The government have announced that senior executives can temporarily leave quarantine, in England, if they are undertaking activities with a significantly economic benefit.One rule for the elites, another for everyone else. pic.twitter.com/xlwUgKGKnT
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They even compare 'may hit 100,000 per week', with a current level of 3,000 per day to make it sound bigger.
It's all up there with media squeezing out sensationalist reports of "Reproduction Rate could be 1", when the scientists were reporting "0.7 to 1.0", with the central tendency around 0.85.
Remember the you can meet up with people in a restaurant if it was for this. Or travel, the plebs can't go on holiday, but business people have been able to travel basically unhindered throughout.
Given Freedom day is only 3 weeks away, I am not sure it will make a lot of difference.
Maybe the behavioural scientists have decided that we will collectively baulk at the idea of freedom - so the idea is to try and introduce such contempt for the idea of the restrictions that anger with them overcomes fear.
Better than all the rest of the Five Nations Rugby Tournament of Blessed Memory did in the football.
However, although I think analytics has played a part, my understanding is that throwing knuckleball is actually incredibly difficult to perfect (like leg-spin but more so) and actually very taxing on the hands. So it really isn't something that people even really try.
Also, Jonathan Ashworth's current approach of trying to vaguely cast doubt on unlocking without proposing any alternative strategy is, to be frank, really getting my goat.
Listen to their Health Shadow. We would never get out under them.
Another exemption for me!
Germany, at ~7/1, are the value bet.
I can’t quite bring myself to back them, though!
Terrible idea.
Some of them are working class, or the grandchildren of immigrant, hardly toffs.
All things being equal the winner of the England v. Germany match gets to the final.
In a two horse race you'd be happy with a 7/1 bet.
Most other teams would be working out how to maximise the effectiveness of these world class talents, waistcoat sticks them on the bench.
While the Chinese piss themselves at how poor the UK approach to security is, most other countries must piss themselves at finally England have players with world class ability and technique and they don't use them.
I think this new government exemption would therefore certainly be very unpopular if executives returned from a red list country without quarantining
Remarkably, despite Spain failing to win their group, they are now the 13/8 favourites (until 23:00 tonight) to reach the final. I backed them at 9/2 before a ball was kicked thinking that they would be in the position Sweden are in now.
But I have a horrible feeling Switzerland might beat Spain. If I were Luis Enrique, I'd make the players watch highlights of the game in 2010.
https://twitter.com/tconnellyRTE/status/1409846735829151750?s=20
What exactly does no more restrictions mean? It means restrictions the govt decides to keep. Plenty of them. Some idiot on R4 just now saying well children...long covid...can affect them....
Vanishingly small probability of a child suffering from Covid. Otherwise, given that it has ripped through schools and unis these past few weeks, we would be hearing reports of children dying by the bucketload each day. Doesn't seem to be happening.
"Too often we see the UK government act in an aggressively unilateral way, claiming to act on behalf of the whole UK, but without regard for the status of the nations and the democratic mandates of their governments."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-57639735.amp
They aren't wrong....
Not quite sure of the allegation that it will 'benefit Tory MPs', as it is for people coming here. That claim seems overenthusiastic.
But I'm sure the politico-chimpanzee-tea-party will be all over it.
Wonder if Angela HoofinMouth will be on this?
I remain unconvinced by this Government's PR abilities.
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Here's the wording:
Applies to:
Certain senior executives (board level or equivalent) travelling to England who would be more likely than not to bring significant economic benefit to the UK as a result of the exempt activity.
Senior executives are classed as bringing ‘significant economic benefit’ if the work they are doing has a greater than 50% chance of creating or preserving at least 500 UK-based jobs in either:
an existing UK-based business which has at least 500 employees
a new UK business within 2 years of the date of their arrival in the UK
Senior executives are only exempt if the business activity requires their physical presence and cannot be done remotely or by anyone who would not need to quarantine.
The senior executive wishing to use the exemption must notify the UK government prior to doing so. They must do this using the business, jobs and investment exemption form.
Only individuals who have received a letter from the UK government confirming that they meet the criteria for the exemption, based on the information provided, will be able to use the exemption. This letter must be obtained before travelling to the UK and presented to Border Force officials upon arrival.
Parking the bus will be the wrong approach as Germany only need one or two chances and then where are you.
Just like Deontay Wilder vs Fury. Wilder only needs one shot and it's over. Oh. Hang on...
Anyway - England to win tonight, at pathetic odds, that said.
There are 85 of these positions - including more Tory friends and donors.
We need a fully independent appointment process.
https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1409851895225724929
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/29/labour-urges-overhaul-of-whitehall-oversight-rules-after-hancock-row
If ministers choose to make important statement outside the chamber first they must not be surprised that I will grant urgent questions on those matters - in fact I am just going to continue to on the basis there may be a statement says the Speaker
https://twitter.com/PARLYapp/status/1409851454467215361?s=20
Knockout football is weird.
Has anyone done an analysis of whether the favourite team wins more often in league games cf knockout games?
The EU has conceded a further extension of the current exemptions.
The U.K. has conceded:
a) that it was/is in the EU’s power to deny an extension
b) that the extension is there to allow Northern Irish retailers to source locally or from the Republic, in preference to U.K. supply chains.
The U.K. is slowly conceding the reality of a customs/regulatory border between GB and NI, long after have conceded it legally.
(Thinking of the Frenchman the other day)
What counts as "significant economic benefit?
Why would the other parties want to meet with you anyway - I would refuse a face to face in those circumstances
Lorry driver shortage: UK government and retailers in emergency talks https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/28/lorry-driver-shortage-uk-government-and-retailers-in-emergency-talks-covid-brexit
In what private company can one appoint an unqualified lover(?) as aide, then push her up to sit on the board that is supposed to be overseeing your performance?
Banana republic stuff.
I see they have finally conceded that Matt Hancock used a private email account, 24 hours after denying it.
They existed well before Blair.
It's like watching Boycott and Hussain.
Saboteurs, enemies of the people etc.
The inflammatory language of treachery has real world consequences; it is has now entered the political lexicon and until the lid is firmly sealed on Johnson’s regime it won’t disappear.
(And it might need more than that - viz Trump and the Republicans).
It wouldn't be as entertaining as last night.
The government should not manipulate the market to prevent wage rises. It’s a good thing for the industry to recalibrate to domestic employment, higher wages and slightly higher costs.
The probability of them being so seriously ill that they get hospitalised isn't trivial.
Nor is the chance of chronic illness and potential long-term organ damage.
They're not at the level where we can see any realistic chance of the NHS being overwhelmed by such, but we can't really dismiss the concern out of hand.
Unless they authorise use of vaccines for the under-18s very rapidly and get a whole load more supply, I can't see them getting jabbed in time, so it's not really plausible for them to be protected prior to opening up on the 19th. I can understand some being very worried about that, but it's not likely to cause any realistic delay, I wouldn't have thought. The schools breaking up should help a lot by limiting spread, though.
https://twitter.com/RobDotHutton/status/1409856313744580608
A second massive LinkedIn breach reportedly exposes the data of 700M users, which is more than 92% of the total 756M users. The database is for sale on the dark web, with records including phone numbers, physical addresses, geolocation data, and inferred salaries.
The hacker who obtained the data has posted a sample of 1M records, and checks confirm that the data is both genuine and up-to-date …
RestorePrivacy reports that the hacker appears to have misused the official LinkedIn API to download the data, the same method used in a similar breach back in April.
https://9to5mac.com/2021/06/29/linkedin-breach/
Does Dido Harding work for LinkedIn?
“History of non-executives in Whitehall
Non-executives were first introduced in the early 1990s. In 2005 the first corporate governance Code recommended that each Whitehall department should have at least two NEDs, to sit on the management board chaired by the permanent secretary. At the time there were 37 NEDs, in 14 departments.”
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/sites/constitution-unit/files/178_-_Critical_Friends__The_Role_of_Non_Executives_on_Whitehall_Boards.pdf
So, not sure what your source is.
It simply isn't economical to have NI and ROI as separate markets with separate labels and standards. Currently NI big supermarkets supplied mainly from UK with some all Ireland sourcing from ROI. Going forward NI consumers get ROI products.
Bound to be popular with the DUP. "Yet another betrayal" etc.
They just create their own fictional world, these people.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules/coronavirus-covid-19-travellers-exempt-from-uk-border-rules
- Covid
- Brexit
- IR35 etc
At least two of those are deliberate govt policy, and one of them is an act of god which we presumably wish to mitigate against.
It might be that simply overseeing a wage spike might have consequences at the grocery tills.
What this in turn tells me is we cannot rely on some of these private companies to secure this data; we must regrettably regulate them as quasi public utilities.
But what we have seen so far is the likes of Germany look very dodgy in defence, and England now genuinely do have some of the best attacking talent in Europe. But Southgate's instincts are always very conservative.
We can add to that the soaring mental health problems and a lifetime of crushing debt.
All vigorously applauded by you, of course.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeons-government-lifts-manchester-24421359
The challenge then is not to introduce regulation, but to make sure that the regulation achieves what you want it to achieve (improving data security) rather than what they would want it to achieve (restricts competition).
They have been fed to the wolves by the very people who now want to turn them into pin cushions over a disease that does not really affect them.
The problem is the cronyism in the way this government appoints people to NED roles, particularly, and obviously, Hancock.
Shocking obvs but not a reason to seriously fuck with the education and mental health of an entire generation.
Won't someone think of the children works both ways.