It’s hotting up. Johnson interview with Sky: Says UK will do “whatever it takes” to resolve NI issues & “won’t hesitate” to invoke Art 16 of protocol if EU continues apply it in this way. Some in EU don't understand UK is now a single country & need to “get that into their heads”
My wife and I had a long chat this morning and we're both of the same mind, if the UK falls into permanent measures we're going to leave the country even if we have to sell the house we've just bought and leave people behind. The life that the government and scientists have planned for us isn't real life, it's a facsimile of it.
Which is why it won't happen. FOMO. Ultimately the country will turn on the TV and see how the rest of the world is living and want some of that.
No it won't. Well, not the part that matters. The average Tory voter is now aged about 97, is terrified of the virus and actively approves of making the young suffer whilst simultaneously taxing the shit out of them to pay for their benefits. They spend practically their entire lives at home anyway, so see no reason why everybody else shouldn't do that too, and aren't in the least bit interested in foreigners or their suspect practices.
Re: the women in sport argument. Another thing to consider is that extremely rare, even in men’s sports, for different requirements for sporting excellence at the highest level to combine in one individual. Tennis players/golfers/cricketers who base themselves around a “power game” don’t tend to excel at “touch”/finesse. Sprinters with long strides aren’t explosive out of the blocks. Very big rugby players aren’t particularly quick runners etc etc. Where you do see these features combined you get once in a generation stars.
To even hope to get close to competing in high level men’s sport, women would need this. Men can succeed in men’s sport by excelling in one area, whilst surviving with average male characteristics (and some hard work/training) in others. For women it wouldn’t be enough to just excel in one. Average women characteristics plus training would be enough in all the other areas.
Snooker will be interesting next season. Apart from reach and power, there is no particular reason why women shouldn't be just as good. Unfortunately, there is insufficient prize money available. So they can't do the 8 hours a day practice. Now they have been given 2 places on Tour. Will see how they go. Darts should be similar. I understand females do compete with occasional success there.
An enterprising girls school would surely place darts boards and snooker tables in every common room. There must be a lot of women who'd be professional standard if only they'd had the chance to find out. Boys too, come to that. Look at how snooker standards shot up after the 1980s.
Horseracing is another sport where women compete against men on equal terms. Hollie Doyle was rated the fifth or sixth best jockey in Britain, and Rachael Blackmore was top jockey at Cheltenham this year, but they are exceptions, and it is still the case that most women jockeys struggle for mounts and ride mainly for their own relatives.
How about gymnastics? I know they do slightly different apparatus, but would Simone Biles' floor routine beat the men?
It’s hotting up. Johnson interview with Sky: Says UK will do “whatever it takes” to resolve NI issues & “won’t hesitate” to invoke Art 16 of protocol if EU continues apply it in this way. Some in EU don't understand UK is now a single country & need to “get that into their heads”
Without the required media access to quiz participants, this G7 is just a spin machine not worthy of the media coverage it is getting.
People (media and public) like a spectacle. Important people hob nobbing is pagentry but it is comforting pagentry. And if you are lucky you get a clip of Trudeau, Boris, Rutte and Macron laughing about Trump.
I can’t have a clip of Trudeau without knowing with a few seconds of makeup he can do the Black and White Minstrel show. He already has turned up with the hair.
And yet. He continues to win. Looks likely to win again. Same with Ardern. It is the sine qua non of politics.
What I think is new is that it’s possible to reach the top and stay at the top without any “sausage” at all.
There used to be various gates to prevent that.
I agree, but what were the gates and where did they go?
The main one I can see is that Johnson has minimal experience of running or shadowing a ministry- either of those would have exposed (and potentially trained) him in a way that Mayor of London didn't.
It’s hotting up. Johnson interview with Sky: Says UK will do “whatever it takes” to resolve NI issues & “won’t hesitate” to invoke Art 16 of protocol if EU continues apply it in this way. Some in EU don't understand UK is now a single country & need to “get that into their heads”
Ignore all this bollocks about Europe. It's a transparent attempt to distract from his latest miserable fuck up over the pandemic.
Those who are watching can see that he's out of his depth, and sinking slowly. Fortunately for him, most people are on a post-vac high and, as yet, not really watching.
Re: the women in sport argument. Another thing to consider is that extremely rare, even in men’s sports, for different requirements for sporting excellence at the highest level to combine in one individual. Tennis players/golfers/cricketers who base themselves around a “power game” don’t tend to excel at “touch”/finesse. Sprinters with long strides aren’t explosive out of the blocks. Very big rugby players aren’t particularly quick runners etc etc. Where you do see these features combined you get once in a generation stars.
To even hope to get close to competing in high level men’s sport, women would need this. Men can succeed in men’s sport by excelling in one area, whilst surviving with average male characteristics (and some hard work/training) in others. For women it wouldn’t be enough to just excel in one. Average women characteristics plus training would be enough in all the other areas.
Snooker will be interesting next season. Apart from reach and power, there is no particular reason why women shouldn't be just as good. Unfortunately, there is insufficient prize money available. So they can't do the 8 hours a day practice. Now they have been given 2 places on Tour. Will see how they go. Darts should be similar. I understand females do compete with occasional success there.
An enterprising girls school would surely place darts boards and snooker tables in every common room. There must be a lot of women who'd be professional standard if only they'd had the chance to find out. Boys too, come to that. Look at how snooker standards shot up after the 1980s.
Horseracing is another sport where women compete against men on equal terms. Hollie Doyle was rated the fifth or sixth best jockey in Britain, and Rachael Blackmore was top jockey at Cheltenham this year, but they are exceptions, and it is still the case that most women jockeys struggle for mounts and ride mainly for their own relatives.
There was good piece on during the lunch interval at the cricket.
Ebony Rainford-Brent, who’s a commentator for Sky, has been awarded an MBE for her work as chair of a charity called Ace, working to get black kids interested in cricket. They’ve identified several boys and girls who they’ve sponsored to play, have a few who look like international prospects.
Well done to her - until today I’d just thought of her as a crap commentator, the token woman in the team. I still don’t like her too much as a commentator, but hats off to her for the charity work.
NEW: Half of those who said they would definitely not get a Covid-19 vaccine when asked back in Nov/Dec 2020 have now done so, indicating that many people’s hesitancy has disappeared since the UK’s vaccine rollout began.
My wife and I had a long chat this morning and we're both of the same mind, if the UK falls into permanent measures we're going to leave the country even if we have to sell the house we've just bought and leave people behind. The life that the government and scientists have planned for us isn't real life, it's a facsimile of it.
Which is why it won't happen. FOMO. Ultimately the country will turn on the TV and see how the rest of the world is living and want some of that.
No it won't. Well, not the part that matters. The average Tory voter is now aged about 97, is terrified of the virus and actively approves of making the young suffer whilst simultaneously taxing the shit out of them to pay for their benefits. They spend practically their entire lives at home anyway, so see no reason why everybody else shouldn't do that too, and aren't in the least bit interested in foreigners or their suspect practices.
So we rot. Forever.
If it helps you cope at all I disagree fundamentally. I have had many dark times during this and, seriously, have thought as you do. But this too will pass.
Politics is as much about tone and sensibility as policy. Johnson gets that and most people on the left do not, which is why they keeps being surprised by how popular he is. The culture clash pits American-style earnestness and piety against British irreverence and perversity. Johnson’s clownishness happens to have found its perfect foil in the grimly humourless, relentlessly prosecutorial, technocratic and yes, deracinated tone of wokeism. Voters do not necessarily believe Johnson is competent, which will in the end be his downfall, but they do know he will never lecture them. He likes them too much.
The ‘culture war’ is at heart a culture clash, between British traditions and American cultural politics, the latter now exported globally thanks to the internet. Britain’s institutional elites have in recent years swallowed, rather uncritically, a whole set of concepts, slogans and jargon from the US. Many British voters are somewhere between unaware, wary of, or outright resistant to the new discourse, even as it has quickly become second nature to those who have adopted it.
I thought this part was more resonant
The result is that even when elites are talking about something that in substance has widespread support, like anti-racism, the use of this imported lexicon can make the message feel jarring, alienating, and a little bit pathetic, as if we can no longer reflect on our society, or have our own game, without borrowing from - or literally confusing ourselves with - America.
"Finally, what starts in the US inevitably finds its way here. Sod that its two different countries, with two starkly different histories, geographies , demographics, politics ..."
NEW: Half of those who said they would definitely not get a Covid-19 vaccine when asked back in Nov/Dec 2020 have now done so, indicating that many people’s hesitancy has disappeared since the UK’s vaccine rollout began.
Are there any figures on the average age of COVID deaths by week? I'd be interested to know how the average age of COVID deaths has changed (or not) since the vaccinations started.
Last Spring, during the first lockdown, I felt utterly hopeless and on here several of you reached out to offer support through DM's for which I thank you all once again. I suspect that many on here are currently feeling the same way regarding this latest extension of the Stage 3 restrictions. I am not sure that my words would be welcomed, I am not very good at this sort of thing, but this WILL pass.
I'm going to take a break of a few weeks because I am not sure my Covid centric comments are helping. This exile will probably last all of 12 hours before I make my excuses and come back but I'm going to do my best!
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Are there any figures on the average age of COVID deaths by week? I'd be interested to know how the average age of COVID deaths has changed (or not) since the vaccinations started.
It would be great to see some much more detailed statistics on the admissions and deaths. The problem is that, in most areas, there’s so few that they’d be identifyable if published. Hope the government advisors have the data though.
My wife and I had a long chat this morning and we're both of the same mind, if the UK falls into permanent measures we're going to leave the country even if we have to sell the house we've just bought and leave people behind. The life that the government and scientists have planned for us isn't real life, it's a facsimile of it.
Which is why it won't happen. FOMO. Ultimately the country will turn on the TV and see how the rest of the world is living and want some of that.
No it won't. Well, not the part that matters. The average Tory voter is now aged about 97, is terrified of the virus and actively approves of making the young suffer whilst simultaneously taxing the shit out of them to pay for their benefits. They spend practically their entire lives at home anyway, so see no reason why everybody else shouldn't do that too, and aren't in the least bit interested in foreigners or their suspect practices.
So we rot. Forever.
If it helps you cope at all I disagree fundamentally. I have had many dark times during this and, seriously, have thought as you do. But this too will pass.
Will it?
I let myself, eventually, be convinced that the vaccines would get us out of this. It was obvious that Covid was never completely going away, but I honestly thought there would finally come a time - when nearly everyone had been jabbed, or caught the thing - when this would finally be over.
But it's never going to be over. Never. Because it has been made obvious to all of us that the scientists view the vaccines as fundamentally worthless. Coverage will never be sufficient to meet their demand, and even if every single individual in the population had had them they would still have the variants and the "but it's not 100% effective!" arguments to fall back on.
So, it's masks and varying levels of lockdown for eternity. We're never going to be rid of them.
And one of those is funded by a suspected murderer of 8 African porters...
So flipping what? All the Telegraph has done is provide a handy list of the next statues to fall. How long does it take to edit a web page so the SlaveMaster Professor of Sums becomes the Professor of Sums?
The funding for their job is coming from funds setup by these people....so they are happy to take it to keep themselves employed, but also boycotting teaching those at another college, because it is funded by a similar problematic individual.
That's rank hypocrisy. They could always go and teach at New F##ksticks Metropolitan University of Wokery, but perhaps that doesn't pay as well, give them access to the same world class facilities (not insignificantly funded by these problematic individuals) or the status they desire.
It may be hypocrisy but in practical terms, the Telegraph has merely provided a new list of names to cancel.
My wife and I had a long chat this morning and we're both of the same mind, if the UK falls into permanent measures we're going to leave the country even if we have to sell the house we've just bought and leave people behind. The life that the government and scientists have planned for us isn't real life, it's a facsimile of it.
Which is why it won't happen. FOMO. Ultimately the country will turn on the TV and see how the rest of the world is living and want some of that.
No it won't. Well, not the part that matters. The average Tory voter is now aged about 97, is terrified of the virus and actively approves of making the young suffer whilst simultaneously taxing the shit out of them to pay for their benefits. They spend practically their entire lives at home anyway, so see no reason why everybody else shouldn't do that too, and aren't in the least bit interested in foreigners or their suspect practices.
So we rot. Forever.
If it helps you cope at all I disagree fundamentally. I have had many dark times during this and, seriously, have thought as you do. But this too will pass.
Will it?
I let myself, eventually, be convinced that the vaccines would get us out of this. It was obvious that Covid was never completely going away, but I honestly thought there would finally come a time - when nearly everyone had been jabbed, or caught the thing - when this would finally be over.
But it's never going to be over. Never. Because it has been made obvious to all of us that the scientists view the vaccines as fundamentally worthless. Coverage will never be sufficient to meet their demand, and even if every single individual in the population had had them they would still have the variants and the "but it's not 100% effective!" arguments to fall back on.
So, it's masks and varying levels of lockdown for eternity. We're never going to be rid of them.
If you've been vaccinated (either single dose or two doses) and get exposed to the Indian variant but don't get any symptoms, presumably it would nevertheless act like a further booster for your immune system? Does anyone know if there is any scientific literature on this?
Without the required media access to quiz participants, this G7 is just a spin machine not worthy of the media coverage it is getting.
People (media and public) like a spectacle. Important people hob nobbing is pagentry but it is comforting pagentry. And if you are lucky you get a clip of Trudeau, Boris, Rutte and Macron laughing about Trump.
I can’t have a clip of Trudeau without knowing with a few seconds of makeup he can do the Black and White Minstrel show. He already has turned up with the hair.
And yet. He continues to win. Looks likely to win again. Same with Ardern. It is the sine qua non of politics.
What I think is new is that it’s possible to reach the top and stay at the top without any “sausage” at all.
There used to be various gates to prevent that.
I agree, but what were the gates and where did they go?
The main one I can see is that Johnson has minimal experience of running or shadowing a ministry- either of those would have exposed (and potentially trained) him in a way that Mayor of London didn't.
I think the Party, the House, and the Press once played various gate-keeping roles.
Unmediated, Johnson is free to “sizzle” his way into power.
It’s a weird kind of sizzle of course, as he is vaguely coherent at the best of times. But there is no denying his Chaplinesque charisma.
My wife and I had a long chat this morning and we're both of the same mind, if the UK falls into permanent measures we're going to leave the country even if we have to sell the house we've just bought and leave people behind. The life that the government and scientists have planned for us isn't real life, it's a facsimile of it.
Which is why it won't happen. FOMO. Ultimately the country will turn on the TV and see how the rest of the world is living and want some of that.
No it won't. Well, not the part that matters. The average Tory voter is now aged about 97, is terrified of the virus and actively approves of making the young suffer whilst simultaneously taxing the shit out of them to pay for their benefits. They spend practically their entire lives at home anyway, so see no reason why everybody else shouldn't do that too, and aren't in the least bit interested in foreigners or their suspect practices.
So we rot. Forever.
If it helps you cope at all I disagree fundamentally. I have had many dark times during this and, seriously, have thought as you do. But this too will pass.
Will it?
I let myself, eventually, be convinced that the vaccines would get us out of this. It was obvious that Covid was never completely going away, but I honestly thought there would finally come a time - when nearly everyone had been jabbed, or caught the thing - when this would finally be over.
But it's never going to be over. Never. Because it has been made obvious to all of us that the scientists view the vaccines as fundamentally worthless. Coverage will never be sufficient to meet their demand, and even if every single individual in the population had had them they would still have the variants and the "but it's not 100% effective!" arguments to fall back on.
So, it's masks and varying levels of lockdown for eternity. We're never going to be rid of them.
It will pass.
Catch you later.
It’s genuinely a temporary problem, the government isn’t a fan of spending 30bn a month more than it receives. The restrictions will all be ending soon, even if it ends up being a couple of weeks later than advertised.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
That’s unfair
For a long time Black Rook has been full of sunny optimism (too much, perhaps)
I suspect he/she is a tad bipolar and is now on the downslope of a mood shift. Have a little sympathy. We are all stressed by this ever receding day of freedom. Black Rook also has a point, when members of official SAGE talk about ‘keeping masks and social distancing forever’ it is only right to be alarmed about the future. Some top scientists really do want perpetual controls on society
Amanda Sloat, US Special Assistant: "We certainly recognize that there are ongoing negotiations between the UK & EU... [& encourage them] to continue to work through implementation of the modalities of these in a way that promotes pol and economic stability and prosperity in NI.”
My wife and I had a long chat this morning and we're both of the same mind, if the UK falls into permanent measures we're going to leave the country even if we have to sell the house we've just bought and leave people behind. The life that the government and scientists have planned for us isn't real life, it's a facsimile of it.
Which is why it won't happen. FOMO. Ultimately the country will turn on the TV and see how the rest of the world is living and want some of that.
No it won't. Well, not the part that matters. The average Tory voter is now aged about 97, is terrified of the virus and actively approves of making the young suffer whilst simultaneously taxing the shit out of them to pay for their benefits. They spend practically their entire lives at home anyway, so see no reason why everybody else shouldn't do that too, and aren't in the least bit interested in foreigners or their suspect practices.
So we rot. Forever.
If it helps you cope at all I disagree fundamentally. I have had many dark times during this and, seriously, have thought as you do. But this too will pass.
Will it?
I let myself, eventually, be convinced that the vaccines would get us out of this. It was obvious that Covid was never completely going away, but I honestly thought there would finally come a time - when nearly everyone had been jabbed, or caught the thing - when this would finally be over.
But it's never going to be over. Never. Because it has been made obvious to all of us that the scientists view the vaccines as fundamentally worthless. Coverage will never be sufficient to meet their demand, and even if every single individual in the population had had them they would still have the variants and the "but it's not 100% effective!" arguments to fall back on.
So, it's masks and varying levels of lockdown for eternity. We're never going to be rid of them.
They don't. They believe that vaccines don't do anything until they're injected. The problem is in the rise in cases and hospitalisations amongst the pre-vaccinated.
Seven-day hospitalisation totals amongst the under-55s for the 4 weeks up to the most recent date for which age data was published:
Seven-day case totals in England over four weeks, from one week prior:
The rise is coming from the unvaccinated. And, yes, from those too young to have been fully protected. Every single day clicks down that by hundreds of thousands.
Amanda Sloat, US Special Assistant: "We certainly recognize that there are ongoing negotiations between the UK & EU... [& encourage them] to continue to work through implementation of the modalities of these in a way that promotes pol and economic stability and prosperity in NI.”
I am getting increasingly irate with DougSeal’s contention that it was just “U.K. citizens returning home”.
What the hell were they doing in India - aka PLAGUE CENTRAL - in the first place? Well, we know what; they were visiting relatives and getting a bit of sun. @Foxy called them “Gujarati snowbirds” or some such.
We watched it all happen in real time and many of us called it out at the time.
The reason they were in India was that, until quite late March, it was considered to have turned the Covid corner and was a safe place to go. It had apparently low Covid prevalence and lockdown restrictions were significantly fewer than the UK's. This was what the world's press was saying about India in February and March -
"Coronavirus: Is the epidemic finally coming to an end in India?"
"India suffers highest daily coronavirus infections in five months"
"India has been reporting a spike in cases - above the 60,000 mark - for three consecutive days, though Monday’s rise was still below September’s peak of more than 90,000 cases a day."
India had, for several months, been held up as some sort of Covid miracle, people were going round openly asking whether they had reached herd immunity, or had some mysterous antibody protection, The test series with England was in front of nearly full stadia. Things were going great. Until, bang, they were not.
As cases exploded, quite suddenly, in India over three weeks in early April people came home. It's as simple as that.
It would have been a bit harsh on British Indians, visiting family in India, to leave them stranded there, having to use their health system, in those circumstances wouldn't it? I guess the issue is quarantining when they returned to the UK
My wife and I had a long chat this morning and we're both of the same mind, if the UK falls into permanent measures we're going to leave the country even if we have to sell the house we've just bought and leave people behind. The life that the government and scientists have planned for us isn't real life, it's a facsimile of it.
Which is why it won't happen. FOMO. Ultimately the country will turn on the TV and see how the rest of the world is living and want some of that.
No it won't. Well, not the part that matters. The average Tory voter is now aged about 97, is terrified of the virus and actively approves of making the young suffer whilst simultaneously taxing the shit out of them to pay for their benefits. They spend practically their entire lives at home anyway, so see no reason why everybody else shouldn't do that too, and aren't in the least bit interested in foreigners or their suspect practices.
So we rot. Forever.
If it helps you cope at all I disagree fundamentally. I have had many dark times during this and, seriously, have thought as you do. But this too will pass.
Will it?
I let myself, eventually, be convinced that the vaccines would get us out of this. It was obvious that Covid was never completely going away, but I honestly thought there would finally come a time - when nearly everyone had been jabbed, or caught the thing - when this would finally be over.
But it's never going to be over. Never. Because it has been made obvious to all of us that the scientists view the vaccines as fundamentally worthless. Coverage will never be sufficient to meet their demand, and even if every single individual in the population had had them they would still have the variants and the "but it's not 100% effective!" arguments to fall back on.
So, it's masks and varying levels of lockdown for eternity. We're never going to be rid of them.
It will pass.
Catch you later.
Actually, @Black_Rook , I apologise. @DougSeal is in the right, here. I allowed myself to get frustrated. You're obviously heavily stressed about all this and venting; I should not have reacted liked that. I'm sorry.
Amanda Sloat, US Special Assistant: "We certainly recognize that there are ongoing negotiations between the UK & EU... [& encourage them] to continue to work through implementation of the modalities of these in a way that promotes pol and economic stability and prosperity in NI.”
That’s quite some way from what was been said a few days ago, presumably sourced from EU sherpas, that Biden was furious and was going order an official rebuke to the U.K.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
That’s unfair
For a long time Black Rook has been full of sunny optimism (too much, perhaps)
I suspect he/she is a tad bipolar and is now on the downslope of a mood shift. Have a little sympathy. We are all stressed by this ever receding day of freedom. Black Rook also has a point, when members of official SAGE talk about ‘keeping masks and social distancing forever’ it is only right to be alarmed about the future. Some top scientists really do want perpetual controls on society
You're right. I did catch myself and apologise; I was out of order to snap at Black_Rook.
I am getting increasingly irate with DougSeal’s contention that it was just “U.K. citizens returning home”.
What the hell were they doing in India - aka PLAGUE CENTRAL - in the first place? Well, we know what; they were visiting relatives and getting a bit of sun. @Foxy called them “Gujarati snowbirds” or some such.
We watched it all happen in real time and many of us called it out at the time.
The reason they were in India was that, until quite late March, it was considered to have turned the Covid corner and was a safe place to go. It had apparently low Covid prevalence and lockdown restrictions were significantly fewer than the UK's. This was what the world's press was saying about India in February and March -
"Coronavirus: Is the epidemic finally coming to an end in India?"
"India suffers highest daily coronavirus infections in five months"
"India has been reporting a spike in cases - above the 60,000 mark - for three consecutive days, though Monday’s rise was still below September’s peak of more than 90,000 cases a day."
India had, for several months, been held up as some sort of Covid miracle, people were going round openly asking whether they had reached herd immunity, or had some mysterous antibody protection, The test series with England was in front of nearly full stadia. Things were going great. Until, bang, they were not.
As cases exploded, quite suddenly, in India over three weeks in early April people came home. It's as simple as that.
It would have been a bit harsh on British Indians, visiting family in India, to leave them stranded there, having to use their health system, in those circumstances wouldn't it? I guess the issue is quarantining when they returned to the UK
As Doug said, it was British Indians escaping the U.K. restrictions for looser rules in India - until the position reversed.
No-one is stopping arrivals, the change was from home quarantine (which probably wasn’t being well observed) to hotel quarantine.
Quite hard to overestimate how happy the sound at Edgbaston - even just on the radio - made me feel today. Thousands of refreshed Brummies singing lustily in the sunshine, as if Covid and lockdown were just a bad dream."
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
That’s unfair
For a long time Black Rook has been full of sunny optimism (too much, perhaps)
I suspect he/she is a tad bipolar and is now on the downslope of a mood shift. Have a little sympathy. We are all stressed by this ever receding day of freedom. Black Rook also has a point, when members of official SAGE talk about ‘keeping masks and social distancing forever’ it is only right to be alarmed about the future. Some top scientists really do want perpetual controls on society
You're right. I did catch myself and apologise; I was out of order to snap at Black_Rook.
Everyone is anxious. And bloody angry at the government for landing us in this
We must all be nice to each other, for a bit, if we can. Or we can try, anyway
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
I went to a busy cafe this morning with a mate, who had been out in a bar until 2am this morning on a date, and he was complaining about lockdown!
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
It's the first poll for ages which LEGA hasn't led. Their collapse in support from the mid-30s has been incredible. The Social Democrats have benefitted as have FdL (Brothers of Italy), the latest right-wing political incarnation which actually has roots back in the Italian Social Movement of the 1970s.
Signs the Saxony-Anhalt election effect is already fading for the CDU and solid numbers again for the FDP who looks set to make big gains in the Bundestag along with the Greens.
My list of current leaders I have a view on, from serious to lightweight;
1. Merkel 2. Biden 3. Morrison 4. Sturgeon 5. Macron 6. Putin 7. Drakeford 8. Trudeau 9. Von der Leyen 10. Ardern 11. Johnson
People (like the above) continue massively to underestimate Johnson; which probably plays to his advantage. He is a massive political heavyweight, and formidably talented with the relevant skills; and he is among the few who can do it in such a popular way. It seems to me that the range of his appeal exceeds even Blair.
Still true of course that when his wheels come off it will be spectacular, but what he is owed by the nation in leading the Brexit campaign, getting us out against all the weight of the establishment, and continuing the fight our corner over the impossibilist deal is quite a lot.
My wife and I had a long chat this morning and we're both of the same mind, if the UK falls into permanent measures we're going to leave the country even if we have to sell the house we've just bought and leave people behind. The life that the government and scientists have planned for us isn't real life, it's a facsimile of it.
Which is why it won't happen. FOMO. Ultimately the country will turn on the TV and see how the rest of the world is living and want some of that.
No it won't. Well, not the part that matters. The average Tory voter is now aged about 97, is terrified of the virus and actively approves of making the young suffer whilst simultaneously taxing the shit out of them to pay for their benefits. They spend practically their entire lives at home anyway, so see no reason why everybody else shouldn't do that too, and aren't in the least bit interested in foreigners or their suspect practices.
So we rot. Forever.
The WFH army are the ones who are happy about this.
I noticed that the current polling for Labour and the Conservatives was very similar to the state of play at the 2019 General Election. I had thought that Labour would lose the votes of young Corbynites to the Greens after Starmer sacked Jezza from the party, and it does seem that the Greens have seen an upturn in their polling as Labour have dropped. Looking at the last 10 polls and comparing them to the last 10 before the 2019 GE, you can see there has been a fair drop off in Labours predicted votes share amongst the youngest voters, so maybe that Lab>Greeen movement is really happening
The Con shares are remarkably static
Obviously Sir Keir is making up for those lost supporters to an extent, (by getting some Lib Dems onboard?), as his current polling is only just worse than Corbyn's pre GE
My wife and I had a long chat this morning and we're both of the same mind, if the UK falls into permanent measures we're going to leave the country even if we have to sell the house we've just bought and leave people behind. The life that the government and scientists have planned for us isn't real life, it's a facsimile of it.
Which is why it won't happen. FOMO. Ultimately the country will turn on the TV and see how the rest of the world is living and want some of that.
No it won't. Well, not the part that matters. The average Tory voter is now aged about 97, is terrified of the virus and actively approves of making the young suffer whilst simultaneously taxing the shit out of them to pay for their benefits. They spend practically their entire lives at home anyway, so see no reason why everybody else shouldn't do that too, and aren't in the least bit interested in foreigners or their suspect practices.
So we rot. Forever.
If it helps you cope at all I disagree fundamentally. I have had many dark times during this and, seriously, have thought as you do. But this too will pass.
Will it?
I let myself, eventually, be convinced that the vaccines would get us out of this. It was obvious that Covid was never completely going away, but I honestly thought there would finally come a time - when nearly everyone had been jabbed, or caught the thing - when this would finally be over.
But it's never going to be over. Never. Because it has been made obvious to all of us that the scientists view the vaccines as fundamentally worthless. Coverage will never be sufficient to meet their demand, and even if every single individual in the population had had them they would still have the variants and the "but it's not 100% effective!" arguments to fall back on.
So, it's masks and varying levels of lockdown for eternity. We're never going to be rid of them.
I agree. They think they are the masters now. It is so very, very, depressing. Particularly that our political class are so unable to comprehend this.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
Not that far fetched, but your conspiracy theories have no basis in reality. Our problem is about 80% virus and 20% government incompetence. We were just unlucky over the timing of vaccination vs India variant. The next bit of luck may be in our favour.
It’s hotting up. Johnson interview with Sky: Says UK will do “whatever it takes” to resolve NI issues & “won’t hesitate” to invoke Art 16 of protocol if EU continues apply it in this way. Some in EU don't understand UK is now a single country & need to “get that into their heads”
My list of current leaders I have a view on, from serious to lightweight;
1. Merkel 2. Biden 3. Morrison 4. Sturgeon 5. Macron 6. Putin 7. Drakeford 8. Trudeau 9. Von der Leyen 10. Ardern 11. Johnson
People (like the above) continue massively to underestimate Johnson; which probably plays to his advantage. He is a massive political heavyweight, and formidably talented with the relevant skills; and he is among the few who can do it in such a popular way. It seems to me that the range of his appeal exceeds even Blair.
Still true of course that when his wheels come off it will be spectacular, but what he is owed by the nation in leading the Brexit campaign, getting us out against all the weight of the establishment, and continuing the fight our corner over the impossibilist deal is quite a lot.
PM section on NI Protocol. I was surprised tbh, he was leaning into a fight, not away from one. Which odd given how careful EU leaders have been this summit.
One EU source. “I don’t understand, why do strong in the middle of an EU summit.
PM section on NI Protocol. I was surprised tbh, he was leaning into a fight, not away from one. Which odd given how careful EU leaders have been this summit.
One EU source. “I don’t understand, why do strong in the middle of an EU summit.
PM section on NI Protocol. I was surprised tbh, he was leaning into a fight, not away from one. Which odd given how careful EU leaders have been this summit.
One EU source. “I don’t understand, why do strong in the middle of an EU summit.
At one point, US President Joe Biden made a forceful call to other leaders about vocally calling out China’s anti-democratic practices, officials said, emphasizing the need to take action.
The official said Biden was joined by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron in pushing for tougher action on China. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and leaders from the European Union sought to emphasize areas of cooperation with China.
PM section on NI Protocol. I was surprised tbh, he was leaning into a fight, not away from one. Which odd given how careful EU leaders have been this summit.
One EU source. “I don’t understand, why do strong in the middle of an EU summit.
I am getting increasingly irate with DougSeal’s contention that it was just “U.K. citizens returning home”.
What the hell were they doing in India - aka PLAGUE CENTRAL - in the first place? Well, we know what; they were visiting relatives and getting a bit of sun. @Foxy called them “Gujarati snowbirds” or some such.
We watched it all happen in real time and many of us called it out at the time.
The reason they were in India was that, until quite late March, it was considered to have turned the Covid corner and was a safe place to go. It had apparently low Covid prevalence and lockdown restrictions were significantly fewer than the UK's. This was what the world's press was saying about India in February and March -
"Coronavirus: Is the epidemic finally coming to an end in India?"
"India suffers highest daily coronavirus infections in five months"
"India has been reporting a spike in cases - above the 60,000 mark - for three consecutive days, though Monday’s rise was still below September’s peak of more than 90,000 cases a day."
India had, for several months, been held up as some sort of Covid miracle, people were going round openly asking whether they had reached herd immunity, or had some mysterous antibody protection, The test series with England was in front of nearly full stadia. Things were going great. Until, bang, they were not.
As cases exploded, quite suddenly, in India over three weeks in early April people came home. It's as simple as that.
It would have been a bit harsh on British Indians, visiting family in India, to leave them stranded there, having to use their health system, in those circumstances wouldn't it? I guess the issue is quarantining when they returned to the UK
The government should have said back in March 2020 than anyone who leaves Britain does so at their own risk and is liable to being stranded without warning.
Instead it has preferred to put restrictions on the domestic economy and society to putting restrictions on international travel.
And one of those is funded by a suspected murderer of 8 African porters...
So flipping what? All the Telegraph has done is provide a handy list of the next statues to fall. How long does it take to edit a web page so the SlaveMaster Professor of Sums becomes the Professor of Sums?
The funding for their job is coming from funds setup by these people....so they are happy to take it to keep themselves employed, but also boycotting teaching those at another college, because it is funded by a similar problematic individual.
That's rank hypocrisy. They could always go and teach at New F##ksticks Metropolitan University of Wokery, but perhaps that doesn't pay as well, give them access to the same world class facilities (not insignificantly funded by these problematic individuals) or the status they desire.
It may be hypocrisy but in practical terms, the Telegraph has merely provided a new list of names to cancel.
Virtually all ancient colleges have funds ranging from superlatively massive to modest arising from hundreds of years of gift, endowment and investment. Until modern times society (and therefore its wealth) as a whole was organised along lines which embraced and included sexism, homophobia, religious compulsion, book burning, torture, slavery, no votes, no democracy, eye watering wealth disparity, starvation wages, capital punishment and land owning monopolised by a tiny group of oligarchs.
if you take all that into account,
Firstly, which statues would remain standing
and, much more compelling
How much of that inherited wealth is it right to use for the benefit, grants and stipends of well heeled, tenured, left wing, woke cancel culturing college fellows?
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
Not that far fetched, but your conspiracy theories have no basis in reality. Our problem is about 80% virus and 20% government incompetence. We were just unlucky over the timing of vaccination vs India variant. The next bit of luck may be in our favour.
My wife and I had a long chat this morning and we're both of the same mind, if the UK falls into permanent measures we're going to leave the country even if we have to sell the house we've just bought and leave people behind. The life that the government and scientists have planned for us isn't real life, it's a facsimile of it.
You are over reacting. This isn’t anything fundamental.
Politicians wanting to test as secure a wall they have built, before declaring victory.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
Not that far fetched, but your conspiracy theories have no basis in reality. Our problem is about 80% virus and 20% government incompetence. We were just unlucky over the timing of vaccination vs India variant. The next bit of luck may be in our favour.
Yeah, right, whatever.
So identify a senior government figure who is secretly or otherwise pro lockdown. They are pragmatic populists who you would expect to want to give people what people want, which is the end of lockdown.
I am getting increasingly irate with DougSeal’s contention that it was just “U.K. citizens returning home”.
What the hell were they doing in India - aka PLAGUE CENTRAL - in the first place? Well, we know what; they were visiting relatives and getting a bit of sun. @Foxy called them “Gujarati snowbirds” or some such.
We watched it all happen in real time and many of us called it out at the time.
The reason they were in India was that, until quite late March, it was considered to have turned the Covid corner and was a safe place to go. It had apparently low Covid prevalence and lockdown restrictions were significantly fewer than the UK's. This was what the world's press was saying about India in February and March -
"Coronavirus: Is the epidemic finally coming to an end in India?"
"India suffers highest daily coronavirus infections in five months"
"India has been reporting a spike in cases - above the 60,000 mark - for three consecutive days, though Monday’s rise was still below September’s peak of more than 90,000 cases a day."
India had, for several months, been held up as some sort of Covid miracle, people were going round openly asking whether they had reached herd immunity, or had some mysterous antibody protection, The test series with England was in front of nearly full stadia. Things were going great. Until, bang, they were not.
As cases exploded, quite suddenly, in India over three weeks in early April people came home. It's as simple as that.
It would have been a bit harsh on British Indians, visiting family in India, to leave them stranded there, having to use their health system, in those circumstances wouldn't it? I guess the issue is quarantining when they returned to the UK
The government should have said back in March 2020 than anyone who leaves Britain does so at their own risk and is liable to being stranded without warning.
Instead it has preferred to put restrictions on the domestic economy and society to putting restrictions on international travel.
Exactly
If and when I go to Georgia in July, I will do so in the knowledge that this is a significant risk. The globe is gripped by plague. Borders can shut, you can get sealed inside a foreign country, you can catch covid abroad, and maybe reliant on a crap health system. If that happens to me, that happens to me, it was my choice
Everyone jetting off to India knew this, as well. They took the risk, nonetheless. We should have closed the borders.
At one point, US President Joe Biden made a forceful call to other leaders about vocally calling out China’s anti-democratic practices, officials said, emphasizing the need to take action.
The official said Biden was joined by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron in pushing for tougher action on China. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and leaders from the European Union sought to emphasize areas of cooperation with China.
PM section on NI Protocol. I was surprised tbh, he was leaning into a fight, not away from one. Which odd given how careful EU leaders have been this summit.
One EU source. “I don’t understand, why do strong in the middle of an EU summit.
At one point, US President Joe Biden made a forceful call to other leaders about vocally calling out China’s anti-democratic practices, officials said, emphasizing the need to take action.
The official said Biden was joined by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron in pushing for tougher action on China. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and leaders from the European Union sought to emphasize areas of cooperation with China.
I am getting increasingly irate with DougSeal’s contention that it was just “U.K. citizens returning home”.
What the hell were they doing in India - aka PLAGUE CENTRAL - in the first place? Well, we know what; they were visiting relatives and getting a bit of sun. @Foxy called them “Gujarati snowbirds” or some such.
We watched it all happen in real time and many of us called it out at the time.
The reason they were in India was that, until quite late March, it was considered to have turned the Covid corner and was a safe place to go. It had apparently low Covid prevalence and lockdown restrictions were significantly fewer than the UK's. This was what the world's press was saying about India in February and March -
"Coronavirus: Is the epidemic finally coming to an end in India?"
"India suffers highest daily coronavirus infections in five months"
"India has been reporting a spike in cases - above the 60,000 mark - for three consecutive days, though Monday’s rise was still below September’s peak of more than 90,000 cases a day."
India had, for several months, been held up as some sort of Covid miracle, people were going round openly asking whether they had reached herd immunity, or had some mysterous antibody protection, The test series with England was in front of nearly full stadia. Things were going great. Until, bang, they were not.
As cases exploded, quite suddenly, in India over three weeks in early April people came home. It's as simple as that.
It would have been a bit harsh on British Indians, visiting family in India, to leave them stranded there, having to use their health system, in those circumstances wouldn't it? I guess the issue is quarantining when they returned to the UK
The government should have said back in March 2020 than anyone who leaves Britain does so at their own risk and is liable to being stranded without warning.
Instead it has preferred to put restrictions on the domestic economy and society to putting restrictions on international travel.
Yeah sounds sensible, but had there been footage of thousands of British Citizens suffering with Covid and relying on overwhelmed Indian health services, the outrage would have been through the roof.
Boris shouldn’t have said a specific date for reopening I guess, just said he’d review things every fortnight or so
My list of current leaders I have a view on, from serious to lightweight;
1. Merkel 2. Biden 3. Morrison 4. Sturgeon 5. Macron 6. Putin 7. Drakeford 8. Trudeau 9. Von der Leyen 10. Ardern 11. Johnson
People (like the above) continue massively to underestimate Johnson; which probably plays to his advantage. He is a massive political heavyweight, and formidably talented with the relevant skills; and he is among the few who can do it in such a popular way. It seems to me that the range of his appeal exceeds even Blair.
Still true of course that when his wheels come off it will be spectacular, but what he is owed by the nation in leading the Brexit campaign, getting us out against all the weight of the establishment, and continuing the fight our corner over the impossibilist deal is quite a lot.
You are either drunk or need locking up
Very likely, but back to the point, you sometimes give the impression of thinking that voters are on the whole fools. I don't. The evidence is that if there were an election tomorrow Boris would win by a margin. The voters have a long record of kicking out Tory governments without hesitation or compunction when they want to. There is no plan by voters as a whole to do so at the moment. One day there will be.
To achieve that in the teeth of the circumstances of the last 18 months, and with Labour led by a person eminently capable of being PM is remarkable.
PM section on NI Protocol. I was surprised tbh, he was leaning into a fight, not away from one. Which odd given how careful EU leaders have been this summit.
One EU source. “I don’t understand, why do strong in the middle of an EU summit.
EU summit? I know they are overrepresented, but it's not an EU summit.
I think it's time to make the G7 actually just 7 countries and disinvite the EU. They're represented by Germany, Italy and France anyway.
Allowing both the Council President and Commission President to get top billing because they can't decide which one is more important is a bit of an indulgence. It would have been like giving Gordon Brown the same status as Tony Blair at international summits during the TBGB years.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
Not that far fetched, but your conspiracy theories have no basis in reality. Our problem is about 80% virus and 20% government incompetence. We were just unlucky over the timing of vaccination vs India variant. The next bit of luck may be in our favour.
Better to be getting infected now then in during the winter.
Better to get the encouragement to vaccination which might have tailed off otherwise among the young.
Better to be getting infected with Indian variant rather than a potentially more dangerous variant later on.
Some countries are liable to roll the dice and get the triple 1 of winter infection with a more dangerous variant into a lower vaccinated population.
If you want to see a journalistic career collapse in real time, check out @amymaxmen on Twitter
She's the science "journalist" who writes about Covid in Nature and Scientific American and tries to squash the lab leak hypothesis. She has just self-destructed, spectacularly. I might post about it later
It came from the lab, they tried to cover it up, and now the cover-up is falling apart in comic style
Just to be clear, this means it's ok to do something that's totally wrong?
There is little point in getting into the morality of football crowds. The sexual content and innuendo of footballing song and chant passes almost unnoticed, but would cause raised eyebrows even perhaps in all the bars Gallowgate was in last night.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
Not that far fetched, but your conspiracy theories have no basis in reality. Our problem is about 80% virus and 20% government incompetence. We were just unlucky over the timing of vaccination vs India variant. The next bit of luck may be in our favour.
Yeah, right, whatever.
So identify a senior government figure who is secretly or otherwise pro lockdown. They are pragmatic populists who you would expect to want to give people what people want, which is the end of lockdown.
Black Rook is more worried about the mad scientists taking over, and she has good reason
'Susan Michie, Professor of Health Psychology at UCL and a leading member of SAGE, says that mask-wearing and social distancing will need to stay in place “forever”, not only for Covid but also “to reduce other [diseases]” in the future.'
PM section on NI Protocol. I was surprised tbh, he was leaning into a fight, not away from one. Which odd given how careful EU leaders have been this summit.
One EU source. “I don’t understand, why do strong in the middle of an EU summit.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
Not that far fetched, but your conspiracy theories have no basis in reality. Our problem is about 80% virus and 20% government incompetence. We were just unlucky over the timing of vaccination vs India variant. The next bit of luck may be in our favour.
Yeah, right, whatever.
So identify a senior government figure who is secretly or otherwise pro lockdown. They are pragmatic populists who you would expect to want to give people what people want, which is the end of lockdown.
*Some* people want the end of lockdown. There's a very large fraction of the population that's doubtless quite happy to continue with the restrictions - wealthy work from home types who don't want to have to start commuting again, terrified lockdown hermits, and especially vast swathes of elderly people, who are both afraid of the virus and for whom it makes very little difference to their largely housebound lifestyles - which will nod approvingly at each and every statement urging yet more patience, yet more caution, yet more waiting.
That is, maybe there simply is nothing more to the Government's double-digit opinion poll leads besides not being Labour? But you have to at least credit the possibility that a lot of people enjoy being bossed about, or seeing other people being bossed about, or both.
And if an unending cycle of lockdown, followed by lockdown lite, followed by more lockdown keeps on giving the Conservatives 10, 12, 15pt leads, then why would they stop?
As for having any luck in our favour, we are stuck with Johnson because the alternative was Corbyn. God alone knows what we did to deserve that - but that and what's followed doesn't exactly fill one with confidence that fortune is about to smile upon this island.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
Not that far fetched, but your conspiracy theories have no basis in reality. Our problem is about 80% virus and 20% government incompetence. We were just unlucky over the timing of vaccination vs India variant. The next bit of luck may be in our favour.
Yeah, right, whatever.
So identify a senior government figure who is secretly or otherwise pro lockdown. They are pragmatic populists who you would expect to want to give people what people want, which is the end of lockdown.
*Some* people want the end of lockdown. There's a very large fraction of the population that's doubtless quite happy to continue with the restrictions - wealthy work from home types who don't want to have to start commuting again, terrified lockdown hermits, and especially vast swathes of elderly people, who are both afraid of the virus and for whom it makes very little difference to their largely housebound lifestyles - which will nod approvingly at each and every statement urging yet more patience, yet more caution, yet more waiting.
That is, maybe there simply is nothing more to the Government's double-digit opinion poll leads besides not being Labour? But you have to at least credit the possibility that a lot of people enjoy being bossed about, or seeing other people being bossed about, or both.
And if an unending cycle of lockdown, followed by lockdown lite, followed by more lockdown keeps on giving the Conservatives 10, 12, 15pt leads, then why would they stop?
As for having any luck in our favour, we are stuck with Johnson because the alternative was Corbyn. God alone knows what we did to deserve that - but that and what's followed doesn't exactly fill one with confidence that fortune is about to smile upon this island.
I don't think theirs a causal relationship between lockdown and the Tory lead in the polls.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
Not that far fetched, but your conspiracy theories have no basis in reality. Our problem is about 80% virus and 20% government incompetence. We were just unlucky over the timing of vaccination vs India variant. The next bit of luck may be in our favour.
Yeah, right, whatever.
So identify a senior government figure who is secretly or otherwise pro lockdown. They are pragmatic populists who you would expect to want to give people what people want, which is the end of lockdown.
*Some* people want the end of lockdown. There's a very large fraction of the population that's doubtless quite happy to continue with the restrictions - wealthy work from home types who don't want to have to start commuting again, terrified lockdown hermits, and especially vast swathes of elderly people, who are both afraid of the virus and for whom it makes very little difference to their largely housebound lifestyles - which will nod approvingly at each and every statement urging yet more patience, yet more caution, yet more waiting.
That is, maybe there simply is nothing more to the Government's double-digit opinion poll leads besides not being Labour? But you have to at least credit the possibility that a lot of people enjoy being bossed about, or seeing other people being bossed about, or both.
And if an unending cycle of lockdown, followed by lockdown lite, followed by more lockdown keeps on giving the Conservatives 10, 12, 15pt leads, then why would they stop?
As for having any luck in our favour, we are stuck with Johnson because the alternative was Corbyn. God alone knows what we did to deserve that - but that and what's followed doesn't exactly fill one with confidence that fortune is about to smile upon this island.
BIB - Because lockdowns cost a lot of money, perpetual lockdowns will ultimately bankrupt countries.
PM section on NI Protocol. I was surprised tbh, he was leaning into a fight, not away from one. Which odd given how careful EU leaders have been this summit.
One EU source. “I don’t understand, why do strong in the middle of an EU summit.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
Not that far fetched, but your conspiracy theories have no basis in reality. Our problem is about 80% virus and 20% government incompetence. We were just unlucky over the timing of vaccination vs India variant. The next bit of luck may be in our favour.
Yeah, right, whatever.
So identify a senior government figure who is secretly or otherwise pro lockdown. They are pragmatic populists who you would expect to want to give people what people want, which is the end of lockdown.
*Some* people want the end of lockdown. There's a very large fraction of the population that's doubtless quite happy to continue with the restrictions - wealthy work from home types who don't want to have to start commuting again, terrified lockdown hermits, and especially vast swathes of elderly people, who are both afraid of the virus and for whom it makes very little difference to their largely housebound lifestyles - which will nod approvingly at each and every statement urging yet more patience, yet more caution, yet more waiting.
That is, maybe there simply is nothing more to the Government's double-digit opinion poll leads besides not being Labour? But you have to at least credit the possibility that a lot of people enjoy being bossed about, or seeing other people being bossed about, or both.
And if an unending cycle of lockdown, followed by lockdown lite, followed by more lockdown keeps on giving the Conservatives 10, 12, 15pt leads, then why would they stop?
As for having any luck in our favour, we are stuck with Johnson because the alternative was Corbyn. God alone knows what we did to deserve that - but that and what's followed doesn't exactly fill one with confidence that fortune is about to smile upon this island.
I don't think theirs a causal relationship between lockdown and the Tory lead in the polls.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
That’s unfair
For a long time Black Rook has been full of sunny optimism (too much, perhaps)
I suspect he/she is a tad bipolar and is now on the downslope of a mood shift. Have a little sympathy. We are all stressed by this ever receding day of freedom. Black Rook also has a point, when members of official SAGE talk about ‘keeping masks and social distancing forever’ it is only right to be alarmed about the future. Some top scientists really do want perpetual controls on society
You're right. I did catch myself and apologise; I was out of order to snap at Black_Rook.
Everyone is anxious. And bloody angry at the government for landing us in this
We must all be nice to each other, for a bit, if we can. Or we can try, anyway
Why be anxious? Just please yourself and fuck the government.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
Not that far fetched, but your conspiracy theories have no basis in reality. Our problem is about 80% virus and 20% government incompetence. We were just unlucky over the timing of vaccination vs India variant. The next bit of luck may be in our favour.
Yeah, right, whatever.
So identify a senior government figure who is secretly or otherwise pro lockdown. They are pragmatic populists who you would expect to want to give people what people want, which is the end of lockdown.
*Some* people want the end of lockdown. There's a very large fraction of the population that's doubtless quite happy to continue with the restrictions - wealthy work from home types who don't want to have to start commuting again, terrified lockdown hermits, and especially vast swathes of elderly people, who are both afraid of the virus and for whom it makes very little difference to their largely housebound lifestyles - which will nod approvingly at each and every statement urging yet more patience, yet more caution, yet more waiting.
That is, maybe there simply is nothing more to the Government's double-digit opinion poll leads besides not being Labour? But you have to at least credit the possibility that a lot of people enjoy being bossed about, or seeing other people being bossed about, or both.
And if an unending cycle of lockdown, followed by lockdown lite, followed by more lockdown keeps on giving the Conservatives 10, 12, 15pt leads, then why would they stop?
As for having any luck in our favour, we are stuck with Johnson because the alternative was Corbyn. God alone knows what we did to deserve that - but that and what's followed doesn't exactly fill one with confidence that fortune is about to smile upon this island.
I don't think theirs a causal relationship between lockdown and the Tory lead in the polls.
Black Rook is more worried about the mad scientists taking over, and she has good reason
'Susan Michie, Professor of Health Psychology at UCL and a leading member of SAGE, says that mask-wearing and social distancing will need to stay in place “forever”, not only for Covid but also “to reduce other [diseases]” in the future.'
And I do indeed. That's the ultimate aim of the Lockdown Taliban. And the arguments are already being prepared. The proximate excuse for eternal masking will be flu, but they've already identified a critical weakness in the immune systems of young kids, which are being screwed up by prolonged lockdown and hygiene fetishism. Behold:
However, virologists are concerned about RSV, a virus that can cause serious lung infections requiring hospital admission, and sometimes even death, in children under the age of one – and for which there are no approved vaccines.
“Flu worries me, but there is a vaccine – and so the most vulnerable will still have access to the vaccines,” said Dr Catherine Moore, consultant clinical scientist for Public Health Wales. She warned that RSV currently has no vaccine. “Whereas what Covid has done has caused a big issue in our adult ICUs, we may see conversely problems in our paediatric hospitalisations and intensive care,” she said.
Pre-Covid, most children encountered most seasonal viruses before they turned 18 months old. But the biggest influx in paediatric hospital wards each winter are babies under the age of one who have for the first time been infected with RSV – because their lungs are not well developed, their bodies struggle to fight off the infection, explained Moore.
Scientists are worried that if life begins to go back to pre-Covid normality, respiratory viruses that typically circulate every winter will return alongside the coronavirus.
Moore said she was particularly worried about the risk of RSV in young children. “We’ve got two cohorts now of children who’ve never met the virus, so they are susceptible, but there’s two years’ worth of them!”
Before the pandemic, data suggested more than 30,000 babies and children under five were admitted to hospital every year in the UK because of RSV. Assuming “normality” resumes later this year, “we are preparing for a significant impact in paediatrics”, said Moore.
And there you have it. Masks forever, or the NHS collapses under a mountain of dead infants. Checkmate.
He's lashing out. The interviewer called him out for being a liar, which he doesn't like, even though he is one. Probably OK although we can't be sure. The chaos that surrounds him is real enough even if he is false in other ways.
He's lashing out. The interviewer called him out for being a liar, which he doesn't like, even though he is one. Probably OK although we can't be sure. The chaos that surrounds him is real enough even if he is false in other ways.
Hmm have to wonder - is it supply that's hit our vax program or complacency ?
Both....there was a plan, they had to alter it slightly due to Pfizer for under 40s, but then not adjusted it with Indian variant, as still target for the original schedule.
Its why you need to keep having stretch targets. They weren't quick to order more Pfizer or Moderna and has stashed millions of AZN in a warehouse.
I said months ago the target should have been to get to a million a day.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
Untrue. I eventually allowed myself to be convinced that the vaccines were the way out of this. And it was going so well. And now this.
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
Not that far fetched, but your conspiracy theories have no basis in reality. Our problem is about 80% virus and 20% government incompetence. We were just unlucky over the timing of vaccination vs India variant. The next bit of luck may be in our favour.
Yeah, right, whatever.
So identify a senior government figure who is secretly or otherwise pro lockdown. They are pragmatic populists who you would expect to want to give people what people want, which is the end of lockdown.
*Some* people want the end of lockdown. There's a very large fraction of the population that's doubtless quite happy to continue with the restrictions - wealthy work from home types who don't want to have to start commuting again, terrified lockdown hermits, and especially vast swathes of elderly people, who are both afraid of the virus and for whom it makes very little difference to their largely housebound lifestyles - which will nod approvingly at each and every statement urging yet more patience, yet more caution, yet more waiting.
That is, maybe there simply is nothing more to the Government's double-digit opinion poll leads besides not being Labour? But you have to at least credit the possibility that a lot of people enjoy being bossed about, or seeing other people being bossed about, or both.
And if an unending cycle of lockdown, followed by lockdown lite, followed by more lockdown keeps on giving the Conservatives 10, 12, 15pt leads, then why would they stop?
As for having any luck in our favour, we are stuck with Johnson because the alternative was Corbyn. God alone knows what we did to deserve that - but that and what's followed doesn't exactly fill one with confidence that fortune is about to smile upon this island.
BIB - Because lockdowns cost a lot of money, perpetual lockdowns will ultimately bankrupt countries.
Japan has a debt to GDP ratio of over 250%. With full lockdown implemented on an intermittent basis, they could keep doing it in cycles for some years.
Christ alive.....surely gravity has to come into play at some point.
I would expect a clear shift from Tory to ReformUK if Freedom Day is postponed by Boris next week as is likely.
I doubt it would change the Labour or LD vote much but if the Reform candidate gets 5,000 votes or so in Thursday's Chesham and Amersham by election as a protest vote at the extended restrictions that could cut the Tory majority fall drastically and see the LDs get close even if the Tories scrape a hold
Black Rook is more worried about the mad scientists taking over, and she has good reason
'Susan Michie, Professor of Health Psychology at UCL and a leading member of SAGE, says that mask-wearing and social distancing will need to stay in place “forever”, not only for Covid but also “to reduce other [diseases]” in the future.'
And I do indeed. That's the ultimate aim of the Lockdown Taliban. And the arguments are already being prepared. The proximate excuse for eternal masking will be flu, but they've already identified a critical weakness in the immune systems of young kids, which are being screwed up by prolonged lockdown and hygiene fetishism. Behold:
However, virologists are concerned about RSV, a virus that can cause serious lung infections requiring hospital admission, and sometimes even death, in children under the age of one – and for which there are no approved vaccines.
“Flu worries me, but there is a vaccine – and so the most vulnerable will still have access to the vaccines,” said Dr Catherine Moore, consultant clinical scientist for Public Health Wales. She warned that RSV currently has no vaccine. “Whereas what Covid has done has caused a big issue in our adult ICUs, we may see conversely problems in our paediatric hospitalisations and intensive care,” she said.
Pre-Covid, most children encountered most seasonal viruses before they turned 18 months old. But the biggest influx in paediatric hospital wards each winter are babies under the age of one who have for the first time been infected with RSV – because their lungs are not well developed, their bodies struggle to fight off the infection, explained Moore.
Scientists are worried that if life begins to go back to pre-Covid normality, respiratory viruses that typically circulate every winter will return alongside the coronavirus.
Moore said she was particularly worried about the risk of RSV in young children. “We’ve got two cohorts now of children who’ve never met the virus, so they are susceptible, but there’s two years’ worth of them!”
Before the pandemic, data suggested more than 30,000 babies and children under five were admitted to hospital every year in the UK because of RSV. Assuming “normality” resumes later this year, “we are preparing for a significant impact in paediatrics”, said Moore.
And there you have it. Masks forever, or the NHS collapses under a mountain of dead infants. Checkmate.
Sorry, he!
And I agree. I am sure the idiot Boris "open the borders with India!" Johnson is keen to end lockdown. The worry is the grip the scientists now have on a fearful, rudderless government - which has just made a spectacular error on India, so will be even more scared of further mistakes.
For a while I dismissed these fears - of the boffins taking over - as a bit UFO-y. Now I take them seriously. SAGE should be disbanded - or shoved in a corner - ASAP
Angela Merkel, serious, numerate ,attention to detail, relatively truthful. However I think the signs are that she will be viewed as a strategic disaster making the wrong calls on the big issues. Energy supplies alone would be enough to trash her long-term reputation. Putin should be near the top of the serious league. It all may come unstuck but he has played a weak hand very well in terms of promoting the interests of a nationalist kleptocracy without moral restraints.
Christ alive.....surely gravity has to come into play at some point.
I would expect a clear shift from Tory to ReformUK if Freedom Day is postponed by Boris next week as is likely.
I doubt it would change the Labour or LD vote much but if the Reform candidate gets 5,000 votes or so in Thursday's Chesham and Amersham by election as a protest vote at the extended restrictions that could cut the Tory vote drastically and see the LDs get close even if the Tories scrape a hold
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
That’s unfair
For a long time Black Rook has been full of sunny optimism (too much, perhaps)
I suspect he/she is a tad bipolar and is now on the downslope of a mood shift. Have a little sympathy. We are all stressed by this ever receding day of freedom. Black Rook also has a point, when members of official SAGE talk about ‘keeping masks and social distancing forever’ it is only right to be alarmed about the future. Some top scientists really do want perpetual controls on society
You're right. I did catch myself and apologise; I was out of order to snap at Black_Rook.
Everyone is anxious. And bloody angry at the government for landing us in this
We must all be nice to each other, for a bit, if we can. Or we can try, anyway
Why be anxious? Just please yourself and fuck the government.
Ni dieu ni maître.
How can you do that DA? You have a property abroad don't you?
And now this. The dominant narrative will now be: "he screwed up, and we ended up with an extra four weeks of restrictions and a third wave. back in lockdown for eight months."
Fixed it for you.
I mean come on, we know it's coming. The catastrophist wing of the scientist lobby are going to completely take over now.
You've been trumpeting disaster since week bloody one. The vaccines won't work. We'll be locked down forever. We'll all get reinfected. There's no way out.
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
That’s unfair
For a long time Black Rook has been full of sunny optimism (too much, perhaps)
I suspect he/she is a tad bipolar and is now on the downslope of a mood shift. Have a little sympathy. We are all stressed by this ever receding day of freedom. Black Rook also has a point, when members of official SAGE talk about ‘keeping masks and social distancing forever’ it is only right to be alarmed about the future. Some top scientists really do want perpetual controls on society
You're right. I did catch myself and apologise; I was out of order to snap at Black_Rook.
Don't sweat on it, we all get cranky sometimes. Especially me.
If the Supreme Blunderer finally does let us out of jail in a few weeks' time then all will be well, but as @Leon points out the batshit crazy wing of the scientific establishment is on the march, so those of us who are dead nervous are not lacking in justification.
Comments
Nobody who believed that would have signed the NIP. Not if they were sane.
So we rot. Forever.
The main one I can see is that Johnson has minimal experience of running or shadowing a ministry- either of those would have exposed (and potentially trained) him in a way that Mayor of London didn't.
Ebony Rainford-Brent, who’s a commentator for Sky, has been awarded an MBE for her work as chair of a charity called Ace, working to get black kids interested in cricket. They’ve identified several boys and girls who they’ve sponsored to play, have a few who look like international prospects.
Well done to her - until today I’d just thought of her as a crap commentator, the token woman in the team. I still don’t like her too much as a commentator, but hats off to her for the charity work.
https://twitter.com/policyatkings/status/1403692741356396550?s=20
What we need reported though are the number of anti-vaxxers who have already died.
I'm going to take a break of a few weeks because I am not sure my Covid centric comments are helping. This exile will probably last all of 12 hours before I make my excuses and come back but I'm going to do my best!
All you ever bloody do is insist it's going to be an utter disaster, ignore every single step back or better off, and insist that everything will be horrible.
Of course we're not going to be sodding locked down for eight months. We're not locked down now. We've got restrictions, about equivalent to Tier One from last year, and the big discussion is whether they should be retained for four weeks.
We're not hurriedly closing the schools, closing all restaurants and pubs, banning travel outside the house.
I'm starting to think you actually get disappointed when disaster doesn't happen.
I let myself, eventually, be convinced that the vaccines would get us out of this. It was obvious that Covid was never completely going away, but I honestly thought there would finally come a time - when nearly everyone had been jabbed, or caught the thing - when this would finally be over.
But it's never going to be over. Never. Because it has been made obvious to all of us that the scientists view the vaccines as fundamentally worthless. Coverage will never be sufficient to meet their demand, and even if every single individual in the population had had them they would still have the variants and the "but it's not 100% effective!" arguments to fall back on.
So, it's masks and varying levels of lockdown for eternity. We're never going to be rid of them.
Catch you later.
Unmediated, Johnson is free to “sizzle” his way into power.
It’s a weird kind of sizzle of course, as he is vaguely coherent at the best of times. But there is no denying his Chaplinesque charisma.
For a long time Black Rook has been full of sunny optimism (too much, perhaps)
I suspect he/she is a tad bipolar and is now on the downslope of a mood shift. Have a little sympathy. We are all stressed by this ever receding day of freedom. Black Rook also has a point, when members of official SAGE talk about ‘keeping masks and social distancing forever’ it is only right to be alarmed about the future. Some top scientists really do want perpetual controls on society
Amanda Sloat, US Special Assistant: "We certainly recognize that there are ongoing negotiations between the UK & EU... [& encourage them] to continue to work through implementation of the modalities of these in a way that promotes pol and economic stability and prosperity in NI.”
https://twitter.com/TomMcTague/status/1403696607627993088?s=20
They believe that vaccines don't do anything until they're injected.
The problem is in the rise in cases and hospitalisations amongst the pre-vaccinated.
Seven-day hospitalisation totals amongst the under-55s for the 4 weeks up to the most recent date for which age data was published:
Seven-day case totals in England over four weeks, from one week prior:
The rise is coming from the unvaccinated. And, yes, from those too young to have been fully protected.
Every single day clicks down that by hundreds of thousands.
Macron: "Nothing is negotiable"
No-one is stopping arrivals, the change was from home quarantine (which probably wasn’t being well observed) to hotel quarantine.
@colinbrazierGBN
Quite hard to overestimate how happy the sound at Edgbaston - even just on the radio - made me feel today. Thousands of refreshed Brummies singing lustily in the sunshine, as if Covid and lockdown were just a bad dream."
https://twitter.com/colinbrazierGBN/status/1403050667028238337
We must all be nice to each other, for a bit, if we can. Or we can try, anyway
He'll stall for a month, whereupon, as others have pointed out, we'll be at the top of a bloody great wave of cases, so there'll be more panic, and more restrictions, and more excuses, and more catastrophism.
This isn't me willing this into existence. I'm absolutely desperate for this to be over. Desperate. I was falling to pieces in the Winter. It took me a long time to begin to feel assured that this wasn't going to carry on forever.
And now, when it's blindingly obvious from the numbers that the pandemic is all over bar the shouting, the lockdown obsessives in the Government and amongst its advisers have grabbed Delta with both hands, and our epically useless and stupid Prime Minister has caved right in.
So, what do you think is going to happen if he stalls now and there are 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 cases per day in a month's time? Do you seriously think that he or those around him are going to look at the hospital numbers, think "oh well, they're coping fine, we over-reacted" and finally let go of the security blanket? Of course they aren't. They'll wet themselves, aided helpfully by a conveniently timed doom forecast claiming that a million people will be dead by Christmas at the rate things are going, and they'll start collapsing back into another lockdown.
There will always be another excuse for keeping the restrictions, always another reason to be "cautious", always another hurdle to be vaulted on the impossible steeplechase back to a vanished normality that we shall never see again.
Or it really will all be over in a month.
So, which is it? Can you guarantee the latter? Can anyone? Obviously not.
But some things we do know. We are led by an idiot, quite possibly an idiot who is still traumatised by his near-death experience with the virus, who is completely out of his depth and who apparently acts on whatever made-up numbers the last prophet of doom fed him. So, is it really that far-fetched to believe that we may well be no better off this time next year?
PD-S&D: 21% (+2)
FdI-ECR: 21% (+2)
LEGA-ID: 20% (-2)
M5S-NI: 14% (-1)
FI-EPP: 9% (+1)
A-S&D: 3% (+1)
IV-RE: 2%
SI-LEFT: 2%
A1-S&D: 1% (-1)
+E-RE: 1% (-1)
EV-G/EFA: 1% (-1)
Changes from last poll 27 May-1 Jun
It's the first poll for ages which LEGA hasn't led. Their collapse in support from the mid-30s has been incredible. The Social Democrats have benefitted as have FdL (Brothers of Italy), the latest right-wing political incarnation which actually has roots back in the Italian Social Movement of the 1970s.
In Germany, meanwhile, the latest Kantar Poll:
CDU/CSU-EPP: 26% (+2)
GRÜNE-G/EFA: 21% (-1)
SPD-S&D: 16%
FDP-RE: 13%
AfD-ID: 11%
LINKE-LEFT: 7%
Changes from last poll 27 May-1 Jun
Signs the Saxony-Anhalt election effect is already fading for the CDU and solid numbers again for the FDP who looks set to make big gains in the Bundestag along with the Greens.
Still true of course that when his wheels come off it will be spectacular, but what he is owed by the nation in leading the Brexit campaign, getting us out against all the weight of the establishment, and continuing the fight our corner over the impossibilist deal is quite a lot.
@EuropeElects
UK (GB), Kantar poll:
CON-ECR: 45% (+4)
LAB-S&D: 32% (-1)
LDEM-RE: 8% (-2)
GREENS-G/EFA: 6% (-1)
SNP-G/EFA: 4% (-1)
REFORM~NI: 2% (-1)
PC-G/EFA: 1% (+1)
UKIP~ID: 1%
+/- vs. 22-26 April
Fieldwork: 3-7 June 2021
Sample size: 1,122"
https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1403700527951720454
One EU source. “I don’t understand, why do strong in the middle of an EU summit.
Transcript below if you want to read
https://twitter.com/BethRigby/status/1403699999674966022?s=20
The official said Biden was joined by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron in pushing for tougher action on China. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and leaders from the European Union sought to emphasize areas of cooperation with China.
https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/biden-g7-summit-updates-06-12-2021-intl/h_bc731d8d7fc5262d194a5aa2edabc278
Instead it has preferred to put restrictions on the domestic economy and society to putting restrictions on international travel.
if you take all that into account,
Firstly, which statues would remain standing
and, much more compelling
How much of that inherited wealth is it right to use for the benefit, grants and stipends of well heeled, tenured, left wing, woke cancel culturing college fellows?
Politicians wanting to test as secure a wall they have built, before declaring victory.
That is nothing fundamental.
If and when I go to Georgia in July, I will do so in the knowledge that this is a significant risk. The globe is gripped by plague. Borders can shut, you can get sealed inside a foreign country, you can catch covid abroad, and maybe reliant on a crap health system. If that happens to me, that happens to me, it was my choice
Everyone jetting off to India knew this, as well. They took the risk, nonetheless. We should have closed the borders.
A real imitator of Gerhard Schroeder.
Boris shouldn’t have said a specific date for reopening I guess, just said he’d review things every fortnight or so
To achieve that in the teeth of the circumstances of the last 18 months, and with Labour led by a person eminently capable of being PM is remarkable.
Better to get the encouragement to vaccination which might have tailed off otherwise among the young.
Better to be getting infected with Indian variant rather than a potentially more dangerous variant later on.
Some countries are liable to roll the dice and get the triple 1 of winter infection with a more dangerous variant into a lower vaccinated population.
She's the science "journalist" who writes about Covid in Nature and Scientific American and tries to squash the lab leak hypothesis. She has just self-destructed, spectacularly. I might post about it later
It came from the lab, they tried to cover it up, and now the cover-up is falling apart in comic style
It's a big plus if you ask me.
#ComeOnSwitzerland
'Susan Michie, Professor of Health Psychology at UCL and a leading member of SAGE, says that mask-wearing and social distancing will need to stay in place “forever”, not only for Covid but also “to reduce other [diseases]” in the future.'
https://twitter.com/davidwetton/status/1402972080166031370?s=20
Fuck them to Fuckistan, and fuck them to Fuckopolis, afterwards, FFS
That is, maybe there simply is nothing more to the Government's double-digit opinion poll leads besides not being Labour? But you have to at least credit the possibility that a lot of people enjoy being bossed about, or seeing other people being bossed about, or both.
And if an unending cycle of lockdown, followed by lockdown lite, followed by more lockdown keeps on giving the Conservatives 10, 12, 15pt leads, then why would they stop?
As for having any luck in our favour, we are stuck with Johnson because the alternative was Corbyn. God alone knows what we did to deserve that - but that and what's followed doesn't exactly fill one with confidence that fortune is about to smile upon this island.
THEIRS?
Off to Conhome for a month for you.
There was a time when posting something like that would have resulted in banishment to Conhome for a week...
Ni dieu ni maître.
I never lower them.
And I do indeed. That's the ultimate aim of the Lockdown Taliban. And the arguments are already being prepared. The proximate excuse for eternal masking will be flu, but they've already identified a critical weakness in the immune systems of young kids, which are being screwed up by prolonged lockdown and hygiene fetishism. Behold:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/09/covid-distancing-may-have-weakened-childrens-immune-system-experts-say
However, virologists are concerned about RSV, a virus that can cause serious lung infections requiring hospital admission, and sometimes even death, in children under the age of one – and for which there are no approved vaccines.
“Flu worries me, but there is a vaccine – and so the most vulnerable will still have access to the vaccines,” said Dr Catherine Moore, consultant clinical scientist for Public Health Wales. She warned that RSV currently has no vaccine. “Whereas what Covid has done has caused a big issue in our adult ICUs, we may see conversely problems in our paediatric hospitalisations and intensive care,” she said.
Pre-Covid, most children encountered most seasonal viruses before they turned 18 months old. But the biggest influx in paediatric hospital wards each winter are babies under the age of one who have for the first time been infected with RSV – because their lungs are not well developed, their bodies struggle to fight off the infection, explained Moore.
Scientists are worried that if life begins to go back to pre-Covid normality, respiratory viruses that typically circulate every winter will return alongside the coronavirus.
Moore said she was particularly worried about the risk of RSV in young children. “We’ve got two cohorts now of children who’ve never met the virus, so they are susceptible, but there’s two years’ worth of them!”
Before the pandemic, data suggested more than 30,000 babies and children under five were admitted to hospital every year in the UK because of RSV. Assuming “normality” resumes later this year, “we are preparing for a significant impact in paediatrics”, said Moore.
And there you have it. Masks forever, or the NHS collapses under a mountain of dead infants. Checkmate.
Its why you need to keep having stretch targets. They weren't quick to order more Pfizer or Moderna and has stashed millions of AZN in a warehouse.
I said months ago the target should have been to get to a million a day.
I doubt it would change the Labour or LD vote much but if the Reform candidate gets 5,000 votes or so in Thursday's Chesham and Amersham by election as a protest vote at the extended restrictions that could cut the Tory majority fall drastically and see the LDs get close even if the Tories scrape a hold
And I agree. I am sure the idiot Boris "open the borders with India!" Johnson is keen to end lockdown. The worry is the grip the scientists now have on a fearful, rudderless government - which has just made a spectacular error on India, so will be even more scared of further mistakes.
For a while I dismissed these fears - of the boffins taking over - as a bit UFO-y. Now I take them seriously. SAGE should be disbanded - or shoved in a corner - ASAP
If the Supreme Blunderer finally does let us out of jail in a few weeks' time then all will be well, but as @Leon points out the batshit crazy wing of the scientific establishment is on the march, so those of us who are dead nervous are not lacking in justification.