John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch NEW: this chart is important
It’s early days, but there are signs that the vaccines may be working against the Indian variant B.1.617.2
Yes, all of these "concerned" experts have yet to present any evidence of vaccine escape. It's just one last push by those who want us all locked away for our own good to conquer death.
I’ve done a fair bit of reading on this variant, now.
The main ‘concern’ is not vaccine evasion, but extra transmissibility. We’re almost sure this version of the bug is more infectious, probably more infectious than Kentish Corona. But whether the variant is 30% or 50% more transmissible will be crucial. 30% and we’ll likely be OK. We can manage. 50% could crush the NHS - given the millions we still need to vax
These were the same modellers that basically just decided that the vaccine rollout would stop and no one else would develop neutralising antibodies from vaccines.
Honestly the doom mongering scientists just need to be ignored. We have vaccines, we have evidence that the Indian variant doesn't escape the vaccines and we are vaccinating at an incredible rate. Additionally there's loads of evidence that the vaccines prevent the spread of COVID which brings the cumulative rate of reduction in hospitalisations down hugely.
Vaccines, not lockdown will be the way out of this and we have them. Everything else is noise.
(I'm not going for another round of our "appropriateness of worst case scenario forecasts debate!)
But I would expect that the 'possible local problems if 50% more transmissive' headlines are based on the worst case models which - as we do agree - will be using unrealistically pessimistic assumptions, such as very little effect of vaccines on onwards transmission if infected.
It's an out-there possibility, perhaps, in some places. If the stars align in exactly the wrong way. The kind of freak universe in which Labour have a 13% national poll lead next Tuesday.
Last time the models simply assumed that no one new would be vaccinated. It's complete garbage modelling, not even a worse case scenario it's literally a false input.
1000 deaths per day when we have vaccinated as many people as we have is in the impossible pile, not in the "if the stars align" pile. This variant does not evade vaccines. These models are garbage and whatever justification you have for them being produced is public sector Stockholm syndrome of politicians asking for specific outcomes to be produced.
Malmesbury says there are 5m vulnerable unvaccinated in the UK
If half of them catch the Indian variant over the summer as we unlockdown that’s 2.5m cases. We can expect 10% of those to be serious enough to require hospitalisation. 250,000 people in hospital. A lot.
1% will die. 25,000 people.
Summer is 90 days long (actually 2 in the UK but whatever)
25,000 divided by 90 is 277 deaths a day. Quite plausible
So, nowhere near 1000 deaths a day but probably bad enough that HMG would wearily lock us all down again
Some will have had covid already. Plus the vaccine and recovered will massively hinder spread, so getting half of them infected will not be as easy as all that.
But, even taking the 50% infected, the CFR for those in their 30s is about 0.1% and it drops further from there as you look at younger groups. So if, back of a cigarette pack, we use your numbers Leon, and assume that the unvaccinated are mostly under 40 and then take the highest CFR for that group, that gives us 2,500 additional deaths, or 28 a day.
Personal and family tragedies but not catastrophic.
Er, no
Malmesbury got his 5m unjabbed and vulnerable figure by adding together everyone not vaxxed and OVER 40
The CFR for these guys is 1% at least, very likely higher (can’t be arsed to do the maths)
Thanks for the correction. From comparisons of those with antibodies versus those vaccinated, we can probably safely assume that one third of these 5m have been exposed and have some level of protection against further infection, morbidity and mortality.
John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch NEW: this chart is important
It’s early days, but there are signs that the vaccines may be working against the Indian variant B.1.617.2
Yes, all of these "concerned" experts have yet to present any evidence of vaccine escape. It's just one last push by those who want us all locked away for our own good to conquer death.
I’ve done a fair bit of reading on this variant, now.
The main ‘concern’ is not vaccine evasion, but extra transmissibility. We’re almost sure this version of the bug is more infectious, probably more infectious than Kentish Corona. But whether the variant is 30% or 50% more transmissible will be crucial. 30% and we’ll likely be OK. We can manage. 50% could crush the NHS - given the millions we still need to vax
These were the same modellers that basically just decided that the vaccine rollout would stop and no one else would develop neutralising antibodies from vaccines.
Honestly the doom mongering scientists just need to be ignored. We have vaccines, we have evidence that the Indian variant doesn't escape the vaccines and we are vaccinating at an incredible rate. Additionally there's loads of evidence that the vaccines prevent the spread of COVID which brings the cumulative rate of reduction in hospitalisations down hugely.
Vaccines, not lockdown will be the way out of this and we have them. Everything else is noise.
(I'm not going for another round of our "appropriateness of worst case scenario forecasts debate!)
But I would expect that the 'possible local problems if 50% more transmissive' headlines are based on the worst case models which - as we do agree - will be using unrealistically pessimistic assumptions, such as very little effect of vaccines on onwards transmission if infected.
It's an out-there possibility, perhaps, in some places. If the stars align in exactly the wrong way. The kind of freak universe in which Labour have a 13% national poll lead next Tuesday.
Last time the models simply assumed that no one new would be vaccinated. It's complete garbage modelling, not even a worse case scenario it's literally a false input.
1000 deaths per day when we have vaccinated as many people as we have is in the impossible pile, not in the "if the stars align" pile. This variant does not evade vaccines. These models are garbage and whatever justification you have for them being produced is public sector Stockholm syndrome of politicians asking for specific outcomes to be produced.
Malmesbury says there are 5m vulnerable unvaccinated in the UK
If half of them catch the Indian variant over the summer as we unlockdown that’s 2.5m cases. We can expect 10% of those to be serious enough to require hospitalisation. 250,000 people in hospital. A lot.
1% will die. 25,000 people.
Summer is 90 days long (actually 2 in the UK but whatever)
25,000 divided by 90 is 277 deaths a day. Quite plausible
So, nowhere near 1000 deaths a day but probably bad enough that HMG would wearily lock us all down again
Some will have had covid already. Plus the vaccine and recovered will massively hinder spread, so getting half of them infected will not be as easy as all that.
And vaccinated cohorts are much less likely to spread the virus and we're now beginning to vaccinate the two major groups that are most likely to spread it, 30-39 year olds and 18-29 year olds.
The claims about this just don't hold any water and the scientists are simply giving zero COVID one last push before unlockdown so they can keep everyone locked up a fearful of whatever variant they deem to be a risk.
It's time for them to present their evidence to the public, not release alarming headlines about data models they've produced which are intended to get specific results.
I agree with all of your first paragraph.
I think the second is unfair and lacks evidence. Some scientists, perhaps. I know lots of scientists, I am a scientist - and yet I agree with your first paragraph assessment and I don't think we need to delay te lockdown easing on Monday and 21 June. The two people I know* on SAGE (neither of them involved in modelling!) are of the same opinion, or at least were last week, that there's still nothing to justify changing plan (one of them was a wee bit twitchy about 12 April retail opening, but given that's gone well is now reassured).
The alarming headlines are the fault of the media and, to be fair, probably also university PR departments. I've often had to rewrite press releases on my work because they pick up the wrong thing, exaggerate something or plain and simple misunderstand something. One of my colleagues in a former job told stories about having the press on his lawn one sunday morning due to the university cocking up a press release on one of his papers.
*A Covid vaccine related bit of work has meant I've had four online meetings with them this year, I only knew one of them before that. There's been chit-chat about the situation while waiting for people to arrive.
If you can swan about in shirtsleeves in 12C I salute your Inner Geordie
I really don’t know how the BBC site does its local temperature forecasts, but all my experience is that, for here at least, they are generally crap. I have a thermometer in my garden so I know this to be true.
I think they just knock off a few degrees because we are by the sea.
My olive tree and bougainvillea are already outside in their pots, and yesterday I (more correctly, my dog) saw the first wall lizard of the year in my garden. That wouldn’t be happening if we were getting BBC temperatures.
Over 200k first doses done! I think we'll hit 275k with the weekend numbers and eventually around 350k per day with around 300k per day done on average by around the end of week.
People are going to be surprised as to how quickly everyone will get a first dose. I think we'll be back to around 3m first doses done per week in June and everyone over 18 will have been offered a dose by around the third week of June. Shifting the focus to second doses only will also allow us to do cover 17-20m second doses in July alone.
Government 5pm briefing - will cover Indian variant, extra testing, 'surge vaccinations' for all over 18 in Bolton, Blackburn, possibly Bedford and certain areas of West London.
No local lockdowns - for now.
Someone will ask a question about local lockdowns and Boris will say that they are not ruled out.
OT the government of Israel has Youtube (and presumably other social media) adverts about the current Middle East missile kerfuffle and that it is defending Israeli citizens against Hamas terror.
So it's SURGE VAX according to Sky News. No local lockdowns, no national lockdowns, but a massive surge in the hotspots. Roadmap unaffected but the SURGE IS ON.
Andy Burnham for Prime Minister? Very impressive yet again on Sky News just now. A sensible voice, making the point that we shouldn't have lockdowns now the vulnerable are protected...
John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch NEW: this chart is important
It’s early days, but there are signs that the vaccines may be working against the Indian variant B.1.617.2
Yes, all of these "concerned" experts have yet to present any evidence of vaccine escape. It's just one last push by those who want us all locked away for our own good to conquer death.
I’ve done a fair bit of reading on this variant, now.
The main ‘concern’ is not vaccine evasion, but extra transmissibility. We’re almost sure this version of the bug is more infectious, probably more infectious than Kentish Corona. But whether the variant is 30% or 50% more transmissible will be crucial. 30% and we’ll likely be OK. We can manage. 50% could crush the NHS - given the millions we still need to vax
These were the same modellers that basically just decided that the vaccine rollout would stop and no one else would develop neutralising antibodies from vaccines.
Honestly the doom mongering scientists just need to be ignored. We have vaccines, we have evidence that the Indian variant doesn't escape the vaccines and we are vaccinating at an incredible rate. Additionally there's loads of evidence that the vaccines prevent the spread of COVID which brings the cumulative rate of reduction in hospitalisations down hugely.
Vaccines, not lockdown will be the way out of this and we have them. Everything else is noise.
(I'm not going for another round of our "appropriateness of worst case scenario forecasts debate!)
But I would expect that the 'possible local problems if 50% more transmissive' headlines are based on the worst case models which - as we do agree - will be using unrealistically pessimistic assumptions, such as very little effect of vaccines on onwards transmission if infected.
It's an out-there possibility, perhaps, in some places. If the stars align in exactly the wrong way. The kind of freak universe in which Labour have a 13% national poll lead next Tuesday.
Last time the models simply assumed that no one new would be vaccinated. It's complete garbage modelling, not even a worse case scenario it's literally a false input.
1000 deaths per day when we have vaccinated as many people as we have is in the impossible pile, not in the "if the stars align" pile. This variant does not evade vaccines. These models are garbage and whatever justification you have for them being produced is public sector Stockholm syndrome of politicians asking for specific outcomes to be produced.
Malmesbury says there are 5m vulnerable unvaccinated in the UK
If half of them catch the Indian variant over the summer as we unlockdown that’s 2.5m cases. We can expect 10% of those to be serious enough to require hospitalisation. 250,000 people in hospital. A lot.
1% will die. 25,000 people.
Summer is 90 days long (actually 2 in the UK but whatever)
25,000 divided by 90 is 277 deaths a day. Quite plausible
So, nowhere near 1000 deaths a day but probably bad enough that HMG would wearily lock us all down again
This is exactly the kind of modelling that has led us into repeated lockdowns with no consideration whether they work or the cost/benefits.
I would hope the government’s modeling is a bit more profound than mine. I’m a bored flint dildo knapper drinking tea and staring at the grey london skies in mild despair, pulling figures out of the air
Sometimes I'm not convinced it is more profound to be frank. More C++ code involved but otherwise...
OT the government of Israel has Youtube (and presumably other social media) adverts about the current Middle East missile kerfuffle and that it is defending Israeli citizens against Hamas terror.
If Michelle is still on, if she phones the Riverside centre on 01983 524058 and asks to speak to Sarah Stringer, the lead nurse, or one of her clinical team, they have offered to talk through the options that would avoid a trip to North Island.
I am slightly intrigued by this "North Island" stuff. It's a while since I've been to IoW, but has it become two islands like NZ? Someone's dug a big canal for shipping? Or is 'North Island' the local name for what most of us know as 'mainland Britain'?
John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch NEW: this chart is important
It’s early days, but there are signs that the vaccines may be working against the Indian variant B.1.617.2
Yes, all of these "concerned" experts have yet to present any evidence of vaccine escape. It's just one last push by those who want us all locked away for our own good to conquer death.
I’ve done a fair bit of reading on this variant, now.
The main ‘concern’ is not vaccine evasion, but extra transmissibility. We’re almost sure this version of the bug is more infectious, probably more infectious than Kentish Corona. But whether the variant is 30% or 50% more transmissible will be crucial. 30% and we’ll likely be OK. We can manage. 50% could crush the NHS - given the millions we still need to vax
These were the same modellers that basically just decided that the vaccine rollout would stop and no one else would develop neutralising antibodies from vaccines.
Honestly the doom mongering scientists just need to be ignored. We have vaccines, we have evidence that the Indian variant doesn't escape the vaccines and we are vaccinating at an incredible rate. Additionally there's loads of evidence that the vaccines prevent the spread of COVID which brings the cumulative rate of reduction in hospitalisations down hugely.
Vaccines, not lockdown will be the way out of this and we have them. Everything else is noise.
(I'm not going for another round of our "appropriateness of worst case scenario forecasts debate!)
But I would expect that the 'possible local problems if 50% more transmissive' headlines are based on the worst case models which - as we do agree - will be using unrealistically pessimistic assumptions, such as very little effect of vaccines on onwards transmission if infected.
It's an out-there possibility, perhaps, in some places. If the stars align in exactly the wrong way. The kind of freak universe in which Labour have a 13% national poll lead next Tuesday.
Last time the models simply assumed that no one new would be vaccinated. It's complete garbage modelling, not even a worse case scenario it's literally a false input.
1000 deaths per day when we have vaccinated as many people as we have is in the impossible pile, not in the "if the stars align" pile. This variant does not evade vaccines. These models are garbage and whatever justification you have for them being produced is public sector Stockholm syndrome of politicians asking for specific outcomes to be produced.
Malmesbury says there are 5m vulnerable unvaccinated in the UK
If half of them catch the Indian variant over the summer as we unlockdown that’s 2.5m cases. We can expect 10% of those to be serious enough to require hospitalisation. 250,000 people in hospital. A lot.
1% will die. 25,000 people.
Summer is 90 days long (actually 2 in the UK but whatever)
25,000 divided by 90 is 277 deaths a day. Quite plausible
So, nowhere near 1000 deaths a day but probably bad enough that HMG would wearily lock us all down again
Some will have had covid already. Plus the vaccine and recovered will massively hinder spread, so getting half of them infected will not be as easy as all that.
And vaccinated cohorts are much less likely to spread the virus and we're now beginning to vaccinate the two major groups that are most likely to spread it, 30-39 year olds and 18-29 year olds.
The claims about this just don't hold any water and the scientists are simply giving zero COVID one last push before unlockdown so they can keep everyone locked up a fearful of whatever variant they deem to be a risk.
It's time for them to present their evidence to the public, not release alarming headlines about data models they've produced which are intended to get specific results.
I agree with all of your first paragraph.
I think the second is unfair and lacks evidence. Some scientists, perhaps. I know lots of scientists, I am a scientist - and yet I agree with your first paragraph assessment and I don't think we need to delay te lockdown easing on Monday and 21 June. The two people I know* on SAGE (neither of them involved in modelling!) are of the same opinion, or at least were last week, that there's still nothing to justify changing plan (one of them was a wee bit twitchy about 12 April retail opening, but given that's gone well is now reassured).
The alarming headlines are the fault of the media and, to be fair, probably also university PR departments. I've often had to rewrite press releases on my work because they pick up the wrong thing, exaggerate something or plain and simple misunderstand something. One of my colleagues in a former job told stories about having the press on his lawn one sunday morning due to the university cocking up a press release on one of his papers.
*A Covid vaccine related bit of work has meant I've had four online meetings with them this year, I only knew one of them before that. There's been chit-chat about the situation while waiting for people to arrive.
Of course, I didn't mean all scientists, apologies for the poor wording! I was referring specifically to those zero COVID zealots who seem to revel in very bit of bad news so they can push their neverending lockdown agenda.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
I sometimes wonder does SKS have a masterplan, to unite the party (and nation) in opposition of him, so that whenever he is replaced, his successes, from whichever faction of the party, is conceded 'great' in comparison to SKS.
April and May weather facts: coldest average night minimum temperature since 1922, and third coldest since the later 1800s. The mean temperature though was cold but nothing spectacular. Essentially what we had was an unusually clear and dry month (sunniest on record for the UK) with generally light winds which allowed for multiple radiation frosts.
May month to date is running at 8.9C (-1.4C below average) for the Central England Temperature, which is the only one published daily and the longest running temp series in the world. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_mean.html
If that continued for the whole month then we'd be second coldest since 1900. But it won't. May has a very sharp rise in average temperature as the month progresses, hence why we are only -1.4C below normal month to date.
We’re on course, I believe, for the coldest May in recorded history
Slightly surprising it’s not bigger news
Picking up soon, I hear.
I wish you were right. As ever, you aren’t
You can reliably forecast UK weather out to about 7 days. Maybe 10 at a reach
The weather forecast shows consistent cool throughout that period. About 13-15C, well below the seasonal average (also, rain, pff)
It’s only worth noting because this is becoming a statistical freak, and we love those on here. Possibly the coldest May since 1659 (when records began)
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
There's no such thing as a vegetarian who eats fish.
There are pescetarians, or people who don't eat land-based meat.
In my last year at Uni, I was sorting out a PC. Some idiot had set a password lock - and then left Uni. So I had to do the one about shorting out a capacitor with a screwdriver to reset it.
A first year asked what I was doing.
I explained that real programmers can do cool shit by touching contacts with a screwdriver to enter code.
If Michelle is still on, if she phones the Riverside centre on 01983 524058 and asks to speak to Sarah Stringer, the lead nurse, or one of her clinical team, they have offered to talk through the options that would avoid a trip to North Island.
I am slightly intrigued by this "North Island" stuff. It's a while since I've been to IoW, but has it become two islands like NZ? Someone's dug a big canal for shipping? Or is 'North Island' the local name for what most of us know as 'mainland Britain'?
I assumed that it was a jocular name for Portsmouth (given that Portsmouth is also an island obvs)
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
If Michelle is still on, if she phones the Riverside centre on 01983 524058 and asks to speak to Sarah Stringer, the lead nurse, or one of her clinical team, they have offered to talk through the options that would avoid a trip to North Island.
I am slightly intrigued by this "North Island" stuff. It's a while since I've been to IoW, but has it become two islands like NZ? Someone's dug a big canal for shipping? Or is 'North Island' the local name for what most of us know as 'mainland Britain'?
I assumed that it was a jocular name for Portsmouth (given that Portsmouth is also an island obvs)
No, it’s the islanders’ way of puncturing Brits’ arrogance when they claim to be living on “the mainland”. When we look at the map, all we can see is that it’s just a bigger island, off to the north. Hence when anyone here leaves “The Island” on the ferry, we say we’re off to North Island.
Government 5pm briefing - will cover Indian variant, extra testing, 'surge vaccinations' for all over 18 in Bolton, Blackburn, possibly Bedford and certain areas of West London.
No local lockdowns - for now.
Someone will ask a question about local lockdowns and Boris will say that they are not ruled out.
Laura will ask a question about foreign holidays.
And after he's said "not ruled out" there will be an eruption online of "Told you suckers, they'll NEVER set us free. Never never never. Why? Cos they're used to this power now and they LOVE it. Release the Kraken! Release the Kraken!"
If Michelle is still on, if she phones the Riverside centre on 01983 524058 and asks to speak to Sarah Stringer, the lead nurse, or one of her clinical team, they have offered to talk through the options that would avoid a trip to North Island.
I am slightly intrigued by this "North Island" stuff. It's a while since I've been to IoW, but has it become two islands like NZ? Someone's dug a big canal for shipping? Or is 'North Island' the local name for what most of us know as 'mainland Britain'?
I assumed that it was a jocular name for Portsmouth (given that Portsmouth is also an island obvs)
No, it’s the islanders’ way of puncturing Brits’ arrogance when they claim to be living on “the mainland”. When we look at the map, all we can see that it’s just a bigger island, off to the north. Hence when anyone here leaves “The Island” on the ferry, we say we’re off to North Island.
Heh, I was joking, but I love that is indeed the correct answer!
Wow. I was assuming that Labour must have been cruising in London given the national polling. Starmer really didn't have a good election.
Bloody hell.
Labour lose control of the London Assembly to the Tories/LDs/Greens.
Didn't see that coming.
They've signed a deal with the devil. So much for the progressive alliance.
I'm astonished they've danced.
Khan must be very unpopular in the London assembly and members must also have decent cross party relationships.
Khan is generally very unpopular. He won because the Tory candidate was rubbish and there was enough inertia to keep people on side. A better Tory candidate would have won fairly easily IMO.
Interesting, thanks.
London is far from the write-off I thought it was. Clearly there is still potential there for a centre-right economic and administrative platform there to win out.
Yes, there definitely is. I don't think the Tories will recover many MPs for a while in London but people are very tired of Sadiq. I think the locals next year will be a bit of a shock for some people, the LTNs that Labour councils have been implementing are extremely unpopular. A Labour member I know is intending to vote Tory for his local council as they have pledged to remove all of the LTNs.
I think they're something where there's very loud and angry opposition at first and then it dies down and people quite like them (see for example Waltham Forest, which did them a while ago had huge protests and now they're very popular). Personally I'm a huge supporter as are a lot of people I know, but one has to remember the risks of living in a bubble (in both directions). Certainly I wouldn't post on my local facebook group about them because of the amount of shit you get from angry people.
I read that as Lab being a little hubristic - they were actually *offered* committee chairs in line with their representation and turned it down before they were frozen out.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Jeez. Someone needs to show him Seaspiracy. Pronto.
As a lawyer perhaps he looked at the weakness of some of the basis for claims in Seaspiracy.
We’re on course, I believe, for the coldest May in recorded history
Slightly surprising it’s not bigger news
Picking up soon, I hear.
I wish you were right. As ever, you aren’t
You can reliably forecast UK weather out to about 7 days. Maybe 10 at a reach
The weather forecast shows consistent cool throughout that period. About 13-15C, well below the seasonal average (also, rain, pff)
It’s only worth noting because this is becoming a statistical freak, and we love those on here. Possibly the coldest May since 1659 (when records began)
Ah ok. You're clearly all over this. Sorry for just trying to cheer you up. Won't happen again.
We continue cool for at least a week. After that point things diverge. The end of month could very very cold, or very hot (last night one ensemble member was showing what would be record heat for the 24th), or indeed very wet. Very interesting pattern at the moment.
Professor Robert Dingwall, who sits on the JCVI, said: “The Government needs to hold its nerve rather than allow itself to be pushed to measures that are unnecessary, demoralising and won’t work.
“The evidence just isn’t there yet. We have reports from India that vaccinated people, like medical workers, aren't getting the infection.
“Given that it’s typically seven days to symptomatic infection, the Indian variant has been around long enough for hotspot communities to be seeing a rise in admissions, but we haven’t seen any uptick. We have a rise in reported infections but that does not seem to be translating into hospitalisations.”
From the Telegraph live blog. Independent Sage will be angry.
We’re on course, I believe, for the coldest May in recorded history
Slightly surprising it’s not bigger news
Picking up soon, I hear.
I wish you were right. As ever, you aren’t
You can reliably forecast UK weather out to about 7 days. Maybe 10 at a reach
The weather forecast shows consistent cool throughout that period. About 13-15C, well below the seasonal average (also, rain, pff)
It’s only worth noting because this is becoming a statistical freak, and we love those on here. Possibly the coldest May since 1659 (when records began)
Ah ok. You're clearly all over this. Sorry for just trying to cheer you up. Won't happen again.
According to Accuweather the forecast is to be below average temperatures pretty consistently until 16 June, then from 17 June through July and start of August when their 90 day forecast ends it will be above-average.
So pretty closely linked to the 21 June unlocking ironically!
Professor Robert Dingwall, who sits on the JCVI, said: “The Government needs to hold its nerve rather than allow itself to be pushed to measures that are unnecessary, demoralising and won’t work.
“The evidence just isn’t there yet. We have reports from India that vaccinated people, like medical workers, aren't getting the infection.
“Given that it’s typically seven days to symptomatic infection, the Indian variant has been around long enough for hotspot communities to be seeing a rise in admissions, but we haven’t seen any uptick. We have a rise in reported infections but that does not seem to be translating into hospitalisations.”
From the Telegraph live blog. Independent Sage will be angry.
Independent SAGE are a menace.
Thank goodness these fruitcakes are not on the real SAGE.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
Yes, especially since there is a term for a non-meat eating fish-eater – a pescatarian. Quite a lot of my friends are pescatarians (although all of them happen to be female).
Oh yes. And a curious one too. Very curious. I genuinely wish to understand why somebody would be so absolutely LIVID about people taking a knee for BLM.
Couple of questions if I may and you're not running -
Assume a person (here) is genuinely appalled by Floyd type happenings in America and wishes to show it in a manner that others can see. Is there a way in which this could be done that would meet with your approval?
The gesture itself. Does the kneeling aspect make it worse for you? Eg if it was upright and clenched fist would that be less offensive? Or maybe just singing a song or something, no body parts involvement at all?
You have largely answered your own question: Why would a person (here) who is genuinely appalled by Floyd type happenings in America wish to show it in a manner that others can see?
Because they have no inner life and signalling their virtue to the world is the whole point of the exercise?
Or perhaps it's simply that you can't empathize with somebody getting upset about this issue and therefore you assume the upset is faked. That squares the circle for you.
See, we can both read minds.
I empathize with the original issue to the extent that I think Chauvin and other police officers who murder unarmed suspects should receive life sentences; in a US context, I'd be in favour of executing them for their gross betrayal of the public trust.
But the people who want to use that real, specific problem as a form of emotional blackmail to subvert our cultural institutions? Forget my empathy, they deserve only contempt.
A slightly different point. That's the issue whereas we were talking about the people who protest the issue. If we split them into 2 groups -
(i) Those driven primarily by hatred of our cultural institutions, using a high profile racist murder in America as a form of emotional blackmail to subvert them.
(ii) Those driven primarily by hatred of racism, using a high profile racist murder in America to emote and give voice to this.
You clearly think (i) dominates. I think (ii).
That's the divide, all right. In support of my view, I give you the Unite assistant general secretary and champion of anti-racism Howard Beckett, who thinks it's righteous to tell a British Home Secretary of Asian descent to go back where she came from...
We’re on course, I believe, for the coldest May in recorded history
Slightly surprising it’s not bigger news
Picking up soon, I hear.
I wish you were right. As ever, you aren’t
You can reliably forecast UK weather out to about 7 days. Maybe 10 at a reach
The weather forecast shows consistent cool throughout that period. About 13-15C, well below the seasonal average (also, rain, pff)
It’s only worth noting because this is becoming a statistical freak, and we love those on here. Possibly the coldest May since 1659 (when records began)
Ah ok. You're clearly all over this. Sorry for just trying to cheer you up. Won't happen again.
According to Accuweather the forecast is to be below average temperatures pretty consistently until 16 June, then from 17 June through July and start of August when their 90 day forecast ends it will be above-average.
So pretty closely linked to the 21 June unlocking ironically!
Professor Robert Dingwall, who sits on the JCVI, said: “The Government needs to hold its nerve rather than allow itself to be pushed to measures that are unnecessary, demoralising and won’t work.
“The evidence just isn’t there yet. We have reports from India that vaccinated people, like medical workers, aren't getting the infection.
“Given that it’s typically seven days to symptomatic infection, the Indian variant has been around long enough for hotspot communities to be seeing a rise in admissions, but we haven’t seen any uptick. We have a rise in reported infections but that does not seem to be translating into hospitalisations.”
From the Telegraph live blog. Independent Sage will be angry.
Very wise words. I think the problem this last 48 hours has been the government's sluggishness to get in front of it. Indy Sage are nothing if not quick off the mark – Pagel was on every news programme going yesterday before the government got its boots on. I think it's fair comment to say the government need to rather more footloose in its messaging.
cracking interview with Geoff Norcott thanks for the link.
Loving 12 mins in...
Lab after losing an election: Why won't these gullible fuckwits vote for us? GN to Lab: if they're that gullible why can't you get them to vote for *you*?
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
Yes, especially since there is a term for a non-meat eating fish-eater – a pescatarian. Quite a lot of my friends are pescatarians (although all of them happen to be female).
This is a no-win situation. I find people who insist that we need a special word for people who eat fish but not other animals to be equally insufferable as those who wrongly claim to be vegetarians but will eat fish.
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Don’t go projecting your own character onto me!
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
Ventnor, May 7th, 2021: maximum 9C Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
Yes, especially since there is a term for a non-meat eating fish-eater – a pescatarian. Quite a lot of my friends are pescatarians (although all of them happen to be female).
This is a no-win situation. I find people who insist that we need a special word for people who eat fish but not other animals to be equally insufferable as those who wrongly claim to be vegetarians but will eat fish.
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Don’t go projecting your own character onto me!
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
Ventnor, May 7th, 2021: maximum 9C Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
I don't know why the weather has been so shite in southern England, but I'm sure it MUST be @Leon's fault!
Professor Robert Dingwall, who sits on the JCVI, said: “The Government needs to hold its nerve rather than allow itself to be pushed to measures that are unnecessary, demoralising and won’t work.
“The evidence just isn’t there yet. We have reports from India that vaccinated people, like medical workers, aren't getting the infection.
“Given that it’s typically seven days to symptomatic infection, the Indian variant has been around long enough for hotspot communities to be seeing a rise in admissions, but we haven’t seen any uptick. We have a rise in reported infections but that does not seem to be translating into hospitalisations.”
From the Telegraph live blog. Independent Sage will be angry.
Independent SAGE are a menace.
Thank goodness these fruitcakes are not on the real SAGE.
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Don’t go projecting your own character onto me!
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
Ventnor, May 7th, 2021: maximum 9C Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
It's possible those are the records from St Catherine's point, which is the closest automatic weather station with half hourly reporting. It's an exposed headland a few miles to the West of Ventnor so would have quite a different microclimate although I wouldn't expect Ventnor to have got more than a few degrees warmer than this.
Professor Robert Dingwall, who sits on the JCVI, said: “The Government needs to hold its nerve rather than allow itself to be pushed to measures that are unnecessary, demoralising and won’t work.
“The evidence just isn’t there yet. We have reports from India that vaccinated people, like medical workers, aren't getting the infection.
“Given that it’s typically seven days to symptomatic infection, the Indian variant has been around long enough for hotspot communities to be seeing a rise in admissions, but we haven’t seen any uptick. We have a rise in reported infections but that does not seem to be translating into hospitalisations.”
From the Telegraph live blog. Independent Sage will be angry.
Very wise words. I think the problem this last 48 hours has been the government's sluggishness to get in front of it. Indy Sage are nothing if not quick off the mark – Pagel was on every news programme going yesterday before the government got its boots on. I think it's fair comment to say the government need to rather more footloose in its messaging.
In local news, MD is about to lift virtually all COVID restrictions next week, although the county I live in will wait until 29 May to do so. Montgomery Co has hit the 50% of all adults fully vaccinated mark, and has started vaccinating the 12+ age group. Vaccinations are open to all, on a walk in basis.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume the worst - as is their wont - and think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Don’t go projecting your own character onto me!
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
Ventnor, May 7th, 2021: maximum 9C Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
We'll just keep our famed micro-climate to ourselves, then.
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Don’t go projecting your own character onto me!
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
Ventnor, May 7th, 2021: maximum 9C Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
I don't know why the weather has been so shite in southern England, but I'm sure it MUST be @Leon's fault!
I shall ask the next Albanian Black Cab driver I meet.
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Don’t go projecting your own character onto me!
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
Ventnor, May 7th, 2021: maximum 9C Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
It's possible those are the records from St Catherine's point, which is the closest automatic weather station with half hourly reporting. It's an exposed headland a few miles to the West of Ventnor so would have quite a different microclimate although I wouldn't expect Ventnor to have got more than a few degrees warmer than this.
Exactly. The only weather station actually in Ventnor is the one in the park, which the town council pays a guy to monitor. He sends the readings off to the Met office at the end of every month, just for their records, but our local weather isn't actually recorded and published anywhere.
The problem with a lot of weather sites - including the BBC - is that they extrapolate between what are actually fairly dispersed data points, and don't take account of local factors very well at all. For much of the country, that works reasonably well, but for somewhere like here that regularly has completely different weather to points just twenty minutes walk away over the hill, it doesn't work very well. Follow the link I posted earlier to our local Botanic Garden; they grow stuff there from Australia and the like that doesn't survive outside anywhere else in the UK.
It's lovely and reasonably sunny here right now, so I am going out to do some light gardening. Without a coat or jumper
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume - as is their wont - to think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
First half, I agree entirely. Second half, wrong - if you eat fish then you're not a vegetarian. Starmer is therefore not a vegetarian, he's just someone who doesn't eat meat.
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Don’t go projecting your own character onto me!
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
Ventnor, May 7th, 2021: maximum 9C Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
It's possible those are the records from St Catherine's point, which is the closest automatic weather station with half hourly reporting. It's an exposed headland a few miles to the West of Ventnor so would have quite a different microclimate although I wouldn't expect Ventnor to have got more than a few degrees warmer than this.
I’m kinda teasing Ian. If he can sit around in a tee shirt in 12-15C good for him
I rather suspect you and I visit the same weather-geek websites? I never expected myself to be so knowledgeable about the ‘GFS 00z ensembles’
Why else would She/He/It have created Leon as English?
Created in and consigned to a land of eternal ice, fog, rain, gloom and dodgy drains?
Instead of being made in the image of a curious, horny, happy iguana, sunning happily on some tropic rock, munching on seasonal leaves and fruits, and waiting for the next mate to wander by to share the experience?
No wonder Leon rages like Lucifer against being condemned to the Outer Darkness that is Skegness!
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume the worst - as is their wont - and think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
Topping has captured your peculiar character quite exactly.
cracking interview with Geoff Norcott thanks for the link.
Loving 12 mins in...
Lab after losing an election: Why won't these gullible fuckwits vote for us? GN to Lab: if they're that gullible why can't you get them to vote for *you*?
I had chat this morning with one of our vaccine supply sources/experts. They said the government's second deal with Pfizer is what is allowing us to push ahead with loads of first doses for under 40s becuase the UK now has continuous supply from Pfizer where previously it was expected the 40m order would be fully delivered in the middle of July. Now Pfizer will increase deliveries from June onwards as it brings forwards the end of our original deal to June and starts delivering the new 60m order from the agreed Q3 date.
It will also enable a drawdown of the ~4.5m Pfizer stockpile as well given how reliable the Pfizer deliveries have been and the receding threat of export blocks now that the EU has stopped moaning about vaccines.
The source said that these two effects will mean the government will be able to cover all first doses for 18-39 year olds within the next 5 weeks and the new Pfizer deal will be used to cover second doses as for everyone who needs one plus the possibility of a second Pfizer dose for under 40s who got AZ as a first dose though they expect the latter to be done silently.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume the worst - as is their wont - and think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
OT the government of Israel has Youtube (and presumably other social media) adverts about the current Middle East missile kerfuffle and that it is defending Israeli citizens against Hamas terror.
And? Are you implying that they're lying?
No. I merely thought it would be of interest to PBers. It is unusual.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
Yes, especially since there is a term for a non-meat eating fish-eater – a pescatarian. Quite a lot of my friends are pescatarians (although all of them happen to be female).
I always mix them up with Episcopalians. Do they eat fish?
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume the worst - as is their wont - and think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
Sorry, but I was right first time!
There’s no need to label himself as anything, just say he doesn’t eat much meat, if asked. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian, when you’re not. Yer working classes see someone who says they’re a vegetarian eating fish, and call him a liar, not a pescatarian!!
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume the worst - as is their wont - and think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
Sorry, but I was right first time!
Yes, you were. If you eat fish you are not a vegetarian.
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Don’t go projecting your own character onto me!
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
Ventnor, May 7th, 2021: maximum 9C Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
It's possible those are the records from St Catherine's point, which is the closest automatic weather station with half hourly reporting. It's an exposed headland a few miles to the West of Ventnor so would have quite a different microclimate although I wouldn't expect Ventnor to have got more than a few degrees warmer than this.
Exactly. The only weather station actually in Ventnor is the one in the park, which the town council pays a guy to monitor. He sends the readings off to the Met office at the end of every month, just for their records, but our local weather isn't actually recorded and published anywhere.
The problem with a lot of weather sites - including the BBC - is that they extrapolate between what are actually fairly dispersed data points, and don't take account of local factors very well at all. For much of the country, that works reasonably well, but for somewhere like here that regularly has completely different weather to points just twenty minutes walk away over the hill, it doesn't work very well. Follow the link I posted earlier to our local Botanic Garden; they grow stuff there from Australia and the like that doesn't survive outside anywhere else in the UK.
It's lovely and reasonably sunny here right now, so I am going out to do some light gardening. Without a coat or jumper
Including Roseland peninsula and Tresco? Plant survivability is generally about temperature lows, not averages or highs (although most C3 plants shut down once temperatures get into the 80s F).
I would have thought Tresco Gardens would be capable of growing those Australian plants.
I had chat this morning with one of our vaccine supply sources/experts. They said the government's second deal with Pfizer is what is allowing us to push ahead with loads of first doses for under 40s becuase the UK now has continuous supply from Pfizer where previously it was expected the 40m order would be fully delivered in the middle of July. Now Pfizer will increase deliveries from June onwards as it brings forwards the end of our original deal to June and starts delivering the new 60m order from the agreed Q3 date.
It will also enable a drawdown of the ~4.5m Pfizer stockpile as well given how reliable the Pfizer deliveries have been and the receding threat of export blocks now that the EU has stopped moaning about vaccines.
The source said that these two effects will mean the government will be able to cover all first doses for 18-39 year olds within the next 5 weeks and the new Pfizer deal will be used to cover second doses as for everyone who needs one plus the possibility of a second Pfizer dose for under 40s who got AZ as a first dose though they expect the latter to be done silently.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume the worst - as is their wont - and think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
In my experience the working class would know what pescatarian means. It might be to mock them (or at least the celebrities who follow that lifestyle) … but they would know.
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Don’t go projecting your own character onto me!
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
Ventnor, May 7th, 2021: maximum 9C Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
It's possible those are the records from St Catherine's point, which is the closest automatic weather station with half hourly reporting. It's an exposed headland a few miles to the West of Ventnor so would have quite a different microclimate although I wouldn't expect Ventnor to have got more than a few degrees warmer than this.
I’m kinda teasing Ian. If he can sit around in a tee shirt in 12-15C good for him
I rather suspect you and I visit the same weather-geek websites? I never expected myself to be so knowledgeable about the ‘GFS 00z ensembles’
From what I can tell there is a big overlap between online weather geekism and online political geekism. The one I frequent (TWO) even has its own political forum. An oddity. Similar gender balance too (i.e. virtually all male)
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
Yes, especially since there is a term for a non-meat eating fish-eater – a pescatarian. Quite a lot of my friends are pescatarians (although all of them happen to be female).
I always mix them up with Episcopalians. Do they eat fish?
I like @kinabalu's pescetorians. I believe they were the Iceni King's personal bodyguard.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
Yes, especially since there is a term for a non-meat eating fish-eater – a pescatarian. Quite a lot of my friends are pescatarians (although all of them happen to be female).
I always mix them up with Episcopalians. Do they eat fish?
I had chat this morning with one of our vaccine supply sources/experts. They said the government's second deal with Pfizer is what is allowing us to push ahead with loads of first doses for under 40s becuase the UK now has continuous supply from Pfizer where previously it was expected the 40m order would be fully delivered in the middle of July. Now Pfizer will increase deliveries from June onwards as it brings forwards the end of our original deal to June and starts delivering the new 60m order from the agreed Q3 date.
It will also enable a drawdown of the ~4.5m Pfizer stockpile as well given how reliable the Pfizer deliveries have been and the receding threat of export blocks now that the EU has stopped moaning about vaccines.
The source said that these two effects will mean the government will be able to cover all first doses for 18-39 year olds within the next 5 weeks and the new Pfizer deal will be used to cover second doses as for everyone who needs one plus the possibility of a second Pfizer dose for under 40s who got AZ as a first dose though they expect the latter to be done silently.
On the last point (interesting to me as I'm a 39 year old who just had AZN a few days ago) what's the thinking, do you know?
Because the Pfizer supply is just more reliable? For simplicity (just stock Pfizer) For safety (clots) For efficacy?
For the third I didn't think there was any evidence yet of problems in those who had first dose without issue (granted not that many younger people have had second AZN yet, I guess) and for the fourth aren't we still awating results of the trial on mixing and matching?
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Don’t go projecting your own character onto me!
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
Ventnor, May 7th, 2021: maximum 9C Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
It's possible those are the records from St Catherine's point, which is the closest automatic weather station with half hourly reporting. It's an exposed headland a few miles to the West of Ventnor so would have quite a different microclimate although I wouldn't expect Ventnor to have got more than a few degrees warmer than this.
I’m kinda teasing Ian. If he can sit around in a tee shirt in 12-15C good for him
I rather suspect you and I visit the same weather-geek websites? I never expected myself to be so knowledgeable about the ‘GFS 00z ensembles’
There are several on PB who cross over to TWO and Netweather. Might be a reason behind it somewhere...
Oh yes. And a curious one too. Very curious. I genuinely wish to understand why somebody would be so absolutely LIVID about people taking a knee for BLM.
Couple of questions if I may and you're not running -
Assume a person (here) is genuinely appalled by Floyd type happenings in America and wishes to show it in a manner that others can see. Is there a way in which this could be done that would meet with your approval?
The gesture itself. Does the kneeling aspect make it worse for you? Eg if it was upright and clenched fist would that be less offensive? Or maybe just singing a song or something, no body parts involvement at all?
You have largely answered your own question: Why would a person (here) who is genuinely appalled by Floyd type happenings in America wish to show it in a manner that others can see?
Because they have no inner life and signalling their virtue to the world is the whole point of the exercise?
Or perhaps it's simply that you can't empathize with somebody getting upset about this issue and therefore you assume the upset is faked. That squares the circle for you.
See, we can both read minds.
I empathize with the original issue to the extent that I think Chauvin and other police officers who murder unarmed suspects should receive life sentences; in a US context, I'd be in favour of executing them for their gross betrayal of the public trust.
But the people who want to use that real, specific problem as a form of emotional blackmail to subvert our cultural institutions? Forget my empathy, they deserve only contempt.
A slightly different point. That's the issue whereas we were talking about the people who protest the issue. If we split them into 2 groups -
(i) Those driven primarily by hatred of our cultural institutions, using a high profile racist murder in America as a form of emotional blackmail to subvert them.
(ii) Those driven primarily by hatred of racism, using a high profile racist murder in America to emote and give voice to this.
You clearly think (i) dominates. I think (ii).
That's the divide, all right. In support of my view, I give you the Unite assistant general secretary and champion of anti-racism Howard Beckett, who thinks it's righteous to tell a British Home Secretary of Asian descent to go back where she came from...
Not defending him - a braindead crass tweet with no feel for language - but I don't think it's a good example. He says his venom at Patel is to do with her politics and actions not her ethnicity. I can buy that. I'm not in his head, so can't know for sure, but I can buy it. I don't like her much either - or Sunak - but I still think it's a great thing that 2 of the big offices of state are held by non-white politicians.
You'd need to go speak to the masses of people protesting for BLM to find out the truth. Me too, tbf. But my strong sense is that the 'marxist' provocateurs are in a small minority. They must be, really, if you think about it. Why else would they be accused of "hijacking" it? Think of a plane being hijacked. How many passengers? How many hijackers?
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume the worst - as is their wont - and think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
Sorry, but I was right first time!
There’s no need to label himself as anything, just say he doesn’t eat much meat, if asked. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian, when you’re not. Yer working classes see someone who says they’re a vegetarian eating fish, and call him a liar, not a pescatarian!!
Well we are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one. To me, he's using street slang and using it correctly.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume the worst - as is their wont - and think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
Topping has captured your peculiar character quite exactly.
Most of us have peculiar characters. Some us, several.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume the worst - as is their wont - and think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
Do you understand what pescetorian [sic] means?
Only because Anabobazina and Philip have said what it is. As I told Isam, I think for most ordinary working people types (eg me) they wouldn't really be too sure. So just saying vegetarian to cover it is not, imo, quite the gaffe that he seems to think it is.
John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch NEW: this chart is important
It’s early days, but there are signs that the vaccines may be working against the Indian variant B.1.617.2
Yes, all of these "concerned" experts have yet to present any evidence of vaccine escape. It's just one last push by those who want us all locked away for our own good to conquer death.
I’ve done a fair bit of reading on this variant, now.
The main ‘concern’ is not vaccine evasion, but extra transmissibility. We’re almost sure this version of the bug is more infectious, probably more infectious than Kentish Corona. But whether the variant is 30% or 50% more transmissible will be crucial. 30% and we’ll likely be OK. We can manage. 50% could crush the NHS - given the millions we still need to vax
These were the same modellers that basically just decided that the vaccine rollout would stop and no one else would develop neutralising antibodies from vaccines.
Honestly the doom mongering scientists just need to be ignored. We have vaccines, we have evidence that the Indian variant doesn't escape the vaccines and we are vaccinating at an incredible rate. Additionally there's loads of evidence that the vaccines prevent the spread of COVID which brings the cumulative rate of reduction in hospitalisations down hugely.
Vaccines, not lockdown will be the way out of this and we have them. Everything else is noise.
(I'm not going for another round of our "appropriateness of worst case scenario forecasts debate!)
But I would expect that the 'possible local problems if 50% more transmissive' headlines are based on the worst case models which - as we do agree - will be using unrealistically pessimistic assumptions, such as very little effect of vaccines on onwards transmission if infected.
It's an out-there possibility, perhaps, in some places. If the stars align in exactly the wrong way. The kind of freak universe in which Labour have a 13% national poll lead next Tuesday.
Last time the models simply assumed that no one new would be vaccinated. It's complete garbage modelling, not even a worse case scenario it's literally a false input.
1000 deaths per day when we have vaccinated as many people as we have is in the impossible pile, not in the "if the stars align" pile. This variant does not evade vaccines. These models are garbage and whatever justification you have for them being produced is public sector Stockholm syndrome of politicians asking for specific outcomes to be produced.
Malmesbury says there are 5m vulnerable unvaccinated in the UK
If half of them catch the Indian variant over the summer as we unlockdown that’s 2.5m cases. We can expect 10% of those to be serious enough to require hospitalisation. 250,000 people in hospital. A lot.
1% will die. 25,000 people.
Summer is 90 days long (actually 2 in the UK but whatever)
25,000 divided by 90 is 277 deaths a day. Quite plausible
So, nowhere near 1000 deaths a day but probably bad enough that HMG would wearily lock us all down again
Some will have had covid already. Plus the vaccine and recovered will massively hinder spread, so getting half of them infected will not be as easy as all that.
But, even taking the 50% infected, the CFR for those in their 30s is about 0.1% and it drops further from there as you look at younger groups. So if, back of a cigarette pack, we use your numbers Leon, and assume that the unvaccinated are mostly under 40 and then take the highest CFR for that group, that gives us 2,500 additional deaths, or 28 a day.
Personal and family tragedies but not catastrophic.
Er, no
Malmesbury got his 5m unjabbed and vulnerable figure by adding together everyone not vaxxed and OVER 40
The CFR for these guys is 1% at least, very likely higher (can’t be arsed to do the maths)
Hang on... That group has an average age of 50-51, so that CFR seems a little on the high side, unless there are a lot of vulnerable, unjabbed people in there.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume the worst - as is their wont - and think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
Topping has captured your peculiar character quite exactly.
Well that's Topping for you. It's like you're naked when he gazes at you. Quite a thrill for the favoured few.
This here comment of mine is not targeted at anyone on here - honest guv - but I do sense that for some the gesture is particularly upsetting because it smacks of supplication to the Black Man.
Sorry. Nonsense. Only in your mind.
Well there's no doubt - since it's widely expressed - that the 'supplicant' look of taking the knee gets a lot of goats.
Now none of these goats will come out and say, "Yeah, making white people grovel and kneel for BLM, trying to turn the tables innit, well they can fuck right off!"
But what makes you think there's none of that going on? There's some real rage out there about this gesture, remember, and some of those most angry are ... interesting people.
Are you 100% sure it's all due to irritation at virtue signaling and dislike of Marxism? I'm not.
I think you are overanalysing it, and so too are those that are against it. Although not a Labour supporter, I quite like Starmer and I think a lot of people are underestimating him on the basis of polls in a strange time, but I think he looked a bit silly genuflecting. he needs a better spin doctor.
Not sure I am. I'm only suggesting there's a bit of this around in certain quarters.
I agree on the staged "kneeling in office" shot. Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
You just summed Starmer up
Bit wooden and inauthentic looking.
Yep. Fair cop. It is an issue. For me, I prefer somebody with decorum because it shows they don't have the sort of insecure narcissism or inbred entitlement that makes them assume the world needs and wants to be exposed to lots of their "personality" on a regular basis. But I think I'm in a minority on this and in any case I accept that in these Reality TV days a political leader who is low key is at a tremendous disadvantage.
I hope Starmer can start to relax and unzip from here. But it will be hard because this requires confidence and his confidence must be at a low ebb. He'll be feeling down and emotionally vulnerable, and this could mean he either goes more into his shell or tries to burst out of it in a way that looks a bit crazed and - oh no it's that word again - inauthentic.
Tough times.
Something I noticed about Sir Keir the other day that encapsulates his ability to annoy both sides whilst trying to do the right thing & not being a bad bloke
He’s a vegetarian
Who eats fish
Is there anything you don't know about "Sir Keir"?
Plenty. But I think it’s fair to say he annoys people on both sides of the political spectrum by trying to be a bit of everything, and this sums it up
Plenty of people, especially old school working class types, roll their eyes when a bloke says he’s a vegetarian. And almost all vegetarians would think eating fish disallows you from calling yourself one
OTOH, if he is a vegetarian who eats fish it would surely be inauthentic to pretend otherwise.
If he were a vegetarian, he wouldn’t eat fish. Why the need to label himself anyway? Just say I don’t eat meat except fish; fair enough, hats off. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian if you eat animals
I think you're wrong here, and not only that, you're wrong in a surprising (for you) way. I'll explain -
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume - as is their wont - to think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
First half, I agree entirely. Second half, wrong - if you eat fish then you're not a vegetarian. Starmer is therefore not a vegetarian, he's just someone who doesn't eat meat.
Look, I'm telling you this and it's for real, if I were to go up and visit my parents (Red Wall) and tell them I'd become a vegetarian, the first thing my mum would say to me is, "But do you still eat fish? We were thinking of getting cod and chips for tea."
People are talking utter bollocks about this. Vegetarian in common parlance means no meat and that's all it means.
This is all just bandwagon Starmer pile-on. Boring, unthinking, herd sentiment.
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Don’t go projecting your own character onto me!
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
Ventnor, May 7th, 2021: maximum 9C Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
It's possible those are the records from St Catherine's point, which is the closest automatic weather station with half hourly reporting. It's an exposed headland a few miles to the West of Ventnor so would have quite a different microclimate although I wouldn't expect Ventnor to have got more than a few degrees warmer than this.
I’m kinda teasing Ian. If he can sit around in a tee shirt in 12-15C good for him
I rather suspect you and I visit the same weather-geek websites? I never expected myself to be so knowledgeable about the ‘GFS 00z ensembles’
From what I can tell there is a big overlap between online weather geekism and online political geekism. The one I frequent (TWO) even has its own political forum. An oddity. Similar gender balance too (i.e. virtually all male)
I think it's just general geekism. See also higher than average number of sci fi fans.
In my last year at Uni, I was sorting out a PC. Some idiot had set a password lock - and then left Uni. So I had to do the one about shorting out a capacitor with a screwdriver to reset it.
A first year asked what I was doing.
I explained that real programmers can do cool shit by touching contacts with a screwdriver to enter code.
The first year went away very impressed.
Pilots used to describe hitting an engine with a spanner as “percussion engineering”
England 173,820 1st doses / 378,650 2nd doses Scotland 17,388 / 24,426 Wales 14,963 / 13,813 NI 3,113 / 11,152"
That's 68% of adults with a first jab now - getting very close to the "70% of adults" popular definition of 'herd immunity' at the one jab stage. 70% by about Monday or Tuesday. Then end of May for those vaccines to be active.
Good staging post. Though we should reach more like 85% overall.
Far better for the future to have an unvaccinated pool which is 15% rather than the 25-35% that could have happened.
Hmm, I wonder if Bolton will no longer get released on Monday. Depends on the Hospitalisations so far this week, which aren't published yet, but which government should have a feel for. If they're well up (from 11), I would be tempted to put the local release on hold until Tuesday 1/6 whilst surge vaccinating. That's me as a layman saying at the very last minute with the public data, and hopefully the government saw this bus coming earlier in the week.
But perhaps surge vaccination alone for Blackburn and Long Eaton.
Or perhaps just go with "recommending" show your vaccine very at the pub door and the unvaccinated don't indoor visit, just in those 2-3 localities.
And say areas of concern could have their June release delayed into July (towards end of school term).
Comments
I think the second is unfair and lacks evidence. Some scientists, perhaps. I know lots of scientists, I am a scientist - and yet I agree with your first paragraph assessment and I don't think we need to delay te lockdown easing on Monday and 21 June. The two people I know* on SAGE (neither of them involved in modelling!) are of the same opinion, or at least were last week, that there's still nothing to justify changing plan (one of them was a wee bit twitchy about 12 April retail opening, but given that's gone well is now reassured).
The alarming headlines are the fault of the media and, to be fair, probably also university PR departments. I've often had to rewrite press releases on my work because they pick up the wrong thing, exaggerate something or plain and simple misunderstand something. One of my colleagues in a former job told stories about having the press on his lawn one sunday morning due to the university cocking up a press release on one of his papers.
*A Covid vaccine related bit of work has meant I've had four online meetings with them this year, I only knew one of them before that. There's been chit-chat about the situation while waiting for people to arrive.
I think they just knock off a few degrees because we are by the sea.
My olive tree and bougainvillea are already outside in their pots, and yesterday I (more correctly, my dog) saw the first wall lizard of the year in my garden. That wouldn’t be happening if we were getting BBC temperatures.
England 173,820 1st doses / 378,650 2nd doses
Scotland 17,388 / 24,426
Wales 14,963 / 13,813
NI 3,113 / 11,152"
People are going to be surprised as to how quickly everyone will get a first dose. I think we'll be back to around 3m first doses done per week in June and everyone over 18 will have been offered a dose by around the third week of June. Shifting the focus to second doses only will also allow us to do cover 17-20m second doses in July alone.
No local lockdowns - for now.
Someone will ask a question about local lockdowns and Boris will say that they are not ruled out.
Laura will ask a question about foreign holidays.
Andy Burnham for Prime Minister? Very impressive yet again on Sky News just now. A sensible voice, making the point that we shouldn't have lockdowns now the vulnerable are protected...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en7sA6Plk74
Hard to say what the Net effect will be, other than, passed on overall performance last week its likely small to trivial.
Labour have no mojo at the moment. But its a toss up. Slight labour hold on reduced majority wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
Too cynical?
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2021/lowest-average-minimum-temperatures-since-1922-as-part-of-dry-april
May month to date is running at 8.9C (-1.4C below average) for the Central England Temperature, which is the only one published daily and the longest running temp series in the world. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_mean.html
If that continued for the whole month then we'd be second coldest since 1900. But it won't. May has a very sharp rise in average temperature as the month progresses, hence why we are only -1.4C below normal month to date.
Year to date we are at 0.18C above average.
I wish you were right. As ever, you aren’t
You can reliably forecast UK weather out to about 7 days. Maybe 10 at a reach
The weather forecast shows consistent cool throughout that period. About 13-15C, well below the seasonal average (also, rain, pff)
It’s only worth noting because this is becoming a statistical freak, and we love those on here. Possibly the coldest May since 1659 (when records began)
There are pescetarians, or people who don't eat land-based meat.
A first year asked what I was doing.
I explained that real programmers can do cool shit by touching contacts with a screwdriver to enter code.
The first year went away very impressed.
https://www.isleofwight.co.uk/isle-of-wight-weather/
https://www.botanic.co.uk/about/
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/forecast/gbzpuddc4
Are you really sitting outside in your Hawaiian shirt? I fear not. I am forced to the unhappy conclusion that you are lying
Today isn’t as warm as earlier in the week, but it’s been shirtsleeves weather here for the last few days.
As I type, I hear the chimes of the ice cream van coming up the road. Really.
https://www.wetterzentrale.de/en/show_diagrams.php?geoid=49069&model=gfs&var=201&run=00&lid=ENS&bw=1
We continue cool for at least a week. After that point things diverge. The end of month could very very cold, or very hot (last night one ensemble member was showing what would be record heat for the 24th), or indeed very wet. Very interesting pattern at the moment.
“The evidence just isn’t there yet. We have reports from India that vaccinated people, like medical workers, aren't getting the infection.
“Given that it’s typically seven days to symptomatic infection, the Indian variant has been around long enough for hotspot communities to be seeing a rise in admissions, but we haven’t seen any uptick. We have a rise in reported infections but that does not seem to be translating into hospitalisations.”
From the Telegraph live blog. Independent Sage will be angry.
So pretty closely linked to the 21 June unlocking ironically!
Thank goodness these fruitcakes are not on the real SAGE.
Very wise words. I think the problem this last 48 hours has been the government's sluggishness to get in front of it. Indy Sage are nothing if not quick off the mark – Pagel was on every news programme going yesterday before the government got its boots on. I think it's fair comment to say the government need to rather more footloose in its messaging.
cracking interview with Geoff Norcott thanks for the link.
Loving 12 mins in...
Lab after losing an election: Why won't these gullible fuckwits vote for us?
GN to Lab: if they're that gullible why can't you get them to vote for *you*?
Ventnor, May 8th, 2021: maximum 13C
Ventnor, May 9th, 2021: maximum 12C
Ventnor, May 10th, 2021: maximum 11C
Ventnor, May 11th, 2021: maximum 11C
Ventnor, May 12th, 2021: maximum 11C
Ventnor, May 13th, 2021: maximum 11C
https://www.worldweatheronline.com/ventnor-weather-history/isle-of-wight/gb.aspx
I understand PB is the kind of place that attracts fantasists and fibbers, like yourself, but I never expected people to lie about historical weather conditions
Israel has a much higher population, and a much higher proportion of under 18s, which is presumably reducing the validity of the comparison somewhat.
There is a word for a veggie who eats fish - pescetorian - but it's a very precise and wokey, metro elite, uber-educated sort of a word. Your working classes wouldn't have a clue what it meant and if you self described to them that way they'd assume the worst - as is their wont - and think, "Oooo, a Pesky Torian! Aren't you a little treasure? And what the fuck is that when it's at home?"
So, don't patronize and befuddle, just say what is the standard vanilla term for people who avoid meat. Starmer has nailed this one.
The problem with a lot of weather sites - including the BBC - is that they extrapolate between what are actually fairly dispersed data points, and don't take account of local factors very well at all. For much of the country, that works reasonably well, but for somewhere like here that regularly has completely different weather to points just twenty minutes walk away over the hill, it doesn't work very well. Follow the link I posted earlier to our local Botanic Garden; they grow stuff there from Australia and the like that doesn't survive outside anywhere else in the UK.
It's lovely and reasonably sunny here right now, so I am going out to do some light gardening. Without a coat or jumper
I rather suspect you and I visit the same weather-geek websites? I never expected myself to be so knowledgeable about the ‘GFS 00z ensembles’
Why else would She/He/It have created Leon as English?
Created in and consigned to a land of eternal ice, fog, rain, gloom and dodgy drains?
Instead of being made in the image of a curious, horny, happy iguana, sunning happily on some tropic rock, munching on seasonal leaves and fruits, and waiting for the next mate to wander by to share the experience?
No wonder Leon rages like Lucifer against being condemned to the Outer Darkness that is Skegness!
It will also enable a drawdown of the ~4.5m Pfizer stockpile as well given how reliable the Pfizer deliveries have been and the receding threat of export blocks now that the EU has stopped moaning about vaccines.
The source said that these two effects will mean the government will be able to cover all first doses for 18-39 year olds within the next 5 weeks and the new Pfizer deal will be used to cover second doses as for everyone who needs one plus the possibility of a second Pfizer dose for under 40s who got AZ as a first dose though they expect the latter to be done silently.
It's total yurgh.
There’s no need to label himself as anything, just say he doesn’t eat much meat, if asked. But don’t say you’re a vegetarian, when you’re not. Yer working classes see someone who says they’re a vegetarian eating fish, and call him a liar, not a pescatarian!!
I would have thought Tresco Gardens would be capable of growing those Australian plants.
Because the Pfizer supply is just more reliable?
For simplicity (just stock Pfizer)
For safety (clots)
For efficacy?
For the third I didn't think there was any evidence yet of problems in those who had first dose without issue (granted not that many younger people have had second AZN yet, I guess) and for the fourth aren't we still awating results of the trial on mixing and matching?
You'd need to go speak to the masses of people protesting for BLM to find out the truth. Me too, tbf. But my strong sense is that the 'marxist' provocateurs are in a small minority. They must be, really, if you think about it. Why else would they be accused of "hijacking" it? Think of a plane being hijacked. How many passengers? How many hijackers?
Some us, several.
People are talking utter bollocks about this. Vegetarian in common parlance means no meat and that's all it means.
This is all just bandwagon Starmer pile-on. Boring, unthinking, herd sentiment.
Good staging post. Though we should reach more like 85% overall.
Far better for the future to have an unvaccinated pool which is 15% rather than the 25-35% that could have happened.
But perhaps surge vaccination alone for Blackburn and Long Eaton.
Or perhaps just go with "recommending" show your vaccine very at the pub door and the unvaccinated don't indoor visit, just in those 2-3 localities.
And say areas of concern could have their June release delayed into July (towards end of school term).
Not the most politic thing to say.
He's digging down, down; deep, deep down.