"Likewise, businesses will be coming up with their own rules, based on what they see as their core demographic. A sports bar in Chelmsford, decked out in England flags? My feeling is it won't require masks. A vegan cafe in Islington or Bristol? You will have to wrap up your face before ordering that soyamilk fair trade latte.
Over time, the political and socio economic divide could even deepen. Sound familiar? Maskers and anti-maskers look set to become the new Remainers and Leavers (with almost, if not quite, the same tribes in both camps). Very few people on either side of that bitter debate were actually very interested in the finer points of tariffs on citrus fruits, or what the European Commission's plans for the digital transformation of European industry might be this week. They wanted to say something about themselves.
We might have hoped that Covid-19 would soon be behind us. There seems little chance of that now. The divisions lockdowns have opened up and exacerbated will run for years."
Personally, I'm more optimistic. I think a lot of the pro-masking is for show. Given the choice, excepting a tiny minority, people don't wear masks. The noises in America prior to unmasking were that many would virtuously continue to wear them. From what I understand - and I'm happy to be corrected by American correspondents - they haven't. Making a statement about which camp you sit in becomes less attractive when you have to wear a horrible rag around your face to do it.
But mask wearing is SE Asia is the norm.
Also, lots of the more vulnerable/exposed are pro-mask wearing (e.g. the comparatively young staff in the Costa I'm currently sitting in are vocal in the opinion of non-mask wearers).
I don't think it is as clear-cut as veganism v. flags on the Vauxhall Astra.
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
There remains a massive pent up demand.
I can't see anything but a boom.
More of a consumption bubble.
Though some places might boom - those with affordable housing and good communications - with some places in recession - inner urban areas perhaps.
Erm, is a £400k terrace house suitable for a first time buyer? And you'd need to spend the same again on the interior so that your eyeballs in a desperate attempt for self-preservation don't climb out of your eye sockets and flee
I wouldn't necessarily say it was complacency, there were plenty of Tory activists in both seats and in Batley even if Labour held on there was still a swing to the Tories.
In Chesham no matter how much the Tories campaigned and who the candidate was there was always likely to be a swing to the LDs based on Nimbyism and the fact it was a strong Remain seat
So you are basically saying that any seat with high remain support and expensive houses is ripe for the LDs to win and there is nothing the Tories can do about it.
At a by election certainly, less so at a general election
Why is communism regarded as more acceptable than fascism? They're equally as bad.
Its my perennial rant. Why was John McDonald not excoriated for producing Mao's little red book in the house? Imagine if someone had brought in Mein Kampf? Mao was every bit as evil as Hitler, and with every bit the hidious impact on peoples lives. And don't get me started on Stalin.
This will be one for someone like Nick Palmer to answer.
But having talked to a few in the past, I think a supposed Stalin quote is at the heart of it: you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette". Communism may have killed millions of people for little good, but their heart was in the correct place. Unlike those evil fascists. The ends justify the means.
And there is some evidence towards that: in China and Russia, Communism (or bastardised versions of it) have turned poor countries with vast resources into rich ones (albeit Russia has descended recently). But that ignores that the west's weird pseudo-capitalist system has also seen massive gains - and perhaps more than was seen in Russia and China. It also ignores the hot messes of countries like NK or Venezuela.
Personally, the political theory I find really intriguing is anarchism. I knew someone who created a diagram of all the different anarchist groups in this country up to the 1990s, and the amount of splitting and divergence of views was quite amazing.
Communism didn't turn "poor countries with vast resources into rich ones". It slowed down the transition to greater prosperity and was enacted at enormous human cost. If the Communists hadn't won the respective civil wars, millions of lives would have been saved, and the countries would have made much more rapid progress. Instead of which we end up with the authoritarian bastardised capitalism presided over by Putin and Xi.
Who knows what the counterfactuals for China might have been. After all, just before WWII, it was a chaotic collection of warring factions/states, with the Japanese conducting their own form of local genocides. Along with the many crimes he committed, Mao turned China back into an independent nation.
Russia is somewhat different, but many of the other communist revolutions were as much nationalist uprisings as they were ideological - and one of the West's bigger postwar mistakes (see Vietnam) was not recognising that.
"Likewise, businesses will be coming up with their own rules, based on what they see as their core demographic. A sports bar in Chelmsford, decked out in England flags? My feeling is it won't require masks. A vegan cafe in Islington or Bristol? You will have to wrap up your face before ordering that soyamilk fair trade latte.
Over time, the political and socio economic divide could even deepen. Sound familiar? Maskers and anti-maskers look set to become the new Remainers and Leavers (with almost, if not quite, the same tribes in both camps). Very few people on either side of that bitter debate were actually very interested in the finer points of tariffs on citrus fruits, or what the European Commission's plans for the digital transformation of European industry might be this week. They wanted to say something about themselves.
We might have hoped that Covid-19 would soon be behind us. There seems little chance of that now. The divisions lockdowns have opened up and exacerbated will run for years."
Personally, I'm more optimistic. I think a lot of the pro-masking is for show. Given the choice, excepting a tiny minority, people don't wear masks. The noises in America prior to unmasking were that many would virtuously continue to wear them. From what I understand - and I'm happy to be corrected by American correspondents - they haven't. Making a statement about which camp you sit in becomes less attractive when you have to wear a horrible rag around your face to do it.
Interesting choice for the no-mask example. I hear Chelmsford is more like the Islington of Essex nowadays, very la-di-da. Even got an LD council, of course... Surely Sarfend would be a better example for not poncing about with masks?
Relatively so yes, though Chelmsford was still 52% Leave
"The Queen has awarded the George Cross to the NHS."
Pass the sick bag. Have they no shame?
It could have been quite a TV event, though, with Dido in ermine solemnly curtseying to accept the medal on behalf of the customers of TalkTalk and Tesco and the "general public" and Sun readers generally.
Just of out interest, who pays the monarch's insurance premiums that cover her treatment at the private King Edward VII's hospital in the Harley Street district?
@Cookie nah everyone hates wearing masks, even the most vegan wokeista
Yes, that's my impression. So I think the numbers who actually keep wearing masks even when they're not compelled to will be rather lower than those who say that they will.
"Likewise, businesses will be coming up with their own rules, based on what they see as their core demographic. A sports bar in Chelmsford, decked out in England flags? My feeling is it won't require masks. A vegan cafe in Islington or Bristol? You will have to wrap up your face before ordering that soyamilk fair trade latte.
Over time, the political and socio economic divide could even deepen. Sound familiar? Maskers and anti-maskers look set to become the new Remainers and Leavers (with almost, if not quite, the same tribes in both camps). Very few people on either side of that bitter debate were actually very interested in the finer points of tariffs on citrus fruits, or what the European Commission's plans for the digital transformation of European industry might be this week. They wanted to say something about themselves.
We might have hoped that Covid-19 would soon be behind us. There seems little chance of that now. The divisions lockdowns have opened up and exacerbated will run for years."
Personally, I'm more optimistic. I think a lot of the pro-masking is for show. Given the choice, excepting a tiny minority, people don't wear masks. The noises in America prior to unmasking were that many would virtuously continue to wear them. From what I understand - and I'm happy to be corrected by American correspondents - they haven't. Making a statement about which camp you sit in becomes less attractive when you have to wear a horrible rag around your face to do it.
Once they have been double vaccinated I expect most people will stop wearing masks if no longer required, except maybe on public transport.
The anti-vax, anti-mask crowd will not wear one anyway vaccinated or not
Isn't awarding the NHS a cross and having a day where we say thank you the definition of virtue signalling? Where is the usual brigade who pipe up when Labour do it?
Mr. Cookie, can't speak for others but I find mask wearing intensely unpleasant and will be damned glad to be rid of it.
Seems to be dwindling slowly even now, i.e. before Freedom Day.
I noticed yesterday that very few are wearing masks when going in and out of gym entrance. In the gym fewer people are spraying that ghastly pink disinfectant over the equipment before and after use as the signs instruct.
My gym has not heard the months-old news that transmission via surfaces is not a thing. Meanwhile, ventilation and AC is inadequate ...
"Likewise, businesses will be coming up with their own rules, based on what they see as their core demographic. A sports bar in Chelmsford, decked out in England flags? My feeling is it won't require masks. A vegan cafe in Islington or Bristol? You will have to wrap up your face before ordering that soyamilk fair trade latte.
Over time, the political and socio economic divide could even deepen. Sound familiar? Maskers and anti-maskers look set to become the new Remainers and Leavers (with almost, if not quite, the same tribes in both camps). Very few people on either side of that bitter debate were actually very interested in the finer points of tariffs on citrus fruits, or what the European Commission's plans for the digital transformation of European industry might be this week. They wanted to say something about themselves.
We might have hoped that Covid-19 would soon be behind us. There seems little chance of that now. The divisions lockdowns have opened up and exacerbated will run for years."
Personally, I'm more optimistic. I think a lot of the pro-masking is for show. Given the choice, excepting a tiny minority, people don't wear masks. The noises in America prior to unmasking were that many would virtuously continue to wear them. From what I understand - and I'm happy to be corrected by American correspondents - they haven't. Making a statement about which camp you sit in becomes less attractive when you have to wear a horrible rag around your face to do it.
Once they have been double vaccinated I expect most people will stop wearing masks if no longer required, except maybe on public transport.
The anti-vax, anti-mask crowd will not wear one anyway vaccinated or not
Agreed, will probably wear one in the tube in winter or if and when we get big covid waves, otherwise dont imagine any places I would wear them voluntarily.
Erm, is a £400k terrace house suitable for a first time buyer? And you'd need to spend the same again on the interior so that your eyeballs in a desperate attempt for self-preservation don't climb out of your eye sockets and flee
Erm, is a £400k terrace house suitable for a first time buyer? And you'd need to spend the same again on the interior so that your eyeballs in a desperate attempt for self-preservation don't climb out of your eye sockets and flee
Isn't awarding the NHS a cross and having a day where we say thank you the definition of virtue signalling? Where is the usual brigade who pipe up when Labour do it?
Yes it is, plus opportunistic, insincere and naff, and it's been criticised down-thread.
Erm, is a £400k terrace house suitable for a first time buyer? And you'd need to spend the same again on the interior so that your eyeballs in a desperate attempt for self-preservation don't climb out of your eye sockets and flee
I have no problem at all wearing masks when I am out and about and going to and from work every day on public transport for some time to come after the 19th.
Touch wood it's probably played a small part in keeping me safe this past year and a bit (Truth be told I think it's more down to hand hygiene/gels and distancing more than anything) either that or I have just been lucky to date considering the environment I work in.
I will respect those who choose not to wear them as long as they in turn respect my choice to continue to do so.
Isn't awarding the NHS a cross and having a day where we say thank you the definition of virtue signalling? Where is the usual brigade who pipe up when Labour do it?
People object to the specific virtues being signalled, not the signalling itself.
And several have piped up about this one, as stocky notes. Consistency has been demonstrated.
Isn't awarding the NHS a cross and having a day where we say thank you the definition of virtue signalling? Where is the usual brigade who pipe up when Labour do it?
It's virtue signalling and it's stupid. There you go.
More stupid still is it shouldn't be 'the NHS' that we award. The NHS is an institution, not a person. The NHS hasn't demonstrated courage. Individual doctors and nurses have shown courage - quite massive courage, especially in the early days when we knew little about the virus. There countless examples of individual health workers doing their jobs in the face of not insignificant danger to themselves. It is individuals we should be recognising, not an impersonal institution.
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
There remains a massive pent up demand.
I can't see anything but a boom.
More of a consumption bubble.
Though some places might boom - those with affordable housing and good communications - with some places in recession - inner urban areas perhaps.
We really are in an economic position never seen before in the UK's history. Most people have been economically inactice over the past 18 months and are desperate to get back living again. Due to Furlough and the lack of things to spend money on over the past 18 months, millions of people are significantly better off and are ready to start spending.
To give you an idea where the Construction Industry is at the moment, Summer is normally a very busy time with schools being shut and Councils carrying out projects on them in the 6 week period. This year Councils are having to cancel projects as the Contractors that they use do not have the capacity to complete the work. Some may say this is due to the lack of EU labour and that may be true to a limited extent.The main reason is that firms are busier now than they have ever been and just simply can't do it. The thing to remember is that a company will be paid 3-4 months in arrears for works carried out. This means that Companies have to finance the work for this period and simply do not have the cash flow to do it as they alredy have so many projects on. I cannot express enough just how busy Construction is at the moment.
George Cross plus 1% pay rise seems like a bit of a piss take.
A bit. I suspect the GC idea arose as there are so many who might well deserve an honour that the powers that be thought itd be a pain to go through it all, so honour everyone in a nice gesture and the personal honours can remain with the usual worthies - professors and the like.
I didn't think' defunding the police' was a British issue. TBH, I'm not exactly sure what it means. If the slogan was 'Re-educate the Police' I'd sympathise.
This is where BLM and others have screwed up.
Defunding the police actually means reallocating funding.
For example they would ban the police from buying military grade weapons and vehicles and rather have them spend that money on community policing.
Fun fact in a lot of states in America when the police carry out a no knock warrant and blow off the front of your house to enter and they have in fact come to the wrong house, they don't have to pay out any (or very little) recompense to the innocent party.
Would you be astonished to learn that no knock warrants disproportionately target African Americans and other minorities?
It was one of the most stupid political slogans ever, given that a significant majority of the US public are in favour of police reforms.
For some BLM-sympathetic Americans, ‘defund the police’ does follow TSE’s interpretation - demilitarize them, take away some weapons, reallocate resources. All quite arguable in the context of American policing, as we have sadly seen
However for hardcore BLM, ‘defund the police’ means what it apparently says. Get rid of the cops. Take away all their money. Give the job of neighbourhood security to social workers and ‘community activists’. See the various campaigns to persuade whites that it is racist simply to call the cops if they believe a black person is committing a crime
‘For example, the Oakland Power Projects, an initiative by the police abolition organization Critical Resistance, has offered training for health workers and community members on how to respond to crises without calling police.’
Erm, is a £400k terrace house suitable for a first time buyer? And you'd need to spend the same again on the interior so that your eyeballs in a desperate attempt for self-preservation don't climb out of your eye sockets and flee
Erm, is a £400k terrace house suitable for a first time buyer? And you'd need to spend the same again on the interior so that your eyeballs in a desperate attempt for self-preservation don't climb out of your eye sockets and flee
Isn't awarding the NHS a cross and having a day where we say thank you the definition of virtue signalling? Where is the usual brigade who pipe up when Labour do it?
Yes it is, plus opportunistic, insincere and naff, and it's been criticised down-thread.
It's genius, it simultaneous plays to the communist rabble who think poor people should get medical treatment, and brings a tear to the eye of those who think our glory days were when Blighty stood almost alone with its back to the wall along with plucky little Malta.
Why is communism regarded as more acceptable than fascism? They're equally as bad.
Its my perennial rant. Why was John McDonald not excoriated for producing Mao's little red book in the house? Imagine if someone had brought in Mein Kampf? Mao was every bit as evil as Hitler, and with every bit the hidious impact on peoples lives. And don't get me started on Stalin.
This will be one for someone like Nick Palmer to answer.
But having talked to a few in the past, I think a supposed Stalin quote is at the heart of it: you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette". Communism may have killed millions of people for little good, but their heart was in the correct place. Unlike those evil fascists. The ends justify the means.
And there is some evidence towards that: in China and Russia, Communism (or bastardised versions of it) have turned poor countries with vast resources into rich ones (albeit Russia has descended recently). But that ignores that the west's weird pseudo-capitalist system has also seen massive gains - and perhaps more than was seen in Russia and China. It also ignores the hot messes of countries like NK or Venezuela.
Personally, the political theory I find really intriguing is anarchism. I knew someone who created a diagram of all the different anarchist groups in this country up to the 1990s, and the amount of splitting and divergence of views was quite amazing.
As we know, the few eggs being possibly as many as 150 million people.
I wonder what figure the Nazis would've got to if they'd have achieved their aim of depopulating the parts of Eastern Europe and the USSR they'd conquered. On top of the 6 million of the Holocaust they let something like 3 million Soviet POWs starve to death, IIRC, and they intended to remove the indigenous populations of their new dominions in a similar way, with the aim of providing that all important lebensraum for German settlers.
Communism has had a lot longer to rack up those numbers too. The Nazis had five years.
It's all grotesque though, really, isn't it? Both systems are vile and inhuman. I hope as a species we never get there, killing huge numbers for ideological reasons, again. But we probably will.
The only issue I have with wearing masks is that, as a user of (NHS) hearing aids and glasses, the mask straps get tangled up with the rest of the support bits around my ears.
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
There are a miniscule amount of idiots on the left who are woke who annoy a number on the right who think the numbers are greater than they are and who are just as woke at the other end of the scale (eg imperial measures, anthems, pledge of allegiance, etc, etc).
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
NHS getting the George Cross - what a load of crap. Give them a 4% bonus for the year up to £2k and the previously agreed 2.1% pay rise. This is just bullshit virtue signalling and an attempt to buy the staff off with a free gesture.
Why is communism regarded as more acceptable than fascism? They're equally as bad.
Its my perennial rant. Why was John McDonald not excoriated for producing Mao's little red book in the house? Imagine if someone had brought in Mein Kampf? Mao was every bit as evil as Hitler, and with every bit the hidious impact on peoples lives. And don't get me started on Stalin.
This will be one for someone like Nick Palmer to answer.
But having talked to a few in the past, I think a supposed Stalin quote is at the heart of it: you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette". Communism may have killed millions of people for little good, but their heart was in the correct place. Unlike those evil fascists. The ends justify the means.
And there is some evidence towards that: in China and Russia, Communism (or bastardised versions of it) have turned poor countries with vast resources into rich ones (albeit Russia has descended recently). But that ignores that the west's weird pseudo-capitalist system has also seen massive gains - and perhaps more than was seen in Russia and China. It also ignores the hot messes of countries like NK or Venezuela.
Personally, the political theory I find really intriguing is anarchism. I knew someone who created a diagram of all the different anarchist groups in this country up to the 1990s, and the amount of splitting and divergence of views was quite amazing.
Sorry - I completely refute this. In Russia and China the regimes used hatred of certain classes of people in exactly the same way that Hitler used the Jews. Millions dead were not a few broken eggs, it was deliberate. Stalin could have intervened in the Ukraine to stop the famine, but chose not too. Thoroughly evil. Mao chose to export food rather than feed his own people. Thoroughly evil. Its not a crime to want a more equal society, but it is to deliberately kill people to get there.
And in 2021, Putin and Xi are way more interested in exporting their vaccines, than they are in getting them into the arms of their own people.
Erm, is a £400k terrace house suitable for a first time buyer? And you'd need to spend the same again on the interior so that your eyeballs in a desperate attempt for self-preservation don't climb out of your eye sockets and flee
Why is communism regarded as more acceptable than fascism? They're equally as bad.
Its my perennial rant. Why was John McDonald not excoriated for producing Mao's little red book in the house? Imagine if someone had brought in Mein Kampf? Mao was every bit as evil as Hitler, and with every bit the hidious impact on peoples lives. And don't get me started on Stalin.
This will be one for someone like Nick Palmer to answer.
But having talked to a few in the past, I think a supposed Stalin quote is at the heart of it: you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette". Communism may have killed millions of people for little good, but their heart was in the correct place. Unlike those evil fascists. The ends justify the means.
And there is some evidence towards that: in China and Russia, Communism (or bastardised versions of it) have turned poor countries with vast resources into rich ones (albeit Russia has descended recently). But that ignores that the west's weird pseudo-capitalist system has also seen massive gains - and perhaps more than was seen in Russia and China. It also ignores the hot messes of countries like NK or Venezuela.
Personally, the political theory I find really intriguing is anarchism. I knew someone who created a diagram of all the different anarchist groups in this country up to the 1990s, and the amount of splitting and divergence of views was quite amazing.
Sorry - I completely refute this. In Russia and China the regimes used hatred of certain classes of people in exactly the same way that Hitler used the Jews. Millions dead were not a few broken eggs, it was deliberate. Stalin could have intervened in the Ukraine to stop the famine, but chose not too. Thoroughly evil. Mao chose to export food rather than feed his own people. Thoroughly evil. Its not a crime to want a more equal society, but it is to deliberately kill people to get there.
And in 2021, Putin and Xi are way more interested in exporting their vaccines, than they are in getting them into the arms of their own people.
The Chinese do seem to be getting on with domestic vaccination. They may also have realised they'll need a course of three doses, hence the rush to do it by October.
When the mask mandate goes, there's really no point in a simple face covering on an individual health level, they're far better at preventing virus exhalation than inhalation - either clear faced or FFP3 depending on the situation.
If you have reason to think that you have a cold/other virus that is transmissible by air, then it would make sense to wear one if you need to travel/go to the supermarket, as you'd still be protecting other people.
Logically that makes sense to me. Not sure if I'd be able to follow through. I'd feel an idiot being the only person wearing a mask, even if it makes sense, and wearing one makes me feel panicked.
Erm, is a £400k terrace house suitable for a first time buyer? And you'd need to spend the same again on the interior so that your eyeballs in a desperate attempt for self-preservation don't climb out of your eye sockets and flee
Isn't awarding the NHS a cross and having a day where we say thank you the definition of virtue signalling? Where is the usual brigade who pipe up when Labour do it?
Yes it is, plus opportunistic, insincere and naff, and it's been criticised down-thread.
It's genius, it simultaneous plays to the communist rabble who think poor people should get medical treatment, and brings a tear to the eye of those who think our glory days were when Blighty stood almost alone with its back to the wall along with plucky little Malta.
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
There are a miniscule amount of idiots on the left who are woke who annoy a number on the right who think the numbers are greater than they are and who are just as woke at the other end of the scale (eg imperial measures, anthems, pledge of allegiance, etc, etc).
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
Like many on here, you are utterly clueless as to the extent Wokeness has penetrated into education, law, government, charities, the arts. It now spreads into corporate culture like the fungus it is
The people who minimize or dismiss Woke generally only do it because they have not been impacted by it. Yet
The alternative is that they are too old or dim to comprehend
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
Isn't awarding the NHS a cross and having a day where we say thank you the definition of virtue signalling? Where is the usual brigade who pipe up when Labour do it?
Yes it is, plus opportunistic, insincere and naff, and it's been criticised down-thread.
It's genius, it simultaneous plays to the communist rabble who think poor people should get medical treatment, and brings a tear to the eye of those who think our glory days were when Blighty stood almost alone with its back to the wall along with plucky little Malta.
Isn't awarding the NHS a cross and having a day where we say thank you the definition of virtue signalling? Where is the usual brigade who pipe up when Labour do it?
Yes it is, plus opportunistic, insincere and naff, and it's been criticised down-thread.
It's genius, it simultaneous plays to the communist rabble who think poor people should get medical treatment, and brings a tear to the eye of those who think our glory days were when Blighty stood almost alone with its back to the wall along with plucky little Malta.
Isn't awarding the NHS a cross and having a day where we say thank you the definition of virtue signalling? Where is the usual brigade who pipe up when Labour do it?
Yes it is, plus opportunistic, insincere and naff, and it's been criticised down-thread.
It's genius, it simultaneous plays to the communist rabble who think poor people should get medical treatment, and brings a tear to the eye of those who think our glory days were when Blighty stood almost alone with its back to the wall along with plucky little Malta.
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
There remains a massive pent up demand.
I can't see anything but a boom.
More of a consumption bubble.
Though some places might boom - those with affordable housing and good communications - with some places in recession - inner urban areas perhaps.
We really are in an economic position never seen before in the UK's history. Most people have been economically inactice over the past 18 months and are desperate to get back living again. Due to Furlough and the lack of things to spend money on over the past 18 months, millions of people are significantly better off and are ready to start spending.
To give you an idea where the Construction Industry is at the moment, Summer is normally a very busy time with schools being shut and Councils carrying out projects on them in the 6 week period. This year Councils are having to cancel projects as the Contractors that they use do not have the capacity to complete the work. Some may say this is due to the lack of EU labour and that may be true to a limited extent.The main reason is that firms are busier now than they have ever been and just simply can't do it. The thing to remember is that a company will be paid 3-4 months in arrears for works carried out. This means that Companies have to finance the work for this period and simply do not have the cash flow to do it as they alredy have so many projects on. I cannot express enough just how busy Construction is at the moment.
Yes you keep saying how fabulously well off everyone is. Its just that the data - the House of Commons library as a source - says that this simply isn't true.
Isn't awarding the NHS a cross and having a day where we say thank you the definition of virtue signalling? Where is the usual brigade who pipe up when Labour do it?
Yes it is, plus opportunistic, insincere and naff, and it's been criticised down-thread.
It's genius, it simultaneous plays to the communist rabble who think poor people should get medical treatment, and brings a tear to the eye of those who think our glory days were when Blighty stood almost alone with its back to the wall along with plucky little Malta.
Give the NHS a bonus payment - something or other, @MaxPB's suggestion as good as any - and raise the pay by a smidge more than the 1% announced. The one-off means it is not going to be an ongoing cost and the optics of a bonus plus increased pay rise would see off the critics easily.
That's not to say that the NHS isn't a basket case, which it manifestly is.
In fact Covid was a case in point. Single focus crisis where everyone knew what to do and got on with it with fantastic efficiency.
Roll on next month/year when an 80-yr old goes to their GP with complex needs and see how the NHS fails at every turn.
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
There remains a massive pent up demand.
I can't see anything but a boom.
More of a consumption bubble.
Though some places might boom - those with affordable housing and good communications - with some places in recession - inner urban areas perhaps.
We really are in an economic position never seen before in the UK's history. Most people have been economically inactice over the past 18 months and are desperate to get back living again. Due to Furlough and the lack of things to spend money on over the past 18 months, millions of people are significantly better off and are ready to start spending.
To give you an idea where the Construction Industry is at the moment, Summer is normally a very busy time with schools being shut and Councils carrying out projects on them in the 6 week period. This year Councils are having to cancel projects as the Contractors that they use do not have the capacity to complete the work. Some may say this is due to the lack of EU labour and that may be true to a limited extent.The main reason is that firms are busier now than they have ever been and just simply can't do it. The thing to remember is that a company will be paid 3-4 months in arrears for works carried out. This means that Companies have to finance the work for this period and simply do not have the cash flow to do it as they alredy have so many projects on. I cannot express enough just how busy Construction is at the moment.
Yes you keep saying how fabulously well off everyone is. Its just that the data - the House of Commons library as a source - says that this simply isn't true.
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
There are a miniscule amount of idiots on the left who are woke who annoy a number on the right who think the numbers are greater than they are and who are just as woke at the other end of the scale (eg imperial measures, anthems, pledge of allegiance, etc, etc).
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
The problem is, the minuscule amount of idiots on the left wield a disproportionate amount of power, particularly in education and the charity sector. I don't want my daughters growing up being taught that white people have less moral worth than other people.
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
There are a miniscule amount of idiots on the left who are woke who annoy a number on the right who think the numbers are greater than they are and who are just as woke at the other end of the scale (eg imperial measures, anthems, pledge of allegiance, etc, etc).
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
Like many on here, you are utterly clueless as to the extent Wokeness has penetrated into education, law, government, charities, the arts. It now spreads into corporate culture like the fungus it is
The people who minimize or dismiss Woke generally only do it because they have not been impacted by it. Yet
The alternative is that they are too old or dim to comprehend
The alternative is that you and the anti-woke warriors are paranoid and like the boy in The Sixth Sense see woke people. They're everywhere!
"Woke". A blanket term imposed by twats on people who aren't twats. Its "political correctness" for the 2020s. If you aren't desperately angry and worried by the fungus that is Woke, that means that you are woke.
At our Trust we are getting a £50 voucher to spend (most likely Love to Shop) and an extra day's Annual Leave added to our E-roster for our work during the past year.
Compared to this pointless GC gesture that's not too bad. At least it's something we can use.
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
There remains a massive pent up demand.
I can't see anything but a boom.
More of a consumption bubble.
Though some places might boom - those with affordable housing and good communications - with some places in recession - inner urban areas perhaps.
We really are in an economic position never seen before in the UK's history. Most people have been economically inactice over the past 18 months and are desperate to get back living again. Due to Furlough and the lack of things to spend money on over the past 18 months, millions of people are significantly better off and are ready to start spending.
To give you an idea where the Construction Industry is at the moment, Summer is normally a very busy time with schools being shut and Councils carrying out projects on them in the 6 week period. This year Councils are having to cancel projects as the Contractors that they use do not have the capacity to complete the work. Some may say this is due to the lack of EU labour and that may be true to a limited extent.The main reason is that firms are busier now than they have ever been and just simply can't do it. The thing to remember is that a company will be paid 3-4 months in arrears for works carried out. This means that Companies have to finance the work for this period and simply do not have the cash flow to do it as they alredy have so many projects on. I cannot express enough just how busy Construction is at the moment.
Yes you keep saying how fabulously well off everyone is. Its just that the data - the House of Commons library as a source - says that this simply isn't true.
Is that net debt, or gross debt?
You tell me. If you are a household, you had £5,000 of debt owed to credit card companies last year and 12 months on its now £6,000, does it being gross or net make much of a difference?
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
There remains a massive pent up demand.
I can't see anything but a boom.
More of a consumption bubble.
Though some places might boom - those with affordable housing and good communications - with some places in recession - inner urban areas perhaps.
We really are in an economic position never seen before in the UK's history. Most people have been economically inactice over the past 18 months and are desperate to get back living again. Due to Furlough and the lack of things to spend money on over the past 18 months, millions of people are significantly better off and are ready to start spending.
To give you an idea where the Construction Industry is at the moment, Summer is normally a very busy time with schools being shut and Councils carrying out projects on them in the 6 week period. This year Councils are having to cancel projects as the Contractors that they use do not have the capacity to complete the work. Some may say this is due to the lack of EU labour and that may be true to a limited extent.The main reason is that firms are busier now than they have ever been and just simply can't do it. The thing to remember is that a company will be paid 3-4 months in arrears for works carried out. This means that Companies have to finance the work for this period and simply do not have the cash flow to do it as they alredy have so many projects on. I cannot express enough just how busy Construction is at the moment.
Yes you keep saying how fabulously well off everyone is. Its just that the data - the House of Commons library as a source - says that this simply isn't true.
Is that net debt, or gross debt?
You tell me. If you are a household, you had £5,000 of debt owed to credit card companies last year and 12 months on its now £6,000, does it being gross or net make much of a difference?
If you had zero in savings before and now have £6000 I'd say yes.
It's a long, long time since Shipman was an NHS staff member. As a GP he was an independent individual contracting to provide certain services to the NHS.
As an NHS pensioner, I wonder if I'll get one!
I would say that you are included. I don't think that we get physical medals. Though my Trust did give out Covid Service medals, in physical form.
Even if you don't get a physical medal , can you still put the initials after your name?
I’d be surprised - it’s an award to the organisation. Malta might be a good precedent?
I was thinking of that one - Malta got a single collective GC and it's in the national museum at Valetta...
I was wondering what had happened there. I've never come across a Maltese who put GC after their name. Even one or two were were actually alive during the Siege.
According to the daily Mail…. Some residents still use “Malta GC” on letters
From Wikipedia. ...Since 1943, in accordance with the George Cross (Restriction of Use) Ordinance, it is unlawful in Malta to use the George Cross, an imitation of it or the words George Cross for the purposes of trade or business without the Prime Minister's authorisation....
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
There are a miniscule amount of idiots on the left who are woke who annoy a number on the right who think the numbers are greater than they are and who are just as woke at the other end of the scale (eg imperial measures, anthems, pledge of allegiance, etc, etc).
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
The problem is, the minuscule amount of idiots on the left wield a disproportionate amount of power, particularly in education and the charity sector. I don't want my daughters growing up being taught that white people have less moral worth than other people.
If the media only discussed the views of normal people there wouldn't be much to say.
For example "Dull centrists triumph in general election" is the true headline for every election in living memory. Not only do they come first, but they come second and third as well.
Erm, is a £400k terrace house suitable for a first time buyer? And you'd need to spend the same again on the interior so that your eyeballs in a desperate attempt for self-preservation don't climb out of your eye sockets and flee
An Aga in British Racing Green? I suspect there are one or two on here who'd leap at it.
That's not an aga.
For the true long 19th century ambience it really needs a couple of decades of soot ingrained into the wallpaper and furnishings, minus whatsoever an underfed teenage housemaid could beat out on occasional spring cleans. No vacuum cleaners in those days, or at least easily used domestic ones (I do know about the one that you could hire which came in a cart in the street and stayed out there, with long extension hoses).
Erm, is a £400k terrace house suitable for a first time buyer? And you'd need to spend the same again on the interior so that your eyeballs in a desperate attempt for self-preservation don't climb out of your eye sockets and flee
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
Thanks for the link - that helps clarifies what is going on, as the £225bn figure quoted is a wee bit smaller than the figure used for total personal debt. Paying off credit cards is definitely good news, but overall debt is still higher than before in both cash and % of income terms according to the OBR
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
That includes all debts and not especially relevant to card and other pernicious high interest debts.
The bulk of that household debt is mortgage debts and since people have been buying houses at higher prices its unsurprising that there's more household debt in aggregate, but they're not necessarily in net debt because they've got the house to show for it.
Card debts, loan sharks, payday loans etc are a much more pernicious type of debt and really need to be looked at separate to mortgage debts.
Give the NHS a bonus payment - something or other, @MaxPB's suggestion as good as any - and raise the pay by a smidge more than the 1% announced. The one-off means it is not going to be an ongoing cost and the optics of a bonus plus increased pay rise would see off the critics easily.
That's not to say that the NHS isn't a basket case, which it manifestly is.
In fact Covid was a case in point. Single focus crisis where everyone knew what to do and got on with it with fantastic efficiency.
Roll on next month/year when an 80-yr old goes to their GP with complex needs and see how the NHS fails at every turn.
In regards to bonus payments I have a friend who works part time as a nurse due to being a single mum and having to look after her kids. She was getting the £20 extra per week through her benefits, but this was ceased in April. In order to ease the burden she was given a one off benefit payment of £500.00. Im not sure if this payment was made widely or if she was just in a small group of people who were lucky.
NHS getting the George Cross - what a load of crap. Give them a 4% bonus for the year up to £2k and the previously agreed 2.1% pay rise. This is just bullshit virtue signalling and an attempt to buy the staff off with a free gesture.
When the SNP government wanted to do somethijng like what you want, it was bitterly criticised on PB as virtue signalling ...
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
There remains a massive pent up demand.
I can't see anything but a boom.
More of a consumption bubble.
Though some places might boom - those with affordable housing and good communications - with some places in recession - inner urban areas perhaps.
We really are in an economic position never seen before in the UK's history. Most people have been economically inactice over the past 18 months and are desperate to get back living again. Due to Furlough and the lack of things to spend money on over the past 18 months, millions of people are significantly better off and are ready to start spending.
To give you an idea where the Construction Industry is at the moment, Summer is normally a very busy time with schools being shut and Councils carrying out projects on them in the 6 week period. This year Councils are having to cancel projects as the Contractors that they use do not have the capacity to complete the work. Some may say this is due to the lack of EU labour and that may be true to a limited extent.The main reason is that firms are busier now than they have ever been and just simply can't do it. The thing to remember is that a company will be paid 3-4 months in arrears for works carried out. This means that Companies have to finance the work for this period and simply do not have the cash flow to do it as they alredy have so many projects on. I cannot express enough just how busy Construction is at the moment.
Yes you keep saying how fabulously well off everyone is. Its just that the data - the House of Commons library as a source - says that this simply isn't true.
Is that net debt, or gross debt?
You tell me. If you are a household, you had £5,000 of debt owed to credit card companies last year and 12 months on its now £6,000, does it being gross or net make much of a difference?
I think some people have done very well economically from lockdown, while others have done very badly. How that shakes down will alter people's perceptions. Certainly, I have done well.
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
That includes all debts and not especially relevant to card and other pernicious high interest debts.
The bulk of that household debt is mortgage debts and since people have been buying houses at higher prices its unsurprising that there's more household debt in aggregate, but they're not necessarily in net debt because they've got the house to show for it.
Card debts, loan sharks, payday loans etc are a much more pernicious type of debt and really need to be looked at separate to mortgage debts.
I agree that we have had a real problem with short term debt and Ocean Finance style loans. But if the cash going out of your bank is long term rather than short term it is still cash going out of your bank. Which I assume is why the OBR uses the debt to income measure?
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
Don't you just love it when one part of the government disagrees with another.
In reality they're both right but measuring different things. The BoE measure which is widely accepted as looking at the current credit situation in the nation shows an overall decrease consumer debt for 2020 by a fairly significant amount. The other measure puts that against household disposable income which is an estimate of how much discretionary income people have. Being an estimate and 2020 being a very unusual year it's probably incorrect.
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
That includes all debts and not especially relevant to card and other pernicious high interest debts.
The bulk of that household debt is mortgage debts and since people have been buying houses at higher prices its unsurprising that there's more household debt in aggregate, but they're not necessarily in net debt because they've got the house to show for it.
Card debts, loan sharks, payday loans etc are a much more pernicious type of debt and really need to be looked at separate to mortgage debts.
I agree that we have had a real problem with short term debt and Ocean Finance style loans. But if the cash going out of your bank is long term rather than short term it is still cash going out of your bank. Which I assume is why the OBR uses the debt to income measure?
If you were previously paying a landlord rent every month and now you're paying your bank your mortgage every month, are you in more debt or less in real terms?
I have no problem at all wearing masks when I am out and about and going to and from work every day on public transport for some time to come after the 19th.
Touch wood it's probably played a small part in keeping me safe this past year and a bit (Truth be told I think it's more down to hand hygiene/gels and distancing more than anything) either that or I have just been lucky to date considering the environment I work in.
I will respect those who choose not to wear them as long as they in turn respect my choice to continue to do so.
Covid is rarely spread through fomite transmission so be kind to your cracked hands and ditch the sanitiser.
Public mask wearing almost certainly better protects those around you rather than the wearer. If you don’t understand this and mask wearing then gives you false confidence to put yourself in poorly ventilated places, it may actually be net harmful to you. Because the virus is also aerosolised and not just spread through droplets.
Consider that 40% of the country caught this virus despite all the measures. And ask why. An erroneous and odd fixation with singing happy birthday twice while washing your hands, which did nothing for covid transmission. Combined with the 2 metre rule and mask wearing in poorly ventilated areas, rather than the simple message “OUTSIDE OUTSIDE OUTSIDE”.
A great shame as this was all largely known about well before the second wave but the comms strategy of the journalists running the country is so shit they were scared of adjusting the message.
Even now I see appalling management of the risks, with train operators blasting messages about mask wearing (wear them even on the platform!) but then keeping the windows locked shut on their trains.
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
That includes all debts and not especially relevant to card and other pernicious high interest debts.
The bulk of that household debt is mortgage debts and since people have been buying houses at higher prices its unsurprising that there's more household debt in aggregate, but they're not necessarily in net debt because they've got the house to show for it.
Card debts, loan sharks, payday loans etc are a much more pernicious type of debt and really need to be looked at separate to mortgage debts.
How about business recovery loans? Are they included? I started paying mine back last month.
While ostensibly a defence of why he agreed to work for a man who he knew was unfit to be Prime Minster, it contains some real gems.
He lies — so blatantly, so naturally, so regularly — that there is no real distinction possible with him, as there is with normal people, between truth and lies.
We knew this, I guess. Also, that he has no interest in public policy or the country itself:
All he ever showed any consistent interest in was building more trains, buses, bike lanes and the world’s most stupid and expensive tunnel from Ireland to Scotland — which, left to his own devices, he will spend more time and money on than the NHS, schools and crime combined.
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
There are a miniscule amount of idiots on the left who are woke who annoy a number on the right who think the numbers are greater than they are and who are just as woke at the other end of the scale (eg imperial measures, anthems, pledge of allegiance, etc, etc).
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
The problem is, the minuscule amount of idiots on the left wield a disproportionate amount of power, particularly in education and the charity sector. I don't want my daughters growing up being taught that white people have less moral worth than other people.
If the media only discussed the views of normal people there wouldn't be much to say.
For example "Dull centrists triumph in general election" is the true headline for every election in living memory. Not only do they come first, but they come second and third as well.
If only the NEU, the National Trust, Oxfam, Cambridge University, BBC online news, etc, etc reflected those views too then we wouldn't have a problem.
NHS getting the George Cross - what a load of crap. Give them a 4% bonus for the year up to £2k and the previously agreed 2.1% pay rise. This is just bullshit virtue signalling and an attempt to buy the staff off with a free gesture.
When the SNP government wanted to do somethijng like what you want, it was bitterly criticised on PB as virtue signalling ...
No, the virtue signalling was the SNP trying to make it tax free income. No issue with a bonus, if you want to make it post tax than you lot can pay for that up there and not ask Westminster to fund it.
I have no problem at all wearing masks when I am out and about and going to and from work every day on public transport for some time to come after the 19th.
Touch wood it's probably played a small part in keeping me safe this past year and a bit (Truth be told I think it's more down to hand hygiene/gels and distancing more than anything) either that or I have just been lucky to date considering the environment I work in.
I will respect those who choose not to wear them as long as they in turn respect my choice to continue to do so.
Covid is rarely spread through fomite transmission so be kind to your cracked hands and ditch the sanitiser.
Public mask wearing almost certainly better protects those around you rather than the wearer. If you don’t understand this and mask wearing then gives you false confidence to put yourself in poorly ventilated places, it may actually be net harmful to you. Because the virus is also aerosolised and not just spread through droplets.
Consider that 40% of the country caught this virus despite all the measures. And ask why. An erroneous and odd fixation with singing happy birthday twice while washing your hands, which did nothing for covid transmission. Combined with the 2 metre rule and mask wearing in poorly ventilated areas, rather than the simple message “OUTSIDE OUTSIDE OUTSIDE”.
A great shame as this was all largely known about well before the second wave but the comms strategy of the journalists running the country is so shit they were scared of adjusting the message.
Even now I see appalling management of the risks, with train operators blasting messages about mask wearing (wear them even on the platform!) but then keeping the windows locked shut on their trains.
All that plus, of course, airborne Covid gets in via other orifices e.g. eyes. Masks do nothing to protect against that.
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
Personally I'm quite content for the right to go down the rabbit hole on this - they'll find that most people don't even know what they're talking about. No serious lefty of my acquaintance wastes time on it. If the price of getting some proper redistribution and decent health and education for everyone is having lots of flags and being nice to statues, bring it on.
While ostensibly a defence of why he agreed to work for a man who he knew was unfit to be Prime Minster, it contains some real gems.
He lies — so blatantly, so naturally, so regularly — that there is no real distinction possible with him, as there is with normal people, between truth and lies.
We knew this, I guess. Also, that he has no interest in public policy or the country itself:
All he ever showed any consistent interest in was building more trains, buses, bike lanes and the world’s most stupid and expensive tunnel from Ireland to Scotland — which, left to his own devices, he will spend more time and money on than the NHS, schools and crime combined.
Nice to have Cummings confirm this stuff.
Yes not news to anyone.
But what is the catalyst for his demise?
Of course we need to work out in, say, 12-18 months time what harm if any it has actually caused, economically, socially, health-wise.
Because much as he is unfit to be PM and small children in Gateshead could see that, we need to see what damage that has had on the country. If any.
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
There are a miniscule amount of idiots on the left who are woke who annoy a number on the right who think the numbers are greater than they are and who are just as woke at the other end of the scale (eg imperial measures, anthems, pledge of allegiance, etc, etc).
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
The problem is, the minuscule amount of idiots on the left wield a disproportionate amount of power, particularly in education and the charity sector. I don't want my daughters growing up being taught that white people have less moral worth than other people.
If the media only discussed the views of normal people there wouldn't be much to say.
For example "Dull centrists triumph in general election" is the true headline for every election in living memory. Not only do they come first, but they come second and third as well.
If it was competent dull centrists, then it would be worth a headline.
While ostensibly a defence of why he agreed to work for a man who he knew was unfit to be Prime Minster, it contains some real gems.
He lies — so blatantly, so naturally, so regularly — that there is no real distinction possible with him, as there is with normal people, between truth and lies.
We knew this, I guess. Also, that he has no interest in public policy or the country itself:
All he ever showed any consistent interest in was building more trains, buses, bike lanes and the world’s most stupid and expensive tunnel from Ireland to Scotland — which, left to his own devices, he will spend more time and money on than the NHS, schools and crime combined.
Nice to have Cummings confirm this stuff.
I made the same suggestion here, that at least some of Boris's untruths are so natural and reflexive they are not even lies, if lies need some element of cynical calculation and intent. Likewise his disregard of rules and conventions, even the law. He cannot be judged by normal political standards. Boris is sui generis.
The Independent's political editor Andrew Woodcock has bestowed a new soubriquet on Dominic Cummings. Apparently Cummings is a "backroom supremo". So the Woodcock tells us. (I believe "Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother" used to have an employee who was similarly known, first name "Bertie".) Curiously nothing much about Michael Gove appeared in any of the Sunday papers yesterday.
The Independent's political editor Andrew Woodcock has bestowed a new soubriquet on Dominic Cummings. Apparently Cummings is a "backroom supremo". So the Woodcock tells us. (I believe "Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother" used to have an employee who was similarly known, first name "Bertie".) Curiously nothing much about Michael Gove appeared in any of the Sunday papers yesterday.
Super injunction? Or actually nothing to tell on Gove?
In some ways I think the NHS GC is well deserved: it has been fantastic for this country.
However: I don't want the NHS to turn into a religion that can do no wrong. My own youth was blighted by a mistake made by the NHS, which took years to correct. The Stafford scandal also shows what happens when the NHS becomes above criticism.
I fear we're heading that way, and whilst it will be good for staff, it won't be good for patients.
The NHS is staffed by human beings, not deities, and some will make mistakes. When those mistakes occur, the correct response is openness, not the circling of the wagons.
This has already happened. There are endless scandals in the NHS - see the latest in a long line of maternity scandals, for instance. And the NHS has a very poor record in how it treats whistleblowers.
Undoubtedly many of the doctors and others working in the front line this last year and a half have behaved exceptionally and deserve our thanks. But to venerate every aspect of the NHS is absurd and does not accord with reality.
To give an example, Daughter has injured her lower leg in some way - possibly a hairline fracture from her running - which has been causing her some pain for weeks now. As you can imagine, this is not ideal in her job. Telephones surgery to get an appointment and is told to go to A&E. Does so. A&E furious and ring up surgery to give them a bollocking and so she gets the appointment. Sees doc who says that she needs an X-ray. Books her in. Then rings back to say that has talked to another doc and better to wait another 3 weeks for x-ray. By which time it will have been at least 6 weeks since pain started before she even gets a diagnosis let alone treatment. Absurd.
Meanwhile the doc said "I can give you a sick note for your employer and you can stay off work for a few weeks". The withering contempt with which Daughter explained the reality to the doctor will, I hope, make him feel shame for some time to come.
So Daughter now using crutch to get around, sits behind bar and does what she can to avoid running around too much and orders everyone else around to do the fetching and carrying. Meanwhile let's hope that leg injury does not get worse.
The GP receptionist does have a reputation of doing everything possible to avoid making any appointments for anyone. She certainly does not deserve any sort of medal.
While ostensibly a defence of why he agreed to work for a man who he knew was unfit to be Prime Minster, it contains some real gems.
He lies — so blatantly, so naturally, so regularly — that there is no real distinction possible with him, as there is with normal people, between truth and lies.
We knew this, I guess. Also, that he has no interest in public policy or the country itself:
All he ever showed any consistent interest in was building more trains, buses, bike lanes and the world’s most stupid and expensive tunnel from Ireland to Scotland — which, left to his own devices, he will spend more time and money on than the NHS, schools and crime combined.
Nice to have Cummings confirm this stuff.
I made the same suggestion here, that at least some of Boris's untruths are so natural and reflexive they are not even lies, if lies need some element of cynical calculation and intent. Likewise his disregard of rules and conventions, even the law. He cannot be judged by normal political standards. Boris is sui generis.
So basically, as far as lying and truth and reality goes he is mini-Trump.
"Likewise, businesses will be coming up with their own rules, based on what they see as their core demographic. A sports bar in Chelmsford, decked out in England flags? My feeling is it won't require masks. A vegan cafe in Islington or Bristol? You will have to wrap up your face before ordering that soyamilk fair trade latte.
Over time, the political and socio economic divide could even deepen. Sound familiar? Maskers and anti-maskers look set to become the new Remainers and Leavers (with almost, if not quite, the same tribes in both camps). Very few people on either side of that bitter debate were actually very interested in the finer points of tariffs on citrus fruits, or what the European Commission's plans for the digital transformation of European industry might be this week. They wanted to say something about themselves.
We might have hoped that Covid-19 would soon be behind us. There seems little chance of that now. The divisions lockdowns have opened up and exacerbated will run for years."
Personally, I'm more optimistic. I think a lot of the pro-masking is for show. Given the choice, excepting a tiny minority, people don't wear masks. The noises in America prior to unmasking were that many would virtuously continue to wear them. From what I understand - and I'm happy to be corrected by American correspondents - they haven't. Making a statement about which camp you sit in becomes less attractive when you have to wear a horrible rag around your face to do it.
Data of one - moi. About as firmly on the metro woke left remainer side of the culture wars as you can get. Wear a mask only where it's required. So if the requirement is dropped, no mask for me. Would I boycott places that decide to keep the rule? No - don't feel strongly enough - but I'd probably avoid them if there were suitable alternatives.
I'm not sure what's worse: the lucky February coincidence or that they've not even had to wait six months before copping the big'un.
Isn't there a conspiracy theory that bonds purchased more recently do better? I haven't bothered buying any, but if interest rates don't go back to something like pre-COVID by Christmas then I might. But then I guess there has to be a real chance that the government slashes NS&I rates.
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
Personally I'm quite content for the right to go down the rabbit hole on this - they'll find that most people don't even know what they're talking about. No serious lefty of my acquaintance wastes time on it. If the price of getting some proper redistribution and decent health and education for everyone is having lots of flags and being nice to statues, bring it on.
Your age is a factor here. Older people don’t see Wokeness, or its dangers, as they don’t encounter it. It’s a young person thing.
Lithic dildo-knapping is notoriously a youthful industry - the sheer physical strength required to carve a frenulum from Nilotic alabaster demands it - so I come across Wokery all the time
At the moment we are being asked to capitalize Ebony in our invoices but leave ivory in minuscules
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
There are a miniscule amount of idiots on the left who are woke who annoy a number on the right who think the numbers are greater than they are and who are just as woke at the other end of the scale (eg imperial measures, anthems, pledge of allegiance, etc, etc).
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
Like many on here, you are utterly clueless as to the extent Wokeness has penetrated into education, law, government, charities, the arts. It now spreads into corporate culture like the fungus it is
The people who minimize or dismiss Woke generally only do it because they have not been impacted by it. Yet
The alternative is that they are too old or dim to comprehend
The alternative is that you and the anti-woke warriors are paranoid and like the boy in The Sixth Sense see woke people. They're everywhere!
"Woke". A blanket term imposed by twats on people who aren't twats. Its "political correctness" for the 2020s. If you aren't desperately angry and worried by the fungus that is Woke, that means that you are woke.
You are clearly the stupidest person on this site. No offence. Which is why I generally never respond to you - but I thought you deserved an explanation as to my silence, this one time
The Independent's political editor Andrew Woodcock has bestowed a new soubriquet on Dominic Cummings. Apparently Cummings is a "backroom supremo". So the Woodcock tells us. (I believe "Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother" used to have an employee who was similarly known, first name "Bertie".) Curiously nothing much about Michael Gove appeared in any of the Sunday papers yesterday.
Super injunction? Or actually nothing to tell on Gove?
I doubt it. Unlike Hancock - whose wife found out their marriage was in trouble less than 24 hours before the Sun splash, it sounds like Gove's marriage has been in trouble for some time. For all we know they may have been room-mates in all but name by now.
I'm not sure what's worse: the lucky February coincidence or that they've not even had to wait six months before copping the big'un.
Isn't there a conspiracy theory that bonds purchased more recently do better? I haven't bothered buying any, but if interest rates don't go back to something like pre-COVID by Christmas then I might. But then I guess there has to be a real chance that the government slashes NS&I rates.
I really couldn't say. Just looking at the holdings in that link, many are at the maximum so it is probably seen as an alternative investment by the well-off: interest rates are low but the money is safe and there is always the chance of a big win. (Probably, like the National Lottery, Premium Bonds depend on people not realising how astronomical are the odds against them.) Like many working class babies in decades gone by, I was given a handful at birth: is that still a thing now?
While ostensibly a defence of why he agreed to work for a man who he knew was unfit to be Prime Minster, it contains some real gems.
He lies — so blatantly, so naturally, so regularly — that there is no real distinction possible with him, as there is with normal people, between truth and lies.
We knew this, I guess. Also, that he has no interest in public policy or the country itself:
All he ever showed any consistent interest in was building more trains, buses, bike lanes and the world’s most stupid and expensive tunnel from Ireland to Scotland — which, left to his own devices, he will spend more time and money on than the NHS, schools and crime combined.
Nice to have Cummings confirm this stuff.
I made the same suggestion here, that at least some of Boris's untruths are so natural and reflexive they are not even lies, if lies need some element of cynical calculation and intent. Likewise his disregard of rules and conventions, even the law. He cannot be judged by normal political standards. Boris is sui generis.
Another good one to give the essence of this man who's our PM was what reportedly was his priority during the argument on how much to spend (or not) on the pupil catch-up and what it ought to entail. No interest in either the detail or the big picture. Just -
"So will I be able to say that it's the biggest tutoring backlog scheme in the world?"
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
There are a miniscule amount of idiots on the left who are woke who annoy a number on the right who think the numbers are greater than they are and who are just as woke at the other end of the scale (eg imperial measures, anthems, pledge of allegiance, etc, etc).
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
Like many on here, you are utterly clueless as to the extent Wokeness has penetrated into education, law, government, charities, the arts. It now spreads into corporate culture like the fungus it is
The people who minimize or dismiss Woke generally only do it because they have not been impacted by it. Yet
The alternative is that they are too old or dim to comprehend
The alternative is that you and the anti-woke warriors are paranoid and like the boy in The Sixth Sense see woke people. They're everywhere!
"Woke". A blanket term imposed by twats on people who aren't twats. Its "political correctness" for the 2020s. If you aren't desperately angry and worried by the fungus that is Woke, that means that you are woke.
You are clearly the stupidest person on this site. No offence. Which is why I generally never respond to you - but I thought you deserved an explanation as to my silence, this one time
I'm not sure what's worse: the lucky February coincidence or that they've not even had to wait six months before copping the big'un.
Isn't there a conspiracy theory that bonds purchased more recently do better? I haven't bothered buying any, but if interest rates don't go back to something like pre-COVID by Christmas then I might. But then I guess there has to be a real chance that the government slashes NS&I rates.
had a £1000 worth for seven years and did not win a thing. The odds on that were about 2% . Whilst I get that ERNIE does not select tickets as such but numbers that are then matched to current bonds list , with that apparent luck I had doubts in my mid my numbers were active so sold out. Probably irrational as maybe I was just very unlucky but no point in playing something if you are not convinced yourself you are in the game!
Any idea when Boris is meant to speak today about what's going on with lifting lockdown? If it is today?
Will it be to Parliament or a press conference? After Hoyle got upset last time I'm guessing Parliament?
Seemingly they are doing it simultaneously at 5pm. Not sure that is what Holye requires...
Thank you.
It is what was agreed with Hoyle actually. Which I think was a mistake by Hoyle - the media will go full on with the Prime Minister and the questions the media asks him, while the Health Secretary and the Opposition and MPs scrutiny of him will get much less attention.
Better I would think for Parliament to be done at a separate time, even if it was later rather than first.
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
There are a miniscule amount of idiots on the left who are woke who annoy a number on the right who think the numbers are greater than they are and who are just as woke at the other end of the scale (eg imperial measures, anthems, pledge of allegiance, etc, etc).
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
Like many on here, you are utterly clueless as to the extent Wokeness has penetrated into education, law, government, charities, the arts. It now spreads into corporate culture like the fungus it is
The people who minimize or dismiss Woke generally only do it because they have not been impacted by it. Yet
The alternative is that they are too old or dim to comprehend
Well there is nothing like jumping in feet first with total arrogance and ignorance is there. You have no idea if I have expertise in any of a wide range of areas you have covered (Education, Law, Government, Charities, Arts and now Corporate). I mean with that list it is quite likely I am involved in one or more and it is pretty well impossible for you to be involved in all of them or come to that many of them. Yet apparently I am clueless and you are not. I would try looking into a mirror if I were you.
And the really nutty thing is I agree with you re wokeness, in particular if you read my posts you would know I have a real hang up about jobs worth attitudes and bureaucracy which wokeness tend to create.
I think you have shown by your enormous leaps to conclusions based upon no evidence about me I don't think we can rely on your knowledge on the amount of wokeness that exists either.
The Independent's political editor Andrew Woodcock has bestowed a new soubriquet on Dominic Cummings. Apparently Cummings is a "backroom supremo". So the Woodcock tells us. (I believe "Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother" used to have an employee who was similarly known, first name "Bertie".) Curiously nothing much about Michael Gove appeared in any of the Sunday papers yesterday.
Super injunction? Or actually nothing to tell on Gove?
Have heard all kinds of fabulously salty things since the split. That there is a super-injunction sized hole in the media black enough to be seen by the light not escaping from it perhaps explains why there is literally nothing being said about him.
As always I have no interest in his private life so long as it is private and doesn't impact onto his public life.
I suspect the Tories would have taken B & S but for moron Matt Hancock. How many years have I been saying the guy was an idiot and a liability on here?
GIN knew...
I can't see Starmer beating Boris in a general election and suspect the Conservatives will be returned at the next general election with a reduced majority. It'll be 1992/2005 all over again...
Boris goes a couple of years after the next election and Labour wins in 2028/2029.
2030's may well be a Labour decade! Hang in there PB lefties
Mancock was hardly the stand out moron in the cabinet. Several of them have lied and broken the ministerial code and not followed their own guidance and and and...
As for the PM his challenge is going to be coping with 2022 and 2023 not being the big party he hoped for. The economy has been ravaged by Covid and that means belt-tightening. At the very least he won't be spending the promised cash in the red wall, at the very worst we're back to austerity cuts.
Unlike his predecessors he is shit at spinning positives out of bad news, so if they aren't going to bin him off at the first sign of the polls softening it will be fun to watch.
Im not sure you are right on the economy, I think 2022/2023 will be boom years, people have a lot of money to spend.
I struggle to see how your optimism translates into reality. We've had to tip a bonfire of money away to stop a massive contraction becoming a permanent reduction. We need to generate economic growth to manage that away and we're in a more isolated position than we were before it started.
The way out of not just this mess but the significant structural imbalances in the economy built up over decades is to invest heavily in the new economy. Which means looking at our needs in the next decade - this lot seem fixated on tomorrow's headlines.
The optimism is based on the fact that people have repaid their debts at rates never seen before over the past 18 months. Also individual savings have increased markedly.
I suspect for some of us its been a 'good' year or so financially, but on average not. Personally WFH so less travelling has saved me a fair bit of money.
NHS getting the George Cross - what a load of crap. Give them a 4% bonus for the year up to £2k and the previously agreed 2.1% pay rise. This is just bullshit virtue signalling and an attempt to buy the staff off with a free gesture.
When the SNP government wanted to do somethijng like what you want, it was bitterly criticised on PB as virtue signalling ...
That was the perfect PB cocktail of outrage, the Natz virtue signalling & spending honest English £s just to be different. Haven’t heard much criticism of the unions plotting strike action because the SNHS pay rise isn’t high enough.
The last thing we needed was to follow the US in being obsessed with this topic, but it looks like it's going to happen anyway.
Cheer up. If Wokeness enters the mainstream it can only be bad for the Left. When people begin to understand Wokery, most of them begin to dislike it. The more they know of Woke, the more they detest. See what happened to feminism, encountering Wokeism in the trans debate. An early UK skirmish.
The Left will soon be in retreat in the culture wars, after decades of stealthy advance
There are a miniscule amount of idiots on the left who are woke who annoy a number on the right who think the numbers are greater than they are and who are just as woke at the other end of the scale (eg imperial measures, anthems, pledge of allegiance, etc, etc).
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
Like many on here, you are utterly clueless as to the extent Wokeness has penetrated into education, law, government, charities, the arts. It now spreads into corporate culture like the fungus it is
The people who minimize or dismiss Woke generally only do it because they have not been impacted by it. Yet
The alternative is that they are too old or dim to comprehend
The alternative is that you and the anti-woke warriors are paranoid and like the boy in The Sixth Sense see woke people. They're everywhere!
"Woke". A blanket term imposed by twats on people who aren't twats. Its "political correctness" for the 2020s. If you aren't desperately angry and worried by the fungus that is Woke, that means that you are woke.
Unless I missed something, wasn't the point at the end of the Sixth Sense that the boy wasn't paranoid and he actually could see them? Which played into its famous ending of course.
I'm not sure what's worse: the lucky February coincidence or that they've not even had to wait six months before copping the big'un.
Isn't there a conspiracy theory that bonds purchased more recently do better? I haven't bothered buying any, but if interest rates don't go back to something like pre-COVID by Christmas then I might. But then I guess there has to be a real chance that the government slashes NS&I rates.
had a £1000 worth for seven years and did not win a thing. The odds on that were about 2% . Whilst I get that ERNIE does not select tickets as such but numbers that are then matched to current bonds list , with that apparent luck I had doubts in my mid my numbers were active so sold out. Probably irrational as maybe I was just very unlucky but no point in playing something if you are not convinced yourself you are in the game!
I had £50k of premium bonds for a year as an experiment. I won about £400. 0.8% interest. It’s not great
I sold £20k and since then HMG has cut the rates so I shall soon sell the rest, I think
They rely on punters with a lotttery-winning mindset. ‘I will be the exception that wins a million!’
This is an extremely common human foible (I believe it has a name but I am too hot in Majorca to Google) so it makes sense
The Independent's political editor Andrew Woodcock has bestowed a new soubriquet on Dominic Cummings. Apparently Cummings is a "backroom supremo". So the Woodcock tells us. (I believe "Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother" used to have an employee who was similarly known, first name "Bertie".) Curiously nothing much about Michael Gove appeared in any of the Sunday papers yesterday.
Super injunction? Or actually nothing to tell on Gove?
Have heard all kinds of fabulously salty things since the split. That there is a super-injunction sized hole in the media black enough to be seen by the light not escaping from it perhaps explains why there is literally nothing being said about him.
As always I have no interest in his private life so long as it is private and doesn't impact onto his public life.
Or there's nothing being said because there's nothing to say.
Super injunctions seemed to have died a death, unless I'm much mistaken, because anything subject to a superinjunction would simply end up on a non-English news source . . . even Scottish ones or sites like Guido Fawkes . . . or mentioned in Parliament at which point everyone could report it freely as Parliament trumps even superinjunctions.
Comments
Also, lots of the more vulnerable/exposed are pro-mask wearing (e.g. the comparatively young staff in the Costa I'm currently sitting in are vocal in the opinion of non-mask wearers).
I don't think it is as clear-cut as veganism v. flags on the Vauxhall Astra.
Though some places might boom - those with affordable housing and good communications - with some places in recession - inner urban areas perhaps.
https://twitter.com/HelloFromMarcus/status/1411625316976676865
After all, just before WWII, it was a chaotic collection of warring factions/states, with the Japanese conducting their own form of local genocides. Along with the many crimes he committed, Mao turned China back into an independent nation.
Russia is somewhat different, but many of the other communist revolutions were as much nationalist uprisings as they were ideological - and one of the West's bigger postwar mistakes (see Vietnam) was not recognising that.
Pass the sick bag. Have they no shame?
It could have been quite a TV event, though, with Dido in ermine solemnly curtseying to accept the medal on behalf of the customers of TalkTalk and Tesco and the "general public" and Sun readers generally.
Just of out interest, who pays the monarch's insurance premiums that cover her treatment at the private King Edward VII's hospital in the Harley Street district?
The anti-vax, anti-mask crowd will not wear one anyway vaccinated or not
I noticed yesterday that very few are wearing masks when going in and out of gym entrance. In the gym fewer people are spraying that ghastly pink disinfectant over the equipment before and after use as the signs instruct.
My gym has not heard the months-old news that transmission via surfaces is not a thing. Meanwhile, ventilation and AC is inadequate ...
Some couples could.
Perhaps they like Laura Ashley - which is now arguaby vintage.
The cutting edge trend was towards more visual interest 2-3 years ago. This could be next !
Very practical - galley kitchen, 2 receptions, 2 double beds.
The interior is a bit OTT, too.
Touch wood it's probably played a small part in keeping me safe this past year and a bit (Truth be told I think it's more down to hand hygiene/gels and distancing more than anything) either that or I have just been lucky to date considering the environment I work in.
I will respect those who choose not to wear them as long as they in turn respect my choice to continue to do so.
And several have piped up about this one, as stocky notes. Consistency has been demonstrated.
More stupid still is it shouldn't be 'the NHS' that we award. The NHS is an institution, not a person. The NHS hasn't demonstrated courage. Individual doctors and nurses have shown courage - quite massive courage, especially in the early days when we knew little about the virus. There countless examples of individual health workers doing their jobs in the face of not insignificant danger to themselves. It is individuals we should be recognising, not an impersonal institution.
To give you an idea where the Construction Industry is at the moment, Summer is normally a very busy time with schools being shut and Councils carrying out projects on them in the 6 week period. This year Councils are having to cancel projects as the Contractors that they use do not have the capacity to complete the work. Some may say this is due to the lack of EU labour and that may be true to a limited extent.The main reason is that firms are busier now than they have ever been and just simply can't do it. The thing to remember is that a company will be paid 3-4 months in arrears for works carried out. This means that Companies have to finance the work for this period and simply do not have the cash flow to do it as they alredy have so many projects on. I cannot express enough just how busy Construction is at the moment.
For some BLM-sympathetic Americans, ‘defund the police’ does follow TSE’s interpretation - demilitarize them, take away some weapons, reallocate resources. All quite arguable in the context of American policing, as we have sadly seen
However for hardcore BLM, ‘defund the police’ means what it apparently says. Get rid of the cops. Take away all their money. Give the job of neighbourhood security to social workers and ‘community activists’. See the various campaigns to persuade whites that it is racist simply to call the cops if they believe a black person is committing a crime
‘For example, the Oakland Power Projects, an initiative by the police abolition organization Critical Resistance, has offered training for health workers and community members on how to respond to crises without calling police.’
https://www.vox.com/2021/4/14/22374196/calling-the-police-violence-alternatives
You read that correctly. They want to ABOLISH the police
This is the madness at the heart of BLM and CRT. This is what the right must use to expose and destroy the Left
Try putting some Ikea stuff in their and it would look even worse.
Communism has had a lot longer to rack up those numbers too. The Nazis had five years.
It's all grotesque though, really, isn't it? Both systems are vile and inhuman. I hope as a species we never get there, killing huge numbers for ideological reasons, again. But we probably will.
The rest of us are normal and don't give a toss either way and think both groups are prats.
Logically that makes sense to me. Not sure if I'd be able to follow through. I'd feel an idiot being the only person wearing a mask, even if it makes sense, and wearing one makes me feel panicked.
The people who minimize or dismiss Woke generally only do it because they have not been impacted by it. Yet
The alternative is that they are too old or dim to comprehend
Embarrassing and Naff
Give the NHS a bonus payment - something or other, @MaxPB's suggestion as good as any - and raise the pay by a smidge more than the 1% announced. The one-off means it is not going to be an ongoing cost and the optics of a bonus plus increased pay rise would see off the critics easily.
That's not to say that the NHS isn't a basket case, which it manifestly is.
In fact Covid was a case in point. Single focus crisis where everyone knew what to do and got on with it with fantastic efficiency.
Roll on next month/year when an 80-yr old goes to their GP with complex needs and see how the NHS fails at every turn.
I don't want my daughters growing up being taught that white people have less moral worth than other people.
"Woke". A blanket term imposed by twats on people who aren't twats. Its "political correctness" for the 2020s. If you aren't desperately angry and worried by the fungus that is Woke, that means that you are woke.
Compared to this pointless GC gesture that's not too bad. At least it's something we can use.
There is data the other way, though, too, as you show.
...Since 1943, in accordance with the George Cross (Restriction of Use) Ordinance, it is unlawful in Malta to use the George Cross, an imitation of it or the words George Cross for the purposes of trade or business without the Prime Minister's authorisation....
For example "Dull centrists triumph in general election" is the true headline for every election in living memory. Not only do they come first, but they come second and third as well.
The bulk of that household debt is mortgage debts and since people have been buying houses at higher prices its unsurprising that there's more household debt in aggregate, but they're not necessarily in net debt because they've got the house to show for it.
Card debts, loan sharks, payday loans etc are a much more pernicious type of debt and really need to be looked at separate to mortgage debts.
Don't you just love it when one part of the government disagrees with another.
In reality they're both right but measuring different things. The BoE measure which is widely accepted as looking at the current credit situation in the nation shows an overall decrease consumer debt for 2020 by a fairly significant amount. The other measure puts that against household disposable income which is an estimate of how much discretionary income people have. Being an estimate and 2020 being a very unusual year it's probably incorrect.
Public mask wearing almost certainly better protects those around you rather than the wearer. If you don’t understand this and mask wearing then gives you false confidence to put yourself in poorly ventilated places, it may actually be net harmful to you. Because the virus is also aerosolised and not just spread through droplets.
Consider that 40% of the country caught this virus despite all the measures. And ask why. An erroneous and odd fixation with singing happy birthday twice while washing your hands, which did nothing for covid transmission. Combined with the 2 metre rule and mask wearing in poorly ventilated areas, rather than the simple message “OUTSIDE OUTSIDE OUTSIDE”.
A great shame as this was all largely known about well before the second wave but the comms strategy of the journalists running the country is so shit they were scared of adjusting the message.
Even now I see appalling management of the risks, with train operators blasting messages about mask wearing (wear them even on the platform!) but then keeping the windows locked shut on their trains.
While ostensibly a defence of why he agreed to work for a man who he knew was unfit to be Prime Minster, it contains some real gems.
He lies — so blatantly, so naturally, so regularly — that there is no real distinction possible with him, as there is with normal people, between truth and lies.
We knew this, I guess. Also, that he has no interest in public policy or the country itself:
All he ever showed any consistent interest in was building more trains, buses, bike lanes and the world’s most stupid and expensive tunnel from Ireland to Scotland — which, left to his own devices, he will spend more time and money on than the NHS, schools and crime combined.
Nice to have Cummings confirm this stuff.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-1637084/Premium-Bonds-winning-numbers.html
I'm not sure what's worse: the lucky February coincidence or that they've not even had to wait six months before copping the big'un.
But what is the catalyst for his demise?
Of course we need to work out in, say, 12-18 months time what harm if any it has actually caused, economically, socially, health-wise.
Because much as he is unfit to be PM and small children in Gateshead could see that, we need to see what damage that has had on the country. If any.
Unless..
Undoubtedly many of the doctors and others working in the front line this last year and a half have behaved exceptionally and deserve our thanks. But to venerate every aspect of the NHS is absurd and does not accord with reality.
To give an example, Daughter has injured her lower leg in some way - possibly a hairline fracture from her running - which has been causing her some pain for weeks now. As you can imagine, this is not ideal in her job. Telephones surgery to get an appointment and is told to go to A&E. Does so. A&E furious and ring up surgery to give them a bollocking and so she gets the appointment. Sees doc who says that she needs an X-ray. Books her in. Then rings back to say that has talked to another doc and better to wait another 3 weeks for x-ray. By which time it will have been at least 6 weeks since pain started before she even gets a diagnosis let alone treatment. Absurd.
Meanwhile the doc said "I can give you a sick note for your employer and you can stay off work for a few weeks". The withering contempt with which Daughter explained the reality to the doctor will, I hope, make him feel shame for some time to come.
So Daughter now using crutch to get around, sits behind bar and does what she can to avoid running around too much and orders everyone else around to do the fetching and carrying. Meanwhile let's hope that leg injury does not get worse.
The GP receptionist does have a reputation of doing everything possible to avoid making any appointments for anyone. She certainly does not deserve any sort of medal.
About as firmly on the metro woke left remainer side of the culture wars as you can get.
Wear a mask only where it's required. So if the requirement is dropped, no mask for me.
Would I boycott places that decide to keep the rule? No - don't feel strongly enough - but I'd probably avoid them if there were suitable alternatives.
Lithic dildo-knapping is notoriously a youthful industry - the sheer physical strength required to carve a frenulum from Nilotic alabaster demands it - so I come across Wokery all the time
At the moment we are being asked to capitalize Ebony in our invoices but leave ivory in minuscules
Will it be to Parliament or a press conference? After Hoyle got upset last time I'm guessing Parliament?
"So will I be able to say that it's the biggest tutoring backlog scheme in the world?"
It is what was agreed with Hoyle actually. Which I think was a mistake by Hoyle - the media will go full on with the Prime Minister and the questions the media asks him, while the Health Secretary and the Opposition and MPs scrutiny of him will get much less attention.
Better I would think for Parliament to be done at a separate time, even if it was later rather than first.
And the really nutty thing is I agree with you re wokeness, in particular if you read my posts you would know I have a real hang up about jobs worth attitudes and bureaucracy which wokeness tend to create.
I think you have shown by your enormous leaps to conclusions based upon no evidence about me I don't think we can rely on your knowledge on the amount of wokeness that exists either.
As always I have no interest in his private life so long as it is private and doesn't impact onto his public life.
I sold £20k and since then HMG has cut the rates so I shall soon sell the rest, I think
They rely on punters with a lotttery-winning mindset. ‘I will be the exception that wins a million!’
This is an extremely common human foible (I believe it has a name but I am too hot in Majorca to Google) so it makes sense
Super injunctions seemed to have died a death, unless I'm much mistaken, because anything subject to a superinjunction would simply end up on a non-English news source . . . even Scottish ones or sites like Guido Fawkes . . . or mentioned in Parliament at which point everyone could report it freely as Parliament trumps even superinjunctions.