The manufacturer should have been supplying external customer, but it’s been diverted for internal consumption instead - or am I interpreting the news explanations of April lumpyness incorrectly?

    Quite possibly, but I would expect that to be in our contract for that batch with India.

    I expect exports from India potentially to fall as their own rollout ramps up. If they had already been beyond vaccinating people who are part of the delivery infrastructure, I would have been surprised had they been able to do it unless there was a clause in their original agreement with AZ.
    The big advantage that we had with the rollout was that, thanks to the 1945-50 Labour Govt., everyone (near enough) is registered with a GP, and the vast majority, especially of older people know exactly where he or she is. Falls down a bit when 30 or thereabouts year olds are concerned, because they tend to be more mobile, and don't have contact with 'their GP' as often.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    Pulpstar said:

    Wales has done 61.9 jabs per 100 people. Northern Ireland is just under 50

    I still maintain that the most likely explanation for Wales's overperformance in this area is the slight shortening of the interval between first and second doses that I believe that the Welsh NHS has adopted relative to the rest of the UK. It means that they're revisiting the most vulnerable (and therefore most enthusiastic) cohorts early; many of these are probably also pre-booked second appointments. Less chasing around after people, easier to organise, fewer no-shows. If that's true then the effect should unwind through the UK-wide second dose blitz next month.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,074

    An interesting thread. The odds clearly indicate if not Biden then Harris and that is probably that. Isn't AOC a too divisive figure in the country?

    However I thought Meghan Markle has started her campaign for the nomination?! :wink:

    https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-meghan-markle-president-2024

    Her suicidal comments, whilst treated sensitively by a lot of people, might come back to bite her. I'm painfully aware of the blight of mental ill-health but someone who might take their own life at the first hint of things not going their way is not a qualification for POTUS. That's not my take. It would be the opposition party's and, boy, would they ensure it was stirred. Not entirely unreasonably as it happens. If 'the Firm' can get to her that much then she's not strong enough to be President. Period. She thinks they're bad. Try Putin. Try China. Try any number of pressures that come the way of the President of the United States.

    More important than that is the fact that someone who has fallen out with her own and her husband's family and some of her former friends, whatever the reason for that, does not - on the face of it - appear to demonstrate any political skills whatsoever. Good politicians - especially in the USA - are those who can get votes from and work effectively with even those they dislike.

    Totally disagree. Biden will not be the 2024 candidate. He is already being hidden away from press questions. He referred to Harris as the President this past week. He slipped 3 times on the steps to Air Force 1 - also this week. That after he had set off purposefully with his mind set on one thing - "just make it up those steps..." It was painful to watch.

    2 months into his term, 46 more to go. 46 gruelling, get-me-outta-here months. (Although I expect it to be Acting President Kamala Harris under the 25th at some point within those 46...)

    I really don't see a little confusion as such a big deal, even in the POTUS, when the alternative was such a volatile, deranged narcissist.

    Addressing the VP as President seems such a minor infringement of sanity when his predecessor was earnestly advising Americans to introvenously self-medicate against Covid using domestic cleaning products.
    It's the narrative though: the leader of the Free World can't walk upstairs unaided. He is the perfect metaphor for America In Decline. Do you think China, Putin are looking at Biden and thinking "If we push the boundaries on our power, is he going to stand firm - when he can't stand up?"
    Roosevelt.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 31,725
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    We're in a relatively good position wrt our own programme and vaccine production, the issue with the EU blocking Pfizer is that we provide a huge part of the manufacturing supply chain for it that seems to have gone completely unrecognised by the EU and around 13m people are due second Pfizer doses over the next 12 weeks and it would be completely unethical by the EU to block exports to the UK.

    This total lie is still online in an official newsletter from the President of the European Council:

    https://nsl.consilium.europa.eu/104100/GeneralNewsletter/4od5l4siyvf7z5zx5ai27sxp5i/Html

    The United Kingdom and the United States have imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced on their territory.
    Yes, it's genuinely a complete falsehood. The UK exports lipid nanoparticles and the US exports very crucial bioreactor components, both are necessary for the Pfizer process.
    Frau Dr van der Leyen seems to be going out of her way to make life difficult for ReJoiners, like me.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,044
    This is nice and clear.

    https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1373231086914969601

    Can someone forward on to Macron and co.?
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,072
    Pulpstar said:

    Wales, 745k UK Equivalent
    1st 27,729
    2nd 10,554

    Super Drakeford knocking it out of the park as usual.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 58,941

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    We're in a relatively good position wrt our own programme and vaccine production, the issue with the EU blocking Pfizer is that we provide a huge part of the manufacturing supply chain for it that seems to have gone completely unrecognised by the EU and around 13m people are due second Pfizer doses over the next 12 weeks and it would be completely unethical by the EU to block exports to the UK.

    This total lie is still online in an official newsletter from the President of the European Council:

    https://nsl.consilium.europa.eu/104100/GeneralNewsletter/4od5l4siyvf7z5zx5ai27sxp5i/Html

    The United Kingdom and the United States have imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced on their territory.
    Yes, it's genuinely a complete falsehood. The UK exports lipid nanoparticles and the US exports very crucial bioreactor components, both are necessary for the Pfizer process.
    Frau Dr van der Leyen seems to be going out of her way to make life difficult for ReJoiners, like me.
    Wrong European President. This moron is Charles Michel.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 47,789
    The German health ministry's latest communication about AZ is unbelievable. The video starts with a "warning notice about AstraZeneca" and says that the EMA has determined that using AZ "outweighs the risks" before showing a scary graphic of the brain and talking about clots.

    https://twitter.com/BMG_Bund/status/1373227912598581249
  • MattWMattW Posts: 18,100
    gealbhan said:

    MattW said:

    gealbhan said:

    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Roger said:

    Foxy said:

    Jonathan said:

    This discussion cements my view that the Dems look very week going into 2024.

    There is a certain tendency to assume that the players in 2024 will be the same as 2020.

    Sure we had heard of Biden in 2016, and Sanders, Warren too, but who had heard of Buttigeig, O'Rorke, Harris or Klobuchar?

    It isn't quite true that there are no second acts in American lives, but second chances are rare.
    I was just going to say what a good idea to use a selfie as your avatar and then you changed it
    Just feeling a bit more Puritanical this morning, in the long and honourable tradition of English Radicalism. 🙂
    What did I read Puritanism defined as the other day - the desperate fear that somebody, somewhere, might be having fun? Or is that socialism?

    Anyway, hopefully it will pass for you. :smiley:
    No, Puritanism is about the inner life, standing apart from the corruption of the world.

    There are a lot of secular Puritans now, particularly but not exclusively on the Left and Greens.

    It is a contrasting strand of English tradition to the aristocratic cavaliers. Different labels now but the same tradition. One of my favourite Cromwell quotes on the subject:

    "I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a Gentle-man and is nothing else."

    And that is how he won...
    He lost. A wobbly Protectorate very much in office but not in power (financially hamstrung and living in likelihood of of counter revolution in other words) unsustainable after his death. The radicals and socialist who helped put him there he thoroughly stitched up and used his militia to hunt down.

    Puritanism is basically just protest to what they saw as a Catholic faith which had lost its way and a religion needing reform to the degree of a reset. Defined by not what it is, but by what it’s determined not to be.
    No, that's a cardboard cutout. Foxy has it.

    To understand the mind of the Puritan I would say read Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress or Grace Abounding. There is an emotional side combined with a rigid self-discipline. Canterbury Tales are a good contrast to show Catholic "style" imo.

    Puritanism was partly about a democratisation of priest-style spirituality away from the priesthood.

    For modern politics, my chosen comparison would be the doctrinaire side of Militant. Dave Nellist and similar, with a strong link between belief and personal practice. For a community the most recent I would compare would be the Boer Voortrekkers, though I am sure there are many contemporary similars.

    There are a couple of intriguing MPs who self-consciously lived simply rather than engage in expenses-farming a few years ago. They may be of a similar spirit.

    As a titbit, as far as I am aware it was a Non-conformist Minister who first defended freedom of conscience for atheists, just after 1600.

    Must be Saturday :smile: .
    “No, that's a cardboard cutout. Foxy has it.‘.

    Gloves off straight away. My understanding of history is cardboard cut out. 😦

    Puritan is Protestant - Protest movement against how the Catholic Church has lost its way, become corrupt. It’s defined by not wanting to be associated with the Catholic Church, the Civil War itself inspired by a drift in Churches towards Catholic worship.

    And was the Protectorate not weak and wobbly? What was it actually for. Did it actually want to behead the King, was it for that? Would it have happened if the King had been less determined to die a martyr? We can see from the Putney Debates and the violence against radicals that followed, the protectorate had no interest in going radical. And through its diplomacy it was quite happy to build bridges with Catholic powerhouses across Europe. If it had lasted another 10 years, where was it actually going?
    Apologies if I offended - that was not intended.

    I was reacting strongly against the idea that Puritanism is defined *in opposition* to something else, rather than as a positive movement in its own right with its own identity. I think it is more than that. *

    I'd also question the "English" part of the definition, and make it far more on an arc through the much of Europe.

    Have a good day.

  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,044

    The German health ministry's latest communication about AZ is unbelievable. The video starts with a "warning notice about AstraZeneca" and says that the EMA has determined that using AZ "outweighs the risks" before showing a scary graphic of the brain and talking about clots.

    https://twitter.com/BMG_Bund/status/1373227912598581249

    They have completely lost touch with reality.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905

    From my analysis of the weekly release of the vaccination data for England. Take-up per age group using the NIMIS population estimates (based on ONS 2019)

    Under 55 20%
    55-59 49%
    60-64 76%
    65-69 88%
    70-74 93%
    75-79 94%
    80+ 94%

    Original spreadsheet here

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Ss-wULsziT6YqtyCYIq5NnYCa2IEyCh/view?usp=sharing

    source data

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/03/COVID-19-weekly-announced-vaccinations-18-March-2021.xlsx
    The numbers in the older cohorts in particular are very impressive, although some geographical disparities stubbornly persist. I went through the most recent weekly NHS England vaccination update and did my own, comparatively amateurish, investigation into percentage take up amongst the over 80s, as broken down by CCG. The bottom 20% of CCGs by this metric are listed as follows:

    1. Central London (Westminster) 60.3%
    2. West London 70.3%
    3. City & Hackney 70.4%
    4. Newham 72.2%
    5. Tower Hamlets 73.8%
    6. Waltham Forest 76.4%
    7. Brent 79.6%
    8. Hammersmith & Fulham 79.7%
    9. Barking & Dagenham 80.0%
    10. North Central London 82.0%
    11. Luton 84.7%
    12. Ealing 84.8%
    13. South East London 86.4%
    14. Manchester 86.9%
    15. Leicester City 87.0%
    16. Redbridge 87.1%
    17. Havering 87.9%
    18. Sandwell & West Birmingham 88.1%
    19. Liverpool 88.8%
    20.= South West London 89.3%
    20.= Heywood, Middleton & Rochdale 89.3%
    22. Brighton & Hove 89.4%
    23. Hounslow 89.5%
    24. North Kirklees 89.8%
    25. Knowsley 89.9%
    26. Harrow 90.1%
    27.= Southend 90.3%
    27.= Birmingham & Solihull 90.3%

    A pretty clear, if not terribly surprising, pattern suggests itself.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,614

    The German health ministry's latest communication about AZ is unbelievable. The video starts with a "warning notice about AstraZeneca" and says that the EMA has determined that using AZ "outweighs the risks" before showing a scary graphic of the brain and talking about clots.

    https://twitter.com/BMG_Bund/status/1373227912598581249

    What on Earth are they playing at? It’s as if they’re going through the motions of telling everyone it’s safe, while simultaneously nudging everyone to think it’s dangerous.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,044
    I don't about the word 'mild' there, judging by what I went through last weekend. :smiley:
  • gealbhangealbhan Posts: 2,362
    Sean_F said:

    Foxy said:

    Dura_Ace said:



    Perhaps the judgment as to whether "Mum I'd Love to Fuck" is offensive should be left to mothers ?

    It's LIKE not LOVE. The implied ambivalence is crucial.

    Please review all of Stifler's dialogue in American Pie.

    Worth noting that that MILF has now entered the language as a term in its own right. Also that other similar pornification of language occurs, even in the hallowed place of PB, such as discussion of Step-Mums* on Pornhub.

    *Step Incest fantasy does seem to be a popular genre which strikes me as very odd.
    Incest has become a very popular variant of porn, probably due to A Game of Thrones and Frozen.
    “Frozen” promotes incest! Screams the Puritanical morning edition of PB.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 66,769
    algarkirk said:


    Teachers have criticised the government for failing to create a national strategy to tackle sexism in schools, as thousands of students come forward to share experiences of sexual harassment and abuse at school and university as part of a new initiative to tackle rape culture.


    From the Guardian.

    Question: Why would teachers think the government is better at doing this than schools and teachers? What exactly are they waiting for?

    Which teachers? I haven’t said any such thing. Nor, indeed, have I seen any reports on it given I have been rather busy recently trying to keep up with the ludicrous demands of the government’s Covid strategy (to dignify it).

    Indeed, if I wanted to see a dramatic reduction in the amount of sexism in schools, the last thing I would want is a national strategy from the government,* who are so profoundly stupid, lazy and ignorant of educational systems and processes that any strategy they created would be counter-productive.

    *read, ‘the Department for Education.’
This discussion has been closed.