Movement grows to replace statues of Columbus with ones dedicated to a more respected figure—TV detective Lieutenant Columbo https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/movement-grows-to-replace-statues-of-columbus-with-ones-dedicated-to-a-more-respected-figure-tv-detective-lieutenant-columbo ...“Through a better understanding of history, Christopher Columbus no longer represents the values we wish to instill on future generations, yet monuments of this controversial figure are still in place throughout the country,” the organiser Ryan Toohey says. “We should replace the Columbus statue in Detroit with that of someone we can all admire; someone who always pursued truth and justice—Columbo. With only slight modifications to the plaque and the addition of a frumpy coat to the original statue, we can transform a symbol of hate into a beacon of hope.”...
Everybody thought Columbus was an idiot. They were right.
He miscalculated the size of the Earth, getting a value about half the true value and so thought that India/China (he basically thought they were the same) and so thought that India was only a few thousand km west of Portugal.
That is why the native people of the Americas were called Indians for so long, and why we talk about the West Indies: Columbus died convinced that he had found India.
Everyone thought Columbo was an idiot. But it was all an act and he was just reeling them to collect the evidence.
Back to the statues.
So the plan is to tear down statues of an Italian immigrant and replace it with statues of non-Italian rich white man who plays an Italian origin *policeman* as a *hero*? A hero who arrests women and minorities and does so without any real world US police behaviour?
Where this did come from - Donald Trump?
real world US police behaviour meaning kneeling on people's necks?
And shooting people for wearing a loud shirt in a built up area..... We never see Columbo or any policeman on the show doing that.
Columbo didn't carry a gun. It almost got him in trouble in one episode.
Contrast that to the real world - where an ex-special forces guy fresh out Afghanistan failed his probation as a cop for not being... militaristic enough in his police work....
On the subject of Afghanistan, it really does look like the last couple of months of South Vietnam.
The world isn't very interested.
If it is then that would be disastrous for the Democrats, President Ford of course lost his re election attempt in 1976 after the final Vietnam withdrawal in 1975 and the fall of Saigon.
However I think the Afghan government and military should hold Kabul at least even if much of the rest of the country falls to the Taliban. Of course the original aim of the 2001 invasion was not to remove the Taliban, who had been in power for 5 years prior but to remove Al Qaeda from the country and kill Bin Laden, both of which aims were achieved.
Longer term a deal will likely have to be done to give the Taliban some role in the government of the country in return for committing to help keep Al Qaeda and ISIS out
Of course, the fact that the previous President and Vice-President had been forced out of their positions for *different* bits of corruption had absolutely nothing to do with the Republican's defeat in 1976.
Ford was not Nixon and had relatively high approval ratings initially which collapsed by the fall of Saigon.
In 1974 for example Ford's approval was at 71% despite Watergate, which had plummeted to 40% by April 1975 and the fall of Saigon
So, you're going with the pardoning of Nixon having - and I'll quote myself again - "absolutely nothing" to do with Ford's loss in 1976?
It's worth nothing that in the 1974 midterms - which was before the fall of Saigon - the Republicans suffered one of the worst performances by an incumbent party, being almost 20 points behind the Democrats. That compares to a c. seven point deficit for President Trump's Republicans.
Movement grows to replace statues of Columbus with ones dedicated to a more respected figure—TV detective Lieutenant Columbo https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/movement-grows-to-replace-statues-of-columbus-with-ones-dedicated-to-a-more-respected-figure-tv-detective-lieutenant-columbo ...“Through a better understanding of history, Christopher Columbus no longer represents the values we wish to instill on future generations, yet monuments of this controversial figure are still in place throughout the country,” the organiser Ryan Toohey says. “We should replace the Columbus statue in Detroit with that of someone we can all admire; someone who always pursued truth and justice—Columbo. With only slight modifications to the plaque and the addition of a frumpy coat to the original statue, we can transform a symbol of hate into a beacon of hope.”...
Everybody thought Columbus was an idiot. They were right.
He miscalculated the size of the Earth, getting a value about half the true value and so thought that India/China (he basically thought they were the same) and so thought that India was only a few thousand km west of Portugal.
That is why the native people of the Americas were called Indians for so long, and why we talk about the West Indies: Columbus died convinced that he had found India.
Everyone thought Columbo was an idiot. But it was all an act and he was just reeling them to collect the evidence.
Back to the statues.
So the plan is to tear down statues of an Italian immigrant and replace it with statues of non-Italian rich white man who plays an Italian origin *policeman* as a *hero*? A hero who arrests women and minorities and does so without any real world US police behaviour?
Where this did come from - Donald Trump?
real world US police behaviour meaning kneeling on people's necks?
And shooting people for wearing a loud shirt in a built up area..... We never see Columbo or any policeman on the show doing that.
Columbo didn't carry a gun. It almost got him in trouble in one episode.
Contrast that to the real world - where an ex-special forces guy fresh out Afghanistan failed his probation as a cop for not being... militaristic enough in his police work....
On the subject of Afghanistan, it really does look like the last couple of months of South Vietnam.
The world isn't very interested.
If it is then that would be disastrous for the Democrats, President Ford of course lost his re election attempt in 1976 after the final Vietnam withdrawal in 1975 and the fall of Saigon.
However I think the Afghan government and military should hold Kabul at least even if much of the rest of the country falls to the Taliban. Of course the original aim of the 2001 invasion was not to remove the Taliban, who had been in power for 5 years prior but to remove Al Qaeda from the country and kill Bin Laden, both of which aims were achieved.
Longer term a deal will likely have to be done to give the Taliban some role in the government of the country in return for committing to help keep Al Qaeda and ISIS out
Of course, the fact that the previous President and Vice-President had been forced out of their positions for *different* bits of corruption had absolutely nothing to do with the Republican's defeat in 1976.
Ford was not Nixon and had relatively high approval ratings initially which collapsed by the fall of Saigon.
In 1974 for example Ford's approval was at 71% despite Watergate, which had plummeted to 40% by April 1975 and the fall of Saigon
Surely HYUFD you’re not suggesting that polling today might not be the best indicator of what might happen months or years into the future? And that “events” both foreseeable or not might have a role to play?
I can tell you that if Kabul fell back to the Taliban on Biden's watch it would define his presidency and not in a good way for him and Harris
Its a good job half of Europe won't be heading to the likes of Spain, Portugal and Greece for their summer holidays....
Once Delta is seeded (as it is in Europe), then the extra mingling will likely have relatively little effect.
Simply: a Germany will be generating 10,000 cases a day from Delta irrespective in three or four weeks. That's 70,000/week. Even if 2,000 people came back from Spain every week with infections (and bear in mind that EU air travel is still down 80% from prepandemic levels), it'd be a pimple on growth.
Schools are the biggest delta for the spread of Delta - and both the EU and the US are lucky that they are shut for the summer holidays. The EU doubly-so, because it enables them to catch up in the vaccine stakes.
Nope. It’s absolutely insane. Makes absolutely no sense. They have a ban on us to stop us bringing and spreading Covid.But as soon as we switch to a policy everyone in UK must have COVID and be a spreader, this is the moment the EU open their arms to us? That makes no sense at all.
Based on the announcements from UK this week, EU should be further from opening to us, not closer.
I witnessed an ABBA shootout at the Community Shield a few years ago and that was a much fairer way of doing it. Not sure why it didn’t become the default.
The world is still to come round to my way of thinking of playing the penalty shootout before extra time, so that the team that lost it know they have to win the game in extra time - draw isn't enough for the losers of the penalties.
The extra incentive to throw people at it and then the chance of them being hit on the counter would make extra time an event as opposed to a (9 time out of 10) petering out of the game.
It probably wouldn't work, but let's try it anyway!
Yes, I’ve advocated this for a long time.
If we must persist with shootouts, this seems a great idea to me. I’m amazed I’ve not seen it seriously suggested before.
Because it’s not a good idea. Not much wrong with shootouts anyway - a real test of skill under pressure.
Well they decide a match based on an extremely narrow facet of the game - they are far from ideal as a tiebreaker.
A golden goal after the 30 minutes of extra time please.
Think you’d then get lots of injuries as the matches could go on indefinitely. Otherwise, I’d agree.
Two more subs, and a toss of the coin after 60 minutes extra-time. No less fair than penalties.
Movement grows to replace statues of Columbus with ones dedicated to a more respected figure—TV detective Lieutenant Columbo https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/movement-grows-to-replace-statues-of-columbus-with-ones-dedicated-to-a-more-respected-figure-tv-detective-lieutenant-columbo ...“Through a better understanding of history, Christopher Columbus no longer represents the values we wish to instill on future generations, yet monuments of this controversial figure are still in place throughout the country,” the organiser Ryan Toohey says. “We should replace the Columbus statue in Detroit with that of someone we can all admire; someone who always pursued truth and justice—Columbo. With only slight modifications to the plaque and the addition of a frumpy coat to the original statue, we can transform a symbol of hate into a beacon of hope.”...
Everybody thought Columbus was an idiot. They were right.
He miscalculated the size of the Earth, getting a value about half the true value and so thought that India/China (he basically thought they were the same) and so thought that India was only a few thousand km west of Portugal.
That is why the native people of the Americas were called Indians for so long, and why we talk about the West Indies: Columbus died convinced that he had found India.
Everyone thought Columbo was an idiot. But it was all an act and he was just reeling them to collect the evidence.
Back to the statues.
So the plan is to tear down statues of an Italian immigrant and replace it with statues of non-Italian rich white man who plays an Italian origin *policeman* as a *hero*? A hero who arrests women and minorities and does so without any real world US police behaviour?
Where this did come from - Donald Trump?
real world US police behaviour meaning kneeling on people's necks?
And shooting people for wearing a loud shirt in a built up area..... We never see Columbo or any policeman on the show doing that.
Columbo didn't carry a gun. It almost got him in trouble in one episode.
Contrast that to the real world - where an ex-special forces guy fresh out Afghanistan failed his probation as a cop for not being... militaristic enough in his police work....
On the subject of Afghanistan, it really does look like the last couple of months of South Vietnam.
The world isn't very interested.
If it is then that would be disastrous for the Democrats, President Ford of course lost his re election attempt in 1976 after the final Vietnam withdrawal in 1975 and the fall of Saigon.
However I think the Afghan government and military should hold Kabul at least even if much of the rest of the country falls to the Taliban. Of course the original aim of the 2001 invasion was not to remove the Taliban, who had been in power for 5 years prior but to remove Al Qaeda from the country and kill Bin Laden, both of which aims were achieved.
Longer term a deal will likely have to be done to give the Taliban some role in the government of the country in return for committing to help keep Al Qaeda and ISIS out
Of course, the fact that the previous President and Vice-President had been forced out of their positions for *different* bits of corruption had absolutely nothing to do with the Republican's defeat in 1976.
Ford was not Nixon and had relatively high approval ratings initially which collapsed by the fall of Saigon.
In 1974 for example Ford's approval was at 71% despite Watergate, which had plummeted to 40% by April 1975 and the fall of Saigon
So, you're going with the pardoning of Nixon having - and I'll quote myself again - "absolutely nothing" to do with Ford's loss in 1976?
It's worth nothing that in the 1974 midterms - which was before the fall of Saigon - the Republicans suffered one of the worst performances by an incumbent party, being almost 20 points behind the Democrats. That compares to a c. seven point deficit for President Trump's Republicans.
Even after pardoning Nixon Ford was still at 50% approval which would have been enough to be narrowly re elected.
Only after the fall of Saigon did he plunge to just 40% approval which guaranteed his defeat in 1976 (though much of the blame for the disaster can be put at the foot of the Democrats in Congress who refused to fund further military involvement in Vietnam).
The fall of Saigon disaster under Ford and the Iran hostages disaster under Carter saw the US humiliated at the end of the 1970s, only regaining its confidence with Reagan's landslide win in 1980
Bloody hell, this government is terrible, first they ban foie gras now they banning boiling lobsters alive. Talk about woke shit about lobsters feeling pain.
EXC: Boiling lobsters alive will be banned as ministers prepare to back an amendment to recognise they can feel pain
Crabs, squid and octopus and cuttlefish are among the non-vertebrates set to be recognised as sentient under the plans
I witnessed an ABBA shootout at the Community Shield a few years ago and that was a much fairer way of doing it. Not sure why it didn’t become the default.
The world is still to come round to my way of thinking of playing the penalty shootout before extra time, so that the team that lost it know they have to win the game in extra time - draw isn't enough for the losers of the penalties.
The extra incentive to throw people at it and then the chance of them being hit on the counter would make extra time an event as opposed to a (9 time out of 10) petering out of the game.
It probably wouldn't work, but let's try it anyway!
Yes, I’ve advocated this for a long time.
If we must persist with shootouts, this seems a great idea to me. I’m amazed I’ve not seen it seriously suggested before.
Because it’s not a good idea. Not much wrong with shootouts anyway - a real test of skill under pressure.
Well they decide a match based on an extremely narrow facet of the game - they are far from ideal as a tiebreaker.
A golden goal after the 30 minutes of extra time please.
Too long. Ten minutes of extra time, then golden goal, but take off a player from each side every five minutes
I'd mix it up:
Give each manager a paintball gun. Every five minutes they get to take a shot. If they hit a player (even one of their own), that player is removed from the field.
It'd make it interesting - go for the easy shot of the guy near you, or take a riskier long shot to get the star forward.
On the other hand, the drama of penalties is genius. Is there anything to match it in any other sport?
I was in the main square of Soller Majorca tonight, watching the game. Half a dozen bars had large screens set up, al fresco.
At first the plaza was only half interested, and lots of drinkers were only keeping an eye. By the time penalties arrived the whole square was hushed and every penalty was met with groans of grief or shouts of joy. Rather compelling argument FOR penalties, even if they are the foie gras of football, the intoxicating forcemeat of a sport made with cruelty
Spain would have gone into the final believing they were favourites and with it all to lose. Italy worries me more, they are going into the game with the momentum they have built from a low expectation base, they didn’t even make last World Cup, that makes them a more dangerous opponent.
Its a good job half of Europe won't be heading to the likes of Spain, Portugal and Greece for their summer holidays....
Once Delta is seeded (as it is in Europe), then the extra mingling will likely have relatively little effect.
Simply: a Germany will be generating 10,000 cases a day from Delta irrespective in three or four weeks. That's 70,000/week. Even if 2,000 people came back from Spain every week with infections (and bear in mind that EU air travel is still down 80% from prepandemic levels), it'd be a pimple on growth.
Schools are the biggest delta for the spread of Delta - and both the EU and the US are lucky that they are shut for the summer holidays. The EU doubly-so, because it enables them to catch up in the vaccine stakes.
Nope. It’s absolutely insane. Makes absolutely no sense. They have a ban on us to stop us bringing and spreading Covid.But as soon as we switch to a policy everyone in UK must have COVID and be a spreader, this is the moment the EU open their arms to us? That makes no sense at all.
Based on the announcements from UK this week, EU should be further from opening to us, not closer.
Is it sensible that many EU countries have bans on Brits travelling to them? No.
But the EU really isn't that far behind the UK as far as vaccinations go now. Exclude a few outliers (Bulgaria and Romania) and they're now at the same levels the UK was at the end of May. Plus, it's pretty much all Pfizer, so they're probably a little bit further ahead (like for like) than we were at that point.
Most EU countries now have close to 50% of adults double jabbed (and are in the mid-sixties for people with at least one), and they're all now putting needles into arms at prodigious rates. As we've seen in the UK, this means there's an increasing disconnect between cases and deaths.
On the most important measures (doses administered per 100 people), we're going to start seeing EU countries passing the US by the end of next week. (Indeed, Belgium may manage it this week.)
“Grant Colfax, the San Francisco public health department director, said of the Delta variant: “It’s like Covid on steroids.”
“It’s about 30% of cases locally right now,” the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Colfax as saying. “Within just a few months, we expect it to be over 90% of our cases.””
“Grant Colfax, the San Francisco public health department director, said of the Delta variant: “It’s like Covid on steroids.”
“It’s about 30% of cases locally right now,” the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Colfax as saying. “Within just a few months, we expect it to be over 90% of our cases.””
Some people (even those who are double vaccinated) will get sick, obviously.
But all the evidence is that vaccination cuts hospitalisations by around 98%. So, Delta will act as a booster shot to the vaccinated, and will run through unvaccinated communities.
“Grant Colfax, the San Francisco public health department director, said of the Delta variant: “It’s like Covid on steroids.”
“It’s about 30% of cases locally right now,” the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Colfax as saying. “Within just a few months, we expect it to be over 90% of our cases.””
Some people (even those who are double vaccinated) will get sick, obviously.
But all the evidence is that vaccination cuts hospitalisations by around 98%. So, Delta will act as a booster shot to the vaccinated, and will run through unvaccinated communities.
Let me put it another way: the UK does not have a Covid deaths or hospitalisations problem. It has a Covid cases problem. Which is not great. But before you know it, Delta have run through unvaccinated communities*.
And then Delta is over.
* Who, by and large, are younger and less likely to get sick and die.
“Grant Colfax, the San Francisco public health department director, said of the Delta variant: “It’s like Covid on steroids.”
“It’s about 30% of cases locally right now,” the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Colfax as saying. “Within just a few months, we expect it to be over 90% of our cases.””
Some people (even those who are double vaccinated) will get sick, obviously.
But all the evidence is that vaccination cuts hospitalisations by around 98%. So, Delta will act as a booster shot to the vaccinated, and will run through unvaccinated communities.
But those are large numbers of people, given vaccine hesitancy in the USA. I see indoor masking is coming back in LA County?
I am not unduly pessimistic. But it will be a rocky summer across the advanced world. It could be utterly calamitous in the developing world. This fiendish BUG won’t let go
“Grant Colfax, the San Francisco public health department director, said of the Delta variant: “It’s like Covid on steroids.”
“It’s about 30% of cases locally right now,” the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Colfax as saying. “Within just a few months, we expect it to be over 90% of our cases.””
Some people (even those who are double vaccinated) will get sick, obviously.
But all the evidence is that vaccination cuts hospitalisations by around 98%. So, Delta will act as a booster shot to the vaccinated, and will run through unvaccinated communities.
Let me put it another way: the UK does not have a Covid deaths or hospitalisations problem. It has a Covid cases problem. Which is not great. But before you know it, Delta have run through unvaccinated communities*.
And then Delta is over.
* Who, by and large, are younger and less likely to get sick and die.
“Grant Colfax, the San Francisco public health department director, said of the Delta variant: “It’s like Covid on steroids.”
“It’s about 30% of cases locally right now,” the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Colfax as saying. “Within just a few months, we expect it to be over 90% of our cases.””
Some people (even those who are double vaccinated) will get sick, obviously.
But all the evidence is that vaccination cuts hospitalisations by around 98%. So, Delta will act as a booster shot to the vaccinated, and will run through unvaccinated communities.
But those are large numbers of people, given vaccine hesitancy in the USA. I see indoor masking is coming back in LA County?
I am not unduly pessimistic. But it will be a rocky summer across the advanced world. It could be utterly calamitous in the developing world. This fiendish BUG won’t let go
Indoor masking is NOT back in LA County.
LA County recommends masking, but it is not required.
The only place where masks are required are:
(1) Medical facilities (2) Federal transportation facilities (i.e. airports) (3) Buses (4) Uber
Delta will, of course, cause a lot of cases and some deaths. But people have been offered the vaccine now. The evidence is that it is 98% effective against hospitalisation and more against death.
You can't shut the country down because some people don't want to take vaccines. At that point it's their concern.
What I have noticed from tomorrow’s papers, unlike PB, the Tele and Mail have realised Freedom Day has been postponed till August. The Express has spun the same story in a way even too ridiculous for them.
Another thing PB is missing as it’s all about holidays, food and football on here these days, and the other dead tree media too slow to splash too - the Vampire Squid onslaught on British businesses threatening our very culture in a way the EU would never have achieved in a thousand years. Fortunately for those of us who take something large and pink in the morning the FT are all over it.
Like something out of Orwell’s 1984, the Telegraph and Mail are using ladies in front the cloth of the martyr (St George) instead of tattooed fascist skinhead yobs.
“Grant Colfax, the San Francisco public health department director, said of the Delta variant: “It’s like Covid on steroids.”
“It’s about 30% of cases locally right now,” the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Colfax as saying. “Within just a few months, we expect it to be over 90% of our cases.””
Some people (even those who are double vaccinated) will get sick, obviously.
But all the evidence is that vaccination cuts hospitalisations by around 98%. So, Delta will act as a booster shot to the vaccinated, and will run through unvaccinated communities.
But those are large numbers of people, given vaccine hesitancy in the USA. I see indoor masking is coming back in LA County?
I am not unduly pessimistic. But it will be a rocky summer across the advanced world. It could be utterly calamitous in the developing world. This fiendish BUG won’t let go
Indoor masking is NOT back in LA County.
LA County recommends masking, but it is not required.
The only place where masks are required are:
(1) Medical facilities (2) Federal transportation facilities (i.e. airports) (3) Buses (4) Uber
Delta will, of course, cause a lot of cases and some deaths. But people have been offered the vaccine now. The evidence is that it is 98% effective against hospitalisation and more against death.
You can't shut the country down because some people don't want to take vaccines. At that point it's their concern.
I totally agree. I’m not arguing with you
I’m just saying it will be a bruising summer in the West, especially in nations with more vax hesitancy. However if we can avoid a further variant - please God - then Delta should burn out, and run out of victims, and the pandemic should finally subside through the autumn and winter
That’s here in the West
A nastier story elsewhere. Eg I had drinks with an old friend just before coming to Majorca. She’s Trinidadian and she told me what’s happening there. They have a horrible outbreak of the Brazilian variant and the entire nation is under the strictest curfew. Basically everything is shut most of the time
What I have noticed from tomorrow’s papers, unlike PB, the Tele and Mail have realised Freedom Day has been postponed till August. The Express has spun the same story in a way even too ridiculous for them.
Another thing PB is missing as it’s all about holidays, food and football on here these days, and the other dead tree media too slow to splash too - the Vampire Squid onslaught on British businesses threatening our very culture in a way the EU would never have achieved in a thousand years. Fortunately for those of us who take something large and pink in the morning the FT are all over it.
Like something out of Orwell’s 1984, the Telegraph and Mail are using ladies in front the cloth of the martyr (St George) instead of tattooed fascist skinhead yobs.
What I have noticed from tomorrow’s papers, unlike PB, the Tele and Mail have realised Freedom Day has been postponed till August. The Express has spun the same story in a way even too ridiculous for them.
Another thing PB is missing as it’s all about holidays, food and football on here these days, and the other dead tree media too slow to splash too - the Vampire Squid onslaught on British businesses threatening our very culture in a way the EU would never have achieved in a thousand years. Fortunately for those of us who take something large and pink in the morning the FT are all over it.
Like something out of Orwell’s 1984, the Telegraph and Mail are using ladies in front the cloth of the martyr (St George) instead of tattooed fascist skinhead yobs.
I really have no idea what you're talking about.
Well at least like always, you are very patient and polite about it.
In reverse order.
I cannot recall any other international football tournament where media have used ladies to represent fans as much as this one.
“ A proposed £6.3 billion takeover of Morrisons faces opposition in the City after leading shareholders in the supermarket group raised concerns about the private equity-led deal.
Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), Britain’s biggest investment group and a top ten shareholder in Morrisons, said that the takeover “is leading to more questions than answers”. It called on Morrisons to give investors more information about the supermarket chain’s vast property estate, which is thought to be a key to its appeal to the three private equity firms that are circling the grocer.”
There is a bit of a thing developing here where Freedom Day has been delayed by stealth by way of opening up except for isolating due to a test meaning businesses who want freedom day and to open up actually can’t, if there a million cases and 10M pinged to self isolate because of it. The hospitality sector is predominantly youthful workers. Amidst this business bewilderment the Express spins its as good news, clever Jabber Javid gives one jabbed a carrot.
Was every thread header always proclaiming bad news for the government or is it just since Boris became PM? Relentless
And every SKS header is always positive. Everytime SKS has a decent PMQs there is a thread header about it.
The solution is presumably for those pro-Johnson and anti-Starmer to contribute headers?* I'd be interested in a header on who should take over from Starmer. In fact I very much enjoy reading headers (and comments) from people who have opposing views to mine - I learn more that way than by having my own opinions regurgitated.
*not meant to be glib, I too would welcome more headers with an opposing viewpoint, but I'd rather OGH and the other regulars were honest (as I assume they are) rather than set out to write a header on ten reasons Starmer is awful if they actually rate him personally. There are plenty of Tories on here, some even support the government - I'd love them to contribute headers.
Whisper it, all those countries with high vaccination rates will be moving to herd immunity strategy now.
Aren't the two the same thing: ultimately, you want people to have antibodies. And while antibodies via vaccination are preferable, antibodies (especially for the young) that come through infection aren't so bad.
Also, the reality is 2k people a day who are double jabbed are catching COVID....you know what with vaccines not being 100%.
I don't know if the government are deliberately not really highlighting this. I don't know if that is a good strategy as it allows this kind of fake news to spread.
Whisper it, all those countries with high vaccination rates will be moving to herd immunity strategy now.
Aren't the two the same thing: ultimately, you want people to have antibodies. And while antibodies via vaccination are preferable, antibodies (especially for the young) that come through infection aren't so bad.
Yes there's a sort of fakery going on where politicians have to pretend there's a material difference between the two ways of getting immunity, because it doesn't "look good" to appear to be wanting people to get infected with a virus. But for people under a certain age, there isn't really much difference between them.
Whisper it, all those countries with high vaccination rates will be moving to herd immunity strategy now.
Aren't the two the same thing: ultimately, you want people to have antibodies. And while antibodies via vaccination are preferable, antibodies (especially for the young) that come through infection aren't so bad.
Yes..kind of. Your Independent SAGE types obviously believe in a strategy in which you only gain the widespread immunity through vaccination, and you keep lots of restrictions while you keep trying to convince the refuseniks to get jabbed and all the kids have been done.
It is clear now that the UK, and other governments, are going to try and gain it via high level of vaccination + natural spread among refuseniks and the young.
I can tell you that if Kabul fell back to the Taliban on Biden's watch it would define his presidency and not in a good way for him and Harris
Supposedly th eTaliban have said they don't want to take Kabul. Not sure why not. But anyway I think most Americans have lost interest in the Middle East - Trump staying out of it was one policy that wasn't very controversial.
I can tell you that if Kabul fell back to the Taliban on Biden's watch it would define his presidency and not in a good way for him and Harris
Supposedly th eTaliban have said they don't want to take Kabul. Not sure why not. But anyway I think most Americans have lost interest in the Middle East - Trump staying out of it was one policy that wasn't very controversial.
The eTaliban....Are they the new breed of Taliban who only operate online, thus not interested in actually taking physical land? ;-)
Anyway I have, as often happens at this time of year, bronchitis. Which is a bore. (It seems to relate to my asthma and being allergic to tree pollen which is not great for someone keen on gardening.)
Anyway my lungs sound like a musical box and when I laugh I may as well be a barking seal. But otherwise fine. I can't be arsed to go to the doc - even assuming I could get an appointment. The weather is so gorgeous here that I am spending every waking moment outside gardening.
Last time I had this it took weeks to get better so I took myself off to the Amalfi coast for a bit of R&R. But that option is not open. So am bringing Amalfi here by planting lemon and blood orange trees and today a vine and fig tree. I may be thousands of miles from Naples, a mile from the Irish Sea, in a region not known for its long hot summers and prone to horizontal rain and Atlantic winds but I am obstinately determined to make these plants thrive here.
If sheer cussedness creates green fingers it should be a cinch......
Bloody hell, this government is terrible, first they ban foie gras now they banning boiling lobsters alive. Talk about woke shit about lobsters feeling pain.
EXC: Boiling lobsters alive will be banned as ministers prepare to back an amendment to recognise they can feel pain
Crabs, squid and octopus and cuttlefish are among the non-vertebrates set to be recognised as sentient under the plans
Maybe it's time for the football equivalent of the Duckworth-Lewis method in cricket, which would calculate which team had played the best and most positive football using a variety of objective measures such as amount of possession in the opposition half, yellow/red cards, shots on goal, etc. Each team's score could be displayed on the screen throughout the match so that everyone would know which team would win if the match ended in a draw after extra time.
'Best and most positive football' is never going to provide the equivalent of runs/wickets. I thought Spain were the better side tonight but not so much that it was an injustice. Italy actualy came back in the second half of extra time, Berardi really wasn't far offside with the disalllowed goal and they also hit the post.
A penalty shootout appears to be basically the same as tossing a coin. I just thought there might be a better way of deciding the winner, other than replaying the match.
I can tell you that if Kabul fell back to the Taliban on Biden's watch it would define his presidency and not in a good way for him and Harris
Supposedly th eTaliban have said they don't want to take Kabul. Not sure why not. But anyway I think most Americans have lost interest in the Middle East - Trump staying out of it was one policy that wasn't very controversial.
The eTaliban....Are they the new breed of Taliban who only operate online, thus not interested in actually taking physical land? ;-)
Apparently they were early users of AOL, which resulted in them hating America.
I can tell you that if Kabul fell back to the Taliban on Biden's watch it would define his presidency and not in a good way for him and Harris
Supposedly th eTaliban have said they don't want to take Kabul. Not sure why not. But anyway I think most Americans have lost interest in the Middle East - Trump staying out of it was one policy that wasn't very controversial.
The eTaliban....Are they the new breed of Taliban who only operate online, thus not interested in actually taking physical land? ;-)
Apparently they were early users of AOL, which resulted in them hating America.
Before this site devolves into a group of football fans down the boozer, a thought or two on the passing of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in the Commons last evening.
There's some good and valid points in it but it's one of those pieces of legislation which is ruined by one "controversial" area - the change to the law on protest.
The woolly and wide-ranging definition of "intimidation or harassment" or "serious unease, alarm or distress to bystanders" gives the Police, in theory, huge powers. It's no surprise this Government and this Home Secretary think there are votes to be won by looking and sounding "tough" on protest.
Whether it's a response to the "culture wars" (whatever they are) or to individuals protesting near to Parliament, it seems an absurd misuse of State power to close down what is, so I thought, the right within a democratic society to protest.
Now, I'm in no way condoning criminal damage or thuggery and of course the Police must intervene if violence takes over but what constitutes "serious unease, alarm or distress"? Presumably I could argue the beggar on the Tube is causing me "unease" so they can be removed.
Theoretically, this power could have bene used to curtail the Anti-Iraq War march or the Countryside Alliance protest or indeed almost any other gathering or in theory an individual ranting at Speaker's Corner.
Apart from the shameless pandering to the frightened, what else does this Government think it will achieve? I suppose one will argue the streets will be more peaceful but when we have a non-Conservative Government and Conservatives wish to protest against a piece of Government legislation, they'll presumably be happy to be arrested and prosecuted under this law?
I can tell you that if Kabul fell back to the Taliban on Biden's watch it would define his presidency and not in a good way for him and Harris
Supposedly th eTaliban have said they don't want to take Kabul. Not sure why not. But anyway I think most Americans have lost interest in the Middle East - Trump staying out of it was one policy that wasn't very controversial.
The eTaliban....Are they the new breed of Taliban who only operate online, thus not interested in actually taking physical land? ;-)
Apparently they were early users of AOL, which resulted in them hating America.
Crickey, no wonder they are so angry.
They've got 100 million sharpened CDs ready to launch
Brilliant game last night. One of the most pulsating I've seen in a long time.
Nothing wrong with settling it on penalties. Great fun. And I think the more dangerous team won.
It's all very well playing tic tac football but how many shots did the Spanish actually have on target? Not many is the answer. Love watching the crazy Italians playing under Mancini.
Bloody hell, this government is terrible, first they ban foie gras now they banning boiling lobsters alive. Talk about woke shit about lobsters feeling pain.
EXC: Boiling lobsters alive will be banned as ministers prepare to back an amendment to recognise they can feel pain
Crabs, squid and octopus and cuttlefish are among the non-vertebrates set to be recognised as sentient under the plans
It's curious, isn't it, or at least it is to me. I'm a Remainer and dislike so much about Brexit. And yet, on some welfare issues the EU lagged way behind. I write 'curious' because in certain other respects they were brilliant on rights, although these tended to be of the two-legged variety.
On animal welfare they can be shockers. Foie gras may indeed taste delicious but it's abhorrent, as is veal. Pigs are routinely kept in appalling conditions on the Continent. And as a fisherman it has been obvious to me for a long time that fish and crustaceans feel pain.
Boiling lobsters alive isn't really necessary anyway. You can kill them quickly with a skewer into the brain, then pop them in the water.
Still, at least it's better than my father. One holiday he bought us all Scottish lobsters and he popped them in the pot. The only problem? The water was cold. He lit the gas and waited.
I can still hear those lobsters scuttling around the pan.
Boris Johnson is, as ever, torn between the need to associate himself with happy feelings of liberation and fear of taking responsibility for the consequences of a policy unmoored to evidence. The prime minister’s public statements are often an exercise in self-persuasion. He only knows what he believes by trying it out on an audience. When he cautions against getting “demob happy” he is reminding himself that he cannot get Covid done, as he claimed he could with Brexit, although he is obviously bored with the pandemic plotline in the story he wants told about his leadership.
That's probably fair comment but the Guardian is so bitter and twisted that it's difficult to read anything of theirs seriously.
I'm a left-leaning libertarian but much prefer the journalism of the Telegraph. It's nasty at times, reactionary and anti-woke but still streets ahead of the Guardian.
You'd think I could sit comfortably with the Times but it's so damned boring.
Brilliant game last night. One of the most pulsating I've seen in a long time.
Nothing wrong with settling it on penalties. Great fun. And I think the more dangerous team won.
It's all very well playing tic tac football but how many shots did the Spanish actually have on target? Not many is the answer. Love watching the crazy Italians playing under Mancini.
Brilliant game last night. One of the most pulsating I've seen in a long time.
Nothing wrong with settling it on penalties. Great fun. And I think the more dangerous team won.
It's all very well playing tic tac football but how many shots did the Spanish actually have on target? Not many is the answer. Love watching the crazy Italians playing under Mancini.
I don't like penalties.
Why not?
Huge fun. Polls show that spectators love it. Great way to settle a game that hasn't concluded in 120 minutes.
None of the other suggestions about silver or golden goals, or removing players and turning it into a 5-a-side or widening goalposts etc. etc. have any merit. That's a really polite way of putting it.
There's only one genuine alternative to penalties and that's a replay.
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Thanks for the video. I've never been to a club football match and I often wonder what it's like to be in the crowd with that atmosphere. I did read Bill Buford's book Among The Thugs recently though, which was pretty eye-opening.
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Thanks for the video. I've never been to a club football match and I often wonder what it's like to be in the crowd with that atmosphere. I did read Bill Buford's book Among The Thugs recently though, which was pretty eye-opening.
If you don't mind bad language and occasionally moronic tribalism, it's huge fun.
I know the terraces proved life endangering but there was nothing quite like standing in the supporters' end behind the goal. I used to love it. I have sometimes stood shaking from head to toe with exhilaration and anticipation.
I imagine The Kop was something else. (Named after the hill in South Africa where many British soldiers lost their lives during the Boer War.)
Football has changed a lot. A few things, like the safety improvements, are clearly for the better. But an awful lot isn't. I'm not being dewey-eyed about this but the corporate takeovers have altered the game indelibly. The failed ESL was the end of a long process of commercialisation which took the game and the clubs further and further away from local and true fans.
And when Saturday came (the title of a famous fan magazine) it really meant something. None of this Friday night, Monday night or even Sunday stuff. It was 3pm Saturday and it really had a hold on your psyche.
And the FA Cup was a wonderful competition that everyone wanted to win and which genuinely pitted the great and the minnows together.
They even managed to have 3 European competitions all of which were of stature and everyone wanted to win: The European Cup, The Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Cup.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
So I was a season ticket holder and before that a member for most of my life.
When I walked into our new stadium for the first match I decided that it wasn't for me any more. It was all very slick and amazing and all that but it wasn't my local club any more. I haven't been back since.
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Thanks for the video. I've never been to a club football match and I often wonder what it's like to be in the crowd with that atmosphere. I did read Bill Buford's book Among The Thugs recently though, which was pretty eye-opening.
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Thanks for the video. I've never been to a club football match and I often wonder what it's like to be in the crowd with that atmosphere. I did read Bill Buford's book Among The Thugs recently though, which was pretty eye-opening.
If you don't mind bad language and occasionally moronic tribalism, it's huge fun.
I know the terraces proved life endangering but there was nothing quite like standing in the supporters' end behind the goal. I used to love it. I have sometimes stood shaking from head to toe with exhilaration and anticipation.
I imagine The Kop was something else. (Named after the hill in South Africa where many British soldiers lost their lives during the Boer War.)
Football has changed a lot. A few things, like the safety improvements, are clearly for the better. But an awful lot isn't. I'm not being dewey-eyed about this but the corporate takeovers have altered the game indelibly. The failed ESL was the end of a long process of commercialisation which took the game and the clubs further and further away from local and true fans.
They still have terraces in the US. LAFC’s is particularly awesome:
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Thanks for the video. I've never been to a club football match and I often wonder what it's like to be in the crowd with that atmosphere. I did read Bill Buford's book Among The Thugs recently though, which was pretty eye-opening.
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Thanks for the video. I've never been to a club football match and I often wonder what it's like to be in the crowd with that atmosphere. I did read Bill Buford's book Among The Thugs recently though, which was pretty eye-opening.
If you don't mind bad language and occasionally moronic tribalism, it's huge fun.
I know the terraces proved life endangering but there was nothing quite like standing in the supporters' end behind the goal. I used to love it. I have sometimes stood shaking from head to toe with exhilaration and anticipation.
I imagine The Kop was something else. (Named after the hill in South Africa where many British soldiers lost their lives during the Boer War.)
Football has changed a lot. A few things, like the safety improvements, are clearly for the better. But an awful lot isn't. I'm not being dewey-eyed about this but the corporate takeovers have altered the game indelibly. The failed ESL was the end of a long process of commercialisation which took the game and the clubs further and further away from local and true fans.
They still have terraces in the US. LAFC’s is particularly awesome:
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Thanks for the video. I've never been to a club football match and I often wonder what it's like to be in the crowd with that atmosphere. I did read Bill Buford's book Among The Thugs recently though, which was pretty eye-opening.
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Thanks for the video. I've never been to a club football match and I often wonder what it's like to be in the crowd with that atmosphere. I did read Bill Buford's book Among The Thugs recently though, which was pretty eye-opening.
If you don't mind bad language and occasionally moronic tribalism, it's huge fun.
I know the terraces proved life endangering but there was nothing quite like standing in the supporters' end behind the goal. I used to love it. I have sometimes stood shaking from head to toe with exhilaration and anticipation.
I imagine The Kop was something else. (Named after the hill in South Africa where many British soldiers lost their lives during the Boer War.)
Football has changed a lot. A few things, like the safety improvements, are clearly for the better. But an awful lot isn't. I'm not being dewey-eyed about this but the corporate takeovers have altered the game indelibly. The failed ESL was the end of a long process of commercialisation which took the game and the clubs further and further away from local and true fans.
They still have terraces in the US. LAFC’s is particularly awesome:
It’s funny: MLS is equivalent to Championship play in terms of quality. But they’ve nurtured (at LAFC at least) the most amazing in stadium atmosphere.
I was an Arsenal season ticket holder, and you know what: it was nowhere near as much fun as LAFC is.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
Its a good job half of Europe won't be heading to the likes of Spain, Portugal and Greece for their summer holidays....
Once Delta is seeded (as it is in Europe), then the extra mingling will likely have relatively little effect.
Simply: a Germany will be generating 10,000 cases a day from Delta irrespective in three or four weeks. That's 70,000/week. Even if 2,000 people came back from Spain every week with infections (and bear in mind that EU air travel is still down 80% from prepandemic levels), it'd be a pimple on growth.
Schools are the biggest delta for the spread of Delta - and both the EU and the US are lucky that they are shut for the summer holidays. The EU doubly-so, because it enables them to catch up in the vaccine stakes.
Nope. It’s absolutely insane. Makes absolutely no sense. They have a ban on us to stop us bringing and spreading Covid.But as soon as we switch to a policy everyone in UK must have COVID and be a spreader, this is the moment the EU open their arms to us? That makes no sense at all.
Based on the announcements from UK this week, EU should be further from opening to us, not closer.
The EU countries are giving up on travel bans because (1) many of them are desperate to have British tourists back and (2) they plan to follow more-or-less exactly the same path as us on Covid.
The restrictions cause massive harm and everybody is completely fed-up with them. These conditions aren't unique to the UK. See, for example, this report:
Germany should lift all remaining coronavirus-linked social and economic curbs as soon as everyone has been offered a vaccine, foreign minister Heiko Maas was quoted as saying this morning, suggesting that point should be reached next month.
Around 56.5% of people in Germany have received at least one dose and almost 39% are fully vaccinated, according to health ministry data.
“When everyone in Germany has received a vaccine offer, there is no longer a legal or political justification for any kind of restriction,” Maas told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. That should occur sometime during August, he added.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has previously said she wants to offer everyone in Germany a vaccine by 21 September.
Caroline Copley reports for Reuters that in January Maas was the first German government minister to call for restrictions to be eased for vaccinated people and suggested they should be allowed to visit the cinema or eat in restaurants. Other ministers opposed special exemptions for the vaccinated.
There is a tremendous imperative to get rid of the rules and, as Chris Whitty has explained, the best time to do it is during the Summer, when the exit wave won't run smack into the flu season. And if various EU states are only a few weeks behind us with vaccinations - and are already heavily seeded with Delta in any event - then there's very little point in persisting with controls on inbound UK travellers. It is no wonder that they are starting to give up.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
I don't think they even see the Himalayas as a boundary. I'm not a Sinophobe and believe we should be doing business with China but I'm not going to pretend they're saintly. They'll be quite happy to subsume Taiwan into the People's Republic the moment they can do so.
I can tell you that if Kabul fell back to the Taliban on Biden's watch it would define his presidency and not in a good way for him and Harris
Supposedly th eTaliban have said they don't want to take Kabul. Not sure why not. But anyway I think most Americans have lost interest in the Middle East - Trump staying out of it was one policy that wasn't very controversial.
"staying out" by massively increasing the number of Drone Strikes there and pumping money in to the Yemenese civil war?
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Thanks for the video. I've never been to a club football match and I often wonder what it's like to be in the crowd with that atmosphere. I did read Bill Buford's book Among The Thugs recently though, which was pretty eye-opening.
If you don't mind bad language and occasionally moronic tribalism, it's huge fun.
I know the terraces proved life endangering but there was nothing quite like standing in the supporters' end behind the goal. I used to love it. I have sometimes stood shaking from head to toe with exhilaration and anticipation.
I imagine The Kop was something else. (Named after the hill in South Africa where many British soldiers lost their lives during the Boer War.)
Football has changed a lot. A few things, like the safety improvements, are clearly for the better. But an awful lot isn't. I'm not being dewey-eyed about this but the corporate takeovers have altered the game indelibly. The failed ESL was the end of a long process of commercialisation which took the game and the clubs further and further away from local and true fans.
Standing in the supporters end of the other team could be pretty exhilarating too.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
I don't think they even see the Himalayas as a boundary. I'm not a Sinophobe and believe we should be doing business with China but I'm not going to pretend they're saintly. They'll be quite happy to subsume Taiwan into the People's Republic the moment they can do so.
They see Taiwan as part of greater China
This book is 50% great/50% meh but the piece on China was good
Essentially they are trying to secure the Yangtze/Yellow River basins (80% of population)
Tibet is a high land that would allow an enemy to attack straight into the Chinese heartland. It is also the source of much of their water. Similarly Xianchu is the boundary to the west, the Gobi to the north and the ocean to the east (island such as Taiwan allow control of the coastal passageways)
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
The most amusing* conspiracy theory I heard was the Chinese were using pill factories to supply cheap fentanyl into the US as revenge for the opium wars
* not really the right word, but you know what I mean
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
The most amusing* conspiracy theory I heard was the Chinese were using pill factories to supply cheap fentanyl into the US as revenge for the opium wars
* not really the right word, but you know what I mean
Sound like a natural fit for the Taleban, the world’s largest suppliers of recreational opioids, tbh.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
The Communist Party in China has used the humiliation of China by the great powers to create a sense of Chinese identity that never previously existed in a country where local and family ties were always what mattered. What we and others did in China and to the Chinese was appalling and sustained, and every one of the one billion plus living in the PRC know it now. I have practical experience of this. I was in Shanghai one early November for a conference and in my suit. It had the poppy I bought in the UK attached to the lapel. I thought absolutely nothing of it. But I kept getting very hostile looks. Eventually, a Chinese delegate approached me and told me of the association with the Opium Wars. Then I understood!
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
The Communist Party in China has used the humiliation of China by the great powers to create a sense of Chinese identity that never previously existed in a country where local and family ties were always what mattered. What we and others did in China and to the Chinese was appalling and sustained, and every one of the one billion plus living in the PRC know it now. I have practical experience of this. I was in Shanghai one early November for a conference and in my suit. It had the poppy I bought in the UK attached to the lapel. I thought absolutely nothing of it. But I kept getting very hostile looks. Eventually, a Chinese delegate approached me and told me of the association with the Opium Wars. Then I understood!
I have a theory that almost every nation which had achieved a sense of national identity has done so through having an oppressor to throw off. Even England was only really forged as a unified concept through the generations which pushed back Danish rule.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
The Communist Party in China has used the humiliation of China by the great powers to create a sense of Chinese identity that never previously existed in a country where local and family ties were always what mattered. What we and others did in China and to the Chinese was appalling and sustained, and every one of the one billion plus living in the PRC know it now. I have practical experience of this. I was in Shanghai one early November for a conference and in my suit. It had the poppy I bought in the UK attached to the lapel. I thought absolutely nothing of it. But I kept getting very hostile looks. Eventually, a Chinese delegate approached me and told me of the association with the Opium Wars. Then I understood!
“What WE did”.
Um, no. This was 200 years ago. WE didn’t do anything. You’re merely falling for the same propaganda you highlight.
It’s of enormous concern to me how even now after everything, this government can flippantly allow the sale of a semi conductor producer to China. When will they wake up? It’s embarrassing at this point.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
The Communist Party in China has used the humiliation of China by the great powers to create a sense of Chinese identity that never previously existed in a country where local and family ties were always what mattered. What we and others did in China and to the Chinese was appalling and sustained, and every one of the one billion plus living in the PRC know it now. I have practical experience of this. I was in Shanghai one early November for a conference and in my suit. It had the poppy I bought in the UK attached to the lapel. I thought absolutely nothing of it. But I kept getting very hostile looks. Eventually, a Chinese delegate approached me and told me of the association with the Opium Wars. Then I understood!
I have a theory that almost every nation which had achieved a sense of national identity has done so through having an oppressor to throw off. Even England was only really forged as a unified concept through the generations which pushed back Danish rule.
I'd have thought the failure to push back Norman rule shortly thereafter was a much bigger factor.
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Thanks for the video. I've never been to a club football match and I often wonder what it's like to be in the crowd with that atmosphere. I did read Bill Buford's book Among The Thugs recently though, which was pretty eye-opening.
Which brings me to one of my childhood joys. After an incredibly boring first game, Spurs and Man City served up an FA Cup Final replay of sheer delight. Which included 'that' goal (6'45 onwards).
Thanks for the video. I've never been to a club football match and I often wonder what it's like to be in the crowd with that atmosphere. I did read Bill Buford's book Among The Thugs recently though, which was pretty eye-opening.
If you don't mind bad language and occasionally moronic tribalism, it's huge fun.
I know the terraces proved life endangering but there was nothing quite like standing in the supporters' end behind the goal. I used to love it. I have sometimes stood shaking from head to toe with exhilaration and anticipation.
I imagine The Kop was something else. (Named after the hill in South Africa where many British soldiers lost their lives during the Boer War.)
Football has changed a lot. A few things, like the safety improvements, are clearly for the better. But an awful lot isn't. I'm not being dewey-eyed about this but the corporate takeovers have altered the game indelibly. The failed ESL was the end of a long process of commercialisation which took the game and the clubs further and further away from local and true fans.
They still have terraces in the US. LAFC’s is particularly awesome:
It’s funny: MLS is equivalent to Championship play in terms of quality. But they’ve nurtured (at LAFC at least) the most amazing in stadium atmosphere.
I was an Arsenal season ticket holder, and you know what: it was nowhere near as much fun as LAFC is.
Lol. I don't know if you're trolling with the Arsenal comment or not.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
They use the events of the 19th century as a transparent excuse to do whatever they want. It's a pretext and I doubt anyone in their leadership seriously believes that crap.
Its useful to them to point to historical grievances is all. That there are legitimate grievances doesnt speak to their actions now one bit, but they like to pretend it does.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
The Communist Party in China has used the humiliation of China by the great powers to create a sense of Chinese identity that never previously existed in a country where local and family ties were always what mattered. What we and others did in China and to the Chinese was appalling and sustained, and every one of the one billion plus living in the PRC know it now. I have practical experience of this. I was in Shanghai one early November for a conference and in my suit. It had the poppy I bought in the UK attached to the lapel. I thought absolutely nothing of it. But I kept getting very hostile looks. Eventually, a Chinese delegate approached me and told me of the association with the Opium Wars. Then I understood!
“What WE did”.
Um, no. This was 200 years ago. WE didn’t do anything. You’re merely falling for the same propaganda you highlight.
It’s of enormous concern to me how even now after everything, this government can flippantly allow the sale of a semi conductor producer to China. When will they wake up? It’s embarrassing at this point.
The Boxer Rebellion did not happen 200 years ago and was very much part of the Chinese backlash against Great Power humiliation. I am perfectly capable of distinguishing between the actions of the UK in the past and the UK now, and have not fallen for any propaganda. I also understand that countries are viewed in the round - as a sum of their past and present, and how the two interact.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
What we and others did in China and to the Chinese was appalling and sustained, and every one of the one billion plus living in the PRC know it now.
What about what China are doing to the Chinese, and particularly the non-ethnic Chinese, now?
Those Chinese not under the yoke of the CCP in Taiwan and Hong Kong, although sadly diminishing by the day, have no desire to go back.
“Grant Colfax, the San Francisco public health department director, said of the Delta variant: “It’s like Covid on steroids.”
“It’s about 30% of cases locally right now,” the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Colfax as saying. “Within just a few months, we expect it to be over 90% of our cases.””
Some people (even those who are double vaccinated) will get sick, obviously.
But all the evidence is that vaccination cuts hospitalisations by around 98%. So, Delta will act as a booster shot to the vaccinated, and will run through unvaccinated communities.
Let me put it another way: the UK does not have a Covid deaths or hospitalisations problem. It has a Covid cases problem. Which is not great. But before you know it, Delta have run through unvaccinated communities*.
And then Delta is over.
* Who, by and large, are younger and less likely to get sick and die.
Re: Covid self isolation (and I agree out of a desire to emphasise “fairness” the Govt seem to have holed the basis of their apparent main Covid policy below the waterline (where is the logic in pursuing a policy (in effect) that the dangers of non vaccinated catching Covid (being mainly young and healthy, where not refuseniks) do not outweigh the enormous econonomic damage of continued restrictions, if you are then going to continue with an enormously economically damaging policy (self isolation of close contacts) ostensibly to protect those same people)
Anyway a question about the NHS Covid app which I’ll ask in a separate comment...
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
They use the events of the 19th century as a transparent excuse to do whatever they want. It's a pretext and I doubt anyone in their leadership seriously believes that crap.
Its useful to them to point to historical grievances is all. That there are legitimate grievances doesnt speak to their actions one bit, but they like to pretend it does.
They do it to forge a Chinese nationalism that sees the Communist Party as the protector of China and the guarantor of its greatness.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
What we and others did in China and to the Chinese was appalling and sustained, and every one of the one billion plus living in the PRC know it now.
What about what China are doing to the Chinese, and particularly the non-ethnic Chinese, now?
Those Chinese not under the yoke of the CCP in Taiwan and Hong Kong, although sadly diminishing by the day, have no desire to go back.
I know. But to understand the PRC you have to understand the Communist party and how it has used the past to forge a sense of Chinese nationhood that never previously existed. Whether we like it or not, the actions of our forefathers have helped in that.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
The Communist Party in China has used the humiliation of China by the great powers to create a sense of Chinese identity that never previously existed in a country where local and family ties were always what mattered. What we and others did in China and to the Chinese was appalling and sustained, and every one of the one billion plus living in the PRC know it now. I have practical experience of this. I was in Shanghai one early November for a conference and in my suit. It had the poppy I bought in the UK attached to the lapel. I thought absolutely nothing of it. But I kept getting very hostile looks. Eventually, a Chinese delegate approached me and told me of the association with the Opium Wars. Then I understood!
I have a theory that almost every nation which had achieved a sense of national identity has done so through having an oppressor to throw off. Even England was only really forged as a unified concept through the generations which pushed back Danish rule.
Yes, war is a defining feature of nationalism. In order to infuse a people with a sense of "the other" and to bind them to the nation, war serves a purpose.
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
The Communist Party in China has used the humiliation of China by the great powers to create a sense of Chinese identity that never previously existed in a country where local and family ties were always what mattered. What we and others did in China and to the Chinese was appalling and sustained, and every one of the one billion plus living in the PRC know it now. I have practical experience of this. I was in Shanghai one early November for a conference and in my suit. It had the poppy I bought in the UK attached to the lapel. I thought absolutely nothing of it. But I kept getting very hostile looks. Eventually, a Chinese delegate approached me and told me of the association with the Opium Wars. Then I understood!
“What WE did”.
Um, no. This was 200 years ago. WE didn’t do anything. You’re merely falling for the same propaganda you highlight.
It’s of enormous concern to me how even now after everything, this government can flippantly allow the sale of a semi conductor producer to China. When will they wake up? It’s embarrassing at this point.
The Boxer Rebellion did not happen 200 years ago and was very much part of the Chinese backlash against Great Power humiliation. I am perfectly capable of distinguishing between the actions of the UK in the past and the UK now, and have not fallen for any propaganda. I also understand that countries are viewed in the round - as a sum of their past and present, and how the two interact.
But it's all crap. France was treated pretty badly by Germany not very long ago but everyone would look poorly on France using that as an excuse to do terrible things, especially to those other than Germany.
The Chinese government using late 19th and early 20th century events as a justification for its own behaviour is absolute tosh and none of us should give it the slightest consideration. Recognition that China was treated appallingly doesn't impact that.
On lobsters and octopuses. I think there’s a race against time to commercialise lab grown meat before the consumption of animals is forbidden.
Sometimes I ponder which of our behaviours will seem most abhorrent to our great grandchildren, the way we now think about the chemical castration of homosexuals or slavery.
Burning stuff is obviously high up the list. Having ladies and gents toilets is way at the bottom. But I do have to wonder whether consumption of animals will reach the top of the list, even beyond burning stuff, once our understanding of sentience has properly developed.
All the same, I eat lots and lots of meat and seafood. Because it gives me pleasure, I believe it to be good for me, and for now it is socially acceptable. But I am like Cicero was with slaves I suppose. I abhor mass production and unnecessary cruelty and stick with free range and grass fed.
Whether this is enough to earn the forgiveness or understanding of my descendants I doubt. I also ponder why the Torah prohibited the consumption of shellfish. Sure maybe that’s sensible advice in a hot place with no refrigeration. But it tickles me to think that Christoper Mellon’s UFOs are piloted by a race of crustacean aliens who are back after a few thousand years away. “We fucking warned you! Hands up who ate the crab stick? Zap!”
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
They use the events of the 19th century as a transparent excuse to do whatever they want. It's a pretext and I doubt anyone in their leadership seriously believes that crap.
Its useful to them to point to historical grievances is all. That there are legitimate grievances doesnt speak to their actions one bit, but they like to pretend it does.
They do it to forge a Chinese nationalism that sees the Communist Party as the protector of China and the guarantor of its greatness.
Exactly - and no one else should play their game by inadvertently accepting the premise due to overly focusing on the past treatment of China (though its important to know).
NHS Covid app - can anyone explain to me how it is supposed to work because I’ve realised I don’t understand it at all. The Bluetooth bit I understand - if two people have the app turned on and one tests positive and uploads results to app, it will alert (anonymously) the other if they are deemed a close contact. And then they are theoretically supposed to isolate to protect others (although whether they do or not is untraceable).
But does anyone understand the QR code “check in feature”. I had assumed that this was somehow not anonymous and if it turned out you were in a venue highlighted as a “place of concern” then you would get a call from the track and trace team to determine if you needed to isolate. But as it is (as I understand) anonymous how does it work. It can’t possibly be the case that if alerted you are required to isolate as you may have no close contact whatsoever (for example there is a pub I go to which does take away served from the bar - and you have to check in - for the two minutes whilst you are being served. Unless you remember to check out again immediately there is no way that you should be deemed a close contact, but how does the app know that? Are you provided details of the positive test that triggered to allow you to make a personal assessment about whether to isolate?
Or is, in effect, the only purpose to alert venue owners that their staff are at risk and THEY all need to isolate?
No, China doesn't do colonies. What it does is the mirror of European extraterritoriality in China in the century 1842-1943. Economic rather than political control.
The Tibetans will be pleased to hear that.
Surprised, but pleased.
Tibet doesn’t exist. There is one China, and that happens to contain the land that formerly constituted “Tibet”.
Oh come on Robert.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I was being ironic.
The problem is that China’s view is exactly as Robert ironically put it.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
China believes it has suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation by foreigners.
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
An excellent post with which I totally agree. Indeed, I vociferously argue this point with various friends of mine who are Sinophobes.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
The Communist Party in China has used the humiliation of China by the great powers to create a sense of Chinese identity that never previously existed in a country where local and family ties were always what mattered. What we and others did in China and to the Chinese was appalling and sustained, and every one of the one billion plus living in the PRC know it now. I have practical experience of this. I was in Shanghai one early November for a conference and in my suit. It had the poppy I bought in the UK attached to the lapel. I thought absolutely nothing of it. But I kept getting very hostile looks. Eventually, a Chinese delegate approached me and told me of the association with the Opium Wars. Then I understood!
“What WE did”.
Um, no. This was 200 years ago. WE didn’t do anything. You’re merely falling for the same propaganda you highlight.
It’s of enormous concern to me how even now after everything, this government can flippantly allow the sale of a semi conductor producer to China. When will they wake up? It’s embarrassing at this point.
The Boxer Rebellion did not happen 200 years ago and was very much part of the Chinese backlash against Great Power humiliation. I am perfectly capable of distinguishing between the actions of the UK in the past and the UK now, and have not fallen for any propaganda. I also understand that countries are viewed in the round - as a sum of their past and present, and how the two interact.
But it's all crap. France was treated pretty badly by Germany not very long ago but everyone would look poorly on France using that as an excuse to do terrible things, especially to those other than Germany.
The Chinese government using late 19th and early 20th century events as a justification for its own behaviour is absolute tosh and none of us should give it the slightest consideration. Recognition that China was treated appallingly doesn't impact that.
Charles’s description upthread is good. China surely has a right to self defence.
My issue with China, apart from the way it treats its own people, is that it advances the authoritarian, anti-democratic surveillance state as a model of development.
Ultimately, that’s a threat to our way of life, or perhaps our children’s way of life.
One of the best things Britain can do, in my opinion, is better uphold democracy, liberty and the rule of law in *this* country, thereby acting as an example to others.
We did this quite well for a hundred years or so.
Fun fact, I was taught by someone later outed as a Chinese spy at University.
Comments
It's worth nothing that in the 1974 midterms - which was before the fall of Saigon - the Republicans suffered one of the worst performances by an incumbent party, being almost 20 points behind the Democrats. That compares to a c. seven point deficit for President Trump's Republicans.
Based on the announcements from UK this week, EU should be further from opening to us, not closer.
Only after the fall of Saigon did he plunge to just 40% approval which guaranteed his defeat in 1976 (though much of the blame for the disaster can be put at the foot of the Democrats in Congress who refused to fund further military involvement in Vietnam).
The fall of Saigon disaster under Ford and the Iran hostages disaster under Carter saw the US humiliated at the end of the 1970s, only regaining its confidence with Reagan's landslide win in 1980
I love fois gras.
No country has ever won Eurovision and the Euros/World Cup in the same year.
So whoever wins the England v. Denmark match is nailed on to win the tournament.
I was in the main square of Soller Majorca tonight, watching the game. Half a dozen bars had large screens set up, al fresco.
At first the plaza was only half interested, and lots of drinkers were only keeping an eye. By the time penalties arrived the whole square was hushed and every penalty was met with groans of grief or shouts of joy. Rather compelling argument FOR penalties, even if they are the foie gras of football, the intoxicating forcemeat of a sport made with cruelty
I wait expectantly for the royalties.
https://www.christophermellon.net/post/the-uap-report-and-the-uap-issue
But the EU really isn't that far behind the UK as far as vaccinations go now. Exclude a few outliers (Bulgaria and Romania) and they're now at the same levels the UK was at the end of May. Plus, it's pretty much all Pfizer, so they're probably a little bit further ahead (like for like) than we were at that point.
Most EU countries now have close to 50% of adults double jabbed (and are in the mid-sixties for people with at least one), and they're all now putting needles into arms at prodigious rates. As we've seen in the UK, this means there's an increasing disconnect between cases and deaths.
On the most important measures (doses administered per 100 people), we're going to start seeing EU countries passing the US by the end of next week. (Indeed, Belgium may manage it this week.)
So, why shouldn't they open up?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-vaccination-doses-per-capita?country=FRA~DEU~ITA~GBR~USA~BEL~NLD
“Grant Colfax, the San Francisco public health department director, said of the Delta variant: “It’s like Covid on steroids.”
“It’s about 30% of cases locally right now,” the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Colfax as saying. “Within just a few months, we expect it to be over 90% of our cases.””
Mate, it won’t be MONTHS, it will be WEEKS
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/06/delta-variant-infections-us-west-vaccines?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
But people (who want to) have taken the vaccines.
Some people (even those who are double vaccinated) will get sick, obviously.
But all the evidence is that vaccination cuts hospitalisations by around 98%. So, Delta will act as a booster shot to the vaccinated, and will run through unvaccinated communities.
And then Delta is over.
* Who, by and large, are younger and less likely to get sick and die.
I am not unduly pessimistic. But it will be a rocky summer across the advanced world. It could be utterly calamitous in the developing world. This fiendish BUG won’t let go
LA County recommends masking, but it is not required.
The only place where masks are required are:
(1) Medical facilities
(2) Federal transportation facilities (i.e. airports)
(3) Buses
(4) Uber
Delta will, of course, cause a lot of cases and some deaths. But people have been offered the vaccine now. The evidence is that it is 98% effective against hospitalisation and more against death.
You can't shut the country down because some people don't want to take vaccines. At that point it's their concern.
Another thing PB is missing as it’s all about holidays, food and football on here these days, and the other dead tree media too slow to splash too - the Vampire Squid onslaught on British businesses threatening our very culture in a way the EU would never have achieved in a thousand years. Fortunately for those of us who take something large and pink in the morning the FT are all over it.
Like something out of Orwell’s 1984, the Telegraph and Mail are using ladies in front the cloth of the martyr (St George) instead of tattooed fascist skinhead yobs.
I’m just saying it will be a bruising summer in the West, especially in nations with more vax hesitancy. However if we can avoid a further variant - please God - then Delta should burn out, and run out of victims, and the pandemic should finally subside through the autumn and winter
That’s here in the West
A nastier story elsewhere. Eg I had drinks with an old friend just before coming to Majorca. She’s Trinidadian and she told me what’s happening there. They have a horrible outbreak of the Brazilian variant and the entire nation is under the strictest curfew. Basically everything is shut most of the time
Brutal
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/trinidad-and-tobago/coronavirus
https://youtu.be/0fhaEIlGux4
In reverse order.
I cannot recall any other international football tournament where media have used ladies to represent fans as much as this one.
“ A proposed £6.3 billion takeover of Morrisons faces opposition in the City after leading shareholders in the supermarket group raised concerns about the private equity-led deal.
Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), Britain’s biggest investment group and a top ten shareholder in Morrisons, said that the takeover “is leading to more questions than answers”. It called on Morrisons to give investors more information about the supermarket chain’s vast property estate, which is thought to be a key to its appeal to the three private equity firms that are circling the grocer.”
There is a bit of a thing developing here where Freedom Day has been delayed by stealth by way of opening up except for isolating due to a test meaning businesses who want freedom day and to open up actually can’t, if there a million cases and 10M pinged to self isolate because of it. The hospitality sector is predominantly youthful workers. Amidst this business bewilderment the Express spins its as good news, clever Jabber Javid gives one jabbed a carrot.
So the idea that every SKS header is always positive is just baloney.
https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1412543822198984704
Also, the reality is 2k people a day who are double jabbed are catching COVID....you know what with vaccines not being 100%.
I don't know if the government are deliberately not really highlighting this. I don't know if that is a good strategy as it allows this kind of fake news to spread.
It is clear now that the UK, and other governments, are going to try and gain it via high level of vaccination + natural spread among refuseniks and the young.
Anyway my lungs sound like a musical box and when I laugh I may as well be a barking seal. But otherwise fine. I can't be arsed to go to the doc - even assuming I could get an appointment. The weather is so gorgeous here that I am spending every waking moment outside gardening.
Last time I had this it took weeks to get better so I took myself off to the Amalfi coast for a bit of R&R. But that option is not open. So am bringing Amalfi here by planting lemon and blood orange trees and today a vine and fig tree. I may be thousands of miles from Naples, a mile from the Irish Sea, in a region not known for its long hot summers and prone to horizontal rain and Atlantic winds but I am obstinately determined to make these plants thrive here.
If sheer cussedness creates green fingers it should be a cinch......
And yes, I've had a bit to do with that one. More substantially, another example of the excellent team running Defra.
The governor allocated $139 million to address shootings that are rising even as the pandemic recedes and to create jobs for young people."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/nyregion/new-york-gun-violence-emergency.html
https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/the-uk-is-now-a-test-tube-for-a-future-where-jabs-replace-covid-restrictions-20210706-p58743.html
After all, your other suggestions equally have little to do with football.
Nothing wrong with settling it on penalties. Great fun. And I think the more dangerous team won.
It's all very well playing tic tac football but how many shots did the Spanish actually have on target? Not many is the answer. Love watching the crazy Italians playing under Mancini.
On animal welfare they can be shockers. Foie gras may indeed taste delicious but it's abhorrent, as is veal. Pigs are routinely kept in appalling conditions on the Continent. And as a fisherman it has been obvious to me for a long time that fish and crustaceans feel pain.
Boiling lobsters alive isn't really necessary anyway. You can kill them quickly with a skewer into the brain, then pop them in the water.
Still, at least it's better than my father. One holiday he bought us all Scottish lobsters and he popped them in the pot. The only problem? The water was cold. He lit the gas and waited.
I can still hear those lobsters scuttling around the pan.
The Silence of the Lobsters.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/06/boris-johnson-freedom-leadership-void-prime-minister
I'm a left-leaning libertarian but much prefer the journalism of the Telegraph. It's nasty at times, reactionary and anti-woke but still streets ahead of the Guardian.
You'd think I could sit comfortably with the Times but it's so damned boring.
Huge fun. Polls show that spectators love it. Great way to settle a game that hasn't concluded in 120 minutes.
There's only one genuine alternative to penalties and that's a replay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1ahDUm6rLw
I know the terraces proved life endangering but there was nothing quite like standing in the supporters' end behind the goal. I used to love it. I have sometimes stood shaking from head to toe with exhilaration and anticipation.
I imagine The Kop was something else. (Named after the hill in South Africa where many British soldiers lost their lives during the Boer War.)
Football has changed a lot. A few things, like the safety improvements, are clearly for the better. But an awful lot isn't. I'm not being dewey-eyed about this but the corporate takeovers have altered the game indelibly. The failed ESL was the end of a long process of commercialisation which took the game and the clubs further and further away from local and true fans.
England 1.76
Denmark 6
Draw 3.7
Correct score:
England 1-0 Denmark: 6
England 2-0 Denmark: 8.2
England 1-1 Denmark: 8.6
England 0-0 Denmark: 9
To qualify:
England 1.38
Denmark 3.55
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/football/market/1.185039897
And the FA Cup was a wonderful competition that everyone wanted to win and which genuinely pitted the great and the minnows together.
They even managed to have 3 European competitions all of which were of stature and everyone wanted to win: The European Cup, The Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Cup.
Surprised, but pleased.
When I walked into our new stadium for the first match I decided that it wasn't for me any more. It was all very slick and amazing and all that but it wasn't my local club any more. I haven't been back since.
https://youtu.be/wKAyfwcHHw0
I was an Arsenal season ticket holder, and you know what: it was nowhere near as much fun as LAFC is.
Anyone who knows Tibet and the Tibetans knows full well that it exists. It exists culturally, historically, linguistically, spiritually and existentially.
Without going all Godwin it's like saying that when the Nazis invaded Poland, Poland ceased to exist.
A people with such an obvious identity are not wiped from existence just because an imperialist force, or a statistician sitting on his MacBook in America, tells them otherwise.
I need a coffee.
EXC: Boiling lobsters alive will be banned as ministers prepare to back an amendment to recognise they can feel pain
Crabs, squid and octopus and cuttlefish are among the non-vertebrates set to be recognised as sentient under the plans
https://twitter.com/EleniCourea/status/1412526422246240258
PS - Do you know how difficult it is for a good Muslim boy to find halal foie gras?
Cue undetectable uptick in freezer / fridge sales. And a "lobster" fridge available for Waitrose types.
Scotland and Manchester are OK - they can be made less sentient by chilling in "cool air".
The restrictions cause massive harm and everybody is completely fed-up with them. These conditions aren't unique to the UK. See, for example, this report:
Germany should lift all remaining coronavirus-linked social and economic curbs as soon as everyone has been offered a vaccine, foreign minister Heiko Maas was quoted as saying this morning, suggesting that point should be reached next month.
Around 56.5% of people in Germany have received at least one dose and almost 39% are fully vaccinated, according to health ministry data.
“When everyone in Germany has received a vaccine offer, there is no longer a legal or political justification for any kind of restriction,” Maas told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. That should occur sometime during August, he added.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has previously said she wants to offer everyone in Germany a vaccine by 21 September.
Caroline Copley reports for Reuters that in January Maas was the first German government minister to call for restrictions to be eased for vaccinated people and suggested they should be allowed to visit the cinema or eat in restaurants. Other ministers opposed special exemptions for the vaccinated.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/jul/06/coronavirus-live-news-germany-to-lift-uk-and-india-travel-ban-israel-to-trade-700000-pfizer-doses-with-south-korea?page=with:block-60e4270d8f085474e96636ed#liveblog-navigation
There is a tremendous imperative to get rid of the rules and, as Chris Whitty has explained, the best time to do it is during the Summer, when the exit wave won't run smack into the flu season. And if various EU states are only a few weeks behind us with vaccinations - and are already heavily seeded with Delta in any event - then there's very little point in persisting with controls on inbound UK travellers. It is no wonder that they are starting to give up.
I forget the precise geographic feature (it’s part of a plateau I think) but they seem the Himalayas as the natural geographic boundary of China
Just about every move it makes should be seen through that prism. There are no claims on non-Chinese territory as they see it.
It believes Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Spratlys etc are all part of China.
I am sickened by what Xi has done these past years but he is continuing the historical sweep wrt national pride.
The British were utterly appalling towards China in general and Hong Kong in particular. Our Opium Wars are an utter, utter, utter, disgrace.
Amongst other things we deliberately made opium addicts of millions of Chinese in order to fund our tea trade. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842
Disgusting.
So, yes, the Chinese are quite right about that.
This book is 50% great/50% meh but the piece on China was good
Essentially they are trying to secure the Yangtze/Yellow River basins (80% of population)
Tibet is a high land that would allow an enemy to attack straight into the Chinese heartland. It is also the source of much of their water. Similarly Xianchu is the boundary to the west, the Gobi to the north and the ocean to the east (island such as Taiwan allow control of the coastal passageways)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prisoners-Geography-Everything-Global-Politics/dp/1783962437/ref=asc_df_1783962437/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310865071345&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8836296832208542071&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045957&hvtargid=pla-376568132531&psc=1&th=1&psc=1
More likely long term is creeping expansion north into Kamkatchu and Siberia
* not really the right word, but you know what I mean
Have a good morning.
Um, no. This was 200 years ago. WE didn’t do anything. You’re merely falling for the same propaganda you highlight.
It’s of enormous concern to me how even now after everything, this government can flippantly allow the sale of a semi conductor producer to China. When will they wake up? It’s embarrassing at this point.
Mr. Cookie, interesting.
The Romans could cite the Gauls or Etruscans. The Greeks had the Persians. Would France have the Angevins? Hmm.
Its useful to them to point to historical grievances is all. That there are legitimate grievances doesnt speak to their actions now one bit, but they like to pretend it does.
Those Chinese not under the yoke of the CCP in Taiwan and Hong Kong, although sadly diminishing by the day, have no desire to go back.
Wall to wall football.
Just no.
Anyway a question about the NHS Covid app which I’ll ask in a separate comment...
The Chinese government using late 19th and early 20th century events as a justification for its own behaviour is absolute tosh and none of us should give it the slightest consideration. Recognition that China was treated appallingly doesn't impact that.
Sometimes I ponder which of our behaviours will seem most abhorrent to our great grandchildren, the way we now think about the chemical castration of homosexuals or slavery.
Burning stuff is obviously high up the list. Having ladies and gents toilets is way at the bottom. But I do have to wonder whether consumption of animals will reach the top of the list, even beyond burning stuff, once our understanding of sentience has properly developed.
All the same, I eat lots and lots of meat and seafood. Because it gives me pleasure, I believe it to be good for me, and for now it is socially acceptable. But I am like Cicero was with slaves I suppose. I abhor mass production and unnecessary cruelty and stick with free range and grass fed.
Whether this is enough to earn the forgiveness or understanding of my descendants I doubt. I also ponder why the Torah prohibited the consumption of shellfish. Sure maybe that’s sensible advice in a hot place with no refrigeration. But it tickles me to think that Christoper Mellon’s UFOs are piloted by a race of crustacean aliens who are back after a few thousand years away. “We fucking warned you! Hands up who ate the crab stick? Zap!”
But does anyone understand the QR code “check in feature”. I had assumed that this was somehow not anonymous and if it turned out you were in a venue highlighted as a “place of concern” then you would get a call from the track and trace team to determine if you needed to isolate. But as it is (as I understand) anonymous how does it work. It can’t possibly be the case that if alerted you are required to isolate as you may have no close contact whatsoever (for example there is a pub I go to which does take away served from the bar - and you have to check in - for the two minutes whilst you are being served. Unless you remember to check out again immediately there is no way that you should be deemed a close contact, but how does the app know that? Are you provided details of the positive test that triggered to allow you to make a personal assessment about whether to isolate?
Or is, in effect, the only purpose to alert venue owners that their staff are at risk and THEY all need to isolate?
China surely has a right to self defence.
My issue with China, apart from the way it treats its own people, is that it advances the authoritarian, anti-democratic surveillance state as a model of development.
Ultimately, that’s a threat to our way of life, or perhaps our children’s way of life.
One of the best things Britain can do, in my opinion, is better uphold democracy, liberty and the rule of law in *this* country, thereby acting as an example to others.
We did this quite well for a hundred years or so.
Fun fact, I was taught by someone later outed as a Chinese spy at University.