Analysing the market on Biden serving a full term – politicalbetting.com
In recent wweks Joe Biden’s struggles up the stairs of Air Force One attracted much comment from his opponents and critics. It is a bit of an awkward watch, for some reason it reminded me of Ed Miliband’s inability to eat a bacon sandwich.
As I tweeted yesterday, India should be on the red list (as should many other countries that currently aren't btw) *and* Johnson should *not* go on a trip to Delhi this month! madness!
Plenty has been written about why there was no inflation post 2008 in goods and services, despite the huge increase in the money supply.
The most compelling explanation I’ve seen is that the highly globalised state of the major economies meant imported deflation kept headline inflation down. All the while, asset price inflation was pretty rampant. Mark Blythe has shown that in the last 20 years most of the real wealth gains have accrued to a tiny fraction of percent of the global population, with a smidgen to the masses in the emerging world. Joe Public in the West have largely had flatlined real incomes.
Monetarists will look at today’s less globalised world, a potential Cold War with China, more tightly restricted immigration etc... and conclude we’re headed finally for the headline inflation dragon to roar once again, as their models predict. If and when it doesn’t, they’ll no doubt have smart explanations after the event as to why it didn’t. Spoiler alert: it was the unfolding energy revolution that will be seen to have kept prices low.
Lot of 'ifs' here, but if the Indian variant ends up being able to escape vaccine and there were no travel restrictions because Johnson wanted to go there and do a trade deal talk, then surely his vaccine bounce poll boost would be over?
Provided Biden is not completely incapacitated he seems to want to run again, probably best for the Democrats as I cannot see any of the current alternatives to him having the appeal he did to white working class and lower middle class swing voters in the key swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which Hillary lost in 2016 but Biden won in 2020 and without which Trump would still be in the White House
Looks like an outlier for Labour; and when something looks like an outlier it often is. It isn't credible given the consistency of Labour numbers recently.
"It is frankly insane that Bangladesh and Pakistan are on the UK travel red list countries but India is not. "
pure politics presumably with pm visit coming.
The report from India this morning said that daily infections rates have risen from 20,000 daily to 150,000 and whole families are succumbing to it
It is out of control and the Indian authorities have failed to prevent hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees gathering at the Ganges River flouting existing social distancing rules
Looks like an outlier for Labour; and when something looks like an outlier it often is. It isn't credible given the consistency of Labour numbers recently.
I would be extremely worried about that poll, if I was Starmer. Even if it's an outlier, the movement to the Greens and Lib Dems highlights something i've mentioned at various times over the last few months ; with his increasing focus on the red wall, he's had no new balancing offer to metropolitan Britain. This transfer began with the expulsion of Corbyn, as I predicted it at the time, and it still seems not to be under control for them.
As I tweeted yesterday, India should be on the red list (as should many other countries that currently aren't btw) *and* Johnson should *not* go on a trip to Delhi this month! madness!
If we're ok it'll be a matter of blind luck. If we're not, it'll be because of an obvious and repeated policy failing by the Government.
In fairness, the vaccine rollout hasn’t been perfect but hasn’t been blind luck either. And if we’re OK it will be because the variants don’t materially undermine the effectiveness of the vaccines.
But I agree, the government have been and still are making far too many avoidable errors. And that’s basically because they have shockingly poor judgement.
So again, Secret Service guards not a lot of use there.
Yes, but generally you won't hear about most of the stuff they do foil, so there's something of a selection bias going on.
On topic, I think the odds on Biden not completing his first term ought to be a great deal longer (though he might choose not to run again). As TSE suggests, much better bets are available on next President, or Democratic nominee.
No. It is bad but not that bad. This poll is wrong
Why? Corbyn was fairly uniquely suited to uniting the left vote. Starmer can’t do it. Thirty odd percent is about the normal course for a poorly performing opposition party.
8% green feels like a lot but it’s an issue more care about every year and it’s in the context of the Lib Dem’s still be well behind their historic totals.
Sweden is weird, here are their numbers to the 5th of April, they are from top to bottom Cases / ICU admission / Deaths
Look how weird that is! Cases rising since the 1st of Feb, ICU admissions rising since the first of Feb. Deaths are... down since 1st of Feb and now currently flat.
I mean don't get me wrong they are flat at the UK equivalent of 125 people dying of Covid a day but their current ICU Covid occupancy is now higher than their December/Jan peak where they had the UK equivalent of 600 a day dying. They are now hit those Dec/Jan numbers again for every indicator apart from deaths.
Overall ICU occupancy in Sweden is massively above average so this isn't a with/of Covid distinction, Their ICUs are rammed with full on Covid cases. And deaths are not being 'hidden', their whole country mortatlity numbers for March are _under_ the 2015-2019 average.
That's weird. Swedes are obviously made of sterner stuff than other countries.
If we think our death-by-date figures are lagged, Sweden makes us look like nothing. At the best of times, it takes two weeks for the lag to catch up (I tracked it for a while when people were going on about it during their second wave in December/January).
Always ignore the last two weeks of death data from Sweden and compare the death figures from two weeks ago with the cases from five weeks ago to give a better view.
(You could also argue that if the proportion of deaths that have occurred that are recorded against a given date is decreasing as you move from two weeks back to the present - that is, you go from 100% or so of deaths being recorded by 2 weeks ago to under 10% by a couple of days ago, and the line of deaths is flat, it's quite an alarming line...)
If you grey out the most recent two weeks of death figures as lagged, and then compare the infections to deaths that should have occurred from them, you get this:
The deaths still look a bit flattened in comparison to the cases, at least to my eye, but nowhere near the mystifying level of flatness that you see if you don't do that.
It looks to me as though cases rose about 20-25% in that box and deaths may have climbed a few percent, but that's hard to make out - but well within normal fluctuations based on the randomish distribution of deaths and ages.
As I tweeted yesterday, India should be on the red list (as should many other countries that currently aren't btw) *and* Johnson should *not* go on a trip to Delhi this month! madness!
If we're ok it'll be a matter of blind luck. If we're not, it'll be because of an obvious and repeated policy failing by the Government.
In fairness, the vaccine rollout hasn’t been perfect but hasn’t been blind luck either. And if we’re OK it will be because the variants don’t materially undermine the effectiveness of the vaccines.
But I agree, the government have been and still are making far too many avoidable errors. And that’s basically because they have shockingly poor judgement.
Judgment would suggest they're making decisions.
They're not.
They're just going with what they feel.
Which is globalist sociopathy as regarding international travel and authoritarian sociopathy in regards to domestic restrictions.
Its really just as well that there are not postal votes being sent out for a series of important elections across the UK right now. That could have been potentially disastrous.
Sweden is weird, here are their numbers to the 5th of April, they are from top to bottom Cases / ICU admission / Deaths
Look how weird that is! Cases rising since the 1st of Feb, ICU admissions rising since the first of Feb. Deaths are... down since 1st of Feb and now currently flat.
I mean don't get me wrong they are flat at the UK equivalent of 125 people dying of Covid a day but their current ICU Covid occupancy is now higher than their December/Jan peak where they had the UK equivalent of 600 a day dying. They are now hit those Dec/Jan numbers again for every indicator apart from deaths.
Overall ICU occupancy in Sweden is massively above average so this isn't a with/of Covid distinction, Their ICUs are rammed with full on Covid cases. And deaths are not being 'hidden', their whole country mortatlity numbers for March are _under_ the 2015-2019 average.
That's weird. Swedes are obviously made of sterner stuff than other countries.
If we think our death-by-date figures are lagged, Sweden makes us look like nothing. At the best of times, it takes two weeks for the lag to catch up (I tracked it for a while when people were going on about it during their second wave in December/January).
Always ignore the last two weeks of death data from Sweden and compare the death figures from two weeks ago with the cases from five weeks ago to give a better view.
(You could also argue that if the proportion of deaths that have occurred that are recorded against a given date is decreasing as you move from two weeks back to the present - that is, you go from 100% or so of deaths being recorded by 2 weeks ago to under 10% by a couple of days ago, and the line of deaths is flat, it's quite an alarming line...)
If you grey out the most recent two weeks of death figures as lagged, and then compare the infections to deaths that should have occurred from them, you get this:
The deaths still look a bit flattened in comparison to the cases, at least to my eye, but nowhere near the mystifying level of flatness that you see if you don't do that.
It looks to me as though cases rose about 20-25% in that box and deaths may have climbed a few percent, but that's hard to make out - but well within normal fluctuations based on the randomish distribution of deaths and ages.
Because of better treatment and some vaccination fewer people are dying quickly but are now lingering on in ICU.
Consequences will be a longer tail of deaths plus increases of numbers with long covid.
"It is frankly insane that Bangladesh and Pakistan are on the UK travel red list countries but India is not. "
pure politics presumably with pm visit coming.
The report from India this morning said that daily infections rates have risen from 20,000 daily to 150,000 and whole families are succumbing to it
It is out of control and the Indian authorities have failed to prevent hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees gathering at the Ganges River flouting existing social distancing rules
You really need to adjust for population size: 150,000 per day in India is equivalent to less than 10,000 in the UK, so our infection rate was much more 'out of control' back in January than it is in India now.
But I don't deny it's very worrying, especially if, as seems likely, they are catching a much lower % of infections than we were.
Its really just as well that there are not postal votes being sent out for a series of important elections across the UK right now. That could have been potentially disastrous.
And Boris is writing personal letters to Welsh voters, as Prime Minister, personally endorsing the Conservative candidate and highlighting the vaccine success and 22 years of labour failure
If we're ok it'll be a matter of blind luck. If we're not, it'll be because of an obvious and repeated policy failing by the Government.
In fairness, the vaccine rollout hasn’t been perfect but hasn’t been blind luck either. And if we’re OK it will be because the variants don’t materially undermine the effectiveness of the vaccines.
But I agree, the government have been and still are making far too many avoidable errors. And that’s basically because they have shockingly poor judgement.
I think that's a bit unfair. Although I have been tearing my hair out (it was a lot easier before I got it cut) for the best part of a year about the lack of security on our borders I do recognise that this is a complicated picture where different harms need to be balanced against each other on the basis of pretty inadequate information. I don't agree with some of their calls but I accept that other judgments are more than possible on the evidence available.
To take an example the massive increase in test and trace capacity over the last year gives us the surge capacity to do door to door testing if required over extended areas. The world leading genomic analysis of cases means we are almost certainly better at finding variants than anyone else. These tools in our kit bag do have to be taken into account when assessing the risk.
Sweden is weird, here are their numbers to the 5th of April, they are from top to bottom Cases / ICU admission / Deaths
Look how weird that is! Cases rising since the 1st of Feb, ICU admissions rising since the first of Feb. Deaths are... down since 1st of Feb and now currently flat.
I mean don't get me wrong they are flat at the UK equivalent of 125 people dying of Covid a day but their current ICU Covid occupancy is now higher than their December/Jan peak where they had the UK equivalent of 600 a day dying. They are now hit those Dec/Jan numbers again for every indicator apart from deaths.
Overall ICU occupancy in Sweden is massively above average so this isn't a with/of Covid distinction, Their ICUs are rammed with full on Covid cases. And deaths are not being 'hidden', their whole country mortatlity numbers for March are _under_ the 2015-2019 average.
That's weird. Swedes are obviously made of sterner stuff than other countries.
If we think our death-by-date figures are lagged, Sweden makes us look like nothing. At the best of times, it takes two weeks for the lag to catch up (I tracked it for a while when people were going on about it during their second wave in December/January).
Always ignore the last two weeks of death data from Sweden and compare the death figures from two weeks ago with the cases from five weeks ago to give a better view.
(You could also argue that if the proportion of deaths that have occurred that are recorded against a given date is decreasing as you move from two weeks back to the present - that is, you go from 100% or so of deaths being recorded by 2 weeks ago to under 10% by a couple of days ago, and the line of deaths is flat, it's quite an alarming line...)
If you grey out the most recent two weeks of death figures as lagged, and then compare the infections to deaths that should have occurred from them, you get this:
The deaths still look a bit flattened in comparison to the cases, at least to my eye, but nowhere near the mystifying level of flatness that you see if you don't do that.
It looks to me as though cases rose about 20-25% in that box and deaths may have climbed a few percent, but that's hard to make out - but well within normal fluctuations based on the randomish distribution of deaths and ages.
Wasn't Swedish Lag the reason that the Lockdown Sceptic types kept using the Swedish example?
"It is frankly insane that Bangladesh and Pakistan are on the UK travel red list countries but India is not. "
pure politics presumably with pm visit coming.
The report from India this morning said that daily infections rates have risen from 20,000 daily to 150,000 and whole families are succumbing to it
It is out of control and the Indian authorities have failed to prevent hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees gathering at the Ganges River flouting existing social distancing rules
You really need to adjust for population size: 150,000 per day in India is equivalent to less than 10,000 in the UK, so our infection rate was much more 'out of control' back in January than it is in India now.
But I don't deny it's very worrying, especially if, as seems likely, they are catching a much lower % of infections than we were.
The reporter from India sounded very worried this morning
"It is frankly insane that Bangladesh and Pakistan are on the UK travel red list countries but India is not. "
pure politics presumably with pm visit coming.
The report from India this morning said that daily infections rates have risen from 20,000 daily to 150,000 and whole families are succumbing to it
It is out of control and the Indian authorities have failed to prevent hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees gathering at the Ganges River flouting existing social distancing rules
You really need to adjust for population size: 150,000 per day in India is equivalent to less than 10,000 in the UK, so our infection rate was much more 'out of control' back in January than it is in India now.
But I don't deny it's very worrying, especially if, as seems likely, they are catching a much lower % of infections than we were.
You are assuming that their measured number of cases relates to the number of cases in the community as opposed to testing capacity. You may be right but I am not confident that you are.
Its really just as well that there are not postal votes being sent out for a series of important elections across the UK right now. That could have been potentially disastrous.
And Boris is writing personal letters to Welsh voters, as Prime Minister, personally endorsing the Conservative candidate and highlighting the vaccine success and 22 years of labour failure
But Boris Johnson trails Mark Drakeford in the leader ratings Wales.
Those letters will be damaging to Tory prospects in Wales.
Given how bad you say Mark Drakeford is surely it must worry you that Boris Johnson trails Drakeford in Wales?
Looks like an outlier for Labour; and when something looks like an outlier it often is. It isn't credible given the consistency of Labour numbers recently.
I would be extremely worried about that poll, if I was Starmer. Even if it's an outlier, the movement to the Greens and Lib Dems highlights something i've mentioned at various times over the last few months ; with his increasing focus on the red wall, he's had no new balancing offer to metropolitan Britain. This transfer began with the expulsion of Corbyn, as I predicted it at the time, and it still seems not to be under control for them.
I agree SKS should be worried, even though this poll is exaggerated (I believe!). The worry is that he does not address a coherent spectrum of opinion across the middle of Britain. The Tories do exactly that, and the fact that non Tories are in denial about it won't help them.
Labour needs special interest enclaves to win a huge number of seats. These have little in common with each other, nor do they form an ideological or connected whole.
Ask the question: Which party best comprehends the idea that genuine aspiration and ambition in huge swathes of Britain would include becoming a white van man with one employee? White van man believes that Boris gets them. Their jury is out about SKS.
Its really just as well that there are not postal votes being sent out for a series of important elections across the UK right now. That could have been potentially disastrous.
And Boris is writing personal letters to Welsh voters, as Prime Minister, personally endorsing the Conservative candidate and highlighting the vaccine success and 22 years of labour failure
But Boris Johnson trails Mark Drakeford in the leader ratings Wales.
Those letters will be damaging to Tory prospects in Wales.
Given how bad you say Mark Drakeford is surely it must worry you that Boris Johnson trails Drakeford in Wales?
Does anyone have any more details on the YouGov poll in The Times?
It has:
Conservatives 43 Labour 29
Other parties not listed, but apparently Lib Dems and Greens are beneficiaries of 5 point Labour drop.
Con 43 (+2)
Lab 29 (-5)
LD 8 (+2)
Greens 8 (+2)
Reform 3 (nc)
Looks like people thinking about locals rather than GE to me.
Do you think so
I doubt many people are even aware of the May elections yet
People vote differently in Locals (and Assembly, Mayoral, Holyrood etc) than GE, and both LDs and Greens do better in these. I think a lot of the Green vote is disenchanted Corbynistas too.
Does anyone have any more details on the YouGov poll in The Times?
It has:
Conservatives 43 Labour 29
Other parties not listed, but apparently Lib Dems and Greens are beneficiaries of 5 point Labour drop.
Con 43 (+2)
Lab 29 (-5)
LD 8 (+2)
Greens 8 (+2)
Reform 3 (nc)
Looks like people thinking about locals rather than GE to me.
Do you think so
I doubt many people are even aware of the May elections yet
People vote differently in Locals (and Assembly, Mayoral, Holyrood etc) than GE, and both LDs and Greens do better in these. I think a lot of the Green vote is disenchanted Corbynistas too.
Sweden is weird, here are their numbers to the 5th of April, they are from top to bottom Cases / ICU admission / Deaths
Look how weird that is! Cases rising since the 1st of Feb, ICU admissions rising since the first of Feb. Deaths are... down since 1st of Feb and now currently flat.
I mean don't get me wrong they are flat at the UK equivalent of 125 people dying of Covid a day but their current ICU Covid occupancy is now higher than their December/Jan peak where they had the UK equivalent of 600 a day dying. They are now hit those Dec/Jan numbers again for every indicator apart from deaths.
Overall ICU occupancy in Sweden is massively above average so this isn't a with/of Covid distinction, Their ICUs are rammed with full on Covid cases. And deaths are not being 'hidden', their whole country mortatlity numbers for March are _under_ the 2015-2019 average.
That's weird. Swedes are obviously made of sterner stuff than other countries.
If we think our death-by-date figures are lagged, Sweden makes us look like nothing. At the best of times, it takes two weeks for the lag to catch up (I tracked it for a while when people were going on about it during their second wave in December/January).
Always ignore the last two weeks of death data from Sweden and compare the death figures from two weeks ago with the cases from five weeks ago to give a better view.
(You could also argue that if the proportion of deaths that have occurred that are recorded against a given date is decreasing as you move from two weeks back to the present - that is, you go from 100% or so of deaths being recorded by 2 weeks ago to under 10% by a couple of days ago, and the line of deaths is flat, it's quite an alarming line...)
If you grey out the most recent two weeks of death figures as lagged, and then compare the infections to deaths that should have occurred from them, you get this:
The deaths still look a bit flattened in comparison to the cases, at least to my eye, but nowhere near the mystifying level of flatness that you see if you don't do that.
It looks to me as though cases rose about 20-25% in that box and deaths may have climbed a few percent, but that's hard to make out - but well within normal fluctuations based on the randomish distribution of deaths and ages.
Wasn't Swedish Lag the reason that the Lockdown Sceptic types kept using the Swedish example?
Yeah. I went back and read David Paton's weekly updates on Sweden through December. Reading those, you'd never have realised that they had their big second wave growing and cresting at the time and through December, their per capita death rate exceeded ours.
Wasn't Swedish Lag the reason that the Lockdown Sceptic types kept using the Swedish example?
Ja. But Sweden has got a lot better at timely reporting.
https://adamaltmejd.se/covid/ shows how Swedeish deathas have updated over time (as well as projecting what final figures will look like
Late Nov, December, January was clown shoes for timely reporting - some of the data in those "14 day" bands arrived over a month later. Unless they are about to dump a whole bunch extra deaths they seem to have got death reporting down to 14-18 days to completion now.
Looks like an outlier for Labour; and when something looks like an outlier it often is. It isn't credible given the consistency of Labour numbers recently.
I would be extremely worried about that poll, if I was Starmer. Even if it's an outlier, the movement to the Greens and Lib Dems highlights something i've mentioned at various times over the last few months ; with his increasing focus on the red wall, he's had no new balancing offer to metropolitan Britain. This transfer began with the expulsion of Corbyn, as I predicted it at the time, and it still seems not to be under control for them.
I agree SKS should be worried, even though this poll is exaggerated (I believe!). The worry is that he does not address a coherent spectrum of opinion across the middle of Britain. The Tories do exactly that, and the fact that non Tories are in denial about it won't help them.
Labour needs special interest enclaves to win a huge number of seats. These have little in common with each other, nor do they form an ideological or connected whole.
Ask the question: Which party best comprehends the idea that genuine aspiration and ambition in huge swathes of Britain would include becoming a white van man with one employee? White van man believes that Boris gets them. Their jury is out about SKS.
The key for Starmer in this once again is Wilson. He understood both social aspiration, intellectual aspiration, and the redistributive impetus, reflected in how he managed and balanced the party.
Starmer quite quickly needs to find a balancing figure to Claire Ainsley, and then someone overseeing both of them to thrash out commonalities, which is quite possible at it was in the 1960s. Wilson's Labour extended from working-class patriotism to the Beatles.
Its really just as well that there are not postal votes being sent out for a series of important elections across the UK right now. That could have been potentially disastrous.
And Boris is writing personal letters to Welsh voters, as Prime Minister, personally endorsing the Conservative candidate and highlighting the vaccine success and 22 years of labour failure
Call me a cynic but I am a bit suspicious about that. Over the last couple of years Boris has been writing to me fairly regularly. Its all quite chummy, David, Boris, that sort of thing and personally signed by him but I have become increasingly suspicious that he is sending very similar letters to a lot of other people. It might even be possible that he doesn't think about me at all 😢
I am coping with this but it was a disappointment.
Wasn't Swedish Lag the reason that the Lockdown Sceptic types kept using the Swedish example?
Ja. But Sweden has got a lot better at timely reporting.
https://adamaltmejd.se/covid/ shows how Swedeish deathas have updated over time (as well as projecting what final figures will look like
Late Nov, December, January was clown shoes for timely reporting - some of the data in those "14 day" bands arrived over a month later. Unless they are about to dump a whole bunch extra deaths they seem to have got death reporting down to 14-18 days to completion now.
My son moved permanently to Sweden in October and remains very relaxed about being there despite the recent rise in cases. (My granddaughter kindly brought Covid back from nursery and passed it on to both her parents.) His view is that the health service is not overwhelmed and his main concern is potentially being able to visit us in late summer.
No. It is bad but not that bad. This poll is wrong
It has Conservatives ahead of Labour in London 36/34
In that case, I am calling BS.
I can believe Labour are struggling but not that they’re behind in London. Sampling error.
Conservatives lead Labour in every region apart from the North - 40/37 to Labour
Labour aren't on 29 and the subsamples are likely wrong but it pushes the lower bound for Labour down, remember minor parties are more likely to score well in local elections compared to GEs - again I think this is bad news for Labour; there are plenty of Ind for their vote to splinter off to.
Its really just as well that there are not postal votes being sent out for a series of important elections across the UK right now. That could have been potentially disastrous.
And Boris is writing personal letters to Welsh voters, as Prime Minister, personally endorsing the Conservative candidate and highlighting the vaccine success and 22 years of labour failure
But Boris Johnson trails Mark Drakeford in the leader ratings Wales.
Those letters will be damaging to Tory prospects in Wales.
Given how bad you say Mark Drakeford is surely it must worry you that Boris Johnson trails Drakeford in Wales?
Feedback I'm getting back is that Drakeford is getting a decent reaction on the doorstep. The Tories are clearly worried about their man in Wales, Andrew RT Davies. If you think Drakeford is bad, Davies is 10x worse. Totally useless. Having said all that, it is a concern for me that if this poll is anywhere near right, Tories are going to do far better than they deserve in May in Wales.
Awful, awful poll - and probably the worst result possible for Labour. Somehow doing worse than Corbyn in 2019. Which is why I am deeply sceptical.
However, I think it's beyond doubt that the Tories are significantly ahead, vaccines are going well and the economy is reopening. They have not been "incompetent" for quite a long time, in fact I have forgotten when the last real incompetent moment has come out from them.
And so far Labour, they need to dump Dodds immediately and replace her with Reeves. Starmer needs to continue reforming Labour for the better and into an opposition that the country can respect. That takes time - but he is doing that slowly.
As I've said before, if his achievement is Kinnock-style/Smith-style preparation for a future win then so be it. That's sometimes the game you have to play.
I stand by the idea Starmer was still the best candidate and nobody else would be doing better.
Morning all. On topic. I'd pass either way on those Biden bets. It's a medical and actuarial play and I'm not motivated to study that in the detail needed to work out where the value is. For now I stick to laying Trump and Trumpery. He's over. He might not realize it yet, ditto many who either love or fear him, but he is.
On another matter, I've just taken a look at the guest list for the Duke's funeral and I'm pleased to see there’s a place for Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester. In all the hubbub around the Royals, especially in recent times, it’s easily forgotten that there are individuals like this, like Prince Richard the Duke of Gloucester, who just go calmly about their business, doing what they do, with no fuss, no ego, no special uniform, never troubling the tabloids or the rolling news. I’d actually never even heard of this chap, that’s how quietly effective he’s been in whatever role he has in the grand scheme of things.
If we're ok it'll be a matter of blind luck. If we're not, it'll be because of an obvious and repeated policy failing by the Government.
In fairness, the vaccine rollout hasn’t been perfect but hasn’t been blind luck either. And if we’re OK it will be because the variants don’t materially undermine the effectiveness of the vaccines.
But I agree, the government have been and still are making far too many avoidable errors. And that’s basically because they have shockingly poor judgement.
I think that's a bit unfair. Although I have been tearing my hair out (it was a lot easier before I got it cut) for the best part of a year about the lack of security on our borders I do recognise that this is a complicated picture where different harms need to be balanced against each other on the basis of pretty inadequate information. I don't agree with some of their calls but I accept that other judgments are more than possible on the evidence available.
To take an example the massive increase in test and trace capacity over the last year gives us the surge capacity to do door to door testing if required over extended areas. The world leading genomic analysis of cases means we are almost certainly better at finding variants than anyone else. These tools in our kit bag do have to be taken into account when assessing the risk.
The cost in time and money of that surge test, track and trace must be considerable.
Perhaps its another thing that has swollen to be too big to get rid of and the government are happy to provide it with new variants to work with.
Its really just as well that there are not postal votes being sent out for a series of important elections across the UK right now. That could have been potentially disastrous.
And Boris is writing personal letters to Welsh voters, as Prime Minister, personally endorsing the Conservative candidate and highlighting the vaccine success and 22 years of labour failure
But Boris Johnson trails Mark Drakeford in the leader ratings Wales.
Those letters will be damaging to Tory prospects in Wales.
Given how bad you say Mark Drakeford is surely it must worry you that Boris Johnson trails Drakeford in Wales?
Feedback I'm getting back is that Drakeford is getting a decent reaction on the doorstep. The Tories are clearly worried about their man in Wales, Andrew RT Davies. If you think Drakeford is bad, Davies is 10x worse. Totally useless. Having said all that, it is a concern for me that if this poll is anywhere near right, Tories are going to do far better than they deserve in May in Wales.
To be honest Labour have been in power in Wales for 22 years and poverty in the Valleys is a as bad as ever, the health and education system is a total failure, and covid has caused devastation to the tourist industry
It should be noted that my granddaughter was the top student at her school in last year and she is expecting high A level passes this year
However, because part of the area she lives in is deemed in poverty, and because her school is such a low achieving school, she already has no problems in gaining access to the University of her choice
I agree with you about RT Davies but labour needs to understand it does not have a God given right to be in office in Wales
Comments
Thread was launched into a void to begin with.
(Although it should be noted that the bystanders were at least as important in thwarting that as his bodyguards were.)
https://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/11/georgia.grenade/index.html
https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1382733889840484357
Plenty has been written about why there was no inflation post 2008 in goods and services, despite the huge increase in the money supply.
The most compelling explanation I’ve seen is that the highly globalised state of the major economies meant imported deflation kept headline inflation down. All the while, asset price inflation was pretty rampant. Mark Blythe has shown that in the last 20 years most of the real wealth gains have accrued to a tiny fraction of percent of the global population, with a smidgen to the masses in the emerging world. Joe Public in the West have largely had flatlined real incomes.
Monetarists will look at today’s less globalised world, a potential Cold War with China, more tightly restricted immigration etc... and conclude we’re headed finally for the headline inflation dragon to roar once again, as their models predict. If and when it doesn’t, they’ll no doubt have smart explanations after the event as to why it didn’t. Spoiler alert: it was the unfolding energy revolution that will be seen to have kept prices low.
"It is frankly insane that Bangladesh and Pakistan are on the UK travel red list countries but India is not. "
pure politics presumably with pm visit coming.
Honest.
It has:
Conservatives 43
Labour 29
Other parties not listed, but apparently Lib Dems and Greens are beneficiaries of 5 point Labour drop.
Lab 29 (-5)
LD 8 (+2)
Greens 8 (+2)
Reform 3 (nc)
Tories 43%
Lab 29%
LDs 8%
Greens 8%
https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1382970427769810946?s=20
So again, Secret Service guards not a lot of use there.
It is out of control and the Indian authorities have failed to prevent hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees gathering at the Ganges River flouting existing social distancing rules
It is the bane of my existence.
https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1382970427769810946?s=19
If we're ok it'll be a matter of blind luck. If we're not, it'll be because of an obvious and repeated policy failing by the Government.
I’m still expecting some sort of two households rule bullshit this Christmas and they’ll expect us to be thankful for it compared with last year.
He then infected a bunch of antivaxxers who worked at a care home.
But I agree, the government have been and still are making far too many avoidable errors. And that’s basically because they have shockingly poor judgement.
On topic, I think the odds on Biden not completing his first term ought to be a great deal longer (though he might choose not to run again). As TSE suggests, much better bets are available on next President, or Democratic nominee.
8% green feels like a lot but it’s an issue more care about every year and it’s in the context of the Lib Dem’s still be well behind their historic totals.
If you grey out the most recent two weeks of death figures as lagged, and then compare the infections to deaths that should have occurred from them, you get this:
The deaths still look a bit flattened in comparison to the cases, at least to my eye, but nowhere near the mystifying level of flatness that you see if you don't do that.
It looks to me as though cases rose about 20-25% in that box and deaths may have climbed a few percent, but that's hard to make out - but well within normal fluctuations based on the randomish distribution of deaths and ages.
I can believe Labour are struggling but not that they’re behind in London. Sampling error.
They're not.
They're just going with what they feel.
Which is globalist sociopathy as regarding international travel and authoritarian sociopathy in regards to domestic restrictions.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg8ekk/runaway-nazi-golden-dawn-christos-pappas-greece
https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/x3uculd6mi/TheTimes_Voting_Intention_Track_210414_W.pdf
@ElectionMapsUK
Westminster Voting Intention:
CON: 43% (+2)
LAB: 29% (-5)
GRN: 8% (+2)
LDM: 8% (+2)
RFM: 3% (=)
Via @YouGov
, 12-13 Apr.
Changes w/ 7-8 Apr.
https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/x3uculd6mi/TheTimes_Voting_Intention_Track_210414_W.pdf
And I'm not planning another lockdown...
Consequences will be a longer tail of deaths plus increases of numbers with long covid.
But I don't deny it's very worrying, especially if, as seems likely, they are catching a much lower % of infections than we were.
To take an example the massive increase in test and trace capacity over the last year gives us the surge capacity to do door to door testing if required over extended areas. The world leading genomic analysis of cases means we are almost certainly better at finding variants than anyone else. These tools in our kit bag do have to be taken into account when assessing the risk.
I doubt many people are even aware of the May elections yet
Those letters will be damaging to Tory prospects in Wales.
Given how bad you say Mark Drakeford is surely it must worry you that Boris Johnson trails Drakeford in Wales?
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1375110941994541056
Labour needs special interest enclaves to win a huge number of seats. These have little in common with each other, nor do they form an ideological or connected whole.
Ask the question: Which party best comprehends the idea that genuine aspiration and ambition in huge swathes of Britain would include becoming a white van man with one employee? White van man believes that Boris gets them. Their jury is out about SKS.
And I have no doubt the conservatives have private polling indicating that Boris vaccine success is recognised in Wales
Indeed, I do not know of a Welsh poster on here who would back your comments
H/T - David Herdson.
I went back and read David Paton's weekly updates on Sweden through December. Reading those, you'd never have realised that they had their big second wave growing and cresting at the time and through December, their per capita death rate exceeded ours.
1) Wore a mask
2) Locked down a city
3) Cancelled sporting events
4) Knew the root of the problem was a bat.
https://adamaltmejd.se/covid/ shows how Swedeish deathas have updated over time (as well as projecting what final figures will look like
Late Nov, December, January was clown shoes for timely reporting - some of the data in those "14 day" bands arrived over a month later. Unless they are about to dump a whole bunch extra deaths they seem to have got death reporting down to 14-18 days to completion now.
Starmer quite quickly needs to find a balancing figure to Claire Ainsley, and then someone overseeing both of them to thrash out commonalities, which is quite possible at it was in the 1960s. Wilson's Labour extended from working-class patriotism to the Beatles.
I am coping with this but it was a disappointment.
The Tories are clearly worried about their man in Wales, Andrew RT Davies. If you think Drakeford is bad, Davies is 10x worse. Totally useless.
Having said all that, it is a concern for me that if this poll is anywhere near right, Tories are going to do far better than they deserve in May in Wales.
BUT if the outlier is 14 points head, the truth could easily be 11, less easily 8, and unlikely to be less than that.
However, I think it's beyond doubt that the Tories are significantly ahead, vaccines are going well and the economy is reopening. They have not been "incompetent" for quite a long time, in fact I have forgotten when the last real incompetent moment has come out from them.
And so far Labour, they need to dump Dodds immediately and replace her with Reeves. Starmer needs to continue reforming Labour for the better and into an opposition that the country can respect. That takes time - but he is doing that slowly.
As I've said before, if his achievement is Kinnock-style/Smith-style preparation for a future win then so be it. That's sometimes the game you have to play.
I stand by the idea Starmer was still the best candidate and nobody else would be doing better.
Also, a curious outcome of this poll.
On another matter, I've just taken a look at the guest list for the Duke's funeral and I'm pleased to see there’s a place for Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester. In all the hubbub around the Royals, especially in recent times, it’s easily forgotten that there are individuals like this, like Prince Richard the Duke of Gloucester, who just go calmly about their business, doing what they do, with no fuss, no ego, no special uniform, never troubling the tabloids or the rolling news. I’d actually never even heard of this chap, that’s how quietly effective he’s been in whatever role he has in the grand scheme of things.
Perhaps its another thing that has swollen to be too big to get rid of and the government are happy to provide it with new variants to work with.
It should be noted that my granddaughter was the top student at her school in last year and she is expecting high A level passes this year
However, because part of the area she lives in is deemed in poverty, and because her school is such a low achieving school, she already has no problems in gaining access to the University of her choice
I agree with you about RT Davies but labour needs to understand it does not have a God given right to be in office in Wales