Looking at Chile's excellent vaccination drive, alongside its surging cases and new lockdowns, are we safe in assuming that Sinovac is shite?
I think it just shows that vaccination alone won't stop exponential growth if you're in the middle of a covid wave; you also need a lockdown. Sinovac did clinical trials in Chile so they should know that it works.
Or it shows that Sinovac - with its ~50% efficacy - does not offer enough protection against new variants, sufficient to suppress transmission, whereas Pfizer (~90%, used in Israel), does?
All can be true to some extent
Aren't the results for Sinovac varied? I think the study in Brazil had a low efficacy rate, but the one in Turkey was much higher.
Possibly because of the variants?
Chile is troubled by the British and Brazilian variants, AIUI
In the trials in Brazil Sinovac scored 50.4%, in Indonesia 65%, in Turkey 91% (but it seems a tiny study?)
There is also a probelamtic lack of transparent data
Essentially, you don't want Sinovac if you can get anything else
With Brazil, it could be, although it does remind me of the reporting in the AZN study. In Chile they are using both Pfizer (10m doses according to Reuters) and Sinovac.
Chile is overwhelmingly using Sinovac; just a bit of Pfizer
Chile is a real-world test of Sinovac, vastly bigger than any study. At the moment it does not look great. Let's hope my pessimism is unjustified
Thanks, I wasn't sure of the distribution of administered doses. I think the jury is still out. Cases never really went to zero, and testing is at a very low level.
It's all a bit Bonfire of the Vanities. Safe to attack 'perpetuators', with no one willing to back them up for transgressions that are orders of magnitude lower than in other areas with more 'complicated' issues.
In totally unrelated news:
“It’s too soon to say what exactly the long-term impact of the current debate is going to have, but it’s likely to contribute to the huge changes in young male sexuality that have been happening for over a decade - without most people paying them much attention.
If the joy of sex is disappearing for young men, so too for a lot of them, is the point of sex. Russell, 18, says bleakly: “In my Dad’s day, you probably pursued sex if you’re straight to find a serious girlfriend you eventually might marry and have kids with. We can’t think like that. We don’t have the means to move out, let alone start a grown-up life. It makes it all – dating, sex, finding The One – all seem a bit pointless.”
It will be interesting to see if this eventually feeds through into marriage and births stats.
... or maybe we'll finally build enough houses for the young as well as the old, which would be my preference.
Or make the landlords sell up so that young people are having their lives leeched away by the parasites.
Oh dear, I suspect I've started that argument again!
I tend to agree with Max on this. Perhaps it is about supply of housing, but I honestly can't see it being fixed if it might lead to a fall in house prices.
To all of those on here praising Brown for "saving the world", fine. But what's happened since has been an unmitigated disaster and all politicians from all political parties as well as the media have contributed to it.
The house price rise happened before not since though. It happened on Brown's tenure.
The point is that prices really ought to have fallen considerably off the back of 2008. They haven't.
Prices did fall after the global financial crisis but have since resumed their climb.
They didn't fall around Woking!
The SE is over saturated with demand. It would take something seismic to really knock house prices here.
Something seismic, like huge numbers of white-collar employees no longer commuting daily to central London?
Except realistically a majority will still be required to commute to central London some of the time and therefore will still need to live within commuting range.
Yes, that’s the big unknown. Will companies allow enough time away from the office that a daily commute isn’t required.
If I had to work two days a week in London, for example, I could live two hours away by train (that’s as far as Manchester, Leeds or Bath), buy one return train ticket and spend one night a week in a cheap London hotel.
Expect plenty of office space to be repurposed as cheap no-frills hotels in the City of London, that’s a great business model for someone.
If I need to be in the office three days a week, that’s the worst of all worlds as I’m still buying a full season ticket so need to live much closer to London.
If it’s one week a month, I can live pretty much anywhere.
There will be some interesting actions about what "rights" you have to live distant from work.
When it snowed here a couple of years ago the schools closed because it was the *teachers* who could not get in, as too many were living eg over the border in slightly hilly bit of Derbyshire.
Of course also the interesting case of BA staff living in the Caribbean and commuting in to Heathrow on jockey-seats on flights.
In many schools the recommendation given to new teachers is "don't live in the catchment area". The reason is to avoid bumping into pupils or parents outside of work. I live within walking distance of school and while I haven't had many problems there is at least one pub I no longer go to after having heard "hello Sir!" a few too many times as I made my way to the bar...
With interesting knock on effects on snow days... (teachers can't travel to get to the schools as they live too far away)
Looking at Chile's excellent vaccination drive, alongside its surging cases and new lockdowns, are we safe in assuming that Sinovac is shite?
I think it just shows that vaccination alone won't stop exponential growth if you're in the middle of a covid wave; you also need a lockdown. Sinovac did clinical trials in Chile so they should know that it works.
Or it shows that Sinovac - with its ~50% efficacy - does not offer enough protection against new variants, sufficient to suppress transmission, whereas Pfizer (~90%, used in Israel), does?
All can be true to some extent
Aren't the results for Sinovac varied? I think the study in Brazil had a low efficacy rate, but the one in Turkey was much higher.
Possibly because of the variants?
Chile is troubled by the British and Brazilian variants, AIUI
In the trials in Brazil Sinovac scored 50.4%, in Indonesia 65%, in Turkey 91% (but it seems a tiny study?)
There is also a probelamtic lack of transparent data
Essentially, you don't want Sinovac if you can get anything else
With Brazil, it could be, although it does remind me of the reporting in the AZN study. In Chile they are using both Pfizer (10m doses according to Reuters) and Sinovac.
Chile is overwhelmingly using Sinovac; just a bit of Pfizer
Chile is a real-world test of Sinovac, vastly bigger than any study. At the moment it does not look great. Let's hope my pessimism is unjustified
Thanks, I wasn't sure of the distribution of administered doses. I think the jury is still out. Cases never really went to zero, and testing is at a very low level.
Yes, I could be wrong. I hope I am. But the trend is worrying
This German AZ news is a nightmare, for Germans. They are so risk averse, on the precautionary principle they will now ban the vax for younger women
What about young women who've had one dose, and are waiting for the second? Many will refuse it, even though the risks of serious side-effects are 1 in 90,000, whereas the risks of, say, the contraceptive pill are 1 in 1,000
One of the biggest cultural differences between Germany and the UK is indeed that they are more risk averse than we are, as you can see with the Uncertainty Avoidance index on here.
It's all a bit Bonfire of the Vanities. Safe to attack 'perpetuators', with no one willing to back them up for transgressions that are orders of magnitude lower than in other areas with more 'complicated' issues.
In totally unrelated news:
“It’s too soon to say what exactly the long-term impact of the current debate is going to have, but it’s likely to contribute to the huge changes in young male sexuality that have been happening for over a decade - without most people paying them much attention.
If the joy of sex is disappearing for young men, so too for a lot of them, is the point of sex. Russell, 18, says bleakly: “In my Dad’s day, you probably pursued sex if you’re straight to find a serious girlfriend you eventually might marry and have kids with. We can’t think like that. We don’t have the means to move out, let alone start a grown-up life. It makes it all – dating, sex, finding The One – all seem a bit pointless.”
It will be interesting to see if this eventually feeds through into marriage and births stats.
Anyone remember pursuing sex at 18 to find a serious girlfriend to marry and have kids with? Was I unusually shallow as an 18 year old?
I remember being painfully immature and naive.
This story absolutely chimes with what young female friends tell me. Young men are asexual. Neuter. Very polite but sometimes lacking virility. This means: frustrated young women
Isn't there a question of selection bias in that analysis ?
Obliging young lassies telling old letches what they want to hear?
The French interior minister pre-announces that they will implement controls from Thursday to prevent people from regions with tighter restrictions from leaving for Easter... https://twitter.com/Mediavenir/status/1376868056975040512
Gordon Brittas to reception, Gordon Brittas to reception....we have a problem.
The more he turns up the volume the more people decide - nah not for me.
Over-interpreting, I think.
I didn't vote for Starmer as leader. Not inspired by him. Nevertheless I'm not worried about disappointing polls. It's too early. He got the job a year ago just after a Tory landslide and since then there's been nothing but Covid. The public have no appetite for partisan politics in this climate. They want to hear about travel, vaccines, the roadmap out of lockdown, not about how Labour's vision for the country post-pandemic differs from the Tories.
The GE is not for 3 years and we'll be back to politics as usual well before then. The economy looks bad. The public finances are screwed. Starmer is establishing himself as a viable potential PM and has purged the hard left. There'll be some solid, popular policies on the way in due course. The Tories are not exactly fizzing with energy and ideas. Labour are right in the ballgame.
Way I see it, the only surefire way for the Tories to win a majority again is if they can hang on to what won it for them last time - their ownership of the WWC Leave political identity. They might be able to - certainly not ruling it out - but it'll be harder to whip up and surf the necessary nationalistic fervour without Brexit. It can't be delivered again - it now has to be experienced and that will be nothing like as thrilling.
My bets: Cons largest party at 1.8. Starmer next PM at 5.
Johnson has had a very easy media ride since December. As he has not been challenged he has looked self-assured. When Johnson is challenged the wheels fall off. Let's hope we see some mild scrutiny.
ALERT: the government is soon going to do something which will be quite confusing to add to the half hearted confusing things we are also thinking of doing, or are already sort of doing, but do not worry, the President has read every book in the world and is now a scientific genius
It's all a bit Bonfire of the Vanities. Safe to attack 'perpetuators', with no one willing to back them up for transgressions that are orders of magnitude lower than in other areas with more 'complicated' issues.
In totally unrelated news:
“It’s too soon to say what exactly the long-term impact of the current debate is going to have, but it’s likely to contribute to the huge changes in young male sexuality that have been happening for over a decade - without most people paying them much attention.
If the joy of sex is disappearing for young men, so too for a lot of them, is the point of sex. Russell, 18, says bleakly: “In my Dad’s day, you probably pursued sex if you’re straight to find a serious girlfriend you eventually might marry and have kids with. We can’t think like that. We don’t have the means to move out, let alone start a grown-up life. It makes it all – dating, sex, finding The One – all seem a bit pointless.”
It will be interesting to see if this eventually feeds through into marriage and births stats.
Anyone remember pursuing sex at 18 to find a serious girlfriend to marry and have kids with? Was I unusually shallow as an 18 year old?
I remember being painfully immature and naive.
This story absolutely chimes with what young female friends tell me. Young men are asexual. Neuter. Very polite but sometimes lacking virility. This means: frustrated young women
Isn't there a question of selection bias in that analysis ?
Obliging young lassies telling old letches what they want to hear?
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
Little comment on here from what I can see (forgive me if I have missed it) on the day the ONS confirming 150,000 UK Covid deaths.
Move along, nothing to see.
We've been hearing/reading about the death figures every day for the last 12 months.
The 30,000,000 vaccination success has been quite rightly heralded as personal victory for Boris Johnson. The 150,000 deaths reported but largely without comment..
Little comment on here from what I can see (forgive me if I have missed it) on the day the ONS confirming 150,000 UK Covid deaths.
Move along, nothing to see.
We've been hearing/reading about the death figures every day for the last 12 months.
The 30,000,000 vaccination success has been quite rightly heralded as personal victory for Boris Johnson. The 150,000 deaths reported but largely without comment..
Boris might get lucky because it is human nature to avert our faces from death and disaster.
The sun is out, the vaccines are working, an end to lockdown (forever?) is finally in sight. The guy who goes around shouting BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL THE CORPSES?!? is not going to be popular, even if he has a good point
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
Why should Labour strive to have someone good in charge when they can have someone average?
10 points is more than slightly behind albeit one poll.
This shows how from a slow start the UK has worked wonders in terms of testing. From May last year other than two very short periods of time we have tested more by population than any of out other big European neighbours. With the recent surge in testing we now do over 3 times more than any of them. This is a massive of achievement of the so called waste of money Test & Trace system.
It also shows why Europe without the scale of testing we have, 3x fewer vaccinations and cases surging have a tough few months ahead. They had the warning from the UK and did not act. In some cases they are still not acting. It is very sad.
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Little comment on here from what I can see (forgive me if I have missed it) on the day the ONS confirming 150,000 UK Covid deaths.
Move along, nothing to see.
We've been hearing/reading about the death figures every day for the last 12 months.
The 30,000,000 vaccination success has been quite rightly heralded as personal victory for Boris Johnson. The 150,000 deaths reported but largely without comment..
Boris might get lucky because it is human nature to avert our faces from death and disaster.
The sun is out, the vaccines are working, an end to lockdown (forever?) is finally in sight. The guy who goes around shouting BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL THE CORPSES?!? is not going to be popular, even if he has a good point
There’s something mawkish, too, on focusing on arbitrary milestones that we knew were coming. I mean what does one say? “150,000 is terrible”. Yet we know it’s terrible.
Good morning everybody. Another sunny day in prospect.
O/t again, but maybe inspired by today's news and recollections how many males here can recall occasions from their schooldays where they did things which might be considered, in a different time, as 'abuse'?
Bullying was rife in my school in the 60's
As it was in mine, a highly self-regarding predominantly middle class Hampshire grammar school.
And in my London grammar in the 70's.
2 of my sons suffered some pretty bad bullying at times
On the positive side, youngest has Aspergers and he never really suffered at school from bullying from the other children.
Is it possible kids are more accepting of differences these days or perhaps he was just lucky.
His treatment by the teaching establishment on the other hand ......
In my Staffordshire Grammar school of the 70s (all boys), bullying was rife as well. I don't remember any sexual assault, though I do remember the homophobic attitude which permeated the games sessions. I don't remember any aggression or homophobic attitudes from the teachers mind. In fact the older you got the more working the attitudes and relationships became.
In the mid 80s, several years after I left my school, three former teachers were convicted of sexual abuse and imprisoned - after having been quietly asked to leave the school and going on to commit further abuse at the next one.
The argument that it's OK because it's no different than it was in my day cuts no ice with me.
Aged 14 I transferred to a rural Grammar School, bullying was rife, although I managed to sidestep that myself, although it was a key reason I hated the place. I suspect there was a homo-erotic element to some of the bullying, but by and large it was based on the victim's social standing or size.
I don't recall bullying at my suburban comp, although I suspect it happened, although doubt it was endemic. Although we did have a teacher who spent 15 months in Winston Green for his relationship with a 15 year old girl.
8 - 10 stretches for our lot.
I don't recall any physical bullying in any of the schools I went to. 2 years in an RAF comprehensive (1970-72), and 5 years in a suburban (state) Grammar school (1972-77). In the latter, I don't recall any fights, let alone bullying. And while there were groups who were friendlier with each other than with others, there weren't even cliques of the type you see in Hollywood depictions of high school.
In the RAF school, certainly, there were a number of fights (both male and female) establishing the pecking order, but not many, and this was probably a product of the military tour system where ⅓ of the class left and a new ⅓ was added each school year and so there was an annual need for everyone to find out where they fit in. But I was always the tallest and biggest throughout school (6' by the time I was 11), which got me into a couple of fights with guys who wanted to prove they were tough but which might also explain why I did not see bullying.
Little comment on here from what I can see (forgive me if I have missed it) on the day the ONS confirming 150,000 UK Covid deaths.
Move along, nothing to see.
We've been hearing/reading about the death figures every day for the last 12 months.
The 30,000,000 vaccination success has been quite rightly heralded as personal victory for Boris Johnson. The 150,000 deaths reported but largely without comment..
Boris might get lucky because it is human nature to avert our faces from death and disaster.
The sun is out, the vaccines are working, an end to lockdown (forever?) is finally in sight. The guy who goes around shouting BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL THE CORPSES?!? is not going to be popular, even if he has a good point
It's all a bit Bonfire of the Vanities. Safe to attack 'perpetuators', with no one willing to back them up for transgressions that are orders of magnitude lower than in other areas with more 'complicated' issues.
In totally unrelated news:
“It’s too soon to say what exactly the long-term impact of the current debate is going to have, but it’s likely to contribute to the huge changes in young male sexuality that have been happening for over a decade - without most people paying them much attention.
If the joy of sex is disappearing for young men, so too for a lot of them, is the point of sex. Russell, 18, says bleakly: “In my Dad’s day, you probably pursued sex if you’re straight to find a serious girlfriend you eventually might marry and have kids with. We can’t think like that. We don’t have the means to move out, let alone start a grown-up life. It makes it all – dating, sex, finding The One – all seem a bit pointless.”
It will be interesting to see if this eventually feeds through into marriage and births stats.
Anyone remember pursuing sex at 18 to find a serious girlfriend to marry and have kids with? Was I unusually shallow as an 18 year old?
I remember being painfully immature and naive.
This story absolutely chimes with what young female friends tell me. Young men are asexual. Neuter. Very polite but sometimes lacking virility. This means: frustrated young women
Isn't there a question of selection bias in that analysis ?
Obliging young lassies telling old letches what they want to hear?
Nice of him to spend time thinking about whether young women are getting enough though. It's easy for older men to just drift off into their silo.
It's all a bit Bonfire of the Vanities. Safe to attack 'perpetuators', with no one willing to back them up for transgressions that are orders of magnitude lower than in other areas with more 'complicated' issues.
In totally unrelated news:
“It’s too soon to say what exactly the long-term impact of the current debate is going to have, but it’s likely to contribute to the huge changes in young male sexuality that have been happening for over a decade - without most people paying them much attention.
If the joy of sex is disappearing for young men, so too for a lot of them, is the point of sex. Russell, 18, says bleakly: “In my Dad’s day, you probably pursued sex if you’re straight to find a serious girlfriend you eventually might marry and have kids with. We can’t think like that. We don’t have the means to move out, let alone start a grown-up life. It makes it all – dating, sex, finding The One – all seem a bit pointless.”
It will be interesting to see if this eventually feeds through into marriage and births stats.
... or maybe we'll finally build enough houses for the young as well as the old, which would be my preference.
Or make the landlords sell up so that young people are having their lives leeched away by the parasites.
Oh dear, I suspect I've started that argument again!
I tend to agree with Max on this. Perhaps it is about supply of housing, but I honestly can't see it being fixed if it might lead to a fall in house prices.
To all of those on here praising Brown for "saving the world", fine. But what's happened since has been an unmitigated disaster and all politicians from all political parties as well as the media have contributed to it.
The house price rise happened before not since though. It happened on Brown's tenure.
The point is that prices really ought to have fallen considerably off the back of 2008. They haven't.
Prices did fall after the global financial crisis but have since resumed their climb.
They didn't fall around Woking!
The SE is over saturated with demand. It would take something seismic to really knock house prices here.
Something seismic, like huge numbers of white-collar employees no longer commuting daily to central London?
Except realistically a majority will still be required to commute to central London some of the time and therefore will still need to live within commuting range.
Yes, that’s the big unknown. Will companies allow enough time away from the office that a daily commute isn’t required.
If I had to work two days a week in London, for example, I could live two hours away by train (that’s as far as Manchester, Leeds or Bath), buy one return train ticket and spend one night a week in a cheap London hotel.
Expect plenty of office space to be repurposed as cheap no-frills hotels in the City of London, that’s a great business model for someone.
If I need to be in the office three days a week, that’s the worst of all worlds as I’m still buying a full season ticket so need to live much closer to London.
If it’s one week a month, I can live pretty much anywhere.
There will be some interesting actions about what "rights" you have to live distant from work.
When it snowed here a couple of years ago the schools closed because it was the *teachers* who could not get in, as too many were living eg over the border in slightly hilly bit of Derbyshire.
Of course also the interesting case of BA staff living in the Caribbean and commuting in to Heathrow on jockey-seats on flights.
In many schools the recommendation given to new teachers is "don't live in the catchment area". The reason is to avoid bumping into pupils or parents outside of work. I live within walking distance of school and while I haven't had many problems there is at least one pub I no longer go to after having heard "hello Sir!" a few too many times as I made my way to the bar...
With interesting knock on effects on snow days... (teachers can't travel to get to the schools as they live too far away)
"Snow days" in the old sense are going to be a casualty of Covid: we will now all be expected to set or even run lessons remotely if we can't get into school.
It's all a bit Bonfire of the Vanities. Safe to attack 'perpetuators', with no one willing to back them up for transgressions that are orders of magnitude lower than in other areas with more 'complicated' issues.
In totally unrelated news:
“It’s too soon to say what exactly the long-term impact of the current debate is going to have, but it’s likely to contribute to the huge changes in young male sexuality that have been happening for over a decade - without most people paying them much attention.
If the joy of sex is disappearing for young men, so too for a lot of them, is the point of sex. Russell, 18, says bleakly: “In my Dad’s day, you probably pursued sex if you’re straight to find a serious girlfriend you eventually might marry and have kids with. We can’t think like that. We don’t have the means to move out, let alone start a grown-up life. It makes it all – dating, sex, finding The One – all seem a bit pointless.”
It will be interesting to see if this eventually feeds through into marriage and births stats.
Anyone remember pursuing sex at 18 to find a serious girlfriend to marry and have kids with? Was I unusually shallow as an 18 year old?
I remember being painfully immature and naive.
This story absolutely chimes with what young female friends tell me. Young men are asexual. Neuter. Very polite but sometimes lacking virility. This means: frustrated young women
Isn't there a question of selection bias in that analysis ?
Obliging young lassies telling old letches what they want to hear?
Nice of him to spend time thinking about whether young women are getting enough though. It's easy for older men to just drift off into their silo.
I take a charitable interest in their welfare, it is true
It's all a bit Bonfire of the Vanities. Safe to attack 'perpetuators', with no one willing to back them up for transgressions that are orders of magnitude lower than in other areas with more 'complicated' issues.
In totally unrelated news:
“It’s too soon to say what exactly the long-term impact of the current debate is going to have, but it’s likely to contribute to the huge changes in young male sexuality that have been happening for over a decade - without most people paying them much attention.
If the joy of sex is disappearing for young men, so too for a lot of them, is the point of sex. Russell, 18, says bleakly: “In my Dad’s day, you probably pursued sex if you’re straight to find a serious girlfriend you eventually might marry and have kids with. We can’t think like that. We don’t have the means to move out, let alone start a grown-up life. It makes it all – dating, sex, finding The One – all seem a bit pointless.”
It will be interesting to see if this eventually feeds through into marriage and births stats.
Anyone remember pursuing sex at 18 to find a serious girlfriend to marry and have kids with? Was I unusually shallow as an 18 year old?
I remember being painfully immature and naive.
This story absolutely chimes with what young female friends tell me. Young men are asexual. Neuter. Very polite but sometimes lacking virility. This means: frustrated young women
Isn't there a question of selection bias in that analysis ?
Obliging young lassies telling old letches what they want to hear?
Nice of him to spend time thinking about whether young women are getting enough though. It's easy for older men to just drift off into their silo.
It's what's protruding from the silo that I'm worried about.
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Partisan bickering over pointless cherry-picked midterm polls is PB at its most crashingly dull. Are otherwise intellectual posters like Correct Horse and Bluest as boringly party political IRL?
The French interior minister pre-announces that they will implement controls from Thursday to prevent people from regions with tighter restrictions from leaving for Easter... https://twitter.com/Mediavenir/status/1376868056975040512
You have to give your mates time to escape. Pre-warning does just that when the ban is instant rather than 30 hours later (as the last lockdown in Paris was handled).
As well they might. There’s been far too much jumping to conclusions and fearmongering about. Both are deeply counterproductive in the end, as they simply offer seeds of evidence to covid deniers and antivaxers.
ALERT: the government is soon going to do something which will be quite confusing to add to the half hearted confusing things we are also thinking of doing, or are already sort of doing, but do not worry, the President has read every book in the world and is now a scientific genius
And will address the nation some time in the next 15 days about an action you should be taking this week.
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Partisan bickering over pointless cherry-picked midterm polls is PB at its most crashingly dull. Are otherwise intellectual posters like Correct Horse and Bluest as boringly party political IRL?
Although we do have some big elections in a little over a week. So quite important.
I didn't really get the Brittas meme until now. And it still doesn't work for 95% of people who have no idea who or what a Brittas is. But this is pure Brittas
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Indeed. For example, in prematurely calling the end of a vaccine bounce when all three subsequent polls show the Tory lead increasing.
It would not surprise me if it were true; the stampede to electric is real no OEM wants to be outflanked. If you go to the BMW UK website it only shows the BEV models, you have to dig around to find the legacy fossil burners. The interior config options on the new M4 Competition are very cool.
We were speculating yesterday that Alba might become the 'Indy, but no EU' party. This is another straw in that wind. Former leader Jim Sillars is strongly inclined that way too - perhaps he'll lend Salmond his support.
ALERT: the government is soon going to do something which will be quite confusing to add to the half hearted confusing things we are also thinking of doing, or are already sort of doing, but do not worry, the President has read every book in the world and is now a scientific genius
And will address the nation some time in the next 15 days about an action you should be taking this week.
A few days ago the education minister said that keeping the schools open was "l'exception française" and boasted that the English are looking at them and thinking they are doing something extraordinary. https://twitter.com/BFMTV/status/1374370205556609035
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Partisan bickering over pointless cherry-picked midterm polls is PB at its most crashingly dull. Are otherwise intellectual posters like Correct Horse and Bluest as boringly party political IRL?
Although we do have some big elections in a little over a week. So quite important.
I'm not aware of any.
There's the local elections in about six weeks, by which time we will have endured scores more pointless polls and dreary bickering from the usual partisans on here.
We were speculating yesterday that Alba might become the 'Indy, but no EU' party. This is another straw in that wind. Former leader Jim Sillars is strongly inclined that way too - perhaps he'll lend Salmond his support.
I still can't decide if this new party is fiendishly clever or calamitously schismatic. The general rule is that vicious splits are bad - and this one is toxic. Personal. Sexual
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Fortunately we know that would never happen on here.............
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Indeed. For example, in prematurely calling the end of a vaccine bounce when all three subsequent polls show the Tory lead increasing.
You need to hope it isn't a vaccine bounce. Because just like the real thing that will wear off. There will need to be a booster and it's hard to see what that might be.
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Partisan bickering over pointless cherry-picked midterm polls is PB at its most crashingly dull. Are otherwise intellectual posters like Correct Horse and Bluest as boringly party political IRL?
We were speculating yesterday that Alba might become the 'Indy, but no EU' party. This is another straw in that wind. Former leader Jim Sillars is strongly inclined that way too - perhaps he'll lend Salmond his support.
I still can't decide if this new party is fiendishly clever or calamitously schismatic. The general rule is that vicious splits are bad - and this one is toxic. Personal. Sexual
However, Salmond is a wily old bastard
The package kinda fits the Scottish system (I mean, I don't profess to understand the Scottish voting system, but from the little I do know, this package will potentially help gain indy seats)
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
Or it splits the indy cause right down the middle, and leads to terrible in-fighting - especially when Boris refuses indyref2, and the two indy parties argue fiercely about what to do next
We were speculating yesterday that Alba might become the 'Indy, but no EU' party. This is another straw in that wind. Former leader Jim Sillars is strongly inclined that way too - perhaps he'll lend Salmond his support.
I still can't decide if this new party is fiendishly clever or calamitously schismatic. The general rule is that vicious splits are bad - and this one is toxic. Personal. Sexual
However, Salmond is a wily old bastard
I suspect it's going to give independence a super majority of seats (at the very least a decent majority).
Then it's going to be months of watching the 2 parties tear each other apart as the SNP doesn't move quick enough and Salmond annoys Sturgeon.
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Partisan bickering over pointless cherry-picked midterm polls is PB at its most crashingly dull. Are otherwise intellectual posters like Correct Horse and Bluest as boringly party political IRL?
Although we do have some big elections in a little over a week. So quite important.
I'm not aware of any.
There's the local elections in about six weeks, by which time we will have endured scores more pointless polls and dreary bickering from the usual partisans on here.
I meant in just over a month. It must be due to the clocks going forward. My mistake.
We were speculating yesterday that Alba might become the 'Indy, but no EU' party. This is another straw in that wind. Former leader Jim Sillars is strongly inclined that way too - perhaps he'll lend Salmond his support.
I still can't decide if this new party is fiendishly clever or calamitously schismatic. The general rule is that vicious splits are bad - and this one is toxic. Personal. Sexual
However, Salmond is a wily old bastard
I don't see why it can't be both. Choice in politics is never a bad thing. And if the positions on the EU do end up differing, it will do indy supporters here no harm to actually think about what they want from an Indy Scotland, rather than thinking of it as a sort of rapture wherein normal life just sort of stops.
Little comment on here from what I can see (forgive me if I have missed it) on the day the ONS confirming 150,000 UK Covid deaths.
Move along, nothing to see.
We've been hearing/reading about the death figures every day for the last 12 months.
The 30,000,000 vaccination success has been quite rightly heralded as personal victory for Boris Johnson. The 150,000 deaths reported but largely without comment..
Boris might get lucky because it is human nature to avert our faces from death and disaster.
The sun is out, the vaccines are working, an end to lockdown (forever?) is finally in sight. The guy who goes around shouting BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL THE CORPSES?!? is not going to be popular, even if he has a good point
A fair, if somewhat depressing point of reality.
Most comparable Countries to the UK will end up having a similar or worse Covid experience to the UK, but Boris will always be able to demonstrate that he got the UK vaccinated much quicker than these Countries and people will thank him for that.
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
But as we all know, it doesn't matter because Boris will rightly refuse any IndyRef2 because Scotland already voted against independence in a once in a generation vote in 2014, right @HYUFD ?
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Partisan bickering over pointless cherry-picked midterm polls is PB at its most crashingly dull. Are otherwise intellectual posters like Correct Horse and Bluest as boringly party political IRL?
Although we do have some big elections in a little over a week. So quite important.
I'm not aware of any.
There's the local elections in about six weeks, by which time we will have endured scores more pointless polls and dreary bickering from the usual partisans on here.
I meant in just over a month. It must be due to the clocks going forward. My mistake.
No worries, I'm often guilty of fast-forwarding time myself at the moment, but my trigger is the closure of pubs...
We were speculating yesterday that Alba might become the 'Indy, but no EU' party. This is another straw in that wind. Former leader Jim Sillars is strongly inclined that way too - perhaps he'll lend Salmond his support.
I still can't decide if this new party is fiendishly clever or calamitously schismatic. The general rule is that vicious splits are bad - and this one is toxic. Personal. Sexual
However, Salmond is a wily old bastard
I don't see why it can't be both. Choice in politics is never a bad thing. And if the positions on the EU do end up differing, it will do indy supporters here no harm to actually think about what they want from an Indy Scotland, rather than thinking of it as a sort of rapture wherein normal life just sort of stops.
Excellent point. The vagueness over the EU has to end, for the good of Scotland, if it does one day decide to go indy
They got away with eliding it in 2014 - "oh we'll have continued membership, or just rejoin the week after, whatever, it's trivial" - they won't be able to do that again, nor should they.
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
Or it splits the indy cause right down the middle, and leads to terrible in-fighting - especially when Boris refuses indyref2, and the two indy parties argue fiercely about what to do next
Could go either way
It's a high-risk, high-reward strategy for sure. Be interesting to see how it plays out.
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
Or it splits the indy cause right down the middle, and leads to terrible in-fighting - especially when Boris refuses indyref2, and the two indy parties argue fiercely about what to do next
Could go either way
Or result in a referendum because of a super majority that indy loses because of the in-fighting. Or they win. It certainly does add a level of complexity and a new range of potential outcomes.
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Partisan bickering over pointless cherry-picked midterm polls is PB at its most crashingly dull. Are otherwise intellectual posters like Correct Horse and Bluest as boringly party political IRL?
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
But as we all know, it doesn't matter because Boris will rightly refuse any IndyRef2 because Scotland already voted against independence in a once in a generation vote in 2014, right @HYUFD ?
This makes it even more certain Boris will refuse a vote, by the way, because the open goal is right in front of him: refuse a vote, then split the indy cause wide open, the Salmondites v Sturgeonites, who already hate each other, and have a completely different approach to achieving indy
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
But as we all know, it doesn't matter because Boris will rightly refuse any IndyRef2 because Scotland already voted against independence in a once in a generation vote in 2014, right @HYUFD ?
This makes it even more certain Boris will refuse a vote, by the way, because the open goal is right in front of him: refuse a vote, then split the indy cause wide open, the Salmondites v Sturgeonites, who already hate each other, and have a completely different approach to achieving indy
They are already split. Refusing a vote against a mandate for a 2nd ref will risk uniting Indy supporters against a common enemy.
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
But as we all know, it doesn't matter because Boris will rightly refuse any IndyRef2 because Scotland already voted against independence in a once in a generation vote in 2014, right @HYUFD ?
Gunboats on the Tweed. Armed infantry in Kielder Forest. Cannon on the Cheviot.
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
Or it splits the indy cause right down the middle, and leads to terrible in-fighting - especially when Boris refuses indyref2, and the two indy parties argue fiercely about what to do next
Could go either way
Or result in a referendum because of a super majority that indy loses because of the in-fighting. Or they win. It certainly does add a level of complexity and a new range of potential outcomes.
The only referendum they would get under Boris is a wildcat one (unless they go to the courts and win, which is not impossible, though highly unlikely)
Salmond will press for this. Sturgeon will resist. It will be entertaining, if nothing else
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
But as we all know, it doesn't matter because Boris will rightly refuse any IndyRef2 because Scotland already voted against independence in a once in a generation vote in 2014, right @HYUFD ?
Gunboats on the Tweed. Armed infantry in Kielder Forest. Cannon on the Cheviot.
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
But as we all know, it doesn't matter because Boris will rightly refuse any IndyRef2 because Scotland already voted against independence in a once in a generation vote in 2014, right @HYUFD ?
This makes it even more certain Boris will refuse a vote, by the way, because the open goal is right in front of him: refuse a vote, then split the indy cause wide open, the Salmondites v Sturgeonites, who already hate each other, and have a completely different approach to achieving indy
They are already split. Refusing a vote against a mandate for a 2nd ref will risk uniting Indy supporters against a common enemy.
The game is to ask them to suggest what independence will look like via a royal commission. And watch them fight and argue over absolutely everything.
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Indeed. For example, in prematurely calling the end of a vaccine bounce when all three subsequent polls show the Tory lead increasing.
You need to hope it isn't a vaccine bounce. Because just like the real thing that will wear off. There will need to be a booster and it's hard to see what that might be.
Let's start off with the now-solidifying folk legend that Brexit allowed us to vaccinate faster and return to freedom ahead of our 'friends' in the EU, add in a year of blistering economic growth and general merriment as normal life gets back into the swing, and then the picture you're left with is that of a government that has enjoyed a substantial period of success versus a grey nullity with little to say, and less time left to turn that impression around.
Jeez. The "Saviour of Liberalism" is actually just Le Trump.
I know President Le Pen would be a bad thing. But can someone with a better grasp of French politics than me explain why she would be worse than the current incumbent?
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
But as we all know, it doesn't matter because Boris will rightly refuse any IndyRef2 because Scotland already voted against independence in a once in a generation vote in 2014, right @HYUFD ?
This makes it even more certain Boris will refuse a vote, by the way, because the open goal is right in front of him: refuse a vote, then split the indy cause wide open, the Salmondites v Sturgeonites, who already hate each other, and have a completely different approach to achieving indy
They are already split. Refusing a vote against a mandate for a 2nd ref will risk uniting Indy supporters against a common enemy.
The game is to ask them to suggest what independence will look like via a royal commission. And watch them fight and argue over absolutely everything.
Surely Indy + EEA will be a viable compromise for both parties?
Oh! I thought you were going all HYUFD on us and predicting that the Queen would come out against it and HMG would arrest, try and convict the ringleaders. To the Tower with them!
Little comment on here from what I can see (forgive me if I have missed it) on the day the ONS confirming 150,000 UK Covid deaths.
Move along, nothing to see.
We've been hearing/reading about the death figures every day for the last 12 months.
The 30,000,000 vaccination success has been quite rightly heralded as personal victory for Boris Johnson. The 150,000 deaths reported but largely without comment..
Boris might get lucky because it is human nature to avert our faces from death and disaster.
The sun is out, the vaccines are working, an end to lockdown (forever?) is finally in sight. The guy who goes around shouting BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL THE CORPSES?!? is not going to be popular, even if he has a good point
Humans stop being able to understand numbers after a certain point. 1,000 deaths from covid sounded disastrous. 100,000 is a statistic. It's such a big number we can't contextualise it. How many would we expect? What are other countries doing? Are they reporting in the same way? So we rely on our own personal experience, which is, in most cases, that the only people we know who have died of covid are people who sadly weren't long for this world anyway. That's why big numbers don't really change people's minds like you might expect them to.
ALERT: the government is soon going to do something which will be quite confusing to add to the half hearted confusing things we are also thinking of doing, or are already sort of doing, but do not worry, the President has read every book in the world and is now a scientific genius
And will address the nation some time in the next 15 days about an action you should be taking this week.
A few days ago the education minister said that keeping the schools open was "l'exception française" and boasted that the English are looking at them and thinking they are doing something extraordinary. https://twitter.com/BFMTV/status/1374370205556609035
That’s certainly true, the English are thinking he’s doing something extraordinary.
We were speculating yesterday that Alba might become the 'Indy, but no EU' party. This is another straw in that wind. Former leader Jim Sillars is strongly inclined that way too - perhaps he'll lend Salmond his support.
I still can't decide if this new party is fiendishly clever or calamitously schismatic. The general rule is that vicious splits are bad - and this one is toxic. Personal. Sexual
However, Salmond is a wily old bastard
I don't see why it can't be both. Choice in politics is never a bad thing. And if the positions on the EU do end up differing, it will do indy supporters here no harm to actually think about what they want from an Indy Scotland, rather than thinking of it as a sort of rapture wherein normal life just sort of stops.
Excellent point. The vagueness over the EU has to end, for the good of Scotland, if it does one day decide to go indy
They got away with eliding it in 2014 - "oh we'll have continued membership, or just rejoin the week after, whatever, it's trivial" - they won't be able to do that again, nor should they.
The genesis of Alba also requires an answer from the Unionist parties in terms of innovation. At the moment we're seeing the Tories leaning into Unionism because it's more popular than Toryism, but not benefiting the Unionist cause a great deal in so doing, you're seeing Labour support Unionism but somewhat half-heartedly, scared of upsetting people and not making the emotional case, you have the Lib Dems nowhere (although promisingly mining a new civil liberties furrow), then you have George Galloway's new party that suffers a little from being George Galloway's new party. Both the Tories and Labour now have better leaders, so there's some improvement there, but there's a long way to go to get voters fired up about either option.
Bearing in mind Keir Starmer took Labour from 20 points behind to ahead and now only slightly behind, if the Tories cock up literally anything he'll be in the lead again.
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
The last three polls show two 8-point leads, and a 10-point lead today. In what fantasy land is that 'only slightly behind'?
But two polls have the lead at 2%. We can all be selective.
Indeed. For example, in prematurely calling the end of a vaccine bounce when all three subsequent polls show the Tory lead increasing.
Jeez. The "Saviour of Liberalism" is actually just Le Trump.
I know President Le Pen would be a bad thing. But can someone with a better grasp of French politics than me explain why she would be worse than the current incumbent?
I can't claim to fulfil your criteria, but I assume it's that the incumbent is merely mostly useless, whereas Le Pen would actively poison the political debate simply by being in power.
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
But as we all know, it doesn't matter because Boris will rightly refuse any IndyRef2 because Scotland already voted against independence in a once in a generation vote in 2014, right @HYUFD ?
This makes it even more certain Boris will refuse a vote, by the way, because the open goal is right in front of him: refuse a vote, then split the indy cause wide open, the Salmondites v Sturgeonites, who already hate each other, and have a completely different approach to achieving indy
Do we have a market on a second Scottish Parliament election this year?
On those numbers, there’s no majority to pass anything except a request for a second referendum. Probably not even the Budget.
We were speculating yesterday that Alba might become the 'Indy, but no EU' party. This is another straw in that wind. Former leader Jim Sillars is strongly inclined that way too - perhaps he'll lend Salmond his support.
I still can't decide if this new party is fiendishly clever or calamitously schismatic. The general rule is that vicious splits are bad - and this one is toxic. Personal. Sexual
However, Salmond is a wily old bastard
I don't see why it can't be both. Choice in politics is never a bad thing. And if the positions on the EU do end up differing, it will do indy supporters here no harm to actually think about what they want from an Indy Scotland, rather than thinking of it as a sort of rapture wherein normal life just sort of stops.
Excellent point. The vagueness over the EU has to end, for the good of Scotland, if it does one day decide to go indy
They got away with eliding it in 2014 - "oh we'll have continued membership, or just rejoin the week after, whatever, it's trivial" - they won't be able to do that again, nor should they.
The genesis of Alba also requires an answer from the Unionist parties in terms of innovation. At the moment we're seeing the Tories leaning into Unionism because it's more popular than Toryism, but not benefiting the Unionist cause a great deal in so doing, you're seeing Labour support Unionism but somewhat half-heartedly, scared of upsetting people and not making the emotional case, you have the Lib Dems nowhere (although promisingly mining a new civil liberties furrow), then you have George Galloway's new party that suffers a little from being George Galloway's new party. Both the Tories and Labour now have better leaders, so there's some improvement there, but there's a long way to go to get voters fired up about either option.
Yes, indeed, unionists have to get pro-active. Imaginative new ideas not just defensive nervousness
And now I am away to drink wine in the sunlit park
It would not surprise me if it were true; the stampede to electric is real no OEM wants to be outflanked. If you go to the BMW UK website it only shows the BEV models, you have to dig around to find the legacy fossil burners. The interior config options on the new M4 Competition are very cool.
Oh, I've no doubt VW are going all in on electric (& are probably one of the few which will succeed), but I think the headline might have been intended as a bit of lighthearted marketing* as opposed to rebranding.
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
But as we all know, it doesn't matter because Boris will rightly refuse any IndyRef2 because Scotland already voted against independence in a once in a generation vote in 2014, right @HYUFD ?
Gunboats on the Tweed. Armed infantry in Kielder Forest. Cannon on the Cheviot.
Comments
https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2021/03/30/covid-19-emmanuel-macron-le-president-epidemiologiste_6074919_823448.html
https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/germany,the-uk/
https://twitter.com/Mediavenir/status/1376868056975040512
THIS IS WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IN 2016 IF SNP LIST VOTES WERE FOR ALBA!
So to put it simply instead of there being FOUR SNP LIST MSP’s there would have been 33 ALBA pro Indy MSP’s.
Most important of all, take a look at the Unionists. Instead of there being 24 Tories, there would have only been 12.
Likewise, instead of 21 Labour there would have been only 11.
The Liberals would have lost both their list seats and been reduced to zero
The Greens would have lost all five of their lists seats.
So an overall INCREASE of 24 pro Indy MSP’s
An overall DECREASE of 24 unionist MSP’s
https://twitter.com/TimCWrites/status/1376868311665889289?s=20
He's done the best job he could have done, the complaints about him puzzle me
Monsieur Macaron.
The sun is out, the vaccines are working, an end to lockdown (forever?) is finally in sight. The guy who goes around shouting BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL THE CORPSES?!? is not going to be popular, even if he has a good point
https://twitter.com/CNBCnow/status/1376592573083570189
10 points is more than slightly behind albeit one poll.
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=41..429&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=new_cases_per_million&Metric=Tests&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=GBR~DEU~FRA~ITA~ESP
This shows how from a slow start the UK has worked wonders in terms of testing. From May last year other than two very short periods of time we have tested more by population than any of out other big European neighbours. With the recent surge in testing we now do over 3 times more than any of them. This is a massive of achievement of the so called waste of money Test & Trace system.
It also shows why Europe without the scale of testing we have, 3x fewer vaccinations and cases surging have a tough few months ahead. They had the warning from the UK and did not act. In some cases they are still not acting. It is very sad.
In the RAF school, certainly, there were a number of fights (both male and female) establishing the pecking order, but not many, and this was probably a product of the military tour system where ⅓ of the class left and a new ⅓ was added each school year and so there was an annual need for everyone to find out where they fit in. But I was always the tallest and biggest throughout school (6' by the time I was 11), which got me into a couple of fights with guys who wanted to prove they were tough but which might also explain why I did not see bullying.
https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1376863445048569859?s=20
And the best thing is there is no way anyone can accuse either party of it being a stitch up.
https://twitter.com/PaulWilliamsLAB/status/1376859446861762560?s=20
https://twitter.com/BFMTV/status/1374370205556609035
There's the local elections in about six weeks, by which time we will have endured scores more pointless polls and dreary bickering from the usual partisans on here.
However, Salmond is a wily old bastard
This Alba lark could yet turn out to be a masterstroke for indy – Alba mops up the anti-EU, non-woke nationalist vote...
Could go either way
Then it's going to be months of watching the 2 parties tear each other apart as the SNP doesn't move quick enough and Salmond annoys Sturgeon.
And why did you (presumably) vote for such a pack of morons?
They got away with eliding it in 2014 - "oh we'll have continued membership, or just rejoin the week after, whatever, it's trivial" - they won't be able to do that again, nor should they.
https://twitter.com/ONS/status/1376818789434687490
Salmond will press for this. Sturgeon will resist. It will be entertaining, if nothing else
A coalition of different secessionist parties got a decent majority on a low turnout.
https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2021/02/how-pro-independence-parties-triumphed-catalan-election
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/30/ursula-von-der-leyen-refused-add-name-world-leaders-pandemic/
1,000 deaths from covid sounded disastrous.
100,000 is a statistic. It's such a big number we can't contextualise it. How many would we expect? What are other countries doing? Are they reporting in the same way? So we rely on our own personal experience, which is, in most cases, that the only people we know who have died of covid are people who sadly weren't long for this world anyway.
That's why big numbers don't really change people's minds like you might expect them to.
On those numbers, there’s no majority to pass anything except a request for a second referendum. Probably not even the Budget.
https://twitter.com/BBCNottingham/status/1376839766151413761
I expect this why the government and the voters expect Covid-19 numbers to rise.
And now I am away to drink wine in the sunlit park
Later
https://twitter.com/CeFaanKim/status/1376698713582796804
2 big arsed men just stand by and watch a woman in her 60's take a beating
The security guard just closes the door on it all
*not very German, but VW in the US is different.