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The May 6th Welsh Senedd election is starting to look very tight – politicalbetting.com

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  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,234
    RIP Lucille Bluth.

    aka the incomparable Jessica Walter.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,473
    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820
    Maffew said:

    I wanted to say hi since I just signed up.

    I've been a long time lurker (even made a few pounds over the years with small bets, but mostly read the comments for general politics and information). I decided to actually join with the aim of occasionally weighing in since I often see things I want to comment on, but then realise I can't. It was getting a bit weird when I felt I could describe half the posters on here despite never having posted. I actually met Alistair Meeks at a conference and told him I was a big fan because of this site (he looked a combination of bemused and distressed).

    Hopefully I'll be able to make some useful contirbutions and I'm pretty sure I at least lower the average age (early 30s)!

    Welcome to pb, if you want a tip don't buy flint knapped toys from leon
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,662
    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    No. She committed actual fraud. She deliberately misrepresented her source material to claim an uptick in prosecutions of homosexuals when in fact most of the cases she wrote about involved paedophilia - including the rape of a six year old boy that she passed off as a consensual act for which a teenager had been punished.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-history-wolf-trfn-idUSKBN2A827X

    That’s separate from her inability to understand sentencing conventions. Or indeed a long career of making false and exaggerated claims.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html

    No self respecting university should let this doctorate stand. But Oxford does.
    Am I the only PB-er that gets confused between "ydoethur" and "YBardCwsc"?

    I see one as living in Aberystwyth, largely speaking Welsh but happy to speak English. Works in academe. Has a life, infrequent sex. Reads a lot of R S Thomas and likes laverbread, but has been to London quite a lot. Likes Bach flute sonatas re-done by male voice choirs

    I see the second as living in a hut on the Llyn Peninsula, goes out at night to shake a fist in the direction of Liverpool, or that pit of English squalor that is Caerphilly, then goes home and eats weasel guts with daffodil leaves, the only time he speaks English is on here, otherwise he mutters in cynghanedd next to an open fire of Snowdon peat

    They sound different but they are the two personalities of one bipolar Welsh guy in Clapham

  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,476
    Maffew said:

    I wanted to say hi since I just signed up.

    I've been a long time lurker (even made a few pounds over the years with small bets, but mostly read the comments for general politics and information). I decided to actually join with the aim of occasionally weighing in since I often see things I want to comment on, but then realise I can't. It was getting a bit weird when I felt I could describe half the posters on here despite never having posted. I actually met Alistair Meeks at a conference and told him I was a big fan because of this site (he looked a combination of bemused and distressed).

    Hopefully I'll be able to make some useful contirbutions and I'm pretty sure I at least lower the average age (early 30s)!

    Welcome!

    Any hints to your politics? Woke warrior or Priti fan?
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,191
    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    ydoethur said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Introducing vax passports after everyone is vaccinated would be more sensible than this proposed farce.

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133

    Particularly given lateral flow tests administered by non-medics are infamously as inaccurate as a Nick Gibb statement on schools.
    Noone under 40 is going to bother with this, we'll just drink at each other's houses for a bit.
    No you won't. What bollocks

    You will be offered a free vaccination, which takes 10 minutes and is painless but might make you feel a bit poorly for 2 days (or, do nothing at all), a vaccine which protects you from a terrible disease which can ruin your life even if you never go to hospital (see that remarkable story posted by Mr Nabavi, in a prior thread)

    Moreover, this vaccine will be a visa to hassle-free travel, going to gyms and theatres, not infecting your parents, or vulnerable people, why the F would you not take it? For free?! What point are you proving? Ha! I don't believe in SCIENCE! Take that, biology!

    You will take it. 90% of people will take it. Maybe more

    There is a difference between having had a vaccine and putting up with the bollocks of a vax passport internal to the country. I have been vaccinated I refuse point blank to do anything with the vax passport you propose and just like its mandatory to wear masks in shops a lot ignore it for custom...so will pubs. Anyone proposing this can go fuck themselves with a large monolith
    Just have the damn jab and stop endangering your fellow Britons

    "I refuse to black out my house. The chances of my being bombed by the Luftwaffe are 1 in 2000. I am young and free!"

    *bomb targeting undimmed light wipes out house, and 300 neighbours*

    "Oh. Sorry."
    Which part of I have been vaccinated did you fail to understand fuckwit?
    Fair enough, lol. I am a fuckwit if you've been vaccinated

    Apologies

    I just wanted an argument!
    I am not anti vaccine just against the idea we have to show papers to access everyday life. I won't support it and I refuse to go along with it
    Understood. I misconstrued you, hence my apology. In context, I have been encountering mad anti-vax sentiment all day, online, it seems to be especially prevalent in the young. I don't know why. So I jumped to conclusions

    It is, I believe, total selfishness, during a plague. The same as people who refuse to wear masks. Do you not fucking get it, you wear a mask to protect ME, I wear a mask to protect YOU?

    There is a time and place for libertarian beliefs. I generally ascribe to them. But a pandemic is probably the absolute WORST time to espouse this doctrine. It means that many people will die
    Vax passports though do nothing they are merely security theatre.

    If you are vaccinated in a bar with unvaccinated people you are unlikely to get it. If you do get it you are not likely to notice it. The only ones really at risk are the unvaccinated
    They are not "security theatre". They give more nervous people - people older than you, or sicker than you, people with cancer, or diabetes, or cystic fibrosis - permission to go out, to fly, to have a holiday, knowing they will be surrounded by similarly vaccinated people, so the risk is minimal - the least it can be.

    Do they not have the right to regain normal life, with this reassurance? They do

    Equally, your unvaxxed young friends also have a right to go the pub without being ID'd

    I would let the market decide, as I have said before. My guess is that places like theatres will want vax passports, pubs will not. Those pubs that do can advertise the fact, those that don't, the same. Let individuals decide: as long as R0 remains low
    They are exactly security theatre they are based on science, they are purely there to reassure in your own words.

    Sorry you don't get to restrict me just to reassure the nervous. If that was the case we might lock up all males because they make some woman nervous for example.
    If I am on a plane with entirely vaxxed people I am much less at risk of getting Corona than if I am on a plane where I have no idea of the status of anyone

    We are back to arguing and it is pointless.

    You might as well get used to vax passports, because they are coming. Businesses will see the huge advantage. Deal with it

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/greece-to-allow-in-10000-vaccinated-israeli-tourists-per-week/
    For travelling abroad it makes sense because it keeps out new variants. For internal use it makes no sense whatsoever. They can try and bring it in but they should expect most to ignore it and businesses that decide to implement it might find they backed the wrong horse. I know few people that are in your camp. Indeed the only person even on pb that has been in favour as far as I have seen is Nick Palmer. Your view I suspect is a minority
    A new variant is just as likely to originate up the road, as it is in the vicinity of your Mediterranean hotel. Thinking that if we fence off the UK we would be safe from new variants is mistaken.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,081

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    No. She committed actual fraud. She deliberately misrepresented her source material to claim an uptick in prosecutions of homosexuals when in fact most of the cases she wrote about involved paedophilia - including the rape of a six year old boy that she passed off as a consensual act for which a teenager had been punished.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-history-wolf-trfn-idUSKBN2A827X

    That’s separate from her inability to understand sentencing conventions. Or indeed a long career of making false and exaggerated claims.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html

    No self respecting university should let this doctorate stand. But Oxford does.
    The blame lies with the external examiner who passed it.

    I think the external examiner was a historian from Aber ... :)

    Whatever, the external is not from Oxford.
    So you are saying that her supervisor bears no responsibility? And that, fraud having been uncovered, somehow it’s OK for Oxford not to act because an English lecturer from another university didn’t spot it?

    I’m not following your logic here.

    Bottom line is, she lied to promote a thesis she clearly knew was unsustainable. As she has been for years, and still is, about many things. And yet Oxford are still throwing a cloak of respectability about her lies.

    Not that I rate Oxford’s or indeed Cambridge‘ English departments, but wouldn’t you find that just a touch embarrassing if you had the equivalent degree?
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,081
    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    No. She committed actual fraud. She deliberately misrepresented her source material to claim an uptick in prosecutions of homosexuals when in fact most of the cases she wrote about involved paedophilia - including the rape of a six year old boy that she passed off as a consensual act for which a teenager had been punished.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-history-wolf-trfn-idUSKBN2A827X

    That’s separate from her inability to understand sentencing conventions. Or indeed a long career of making false and exaggerated claims.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html

    No self respecting university should let this doctorate stand. But Oxford does.
    Am I the only PB-er that gets confused between "ydoethur" and "YBardCwsc"?

    I see one as living in Aberystwyth, largely speaking Welsh but happy to speak English. Works in academe. Has a life, infrequent sex. Reads a lot of R S Thomas and likes laverbread, but has been to London quite a lot. Likes Bach flute sonatas re-done by male voice choirs

    I see the second as living in a hut on the Llyn Peninsula, goes out at night to shake a fist in the direction of Liverpool, or that pit of English squalor that is Caerphilly, then goes home and eats weasel guts with daffodil leaves, the only time he speaks English is on here, otherwise he mutters in cynghanedd next to an open fire of Snowdon peat

    They sound different but they are the two personalities of one bipolar Welsh guy in Clapham

    I’m intrigued. Which one am I?
  • kingbongokingbongo Posts: 393

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    Indeed so - Wolf got her doctorate in English Literature so I have little doubt it was total twirly whirly gibberish like most of the output from English Depts. and certainly not subject to some of the data quality standards in other areas.
  • TheuniondivvieTheuniondivvie Posts: 39,938
    Foxy said:

    isam said:

    Pulpstar said:

    The message from the British public is clear

    More flags. More vaccines.

    Sir Keir wrapping himself in the flag is cool, Boris having them in Downing St is racist
    Personally I favour bigger flags and have a large Betsy Ross as my backdrop for online meetings, a bit like this:


    Hope you don't copy old Bood & Guts' bedside manner

    https://youtu.be/YrtS2_TfbeY
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820
    IanB2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    ydoethur said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Introducing vax passports after everyone is vaccinated would be more sensible than this proposed farce.

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133

    Particularly given lateral flow tests administered by non-medics are infamously as inaccurate as a Nick Gibb statement on schools.
    Noone under 40 is going to bother with this, we'll just drink at each other's houses for a bit.
    No you won't. What bollocks

    You will be offered a free vaccination, which takes 10 minutes and is painless but might make you feel a bit poorly for 2 days (or, do nothing at all), a vaccine which protects you from a terrible disease which can ruin your life even if you never go to hospital (see that remarkable story posted by Mr Nabavi, in a prior thread)

    Moreover, this vaccine will be a visa to hassle-free travel, going to gyms and theatres, not infecting your parents, or vulnerable people, why the F would you not take it? For free?! What point are you proving? Ha! I don't believe in SCIENCE! Take that, biology!

    You will take it. 90% of people will take it. Maybe more

    There is a difference between having had a vaccine and putting up with the bollocks of a vax passport internal to the country. I have been vaccinated I refuse point blank to do anything with the vax passport you propose and just like its mandatory to wear masks in shops a lot ignore it for custom...so will pubs. Anyone proposing this can go fuck themselves with a large monolith
    Just have the damn jab and stop endangering your fellow Britons

    "I refuse to black out my house. The chances of my being bombed by the Luftwaffe are 1 in 2000. I am young and free!"

    *bomb targeting undimmed light wipes out house, and 300 neighbours*

    "Oh. Sorry."
    Which part of I have been vaccinated did you fail to understand fuckwit?
    Fair enough, lol. I am a fuckwit if you've been vaccinated

    Apologies

    I just wanted an argument!
    I am not anti vaccine just against the idea we have to show papers to access everyday life. I won't support it and I refuse to go along with it
    Understood. I misconstrued you, hence my apology. In context, I have been encountering mad anti-vax sentiment all day, online, it seems to be especially prevalent in the young. I don't know why. So I jumped to conclusions

    It is, I believe, total selfishness, during a plague. The same as people who refuse to wear masks. Do you not fucking get it, you wear a mask to protect ME, I wear a mask to protect YOU?

    There is a time and place for libertarian beliefs. I generally ascribe to them. But a pandemic is probably the absolute WORST time to espouse this doctrine. It means that many people will die
    Vax passports though do nothing they are merely security theatre.

    If you are vaccinated in a bar with unvaccinated people you are unlikely to get it. If you do get it you are not likely to notice it. The only ones really at risk are the unvaccinated
    They are not "security theatre". They give more nervous people - people older than you, or sicker than you, people with cancer, or diabetes, or cystic fibrosis - permission to go out, to fly, to have a holiday, knowing they will be surrounded by similarly vaccinated people, so the risk is minimal - the least it can be.

    Do they not have the right to regain normal life, with this reassurance? They do

    Equally, your unvaxxed young friends also have a right to go the pub without being ID'd

    I would let the market decide, as I have said before. My guess is that places like theatres will want vax passports, pubs will not. Those pubs that do can advertise the fact, those that don't, the same. Let individuals decide: as long as R0 remains low
    They are exactly security theatre they are based on science, they are purely there to reassure in your own words.

    Sorry you don't get to restrict me just to reassure the nervous. If that was the case we might lock up all males because they make some woman nervous for example.
    If I am on a plane with entirely vaxxed people I am much less at risk of getting Corona than if I am on a plane where I have no idea of the status of anyone

    We are back to arguing and it is pointless.

    You might as well get used to vax passports, because they are coming. Businesses will see the huge advantage. Deal with it

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/greece-to-allow-in-10000-vaccinated-israeli-tourists-per-week/
    For travelling abroad it makes sense because it keeps out new variants. For internal use it makes no sense whatsoever. They can try and bring it in but they should expect most to ignore it and businesses that decide to implement it might find they backed the wrong horse. I know few people that are in your camp. Indeed the only person even on pb that has been in favour as far as I have seen is Nick Palmer. Your view I suspect is a minority
    A new variant is just as likely to originate up the road, as it is in the vicinity of your Mediterranean hotel. Thinking that if we fence off the UK we would be safe from new variants is mistaken.
    While true we will have a smaller incubation pool that for example plague pit europe for a variant to arise in. Given we can't restrict movement with the country controls on the unvaccinated coming in seems to be a reasonable compromise
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 25,024
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    ydoethur said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Introducing vax passports after everyone is vaccinated would be more sensible than this proposed farce.

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133

    Particularly given lateral flow tests administered by non-medics are infamously as inaccurate as a Nick Gibb statement on schools.
    Noone under 40 is going to bother with this, we'll just drink at each other's houses for a bit.
    No you won't. What bollocks

    You will be offered a free vaccination, which takes 10 minutes and is painless but might make you feel a bit poorly for 2 days (or, do nothing at all), a vaccine which protects you from a terrible disease which can ruin your life even if you never go to hospital (see that remarkable story posted by Mr Nabavi, in a prior thread)

    Moreover, this vaccine will be a visa to hassle-free travel, going to gyms and theatres, not infecting your parents, or vulnerable people, why the F would you not take it? For free?! What point are you proving? Ha! I don't believe in SCIENCE! Take that, biology!

    You will take it. 90% of people will take it. Maybe more

    I think he means if the government delays our vaccines as they currently say they will. I find the idea ridiculous that they could even consider introducing vaccine passports while simultaneously fucking off all under 50s by not giving us vaccines.

    Happily, it's not going to be an issue. There's a reason Novavax have fucked the EU off today.
    Any more news on when Novavax are going to be approved for use ?
    No news but it won't be long now I think, maybe a couple of weeks.
    Will this release an immediate fresh flood of supply though, or is the cavalry only going to come charging over the hill in time for the Autumn booster campaign?
    Both, we have got lots and lots of vaccine doses coming. Our autumn booster will probably be a single dose of AZ adjusted for the various mutations, we'll need around 32m doses to cover what we need. In addition from 2022 onwards we have our CureVac deal which is domestic manufacturing as well.

    This whole EU issue is a massive unnecessary distraction, we've got planned domestic supply of around 50m doses per month of which around 10m is already online and another 5m is due soon with a ramp up to 25m per month around June.

    In addition we have J&J and Pfizer coming from Belgium which will never put in a vaccine ban.
    This is a nasty disease. It would be nice if most of the under 50s weren't left kicking our heels until June or July waiting and waiting and waiting for the supply bottleneck finally to ease. That's what I was concerned about. AZ is still the only domestic product actually in use, which leaves us very reliant on Pfizer in Belgium being allowed to fulfil their contracts. I know that you and others have good reasons for expecting them to continue to be able to do so, but the EU has been going a bit loopy recently and Belgium is a small country which could find itself subject to heavy pressure from more powerful neighbours.
    We won't be, I really won't stop repeating myself. The two new vaccines will arrive in April and they will necessitate a very large number of first doses, especially if we continue to leverage a JiT dosing strategy with a 6-8 week gap. We could easily do 3-4m first doses per week of Moderna/Novavax together in April and May to cover all of the remaining groups with first doses and then the following 6-8 weeks with second doses.

    What's really interesting is that a single Novavax booster may actually cover off a lot of the variants for people who have already been fully vaccinated. That's the existing version, it's something that neither AZ not Pfizer really do with antibody immunity that Novavax does to a 50-70% level.

    We could conceivably use the 30m spare Novavax doses for our booster programme and then use a single adjusted AZ dose for under 50s.
    What are we going to do with the 100m Valneva and 30m Janssen ?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,476
    algarkirk said:

    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

    No party has a monopoly on the flag.

    It's just naff to have one on constant display, like some fetish, but a fairly harmless fetishism.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,662
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    No. She committed actual fraud. She deliberately misrepresented her source material to claim an uptick in prosecutions of homosexuals when in fact most of the cases she wrote about involved paedophilia - including the rape of a six year old boy that she passed off as a consensual act for which a teenager had been punished.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-history-wolf-trfn-idUSKBN2A827X

    That’s separate from her inability to understand sentencing conventions. Or indeed a long career of making false and exaggerated claims.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html

    No self respecting university should let this doctorate stand. But Oxford does.
    Am I the only PB-er that gets confused between "ydoethur" and "YBardCwsc"?

    I see one as living in Aberystwyth, largely speaking Welsh but happy to speak English. Works in academe. Has a life, infrequent sex. Reads a lot of R S Thomas and likes laverbread, but has been to London quite a lot. Likes Bach flute sonatas re-done by male voice choirs

    I see the second as living in a hut on the Llyn Peninsula, goes out at night to shake a fist in the direction of Liverpool, or that pit of English squalor that is Caerphilly, then goes home and eats weasel guts with daffodil leaves, the only time he speaks English is on here, otherwise he mutters in cynghanedd next to an open fire of Snowdon peat

    They sound different but they are the two personalities of one bipolar Welsh guy in Clapham

    I’m intrigued. Which one am I?
    Both!
  • Maffew said:

    I wanted to say hi since I just signed up.

    I've been a long time lurker (even made a few pounds over the years with small bets, but mostly read the comments for general politics and information). I decided to actually join with the aim of occasionally weighing in since I often see things I want to comment on, but then realise I can't. It was getting a bit weird when I felt I could describe half the posters on here despite never having posted. I actually met Alistair Meeks at a conference and told him I was a big fan because of this site (he looked a combination of bemused and distressed).

    Hopefully I'll be able to make some useful contirbutions and I'm pretty sure I at least lower the average age (early 30s)!

    Welcome to PB Maffew
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820
    Will they remove her do you think though or will she survive to lead them into the next shambles?
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,473
    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    No. She committed actual fraud. She deliberately misrepresented her source material to claim an uptick in prosecutions of homosexuals when in fact most of the cases she wrote about involved paedophilia - including the rape of a six year old boy that she passed off as a consensual act for which a teenager had been punished.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-history-wolf-trfn-idUSKBN2A827X

    That’s separate from her inability to understand sentencing conventions. Or indeed a long career of making false and exaggerated claims.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html

    No self respecting university should let this doctorate stand. But Oxford does.
    Am I the only PB-er that gets confused between "ydoethur" and "YBardCwsc"?

    I see one as living in Aberystwyth, largely speaking Welsh but happy to speak English. Works in academe. Has a life, infrequent sex. Reads a lot of R S Thomas and likes laverbread, but has been to London quite a lot. Likes Bach flute sonatas re-done by male voice choirs

    I see the second as living in a hut on the Llyn Peninsula, goes out at night to shake a fist in the direction of Liverpool, or that pit of English squalor that is Caerphilly, then goes home and eats weasel guts with daffodil leaves, the only time he speaks English is on here, otherwise he mutters in cynghanedd next to an open fire of Snowdon peat

    They sound different but they are the two personalities of one bipolar Welsh guy in Clapham

    'Remember him, then, for he, too, is a winner of wars,
    Enduring like a tree under the curious stars'


  • StockyStocky Posts: 9,699
    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    ydoethur said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Introducing vax passports after everyone is vaccinated would be more sensible than this proposed farce.

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133

    Particularly given lateral flow tests administered by non-medics are infamously as inaccurate as a Nick Gibb statement on schools.
    Noone under 40 is going to bother with this, we'll just drink at each other's houses for a bit.
    No you won't. What bollocks

    You will be offered a free vaccination, which takes 10 minutes and is painless but might make you feel a bit poorly for 2 days (or, do nothing at all), a vaccine which protects you from a terrible disease which can ruin your life even if you never go to hospital (see that remarkable story posted by Mr Nabavi, in a prior thread)

    Moreover, this vaccine will be a visa to hassle-free travel, going to gyms and theatres, not infecting your parents, or vulnerable people, why the F would you not take it? For free?! What point are you proving? Ha! I don't believe in SCIENCE! Take that, biology!

    You will take it. 90% of people will take it. Maybe more

    There is a difference between having had a vaccine and putting up with the bollocks of a vax passport internal to the country. I have been vaccinated I refuse point blank to do anything with the vax passport you propose and just like its mandatory to wear masks in shops a lot ignore it for custom...so will pubs. Anyone proposing this can go fuck themselves with a large monolith
    Just have the damn jab and stop endangering your fellow Britons

    "I refuse to black out my house. The chances of my being bombed by the Luftwaffe are 1 in 2000. I am young and free!"

    *bomb targeting undimmed light wipes out house, and 300 neighbours*

    "Oh. Sorry."
    Which part of I have been vaccinated did you fail to understand fuckwit?
    Fair enough, lol. I am a fuckwit if you've been vaccinated

    Apologies

    I just wanted an argument!
    I am not anti vaccine just against the idea we have to show papers to access everyday life. I won't support it and I refuse to go along with it
    Understood. I misconstrued you, hence my apology. In context, I have been encountering mad anti-vax sentiment all day, online, it seems to be especially prevalent in the young. I don't know why. So I jumped to conclusions

    It is, I believe, total selfishness, during a plague. The same as people who refuse to wear masks. Do you not fucking get it, you wear a mask to protect ME, I wear a mask to protect YOU?

    There is a time and place for libertarian beliefs. I generally ascribe to them. But a pandemic is probably the absolute WORST time to espouse this doctrine. It means that many people will die
    Vax passports though do nothing they are merely security theatre.

    If you are vaccinated in a bar with unvaccinated people you are unlikely to get it. If you do get it you are not likely to notice it. The only ones really at risk are the unvaccinated
    They are not "security theatre". They give more nervous people - people older than you, or sicker than you, people with cancer, or diabetes, or cystic fibrosis - permission to go out, to fly, to have a holiday, knowing they will be surrounded by similarly vaccinated people, so the risk is minimal - the least it can be.

    Do they not have the right to regain normal life, with this reassurance? They do

    Equally, your unvaxxed young friends also have a right to go the pub without being ID'd

    I would let the market decide, as I have said before. My guess is that places like theatres will want vax passports, pubs will not. Those pubs that do can advertise the fact, those that don't, the same. Let individuals decide: as long as R0 remains low
    They are exactly security theatre they are based on science, they are purely there to reassure in your own words.

    Sorry you don't get to restrict me just to reassure the nervous. If that was the case we might lock up all males because they make some woman nervous for example.
    If I am on a plane with entirely vaxxed people I am much less at risk of getting Corona than if I am on a plane where I have no idea of the status of anyone

    We are back to arguing and it is pointless.

    You might as well get used to vax passports, because they are coming. Businesses will see the huge advantage. Deal with it

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/greece-to-allow-in-10000-vaccinated-israeli-tourists-per-week/
    For travelling abroad it makes sense because it keeps out new variants. For internal use it makes no sense whatsoever. They can try and bring it in but they should expect most to ignore it and businesses that decide to implement it might find they backed the wrong horse. I know few people that are in your camp. Indeed the only person even on pb that has been in favour as far as I have seen is Nick Palmer. Your view I suspect is a minority
    Then let the market decide. Pubs which attract an older clientele can say "we demand vax passports", pubs which predominantly serve under-30s can say "no need for passports here!". I can see the appeal of both, for different markets

    Then the individual makes the choice, along with the business. That is the only fair way to do it, there is no perfect solution
    Businesses could already do that if they want. No legislation needed. You have been arguing for more. I predict that those that do though will see footfall lower than expected. Frankly who wants to go to a pub with a load of nervous nellies
    Time to end the argument, we don't differ on principle

    I predict vaccine passports will be more common than you expect, in a few months. We shall see. The difficult moment of moral awkwardness won't last that long, anyway: by late summer every adult in the UK will be vaxxed, then vax passports will definitely become universal: for foreign travel if nothing else

    People that refuse the jab outright will find that life is increasingly confined. As they should, because they are a risk to others.

    I do feel sorry for them, these beliefs are often deep-routed, it will be hard
    Just logged on - what's this all about? Can you fill me in? Government proposing what - evidence of negative tests if not vaccinated to access stuff within UK? Are vaccinated exempt from first jab, second jab or three weeks past second jab?

    And when is this effective from - 21 June I hope? Not before, surely?
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,606
    IanB2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    ydoethur said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Introducing vax passports after everyone is vaccinated would be more sensible than this proposed farce.

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133

    Particularly given lateral flow tests administered by non-medics are infamously as inaccurate as a Nick Gibb statement on schools.
    Noone under 40 is going to bother with this, we'll just drink at each other's houses for a bit.
    No you won't. What bollocks

    You will be offered a free vaccination, which takes 10 minutes and is painless but might make you feel a bit poorly for 2 days (or, do nothing at all), a vaccine which protects you from a terrible disease which can ruin your life even if you never go to hospital (see that remarkable story posted by Mr Nabavi, in a prior thread)

    Moreover, this vaccine will be a visa to hassle-free travel, going to gyms and theatres, not infecting your parents, or vulnerable people, why the F would you not take it? For free?! What point are you proving? Ha! I don't believe in SCIENCE! Take that, biology!

    You will take it. 90% of people will take it. Maybe more

    There is a difference between having had a vaccine and putting up with the bollocks of a vax passport internal to the country. I have been vaccinated I refuse point blank to do anything with the vax passport you propose and just like its mandatory to wear masks in shops a lot ignore it for custom...so will pubs. Anyone proposing this can go fuck themselves with a large monolith
    Just have the damn jab and stop endangering your fellow Britons

    "I refuse to black out my house. The chances of my being bombed by the Luftwaffe are 1 in 2000. I am young and free!"

    *bomb targeting undimmed light wipes out house, and 300 neighbours*

    "Oh. Sorry."
    Which part of I have been vaccinated did you fail to understand fuckwit?
    Fair enough, lol. I am a fuckwit if you've been vaccinated

    Apologies

    I just wanted an argument!
    I am not anti vaccine just against the idea we have to show papers to access everyday life. I won't support it and I refuse to go along with it
    Understood. I misconstrued you, hence my apology. In context, I have been encountering mad anti-vax sentiment all day, online, it seems to be especially prevalent in the young. I don't know why. So I jumped to conclusions

    It is, I believe, total selfishness, during a plague. The same as people who refuse to wear masks. Do you not fucking get it, you wear a mask to protect ME, I wear a mask to protect YOU?

    There is a time and place for libertarian beliefs. I generally ascribe to them. But a pandemic is probably the absolute WORST time to espouse this doctrine. It means that many people will die
    Vax passports though do nothing they are merely security theatre.

    If you are vaccinated in a bar with unvaccinated people you are unlikely to get it. If you do get it you are not likely to notice it. The only ones really at risk are the unvaccinated
    They are not "security theatre". They give more nervous people - people older than you, or sicker than you, people with cancer, or diabetes, or cystic fibrosis - permission to go out, to fly, to have a holiday, knowing they will be surrounded by similarly vaccinated people, so the risk is minimal - the least it can be.

    Do they not have the right to regain normal life, with this reassurance? They do

    Equally, your unvaxxed young friends also have a right to go the pub without being ID'd

    I would let the market decide, as I have said before. My guess is that places like theatres will want vax passports, pubs will not. Those pubs that do can advertise the fact, those that don't, the same. Let individuals decide: as long as R0 remains low
    They are exactly security theatre they are based on science, they are purely there to reassure in your own words.

    Sorry you don't get to restrict me just to reassure the nervous. If that was the case we might lock up all males because they make some woman nervous for example.
    If I am on a plane with entirely vaxxed people I am much less at risk of getting Corona than if I am on a plane where I have no idea of the status of anyone

    We are back to arguing and it is pointless.

    You might as well get used to vax passports, because they are coming. Businesses will see the huge advantage. Deal with it

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/greece-to-allow-in-10000-vaccinated-israeli-tourists-per-week/
    For travelling abroad it makes sense because it keeps out new variants. For internal use it makes no sense whatsoever. They can try and bring it in but they should expect most to ignore it and businesses that decide to implement it might find they backed the wrong horse. I know few people that are in your camp. Indeed the only person even on pb that has been in favour as far as I have seen is Nick Palmer. Your view I suspect is a minority
    A new variant is just as likely to originate up the road, as it is in the vicinity of your Mediterranean hotel. Thinking that if we fence off the UK we would be safe from new variants is mistaken.
    Not really, variants tend to evolve where there is a very high incidence rate, detected or otherwise. The UK incidence rate is very low now and will continue to get lower. In addition variants are linked back to long infection periods in single patients. Our vaccine programme will reduce the number of these events where immune evading variants are likely to arise. So no, it's not just as likely to come here as it is in Europe, given the differential in incidence rates.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,662

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    No. She committed actual fraud. She deliberately misrepresented her source material to claim an uptick in prosecutions of homosexuals when in fact most of the cases she wrote about involved paedophilia - including the rape of a six year old boy that she passed off as a consensual act for which a teenager had been punished.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-history-wolf-trfn-idUSKBN2A827X

    That’s separate from her inability to understand sentencing conventions. Or indeed a long career of making false and exaggerated claims.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html

    No self respecting university should let this doctorate stand. But Oxford does.
    Am I the only PB-er that gets confused between "ydoethur" and "YBardCwsc"?

    I see one as living in Aberystwyth, largely speaking Welsh but happy to speak English. Works in academe. Has a life, infrequent sex. Reads a lot of R S Thomas and likes laverbread, but has been to London quite a lot. Likes Bach flute sonatas re-done by male voice choirs

    I see the second as living in a hut on the Llyn Peninsula, goes out at night to shake a fist in the direction of Liverpool, or that pit of English squalor that is Caerphilly, then goes home and eats weasel guts with daffodil leaves, the only time he speaks English is on here, otherwise he mutters in cynghanedd next to an open fire of Snowdon peat

    They sound different but they are the two personalities of one bipolar Welsh guy in Clapham

    Well, you are the expert on multiple personalities, errr, @Leon
    I see you don't deny the weasel guts. Telling!
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,606

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    ydoethur said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Introducing vax passports after everyone is vaccinated would be more sensible than this proposed farce.

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133

    Particularly given lateral flow tests administered by non-medics are infamously as inaccurate as a Nick Gibb statement on schools.
    Noone under 40 is going to bother with this, we'll just drink at each other's houses for a bit.
    No you won't. What bollocks

    You will be offered a free vaccination, which takes 10 minutes and is painless but might make you feel a bit poorly for 2 days (or, do nothing at all), a vaccine which protects you from a terrible disease which can ruin your life even if you never go to hospital (see that remarkable story posted by Mr Nabavi, in a prior thread)

    Moreover, this vaccine will be a visa to hassle-free travel, going to gyms and theatres, not infecting your parents, or vulnerable people, why the F would you not take it? For free?! What point are you proving? Ha! I don't believe in SCIENCE! Take that, biology!

    You will take it. 90% of people will take it. Maybe more

    I think he means if the government delays our vaccines as they currently say they will. I find the idea ridiculous that they could even consider introducing vaccine passports while simultaneously fucking off all under 50s by not giving us vaccines.

    Happily, it's not going to be an issue. There's a reason Novavax have fucked the EU off today.
    Any more news on when Novavax are going to be approved for use ?
    No news but it won't be long now I think, maybe a couple of weeks.
    Will this release an immediate fresh flood of supply though, or is the cavalry only going to come charging over the hill in time for the Autumn booster campaign?
    Both, we have got lots and lots of vaccine doses coming. Our autumn booster will probably be a single dose of AZ adjusted for the various mutations, we'll need around 32m doses to cover what we need. In addition from 2022 onwards we have our CureVac deal which is domestic manufacturing as well.

    This whole EU issue is a massive unnecessary distraction, we've got planned domestic supply of around 50m doses per month of which around 10m is already online and another 5m is due soon with a ramp up to 25m per month around June.

    In addition we have J&J and Pfizer coming from Belgium which will never put in a vaccine ban.
    This is a nasty disease. It would be nice if most of the under 50s weren't left kicking our heels until June or July waiting and waiting and waiting for the supply bottleneck finally to ease. That's what I was concerned about. AZ is still the only domestic product actually in use, which leaves us very reliant on Pfizer in Belgium being allowed to fulfil their contracts. I know that you and others have good reasons for expecting them to continue to be able to do so, but the EU has been going a bit loopy recently and Belgium is a small country which could find itself subject to heavy pressure from more powerful neighbours.
    We won't be, I really won't stop repeating myself. The two new vaccines will arrive in April and they will necessitate a very large number of first doses, especially if we continue to leverage a JiT dosing strategy with a 6-8 week gap. We could easily do 3-4m first doses per week of Moderna/Novavax together in April and May to cover all of the remaining groups with first doses and then the following 6-8 weeks with second doses.

    What's really interesting is that a single Novavax booster may actually cover off a lot of the variants for people who have already been fully vaccinated. That's the existing version, it's something that neither AZ not Pfizer really do with antibody immunity that Novavax does to a 50-70% level.

    We could conceivably use the 30m spare Novavax doses for our booster programme and then use a single adjusted AZ dose for under 50s.
    What are we going to do with the 100m Valneva and 30m Janssen ?
    Strategic reserve and then COVAX I'd guess.
  • Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

    No party has a monopoly on the flag.

    It's just naff to have one on constant display, like some fetish, but a fairly harmless fetishism.
    You are one of the 19% then
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    ydoethur said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Introducing vax passports after everyone is vaccinated would be more sensible than this proposed farce.

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133

    Particularly given lateral flow tests administered by non-medics are infamously as inaccurate as a Nick Gibb statement on schools.
    Noone under 40 is going to bother with this, we'll just drink at each other's houses for a bit.
    No you won't. What bollocks

    You will be offered a free vaccination, which takes 10 minutes and is painless but might make you feel a bit poorly for 2 days (or, do nothing at all), a vaccine which protects you from a terrible disease which can ruin your life even if you never go to hospital (see that remarkable story posted by Mr Nabavi, in a prior thread)

    Moreover, this vaccine will be a visa to hassle-free travel, going to gyms and theatres, not infecting your parents, or vulnerable people, why the F would you not take it? For free?! What point are you proving? Ha! I don't believe in SCIENCE! Take that, biology!

    You will take it. 90% of people will take it. Maybe more

    I think he means if the government delays our vaccines as they currently say they will. I find the idea ridiculous that they could even consider introducing vaccine passports while simultaneously fucking off all under 50s by not giving us vaccines.

    Happily, it's not going to be an issue. There's a reason Novavax have fucked the EU off today.
    Any more news on when Novavax are going to be approved for use ?
    No news but it won't be long now I think, maybe a couple of weeks.
    Will this release an immediate fresh flood of supply though, or is the cavalry only going to come charging over the hill in time for the Autumn booster campaign?
    Both, we have got lots and lots of vaccine doses coming. Our autumn booster will probably be a single dose of AZ adjusted for the various mutations, we'll need around 32m doses to cover what we need. In addition from 2022 onwards we have our CureVac deal which is domestic manufacturing as well.

    This whole EU issue is a massive unnecessary distraction, we've got planned domestic supply of around 50m doses per month of which around 10m is already online and another 5m is due soon with a ramp up to 25m per month around June.

    In addition we have J&J and Pfizer coming from Belgium which will never put in a vaccine ban.
    This is a nasty disease. It would be nice if most of the under 50s weren't left kicking our heels until June or July waiting and waiting and waiting for the supply bottleneck finally to ease. That's what I was concerned about. AZ is still the only domestic product actually in use, which leaves us very reliant on Pfizer in Belgium being allowed to fulfil their contracts. I know that you and others have good reasons for expecting them to continue to be able to do so, but the EU has been going a bit loopy recently and Belgium is a small country which could find itself subject to heavy pressure from more powerful neighbours.
    We won't be, I really won't stop repeating myself. The two new vaccines will arrive in April and they will necessitate a very large number of first doses, especially if we continue to leverage a JiT dosing strategy with a 6-8 week gap. We could easily do 3-4m first doses per week of Moderna/Novavax together in April and May to cover all of the remaining groups with first doses and then the following 6-8 weeks with second doses.

    What's really interesting is that a single Novavax booster may actually cover off a lot of the variants for people who have already been fully vaccinated. That's the existing version, it's something that neither AZ not Pfizer really do with antibody immunity that Novavax does to a 50-70% level.

    We could conceivably use the 30m spare Novavax doses for our booster programme and then use a single adjusted AZ dose for under 50s.
    What are we going to do with the 100m Valneva and 30m Janssen ?
    We could take a leaf from the bullingdons by inviting the eu commission over and watching us address the excess to third world countries
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,081
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    No. She committed actual fraud. She deliberately misrepresented her source material to claim an uptick in prosecutions of homosexuals when in fact most of the cases she wrote about involved paedophilia - including the rape of a six year old boy that she passed off as a consensual act for which a teenager had been punished.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-history-wolf-trfn-idUSKBN2A827X

    That’s separate from her inability to understand sentencing conventions. Or indeed a long career of making false and exaggerated claims.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html

    No self respecting university should let this doctorate stand. But Oxford does.
    Am I the only PB-er that gets confused between "ydoethur" and "YBardCwsc"?

    I see one as living in Aberystwyth, largely speaking Welsh but happy to speak English. Works in academe. Has a life, infrequent sex. Reads a lot of R S Thomas and likes laverbread, but has been to London quite a lot. Likes Bach flute sonatas re-done by male voice choirs

    I see the second as living in a hut on the Llyn Peninsula, goes out at night to shake a fist in the direction of Liverpool, or that pit of English squalor that is Caerphilly, then goes home and eats weasel guts with daffodil leaves, the only time he speaks English is on here, otherwise he mutters in cynghanedd next to an open fire of Snowdon peat

    They sound different but they are the two personalities of one bipolar Welsh guy in Clapham

    Well, you are the expert on multiple personalities, errr, @Leon
    I see you don't deny the weasel guts. Telling!
    Well, I have to deny living in Aberystwyth, I moved away 13 years ago this month.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    ydoethur said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Introducing vax passports after everyone is vaccinated would be more sensible than this proposed farce.

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133

    Particularly given lateral flow tests administered by non-medics are infamously as inaccurate as a Nick Gibb statement on schools.
    Noone under 40 is going to bother with this, we'll just drink at each other's houses for a bit.
    No you won't. What bollocks

    You will be offered a free vaccination, which takes 10 minutes and is painless but might make you feel a bit poorly for 2 days (or, do nothing at all), a vaccine which protects you from a terrible disease which can ruin your life even if you never go to hospital (see that remarkable story posted by Mr Nabavi, in a prior thread)

    Moreover, this vaccine will be a visa to hassle-free travel, going to gyms and theatres, not infecting your parents, or vulnerable people, why the F would you not take it? For free?! What point are you proving? Ha! I don't believe in SCIENCE! Take that, biology!

    You will take it. 90% of people will take it. Maybe more

    I think he means if the government delays our vaccines as they currently say they will. I find the idea ridiculous that they could even consider introducing vaccine passports while simultaneously fucking off all under 50s by not giving us vaccines.

    Happily, it's not going to be an issue. There's a reason Novavax have fucked the EU off today.
    Any more news on when Novavax are going to be approved for use ?
    No news but it won't be long now I think, maybe a couple of weeks.
    Will this release an immediate fresh flood of supply though, or is the cavalry only going to come charging over the hill in time for the Autumn booster campaign?
    Both, we have got lots and lots of vaccine doses coming. Our autumn booster will probably be a single dose of AZ adjusted for the various mutations, we'll need around 32m doses to cover what we need. In addition from 2022 onwards we have our CureVac deal which is domestic manufacturing as well.

    This whole EU issue is a massive unnecessary distraction, we've got planned domestic supply of around 50m doses per month of which around 10m is already online and another 5m is due soon with a ramp up to 25m per month around June.

    In addition we have J&J and Pfizer coming from Belgium which will never put in a vaccine ban.
    This is a nasty disease. It would be nice if most of the under 50s weren't left kicking our heels until June or July waiting and waiting and waiting for the supply bottleneck finally to ease. That's what I was concerned about. AZ is still the only domestic product actually in use, which leaves us very reliant on Pfizer in Belgium being allowed to fulfil their contracts. I know that you and others have good reasons for expecting them to continue to be able to do so, but the EU has been going a bit loopy recently and Belgium is a small country which could find itself subject to heavy pressure from more powerful neighbours.
    We won't be, I really won't stop repeating myself. The two new vaccines will arrive in April and they will necessitate a very large number of first doses, especially if we continue to leverage a JiT dosing strategy with a 6-8 week gap. We could easily do 3-4m first doses per week of Moderna/Novavax together in April and May to cover all of the remaining groups with first doses and then the following 6-8 weeks with second doses.

    What's really interesting is that a single Novavax booster may actually cover off a lot of the variants for people who have already been fully vaccinated. That's the existing version, it's something that neither AZ not Pfizer really do with antibody immunity that Novavax does to a 50-70% level.

    We could conceivably use the 30m spare Novavax doses for our booster programme and then use a single adjusted AZ dose for under 50s.
    Well, hopefully you are correct about that cavalry. I guess if you are then we don't have that much longer to wait to find out, although one is bound to be somewhat discouraged by the end of July target for offering first doses to all adults. Going back a few weeks, we dared to hope that the Government had undersold the program when it said that it was on course to offer vaccines to all the over 50s by mid-April, but it looked like they might all be done by about now. Turns out that the initial target was about right.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,476

    Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

    No party has a monopoly on the flag.

    It's just naff to have one on constant display, like some fetish, but a fairly harmless fetishism.
    You are one of the 19% then
    One of the people not bothered? If so yes.
  • MaffewMaffew Posts: 235
    Foxy said:



    Welcome!

    Any hints to your politics? Woke warrior or Priti fan?

    Thanks!

    One of the few remaining Lib Dems in the country, albeit more by default than anything else. Centre left economics (but with more emphasis on the centre) and in that awkward spot on the social spectrum where the truly woke probably think I'm an evil oppressor and people who like waving flags think I'm going on BLM marches while apologising for being white.

    If it helps with triangulation, I'd prefer Starmer to Johnson, but saw a choice between Johnson and Corbyn as the difference between cutting off an arm and cutting off a leg.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,165
    Pagan2 said:

    Will they remove her do you think though or will she survive to lead them into the next shambles?
    The problem there is that there is nowhere to promote her to....

    The American Presidency is taken, Putin is staying on, Xi The Pooh won't budge...
  • londonpubmanlondonpubman Posts: 3,174
    edited March 2021
    Stocky said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Pulpstar said:

    ydoethur said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Introducing vax passports after everyone is vaccinated would be more sensible than this proposed farce.

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133

    Particularly given lateral flow tests administered by non-medics are infamously as inaccurate as a Nick Gibb statement on schools.
    Noone under 40 is going to bother with this, we'll just drink at each other's houses for a bit.
    No you won't. What bollocks

    You will be offered a free vaccination, which takes 10 minutes and is painless but might make you feel a bit poorly for 2 days (or, do nothing at all), a vaccine which protects you from a terrible disease which can ruin your life even if you never go to hospital (see that remarkable story posted by Mr Nabavi, in a prior thread)

    Moreover, this vaccine will be a visa to hassle-free travel, going to gyms and theatres, not infecting your parents, or vulnerable people, why the F would you not take it? For free?! What point are you proving? Ha! I don't believe in SCIENCE! Take that, biology!

    You will take it. 90% of people will take it. Maybe more

    There is a difference between having had a vaccine and putting up with the bollocks of a vax passport internal to the country. I have been vaccinated I refuse point blank to do anything with the vax passport you propose and just like its mandatory to wear masks in shops a lot ignore it for custom...so will pubs. Anyone proposing this can go fuck themselves with a large monolith
    Just have the damn jab and stop endangering your fellow Britons

    "I refuse to black out my house. The chances of my being bombed by the Luftwaffe are 1 in 2000. I am young and free!"

    *bomb targeting undimmed light wipes out house, and 300 neighbours*

    "Oh. Sorry."
    Which part of I have been vaccinated did you fail to understand fuckwit?
    Fair enough, lol. I am a fuckwit if you've been vaccinated

    Apologies

    I just wanted an argument!
    I am not anti vaccine just against the idea we have to show papers to access everyday life. I won't support it and I refuse to go along with it
    Understood. I misconstrued you, hence my apology. In context, I have been encountering mad anti-vax sentiment all day, online, it seems to be especially prevalent in the young. I don't know why. So I jumped to conclusions

    It is, I believe, total selfishness, during a plague. The same as people who refuse to wear masks. Do you not fucking get it, you wear a mask to protect ME, I wear a mask to protect YOU?

    There is a time and place for libertarian beliefs. I generally ascribe to them. But a pandemic is probably the absolute WORST time to espouse this doctrine. It means that many people will die
    Vax passports though do nothing they are merely security theatre.

    If you are vaccinated in a bar with unvaccinated people you are unlikely to get it. If you do get it you are not likely to notice it. The only ones really at risk are the unvaccinated
    They are not "security theatre". They give more nervous people - people older than you, or sicker than you, people with cancer, or diabetes, or cystic fibrosis - permission to go out, to fly, to have a holiday, knowing they will be surrounded by similarly vaccinated people, so the risk is minimal - the least it can be.

    Do they not have the right to regain normal life, with this reassurance? They do

    Equally, your unvaxxed young friends also have a right to go the pub without being ID'd

    I would let the market decide, as I have said before. My guess is that places like theatres will want vax passports, pubs will not. Those pubs that do can advertise the fact, those that don't, the same. Let individuals decide: as long as R0 remains low
    They are exactly security theatre they are based on science, they are purely there to reassure in your own words.

    Sorry you don't get to restrict me just to reassure the nervous. If that was the case we might lock up all males because they make some woman nervous for example.
    If I am on a plane with entirely vaxxed people I am much less at risk of getting Corona than if I am on a plane where I have no idea of the status of anyone

    We are back to arguing and it is pointless.

    You might as well get used to vax passports, because they are coming. Businesses will see the huge advantage. Deal with it

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/greece-to-allow-in-10000-vaccinated-israeli-tourists-per-week/
    For travelling abroad it makes sense because it keeps out new variants. For internal use it makes no sense whatsoever. They can try and bring it in but they should expect most to ignore it and businesses that decide to implement it might find they backed the wrong horse. I know few people that are in your camp. Indeed the only person even on pb that has been in favour as far as I have seen is Nick Palmer. Your view I suspect is a minority
    Then let the market decide. Pubs which attract an older clientele can say "we demand vax passports", pubs which predominantly serve under-30s can say "no need for passports here!". I can see the appeal of both, for different markets

    Then the individual makes the choice, along with the business. That is the only fair way to do it, there is no perfect solution
    Businesses could already do that if they want. No legislation needed. You have been arguing for more. I predict that those that do though will see footfall lower than expected. Frankly who wants to go to a pub with a load of nervous nellies
    Time to end the argument, we don't differ on principle

    I predict vaccine passports will be more common than you expect, in a few months. We shall see. The difficult moment of moral awkwardness won't last that long, anyway: by late summer every adult in the UK will be vaxxed, then vax passports will definitely become universal: for foreign travel if nothing else

    People that refuse the jab outright will find that life is increasingly confined. As they should, because they are a risk to others.

    I do feel sorry for them, these beliefs are often deep-routed, it will be hard
    Just logged on - what's this all about? Can you fill me in? Government proposing what - evidence of negative tests if not vaccinated to access stuff within UK? Are vaccinated exempt from first jab, second jab or three weeks past second jab?

    And when is this effective from - 21 June I hope? Not before, surely?
    Nothing confirmed yet.

    Some discussions of possible vaccine certifications for domestic purposes. Might apply once everyone has been offered a vaccine ie from August. IE would be based on one dose only.

    Hopefully any such proposals shall be dropped - utter lunacy.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,662
    algarkirk said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    No. She committed actual fraud. She deliberately misrepresented her source material to claim an uptick in prosecutions of homosexuals when in fact most of the cases she wrote about involved paedophilia - including the rape of a six year old boy that she passed off as a consensual act for which a teenager had been punished.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-history-wolf-trfn-idUSKBN2A827X

    That’s separate from her inability to understand sentencing conventions. Or indeed a long career of making false and exaggerated claims.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html

    No self respecting university should let this doctorate stand. But Oxford does.
    Am I the only PB-er that gets confused between "ydoethur" and "YBardCwsc"?

    I see one as living in Aberystwyth, largely speaking Welsh but happy to speak English. Works in academe. Has a life, infrequent sex. Reads a lot of R S Thomas and likes laverbread, but has been to London quite a lot. Likes Bach flute sonatas re-done by male voice choirs

    I see the second as living in a hut on the Llyn Peninsula, goes out at night to shake a fist in the direction of Liverpool, or that pit of English squalor that is Caerphilly, then goes home and eats weasel guts with daffodil leaves, the only time he speaks English is on here, otherwise he mutters in cynghanedd next to an open fire of Snowdon peat

    They sound different but they are the two personalities of one bipolar Welsh guy in Clapham

    'Remember him, then, for he, too, is a winner of wars,
    Enduring like a tree under the curious stars'


    R S Thomas was possibly a great poet. Depressing, and bleak, but sometimes great

    Occasionally you need the real downer of pessimistic poetry. Like Hopkins' Terrible Sonnets. They cheer me up no end



    O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
    Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
    May who ne'er hung there. Nor does long our small
    Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,
    Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
    Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.



    Ba-boom
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited March 2021

    Pagan2 said:

    Will they remove her do you think though or will she survive to lead them into the next shambles?
    The problem there is that there is nowhere to promote her to....

    The American Presidency is taken, Putin is staying on, Xi The Pooh won't budge...
    Head of some big NGO like Oxfam? Or how about FIFA? IOC?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,476
    Maffew said:

    Foxy said:



    Welcome!

    Any hints to your politics? Woke warrior or Priti fan?

    Thanks!

    One of the few remaining Lib Dems in the country, albeit more by default than anything else. Centre left economics (but with more emphasis on the centre) and in that awkward spot on the social spectrum where the truly woke probably think I'm an evil oppressor and people who like waving flags think I'm going on BLM marches while apologising for being white.

    If it helps with triangulation, I'd prefer Starmer to Johnson, but saw a choice between Johnson and Corbyn as the difference between cutting off an arm and cutting off a leg.
    Sounds like we are twins, only I am 20 years older...
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,128
    Foxy said:

    For all his faults, Juncker was much more adept politically. He wouldn't have got into this sort of mess.
    Leyen has been a total disaster. My memory is hazy but wasn't there some kind of behind the scenes stitch up to give her the job?
  • felixfelix Posts: 15,124
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    No. She committed actual fraud. She deliberately misrepresented her source material to claim an uptick in prosecutions of homosexuals when in fact most of the cases she wrote about involved paedophilia - including the rape of a six year old boy that she passed off as a consensual act for which a teenager had been punished.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-history-wolf-trfn-idUSKBN2A827X

    That’s separate from her inability to understand sentencing conventions. Or indeed a long career of making false and exaggerated claims.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html

    No self respecting university should let this doctorate stand. But Oxford does.
    Am I the only PB-er that gets confused between "ydoethur" and "YBardCwsc"?

    I see one as living in Aberystwyth, largely speaking Welsh but happy to speak English. Works in academe. Has a life, infrequent sex. Reads a lot of R S Thomas and likes laverbread, but has been to London quite a lot. Likes Bach flute sonatas re-done by male voice choirs

    I see the second as living in a hut on the Llyn Peninsula, goes out at night to shake a fist in the direction of Liverpool, or that pit of English squalor that is Caerphilly, then goes home and eats weasel guts with daffodil leaves, the only time he speaks English is on here, otherwise he mutters in cynghanedd next to an open fire of Snowdon peat

    They sound different but they are the two personalities of one bipolar Welsh guy in Clapham

    I’m intrigued. Which one am I?
    Did you never see the movie, " The two faces of Wales"?
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,473
    Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

    No party has a monopoly on the flag.

    It's just naff to have one on constant display, like some fetish, but a fairly harmless fetishism.
    Agree. I have no fondness for turning the flag into A Thing, but better that than it be the property of small minded fascists, and once the issue is outed in this way, the clefts it reveals go much further than flags.

    Labour's problem is not, of course, flags in themselves, it is the incompatible enclave nature of their support base, and its unattractiveness to normal a-political people who never think about flags until someone burns it or is against it.

  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,662
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    No. She committed actual fraud. She deliberately misrepresented her source material to claim an uptick in prosecutions of homosexuals when in fact most of the cases she wrote about involved paedophilia - including the rape of a six year old boy that she passed off as a consensual act for which a teenager had been punished.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-history-wolf-trfn-idUSKBN2A827X

    That’s separate from her inability to understand sentencing conventions. Or indeed a long career of making false and exaggerated claims.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html

    No self respecting university should let this doctorate stand. But Oxford does.
    Am I the only PB-er that gets confused between "ydoethur" and "YBardCwsc"?

    I see one as living in Aberystwyth, largely speaking Welsh but happy to speak English. Works in academe. Has a life, infrequent sex. Reads a lot of R S Thomas and likes laverbread, but has been to London quite a lot. Likes Bach flute sonatas re-done by male voice choirs

    I see the second as living in a hut on the Llyn Peninsula, goes out at night to shake a fist in the direction of Liverpool, or that pit of English squalor that is Caerphilly, then goes home and eats weasel guts with daffodil leaves, the only time he speaks English is on here, otherwise he mutters in cynghanedd next to an open fire of Snowdon peat

    They sound different but they are the two personalities of one bipolar Welsh guy in Clapham

    Well, you are the expert on multiple personalities, errr, @Leon
    I see you don't deny the weasel guts. Telling!
    Well, I have to deny living in Aberystwyth, I moved away 13 years ago this month.
    Hahah! I was close!

    *air punch*
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820
    Totally off topic but noticed this

    https://blog.vanillaforums.com/product/may-release-introducing-polls#:~:text=May 23, 2012-,We are very pleased to announce that it is now,a poll in Vanilla Forums.&text=Polls can be set as,their comments in public polls.

    I would certainly be curious in the occasional one to kick off discussion about emerging views and as a gauge of readership views.

    A good example might for example be on the subject of vax passports
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,191
    As much as £100m of public money is believed to have been squandered by a “dysfunctional” council at the centre of corruption allegations.

    Multiple sources said Liverpool city council was thought to have lost out on tens of millions of pounds “at a conservative estimate” through questionable transactions over several years.

    While the true cost to taxpayers may never be known, it is thought that in the region of £100m has been identified as “at risk” from the “serious breakdown of governance” uncovered by a government-commissioned inspection.

    A report by Max Caller, a local government executive, found multiple failures at the local authority including the awarding of “dubious contracts”, a lack of record-keeping and “an environment of intimidation” in one of its main departments.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,234

    Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

    No party has a monopoly on the flag.

    It's just naff to have one on constant display, like some fetish, but a fairly harmless fetishism.
    You are one of the 19% then
    And you one of the herd ?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,234
    Posted mainly for the magnificent picture.
    https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1375184705612570632
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,128
    Not sure the EU Commission are the only ones losing their minds in the plague:

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133
  • maaarshmaaarsh Posts: 3,391
    Domestic vaccine passports are a reflection of the same mindset which made so many people refuse to accept how big a deal covid would turn out to be.

    People always deny changes are happening until it's impossible to do so. Last March that meant denying covid was going to change our lives. This year it means denying covid is going to cease to be such a big deal as soon as the western world is vaccinated by mid Summer. Once that happens continuing to demand documentation and restrictions will quickly become laughable.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820
    Foxy said:

    Maffew said:

    Foxy said:



    Welcome!

    Any hints to your politics? Woke warrior or Priti fan?

    Thanks!

    One of the few remaining Lib Dems in the country, albeit more by default than anything else. Centre left economics (but with more emphasis on the centre) and in that awkward spot on the social spectrum where the truly woke probably think I'm an evil oppressor and people who like waving flags think I'm going on BLM marches while apologising for being white.

    If it helps with triangulation, I'd prefer Starmer to Johnson, but saw a choice between Johnson and Corbyn as the difference between cutting off an arm and cutting off a leg.
    Sounds like we are twins, only I am 20 years older...
    Oh my we almost have enough lib dems to form the basis of a breeding program, within 50 years we might be releasing them back into the wild!
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    IanB2 said:

    As much as £100m of public money is believed to have been squandered by a “dysfunctional” council at the centre of corruption allegations.

    Multiple sources said Liverpool city council was thought to have lost out on tens of millions of pounds “at a conservative estimate” through questionable transactions over several years.

    While the true cost to taxpayers may never be known, it is thought that in the region of £100m has been identified as “at risk” from the “serious breakdown of governance” uncovered by a government-commissioned inspection.

    A report by Max Caller, a local government executive, found multiple failures at the local authority including the awarding of “dubious contracts”, a lack of record-keeping and “an environment of intimidation” in one of its main departments.

    And yet they will still vote Labour back in....
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,234
    Foxy said:

    Maffew said:

    Foxy said:



    Welcome!

    Any hints to your politics? Woke warrior or Priti fan?

    Thanks!

    One of the few remaining Lib Dems in the country, albeit more by default than anything else. Centre left economics (but with more emphasis on the centre) and in that awkward spot on the social spectrum where the truly woke probably think I'm an evil oppressor and people who like waving flags think I'm going on BLM marches while apologising for being white.

    If it helps with triangulation, I'd prefer Starmer to Johnson, but saw a choice between Johnson and Corbyn as the difference between cutting off an arm and cutting off a leg.
    Sounds like we are twins, only I am 20 years older...
    Lib Dem surge ?
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 2,869
    Hugely unpopular across the political spectrum?

    So in a country that elects the candidates who are preferred by the most people, the least popular of those gets to run the overarching organisation?

    I don't understand by what measure this is considered a good way to have a well run organisation.
  • valleyboyvalleyboy Posts: 605

    Foxy said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    stodge said:

    Back on topic, the YouGov poll numbers give a seat projection of:

    Lab 22
    Con 19
    PC 14
    Abolish 4
    LD 1

    Abolish and LDs are irrelevant on those numbers but the options of a Lab/PC or Con/PC Government are both viable. It's a huge reverse for Labour and their worst ever Senedd result and it would be the best ever for the Conservatives.

    I suppose the Conservatives will be hoping they can yoke PC to Labour and win against them both in 2026 though that will be strongly contingent on the result of the next GE I suspect.

    Would Drakeford survive such a reverse? Perhaps his head is the price for PC's support - I don't know.

    If PC are to look at formal coalition they will certainly demand the FM post, but will probably abandon it at an early stage.

    The LibDems will not win any seats. I am confident in that prediction. I could be wrong but I’m still confident.

    Equally, I will be very surprised if Abolish the Assembly do. Since the Assembly has already technically been abolished, they are very much fighting a forgotten war.

    And, no, Drakeford wouldn’t survive a really poor result, but he is helped by the paucity of alternatives.
    Drakeford might not survive period. For once the Senedd elections will be exciting! I have Conservatives most seats based solely on anecdotal evidence. Maybe I hang around with too many Tories, but their evidence really is a 0/10 Covid response from the Welsh Labour Government and an 11/10 from the UK Conservatives. Fortunately for the Welsh Conservatives, Paul Davies is no more and RT has been locked in a soundproofed room until May 7th.

    I would like to read your musings on Cons. most seats.
    In summary, the issue for Labour is that the Tories are now the undisputed second party in Wales, and by rallying opposition behind them they have eroded Labour’s strength in all bar about a dozen seats to the stage where they can’t be considered safe. They are also almost everywhere either first or second in the seats, including seats where Plaid and the Liberal Democrats used to be very competitive.

    Now that’s at Westminster and the Sennedd is of course a bit different. But, at the same time, because they are so clearly in second place and all other parties other than Labour and Plaid are clearly a busted flush (it will be a surprise if anyone other than those three win any seats) anyone who wants to vote against Labour has to look at them as the realistic option for a protest vote.

    Finally, as Plaid are likely to be a significant third force the bar for most seats is quite low. 23 would probably be enough and there are pathways for the Tories to achieve that.

    6-1 with most bookies. Should be 3-1. Labour are 11/10 on. Should be no better than even.

    DYOR.
    Though Drakefords lead in the leadership ratings does look formidable. What would Starmer give for these sort of numbers?:

    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1375110941994541056?s=19
    That is diametrically opposed to what I am hearing on the ground. Like I said earlier, maybe I know too many Conservatives...a bit like PB?
    Yes, the feedback on the ground that I inhabit is definitely a positive one for MD.
    ARTDavies is nowhere on peoples radar unless you are high Tory.
    The latest opinion poll with Labour on 31 and Tories a couple of points behind was perhaps not as surprising as st first glance. Clearly UKIP 2016 voters have rejoined the Tory fold, while Labour are more or less where they were before, all bar a couple of points.
    My prediction a couple of months ago was 26/7 for Labour, but this Boris bounce has made that look a bit shaky but I will stick to it more in hope than expectation.
    As for the Tories and ARTD getting into power, it would be a shambles, one that Wales would soon regret. My big worry that a Tory Wales and would lead to devolution falling apart. That is something I would be desperate to avoid.
  • MaffewMaffew Posts: 235
    Foxy said:

    Maffew said:

    Foxy said:



    Welcome!

    Any hints to your politics? Woke warrior or Priti fan?

    Thanks!

    One of the few remaining Lib Dems in the country, albeit more by default than anything else. Centre left economics (but with more emphasis on the centre) and in that awkward spot on the social spectrum where the truly woke probably think I'm an evil oppressor and people who like waving flags think I'm going on BLM marches while apologising for being white.

    If it helps with triangulation, I'd prefer Starmer to Johnson, but saw a choice between Johnson and Corbyn as the difference between cutting off an arm and cutting off a leg.
    Sounds like we are twins, only I am 20 years older...
    I'm a lawyer rather than a doctor, so that probably makes you the good twin and me the evil one.
  • Nigelb said:

    Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

    No party has a monopoly on the flag.

    It's just naff to have one on constant display, like some fetish, but a fairly harmless fetishism.
    You are one of the 19% then
    And you one of the herd ?
    And so what
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 47,976

    Foxy said:

    For all his faults, Juncker was much more adept politically. He wouldn't have got into this sort of mess.
    Leyen has been a total disaster. My memory is hazy but wasn't there some kind of behind the scenes stitch up to give her the job?
    Yes, although the person who was in theory supposed to get it, Manfred Weber, would probably have been even worse. I think it's possible she'll be replaced after the German elections, but not before then.
  • valleyboyvalleyboy Posts: 605
    ydoethur said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    kingbongo said:

    ydoethur said:

    ydoethur said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Andy_JS said:

    This is where being anti-science and anti a vaccine developed in association with the world's number one university gets you.
    World's number one university?
    It’s a number 2 university, actually.
    Oxford says otherwise based on the intermediate findings ;-)
    Any institution that could give a PhD to notorious forger and liar Naomi Wolf is clearly a bit shit.
    Oxford doesn't give anyone a PhD, we leave that to the tabs
    DPhil then, Mr Finicky.

    What I don’t understand is why they haven’t withdrawn it yet. Bad enough they passed it, but after it had been publicly exposed as fraudulent any self-respecting university would have acted at once.
    It was not fraudulent.

    It was incorrect. She made a mistake. Her ignorance was exposed in a very public manner.

    If a DPhil is awarded for (partially) incorrect work, then should it be later taken away ?

    I don't think so -- outright fraud or plagiarism (like our friend Ursula vdL) is a different matter.

    The responsibility for ensuring the thesis is correct really lies with the examiners (especially the external) and the supervisor. Not with the student who made a mistake.

    Why, even @YBarddCwsc made a mistake in his thesis (naturally entitled The Evil History of Skiing )
    No. She committed actual fraud. She deliberately misrepresented her source material to claim an uptick in prosecutions of homosexuals when in fact most of the cases she wrote about involved paedophilia - including the rape of a six year old boy that she passed off as a consensual act for which a teenager had been punished.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-lgbt-history-wolf-trfn-idUSKBN2A827X

    That’s separate from her inability to understand sentencing conventions. Or indeed a long career of making false and exaggerated claims.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/review-outrages-naomi-wolf.html

    No self respecting university should let this doctorate stand. But Oxford does.
    Am I the only PB-er that gets confused between "ydoethur" and "YBardCwsc"?

    I see one as living in Aberystwyth, largely speaking Welsh but happy to speak English. Works in academe. Has a life, infrequent sex. Reads a lot of R S Thomas and likes laverbread, but has been to London quite a lot. Likes Bach flute sonatas re-done by male voice choirs

    I see the second as living in a hut on the Llyn Peninsula, goes out at night to shake a fist in the direction of Liverpool, or that pit of English squalor that is Caerphilly, then goes home and eats weasel guts with daffodil leaves, the only time he speaks English is on here, otherwise he mutters in cynghanedd next to an open fire of Snowdon peat

    They sound different but they are the two personalities of one bipolar Welsh guy in Clapham

    Well, you are the expert on multiple personalities, errr, @Leon
    I see you don't deny the weasel guts. Telling!
    Well, I have to deny living in Aberystwyth, I moved away 13 years ago this month.
    Dont blame you. Over run with druggies now.
  • Nigelb said:

    Posted mainly for the magnificent picture.
    https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1375184705612570632

    That is an impressive picture
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,476
    algarkirk said:

    Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

    No party has a monopoly on the flag.

    It's just naff to have one on constant display, like some fetish, but a fairly harmless fetishism.
    Agree. I have no fondness for turning the flag into A Thing, but better that than it be the property of small minded fascists, and once the issue is outed in this way, the clefts it reveals go much further than flags.

    Labour's problem is not, of course, flags in themselves, it is the incompatible enclave nature of their support base, and its unattractiveness to normal a-political people who never think about flags until someone burns it or is against it.

    There is an interesting piece of academic work here on this thread concerning flag symbolism, and why it evokes such strong reactions:

    https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1375036788713132036?s=19

  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,052
    Pagan2 said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Introducing vax passports after everyone is vaccinated would be more sensible than this proposed farce.

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133

    Christ well I dont vote tory since 2010 because of their authoritarian bollocks. This would push me into vote against the tory camp even if it meant voting for the lib dems
    You should be voting Labour with your "caring and sharing" instincts and values.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 44,476
    Nigelb said:

    Foxy said:

    Maffew said:

    Foxy said:



    Welcome!

    Any hints to your politics? Woke warrior or Priti fan?

    Thanks!

    One of the few remaining Lib Dems in the country, albeit more by default than anything else. Centre left economics (but with more emphasis on the centre) and in that awkward spot on the social spectrum where the truly woke probably think I'm an evil oppressor and people who like waving flags think I'm going on BLM marches while apologising for being white.

    If it helps with triangulation, I'd prefer Starmer to Johnson, but saw a choice between Johnson and Corbyn as the difference between cutting off an arm and cutting off a leg.
    Sounds like we are twins, only I am 20 years older...
    Lib Dem surge ?
    Yes, I am still a Lib Dem, though leaning Green...
  • FishingFishing Posts: 4,560
    edited March 2021
    Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

    No party has a monopoly on the flag.

    It's just naff to have one on constant display, like some fetish, but a fairly harmless fetishism.
    Agree. I have no fondness for turning the flag into A Thing, but better that than it be the property of small minded fascists, and once the issue is outed in this way, the clefts it reveals go much further than flags.

    Labour's problem is not, of course, flags in themselves, it is the incompatible enclave nature of their support base, and its unattractiveness to normal a-political people who never think about flags until someone burns it or is against it.

    There is an interesting piece of academic work here on this thread concerning flag symbolism, and why it evokes such strong reactions:

    https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1375036788713132036?s=19

    Not just national identity - before Socialism was discredited by the collapse of the Eastern bloc, Labour often drivelled on about the Red Flag.

    And Corbyn revived it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5z-ds-bkhg
  • Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

    No party has a monopoly on the flag.

    It's just naff to have one on constant display, like some fetish, but a fairly harmless fetishism.
    Agree. I have no fondness for turning the flag into A Thing, but better that than it be the property of small minded fascists, and once the issue is outed in this way, the clefts it reveals go much further than flags.

    Labour's problem is not, of course, flags in themselves, it is the incompatible enclave nature of their support base, and its unattractiveness to normal a-political people who never think about flags until someone burns it or is against it.

    There is an interesting piece of academic work here on this thread concerning flag symbolism, and why it evokes such strong reactions:

    https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1375036788713132036?s=19

    For someone not bothered you do seem to be a bit obsessed
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,606

    Foxy said:

    For all his faults, Juncker was much more adept politically. He wouldn't have got into this sort of mess.
    Leyen has been a total disaster. My memory is hazy but wasn't there some kind of behind the scenes stitch up to give her the job?
    Yes, although the person who was in theory supposed to get it, Manfred Weber, would probably have been even worse. I think it's possible she'll be replaced after the German elections, but not before then.
    I think only if Söder becomes chancellor, that's what's driving all of these decisions IMO. They're all doing whatever they can to keep Söder out.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820
    edited March 2021
    kinabalu said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Introducing vax passports after everyone is vaccinated would be more sensible than this proposed farce.

    https://twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1375170117970096133

    Christ well I dont vote tory since 2010 because of their authoritarian bollocks. This would push me into vote against the tory camp even if it meant voting for the lib dems
    You should be voting Labour with your "caring and sharing" instincts and values.
    Not really labour only pretend to care and share their policies are ones that do nothing for those they purport to care about where as my political leanings are to help people better themselves not just make them slightly more comfortable in a council hovel
  • MaffewMaffew Posts: 235
    Foxy said:



    Yes, I am still a Lib Dem, though leaning Green...

    Snap. We really are in very similar political spaces
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 25,290
    I don't really see a problem with vaccine passports, operated at the discretion of the premises holder. For your 'local' where few people are unknown, they won't ask for them. For a large nightclub, they may wish to - at least in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic. Like most things, I suspect it will fade away as Covid passes from memory.
  • FrancisUrquhartFrancisUrquhart Posts: 76,274
    edited March 2021
    Drive thru vaccinations incoming next month...
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    Re: Covid passports, a rationale is offered: trying to twist the arms of reluctant youth into turning up to be vaccinated. Report is based on comments by unnamed sources so treat with appropriate caution, all the same sounds not wholly implausible...

    Making Covid certificates compulsory to enter pubs could help tackle vaccine hesitancy among young people, government figures believe, amid fears of a “stark” future fall in uptake among younger age groups.

    Government insiders are understood to believe that threatening to restrict freedoms to visit venues such as pubs could act as a “nudge” for younger people in particular.

    One senior source predicted the fall in uptake of vaccines offered to lower age groups could be “stark”, with young people thought to be a “particularly hesitant group”. With more than half of the UK population having had their first dose, uptake among older people has beaten expectations and exceeded 90% among some groups.

    Earlier this year Israel – which is leading the world in vaccine distribution – reported a drop in the number of people attending vaccine appointments, put down in part to apathy after it began offering jabs to those aged under 35. There is concern the same could be true in England.


    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/25/covid-checks-at-pubs-could-nudge-young-people-to-get-vaccine
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 25,024

    Pagan2 said:

    Will they remove her do you think though or will she survive to lead them into the next shambles?
    The problem there is that there is nowhere to promote her to....

    The American Presidency is taken, Putin is staying on, Xi The Pooh won't budge...
    You need to look for a position to which a woman has never been appointed.

    That process having been a significant part of her career progression.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,662

    Foxy said:

    For all his faults, Juncker was much more adept politically. He wouldn't have got into this sort of mess.
    Leyen has been a total disaster. My memory is hazy but wasn't there some kind of behind the scenes stitch up to give her the job?
    Yes, although the person who was in theory supposed to get it, Manfred Weber, would probably have been even worse. I think it's possible she'll be replaced after the German elections, but not before then.
    The idea Ursula can just be "replaced" after the German elex sums up the barren anti-democratic redundancy of the EU.

    So she is "replaced" because German domestic politics make it preferable? She is meant to be the President of the EU Commission, representing all Europeans (however badly she does this). Doesn't anyone else get a say? No voters? No one outside Germany? No one who isn't a senior German politician?

    What a crock of crap. This is not a dig at you, you have been admirably clear-sighted about EU shortcomings.

    But, mon Dieu. The EU needs drastic reform NOW, right NOW, or it is doomed to a painful death. If a terrible plague can't do it, alongside the departure of the second biggest member, what will?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820

    Re: Covid passports, a rationale is offered: trying to twist the arms of reluctant youth into turning up to be vaccinated. Report is based on comments by unnamed sources so treat with appropriate caution, all the same sounds not wholly implausible...

    Making Covid certificates compulsory to enter pubs could help tackle vaccine hesitancy among young people, government figures believe, amid fears of a “stark” future fall in uptake among younger age groups.

    Government insiders are understood to believe that threatening to restrict freedoms to visit venues such as pubs could act as a “nudge” for younger people in particular.

    One senior source predicted the fall in uptake of vaccines offered to lower age groups could be “stark”, with young people thought to be a “particularly hesitant group”. With more than half of the UK population having had their first dose, uptake among older people has beaten expectations and exceeded 90% among some groups.

    Earlier this year Israel – which is leading the world in vaccine distribution – reported a drop in the number of people attending vaccine appointments, put down in part to apathy after it began offering jabs to those aged under 35. There is concern the same could be true in England.


    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/25/covid-checks-at-pubs-could-nudge-young-people-to-get-vaccine

    Apart from there is no evidence younger people don't want vaccines in the uk, a solution looking for a problem
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,234

    Nigelb said:

    Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

    No party has a monopoly on the flag.

    It's just naff to have one on constant display, like some fetish, but a fairly harmless fetishism.
    You are one of the 19% then
    And you one of the herd ?
    And so what
    A rejoinder, nothing more.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,128
    We are losing our minds. No. No. No. No.

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1375203519502942216

    A State-driven app that is used every time you go into a public place like a pub or sports ground? What could possible go wrong?

    And this is the Conservatives proposing this? I am losing all sense of my bearings in politics.

    Calling all Liberals.

    You've found a cause to get yourself back in contention.



  • MaffewMaffew Posts: 235

    Re: Covid passports, a rationale is offered: trying to twist the arms of reluctant youth into turning up to be vaccinated. Report is based on comments by unnamed sources so treat with appropriate caution, all the same sounds not wholly implausible...

    Making Covid certificates compulsory to enter pubs could help tackle vaccine hesitancy among young people, government figures believe, amid fears of a “stark” future fall in uptake among younger age groups.

    Government insiders are understood to believe that threatening to restrict freedoms to visit venues such as pubs could act as a “nudge” for younger people in particular.

    One senior source predicted the fall in uptake of vaccines offered to lower age groups could be “stark”, with young people thought to be a “particularly hesitant group”. With more than half of the UK population having had their first dose, uptake among older people has beaten expectations and exceeded 90% among some groups.

    Earlier this year Israel – which is leading the world in vaccine distribution – reported a drop in the number of people attending vaccine appointments, put down in part to apathy after it began offering jabs to those aged under 35. There is concern the same could be true in England.


    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/25/covid-checks-at-pubs-could-nudge-young-people-to-get-vaccine

    Is vaccine hesitancy among the younger end of the population really that much of a problem? I realise I live in my own metropolitan, educated bubble, but I don't personally know a single person under 40 or over 65 who has said they won't get vaccinated, while I do know a few between those ages. My imrpession is definitely that vaccine hesitancy is more the preserve of the middle aged.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820

    We are losing our minds. No. No. No. No.

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1375203519502942216

    A State-driven app that is used every time you go into a public place like a pub or sports ground? What could possible go wrong?

    And this is the Conservatives proposing this? I am losing all sense of my bearings in politics.

    Calling all Liberals.

    You've found a cause to get yourself back in contention.



    You are surprised.....this is the party of the claire perry porn laws, various other illiberal internet tracking. They cannot be trusted with our liberty
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,825
    Nigelb said:

    Posted mainly for the magnificent picture.

    It begs the question, is that the only digger in Egypt?

    Surely 2 diggers would half the time taken...
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,662
    Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    Foxy said:

    algarkirk said:

    felix said:

    Oh dear - it seems Starmer has a flag problem. :smiley:
    It illustrates the Labour dilemma. A number of voter enclaves without a common agenda. But these voter enclaves cluster into three groups even about something as harmless and universal as respect for the flag of the nation of which your party is a principal instrument of power. 38 approve, 36 don't and (I assume) a third sizeable group of 26 or so don't mind one way or the other.

    When compared to the common identity of the Tories it is startling and striking. This makes a difficult starting point for telling a few million Tories to switch. Nothing about Tory voters suggests that they can be enthused about a party which is half hearted about its own country.

    It suggests that the Tory party may have reached the point where it has the better claim to be the one nation party than Labour.

    No party has a monopoly on the flag.

    It's just naff to have one on constant display, like some fetish, but a fairly harmless fetishism.
    Agree. I have no fondness for turning the flag into A Thing, but better that than it be the property of small minded fascists, and once the issue is outed in this way, the clefts it reveals go much further than flags.

    Labour's problem is not, of course, flags in themselves, it is the incompatible enclave nature of their support base, and its unattractiveness to normal a-political people who never think about flags until someone burns it or is against it.

    There is an interesting piece of academic work here on this thread concerning flag symbolism, and why it evokes such strong reactions:

    https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1375036788713132036?s=19

    It's not interesting, it is valueless lefty wokespeaking academic bullshit

    See a comment halfway down his thread

    https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1375036810523512832?s=20

    Oh, what a surprise

    I see he is an ardent Remainer, a maniac lefty, and he *adores* the NHS like a stone idol, while it suits him

    Ignore
  • EndillionEndillion Posts: 4,976
    IanB2 said:

    As much as £100m of public money is believed to have been squandered by a “dysfunctional” council at the centre of corruption allegations.

    Multiple sources said Liverpool city council was thought to have lost out on tens of millions of pounds “at a conservative estimate” through questionable transactions over several years.

    While the true cost to taxpayers may never be known, it is thought that in the region of £100m has been identified as “at risk” from the “serious breakdown of governance” uncovered by a government-commissioned inspection.

    A report by Max Caller, a local government executive, found multiple failures at the local authority including the awarding of “dubious contracts”, a lack of record-keeping and “an environment of intimidation” in one of its main departments.

    Is that actually a conservative estimate, or is it in fact a Conservative estimate?
  • londonpubmanlondonpubman Posts: 3,174

    We are losing our minds. No. No. No. No.

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1375203519502942216

    A State-driven app that is used every time you go into a public place like a pub or sports ground? What could possible go wrong?

    And this is the Conservatives proposing this? I am losing all sense of my bearings in politics.

    Calling all Liberals.

    You've found a cause to get yourself back in contention.



    If Boris goes along with any of this vaccine certification caper then everyone is voting LAB

    And kinabalu will be happy! :lol:
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 25,024
    Are there any PB views on best / worst / general rankings of the EU Commission Presidents ?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_European_Commission

    Presumably Delors and Barroso were held in high regard given that they got a double term.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820
    Scott_xP said:

    Nigelb said:

    Posted mainly for the magnificent picture.

    It begs the question, is that the only digger in Egypt?

    Surely 2 diggers would half the time taken...
    Wouldn't want to be the driver wondering everytime I scoop if that is the one that frees the ship to topple over
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 2,869

    Pagan2 said:

    Will they remove her do you think though or will she survive to lead them into the next shambles?
    The problem there is that there is nowhere to promote her to....

    The American Presidency is taken, Putin is staying on, Xi The Pooh won't budge...
    You need to look for a position to which a woman has never been appointed.

    That process having been a significant part of her career progression.
    Labour leader !!!!!
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,052
    Maffew said:

    Foxy said:



    Welcome!

    Any hints to your politics? Woke warrior or Priti fan?

    Thanks!

    One of the few remaining Lib Dems in the country, albeit more by default than anything else. Centre left economics (but with more emphasis on the centre) and in that awkward spot on the social spectrum where the truly woke probably think I'm an evil oppressor and people who like waving flags think I'm going on BLM marches while apologising for being white.

    If it helps with triangulation, I'd prefer Starmer to Johnson, but saw a choice between Johnson and Corbyn as the difference between cutting off an arm and cutting off a leg.
    That's pretty good. I think you'll get a date.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,165

    Pagan2 said:

    Will they remove her do you think though or will she survive to lead them into the next shambles?
    The problem there is that there is nowhere to promote her to....

    The American Presidency is taken, Putin is staying on, Xi The Pooh won't budge...
    You need to look for a position to which a woman has never been appointed.

    That process having been a significant part of her career progression.
    The current Pope is relatively young and seems to be enjoying the job.....
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 20,606
    I hope some sensible influencers switch to lockdown scepticism now it is the right policy and opposition is needed against the authoritarians, puritans and scared. The likes of JHB wont help convince anyone, even when they are occasionally correct.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,662
    Pagan2 said:

    We are losing our minds. No. No. No. No.

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1375203519502942216

    A State-driven app that is used every time you go into a public place like a pub or sports ground? What could possible go wrong?

    And this is the Conservatives proposing this? I am losing all sense of my bearings in politics.

    Calling all Liberals.

    You've found a cause to get yourself back in contention.



    You are surprised.....this is the party of the claire perry porn laws, various other illiberal internet tracking. They cannot be trusted with our liberty
    I did warn you.

    Businesses will demand it, because they see it as a way to reopening, and reassuring their clientele. These passports will be popular - but temporary
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 10,473

    I don't really see a problem with vaccine passports, operated at the discretion of the premises holder. For your 'local' where few people are unknown, they won't ask for them. For a large nightclub, they may wish to - at least in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic. Like most things, I suspect it will fade away as Covid passes from memory.

    There is a real issue here in that government is keen to delegate sensitive decisions to local commercial situations (pubs etc), and commerce will be very keen to have a playing field set by government (if at all) so that they can blame higher authority and avoid difficult decisions.

    Therefore I very much doubt if this is going to get resolved either sensibly or clearly because the body which does so is taking a risk on itself and leaving someone else in the clear.

  • Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,820
    edited March 2021
    Hmm.. this doesn't look good. Tanzania has been aggressively Covid-denying, which means it could well be a major but hidden source of mutations now already in the wild in large numbers:

    https://twitter.com/Tuliodna/status/1375116665227247620
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,234

    Pagan2 said:

    Will they remove her do you think though or will she survive to lead them into the next shambles?
    The problem there is that there is nowhere to promote her to....

    The American Presidency is taken, Putin is staying on, Xi The Pooh won't budge...
    You need to look for a position to which a woman has never been appointed.

    That process having been a significant part of her career progression.
    Prefect of Réunion ?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820
    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    We are losing our minds. No. No. No. No.

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1375203519502942216

    A State-driven app that is used every time you go into a public place like a pub or sports ground? What could possible go wrong?

    And this is the Conservatives proposing this? I am losing all sense of my bearings in politics.

    Calling all Liberals.

    You've found a cause to get yourself back in contention.



    You are surprised.....this is the party of the claire perry porn laws, various other illiberal internet tracking. They cannot be trusted with our liberty
    I did warn you.

    Businesses will demand it, because they see it as a way to reopening, and reassuring their clientele. These passports will be popular - but temporary
    Businesses I predict will only do it if they are forced too. If its voluntary then those that do will lose too much business. Just like non smoking pubs couldn't keep customers till legislation made them all so.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,234
    Scott_xP said:

    Nigelb said:

    Posted mainly for the magnificent picture.

    It begs the question, is that the only digger in Egypt?

    Surely 2 diggers would half the time taken...
    They were going to get the rest there by boat...
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 8,820
    Nigelb said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Will they remove her do you think though or will she survive to lead them into the next shambles?
    The problem there is that there is nowhere to promote her to....

    The American Presidency is taken, Putin is staying on, Xi The Pooh won't budge...
    You need to look for a position to which a woman has never been appointed.

    That process having been a significant part of her career progression.
    Prefect of Réunion ?
    President of france has never been a woman they have elections near
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,391
    edited March 2021
    The previous Tanzanian president was a Covid-19 denier. He's allegedly believed to have died of the disease on 17th March.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    Maffew said:

    Re: Covid passports, a rationale is offered: trying to twist the arms of reluctant youth into turning up to be vaccinated. Report is based on comments by unnamed sources so treat with appropriate caution, all the same sounds not wholly implausible...

    Making Covid certificates compulsory to enter pubs could help tackle vaccine hesitancy among young people, government figures believe, amid fears of a “stark” future fall in uptake among younger age groups.

    Government insiders are understood to believe that threatening to restrict freedoms to visit venues such as pubs could act as a “nudge” for younger people in particular.

    One senior source predicted the fall in uptake of vaccines offered to lower age groups could be “stark”, with young people thought to be a “particularly hesitant group”. With more than half of the UK population having had their first dose, uptake among older people has beaten expectations and exceeded 90% among some groups.

    Earlier this year Israel – which is leading the world in vaccine distribution – reported a drop in the number of people attending vaccine appointments, put down in part to apathy after it began offering jabs to those aged under 35. There is concern the same could be true in England.


    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/25/covid-checks-at-pubs-could-nudge-young-people-to-get-vaccine

    Is vaccine hesitancy among the younger end of the population really that much of a problem? I realise I live in my own metropolitan, educated bubble, but I don't personally know a single person under 40 or over 65 who has said they won't get vaccinated, while I do know a few between those ages. My imrpession is definitely that vaccine hesitancy is more the preserve of the middle aged.
    Research appears to back up the suggestion young people are less likely to get a vaccine. A survey of more than 170,000 people by Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori found that 99% of over-80s said they would accept a jab compared to 83% of 18- to 29-year-olds.

    An Office for National Statistics study published last month found 17% of 16- to 29-year-olds reported being hesitant to get a Covid vaccine, compared to only 1% of over-70s.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,052

    We are losing our minds. No. No. No. No.

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1375203519502942216

    A State-driven app that is used every time you go into a public place like a pub or sports ground? What could possible go wrong?

    And this is the Conservatives proposing this? I am losing all sense of my bearings in politics.

    Calling all Liberals.

    You've found a cause to get yourself back in contention.



    If Boris goes along with any of this vaccine certification caper then everyone is voting LAB

    And kinabalu will be happy! :lol:
    Except about actually having vaxports. Really not keen. My sense though is that it won't come to much apart from for international travel. Has that "ok as answer to an exam question" feel about it to me.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,833
    edited March 2021
    rcs1000 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    BBC News - Ford says farewell to 'Mondeo man' as car to be phased out
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56526468

    Whats the 2021 equivalent? Toyota Terry? Hybrid Harry?

    Tesla Tosser?
    EV Eddies....they are the ones that tell everybody you really need to get one, to save the planet, but they themselves drive a diesel.
    What do we call the guy who buys a plug-in hybrid for the BIK, but never plugs it in and drives around lugging a couple of hundred extra kilos compared to the standard petrol model?
    In the UK you'd call him a complete idiot, given how much cheaper electricity is than petrol.

    (Of course, that may not be true in Dubai.)
    Petrol’s $1.80/USG, but everyone’s complaining that it just went up 10%.
    Electricity is $0.0625/KWH

    In my mind, petrol’s cheap here and electricity is expensive.

    In the U.K., the BIK discount on plug-in hybrids is bonkers.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,391
    Why is an app assumed to be more secure than a paper document? After all, you can hand a smartphone to another person and they can pretend it's their phone. No different to handing a document to someone else.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 47,976
    Macron must think 'incompetent' has a different meaning in English.
    https://twitter.com/jamesfraney/status/1375200049353924618
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,234
    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    We are losing our minds. No. No. No. No.

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1375203519502942216

    A State-driven app that is used every time you go into a public place like a pub or sports ground? What could possible go wrong?

    And this is the Conservatives proposing this? I am losing all sense of my bearings in politics.

    Calling all Liberals.

    You've found a cause to get yourself back in contention.



    You are surprised.....this is the party of the claire perry porn laws, various other illiberal internet tracking. They cannot be trusted with our liberty
    I did warn you.

    Businesses will demand it, because they see it as a way to reopening, and reassuring their clientele. These passports will be popular - but temporary
    There was a notable lack of business voices supporting the idea today, and quite a few rubbishing it.
    Though admittedly I didn’t listen to all that much news.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 46,662

    Are there any PB views on best / worst / general rankings of the EU Commission Presidents ?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_European_Commission

    Presumably Delors and Barroso were held in high regard given that they got a double term.

    The incredible stat there is that Luxembourg - tiny Luxembourg! - has provided 3 presidents of the EC. More than any other country.

    In other words, major EU politicians would rather appoint someone whose last and only big job was mayor of Sheffield, or Toulouse, or Krakow, as against an actual, significant, national political leader with real skill, experience, and talent. This to run a political union of 450 million people.

    No wonder it fails, time and again
This discussion has been closed.