This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
In Rhos on Sea and Colwyn Bay today the beaches were packed and lots of people enjoying themselves as if it was mid summer
While reasonable social distancing and mask wearing was quite good, the people are enjoying freedom and the genie is out of the bottle
The near 60% vaccination rate is clearly influencing behaviour and I am not at all sure the people are listening to the politicians anymore
Let’s hope they are listening to the weather forecasters and don’t turn up Friday 🥶
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
It’s still ages away. Thankfully the pubs reopen on 12 April, which will be a major step out of this hell. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to enjoy the beer gardens.
13 more days, I actually think I'm looking forwards to my haircut more than my first pint!
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
Normal life in the UK will return - one would hope - by the middle of May.
But you know what, the EU is (belatedly) getting there. Indeed, I'm going to go out on a limb, and say that the great EU vaccine debacle is coming to an end.
Why?
Three things:
1. The US is going to basically be done in eight weeks time. That means that the production capacity currently being used to fill US orders is going to be used elsewhere. And this is a LOT of capacity. Over the last three days, the US managed to get more than 10 million jabs in arms. J&J alone will deliver 11 million shots this week - and their pace of deliveries hasn't peaked yet.
2. Plants in Europe are finally ramping up. The Moderna plant in Switzerland is doing great. There are a couple of new Pfizer plants coming on board (and Pfizer has now increased its target production for this year to 2.5 billion shots - that's a trebling of expected production since the start of this year).
3. The Danes and the Austrians are getting excess Pfizer jabs from the Israelis. The Germans now say they'll be 60% done by the end of June (and if that's double jabbed with Pfizer/Moderna - then that's pretty well done). Other countries are sounding more optimistic about vaccines.
Simply, those charts at World of Data on EU vaccination doses per day are rising, and they're going to continue to rise. Now, will they be several months behind the UK, the US and Israel? Yes. And tens of thousands of people will have died unnecessarily, and normality will have been delayed by a quarter.
But normality (or what passes for it) will be back in the EU by September. There are simply too many vaccine doses available in the world for it not to be the case.
The issue is whether the EU has paid Pfizer for priority supply with their second tranche. As I read it they haven't and aren't expecting the additional purchases until well into H2, I'm assuming becuase they stuck rigidly to their lower pricing structure while even middle and lower income countries have realised saving money on vaccines is a false economy.
It doesn't matter.
Pfizer (and their increasing number of production partners) will be producing more than 5 million doses a day by the end of June, and the US isn't going to be taking any of them.
Now, I'm happy to have a small bet with you if you like.
I reckon that CV19 (and associated restrictions) will be functionally eliminated from the EU by the end of September 2021. That is, hospitalisation and deaths will be at or below the level of July 2020 and restrictions will be no more onerous than Hawaii is right now.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
Are you ready? Are you ready for normal? Yes I am. Yes I am.
So if we get right, April, May, Normal. And the best way to get it wrong is rush it? Then whoever wrote the front page of today’s Daily Mail can go push their head into a bucket of **g* **m**
I think the UK could go a bit quicker, frankly. I'm in Hawaii, and while bars and restaurants are table service only and you're expected to wear a mask on public transport or in the store, live is otherwise completely normal.
The UK could probably be at that stage today, without seeing cases and hospitalisations surge out of control.
But I understand why the government is being more cautious than is strictly necessary. The shadow of Xmas is hanging over the UK.
I think it's wise to go slowly. There is a lag effect from vaccinations similar to the lag effect from infections. The acquisition of meaningful protection runs a couple of weeks behind the vaccination programme itself. I'm afraid the US is going to be caught out by this over the next month.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
In Rhos on Sea and Colwyn Bay today the beaches were packed and lots of people enjoying themselves as if it was mid summer
While reasonable social distancing and mask wearing was quite good, the people are enjoying freedom and the genie is out of the bottle
The near 60% vaccination rate is clearly influencing behaviour and I am not at all sure the people are listening to the politicians anymore
Let’s hope they are listening to the weather forecasters and don’t turn up Friday 🥶
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
Yes. I don't really understand why people are ok with this. I suppose I'll go along with it. But I'll be going out a LOT less.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
It’s still ages away. Thankfully the pubs reopen on 12 April, which will be a major step out of this hell. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to enjoy the beer gardens.
London: latest forecast 12 April is 14 degrees, half sun - as long as it doesn't rain it's good!
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
In Rhos on Sea and Colwyn Bay today the beaches were packed and lots of people enjoying themselves as if it was mid summer
While reasonable social distancing and mask wearing was quite good, the people are enjoying freedom and the genie is out of the bottle
The near 60% vaccination rate is clearly influencing behaviour and I am not at all sure the people are listening to the politicians anymore
Let’s hope they are listening to the weather forecasters and don’t turn up Friday 🥶
You really are a misery
These people are going to be alive and living normal Big G 😄
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
Normal life in the UK will return - one would hope - by the middle of May.
But you know what, the EU is (belatedly) getting there. Indeed, I'm going to go out on a limb, and say that the great EU vaccine debacle is coming to an end.
Why?
Three things:
1. The US is going to basically be done in eight weeks time. That means that the production capacity currently being used to fill US orders is going to be used elsewhere. And this is a LOT of capacity. Over the last three days, the US managed to get more than 10 million jabs in arms. J&J alone will deliver 11 million shots this week - and their pace of deliveries hasn't peaked yet.
2. Plants in Europe are finally ramping up. The Moderna plant in Switzerland is doing great. There are a couple of new Pfizer plants coming on board (and Pfizer has now increased its target production for this year to 2.5 billion shots - that's a trebling of expected production since the start of this year).
3. The Danes and the Austrians are getting excess Pfizer jabs from the Israelis. The Germans now say they'll be 60% done by the end of June (and if that's double jabbed with Pfizer/Moderna - then that's pretty well done). Other countries are sounding more optimistic about vaccines.
Simply, those charts at World of Data on EU vaccination doses per day are rising, and they're going to continue to rise. Now, will they be several months behind the UK, the US and Israel? Yes. And tens of thousands of people will have died unnecessarily, and normality will have been delayed by a quarter.
But normality (or what passes for it) will be back in the EU by September. There are simply too many vaccine doses available in the world for it not to be the case.
The issue is whether the EU has paid Pfizer for priority supply with their second tranche. As I read it they haven't and aren't expecting the additional purchases until well into H2, I'm assuming becuase they stuck rigidly to their lower pricing structure while even middle and lower income countries have realised saving money on vaccines is a false economy.
It doesn't matter.
Pfizer (and their increasing number of production partners) will be producing more than 5 million doses a day by the end of June, and the US isn't going to be taking any of them.
Now, I'm happy to have a small bet with you if you like.
I reckon that CV19 (and associated restrictions) will be functionally eliminated from the EU by the end of September 2021. That is, hospitalisation and deaths will be at or below the level of July 2020 and restrictions will be no more onerous than Hawaii is right now.
I don't think this is the issue any more. I think what counts now is whether the anti-vax movement in (particularly) France is now strong enough that the base take-up rate is insufficient to eliminate the virus and its latest variants, without additional restrictions.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
But that can't be used to track where you go. No major objections to that. Although I would have an objection if whenever I entered a business or station I had to show my driving license, and my presence there was added to a big database showing the government where I'd been.
No but you see in 1926, there was a similar observed trend and it led to Labour winning at some point in the future.
For those complacent Tories here, you may want to recall how popular John Major was at his peak. I'll let you into a secret, it was a lot higher than Bozo is now
This is a little misleading, if I may say so. John Major was indeed extremely popular for a time: specifically in 1991 after he had replaced Margaret Thatcher and with his handling of the Gulf War.
Then came the 1992 General Election followed soon after by Black Wednesday, the disastrous moment which lost the Conservatives the tag of economic competence. The sleaze ridden 1992-97 Parliament paved the way for the Blair landslide.
Which leads us to the bloke opposite.
Tony Blair was charismatic and popular, hugely so. He had a great way of seeming at ease with people and a winning smile.
Whilst it's possible that Boris could tank I think we'd have seen that post-election by now, as we did with Major.
And I'm afraid that Keir Starmer is no Tony Blair.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
It’s still ages away. Thankfully the pubs reopen on 12 April, which will be a major step out of this hell. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to enjoy the beer gardens.
13 more days, I actually think I'm looking forwards to my haircut more than my first pint!
Yes me too. Very much so. My hair is now like Emily Maitlis. It doesn't work with my face. Actually looks a bit odd.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
It’s still ages away. Thankfully the pubs reopen on 12 April, which will be a major step out of this hell. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to enjoy the beer gardens.
13 more days, I actually think I'm looking forwards to my haircut more than my first pint!
I haven't had a haircut for over a year now. My son says I look like James May, and not in a good way. I think I'll wait for about 3 weeks, after the initial rush but before people get their second cut.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
Normal life in the UK will return - one would hope - by the middle of May.
But you know what, the EU is (belatedly) getting there. Indeed, I'm going to go out on a limb, and say that the great EU vaccine debacle is coming to an end.
Why?
Three things:
1. The US is going to basically be done in eight weeks time. That means that the production capacity currently being used to fill US orders is going to be used elsewhere. And this is a LOT of capacity. Over the last three days, the US managed to get more than 10 million jabs in arms. J&J alone will deliver 11 million shots this week - and their pace of deliveries hasn't peaked yet.
2. Plants in Europe are finally ramping up. The Moderna plant in Switzerland is doing great. There are a couple of new Pfizer plants coming on board (and Pfizer has now increased its target production for this year to 2.5 billion shots - that's a trebling of expected production since the start of this year).
3. The Danes and the Austrians are getting excess Pfizer jabs from the Israelis. The Germans now say they'll be 60% done by the end of June (and if that's double jabbed with Pfizer/Moderna - then that's pretty well done). Other countries are sounding more optimistic about vaccines.
Simply, those charts at World of Data on EU vaccination doses per day are rising, and they're going to continue to rise. Now, will they be several months behind the UK, the US and Israel? Yes. And tens of thousands of people will have died unnecessarily, and normality will have been delayed by a quarter.
But normality (or what passes for it) will be back in the EU by September. There are simply too many vaccine doses available in the world for it not to be the case.
The issue is whether the EU has paid Pfizer for priority supply with their second tranche. As I read it they haven't and aren't expecting the additional purchases until well into H2, I'm assuming becuase they stuck rigidly to their lower pricing structure while even middle and lower income countries have realised saving money on vaccines is a false economy.
It doesn't matter.
Pfizer (and their increasing number of production partners) will be producing more than 5 million doses a day by the end of June, and the US isn't going to be taking any of them.
Now, I'm happy to have a small bet with you if you like.
I reckon that CV19 (and associated restrictions) will be functionally eliminated from the EU by the end of September 2021. That is, hospitalisation and deaths will be at or below the level of July 2020 and restrictions will be no more onerous than Hawaii is right now.
I don't think this is the issue any more. I think what counts now is whether the anti-vax movement in (particularly) France is now strong enough that the base take-up rate is insufficient to eliminate the virus and its latest variants, without additional restrictions.
If every country around France is seeing life return to normal, while French hospitals continue to be overrun, then the French will change their mind.
Vaccine hesitancy has fallen in every country where vaccines have helped bring caseloads down. It'll be the same in France.
Using ordinal indicators in dates is archaic, full stop. No newspapers do it and haven't for years.
So 2 April or April 2 – not 2nd April, April the 2nd, the 2nd of April, or April 2nd. How you say it is personal choice, but kill the clutter in text please.
I'd say I've agreed with pretty much everything you've posted this year - but I can't agree with that. 2nd April aids readability. Your brain reads it as 'second of April'. Whereas your brain reads '2 April' as 'two April', and needs a fraction of a second to translate to what the writer meant. Only a fraction of a second, mind - it's not a major inconvenience. But still. Written ordinals are a courtesy to the reader.
Well ordinal indicators aren't used by any news network or newspaper, and haven't been for years. They just look old-fashioned and cluttered.
Today is 30 March, nothing confusing about that, and typographically much more elegant.
The problem with not using ordinals is that dates are ordinals. If they were not then New Year's Day should be 0 (or 0.5 at noon if you like), not 1, January.
Yes, although worth noting that it's very rare for the ordinal indicator to be used for the year, where it's as valid as for day of the month.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
It’s still ages away. Thankfully the pubs reopen on 12 April, which will be a major step out of this hell. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to enjoy the beer gardens.
13 more days, I actually think I'm looking forwards to my haircut more than my first pint!
Yes me too. Very much so. My hair is now like Emily Maitlis. It doesn't work with my face. Actually looks a bit odd.
Will those people fortunate enough to have hair please stop rubbing it in for the rest of us
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
In Rhos on Sea and Colwyn Bay today the beaches were packed and lots of people enjoying themselves as if it was mid summer
While reasonable social distancing and mask wearing was quite good, the people are enjoying freedom and the genie is out of the bottle
The near 60% vaccination rate is clearly influencing behaviour and I am not at all sure the people are listening to the politicians anymore
If the lockdown is disintegrating (and it would very much appear to be - did anyone else see those pictures from Nottingham?) then this is hardly a surprise. The most vulnerable have already got the bulk of the protection that they are going to from the vaccines; three weeks after the schools all went back, cases, hospitalisations and deaths are all in steep decline; the country has been locked down for months (since before Christmas for many millions of us); and most people have had enough, and they're either going to selectively apply the rules or set fire to them, according to their appetite for risk.
Thought experiment: family (Mum, Dad, kiddies) invites Granny (vaccinated on February 2nd,) who they haven't more than waved through the window to since last October, to their place to have polite tea and cake in back garden.
1. Are family and Granny all going to spend the entire time sat dutifully more than two metres apart from one another? 2. If Granny wants the loo, or if it starts pouring with rain, are they going to (a) present her with a bucket, or a brolly, or (b) invite her into the house?
The authorities can intervene in matters such as the opening or closing of businesses and the holding of massive and obvious house parties, but there's nothing they can do about generalised low-level disobedience if practiced on a large enough scale. Though FWIW, at this stage of the crisis people paying discreet visits to one another's homes probably isn't going to make very much difference to anything (because what is a granddaughter visiting her grandfather, or a few old ducks getting together for a coffee morning, relative to a thousand kids all milling around inside a great big school?) I should imagine that parental visiting on an heroic scale took place on Mother's Day and it made not a jot of difference to anything.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
But that can't be used to track where you go. No major objections to that. Although I would have an objection if whenever I entered a business or station I had to show my driving license, and my presence there was added to a big database showing the government where I'd been.
I think if that were to happen I would change my middle name by deed poll to something really outrageous e.g. ‘Gavin Disgraced National Security Risk Liar and Failure’ and then use my ID card continuously particularly on government websites.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
Have you ever travelled to the US or Canada as it is the norm and easy to acquire
Well yes, and you need it to get IN to the country - but not to do everything within that country. I have no objectuon to the government knowing what country I'm in.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
Normal life in the UK will return - one would hope - by the middle of May.
But you know what, the EU is (belatedly) getting there. Indeed, I'm going to go out on a limb, and say that the great EU vaccine debacle is coming to an end.
Why?
Three things:
1. The US is going to basically be done in eight weeks time. That means that the production capacity currently being used to fill US orders is going to be used elsewhere. And this is a LOT of capacity. Over the last three days, the US managed to get more than 10 million jabs in arms. J&J alone will deliver 11 million shots this week - and their pace of deliveries hasn't peaked yet.
2. Plants in Europe are finally ramping up. The Moderna plant in Switzerland is doing great. There are a couple of new Pfizer plants coming on board (and Pfizer has now increased its target production for this year to 2.5 billion shots - that's a trebling of expected production since the start of this year).
3. The Danes and the Austrians are getting excess Pfizer jabs from the Israelis. The Germans now say they'll be 60% done by the end of June (and if that's double jabbed with Pfizer/Moderna - then that's pretty well done). Other countries are sounding more optimistic about vaccines.
Simply, those charts at World of Data on EU vaccination doses per day are rising, and they're going to continue to rise. Now, will they be several months behind the UK, the US and Israel? Yes. And tens of thousands of people will have died unnecessarily, and normality will have been delayed by a quarter.
But normality (or what passes for it) will be back in the EU by September. There are simply too many vaccine doses available in the world for it not to be the case.
That's good to know, thank you. What's the necessary takeup for a population? We've heard a lot about AZ being rejected but it also sounds as though any vaccine isn't that welcome.
Using ordinal indicators in dates is archaic, full stop. No newspapers do it and haven't for years.
So 2 April or April 2 – not 2nd April, April the 2nd, the 2nd of April, or April 2nd. How you say it is personal choice, but kill the clutter in text please.
I'd say I've agreed with pretty much everything you've posted this year - but I can't agree with that. 2nd April aids readability. Your brain reads it as 'second of April'. Whereas your brain reads '2 April' as 'two April', and needs a fraction of a second to translate to what the writer meant. Only a fraction of a second, mind - it's not a major inconvenience. But still. Written ordinals are a courtesy to the reader.
Well ordinal indicators aren't used by any news network or newspaper, and haven't been for years. They just look old-fashioned and cluttered.
Today is 30 March, nothing confusing about that, and typographically much more elegant.
The problem with not using ordinals is that dates are ordinals. If they were not then New Year's Day should be 0 (or 0.5 at noon if you like), not 1, January.
Yes, although worth noting that it's very rare for the ordinal indicator to be used for the year, where it's as valid as for day of the month.
I'm wondering, what makes showing a slip of paper (or some other document) showing you aren't at risk of transmitting a highly communicable disease dystopian?
I don't think anyone has objected to them for crossing national borders it is fairly normal and for example when I lived in hong kong shots etc were needed both to move there and regular boosters.
What is dystopian is if you need a slip of paper to go into a shop, restaurant or pub...its forcing vaccination by the back door for one thing and for the other its a slippery slope to id card. There needs to be push pack on them for internal use
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
In Rhos on Sea and Colwyn Bay today the beaches were packed and lots of people enjoying themselves as if it was mid summer
While reasonable social distancing and mask wearing was quite good, the people are enjoying freedom and the genie is out of the bottle
The near 60% vaccination rate is clearly influencing behaviour and I am not at all sure the people are listening to the politicians anymore
If the lockdown is disintegrating (and it would very much appear to be - did anyone else see those pictures from Nottingham?) then this is hardly a surprise. The most vulnerable have already got the bulk of the protection that they are going to from the vaccines; three weeks after the schools all went back, cases, hospitalisations and deaths are all in steep decline; the country has been locked down for months (since before Christmas for many millions of us); and most people have had enough, and they're either going to selectively apply the rules or set fire to them, according to their appetite for risk.
Thought experiment: family (Mum, Dad, kiddies) invites Granny (vaccinated on February 2nd,) who they haven't more than waved through the window to since last October, to their place to have polite tea and cake in back garden.
1. Are family and Granny all going to spend the entire time sat dutifully more than two metres apart from one another? 2. If Granny wants the loo, or if it starts pouring with rain, are they going to (a) present her with a bucket, or a brolly, or (b) invite her into the house?
The authorities can intervene in matters such as the opening or closing of businesses and the holding of massive and obvious house parties, but there's nothing they can do about generalised low-level disobedience if practiced on a large enough scale. Though FWIW, at this stage of the crisis people paying discreet visits to one another's homes probably isn't going to make very much difference to anything (because what is a granddaughter visiting her grandfather, or a few old ducks getting together for a coffee morning, relative to a thousand kids all milling around inside a great big school?) I should imagine that parental visiting on an heroic scale took place on Mother's Day and it made not a jot of difference to anything.
I'm sure some curtain twitching c*** will try and grass on you.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
Normal life in the UK will return - one would hope - by the middle of May.
But you know what, the EU is (belatedly) getting there. Indeed, I'm going to go out on a limb, and say that the great EU vaccine debacle is coming to an end.
Why?
Three things:
1. The US is going to basically be done in eight weeks time. That means that the production capacity currently being used to fill US orders is going to be used elsewhere. And this is a LOT of capacity. Over the last three days, the US managed to get more than 10 million jabs in arms. J&J alone will deliver 11 million shots this week - and their pace of deliveries hasn't peaked yet.
2. Plants in Europe are finally ramping up. The Moderna plant in Switzerland is doing great. There are a couple of new Pfizer plants coming on board (and Pfizer has now increased its target production for this year to 2.5 billion shots - that's a trebling of expected production since the start of this year).
3. The Danes and the Austrians are getting excess Pfizer jabs from the Israelis. The Germans now say they'll be 60% done by the end of June (and if that's double jabbed with Pfizer/Moderna - then that's pretty well done). Other countries are sounding more optimistic about vaccines.
Simply, those charts at World of Data on EU vaccination doses per day are rising, and they're going to continue to rise. Now, will they be several months behind the UK, the US and Israel? Yes. And tens of thousands of people will have died unnecessarily, and normality will have been delayed by a quarter.
But normality (or what passes for it) will be back in the EU by September. There are simply too many vaccine doses available in the world for it not to be the case.
The issue is whether the EU has paid Pfizer for priority supply with their second tranche. As I read it they haven't and aren't expecting the additional purchases until well into H2, I'm assuming becuase they stuck rigidly to their lower pricing structure while even middle and lower income countries have realised saving money on vaccines is a false economy.
It doesn't matter.
Pfizer (and their increasing number of production partners) will be producing more than 5 million doses a day by the end of June, and the US isn't going to be taking any of them.
Now, I'm happy to have a small bet with you if you like.
I reckon that CV19 (and associated restrictions) will be functionally eliminated from the EU by the end of September 2021. That is, hospitalisation and deaths will be at or below the level of July 2020 and restrictions will be no more onerous than Hawaii is right now.
I don't think this is the issue any more. I think what counts now is whether the anti-vax movement in (particularly) France is now strong enough that the base take-up rate is insufficient to eliminate the virus and its latest variants, without additional restrictions.
If every country around France is seeing life return to normal, while French hospitals continue to be overrun, then the French will change their mind.
Vaccine hesitancy has fallen in every country where vaccines have helped bring caseloads down. It'll be the same in France.
I think you overestimate (or possibly underestimate?) the French.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If the Channel 4 red wall poll can be taken as a sort of proxy for Hartlepool it tend towards confirming the view that Labour should scrape home, with Labour in red wall doing a point or two better than they did in 2019 and the Tories the same as 2019 and scant enthusiasm for other parties. The Brexit voters should divide into Tory. Labour and (mostly) stay at home.
Only if you think the Brexit voters will both turn out in decent numbers and switch to the Tories would they be in with a chance.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
In Rhos on Sea and Colwyn Bay today the beaches were packed and lots of people enjoying themselves as if it was mid summer
While reasonable social distancing and mask wearing was quite good, the people are enjoying freedom and the genie is out of the bottle
The near 60% vaccination rate is clearly influencing behaviour and I am not at all sure the people are listening to the politicians anymore
If the lockdown is disintegrating (and it would very much appear to be - did anyone else see those pictures from Nottingham?) then this is hardly a surprise. The most vulnerable have already got the bulk of the protection that they are going to from the vaccines; three weeks after the schools all went back, cases, hospitalisations and deaths are all in steep decline; the country has been locked down for months (since before Christmas for many millions of us); and most people have had enough, and they're either going to selectively apply the rules or set fire to them, according to their appetite for risk.
Thought experiment: family (Mum, Dad, kiddies) invites Granny (vaccinated on February 2nd,) who they haven't more than waved through the window to since last October, to their place to have polite tea and cake in back garden.
1. Are family and Granny all going to spend the entire time sat dutifully more than two metres apart from one another? 2. If Granny wants the loo, or if it starts pouring with rain, are they going to (a) present her with a bucket, or a brolly, or (b) invite her into the house?
The authorities can intervene in matters such as the opening or closing of businesses and the holding of massive and obvious house parties, but there's nothing they can do about generalised low-level disobedience if practiced on a large enough scale. Though FWIW, at this stage of the crisis people paying discreet visits to one another's homes probably isn't going to make very much difference to anything (because what is a granddaughter visiting her grandfather, or a few old ducks getting together for a coffee morning, relative to a thousand kids all milling around inside a great big school?) I should imagine that parental visiting on an heroic scale took place on Mother's Day and it made not a jot of difference to anything.
I'm sure some curtain twitching c*** will try and grass on you.
The risk of getting into hot water over that sort of thing is, however, virtually nil. The plods don't have the resources to intervene in everybody's back gardens and I strongly suspect that they haven't the inclination either (I mean, if there were enough coppers to do that then some of them might quite enjoy it. But there aren't.) They'll only be responding to reports of great big riotous raves, hosted by people who are either too rich or too stupid to worry about the Draconian fines that await them.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
Normal life in the UK will return - one would hope - by the middle of May.
But you know what, the EU is (belatedly) getting there. Indeed, I'm going to go out on a limb, and say that the great EU vaccine debacle is coming to an end.
Why?
Three things:
1. The US is going to basically be done in eight weeks time. That means that the production capacity currently being used to fill US orders is going to be used elsewhere. And this is a LOT of capacity. Over the last three days, the US managed to get more than 10 million jabs in arms. J&J alone will deliver 11 million shots this week - and their pace of deliveries hasn't peaked yet.
2. Plants in Europe are finally ramping up. The Moderna plant in Switzerland is doing great. There are a couple of new Pfizer plants coming on board (and Pfizer has now increased its target production for this year to 2.5 billion shots - that's a trebling of expected production since the start of this year).
3. The Danes and the Austrians are getting excess Pfizer jabs from the Israelis. The Germans now say they'll be 60% done by the end of June (and if that's double jabbed with Pfizer/Moderna - then that's pretty well done). Other countries are sounding more optimistic about vaccines.
Simply, those charts at World of Data on EU vaccination doses per day are rising, and they're going to continue to rise. Now, will they be several months behind the UK, the US and Israel? Yes. And tens of thousands of people will have died unnecessarily, and normality will have been delayed by a quarter.
But normality (or what passes for it) will be back in the EU by September. There are simply too many vaccine doses available in the world for it not to be the case.
That's good to know, thank you. What's the necessary takeup for a population? We've heard a lot about AZ being rejected but it also sounds as though any vaccine isn't that welcome.
Combined immunity from exposure and vaccination of 70-85% is my guess.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
That's the most naïve view I've seen here in a while. The whole nothing to fear argument is hugely discredited and police states are founded on the principle.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
You make assumptions about the trustworthiness of future governments. Anyone that does that deserves all they get
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
The difference is that to get credit card records the police need to get a warrant from a judge and prove that there is need to investigate someone. You may be happy to give up your judicial protections and due process, I want to keep mine.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
You make assumptions about the trustworthiness of future governments. Anyone that does that deserves all they get
A future government would have to work quite hard to be more untrustworthy than this given it contains no fewer than three members who have been dismissed from previous posts for lying and another half a dozen who have lied while in office.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
You make assumptions about the trustworthiness of future governments. Anyone that does that deserves all they get
Haha, I wondered if anyone would fall into that trap.
If as a nation we are stupid enough to allow an undemocratic government to get into power do you seriously think a lack of an ID card at the point they take power would in anyway thwart their totalitarian intent?
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
You make assumptions about the trustworthiness of future governments. Anyone that does that deserves all they get
A future government would have to work quite hard to be more untrustworthy than this given it contains no fewer than three members who have been dismissed from previous posts for lying and another half a dozen who have lied while in office.
Well we almost got Corbyn and that I think would have been even less trustworthy than the current passel of idiots
The leader of the Reform Party – formerly the Brexit Party – is to run for the London Assembly in May.
Richard Tice will stand in Havering and Redbridge, East London, and also appear on the party’s list of candidates for the London wide vote.
Allies said opposition to lockdown regulations would be a big part of his campaign. In a flavour of his pitch he tweeted this afternoon: “SO SAD still to see some children been so unnecessarily terrified they are wearing masks outside.”
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
You make assumptions about the trustworthiness of future governments. Anyone that does that deserves all they get
A future government would have to work quite hard to be more untrustworthy than this given it contains no fewer than three members who have been dismissed from previous posts for lying and another half a dozen who have lied while in office.
Well we almost got Corbyn and that I think would have been even less trustworthy than the current passel of idiots
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
You make assumptions about the trustworthiness of future governments. Anyone that does that deserves all they get
Haha, I wondered if anyone would fall into that trap.
If as a nation we are stupid enough to allow an undemocratic government to get into power do you seriously think a lack of an ID card at the point they take power would in anyway thwart their totalitarian intent?
Of course not.
Stops them applying laws retrospectively though at least.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Why does anyone need a smartphone when you can use a laptop for everything? It also means you can walk down the street without getting annoyed by someone's twitter argument.
Jair Bolsonaro’s crisis-stricken administration has been rocked by the sudden sacking of Brazil’s defence minister and the subsequent resignation of the heads of all three branches of the armed forces.
The commanders of the Brazilian army, navy and air force – Gen Edson Leal Pujol, Adm Ilques Barbosa and Lt-Brig Antônio Carlos Bermudez – met with the president’s new minister on Tuesday morning and reportedly tendered their resignations during a dramatic and heated encounter. On Tuesday afternoon the defence ministry confirmed all three would be replaced, a political earthquake that rattled a country already grappling with one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks.
The Folha de São Paulo newspaper said that never before in Brazilian history had the heads of all three branches of the military resigned out of disagreement with a president.
The historic upheaval, which left many Brazilians on edge, came after Brazil’s far-right president fired defence minister Gen Fernando Azevedo e Silva on Monday during what one media report called a chilly three-minute encounter. “I need your job,” Bolsonaro told the General, a longstanding friend, according to the Estado de São Paulo newspaper.
Eliane Cantanhêde, a prominent journalist for that broadsheet in the capital Brasília, claimed Gen Azevedo e Silva had left government after making it clear to the president – a former army captain who is notorious for his praise of authoritarians – that the armed forces owed loyalty to the constitution and were not Bolsonaro’s personal force.
Bolsonaro had reportedly been demanding the removal of Gen Pujol, who, to the president’s apparent consternation, has publicly rejected the politicization of Brazil’s military and pushed for tougher restrictions against Covid, which has killed more than 314,000 Brazilians. Earlier this month Bolsonaro – whose handling of the pandemic and opposition to lockdown have been internationally condemned – sparked outrage by issuing a veiled threat to declare a “state of siege”.
If the Channel 4 red wall poll can be taken as a sort of proxy for Hartlepool it tend towards confirming the view that Labour should scrape home, with Labour in red wall doing a point or two better than they did in 2019 and the Tories the same as 2019 and scant enthusiasm for other parties. The Brexit voters should divide into Tory. Labour and (mostly) stay at home.
Only if you think the Brexit voters will both turn out in decent numbers and switch to the Tories would they be in with a chance.
Remember this is attached to a mayoral and council elections during which the Mayoral Tory candidate (and winner in the first round) will be parading all the things he's done for the area.
Things and jobs which so far have gone to every Borough except for Hartlepool while the Labour party in Hartlepool is a grade A mess still fighting each other.
So if you think Labour is going to scrape in I would be surprised.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Why does anyone need a smartphone when you can use a laptop for everything? It also means you can walk down the street without getting annoyed by someone's twitter argument.
Don't have a smart phone have a sim only phone which is just used as a phone because I have no landline
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
That's the most naïve view I've seen here in a while. The whole nothing to fear argument is hugely discredited and police states are founded on the principle.
Not allowing a vaccine passport isn't going to prevent a future totalitarian government, any more than having a vaccine passport is going to lead to one.
We need to concentrate on electing MPs and governments who believe in freedom, fairness of opportunity, and the democratic process. We might start by kicking out one that feels it's fine for lots of contracts to go to their mates and schoolchums without due process.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Why does anyone need a smartphone when you can use a laptop for everything? It also means you can walk down the street without getting annoyed by someone's twitter argument.
Why use a laptop when you can do most small computing tasks much more easily and conveniently on your mobile phone? And I set twitter not to tell me about tweets, I just check my notifications about once a day.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Why does anyone need a smartphone when you can use a laptop for everything? It also means you can walk down the street without getting annoyed by someone's twitter argument.
Don't have a smart phone have a sim only phone which is just used as a phone because I have no landline
Your every move with that phone switched on, and every call and text you maske and receive, is of course still available to the government should it be arsed to be interested in you.
Edit: I've just seen your other response. Well done - by cutting yourself off from many of the conveniences of modern life you are keeping your head well down.
Sorry to disappoint you though: unless you are a budding terrorist or drug lord, I doubt if HMG or any of their forces actually give a shit.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
That's the most naïve view I've seen here in a while. The whole nothing to fear argument is hugely discredited and police states are founded on the principle.
Not allowing a vaccine passport isn't going to prevent a future totalitarian government, any more than having a vaccine passport is going to lead to one.
We need to concentrate on electing MPs and governments who believe in freedom, fairness of opportunity, and the democratic process. We might start by kicking out one that feels it's fine for lots of contracts to go to their mates and schoolchums without due process.
No your attitude is the one thats wrong "I have nothing to hide therefore nothing to fear". When a real totalitarian gets in and decides people they deem alcoholics for example goto the camps and that is defined as people who are known to have gone to the pub more that x times in the last ten years and they have your vaxport records to look up don't come crying to me
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
It’s still ages away. Thankfully the pubs reopen on 12 April, which will be a major step out of this hell. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to enjoy the beer gardens.
13 more days, I actually think I'm looking forwards to my haircut more than my first pint!
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Why does anyone need a smartphone when you can use a laptop for everything? It also means you can walk down the street without getting annoyed by someone's twitter argument.
Don't have a smart phone have a sim only phone which is just used as a phone because I have no landline
Your every move with that phone switched on, and every call and text you maske and receive, is of course still available to the government should it be arsed to be interested in you.
The phone never moves from my table so they cant track my movements. I cant do anything about calls as I need to be contactable. Doesnt mean however that I let them see everywhere I go by taking it with me
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Why does anyone need a smartphone when you can use a laptop for everything? It also means you can walk down the street without getting annoyed by someone's twitter argument.
I can't fit my laptop in my shirt or trouser pocket.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Yeh, but you post on PB so The State is all over you as this site is monitored by The Man.
I'm wondering, what makes showing a slip of paper (or some other document) showing you aren't at risk of transmitting a highly communicable disease dystopian?
I don't think anyone has objected to them for crossing national borders it is fairly normal and for example when I lived in hong kong shots etc were needed both to move there and regular boosters.
What is dystopian is if you need a slip of paper to go into a shop, restaurant or pub...its forcing vaccination by the back door for one thing and for the other its a slippery slope to id card. There needs to be push pack on them for internal use
I am absolutely convinced they should not be required for domestic use by law.
But if a business wants to demand it from its customers, and it's customers are ok with that, then what's the problem?
Eg say a nightclub with 5000 capacity wants to open with people squeezed tight inside and they're already checking ID on the doors and desire since they have 5000 sweaty drunk people sandwiched together indoors that they want to check for vaccinations?
What principle is there against that? If it is the businesses choice, not the government's?
I'm wondering, what makes showing a slip of paper (or some other document) showing you aren't at risk of transmitting a highly communicable disease dystopian?
I don't think anyone has objected to them for crossing national borders it is fairly normal and for example when I lived in hong kong shots etc were needed both to move there and regular boosters.
What is dystopian is if you need a slip of paper to go into a shop, restaurant or pub...its forcing vaccination by the back door for one thing and for the other its a slippery slope to id card. There needs to be push pack on them for internal use
I am absolutely convinced they should not be required for domestic use by law.
But if a business wants to demand it from its customers, and it's customers are ok with that, then what's the problem?
Eg say a nightclub with 5000 capacity wants to open with people squeezed tight inside and they're already checking ID on the doors and desire since they have 5000 sweaty drunk people sandwiched together indoors that they want to check for vaccinations?
What principle is there against that? If it is the businesses choice, not the government's?
EU trying to save their dodgy deal with China by sucking up to them again after the sanctions. They really are despicable.
Or they've burned their bridges with Western pharmaceutical companies and are needing to keep their options open in relation to the Chinese vaccines...
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Why does anyone need a smartphone when you can use a laptop for everything? It also means you can walk down the street without getting annoyed by someone's twitter argument.
Don't have a smart phone have a sim only phone which is just used as a phone because I have no landline
Your every move with that phone switched on, and every call and text you maske and receive, is of course still available to the government should it be arsed to be interested in you.
The phone never moves from my table so they cant track my movements. I cant do anything about calls as I need to be contactable. Doesnt mean however that I let them see everywhere I go by taking it with me
You are indeed a very strange person. I applaud you for your eccentricity.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Yeh, but you post on PB so The State is all over you as this site is monitored by The Man.
Yes I post here, however for most websites I visit I use tor. I don't claim I have no footprint I merely claim I limit it as much as I can
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
You make assumptions about the trustworthiness of future governments. Anyone that does that deserves all they get
Haha, I wondered if anyone would fall into that trap.
If as a nation we are stupid enough to allow an undemocratic government to get into power do you seriously think a lack of an ID card at the point they take power would in anyway thwart their totalitarian intent?
Of course not.
Elected politicians are only part of the government. Senior members of the security services, police and civil service may also have authoritarian intent and influence. Change can happen gradually through drift rather than being a coherent part of a govt manifesto. Arguably most governmental change in the UK actually happens that way.
I'm wondering, what makes showing a slip of paper (or some other document) showing you aren't at risk of transmitting a highly communicable disease dystopian?
I don't think anyone has objected to them for crossing national borders it is fairly normal and for example when I lived in hong kong shots etc were needed both to move there and regular boosters.
What is dystopian is if you need a slip of paper to go into a shop, restaurant or pub...its forcing vaccination by the back door for one thing and for the other its a slippery slope to id card. There needs to be push pack on them for internal use
I am absolutely convinced they should not be required for domestic use by law.
But if a business wants to demand it from its customers, and it's customers are ok with that, then what's the problem?
Eg say a nightclub with 5000 capacity wants to open with people squeezed tight inside and they're already checking ID on the doors and desire since they have 5000 sweaty drunk people sandwiched together indoors that they want to check for vaccinations?
What principle is there against that? If it is the businesses choice, not the government's?
If a business wants to implement that is fine and said that before because then I have a choice and will just boycott that business. My concern is it being mandatory for everyday life
ECB ponders Covid passports to get fans back into grounds for championship
ECB exploring all possibilities for spectators to return
New season will begin without fans on 8 April
As the county season prepares to burst into life on 8 April with the first round of Championship matches, the ECB revealed that it is pondering the use of Covid passports once crowds are again allowed into grounds.
Games will be played in front of empty stands until at least 17 May, when venues will be allowed to fill up to 25% capacity. The ECB is then exploring all possibilities to allow as many people through the turnstiles as possible once most restrictions are lifted, in theory, on 21 June – though much will depend on government guidance and the needs of different local authorities.
“There has been a lot of talk,” said Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket. “We have gone from no passports to suddenly now looking at a Covid certification. We will explore anything that enables us to get our members back and our spectators back. At the moment it looks like that might happen.
“If you look at 21 June, it is going to be a question of balancing three things. One, if there is going to be some sort of passport or Covid certification, second is testing, third is some sort of social distancing – and we have said we will do whatever we are asked to do to make sure we can get the maximum number of people back.
“The ideal would be some sort of certification with an element of social distancing and probably wearing masks.”
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
You'd be idiotic to use the app in that case.
Idiotic in what sense?
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
That's the most naïve view I've seen here in a while. The whole nothing to fear argument is hugely discredited and police states are founded on the principle.
Not allowing a vaccine passport isn't going to prevent a future totalitarian government, any more than having a vaccine passport is going to lead to one.
We need to concentrate on electing MPs and governments who believe in freedom, fairness of opportunity, and the democratic process. We might start by kicking out one that feels it's fine for lots of contracts to go to their mates and schoolchums without due process.
No your attitude is the one thats wrong "I have nothing to hide therefore nothing to fear". When a real totalitarian gets in and decides people they deem alcoholics for example goto the camps and that is defined as people who are known to have gone to the pub more that x times in the last ten years and they have your vaxport records to look up don't come crying to me
I won't.
Indeed I won't be able to... because they will have bundled off all the vaccine passport refusniks to the camps ahead of me.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Why does anyone need a smartphone when you can use a laptop for everything? It also means you can walk down the street without getting annoyed by someone's twitter argument.
Don't have a smart phone have a sim only phone which is just used as a phone because I have no landline
Your every move with that phone switched on, and every call and text you maske and receive, is of course still available to the government should it be arsed to be interested in you.
The phone never moves from my table so they cant track my movements. I cant do anything about calls as I need to be contactable. Doesnt mean however that I let them see everywhere I go by taking it with me
You are indeed a very strange person. I applaud you for your eccentricity.
Its strange to keep your private life as private as possible from either the public sector or private sector....well that is a view I guess
I'm wondering, what makes showing a slip of paper (or some other document) showing you aren't at risk of transmitting a highly communicable disease dystopian?
I don't think anyone has objected to them for crossing national borders it is fairly normal and for example when I lived in hong kong shots etc were needed both to move there and regular boosters.
What is dystopian is if you need a slip of paper to go into a shop, restaurant or pub...its forcing vaccination by the back door for one thing and for the other its a slippery slope to id card. There needs to be push pack on them for internal use
I am absolutely convinced they should not be required for domestic use by law.
But if a business wants to demand it from its customers, and it's customers are ok with that, then what's the problem?
Eg say a nightclub with 5000 capacity wants to open with people squeezed tight inside and they're already checking ID on the doors and desire since they have 5000 sweaty drunk people sandwiched together indoors that they want to check for vaccinations?
What principle is there against that? If it is the businesses choice, not the government's?
If a business wants to implement that is fine and said that before because then I have a choice and will just boycott that business. My concern is it being mandatory for everyday life
Very interesting in the Scotland leaders debate is question after question from the public asking why Sturgeon is obsessing over independence.
And of course the Conservatives, Labour and LibDems are implacable opposed
The first time I have seen Sturgeon struggling as much on this question
The Unionist parties will IMO be making a mistake if they respond to the Independence movements attempts to manipulate the electoral system by trying to do the same on the other side. The best political argument (whether strictly accurate or not) that Unionists have is that the SNP are obsessed with Independence and neglecting the country as a result. That is where they need to concentrate their message, and let intra Indy infighting play out on its own.
This is interesting. EC official claiming that this makes a difference. From Reuters.
To me it looks like a carefully worded statement designed to perhaps unruffle feathers, that makes no practical difference as it will have no real impact on the current position.
It does not admit that the EU can obtain vaccine from the UK. It says it is possible (which we all know already), but identifies no mechanism where it can be forced.
It is also from an EC official, so there may be weasel words involved. Tweet at bottom.
Ah but there's a distinction when the EU released the contract.
The UK government has a deal with AstraZeneca UK whereas the EU has a deal with AstraZeneca.
Why on earth did AstraZeneca commit to 100 million doses to the EU in Q1? OK, so you have 30 million actually delivered plus maybe 20 million stretch, which didn't materialise. Fair enough. Where did they think the other 50 million doses would come from? They would know the UK plants are accounted for, leaving just two plants in the EU, one of which was doubtful. They can't have done any planning whatever.
The EU should have challenged the numbers with the suppliers, but AZ are the ones that didn't deliver on their commitments, by an order of magnitude.
You don't know what they have 'committed' to. According to the contract, even the indicative delivery schedule is subject to regulatory approval, which wasn't in place when this all kicked off.
Back in January, the EU's contract negotiator said that they weren't expecting deliveries to pick up until April "as already agreed in the existing contracts" (https://euobserver.com/coronavirus/150587). This only became a massive political issue because other countries were able to vaccinate faster.
This is spot on.
The EU Commission simply never had the imagination to realise that normal life could return faster. They haggled over pricing, not delivery schedules. And then they had a temper tantrum when they realized they'd fucked up.
So normal life can return faster then? A little island of normal life in a Europe of Covid?
By 21 June restrictions are due to be lifted here. There is no such date for anywhere else.
You are promising me normal life on the 21st of June? 🤗
Not so far off really.
It’s still ages away. Thankfully the pubs reopen on 12 April, which will be a major step out of this hell. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough to enjoy the beer gardens.
13 more days, I actually think I'm looking forwards to my haircut more than my first pint!
ECB ponders Covid passports to get fans back into grounds for championship
ECB exploring all possibilities for spectators to return
New season will begin without fans on 8 April
As the county season prepares to burst into life on 8 April with the first round of Championship matches, the ECB revealed that it is pondering the use of Covid passports once crowds are again allowed into grounds.
Games will be played in front of empty stands until at least 17 May, when venues will be allowed to fill up to 25% capacity. The ECB is then exploring all possibilities to allow as many people through the turnstiles as possible once most restrictions are lifted, in theory, on 21 June – though much will depend on government guidance and the needs of different local authorities.
“There has been a lot of talk,” said Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket. “We have gone from no passports to suddenly now looking at a Covid certification. We will explore anything that enables us to get our members back and our spectators back. At the moment it looks like that might happen.
“If you look at 21 June, it is going to be a question of balancing three things. One, if there is going to be some sort of passport or Covid certification, second is testing, third is some sort of social distancing – and we have said we will do whatever we are asked to do to make sure we can get the maximum number of people back.
“The ideal would be some sort of certification with an element of social distancing and probably wearing masks.”
For fuck's sake. If I have to wear a face mask for a leusure activity, I'm not going to do it. I'll wear one to go to a shop - because I need stuff - but anything I can get away without purchasing, I will.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Yeh, but you post on PB so The State is all over you as this site is monitored by The Man.
Yes I post here, however for most websites I visit I use tor. I don't claim I have no footprint I merely claim I limit it as much as I can
"The bulk of the funding for Tor's development has come from the federal government of the United States, initially through the Office of Naval Research and DARPA."
I'm wondering, what makes showing a slip of paper (or some other document) showing you aren't at risk of transmitting a highly communicable disease dystopian?
I don't think anyone has objected to them for crossing national borders it is fairly normal and for example when I lived in hong kong shots etc were needed both to move there and regular boosters.
What is dystopian is if you need a slip of paper to go into a shop, restaurant or pub...its forcing vaccination by the back door for one thing and for the other its a slippery slope to id card. There needs to be push pack on them for internal use
My concern is as much the measures that the Govt might put in place to enforce a basically unenforceable measure, as the idea itself. The simple idea that if you leave your "passport"/phone at home, but pop into a pub that is lax about enforcement (as all pubs, especially those with multiple entrances will have to be to stay economically viable) you could be theoretically liable for a spot fine of anywhere between £100 and £10,000.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Yeh, but you post on PB so The State is all over you as this site is monitored by The Man.
Yes I post here, however for most websites I visit I use tor. I don't claim I have no footprint I merely claim I limit it as much as I can
I kinda assume tor (at least, the nodes) is operated by one or more intelligence agencies. Same thing with most of the “commercial” vpns
ECB ponders Covid passports to get fans back into grounds for championship
ECB exploring all possibilities for spectators to return
New season will begin without fans on 8 April
As the county season prepares to burst into life on 8 April with the first round of Championship matches, the ECB revealed that it is pondering the use of Covid passports once crowds are again allowed into grounds.
Games will be played in front of empty stands until at least 17 May, when venues will be allowed to fill up to 25% capacity. The ECB is then exploring all possibilities to allow as many people through the turnstiles as possible once most restrictions are lifted, in theory, on 21 June – though much will depend on government guidance and the needs of different local authorities.
“There has been a lot of talk,” said Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket. “We have gone from no passports to suddenly now looking at a Covid certification. We will explore anything that enables us to get our members back and our spectators back. At the moment it looks like that might happen.
“If you look at 21 June, it is going to be a question of balancing three things. One, if there is going to be some sort of passport or Covid certification, second is testing, third is some sort of social distancing – and we have said we will do whatever we are asked to do to make sure we can get the maximum number of people back.
“The ideal would be some sort of certification with an element of social distancing and probably wearing masks.”
I'm wondering, what makes showing a slip of paper (or some other document) showing you aren't at risk of transmitting a highly communicable disease dystopian?
I don't think anyone has objected to them for crossing national borders it is fairly normal and for example when I lived in hong kong shots etc were needed both to move there and regular boosters.
What is dystopian is if you need a slip of paper to go into a shop, restaurant or pub...its forcing vaccination by the back door for one thing and for the other its a slippery slope to id card. There needs to be push pack on them for internal use
I am absolutely convinced they should not be required for domestic use by law.
But if a business wants to demand it from its customers, and it's customers are ok with that, then what's the problem?
Eg say a nightclub with 5000 capacity wants to open with people squeezed tight inside and they're already checking ID on the doors and desire since they have 5000 sweaty drunk people sandwiched together indoors that they want to check for vaccinations?
What principle is there against that? If it is the businesses choice, not the government's?
If a business wants to implement that is fine and said that before because then I have a choice and will just boycott that business. My concern is it being mandatory for everyday life
Then I agree with you.
Its no different to a bar for example having a dress code. If I dont like it I have the choice to go elsewhere. If its mandatory I don't.
I was amused by a bar once though that had a no sneakers dress rule. Bouncers were fine with me coming in with steel toe capped doctor martens but wouldn't let in my 5'2" girlfriend who weighed just shy of 8 stone because she was wearing the wrong footwear....I mean who is going to kick someone to death here?
Re: vaccine passports. If the Government wanted to introduce them for motives that stretch wider than controlling Covid, i don't think it would bother them to offer paper options. They know that the vast majority of people would use their phones and that would be sufficient for their purposes, even if some people "opted out".
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Yeh, but you post on PB so The State is all over you as this site is monitored by The Man.
Yes I post here, however for most websites I visit I use tor. I don't claim I have no footprint I merely claim I limit it as much as I can
"The bulk of the funding for Tor's development has come from the federal government of the United States, initially through the Office of Naval Research and DARPA."
And the code is open source and has been checked by a lot of clued in people, worst they can do is operate a few exit nodes and it takes a huge effort to hook traffic to one user so your point is?
Jair Bolsonaro’s crisis-stricken administration has been rocked by the sudden sacking of Brazil’s defence minister and the subsequent resignation of the heads of all three branches of the armed forces.
The commanders of the Brazilian army, navy and air force – Gen Edson Leal Pujol, Adm Ilques Barbosa and Lt-Brig Antônio Carlos Bermudez – met with the president’s new minister on Tuesday morning and reportedly tendered their resignations during a dramatic and heated encounter. On Tuesday afternoon the defence ministry confirmed all three would be replaced, a political earthquake that rattled a country already grappling with one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks.
The Folha de São Paulo newspaper said that never before in Brazilian history had the heads of all three branches of the military resigned out of disagreement with a president.
The historic upheaval, which left many Brazilians on edge, came after Brazil’s far-right president fired defence minister Gen Fernando Azevedo e Silva on Monday during what one media report called a chilly three-minute encounter. “I need your job,” Bolsonaro told the General, a longstanding friend, according to the Estado de São Paulo newspaper.
Eliane Cantanhêde, a prominent journalist for that broadsheet in the capital Brasília, claimed Gen Azevedo e Silva had left government after making it clear to the president – a former army captain who is notorious for his praise of authoritarians – that the armed forces owed loyalty to the constitution and were not Bolsonaro’s personal force.
Bolsonaro had reportedly been demanding the removal of Gen Pujol, who, to the president’s apparent consternation, has publicly rejected the politicization of Brazil’s military and pushed for tougher restrictions against Covid, which has killed more than 314,000 Brazilians. Earlier this month Bolsonaro – whose handling of the pandemic and opposition to lockdown have been internationally condemned – sparked outrage by issuing a veiled threat to declare a “state of siege”.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Yeh, but you post on PB so The State is all over you as this site is monitored by The Man.
Yes I post here, however for most websites I visit I use tor. I don't claim I have no footprint I merely claim I limit it as much as I can
I kinda assume tor (at least, the nodes) is operated by one or more intelligence agencies. Same thing with most of the “commercial” vpns
I mean, if they have any sense....
Exit nodes often are. Tor doesnt make you totally untrackable it just means they have to spend a lot of time trying to do it. They can't do it for everyone whereas if you just use standard browsers you are easily trackable
ECB ponders Covid passports to get fans back into grounds for championship
ECB exploring all possibilities for spectators to return
New season will begin without fans on 8 April
As the county season prepares to burst into life on 8 April with the first round of Championship matches, the ECB revealed that it is pondering the use of Covid passports once crowds are again allowed into grounds.
Games will be played in front of empty stands until at least 17 May, when venues will be allowed to fill up to 25% capacity. The ECB is then exploring all possibilities to allow as many people through the turnstiles as possible once most restrictions are lifted, in theory, on 21 June – though much will depend on government guidance and the needs of different local authorities.
“There has been a lot of talk,” said Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket. “We have gone from no passports to suddenly now looking at a Covid certification. We will explore anything that enables us to get our members back and our spectators back. At the moment it looks like that might happen.
“If you look at 21 June, it is going to be a question of balancing three things. One, if there is going to be some sort of passport or Covid certification, second is testing, third is some sort of social distancing – and we have said we will do whatever we are asked to do to make sure we can get the maximum number of people back.
“The ideal would be some sort of certification with an element of social distancing and probably wearing masks.”
For fuck's sake. If I have to wear a face mask for a leusure activity, I'm not going to do it. I'll wear one to go to a shop - because I need stuff - but anything I can get away without purchasing, I will.
Don't worry you won't need a mask if the ECB have access to a database showing that you're full vaccinated.
The idea that HMG will use it for tracking citizens going about their lawful business is paranoid conspiracy theorists voodoo. There are just too many citizens to track for one thing.
A bigger concern is the potential disenfranchisement of the old, the poor, and the vulnerable who for whatever reason have not been smartphone adopters. Yes, there will be paper-based alternatives but these are almost bound to put those reliant on them at some form of a disadvantage.
That should be the concern, not the 'big brother' issue.
ECB ponders Covid passports to get fans back into grounds for championship
ECB exploring all possibilities for spectators to return
New season will begin without fans on 8 April
As the county season prepares to burst into life on 8 April with the first round of Championship matches, the ECB revealed that it is pondering the use of Covid passports once crowds are again allowed into grounds.
Games will be played in front of empty stands until at least 17 May, when venues will be allowed to fill up to 25% capacity. The ECB is then exploring all possibilities to allow as many people through the turnstiles as possible once most restrictions are lifted, in theory, on 21 June – though much will depend on government guidance and the needs of different local authorities.
“There has been a lot of talk,” said Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket. “We have gone from no passports to suddenly now looking at a Covid certification. We will explore anything that enables us to get our members back and our spectators back. At the moment it looks like that might happen.
“If you look at 21 June, it is going to be a question of balancing three things. One, if there is going to be some sort of passport or Covid certification, second is testing, third is some sort of social distancing – and we have said we will do whatever we are asked to do to make sure we can get the maximum number of people back.
“The ideal would be some sort of certification with an element of social distancing and probably wearing masks.”
The average crowd at a county cricket match is about fourteen so social distancing shouldn't be a problem - though FWIW once (at the very latest) everybody has been jabbed once, then that requirement ought to go in the dustbin.
More generally I'm not attending any event where the pleasure of it is ruined by having to sit there throughout in a bloody stupid face mask.
The idea that HMG will use it for tracking citizens going about their lawful business is paranoid conspiracy theorists voodoo. There are just too many citizens to track for one thing.
A bigger concern is the potential disenfranchisement of the old, the poor, and the vulnerable who for whatever reason have not been smartphone adopters. Yes, there will be paper-based alternatives but these are almost bound to put those reliant on them at some form of a disadvantage.
That should be the concern, not the 'big brother' issue.
If they are paper based they will be forgeable and you will find them on ebay
For fuck's sake. If I have to wear a face mask for a leusure activity, I'm not going to do it. I'll wear one to go to a shop - because I need stuff - but anything I can get away without purchasing, I will.
Don't worry you won't need a mask if the ECB have access to a database showing that you're full vaccinated.
I don’t want the imbeciles who thought the Hundred a good idea to have access to anything, thanks.
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Yeh, but you post on PB so The State is all over you as this site is monitored by The Man.
Yes I post here, however for most websites I visit I use tor. I don't claim I have no footprint I merely claim I limit it as much as I can
"The bulk of the funding for Tor's development has come from the federal government of the United States, initially through the Office of Naval Research and DARPA."
And the code is open source and has been checked by a lot of clued in people, worst they can do is operate a few exit nodes and it takes a huge effort to hook traffic to one user so your point is?
My point is that I do not think I am interesting enough for anyone to be arsed to track me, with or without tor.
ECB ponders Covid passports to get fans back into grounds for championship
ECB exploring all possibilities for spectators to return
New season will begin without fans on 8 April
As the county season prepares to burst into life on 8 April with the first round of Championship matches, the ECB revealed that it is pondering the use of Covid passports once crowds are again allowed into grounds.
Games will be played in front of empty stands until at least 17 May, when venues will be allowed to fill up to 25% capacity. The ECB is then exploring all possibilities to allow as many people through the turnstiles as possible once most restrictions are lifted, in theory, on 21 June – though much will depend on government guidance and the needs of different local authorities.
“There has been a lot of talk,” said Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket. “We have gone from no passports to suddenly now looking at a Covid certification. We will explore anything that enables us to get our members back and our spectators back. At the moment it looks like that might happen.
“If you look at 21 June, it is going to be a question of balancing three things. One, if there is going to be some sort of passport or Covid certification, second is testing, third is some sort of social distancing – and we have said we will do whatever we are asked to do to make sure we can get the maximum number of people back.
“The ideal would be some sort of certification with an element of social distancing and probably wearing masks.”
Of all sports in the known universe, the one where nobody has to worry about social distancing is fecking county championship cricket.
You get bigger crowds for a pub football match than you do for the four day game.
I’ve been in the old Jessop Stand at Neville Road and my father and I were literally the only people there.
Yes I have been a life member of Derbyshire CCC for the last 12 years and i have only attended about 2 days each year of the long form of the game. Even though i have been retired for 7 years dont have the time for 4 day stuff
Hardly missed a 50 over game and attended about 75% of T20 games
The idea that HMG will use it for tracking citizens going about their lawful business is paranoid conspiracy theorists voodoo. There are just too many citizens to track for one thing.
A bigger concern is the potential disenfranchisement of the old, the poor, and the vulnerable who for whatever reason have not been smartphone adopters. Yes, there will be paper-based alternatives but these are almost bound to put those reliant on them at some form of a disadvantage.
That should be the concern, not the 'big brother' issue.
If they are paper based they will be forgeable and you will find them on ebay
ECB ponders Covid passports to get fans back into grounds for championship
ECB exploring all possibilities for spectators to return
New season will begin without fans on 8 April
As the county season prepares to burst into life on 8 April with the first round of Championship matches, the ECB revealed that it is pondering the use of Covid passports once crowds are again allowed into grounds.
Games will be played in front of empty stands until at least 17 May, when venues will be allowed to fill up to 25% capacity. The ECB is then exploring all possibilities to allow as many people through the turnstiles as possible once most restrictions are lifted, in theory, on 21 June – though much will depend on government guidance and the needs of different local authorities.
“There has been a lot of talk,” said Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket. “We have gone from no passports to suddenly now looking at a Covid certification. We will explore anything that enables us to get our members back and our spectators back. At the moment it looks like that might happen.
“If you look at 21 June, it is going to be a question of balancing three things. One, if there is going to be some sort of passport or Covid certification, second is testing, third is some sort of social distancing – and we have said we will do whatever we are asked to do to make sure we can get the maximum number of people back.
“The ideal would be some sort of certification with an element of social distancing and probably wearing masks.”
The idea that vaccine passports have any role to play in allowing spectators into County cricket matches just shows to some extent how there is a danger that "passport" serving wider Government purposes become a solution to a non-existent problem. If the Government decrees that spectators at county cricket matches represents a "covid problem" then frankly they shouldn't be opening anything up. I spent all afternoon, at a time when we've barely opened up at all, outside in an environment that was far more "relatively" dangerous than anything you would encounter at a County cricket match.
The issue is that the Government gets to decide what is a Covid problem, so gets to "encourage" passports as a solution.
"Porn has corrupted our children – and we let it happen Our offspring wander through the dank dungeon of the internet largely without supervision so we shouldn't be shocked at the damage it causes ALLISON PEARSON" {£}
The problem isn't the certificate, it's that the government are doing it with a tracking app and database. It's a police state measure.
There'll also be a paper option in the article I read over the weekend.
The piece of paper will probably have a barcode or QR on it that you have to use to log in to some sort kind of system, which will therefore be almost as effective a tracking tool as an app. Although frankly, what concerns me most is that this is all being used as the back door to bringing in a biometric ID card system, which we'll all end up needing for all sorts of things, be required by law to carry, that the police and any number of other state busybodies will be permitted to demand to see, and which we'll be saddled with forever.
That's my concern as well however we already have a de facto ID card, the driving license.
Nope mine is still paper never updated it as no longer own a car
If you avoid having a mobile phone too, and give up withdrawing cash or using payment cards you can really go off the radar and get one over on HMG!
I have a mobile phone but it never leaves my home, and yes I pay pretty much cash for everything and I only get cash from one cashpoint. I don't drive, I don't use facebook, twitter, linked in, loyalty card. I don't have a credit card
Yeh, but you post on PB so The State is all over you as this site is monitored by The Man.
Yes I post here, however for most websites I visit I use tor. I don't claim I have no footprint I merely claim I limit it as much as I can
"The bulk of the funding for Tor's development has come from the federal government of the United States, initially through the Office of Naval Research and DARPA."
And the code is open source and has been checked by a lot of clued in people, worst they can do is operate a few exit nodes and it takes a huge effort to hook traffic to one user so your point is?
My point is that I do not think I am interesting enough for anyone to be arsed to track me, with or without tor.
Well you probably aren't. Then however one of your casual contacts does something and suddenly they are interested and start poking through your life because you had contact with someone.
I speak as someone who is pretty sure there phone was bugged at on point in the 90's. Had a landline and an extension.....main phone didnt ring only the extension picked it up and got greeted with "hello operations" in other words someone fucked up their end
ECB ponders Covid passports to get fans back into grounds for championship
ECB exploring all possibilities for spectators to return
New season will begin without fans on 8 April
As the county season prepares to burst into life on 8 April with the first round of Championship matches, the ECB revealed that it is pondering the use of Covid passports once crowds are again allowed into grounds.
Games will be played in front of empty stands until at least 17 May, when venues will be allowed to fill up to 25% capacity. The ECB is then exploring all possibilities to allow as many people through the turnstiles as possible once most restrictions are lifted, in theory, on 21 June – though much will depend on government guidance and the needs of different local authorities.
“There has been a lot of talk,” said Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket. “We have gone from no passports to suddenly now looking at a Covid certification. We will explore anything that enables us to get our members back and our spectators back. At the moment it looks like that might happen.
“If you look at 21 June, it is going to be a question of balancing three things. One, if there is going to be some sort of passport or Covid certification, second is testing, third is some sort of social distancing – and we have said we will do whatever we are asked to do to make sure we can get the maximum number of people back.
“The ideal would be some sort of certification with an element of social distancing and probably wearing masks.”
The average crowd at a county cricket match is about fourteen so social distancing shouldn't be a problem - though FWIW once (at the very latest) everybody has been jabbed once, then that requirement ought to go in the dustbin.
More generally I'm not attending any event where the pleasure of it is ruined by having to sit there throughout in a bloody stupid face mask.
T20 blast matches are rammed, full capacity, ditto England matches, I think that's the issue.
Comments
https://twitter.com/patrickwintour/status/1376969254193528833?s=20
Pfizer (and their increasing number of production partners) will be producing more than 5 million doses a day by the end of June, and the US isn't going to be taking any of them.
Now, I'm happy to have a small bet with you if you like.
I reckon that CV19 (and associated restrictions) will be functionally eliminated from the EU by the end of September 2021. That is, hospitalisation and deaths will be at or below the level of July 2020 and restrictions will be no more onerous than Hawaii is right now.
I suppose I'll go along with it. But I'll be going out a LOT less.
Then came the 1992 General Election followed soon after by Black Wednesday, the disastrous moment which lost the Conservatives the tag of economic competence. The sleaze ridden 1992-97 Parliament paved the way for the Blair landslide.
Which leads us to the bloke opposite.
Tony Blair was charismatic and popular, hugely so. He had a great way of seeming at ease with people and a winning smile.
Whilst it's possible that Boris could tank I think we'd have seen that post-election by now, as we did with Major.
And I'm afraid that Keir Starmer is no Tony Blair.
I think I'll wait for about 3 weeks, after the initial rush but before people get their second cut.
Vaccine hesitancy has fallen in every country where vaccines have helped bring caseloads down. It'll be the same in France.
Thought experiment: family (Mum, Dad, kiddies) invites Granny (vaccinated on February 2nd,) who they haven't more than waved through the window to since last October, to their place to have polite tea and cake in back garden.
1. Are family and Granny all going to spend the entire time sat dutifully more than two metres apart from one another?
2. If Granny wants the loo, or if it starts pouring with rain, are they going to (a) present her with a bucket, or a brolly, or (b) invite her into the house?
The authorities can intervene in matters such as the opening or closing of businesses and the holding of massive and obvious house parties, but there's nothing they can do about generalised low-level disobedience if practiced on a large enough scale. Though FWIW, at this stage of the crisis people paying discreet visits to one another's homes probably isn't going to make very much difference to anything (because what is a granddaughter visiting her grandfather, or a few old ducks getting together for a coffee morning, relative to a thousand kids all milling around inside a great big school?) I should imagine that parental visiting on an heroic scale took place on Mother's Day and it made not a jot of difference to anything.
Yesterday flags, now dates...
What is dystopian is if you need a slip of paper to go into a shop, restaurant or pub...its forcing vaccination by the back door for one thing and for the other its a slippery slope to id card. There needs to be push pack on them for internal use
Only if you think the Brexit voters will both turn out in decent numbers and switch to the Tories would they be in with a chance.
And of course the Conservatives, Labour and LibDems are implacable opposed
The first time I have seen Sturgeon struggling as much on this question
I know I am of no interest whatsoever to this or any future democratic government. I pay my taxes and obey the laws. The thought they would put any effort into tracking me is ludicrous. In any event, if they were that interested they can already track my car through number plate recognition and get my mobile phone records.
Indeed, shows Starmer in poor light
If as a nation we are stupid enough to allow an undemocratic government to get into power do you seriously think a lack of an ID card at the point they take power would in anyway thwart their totalitarian intent?
Of course not.
Richard Tice will stand in Havering and Redbridge, East London, and also appear on the party’s list of candidates for the London wide vote.
Allies said opposition to lockdown regulations would be a big part of his campaign. In a flavour of his pitch he tweeted this afternoon: “SO SAD still to see some children been so unnecessarily terrified they are wearing masks outside.”
Jair Bolsonaro’s crisis-stricken administration has been rocked by the sudden sacking of Brazil’s defence minister and the subsequent resignation of the heads of all three branches of the armed forces.
The commanders of the Brazilian army, navy and air force – Gen Edson Leal Pujol, Adm Ilques Barbosa and Lt-Brig Antônio Carlos Bermudez – met with the president’s new minister on Tuesday morning and reportedly tendered their resignations during a dramatic and heated encounter. On Tuesday afternoon the defence ministry confirmed all three would be replaced, a political earthquake that rattled a country already grappling with one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks.
The Folha de São Paulo newspaper said that never before in Brazilian history had the heads of all three branches of the military resigned out of disagreement with a president.
The historic upheaval, which left many Brazilians on edge, came after Brazil’s far-right president fired defence minister Gen Fernando Azevedo e Silva on Monday during what one media report called a chilly three-minute encounter. “I need your job,” Bolsonaro told the General, a longstanding friend, according to the Estado de São Paulo newspaper.
Eliane Cantanhêde, a prominent journalist for that broadsheet in the capital Brasília, claimed Gen Azevedo e Silva had left government after making it clear to the president – a former army captain who is notorious for his praise of authoritarians – that the armed forces owed loyalty to the constitution and were not Bolsonaro’s personal force.
Bolsonaro had reportedly been demanding the removal of Gen Pujol, who, to the president’s apparent consternation, has publicly rejected the politicization of Brazil’s military and pushed for tougher restrictions against Covid, which has killed more than 314,000 Brazilians. Earlier this month Bolsonaro – whose handling of the pandemic and opposition to lockdown have been internationally condemned – sparked outrage by issuing a veiled threat to declare a “state of siege”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/30/brazil-military-chiefs-resign-bolsonaro-fires-defense-minister
Things and jobs which so far have gone to every Borough except for Hartlepool while the Labour party in Hartlepool is a grade A mess still fighting each other.
So if you think Labour is going to scrape in I would be surprised.
Don't be stupid. See my answer to @Pagan2.
Not allowing a vaccine passport isn't going to prevent a future totalitarian government, any more than having a vaccine passport is going to lead to one.
We need to concentrate on electing MPs and governments who believe in freedom, fairness of opportunity, and the democratic process. We might start by kicking out one that feels it's fine for lots of contracts to go to their mates and schoolchums without due process.
'Warm up that porridge, maw, it'll do anither turn.'
https://twitter.com/AndyEMorrison/status/1376973454419824642?s=20
Edit: I've just seen your other response. Well done - by cutting yourself off from many of the conveniences of modern life you are keeping your head well down.
Sorry to disappoint you though: unless you are a budding terrorist or drug lord, I doubt if HMG or any of their forces actually give a shit.
But if a business wants to demand it from its customers, and it's customers are ok with that, then what's the problem?
Eg say a nightclub with 5000 capacity wants to open with people squeezed tight inside and they're already checking ID on the doors and desire since they have 5000 sweaty drunk people sandwiched together indoors that they want to check for vaccinations?
What principle is there against that? If it is the businesses choice, not the government's?
But if a business wants to demand it from its customers, and it's customers are ok with that, then what's the problem?
Eg say a nightclub with 5000 capacity wants to open with people squeezed tight inside and they're already checking ID on the doors and desire since they have 5000 sweaty drunk people sandwiched together indoors that they want to check for vaccinations?
What principle is there against that? If it is the businesses choice, not the government's?
ECB exploring all possibilities for spectators to return
New season will begin without fans on 8 April
As the county season prepares to burst into life on 8 April with the first round of Championship matches, the ECB revealed that it is pondering the use of Covid passports once crowds are again allowed into grounds.
Games will be played in front of empty stands until at least 17 May, when venues will be allowed to fill up to 25% capacity. The ECB is then exploring all possibilities to allow as many people through the turnstiles as possible once most restrictions are lifted, in theory, on 21 June – though much will depend on government guidance and the needs of different local authorities.
“There has been a lot of talk,” said Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket. “We have gone from no passports to suddenly now looking at a Covid certification. We will explore anything that enables us to get our members back and our spectators back. At the moment it looks like that might happen.
“If you look at 21 June, it is going to be a question of balancing three things. One, if there is going to be some sort of passport or Covid certification, second is testing, third is some sort of social distancing – and we have said we will do whatever we are asked to do to make sure we can get the maximum number of people back.
“The ideal would be some sort of certification with an element of social distancing and probably wearing masks.”
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/mar/30/ecb-ponder-covid-passports-to-get-fans-back-into-grounds-for-county-championship-cricket
Indeed I won't be able to... because they will have bundled off all the vaccine passport refusniks to the camps ahead of me.
Was I the only person who read ''Focaldata' in the header as 'Fuck All Data'?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)
I mean, if they have any sense....
You get bigger crowds for a pub football match than you do for the four day game.
I’ve been in the old Jessop Stand at Neville Road and my father and I were literally the only people there.
I was amused by a bar once though that had a no sneakers dress rule. Bouncers were fine with me coming in with steel toe capped doctor martens but wouldn't let in my 5'2" girlfriend who weighed just shy of 8 stone because she was wearing the wrong footwear....I mean who is going to kick someone to death here?
The idea that HMG will use it for tracking citizens going about their lawful business is paranoid conspiracy theorists voodoo. There are just too many citizens to track for one thing.
A bigger concern is the potential disenfranchisement of the old, the poor, and the vulnerable who for whatever reason have not been smartphone adopters. Yes, there will be paper-based alternatives but these are almost bound to put those reliant on them at some form of a disadvantage.
That should be the concern, not the 'big brother' issue.
More generally I'm not attending any event where the pleasure of it is ruined by having to sit there throughout in a bloody stupid face mask.
They’re almost as useless as the DfE.
Hardly missed a 50 over game and attended about 75% of T20 games
The issue is that the Government gets to decide what is a Covid problem, so gets to "encourage" passports as a solution.
Our offspring wander through the dank dungeon of the internet largely without supervision so we shouldn't be shocked at the damage it causes
ALLISON PEARSON" {£}
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/porn-has-corrupted-children-let-happen/
I speak as someone who is pretty sure there phone was bugged at on point in the 90's. Had a landline and an extension.....main phone didnt ring only the extension picked it up and got greeted with "hello operations" in other words someone fucked up their end