Well I don't know about London but Edinburgh is buzzing at the moment. The grassmarket area of the City expanded outdoor capacity enormously during Covid as did the Royal Mile and, in the current weather, this has been an enormous hit with a huge al fresco eating and drinking activity going on throughout the day and into the night with people reluctant to go back inside even although they can. Its made the place feel very continental.
A friend of mine was trying yesterday to get accommodation near Fort William for him and his son. It was very difficult with no camping or B&B within 40 miles of Fort William. He has got a nice hotel room but its pricy as these establishments clearly take advantage of the staycation tendency.
The picture, it seems to me, is very mixed with good and bad cheek by jowl. The major disappointment has been the ease with which the double vaxxed are getting delta covid. The expectation was that this would be a rare event but it clearly isn't, even if most are not that ill. This means we are not getting the herd immunity protection that large scale vaccination was supposed to achieve. What we need is accurate information on whether those double vaxxed get a sufficient dose of the virus to be infectious to the unprotected. If they don't then pings for them can be ignored. If they do we still have a problem. Its looking like the latter because it is hard to see how current infection rates don't involve transmission by the large percentage of the population that are vaccinated but we need to be sure.
As a matter of interest, have you any idea what the hotels / B&B's are like in Edinburgh at the moment? I am ummming and ahhing about taking the little 'un on a road trip after the festival and before school restarts, and Edinburgh was to be our destination.
I’ve a future colleague who is in Edinburgh at the moment. Said it was easy to find a decently priced hotel
Well I don't know about London but Edinburgh is buzzing at the moment. The grassmarket area of the City expanded outdoor capacity enormously during Covid as did the Royal Mile and, in the current weather, this has been an enormous hit with a huge al fresco eating and drinking activity going on throughout the day and into the night with people reluctant to go back inside even although they can. Its made the place feel very continental.
A friend of mine was trying yesterday to get accommodation near Fort William for him and his son. It was very difficult with no camping or B&B within 40 miles of Fort William. He has got a nice hotel room but its pricy as these establishments clearly take advantage of the staycation tendency.
The picture, it seems to me, is very mixed with good and bad cheek by jowl. The major disappointment has been the ease with which the double vaxxed are getting delta covid. The expectation was that this would be a rare event but it clearly isn't, even if most are not that ill. This means we are not getting the herd immunity protection that large scale vaccination was supposed to achieve. What we need is accurate information on whether those double vaxxed get a sufficient dose of the virus to be infectious to the unprotected. If they don't then pings for them can be ignored. If they do we still have a problem. Its looking like the latter because it is hard to see how current infection rates don't involve transmission by the large percentage of the population that are vaccinated but we need to be sure.
As a matter of interest, have you any idea what the hotels / B&B's are like in Edinburgh at the moment? I am ummming and ahhing about taking the little 'un on a road trip after the festival and before school restarts, and Edinburgh was to be our destination.
I’ve a future colleague who is in Edinburgh at the moment. Said it was easy to find a decently priced hotel
Tom Winsor wants Line of Duty to become a documentary and tech bosses jailed for online abuse on their platforms and/or infrastructure (which would probably mean the end of PB).
The question surely is what vetting encompasses. What behaviours are relevant? What points to future (or current) corrupt or criminal behaviour? There is nothing in the reports I've seen (not the Times story, owing to paywall) suggesting Winsor has given it any great thought and is merely stating what should have been bleeding obvious from the start. As it is, the police are not properly acting on their existing criteria. https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/force-content/met/careers/careers/detective-constable/cautions-convictions.v4.pdf
Tom Winsor, when I knew him, was a Linklaters lawyer who worked on rail privatisation. He knows the square root of fuck all about policing and the criminal law - beyond what every solicitor is taught. An odd choice for the role and has not, IMO, distinguished himself in it.
Like far too many organisations the police don't do proper due diligence on those they hire and do not understand why this is important. I could fill headers with examples from finance and the consequences. It is basic basic stuff - important stuff - but is treated as a minor bureaucratic inconvenience.
Agreed, but in many cases it is lesser indicators that count, so an officer might have attracted complaints from the public (and here we need to be careful because "the public" in this case might be villains). Taking the Ian Tomlinson case as an example (which involved Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer in walk-on parts), the police officer involved had faced ten complaints of which nine had been dismissed. Should that have been a significant warning? I don't know. But it is these micro-indicators rather than criminal convictions that concern me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ian_Tomlinson
Does anyone know if the following loophole has been closed? It wa promised to be....
- Officer gets complained against - Case looks serious, goes forward - Officer retries, sick due to stress, just before the complaint process gets serious - Officer later re-employed by the police - Since the earlier complaint was ended procedurally, not relevant. Or restartable.
She was always a nutter - even back then. Obsessed with poo.
It's no a bad idea to check your poo daily. Not obsessively but to check of there is dark old blood wrapped on your poo. Bright fresh red blood AFAIK is usually due to piles... as always check with your quack, but do not ignore your poo. Observing It might save your life.
She was always a nutter - even back then. Obsessed with poo.
I was lobbied by her 20 years ago - something about the NHS supposedly not taking something seriously. She struck me then as someone to avoid getting into detailed correspondence with.
Re: home working. Not sure about management style, but I think it is a mistake to think that most people who like home working are introverts and the opposite extroverts. If anything it is often likely to be the opposite. For at least a couple of reasons. For one, introverts often crave social situations where they are forced to be with other people. Office environments are perfect for that. They don’t actually create any pressure to spend a lot of time engaging, but they make it a lot easier to engage when needed. Compare with home working environments. These can be very difficult for introverts. Even ignoring the social side - needing to contact somebody via eg. Teams when you have no idea if they are free to talk can be stressful. A lot easier when said individual is visible in an office. And a lot less scary because familiarity granted by an office environment makes people a lot less intimidating (mostly). etc etc
Probably worth pointing out that "introvert" and "extrovert" are not how many people think of them. I project, which means that I can be quite boisterous ("a terrier with a stick" was one bit of feedback I one got...). So when people find out that I am a classic introvert (ISTJ) they can be puzzled.
Introvert and extrovert is about where you draw energy from. I can do people - have to. Networking has become something I am good at, but it is *exhausting*. Extroverts draw energy from others, Introverts expend energy on others.
A few thoughts on the header: 1. This is the perfect storm. Brexit makes for delays and issues getting chilled / fresh products across the border. Brexit + IR35 + Covid makes for a huge shortage in both vehicles and drivers to deliver products, causing uncontrolled shortages. And Covid means a whole load of people aren't at work. 2. There are no easy solutions. "Delete the App" is fine but it isn't just people getting pinged, most of us know numerous people who have caught Covid in this Delta wave. If you are sick you can't work whether you delete the App or not 3. Even as we come out the other side of Delta we still won't have fixed the driver and vehicle shortage. Some of the proposals - extend driver hours and now a provisional HGV license sound practically dangerous 4. The NI Protocol bluster (see this morning's insane Daily Express front page) could easily blow up into a total breakdown in co-operation and the hardest of border between us and the EU which really would create food shortages on top of the delivery and labour shortages.
I think the impacts on the government may not be as you might expect in normal times. But the impact on the general public? Not good - despite the pray the pox away efforts we still find ourselves in the midst of a big dangerous spike in a global pandemic with the next even worse variants already out there.
How do people react when its show your Covid passport to enter a supermarket that has got big gaps all over the shop? With the government sadly warning that such hardships will be in place through the long winter to come? OK so this is both variables (Covid and Logistics problems) at their worst, but its more than just possible.
And no, I am not wishing that this happens to attack the government. I am north of the wall so your government isn't in charge of a lot up here. I want Covid gone and quickly. But what I want and what is likely are not the same thing. Not with the Insane Clown Posse in government.
I don't actually remember things being this bad when Covid stock piling was at it's worst.
Yes there was flour and pasta in morrisons (not that we need any as I've tons in the stock pile) but whole shelves (most own brand cereal) and freezers (90% of the frozen veg) were completely empty.
I took photos in those early days of whole sections of stores empty. The only time I could remember anything like it was the dying moths of Kwiksave when they tried to survive as an independent and quickly ran out of cash.
The difference between then and now? Last year the gaps were as a result of panic buying - demand led. This year there has been no panic buying and the gaps are down to the inability to ship - supply led.
Add panic buying on top and it could head south rapidly.
It could be my fault. Yesterday I mentioned to a couple of people they should think about stocking up, without panicking. This morning it's all over the papers.
✍🏻 OLYMPICS LATEST: Kentaro Kobayashi, creative director of the Opening Ceremony was fired for joking about the Holocaust as part of a skit in 1998 when he worked as a comedian.
I don't know why people bother to apologise for historic things if they are to get sacked regardless, or forced to stand down (I think some musician leaving a band recently made a similar point), since it doesnt seem to mollify anyone evening you mean it, so you might as well just not comment.
Avoids the whole “why won’t he apologise perhaps he’s still X” cycle
Similarly, we're starting to have frequent problems in collecting refuse in my borough - the combination of (a) pinging (b) actual Covid (c) no driving tests for new drivers for 18 months and (d) shortage of foreign drivers. The company is doing its best and it's so far only a few rounds each time. but it's a genuine problem that's difficult to solve.
I’ve always found this fascinating
My local council - Westminster - has no issue with 2 refuse collections plus 1 recycling collection a week.
And yet other councils can’t manage that despite far higher council tax rates
Its a choice, and partly to drive recycling.
I don't know how commercial and domestic waste management are split between council run and private, but would it be fair to say that central London councillors with very large directly paid for commercial waste removal, which is often daily in major loci, are in a better position to cross benefit domestic waste collection than more typical councils?
A few thoughts on the header: 1. This is the perfect storm. Brexit makes for delays and issues getting chilled / fresh products across the border. Brexit + IR35 + Covid makes for a huge shortage in both vehicles and drivers to deliver products, causing uncontrolled shortages. And Covid means a whole load of people aren't at work. 2. There are no easy solutions. "Delete the App" is fine but it isn't just people getting pinged, most of us know numerous people who have caught Covid in this Delta wave. If you are sick you can't work whether you delete the App or not 3. Even as we come out the other side of Delta we still won't have fixed the driver and vehicle shortage. Some of the proposals - extend driver hours and now a provisional HGV license sound practically dangerous 4. The NI Protocol bluster (see this morning's insane Daily Express front page) could easily blow up into a total breakdown in co-operation and the hardest of border between us and the EU which really would create food shortages on top of the delivery and labour shortages.
I think the impacts on the government may not be as you might expect in normal times. But the impact on the general public? Not good - despite the pray the pox away efforts we still find ourselves in the midst of a big dangerous spike in a global pandemic with the next even worse variants already out there.
How do people react when its show your Covid passport to enter a supermarket that has got big gaps all over the shop? With the government sadly warning that such hardships will be in place through the long winter to come? OK so this is both variables (Covid and Logistics problems) at their worst, but its more than just possible.
And no, I am not wishing that this happens to attack the government. I am north of the wall so your government isn't in charge of a lot up here. I want Covid gone and quickly. But what I want and what is likely are not the same thing. Not with the Insane Clown Posse in government.
I don't actually remember things being this bad when Covid stock piling was at it's worst.
Yes there was flour and pasta in morrisons (not that we need any as I've tons in the stock pile) but whole shelves (most own brand cereal) and freezers (90% of the frozen veg) were completely empty.
I took photos in those early days of whole sections of stores empty. The only time I could remember anything like it was the dying moths of Kwiksave when they tried to survive as an independent and quickly ran out of cash.
The difference between then and now? Last year the gaps were as a result of panic buying - demand led. This year there has been no panic buying and the gaps are down to the inability to ship - supply led.
Add panic buying on top and it could head south rapidly.
Rats. We were very well stocked, ready for Brexit shortages, but have subsequently run down most of our stores. These have been additionally depleted by the need to self-isolate for the past week due to the lad's covid. Looks like we'll be among the first to be wiping our arses with bacofoil. (sob)
talkRADIO @talkRADIO · 54m The pingdemic has led to food supply chains failing. Federation of Wholesale Distributors chief executive @jaesbielbym says "It's chaos" and the number of people affected is "going up exponentially." He calls for "a blanket exemption for food supply chain workers."
Usually when I quote industry people like the FWD Philip pops up to call them lobby groups who don't know anything about things like Wholesale Distribution.
So we are going to save the country from Covid via the introduction of vaxports for nightclubs and a small number of named events. I wonder what "named" will be - ie Arsenal vs Spurs on Dec 1st or "Premier League matches".
A bit like that joke - Susie Smith was only unfaithful twice; once with Bob Jones and once with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.
A few thoughts on the header: 1. This is the perfect storm. Brexit makes for delays and issues getting chilled / fresh products across the border. Brexit + IR35 + Covid makes for a huge shortage in both vehicles and drivers to deliver products, causing uncontrolled shortages. And Covid means a whole load of people aren't at work. 2. There are no easy solutions. "Delete the App" is fine but it isn't just people getting pinged, most of us know numerous people who have caught Covid in this Delta wave. If you are sick you can't work whether you delete the App or not 3. Even as we come out the other side of Delta we still won't have fixed the driver and vehicle shortage. Some of the proposals - extend driver hours and now a provisional HGV license sound practically dangerous 4. The NI Protocol bluster (see this morning's insane Daily Express front page) could easily blow up into a total breakdown in co-operation and the hardest of border between us and the EU which really would create food shortages on top of the delivery and labour shortages.
I think the impacts on the government may not be as you might expect in normal times. But the impact on the general public? Not good - despite the pray the pox away efforts we still find ourselves in the midst of a big dangerous spike in a global pandemic with the next even worse variants already out there.
How do people react when its show your Covid passport to enter a supermarket that has got big gaps all over the shop? With the government sadly warning that such hardships will be in place through the long winter to come? OK so this is both variables (Covid and Logistics problems) at their worst, but its more than just possible.
And no, I am not wishing that this happens to attack the government. I am north of the wall so your government isn't in charge of a lot up here. I want Covid gone and quickly. But what I want and what is likely are not the same thing. Not with the Insane Clown Posse in government.
I don't actually remember things being this bad when Covid stock piling was at it's worst.
Yes there was flour and pasta in morrisons (not that we need any as I've tons in the stock pile) but whole shelves (most own brand cereal) and freezers (90% of the frozen veg) were completely empty.
I took photos in those early days of whole sections of stores empty. The only time I could remember anything like it was the dying moths of Kwiksave when they tried to survive as an independent and quickly ran out of cash.
The difference between then and now? Last year the gaps were as a result of panic buying - demand led. This year there has been no panic buying and the gaps are down to the inability to ship - supply led.
Add panic buying on top and it could head south rapidly.
Rats. We were very well stocked, ready for Brexit shortages, but have subsequently run down most of our stores. These have been additionally depleted by the need to self-isolate for the past week due to the lad's covid. Looks like we'll be among the first to be wiping our arses with bacofoil. (sob)
A few thoughts on the header: 1. This is the perfect storm. Brexit makes for delays and issues getting chilled / fresh products across the border. Brexit + IR35 + Covid makes for a huge shortage in both vehicles and drivers to deliver products, causing uncontrolled shortages. And Covid means a whole load of people aren't at work. 2. There are no easy solutions. "Delete the App" is fine but it isn't just people getting pinged, most of us know numerous people who have caught Covid in this Delta wave. If you are sick you can't work whether you delete the App or not 3. Even as we come out the other side of Delta we still won't have fixed the driver and vehicle shortage. Some of the proposals - extend driver hours and now a provisional HGV license sound practically dangerous 4. The NI Protocol bluster (see this morning's insane Daily Express front page) could easily blow up into a total breakdown in co-operation and the hardest of border between us and the EU which really would create food shortages on top of the delivery and labour shortages.
I think the impacts on the government may not be as you might expect in normal times. But the impact on the general public? Not good - despite the pray the pox away efforts we still find ourselves in the midst of a big dangerous spike in a global pandemic with the next even worse variants already out there.
How do people react when its show your Covid passport to enter a supermarket that has got big gaps all over the shop? With the government sadly warning that such hardships will be in place through the long winter to come? OK so this is both variables (Covid and Logistics problems) at their worst, but its more than just possible.
And no, I am not wishing that this happens to attack the government. I am north of the wall so your government isn't in charge of a lot up here. I want Covid gone and quickly. But what I want and what is likely are not the same thing. Not with the Insane Clown Posse in government.
I don't actually remember things being this bad when Covid stock piling was at it's worst.
Yes there was flour and pasta in morrisons (not that we need any as I've tons in the stock pile) but whole shelves (most own brand cereal) and freezers (90% of the frozen veg) were completely empty.
I took photos in those early days of whole sections of stores empty. The only time I could remember anything like it was the dying moths of Kwiksave when they tried to survive as an independent and quickly ran out of cash.
The difference between then and now? Last year the gaps were as a result of panic buying - demand led. This year there has been no panic buying and the gaps are down to the inability to ship - supply led.
Add panic buying on top and it could head south rapidly.
It could be my fault. Yesterday I mentioned to a couple of people they should think about stocking up, without panicking. This morning it's all over the papers.
The consequence of it being in the news and papers was that Tescos in Catterick was busy at 7:40 this morning as my wife went to get her lunch (it's usually the Maria Celeste at the time)
Re: home working. Not sure about management style, but I think it is a mistake to think that most people who like home working are introverts and the opposite extroverts. If anything it is often likely to be the opposite. For at least a couple of reasons. For one, introverts often crave social situations where they are forced to be with other people. Office environments are perfect for that. They don’t actually create any pressure to spend a lot of time engaging, but they make it a lot easier to engage when needed. Compare with home working environments. These can be very difficult for introverts. Even ignoring the social side - needing to contact somebody via eg. Teams when you have no idea if they are free to talk can be stressful. A lot easier when said individual is visible in an office. And a lot less scary because familiarity granted by an office environment makes people a lot less intimidating (mostly). etc etc
There is a lot in what you say (although we should remind ourselves most people are not extreme extroverts or introverts) but in practice, what I have seen in pre-covid WFH is that extroversion is a good predictor of who will turn up at the office while introverts tended to stay away. You may be right that this is paradoxical and even self-harming behaviour.
I'd imagine there is a lot of research to be done on these and other WFH questions.
✍🏻 OLYMPICS LATEST: Kentaro Kobayashi, creative director of the Opening Ceremony was fired for joking about the Holocaust as part of a skit in 1998 when he worked as a comedian.
I don't know why people bother to apologise for historic things if they are to get sacked regardless, or forced to stand down (I think some musician leaving a band recently made a similar point), since it doesnt seem to mollify anyone evening you mean it, so you might as well just not comment.
Cynical view: it's about future work opportunities rather than the current job.
My preferred view: maybe Kobayashi just appreciates he was a dick and wants to do the right thing now?
Well I don't know about London but Edinburgh is buzzing at the moment. The grassmarket area of the City expanded outdoor capacity enormously during Covid as did the Royal Mile and, in the current weather, this has been an enormous hit with a huge al fresco eating and drinking activity going on throughout the day and into the night with people reluctant to go back inside even although they can. Its made the place feel very continental.
A friend of mine was trying yesterday to get accommodation near Fort William for him and his son. It was very difficult with no camping or B&B within 40 miles of Fort William. He has got a nice hotel room but its pricy as these establishments clearly take advantage of the staycation tendency.
The picture, it seems to me, is very mixed with good and bad cheek by jowl. The major disappointment has been the ease with which the double vaxxed are getting delta covid. The expectation was that this would be a rare event but it clearly isn't, even if most are not that ill. This means we are not getting the herd immunity protection that large scale vaccination was supposed to achieve. What we need is accurate information on whether those double vaxxed get a sufficient dose of the virus to be infectious to the unprotected. If they don't then pings for them can be ignored. If they do we still have a problem. Its looking like the latter because it is hard to see how current infection rates don't involve transmission by the large percentage of the population that are vaccinated but we need to be sure.
As a matter of interest, have you any idea what the hotels / B&B's are like in Edinburgh at the moment? I am ummming and ahhing about taking the little 'un on a road trip after the festival and before school restarts, and Edinburgh was to be our destination.
I’ve a future colleague who is in Edinburgh at the moment. Said it was easy to find a decently priced hotel
We need to know where he is staying to know what his definition of reasonable priced is.
For some people it's a travelodge, for others nothing less than an 4/5 star international chain hotel.
I know that nobody on here would ever engage in anything so declasse as panic buying, but any suggestions from those whose shops have already run out of things on which items a responsible shopper might like to focus on in building a modest strategic reserve, taking into account likely supply/demand imbalances in coming weeks?
This week has been the worst yet for my family's mental health. Eldest home after Uni, and youngest finished school has really shifted a comfortable dynamic off its axis. Too many adults at home all day in too small a house.
I had drinks with some lefty friends today, normally very peaceable
At one point my Remainer mate was ranting about Brexit, to the extent of yelling the words "the Tory Nazis". It was a bit embarrassing TBH. His partner intervened and calmed him down
I've no doubt he is angry about Brexit - he always has been - but this was a new level of unhinged fury. Notably, he had been talking about the Delta Variant quite a lot, just before
I reckon the pandemic is now pushing a lot of people to the brink - and the idea that it might go on for many months more is basically intolerable
My partner says the suicide stats are quite eye opening. Not at all what the non-professional might assume. Though the decision of 2 of the 4 adults to purchase a drum machine without any consultation or usual channels hasn't helped. At fucking all.
I estimate we are two more variants away - ie 12-18 added months of variously cycling lockdown, death, infection and fear - from critical societal collapse across the West
If it was just death, that would perhaps be easier to live with. The problem is rooted in trying to control the virus by changing human behaviour. It has all sorts of unintended consequences.
Big cities cannot function in prolonged plagues with endless lockdown and quarantine. As this thread shows: a few pings and we have shortages. And if people are too terrified to congregate together, then cities will be slowly but relentlessly abandoned - what is the point of them? Cities ARE crowds.
As "civilisation" depends entirely on functional cities - by definition - that is extremely bad news for everyone. Even those now feeling smug in their garden suburbs, market towns and leafy villages, depend on big cities to keep the money turning and society thinking
Former CBI head Howard Davies has just said the City of London will never be the same again with large number of office workers commuting into work each day. I can't see how it can survive without that huge volume of people.
Well, it will change.
Fewer offices. But more entertainment.
All that infrastructure - whether the tube, the apartments, the shopping centers, the hospitals, etc - will be used. The only question is what for, and who will pay for it.
We have seen what happens, in London, say, from 1945-1980, or New York from 1965-1985. No one pays for it. Stuff gets shut. Everything declines. The basic infrastructure is kinda maintained but ewwww
These are arguably more optimistic scenarios now. Just another secular decline, and then recovery, it happens, fair enough
The extreme worst case scenarios point to Detroit. Or Rome in 400AD
London is was one of the great European cities. Without visitors from other parts of Europe, the West End feels dead. Detroit is more like it. Melanie Phillips notwithstanding, there aren't any "barbarians" to take it along the same path as Rome.
Re: home working. Not sure about management style, but I think it is a mistake to think that most people who like home working are introverts and the opposite extroverts. If anything it is often likely to be the opposite. For at least a couple of reasons. For one, introverts often crave social situations where they are forced to be with other people. Office environments are perfect for that. They don’t actually create any pressure to spend a lot of time engaging, but they make it a lot easier to engage when needed. Compare with home working environments. These can be very difficult for introverts. Even ignoring the social side - needing to contact somebody via eg. Teams when you have no idea if they are free to talk can be stressful. A lot easier when said individual is visible in an office. And a lot less scary because familiarity granted by an office environment makes people a lot less intimidating (mostly). etc etc
There is a lot in what you say (although we should remind ourselves most people are not extreme extroverts or introverts) but in practice, what I have seen in pre-covid WFH is that extroversion is a good predictor of who will turn up at the office while introverts tended to stay away. You may be right that this is paradoxical and even self-harming behaviour.
I'd imagine there is a lot of research to be done on these and other WFH questions.
I'm with Alex on this one - as an introvert the 'rules' for want of a better word of an office environment make it easier to tip toe into deeper interactions.
While I think it possible that there will be a 2021 poll with a Labour lead it may fall short of probable.
The odd feature of polling at the moment is the consistency of the Tory vote. It's as if voters have stopped using polls as a means of describing the temperature rather than their overall loyalty, and that shifting loyalty is less likely because of the culture gulf caused by Brexit, Boris and Jezza.
In retrospect the petrol crisis in 2000 was a temperature check. Labour won at a canter in 2001 and 2005. Quality of leader counted most in the end. (I enjoyed the petrol crisis. All pointless meetings got cancelled and driving in the north when you did drive was like driving in a car advertisement, it was just your car and the rolling hills).
Obviously once the zeitgeist changes Boris will very rapidly have more time to write his books and give after dinner speeches. Unless the empty shelves thing turns into real food shortages (at which point all bets are off) I don't think this will be it. In 2000 not being able to get in your car to see granny was a crisis. In 2021 being vaccinated and still alive is the good life for many people.
I know that nobody on here would ever engage in anything so declasse as panic buying, but any suggestions from those whose shops have already run out of things on which items a responsible shopper might like to focus on in building a modest strategic reserve, taking into account likely supply/demand imbalances in coming weeks?
Jeez have I got to mention it every single time?!
Coeur de Cardeline rosé from the Co op at £8 a pop is great value and is often sold out in the shops so get your skates on.
It is no surprise that we are falling off a cliff. In fact it's to be welcomed so we can start mending fences as quickly as possible..
Apart from the headline stuff Cummings explained in some detail how the UK was manipulated into leaving the EU when even he (as chief manipulator) doubted it was in our best interest. When Laura K asked him why he and his (imbecile) front man told so many lies ie.Turkey were poised to join the EU he glibly replied that it wasn't his job to explain the small print.
It was chilling. Ruthless ambition by the puppet and puppet master meant no holes were barred. From an advertising perspective the technique was as simple as it was wretched as he couldn't resist explaining......
People with a slight prejudice had it aroused until it became a fear which as the campaign wore on became an all consuming fear. The reasons for choosing Turkey were as calculated as they were insidious
It was impossible to refute because Cameron in the past had said Turkey joining was 'a long term aspiration' and he didn't wish to offend the Turks by resiling from it. They also had an irresistable number of Muslims living there....
'if we remained in the EU 70 million Turks could be on our doorstep within a year and we could do nothing to stop them' became a virtual slogan..... Cummings in front of Lara K could hardly hide his gloat
No need to explain why this wouldn't have passed any advertising code known to man. Only the dimmest wouldn't know and they don't post here. But those now in power and those who put them there have shown how easily a country-even a reasonably civilised one-can be manipulated when there are no rules. And even questioning is severely restricted
The disappointing part is that in many ways it's the fault of the advertising industry. We've become accustomed to believing what advertisers tell us because they are obliged not only to tell the truth but to be able to substantiate all claims. There is no such thing as 'small print'
PS. I saw a 60's press ad for a Porsche 911 yesterday. Above a photo of the car were two lines
Similarly, we're starting to have frequent problems in collecting refuse in my borough - the combination of (a) pinging (b) actual Covid (c) no driving tests for new drivers for 18 months and (d) shortage of foreign drivers. The company is doing its best and it's so far only a few rounds each time. but it's a genuine problem that's difficult to solve.
I’ve always found this fascinating
My local council - Westminster - has no issue with 2 refuse collections plus 1 recycling collection a week.
And yet other councils can’t manage that despite far higher council tax rates
One important factor might be size. Westminster is fairly compact so there is not much time wasted driving from one house or block of flats to the next. That said, any council that has fortnightly collections wants looking at (or more money).
When I lived in Westminster there was a massive income source in parking revenue and parking fines which most councils didn't have, and of course council tax was on loads of high-value houses and flats. Why they blow it on that much refuse collection I'm not sure - round here we collect recyclables and general rubbish on alternate weeks, and everyone seems fine with that.
The delta variant is much more capable of infecting the fully vaccinated than had been hoped. The result is that that herd immunity is not being achieved and large scale infection will persist. This makes the probability of the unvaccinated being both infected and becoming seriously ill much higher than might have been hoped with current vaccination levels. Whilst it is clear that the vaccines make death in particular much, much less likely the numbers getting ill enough to require hospital treatment is disappointing. The combined effect of these 2 latter points is that hospitals face a difficult few months with high and increasing numbers of patients further deferring work on the backlog.
The choices that the government faces are unpalatable.
If we continue down the current freedom route then we face significant ongoing disruption as isolation becomes the major tool of breaking transmission. This is going to affect public facing jobs in particular and is going to make large scale events problematic in the extreme, even for the vaccinated.
If we don't then we are accepting that vaccinations have not proven to be the way out of this mess that we hoped. Plan B? Really not sure what it is but I do know for sure that we won't like it. I think we are going to have to muddle through and effectively let the virus let rip. There is some sense in doing this now in the summer. Its going to be a bumpy ride.
I would look at what has happened to Delta in India for more positive thoughts.
I don't think bodies in the river is that postiive.
If they don't exempt food workers then we're going to see panic buying.
Remember that exempting food industry staff from the ping and isolate only fixes part of the problem. There are still a stack of them catching Covid - as @DavidL noted above Delta cuts straight through the vaccine. There are still major shortages of drivers and vehicles. There are still import issues for Fresh and Chilled products.
Absolutely there needs to be a stop to the self-inflicted issues like the pingdemic. But it isn't a magic wand fix. Trouble is ahead.
Re: home working. Not sure about management style, but I think it is a mistake to think that most people who like home working are introverts and the opposite extroverts. If anything it is often likely to be the opposite. For at least a couple of reasons. For one, introverts often crave social situations where they are forced to be with other people. Office environments are perfect for that. They don’t actually create any pressure to spend a lot of time engaging, but they make it a lot easier to engage when needed. Compare with home working environments. These can be very difficult for introverts. Even ignoring the social side - needing to contact somebody via eg. Teams when you have no idea if they are free to talk can be stressful. A lot easier when said individual is visible in an office. And a lot less scary because familiarity granted by an office environment makes people a lot less intimidating (mostly). etc etc
I find this spot on, personally. Though I do know other introverts who are not yearning for the office as I am.
This week has been the worst yet for my family's mental health. Eldest home after Uni, and youngest finished school has really shifted a comfortable dynamic off its axis. Too many adults at home all day in too small a house.
I had drinks with some lefty friends today, normally very peaceable
At one point my Remainer mate was ranting about Brexit, to the extent of yelling the words "the Tory Nazis". It was a bit embarrassing TBH. His partner intervened and calmed him down
I've no doubt he is angry about Brexit - he always has been - but this was a new level of unhinged fury. Notably, he had been talking about the Delta Variant quite a lot, just before
I reckon the pandemic is now pushing a lot of people to the brink - and the idea that it might go on for many months more is basically intolerable
My partner says the suicide stats are quite eye opening. Not at all what the non-professional might assume. Though the decision of 2 of the 4 adults to purchase a drum machine without any consultation or usual channels hasn't helped. At fucking all.
I estimate we are two more variants away - ie 12-18 added months of variously cycling lockdown, death, infection and fear - from critical societal collapse across the West
If it was just death, that would perhaps be easier to live with. The problem is rooted in trying to control the virus by changing human behaviour. It has all sorts of unintended consequences.
Big cities cannot function in prolonged plagues with endless lockdown and quarantine. As this thread shows: a few pings and we have shortages. And if people are too terrified to congregate together, then cities will be slowly but relentlessly abandoned - what is the point of them? Cities ARE crowds.
As "civilisation" depends entirely on functional cities - by definition - that is extremely bad news for everyone. Even those now feeling smug in their garden suburbs, market towns and leafy villages, depend on big cities to keep the money turning and society thinking
Former CBI head Howard Davies has just said the City of London will never be the same again with large number of office workers commuting into work each day. I can't see how it can survive without that huge volume of people.
Well, it will change.
Fewer offices. But more entertainment.
All that infrastructure - whether the tube, the apartments, the shopping centers, the hospitals, etc - will be used. The only question is what for, and who will pay for it.
The 105 Building which has never housed a single guest has been used for entertainment too.
I know that nobody on here would ever engage in anything so declasse as panic buying, but any suggestions from those whose shops have already run out of things on which items a responsible shopper might like to focus on in building a modest strategic reserve, taking into account likely supply/demand imbalances in coming weeks?
Indeed. And then we consider what a "modest strategic reserve" looks like. I need a jar of coffee. Lets buy a spare one. Then we have the people who weren't buying coffee on this trip half of which decide to buy one. Very quickly the sales uplift outstrips supply and big gaps appear which only drives demand further and reduces supply further.
Top top for you all - skip the supermarket and buy from your local convenience store. They need the business more than Tesco, they rode out the availability crisis last time far better than the supermarkets, and with loads of convenience only deals they aren't as expensive as you think.
Tom Winsor wants Line of Duty to become a documentary and tech bosses jailed for online abuse on their platforms and/or infrastructure (which would probably mean the end of PB).
The question surely is what vetting encompasses. What behaviours are relevant? What points to future (or current) corrupt or criminal behaviour? There is nothing in the reports I've seen (not the Times story, owing to paywall) suggesting Winsor has given it any great thought and is merely stating what should have been bleeding obvious from the start. As it is, the police are not properly acting on their existing criteria. https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/force-content/met/careers/careers/detective-constable/cautions-convictions.v4.pdf
Tom Winsor, when I knew him, was a Linklaters lawyer who worked on rail privatisation. He knows the square root of fuck all about policing and the criminal law - beyond what every solicitor is taught. An odd choice for the role and has not, IMO, distinguished himself in it.
Like far too many organisations the police don't do proper due diligence on those they hire and do not understand why this is important. I could fill headers with examples from finance and the consequences. It is basic basic stuff - important stuff - but is treated as a minor bureaucratic inconvenience.
Agreed, but in many cases it is lesser indicators that count, so an officer might have attracted complaints from the public (and here we need to be careful because "the public" in this case might be villains). Taking the Ian Tomlinson case as an example (which involved Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer in walk-on parts), the police officer involved had faced ten complaints of which nine had been dismissed. Should that have been a significant warning? I don't know. But it is these micro-indicators rather than criminal convictions that concern me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ian_Tomlinson
Agree. Stuff like this needs to be looked at. Too often it isn't.
Well I don't know about London but Edinburgh is buzzing at the moment. The grassmarket area of the City expanded outdoor capacity enormously during Covid as did the Royal Mile and, in the current weather, this has been an enormous hit with a huge al fresco eating and drinking activity going on throughout the day and into the night with people reluctant to go back inside even although they can. Its made the place feel very continental.
A friend of mine was trying yesterday to get accommodation near Fort William for him and his son. It was very difficult with no camping or B&B within 40 miles of Fort William. He has got a nice hotel room but its pricy as these establishments clearly take advantage of the staycation tendency.
The picture, it seems to me, is very mixed with good and bad cheek by jowl. The major disappointment has been the ease with which the double vaxxed are getting delta covid. The expectation was that this would be a rare event but it clearly isn't, even if most are not that ill. This means we are not getting the herd immunity protection that large scale vaccination was supposed to achieve. What we need is accurate information on whether those double vaxxed get a sufficient dose of the virus to be infectious to the unprotected. If they don't then pings for them can be ignored. If they do we still have a problem. Its looking like the latter because it is hard to see how current infection rates don't involve transmission by the large percentage of the population that are vaccinated but we need to be sure.
As a matter of interest, have you any idea what the hotels / B&B's are like in Edinburgh at the moment? I am ummming and ahhing about taking the little 'un on a road trip after the festival and before school restarts, and Edinburgh was to be our destination.
I have been staying at the Knight residence, which is serviced apartments, for the last 3 nights. Its busy, if not as frantic as it gets when the Festival is about to start in a normal year. There are a few new hotels in Edinburgh that have opened up in the last year (really bad timing). I think you will get a reasonable rate but the bargains of the Spring are gone.
My wife has just gone to do the weekly shop early. The press and media will force panic buying and then spend days reporting it. Can’t risk not getting our stuff although it will probably all be over by the weekend.
I know that nobody on here would ever engage in anything so declasse as panic buying, but any suggestions from those whose shops have already run out of things on which items a responsible shopper might like to focus on in building a modest strategic reserve, taking into account likely supply/demand imbalances in coming weeks?
During the fire of London Pepys dealt with his modest strategic reserve of Parmesan cheese by burying it in the ground.
Well I don't know about London but Edinburgh is buzzing at the moment. The grassmarket area of the City expanded outdoor capacity enormously during Covid as did the Royal Mile and, in the current weather, this has been an enormous hit with a huge al fresco eating and drinking activity going on throughout the day and into the night with people reluctant to go back inside even although they can. Its made the place feel very continental.
A friend of mine was trying yesterday to get accommodation near Fort William for him and his son. It was very difficult with no camping or B&B within 40 miles of Fort William. He has got a nice hotel room but its pricy as these establishments clearly take advantage of the staycation tendency.
The picture, it seems to me, is very mixed with good and bad cheek by jowl. The major disappointment has been the ease with which the double vaxxed are getting delta covid. The expectation was that this would be a rare event but it clearly isn't, even if most are not that ill. This means we are not getting the herd immunity protection that large scale vaccination was supposed to achieve. What we need is accurate information on whether those double vaxxed get a sufficient dose of the virus to be infectious to the unprotected. If they don't then pings for them can be ignored. If they do we still have a problem. Its looking like the latter because it is hard to see how current infection rates don't involve transmission by the large percentage of the population that are vaccinated but we need to be sure.
As a matter of interest, have you any idea what the hotels / B&B's are like in Edinburgh at the moment? I am ummming and ahhing about taking the little 'un on a road trip after the festival and before school restarts, and Edinburgh was to be our destination.
I’ve a future colleague who is in Edinburgh at the moment. Said it was easy to find a decently priced hotel
We need to know where he is staying to know what his definition of reasonable priced is.
For some people it's a travelodge, for others nothing less than an 4/5 star international chain hotel.
He’s a junior at a big 4 firm - well paid but not exceptionally so
I know that nobody on here would ever engage in anything so declasse as panic buying, but any suggestions from those whose shops have already run out of things on which items a responsible shopper might like to focus on in building a modest strategic reserve, taking into account likely supply/demand imbalances in coming weeks?
If you are a competent pot-rattler, I'd not be too concerned. Something will be in stock. Beyond that, pet food and bottled water were the gaps that surprised me. Water comes from the tap; vegetables can be bought in frozen form.
But from anecdotes on here, the actual goods affected can vary. Presumably this follows from there being distribution problems, even where there are goods in warehouses, factories and farms.
I know that nobody on here would ever engage in anything so declasse as panic buying, but any suggestions from those whose shops have already run out of things on which items a responsible shopper might like to focus on in building a modest strategic reserve, taking into account likely supply/demand imbalances in coming weeks?
Indeed. And then we consider what a "modest strategic reserve" looks like. I need a jar of coffee. Lets buy a spare one. Then we have the people who weren't buying coffee on this trip half of which decide to buy one. Very quickly the sales uplift outstrips supply and big gaps appear which only drives demand further and reduces supply further.
Top top for you all - skip the supermarket and buy from your local convenience store. They need the business more than Tesco, they rode out the availability crisis last time far better than the supermarkets, and with loads of convenience only deals they aren't as expensive as you think.
My local convenience store is offering half price Pringles on selected flavours if that is any indication.
So we are going to save the country from Covid via the introduction of vaxports for nightclubs and a small number of named events. I wonder what "named" will be - ie Arsenal vs Spurs on Dec 1st or "Premier League matches".
A bit like that joke - Susie Smith was only unfaithful twice; once with Bob Jones and once with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.
My gut feeling is that they won't get introduced but the threat is being used to get 3-4m additional under 40s double jabbed by the end of September. It might work if the government hammers the message home for the next 3-4 weeks. Get a vaccine or don't go anywhere fun from September and watch your mates leave you sitting home alone.
If they don't exempt food workers then we're going to see panic buying.
As @RochdalePioneers said earlier, the main problem is one of supply, and food workers self-isolating will exacerbate this. Panic buying comes later.
Some chains have 30% of staff off with Covid (infected or pinged). And its summer holidays so they lose a chunk of people that way as well. Companies are having to do short notice changes to store hours, bus staff around between branches and a few have shut completely due to a lack of staff.
Similarly, we're starting to have frequent problems in collecting refuse in my borough - the combination of (a) pinging (b) actual Covid (c) no driving tests for new drivers for 18 months and (d) shortage of foreign drivers. The company is doing its best and it's so far only a few rounds each time. but it's a genuine problem that's difficult to solve.
I’ve always found this fascinating
My local council - Westminster - has no issue with 2 refuse collections plus 1 recycling collection a week.
And yet other councils can’t manage that despite far higher council tax rates
One important factor might be size. Westminster is fairly compact so there is not much time wasted driving from one house or block of flats to the next. That said, any council that has fortnightly collections wants looking at (or more money).
When I lived in Westminster there was a massive income source in parking revenue and parking fines which most councils didn't have, and of course council tax was on loads of high-value houses and flats. Why they blow it on that much refuse collection I'm not sure - round here we collect recyclables and general rubbish on alternate weeks, and everyone seems fine with that.
Because their customers, the local residents, like it. And they understand that their primary duty is to serve the community
The delta variant is much more capable of infecting the fully vaccinated than had been hoped. The result is that that herd immunity is not being achieved and large scale infection will persist. This makes the probability of the unvaccinated being both infected and becoming seriously ill much higher than might have been hoped with current vaccination levels. Whilst it is clear that the vaccines make death in particular much, much less likely the numbers getting ill enough to require hospital treatment is disappointing. The combined effect of these 2 latter points is that hospitals face a difficult few months with high and increasing numbers of patients further deferring work on the backlog.
The choices that the government faces are unpalatable.
If we continue down the current freedom route then we face significant ongoing disruption as isolation becomes the major tool of breaking transmission. This is going to affect public facing jobs in particular and is going to make large scale events problematic in the extreme, even for the vaccinated.
If we don't then we are accepting that vaccinations have not proven to be the way out of this mess that we hoped. Plan B? Really not sure what it is but I do know for sure that we won't like it. I think we are going to have to muddle through and effectively let the virus let rip. There is some sense in doing this now in the summer. Its going to be a bumpy ride.
I would look at what has happened to Delta in India for more positive thoughts.
I don't think bodies in the river is that postiive.
▪️ We had no idea what Brexit would do. ▪️ Remainers may have been right but they weren't sure, so how could we know.🤷🏿♂️ ▪️ The deal we sold to voters as oven-ready was designed to be vomited back up.
This week has been the worst yet for my family's mental health. Eldest home after Uni, and youngest finished school has really shifted a comfortable dynamic off its axis. Too many adults at home all day in too small a house.
I had drinks with some lefty friends today, normally very peaceable
At one point my Remainer mate was ranting about Brexit, to the extent of yelling the words "the Tory Nazis". It was a bit embarrassing TBH. His partner intervened and calmed him down
I've no doubt he is angry about Brexit - he always has been - but this was a new level of unhinged fury. Notably, he had been talking about the Delta Variant quite a lot, just before
I reckon the pandemic is now pushing a lot of people to the brink - and the idea that it might go on for many months more is basically intolerable
My partner says the suicide stats are quite eye opening. Not at all what the non-professional might assume. Though the decision of 2 of the 4 adults to purchase a drum machine without any consultation or usual channels hasn't helped. At fucking all.
I estimate we are two more variants away - ie 12-18 added months of variously cycling lockdown, death, infection and fear - from critical societal collapse across the West
If it was just death, that would perhaps be easier to live with. The problem is rooted in trying to control the virus by changing human behaviour. It has all sorts of unintended consequences.
Big cities cannot function in prolonged plagues with endless lockdown and quarantine. As this thread shows: a few pings and we have shortages. And if people are too terrified to congregate together, then cities will be slowly but relentlessly abandoned - what is the point of them? Cities ARE crowds.
As "civilisation" depends entirely on functional cities - by definition - that is extremely bad news for everyone. Even those now feeling smug in their garden suburbs, market towns and leafy villages, depend on big cities to keep the money turning and society thinking
Former CBI head Howard Davies has just said the City of London will never be the same again with large number of office workers commuting into work each day. I can't see how it can survive without that huge volume of people.
So what the fuck happens to it? And all the businesses that depend on it?
It's all very well to airily make these predictions, but the ramifications are tremendous, and ominous - as these epochal and accelerated changes will be repeated in big cities across the world, esp in America and Europe
My sense of London is that it is at the beginning of a chain reaction of terrible decline, as one business failure feeds into another, as one departed rich person leads to another round of debt, and the tax take falls, and the services are withdrawn, so more people leave, like New York in the 70s but on steroids
Christ, I hope I am wrong, I fear I am right. And, as I say, I believe this is the fate of all the great cities
We need the virus to fuck off very very quickly to avoid these things
Someone here will know the exact stats, but I think Liverpool went from something like 800,000 to 400,000 people in the post war period. It happens.
For a liverpool / detroit process to occur there needs to be massive depopulation. I can't see that happening in the case of London - purely because the demand for housing is so great, due to the constrained supply that currently exists. People have to live somewhere.
I think the issue you are describing could get bad in the suburbs, rather than the centre. Central London is massively desirable, the suburbs much less so.
Yes, but wasn't the depopulation of London, Liverpool, Glasgow, all deliberate policy? New Towns were created to take people out of overcrowded slums, creating places like Milton Keynes, Skelmersdale, Harlow, Wellingborough, Cumbernauld and Corby etc
That was in the days that we did urban planning and housing policy on a grander scale of course, and at least in theory included shopping centres, schools, industrial estates etc.
Thats exactly my point - there will be no depopulation and inner city abandonement on a 1960s scale because the rate of population and household growth is not matched by housebuilding. That isn't going to change any time soon.
▪️ We had no idea what Brexit would do. ▪️ Remainers may have been right but they weren't sure, so how could we know.🤷🏿♂️ ▪️ The deal we sold to voters as oven-ready was designed to be vomited back up.
The delta variant is much more capable of infecting the fully vaccinated than had been hoped. The result is that that herd immunity is not being achieved and large scale infection will persist. This makes the probability of the unvaccinated being both infected and becoming seriously ill much higher than might have been hoped with current vaccination levels. Whilst it is clear that the vaccines make death in particular much, much less likely the numbers getting ill enough to require hospital treatment is disappointing. The combined effect of these 2 latter points is that hospitals face a difficult few months with high and increasing numbers of patients further deferring work on the backlog.
The choices that the government faces are unpalatable.
If we continue down the current freedom route then we face significant ongoing disruption as isolation becomes the major tool of breaking transmission. This is going to affect public facing jobs in particular and is going to make large scale events problematic in the extreme, even for the vaccinated.
If we don't then we are accepting that vaccinations have not proven to be the way out of this mess that we hoped. Plan B? Really not sure what it is but I do know for sure that we won't like it. I think we are going to have to muddle through and effectively let the virus let rip. There is some sense in doing this now in the summer. Its going to be a bumpy ride.
I would look at what has happened to Delta in India for more positive thoughts.
It's possible delta is just too successful. We may get a very sharp peak and a very sharp fall. But the assumption that the 7m unvaccinated were going to get a free ride on the backs of the vaccinated is broken. Low tens of thousands of them are going to die unnecessarily over the next year. It's unfortunate.
So we are going to save the country from Covid via the introduction of vaxports for nightclubs and a small number of named events. I wonder what "named" will be - ie Arsenal vs Spurs on Dec 1st or "Premier League matches".
A bit like that joke - Susie Smith was only unfaithful twice; once with Bob Jones and once with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.
My gut feeling is that they won't get introduced but the threat is being used to get 3-4m additional under 40s double jabbed by the end of September. It might work if the government hammers the message home for the next 3-4 weeks. Get a vaccine or don't go anywhere fun from September and watch your mates leave you sitting home alone.
Not how I would run a government seeking to achieve an aim. It really must believe that we are on the cusp of a tragedy.
And nightclubs. That's it. That's the key to preventing the nation, the NHS, and everyone being overrun by Covid. Nightclubs. And, say, Glasto. Absurd.
Re: home working. Not sure about management style, but I think it is a mistake to think that most people who like home working are introverts and the opposite extroverts. If anything it is often likely to be the opposite. For at least a couple of reasons. For one, introverts often crave social situations where they are forced to be with other people. Office environments are perfect for that. They don’t actually create any pressure to spend a lot of time engaging, but they make it a lot easier to engage when needed. Compare with home working environments. These can be very difficult for introverts. Even ignoring the social side - needing to contact somebody via eg. Teams when you have no idea if they are free to talk can be stressful. A lot easier when said individual is visible in an office. And a lot less scary because familiarity granted by an office environment makes people a lot less intimidating (mostly). etc etc
Probably worth pointing out that "introvert" and "extrovert" are not how many people think of them. I project, which means that I can be quite boisterous ("a terrier with a stick" was one bit of feedback I one got...). So when people find out that I am a classic introvert (ISTJ) they can be puzzled.
Introvert and extrovert is about where you draw energy from. I can do people - have to. Networking has become something I am good at, but it is *exhausting*. Extroverts draw energy from others, Introverts expend energy on others.
Spot on. And very good for individual's mental health for people to work this one out, and act accordingly. (And where would the rest of us be without ISTJs to quietly run things properly?)
Provided the double jabbed are removed from having to self isolate if they have come into contact with a Covid case next month the empty shelves problem should not be an issue
Provided the double jabbed are removed from having to self isolate if they have come into contact with a Covid case next month the empty shelves problem should not be an issue
Only three weeks of rice with a side of rice then.
Two-tier is just daft. This is the right way to go.
This is pretty much the sole reason I voted Tory in the recent local elections in Nottinghamshire. Looks like it won't happen, yet. They'll get there eventually though.
Two-tier is just daft. This is the right way to go.
It's really not - the council will be just too big. Its a 3 hour drive from Scarborough to Hawes. Worse with York City Council rolled back into the county a lot of focus will (as with Durham) focussed on York rather than the rest of the area.
As I pointed out with the example of Bishop Auckland's destruction by the St Helens outdoor shopping centre which was voted against by the local councillors but approved by the full County Durham council (who not knowing Bishop Auckland didn't know the issues so went with the out of area planners rather than the locals).
At least @Cyclefree should be happy as the Cumbria plans are to separate the council in 2 (which makes sense and was what she hoped for).
.@KwasiKwarteng v robust about govt using its big majority to legalise compulsory Covid passports. Tells @JustinOnWeb "I'm very confident that we can pass the legislation that we require."
With 40+ Tory MPs publicly opposed, that's quite a bold claim
Given the government has a majority of 80, even if all opposition parties vote with the 40 Tory rebels the plans should still pass provided SF don't take their seats
So we are going to save the country from Covid via the introduction of vaxports for nightclubs and a small number of named events. I wonder what "named" will be - ie Arsenal vs Spurs on Dec 1st or "Premier League matches".
A bit like that joke - Susie Smith was only unfaithful twice; once with Bob Jones and once with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.
My gut feeling is that they won't get introduced but the threat is being used to get 3-4m additional under 40s double jabbed by the end of September. It might work if the government hammers the message home for the next 3-4 weeks. Get a vaccine or don't go anywhere fun from September and watch your mates leave you sitting home alone.
Given an eight week gap between doses we would have to see a big increase in first doses begin in the next few days.
I'm on the pessimistic/cautious side about the pandemic, but I think this supply chain stuff is a bit overblown IF the ping requirement goes away in 3 weeks. (I had my weekly delivery from Sainsbury yesterday, 99% complete as usual.) The rise in infections has at least stopped accelerating.
There's a more subtle issue, touched on by DavidL. It appears that double vaccination mostly stops you dying from Covid, which despite Darkage's necrophilia is definitely a very good thing. We are getting to the point where double vaccination is the adult norm.
However, it doesn't stop you feeling horrible for weeks, and possibly having long-term effects that we've not yet fully understood. It is often (hoiw often? Are there stats?) very much worse than a typical bout of flu. In normal times, that would be a very serious epidemic, but we seem to be about to drop the ping requirement and let things rip. I do see why but we should be clear what we're doing. The result will be that most of us get the bug and a lot of us have serious and unpredictable consequences. But if we don't do it, then the supply chain issue and shortages of staff everywhere become a big problem.
Above all I'd like to see Ministers explaining the options in detail and why they've chosen one against another. We're being governed by apparently random decisions which get reversed without notice, and that's unhealthy for the situation. (It's not even healthy for the governing party, but that's a bit secondary at the moment.)
Provided the double jabbed are removed from having to self isolate if they have come into contact with a Covid case next month the empty shelves problem should not be an issue
Only three weeks of rice with a side of rice then.
You'd best stock up on jam so you can tell if the rice is your main course or dessert.
I had some vision last year when the games was delayed that at the Opening ceremony the Covid pandemic would be declared over to thunderous applause from the crowd. And it probably would be were it not for the delta variant (Japan's dreadful vaccination rate hasn't helped).
Very creative of OGH to somehow conflate Brexit with empty shelves. I wonder how many more Britons would have died from covid if we had remained in rge EU?
Two-tier is just daft. This is the right way to go.
Though in reality it is really moving from 3-tier, county, district and town/parish councils to 2-tier, ie just unitary and town/parish
parish don't do anything and have zero real say in things (unless strangely you are within a National Park, where they have representation)..
They do if you live in a village, they run the cemeteries, village fete, manage war memorials, public toilets, greens and playing fields, village halls, rights of way, allotments, planning permission etc ie many of the key aspects of village life.
Plus they do neighbourhood plans now too.
Under unitary authorities parish and town councils will become more important as district councils and county councils are scrapped as the only layer of local government under unitaries in rural areas and market towns
Very creative of OGH to somehow conflate Brexit with empty shelves. I wonder how many more Britons would have died from covid if we had remained in rge EU?
Given their total ineptitude on vaccine procurement a great many.
Mike compares to the year 2000 but this is starting to remind me more of the winter of discontent in 1978/9.
Yes, that’s exactly what I thought when I saw Mike’s comparison, and incidentally when I read Sean’s bleak London evening walk report: this is the new Winter of Discontent. I’m old enough to remember bits of that -the power cuts and the rubbish piling up uncollected on the streets - but most aren’t.
I think history is going to give a poor verdict on these games. It’ll earn the worst reputation since Berlin 36.
In retrospect the Euros should have been cancelled too, and the formula one, and the Tour de France and many other events. The coming football season is bound to be a superspreader opportunity.
A lot of people had their spirits raised by the football tournament. It would have been grim without it.
But it just prolonged the pandemic. The Wembley scenes were horrific, and folk spread the virus all over the place.
Covid19 has just proved once again that the human race can be incredibly stupid and we never learn from our mistakes. God help us if a *proper* nasty disease ever hits: it’ll knock us back to the Middle Ages. Covid19 could come to be seen as a little cuddly beast in comparison.
What basis is there for saying it “prolonged” the pandemic? If anything it quite likely accelerated it. What the scientists/govt won’t say amid all the discussions about isolation/pingdemic etc, is that Govt policy is de facto for Covid to rush through the population as rapidly as possible (as long as the NHS can, just about, cope). If Delta can’t be stopped then suppression=prolonging.
Two-tier is just daft. This is the right way to go.
Though in reality it is really moving from 3-tier, county, district and town/parish councils to 2-tier, ie just unitary and town/parish
parish don't do anything and have zero real say in things (unless strangely you are within a National Park, where they have representation)..
They do if you live in a village, they run the cemeteries, village fete, manage war memorials, public toilets, greens and playing fields, village halls, rights of way, allotments, planning permission etc ie many of the key aspects of village life.
Plus they do neighbourhood plans now too.
Under unitary authorities parish councils will become more important as district councils and county councils are scrapped as the only layer of local government under unitaries in rural areas
Anyone qualified writing those neighbourhood plans?
I know that nobody on here would ever engage in anything so declasse as panic buying, but any suggestions from those whose shops have already run out of things on which items a responsible shopper might like to focus on in building a modest strategic reserve, taking into account likely supply/demand imbalances in coming weeks?
If you are a competent pot-rattler, I'd not be too concerned. Something will be in stock. Beyond that, pet food and bottled water were the gaps that surprised me. Water comes from the tap; vegetables can be bought in frozen form.
But from anecdotes on here, the actual goods affected can vary. Presumably this follows from there being distribution problems, even where there are goods in warehouses, factories and farms.
Pet food is a useful tip, thanks. Bottled water is just a tax on stupidity; it comes out of the tap for (next to) nothing.
Two-tier is just daft. This is the right way to go.
Though in reality it is really moving from 3-tier, county, district and town/parish councils to 2-tier, ie just unitary and town/parish
parish don't do anything and have zero real say in things (unless strangely you are within a National Park, where they have representation)..
They do if you live in a village, they run the cemeteries, village fete, manage war memorials, public toilets, greens and playing fields, village halls, rights of way, allotments, planning permission etc ie many of the key aspects of village life.
Plus they do neighbourhood plans now too.
Under unitary authorities parish councils will become more important as district councils and county councils are scrapped as the only layer of local government under unitaries in rural areas
Anyone qualified writing those neighbourhood plans?
No. That's the point. It is residents. The plan then has to be put to a local referendum.
Then again, on planning/development, plenty of times the Plan is overridden in favour of allowing development to go ahead.
Two-tier is just daft. This is the right way to go.
Though in reality it is really moving from 3-tier, county, district and town/parish councils to 2-tier, ie just unitary and town/parish
parish don't do anything and have zero real say in things (unless strangely you are within a National Park, where they have representation)..
Our parish council cuts the grass verges.
So does ours. Which was more than the Borough Council, where we used to live did.
My experience of Town / Parish councils isn't good. Was elected onto Thornaby for 4 years and it is a lunatic asylum sinking all the town's money into restoring a grand Victorian town hall with no business plan and a taxpayer funded magazine whose opening paragraph on the boundary commission proposals complains about the "annexation" of the town. Neighbouring Yarm has rival independent groups who literally fight in the council chamber. Neighbouring Eaglescliffe keeps getting censured for egregiously bad governance...
It's currently 22 degrees in Bristol. Must be close to a record for a night time temperature.
Lucky you. We get that every year in Sweden. It’s called “tropical nights” - when the nighttime temperature does not fall below 20. We’ve just had a fortnight of it. Daytime temp hit 30 several times. You get used to it, but I laugh when my Highland mum describes anything over 16 as “a heatwave “.
Here in Buchan we have had a long warm spell and some seriously warm and sunny days, but no heatwave. As someone who dislikes extremes of weather I have no problem with missing out on the "extreme heat warning" just as I had no problem staying dry whilst southern England was drowned during the Euros.
Traditionally, my family holiday in the western Highlands and Islands, but I am seriously considering breaking that tradition and going for the east coast for our next but n ben.
Florida is seeing a significant surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to federal data
Florida has stopped publicising hospitalisation data.
I think DeSantis's removal of the rights of cities and towns to set their own rules will go down as a major unforced error.
What reason did they have for doing that?
Edit: stopping the publication of data, that is.
Covid is over, so we don't to keep publishing unnecessary data.
To be fair, once everyone who wants to be vaccinated is vaccinated, there's an element of truth in that.
We don't publish daily data on stuff like flu infections etc and once people are vaccinated then Covid is similar to that (and if people aren't vaccinated its their own damned fault).
We do publish weekly data on influenza, and other viral infections, but most of the time you wouldn't know this, because it's not important to you that you know.
There is so much noise in the daily data that it probably hasn't ever added much value to have it published daily, but maybe there's an element of being seen to be open and transparent which is worthwhile.
Two-tier is just daft. This is the right way to go.
Though in reality it is really moving from 3-tier, county, district and town/parish councils to 2-tier, ie just unitary and town/parish
parish don't do anything and have zero real say in things (unless strangely you are within a National Park, where they have representation)..
They do if you live in a village, they run the cemeteries, village fete, manage war memorials, public toilets, greens and playing fields, village halls, rights of way, allotments, planning permission etc ie many of the key aspects of village life.
Plus they do neighbourhood plans now too.
Under unitary authorities parish councils will become more important as district councils and county councils are scrapped as the only layer of local government under unitaries in rural areas
Anyone qualified writing those neighbourhood plans?
No. That's the point. It is residents. The plan then has to be put to a local referendum.
Then again, on planning/development, plenty of times the Plan is overridden in favour of allowing development to go ahead.
That applies to Local Plans too but more often it is tweaked by the Planning Inspector then goes ahead
Two-tier is just daft. This is the right way to go.
Though in reality it is really moving from 3-tier, county, district and town/parish councils to 2-tier, ie just unitary and town/parish
parish don't do anything and have zero real say in things (unless strangely you are within a National Park, where they have representation)..
They do if you live in a village, they run the cemeteries, village fete, manage war memorials, public toilets, greens and playing fields, village halls, rights of way, allotments, planning permission etc ie many of the key aspects of village life.
Plus they do neighbourhood plans now too.
Under unitary authorities parish councils will become more important as district councils and county councils are scrapped as the only layer of local government under unitaries in rural areas
Anyone qualified writing those neighbourhood plans?
From local experience, probably, but not necessarily! And that must cause head-scratching in Planning Offices. However in medium sized rural communities there are often a few highly qualified, albeit retired, people, who, if they don't feel up to the job themselves, still have contacts.
It is no surprise that we are falling off a cliff. In fact it's to be welcomed so we can start mending fences as quickly as possible..
Apart from the headline stuff Cummings explained in some detail how the UK was manipulated into leaving the EU when even he (as chief manipulator) doubted it was in our best interest. When Laura K asked him why he and his (imbecile) front man told so many lies ie.Turkey were poised to join the EU he glibly replied that it wasn't his job to explain the small print.
It was chilling. Ruthless ambition by the puppet and puppet master meant no holes were barred. From an advertising perspective the technique was as simple as it was wretched as he couldn't resist explaining......
People with a slight prejudice had it aroused until it became a fear which as the campaign wore on became an all consuming fear. The reasons for choosing Turkey were as calculated as they were insidious
It was impossible to refute because Cameron in the past had said Turkey joining was 'a long term aspiration' and he didn't wish to offend the Turks by resiling from it. They also had an irresistable number of Muslims living there....
'if we remained in the EU 70 million Turks could be on our doorstep within a year and we could do nothing to stop them' became a virtual slogan..... Cummings in front of Lara K could hardly hide his gloat
No need to explain why this wouldn't have passed any advertising code known to man. Only the dimmest wouldn't know and they don't post here. But those now in power and those who put them there have shown how easily a country-even a reasonably civilised one-can be manipulated when there are no rules. And even questioning is severely restricted
The disappointing part is that in many ways it's the fault of the advertising industry. We've become accustomed to believing what advertisers tell us because they are obliged not only to tell the truth but to be able to substantiate all claims. There is no such thing as 'small print'
PS. I saw a 60's press ad for a Porsche 911 yesterday. Above a photo of the car were two lines
'Small Penis?
Have we got the car for you!'
...meant no holes were barred... Is that a deliberate Boris neologism ?
Very creative of OGH to somehow conflate Brexit with empty shelves. I wonder how many more Britons would have died from covid if we had remained in rge EU?
Wowsers. We can prove that Brexit has a direct impact onto empty shelves. We can prove that our departure from the EU had nothing to do with our vaccination programme.
And apparently we can prove that Eight to ten years months after coming home Almost eight-hundred-thousand men Are still fighting the Vietnam Brexit War
You won! Isn't this all you wanted? So why are you all still fighting a war that you won? Could it be for the same reasons why yesterday the government announced its intentions to substantially rewite the "oven-ready" deal as it doesn't work and they didn't understand it?
Two-tier is just daft. This is the right way to go.
Though in reality it is really moving from 3-tier, county, district and town/parish councils to 2-tier, ie just unitary and town/parish
parish don't do anything and have zero real say in things (unless strangely you are within a National Park, where they have representation)..
Our parish council cuts the grass verges.
So does ours. Which was more than the Borough Council, where we used to live did.
My experience of Town / Parish councils isn't good. Was elected onto Thornaby for 4 years and it is a lunatic asylum sinking all the town's money into restoring a grand Victorian town hall with no business plan and a taxpayer funded magazine whose opening paragraph on the boundary commission proposals complains about the "annexation" of the town. Neighbouring Yarm has rival independent groups who literally fight in the council chamber. Neighbouring Eaglescliffe keeps getting censured for egregiously bad governance...
Kwasi sounding very silted and hesitant on R4. Not a happy bunny I suspect.
"there will be a list of exemptions but it's a secret which ones they will be...." (paraphrasing)
Wasn’t Cleverly going on about tough sanctions against China a couple of days ago but refusing to outline what they might be? Action tomorrow, action yesterday, never action today..
Two-tier is just daft. This is the right way to go.
Though in reality it is really moving from 3-tier, county, district and town/parish councils to 2-tier, ie just unitary and town/parish
parish don't do anything and have zero real say in things (unless strangely you are within a National Park, where they have representation)..
They do if you live in a village, they run the cemeteries, village fete, manage war memorials, public toilets, greens and playing fields, village halls, rights of way, allotments, planning permission etc ie many of the key aspects of village life.
Plus they do neighbourhood plans now too.
Under unitary authorities parish and town councils will become more important as district councils and county councils are scrapped as the only layer of local government under unitaries in rural areas and market towns
I don't think Parish Councils decide on planning applications (which is the responsibility of the Borough/District) though they are an important consultee. In areas where the Community Infrastructure Levy has been adopted, the Parish should receive quite a chunk of cash.
Comments
https://twitter.com/STVNews/status/1418113956703526912?s=20
- Officer gets complained against
- Case looks serious, goes forward
- Officer retries, sick due to stress, just before the complaint process gets serious
- Officer later re-employed by the police
- Since the earlier complaint was ended procedurally, not relevant. Or restartable.
I feel sure Foxy will clarify.
Introvert and extrovert is about where you draw energy from. I can do people - have to. Networking has become something I am good at, but it is *exhausting*. Extroverts draw energy from others, Introverts expend energy on others.
If it's safe for them, why not Rugby League?
A bit like that joke - Susie Smith was only unfaithful twice; once with Bob Jones and once with the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.
I'd imagine there is a lot of research to be done on these and other WFH questions.
My preferred view: maybe Kobayashi just appreciates he was a dick and wants to do the right thing now?
For some people it's a travelodge, for others nothing less than an 4/5 star international chain hotel.
iswas one of the great European cities. Without visitors from other parts of Europe, the West End feels dead. Detroit is more like it. Melanie Phillips notwithstanding, there aren't any "barbarians" to take it along the same path as Rome.The odd feature of polling at the moment is the consistency of the Tory vote. It's as if voters have stopped using polls as a means of describing the temperature rather than their overall loyalty, and that shifting loyalty is less likely because of the culture gulf caused by Brexit, Boris and Jezza.
In retrospect the petrol crisis in 2000 was a temperature check. Labour won at a canter in 2001 and 2005. Quality of leader counted most in the end. (I enjoyed the petrol crisis. All pointless meetings got cancelled and driving in the north when you did drive was like driving in a car advertisement, it was just your car and the rolling hills).
Obviously once the zeitgeist changes Boris will very rapidly have more time to write his books and give after dinner speeches. Unless the empty shelves thing turns into real food shortages (at which point all bets are off) I don't think this will be it. In 2000 not being able to get in your car to see granny was a crisis. In 2021 being vaccinated and still alive is the good life for many people.
Coeur de Cardeline rosé from the Co op at £8 a pop is great value and is often sold out in the shops so get your skates on.
Apart from the headline stuff Cummings explained in some detail how the UK was manipulated into leaving the EU when even he (as chief manipulator) doubted it was in our best interest. When Laura K asked him why he and his (imbecile) front man told so many lies ie.Turkey were poised to join the EU he glibly replied that it wasn't his job to explain the small print.
It was chilling. Ruthless ambition by the puppet and puppet master meant no holes were barred. From an advertising perspective the technique was as simple as it was wretched as he couldn't resist explaining......
People with a slight prejudice had it aroused until it became a fear which as the campaign wore on became an all consuming fear. The reasons for choosing Turkey were as calculated as they were insidious
It was impossible to refute because Cameron in the past had said Turkey joining was 'a long term aspiration' and he didn't wish to offend the Turks by resiling from it. They also had an irresistable number of Muslims living there....
'if we remained in the EU 70 million Turks could be on our doorstep within a year and we could do nothing to stop them' became a virtual slogan..... Cummings in front of Lara K could hardly hide his gloat
No need to explain why this wouldn't have passed any advertising code known to man. Only the dimmest wouldn't know and they don't post here. But those now in power and those who put them there have shown how easily a country-even a reasonably civilised one-can be manipulated when there are no rules. And even questioning is severely restricted
The disappointing part is that in many ways it's the fault of the advertising industry. We've become accustomed to believing what advertisers tell us because they are obliged not only to tell the truth but to be able to substantiate all claims. There is no such thing as 'small print'
PS. I saw a 60's press ad for a Porsche 911 yesterday. Above a photo of the car were two lines
'Small Penis?
Have we got the car for you!'
Absolutely there needs to be a stop to the self-inflicted issues like the pingdemic. But it isn't a magic wand fix. Trouble is ahead.
Top top for you all - skip the supermarket and buy from your local convenience store. They need the business more than Tesco, they rode out the availability crisis last time far better than the supermarkets, and with loads of convenience only deals they aren't as expensive as you think.
But from anecdotes on here, the actual goods affected can vary. Presumably this follows from there being distribution problems, even where there are goods in warehouses, factories and farms.
Today ?
“Vaccine effectiveness against delta in UK been published in NEJM.
Looks like central estimate of AZ is up a bit since last known update of 60% shown in the FT.
This study shows 67% after two, more evidence improving with time? https://nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2108891 “
https://twitter.com/ThatRyanChap/status/1417964601640198145
Two-tier is just daft. This is the right way to go.
per Kwasi Kwarteng:
▪️ We had no idea what Brexit would do.
▪️ Remainers may have been right but they weren't sure, so how could we know.🤷🏿♂️
▪️ The deal we sold to voters as oven-ready was designed to be vomited back up.
@KwasiKwarteng you're a disgrace’
https://twitter.com/femi_sorry/status/1418118585126461443?s=21
Or is it more difficult to corral RL players?
That Femi Chap is a grade A bellend.
Have you signed up,to his patreon ? 😂👍😂😂
And nightclubs. That's it. That's the key to preventing the nation, the NHS, and everyone being overrun by Covid. Nightclubs. And, say, Glasto. Absurd.
2-tier, ie just unitary and town/parish
As I pointed out with the example of Bishop Auckland's destruction by the St Helens outdoor shopping centre which was voted against by the local councillors but approved by the full County Durham council (who not knowing Bishop Auckland didn't know the issues so went with the out of area planners rather than the locals).
At least @Cyclefree should be happy as the Cumbria plans are to separate the council in 2 (which makes sense and was what she hoped for).
There's a more subtle issue, touched on by DavidL. It appears that double vaccination mostly stops you dying from Covid, which despite Darkage's necrophilia is definitely a very good thing. We are getting to the point where double vaccination is the adult norm.
However, it doesn't stop you feeling horrible for weeks, and possibly having long-term effects that we've not yet fully understood. It is often (hoiw often? Are there stats?) very much worse than a typical bout of flu. In normal times, that would be a very serious epidemic, but we seem to be about to drop the ping requirement and let things rip. I do see why but we should be clear what we're doing. The result will be that most of us get the bug and a lot of us have serious and unpredictable consequences. But if we don't do it, then the supply chain issue and shortages of staff everywhere become a big problem.
Above all I'd like to see Ministers explaining the options in detail and why they've chosen one against another. We're being governed by apparently random decisions which get reversed without notice, and that's unhealthy for the situation. (It's not even healthy for the governing party, but that's a bit secondary at the moment.)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-57924885
I know all personality type category systems have their flaws, but I quite like the Keirsey one.
Plus they do neighbourhood plans now too.
Under unitary authorities parish and town councils will become more important as district councils and county councils are scrapped as the only layer of local government under unitaries in rural areas and market towns
Jobby wrangler is a term that I’ve seen applied.
Given their total ineptitude on vaccine procurement a great many.
Then again, on planning/development, plenty of times the Plan is overridden in favour of allowing development to go ahead.
There is so much noise in the daily data that it probably hasn't ever added much value to have it published daily, but maybe there's an element of being seen to be open and transparent which is worthwhile.
However in medium sized rural communities there are often a few highly qualified, albeit retired, people, who, if they don't feel up to the job themselves, still have contacts.
Is that a deliberate Boris neologism ?
And apparently we can prove that
Eight to ten
yearsmonths after coming homeAlmost eight-hundred-thousand men
Are still fighting the
VietnamBrexit WarYou won! Isn't this all you wanted? So why are you all still fighting a war that you won? Could it be for the same reasons why yesterday the government announced its intentions to substantially rewite the "oven-ready" deal as it doesn't work and they didn't understand it?
https://twitter.com/sportbible/status/1418125179255984128?s=20