Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
But it is a nickname which happens to have caught on with many people. That does not oblige everybody to use it!
Calling him "Alex" in his public persona is just perverse, reserved for that segment who can't bear to help his cult of personality by using "Boris", but too smart to use the term "BoZo".
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
But it is a nickname which happens to have caught on with many people. That does not oblige everybody to use it!
Because its his name. 🤦♂️
In a free society people are able to use whatever name they want. Puerile whinging when others are called by their name (shock, horror!) is just pathetic.
Boris, Keir, Johnson, Starmer - it makes no difference. Use whatever you prefer.
I prefer Boris and Keir personally. I prefer first names since I'm not some old fashioned git with a stick up my arse. If others are, they can use surnames if they prefer that.
Oh goody, are we back to re-weighting polls again?
That data implies that Labour has been oversampled by 24% - and the Tories by 59% based on thr 2019 GE result there.. The figures are pretty hopelessly skewed,
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
We have a tariff and quota free trade deal. What need is there to do "checks"? No more than when we were part of the EU.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
This is where the propaganda in the UK media now faces the icy grip of reality. The EU have NOT cocked up their roll out to the degree represented in the Dail Heil, but the UK has itself stored up significant problems which they will now struggle somewhat to resolve.
They will resolve things, I trust, but the stupid anti EU arrogance could now be turned down a bit.
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
This is where the propaganda in the UK media now faces the icy grip of reality. The EU have NOT cocked up their roll out to the degree represented in the Dail Heil, but the UK has itself stored up significant problems which they will now struggle somewhat to resolve.
They will resolve things, I trust, but the stupid anti EU arrogance could now be turned down a bit.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No he isn't. He is trying out options and not committing to anything specific yet. There is no good way from here on VaxID, so he wants to know what might, with luck, be least worst. And then hope parliament forces his hand so that he can share the blame for what goes wrong (it will) cross party.
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Don't worry, my mum went through this a week or so ago and just got a text to tell her to book an appointment. The automated system will allocate you a dose when it's time.
The sage pessimists are already wrong. They're putting in unnecessarily pessimistic inputs into their model to achieve their goal of scaring unwitting rubes into believing vaccine passports are a necessary evil. This was the same idiotic team that predicted a peak of 4k deaths per day (with a lockdown) by simply inputting unrealistic R values into their model.
They have an agenda, they will do whatever it takes to push it, this time they are downgrading the vaccine efficacy from 80% for a single dose and over 99% for two doses to 32% for a single dose and 62% for two doses.
There is no reason to do that. Literally, no reason. They are doing it so SAGE and these other public health bodies can hold onto this enormous power they have over the public at large.
You are being very silly. Of course they're not trying 'to achieve their goal of scaring unwitting rubes into believing vaccine passports are a necessary evil'. For heaven's sake, get a grip!
On the substantive point, yes I agree their assumptions look over-cautious, provided that we don't get hit by vaccine-resistant variants. However, isn't the efficacy they've assumed that which refers to whether a vaccinated person can infect someone else? You are quoting the efficacy on symptomatic cases, which is potentially a very different number. There's not much data on the former.
Over cautious is a huge understatement. It's simply wrong. Their model is trying to forwards project the hospitalisation rate and they've used incorrect values on hospitalisation efficacy of the two main vaccines in use in this country. They've adjusted their inputs to try and get the outcome they wanted, I see data modellers do it all the time and it's always bad practice. They want to tell a certain story and now that the data no longer helps them tell it they've simply changed the data.
Again, I'll put it quite simply, does it matter if 1m people per day get infected if only 100 of those end up in hospital? Even at the top end of any projection we're looking at maybe 50k infections per day, with the known efficacy of two doses for over 50s even if all 50k were in those more vulnerable groups we're looking at 10 hospitalisations per day from vaccinated people.
You're being incredibly naïve if you truly believe that these now all powerful scientists and public health people will willingly give up all of these interesting new tools they have at their disposal. They are trying to browbeat the public and politicians into giving them a permanent say in how we live with doom mongering data models that only a very small number of people will understand.
To be fair to them, if I knew a public inquiry was 100% definitely coming in which all my actions, assumptions and communications would be scrutinised (and then misrepresented/twisted way out of context by the press), I'd probably lowball the efficacy rates in my model as well.
No, you'd surely use the best available data. That way when the questions are asked you can say "our model used the best available data from real world observations". Right now they have no answer to Steve Baker or Charles Walker when they inevitably get asked why they used such low efficacy values as inputs.
10000 a week? My local surgery does 1000 a day on its allotted day!!!!!!
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Have you tried attempting to book a second jab on the NHS website?
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
Re Hartlepool, it is pretty obvious people are self-stratifying and re-imagining (I would say perhaps "retconning") their 2019 vote to a significant degree.
Anyone who recalls the difficulties in finding anyone prepared to admit they voted LibDem in 2010 between 2015 and 2017 will be reminded....
While BoZo basks in the success of the British Vaccine, there must be some element of risk in being so closely associated with the only vaccine that is being shunned by the rest of the World
Such a revealing post, Scott.
Pretty shameless. Have to grudgingly admire his dedication
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Don't worry, my mum went through this a week or so ago and just got a text to tell her to book an appointment. The automated system will allocate you a dose when it's time.
My father had the same experience last week. He was getting a bit concerned, then he got a text with basically come in 2 days time.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
And you are 100% sure that there are neither customs borders nor checks on the Irish side (both Ireland and Northern Ireland) of the Irish Sea.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
But it is a nickname which happens to have caught on with many people. That does not oblige everybody to use it!
Write out 1000 times:
James Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown...
Leonard James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan...
James Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson...
James Keir Hardie James Keir Hardie James Keir Hardie...
You are rather missing the point there. With the single exception of Callaghan the people listed were always known by their second names - as indeed am I. Callaghan can reasonably be compared to Johnson in that he was known as Len at the time of his election to Parliament in 1945.. He subsequently decided that 'Jim' was likely to run better for him than 'Len' - though I believe the latter continued to be used by family for some years. Others always known by their second names were Maurice Harold Macmillan, Arthur Neville Chamberlain and James Ramsay Macdonald. David Lloyd George also provides an interesting example in that his original name was David George. He added Lloyd later himself in recognition of the influence of his uncle Richard Lloyd re- his upbringing.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
Are those points being used? I thought they'd been abandoned for now - and the UK should ensure they are abandoned permanently.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
This is where the propaganda in the UK media now faces the icy grip of reality. The EU have NOT cocked up their roll out to the degree represented in the Dail Heil, but the UK has itself stored up significant problems which they will now struggle somewhat to resolve.
They will resolve things, I trust, but the stupid anti EU arrogance could now be turned down a bit.
I suspect the poster was interested in information about availability of Pfizer second doses elsewhere in the UK and/or some advice from those familiar with the UK vaccine rollout & availability.
Rather than being made the subject of a glib, tendentious & doctrinaire posting from the Tallinn LibDems.
There is quite a lot of competition for the title of Biggest Arse on Pb.
While BoZo basks in the success of the British Vaccine, there must be some element of risk in being so closely associated with the only vaccine that is being shunned by the rest of the World
Such a revealing post, Scott.
Pretty shameless. Have to grudgingly admire his dedication
Scott N Paste is going to be like the lefties who still blame everything single that happen on Thatcher. It will be 2050 and Scott N Paste will still be going on about how Boris was the worst PM ever and Brexit is responsible for the fact that the Home Office lost some records and accidentally let some criminals go free.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
But it is a nickname which happens to have caught on with many people. That does not oblige everybody to use it!
Because its his name. 🤦♂️
In a free society people are able to use whatever name they want. Puerile whinging when others are called by their name (shock, horror!) is just pathetic.
Boris, Keir, Johnson, Starmer - it makes no difference. Use whatever you prefer.
I prefer Boris and Keir personally. I prefer first names since I'm not some old fashioned git with a stick up my arse. If others are, they can use surnames if they prefer that.
Now, now - there's nowt old fashioned about using surnames, Thompson!
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
But it is a nickname which happens to have caught on with many people. That does not oblige everybody to use it!
Because its his name. 🤦♂️
In a free society people are able to use whatever name they want. Puerile whinging when others are called by their name (shock, horror!) is just pathetic.
Boris, Keir, Johnson, Starmer - it makes no difference. Use whatever you prefer.
I prefer Boris and Keir personally. I prefer first names since I'm not some old fashioned git with a stick up my arse. If others are, they can use surnames if they prefer that.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
We have a tariff and quota free trade deal. What need is there to do "checks"? No more than when we were part of the EU.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
Are those points being used? I thought they'd been abandoned for now - and the UK should ensure they are abandoned permanently.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
Perhaps Boris should have thought about that before he decided it was the leave article that should be published and before he throw away May's fudge that had a chance of keeping things working...
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Don't worry, my mum went through this a week or so ago and just got a text to tell her to book an appointment. The automated system will allocate you a dose when it's time.
Thank you.
Apparently it's because I'm still on my old GP's booking system even though I'm registered with my new GP in Cumbria.
So I have to get off that system to allow my new GP to book me an appointment here with a different practice in Barrow.
The sage pessimists are already wrong. They're putting in unnecessarily pessimistic inputs into their model to achieve their goal of scaring unwitting rubes into believing vaccine passports are a necessary evil. This was the same idiotic team that predicted a peak of 4k deaths per day (with a lockdown) by simply inputting unrealistic R values into their model.
They have an agenda, they will do whatever it takes to push it, this time they are downgrading the vaccine efficacy from 80% for a single dose and over 99% for two doses to 32% for a single dose and 62% for two doses.
There is no reason to do that. Literally, no reason. They are doing it so SAGE and these other public health bodies can hold onto this enormous power they have over the public at large.
You are being very silly. Of course they're not trying 'to achieve their goal of scaring unwitting rubes into believing vaccine passports are a necessary evil'. For heaven's sake, get a grip!
On the substantive point, yes I agree their assumptions look over-cautious, provided that we don't get hit by vaccine-resistant variants. However, isn't the efficacy they've assumed that which refers to whether a vaccinated person can infect someone else? You are quoting the efficacy on symptomatic cases, which is potentially a very different number. There's not much data on the former.
Over cautious is a huge understatement. It's simply wrong. Their model is trying to forwards project the hospitalisation rate and they've used incorrect values on hospitalisation efficacy of the two main vaccines in use in this country. They've adjusted their inputs to try and get the outcome they wanted, I see data modellers do it all the time and it's always bad practice. They want to tell a certain story and now that the data no longer helps them tell it they've simply changed the data.
Again, I'll put it quite simply, does it matter if 1m people per day get infected if only 100 of those end up in hospital? Even at the top end of any projection we're looking at maybe 50k infections per day, with the known efficacy of two doses for over 50s even if all 50k were in those more vulnerable groups we're looking at 10 hospitalisations per day from vaccinated people.
You're being incredibly naïve if you truly believe that these now all powerful scientists and public health people will willingly give up all of these interesting new tools they have at their disposal. They are trying to browbeat the public and politicians into giving them a permanent say in how we live with doom mongering data models that only a very small number of people will understand.
To be fair to them, if I knew a public inquiry was 100% definitely coming in which all my actions, assumptions and communications would be scrutinised (and then misrepresented/twisted way out of context by the press), I'd probably lowball the efficacy rates in my model as well.
Why? The public inquiry will also uncover the restrictions that were unnecessary and actually counterproductive in saving years of life.
I wouldn’t put it past Vlad to have kompramat on the lot of them. That wet blanket from Imperial has been a bit more balanced ever since he was outed with his trousers down.
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Don't worry, my mum went through this a week or so ago and just got a text to tell her to book an appointment. The automated system will allocate you a dose when it's time.
Thank you.
Apparently it's because I'm still on my old GP's booking system even though I'm registered with my new GP in Cumbria.
So I have to get off that system to allow my new GP to book me an appointment here with a different practice in Barrow.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
We have a tariff and quota free trade deal. What need is there to do "checks"? No more than when we were part of the EU.
We are no longer in a customs union with the EU.
I know. But why is there any more need to check goods? There is a need to prevent contraband but that was there all along.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
But it is a nickname which happens to have caught on with many people. That does not oblige everybody to use it!
Write out 1000 times:
James Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown...
Leonard James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan...
James Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson...
James Keir Hardie James Keir Hardie James Keir Hardie...
You are rather missing the point there. With the single exception of Callaghan the people listed were always known by their second names - as indeed am I. Callaghan can reasonably be compared to Johnson in that he was known as Len at the time of his election to Parliament in 1945.. He subsequently decided that 'Jim' was likely to run better for him than 'Len' - though I believe the latter continued to be used by family for some years. Others always known by their second names were Maurice Harold Macmillan, Arthur Neville Chamberlain and James Ramsay Macdonald. David Lloyd George also provides an interesting example in that his original name was David George. He added Lloyd later himself in recognition of the influence of his uncle Richard Lloyd re- his upbringing.
I wonder what percentage of the public are known by their second names. In my immediate family growing up (i.e. parents and siblings, not spouse and offspring), it was 50%, including myself.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
Are those points being used? I thought they'd been abandoned for now - and the UK should ensure they are abandoned permanently.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
Perhaps Boris should have thought about that before he decided it was the leave article that should be published and before he throw away May's fudge that had a chance of keeping things working...
May's fudge didn't work, it kept the UK within the EU backstop. 🤦♂️
Boris's fudge does work. UK leaves the EU, pretends it will erect an Irish Sea border if needed, then say its all too dangerous and never does. Job done.
Re Hartlepool, it is pretty obvious people are self-stratifying and re-imagining (I would say perhaps "retconning") their 2019 vote to a significant degree.
Anyone who recalls the difficulties in finding anyone prepared to admit they voted LibDem in 2010 between 2015 and 2017 will be reminded....
Have to wonder how many would recall voting for "Tice the Tory", or more likely - "Brexit, yes the conservatives".
Oh goody, are we back to re-weighting polls again?
That data implies that Labour has been oversampled by 24% - and the Tories by 59% based on thr 2019 GE result there.. The figures are pretty hopelessly skewed,
If you correct for the skew you get
Con 31% Lab 34% RUK 8% LD 2% Other 3%
But these are all small numbers and a dodgy correction.
I would say, on current dodgy data it is 50/50 on Con/Lab.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
Are those points being used? I thought they'd been abandoned for now - and the UK should ensure they are abandoned permanently.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
Perhaps Boris should have thought about that before he decided it was the leave article that should be published and before he throw away May's fudge that had a chance of keeping things working...
May's fudge didn't work, it kept the UK within the EU backstop. 🤦♂️
Boris's fudge does work. UK leaves the EU, pretends it will erect an Irish Sea border if needed, then say its all too dangerous and never does. Job done.
How does that work in Northern Ireland - you can't use Death threats to keep a border open.
Re Hartlepool, it is pretty obvious people are self-stratifying and re-imagining (I would say perhaps "retconning") their 2019 vote to a significant degree.
Anyone who recalls the difficulties in finding anyone prepared to admit they voted LibDem in 2010 between 2015 and 2017 will be reminded....
Have to wonder how many would recall voting for "Tice the Tory", or more likely - "Brexit, yes the conservatives".
"I voted to get Brexit done by voting Brexit. That was Boris who said Get Brexit Done and I voted for that."
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Don't worry, my mum went through this a week or so ago and just got a text to tell her to book an appointment. The automated system will allocate you a dose when it's time.
My father had the same experience last week. He was getting a bit concerned, then he got a text with basically come in 2 days time.
Also, unless there's new research on this that I've missed...
There's nothing magic about the twelve week gap. It was settled on to maximise first doses, while (hopefully, fairly evidence free at the time, but now seems to be the case) avoiding much reduction in protection before the second dose. We don't really know how far it can be pushed. It might be that longer will actually be better for long-term protection. So, if it were to be 13, 14 weeks, not really a big drama. And if there's a problem with Pfizer supplies then at some point second doses for first dose Pfizer recipients will switch to something AZN or another, which may even be more effective, quite possibly more effective than two doses of AZN for example.
Re Hartlepool, it is pretty obvious people are self-stratifying and re-imagining (I would say perhaps "retconning") their 2019 vote to a significant degree.
Anyone who recalls the difficulties in finding anyone prepared to admit they voted LibDem in 2010 between 2015 and 2017 will be reminded....
Have to wonder how many would recall voting for "Tice the Tory", or more likely - "Brexit, yes the conservatives".
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
Are those points being used? I thought they'd been abandoned for now - and the UK should ensure they are abandoned permanently.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
Perhaps Boris should have thought about that before he decided it was the leave article that should be published and before he throw away May's fudge that had a chance of keeping things working...
May's fudge didn't work, it kept the UK within the EU backstop. 🤦♂️
Boris's fudge does work. UK leaves the EU, pretends it will erect an Irish Sea border if needed, then say its all too dangerous and never does. Job done.
How does that work in Northern Ireland - you can't use Death threats to keep a border open.
Why not?
It is exactly what the Nationalist community, the EU and the Republic of Ireland have done for the past five years. Why can't it be done in East/West as well as North/South.
Why should the Unionist community and the United Kingdom not return fire with fire? The Good Friday Agreement trumps all and the GFA requires an open East/West border every bit as much as a North/South one.
So no checks in Irish Sea, because peace. No checks on Irish border, because peace. If the EU want to reach a new deal once they realise they bought a dud in the Protocol they can come to us and request new terms.
And because the GFA trumps it all, its entirely legal.
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Don't worry, my mum went through this a week or so ago and just got a text to tell her to book an appointment. The automated system will allocate you a dose when it's time.
My father had the same experience last week. He was getting a bit concerned, then he got a text with basically come in 2 days time.
Also, unless there's new research on this that I've missed...
There's nothing magic about the twelve week gap. It was settled on to maximise first doses, while (hopefully, fairly evidence free at the time, but now seems to be the case) avoiding much reduction in protection before the second dose. We don't really know how far it can be pushed. It might be that longer will actually be better for long-term protection. So, if it were to be 13, 14 weeks, not really a big drama. And if there's a problem with Pfizer supplies then at some point second doses for first dose Pfizer recipients will switch to something AZN or another, which may even be more effective, quite possibly more effective than two doses of AZN for example.
With Moderna coming on stream, I would think a Pfizer1/Moderna2 would be a good strategy, if needed.
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
If it helps, it's a concern rather than a massive worry.
The most important shot is the first (which in the case of Pfizer is pretty effective on its own), and booster dates are best guesses, rather than absolute deadlines, as it would take years to run clinical trials to work out what is actually most effective. The reality is that so long as you get a booster even a month or two after when it was supposed to be due, you should be fine.
This doesn't make any sense. If you are a Brit who was living in the EU before Brexit you are - or were - entitled to claim residency, just like EU citizens in the UK
That was one of the major points of the deal.
So these Brits either failed to claim residency, or they were - cough - 'living under the radar' for some reason
Was there ever a generation that didn't accuse young people of similar?
And it is true that, with technology, humanity has been able to become softer and does not needed to be so hardworking.
Do I really want to be the Yemeni Ithna9shar kids I used to see climbing 9000' up narrow cliff paths from the river to their mountain top homes with 5 gallon water containers on their heads? No, I do not. Give me water on tap anytime, rather than that work ethic.
Oh goody, are we back to re-weighting polls again?
That data implies that Labour has been oversampled by 24% - and the Tories by 59% based on thr 2019 GE result there.. The figures are pretty hopelessly skewed,
If you correct for the skew you get
Con 31% Lab 34% RUK 8% LD 2% Other 3%
But these are all small numbers and a dodgy correction.
I would say, on current dodgy data it is 50/50 on Con/Lab.
My recollection is that there's some data on false memory where a party had a one-off peak. People tend to "remember" voting for their current preference. If that's right, then the poll may (unfortunately) more right than it looks.But I agree it's not at all clear.
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Don't worry, my mum went through this a week or so ago and just got a text to tell her to book an appointment. The automated system will allocate you a dose when it's time.
My father had the same experience last week. He was getting a bit concerned, then he got a text with basically come in 2 days time.
Also, unless there's new research on this that I've missed...
There's nothing magic about the twelve week gap. It was settled on to maximise first doses, while (hopefully, fairly evidence free at the time, but now seems to be the case) avoiding much reduction in protection before the second dose. We don't really know how far it can be pushed. It might be that longer will actually be better for long-term protection. So, if it were to be 13, 14 weeks, not really a big drama. And if there's a problem with Pfizer supplies then at some point second doses for first dose Pfizer recipients will switch to something AZN or another, which may even be more effective, quite possibly more effective than two doses of AZN for example.
Canada have gone to four months between vaccine doses.
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Don't worry, my mum went through this a week or so ago and just got a text to tell her to book an appointment. The automated system will allocate you a dose when it's time.
My father had the same experience last week. He was getting a bit concerned, then he got a text with basically come in 2 days time.
Also, unless there's new research on this that I've missed...
There's nothing magic about the twelve week gap. It was settled on to maximise first doses, while (hopefully, fairly evidence free at the time, but now seems to be the case) avoiding much reduction in protection before the second dose. We don't really know how far it can be pushed. It might be that longer will actually be better for long-term protection. So, if it were to be 13, 14 weeks, not really a big drama. And if there's a problem with Pfizer supplies then at some point second doses for first dose Pfizer recipients will switch to something AZN or another, which may even be more effective, quite possibly more effective than two doses of AZN for example.
Canada have gone to four months between vaccine doses.
Good for them!
Following the UK's rollout its illogical not to do similar. Good to see they're using common sense, I wonder if anyone else is yet?
Was there ever a generation that didn't accuse young people of similar?
And it is true that, with technology, humanity has been able to become softer and does not needed to be so hardworking.
Do I really want to be the Yemeni Ithna9shar kids I used to see climbing 9000' up narrow cliff paths from the river to their mountain top homes with 5 gallon water containers on their heads? No, I do not. Give me water on tap anytime, rather than that work ethic.
And can Amanda Owen code in Python...
...or, for that matter, properly appreciate Radiohead ?
Politico.com - Trump and his allies abandon Gaetz The congressman was a MAGA fixture. Now, engulfed in scandal, he’s persona non grata in Trumpworld.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) built a public profile as an unapologetic, unambiguous, omnipresent booster of President Donald Trump.
But as his own political career skids toward disaster amid allegations that he had sex with a minor and paid for sex with women of legal age, neither Trump nor anyone in the ex-president’s orbit is rushing to Gaetz’s defense. A group that often instinctively decries any such charge as part of some nefarious, coordinated witch hunt from deep-state operators has, instead, said virtually nothing at all.
“Not a lot of people are surprised,” said one person involved in Trump’s post-presidential operations.
In the days since news broke that the Department of Justice was looking into whether Gaetz had violated sex trafficking laws — an allegation he denies — no Trump aide or family member has tweeted about the Florida congressman. Nor have almost any of the most prominent Trump surrogates or Trump-allied conservatives and media personalities, including Sean Hannity, Dan Bongino, Charlie Kirk or American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp, at whose annual CPAC conference Gaetz had recently appeared.
The Daily Beast reported on Friday night that Trump himself was monitoring the situation but following the advice of aides to stay quiet about it. And several people familiar with their relationship said Gaetz and Trump have not spoken regularly lately, even after the lawmaker had offered to resign from Congress to join the ex-president’s impeachment defense team in February.
Operatives inside Trump World say the silence is owed to a variety of factors. Among them is the fact that Gaetz has always been regarded as a grenade whose pin had already been pulled. The congressman had a reputation for a wild personal lifestyle that, associates say, occasionally bordered on reckless. Some of Gaetz’s own aides would regularly send embarrassing videos of their boss to other GOP operatives, according to two people familiar with the videos. . . .
"The reason you haven't seen people in MAGA world defending Gaetz is less about him being unpopular, which he is in a lot of circles, and more about the fact that he hasn't done a single thing to make people comfortable to defend him. His interview with Tucker was an absolutely embarrassing train wreck," said one Trump confidant. . . . .
Oh goody, are we back to re-weighting polls again?
That data implies that Labour has been oversampled by 24% - and the Tories by 59% based on thr 2019 GE result there.. The figures are pretty hopelessly skewed,
If you correct for the skew you get
Con 31% Lab 34% RUK 8% LD 2% Other 3%
But these are all small numbers and a dodgy correction.
I would say, on current dodgy data it is 50/50 on Con/Lab.
My recollection is that there's some data on false memory where a party had a one-off peak. People tend to "remember" voting for their current preference. If that's right, then the poll may (unfortunately) more right than it looks.But I agree it's not at all clear.
It's even more than a one-off peak, it was a one-off, very short-lived existence. I'm not surprised that the good burghers of Hartlepool have forgotten about it; so has everyone else.
On balance, a poll to treat with caution, but the Tories very likely are ahead.
Oh goody, are we back to re-weighting polls again?
That data implies that Labour has been oversampled by 24% - and the Tories by 59% based on thr 2019 GE result there.. The figures are pretty hopelessly skewed,
If you correct for the skew you get
Con 31% Lab 34% RUK 8% LD 2% Other 3%
But these are all small numbers and a dodgy correction.
I would say, on current dodgy data it is 50/50 on Con/Lab.
A further adjustment to 100% gives Con 39.5% Lab 43.5% RUK 10% LD 2.5% Others 4%
Was there ever a generation that didn't accuse young people of similar?
And it is true that, with technology, humanity has been able to become softer and does not needed to be so hardworking.
Do I really want to be the Yemeni Ithna9shar kids I used to see climbing 9000' up narrow cliff paths from the river to their mountain top homes with 5 gallon water containers on their heads? No, I do not. Give me water on tap anytime, rather than that work ethic.
And can Amanda Owen code in Python...
...or, for that matter, properly appreciate Radiohead ?
Totally off-topic but related....my Nvidia 3090 has arrived...ohhhh yeah....
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Have you tried attempting to book a second jab on the NHS website?
Not possible.
I have taken myself off the Accubook system at my old GP - an oversight by them - so my current practice should now be able to book me in somewhere in Cumbria.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
Calling Johnson "Boris" of course is also ridiculous. He is Johnson, just as Theresa was May, Tony was Blair etc
He's Boris, its his name.
Just like in Blair's day he was often called Tony, in Cameron's day he was often called Dave, Sturgeon is often called Nicola. Trump was often called Donald, even Biden has sometimes been called Jo.
Starmer is sometimes called Keith.
It happens. We don't live in a prim and proper 19th century society when people can only use surnames.
He is not known as Boris in private life - by his family and close friends. His real name is Alexander or Alex.
So what? I'm not his close family or friends, are you?
He is known as Boris in public life and it is his name.
I know plenty of people with names or nicknames that are acceptable to be used by family and close friends, but not by others. Its none of your business frankly.
But it is a nickname which happens to have caught on with many people. That does not oblige everybody to use it!
Calling him "Alex" in his public persona is just perverse, reserved for that segment who can't bear to help his cult of personality by using "Boris", but too smart to use the term "BoZo".
Commendably honest of you, Mark. Also correct. "Boris" is a brand and it's electoral gold. Worth many votes and they are slap bang in the places that matter. Labour can't win power against him unless he crashes and burns and clings on instead of going. And here's the good news. This is exactly what I think will happen.
Was there ever a generation that didn't accuse young people of similar?
And it is true that, with technology, humanity has been able to become softer and does not needed to be so hardworking.
Do I really want to be the Yemeni Ithna9shar kids I used to see climbing 9000' up narrow cliff paths from the river to their mountain top homes with 5 gallon water containers on their heads? No, I do not. Give me water on tap anytime, rather than that work ethic.
And can Amanda Owen code in Python...
...or, for that matter, properly appreciate Radiohead ?
At the risk of incurring Robert's wrath, can anyone properly appreciate Radiohead? Is it really a thing?
While BoZo basks in the success of the British Vaccine, there must be some element of risk in being so closely associated with the only vaccine that is being shunned by the rest of the World
Such a revealing post, Scott.
Yes the underlying nastiness of it reveals one sick poster!
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Don't worry, my mum went through this a week or so ago and just got a text to tell her to book an appointment. The automated system will allocate you a dose when it's time.
My father had the same experience last week. He was getting a bit concerned, then he got a text with basically come in 2 days time.
Also, unless there's new research on this that I've missed...
There's nothing magic about the twelve week gap. It was settled on to maximise first doses, while (hopefully, fairly evidence free at the time, but now seems to be the case) avoiding much reduction in protection before the second dose. We don't really know how far it can be pushed. It might be that longer will actually be better for long-term protection. So, if it were to be 13, 14 weeks, not really a big drama. And if there's a problem with Pfizer supplies then at some point second doses for first dose Pfizer recipients will switch to something AZN or another, which may even be more effective, quite possibly more effective than two doses of AZN for example.
Canada have gone to four months between vaccine doses.
I'd be more than thrilled to have one dose! I'm almost 67 and Spain is about to start on the 70-79 year olds!
A lady after my own heart. ...I think a lot, too, about something that the late Andrea Levy, author of Small Island and The Long Song, apparently said. That when breast cancer stopped being treatable and became stage 4 and incurable, she realised she didn’t want to spend what was left of her life in a room writing. She wanted, instead, to live.
I understand that and yet I want both. I want to cling to every moment, but I also want to read and watch everything I can. Call it a manifesto for the chronically lazy perhaps, for those of us who have always liked to spend our time in darkened rooms transfixed, as all that is great and terrible about human life parades across the screen, but if I spend what is left of my time lying on a sofa reading I won’t feel that I have missed out...
GP tells me that they are no longer doing second doses as they have no more vaccine. Tell me to ring 119 the NHS vaccine helpline. NHS helpline says that they are only dealing with the AZ vaccine..
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
Don't worry, my mum went through this a week or so ago and just got a text to tell her to book an appointment. The automated system will allocate you a dose when it's time.
My father had the same experience last week. He was getting a bit concerned, then he got a text with basically come in 2 days time.
Also, unless there's new research on this that I've missed...
There's nothing magic about the twelve week gap. It was settled on to maximise first doses, while (hopefully, fairly evidence free at the time, but now seems to be the case) avoiding much reduction in protection before the second dose. We don't really know how far it can be pushed. It might be that longer will actually be better for long-term protection. So, if it were to be 13, 14 weeks, not really a big drama. And if there's a problem with Pfizer supplies then at some point second doses for first dose Pfizer recipients will switch to something AZN or another, which may even be more effective, quite possibly more effective than two doses of AZN for example.
Canada have gone to four months between vaccine doses.
Good for them!
Following the UK's rollout its illogical not to do similar. Good to see they're using common sense, I wonder if anyone else is yet?
People, countries, even doctors talk about these issues with vaccines, dosage intervals, etc, etc in absoliute terms completely forgetting that we're effectively involved in the trial on a gigantic scale. Most of the final answers will not be known with any certainty for months and maybe years. Much of what is said is really just petty politicking - seen at its absolute worst in terms of taste with dear old scott'n'paste.
Oh goody, are we back to re-weighting polls again?
That data implies that Labour has been oversampled by 24% - and the Tories by 59% based on thr 2019 GE result there.. The figures are pretty hopelessly skewed,
People are rubbish at recalling how they vote - often assuming that they voted for their current preference instead. Given that phone polls have no issues getting through to the core BXP demographic, I'm going to assume that the aforementioned phenomenon is occurring, rather than a one in 10 million undersampling.
If this is true and widespread, how long until the Spanish Foreign Minister is on the line to Raab?
As I understand it there was paperwork that needed to be done - similar to our own EU settlement scheme. Many residents haven't completed the paperwork, and now seem outraged that they aren't be allowed to live illegally in Spain as a non-documented non-resident immigrant.
Oh goody, are we back to re-weighting polls again?
That data implies that Labour has been oversampled by 24% - and the Tories by 59% based on thr 2019 GE result there.. The figures are pretty hopelessly skewed,
If you correct for the skew you get
Con 31% Lab 34% RUK 8% LD 2% Other 3%
But these are all small numbers and a dodgy correction.
I would say, on current dodgy data it is 50/50 on Con/Lab.
Yep. All to play for. Labour can still pull this off and what a morale booster that would be!
My fellow travellers in the Modern Metro Left are rooting for a Tory win so as to be able to say that Starmer should either go socialist or just go, but not me. I have an appointment with Panic for this time next year and not a moment before.
A lady after my own heart. ...I think a lot, too, about something that the late Andrea Levy, author of Small Island and The Long Song, apparently said. That when breast cancer stopped being treatable and became stage 4 and incurable, she realised she didn’t want to spend what was left of her life in a room writing. She wanted, instead, to live.
I understand that and yet I want both. I want to cling to every moment, but I also want to read and watch everything I can. Call it a manifesto for the chronically lazy perhaps, for those of us who have always liked to spend our time in darkened rooms transfixed, as all that is great and terrible about human life parades across the screen, but if I spend what is left of my time lying on a sofa reading I won’t feel that I have missed out...
Beautiful sentiments. Though my preference would be to get to somewhere warm in the shade with a nice, blanketing breeze of sea air where I could watch life and nature. A veranda, say, overlooking the piazza in one of the Cinque Terra towns.
If this is true and widespread, how long until the Spanish Foreign Minister is on the line to Raab?
As I understand it there was paperwork that needed to be done - similar to our own EU settlement scheme. Many residents haven't completed the paperwork, and now seem outraged that they aren't be allowed to live illegally in Spain as a non-documented non-resident immigrant.
A lady after my own heart. ...I think a lot, too, about something that the late Andrea Levy, author of Small Island and The Long Song, apparently said. That when breast cancer stopped being treatable and became stage 4 and incurable, she realised she didn’t want to spend what was left of her life in a room writing. She wanted, instead, to live.
I understand that and yet I want both. I want to cling to every moment, but I also want to read and watch everything I can. Call it a manifesto for the chronically lazy perhaps, for those of us who have always liked to spend our time in darkened rooms transfixed, as all that is great and terrible about human life parades across the screen, but if I spend what is left of my time lying on a sofa reading I won’t feel that I have missed out...
Beautiful sentiments. Though my preference would be to get to somewhere warm in the shade with a nice, blanketing breeze of sea air where I could watch life and nature. A veranda, say, overlooking the piazza in one of the Cinque Terra towns.
I don't think any of us really know what we'd do. That was from 2019... Her final TV review was published yesterday, so she didn't exactly give up living.
Was there ever a generation that didn't accuse young people of similar?
And it is true that, with technology, humanity has been able to become softer and does not needed to be so hardworking.
Do I really want to be the Yemeni Ithna9shar kids I used to see climbing 9000' up narrow cliff paths from the river to their mountain top homes with 5 gallon water containers on their heads? No, I do not. Give me water on tap anytime, rather than that work ethic.
And can Amanda Owen code in Python...
...or, for that matter, properly appreciate Radiohead ?
At the risk of incurring Robert's wrath, can anyone properly appreciate Radiohead? Is it really a thing?
While BoZo basks in the success of the British Vaccine, there must be some element of risk in being so closely associated with the only vaccine that is being shunned by the rest of the World
Such a revealing post, Scott.
Pretty shameless. Have to grudgingly admire his dedication
Scott N Paste is going to be like the lefties who still blame everything single that happen on Thatcher. It will be 2050 and Scott N Paste will still be going on about how Boris was the worst PM ever and Brexit is responsible for the fact that the Home Office lost some records and accidentally let some criminals go free.
“Nice vaccine you got there, be a real shame if anything went wrong with it...”
If this is true and widespread, how long until the Spanish Foreign Minister is on the line to Raab?
As I understand it there was paperwork that needed to be done - similar to our own EU settlement scheme. Many residents haven't completed the paperwork, and now seem outraged that they aren't be allowed to live illegally in Spain as a non-documented non-resident immigrant.
Not quite the case. If you already have the old residence documents you are not required to change - although we have. I suspect that these exampkes are, as you see people who've been 'illegal' for years, probably dodging taxes, etc. The other, unlikeley possibility is they cannot afford to stay due to the way some pensions are taxed a, little less generously than before - although this change predates Brexit.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
Are those points being used? I thought they'd been abandoned for now - and the UK should ensure they are abandoned permanently.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
Perhaps Boris should have thought about that before he decided it was the leave article that should be published and before he throw away May's fudge that had a chance of keeping things working...
May's fudge didn't work, it kept the UK within the EU backstop. 🤦♂️
Boris's fudge does work. UK leaves the EU, pretends it will erect an Irish Sea border if needed, then say its all too dangerous and never does. Job done.
Life does become easier if you detach yourself entirely from any obligation to tell the truth.
Oh goody, are we back to re-weighting polls again?
That data implies that Labour has been oversampled by 24% - and the Tories by 59% based on thr 2019 GE result there.. The figures are pretty hopelessly skewed,
If you correct for the skew you get
Con 31% Lab 34% RUK 8% LD 2% Other 3%
But these are all small numbers and a dodgy correction.
I would say, on current dodgy data it is 50/50 on Con/Lab.
Yep. All to play for. Labour can still pull this off and what a morale booster that would be!
My fellow travellers in the Modern Metro Left are rooting for a Tory win so as to be able to say that Starmer should either go socialist or just go, but not me. I have an appointment with Panic for this time next year and not a moment before.
Yes, if Sir Keir scrapes home it could be like Mark Robins winner at the City Ground in 1989 !
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
No one except Farage was suggesting we had gone too far down the EU track until Cameron asked for our view on it. It was a question we didn't know needed answering until we were asked.
Northern Ireland angst post-Brexit, was to be expected by all except the Government's of Mrs May and Mr Johnson. Quite who was to kick off, loyalists or republicans depended upon how the cards landed.
I suppose the problem lies with Blair's GFA, and his witheringly stupid error in not anticipating Brexit.
If this is true and widespread, how long until the Spanish Foreign Minister is on the line to Raab?
As I understand it there was paperwork that needed to be done - similar to our own EU settlement scheme. Many residents haven't completed the paperwork, and now seem outraged that they aren't be allowed to live illegally in Spain as a non-documented non-resident immigrant.
Not quite the case. If you already have the old residence documents you are not required to change - although we have. I suspect that these exampkes are, as you see people who've been 'illegal' for years, probably dodging taxes, etc. The other, unlikeley possibility is they cannot afford to stay due to the way some pensions are taxed a, little less generously than before - although this change predates Brexit.
Could it be that these people have been avoiding finalising their none UK existence to retain those pensions? From memory one impact of officially leaving the UK is that your state pension no longer increases with inflation every year..
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
Are those points being used? I thought they'd been abandoned for now - and the UK should ensure they are abandoned permanently.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
Perhaps Boris should have thought about that before he decided it was the leave article that should be published and before he throw away May's fudge that had a chance of keeping things working...
May's fudge didn't work, it kept the UK within the EU backstop. 🤦♂️
Boris's fudge does work. UK leaves the EU, pretends it will erect an Irish Sea border if needed, then say its all too dangerous and never does. Job done.
Life does become easier if you detach yourself entirely from any obligation to tell the truth.
The Talented Mr Johnson.
No lies have been told. Johnson said all along he wasn't going to erect an Irish Sea border, he literally said it in the election campaign before the deal was signed off and ratified. There was always a get-out that peace comes first, that was agreed by both parties.
People assumed, wrongly it seems, that Johnson was lying in the election campaign. Instead he was being bluntly honest and those who signed the deal having been told no Irish Sea border will be built are acting with shock and indignation at the lack of building an Irish Sea border.
And there's a get out. Because peace comes first.
Poor old Protocol, what a shame. RIP, we barely knew you.
A lady after my own heart. ...I think a lot, too, about something that the late Andrea Levy, author of Small Island and The Long Song, apparently said. That when breast cancer stopped being treatable and became stage 4 and incurable, she realised she didn’t want to spend what was left of her life in a room writing. She wanted, instead, to live.
I understand that and yet I want both. I want to cling to every moment, but I also want to read and watch everything I can. Call it a manifesto for the chronically lazy perhaps, for those of us who have always liked to spend our time in darkened rooms transfixed, as all that is great and terrible about human life parades across the screen, but if I spend what is left of my time lying on a sofa reading I won’t feel that I have missed out...
Beautiful sentiments. Though my preference would be to get to somewhere warm in the shade with a nice, blanketing breeze of sea air where I could watch life and nature. A veranda, say, overlooking the piazza in one of the Cinque Terra towns.
I don't think any of us really know what we'd do. That was from 2019... Her final TV review was published yesterday, so she didn't exactly give up living.
I worked with one critical healthcare nurse during the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He sold everything and took a young companion with him on an 18-month world tour until he had exhausted his resources. By which point it was clear he was not dead yet.
He lived his plan. And once he knew he had more borrowed time, he decided to help others where it was dangerous to do so, so that others with more life ahead of them and greater familial obligations did not need to.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
No one except Farage was suggesting we had gone too far down the EU track until Cameron asked for our view on it. It was a question we didn't know needed answering until we were asked.
Northern Ireland angst post-Brexit, was to be expected by all except the Government's of Mrs May and Mr Johnson. Quite who was to kick off, loyalists or republicans depended upon how the cards landed.
I suppose the problem lies with Blair's GFA, and his witheringly stupid error in not anticipating Brexit.
Not my use of the apostrophe but my phone's interpretation. Can't edit on the mobile so apologies to the apostrophe police.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
Are those points being used? I thought they'd been abandoned for now - and the UK should ensure they are abandoned permanently.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
Perhaps Boris should have thought about that before he decided it was the leave article that should be published and before he throw away May's fudge that had a chance of keeping things working...
May's fudge didn't work, it kept the UK within the EU backstop. 🤦♂️
Boris's fudge does work. UK leaves the EU, pretends it will erect an Irish Sea border if needed, then say its all too dangerous and never does. Job done.
Life does become easier if you detach yourself entirely from any obligation to tell the truth.
The Talented Mr Johnson.
Philip is right however. The only solution to the NI problem is a fudge. Some creative blind-eye-turning. It's not like the EU is unused to this, it bends the rules, or completely breaks them, all the time, when it sees fit. See the entire history of the euro.
If we want peace in Ireland, both sides have to feel respected, and that means no border in Ireland and no border in the Irish Sea
Oh goody, are we back to re-weighting polls again?
That data implies that Labour has been oversampled by 24% - and the Tories by 59% based on thr 2019 GE result there.. The figures are pretty hopelessly skewed,
If you correct for the skew you get
Con 31% Lab 34% RUK 8% LD 2% Other 3%
But these are all small numbers and a dodgy correction.
I would say, on current dodgy data it is 50/50 on Con/Lab.
Yep. All to play for. Labour can still pull this off and what a morale booster that would be!
My fellow travellers in the Modern Metro Left are rooting for a Tory win so as to be able to say that Starmer should either go socialist or just go, but not me. I have an appointment with Panic for this time next year and not a moment before.
Yes, if Sir Keir scrapes home it could be like Mark Robins winner at the City Ground in 1989 !
For me, if we're doing sporting analogies for this one, it's the Poulter 15 footer late on the Saturday at the 2012 Ryder Cup. Halved his match. Stopped the rot. Afterwards momentum switched and we know what happened on the Sunday. Or all golf fans do anyway.
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
Are those points being used? I thought they'd been abandoned for now - and the UK should ensure they are abandoned permanently.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
Perhaps Boris should have thought about that before he decided it was the leave article that should be published and before he throw away May's fudge that had a chance of keeping things working...
May's fudge didn't work, it kept the UK within the EU backstop. 🤦♂️
Boris's fudge does work. UK leaves the EU, pretends it will erect an Irish Sea border if needed, then say its all too dangerous and never does. Job done.
Life does become easier if you detach yourself entirely from any obligation to tell the truth.
The Talented Mr Johnson.
Philip is right however. The only solution to the NI problem is a fudge. Some creative blind-eye-turning. It's not like the EU is unused to this, it bends the rules, or completely breaks them, all the time, when it sees fit. See the entire history of the euro.
If we want peace in Ireland, both sides have to feel respected, and that means no border in Ireland and no border in the Irish Sea
Its been the only solution for five years now. 🤷♂️
They need skin in the game to want to compromise. The Protocol not working gives them some. The UK has no incentive to make the Protocol work, we have an incentive to maintain peace. Peace comes first - and who can object to that?
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
Are those points being used? I thought they'd been abandoned for now - and the UK should ensure they are abandoned permanently.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
Perhaps Boris should have thought about that before he decided it was the leave article that should be published and before he throw away May's fudge that had a chance of keeping things working...
May's fudge didn't work, it kept the UK within the EU backstop. 🤦♂️
Boris's fudge does work. UK leaves the EU, pretends it will erect an Irish Sea border if needed, then say its all too dangerous and never does. Job done.
Life does become easier if you detach yourself entirely from any obligation to tell the truth.
The Talented Mr Johnson.
Philip is right however. The only solution to the NI problem is a fudge. Some creative blind-eye-turning. It's not like the EU is unused to this, it bends the rules, or completely breaks them, all the time, when it sees fit. See the entire history of the euro.
If we want peace in Ireland, both sides have to feel respected, and that means no border in Ireland and no border in the Irish Sea
I read in The Grocer that there is some Good News for exporters. The ludicrous position where a pack of Chocolate Digestives needed a vet certificate has been avoided. The UK and EU governments had a discussion about (I kid you not) the acceptable heat-treatment of dairy content in shelf-stable composite products. A way forward has been found, with alignment now reached between the UK's new divergent position and the EU's / UK's previous and in reality current postion.
Sadly no such agreement has yet been reached for other food categories that include dairy. Which makes it really hard and expensive to ship things like Cheesecake to Norniron and elsewhere once the new 3rd country regulations are activated next month. The UK has not diverged from EU standards. The UK insists it isn't going to diverge downwards on food safety. Yet the UK insists on the *right* to diverge and to be a 3rd country and thats why we remain fucked on basics like import / export.
Common sense is needed. Unfortunately wazzocks in places like Hartlepools expect Britain to defeat the forrin threat and if that means petrol bombings on the streets of Derry thats clearly the fault of some other forrin like the Irish.
Nice example of how in the referendum and aftermath there was no right answer, showing that we had gone too far down an EU track without being asked the question much earlier. Also how many of the problems can be solved for both sides.
There is no solution to the island of Ireland given current red lines. The question is whose red lines shift and when. To suggest that the good people of Hartlepool are mysteriously linked with petrol bombs in Ireland is off beam and needs rethinking.
People are still voting to support the Boris Brexit that has directly provoked the fire bombs. There could have been a different flavour of Brexit where we didn't thrown Norniron off the buss, but that got rejected.
As for red lines, the EU red lines have been there since before the referendum was a twinkle in Farage's eye. Why would they change now? We have chosen to leave the EEA and CU in such a way as to screw part of our own country. The movement needed is the UK back towards practicality as opposed to fantasy.
There has never been any point at which the DUP has made it clear what sort of Brexit would be acceptable, except in undeliverable abstractions. And they were against both May and Boris's deal. The DUP+ the nature of reality threw NI off the bus. The sanest answer in this post religious bigotry world is a single Ireland.
Rochdale is acting from a mythological and arrogant assumption that the EU's red lines must survive contact with reality but nobody else's can.
The sanest answer is for both parties to compromise and dump their "red lines". Unless or until the EU is prepared to do so, the UK must look after its own interests because nobody else is planning to do so.
Rochdale is working from the assumption that the EU has to treat us exactly the same way as they treat other third party countries (as that is what we wish to be).
Which means that until we start to agree compromises with the EU there is nothing the EU can do (if they wish to follow WTO rules) than implement the checks they are currently implementing.
That's fine but then we can treat them as any other third party would.
And we can "implement" the Protocol in the most minimalist and irritating way we can imagine that suits us, not them. Since that's our responsibility, not theirs.
And we should be but we currently aren't because if we did our supermarket shelves may be a bit empty - as we aren't currently in a position to be doing the inspections we should be doing.
Not doing the checks is minimalist. Its the right thing to do. We have no interest or incentive to do the checks.
We should continue to not do the checks. If the EU want checks done they can do them in their territory, not ours.
But it also means we can't do the checks on items arriving from say China / Brazil. And while that is something we may be happy to do, it's something that Europe clearly won't want to do.
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
Of course we can do checks on items arriving from them. We're a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we choose, for whatever reason we choose.
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
There is a border in the Irish Sea - May carefully negotiated a deal that left the issue on the Northern Ireland / Ireland Border. Boris moved it which is why the EU now have inspection posts at Belfast and Larne
No, May carefully negotiated a deal that left NI within the EU customs territory officially and the UK as a whole within the EU effectively via the backstop.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
So the inspection points in Larne and Belfast ports which caused riots and death threats are a figment of my imagination?
Are those points being used? I thought they'd been abandoned for now - and the UK should ensure they are abandoned permanently.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
Perhaps Boris should have thought about that before he decided it was the leave article that should be published and before he throw away May's fudge that had a chance of keeping things working...
May's fudge didn't work, it kept the UK within the EU backstop. 🤦♂️
Boris's fudge does work. UK leaves the EU, pretends it will erect an Irish Sea border if needed, then say its all too dangerous and never does. Job done.
Life does become easier if you detach yourself entirely from any obligation to tell the truth.
The Talented Mr Johnson.
Philip is right however. The only solution to the NI problem is a fudge. Some creative blind-eye-turning. It's not like the EU is unused to this, it bends the rules, or completely breaks them, all the time, when it sees fit. See the entire history of the euro.
If we want peace in Ireland, both sides have to feel respected, and that means no border in Ireland and no border in the Irish Sea
But the EU can't fudge as it's a border they need to be seen to be in control of - otherwise China and co are going to be insisting on all their items arriving without inspection because that is what is happening in Ireland.
Basically Northern Ireland's need a fudge but the EU can't allow the fudge to exist.
Comments
And that's a problem for imports into Northern Ireland because when Boris put the border in the Irish Sea he created a mess for Northern Ireland.
In a free society people are able to use whatever name they want. Puerile whinging when others are called by their name (shock, horror!) is just pathetic.
Boris, Keir, Johnson, Starmer - it makes no difference. Use whatever you prefer.
I prefer Boris and Keir personally. I prefer first names since I'm not some old fashioned git with a stick up my arse. If others are, they can use surnames if they prefer that.
No-one can tell me how to get my second Pfizer dose. WTAF?!!
Now getting really worried as my second dose is due shortly
There is no border in the Irish Sea and the UK should not be doing checks between NI and GB. If the EU want to do checks between NI and the EU as a result, that's their choice. Us doing checks between NI and GB is on us, not them.
BoZo is a liberal...https://twitter.com/spectator/status/1379429172691431436
They will resolve things, I trust, but the stupid anti EU arrogance could now be turned down a bit.
'Yorkshire Shepherdess' Amanda Owen says youngsters lack a work ethic and don't know how to look after themselves"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/06/parents-blame-snowflake-generation-says-social-media-star-mother/
This will damage him. The question is how much.
Boris negotiated a deal that left NI within the UK customs territory officially, but with a protocol the UK is supposed to implement. Supposed being the operative word, how we implement it is up to us as a sovereign country.
De jure there is no Irish Sea customs border, but de facto there's supposed to be one. The UK has the power to ensure there de facto isn't and if the EU wants us to implement one they'll either need to find a way to force the issue, or negotiate a working solution.
Anyone who recalls the difficulties in finding anyone prepared to admit they voted LibDem in 2010 between 2015 and 2017 will be reminded....
And you are 100% sure that there are neither customs borders nor checks on the Irish side (both Ireland and Northern Ireland) of the Irish Sea.
To secure peace in Northern Ireland. Because peace comes first. And that is legal within international law, because we say it is.
Rather than being made the subject of a glib, tendentious & doctrinaire posting from the Tallinn LibDems.
There is quite a lot of competition for the title of Biggest Arse on Pb.
But, I think the trophy is safe in Estonia.
Apparently it's because I'm still on my old GP's booking system even though I'm registered with my new GP in Cumbria.
So I have to get off that system to allow my new GP to book me an appointment here with a different practice in Barrow.
I wouldn’t put it past Vlad to have kompramat on the lot of them. That wet blanket from Imperial has been a bit more balanced ever since he was outed with his trousers down.
Boris's fudge does work. UK leaves the EU, pretends it will erect an Irish Sea border if needed, then say its all too dangerous and never does. Job done.
Con 31%
Lab 34%
RUK 8%
LD 2%
Other 3%
But these are all small numbers and a dodgy correction.
I would say, on current dodgy data it is 50/50 on Con/Lab.
There's nothing magic about the twelve week gap. It was settled on to maximise first doses, while (hopefully, fairly evidence free at the time, but now seems to be the case) avoiding much reduction in protection before the second dose. We don't really know how far it can be pushed. It might be that longer will actually be better for long-term protection. So, if it were to be 13, 14 weeks, not really a big drama. And if there's a problem with Pfizer supplies then at some point second doses for first dose Pfizer recipients will switch to something AZN or another, which may even be more effective, quite possibly more effective than two doses of AZN for example.
It is exactly what the Nationalist community, the EU and the Republic of Ireland have done for the past five years. Why can't it be done in East/West as well as North/South.
Why should the Unionist community and the United Kingdom not return fire with fire? The Good Friday Agreement trumps all and the GFA requires an open East/West border every bit as much as a North/South one.
So no checks in Irish Sea, because peace. No checks on Irish border, because peace. If the EU want to reach a new deal once they realise they bought a dud in the Protocol they can come to us and request new terms.
And because the GFA trumps it all, its entirely legal.
The most important shot is the first (which in the case of Pfizer is pretty effective on its own), and booster dates are best guesses, rather than absolute deadlines, as it would take years to run clinical trials to work out what is actually most effective.
The reality is that so long as you get a booster even a month or two after when it was supposed to be due, you should be fine.
That was one of the major points of the deal.
So these Brits either failed to claim residency, or they were - cough - 'living under the radar' for some reason
Do I really want to be the Yemeni Ithna9shar kids I used to see climbing 9000' up narrow cliff paths from the river to their mountain top homes with 5 gallon water containers on their heads? No, I do not. Give me water on tap anytime, rather than that work ethic.
Mhh - another potentially worrying sign
Just to add a little more to the pot
https://twitter.com/Liveuamap/status/1379420953327890433
Following the UK's rollout its illogical not to do similar. Good to see they're using common sense, I wonder if anyone else is yet?
...or, for that matter, properly appreciate Radiohead ?
The congressman was a MAGA fixture. Now, engulfed in scandal, he’s persona non grata in Trumpworld.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) built a public profile as an unapologetic, unambiguous, omnipresent booster of President Donald Trump.
But as his own political career skids toward disaster amid allegations that he had sex with a minor and paid for sex with women of legal age, neither Trump nor anyone in the ex-president’s orbit is rushing to Gaetz’s defense. A group that often instinctively decries any such charge as part of some nefarious, coordinated witch hunt from deep-state operators has, instead, said virtually nothing at all.
“Not a lot of people are surprised,” said one person involved in Trump’s post-presidential operations.
In the days since news broke that the Department of Justice was looking into whether Gaetz had violated sex trafficking laws — an allegation he denies — no Trump aide or family member has tweeted about the Florida congressman. Nor have almost any of the most prominent Trump surrogates or Trump-allied conservatives and media personalities, including Sean Hannity, Dan Bongino, Charlie Kirk or American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp, at whose annual CPAC conference Gaetz had recently appeared.
The Daily Beast reported on Friday night that Trump himself was monitoring the situation but following the advice of aides to stay quiet about it. And several people familiar with their relationship said Gaetz and Trump have not spoken regularly lately, even after the lawmaker had offered to resign from Congress to join the ex-president’s impeachment defense team in February.
Operatives inside Trump World say the silence is owed to a variety of factors. Among them is the fact that Gaetz has always been regarded as a grenade whose pin had already been pulled. The congressman had a reputation for a wild personal lifestyle that, associates say, occasionally bordered on reckless. Some of Gaetz’s own aides would regularly send embarrassing videos of their boss to other GOP operatives, according to two people familiar with the videos. . . .
"The reason you haven't seen people in MAGA world defending Gaetz is less about him being unpopular, which he is in a lot of circles, and more about the fact that he hasn't done a single thing to make people comfortable to defend him. His interview with Tucker was an absolutely embarrassing train wreck," said one Trump confidant. . . . .
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/06/trump-matt-gaetz-lifeline-479126
On balance, a poll to treat with caution, but the Tories very likely are ahead.
Con 39.5%
Lab 43.5%
RUK 10%
LD 2.5%
Others 4%
But MOE will be 6% - 7% on a small sample.
Florida's Trump country stands with Gaetz
https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/04/05/floridas-trump-country-stands-with-gaetz-1371745
I have taken myself off the Accubook system at my old GP - an oversight by them - so my current practice should now be able to book me in somewhere in Cumbria.
Fingers crossed!
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/apr/06/brilliant-and-versatile-observer-and-guardian-journalist-sarah-hughes-dies-at-48
A lady after my own heart.
...I think a lot, too, about something that the late Andrea Levy, author of Small Island and The Long Song, apparently said. That when breast cancer stopped being treatable and became stage 4 and incurable, she realised she didn’t want to spend what was left of her life in a room writing. She wanted, instead, to live.
I understand that and yet I want both. I want to cling to every moment, but I also want to read and watch everything I can. Call it a manifesto for the chronically lazy perhaps, for those of us who have always liked to spend our time in darkened rooms transfixed, as all that is great and terrible about human life parades across the screen, but if I spend what is left of my time lying on a sofa reading I won’t feel that I have missed out...
My fellow travellers in the Modern Metro Left are rooting for a Tory win so as to be able to say that Starmer should either go socialist or just go, but not me. I have an appointment with Panic for this time next year and not a moment before.
That was from 2019...
Her final TV review was published yesterday, so she didn't exactly give up living.
The Talented Mr Johnson.
Northern Ireland angst post-Brexit, was to be expected by all except the Government's of Mrs May and Mr Johnson. Quite who was to kick off, loyalists or republicans depended upon how the cards landed.
I suppose the problem lies with Blair's GFA, and his witheringly stupid error in not anticipating Brexit.
People assumed, wrongly it seems, that Johnson was lying in the election campaign. Instead he was being bluntly honest and those who signed the deal having been told no Irish Sea border will be built are acting with shock and indignation at the lack of building an Irish Sea border.
And there's a get out. Because peace comes first.
Poor old Protocol, what a shame. RIP, we barely knew you.
This, like the OJ Simpson trial, has caught the public's interest. It is the "trial of the century".
What's wrong with that?
He lived his plan. And once he knew he had more borrowed time, he decided to help others where it was dangerous to do so, so that others with more life ahead of them and greater familial obligations did not need to.
If we want peace in Ireland, both sides have to feel respected, and that means no border in Ireland and no border in the Irish Sea
They need skin in the game to want to compromise. The Protocol not working gives them some. The UK has no incentive to make the Protocol work, we have an incentive to maintain peace. Peace comes first - and who can object to that?
when it sees fit.
Not exactly being reasonable right now are they?
https://twitter.com/whatukthinks/status/1379446016710213637?s=20
Basically Northern Ireland's need a fudge but the EU can't allow the fudge to exist.