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Alex Salmond looks set to do a lot better amongst Scottish men than women – politicalbetting.com

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  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,285
    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That is amazing!

    And I'm now doing stopping distance calculations in my head...
  • JonathanD said:
    The problem is it is credible
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,355



    The US is demonstrating why premature reopening is a bad idea.
    https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1376572551812554760

    28% of Americans have been vaccinated, 45% of Brits have been.

    When Israel unlocked less than 40% of Israelis had been.
    One or two doses?
    Does it matter? One dose is 85% effective at preventing death, 80% at preventing hospitalisation. We are clearly further ahead of where Israel was when they lifted lockdown and miles ahead of the USA.
    Yes it does.
    If one dose slows spread by 50% and two doses by 90%, it makes a big difference on rapidity of doubling.
    We've more or less reduced the Groups 1-4 from being ICU admissions to a point of saturation.

    It's gone from 30-55-15 out of 100 to 15-28-15 out of 58 against the same case numbers (from groups 1-4, Groups 5-9, and Phase 2 vaccinees). So while we might have expected 100 ICU admissions per week against 5,000 cases per day, we'll now have 58 ICU admissions per week.
    Let's double the case numbers. Then we have 30-56-30 admissions - a total of 116 admissions per week. A bit more than we would have had at current case levels without vaccination, but here's the catch: case levels are doubling again. If we dropped restrictions to, say, Tier 1 levels, we'd probably have an R sufficient to double cases every week.

    That's 232 ICU admissions per week a week later - and while we're vaccinating at pace, it ain't quick enough to be giving much extra protection to Groups 5-9 or to the under-fifties in one more week.

    Another week later, and it's 464 ICU admissions per week. We've sent over 700 extra people into ICU in three weeks now, and without the vaccinations yet helping much. At this point, we're about two weeks from equalling the peak ICU admissions rate of the second wave (which was around 2500 per week) - how many people will be doubled-dosed-plus-two-weeks by then? We're looking at shortly after the end of April. Let's say Groups 1-4 are all double-dosed by then and have had 2 weeks extra. That 464 weekly admissions reduces by 80-100. So, actually, we're about 370 or so, and we're two-and-a-half weeks from exceeding the second wave maximum ICU admissions.

    In two and a half weeks, how many of the Phase 2 people will have had a jab and waited for 2-4 weeks for protection? How many of the Group 5-9 will have had a second jab and waited 2 weeks for maximum protection?

    Throughout all of this, we'd be looking at needing to buy 3-8 weeks of time, somehow. We'd need to lock down again.
    Another way of looking at it - admissions are on a bit of a plateau

    image

    Hospitalisations R is a little bit below 1

    image

    We are not ready to let rip just yet...

  • isamisam Posts: 41,118

    isam said:

    Redfield & Wilton






    BJ beats SKS on "tells the truth"? What?

    isam said:

    Redfield & Wilton






    That's just adding insult to injury for poor Sir Keir: Boris is beating him on 'Tells the truth'... :lol:
    It is apparently Boris’ Achilles heel. I don’t really get it - I think Starmer lacks charisma and doesn’t have what it takes to beat Boris in a GE, but wouldn’t have thought him a liar, and definitely more likely to be honest than Boris
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 3,080
    Very true, some have vented frustration on here, I think. But even if we handed over 100% of our vaccines to the EU, it wouldn't get them into people's arms any quicker.

    Everyone's horizons may take quite a while to broaden again, yet it isn't necessarily the closest neighbours that we'll be able to visit again first.

    Good evening, everybody.
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,870
    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    They'll get a little soggy:

    https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/trending/strong-storm-leaves-madeira-island-in-the-dark.html

    A subtropical storm hit the island of Madeira, bringing heavy rain, hail and thunder. The electrical activity was so intense that one of the lightning strikes, the impact of which was recorded on video, left the island completely in the dark. See the footage!
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,126
    TimT said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That video reminded me of this one

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0rbxB9Lqg
    Fuck me, that's amazing, Like parkour, but on a bike.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That has to be a joke. The EU has gone mad. Again
    It makes a mockery of the idea the EU has 'moved on' and doesn't care about the UK anymore.
    The tone of snarling contempt is also a giveaway - "little island".

    You can see it here as well:

    "But, Kirkegaard said, the battle over exports had been “nonsense”. Von der Leyen, he suggests, may have been guilty of letting Boris Johnson get under her skin.

    “The UK is a tiny, tiny vaccine producer and will always be that. One of the biggest communication mistakes they made was that AstraZeneca supplies were down in the EU because they were up in the UK, which is absurd,” he said.

    “They think of the UK [as] much more of an equal than it is. In vaccine production it is a mouse and the EU will very soon by far be the largest producer in the world ""

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/28/jean-claude-juncker-and-dominic-cummings-unite-on-ursula-von-der-leyen-eu-stupid-vaccine-war

    Brexit REALLY upsets them, and they show it most when they are actively trying to show how little they care about Brexit.
    The deep irony is that millions of Britons are just about to discover how large, beautiful and varied their own "little island" actually is, when they holiday domestically this summer.

    I have already booked three touring holidays in England this spring/summer. Lots of friends have joined and are coming along – in any normal year they'd be in France or Majorca.
  • TimT said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That video reminded me of this one

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0rbxB9Lqg
    My wife and I found it great fun
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Salmond's strategy seems - unfortunately for the Unionist side - to be more and more inspired. He's going to target the Unwoke Indies, who want to leave the UK but can't stand Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP's woke identitarianism, the Hate Crime Bill, and so on. And if he can get more MSPs on the pro-independence side while making himself its kingmaker, well then, his cup runneth over...

    Its also quite clever as the Greens weren't associated with Indy even if they were technically pro-Indy. So when the SNP failed to get a majority it was portrayed as an Indy failure, not an Indy majority.

    Alba like SNP are going to be 100% perceived as pro-Indy. If they replace the Greens let alone take list seats from unionists, that all but guarantees not just an Indy majority in Holyrood, but a perceived Indy majority.
    They are in fact more Indy than the SNP, the leadership at least.
    It could work out quite well for indy overall. My sense is that Alba are to the right of the SNP politically, so could pick up some so-called Tartan Tory votes (i.e. centre-right nationalists)?
    Alba describes itself as a social democratic party and Scottish Conservatives are overwhelmingly Unionist.

    Most likely it takes more conservative SNP voters in the Borders for instance and costs the SNP list seats there
    I didn't say they were rightwing, just that they were to the right of the SNP. That is my sense.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,599

    TimT said:

    OK, what does it say about me that what I take from this tweet is "how did they get the flags to fly in opposite directions like that"?
    That you are a Fysics Teacher, not someone who stands watching flags fluttering in the wind.
    I've been trying to work out how to do it (assuming it isn't just photoshopped) and have so far got to using a very high voltage to charge both flags with an opposite charge or have two flagpoles moving past each other (take the photo at just the right time). Are you telling me its just turbulence?
    I’ve seen it done with two windsocks about 30’ apart on the same building, on top of a hill on a very windy day. The building was the local gliding club hangar!
  • Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 32,548
    AnneJGP said:

    Very true, some have vented frustration on here, I think. But even if we handed over 100% of our vaccines to the EU, it wouldn't get them into people's arms any quicker.

    Everyone's horizons may take quite a while to broaden again, yet it isn't necessarily the closest neighbours that we'll be able to visit again first.

    Good evening, everybody.
    Evening Anne. Hope you are well.
  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,285

    TimT said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That video reminded me of this one

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0rbxB9Lqg
    My wife and I found it great fun
    I'm very impressed if you can do that!
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    Yes, I think it's pretty much a given that the Americans will "win" the global vaccine race. They are vaccinating in huge numbers, every day.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,210
    .

    TimT said:

    OK, what does it say about me that what I take from this tweet is "how did they get the flags to fly in opposite directions like that"?
    That you are a Fysics Teacher, not someone who stands watching flags fluttering in the wind.
    I've been trying to work out how to do it (assuming it isn't just photoshopped) and have so far got to using a very high voltage to charge both flags with an opposite charge or have two flagpoles moving past each other (take the photo at just the right time). Are you telling me its just turbulence?
    Just stick the two flags together, as here.
    (Whether in Photoshop, or actuality.)
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    The US is demonstrating why premature reopening is a bad idea.
    https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1376572551812554760

    She almost starts blubbing here

    https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1376557932939206659?s=20

    What's the reason, tho? America seems to be plateauing, if anything, rather than riding a new wave...
    Lockdowns are being eased a little too soon. Maryland is easing restrictions for restaurants and businesses and schools are back in-person, even though only about 30% are vaccinated. So new infections are creeping up. And that is before Kent or Brazil or Saffa variants have hit big time.
    I suspect America will be fine, thanks to the enormous supply of vax coming down-the-line. But a perilous moment, for sure
    Yep. I am sure the US will beat the UK to 100% of those wanting a vaccine having had both doses. They did 3 million yesterday, and it is only going to speed up. Maryland has 6 super vaccination centers, of which a couple have just come online. They will be opening a further 6 in the coming days. I have heard that the intention is to have everyone who wants vaccination to be completed by the end of May.
    Good. I am not interested in the UK 'beating' anyone. I want us to vaccinate as fast as we possibly can and the rest of the world to do the same. If we had everyone vaccinated by June and we were last because the rest of the world finished a week before us then that would be a bloody fantastic result.

    It seems to me that the only Governmental organisation that is hung up on being 'beaten' by us is the EU.

    No one is truly as safe as we are going to be from this until the whole world has been vaccinated. Only that way do we reduce the risk of resistant mutations.
    Fully agree.
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,725
    isam said:

    isam said:

    Redfield & Wilton






    BJ beats SKS on "tells the truth"? What?

    isam said:

    Redfield & Wilton






    That's just adding insult to injury for poor Sir Keir: Boris is beating him on 'Tells the truth'... :lol:
    It is apparently Boris’ Achilles heel. I don’t really get it - I think Starmer lacks charisma and doesn’t have what it takes to beat Boris in a GE, but wouldn’t have thought him a liar, and definitely more likely to be honest than Boris
    I think it translates as I prefer his lies to Keir Starmer's lies
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,298
    malcolmg said:

    tlg86 said:

    His ratings really are terrible, but I suppose he only needs the support of a small percentage to potentially hold the balance of power.

    If he gets 10% on the list (two-thirds of those who give him a positive rating) then that will be enough to give him the balance of power - unless the SNP manage to win a majority in the constituencies alone, or they somehow tumble to losing at least a dozen constituency seats.

    I'd expect most of those favourable to him would be independence supporters, and willing to vote for him for the super majority.
    10% is, apparently, the figure Alba need to do more good than harm to the pro-Independence cause. I doubt they will do that well. They could do harm to the Greens who are certainly not happy with this development.
    They will get 6 seats with just under 6% and only 1 of those is SNP , so even at that it is a big benefit.
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    I am struggling to see how Alba make a notable enough breakthrough in the polling to have much of an impact on anyone.

    Salmond looks like someone’s dead uncle, not the leader of a new independence movement.

    I picking them to get 4%, taking half their support from the SNP, and 1% each from the Greens and the Tories.

    Scotch expert Klaxon
    Got some better numbers?
    Thought not.
    Numpty , I would expect about 12%-14% minimum , mainly SNP but some Labour as well.
    Thanks, turnip-face.

    I highly doubt that.

    But if you are right, that would push SNP into the low 30s and keep Labour in the mid teens in the regional vote, eg

    SNP 32
    Con 22
    Lab 16
    Alba 14
    Green 8
    LD 8

    This would indeed add 12 to the Indy side, and remove 12 from the Unionists.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    Weird thing, my English holidays aren't that expensive. I had been assured on here that prices would shoot through the roof, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the pricing.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,877
    TimT said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That video reminded me of this one

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0rbxB9Lqg
    well he is halfway there, he needs to take the extra training wheel off
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w9S_vzdOX4
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 51,870
    isam said:

    Leon said:

    That has to be a joke. The EU has gone mad. Again
    Would you rather live in a massive, killer disease ridden continent or a small island where the disease doesn’t exist?
    "Kurt Russell reprises his role as Snake Plissken in... "Escape from E.U"!"
  • RobDRobD Posts: 59,930

    Yes, I think it's pretty much a given that the Americans will "win" the global vaccine race. They are vaccinating in huge numbers, every day.

    Na, Gibraltar is almost done.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,598

    OK, what does it say about me that what I take from this tweet is "how did they get the flags to fly in opposite directions like that"?
    That you are a regular on pb.com?
  • TimT said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That video reminded me of this one

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0rbxB9Lqg
    My wife and I found it great fun
    I'm very impressed if you can do that!
    On the basket ride to be fair
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    edited March 2021

    isam said:

    Redfield & Wilton






    That's just adding insult to injury for poor Sir Keir: Boris is beating him on 'Tells the truth'... :lol:
    And the comparisons across the board are appalling for Starmer
    I wonder how the hapless Attlee would have fared against the political titan that was Winston Churchill in the early 1940s? It was hardly worth Attlee turning up for GE1945 was it?
    Hats to piss on your chips, but... Labour led from 1943. The more charismatic leader closed the gap towards the end of the campaign




    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_1945_United_Kingdom_general_election
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468
    edited March 2021

    TimT said:

    OK, what does it say about me that what I take from this tweet is "how did they get the flags to fly in opposite directions like that"?
    That you are a Fysics Teacher, not someone who stands watching flags fluttering in the wind.
    I've been trying to work out how to do it (assuming it isn't just photoshopped) and have so far got to using a very high voltage to charge both flags with an opposite charge or have two flagpoles moving past each other (take the photo at just the right time). Are you telling me its just turbulence?

    Think in terms of shifting winds and the flags being tethered on one side so that they independently flutter around that vertical axis. The wind is not the only force acting on the flag and that is a moment in two separate movements only, not a stasis.
  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Yes, I think it's pretty much a given that the Americans will "win" the global vaccine race. They are vaccinating in huge numbers, every day.

    Especially since they will end with a much lower percentage of the country vaccinated than the UK will.

    They could finish before the UK even if they are behind the UK in doses per capita.
  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,285
    edited March 2021

    TimT said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That video reminded me of this one

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0rbxB9Lqg
    My wife and I found it great fun
    I'm very impressed if you can do that!
    On the basket ride to be fair
    Even that impresses me: it looks a little too dangerous to my mind, and I've driven in Paris.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,877

    TimT said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That video reminded me of this one

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0rbxB9Lqg
    My wife and I found it great fun
    I'm very impressed if you can do that!
    On the basket ride to be fair
    Have to say Madeira is the only european country that has made me want to live their till I discovered the internet was a bit flaky
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486
    RobD said:

    Yes, I think it's pretty much a given that the Americans will "win" the global vaccine race. They are vaccinating in huge numbers, every day.

    Na, Gibraltar is almost done.
    Ha, yes. I should have qualified my statement 'among major economies'.
  • Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 32,548
    RobD said:

    Yes, I think it's pretty much a given that the Americans will "win" the global vaccine race. They are vaccinating in huge numbers, every day.

    Na, Gibraltar is almost done.
    I think Gibraltar announced last week that they are done. The whole population with 2 doses.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429
    kle4 said:

    TimT said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That video reminded me of this one

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0rbxB9Lqg
    Fuck me, that's amazing, Like parkour, but on a bike.
    Quite incredible. Painfully scary

    Good song, too

  • TimT said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That video reminded me of this one

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0rbxB9Lqg
    My wife and I found it great fun
    I'm very impressed if you can do that!
    On the basket ride to be fair
    Even that impresses me: it looks a little too dangerous to my mind, and I've driven in Paris.
    It was fun, especially for us two pensioners
  • Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,821
    TimT said:

    Yep. I am sure the US will beat the UK to 100% of those wanting a vaccine having had both doses. They did 3 million yesterday, and it is only going to speed up. Maryland has 6 super vaccination centers, of which a couple have just come online. They will be opening a further 6 in the coming days. I have heard that the intention is to have everyone who wants vaccination to be completed by the end of May.

    Yes, it's rolling out fast in the US, but the vaccine refusal rate is likely to be higher than here, isn't it?
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,865

    .

    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That has to be a joke. The EU has gone mad. Again
    It makes a mockery of the idea the EU has 'moved on' and doesn't care about the UK anymore.
    The tone of snarling contempt is also a giveaway - "little island".

    You can see it here as well:

    "But, Kirkegaard said, the battle over exports had been “nonsense”. Von der Leyen, he suggests, may have been guilty of letting Boris Johnson get under her skin.

    “The UK is a tiny, tiny vaccine producer and will always be that. One of the biggest communication mistakes they made was that AstraZeneca supplies were down in the EU because they were up in the UK, which is absurd,” he said.

    “They think of the UK [as] much more of an equal than it is. In vaccine production it is a mouse and the EU will very soon by far be the largest producer in the world ""

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/28/jean-claude-juncker-and-dominic-cummings-unite-on-ursula-von-der-leyen-eu-stupid-vaccine-war

    Brexit REALLY upsets them, and they show it most when they are actively trying to show how little they care about Brexit.
    The UK is about to become a vaccine superpower. In 2022 we'll make in excess of 1bn doses of various vaccines. They're in for a very big shock.
    1 billion in the UK? 😲

    That is incredible. That is India levels.
    Yeah, the government has definitely decided that having a domestic vaccine industry is now in our strategic interest. Part of the remit of the VTF was to achieve that.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,380

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Salmond's strategy seems - unfortunately for the Unionist side - to be more and more inspired. He's going to target the Unwoke Indies, who want to leave the UK but can't stand Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP's woke identitarianism, the Hate Crime Bill, and so on. And if he can get more MSPs on the pro-independence side while making himself its kingmaker, well then, his cup runneth over...

    Its also quite clever as the Greens weren't associated with Indy even if they were technically pro-Indy. So when the SNP failed to get a majority it was portrayed as an Indy failure, not an Indy majority.

    Alba like SNP are going to be 100% perceived as pro-Indy. If they replace the Greens let alone take list seats from unionists, that all but guarantees not just an Indy majority in Holyrood, but a perceived Indy majority.
    They are in fact more Indy than the SNP, the leadership at least.
    Precisely.

    An SNP+Green majority was viewed as an SNP failure.

    An SNP+Alba majority will be a pro-Indy supermajority.
    An SNP+Alba majority would not be an SNP majority, so when Boris refuses indyref2 (Unionist parties combined having still likely at least won a majority of votes even if not seats) he would just let Sturgeon and Salmond tear each other apart over what to do next
    :D:D
    Sometimes I think most of us could write HYUFD's comment pieces as they are so predictable
    To be fair, HYUFD's analysis is far more mature than some other posters who seem to get their jollies from trolling their opponents.

    HYUFD's use of polling is often very helpful, although sometimes he takes oddballs like Mr Trafalgar at their word, and he would be wise to question their methodology.

    Come rain or shine, HYUFD is always readable.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468

    TimT said:

    Yep. I am sure the US will beat the UK to 100% of those wanting a vaccine having had both doses. They did 3 million yesterday, and it is only going to speed up. Maryland has 6 super vaccination centers, of which a couple have just come online. They will be opening a further 6 in the coming days. I have heard that the intention is to have everyone who wants vaccination to be completed by the end of May.

    Yes, it's rolling out fast in the US, but the vaccine refusal rate is likely to be higher than here, isn't it?
    Yes. Hence my phrase '100% of those wanting a vaccine'
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,586
    Leon said:

    That has to be a joke. The EU has gone mad. Again
    It'll probably be the UK that helps to end the pandemic in the EU eventually, when they decide to start taking our vaccines.
  • FloaterFloater Posts: 14,207
    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    Does anyone know why he was stupid enough to present the cartoons?

    I would not, for example, be taking St Aloysius Girls Year 10 to see “Piss Christ” at the local art gallery.

    Of course one deplores the insane local “community”, and one feels immense pity he may now need to live anonymously, but the
    teacher seems to have been an idiot.
    Read the bloody article

    "However, his father fumed: 'The school has thrown my son under a bus. The lesson that he delivered in which the picture of the Prophet Muhammad was shown was part of the curriculum, it had been approved by the school. Other teachers have done exactly the same thing.

    "'So why is my son being victimised like this? The school should have come out fighting for him and made it clear to the protestors that if offence was caused, then it was not my son's fault. It was the school's policy to show this picture, it wasn't an individual decision made by him.'"
    Ah. I withdraw.

    In which case, the man and family need the full support of the state; the school should immediately be placed in special measures; and the local “protesters” arrested for making death threats.

    But I am not sure this is about “freedom of speech” as much as standing against hate.
    It is definitely about freedom of speech. What amounts to is

    "You have the freedom to say x because of freedom of speech, however don't actually ever say x because you might offend people"

    This is a bit like the queens ability to block legislation. In theory she has it the moment she tries to use it then it will be removed.
    No.

    Teachers (or schools) do not have the right, and certainly not the imperative, to say anything they like.

    There is no “right” to inflame local nutters.
    There is no right for local nutters to utter death threats on some one saying something legal that was also on the school curriculum. It is noticeable though that you are on the side of local nutters
    Stupid comment.

    Clearly the local nutters are culpable first and foremost.

    Sad you don’t engage properly.

    It was legal for the teacher to show
    It was on the curriculum

    Why does any of your opprobrium attach to him?

    Not me not engaging properly its you saying he is somewhat to blame
    I started that way, but I was corrected.
    It was on the school curriculum.

    My beef (apart from with the rancid community “protesters”) is with the idea that this is about “freedom of speech”.

    It is, but only marginally.
    These people are not against “freedom of speech”. They are just hateful shit-heads.
    Then my apologies I misunderstood you I got the impression you were saying he shouldn't have shown it
    There is an argument for saying this cartoon should not be shown in schools. I am divided. On the one hand you do have to present kids with challenging material, and they do have to be taught why we allow mockery of religion: it is the bedrock of the Enlightenment. But these particular images are pretty toxic. There should be a better way of teaching about blasphemy-v-free speech.

    There is NO argument for putting these cartoons on the curriculum, allowing several teachers to show them, then, as soon as one innocent teacher gets into trouble, grovelling immediately to a hateful mob at the gates, suspending the teacher, and totally ruining his life and that of his family. And possibly getting him killed.

    It is rank cowardice. Appalling.
    And what does it show the mob, threats work.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868

    kjh said:

    kjh said:

    Cyclefree said:


    Currently EU exporters to us have an easy time of it because we are not doing any checks. It is our exports to them which are being hampered by our own government. This would seem to be the complete opposite of what you want.

    That's quite rightly a teething problem.

    When the UK is ready to do checks we can do whatever checks suit us best. Unless or until we determine we're in a position to do those checks, there's no point cutting off our own nose to spite our face.
    How is it a teething problem? Exporters can't export because the cost and complexity of the new EU rules - which we demanded as part of our preferred 3rd country status - makes it commercially unviable to do so.

    This isn't something which will get resolved unless our government climbs down and agrees a co-operation deal which removes the 3rd country barriers. That we will eventually be in a position to impose the same disaster on imports isn't us punishing the EU, its us punishing us.
    Did you read what I was responding to? The "teething problem" is the fact that "EU exporters to us have an easy time of it because we are not doing any checks". We aren't doing the checks because because the infrastructure wasn't built by Hammond despite his government pledging to leave the Customs Union, but is getting built now. When the infrastructure is ready, the checks will start.

    As for our exporters, they need to adapt. Remember that the majority of our exports, despite the EU membership, despite distance, actually go to the rest of the world already. The EU is closer so for the minority of trade going there, there's little reason why it can't be adapted to besides some edge cases that might die off. Changes happen.
    Have you ever run a business Philip? This is cloud cookooland stuff. See my post earlier today. I ran a business for which it would have been impossible to go longer distances (except for a a very few instances). Dealing with America was not profitable, similarly Australia.

    Try listening to the people who actually run these small businesses. Boy am I glad I retired before the shit hit the fan because I would have gone under. Less than 5% of my business was outside of Europe (not EU).
    Yes I have.

    Your business is frankly not representative of our overall balance of trade. The majority of exports by value go to the rest of the world already - despite all the advantages Europe have such as the closer distance, as well as frictionless trade as these figures date from EU membership.

    Ultimately politics comes down to a choice. All actions have consequences, all decisions have costs - if no other cost there will always be an "opportunity cost" for every decision. All changes have externalities. Anyone who denies there will be a downside to any decision is a fool or a liar.

    I don't deny there will be problems for some. I just believe, coldly, that overall it is the right thing to do. That the benefits outweigh the costs. But it was not an easy to decision.
    But there are so many businesses that are. You only have to see the numbers reporting they are giving up on exporting, not looking to expand further afield.

    Did you see the example I gave of Lawnsmith re NI. Just look at their website. I only saw it because I am a customer. This isn't political grandstanding. They have ceased selling to Irish customers. This was a UK and Ireland business. Maybe they would have expanded further, now they are going backwards because they can no longer export to Ireland nor ship to NI (because of the so called non existent border down the Irish sea) because it isn't viable.

    Just out of interest what sort of business did you run that this would not have been a concern?

    One thing I remember from the time is there were a lot of small business owners who were pro Brexit and the one thing they all had in common was all their customers were UK based and local to them. Never actually met one who actually exported. I ran a company where all my customers met up regularly (it was the nature of the business), not one was in favour of Brexit because they all traded with Europe or were from Europe.
    Most small businesses are UK based with UK customers. An estimated 91% of UK SMEs don't export.

    Those who were against leaving the European Union were free to make their case in 2016 and many did. They had valid arguments. Those arguments lost. It happens. Changes happens and all changes come with costs.

    If all changes could only be made if they were cost-free then we'd never change anything. That is a Luddite attitude.
    Your relentless trolling on the crisis facing our exporters ignores entirely that we were promised - by the man who became responsible for delivering it, no less - that there would be frictionless trade and no new non-tariff barriers.

    Thus our small business importers/exporters have an entirely justifiable grievance that what has transpired isn’t anything like what they were promised.

    The fact that the same guy at the same time was assuring his wife that he absolutely wasn’t having an affair, is immaterial.
  • HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Salmond's strategy seems - unfortunately for the Unionist side - to be more and more inspired. He's going to target the Unwoke Indies, who want to leave the UK but can't stand Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP's woke identitarianism, the Hate Crime Bill, and so on. And if he can get more MSPs on the pro-independence side while making himself its kingmaker, well then, his cup runneth over...

    Its also quite clever as the Greens weren't associated with Indy even if they were technically pro-Indy. So when the SNP failed to get a majority it was portrayed as an Indy failure, not an Indy majority.

    Alba like SNP are going to be 100% perceived as pro-Indy. If they replace the Greens let alone take list seats from unionists, that all but guarantees not just an Indy majority in Holyrood, but a perceived Indy majority.
    They are in fact more Indy than the SNP, the leadership at least.
    Precisely.

    An SNP+Green majority was viewed as an SNP failure.

    An SNP+Alba majority will be a pro-Indy supermajority.
    An SNP+Alba majority would not be an SNP majority, so when Boris refuses indyref2 (Unionist parties combined having still likely at least won a majority of votes even if not seats) he would just let Sturgeon and Salmond tear each other apart over what to do next
    :D:D
    Sometimes I think most of us could write HYUFD's comment pieces as they are so predictable
    To be fair, HYUFD's analysis is far more mature than some other posters who seem to get their jollies from trolling their opponents.

    HYUFD's use of polling is often very helpful, although sometimes he takes oddballs like Mr Trafalgar at their word, and he would be wise to question their methodology.

    Come rain or shine, HYUFD is always readable.
    Actually I agree
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468
    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    TimT said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That video reminded me of this one

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0rbxB9Lqg
    Fuck me, that's amazing, Like parkour, but on a bike.
    Quite incredible. Painfully scary

    Good song, too

    Danny MacAskill has a bunch of good videos online. This is my favorite:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_IQS3VKjA
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,877
    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    That has to be a joke. The EU has gone mad. Again
    It'll probably be the UK that helps to end the pandemic in the EU eventually, when they decide to start taking our vaccines.
    If anti vax levels stay persistently high in countries like france I am not sure whether there is anything we can do as its not just azn they are against
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,350

    malcolmg said:

    Salmond's strategy seems - unfortunately for the Unionist side - to be more and more inspired. He's going to target the Unwoke Indies, who want to leave the UK but can't stand Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP's woke identitarianism, the Hate Crime Bill, and so on. And if he can get more MSPs on the pro-independence side while making himself its kingmaker, well then, his cup runneth over...

    Its also quite clever as the Greens weren't associated with Indy even if they were technically pro-Indy. So when the SNP failed to get a majority it was portrayed as an Indy failure, not an Indy majority.

    Alba like SNP are going to be 100% perceived as pro-Indy. If they replace the Greens let alone take list seats from unionists, that all but guarantees not just an Indy majority in Holyrood, but a perceived Indy majority.
    They are in fact more Indy than the SNP, the leadership at least.
    It could work out quite well for indy overall. My sense is that Alba are to the right of the SNP politically, so could pick up some so-called Tartan Tory votes (i.e. centre-right nationalists)?
    Yes agree
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,475
    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    That is an awful thing for that father to say whether or not that's what he believes.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,486

    RobD said:

    Yes, I think it's pretty much a given that the Americans will "win" the global vaccine race. They are vaccinating in huge numbers, every day.

    Na, Gibraltar is almost done.
    I think Gibraltar announced last week that they are done. The whole population with 2 doses.
    Don't be facetious, there are at least three adult Gibraltarians.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,877
    Floater said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    Does anyone know why he was stupid enough to present the cartoons?

    I would not, for example, be taking St Aloysius Girls Year 10 to see “Piss Christ” at the local art gallery.

    Of course one deplores the insane local “community”, and one feels immense pity he may now need to live anonymously, but the
    teacher seems to have been an idiot.
    Read the bloody article

    "However, his father fumed: 'The school has thrown my son under a bus. The lesson that he delivered in which the picture of the Prophet Muhammad was shown was part of the curriculum, it had been approved by the school. Other teachers have done exactly the same thing.

    "'So why is my son being victimised like this? The school should have come out fighting for him and made it clear to the protestors that if offence was caused, then it was not my son's fault. It was the school's policy to show this picture, it wasn't an individual decision made by him.'"
    Ah. I withdraw.

    In which case, the man and family need the full support of the state; the school should immediately be placed in special measures; and the local “protesters” arrested for making death threats.

    But I am not sure this is about “freedom of speech” as much as standing against hate.
    It is definitely about freedom of speech. What amounts to is

    "You have the freedom to say x because of freedom of speech, however don't actually ever say x because you might offend people"

    This is a bit like the queens ability to block legislation. In theory she has it the moment she tries to use it then it will be removed.
    No.

    Teachers (or schools) do not have the right, and certainly not the imperative, to say anything they like.

    There is no “right” to inflame local nutters.
    There is no right for local nutters to utter death threats on some one saying something legal that was also on the school curriculum. It is noticeable though that you are on the side of local nutters
    Stupid comment.

    Clearly the local nutters are culpable first and foremost.

    Sad you don’t engage properly.

    It was legal for the teacher to show
    It was on the curriculum

    Why does any of your opprobrium attach to him?

    Not me not engaging properly its you saying he is somewhat to blame
    I started that way, but I was corrected.
    It was on the school curriculum.

    My beef (apart from with the rancid community “protesters”) is with the idea that this is about “freedom of speech”.

    It is, but only marginally.
    These people are not against “freedom of speech”. They are just hateful shit-heads.
    Then my apologies I misunderstood you I got the impression you were saying he shouldn't have shown it
    There is an argument for saying this cartoon should not be shown in schools. I am divided. On the one hand you do have to present kids with challenging material, and they do have to be taught why we allow mockery of religion: it is the bedrock of the Enlightenment. But these particular images are pretty toxic. There should be a better way of teaching about blasphemy-v-free speech.

    There is NO argument for putting these cartoons on the curriculum, allowing several teachers to show them, then, as soon as one innocent teacher gets into trouble, grovelling immediately to a hateful mob at the gates, suspending the teacher, and totally ruining his life and that of his family. And possibly getting him killed.

    It is rank cowardice. Appalling.
    And what does it show the mob, threats work.
    If the curriculum had life of brian in it then I am sure many christian parents would equally complain. I am also sure they would be told tough stfu this is a secular country. But then christian parents would not be issuing death threats and people would be openly supporting the showing of the life of brian
  • Richard_NabaviRichard_Nabavi Posts: 30,821
    TimT said:

    TimT said:

    Yep. I am sure the US will beat the UK to 100% of those wanting a vaccine having had both doses. They did 3 million yesterday, and it is only going to speed up. Maryland has 6 super vaccination centers, of which a couple have just come online. They will be opening a further 6 in the coming days. I have heard that the intention is to have everyone who wants vaccination to be completed by the end of May.

    Yes, it's rolling out fast in the US, but the vaccine refusal rate is likely to be higher than here, isn't it?
    Yes. Hence my phrase '100% of those wanting a vaccine'
    Indeed, but what matters is the number who actually get it.
  • BluestBlueBluestBlue Posts: 4,556
    edited March 2021
    isam said:

    isam said:

    Redfield & Wilton






    That's just adding insult to injury for poor Sir Keir: Boris is beating him on 'Tells the truth'... :lol:
    And the comparisons across the board are appalling for Starmer
    I wonder how the hapless Attlee would have fared against the political titan that was Winston Churchill in the early 1940s? It was hardly worth Attlee turning up for GE1945 was it?
    Hats to piss on your chips, but... Labour led from 1943. The more charismatic leader closed the gap towards the end of the campaign




    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_1945_United_Kingdom_general_election
    Excellent! Not to mention the tiny detail that Attlee had the major advantage relative to other LOTOs of playing a key role in the Government for years as Deputy Prime Minister and in running the domestic agenda during WW2.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,210
    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    Does anyone know why he was stupid enough to present the cartoons?

    I would not, for example, be taking St Aloysius Girls Year 10 to see “Piss Christ” at the local art gallery.

    Of course one deplores the insane local “community”, and one feels immense pity he may now need to live anonymously, but the
    teacher seems to have been an idiot.
    Read the bloody article

    "However, his father fumed: 'The school has thrown my son under a bus. The lesson that he delivered in which the picture of the Prophet Muhammad was shown was part of the curriculum, it had been approved by the school. Other teachers have done exactly the same thing.

    "'So why is my son being victimised like this? The school should have come out fighting for him and made it clear to the protestors that if offence was caused, then it was not my son's fault. It was the school's policy to show this picture, it wasn't an individual decision made by him.'"
    Ah. I withdraw.

    In which case, the man and family need the full support of the state; the school should immediately be placed in special measures; and the local “protesters” arrested for making death threats.

    But I am not sure this is about “freedom of speech” as much as standing against hate.
    It is definitely about freedom of speech. What amounts to is

    "You have the freedom to say x because of freedom of speech, however don't actually ever say x because you might offend people"

    This is a bit like the queens ability to block legislation. In theory she has it the moment she tries to use it then it will be removed.
    No.

    Teachers (or schools) do not have the right, and certainly not the imperative, to say anything they like.

    There is no “right” to inflame local nutters.
    There is no right for local nutters to utter death threats on some one saying something legal that was also on the school curriculum. It is noticeable though that you are on the side of local nutters
    Stupid comment.

    Clearly the local nutters are culpable first and foremost.

    Sad you don’t engage properly.

    It was legal for the teacher to show
    It was on the curriculum

    Why does any of your opprobrium attach to him?

    Not me not engaging properly its you saying he is somewhat to blame
    I started that way, but I was corrected.
    It was on the school curriculum.

    My beef (apart from with the rancid community “protesters”) is with the idea that this is about “freedom of speech”.

    It is, but only marginally.
    These people are not against “freedom of speech”. They are just hateful shit-heads.
    Then my apologies I misunderstood you I got the impression you were saying he shouldn't have shown it
    There is an argument for saying this cartoon should not be shown in schools. I am divided. On the one hand you do have to present kids with challenging material, and they do have to be taught why we allow mockery of religion: it is the bedrock of the Enlightenment. But these particular images are pretty toxic. There should be a better way of teaching about blasphemy-v-free speech.

    There is NO argument for putting these cartoons on the curriculum, allowing several teachers to show them, then, as soon as one innocent teacher gets into trouble, grovelling immediately to a hateful mob at the gates, suspending the teacher, and totally ruining his life and that of his family. And possibly getting him killed.

    It is rank cowardice. Appalling.
    Agreed. That is what I said on the previous thread - that the school had apparently hung the teacher out to dry.
    Cowardice, however much we might condemn it, I can understand in the context. Which is why the school needs direct support from government in the circumstances. It has gone some way beyond what even a well lead school can handle on its own (and assuming the media reports are accurate, that's probably not the case).

    The local authority seem to have washed their hands of the issue, saying it's not their business as the school is an academy.
  • AnneJGPAnneJGP Posts: 3,080

    AnneJGP said:

    Very true, some have vented frustration on here, I think. But even if we handed over 100% of our vaccines to the EU, it wouldn't get them into people's arms any quicker.

    Everyone's horizons may take quite a while to broaden again, yet it isn't necessarily the closest neighbours that we'll be able to visit again first.

    Good evening, everybody.
    Evening Anne. Hope you are well.
    Very well, thank you. And yourself?

    It's lovely to see more people out & about today.

    On topic: If I were a voter in the upcoming Scottish elections, I think I'd prefer Mr Salmond to Ms Sturgeon. Nothing to do with personal probity, as with Mr Johnson here; just that it seems more urgent to stop the rigging of the political structures than to stop the unsavoury personal behaviour. I know that doesn't help those who suffer the unsavoury behaviour.
  • theProletheProle Posts: 1,206
    maaarsh said:

    Looks like the timetable will be strictly kept to then...

    https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1376561589176918016

    April 12th remains the big unknown for the Govt. And that's a fortnight away. By the time that's past and any effects - or complete lack of (ahem) - are seen, we'll all be basically reopened anyway.
    apart from, pubs, restaurants and being allowed a social life in your own home.
    I.E. All the stuff that matters. They are doing this in the wrong order - being able to socialise at home is vastly more important than non-essential shops, and a bit more important than being able to socialise in a pub. The order should have been the other way around.

    I'd think there is little point in many non-essential shops reopening until the masks (at least) are gone - I for one have no intention of buying anything but the bare essentials whilst being made to wear one, so now they are getting put in the worst of all worlds, allowed to open, but in conditions where no one will want to use them.
  • rpjsrpjs Posts: 3,787
    News from the colonies: all New Yorkers 30+ are eligible for the vaccine from tomorrow, and all adults (16+) from next Tuesday.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,350

    malcolmg said:

    tlg86 said:

    His ratings really are terrible, but I suppose he only needs the support of a small percentage to potentially hold the balance of power.

    If he gets 10% on the list (two-thirds of those who give him a positive rating) then that will be enough to give him the balance of power - unless the SNP manage to win a majority in the constituencies alone, or they somehow tumble to losing at least a dozen constituency seats.

    I'd expect most of those favourable to him would be independence supporters, and willing to vote for him for the super majority.
    10% is, apparently, the figure Alba need to do more good than harm to the pro-Independence cause. I doubt they will do that well. They could do harm to the Greens who are certainly not happy with this development.
    They will get 6 seats with just under 6% and only 1 of those is SNP , so even at that it is a big benefit.
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    I am struggling to see how Alba make a notable enough breakthrough in the polling to have much of an impact on anyone.

    Salmond looks like someone’s dead uncle, not the leader of a new independence movement.

    I picking them to get 4%, taking half their support from the SNP, and 1% each from the Greens and the Tories.

    Scotch expert Klaxon
    Got some better numbers?
    Thought not.
    Numpty , I would expect about 12%-14% minimum , mainly SNP but some Labour as well.
    Thanks, turnip-face.

    I highly doubt that.

    But if you are right, that would push SNP into the low 30s and keep Labour in the mid teens in the regional vote, eg

    SNP 32
    Con 22
    Lab 16
    Alba 14
    Green 8
    LD 8

    This would indeed add 12 to the Indy side, and remove 12 from the Unionists.
    You really are stupid , ALBA are only on the list , SNP will win almost all the constituency seats and instead of 1 million wasted votes for 4 list seats , ALBA will hoover up a shedload of them and so give independence parties a big majority.
  • IanB2 said:

    kjh said:

    kjh said:

    Cyclefree said:


    Currently EU exporters to us have an easy time of it because we are not doing any checks. It is our exports to them which are being hampered by our own government. This would seem to be the complete opposite of what you want.

    That's quite rightly a teething problem.

    When the UK is ready to do checks we can do whatever checks suit us best. Unless or until we determine we're in a position to do those checks, there's no point cutting off our own nose to spite our face.
    How is it a teething problem? Exporters can't export because the cost and complexity of the new EU rules - which we demanded as part of our preferred 3rd country status - makes it commercially unviable to do so.

    This isn't something which will get resolved unless our government climbs down and agrees a co-operation deal which removes the 3rd country barriers. That we will eventually be in a position to impose the same disaster on imports isn't us punishing the EU, its us punishing us.
    Did you read what I was responding to? The "teething problem" is the fact that "EU exporters to us have an easy time of it because we are not doing any checks". We aren't doing the checks because because the infrastructure wasn't built by Hammond despite his government pledging to leave the Customs Union, but is getting built now. When the infrastructure is ready, the checks will start.

    As for our exporters, they need to adapt. Remember that the majority of our exports, despite the EU membership, despite distance, actually go to the rest of the world already. The EU is closer so for the minority of trade going there, there's little reason why it can't be adapted to besides some edge cases that might die off. Changes happen.
    Have you ever run a business Philip? This is cloud cookooland stuff. See my post earlier today. I ran a business for which it would have been impossible to go longer distances (except for a a very few instances). Dealing with America was not profitable, similarly Australia.

    Try listening to the people who actually run these small businesses. Boy am I glad I retired before the shit hit the fan because I would have gone under. Less than 5% of my business was outside of Europe (not EU).
    Yes I have.

    Your business is frankly not representative of our overall balance of trade. The majority of exports by value go to the rest of the world already - despite all the advantages Europe have such as the closer distance, as well as frictionless trade as these figures date from EU membership.

    Ultimately politics comes down to a choice. All actions have consequences, all decisions have costs - if no other cost there will always be an "opportunity cost" for every decision. All changes have externalities. Anyone who denies there will be a downside to any decision is a fool or a liar.

    I don't deny there will be problems for some. I just believe, coldly, that overall it is the right thing to do. That the benefits outweigh the costs. But it was not an easy to decision.
    But there are so many businesses that are. You only have to see the numbers reporting they are giving up on exporting, not looking to expand further afield.

    Did you see the example I gave of Lawnsmith re NI. Just look at their website. I only saw it because I am a customer. This isn't political grandstanding. They have ceased selling to Irish customers. This was a UK and Ireland business. Maybe they would have expanded further, now they are going backwards because they can no longer export to Ireland nor ship to NI (because of the so called non existent border down the Irish sea) because it isn't viable.

    Just out of interest what sort of business did you run that this would not have been a concern?

    One thing I remember from the time is there were a lot of small business owners who were pro Brexit and the one thing they all had in common was all their customers were UK based and local to them. Never actually met one who actually exported. I ran a company where all my customers met up regularly (it was the nature of the business), not one was in favour of Brexit because they all traded with Europe or were from Europe.
    Most small businesses are UK based with UK customers. An estimated 91% of UK SMEs don't export.

    Those who were against leaving the European Union were free to make their case in 2016 and many did. They had valid arguments. Those arguments lost. It happens. Changes happens and all changes come with costs.

    If all changes could only be made if they were cost-free then we'd never change anything. That is a Luddite attitude.
    Your relentless trolling on the crisis facing our exporters ignores entirely that we were promised - by the man who became responsible for delivering it, no less - that there would be frictionless trade and no new non-tariff barriers.

    Thus our small business importers/exporters have an entirely justifiable grievance that what has transpired isn’t anything like what they were promised.

    The fact that the same guy at the same time was assuring his wife that he absolutely wasn’t having an affair, is immaterial.
    Boris chaotic love life is well known and frankly it does seem to be immaterial to his poll ratings
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118

    isam said:

    isam said:

    Redfield & Wilton






    That's just adding insult to injury for poor Sir Keir: Boris is beating him on 'Tells the truth'... :lol:
    And the comparisons across the board are appalling for Starmer
    I wonder how the hapless Attlee would have fared against the political titan that was Winston Churchill in the early 1940s? It was hardly worth Attlee turning up for GE1945 was it?
    Hats to piss on your chips, but... Labour led from 1943. The more charismatic leader closed the gap towards the end of the campaign




    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_1945_United_Kingdom_general_election
    Excellent! Not to mention the tiny detail that Attlee had the major advantage relative to other LOTOs of playing a key role in the Government for years as Deputy Prime Minister and in running the domestic agenda during WW2.
    I had never looked at that polling before, if only I knew about it when everyone cited Attlee vs Churchill before as an example of my charisma theory being faulty
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,350

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Salmond's strategy seems - unfortunately for the Unionist side - to be more and more inspired. He's going to target the Unwoke Indies, who want to leave the UK but can't stand Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP's woke identitarianism, the Hate Crime Bill, and so on. And if he can get more MSPs on the pro-independence side while making himself its kingmaker, well then, his cup runneth over...

    Its also quite clever as the Greens weren't associated with Indy even if they were technically pro-Indy. So when the SNP failed to get a majority it was portrayed as an Indy failure, not an Indy majority.

    Alba like SNP are going to be 100% perceived as pro-Indy. If they replace the Greens let alone take list seats from unionists, that all but guarantees not just an Indy majority in Holyrood, but a perceived Indy majority.
    They are in fact more Indy than the SNP, the leadership at least.
    Precisely.

    An SNP+Green majority was viewed as an SNP failure.

    An SNP+Alba majority will be a pro-Indy supermajority.
    An SNP+Alba majority would not be an SNP majority, so when Boris refuses indyref2 (Unionist parties combined having still likely at least won a majority of votes even if not seats) he would just let Sturgeon and Salmond tear each other apart over what to do next
    :D:D
    Sometimes I think most of us could write HYUFD's comment pieces as they are so predictable
    To be fair, HYUFD's analysis is far more mature than some other posters who seem to get their jollies from trolling their opponents.

    HYUFD's use of polling is often very helpful, although sometimes he takes oddballs like Mr Trafalgar at their word, and he would be wise to question their methodology.

    Come rain or shine, HYUFD is always readable.
    Actually I agree
    He is OK when he sticks to what he knows but is very blinkered and adds plenty of bollox. Hard to pick the wheat from the chaff.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,350

    HYUFD said:

    malcolmg said:

    Salmond's strategy seems - unfortunately for the Unionist side - to be more and more inspired. He's going to target the Unwoke Indies, who want to leave the UK but can't stand Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP's woke identitarianism, the Hate Crime Bill, and so on. And if he can get more MSPs on the pro-independence side while making himself its kingmaker, well then, his cup runneth over...

    Its also quite clever as the Greens weren't associated with Indy even if they were technically pro-Indy. So when the SNP failed to get a majority it was portrayed as an Indy failure, not an Indy majority.

    Alba like SNP are going to be 100% perceived as pro-Indy. If they replace the Greens let alone take list seats from unionists, that all but guarantees not just an Indy majority in Holyrood, but a perceived Indy majority.
    They are in fact more Indy than the SNP, the leadership at least.
    It could work out quite well for indy overall. My sense is that Alba are to the right of the SNP politically, so could pick up some so-called Tartan Tory votes (i.e. centre-right nationalists)?
    Alba describes itself as a social democratic party and Scottish Conservatives are overwhelmingly Unionist.

    Most likely it takes more conservative SNP voters in the Borders for instance and costs the SNP list seats there
    I didn't say they were rightwing, just that they were to the right of the SNP. That is my sense.
    Also 100% less woke and not anywhere near as authoritarian
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429

    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    That is an awful thing for that father to say whether or not that's what he believes.
    Jesus, cut him some slack. His wife, the teacher's mother, is also in hiding. I imagine they are all quite emotional.

    A dreadful story on multiple levels
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,877
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    That is an awful thing for that father to say whether or not that's what he believes.
    Jesus, cut him some slack. His wife, the teacher's mother, is also in hiding. I imagine they are all quite emotional.

    A dreadful story on multiple levels
    Much better for the father to say "pay no attention they are all mouth no trousers" and let the decapitation come as a complete surprise
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    edited March 2021
    At least that ship in the Suez Canal is now freed, and the canal is opening 24 hours to clear the backlog.

    Meanwhile CNN offers an interactive chance to steer a ship through the canal yourself:

    https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2021/03/cnnix-steership/
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,877
    IanB2 said:

    At least that ship in the Suez Canal is now freed, and the canal is opening 24 hours to clear the backlog.

    Yay more china tat
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    Factoid of the day:

    Covid patients in French ICUs: 4,974
    Covid patients in UK hospitals: 4,560 in total (615 on ventilation)

    From France this morning:

    Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday that health conditions were worsening during a third wave of the pandemic in France and “all options are on the table” to protect the public.

    Le Maire also told France Info radio that the country should avoid adopting stricter restriction measures for as long as it could, and ruled out changing the list of shops and businesses that have been allowed to stay open.


    https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BL0IQ

    This reads suspiciously to me like an admission that the whole country is going to end up in lockdown, but that the Government is going to stall anyway whilst the situation continues to deteriorate. Lord alone knows what they're thinking. And meanwhile...

    France recorded the highest number of people in intensive care units (ICU) with COVID-19 since the second lockdown in November and the number of people in hospital with the disease rose by over 600 in a day, the biggest jump in more than four months.

    In a statement to a newspaper on Sunday, a group of 41 hospital doctors in the Paris region warned that they might soon have to start choosing between patients for emergency treatment.

    Scientists have argued that the government’s partial lockdown measures targeting high-infection zones like Paris are inadequate faced with fast-spreading coronavirus variants.


    https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BL2CU
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,298
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    tlg86 said:

    His ratings really are terrible, but I suppose he only needs the support of a small percentage to potentially hold the balance of power.

    If he gets 10% on the list (two-thirds of those who give him a positive rating) then that will be enough to give him the balance of power - unless the SNP manage to win a majority in the constituencies alone, or they somehow tumble to losing at least a dozen constituency seats.

    I'd expect most of those favourable to him would be independence supporters, and willing to vote for him for the super majority.
    10% is, apparently, the figure Alba need to do more good than harm to the pro-Independence cause. I doubt they will do that well. They could do harm to the Greens who are certainly not happy with this development.
    They will get 6 seats with just under 6% and only 1 of those is SNP , so even at that it is a big benefit.
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    I am struggling to see how Alba make a notable enough breakthrough in the polling to have much of an impact on anyone.

    Salmond looks like someone’s dead uncle, not the leader of a new independence movement.

    I picking them to get 4%, taking half their support from the SNP, and 1% each from the Greens and the Tories.

    Scotch expert Klaxon
    Got some better numbers?
    Thought not.
    Numpty , I would expect about 12%-14% minimum , mainly SNP but some Labour as well.
    Thanks, turnip-face.

    I highly doubt that.

    But if you are right, that would push SNP into the low 30s and keep Labour in the mid teens in the regional vote, eg

    SNP 32
    Con 22
    Lab 16
    Alba 14
    Green 8
    LD 8

    This would indeed add 12 to the Indy side, and remove 12 from the Unionists.
    You really are stupid , ALBA are only on the list , SNP will win almost all the constituency seats and instead of 1 million wasted votes for 4 list seats , ALBA will hoover up a shedload of them and so give independence parties a big majority.
    My numbers are shares of the regional vote.

    You are clearly so turnip-addled that you failed to realise the obvious.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 59,930
    edited March 2021
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    tlg86 said:

    His ratings really are terrible, but I suppose he only needs the support of a small percentage to potentially hold the balance of power.

    If he gets 10% on the list (two-thirds of those who give him a positive rating) then that will be enough to give him the balance of power - unless the SNP manage to win a majority in the constituencies alone, or they somehow tumble to losing at least a dozen constituency seats.

    I'd expect most of those favourable to him would be independence supporters, and willing to vote for him for the super majority.
    10% is, apparently, the figure Alba need to do more good than harm to the pro-Independence cause. I doubt they will do that well. They could do harm to the Greens who are certainly not happy with this development.
    They will get 6 seats with just under 6% and only 1 of those is SNP , so even at that it is a big benefit.
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    I am struggling to see how Alba make a notable enough breakthrough in the polling to have much of an impact on anyone.

    Salmond looks like someone’s dead uncle, not the leader of a new independence movement.

    I picking them to get 4%, taking half their support from the SNP, and 1% each from the Greens and the Tories.

    Scotch expert Klaxon
    Got some better numbers?
    Thought not.
    Numpty , I would expect about 12%-14% minimum , mainly SNP but some Labour as well.
    Thanks, turnip-face.

    I highly doubt that.

    But if you are right, that would push SNP into the low 30s and keep Labour in the mid teens in the regional vote, eg

    SNP 32
    Con 22
    Lab 16
    Alba 14
    Green 8
    LD 8

    This would indeed add 12 to the Indy side, and remove 12 from the Unionists.
    You really are stupid , ALBA are only on the list , SNP will win almost all the constituency seats and instead of 1 million wasted votes for 4 list seats , ALBA will hoover up a shedload of them and so give independence parties a big majority.
    Why didn't the SNP split into two parties ages ago? SNP and SNP List. :D
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,410
    Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    Does anyone know why he was stupid enough to present the cartoons?

    I would not, for example, be taking St Aloysius Girls Year 10 to see “Piss Christ” at the local art gallery.

    Of course one deplores the insane local “community”, and one feels immense pity he may now need to live anonymously, but the
    teacher seems to have been an idiot.
    Read the bloody article

    "However, his father fumed: 'The school has thrown my son under a bus. The lesson that he delivered in which the picture of the Prophet Muhammad was shown was part of the curriculum, it had been approved by the school. Other teachers have done exactly the same thing.

    "'So why is my son being victimised like this? The school should have come out fighting for him and made it clear to the protestors that if offence was caused, then it was not my son's fault. It was the school's policy to show this picture, it wasn't an individual decision made by him.'"
    Ah. I withdraw.

    In which case, the man and family need the full support of the state; the school should immediately be placed in special measures; and the local “protesters” arrested for making death threats.

    But I am not sure this is about “freedom of speech” as much as standing against hate.
    It is definitely about freedom of speech. What amounts to is

    "You have the freedom to say x because of freedom of speech, however don't actually ever say x because you might offend people"

    This is a bit like the queens ability to block legislation. In theory she has it the moment she tries to use it then it will be removed.
    No.

    Teachers (or schools) do not have the right, and certainly not the imperative, to say anything they like.

    There is no “right” to inflame local nutters.
    There is no right for local nutters to utter death threats on some one saying something legal that was also on the school curriculum. It is noticeable though that you are on the side of local nutters
    Stupid comment.

    Clearly the local nutters are culpable first and foremost.

    Sad you don’t engage properly.

    It was legal for the teacher to show
    It was on the curriculum

    Why does any of your opprobrium attach to him?

    Not me not engaging properly its you saying he is somewhat to blame
    I started that way, but I was corrected.
    It was on the school curriculum.

    My beef (apart from with the rancid community “protesters”) is with the idea that this is about “freedom of speech”.

    It is, but only marginally.
    These people are not against “freedom of speech”. They are just hateful shit-heads.
    Then my apologies I misunderstood you I got the impression you were saying he shouldn't have shown it
    There is an argument for saying this cartoon should not be shown in schools. I am divided. On the one hand you do have to present kids with challenging material, and they do have to be taught why we allow mockery of religion: it is the bedrock of the Enlightenment. But these particular images are pretty toxic. There should be a better way of teaching about blasphemy-v-free speech.

    There is NO argument for putting these cartoons on the curriculum, allowing several teachers to show them, then, as soon as one innocent teacher gets into trouble, grovelling immediately to a hateful mob at the gates, suspending the teacher, and totally ruining his life and that of his family. And possibly getting him killed.

    It is rank cowardice. Appalling.
    Agreed. That is what I said on the previous thread - that the school had apparently hung the teacher out to dry.
    Cowardice, however much we might condemn it, I can understand in the context. Which is why the school needs direct support from government in the circumstances. It has gone some way beyond what even a well lead school can handle on its own (and assuming the media reports are accurate, that's probably not the case).

    The local authority seem to have washed their hands of the issue, saying it's not their business as the school is an academy.
    In which they are correct.
    Removing LA oversight was a key supposed benefit of Academies.
  • IanB2IanB2 Posts: 49,868
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    That is an awful thing for that father to say whether or not that's what he believes.
    Jesus, cut him some slack. His wife, the teacher's mother, is also in hiding. I imagine they are all quite emotional.

    A dreadful story on multiple levels
    I thought that was crime in multi-story carparks?
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,298
    dixiedean said:

    Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    Does anyone know why he was stupid enough to present the cartoons?

    I would not, for example, be taking St Aloysius Girls Year 10 to see “Piss Christ” at the local art gallery.

    Of course one deplores the insane local “community”, and one feels immense pity he may now need to live anonymously, but the
    teacher seems to have been an idiot.
    Read the bloody article

    "However, his father fumed: 'The school has thrown my son under a bus. The lesson that he delivered in which the picture of the Prophet Muhammad was shown was part of the curriculum, it had been approved by the school. Other teachers have done exactly the same thing.

    "'So why is my son being victimised like this? The school should have come out fighting for him and made it clear to the protestors that if offence was caused, then it was not my son's fault. It was the school's policy to show this picture, it wasn't an individual decision made by him.'"
    Ah. I withdraw.

    In which case, the man and family need the full support of the state; the school should immediately be placed in special measures; and the local “protesters” arrested for making death threats.

    But I am not sure this is about “freedom of speech” as much as standing against hate.
    It is definitely about freedom of speech. What amounts to is

    "You have the freedom to say x because of freedom of speech, however don't actually ever say x because you might offend people"

    This is a bit like the queens ability to block legislation. In theory she has it the moment she tries to use it then it will be removed.
    No.

    Teachers (or schools) do not have the right, and certainly not the imperative, to say anything they like.

    There is no “right” to inflame local nutters.
    There is no right for local nutters to utter death threats on some one saying something legal that was also on the school curriculum. It is noticeable though that you are on the side of local nutters
    Stupid comment.

    Clearly the local nutters are culpable first and foremost.

    Sad you don’t engage properly.

    It was legal for the teacher to show
    It was on the curriculum

    Why does any of your opprobrium attach to him?

    Not me not engaging properly its you saying he is somewhat to blame
    I started that way, but I was corrected.
    It was on the school curriculum.

    My beef (apart from with the rancid community “protesters”) is with the idea that this is about “freedom of speech”.

    It is, but only marginally.
    These people are not against “freedom of speech”. They are just hateful shit-heads.
    Then my apologies I misunderstood you I got the impression you were saying he shouldn't have shown it
    There is an argument for saying this cartoon should not be shown in schools. I am divided. On the one hand you do have to present kids with challenging material, and they do have to be taught why we allow mockery of religion: it is the bedrock of the Enlightenment. But these particular images are pretty toxic. There should be a better way of teaching about blasphemy-v-free speech.

    There is NO argument for putting these cartoons on the curriculum, allowing several teachers to show them, then, as soon as one innocent teacher gets into trouble, grovelling immediately to a hateful mob at the gates, suspending the teacher, and totally ruining his life and that of his family. And possibly getting him killed.

    It is rank cowardice. Appalling.
    Agreed. That is what I said on the previous thread - that the school had apparently hung the teacher out to dry.
    Cowardice, however much we might condemn it, I can understand in the context. Which is why the school needs direct support from government in the circumstances. It has gone some way beyond what even a well lead school can handle on its own (and assuming the media reports are accurate, that's probably not the case).

    The local authority seem to have washed their hands of the issue, saying it's not their business as the school is an academy.
    In which they are correct.
    Removing LA oversight was a key supposed benefit of Academies.
    So the buck stops at Gavin Williamson.

    Can’t see any issues.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 23,227
    Pagan2 said:

    IanB2 said:

    At least that ship in the Suez Canal is now freed, and the canal is opening 24 hours to clear the backlog.

    Yay more china tat
    So they have Nimbys inn Egypt who keep it shut overnight?
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,350
    RobD said:

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    tlg86 said:

    His ratings really are terrible, but I suppose he only needs the support of a small percentage to potentially hold the balance of power.

    If he gets 10% on the list (two-thirds of those who give him a positive rating) then that will be enough to give him the balance of power - unless the SNP manage to win a majority in the constituencies alone, or they somehow tumble to losing at least a dozen constituency seats.

    I'd expect most of those favourable to him would be independence supporters, and willing to vote for him for the super majority.
    10% is, apparently, the figure Alba need to do more good than harm to the pro-Independence cause. I doubt they will do that well. They could do harm to the Greens who are certainly not happy with this development.
    They will get 6 seats with just under 6% and only 1 of those is SNP , so even at that it is a big benefit.
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    I am struggling to see how Alba make a notable enough breakthrough in the polling to have much of an impact on anyone.

    Salmond looks like someone’s dead uncle, not the leader of a new independence movement.

    I picking them to get 4%, taking half their support from the SNP, and 1% each from the Greens and the Tories.

    Scotch expert Klaxon
    Got some better numbers?
    Thought not.
    Numpty , I would expect about 12%-14% minimum , mainly SNP but some Labour as well.
    Thanks, turnip-face.

    I highly doubt that.

    But if you are right, that would push SNP into the low 30s and keep Labour in the mid teens in the regional vote, eg

    SNP 32
    Con 22
    Lab 16
    Alba 14
    Green 8
    LD 8

    This would indeed add 12 to the Indy side, and remove 12 from the Unionists.
    You really are stupid , ALBA are only on the list , SNP will win almost all the constituency seats and instead of 1 million wasted votes for 4 list seats , ALBA will hoover up a shedload of them and so give independence parties a big majority.
    Why didn't the SNP split into two parties ages ago? SNP and SNP List. :D
    Exactly
  • eekeek Posts: 28,397

    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    tlg86 said:

    His ratings really are terrible, but I suppose he only needs the support of a small percentage to potentially hold the balance of power.

    If he gets 10% on the list (two-thirds of those who give him a positive rating) then that will be enough to give him the balance of power - unless the SNP manage to win a majority in the constituencies alone, or they somehow tumble to losing at least a dozen constituency seats.

    I'd expect most of those favourable to him would be independence supporters, and willing to vote for him for the super majority.
    10% is, apparently, the figure Alba need to do more good than harm to the pro-Independence cause. I doubt they will do that well. They could do harm to the Greens who are certainly not happy with this development.
    They will get 6 seats with just under 6% and only 1 of those is SNP , so even at that it is a big benefit.
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    I am struggling to see how Alba make a notable enough breakthrough in the polling to have much of an impact on anyone.

    Salmond looks like someone’s dead uncle, not the leader of a new independence movement.

    I picking them to get 4%, taking half their support from the SNP, and 1% each from the Greens and the Tories.

    Scotch expert Klaxon
    Got some better numbers?
    Thought not.
    Numpty , I would expect about 12%-14% minimum , mainly SNP but some Labour as well.
    Thanks, turnip-face.

    I highly doubt that.

    But if you are right, that would push SNP into the low 30s and keep Labour in the mid teens in the regional vote, eg

    SNP 32
    Con 22
    Lab 16
    Alba 14
    Green 8
    LD 8

    This would indeed add 12 to the Indy side, and remove 12 from the Unionists.
    You really are stupid , ALBA are only on the list , SNP will win almost all the constituency seats and instead of 1 million wasted votes for 4 list seats , ALBA will hoover up a shedload of them and so give independence parties a big majority.
    My numbers are shares of the regional vote.

    You are clearly so turnip-addled that you failed to realise the obvious.
    Most of those SNP votes are wasted as you can't easily win list seats if you won the constituency seat - the entire part of the list is to ensure other parties are represented.

    Alba doesn't have that problem - Alba at just 14% of list votes probably has 14 seats.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,877

    dixiedean said:

    Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    Does anyone know why he was stupid enough to present the cartoons?

    I would not, for example, be taking St Aloysius Girls Year 10 to see “Piss Christ” at the local art gallery.

    Of course one deplores the insane local “community”, and one feels immense pity he may now need to live anonymously, but the
    teacher seems to have been an idiot.
    Read the bloody article

    "However, his father fumed: 'The school has thrown my son under a bus. The lesson that he delivered in which the picture of the Prophet Muhammad was shown was part of the curriculum, it had been approved by the school. Other teachers have done exactly the same thing.

    "'So why is my son being victimised like this? The school should have come out fighting for him and made it clear to the protestors that if offence was caused, then it was not my son's fault. It was the school's policy to show this picture, it wasn't an individual decision made by him.'"
    Ah. I withdraw.

    In which case, the man and family need the full support of the state; the school should immediately be placed in special measures; and the local “protesters” arrested for making death threats.

    But I am not sure this is about “freedom of speech” as much as standing against hate.
    It is definitely about freedom of speech. What amounts to is

    "You have the freedom to say x because of freedom of speech, however don't actually ever say x because you might offend people"

    This is a bit like the queens ability to block legislation. In theory she has it the moment she tries to use it then it will be removed.
    No.

    Teachers (or schools) do not have the right, and certainly not the imperative, to say anything they like.

    There is no “right” to inflame local nutters.
    There is no right for local nutters to utter death threats on some one saying something legal that was also on the school curriculum. It is noticeable though that you are on the side of local nutters
    Stupid comment.

    Clearly the local nutters are culpable first and foremost.

    Sad you don’t engage properly.

    It was legal for the teacher to show
    It was on the curriculum

    Why does any of your opprobrium attach to him?

    Not me not engaging properly its you saying he is somewhat to blame
    I started that way, but I was corrected.
    It was on the school curriculum.

    My beef (apart from with the rancid community “protesters”) is with the idea that this is about “freedom of speech”.

    It is, but only marginally.
    These people are not against “freedom of speech”. They are just hateful shit-heads.
    Then my apologies I misunderstood you I got the impression you were saying he shouldn't have shown it
    There is an argument for saying this cartoon should not be shown in schools. I am divided. On the one hand you do have to present kids with challenging material, and they do have to be taught why we allow mockery of religion: it is the bedrock of the Enlightenment. But these particular images are pretty toxic. There should be a better way of teaching about blasphemy-v-free speech.

    There is NO argument for putting these cartoons on the curriculum, allowing several teachers to show them, then, as soon as one innocent teacher gets into trouble, grovelling immediately to a hateful mob at the gates, suspending the teacher, and totally ruining his life and that of his family. And possibly getting him killed.

    It is rank cowardice. Appalling.
    Agreed. That is what I said on the previous thread - that the school had apparently hung the teacher out to dry.
    Cowardice, however much we might condemn it, I can understand in the context. Which is why the school needs direct support from government in the circumstances. It has gone some way beyond what even a well lead school can handle on its own (and assuming the media reports are accurate, that's probably not the case).

    The local authority seem to have washed their hands of the issue, saying it's not their business as the school is an academy.
    In which they are correct.
    Removing LA oversight was a key supposed benefit of Academies.
    So the buck stops at Gavin Williamson.

    Can’t see any issues.
    While I am happy to blame Gavin williamson for everything from original sin to the heat death of the universe.....sorry the blame here lies on only one set of people. The ones issuing death threats.

    Personally my view is round them all up and say "Ok you want to live in a theocracy. Here is a list and we are deporting you to the first on on your preferred list will accept you. Bye"

    I suspect protests would become more normal after a few of those
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,350

    dixiedean said:

    Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    Does anyone know why he was stupid enough to present the cartoons?

    I would not, for example, be taking St Aloysius Girls Year 10 to see “Piss Christ” at the local art gallery.

    Of course one deplores the insane local “community”, and one feels immense pity he may now need to live anonymously, but the
    teacher seems to have been an idiot.
    Read the bloody article

    "However, his father fumed: 'The school has thrown my son under a bus. The lesson that he delivered in which the picture of the Prophet Muhammad was shown was part of the curriculum, it had been approved by the school. Other teachers have done exactly the same thing.

    "'So why is my son being victimised like this? The school should have come out fighting for him and made it clear to the protestors that if offence was caused, then it was not my son's fault. It was the school's policy to show this picture, it wasn't an individual decision made by him.'"
    Ah. I withdraw.

    In which case, the man and family need the full support of the state; the school should immediately be placed in special measures; and the local “protesters” arrested for making death threats.

    But I am not sure this is about “freedom of speech” as much as standing against hate.
    It is definitely about freedom of speech. What amounts to is

    "You have the freedom to say x because of freedom of speech, however don't actually ever say x because you might offend people"

    This is a bit like the queens ability to block legislation. In theory she has it the moment she tries to use it then it will be removed.
    No.

    Teachers (or schools) do not have the right, and certainly not the imperative, to say anything they like.

    There is no “right” to inflame local nutters.
    There is no right for local nutters to utter death threats on some one saying something legal that was also on the school curriculum. It is noticeable though that you are on the side of local nutters
    Stupid comment.

    Clearly the local nutters are culpable first and foremost.

    Sad you don’t engage properly.

    It was legal for the teacher to show
    It was on the curriculum

    Why does any of your opprobrium attach to him?

    Not me not engaging properly its you saying he is somewhat to blame
    I started that way, but I was corrected.
    It was on the school curriculum.

    My beef (apart from with the rancid community “protesters”) is with the idea that this is about “freedom of speech”.

    It is, but only marginally.
    These people are not against “freedom of speech”. They are just hateful shit-heads.
    Then my apologies I misunderstood you I got the impression you were saying he shouldn't have shown it
    There is an argument for saying this cartoon should not be shown in schools. I am divided. On the one hand you do have to present kids with challenging material, and they do have to be taught why we allow mockery of religion: it is the bedrock of the Enlightenment. But these particular images are pretty toxic. There should be a better way of teaching about blasphemy-v-free speech.

    There is NO argument for putting these cartoons on the curriculum, allowing several teachers to show them, then, as soon as one innocent teacher gets into trouble, grovelling immediately to a hateful mob at the gates, suspending the teacher, and totally ruining his life and that of his family. And possibly getting him killed.

    It is rank cowardice. Appalling.
    Agreed. That is what I said on the previous thread - that the school had apparently hung the teacher out to dry.
    Cowardice, however much we might condemn it, I can understand in the context. Which is why the school needs direct support from government in the circumstances. It has gone some way beyond what even a well lead school can handle on its own (and assuming the media reports are accurate, that's probably not the case).

    The local authority seem to have washed their hands of the issue, saying it's not their business as the school is an academy.
    In which they are correct.
    Removing LA oversight was a key supposed benefit of Academies.
    So the buck stops at Gavin Williamson.

    Can’t see any issues.
    Stupid , did not describe it , nowhere near 100 list seats, where did you get those numbers from your erchie.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,877
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,692

    Factoid of the day:

    Covid patients in French ICUs: 4,974
    Covid patients in UK hospitals: 4,560 in total (615 on ventilation)

    From France this morning:

    Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday that health conditions were worsening during a third wave of the pandemic in France and “all options are on the table” to protect the public.

    Le Maire also told France Info radio that the country should avoid adopting stricter restriction measures for as long as it could, and ruled out changing the list of shops and businesses that have been allowed to stay open.


    https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BL0IQ

    This reads suspiciously to me like an admission that the whole country is going to end up in lockdown, but that the Government is going to stall anyway whilst the situation continues to deteriorate. Lord alone knows what they're thinking. And meanwhile...

    France recorded the highest number of people in intensive care units (ICU) with COVID-19 since the second lockdown in November and the number of people in hospital with the disease rose by over 600 in a day, the biggest jump in more than four months.

    In a statement to a newspaper on Sunday, a group of 41 hospital doctors in the Paris region warned that they might soon have to start choosing between patients for emergency treatment.

    Scientists have argued that the government’s partial lockdown measures targeting high-infection zones like Paris are inadequate faced with fast-spreading coronavirus variants.


    https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BL2CU

    It's unbelievable that they've watched what happened here, and then what happened in the Czech Republic and Poland, and still they dither about what do to. There seems to be a false impression that we got on top of B117 solely through vaccination when it was primarily a very tough lockdown.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,710
    I see Canada has suspended AZN in the under 55s.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/astrazeneca-under-55-1.5968128
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,410
    Has there been any post-Alba polling?
    Or are these figures being given ones using creative licence? (AKA Guesses).
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,939
    malcolmg said:

    malcolmg said:

    I am struggling to see how Alba make a notable enough breakthrough in the polling to have much of an impact on anyone.

    Salmond looks like someone’s dead uncle, not the leader of a new independence movement.

    I picking them to get 4%, taking half their support from the SNP, and 1% each from the Greens and the Tories.

    Scotch expert Klaxon
    Got some better numbers?
    Thought not.
    Numpty , I would expect about 12%-14% minimum , mainly SNP but some Labour as well.
    And some Tories, some of the ones that switched from SNP to Tory over Brexit, or got left behind as the SNP went more left wing under Sturgeon.
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 21,298
    malcolmg said:

    dixiedean said:

    Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    That Daily Mail teacher story is appalling

    This is the teacher's father talking:

    'Look what happened to the teacher in France who was killed for doing the same thing. Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He's devastated and crushed. '

    Does anyone know why he was stupid enough to present the cartoons?

    I would not, for example, be taking St Aloysius Girls Year 10 to see “Piss Christ” at the local art gallery.

    Of course one deplores the insane local “community”, and one feels immense pity he may now need to live anonymously, but the
    teacher seems to have been an idiot.
    Read the bloody article

    "However, his father fumed: 'The school has thrown my son under a bus. The lesson that he delivered in which the picture of the Prophet Muhammad was shown was part of the curriculum, it had been approved by the school. Other teachers have done exactly the same thing.

    "'So why is my son being victimised like this? The school should have come out fighting for him and made it clear to the protestors that if offence was caused, then it was not my son's fault. It was the school's policy to show this picture, it wasn't an individual decision made by him.'"
    Ah. I withdraw.

    In which case, the man and family need the full support of the state; the school should immediately be placed in special measures; and the local “protesters” arrested for making death threats.

    But I am not sure this is about “freedom of speech” as much as standing against hate.
    It is definitely about freedom of speech. What amounts to is

    "You have the freedom to say x because of freedom of speech, however don't actually ever say x because you might offend people"

    This is a bit like the queens ability to block legislation. In theory she has it the moment she tries to use it then it will be removed.
    No.

    Teachers (or schools) do not have the right, and certainly not the imperative, to say anything they like.

    There is no “right” to inflame local nutters.
    There is no right for local nutters to utter death threats on some one saying something legal that was also on the school curriculum. It is noticeable though that you are on the side of local nutters
    Stupid comment.

    Clearly the local nutters are culpable first and foremost.

    Sad you don’t engage properly.

    It was legal for the teacher to show
    It was on the curriculum

    Why does any of your opprobrium attach to him?

    Not me not engaging properly its you saying he is somewhat to blame
    I started that way, but I was corrected.
    It was on the school curriculum.

    My beef (apart from with the rancid community “protesters”) is with the idea that this is about “freedom of speech”.

    It is, but only marginally.
    These people are not against “freedom of speech”. They are just hateful shit-heads.
    Then my apologies I misunderstood you I got the impression you were saying he shouldn't have shown it
    There is an argument for saying this cartoon should not be shown in schools. I am divided. On the one hand you do have to present kids with challenging material, and they do have to be taught why we allow mockery of religion: it is the bedrock of the Enlightenment. But these particular images are pretty toxic. There should be a better way of teaching about blasphemy-v-free speech.

    There is NO argument for putting these cartoons on the curriculum, allowing several teachers to show them, then, as soon as one innocent teacher gets into trouble, grovelling immediately to a hateful mob at the gates, suspending the teacher, and totally ruining his life and that of his family. And possibly getting him killed.

    It is rank cowardice. Appalling.
    Agreed. That is what I said on the previous thread - that the school had apparently hung the teacher out to dry.
    Cowardice, however much we might condemn it, I can understand in the context. Which is why the school needs direct support from government in the circumstances. It has gone some way beyond what even a well lead school can handle on its own (and assuming the media reports are accurate, that's probably not the case).

    The local authority seem to have washed their hands of the issue, saying it's not their business as the school is an academy.
    In which they are correct.
    Removing LA oversight was a key supposed benefit of Academies.
    So the buck stops at Gavin Williamson.

    Can’t see any issues.
    Stupid , did not describe it , nowhere near 100 list seats, where did you get those numbers from your erchie.
    I assumed electorate votes were unaffected.

    I devised the regional votes using your prediction of ALBA = 14%, at the expense of SNP and Labour.

    The net result (versus today) was:

    Indy parties + 12
    Unionists - 12

    SNP would still need Greens to govern, but would not need ALBA.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,468
    isam said:
    I mean, it's not trolling. It just so happens that a majority of GSKs vaccine final fill capacity in the UK is at their Barnard Castle plant.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,586
    Foxy said:

    I see Canada has suspended AZN in the under 55s.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/astrazeneca-under-55-1.5968128

    As we know, more people will die from not taking the vaccine than would ever die from side effects from it.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 9,877

    Factoid of the day:

    Covid patients in French ICUs: 4,974
    Covid patients in UK hospitals: 4,560 in total (615 on ventilation)

    From France this morning:

    Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday that health conditions were worsening during a third wave of the pandemic in France and “all options are on the table” to protect the public.

    Le Maire also told France Info radio that the country should avoid adopting stricter restriction measures for as long as it could, and ruled out changing the list of shops and businesses that have been allowed to stay open.


    https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BL0IQ

    This reads suspiciously to me like an admission that the whole country is going to end up in lockdown, but that the Government is going to stall anyway whilst the situation continues to deteriorate. Lord alone knows what they're thinking. And meanwhile...

    France recorded the highest number of people in intensive care units (ICU) with COVID-19 since the second lockdown in November and the number of people in hospital with the disease rose by over 600 in a day, the biggest jump in more than four months.

    In a statement to a newspaper on Sunday, a group of 41 hospital doctors in the Paris region warned that they might soon have to start choosing between patients for emergency treatment.

    Scientists have argued that the government’s partial lockdown measures targeting high-infection zones like Paris are inadequate faced with fast-spreading coronavirus variants.


    https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BL2CU

    It's unbelievable that they've watched what happened here, and then what happened in the Czech Republic and Poland, and still they dither about what do to. There seems to be a false impression that we got on top of B117 solely through vaccination when it was primarily a very tough lockdown.
    Sadly I think its a uk factor, they look at the uk and say wow 120k deaths we only had 50k....so we dont need to follow your lead
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 32,586
    Had a game of tennis a couple of hours ago. Got a bit sunburnt though. That's what happens when you haven't been in the sun for 6 months.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,397

    isam said:
    I mean, it's not trolling. It just so happens that a majority of GSKs vaccine final fill capacity in the UK is at their Barnard Castle plant.
    And it's a few jobs as the plant was destined to close...
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,468
    eek said:

    isam said:
    I mean, it's not trolling. It just so happens that a majority of GSKs vaccine final fill capacity in the UK is at their Barnard Castle plant.
    And it's a few jobs as the plant was destined to close...
    The plant wasn't destined to close. Only a section of it which has nothing to do with vaccines.

    I personally know quite a few people who work at the Barnard Castle GSK plant.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,671
    TimT said:

    Leon said:

    kle4 said:

    TimT said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Pagan2 said:

    Leon said:

    I'll take a fully vaccinated Blackpool over a partially vaccinated Barcelona any day.
    It's also bollocks. Southern Europe is desperate for UK tourists, and will take us as soon as HMG opens the gates

    Madeira:

    “We depend a lot on the British market. We know it will be the first to resume travelling. We are waiting for the UK to follow its end-of-lockdown plan so British people can start arriving gradually.”

    “I think this measure is an absolute advantage for British tourists that want to come to Madeira because most of them will already be vaccinated by May and can arrive with tranquility,” he added.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/madeira-lets-in-tourists-who-can-show-covid-vaccine-passport?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1616995503
    Have to say I love Madeira though not sure about the basket public transport system
    Is that short for basket case, or do they actually use baskets? I would love to see that...
    Have you never been, they have these baskets and you hurtle down the slope in them with a couple of guys behind on ropes slowing them as needed and a couple in front speeding you up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCUJ23rsgu8
    That video reminded me of this one

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL0rbxB9Lqg
    Fuck me, that's amazing, Like parkour, but on a bike.
    Quite incredible. Painfully scary

    Good song, too

    Danny MacAskill has a bunch of good videos online. This is my favorite:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_IQS3VKjA
    Ah, the In Pin. Nice day for it. And Collie's Ledge felt narrow enough on foot, never mind on a bike. Utterly bonkers.
  • algarkirkalgarkirk Posts: 12,542
    Is there a Scottish party that supports independence but doesn't support applying to join the EU?

    I ask for two reasons: polls show there is a group of people who take that view. I'm not sure who they vote for.

    Secondly because arguing for Scottish independence is perfectly sensible (though personally I don't back it). But arguing that pooling sovereignty with NI, England and Wales is so terrible that we are planning to pool sovereignty with Lithuania, Spain, Slovenia, Germany and 23 others instead doesn't kind of add up does it?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429
    Pagan2 said:

    Factoid of the day:

    Covid patients in French ICUs: 4,974
    Covid patients in UK hospitals: 4,560 in total (615 on ventilation)

    From France this morning:

    Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday that health conditions were worsening during a third wave of the pandemic in France and “all options are on the table” to protect the public.

    Le Maire also told France Info radio that the country should avoid adopting stricter restriction measures for as long as it could, and ruled out changing the list of shops and businesses that have been allowed to stay open.


    https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BL0IQ

    This reads suspiciously to me like an admission that the whole country is going to end up in lockdown, but that the Government is going to stall anyway whilst the situation continues to deteriorate. Lord alone knows what they're thinking. And meanwhile...

    France recorded the highest number of people in intensive care units (ICU) with COVID-19 since the second lockdown in November and the number of people in hospital with the disease rose by over 600 in a day, the biggest jump in more than four months.

    In a statement to a newspaper on Sunday, a group of 41 hospital doctors in the Paris region warned that they might soon have to start choosing between patients for emergency treatment.

    Scientists have argued that the government’s partial lockdown measures targeting high-infection zones like Paris are inadequate faced with fast-spreading coronavirus variants.


    https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BL2CU

    It's unbelievable that they've watched what happened here, and then what happened in the Czech Republic and Poland, and still they dither about what do to. There seems to be a false impression that we got on top of B117 solely through vaccination when it was primarily a very tough lockdown.
    Sadly I think its a uk factor, they look at the uk and say wow 120k deaths we only had 50k....so we dont need to follow your lead
    France is close to 100,000 dead. Not THAT far behind us
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905

    Factoid of the day:

    Covid patients in French ICUs: 4,974
    Covid patients in UK hospitals: 4,560 in total (615 on ventilation)

    From France this morning:

    Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday that health conditions were worsening during a third wave of the pandemic in France and “all options are on the table” to protect the public.

    Le Maire also told France Info radio that the country should avoid adopting stricter restriction measures for as long as it could, and ruled out changing the list of shops and businesses that have been allowed to stay open.


    https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BL0IQ

    This reads suspiciously to me like an admission that the whole country is going to end up in lockdown, but that the Government is going to stall anyway whilst the situation continues to deteriorate. Lord alone knows what they're thinking. And meanwhile...

    France recorded the highest number of people in intensive care units (ICU) with COVID-19 since the second lockdown in November and the number of people in hospital with the disease rose by over 600 in a day, the biggest jump in more than four months.

    In a statement to a newspaper on Sunday, a group of 41 hospital doctors in the Paris region warned that they might soon have to start choosing between patients for emergency treatment.

    Scientists have argued that the government’s partial lockdown measures targeting high-infection zones like Paris are inadequate faced with fast-spreading coronavirus variants.


    https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2BL2CU

    It's unbelievable that they've watched what happened here, and then what happened in the Czech Republic and Poland, and still they dither about what do to. There seems to be a false impression that we got on top of B117 solely through vaccination when it was primarily a very tough lockdown.
    Total Covid patient numbers in France are now approximately where ours were at the start of January, immediately before the Government admitted final defeat for the tier system and put everyone back into lockdown. There's no immediate sign of that on the other side of the Channel, where florists, hairdressers and bookshops are amongst the concerns that are still trading, apparently, even in Paris and the other more restricted areas, and all the schools are still open. Their death rate is, mercifully, less than half of the UK's at that stage, but the diddling about really can't be helping matters.
  • FenmanFenman Posts: 1,047

    eek said:

    isam said:
    I mean, it's not trolling. It just so happens that a majority of GSKs vaccine final fill capacity in the UK is at their Barnard Castle plant.
    And it's a few jobs as the plant was destined to close...
    The plant wasn't destined to close. Only a section of it which has nothing to do with vaccines.

    I personally know quite a few people who work at the Barnard Castle GSK plant.
    Dominic Cummings?
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,858

    20-20

    Good to see all the important stuff being acknowledged first and in the right order too.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 19,468
    Fenman said:

    eek said:

    isam said:
    I mean, it's not trolling. It just so happens that a majority of GSKs vaccine final fill capacity in the UK is at their Barnard Castle plant.
    And it's a few jobs as the plant was destined to close...
    The plant wasn't destined to close. Only a section of it which has nothing to do with vaccines.

    I personally know quite a few people who work at the Barnard Castle GSK plant.
    Dominic Cummings?
    Nah. I heard he works in the night life industry in Durham City.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429
    Andy_JS said:

    Had a game of tennis a couple of hours ago. Got a bit sunburnt though. That's what happens when you haven't been in the sun for 6 months.

    It's fabulous to see the Royal Parks thronging with people - drinking, singing, carousing, picnicking, playing tennis and footie. Everything.

    It's like the Liberation of Paris. Marv.
  • Luckyguy1983Luckyguy1983 Posts: 28,475
    algarkirk said:

    Is there a Scottish party that supports independence but doesn't support applying to join the EU?

    I ask for two reasons: polls show there is a group of people who take that view. I'm not sure who they vote for.

    Secondly because arguing for Scottish independence is perfectly sensible (though personally I don't back it). But arguing that pooling sovereignty with NI, England and Wales is so terrible that we are planning to pool sovereignty with Lithuania, Spain, Slovenia, Germany and 23 others instead doesn't kind of add up does it?

    Alba could afford to take a more ambivalent view on EU membership post-Indy, and probably benefit electorally.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 55,429
    Fewer people died of Covid in the UK, today, than died of Covid, today, in Japan.

    How often have we been able to say that?

  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,858

    Salmond also had a women's problem during the indyref where women were much more sceptical about independence than men.

    And people even question who is the smarter sex.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,118
    Leon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Had a game of tennis a couple of hours ago. Got a bit sunburnt though. That's what happens when you haven't been in the sun for 6 months.

    It's fabulous to see the Royal Parks thronging with people - drinking, singing, carousing, picnicking, playing tennis and footie. Everything.

    It's like the Liberation of Paris. Marv.
    Boris is lucky - he’s seen to be setting people free (despite being the jailer himself) and it just so happens the weather is gorgeous. No easy task for Sir Keir to have to find a way to have a moan about it
This discussion has been closed.