Recorded deaths in hospitals in England over the weekend with a positive Covid test within 28 days.
18/6/21 - 9 19/6/21 - 2 20/6/21 - 0
The increase in cases is not leading to an increase in deaths at all.
Nonsense. The weekly death rate is 80% higher than its minimum a month ago. Following fairly closely the 115% increase in the weekly positive test rate, over the month following its minimum a fortnight earlier.
Believe it or not, the laws of statistics still apply, regardless of wishful thinking.
Can anyone explain why Excess Deaths have been negative for the last 14 weeks?
OK, we know Covid deaths have been very, very low.
But I thought it was widely accepted that many people with other medical problems haven't been to see their GP or gone to hospital as much as usual over the last 15 months.
Surely the above should have led to lots of illness not being diagnosed and also known illnesses progressing more rapidly? Which should now be feeding through into Excess Deaths?
The obvious answer is that COVID deaths in 2020 for a large number of people were advanced by less than a year meaning the pool of people in death's waiting room is much smaller this year.
I'm not going to attempt to do the maths, but it would have to spread through much of the population to have got to those who were going to die anyway. There might be a bias in that it's gone through some care homes and hospitals, but I suspect the -47,000 non-COVID excess deaths is driven by some people being dead from COVID and also a reduction in other viruses spreading through the population.
Winter 2021-22 will be tough for the NHS, I think.
I can't help advocating one final heave this winter and into next spring to get us over the line - masks, rule of six, we all know the drill by now
You know it makes sense.
I went to St Kilda once, and had a fabulous time. It's all mightily impressive, a world class landscape, perhaps the most mind-boggling things are the sea stacks - Stac an Armin, Stac Lee - they rise like giant black molars straight from the waves, half a kilometre into the air. The ancient Kildans used to climb them barefoot and camp on the tops for weeks, harvesting the fulmars
They used the carcases of the birds as slippers, and the beaks as buttons
But my God the churning sea. I got a rare sunny day - heavenly - but when the time came for our departure the ocean was beginning to boil and I was very glad I decided not to camp (my original intention)
Everyone should see it, if they ever get the chance. Enjoy
My Scottish fishing family is very familiar with that area and indeed my wife's cousin's boat was named St Kilda
Can anyone explain why Excess Deaths have been negative for the last 14 weeks?
OK, we know Covid deaths have been very, very low.
But I thought it was widely accepted that many people with other medical problems haven't been to see their GP or gone to hospital as much as usual over the last 15 months.
Surely the above should have led to lots of illness not being diagnosed and also known illnesses progressing more rapidly? Which should now be feeding through into Excess Deaths?
The obvious answer is that COVID deaths in 2020 for a large number of people were advanced by less than a year meaning the pool of people in death's waiting room is much smaller this year.
I'm not going to attempt to do the maths, but it would have to spread through much of the population to have got to those who were going to die anyway. There might be a bias in that it's gone through some care homes and hospitals, but I suspect the -47,000 non-COVID excess deaths is driven by some people being dead from COVID and also a reduction in other viruses spreading through the population.
Winter 2021-22 will be tough for the NHS, I think.
I can't help advocating one final heave this winter and into next spring to get us over the line - masks, rule of six, we all know the drill by now
You know it makes sense.
Are you being serious? Next spring? Two years of this. Do you have any idea what effect the constant hum of restrictions might have on children? A six-yr old will have spent 25% of their lives under some kind of restrictions. Wow.
Wait till you hear what 6 year olds in 1945 had gone through.
You remind me of those Leavers saying well at least it wasn't as bad as the English Civil War/WWII/rationing to justify Brexit.
You remind me of all those righties who didn't give a fcuk about antisemitism for years until they realised it was a stick with which to beat lefties and ensure the hegemony of their crook led party.
Perversely, the C&A result may turn out to be a blessing for the CP if they heed the warning and quickly reverse the development relaxation plans they have been advocating.
Also, the lib dems 'throw the kitchen sink at the by-election' strategy is in some ways misleading, because it cannot be replicated at GE time.
This strikes me as the EU not really adhering to the policy of subsidiarity.
If the French want to make French language tunes mandatory on their radio stations, that's up to them - not my problem if the end up with Johnny Hallyday.*
But it strikes me as a bit heavy handed for the EU to be saying what tv can be shown in which country. This is not an organisation which is capable of leaving well alone.
*Poor old Johnny Hallyday. I don't know why he always gets trotted out as the example of terrible French pop music. I'm sure there are, under the radar, plenty of interesting French language artists.
Can anyone explain why Excess Deaths have been negative for the last 14 weeks?
OK, we know Covid deaths have been very, very low.
But I thought it was widely accepted that many people with other medical problems haven't been to see their GP or gone to hospital as much as usual over the last 15 months.
Surely the above should have led to lots of illness not being diagnosed and also known illnesses progressing more rapidly? Which should now be feeding through into Excess Deaths?
The obvious answer is that COVID deaths in 2020 for a large number of people were advanced by less than a year meaning the pool of people in death's waiting room is much smaller this year.
I'm not going to attempt to do the maths, but it would have to spread through much of the population to have got to those who were going to die anyway. There might be a bias in that it's gone through some care homes and hospitals, but I suspect the -47,000 non-COVID excess deaths is driven by some people being dead from COVID and also a reduction in other viruses spreading through the population.
Winter 2021-22 will be tough for the NHS, I think.
I can't help advocating one final heave this winter and into next spring to get us over the line - masks, rule of six, we all know the drill by now
You know it makes sense.
Are you being serious? Next spring? Two years of this. Do you have any idea what effect the constant hum of restrictions might have on children? A six-yr old will have spent 25% of their lives under some kind of restrictions. Wow.
Wait till you hear what 6 year olds in 1945 had gone through.
You remind me of those Leavers saying well at least it wasn't as bad as the English Civil War/WWII/rationing to justify Brexit.
You remind me of all those righties who didn't give a fcuk about antisemitism for years until they realised it was a stick with which to beat lefties and ensure the hegemony of their crook led party.
This might be true, except that it isn't, it is shite
There has been a steep rise in anti-Semitism in the last ten years, in the UK it has nearly all come from Muslims, and from their allies on the hard left, eg the Corbynite wing of Labour. Yes the right is now using it as a stick to thwack Labour, but that doesn't mean the phenomenon of left-wing Jew-hatred is contrived. It is not. It is real
1,008,472 appointments were booked in just two days, as the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme opened up to all adults — that's over 21,000 every hour, or six every second! 💉
Yeah but are the societial benefits worth it, copyright Kay Burley....
That's fantastic.
Half a million were done in the past 48 hours. It would be great if that pace could be kept up but I suspect we'll quickly slow down as those eager to be done first will be done and now there's nobody left to open it up to.
Still, we're already at 81.6% of adults vaccinated. Biden and many other leaders could only dream of achieving such figures.
WOW, compliance must lead to liberty then.....!!!
Oh wait. No it doesn't. We are still locked down. They are free.
More to come in the Autumn if you don't take your booster like a good boy!!!
We aren't "locked down". I'm popping out in a minute. Don't need to. Don't even want to. I'm doing it just cos I can. Exercising my right as a freeborn Englishman to leave the house and make my presence felt.
Absolutely. And yet if you were to invite me, @contrarian, @HYUFD, @Dura_Ace, @Leon, @Philip_Thompson and Scarlett Johansson round for a kitchen supper this weekend at yours you would be breaking the law.
Would make for one hell of a dinner party though. I certainly wouldn't mind sitting next to Black Widow.
Oi! I get to do the seating plan.
Er, it's at mine. What sort of bossyboots thinks they should be in charge of things when they're at somebody else's pad?
Can anyone explain why Excess Deaths have been negative for the last 14 weeks?
OK, we know Covid deaths have been very, very low.
But I thought it was widely accepted that many people with other medical problems haven't been to see their GP or gone to hospital as much as usual over the last 15 months.
Surely the above should have led to lots of illness not being diagnosed and also known illnesses progressing more rapidly? Which should now be feeding through into Excess Deaths?
The obvious answer is that COVID deaths in 2020 for a large number of people were advanced by less than a year meaning the pool of people in death's waiting room is much smaller this year.
I'm not going to attempt to do the maths, but it would have to spread through much of the population to have got to those who were going to die anyway. There might be a bias in that it's gone through some care homes and hospitals, but I suspect the -47,000 non-COVID excess deaths is driven by some people being dead from COVID and also a reduction in other viruses spreading through the population.
Winter 2021-22 will be tough for the NHS, I think.
I can't help advocating one final heave this winter and into next spring to get us over the line - masks, rule of six, we all know the drill by now
You know it makes sense.
Are you being serious? Next spring? Two years of this. Do you have any idea what effect the constant hum of restrictions might have on children? A six-yr old will have spent 25% of their lives under some kind of restrictions. Wow.
Wait till you hear what 6 year olds in 1945 had gone through.
You remind me of those Leavers saying well at least it wasn't as bad as the English Civil War/WWII/rationing to justify Brexit.
You remind me of all those righties who didn't give a fcuk about antisemitism for years until they realised it was a stick with which to beat lefties and ensure the hegemony of their crook led party.
Woo-whoo.
Touchy much? I think that goes down as having struck a nerve.
According the papers this morning, the government is fearful of an influenza epidemic this winter because people's immune systems have been shafted by living in sealed, sanitised conditions for so long. The answer is apparently to put us all back into sealed, sanitised conditions.
Flu.
When will this ever end?
The actual answer is, er... vaccination.
The local GP (the proactive one) is already talking about trying for the record in terms of flu jabs for this winter.
Vaccination was supposed to be the answer, but it now seems that every time one vaccination campaign ends we still aren't free because there has to be another. And another. And another. We're entitled to be concerned that there will always be one more excuse for carrying on with rules and bullying and nannying.
You are aware that in normal times, we vaccinate about a third of the population against the Flu?
Obviously. But we didn't have all the other punishments in place before. Is the need for flu vaccinations going to be used as an excuse either to prolong or reintroduce them? We just don't know.
Under the EU’s audiovisual media services directive, a majority of airtime must be given to such European content on terrestrial television and it must make up at least 30% of the number of titles on video on demand (VOD) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.
Countries such as France have gone further, setting a 60% quota for European works on VOD and demanding 15% of the turnover of the platforms is spent in production of European audiovisual and cinematographic works.
I had no idea that the EU and France dictated what their people can and can't watch!
I attended a stag do at the weekend and a friend who I haven't seen for a long time who is a builder told me about his gang of s/e workers who are loving the "double bubble" income they have been enjoying under Sunak's self-employed scheme. They have been working throughout and have also been claiming £2,500 per month from the taxman. They have been bragging about over £20k in free bunce so far.
Why would these people want financial assistance packages to end?
(The 5th s/e grant is at least a bit more sensible than those previous iterations - but only a bit. You have to declare that your s/e earning will be at least 30% down from normal due to the virus.)
Our son who is to be married in six weeks is not having a stag do as the chance of anyone there catching covid, no matter how small, is just not worth the risk to the wedding
I never had one. Didn't see the point then, still don't now. In fact, I'd even go so far as to start muttering about them being a symptom of toxic masculinity but I'd feel sorry for all the people that would have to clean the PB anti-wokists monitories after their heads explode.
I see the brave lads are back to one of their favourite thumb-on-the-scales exercises
Funny how they keep telling us we’re not allowed a referendum, while simultaneously micro-managing the details.
I wouldn't assume that Scots living in rUK are massively pro-Union anyway. I'm not, and my sense from talking to others is that for a lot of people the calculations changed after 2016. Speaking personally, I see mostly upside for me from Scottish independence. I get a Scottish/EU passport. I get to stick it to the Tories. And I'm not personally liable for the fiscal costs of an independent Scotland, so if it doesn't work out well I'm not on the hook. This all sounds pretty selfish and irresponsible, of course - which is why I wouldn't give the vote on this to Scots in rUK. But if they do give me the vote, I'd definitely use it! I wonder what the polling says on this, I don't remember seeing any.
Of course, if they gave the English a vote Scotland would be independent straight away.
So why are you so scared of a referendum then.
I don’t think people in England are scared, only the SNP and UK government.
Plus, Sturgeons too busy picking a fight with Manchester
We Tories won a majority in 2019 on a manifesto commitment of respecting the result of the once in a generation 2014 referendum.
As long as we Tories remain in power with a majority at Westminster we will continue to refuse indyref2 and there is nothing the SNP and Scottish Nationalists can do about it
Which traitors in the cabinet do you think are pushing for a referendum and extending the vote to England based Scots?
Some weak, wet blanket Ministers, however today's report has no evidence whatsoever the PM is considering allowing a vote and on that basis we should remain of the view he will stick to his position of refusing indyref2.
Refusing a legal indyref2 is the most important task of this government for the rest of its term in power
PB is gonna be a hoot the day de Pfeffel caves.
He won't, Boris does not want to go down in history as the 21st century Lord North who lost Scotland rather than the architect of Brexit he currently is.
Given Sturgeon has ruled out UDI, Boris can refuse indyref2 forever and Sturgeon will not do anything about it
It’s not Sturgeon that will be weighing on the mind of Unionist strategists. It is Scottish public opinion.
But you keep digging pal.
It isn't for Boris, he knows he won a majority of 80 in 2019 with just 6 Scottish Tory MPs, even if he had 0 MPs in Scotland he could stay UK PM so why would he care about Scottish public opinion? Better for Boris to ignore the SNP forever than go down as the 21st century Lord North who lost Scotland.
Plus only 37 per cent of Scots believe there should be a referendum before the end of 2023 anyway
Why should a UK PM care about Scottish public opinion?
The answer is obvious, but as I said, you keep digging pal.
No why should they if they have a UK majority without needing a majority of Scottish MPs as Boris does? He can and will ignore Scottish Nationalists forever while he has a Tory majority and remains PM.
Starmer might need to listen to Scottish Nationalists and allow an indyref2 if he becomes PM and needs their support (though he would also give devomax and an independence vote would be less likely under him), Boris can and will refuse a legal indyref2 forever while he is No 10
The betting market seems to agree with you. There's been quite a big movement over the last couple of months. 'No Ref before 2025' was about evens, now trading at 1.6.
I attended a stag do at the weekend and a friend who I haven't seen for a long time who is a builder told me about his gang of s/e workers who are loving the "double bubble" income they have been enjoying under Sunak's self-employed scheme. They have been working throughout and have also been claiming £2,500 per month from the taxman. They have been bragging about over £20k in free bunce so far.
Why would these people want financial assistance packages to end?
(The 5th s/e grant is at least a bit more sensible than those previous iterations - but only a bit. You have to declare that your s/e earning will be at least 30% down from normal due to the virus.)
Our son who is to be married in six weeks is not having a stag do as the chance of anyone there catching covid, no matter how small, is just not worth the risk to the wedding
I never had one. Didn't see the point then, still don't now. In fact, I'd even go so far as to start muttering about them being a symptom of toxic masculinity but I'd feel sorry for all the people that would have to clean the PB anti-wokists monitories after their heads explode.
Whereas drunken hen-parties are a powerful symbol of feminsism
Under the EU’s audiovisual media services directive, a majority of airtime must be given to such European content on terrestrial television and it must make up at least 30% of the number of titles on video on demand (VOD) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.
Countries such as France have gone further, setting a 60% quota for European works on VOD and demanding 15% of the turnover of the platforms is spent in production of European audiovisual and cinematographic works.
I had no idea that the EU and France dictated what their people can and can't watch!
Its such a twee idea in the modern globalized digital world. There are just so many ways around this.
Lol, another EU policy that's been in place literally for decades that suddenly becomes bad because the UK is now on the receiving end of it.
Looks more to me like they're trying to move the goalposts (as we're still defined as "European" by the Council of Europe's definition i.e not the EU) because they feel triggered by people speaking in English, not using Euros and driving on the left on screen.
I fear this sensible move will just mean an upswing of support for PP and Vox (especially in a wee corner of Epping).
No evidence he will allow the majority Catalan nationalist government a legal independence referendum though.
In any case I merely support the line both the main Spanish parties have taken in government of refusing the Nationalist government a legal independence referendum, at least for a generation since the 2014 Scottish referendum.
I have not yet gone as far as the PP government did when they arrested the Catalan nationalist leaders for sedition for holding an illegal independence referendum and declaring UDI and suggested Boris and the UK government should arrest Sturgeon and the SNP leadership
I attended a stag do at the weekend and a friend who I haven't seen for a long time who is a builder told me about his gang of s/e workers who are loving the "double bubble" income they have been enjoying under Sunak's self-employed scheme. They have been working throughout and have also been claiming £2,500 per month from the taxman. They have been bragging about over £20k in free bunce so far.
Why would these people want financial assistance packages to end?
(The 5th s/e grant is at least a bit more sensible than those previous iterations - but only a bit. You have to declare that your s/e earning will be at least 30% down from normal due to the virus.)
Our son who is to be married in six weeks is not having a stag do as the chance of anyone there catching covid, no matter how small, is just not worth the risk to the wedding
I never had one. Didn't see the point then, still don't now. In fact, I'd even go so far as to start muttering about them being a symptom of toxic masculinity but I'd feel sorry for all the people that would have to clean the PB anti-wokists monitories after their heads explode.
Your best man (if you had one) should be grateful. I had to arrange a mate's stag night once - a serious pain in the neck.
I attended a stag do at the weekend and a friend who I haven't seen for a long time who is a builder told me about his gang of s/e workers who are loving the "double bubble" income they have been enjoying under Sunak's self-employed scheme. They have been working throughout and have also been claiming £2,500 per month from the taxman. They have been bragging about over £20k in free bunce so far.
Why would these people want financial assistance packages to end?
(The 5th s/e grant is at least a bit more sensible than those previous iterations - but only a bit. You have to declare that your s/e earning will be at least 30% down from normal due to the virus.)
Our son who is to be married in six weeks is not having a stag do as the chance of anyone there catching covid, no matter how small, is just not worth the risk to the wedding
I never had one. Didn't see the point then, still don't now. In fact, I'd even go so far as to start muttering about them being a symptom of toxic masculinity but I'd feel sorry for all the people that would have to clean the PB anti-wokists monitories after their heads explode.
Whereas drunken hen-parties are a powerful symbol of feminsism
If I were a woman I'd not have had a hen party either.
Under the EU’s audiovisual media services directive, a majority of airtime must be given to such European content on terrestrial television and it must make up at least 30% of the number of titles on video on demand (VOD) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.
Countries such as France have gone further, setting a 60% quota for European works on VOD and demanding 15% of the turnover of the platforms is spent in production of European audiovisual and cinematographic works.
I had no idea that the EU and France dictated what their people can and can't watch!
It's a bonkers policy, because you can't make people watch the rubbish that is approved, people can watch the channel of their choosing, or more likely stream the shows they want. It just means that channels fill their schedule with box ticking pap, and buy a load of cheap rubbish shows and films to fill their servers, and in the end people will still watch what they want.
I fear this sensible move will just mean an upswing of support for PP and Vox (especially in a wee corner of Epping).
No evidence he will allow the majority Catalan nationalist government a legal independence referendum though.
In any case I merely support the line both the main Spanish parties have taken in government of refusing the Nationalist government a legal independence referendum, at least for a generation since the 2014 Scottish referendum.
I have not yet gone as far as the PP government did when they arrested the Catalan nationalist leaders for sedition for holding an illegal independence referendum and declaring UDI and suggested Boris and the UK government should arrest Sturgeon and the SNP leadership
It’s a different mix in the punch bowl in Spain, long before Franco they had castles of spies above Barcelona suppressing identity and cultural Freedom. The Scots meanwhile, we’re much more free, free to participate in and incriminate themselves in the horrors of the British Imperial past, around the globe and nearby in Ireland, and they freely did join in.
No get out of Imperialist past free card for the Scots.
I attended a stag do at the weekend and a friend who I haven't seen for a long time who is a builder told me about his gang of s/e workers who are loving the "double bubble" income they have been enjoying under Sunak's self-employed scheme. They have been working throughout and have also been claiming £2,500 per month from the taxman. They have been bragging about over £20k in free bunce so far.
Why would these people want financial assistance packages to end?
(The 5th s/e grant is at least a bit more sensible than those previous iterations - but only a bit. You have to declare that your s/e earning will be at least 30% down from normal due to the virus.)
Our son who is to be married in six weeks is not having a stag do as the chance of anyone there catching covid, no matter how small, is just not worth the risk to the wedding
I never had one. Didn't see the point then, still don't now. In fact, I'd even go so far as to start muttering about them being a symptom of toxic masculinity but I'd feel sorry for all the people that would have to clean the PB anti-wokists monitories after their heads explode.
I could be very unkind and just comment my son has a lot of friends
I attended a stag do at the weekend and a friend who I haven't seen for a long time who is a builder told me about his gang of s/e workers who are loving the "double bubble" income they have been enjoying under Sunak's self-employed scheme. They have been working throughout and have also been claiming £2,500 per month from the taxman. They have been bragging about over £20k in free bunce so far.
Why would these people want financial assistance packages to end?
(The 5th s/e grant is at least a bit more sensible than those previous iterations - but only a bit. You have to declare that your s/e earning will be at least 30% down from normal due to the virus.)
Our son who is to be married in six weeks is not having a stag do as the chance of anyone there catching covid, no matter how small, is just not worth the risk to the wedding
I never had one. Didn't see the point then, still don't now. In fact, I'd even go so far as to start muttering about them being a symptom of toxic masculinity but I'd feel sorry for all the people that would have to clean the PB anti-wokists monitories after their heads explode.
Whereas drunken hen-parties are a powerful symbol of feminsism
If I were a woman I'd not have had a hen party either.
I'm not much of a fan, but the ones I have been on have just been mates on holiday rather than any silly kind of pranks, rugger lads drinking their own piss or what have you. Doubt I will have one if I get married
Under the EU’s audiovisual media services directive, a majority of airtime must be given to such European content on terrestrial television and it must make up at least 30% of the number of titles on video on demand (VOD) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.
Countries such as France have gone further, setting a 60% quota for European works on VOD and demanding 15% of the turnover of the platforms is spent in production of European audiovisual and cinematographic works.
I had no idea that the EU and France dictated what their people can and can't watch!
It's a bonkers policy, because you can't make people watch the rubbish that is approved, people can watch the channel of their choosing, or more likely stream the shows they want. It just means that channels fill their schedule with box ticking pap, and buy a load of cheap rubbish shows and films to fill their servers, and in the end people will still watch what they want.
Its also trivial to watch the different catalogues of Netflix from around the world..
Lol, another EU policy that's been in place literally for decades that suddenly becomes bad because the UK is now on the receiving end of it.
Looks more to me like they're trying to move the goalposts (as we're still defined as "European" by the Council of Europe's definition i.e not the EU) because they feel triggered by people speaking in English, not using Euros and driving on the left on screen.
It's also rather strange. The UK is a fraction of the size of the EU. Why they feel at all threatened by something as innocuous as the output of the BBC surpasses all understanding.
I see the brave lads are back to one of their favourite thumb-on-the-scales exercises
Funny how they keep telling us we’re not allowed a referendum, while simultaneously micro-managing the details.
I wouldn't assume that Scots living in rUK are massively pro-Union anyway. I'm not, and my sense from talking to others is that for a lot of people the calculations changed after 2016. Speaking personally, I see mostly upside for me from Scottish independence. I get a Scottish/EU passport. I get to stick it to the Tories. And I'm not personally liable for the fiscal costs of an independent Scotland, so if it doesn't work out well I'm not on the hook. This all sounds pretty selfish and irresponsible, of course - which is why I wouldn't give the vote on this to Scots in rUK. But if they do give me the vote, I'd definitely use it! I wonder what the polling says on this, I don't remember seeing any.
Of course, if they gave the English a vote Scotland would be independent straight away.
So why are you so scared of a referendum then.
I don’t think people in England are scared, only the SNP and UK government.
Plus, Sturgeons too busy picking a fight with Manchester
We Tories won a majority in 2019 on a manifesto commitment of respecting the result of the once in a generation 2014 referendum.
As long as we Tories remain in power with a majority at Westminster we will continue to refuse indyref2 and there is nothing the SNP and Scottish Nationalists can do about it
Which traitors in the cabinet do you think are pushing for a referendum and extending the vote to England based Scots?
Some weak, wet blanket Ministers, however today's report has no evidence whatsoever the PM is considering allowing a vote and on that basis we should remain of the view he will stick to his position of refusing indyref2.
Refusing a legal indyref2 is the most important task of this government for the rest of its term in power
PB is gonna be a hoot the day de Pfeffel caves.
He won't, Boris does not want to go down in history as the 21st century Lord North who lost Scotland rather than the architect of Brexit he currently is.
Given Sturgeon has ruled out UDI, Boris can refuse indyref2 forever and Sturgeon will not do anything about it
It’s not Sturgeon that will be weighing on the mind of Unionist strategists. It is Scottish public opinion.
But you keep digging pal.
It isn't for Boris, he knows he won a majority of 80 in 2019 with just 6 Scottish Tory MPs, even if he had 0 MPs in Scotland he could stay UK PM so why would he care about Scottish public opinion? Better for Boris to ignore the SNP forever than go down as the 21st century Lord North who lost Scotland.
Plus only 37 per cent of Scots believe there should be a referendum before the end of 2023 anyway
Why should a UK PM care about Scottish public opinion?
The answer is obvious, but as I said, you keep digging pal.
No why should they if they have a UK majority without needing a majority of Scottish MPs as Boris does? He can and will ignore Scottish Nationalists forever while he has a Tory majority and remains PM.
Starmer might need to listen to Scottish Nationalists and allow an indyref2 if he becomes PM and needs their support (though he would also give devomax and an independence vote would be less likely under him), Boris can and will refuse a legal indyref2 forever while he is No 10
You just conflated ‘Scottish public opinion’ with ‘Scottish Nationalists’. Naughty boy! Please read your central office instructions a bit more carefully.
I fear this sensible move will just mean an upswing of support for PP and Vox (especially in a wee corner of Epping).
No evidence he will allow the majority Catalan nationalist government a legal independence referendum though.
In any case I merely support the line both the main Spanish parties have taken in government of refusing the Nationalist government a legal independence referendum, at least for a generation since the 2014 Scottish referendum.
I have not yet gone as far as the PP government did when they arrested the Catalan nationalist leaders for sedition for holding an illegal independence referendum and declaring UDI and suggested Boris and the UK government should arrest Sturgeon and the SNP leadership
It’s a different mix in the punch bowl in Spain, long before Franco they had castles of spies above Barcelona suppressing identity and cultural Freedom. The Scots meanwhile, we’re much more free, free to participate in and incriminate themselves in the horrors of the British Imperial past, around the globe and nearby in Ireland, and they freely did join in.
No get out of Imperialist past free card for the Scots.
Plenty of Catalans took part in the creation of the Spanish Empire.
I fear this sensible move will just mean an upswing of support for PP and Vox (especially in a wee corner of Epping).
No evidence he will allow the majority Catalan nationalist government a legal independence referendum though.
In any case I merely support the line both the main Spanish parties have taken in government of refusing the Nationalist government a legal independence referendum, at least for a generation since the 2014 Scottish referendum.
I have not yet gone as far as the PP government did when they arrested the Catalan nationalist leaders for sedition for holding an illegal independence referendum and declaring UDI and suggested Boris and the UK government should arrest Sturgeon and the SNP leadership
It’s a different mix in the punch bowl in Spain, long before Franco they had castles of spies above Barcelona suppressing identity and cultural Freedom. The Scots meanwhile, we’re much more free, free to participate in and incriminate themselves in the horrors of the British Imperial past, around the globe and nearby in Ireland, and they freely did join in.
No get out of Imperialist past free card for the Scots.
Nor should there be. Still a bit tricky when HMG has an agenda of finding the positives in slavery and the Empire being quite good actually.
Are they seriously proposing to legislate what TV channels can show or what people can watch? I don't see how else this can be achieved.
It can't, it just places extra cost on people like Netflix, to fill their catalogue with shit nobody will watch in order to tick a box, and who will just pass it onto the customer.
Also there are so many loopholes e.g. you just buy some really old crap show that has loads and loads of episodes e.g. twitch bought the rights to Bob Ross painting for peanuts. I don't know why they did, but they did, and obviously that is 100s of hours of a bloke just standing painting landscapes.
And weirdly for a couple of months it was big hit.
But the point is there will be crap like that which you can just pick up the rights to, stick it in the catalogue to meet the arbitrary target.
Are they seriously proposing to legislate what TV channels can show or what people can watch? I don't see how else this can be achieved.
They aren't concerned with what is viewed, which they can't control, they are concerned with the production of programmes in the EU. So as long as money is spent, and the shows are theoretically viewable, the fact that nobody is watching is irrelevant.
Under the EU’s audiovisual media services directive, a majority of airtime must be given to such European content on terrestrial television and it must make up at least 30% of the number of titles on video on demand (VOD) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.
Countries such as France have gone further, setting a 60% quota for European works on VOD and demanding 15% of the turnover of the platforms is spent in production of European audiovisual and cinematographic works.
I had no idea that the EU and France dictated what their people can and can't watch!
Westminster dictates what Scots can and can’t watch. But I don’t suppose that bothers you.
Lol, another EU policy that's been in place literally for decades that suddenly becomes bad because the UK is now on the receiving end of it.
Looks more to me like they're trying to move the goalposts (as we're still defined as "European" by the Council of Europe's definition i.e not the EU) because they feel triggered by people speaking in English, not using Euros and driving on the left on screen.
It's also rather strange. The UK is a fraction of the size of the EU. Why they feel at all threatened by something as innocuous as the output of the BBC surpasses all understanding.
It's not that there's a lack of good quality of non-British/English language European television and film either. There's plenty of shows available here in the UK that demonstrate this like The Bridge (DK/SE), Money Heist (ES), Gomorrah/Suburra (IT), Spiral (FR), Deutschland 83, 86, 89 (DE), The Pass (DE/AT) and that's all stuff I've watched in the last year or so. It's just insecurity on their side that English language media is still dominant because English is the lingua franca of Europe, like it or not.
I think there's a tendency for people to impute the reasons they like the most to the Con loss of C&A to the LDs.
For example, of the following:
1. A strengthening Remain identity. 2. People seeing through Johnson. 3. A growing awareness of government pandemic incompetence. 4. Southern resentment over the perceived focus on the North. 5. Nimby opposition to HS2. 6. Nimby dislike of building more houses.
I'd say it's definitely 1/2/3 - but I sense that's wishful thinking and in reality it's more 4/5/6. In which case what we have here is a great thing happening (Cons losing a safe seat) for all the wrong reasons.
But it's ok. You can't always get what you want, and in this case - come the GE if the swing is repeated across the blue wall - we'll be getting what we need.
I believe there is a feel, think, want thing going on here. The good citizens of C&A think 4/5/6 but they feel fed up with all the nonsense and want the government to do its job and leave them alone to live their lives as they did before.
It would impolite in the extreme to invite Scarlett Johansson to a dinner party without any female company. It would place her in a very awkward position when she arrives and discovers she is the only woman in attendance.
I'll come if Cyclefree is not free.
Aren't we supposed to be having this do at Chez Cyclefree Minor?
Lol, another EU policy that's been in place literally for decades that suddenly becomes bad because the UK is now on the receiving end of it.
Looks more to me like they're trying to move the goalposts (as we're still defined as "European" by the Council of Europe's definition i.e not the EU) because they feel triggered by people speaking in English, not using Euros and driving on the left on screen.
It's also rather strange. The UK is a fraction of the size of the EU. Why they feel at all threatened by something as innocuous as the output of the BBC surpasses all understanding.
It's not that there's a lack of good quality of non-British/English language European television and film either. There's plenty of shows available here in the UK that demonstrate this like The Bridge (DK/SE), Money Heist (ES), Gomorrah/Suburra (IT), Spiral (FR), Deutschland 83, 86, 89 (DE), The Pass (DE/AT) and that's all stuff I've watched in the last year or so. It's just insecurity on their side that English language media is still dominant because English is the lingua franca of Europe, like it or not.
Lupin, French Netflix, created by a Brit apparently.
I attended a stag do at the weekend and a friend who I haven't seen for a long time who is a builder told me about his gang of s/e workers who are loving the "double bubble" income they have been enjoying under Sunak's self-employed scheme. They have been working throughout and have also been claiming £2,500 per month from the taxman. They have been bragging about over £20k in free bunce so far.
Why would these people want financial assistance packages to end?
(The 5th s/e grant is at least a bit more sensible than those previous iterations - but only a bit. You have to declare that your s/e earning will be at least 30% down from normal due to the virus.)
Our son who is to be married in six weeks is not having a stag do as the chance of anyone there catching covid, no matter how small, is just not worth the risk to the wedding
I never had one. Didn't see the point then, still don't now. In fact, I'd even go so far as to start muttering about them being a symptom of toxic masculinity but I'd feel sorry for all the people that would have to clean the PB anti-wokists monitories after their heads explode.
Recorded deaths in hospitals in England over the weekend with a positive Covid test within 28 days.
18/6/21 - 9 19/6/21 - 2 20/6/21 - 0
The increase in cases is not leading to an increase in deaths at all.
Nonsense. The weekly death rate is 80% higher than its minimum a month ago. Following fairly closely the 115% increase in the weekly positive test rate, over the month following its minimum a fortnight earlier.
Believe it or not, the laws of statistics still apply, regardless of wishful thinking.
Anyway the difference between 80% and 115% is massive not “fairly close”. In an exponential growth environment.
It's also comparing today against last week, not today against December. In the first scenario we have got a very high number of fully vaccinated people. In December we didn't have that and ~10k cases the death rate had already hit 50 per day and it was rising fairly rapidly in line with a 1% CFR on cases recorded 14 days prior. At the moment the death rate isn't going anywhere and it's running at 20% of what it was at the same point in the last wave and we still don't know who it is that's dying, whether it is people who have rejected the vaccine or not. The government is steadfastly refusing to give that information away because once it becomes clear that the deaths are coming from people who have refused the vaccine any continuing measures become untenable.
Lol, another EU policy that's been in place literally for decades that suddenly becomes bad because the UK is now on the receiving end of it.
Looks more to me like they're trying to move the goalposts (as we're still defined as "European" by the Council of Europe's definition i.e not the EU) because they feel triggered by people speaking in English, not using Euros and driving on the left on screen.
It's also rather strange. The UK is a fraction of the size of the EU. Why they feel at all threatened by something as innocuous as the output of the BBC surpasses all understanding.
It's not that there's a lack of good quality of non-British/English language European television and film either. There's plenty of shows available here in the UK that demonstrate this like The Bridge (DK/SE), Money Heist (ES), Gomorrah/Suburra (IT), Spiral (FR), Deutschland 83, 86, 89 (DE), The Pass (DE/AT) and that's all stuff I've watched in the last year or so. It's just insecurity on their side that English language media is still dominant because English is the lingua franca of Europe, like it or not.
Lupin, French Netflix, created by a Brit apparently.
Yep that's on the list too for me! Currently watching Katla on Netflix (in Icelandic), but would also recommend Trapped from Iceland. Occupied (Norway) is also good for a laugh as a ridiculous geo-political crisis show (the EU in cahoots with the Russians to steal Norwegian oil and gas).
Under the EU’s audiovisual media services directive, a majority of airtime must be given to such European content on terrestrial television and it must make up at least 30% of the number of titles on video on demand (VOD) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.
Countries such as France have gone further, setting a 60% quota for European works on VOD and demanding 15% of the turnover of the platforms is spent in production of European audiovisual and cinematographic works.
I had no idea that the EU and France dictated what their people can and can't watch!
Westminster dictates what Scots can and can’t watch. But I don’t suppose that bothers you.
1,008,472 appointments were booked in just two days, as the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme opened up to all adults — that's over 21,000 every hour, or six every second! 💉
Yeah but are the societial benefits worth it, copyright Kay Burley....
That's fantastic.
Half a million were done in the past 48 hours. It would be great if that pace could be kept up but I suspect we'll quickly slow down as those eager to be done first will be done and now there's nobody left to open it up to.
Still, we're already at 81.6% of adults vaccinated. Biden and many other leaders could only dream of achieving such figures.
WOW, compliance must lead to liberty then.....!!!
Oh wait. No it doesn't. We are still locked down. They are free.
More to come in the Autumn if you don't take your booster like a good boy!!!
We aren't "locked down". I'm popping out in a minute. Don't need to. Don't even want to. I'm doing it just cos I can. Exercising my right as a freeborn Englishman to leave the house and make my presence felt.
1,008,472 appointments were booked in just two days, as the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme opened up to all adults — that's over 21,000 every hour, or six every second! 💉
Yeah but are the societial benefits worth it, copyright Kay Burley....
That's fantastic.
Half a million were done in the past 48 hours. It would be great if that pace could be kept up but I suspect we'll quickly slow down as those eager to be done first will be done and now there's nobody left to open it up to.
Still, we're already at 81.6% of adults vaccinated. Biden and many other leaders could only dream of achieving such figures.
WOW, compliance must lead to liberty then.....!!!
Oh wait. No it doesn't. We are still locked down. They are free.
More to come in the Autumn if you don't take your booster like a good boy!!!
We aren't "locked down". I'm popping out in a minute. Don't need to. Don't even want to. I'm doing it just cos I can. Exercising my right as a freeborn Englishman to leave the house and make my presence felt.
No, I'm not having that. Two of my daughters are currently at home off school - not because they have covid, but because a classmate has. They're now not supposed to leave the house except to get tested. The oldest is now going to miss her class's end-of-primary school residential. We are SO far from not locked down. We've *sigh* done what we're supposed to and taken them to be tested, but if either of them come back positive we'll then have to stay in for ten days. Even my double-jabbed wife. I supported vaccination, but not because it's jolly to get jabbed in the arm; I supported it because if we vaccinate the vulnerable we can get rid of all this shit. We've vaccinated the vulnerable. Why is this shit still here? And this shit also involves having to wearing mask in shops, invite more than one family to our house, leaving our details wherever we go, being hectored and patronised at my own expense - all seen by some as costless but actually imposing a very great cost indeed. The impositions we are under would have seemed absolutely unconscionable at any point before January 2020. Many of us think they still are.
I know there are restrictions still in place and they impact some people far more than me. It's a fair point. It's just that the phrase "we are locked down" rings false to me. For me being "locked down" equates to the Stay Home control order and most things shut. Like it once was. It's only a language thing but language is important. It's how all non physical battles are fought - with language.
But the only reason you can describe this as not locked down is that last March-June was worse. I don't think that's a good enough reason. With the exception of that period, this is the biggest restriction on our civil liberties ever. We are less free than we were during WW2. Richer, more comfortable, at less risk of bombs dropping on us and not having to send our youth of to war, granted - but that's all the more reason why are lack of freedom is absurd.
We're not free and we're not locked down. 'Hampered' is imo a good word for what we are. And I agree that we shouldn't be. There's some genuine rationale for the 4 week delay, plus I'm confident it won't slide again, hence I'm neither worried nor outraged by it, nevertheless I think June 21st should have gone ahead. So, yes, we're hampered. But if pushed to say which extreme we are closer to - to freedom or to being locked down - I'd say the only reasonable answer to this is freedom. We are more free right now than we are locked down.
Under the EU’s audiovisual media services directive, a majority of airtime must be given to such European content on terrestrial television and it must make up at least 30% of the number of titles on video on demand (VOD) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.
Countries such as France have gone further, setting a 60% quota for European works on VOD and demanding 15% of the turnover of the platforms is spent in production of European audiovisual and cinematographic works.
I had no idea that the EU and France dictated what their people can and can't watch!
It's a bonkers policy, because you can't make people watch the rubbish that is approved, people can watch the channel of their choosing, or more likely stream the shows they want. It just means that channels fill their schedule with box ticking pap, and buy a load of cheap rubbish shows and films to fill their servers, and in the end people will still watch what they want.
Are they seriously proposing to legislate what TV channels can show or what people can watch? I don't see how else this can be achieved.
I think the rules already exist on a national level (France) but there was an EU override which meant it can't be France only productions.
They can of course now insist on EU productions that exclude the UK NOW we aren't part of the EU and I suspect that's France's entire point
I mean sure but it strikes me as extremely insecure. All that happens is Netflix jack up local prices to pay for this stuff within the EU or they literally pay people peanuts to produce random shit that they know no one will watch.
1,008,472 appointments were booked in just two days, as the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme opened up to all adults — that's over 21,000 every hour, or six every second! 💉
Yeah but are the societial benefits worth it, copyright Kay Burley....
That's fantastic.
Half a million were done in the past 48 hours. It would be great if that pace could be kept up but I suspect we'll quickly slow down as those eager to be done first will be done and now there's nobody left to open it up to.
Still, we're already at 81.6% of adults vaccinated. Biden and many other leaders could only dream of achieving such figures.
WOW, compliance must lead to liberty then.....!!!
Oh wait. No it doesn't. We are still locked down. They are free.
More to come in the Autumn if you don't take your booster like a good boy!!!
We aren't "locked down". I'm popping out in a minute. Don't need to. Don't even want to. I'm doing it just cos I can. Exercising my right as a freeborn Englishman to leave the house and make my presence felt.
Absolutely. And yet if you were to invite me, @contrarian, @HYUFD, @Dura_Ace, @Leon, @Philip_Thompson and Scarlett Johansson round for a kitchen supper this weekend at yours you would be breaking the law.
True, although if you drove on the m1 at 80 mph to get there you would also be breaking the law. We’re not in lockdown, but some restrictions remain. Life for many is broadly unaffected. We’re nearly there...
Yes, but it's really important that none of the Covid restrictions are allowed to become permanent, or imposed every winter or something like that. Currently there are a lot of restrictions, all of which are totally unacceptable in the medium/long term.
The problem is that some of the public health nanny's want this to be a permanent state of affairs - ideally without any sort of public vote on it.
The only way that's realistically going to be avoided is naming a date where all measures really do actually end completely (including stuff like test and trace / mandatory isolation - we don't make it illegal to go out if you have the flu, or measles).
That date should be soon - probably July 19th.
If people want these sort of restrictions in the future they should be elected on a platform of imposing restrictions - good luck with that.
Actually I think this might be a rare moment of genius on the part of Labour. An outfit that puts out an advertisement like that is hardly going to be a Marxist threat.
Every over 50 who wants it has been double dosed !
What's the argument to keep internal restrictions going such as nightclubs closed after July 19th ?
Younger people who've not been yet Children Refusers Need to keep suppressing Covid because NHS backlog, knackered staff, flu season, whatever New variants
There are always excuses for those who want there to be more excuses. So, we shall see which, if any, sway the Government next.
"I’ve updated the model with all the latest data, and it’s mostly good news – at least for what happens over the next few months. There might be a bit of a ‘sting in the tail’ in the winter, but I think there are ways of dealing with that. Summary conclusions as follows: 1/"
Claims to be optimistic, and I suppose it is, but it is also rather desolating to think we will still be dealing with this virus (and trying to dodge new lockdowns) in the spring of 2022
Are they seriously proposing to legislate what TV channels can show or what people can watch? I don't see how else this can be achieved.
I think the rules already exist on a national level (France) but there was an EU override which meant it can't be France only productions.
They can of course now insist on EU productions that exclude the UK NOW we aren't part of the EU and I suspect that's France's entire point
I mean sure but it strikes me as extremely insecure. All that happens is Netflix jack up local prices to pay for this stuff within the EU or they literally pay people peanuts to produce random shit that they know no one will watch.
Yes as usual the Guardian thinks that Netflix and Amazon will just cut big production TV shows in the UK to pander to the EU but what you say is definitely what will happen. Diluting the quality of EU produced TV with ten a penny formats so that they can still put on the big shows *whispers* which also do well elsewhere in the Anglosphere e.g the US.
I think there is a real chance that we fall into a scenario where the UK really does become the NHS with a country attached. We've joked about it before but it's quite a depressing thought that this becomes a reality, the NHS is there to serve the people, the people don't exist to protect the NHS and if it needs more resources to cope with a higher baseline of service then that's the choice, not forever lockdown.
Are they seriously proposing to legislate what TV channels can show or what people can watch? I don't see how else this can be achieved.
I think the rules already exist on a national level (France) but there was an EU override which meant it can't be France only productions.
They can of course now insist on EU productions that exclude the UK NOW we aren't part of the EU and I suspect that's France's entire point
I mean sure but it strikes me as extremely insecure. All that happens is Netflix jack up local prices to pay for this stuff within the EU or they literally pay people peanuts to produce random shit that they know no one will watch.
Yes as usual the Guardian thinks that Netflix and Amazon will just cut big production TV shows in the UK to pander to the EU but what you say is definitely what will happen. Diluting the quality of EU produced TV with ten a penny formats so that they can still put on the big shows *whispers* which also do well elsewhere in the Anglosphere e.g the US.
You are giving the Guardian credit for understanding business.....
Yes as usual the Guardian thinks that Netflix and Amazon will just cut big production TV shows in the UK to pander to the EU but what you say is definitely what will happen. Diluting the quality of EU produced TV with ten a penny formats so that they can still put on the big shows (which also *whispers* do well elsewhere in the Anglosphere e.g the US).
Yes back on planet Earth the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and Sky/Comcast are expanding UK television and film production. If they have a quoto to fill it will likely be done with buying back catalogues or commissioning some cheap BBC Three level rubbish.
I attended a stag do at the weekend and a friend who I haven't seen for a long time who is a builder told me about his gang of s/e workers who are loving the "double bubble" income they have been enjoying under Sunak's self-employed scheme. They have been working throughout and have also been claiming £2,500 per month from the taxman. They have been bragging about over £20k in free bunce so far.
Why would these people want financial assistance packages to end?
(The 5th s/e grant is at least a bit more sensible than those previous iterations - but only a bit. You have to declare that your s/e earning will be at least 30% down from normal due to the virus.)
Our son who is to be married in six weeks is not having a stag do as the chance of anyone there catching covid, no matter how small, is just not worth the risk to the wedding
I never had one. Didn't see the point then, still don't now. In fact, I'd even go so far as to start muttering about them being a symptom of toxic masculinity but I'd feel sorry for all the people that would have to clean the PB anti-wokists monitories after their heads explode.
Snap.
The point is that it's fun. You don't have to go down the whole strippers/fight/kebab route. Only a minority of stag nights I've been on have done that. Though you can, if that's your idea of fun. My idea of fun for my stag night was drinking with friends, then (the next day) clay pigeon shooting, then a country pub, then a quiz (not my choice - deliciously organised by my friends who know I love quizzes and fantastically overcomplex), then more drinking, then an indie club, then a pub lunch on Sunday morning. There's no 'point' as such. Except it's fun to have all your friends from different parts of life there with you and its fun to do fun things, and it also gives them an 'in' when they meet each other at the wedding.
You can go down the 'make the groom do silly things' route if you want. I know people who love that sort of thing. Not my cup of tea, and in my cohort we were very reluctant to set any sort of precedent at a higher bar than present the groom with a woolly red wig to wear, if he wants to.
Yes as usual the Guardian thinks that Netflix and Amazon will just cut big production TV shows in the UK to pander to the EU but what you say is definitely what will happen. Diluting the quality of EU produced TV with ten a penny formats so that they can still put on the big shows (which also *whispers* do well elsewhere in the Anglosphere e.g the US).
Yes back on planet Earth the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and Sky/Comcast are expanding UK television and film production. If they have a quoto to fill it will likely be done with buying back catalogues or commissioning some cheap BBC Three level rubbish.
The reality is people are eating through content at any incredible rate. It is why the BBC approach of making one season of a popular show every other year and just 6 episodes per season is fundamentally flawed.
The simple, cynical explanation is the correct one. They’ve seen the way the wind is blowing and they’re positioning themselves to try and take the credit for the tories watering down planning reforms.
Actually I think this might be a rare moment of genius on the part of Labour. An outfit that puts out an advertisement like that is hardly going to be a Marxist threat.
But they are parking their tanks on the LibDem's perfectly manicured NIMBY lawns....
Actually I think this might be a rare moment of genius on the part of Labour. An outfit that puts out an advertisement like that is hardly going to be a Marxist threat.
Yes clever. It's portraying Boris as a particular type of metropolitan elite who doesn't give a stuff about rural England and its ancient lores. Even if Labour doesn't benefit directly, it might still persuade some Shire Tories to vote Lib Dem.
Under the EU’s audiovisual media services directive, a majority of airtime must be given to such European content on terrestrial television and it must make up at least 30% of the number of titles on video on demand (VOD) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.
Countries such as France have gone further, setting a 60% quota for European works on VOD and demanding 15% of the turnover of the platforms is spent in production of European audiovisual and cinematographic works.
I had no idea that the EU and France dictated what their people can and can't watch!
It's a bonkers policy, because you can't make people watch the rubbish that is approved, people can watch the channel of their choosing, or more likely stream the shows they want. It just means that channels fill their schedule with box ticking pap, and buy a load of cheap rubbish shows and films to fill their servers, and in the end people will still watch what they want.
BBC Scotchland = bonkers policy
I don't think there is a quota saying a certain fraction of television broadcast there has to be from south of the border.
To be fair Labour SFAICS holds not a single rural seat. They have to start somewhere. Maybe they think that the strap line 'Make your posh Dorset village as vibrant as Bootle, Vote Labour, in Bootle they think it makes sense' doesn't make the grade.
I think there is a real chance that we fall into a scenario where the UK really does become the NHS with a country attached. We've joked about it before but it's quite a depressing thought that this becomes a reality, the NHS is there to serve the people, the people don't exist to protect the NHS and if it needs more resources to cope with a higher baseline of service then that's the choice, not forever lockdown.
Steve Baker last week: "The country is not here to serve the NHS."
Lol, another EU policy that's been in place literally for decades that suddenly becomes bad because the UK is now on the receiving end of it.
Looks more to me like they're trying to move the goalposts (as we're still defined as "European" by the Council of Europe's definition i.e not the EU) because they feel triggered by people speaking in English, not using Euros and driving on the left on screen.
It's also rather strange. The UK is a fraction of the size of the EU. Why they feel at all threatened by something as innocuous as the output of the BBC surpasses all understanding.
It's not that there's a lack of good quality of non-British/English language European television and film either. There's plenty of shows available here in the UK that demonstrate this like The Bridge (DK/SE), Money Heist (ES), Gomorrah/Suburra (IT), Spiral (FR), Deutschland 83, 86, 89 (DE), The Pass (DE/AT) and that's all stuff I've watched in the last year or so. It's just insecurity on their side that English language media is still dominant because English is the lingua franca of Europe, like it or not.
Lupin, French Netflix, created by a Brit apparently.
Lol, another EU policy that's been in place literally for decades that suddenly becomes bad because the UK is now on the receiving end of it.
Looks more to me like they're trying to move the goalposts (as we're still defined as "European" by the Council of Europe's definition i.e not the EU) because they feel triggered by people speaking in English, not using Euros and driving on the left on screen.
It's also rather strange. The UK is a fraction of the size of the EU. Why they feel at all threatened by something as innocuous as the output of the BBC surpasses all understanding.
We are alleged to have something like half the EU market on VOD.
"According to the leaked EU paper, entitled “The disproportionate presence of UK content in the European VOD quota and the effects on the circulation and promotion of diverse European works”, it is thought necessary for the bloc to reassess the “presence of UK content in the aftermath of Brexit”.
“The concerns relate to how Brexit will impact the audiovisual production sector in the European Union as, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory, the UK provides half of the European TV content presence of VOD in Europe and the UK works are the most actively promoted on VOD, while the lowest EU27 share of promotion spots is also found in the UK,” the paper says.
It adds: “Although the UK is now a third country for the European Union, its audiovisual content still qualifies as ‘European works’ according to the definition provided by the AVMS directive, as the definition continues to refer to the European convention on Transfrontier Television of the Council of Europe, to which the UK remains a party.”
Agree that it is pathetic. EuCo attempting to circle the wagons around the bed they are hiding under.
Actually I think this might be a rare moment of genius on the part of Labour. An outfit that puts out an advertisement like that is hardly going to be a Marxist threat.
Yes clever. It's portraying Boris as a particular type of metropolitan elite who doesn't give a stuff about rural England and its ancient lores. Even if Labour doesn't benefit directly, it might still persuade some Shire Tories to vote Lib Dem.
The Tories need enough voters for LD to split the centre left vote.
To be fair Labour SFAICS holds not a single rural seat. They have to start somewhere. Maybe they think that the strap line 'Make your posh Dorset village as vibrant as Bootle, Vote Labour, in Bootle they think it makes sense' doesn't make the grade.
But surely this is a spoof?
I think the "without your say" is nonsense - aiui Local Plans etc will be consulted on under the changed system (if that happens).
If someone is familiar with exactly what consultation will be lost, I would be interested to hear.
Yes as usual the Guardian thinks that Netflix and Amazon will just cut big production TV shows in the UK to pander to the EU but what you say is definitely what will happen. Diluting the quality of EU produced TV with ten a penny formats so that they can still put on the big shows (which also *whispers* do well elsewhere in the Anglosphere e.g the US).
Yes back on planet Earth the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and Sky/Comcast are expanding UK television and film production. If they have a quoto to fill it will likely be done with buying back catalogues or commissioning some cheap BBC Three level rubbish.
Yeah from someone I know in the industry the amount of investment in studio capacity here is just out of this world. Small UK based production houses are going to be a seriously hot commodity over the next decade. They're already trading at a huge premium.
This strikes me as the EU not really adhering to the policy of subsidiarity.
If the French want to make French language tunes mandatory on their radio stations, that's up to them - not my problem if the end up with Johnny Hallyday.*
But it strikes me as a bit heavy handed for the EU to be saying what tv can be shown in which country. This is not an organisation which is capable of leaving well alone.
*Poor old Johnny Hallyday. I don't know why he always gets trotted out as the example of terrible French pop music. I'm sure there are, under the radar, plenty of interesting French language artists.
IIRC a few years back the French government tried demanding that x% of music played on the radio had to be French. IIRC, again, at least one French station retaliated by playing one French song repeatedly, to make the quota....
I think there is a real chance that we fall into a scenario where the UK really does become the NHS with a country attached. We've joked about it before but it's quite a depressing thought that this becomes a reality, the NHS is there to serve the people, the people don't exist to protect the NHS and if it needs more resources to cope with a higher baseline of service then that's the choice, not forever lockdown.
Steve Baker last week: "The country is not here to serve the NHS."
Steve fucking Baker.
When all that clapping and cult of personality around the NHS started this became the endgame for the public health people. It's always been about permanent restrictions on normal life for them and now they're able to sell them as necessary to protect the NHS which will always poll well for a certain section of society now greatly enlarged by the clapping and daily fear spreading by wanker scientists.
Are they seriously proposing to legislate what TV channels can show or what people can watch? I don't see how else this can be achieved.
I think the rules already exist on a national level (France) but there was an EU override which meant it can't be France only productions.
They can of course now insist on EU productions that exclude the UK NOW we aren't part of the EU and I suspect that's France's entire point
I mean sure but it strikes me as extremely insecure. All that happens is Netflix jack up local prices to pay for this stuff within the EU or they literally pay people peanuts to produce random shit that they know no one will watch.
Yes as usual the Guardian thinks that Netflix and Amazon will just cut big production TV shows in the UK to pander to the EU but what you say is definitely what will happen. Diluting the quality of EU produced TV with ten a penny formats so that they can still put on the big shows *whispers* which also do well elsewhere in the Anglosphere e.g the US.
Whatever the merits of the policy from an EU perspective (doubtful I suspect), UK production will move from being in quota - maybe relatively watchable compared with other EU in quota production - to competing for limited slots with other out of quota production from America etc that may be more marketable
484 new cases in Wales. Our Medical centre has sent an email out with a reminder of symptoms to look for as they have had a lot of cases over the weekend. 2 weeks after school hols in Tenby/Saundersfoot seaside areas so this figures.
Back above 10k cases... and a worrying 10% daily jump in number of patients in hospital in England... big number of new cases reported in Wales -> largest since Feb...
This also doesn't include companies which are functionally based in the UK but have the HQ in Silicon Valley for investor purposes, the number will be significantly larger when including these companies.
This strikes me as the EU not really adhering to the policy of subsidiarity.
If the French want to make French language tunes mandatory on their radio stations, that's up to them - not my problem if the end up with Johnny Hallyday.*
But it strikes me as a bit heavy handed for the EU to be saying what tv can be shown in which country. This is not an organisation which is capable of leaving well alone.
*Poor old Johnny Hallyday. I don't know why he always gets trotted out as the example of terrible French pop music. I'm sure there are, under the radar, plenty of interesting French language artists.
Loads. Born To Be Alive by Patrick Hernandez and Ca Plane Pour Moi by Plastic Bertrand both made an impact on me. And then going more high brow there's all the torch and ballad stuff, the Brels, the Gainsbourgs, the monumental Femme Avec Toi by Nicole Croisille. This latter a trans anthem btw.
To be fair Labour SFAICS holds not a single rural seat. They have to start somewhere. Maybe they think that the strap line 'Make your posh Dorset village as vibrant as Bootle, Vote Labour, in Bootle they think it makes sense' doesn't make the grade.
Will we ever build enough homes so that our young people can grow up and have, like, families?
The country is committing a slow suicide.
F£&k the nimbys.
It's all part of the grand levelling up plans.
The only place the young will be able to afford to live is in the Red Wall seats and the jobs will follow once it becomes obvious that the workers no longer exist elsewhere.
The internal adverts for Treasury North focus on the fact you can have a new 4-5 bedroom detached house for less than a 3 bed semi near London.
Can anyone explain why Excess Deaths have been negative for the last 14 weeks?
OK, we know Covid deaths have been very, very low.
But I thought it was widely accepted that many people with other medical problems haven't been to see their GP or gone to hospital as much as usual over the last 15 months.
Surely the above should have led to lots of illness not being diagnosed and also known illnesses progressing more rapidly? Which should now be feeding through into Excess Deaths?
The obvious answer is that COVID deaths in 2020 for a large number of people were advanced by less than a year meaning the pool of people in death's waiting room is much smaller this year.
I'm not going to attempt to do the maths, but it would have to spread through much of the population to have got to those who were going to die anyway. There might be a bias in that it's gone through some care homes and hospitals, but I suspect the -47,000 non-COVID excess deaths is driven by some people being dead from COVID and also a reduction in other viruses spreading through the population.
Winter 2021-22 will be tough for the NHS, I think.
I can't help advocating one final heave this winter and into next spring to get us over the line - masks, rule of six, we all know the drill by now
You know it makes sense.
19 July is supposed to be a 'terminus date', remember? So the law that makes seven-people dinner parties illegal needs to go.
You know it makes sense.
All you need to do is persuade the virus to stop being so unreasonable.
In what sense? The virus is with us forever. We have effective vaccinations. At some stage the rules need to go. I would have lifted them today. When do you suggest if not 19 July?
As the queues show, not everyone who wants to has been vaccinated. I'd agree there does need to be a sense of urgency about moving to the end stage but we are not quite there yet.
Are they seriously proposing to legislate what TV channels can show or what people can watch? I don't see how else this can be achieved.
I think the rules already exist on a national level (France) but there was an EU override which meant it can't be France only productions.
They can of course now insist on EU productions that exclude the UK NOW we aren't part of the EU and I suspect that's France's entire point
I mean sure but it strikes me as extremely insecure. All that happens is Netflix jack up local prices to pay for this stuff within the EU or they literally pay people peanuts to produce random shit that they know no one will watch.
Yes as usual the Guardian thinks that Netflix and Amazon will just cut big production TV shows in the UK to pander to the EU but what you say is definitely what will happen. Diluting the quality of EU produced TV with ten a penny formats so that they can still put on the big shows *whispers* which also do well elsewhere in the Anglosphere e.g the US.
Whatever the merits of the policy from an EU perspective (doubtful I suspect), UK production will move from being in quota - maybe relatively watchable compared with other EU in quota production - to competing for limited slots with other out of quota production from America etc that may be more marketable
Lol, not even you can defend it. That's how awful the policy is. As I've said just now, that's not how it will work. The likes of Netflix will just get random shite produced to ensure there is a large enough quota for all of their UK and US productions. It may mean older catalogue stuff gets removed which benefits no one really but it's a stupid decision and stupid decisions are rarely without stupid consequences.
To be fair Labour SFAICS holds not a single rural seat. They have to start somewhere. Maybe they think that the strap line 'Make your posh Dorset village as vibrant as Bootle, Vote Labour, in Bootle they think it makes sense' doesn't make the grade.
Whatever the merits of the policy from an EU perspective (doubtful I suspect), UK production will move from being in quota - maybe relatively watchable compared with other EU in quota production - to competing for limited slots with other out of quota production from America etc that may be more marketable
What is a limited slot on a streaming service? TV is no longer constrained by broadcasting. Direct broadcast satellites and free-to-air television are technological dead-ends which are going to go into quite rapid declince over this decade. Essentially all TV viewing will be streaming* by the time we reach the 2030s, at which point quotas are going to look damn silly unless you plan on forcing viewers to watch shows.
* Streaming already is "TV" for most young people.
Can anyone explain why Excess Deaths have been negative for the last 14 weeks?
OK, we know Covid deaths have been very, very low.
But I thought it was widely accepted that many people with other medical problems haven't been to see their GP or gone to hospital as much as usual over the last 15 months.
Surely the above should have led to lots of illness not being diagnosed and also known illnesses progressing more rapidly? Which should now be feeding through into Excess Deaths?
The obvious answer is that COVID deaths in 2020 for a large number of people were advanced by less than a year meaning the pool of people in death's waiting room is much smaller this year.
I'm not going to attempt to do the maths, but it would have to spread through much of the population to have got to those who were going to die anyway. There might be a bias in that it's gone through some care homes and hospitals, but I suspect the -47,000 non-COVID excess deaths is driven by some people being dead from COVID and also a reduction in other viruses spreading through the population.
Winter 2021-22 will be tough for the NHS, I think.
I can't help advocating one final heave this winter and into next spring to get us over the line - masks, rule of six, we all know the drill by now
You know it makes sense.
Are you being serious? Next spring? Two years of this. Do you have any idea what effect the constant hum of restrictions might have on children? A six-yr old will have spent 25% of their lives under some kind of restrictions. Wow.
Wait till you hear what 6 year olds in 1945 had gone through.
You remind me of those Leavers saying well at least it wasn't as bad as the English Civil War/WWII/rationing to justify Brexit.
You remind me of all those righties who didn't give a fcuk about antisemitism for years until they realised it was a stick with which to beat lefties and ensure the hegemony of their crook led party.
This might be true, except that it isn't, it is shite
There has been a steep rise in anti-Semitism in the last ten years, in the UK it has nearly all come from Muslims, and from their allies on the hard left, eg the Corbynite wing of Labour. Yes the right is now using it as a stick to thwack Labour, but that doesn't mean the phenomenon of left-wing Jew-hatred is contrived. It is not. It is real
Occasionally I wonder if it is my fault that the phrase jew hate became far more common after I'd mused on here that antisemitism might not be widely understood.
ETA it's not so much Corbynistas as the ex-SWP trots that Kinnock had thrown out and Ed Miliband had let back in.
Are they seriously proposing to legislate what TV channels can show or what people can watch? I don't see how else this can be achieved.
I think the rules already exist on a national level (France) but there was an EU override which meant it can't be France only productions.
They can of course now insist on EU productions that exclude the UK NOW we aren't part of the EU and I suspect that's France's entire point
I mean sure but it strikes me as extremely insecure. All that happens is Netflix jack up local prices to pay for this stuff within the EU or they literally pay people peanuts to produce random shit that they know no one will watch.
Yes as usual the Guardian thinks that Netflix and Amazon will just cut big production TV shows in the UK to pander to the EU but what you say is definitely what will happen. Diluting the quality of EU produced TV with ten a penny formats so that they can still put on the big shows *whispers* which also do well elsewhere in the Anglosphere e.g the US.
Whatever the merits of the policy from an EU perspective (doubtful I suspect), UK production will move from being in quota - maybe relatively watchable compared with other EU in quota production - to competing for limited slots with other out of quota production from America etc that may be more marketable
Lol, not even you can defend it. That's how awful the policy is. As I've said just now, that's not how it will work. The likes of Netflix will just get random shite produced to ensure there is a large enough quota for all of their UK and US productions. It may mean older catalogue stuff gets removed which benefits no one really but it's a stupid decision and stupid decisions are rarely without stupid consequences.
I half suspect Netflix will find ways and means of resolving the issue. Need 100 hours of EU content, do you produce 100 hours of content or remove 1000 hours of old stuff few people are watching.
Yep 20% of our content is from the EU. The fact you can no longer see Bridgerton in France is a licensing issue not intentional (honest).
Under the EU’s audiovisual media services directive, a majority of airtime must be given to such European content on terrestrial television and it must make up at least 30% of the number of titles on video on demand (VOD) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.
Countries such as France have gone further, setting a 60% quota for European works on VOD and demanding 15% of the turnover of the platforms is spent in production of European audiovisual and cinematographic works.
I had no idea that the EU and France dictated what their people can and can't watch!
It's a bonkers policy, because you can't make people watch the rubbish that is approved, people can watch the channel of their choosing, or more likely stream the shows they want. It just means that channels fill their schedule with box ticking pap, and buy a load of cheap rubbish shows and films to fill their servers, and in the end people will still watch what they want.
Will we ever build enough homes so that our young people can grow up and have, like, families?
The country is committing a slow suicide.
F£&k the nimbys.
It's all part of the grand levelling up plans.
The only place the young will be able to afford to live is in the Red Wall seats and the jobs will follow once it becomes obvious that the workers no longer exist elsewhere.
The internal adverts for Treasury North focus on the fact you can have a new 4-5 bedroom detached house for less than a 3 bed semi near London.
With a commute time in minutes rather than hours.
Quite right. Why concrete over the rural south with rabbit-warren houses and ring-road DIY stores when there is plenty of cheap accommodation up north. Okay, you probably won't be able to boast at dinner parties about the tripling of your house's value over the last month (which is all these people really care about) but tough... if you want your own place then go where you can afford it; don't despoil everywhere else.
Comments
If the French want to make French language tunes mandatory on their radio stations, that's up to them - not my problem if the end up with Johnny Hallyday.*
But it strikes me as a bit heavy handed for the EU to be saying what tv can be shown in which country. This is not an organisation which is capable of leaving well alone.
*Poor old Johnny Hallyday. I don't know why he always gets trotted out as the example of terrible French pop music. I'm sure there are, under the radar, plenty of interesting French language artists.
There has been a steep rise in anti-Semitism in the last ten years, in the UK it has nearly all come from Muslims, and from their allies on the hard left, eg the Corbynite wing of Labour. Yes the right is now using it as a stick to thwack Labour, but that doesn't mean the phenomenon of left-wing Jew-hatred is contrived. It is not. It is real
Touchy much? I think that goes down as having struck a nerve.
Patting myself on the back here.
Countries such as France have gone further, setting a 60% quota for European works on VOD and demanding 15% of the turnover of the platforms is spent in production of European audiovisual and cinematographic works.
I had no idea that the EU and France dictated what their people can and can't watch!
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-57556938
No get out of Imperialist past free card for the Scots.
What's the argument to keep internal restrictions going such as nightclubs closed after July 19th ?
Still a bit tricky when HMG has an agenda of finding the positives in slavery and the Empire being quite good actually.
Also there are so many loopholes e.g. you just buy some really old crap show that has loads and loads of episodes e.g. twitch bought the rights to Bob Ross painting for peanuts. I don't know why they did, but they did, and obviously that is 100s of hours of a bloke just standing painting landscapes.
And weirdly for a couple of months it was big hit.
But the point is there will be crap like that which you can just pick up the rights to, stick it in the catalogue to meet the arbitrary target.
They can of course now insist on EU productions that exclude the UK NOW we aren't part of the EU and I suspect that's France's entire point
https://twitter.com/uklabour/status/1406947513857462276
The problem is that some of the public health nanny's want this to be a permanent state of affairs - ideally without any sort of public vote on it.
The only way that's realistically going to be avoided is naming a date where all measures really do actually end completely (including stuff like test and trace / mandatory isolation - we don't make it illegal to go out if you have the flu, or measles).
That date should be soon - probably July 19th.
If people want these sort of restrictions in the future they should be elected on a platform of imposing restrictions - good luck with that.
Children
Refusers
Need to keep suppressing Covid because NHS backlog, knackered staff, flu season, whatever
New variants
There are always excuses for those who want there to be more excuses. So, we shall see which, if any, sway the Government next.
"I’ve updated the model with all the latest data, and it’s mostly good news – at least for what happens over the next few months. There might be a bit of a ‘sting in the tail’ in the winter, but I think there are ways of dealing with that. Summary conclusions as follows: 1/"
https://twitter.com/JamesWard73/status/1406978310022774788?s=20
Claims to be optimistic, and I suppose it is, but it is also rather desolating to think we will still be dealing with this virus (and trying to dodge new lockdowns) in the spring of 2022
https://order-order.com/2021/06/21/camden-council-spends-93000-on-woke-training-whilst-cutting-library-staff/
Somebody is earning a pretty penny out of this racket.
You don't have to go down the whole strippers/fight/kebab route. Only a minority of stag nights I've been on have done that. Though you can, if that's your idea of fun.
My idea of fun for my stag night was drinking with friends, then (the next day) clay pigeon shooting, then a country pub, then a quiz (not my choice - deliciously organised by my friends who know I love quizzes and fantastically overcomplex), then more drinking, then an indie club, then a pub lunch on Sunday morning.
There's no 'point' as such. Except it's fun to have all your friends from different parts of life there with you and its fun to do fun things, and it also gives them an 'in' when they meet each other at the wedding.
You can go down the 'make the groom do silly things' route if you want. I know people who love that sort of thing. Not my cup of tea, and in my cohort we were very reluctant to set any sort of precedent at a higher bar than present the groom with a woolly red wig to wear, if he wants to.
The simple, cynical explanation is the correct one. They’ve seen the way the wind is blowing and they’re positioning themselves to try and take the credit for the tories watering down planning reforms.
Heating stays off........
But surely this is a spoof?
Steve fucking Baker.
"According to the leaked EU paper, entitled “The disproportionate presence of UK content in the European VOD quota and the effects on the circulation and promotion of diverse European works”, it is thought necessary for the bloc to reassess the “presence of UK content in the aftermath of Brexit”.
“The concerns relate to how Brexit will impact the audiovisual production sector in the European Union as, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory, the UK provides half of the European TV content presence of VOD in Europe and the UK works are the most actively promoted on VOD, while the lowest EU27 share of promotion spots is also found in the UK,” the paper says.
It adds: “Although the UK is now a third country for the European Union, its audiovisual content still qualifies as ‘European works’ according to the definition provided by the AVMS directive, as the definition continues to refer to the European convention on Transfrontier Television of the Council of Europe, to which the UK remains a party.”
Agree that it is pathetic. EuCo attempting to circle the wagons around the bed they are hiding under.
If someone is familiar with exactly what consultation will be lost, I would be interested to hear.
"Unicorn nest: UK hits milestone of 100 $1bn tech companies, more than rest of Europe combined"
https://www.cityam.com/unicorn-nest-uk-hits-milestone-of-100-1bn-tech-companies-more-than-rest-of-europe-combined/?utm_content=buffer746fe&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Will we ever build enough homes so that our young people can grow up and have, like, families?
The country is committing a slow suicide.
F£&k the nimbys.
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.”
Go for it boris. Screw the nimbys. Use your majority.
Just do it. For England.
484 new cases in Wales. Our Medical centre has sent an email out with a reminder of symptoms to look for as they have had a lot of cases over the weekend. 2 weeks after school hols in Tenby/Saundersfoot seaside areas so this figures.
With streaming services and online platforms ever expanding how can they possibly regulate this?
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/confessions-of-a-uk-estate-agent-caught-up-in-a-housing-market-frenzy-swswq7f27
Somewhere in the Cotswolds I think. Gloucestershire?
Unlikely to be many Red Wall votes here...
The only place the young will be able to afford to live is in the Red Wall seats and the jobs will follow once it becomes obvious that the workers no longer exist elsewhere.
The internal adverts for Treasury North focus on the fact you can have a new 4-5 bedroom detached house for less than a 3 bed semi near London.
With a commute time in minutes rather than hours.
* Streaming already is "TV" for most young people.
ETA it's not so much Corbynistas as the ex-SWP trots that Kinnock had thrown out and Ed Miliband had let back in.
Yep 20% of our content is from the EU. The fact you can no longer see Bridgerton in France is a licensing issue not intentional (honest).
If more new towns looked like, well, Old Town Amersham, I'm sure there would have been less opposition in the C&A by-election.
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/amersham-old-town-high-street.html