I just hope that we don't get the stories about abuse of opposition supporters that we had after the Denmark game. Must be difficult being in a 10-1 minority. Also that any booing is confined to when Boris Johnson stands up. Not when the Italian anthem is played.
England is after all, the host for this game.
Yes, how come we got to be the home side for both semi-final and final? Unfortunately there's not much to be done about random people booing - play both anthems very loudly over the loudspeakers to drown everyone out?
Regarding Southgate, as he is that popular perhaps the clown could try and rope him in to promote FREEDOM DAY and the dropping of all restrictions and get back to work and buying a £4 cup of twatty coffee you plebs.
The polls still show that people aren't as stupid as the PM, so a nice celeb endorsing the policy would really help. Southgate would be up for that wouldn't he...?
I assume these empty workplaces and £4 coffee refers to the cities and London in particular.
My workplace has never been empty, coffee comes from a big tin of nescafe and everyone arrives by car.
The suburban industrial estate often seems a world away from the city centre.
But perhaps never more so than this last year.
Club together and get a decent coffee machine? :-)
While working on contract at one place, we got a grinder and an electric mocha pot. Our ritual was make the coffees - then go out for a walk. Which we called the non-smokers-smoke-break.
Regarding Southgate, as he is that popular perhaps the clown could try and rope him in to promote FREEDOM DAY and the dropping of all restrictions and get back to work and buying a £4 cup of twatty coffee you plebs.
The polls still show that people aren't as stupid as the PM, so a nice celeb endorsing the policy would really help. Southgate would be up for that wouldn't he...?
I assume these empty workplaces and £4 coffee refers to the cities and London in particular.
My workplace has never been empty, coffee comes from a big tin of nescafe and everyone arrives by car.
The suburban industrial estate often seems a world away from the city centre.
But perhaps never more so than this last year.
It is the great unknown apparently, the idea that throughout the plague companies and factories on suburban industrial estates kept going because they had to. And I know that there are all kinds of jobs in those sorts of places (and some very nice cars for the white collar staff) but the presumption is all blue collar and all the focus all seems to be on city workers.
The last place I worked at in Sheffield had a choice of food outlets. A glorious greasy spoon where for £4 you could get an arm-length breakfast burrito and a giant mug off coffee, a sandwich shop where for £4 you could get a hot pork roll carved in front of you and a coffee, or just off the edge a Costa on the main road where £4 didn't get you some of the coffee options. My boss liked to go sit in Costa to have off-site conflabs, didn't used to see many others off the industrial estate in there. The CFO and I liked the greasy spoon for conflabs.
I just hope that we don't get the stories about abuse of opposition supporters that we had after the Denmark game. Must be difficult being in a 10-1 minority. Also that any booing is confined to when Boris Johnson stands up. Not when the Italian anthem is played.
England is after all, the host for this game.
Yes, how come we got to be the home side for both semi-final and final? Unfortunately there's not much to be done about random people booing - play both anthems very loudly over the loudspeakers to drown everyone out?
I would presume that even despite the general one off format of the tournament being to spread the competition all over the continent, UEFA still wanted to provide a bit of stability for teams in the latter stages and not needing to travel between semifinal and final.
On topic, re: betting. I can't come to view on this match so I'm not betting*.
On one hand, Italy has been the best team at the Euros, has had an additional 24 hours rest and can soak up pressure and be very dangerous on the counter attack; on the other hand England is at home and generally fitter.
* England should have beaten Denmark by more than a non-penalty in extra time. At the odds I've had a very small punt on Italy 3-0 purely because 60 (BF) seems to big for me given their counter attacking danger and risk that England press ineffectively for long periods and get caught repeatedly. (Hope not but hope I can be forgiven for cheering Italy on if they are 2-0 up with five mins to go.)
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
A lot of words to say "I hate Boris". 😴
Meh. I am largely insulated from him having moved out of his jurisdiction. Our government - though they aren;t who I voted for - aren't as irresponsible as yours. My points is simple though - the majority of punters out there won't do what you and the other PB ultras tell them because they aren't as stupid as you and your clown think they are.
We know the rest. Business struggles, business folds, there will be no support and you will all blame the businesses for their troubles. Again. Perhaps people will notice this time and start considering if they still should vote for that. Perhaps not. Either way I am safely out of the way.
Regarding Southgate, as he is that popular perhaps the clown could try and rope him in to promote FREEDOM DAY and the dropping of all restrictions and get back to work and buying a £4 cup of twatty coffee you plebs.
The polls still show that people aren't as stupid as the PM, so a nice celeb endorsing the policy would really help. Southgate would be up for that wouldn't he...?
I assume these empty workplaces and £4 coffee refers to the cities and London in particular.
My workplace has never been empty, coffee comes from a big tin of nescafe and everyone arrives by car.
The suburban industrial estate often seems a world away from the city centre.
But perhaps never more so than this last year.
Club together and get a decent coffee machine? :-)
While working on contract at one place, we got a grinder and an electric mocha pot. Our ritual was make the coffees - then go out for a walk. Which we called the non-smokers-smoke-break.
When contracting, or even going for an interview, one can tell an awful lot about a company from their attitude towards coffee.
Whether we win or not tonight, Southgate has managed to get England counted amongst the top tier of world football again. We no longer have to stand in the shadow of teams such as Belgium or Portugal.
Well done that man. The knighthood is in the post.
Winning something could be a strangely cathartic thing. I’m struck by Spanish and German friends who are easily able to treat getting knocked out in cheerful good spirit. Because they’ve all had success in the footie it isn’t this monkey on their back they’ve had since they were 6 years old. So when they lose, they don’t act like 6 years olds with a pet monkey. Like I do.
I just hope that we don't get the stories about abuse of opposition supporters that we had after the Denmark game. Must be difficult being in a 10-1 minority. Also that any booing is confined to when Boris Johnson stands up. Not when the Italian anthem is played.
England is after all, the host for this game.
Yes, how come we got to be the home side for both semi-final and final? Unfortunately there's not much to be done about random people booing - play both anthems very loudly over the loudspeakers to drown everyone out?
I would presume that even despite the general one off format of the tournament being to spread the competition all over the continent, UEFA still wanted to provide a bit of stability for teams in the latter stages and not needing to travel between semifinal and final.
There was a bidding process within UEFA, whereby the members were invited to specify stadium, allowed capacity and date, with the intention of maximising their revenue from spectators. The English FA won the bidding, with 66k attendance for each of the final three matches.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
I just hope that we don't get the stories about abuse of opposition supporters that we had after the Denmark game. Must be difficult being in a 10-1 minority. Also that any booing is confined to when Boris Johnson stands up. Not when the Italian anthem is played.
England is after all, the host for this game.
So bad manners is ok when its someone you don't like. Got it. Idiot.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
A lot of words to say "I hate Boris". 😴
People going on about "omega" spreading through the population and killing everyone are just effectively arguing for permanent restrictions. Because they are arguing for restrictions for viruses that don't exist.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You are Victor Meldrew.
According to him and his "inside knowledge of the supermarket industry" we should have all ran out of food about 6 months ago.
Zeitgeist is a wonderful thing in that it's so unpredictable. Fashion's the clearest example. Yesterday's mullet becomes ugly overnight as does the wearer. The authoritarian early sixties with the Oz trials turned into the hippy drug fuelled 70's.
When the socially illiberal Thatherism lead to the electric day in 1997 when the clouds lifted. The whipping hanging Tory Home Secretaries and their elderly clique of yelping blue rinses felt dated overnight.
It could be that we are on the verge of another one. It's never easy to see the spark but it's often when the pendulum is at it's widest. BLM meet the booing Priti Patels. Hartlepool meets Chesham and Amersham......
It could be just wild optimism but the isolationist place we've been at for the last few years with the Faragists calling the shots does feel a very old fashioned and foreign country.
I’m sympathetic to the idea, Roger, so I’d rather you refrain from such forecasts.
Firstly, I expect these numbers will decline a bit if Italy win tonight and secondly the skills of a football manager are not exactly the same of those needed to be PM. Thirdly of course after Southgate's comments on Germany and WW2 he is moving from the wokes towards the gammons.
Taking the knee is also not really a Marxist statement, plenty of big corporations are now pushing equality and diversity hard and of course Le Pen's party in France is as anti woke as anyone but economically quite leftwing
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
And only that Labour want laws that significant numbers are not in a position to comply with or are ignoring (because they aren't being enforced), whereas the Government position is for the laws to be guidance.
I read this morning that Sadiq is currently in negotiations with the Government about maintaining restrictions on London Transport. Noting that "large numbers aren't complying at the moment due to the impossibility of enforcement (presumably because of the "exemption" clause), and if the Government lifts the legal requirement then most of the rest won't comply either"
There was a time when most people recognised that unenforced and/or unenforceable legislation was a bad thing. Not least because it allows the police to be selective. Giving the authorities the power to be selective in how they enforce laws is in general *a bad thing*
I just hope that we don't get the stories about abuse of opposition supporters that we had after the Denmark game. Must be difficult being in a 10-1 minority. Also that any booing is confined to when Boris Johnson stands up. Not when the Italian anthem is played.
England is after all, the host for this game.
So bad manners is ok when its someone you don't like. Got it. Idiot.
I thought someone would mutter. Sense of humour bypass! Remember what happened to Osborne at the Olympics.
I just hope that we don't get the stories about abuse of opposition supporters that we had after the Denmark game. Must be difficult being in a 10-1 minority. Also that any booing is confined to when Boris Johnson stands up. Not when the Italian anthem is played.
England is after all, the host for this game.
So bad manners is ok when its someone you don't like. Got it. Idiot.
I thought someone would mutter. Sense of humour bypass! Remember what happened to Osborne at the Olympics.
I just hope that we don't get the stories about abuse of opposition supporters that we had after the Denmark game. Must be difficult being in a 10-1 minority. Also that any booing is confined to when Boris Johnson stands up. Not when the Italian anthem is played.
England is after all, the host for this game.
Yes, how come we got to be the home side for both semi-final and final? Unfortunately there's not much to be done about random people booing - play both anthems very loudly over the loudspeakers to drown everyone out?
Technically I think we are the away side*… but we’ve decided to wear the white strip despite it being our home colour
Of course the decision is in part political. A decision being partly political isn't a synonym for bad - the decision may have been wrong but averting civil disobedienace and protecting mental health and the economy would be relevant factors.
And in terms of the public handling the truth of things, well, I have some sympathy there. I don't like leaders treating people like children, but I don't think we have a great record of rewarding people who tell us the hard truths.
Southgate would make a thoroughly decent PM, but I think he'd find the job very very difficult as he'd care about those he'd inevitably have to let down.
If they do cut the gap to 4 weeks the second dose rate will go up quite significantly. We're expecting 10m doses of Pfizer this month, plus the rest of the Moderna order it means everyone who has already had a first dose should get their second one by the first week of August and be immune by the end if August. At that point it really is pandemic over.
Gary Imlach was amusing last night on the TdF highlights. Commenting on the phenomenal story of Mark Cavendish* who has equalled the great Eddie Merckx's record of 34 stage wins in the Tour de France, Imlach said it had gone under the radar in the UK, relative to the football coverage. He wasn't complaining about that, or surprised about it, but added that:
At least we haven't had to witness the Prime Minister dressed up in cycling gear.
Indeed.
* Always assuming and hoping of course that Cavendish isn't fuelled by naughty sauce.
I’ve been thinking the same thing. Cavendish will be remembered worldwide by the cycling community for at least a century to come, probably much longer. Even if England win tomorrow, only the English, Scots, Welsh and Irish will remember it, because of the constant media drone we’ll all be subjected to, à la 1966.
Assuming he’s not on the sauce, Cavendish will be remembered as a great sportsman. Assuming the English win tonight, their achievement will not be remembered primarily as a sporting achievement, but as another step on the road to the dissolution of the Union.
What rubbish, the fact England got all the way to the final while Scotland and Wales got knocked out in the early stages might boost English nationalism a bit, especially if England win, as it would show England would be a strong nation even on its own but I doubt it would make any difference to Scottish independence. If you are a Scottish Nationalist you hated England and its sporting teams before the tournament and still do and if you are a Scottish Unionist you happily supported Scotland and will wish England well tonight too.
However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
Obviously it's only a snapshot report - but i've absolutely no idea what message one is supposed to take from that? That lockdown in March 2020 was a pointless attempt to shield the public from reality? That all restrictions have not really been about public health but politics? That they should be lifted now or they shouldn't? That death is inevitable, it is only the method of death that is uncertain/negotiable?
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You are Victor Meldrew.
According to him and his "inside knowledge of the supermarket industry" we should have all ran out of food about 6 months ago.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
Whether we win or not tonight, Southgate has managed to get England counted amongst the top tier of world football again. We no longer have to stand in the shadow of teams such as Belgium or Portugal.
Well done that man. The knighthood is in the post.
Winning something could be a strangely cathartic thing. I’m struck by Spanish and German friends who are easily able to treat getting knocked out in cheerful good spirit. Because they’ve all had success in the footie it isn’t this monkey on their back they’ve had since they were 6 years old. So when they lose, they don’t act like 6 years olds with a pet monkey. Like I do.
Look at the tw@ who missed his penalty at the start of that video. What a moron, should be cancelled forever and banned from the inside of a football stadium.
Oh, he got another job you say...
Rather amusingly, and recommended by youtube, an Australian news channel explains “It’s Coming Home” for a non-English audience. Useful material for anyone with a non-English wife or colleague, who doesn’t understand what’s going on! https://youtube.com/watch?v=LTwezqwss_U
I just hope that we don't get the stories about abuse of opposition supporters that we had after the Denmark game. Must be difficult being in a 10-1 minority. Also that any booing is confined to when Boris Johnson stands up. Not when the Italian anthem is played.
England is after all, the host for this game.
Yes, how come we got to be the home side for both semi-final and final? Unfortunately there's not much to be done about random people booing - play both anthems very loudly over the loudspeakers to drown everyone out?
Technically, and slightly absurdly, Italy is the home team tonight isn't it?
Obviously it's only a snapshot report - but i've absolutely no idea what message one is supposed to take from that? That lockdown in March 2020 was a pointless attempt to shield the public from reality? That all restrictions have not really been about public health but politics? That they should be lifted now or they shouldn't? That death is inevitable, it is only the method of death that is uncertain/negotiable?
I am equally uncertain. I only posted it to underline the weirdness of the moment
On the one hand we have the sense this is all nearing the end. On the other, lots of scientists are saying we are still in the middle of the storm, perhaps - horrendously - nearer the beginning
Who to believe?
One thing I do accept is the idea we will need 10-15 years to recover. One look at the state of the west’s great cities - and some in Asia - confirms that. My younger daughter lives north of Sydney. They are just going into another strict lockdown. Maybe a month. This shit is endless
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
Because it's a bunch of garbled words that add up to an "I hate Boris" rant. It's really not deserving of a proper response any more. Not many of your posts are these days.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You are Victor Meldrew.
According to him and his "inside knowledge of the supermarket industry" we should have all ran out of food about 6 months ago.
*giggles* do feel free to post where I posted anything that could be reasonably summarised as "we should all have run out of food".
We have rolling shortages of food right now thanks to a major driver shortage caused at least in part directly by Brexit. We have had major shortages in NI directly thanks to Brexit. We have had to completely bin off the customs processes we demanded specifically because they would have created huge shortages.
"Shortages haven't happened yet, so you were wrong about what would have happened had we done the thing we didn't do". If you say so.
I just hope that we don't get the stories about abuse of opposition supporters that we had after the Denmark game. Must be difficult being in a 10-1 minority. Also that any booing is confined to when Boris Johnson stands up. Not when the Italian anthem is played.
England is after all, the host for this game.
So bad manners is ok when its someone you don't like. Got it. Idiot.
I thought someone would mutter. Sense of humour bypass! Remember what happened to Osborne at the Olympics.
I do - when the left legitimises it over Tory politicians it gives the green light for all the other bad-mannered louts to air their personal grievances. And we are all diminished as a result. To pretend it's all about humour is pretty weak.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
When everything is wrong and there is not a scintilla of optimism Victor Meldrew is a fair comparison
If they do cut the gap to 4 weeks the second dose rate will go up quite significantly. We're expecting 10m doses of Pfizer this month, plus the rest of the Moderna order it means everyone who has already had a first dose should get their second one by the first week of August and be immune by the end if August. At that point it really is pandemic over.
Unfortunately:
Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi dismisses report that vaccine dosing interval to be reduced from 8 weeks to 4 weeks, says 8 week interval is best
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
Because you’re worse than a fanatic. You’re a dull fanatic
Food makers and pub chains have complained that hauliers are raising prices and prioritising bigger customers as a shortage of drivers reaches crisis point.
Logistics firm Fowler Welch is understood to have told customers that prices would rise by 5 per cent, while Eddie Stobart has prioritised larger account holders.
A shortage of HGV drivers has been blamed on EU nationals returning home because of Covid and Brexit, and a pandemic-induced delay to the qualification process. Last week, transport minister Baroness Vere announced a temporary extension of drivers’ hours from tomorrow which would allow HGV drivers to make slightly longer journeys.
It's hard to see how a million could die in the short to medium term, the virus would have to become much more dangerous and reinfect many more people. So for now such a number appears to be unlikely. If covid becomes endemic, as seems very likely, then in the long term the deaths will be much higher than they are now, but that is true for many other diseases as well. I would expect covid to kill more people than flu does for many years to come unless we get some great treatments to go with the vaccines.
Nadhim Zahawi touring tv stations trying to clear up behind Boris Johnson
-On masks now 'expectation to wear'. Change from PM's explanation only days ago. And PM's claim link between #COVID19 and deaths has been 'severed' now becomes 'severely weakened' #Marr https://twitter.com/paul__johnson/status/1414148709017952256
Whether we win or not tonight, Southgate has managed to get England counted amongst the top tier of world football again. We no longer have to stand in the shadow of teams such as Belgium or Portugal.
Well done that man. The knighthood is in the post.
Winning something could be a strangely cathartic thing. I’m struck by Spanish and German friends who are easily able to treat getting knocked out in cheerful good spirit. Because they’ve all had success in the footie it isn’t this monkey on their back they’ve had since they were 6 years old. So when they lose, they don’t act like 6 years olds with a pet monkey. Like I do.
Look at the tw@ who missed his penalty at the start of that video. What a moron, should be cancelled forever and banned from the inside of a football stadium.
Oh, he got another job you say...
Rather amusingly, and recommended by youtube, an Australian news channel explains “It’s Coming Home” for a non-English audience. Useful material for anyone with a non-English wife or colleague, who doesn’t understand what’s going on! https://youtube.com/watch?v=LTwezqwss_U
An explanation would be useful, as I don't know who the bloke who isn't Baddiel or Skinner is.
She doesn’t give a time-span however. If she means a million dead in a year, that’s horrific. It implies a global death toll of 70 million, for a start. Possibly way more than that, if you factor in inferior health systems, general chaos. 100 million? 300 million?
However is she means an extra million dead over 10-15 years that’s very nasty but not apocalyptic. 600,000 die every year. So if this is her take, we will have 10% more deaths every year. Life expectancy will shrink, but not catastrophically
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
By and large that is where I would be BigG
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him. As a result however the cat is out of the bag there is no going back on anything now, the voters aren't listening to anything else, other than the war is over.
Yesterday in that bastion of Welsh RedWallers, Aldi, my wife pointed out to me that half were no longer masked up.
I hope Johnson and the anti-maskers are right and the rest of us, our caution unfounded.
If they do cut the gap to 4 weeks the second dose rate will go up quite significantly. We're expecting 10m doses of Pfizer this month, plus the rest of the Moderna order it means everyone who has already had a first dose should get their second one by the first week of August and be immune by the end if August. At that point it really is pandemic over.
Unfortunately:
Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi dismisses report that vaccine dosing interval to be reduced from 8 weeks to 4 weeks, says 8 week interval is best
It just seems completely unnecessary to make people wait an extra 4-5 weeks and also have vaccines sitting in the fridge because that's what we're doing right now.
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
By and large that is where I would be BigG
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him.
Except as the polling has shown people are generally cautious, so surely if it was about ratings more than anything else he would be more cautious about freedom day? So presumably it must have been taken for other reasons?
It's hard to see how a million could die in the short to medium term, the virus would have to become much more dangerous and reinfect many more people. So for now such a number appears to be unlikely. If covid becomes endemic, as seems very likely, then in the long term the deaths will be much higher than they are now, but that is true for many other diseases as well. I would expect covid to kill more people than flu does for many years to come unless we get some great treatments to go with the vaccines.
In some ways (from the very narrow focus of moving people on from fear of Covid) the Government could really do with quite a bad flu season to focus on the fact that there is more to viruses, illness and death than Covid. Imagine a dashboard that doesn't just show Covid deaths. However even from this deliberately stated narrow focus, the problem would probably be that the public response would be for popular support for the country to go into hibernation every winter.
Not least when one considers the scary polling about the level of authoritarian restrictions that 30% of the population apparently support even if Covid wasn't an issue.
She doesn’t give a time-span however. If she means a million dead in a year, that’s horrific. It implies a global death toll of 70 million, for a start. Possibly way more than that, if you factor in inferior health systems, general chaos. 100 million? 300 million?
However is she means an extra million dead over 10-15 years that’s very nasty but not apocalyptic. 600,000 die every year. So if this is her take, we will have 10% more deaths every year. Life expectancy will shrink, but not catastrophically
I doubt that 60k will die from COVID per year. Post vaccination if we get more than 5k deaths it would be a surprise. The virus would need to mutate quite significantly to start killing off 60k per year in a vaccinated population.
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
By and large that is where I would be BigG
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him. As a result however the cat is out of the bag there is no going back on anything now, the voters aren't listening to anything else, other than the war is over.
Yesterday in that bastion of Welsh RedWallers, Aldi, my wife pointed out to me that half were no longer masked up.
I hope Johnson and the anti-maskers are right and the rest of us, our caution unfounded.
In reality Freedom Day will not be July 19th, it will be when you have been double vaccinated.
So for most of the over 50s they have already had their Freedom Day, for most of the under 40s however they will have to wait several weeks even after July 19th for their Freedom Day
Whether we win or not tonight, Southgate has managed to get England counted amongst the top tier of world football again. We no longer have to stand in the shadow of teams such as Belgium or Portugal.
Well done that man. The knighthood is in the post.
Winning something could be a strangely cathartic thing. I’m struck by Spanish and German friends who are easily able to treat getting knocked out in cheerful good spirit. Because they’ve all had success in the footie it isn’t this monkey on their back they’ve had since they were 6 years old. So when they lose, they don’t act like 6 years olds with a pet monkey. Like I do.
Look at the tw@ who missed his penalty at the start of that video. What a moron, should be cancelled forever and banned from the inside of a football stadium.
Oh, he got another job you say...
Rather amusingly, and recommended by youtube, an Australian news channel explains “It’s Coming Home” for a non-English audience. Useful material for anyone with a non-English wife or colleague, who doesn’t understand what’s going on! https://youtube.com/watch?v=LTwezqwss_U
An explanation would be useful, as I don't know who the bloke who isn't Baddiel or Skinner is.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
Because it's a bunch of garbled words that add up to an "I hate Boris" rant. It's really not deserving of a proper response any more. Not many of your posts are these days.
Must be annoying. They've done two pre-announcements now and there's a 3rd coming on Monday when (hopefully) England is basking in having put away those demons and won a tournament. 2 shots at it and there's still half the country who think like me and won't comply with FREEDOM DAY we're all safe pandemic over go back to your dreary lives.
Perhaps - and its just an idea - there's actually not a majority or anything close to it out there of people who think like PB Clowm Apologists like you and Charles and Big G? I know we're going to hear "but we have a majority of 80" and so what - when the alternative choice was a lunatic voting for a clown makes sense.
But the clown is supposed to be a populist. Can instinctively feel what people think and give it to them. So why is he so badly wrong and out of touch on this one? Philip on here yesterday reduced to imploring that he ignores public opinion and leads regardless of what people think.
When the desired outcome is to change the way that people act and behave, you can't command them to do something that self-evidently feels like a risk. Some of you complain about people like me wanting to control people forever. Far from it, yet it is you and yours trying to instruct people to do something they don't believe is safe or sensible.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
If no one wanted to buy £4 coffees then Starbucks et al would go out of business.
Good thing too imo but it doesn't seem to be happening. Maybe post-pandemic people will wake up to what is or is not good value coffee.
Went for a run through rural Bedfordshire this morning, and came across perhaps the ultimate setup for tonight: a garden containing a gazebo, complete with massive TV, what looked like a bar, and a table football game. The gazebo had England bunting hanging around it.
Shortly after that, I came across a man wearing worn fatigues, standing in front of a tripod topped with a rifle. Fortunately he was shooting rabbits, not runners ...
I just hope that we don't get the stories about abuse of opposition supporters that we had after the Denmark game. Must be difficult being in a 10-1 minority. Also that any booing is confined to when Boris Johnson stands up. Not when the Italian anthem is played.
England is after all, the host for this game.
So bad manners is ok when its someone you don't like. Got it. Idiot.
I thought someone would mutter. Sense of humour bypass! Remember what happened to Osborne at the Olympics.
I do - when the left legitimises it over Tory politicians it gives the green light for all the other bad-mannered louts to air their personal grievances. And we are all diminished as a result. To pretend it's all about humour is pretty weak.
Maybe. Not the best of mornings for me ATM, and not just here.
She doesn’t give a time-span however. If she means a million dead in a year, that’s horrific. It implies a global death toll of 70 million, for a start. Possibly way more than that, if you factor in inferior health systems, general chaos. 100 million? 300 million?
However is she means an extra million dead over 10-15 years that’s very nasty but not apocalyptic. 600,000 die every year. So if this is her take, we will have 10% more deaths every year. Life expectancy will shrink, but not catastrophically
I doubt that 60k will die from COVID per year. Post vaccination if we get more than 5k deaths it would be a surprise. The virus would need to mutate quite significantly to start killing off 60k per year in a vaccinated population.
I have no real idea. Tho I note that this virus has already mutated faster and more perniciously than many virologists expected.
If they do cut the gap to 4 weeks the second dose rate will go up quite significantly. We're expecting 10m doses of Pfizer this month, plus the rest of the Moderna order it means everyone who has already had a first dose should get their second one by the first week of August and be immune by the end if August. At that point it really is pandemic over.
Unfortunately:
Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi dismisses report that vaccine dosing interval to be reduced from 8 weeks to 4 weeks, says 8 week interval is best
It just seems completely unnecessary to make people wait an extra 4-5 weeks and also have vaccines sitting in the fridge because that's what we're doing right now.
What's best for 80 year olds at the start of the rollout with cases falling in a lockdown (And supply constrained) and what's best for 20 something year olds near the end of the rollout with cases rising (And demand constrained) are two completely seperate things. Zahawi frankly isn't very good, his mealy mouthed answer about "hoping" clinically vulnerable kids might be recommended soon show precisely the sort of follower and not leader he is. A decent vaccines minister would be asking the JCVI why they aren't following the MHRA on that and the idea that a 4 week gap on Pfizer for regular (Don't forget all g6 have been done) 20 something year olds being better than 8 weeks at this point with err... nightclubs reopening soon stretches the bounds of credibility.
Food makers and pub chains have complained that hauliers are raising prices and prioritising bigger customers as a shortage of drivers reaches crisis point.
Logistics firm Fowler Welch is understood to have told customers that prices would rise by 5 per cent, while Eddie Stobart has prioritised larger account holders.
A shortage of HGV drivers has been blamed on EU nationals returning home because of Covid and Brexit, and a pandemic-induced delay to the qualification process. Last week, transport minister Baroness Vere announced a temporary extension of drivers’ hours from tomorrow which would allow HGV drivers to make slightly longer journeys.
Supply and demand means that when supply is limited, companies prioritise those accounts willing to pay more?
Well blow me down with a feather!
No no no, everyone is paying more. If you don't agree to pay the price for service then you don't get service. This isn't big customers out-bidding the smaller ones. Its industry doing what it does brilliantly which is fire-fighting. They can't serve everyone. So shift as much as you can - that means the trunk deliveries and the big loads.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
Because it's a bunch of garbled words that add up to an "I hate Boris" rant. It's really not deserving of a proper response any more. Not many of your posts are these days.
Must be annoying. They've done two pre-announcements now and there's a 3rd coming on Monday when (hopefully) England is basking in having put away those demons and won a tournament. 2 shots at it and there's still half the country who think like me and won't comply with FREEDOM DAY we're all safe pandemic over go back to your dreary lives.
Perhaps - and its just an idea - there's actually not a majority or anything close to it out there of people who think like PB Clowm Apologists like you and Charles and Big G? I know we're going to hear "but we have a majority of 80" and so what - when the alternative choice was a lunatic voting for a clown makes sense.
But the clown is supposed to be a populist. Can instinctively feel what people think and give it to them. So why is he so badly wrong and out of touch on this one? Philip on here yesterday reduced to imploring that he ignores public opinion and leads regardless of what people think.
When the desired outcome is to change the way that people act and behave, you can't command them to do something that self-evidently feels like a risk. Some of you complain about people like me wanting to control people forever. Far from it, yet it is you and yours trying to instruct people to do something they don't believe is safe or sensible.
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
By and large that is where I would be BigG
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him. As a result however the cat is out of the bag there is no going back on anything now, the voters aren't listening to anything else, other than the war is over.
Yesterday in that bastion of Welsh RedWallers, Aldi, my wife pointed out to me that half were no longer masked up.
I hope Johnson and the anti-maskers are right and the rest of us, our caution unfounded.
I suspect that mask wearing guidance will be retained in hospitals and medical settings and on crowded public transport
The vast majority of the public will behave responsibly and I just do not see any real enforcement is taking place at present even though it is mandated
Went for a run through rural Bedfordshire this morning, and came across perhaps the ultimate setup for tonight: a garden containing a gazebo, complete with massive TV, what looked like a bar, and a table football game. The gazebo had England bunting hanging around it.
Shortly after that, I came across a man wearing worn fatigues, standing in front of a tripod topped with a rifle. Fortunately he was shooting rabbits, not runners ...
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
I think presuming if people don't counter what a poster says that they are conceding that poster is correct is an unlikely position.
On masks 😷 could a middle ground be found that the law could back up business owner/statutory bodies choices ?
The law already does. Retailers have no obligation to serve other than their need to comply with things like the Equalities Act. Making a mask mandatory if you want service is up to them. The problem for shops, restaurants, museums etc etc is who will enforce such a rule? The staff?
For the national chains we have already Sainsbury's saying free choice on masks. TBH I don't think they have a choice. If they try and enforce mask wearing then it almost certainly puts their staff in a difficult and likely dangerous position of trying to enforce a mask policy on the likes of @Cocky_cockney aggressively telling them to fuck off.
They know they have an obligation to their staff and to their business. We're going to see mega staff shortages if the Covid App keeps pinging people at the rate it is now and then a lot more if we hit Javid's 100k new cases a day. But they're also exposing people by not enforcing an unenforceable mask policy. Fun times ahead.
Quite a compelling essay on Wokeness and Britain, by Frank Luntz
“Labour voters are much more likely to say that Britain is racist, unequal and generally broken. Unlike Tory voters, they believe that the political and economic system are stacked against them.
“Among those who think they know what Woke means, more Labour voters would say they are very or totally Woke than not, and more would say they are proud to be Woke than reject it as divisive – the opposite of the public as a whole.
“But the most alarming finding is when you break down the country by age. The people who told us that Britain is institutionally racist and discriminatory were overwhelmingly the young.”
And:
“What, you will ask, can you do about Woke? How can you and your Government ensure that Britain doesn’t go the way of America?
“And there are two answers to that. The first is a bad one. It’s to do what Donald Trump did. Turn everything into a culture war. Stoke up bitterness and division. It’s a trench-warfare approach to politics that can yield short-term electoral gains but no long-term solutions.
“I’ve seen where it leads. In America now, I can’t even put Republicans and Democrats in the same focus group. Within a few minutes, someone will say: ‘How can you say that?’ And five minutes later, it’s anarchy.
“You might not believe it but your country is different. It is better. It is civil. I’ve done focus groups here with Labour and Tory voters and they disagree on many things. But they’re polite. They listen. They respond. You don’t want to lose that. You can’t.”
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
By and large that is where I would be BigG
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him. As a result however the cat is out of the bag there is no going back on anything now, the voters aren't listening to anything else, other than the war is over.
Yesterday in that bastion of Welsh RedWallers, Aldi, my wife pointed out to me that half were no longer masked up.
I hope Johnson and the anti-maskers are right and the rest of us, our caution unfounded.
In reality Freedom Day will not be July 19th, it will be when you have been double vaccinated.
So for most of the over 50s they have already had their Freedom Day, for most of the under 40s however they will have to wait several weeks even after July 19th for their Freedom Day
Mrs C and I had our second shots before Easter, and we don't feel liberated. Two reasons. First, the virus is still about and no vaccine is 100%. Our chances of being ill, and given our ages and background issues, that could be severely ill still exist. Not high, I agree, but they're still there. Second, although we may well not catch it.... see above ...... we could still transmit it. We just don't know. So we wear masks in shops, and generally eat outside in restaurants. Must admit, again, we ate inside on Friday but there was no-one else in the place at first, and the chaps who came in after us both looked of an age to have been vaccinated!
Food makers and pub chains have complained that hauliers are raising prices and prioritising bigger customers as a shortage of drivers reaches crisis point.
Logistics firm Fowler Welch is understood to have told customers that prices would rise by 5 per cent, while Eddie Stobart has prioritised larger account holders.
A shortage of HGV drivers has been blamed on EU nationals returning home because of Covid and Brexit, and a pandemic-induced delay to the qualification process. Last week, transport minister Baroness Vere announced a temporary extension of drivers’ hours from tomorrow which would allow HGV drivers to make slightly longer journeys.
Supply and demand means that when supply is limited, companies prioritise those accounts willing to pay more?
Well blow me down with a feather!
No no no, everyone is paying more. If you don't agree to pay the price for service then you don't get service. This isn't big customers out-bidding the smaller ones. Its industry doing what it does brilliantly which is fire-fighting. They can't serve everyone. So shift as much as you can - that means the trunk deliveries and the big loads.
Everyone paying more is supply and demand. 🤷♂️
Industry is doing what it does best, which is look after its own self-interests and everybody does what they need to do. Which is exactly what I told you would happen months ago.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
I think presuming if people don't counter what a poster says that they are conceding that poster is correct is an unlikely position.
I agree. I just find Max and his ilk to be quite entertaining when they find themselves moved to type a "yawn" response instead of just scrolling on. What I think doesn't matter for shit- I don't even live in England any more so it doesn't affect me either way. But the majority of people south of the wall also think like me as shown now by multiple polls.
When Freedom Day doesn't pan out as the clown apologists want, it won't be because of what I think. It will be because of what the majority do.
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
By and large that is where I would be BigG
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him. As a result however the cat is out of the bag there is no going back on anything now, the voters aren't listening to anything else, other than the war is over.
Yesterday in that bastion of Welsh RedWallers, Aldi, my wife pointed out to me that half were no longer masked up.
I hope Johnson and the anti-maskers are right and the rest of us, our caution unfounded.
I suspect that mask wearing guidance will be retained in hospitals and medical settings and on crowded public transport
The vast majority of the public will behave responsibly and I just do not see any real enforcement is taking place at present even though it is mandated
For clarity do you expect that tomorrow's announcement will include the change in expectations to continue to mandate masks in hospitals? Because at the moment it doesn't.
I am told this is the greatest moment in our nation's history since 1966. Apparently winning the Cricket and Rugby World Cups don't count and for those of us whose primary sport of interest isn't "the national sport", it's another of those occasions when I am in a minority.
I'm used to it.
Judging by the number of countries where political parties created by media personalities have reached power, perhaps we shouldn't be so dismissive of a Southgate Party. In many senses, successful politicians are celebrities or at least have to understand how to use the media (in all its forms).
As for the virus, we crossed the Styx of Absurdity some time ago - I rely on the scientific evidence that tells me, as a doubly vaccinated individual, my "chances" of getting seriously ill to the extent of hospitalisation from Covid-19, are very small. On that basis, I live my life - Mrs Stodge is a shade more risk averse.
Is there an argument for mask wearing on the tube in autumn and winter? Yes - I get that. I will get the flu jab and whatever Covid booster is offered but I'll do my best to avoid flu, not because I'm "frightened" but it's just unpleasant and I don't want to go through it.
Are we looking at a simple tension between the risk averse and the, er. less risk averse or is there a wider undercurrent out there wanting aspects of our current lifestyle to be "curtailed"? I wouldn't walk the streets of East Ham at 3am. To me, that's a problem - not because I want to walk the streets of East Ham at 3am but because there shouldn't be a perception the streets are crawling with miscreants, reprobates and ne'er do wells.
The notion of "curfews" has a superficial appeal - the notion of closing nightclubs has a superficial appeal (not least because of the impact such venues can have on Police and NHS resources). I'm not a supporter of either notion but I understand the perception (and that's the key) it's not safe to be out once it gets dark.
As I've said before, most people will sign away their rights for the notion of safety and security. Fear is such a huge motivator and driver - the fear of getting ill, the fear of getting mugged, the fear of getting scammed etc. I have to say at times politicians use that fear and build on it to enforce messages and policies.
The virus has been a classic example of the use of fear to drive public policy but how do you end fear? It's very difficult.
“As if that wasn’t enough, here’s something truly troubling. Young people as a whole in the UK are more likely to feel Britain is systematically racist than the non-white community who are actually experiencing the racism – because that’s what the young are being taught and told.
“One more time: racism and discrimination do exist. But if you’re brought up to consider yourself a victim, you will be a victim.”
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
I think presuming if people don't counter what a poster says that they are conceding that poster is correct is an unlikely position.
I agree. I just find Max and his ilk to be quite entertaining when they find themselves moved to type a "yawn" response instead of just scrolling on. What I think doesn't matter for shit- I don't even live in England any more so it doesn't affect me either way. But the majority of people south of the wall also think like me as shown now by multiple polls.
When Freedom Day doesn't pan out as the clown apologists want, it won't be because of what I think. It will be because of what the majority do.
You pretend to be a "Liberal" Democrat and just want nothing but illiberalism just to see Boris fail.
No I don't think that's what the public will think.
The share of the public demanding full restrictions is in freefall and quite right too. Its already nearly at crossover, after 19/7 it will crossover.
Quite a compelling essay on Wokeness and Britain, by Frank Luntz
“Labour voters are much more likely to say that Britain is racist, unequal and generally broken. Unlike Tory voters, they believe that the political and economic system are stacked against them.
“Among those who think they know what Woke means, more Labour voters would say they are very or totally Woke than not, and more would say they are proud to be Woke than reject it as divisive – the opposite of the public as a whole.
“But the most alarming finding is when you break down the country by age. The people who told us that Britain is institutionally racist and discriminatory were overwhelmingly the young.”
And:
“What, you will ask, can you do about Woke? How can you and your Government ensure that Britain doesn’t go the way of America?
“And there are two answers to that. The first is a bad one. It’s to do what Donald Trump did. Turn everything into a culture war. Stoke up bitterness and division. It’s a trench-warfare approach to politics that can yield short-term electoral gains but no long-term solutions.
“I’ve seen where it leads. In America now, I can’t even put Republicans and Democrats in the same focus group. Within a few minutes, someone will say: ‘How can you say that?’ And five minutes later, it’s anarchy.
“You might not believe it but your country is different. It is better. It is civil. I’ve done focus groups here with Labour and Tory voters and they disagree on many things. But they’re polite. They listen. They respond. You don’t want to lose that. You can’t.”
Forced choice questions of that type lack nuance. It's possible to believe (and most people likely do believe) that the UK is a mostly, free, fair, and prosperous society, yet at the same time to acknowledge some people suffer unjust discrimination.
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
By and large that is where I would be BigG
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him. As a result however the cat is out of the bag there is no going back on anything now, the voters aren't listening to anything else, other than the war is over.
Yesterday in that bastion of Welsh RedWallers, Aldi, my wife pointed out to me that half were no longer masked up.
I hope Johnson and the anti-maskers are right and the rest of us, our caution unfounded.
In reality Freedom Day will not be July 19th, it will be when you have been double vaccinated.
So for most of the over 50s they have already had their Freedom Day, for most of the under 40s however they will have to wait several weeks even after July 19th for their Freedom Day
Mrs C and I had our second shots before Easter, and we don't feel liberated. Two reasons. First, the virus is still about and no vaccine is 100%. Our chances of being ill, and given our ages and background issues, that could be severely ill still exist. Not high, I agree, but they're still there. Second, although we may well not catch it.... see above ...... we could still transmit it. We just don't know. So we wear masks in shops, and generally eat outside in restaurants. Must admit, again, we ate inside on Friday but there was no-one else in the place at first, and the chaps who came in after us both looked of an age to have been vaccinated!
In which case if you wish to be that cautious that is your right but it means there will never be Freedom Day for you. You will always wear a mask and always prefer to eat and attend events outdoors rather than indoors.
That will mean you will be more likely to avoid the flu like symptoms you can still get from Covid even after being vaccinated and reduce the risk of transmission but for me once double vaccinated I know the chance of death or hospitalisation is near eliminated from Covid so after my second jab I will largely proceed as I was before the pandemic, bar a bit more working from home and wearing a mask on the tube in winter
Food makers and pub chains have complained that hauliers are raising prices and prioritising bigger customers as a shortage of drivers reaches crisis point.
Logistics firm Fowler Welch is understood to have told customers that prices would rise by 5 per cent, while Eddie Stobart has prioritised larger account holders.
A shortage of HGV drivers has been blamed on EU nationals returning home because of Covid and Brexit, and a pandemic-induced delay to the qualification process. Last week, transport minister Baroness Vere announced a temporary extension of drivers’ hours from tomorrow which would allow HGV drivers to make slightly longer journeys.
Supply and demand means that when supply is limited, companies prioritise those accounts willing to pay more?
Well blow me down with a feather!
No no no, everyone is paying more. If you don't agree to pay the price for service then you don't get service. This isn't big customers out-bidding the smaller ones. Its industry doing what it does brilliantly which is fire-fighting. They can't serve everyone. So shift as much as you can - that means the trunk deliveries and the big loads.
Everyone paying more is supply and demand. 🤷♂️
Industry is doing what it does best, which is look after its own self-interests and everybody does what they need to do. Which is exactly what I told you would happen months ago.
Industry knows what to do.
Yes. It knows to short deliveries like fuck thanks to the lack of drivers.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
I think presuming if people don't counter what a poster says that they are conceding that poster is correct is an unlikely position.
I agree. I just find Max and his ilk to be quite entertaining when they find themselves moved to type a "yawn" response instead of just scrolling on. What I think doesn't matter for shit- I don't even live in England any more so it doesn't affect me either way. But the majority of people south of the wall also think like me as shown now by multiple polls.
When Freedom Day doesn't pan out as the clown apologists want, it won't be because of what I think. It will be because of what the majority do.
You pretend to be a "Liberal" Democrat and just want nothing but illiberalism just to see Boris fail.
No I don't think that's what the public will think.
The share of the public demanding full restrictions is in freefall and quite right too. Its already nearly at crossover, after 19/7 it will crossover.
Whoever said that people are demanding "full restrictions"? What even are "full" restrictions?
Food makers and pub chains have complained that hauliers are raising prices and prioritising bigger customers as a shortage of drivers reaches crisis point.
Logistics firm Fowler Welch is understood to have told customers that prices would rise by 5 per cent, while Eddie Stobart has prioritised larger account holders.
A shortage of HGV drivers has been blamed on EU nationals returning home because of Covid and Brexit, and a pandemic-induced delay to the qualification process. Last week, transport minister Baroness Vere announced a temporary extension of drivers’ hours from tomorrow which would allow HGV drivers to make slightly longer journeys.
Supply and demand means that when supply is limited, companies prioritise those accounts willing to pay more?
Well blow me down with a feather!
No no no, everyone is paying more. If you don't agree to pay the price for service then you don't get service. This isn't big customers out-bidding the smaller ones. Its industry doing what it does brilliantly which is fire-fighting. They can't serve everyone. So shift as much as you can - that means the trunk deliveries and the big loads.
Everyone paying more is supply and demand. 🤷♂️
Industry is doing what it does best, which is look after its own self-interests and everybody does what they need to do. Which is exactly what I told you would happen months ago.
Industry knows what to do.
Yes. It knows to short deliveries like fuck thanks to the lack of drivers.
The ones who get shorted will be the ones least willing to pay a premium. If you want your goods shifted and are willing to pay extra for it then they will be.
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
By and large that is where I would be BigG
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him. As a result however the cat is out of the bag there is no going back on anything now, the voters aren't listening to anything else, other than the war is over.
Yesterday in that bastion of Welsh RedWallers, Aldi, my wife pointed out to me that half were no longer masked up.
I hope Johnson and the anti-maskers are right and the rest of us, our caution unfounded.
In reality Freedom Day will not be July 19th, it will be when you have been double vaccinated.
So for most of the over 50s they have already had their Freedom Day, for most of the under 40s however they will have to wait several weeks even after July 19th for their Freedom Day
Mrs C and I had our second shots before Easter, and we don't feel liberated. Two reasons. First, the virus is still about and no vaccine is 100%. Our chances of being ill, and given our ages and background issues, that could be severely ill still exist. Not high, I agree, but they're still there. Second, although we may well not catch it.... see above ...... we could still transmit it. We just don't know. So we wear masks in shops, and generally eat outside in restaurants. Must admit, again, we ate inside on Friday but there was no-one else in the place at first, and the chaps who came in after us both looked of an age to have been vaccinated!
In which case if you wish to be that cautious that is your right but it means there will never be Freedom Day for you. You will always wear a mask and always prefer to eat and attend events outdoors rather than indoors.
That will mean you avoid the flu like symptoms you can still get from Covid even after being vaccinated but for me once double vaccinated I know the chance of death or hospitalisation is near eliminated from Covid so after my second jab I will largely proceed as I was before the pandemic, bar a bit more working from home and wearing a mask on the tube in winter
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
The UK government are prisoners of their own Freedom Day rhetoric. If you declare freedom while an epidemic rages, you are declaring freedom to infect and be infected. They should have kept the discussion to what's needed and what works.
I don't think the most anti-business government since Atlee (but without Atlee's great achievements) is particularly concerned about the welfare of Starbucks and railway companies.
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
By and large that is where I would be BigG
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him. As a result however the cat is out of the bag there is no going back on anything now, the voters aren't listening to anything else, other than the war is over.
Yesterday in that bastion of Welsh RedWallers, Aldi, my wife pointed out to me that half were no longer masked up.
I hope Johnson and the anti-maskers are right and the rest of us, our caution unfounded.
In reality Freedom Day will not be July 19th, it will be when you have been double vaccinated.
So for most of the over 50s they have already had their Freedom Day, for most of the under 40s however they will have to wait several weeks even after July 19th for their Freedom Day
Mrs C and I had our second shots before Easter, and we don't feel liberated. Two reasons. First, the virus is still about and no vaccine is 100%. Our chances of being ill, and given our ages and background issues, that could be severely ill still exist. Not high, I agree, but they're still there. Second, although we may well not catch it.... see above ...... we could still transmit it. We just don't know. So we wear masks in shops, and generally eat outside in restaurants. Must admit, again, we ate inside on Friday but there was no-one else in the place at first, and the chaps who came in after us both looked of an age to have been vaccinated!
In which case if you wish to be that cautious that is your right but it means there will never be Freedom Day for you. You will always wear a mask and always prefer to eat and attend events outdoors rather than indoors.
That will mean you avoid the flu like symptoms you can still get from Covid even after being vaccinated but for me once double vaccinated I know the chance of death or hospitalisation is near eliminated from Covid so after my second jab I will largely proceed as I was before the pandemic, bar a bit more working from home and wearing a mask on the tube in winter
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
You do have a bleak outlook on just about everything don’t you
The Victor Meldrew comparison this morning is really spot on
I will take such observations from you two under advisement. I note that nobody is even trying to show that what I am posting isn't true. Play the man, not the ball...
I think presuming if people don't counter what a poster says that they are conceding that poster is correct is an unlikely position.
I agree. I just find Max and his ilk to be quite entertaining when they find themselves moved to type a "yawn" response instead of just scrolling on. What I think doesn't matter for shit- I don't even live in England any more so it doesn't affect me either way. But the majority of people south of the wall also think like me as shown now by multiple polls.
When Freedom Day doesn't pan out as the clown apologists want, it won't be because of what I think. It will be because of what the majority do.
You pretend to be a "Liberal" Democrat and just want nothing but illiberalism just to see Boris fail.
It seems like a decent start as the fat fuckstain is easily the most illiberal post-war PM.
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
By and large that is where I would be BigG
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him. As a result however the cat is out of the bag there is no going back on anything now, the voters aren't listening to anything else, other than the war is over.
Yesterday in that bastion of Welsh RedWallers, Aldi, my wife pointed out to me that half were no longer masked up.
I hope Johnson and the anti-maskers are right and the rest of us, our caution unfounded.
I suspect that mask wearing guidance will be retained in hospitals and medical settings and on crowded public transport
The vast majority of the public will behave responsibly and I just do not see any real enforcement is taking place at present even though it is mandated
For clarity do you expect that tomorrow's announcement will include the change in expectations to continue to mandate masks in hospitals? Because at the moment it doesn't.
I expect it to be included in the guidance issued tomorrow
Marr interviewing labour's Kate Green commented that
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
By and large that is where I would be BigG
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him. As a result however the cat is out of the bag there is no going back on anything now, the voters aren't listening to anything else, other than the war is over.
Yesterday in that bastion of Welsh RedWallers, Aldi, my wife pointed out to me that half were no longer masked up.
I hope Johnson and the anti-maskers are right and the rest of us, our caution unfounded.
I suspect that mask wearing guidance will be retained in hospitals and medical settings and on crowded public transport
The vast majority of the public will behave responsibly and I just do not see any real enforcement is taking place at present even though it is mandated
For clarity do you expect that tomorrow's announcement will include the change in expectations to continue to mandate masks in hospitals? Because at the moment it doesn't.
I'd hope masks in hospitals would still be required as per my previous post on businesses choosing.
One rule which I sincerely hope is going or already gone is having to wait alone, or for a child just with a single parent in Accident and Emergency. I got that one waived a couple of months ago when I was there, a really poor law/policy.
The true nature of the Cult of Boris is revealed by the FREEDOM DAY nonsense. "We'e doing this to get things back to normal" they say, which means that you should go on the tube into the office and buy £4 coffees and eat out and pack 64 of you into the steam railway coach that was posted on here yesterday as an example of an organisation desperate for normal because £.
As now multiple polls show, the public aren't as stupid as the PM or as gung-ho as some on here. They aren't going into the office crushed in on the tube now because they and their businesses have realised the pointlessness of it. They aren't buying £4 twatty coffees because they're shit value for money. They aren't packing into steam railways seats because they'e now risk aware.
Lifting pretty much all restrictions won't change this. Nor will the government's increasingly shouty pronouncements to get back to work you plebs. Yes, some people will deploy their natural baseline anger and arrogance to not care but half of them never stopped.
So when the bums don't appear onto steam railway seats, the financial support won't be there to keep them going - the reverse in fact as loans start getting called back in. The government will say "we have freed the public, if they aren't coming it must be your fault". The NHS being swamped again by not just Covid but the sheer number of staff absent and the 13m case backlog in non-covid is, we will be told, nothing to worry about.
This is the best case scenario. Lack of business, lack of staff, lack of support, blame the people. The worst case is all that then reimposition of "never again" restrictions because Omega is tearing through the vaccine. And all the time the Tories sneering, arrogant and increasingly angry that the plebs aren't doing what their betters have told them to, applying "common sense" in a way that best maximises revenues for their patrons and donors.
The UK government are prisoners of their own Freedom Day rhetoric. If you declare freedom while an epidemic rages, you are declaring freedom to infect and be infected. They should have kept the discussion to what's needed and what works.
I don't the think the most anti-business of any government since Atlee (but without Atlee's great achievements) is particularly concerned about the welfare of Starbucks and railway companies.
Isn't "Freedom Day" an invention of the press? I certainly haven't heard Johnson say it, but I admit I could have missed it.
Comments
While working on contract at one place, we got a grinder and an electric mocha pot. Our ritual was make the coffees - then go out for a walk. Which we called the non-smokers-smoke-break.
The last place I worked at in Sheffield had a choice of food outlets. A glorious greasy spoon where for £4 you could get an arm-length breakfast burrito and a giant mug off coffee, a sandwich shop where for £4 you could get a hot pork roll carved in front of you and a coffee, or just off the edge a Costa on the main road where £4 didn't get you some of the coffee options. My boss liked to go sit in Costa to have off-site conflabs, didn't used to see many others off the industrial estate in there. The CFO and I liked the greasy spoon for conflabs.
On one hand, Italy has been the best team at the Euros, has had an additional 24 hours rest and can soak up pressure and be very dangerous on the counter attack; on the other hand England is at home and generally fitter.
* England should have beaten Denmark by more than a non-penalty in extra time. At the odds I've had a very small punt on Italy 3-0 purely because 60 (BF) seems to big for me given their counter attacking danger and risk that England press ineffectively for long periods and get caught repeatedly. (Hope not but hope I can be forgiven for cheering Italy on if they are 2-0 up with five mins to go.)
We know the rest. Business struggles, business folds, there will be no support and you will all blame the businesses for their troubles. Again. Perhaps people will notice this time and start considering if they still should vote for that. Perhaps not. Either way I am safely out of the way.
'by and large you are in the same place as the Government apart from ventilation and masks'
Wear you down through the years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On-UMchA1JI
On average they are doing worse than Sky News and the BBC.
If only someone had warned them about there being no profit in TV news.
It is a shame, I loved the calls and texts from Mikes Oxlong and Hunt et al.
Taking the knee is also not really a Marxist statement, plenty of big corporations are now pushing equality and diversity hard and of course Le Pen's party in France is as anti woke as anyone but economically quite leftwing
"Wait between Covid vaccinations ‘to be cut to four weeks’"
Seems as though someone's paying attention at least.
I read this morning that Sadiq is currently in negotiations with the Government about maintaining restrictions on London Transport. Noting that "large numbers aren't complying at the moment due to the impossibility of enforcement (presumably because of the "exemption" clause), and if the Government lifts the legal requirement then most of the rest won't comply either"
There was a time when most people recognised that unenforced and/or unenforceable legislation was a bad thing. Not least because it allows the police to be selective. Giving the authorities the power to be selective in how they enforce laws is in general *a bad thing*
* I don’t understand either
And in terms of the public handling the truth of things, well, I have some sympathy there. I don't like leaders treating people like children, but I don't think we have a great record of rewarding people who tell us the hard truths.
However I am looking forward to the British Lions tour and Olympics later this month when as Scots or English we can once again support the same team
Oh, he got another job you say...
Rather amusingly, and recommended by youtube, an Australian news channel explains “It’s Coming Home” for a non-English audience. Useful material for anyone with a non-English wife or colleague, who doesn’t understand what’s going on!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=LTwezqwss_U
On the one hand we have the sense this is all nearing the end. On the other, lots of scientists are saying we are still in the middle of the storm, perhaps - horrendously - nearer the beginning
Who to believe?
One thing I do accept is the idea we will need 10-15 years to recover. One look at the state of the west’s great cities - and some in Asia - confirms that. My younger daughter lives north of Sydney. They are just going into another strict lockdown. Maybe a month. This shit is endless
We have rolling shortages of food right now thanks to a major driver shortage caused at least in part directly by Brexit. We have had major shortages in NI directly thanks to Brexit. We have had to completely bin off the customs processes we demanded specifically because they would have created huge shortages.
"Shortages haven't happened yet, so you were wrong about what would have happened had we done the thing we didn't do". If you say so.
Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi dismisses report that vaccine dosing interval to be reduced from 8 weeks to 4 weeks, says 8 week interval is best
https://twitter.com/elashton/status/1414126863069368321?s=19
Well blow me down with a feather!
-On masks now 'expectation to wear'. Change from PM's explanation only days ago. And PM's claim link between #COVID19 and deaths has been 'severed' now becomes 'severely weakened'
#Marr
https://twitter.com/paul__johnson/status/1414148709017952256
She doesn’t give a time-span however. If she means a million dead in a year, that’s horrific. It implies a global death toll of 70 million, for a start. Possibly way more than that, if you factor in inferior health systems, general chaos. 100 million? 300 million?
However is she means an extra million dead over 10-15 years that’s very nasty but not apocalyptic. 600,000 die every year. So if this is her take, we will have 10% more deaths every year. Life expectancy will shrink, but not catastrophically
Johnson's narrative of "freedom Day" may send his ratings skyward, which suits him. As a result however the cat is out of the bag there is no going back on anything now, the voters aren't listening to anything else, other than the war is over.
Yesterday in that bastion of Welsh RedWallers, Aldi, my wife pointed out to me that half were no longer masked up.
I hope Johnson and the anti-maskers are right and the rest of us, our caution unfounded.
Not least when one considers the scary polling about the level of authoritarian restrictions that 30% of the population apparently support even if Covid wasn't an issue.
So for most of the over 50s they have already had their Freedom Day, for most of the under 40s however they will have to wait several weeks even after July 19th for their Freedom Day
He wrote the tune and most of the lyrics.
Perhaps - and its just an idea - there's actually not a majority or anything close to it out there of people who think like PB Clowm Apologists like you and Charles and Big G? I know we're going to hear "but we have a majority of 80" and so what - when the alternative choice was a lunatic voting for a clown makes sense.
But the clown is supposed to be a populist. Can instinctively feel what people think and give it to them. So why is he so badly wrong and out of touch on this one? Philip on here yesterday reduced to imploring that he ignores public opinion and leads regardless of what people think.
When the desired outcome is to change the way that people act and behave, you can't command them to do something that self-evidently feels like a risk. Some of you complain about people like me wanting to control people forever. Far from it, yet it is you and yours trying to instruct people to do something they don't believe is safe or sensible.
Good thing too imo but it doesn't seem to be happening. Maybe post-pandemic people will wake up to what is or is not good value coffee.
Shortly after that, I came across a man wearing worn fatigues, standing in front of a tripod topped with a rifle. Fortunately he was shooting rabbits, not runners ...
Wonder what her next identity will be, when St Petersburg goes back to work tomorrow morning.
Public alarm grows at Boris Johnson’s plan for Covid ‘freedom day’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/10/public-alarm-grows-at-boris-johnsons-plan-for-covid-freedom-day
Zahawi frankly isn't very good, his mealy mouthed answer about "hoping" clinically vulnerable kids might be recommended soon show precisely the sort of follower and not leader he is. A decent vaccines minister would be asking the JCVI why they aren't following the MHRA on that and the idea that a 4 week gap on Pfizer for regular (Don't forget all g6 have been done) 20 something year olds being better than 8 weeks at this point with err... nightclubs reopening soon stretches the bounds of credibility.
The vast majority of the public will behave responsibly and I just do not see any real enforcement is taking place at present even though it is mandated
For the national chains we have already Sainsbury's saying free choice on masks. TBH I don't think they have a choice. If they try and enforce mask wearing then it almost certainly puts their staff in a difficult and likely dangerous position of trying to enforce a mask policy on the likes of @Cocky_cockney aggressively telling them to fuck off.
They know they have an obligation to their staff and to their business. We're going to see mega staff shortages if the Covid App keeps pinging people at the rate it is now and then a lot more if we hit Javid's 100k new cases a day. But they're also exposing people by not enforcing an unenforceable mask policy. Fun times ahead.
“Labour voters are much more likely to say that Britain is racist, unequal and generally broken. Unlike Tory voters, they believe that the political and economic system are stacked against them.
“Among those who think they know what Woke means, more Labour voters would say they are very or totally Woke than not, and more would say they are proud to be Woke than reject it as divisive – the opposite of the public as a whole.
“But the most alarming finding is when you break down the country by age. The people who told us that Britain is institutionally racist and discriminatory were overwhelmingly the young.”
And:
“What, you will ask, can you do about Woke? How can you and your Government ensure that Britain doesn’t go the way of America?
“And there are two answers to that. The first is a bad one. It’s to do what Donald Trump did. Turn everything into a culture war. Stoke up bitterness and division. It’s a trench-warfare approach to politics that can yield short-term electoral gains but no long-term solutions.
“I’ve seen where it leads. In America now, I can’t even put Republicans and Democrats in the same focus group. Within a few minutes, someone will say: ‘How can you say that?’ And five minutes later, it’s anarchy.
“You might not believe it but your country is different. It is better. It is civil. I’ve done focus groups here with Labour and Tory voters and they disagree on many things. But they’re polite. They listen. They respond. You don’t want to lose that. You can’t.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9776413/US-political-pollster-FRANK-LUNTZ-warns-Britain-woke-coming.html
First, the virus is still about and no vaccine is 100%. Our chances of being ill, and given our ages and background issues, that could be severely ill still exist. Not high, I agree, but they're still there.
Second, although we may well not catch it.... see above ...... we could still transmit it. We just don't know. So we wear masks in shops, and generally eat outside in restaurants. Must admit, again, we ate inside on Friday but there was no-one else in the place at first, and the chaps who came in after us both looked of an age to have been vaccinated!
https://www.tes.com/news/why-covid-catch-up-schools-teachers-over-summer-neednt-be-all-bad
Industry is doing what it does best, which is look after its own self-interests and everybody does what they need to do. Which is exactly what I told you would happen months ago.
Industry knows what to do.
When Freedom Day doesn't pan out as the clown apologists want, it won't be because of what I think. It will be because of what the majority do.
I am told this is the greatest moment in our nation's history since 1966. Apparently winning the Cricket and Rugby World Cups don't count and for those of us whose primary sport of interest isn't "the national sport", it's another of those occasions when I am in a minority.
I'm used to it.
Judging by the number of countries where political parties created by media personalities have reached power, perhaps we shouldn't be so dismissive of a Southgate Party. In many senses, successful politicians are celebrities or at least have to understand how to use the media (in all its forms).
As for the virus, we crossed the Styx of Absurdity some time ago - I rely on the scientific evidence that tells me, as a doubly vaccinated individual, my "chances" of getting seriously ill to the extent of hospitalisation from Covid-19, are very small. On that basis, I live my life - Mrs Stodge is a shade more risk averse.
Is there an argument for mask wearing on the tube in autumn and winter? Yes - I get that. I will get the flu jab and whatever Covid booster is offered but I'll do my best to avoid flu, not because I'm "frightened" but it's just unpleasant and I don't want to go through it.
Are we looking at a simple tension between the risk averse and the, er. less risk averse or is there a wider undercurrent out there wanting aspects of our current lifestyle to be "curtailed"? I wouldn't walk the streets of East Ham at 3am. To me, that's a problem - not because I want to walk the streets of East Ham at 3am but because there shouldn't be a perception the streets are crawling with miscreants, reprobates and ne'er do wells.
The notion of "curfews" has a superficial appeal - the notion of closing nightclubs has a superficial appeal (not least because of the impact such venues can have on Police and NHS resources). I'm not a supporter of either notion but I understand the perception (and that's the key) it's not safe to be out once it gets dark.
As I've said before, most people will sign away their rights for the notion of safety and security. Fear is such a huge motivator and driver - the fear of getting ill, the fear of getting mugged, the fear of getting scammed etc. I have to say at times politicians use that fear and build on it to enforce messages and policies.
The virus has been a classic example of the use of fear to drive public policy but how do you end fear? It's very difficult.
“As if that wasn’t enough, here’s something truly troubling. Young people as a whole in the UK are more likely to feel Britain is systematically racist than the non-white community who are actually experiencing the racism – because that’s what the young are being taught and told.
“One more time: racism and discrimination do exist. But if you’re brought up to consider yourself a victim, you will be a victim.”
No I don't think that's what the public will think.
The share of the public demanding full restrictions is in freefall and quite right too. Its already nearly at crossover, after 19/7 it will crossover.
That will mean you will be more likely to avoid the flu like symptoms you can still get from Covid even after being vaccinated and reduce the risk of transmission but for me once double vaccinated I know the chance of death or hospitalisation is near eliminated from Covid so after my second jab I will largely proceed as I was before the pandemic, bar a bit more working from home and wearing a mask on the tube in winter
Just as I said would happen.
I don't think the most anti-business government since Atlee (but without Atlee's great achievements) is particularly concerned about the welfare of Starbucks and railway companies.
Meet kettle.
One rule which I sincerely hope is going or already gone is having to wait alone, or for a child just with a single parent in Accident and Emergency. I got that one waived a couple of months ago when I was there, a really poor law/policy.