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The Boris vaccination poll “bounce” will evaporate unless those who’ve had both jabs start to see so
The Boris vaccination poll “bounce” will evaporate unless those who’ve had both jabs start to see some benefit – politicalbetting.com
Undoubtedly the government’s vaccination progress has been a great success and clearly has had a big impact on curbing the spread of COVID amongst the most vulnerable. All the signs are that the vaccines pretty are robust with the new variants as Johnson was boasting about at PMQs on Wednesday. On top of that the real-life efficacy of AZC jab has proved to be far in excess of that achieved in the early trials.
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Green - you can go there
Red - you can't go there
Amber - well, you CAN go - but I wouldn't if I were you and don't come crying to us if your holibobs go tits up....
It's about the return of taking personal responsibility.
Given age groupings to get to “fully vaccinated”, the family of 4 quoted by Telegraph will be two retired parents and their retired children. Slightly misleading but the key Telegraph demographic I guess.
F1: Leclerc now shorter than Bottas and Perez for pole. However, if, like Mr. B, I'd backed him at significantly longer odds I think I'd be tempted to hold on. Sainz potential value as well.
In other news I see the national vaccination site is now open to 32 year olds, so hoping I'll be able to book my first sometime next week.
It's the Isle of Wight for me as usual this summer.
Humbug!
Edited extra bit: ah ha! I sleepily saved it to a separate document. Which means my computer is not broken. Although I may need some more rest.
If rules on socialising holidays are not relaxed as expected, I doubt whether there will be a 'severe' backlash. Among those I mix with anyway; I suspect the reaction will be 'he's done his best, it's those others.'
But now the old are vaccinated they want to be able to jet off overseas while leaving the young behind still locked down because they didn't need the vaccine yet?
Is that right?
If you were saying you wanted to eg get out of lockdown and hug your grandchildren then I'd have some sympathy and agree 100000%, but to go overseas while saying that those who've sacrificed so much to keep you safe are left behind?
It’s much more urgent to lift the remaining domestic restrictions. The remaining restraints in schools that are causing total chaos. The universities. The bizarrre decision by that twat Dowden to attempt to tighten the rules on music the other day. The remaining closed sectors of hospitality.
Once they are all gone, foreign travel should be the last to come back. I hate to agree with Drakeford, but his advice to holiday in Wales this year was sound.
We have a week booked on the Northumberland coast later this year. We're hoping for a fine Autumn, given we've not really had a Spring-like SpringQ
The garden looks a hell of a mess though. Twigs, branches and leaf debris everywhere.
I may have to pay a man from the village a few shillings to do something about it...
Nevertheless the current situation - where the government is pretending foreign travel has been unlocked whilst in practice keeping it impossible for the vast majority of people to the vast majority of locations, with only those with a lot of time and money able to circumnavigate the regulations, is the worst of all worlds.
Either allow us to travel, or don't - stop pretending that the current situation is of much help to anyone.
"It is the duty of the wealthy man
To give employment to the artisan."
Red: Stop, Green: Go, Amber: You can go, but stop if its safe to do so and it could turn red.
Even my four year old knows what the traffic light colours mean as she'll say what they mean from her booster seat whenever we reach the traffic lights!
That said, I would have made all countries amber right now. Although vaccines mean there shouldn’t be a repeat of last summer where virus seeded from abroad scythed through reopened schools and unis, I would like to see most countries at our level of jabbing before flights resume.
Every country is amber by default, but then moved to green if the situation is good like ours, or red if especially bad.
From the 5Live phone in the other day, it does seem as if many holidays were carried forward a year, and the companies are saying to people to go, or to lose it.
Compared to last year's weather Britain is not a great place to be holidaying at present. It reminds me of the soggy spring of the London Olympics. Remember the waterlogged Jubilee flotilla on the Thames that year?
Public patience probably will hold, for the most part, although it would help no end if I was proven wrong in my dread suspicion that the entire Summer in Britain is going to be a total washout this year. We are now nearly at the end of May, and the weather is still stuck in March. Nor do I trust the "jam tomorrow" forecasts, that suggest things will be much less shit in a week. They've been issuing those since about Easter, but every time one rolls forward another week it turns out that the weather is still shit.
It wouldn't surprise me if it were still 12°C and blowing a gale in August, TBH.
Is it a criticism of our Government that we are ahead of other nations? Should people be able to travel to Spain and go clubbing in Spain, when they can't go clubbing in the UK and the virus is worse in Spain than the UK?
Finish lifting domestic lockdowns first. After that go ahead with abroad.
How tricky is independent travel in China? I was thinking of practicalities around language, signs, buying tickets etc. Any PB advice?
It's Groundhog Day.
You mention the trio of ministers, but don't mention Gove. But all the in-depth pieces I see keep bringing his name up as the senior minister most pushing the 'lockdown everyone all the time' agenda.
Edit: that said, I have a multi-year entry visa so getting in may be harder independently.
I agree. However I see the problem as being the billions of people, not the diet. Hopefully Covid has made everyone sterile and done the planet a favour.
It is the posh and the poor who mostly holiday in the UK as far as I can see.
This situation is an absolute nonsense. I am encouraging everyone who has been vaccinated to travel wherever they like and to ignore this increasingly dystopian State.
Travel is one of life's greatest pleasures. It broadens the horizons, renews the body and feeds the soul.
Don’t believe this ‘Monaco is boring’ guff...
I'd expect the airports continue to struggle all summer as each time they fix the current problem, additional countries will get moved to the green lists and the airports wont keep up with capacity changes.
I never had any real problems getting round. In the big cities (which includes Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai) it's pretty easy. The underground networks are excellent and have English signage. Same for major railway stations. Hotels catering for international tourists are also fine.
For long distance travel by train you'll be fine as long as you make sure you have planned ahead properly, print outs etc. (I'm sure you're aware of him, but the man in seat 61's site is very helpful for this).
Where things are harder is restaurants and getting around locally outside the big cities. People are generally nice and will try to be helpful, but don't expect English menus, English speakers etc.
When I visited the three cities you're considering I spoke sod all Chinese and got by ok. Later on I spoke enough Chinese to get by and that was very helpful, but not vital.
If you have any questions about it, feel free to drop me a private message.
https://twitter.com/SuzyJourno/status/1395997752916643843?s=19
Telegraph
Are we about to see another test of whether lockdowns actually make much difference?
If the status was linked to vaccination progress then you could have realistic confidence that there wouldn't be dramatic changes in the case numbers or that there is a "hidden" level of infectivity circulating. And vaccination progress has fairly transparent and consistent reporting around the world. Still using case numbers as the guide gives excessive reliance on the testing and reporting practices of other countries.
https://www.chinatibettrain.com/train.htm
The shops are open again and I think things will start running more smoothly. Red Terminal 3 is a very good starting point for making it less stressful.
Mind you, I'm a business traveller so I always use business lounges which makes the whole experience very pleasant.
However, a rail journey with a Trans Mongolian sounds like fun.
https://twitter.com/suzyjourno/status/1395997752916643843?s=21
Believe in personal freedom for the vaccinated?
Hold your phone up to the QR Track & Trace scanner and proceed. No one ever checks if you actually have the App installed ....
Or so I'm, cough, told.
I'm afraid that after I'd told her the way I just laughed, more at the Kafkaesque absurdity of the encounter.
Until the second jab rollout is completed and furlough is finished I can continue to expect double figure leads.
The bigger question right now is what will be finished first - the vaccine rollout or Starmer’s political career?
https://twitter.com/deckymc63/status/1395998671083380744?s=21
I love them even when I'm flying cattle class. I love the people watching, the visceral excitement, the shops, the thrill of the unknown.
I always allow plenty of time so I can soak it all up and enjoy it. Love love love the places.
Even when I'm using a business lounge I always allow masses of time to wander around beforehand and vicariously live the thrill of a thousand other journeys.
p.s. but my name is not Richard Curtis.
What really needs to happen is merging of green and amber and a cut off date that only allows double jabbed people to arrive in the UK regardless of red/amber/green. Maybe at some point in July when 80-90% will have had it twice and 50-60% of Europeans and Americans in the same place. Fully vaccinated people should eventually be exempt from everything except a day 2 and day 10 lateral flow test, maybe one one departure. Everyone who isn't double jabbed has to come on special quarantine flights with other unvaccinated peopl and do the hotel stay.
I think Europe and America needs to go down this road and just wait for the rest of the world to catch up.
It will not be that long until everyone is double immunised. Most older people I know are not overly concerned about going to Spain, and I have heard it from some retired people that it would be unfair for them to go away when others haven't even had a vaccine yet. It may hurt the Tories more if the selfish bastard brigade correlate with their voters - perhaps we will actually get some polling on this.
Almost a certainty that O’Neill would be FM in that scenario surely, which would have big symbolic importance in itself?
Edit: checked Wiki and it would be a certainty as largest party at Stormont nominates FM
Isnt a double jabbed person from India currently a bigger risk than a person not vaccinated from Australia?
At some point as infection rates in India drop (or Australia rise) that flips, so the decision should be based on the mix of vaccination and infection. One the govt have got right first time!
Savour your moment too. International travel will be even more precious after this pandemic.
Travel is when I come alive, and airports too even when they throw curve-balls at you. Most of my life is humdrum until I draw up at Arrivals. Then the fun starts.
Every time I travel internationally I open myself up to a thousand risks. It's part of the excitement. Covid will be but one of those thousand, and not a particularly important one.
I think it's just the mass of crowds, people from all walks of life in one place - everywhere you look a hidden story. Ironic in a way because i'm a natural introvert who doesn't actually enjoy meeting people (so often feel isolated at eg. parties or events where doing so is a necessary precondition to enjoyment).
I think it helps that i am the sort of person that never goes out of my way to be in a hurry, or find reasons to increase my stress level, which means i can take that bit of time to just observe the world going by without getting caught up in the frustrations or stress that many are experiencing*. There might be an occasional laugh or joke with a complete stranger about a situation you find yourself in or observe - where both are of one thought/mind, and of course there's always the potential for a bit of shared complaining and cursing at the stupidity of others/authority/bureaucracy if necessary. But generally if i can just sit somewhere with a cup of coffee, a book or the internet - that's enough for me.
*of course it all goes out of the window the moment i am up against a hard deadline and running seriously late - at that point panic and anxiety rapidly kick in. My basic approach in most situations is guided by fear of the latter. Get there early. Have plenty of time. And leave the stress to others. And to some extent gain enjoyment out of the fact that they are stressed and i am not.
https://www.thetranssiberiantravelcompany.com/planning-route-options/
Said it perfectly.
What makes it even stupider is that we create a green list that includes countries you CANNOT travel to like Singapore. Surely a basic requirement of a green status is that you can actually travel there.
I like foreign supermarkets, hospitals*, and rail travel. Each is an insight into how people live that a package misses out.
*in a professional capacity! When on my work related trips.
Don't worry, the madness is at both ends. Communitat Valenciana is lobbying to be added onto a green list despite still having a curfew and mandatory mask wearing inside and out. Off their bloody tits they are. Come to Benidorm. Here is your mask for wearing on the beach.
Hence the majority of measures being about what you could/should do on arrival, not the requirements on departure. One could be forgiven for thinking that impact on holidays, and ability (or not) of people to go on them has often just been a derivative consequence.
And if you think about it, some of the requirements to leave the country make no sense. Why should the British government have (or had?) a requirement for people to have negative COVID tests prior to departure? (I think that's correct - apologies if wrong). If the fear is of people catching/bringing in variants from abroad, then whether you have the virus on departure is really pretty irrelevant.
Take the example of a long term resident in Singapore who is a British citizen, they can now come to the UK with few checks and then fly back to Singapore as they are a long term resident.
Eventually the UK will be added to other green lists because our vaccine programme is advancing very rapidly. I know for sure that a lot of East Asian countries have got the UK pencilled in for green listing. We've been told that resuming business flying to Japan is weeks away rather than months now and that's based on the Japanese government green listing UK vaccinated arrivals.