The US is “at another pivotal moment in this pandemic” as rising Covid-19 cases show no signs of abating, driven by the Delta variant, and some hospitals are filling up, especially in areas with low vaccination rates, government officials warned on Thursday.
The US government did not change its guidance on mask wearing, despite debates going on in the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about whether those who have been vaccinated should once again be officially advised to wear masks indoors to prevent the spread.
Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said that the Delta variant of coronavirus “is now spreading with incredible efficiency” in the US and that, compared with the original coronavirus strain that broke out in the US in early 2020, this variant is “more aggressive”.
There is something very off with that figure (and the 44%) compared to the rest. The tweet gives a reason as because it was the most vulnerable, but all the other stuff looks pretty much in line with the PHE stats, so not so sure. Perhaps it is sample size issue.
If it was only 16% effective among the old and vulnerable, we would have mass outbreaks in care homes left, right and centre again by now.
And it is inconsistent with the US figure of 99% of recent deaths from COVID being amongst the unvaccinated. If it were that ineffective, the percentage of fully vaccinated dying would be much higher.
The number for US hospitalisations last week was 97-98% of them were unvaccinated, which given (a) Delta's prevalence, and (b) differing uptake of vaccines between the young and old, suggests that it is highly effective.
I suspect, as always, we're comparing apples and Boeing 747s. Efficiency at preventing any kind of detectable infection has never been the measure for vaccines. But in test-and-trace, it becomes so. Very mild - or even entirely asymptomatic cases - become evidence of vaccine escape. (See the story in the UK of the nursing home where double vaccinated patients caught South African Covid.)
Delta causes much higher levels of viral shedding. This means that initial doses are bigger, and means vaccines start when the body has a much higher level of infection.
And that sucks.
But it still means the body has a huge headstart. Not enough to prevent detectable infection (and sometimes hospitalisation and death), but enough to mean that cases are 19 times out of 20 dramatically less severe.
French presidential elections next year. The Times puts up Valérie Pécresse, 18/1 generally though 33/1 at Betway. I'm not risking hard cash on a candidate who is not even quoted in the "final two" markets. Fun fact: Betway sponsors West Ham.
The head of Paris’s regional council declared herself a presidential candidate yesterday, laying down a challenge to Xavier Bertrand, the frontrunner in the race for the conservative nomination at elections next April.
It'll be very interesting next year. There are half a dozen candidates who could make the final two, and while Le Pen and Macron have to be favorite to reach the run-off, it is far from certain. Ms Le Pen has also lost support on the right as she has relentlessly tacked centrist in the last three years.
I'm going out on a limb here in suggesting the Times (whose cartoon this is) has a high readership amongst Conservative MPs and members.
Interesting list of failings. Like Heath, Johnson is expendable.
No point in Labour MPs banging on about Boris the liar, plays to the gallery, and fails. When Tory voters decide that Boris is failing on competence, leadership et al he is finished.
That's pretty thin gruel. This Olympics will fail due to lack of spectators and athletes missing due to Covid. It also won't spark here because of the really inconvenient time zone. Or it may be regarded as a relative success given the aforementioned. Wokeness won't feature in the shakeout. Unless the government decides to go in spikes up on the GB team. But they may have learned their lesson.
i think success for this olympics will be based on athlete experience and the fact it has taken place. Yes it will be surreal and always was going to be inconvinient in terms of timings for the UK but most athletes there are young , doing it for the love of their sport , not highly paid for it if at all in some cases and will have trained since primary school for the chance. It is sometimes forgotton that we are talking about the ambition being realised by thousands of young hard working people . I feel sorry for them having all these restrictions and the uncertainty of not being able to compete if they or a contact tests positive. Really do
Ministers plan for new restrictions within weeks as Covid rates in young adults hit record level
All forms of modelling carried out by the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) point to a significant rise in hospitalisations from the end of summer, The Independent has been told. In the worst-case scenario, this could amount to 2,000 hospital admissions a day by mid-August.
That's pretty neat when I just googled the Olympics my phone asked if I wanted a Google shortcut on my home screen for the Olympics. Which I now have. Go Android.
And @MikeSmithson I am still using my Poco phone bought for £230 a couple of years ago. Yes the Chinese government knows my every move but it's a great cheap phone.
As Pingdemic shifts to Pingdemonium, is summer starting to slip away?
Grey and drizzle for the first big music festival of the summer, Latitude nr Southwold.
So normal service resumed by the English weather!
Don't forget all the papers showing pictures of nubile young women going there as another indicator.
I have been a few times. They have a particularly strong comedy and cabaret line up, as acts often use Latitude to warm up for the Edinburg fringe. It is a festival with a bit of a gentle Guardian readers family atmosphere. A good turnout of the East Anglian youngsters too, for that classic hotpants and wellies festival look.
I did think of going, but a lot of my colleagues are off on holiday, so am covering them.
Why are we not vaccinating teenagers to a serious degree for Covid? If the reason is that we think that it is wrong to do so for the benefit of adults then why do not we not vaccinate against chicken pox? I would like my young children to be jabbed against varicella but the NHS says not, for the benefit of adults according to their convuluted reasoning.
In that case it’s because the vaccine protects against chicken pox but not against the far more serious adult disease shingles (also caused by the varicella virus).
It’s better for a kid to get chickenpox and be immune to shingles naturally
So it’s for the benefit of *them as adults* not adults generally
You've got an ideal bet on this Mike between @rkrkrk and myself. Whoever loses gives £25 to the site. Glad to see you are on my side of the fence though.
As Pingdemic shifts to Pingdemonium, is summer starting to slip away?
Grey and drizzle for the first big music festival of the summer, Latitude nr Southwold.
So normal service resumed by the English weather!
Don't forget all the papers showing pictures of nubile young women going there as another indicator.
I have been a few times. They have a particularly strong comedy and cabaret line up, as acts often use Latitude to warm up for the Edinburg fringe. It is a festival with a bit of a gentle Guardian readers family atmosphere. A good turnout of the East Anglian youngsters too, for that classic hotpants and wellies festival look.
I did think of going, but a lot of my colleagues are off on holiday, so am covering them.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
The central section of the EWR is an interesting one for this. They want to reopen the line between Bedford and Cambridge - except it will be going nowhere near where the old line was. So it is a reopening of a capability, albeit on a new line.
It'll be interesting to see which way it goes; my own view is that the northern route is unsustainable - especially if it involves building a chord on the meadows in Cambridge. There's a whole host of other nimbys to fight right there. My fear is that the opposition will be so strong that the entire scheme gets dropped.
Yes, I agree the southern route is the best option available and if they went north there'd be a bunch of practical disadvantages and merely a different set of villagers who'd rather not be next to a railway line; it comes down to "can we actually bloody build anything in a reasonable timeframe, or will the planning and consultation process take forever and allow the people who it disadvantages (there will always be some) to knock it off course or delay it?". (My input to the consultation was along the lines of "put the line wherever you think best, but just get on with it, oh, and PS really it should have been electrified from the start"...)
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
As Pingdemic shifts to Pingdemonium, is summer starting to slip away?
Grey and drizzle for the first big music festival of the summer, Latitude nr Southwold.
So normal service resumed by the English weather!
Don't forget all the papers showing pictures of nubile young women going there as another indicator.
I have been a few times. They have a particularly strong comedy and cabaret line up, as acts often use Latitude to warm up for the Edinburg fringe. It is a festival with a bit of a gentle Guardian readers family atmosphere. A good turnout of the East Anglian youngsters too, for that classic hotpants and wellies festival look.
I did think of going, but a lot of my colleagues are off on holiday, so am covering them.
Isn't it Dave's favourite festival?
I think his is Cropredy in Oxfordshire, which is hosted by Fairport Convention and is more folky.
I'm going out on a limb here in suggesting the Times (whose cartoon this is) has a high readership amongst Conservative MPs and members.
Interesting list of failings. Like Heath, Johnson is expendable.
No point in Labour MPs banging on about Boris the liar, plays to the gallery, and fails. When Tory voters decide that Boris is failing on competence, leadership et al he is finished.
Good morning
Your last sentence is spot on
And no shortages obvious in Asda nor seen in our weekly delivery
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
Losing it (and evidently still smarting over having his claims trashed yesterday)
one of highest COVID rates in 🌍 - vaccinations slowing to crawl & not starting 💉 teenagers due to supply problems - truck driver shortage leading to empty supermarkets - Govt wants to tear up NI Protocol, 🇪🇺 rejects - MP expelled from Commons for telling truth about PM
Losing it (and evidently still smarting over having his claims trashed yesterday)
one of highest COVID rates in 🌍 - vaccinations slowing to crawl & not starting 💉 teenagers due to supply problems - truck driver shortage leading to empty supermarkets - Govt wants to tear up NI Protocol, 🇪🇺 rejects - MP expelled from Commons for telling truth about PM
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
But will Boris have made the right call… or may be he’s just been lucky… again
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
The key question is, do they meet any of this criteria?
Teenage mums and their stupid offspring who have lived among the Mole People since March 2016, don’t really know what cricket is but somehow like T20… but also don’t like cricket, have the attention spans of concussed goldfish and enjoy getting a rise out of others.
As Pingdemic shifts to Pingdemonium, is summer starting to slip away?
Grey and drizzle for the first big music festival of the summer, Latitude nr Southwold.
So normal service resumed by the English weather!
Don't forget all the papers showing pictures of nubile young women going there as another indicator.
I have been a few times. They have a particularly strong comedy and cabaret line up, as acts often use Latitude to warm up for the Edinburg fringe. It is a festival with a bit of a gentle Guardian readers family atmosphere. A good turnout of the East Anglian youngsters too, for that classic hotpants and wellies festival look.
I did think of going, but a lot of my colleagues are off on holiday, so am covering them.
Latte-tude as the performers affectionately call it.
Losing it (and evidently still smarting over having his claims trashed yesterday)
one of highest COVID rates in 🌍 - vaccinations slowing to crawl & not starting 💉 teenagers due to supply problems - truck driver shortage leading to empty supermarkets - Govt wants to tear up NI Protocol, 🇪🇺 rejects - MP expelled from Commons for telling truth about PM
A longer gap between first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine makes the body's immune system produce more infection-fighting antibodies, UK researchers have found.
Experts say the findings support the UK's decision on extending dosing intervals from the initial recommendation of three weeks. An eight-week gap seems to be the sweet spot for tackling the Delta variant.
- both short and long dosing intervals of the Pfizer vaccine generated strong immune responses overall
- a three-week schedule generated fewer of the neutralising antibodies that can bind the virus and stop it infecting cells than a 10-week interval
- while antibody levels dipped after the first dose, levels of T-cells - a different type of immune cell - remained high
- the longer schedule led to fewer T-cells overall but a higher proportion of a specific type or subset, called helper T-cells, which according to the researchers, supports immune memory
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
But will Boris have made the right call… or may be he’s just been lucky… again
The more lucky calls he makes, the worse it will be when he makes a bad one. As per last year, when he nearly died.
Unfortunately for us, his next fall might affect us all badly.
Could have very big implications for Israel and the US heading into winter. Loads of EU countries also stuck to the manufacturer recommendation of 3 weeks as well.
Hopefully everyone who wants a booster dose will be able to get one.
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
But will Boris have made the right call… or may be he’s just been lucky… again
If the 19th does prove to be within a day or so of the peak I would suggest that the extension of freedom day by 4 weeks was driven by some rather more sophisticated modelling than is normally shared with us. The date in August for switching off the pings is hopefully similarly based. Not quite luck.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
Close to Bristol Airport, Greens trying to stop increase in flights. No Lib Dem Candidate.
Daftest airport ever, with the possible exception of Cardiff. Virtually inaccessible and not well laid out when you get there.
Really, the smart move would be to open a new airport in South Monmouthshire near Severn Tunnel Junction and have it replace both of them.
But it will never happen. Too much regional pride at stake.
Every decade or so the Terry Matthews Estuary Airport rears its head.
As someone who lives 15 minutes from Rhoose, yet finds myself having to (now) almost exclusively use South Bristol's useless airport, including yesterday, it would be a compromise I could more than live with.
Close to Bristol Airport, Greens trying to stop increase in flights. No Lib Dem Candidate.
Daftest airport ever, with the possible exception of Cardiff. Virtually inaccessible and not well laid out when you get there.
Really, the smart move would be to open a new airport in South Monmouthshire near Severn Tunnel Junction and have it replace both of them.
But it will never happen. Too much regional pride at stake.
I have to agree. I’m not that far as the crow flies to Bristol airport, but it’s about same in travelling time to go via Heathrow. I either have to go via bath and Bristol or through tiny villages, with even tinier roads. Southampton is a much more pleasant choice when available.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
Not the target audience then tbf, 9f the ECB had hosted a new jazzed up T20 tournament in the mold of IPL style franchises it would have been the same effect. T20 is just 20 more balls per innings, that's like another 10-15 mins, not something that should warrant ripping up the rule book over.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
What one that was cancelled? Do you mean last year?
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
So not remotely the target audience then, and contributes nothing to “bringing new people into cricket”
The central section of the EWR is an interesting one for this. They want to reopen the line between Bedford and Cambridge - except it will be going nowhere near where the old line was. So it is a reopening of a capability, albeit on a new line.
It'll be interesting to see which way it goes; my own view is that the northern route is unsustainable - especially if it involves building a chord on the meadows in Cambridge. There's a whole host of other nimbys to fight right there. My fear is that the opposition will be so strong that the entire scheme gets dropped.
Yes, I agree the southern route is the best option available and if they went north there'd be a bunch of practical disadvantages and merely a different set of villagers who'd rather not be next to a railway line; it comes down to "can we actually bloody build anything in a reasonable timeframe, or will the planning and consultation process take forever and allow the people who it disadvantages (there will always be some) to knock it off course or delay it?". (My input to the consultation was along the lines of "put the line wherever you think best, but just get on with it, oh, and PS really it should have been electrified from the start"...)
This morning's run involved going from Barrington over towards Haslingfield, and the campaigners have painted lines on the road showing where the cutting may go, along with boards to show the cutting slope. I saw another in Haslingfield on the drive back.
The 'southerners' have a very efficient and organised campaign. As far as I can see, the 'northerners' are nowhere near as organised. I'd love to know who's behind CamsBedRailRoad.
And yes, it should have been electrified from the start.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
Not the target audience then tbf, 9f the ECB had hosted a new jazzed up T20 tournament in the mold of IPL style franchises it would have been the same effect. T20 is just 20 more balls per innings, that's like another 10-15 mins, not something that should warrant ripping up the rule book over.
Overs are just so last century though - like hands for measuring height or indeed feet. Get with the yoof and get metric -its all about hundreds and time outs yeah!
Nicola Sturgeon adviser warns covid restrictions may return in weeks
… [Professor Devi] Sridhar, who advises the Scottish Government on covid policy, has suggested England may be forced to reimpose the use of face coverings and close down "risky" environments like nightclubs.
The central section of the EWR is an interesting one for this. They want to reopen the line between Bedford and Cambridge - except it will be going nowhere near where the old line was. So it is a reopening of a capability, albeit on a new line.
It'll be interesting to see which way it goes; my own view is that the northern route is unsustainable - especially if it involves building a chord on the meadows in Cambridge. There's a whole host of other nimbys to fight right there. My fear is that the opposition will be so strong that the entire scheme gets dropped.
Yes, I agree the southern route is the best option available and if they went north there'd be a bunch of practical disadvantages and merely a different set of villagers who'd rather not be next to a railway line; it comes down to "can we actually bloody build anything in a reasonable timeframe, or will the planning and consultation process take forever and allow the people who it disadvantages (there will always be some) to knock it off course or delay it?". (My input to the consultation was along the lines of "put the line wherever you think best, but just get on with it, oh, and PS really it should have been electrified from the start"...)
This morning's run involved going from Barrington over towards Haslingfield, and the campaigners have painted lines on the road showing where the cutting may go, along with boards to show the cutting slope. I saw another in Haslingfield on the drive back.
The 'southerners' have a very efficient and organised campaign. As far as I can see, the 'northerners' are nowhere near as organised. I'd love to know who's behind CamsBedRailRoad.
And yes, it should have been electrified from the start.
we are absolutely shite at doing electrified railways in this country. Heck, they even cut the electrification of the GWML and the MML back to Cardiff and Kettering (later Market Harborough) respectively whereas any fool could see both schemes were pretty well worthless, even counterproductive, if not carried through to Swansea and at the very least Derby and arguably all the way to Sheffield respectively.
And as for the failure to electrify the reopened stretches of the Waverley route, don’t get me started.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
Not the target audience then tbf, 9f the ECB had hosted a new jazzed up T20 tournament in the mold of IPL style franchises it would have been the same effect. T20 is just 20 more balls per innings, that's like another 10-15 mins, not something that should warrant ripping up the rule book over.
Hey don't shoot me. I know less about cricket than @ydoethur knows about politics.
I saw my neices and nephew over the weekend with some of their friends and they were raving about it.
They are either at or have just finished uni and my nephew in particular is/was a very good school and uni cricketer.
Not a very diverse group, that said, unless you count one of them not having gone to Eton as being diverse (he went to Radley according to his hoodie).
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
Not the target audience then tbf, 9f the ECB had hosted a new jazzed up T20 tournament in the mold of IPL style franchises it would have been the same effect. T20 is just 20 more balls per innings, that's like another 10-15 mins, not something that should warrant ripping up the rule book over.
I think the point is that the new format made the foundation of the IPL style franchises possible.
personally it would have been better to have stuck with T20 and avoided the pointless gizmos.
Lots of negativity to the hundred on here, but off to a decent start in both games imo. Yes a lot of the rule changes are a bit gimmicky but its allowed the tournament to:
be taken away from the counties conservative and self interested control have fewer teams and therefore higher quality players per team give equality to the womens game get back on terrestrial tv
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
But will Boris have made the right call… or may be he’s just been lucky… again
If the 19th does prove to be within a day or so of the peak I would suggest that the extension of freedom day by 4 weeks was driven by some rather more sophisticated modelling than is normally shared with us. The date in August for switching off the pings is hopefully similarly based. Not quite luck.
‘Rather more sophisticated modelling’ is an unusual way of saying ‘Johnson threw a dart at a calendar.’
I am hoping it turns out to be as inspired as his gamble over schools in March, which I thought would be a disaster but did work, after a fashion, albeit at a formidable cost due to mask wearing requirements.
It may not of course. That said, the fact that Pagel and Sridhar think it’s a bad idea gives grounds for optimism.
The central section of the EWR is an interesting one for this. They want to reopen the line between Bedford and Cambridge - except it will be going nowhere near where the old line was. So it is a reopening of a capability, albeit on a new line.
It'll be interesting to see which way it goes; my own view is that the northern route is unsustainable - especially if it involves building a chord on the meadows in Cambridge. There's a whole host of other nimbys to fight right there. My fear is that the opposition will be so strong that the entire scheme gets dropped.
Yes, I agree the southern route is the best option available and if they went north there'd be a bunch of practical disadvantages and merely a different set of villagers who'd rather not be next to a railway line; it comes down to "can we actually bloody build anything in a reasonable timeframe, or will the planning and consultation process take forever and allow the people who it disadvantages (there will always be some) to knock it off course or delay it?". (My input to the consultation was along the lines of "put the line wherever you think best, but just get on with it, oh, and PS really it should have been electrified from the start"...)
This morning's run involved going from Barrington over towards Haslingfield, and the campaigners have painted lines on the road showing where the cutting may go, along with boards to show the cutting slope. I saw another in Haslingfield on the drive back.
The 'southerners' have a very efficient and organised campaign. As far as I can see, the 'northerners' are nowhere near as organised. I'd love to know who's behind CamsBedRailRoad.
And yes, it should have been electrified from the start.
we are absolutely shite at doing electrified railways in this country. Heck, they even cut the electrification of the GWML and the MML back to Cardiff and Kettering (later Market Harborough) respectively whereas any fool could see both schemes were pretty well worthless, even counterproductive, if not carried through to Swansea and at the very least Derby and arguably all the way to Sheffield respectively.
And as for the failure to electrify the reopened stretches of the Waverley route, don’t get me started.
IMV the GWML will soon be extended to Swansea, and the MML through to Sheffield. The problem is that the GWML electrification was such a chaotic bodge-job that costs went through the roof.
Incidentally, AIUI a big issue with the MML electrification is a bridge immediately to the south of Leicester station. From memory, it is too low, and it cannot be raised because the station building is on the bridge as well as a main road, and it is hard to lower the tracks as the platforms are immediately beyond. The obvious choice is to have a unpowered section of the OLE, but that's awkward right by a station stop, when trains might not be able to coast through the unpowered section.
Could have very big implications for Israel and the US heading into winter. Loads of EU countries also stuck to the manufacturer recommendation of 3 weeks as well.
Hopefully everyone who wants a booster dose will be able to get one.
To be fair to Pfizer, they never said that was the optimal period - it was just the one they had data for
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
But will Boris have made the right call… or may be he’s just been lucky… again
If the 19th does prove to be within a day or so of the peak I would suggest that the extension of freedom day by 4 weeks was driven by some rather more sophisticated modelling than is normally shared with us. The date in August for switching off the pings is hopefully similarly based. Not quite luck.
‘Rather more sophisticated modelling’ is an unusual way of saying ‘Johnson threw a dart at a calendar.’
I am hoping it turns out to be as inspired as his gamble over schools in March, which I thought would be a disaster but did work, after a fashion, albeit at a formidable cost due to mask wearing requirements.
It may not of course. That said, the fact that Pagel and Sridhar think it’s a bad idea gives grounds for optimism.
I don't think a dart was thrown at the calendar for 19 July.
The "sophisticated modelling" is surely looking at the calendar and realising when schools break up for summer and realising two things - kids not being at school will slow spread, and people are going to be much less likely to appreciate or respect restrictions during the holidays anyway so may as well scrap them then.
Lots of negativity to the hundred on here, but off to a decent start in both games imo. Yes a lot of the rule changes are a bit gimmicky but its allowed the tournament to:
be taken away from the counties conservative and self interested control have fewer teams and therefore higher quality players per team give equality to the womens game get back on terrestrial tv
The counties? You mean, the people who develop players and own the games, and devised things like T20, time outs, free hits...
Higher quality players per team - you must be having a laugh. Some of the best white ball players in the land weren’t even hired at first.
Equality to the women’s game - which had been lost because the ECB a cancelled the successful KSL for no very obvious reason three years ago.
Get back on terrestrial TV - when the BBC had originally signed up to a T20 tournament.
The Hundred may be a success, I don’t know yet, but there hasn’t yet been a convincing argument put forward for it that doesn’t ultimately come back to ‘the ECB are a load of prejudiced small minded fuckwits who have screwed up and are desperately trying to solve the problems their incompetence and greed have created.’
Close to Bristol Airport, Greens trying to stop increase in flights. No Lib Dem Candidate.
Daftest airport ever, with the possible exception of Cardiff. Virtually inaccessible and not well laid out when you get there.
Really, the smart move would be to open a new airport in South Monmouthshire near Severn Tunnel Junction and have it replace both of them.
But it will never happen. Too much regional pride at stake.
They even had a perfectly serviceable airport, four miles from the city and next to the motorway, that they could have used instead. But they decided to build houses on it instead.
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
But will Boris have made the right call… or may be he’s just been lucky… again
If the 19th does prove to be within a day or so of the peak I would suggest that the extension of freedom day by 4 weeks was driven by some rather more sophisticated modelling than is normally shared with us. The date in August for switching off the pings is hopefully similarly based. Not quite luck.
That was my point.
And yet @OldKingCole immediately jumped in to confirm that when he’s wrong it’s his fault and when he’s right he’s merely lucky
Nicola Sturgeon adviser warns covid restrictions may return in weeks
… [Professor Devi] Sridhar, who advises the Scottish Government on covid policy, has suggested England may be forced to reimpose the use of face coverings and close down "risky" environments like nightclubs.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
Not the target audience then tbf, 9f the ECB had hosted a new jazzed up T20 tournament in the mold of IPL style franchises it would have been the same effect. T20 is just 20 more balls per innings, that's like another 10-15 mins, not something that should warrant ripping up the rule book over.
I think the point is that the new format made the foundation of the IPL style franchises possible.
personally it would have been better to have stuck with T20 and avoided the pointless gizmos.
Why not just found IPL style franchises using IPL style rules? Ie T20?
My biggest issue with The Hundred is that we're not going to end up with international Hundred competitions and a Hundred World Cup etc since we already having IT20s and an IT20 World Cup already and they're effectively the same thing. So we should surely have our player playing the real thing and not a dumbed down 83.33% version of the real thing.
Could have very big implications for Israel and the US heading into winter. Loads of EU countries also stuck to the manufacturer recommendation of 3 weeks as well.
Hopefully everyone who wants a booster dose will be able to get one.
To be fair to Pfizer, they never said that was the optimal period - it was just the one they had data for
and in further fairness to Pfizer - that was because the trials had to be completed at extreme pace.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
Not the target audience then tbf, 9f the ECB had hosted a new jazzed up T20 tournament in the mold of IPL style franchises it would have been the same effect. T20 is just 20 more balls per innings, that's like another 10-15 mins, not something that should warrant ripping up the rule book over.
I think the point is that the new format made the foundation of the IPL style franchises possible.
personally it would have been better to have stuck with T20 and avoided the pointless gizmos.
Why not just found IPL style franchises using IPL style rules? Ie T20?
My biggest issue with The Hundred is that we're not going to end up with international Hundred competitions and a Hundred World Cup etc since we already having IT20s and an IT20 World Cup already and they're effectively the same thing. So we should surely have our player playing the real thing and not a dumbed down 83.33% version of the real thing.
I think my even bigger issue is that it has driven a coach and horses through the T20, 50 over and four day competitions. It has taken large numbers of players, coaches and support staff, leaving for some counties essentially 2nd XI sides competing for the format we are currently world champions in.
Plus, no championship cricket for the whole of August just when the wickets are hot and dry and might be turning. Then we will wonder why batsmen of the future can’t play spin, and we have no attacking spin bowlers.
Lots of negativity to the hundred on here, but off to a decent start in both games imo. Yes a lot of the rule changes are a bit gimmicky but its allowed the tournament to:
be taken away from the counties conservative and self interested control have fewer teams and therefore higher quality players per team give equality to the womens game get back on terrestrial tv
The counties? You mean, the people who develop players and own the games, and devised things like T20, time outs, free hits...
Higher quality players per team - you must be having a laugh. Some of the best white ball players in the land weren’t even hired at first.
Equality to the women’s game - which had been lost because the ECB a cancelled the successful KSL for no very obvious reason three years ago.
Get back on terrestrial TV - when the BBC had originally signed up to a T20 tournament.
The Hundred may be a success, I don’t know yet, but there hasn’t yet been a convincing argument put forward for it that doesn’t ultimately come back to ‘the ECB are a load of prejudiced small minded fuckwits who have screwed up and are desperately trying to solve the problems their incompetence and greed have created.’
How often does a county game have 15 internationals as we saw last night? Was the tournament BBC signed up to not an eight team franchise as well? No previous womens tournament is getting the coverage or male cricket star involvement that the hundred is giving them. And yes I mean the counties, that does not mean the ECB has got things right in the past, but 18 competing clubs run by members committee is not a good platform for a new tournament.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
Not the target audience then tbf, 9f the ECB had hosted a new jazzed up T20 tournament in the mold of IPL style franchises it would have been the same effect. T20 is just 20 more balls per innings, that's like another 10-15 mins, not something that should warrant ripping up the rule book over.
I think the point is that the new format made the foundation of the IPL style franchises possible.
personally it would have been better to have stuck with T20 and avoided the pointless gizmos.
Why not just found IPL style franchises using IPL style rules? Ie T20?
My biggest issue with The Hundred is that we're not going to end up with international Hundred competitions and a Hundred World Cup etc since we already having IT20s and an IT20 World Cup already and they're effectively the same thing. So we should surely have our player playing the real thing and not a dumbed down 83.33% version of the real thing.
I think my even bigger issue is that it has driven a coach and horses through the T20, 50 over and four day competitions. It has taken large numbers of players, coaches and support staff, leaving for some counties essentially 2nd XI sides competing for the format we are currently world champions in.
Plus, no championship cricket for the whole of August just when the wickets are hot and dry and might be turning. Then we will wonder why batsmen of the future can’t play spin, and we have no attacking spin bowlers.
Precisely. The fact we're currently world champions in the T20 format really does emphasise how silly it is to abandon the internationally recognised format we're champions in for an 83.33% version of it.
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
But will Boris have made the right call… or may be he’s just been lucky… again
If the 19th does prove to be within a day or so of the peak I would suggest that the extension of freedom day by 4 weeks was driven by some rather more sophisticated modelling than is normally shared with us. The date in August for switching off the pings is hopefully similarly based. Not quite luck.
That was my point.
And yet @OldKingCole immediately jumped in to confirm that when he’s wrong it’s his fault and when he’s right he’s merely lucky
I think you are getting ahead of yourselves chaps.
Lots of negativity to the hundred on here, but off to a decent start in both games imo. Yes a lot of the rule changes are a bit gimmicky but its allowed the tournament to:
be taken away from the counties conservative and self interested control have fewer teams and therefore higher quality players per team give equality to the womens game get back on terrestrial tv
The counties? You mean, the people who develop players and own the games, and devised things like T20, time outs, free hits...
Higher quality players per team - you must be having a laugh. Some of the best white ball players in the land weren’t even hired at first.
Equality to the women’s game - which had been lost because the ECB a cancelled the successful KSL for no very obvious reason three years ago.
Get back on terrestrial TV - when the BBC had originally signed up to a T20 tournament.
The Hundred may be a success, I don’t know yet, but there hasn’t yet been a convincing argument put forward for it that doesn’t ultimately come back to ‘the ECB are a load of prejudiced small minded fuckwits who have screwed up and are desperately trying to solve the problems their incompetence and greed have created.’
How often does a county game have 15 internationals as we saw last night? Was the tournament BBC signed up to not an eight team franchise as well? No previous womens tournament is getting the coverage or male cricket star involvement that the hundred is giving them. And yes I mean the counties, that does not mean the ECB has got things right in the past, but 18 competing clubs run by members committee is not a good platform for a new tournament.
If you wanted a club instead of counties competition then what's what's wrong with having a club T20 competition?
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
Not the target audience then tbf, 9f the ECB had hosted a new jazzed up T20 tournament in the mold of IPL style franchises it would have been the same effect. T20 is just 20 more balls per innings, that's like another 10-15 mins, not something that should warrant ripping up the rule book over.
I think the point is that the new format made the foundation of the IPL style franchises possible.
personally it would have been better to have stuck with T20 and avoided the pointless gizmos.
Why not just found IPL style franchises using IPL style rules? Ie T20?
My biggest issue with The Hundred is that we're not going to end up with international Hundred competitions and a Hundred World Cup etc since we already having IT20s and an IT20 World Cup already and they're effectively the same thing. So we should surely have our player playing the real thing and not a dumbed down 83.33% version of the real thing.
I suspect the sole reason for the Hundred is because they couldn't see anyway to get a franchise T20 system working in this country.
Heck the hundred could be a trojan horse to get the franchises in place ready for a switch to a T20 format in a couple of years time.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
Not the target audience then tbf, 9f the ECB had hosted a new jazzed up T20 tournament in the mold of IPL style franchises it would have been the same effect. T20 is just 20 more balls per innings, that's like another 10-15 mins, not something that should warrant ripping up the rule book over.
I think the point is that the new format made the foundation of the IPL style franchises possible.
personally it would have been better to have stuck with T20 and avoided the pointless gizmos.
Why not just found IPL style franchises using IPL style rules? Ie T20?
My biggest issue with The Hundred is that we're not going to end up with international Hundred competitions and a Hundred World Cup etc since we already having IT20s and an IT20 World Cup already and they're effectively the same thing. So we should surely have our player playing the real thing and not a dumbed down 83.33% version of the real thing.
I suspect the sole reason for the Hundred is because they couldn't see anyway to get a franchise T20 system working in this country.
Heck the hundred could be a trojan horse to get the franchises in place ready for a switch to a T20 format in a couple of years time.
I'd have more respect for it if that did happen. I have no specific love for the counties format.
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
But will Boris have made the right call… or may be he’s just been lucky… again
If the 19th does prove to be within a day or so of the peak I would suggest that the extension of freedom day by 4 weeks was driven by some rather more sophisticated modelling than is normally shared with us. The date in August for switching off the pings is hopefully similarly based. Not quite luck.
That was my point.
And yet @OldKingCole immediately jumped in to confirm that when he’s wrong it’s his fault and when he’s right he’s merely lucky
I really don't see how you can make that deduction from my post.
Unless you're a) motivated by malice b) have a misplaced sense of humour c) are simply trying to provoke.
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
But will Boris have made the right call… or may be he’s just been lucky… again
If the 19th does prove to be within a day or so of the peak I would suggest that the extension of freedom day by 4 weeks was driven by some rather more sophisticated modelling than is normally shared with us. The date in August for switching off the pings is hopefully similarly based. Not quite luck.
That was my point.
And yet @OldKingCole immediately jumped in to confirm that when he’s wrong it’s his fault and when he’s right he’s merely lucky
I think you are getting ahead of yourselves chaps.
Not at all. If it’s the wrong call then it could be poor judgement, faulty data or bad luck.
I was just observing that haters have to hate and it impacts the quality of political discourse and judgement
Lots of negativity to the hundred on here, but off to a decent start in both games imo. Yes a lot of the rule changes are a bit gimmicky but its allowed the tournament to:
be taken away from the counties conservative and self interested control have fewer teams and therefore higher quality players per team give equality to the womens game get back on terrestrial tv
The counties? You mean, the people who develop players and own the games, and devised things like T20, time outs, free hits...
Higher quality players per team - you must be having a laugh. Some of the best white ball players in the land weren’t even hired at first.
Equality to the women’s game - which had been lost because the ECB a cancelled the successful KSL for no very obvious reason three years ago.
Get back on terrestrial TV - when the BBC had originally signed up to a T20 tournament.
The Hundred may be a success, I don’t know yet, but there hasn’t yet been a convincing argument put forward for it that doesn’t ultimately come back to ‘the ECB are a load of prejudiced small minded fuckwits who have screwed up and are desperately trying to solve the problems their incompetence and greed have created.’
How often does a county game have 15 internationals as we saw last night? Was the tournament BBC signed up to not an eight team franchise as well? No previous womens tournament is getting the coverage or male cricket star involvement that the hundred is giving them. And yes I mean the counties, that does not mean the ECB has got things right in the past, but 18 competing clubs run by members committee is not a good platform for a new tournament.
If you wanted a club instead of counties competition then what's what's wrong with having a club T20 competition?
I think politically it would have been a harder sell to the counties.
Could have very big implications for Israel and the US heading into winter. Loads of EU countries also stuck to the manufacturer recommendation of 3 weeks as well.
Hopefully everyone who wants a booster dose will be able to get one.
To be fair to Pfizer, they never said that was the optimal period - it was just the one they had data for
The thing is, though, that we in the UK now have vastly more data than Pfizer had from the trials. So it seems rather odd keeping the advice unchanged. Of course I realise that the UK data isn't from a formal double-blind trial, but the world doesn't have the luxury of waiting for more formal trials.
Lots of negativity to the hundred on here, but off to a decent start in both games imo. Yes a lot of the rule changes are a bit gimmicky but its allowed the tournament to:
be taken away from the counties conservative and self interested control have fewer teams and therefore higher quality players per team give equality to the womens game get back on terrestrial tv
The counties? You mean, the people who develop players and own the games, and devised things like T20, time outs, free hits...
Higher quality players per team - you must be having a laugh. Some of the best white ball players in the land weren’t even hired at first.
Equality to the women’s game - which had been lost because the ECB a cancelled the successful KSL for no very obvious reason three years ago.
Get back on terrestrial TV - when the BBC had originally signed up to a T20 tournament.
The Hundred may be a success, I don’t know yet, but there hasn’t yet been a convincing argument put forward for it that doesn’t ultimately come back to ‘the ECB are a load of prejudiced small minded fuckwits who have screwed up and are desperately trying to solve the problems their incompetence and greed have created.’
How often does a county game have 15 internationals as we saw last night? Was the tournament BBC signed up to not an eight team franchise as well? No previous womens tournament is getting the coverage or male cricket star involvement that the hundred is giving them. And yes I mean the counties, that does not mean the ECB has got things right in the past, but 18 competing clubs run by members committee is not a good platform for a new tournament.
With regard to the women’s game, the ECB never tried to sell the broadcasting rights to the KSL to a terrestrial broadcaster. They were too anxious to keep Sky on board.
On the BBC point, yes, because that’s what they were being offered. The ECB are clinging on to the rights to other matches, albeit many of them are now streamed live, for free, on YouTube.
As for the counties, do you not feel that an organisation that innovated T20 cricket and all the ‘razzmatazz’ that goes with it - music, hype etc, plus numerous rule changes - is perhaps not terribly conservative? I know the ECB say they are but that’s because it suits their agenda to marginalise and then reduce the county structure. And they’re not willing to admit any facts that show they’re talking bullshit.
Lots of negativity to the hundred on here, but off to a decent start in both games imo. Yes a lot of the rule changes are a bit gimmicky but its allowed the tournament to:
be taken away from the counties conservative and self interested control have fewer teams and therefore higher quality players per team give equality to the womens game get back on terrestrial tv
The counties? You mean, the people who develop players and own the games, and devised things like T20, time outs, free hits...
Higher quality players per team - you must be having a laugh. Some of the best white ball players in the land weren’t even hired at first.
Equality to the women’s game - which had been lost because the ECB a cancelled the successful KSL for no very obvious reason three years ago.
Get back on terrestrial TV - when the BBC had originally signed up to a T20 tournament.
The Hundred may be a success, I don’t know yet, but there hasn’t yet been a convincing argument put forward for it that doesn’t ultimately come back to ‘the ECB are a load of prejudiced small minded fuckwits who have screwed up and are desperately trying to solve the problems their incompetence and greed have created.’
How often does a county game have 15 internationals as we saw last night? Was the tournament BBC signed up to not an eight team franchise as well? No previous womens tournament is getting the coverage or male cricket star involvement that the hundred is giving them. And yes I mean the counties, that does not mean the ECB has got things right in the past, but 18 competing clubs run by members committee is not a good platform for a new tournament.
If you wanted a club instead of counties competition then what's what's wrong with having a club T20 competition?
I think politically it would have been a harder sell to the counties.
I am sure the ECB’s tactics of bribing them with £1.3 million each of their own money and threatening to remove all international cricket plus any development endowments if they voted against would have worked for that if the ECB had made their decision that way.
Anyone else watch the mens Hundred cricket last night? Apart from playing silly whatsits with the overs, the time-outs (which are apparently for the benefit of advertisers) and the dreadful graphics, I don't see any difference from t20. Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
Absolutely you are not. As I said here last night it's not for you. A random group of youngsters polled by me over the weekend said it was fantastic.
Before the first match was played?!
They had been really looking forward to the one that was cancelled.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
You probably answered this before and I missed it, but which particular “Hundred” features (as opposed to T20) were they attracted to?
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
They are all mad keen cricketers played for school and uni teams.
Not the target audience then tbf, 9f the ECB had hosted a new jazzed up T20 tournament in the mold of IPL style franchises it would have been the same effect. T20 is just 20 more balls per innings, that's like another 10-15 mins, not something that should warrant ripping up the rule book over.
I think the point is that the new format made the foundation of the IPL style franchises possible.
personally it would have been better to have stuck with T20 and avoided the pointless gizmos.
Why not just found IPL style franchises using IPL style rules? Ie T20?
My biggest issue with The Hundred is that we're not going to end up with international Hundred competitions and a Hundred World Cup etc since we already having IT20s and an IT20 World Cup already and they're effectively the same thing. So we should surely have our player playing the real thing and not a dumbed down 83.33% version of the real thing.
I suspect the sole reason for the Hundred is because they couldn't see anyway to get a franchise T20 system working in this country.
Heck the hundred could be a trojan horse to get the franchises in place ready for a switch to a T20 format in a couple of years time.
I'd have more respect for it if that did happen. I have no specific love for the counties format.
The counties format does provide a basis for talent spotting. Essex have people keeping an eye out for potential players in Cambridgeshire, Herts and Suffolk, as well as Essex. And Somerset recruit from Cornwall and Devon. There are also local loyalties.
One thing I did like was the opportunity to watch the women's game on TV. It's certainly developing, although I'm not sure that the differences ...... ball weight, size of boundaries .........can and will last much longer.
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
But will Boris have made the right call… or may be he’s just been lucky… again
If the 19th does prove to be within a day or so of the peak I would suggest that the extension of freedom day by 4 weeks was driven by some rather more sophisticated modelling than is normally shared with us. The date in August for switching off the pings is hopefully similarly based. Not quite luck.
The decision to postpone freedom day was informed by published models including one from Warwick University that suggested hospital admissions would peak at around 2000 per day if you delayed against around 4000 per day if you didn't. Which is a kind of no-brainer.
PB epidemiologists opposed to the delay were outraged, saying the models were ludicrous and insisted the scientists be called to account, maybe jailed, for their irresponsibility and their agenda-driven modelling.
In fact the Warwick Model was out, more on timeframe than scale. The value with such models is in the A/B outcomes rather than coming up with actual predictions - if you do A what do you get?; if do B what do you get? What's the difference?
It seems the government has set up a complicated and bureaucratic exemption scheme for what is only guidance, and that they expect to last for all of 3 weeks. At least that is how it is being reported and the government are doing nothing to stop it.
Why should employers fill in lengthy forms when the app pings are simply guidance? Why are they not making clear this should be for NHS Test and Trace only?
The lack of clarity on pingdemic will continue to be big news over the weekend unless something major happens elsewhere. They really are completely incompetent.
Of course if we have indeed seen the peak for new cases already the chances of new restrictions will be much reduced. Still a little early to call but my prediction of the 19th being the peak seems quite close at the moment. What the country needs is to see that there is a way out of this and that things are going to get better reasonably quickly. My guess, FWIW, is that if that indeed happens Boris may get something of a boost.
But will Boris have made the right call… or may be he’s just been lucky… again
If the 19th does prove to be within a day or so of the peak I would suggest that the extension of freedom day by 4 weeks was driven by some rather more sophisticated modelling than is normally shared with us. The date in August for switching off the pings is hopefully similarly based. Not quite luck.
The decision to postpone freedom day was informed by published models including one from Warwick University that suggested hospital admissions would peak at around 2000 per day if you delayed against around 4000 per day if you didn't. Which is a kind of no-brainer.
PB epidemiologists opposed to the delay were outraged, saying the models were ludicrous and insisted the scientists be called to account, maybe jailed, for their irresponsibility and their agenda-driven modelling.
In fact the Warwick Model was out, more on timeframe than scale. The value with such models is in the A/B outcomes rather than coming up with actual predictions - if you do A what do you get?; if do B what do you get? What's the difference?
How do we know the Warwick model was only out on timeframe? And “being out in timeframe” is rather important if criticising decisions based on, er, timescales.
Good morning all. I've got a day off today and am having a trip out to Buxton. As you do.
Anyway, passing Aldi, around 90% of shoppers wearing masks. On the train, which is very quiet, around 50%. I covered up before boarding, but as I have a table of 4 to myself I took it off again. Let's see what the rest of the day brings...
"the only mission ministers seem clear about is that of rewriting the Northern Ireland Protocol that little more than a year ago they all signed up to. When all around you is falling apart, the EU bogeyman makes a useful diversion."
Losing it (and evidently still smarting over having his claims trashed yesterday)
one of highest COVID rates in 🌍 - vaccinations slowing to crawl & not starting 💉 teenagers due to supply problems - truck driver shortage leading to empty supermarkets - Govt wants to tear up NI Protocol, 🇪🇺 rejects - MP expelled from Commons for telling truth about PM
Lots of negativity to the hundred on here, but off to a decent start in both games imo. Yes a lot of the rule changes are a bit gimmicky but its allowed the tournament to:
be taken away from the counties conservative and self interested control have fewer teams and therefore higher quality players per team give equality to the womens game get back on terrestrial tv
The counties? You mean, the people who develop players and own the games, and devised things like T20, time outs, free hits...
Higher quality players per team - you must be having a laugh. Some of the best white ball players in the land weren’t even hired at first.
Equality to the women’s game - which had been lost because the ECB a cancelled the successful KSL for no very obvious reason three years ago.
Get back on terrestrial TV - when the BBC had originally signed up to a T20 tournament.
The Hundred may be a success, I don’t know yet, but there hasn’t yet been a convincing argument put forward for it that doesn’t ultimately come back to ‘the ECB are a load of prejudiced small minded fuckwits who have screwed up and are desperately trying to solve the problems their incompetence and greed have created.’
How often does a county game have 15 internationals as we saw last night? Was the tournament BBC signed up to not an eight team franchise as well? No previous womens tournament is getting the coverage or male cricket star involvement that the hundred is giving them. And yes I mean the counties, that does not mean the ECB has got things right in the past, but 18 competing clubs run by members committee is not a good platform for a new tournament.
With regard to the women’s game, the ECB never tried to sell the broadcasting rights to the KSL to a terrestrial broadcaster. They were too anxious to keep Sky on board.
On the BBC point, yes, because that’s what they were being offered. The ECB are clinging on to the rights to other matches, albeit many of them are now streamed live, for free, on YouTube.
As for the counties, do you not feel that an organisation that innovated T20 cricket and all the ‘razzmatazz’ that goes with it - music, hype etc, plus numerous rule changes - is perhaps not terribly conservative? I know the ECB say they are but that’s because it suits their agenda to marginalise and then reduce the county structure. And they’re not willing to admit any facts that show they’re talking bullshit.
Surely during the nadir of the 90's almost every county player played exactly once for England? Didn't we use over 40 players in one test series once?
It seems the government has set up a complicated and bureaucratic exemption scheme for what is only guidance, and that they expect to last for all of 3 weeks. At least that is how it is being reported and the government are doing nothing to stop it.
Why should employers fill in lengthy forms when the app pings are simply guidance? Why are they not making clear this should be for NHS Test and Trace only?
The lack of clarity on pingdemic will continue to be big news over the weekend unless something major happens elsewhere. They really are completely incompetent.
Have we found out why earth they are determined to wait until mid August to lift pingdemic? If we have, then I have missed it. Seems completely arbitrary date.
LBA is the silliest major airport in the country. Why put an airfield 700’ up, on top of a hill, with a prevailing crosswind and plenty of fog?
Crab Air have done LIFT/AJT at RAF Valley since 1950 and that gets blacked out with weather for weeks on end in the winter. One winter we had to take the entire course to Akrotiri in order to get students winged in time and let them practice crashing hire cars when drunk in a sunnier climate than North Wales.
The last number I saw was Oz committed to 9, at a programme cost of about £20 billion.
Being built over there as they want the capability but a big chunk of kit and all the support / development services from here.
The Australian T26s (Hunter class) have different radar (CEAFAR vs Artisan), different combat control system (Aegis/Saab 9LV vs BAE Artifact) and a different weapons fit. They do both have the same (German) CODLOG propulsion system but the Hunters have had bits of it Australianised. Same Anglo-French sonar (2087) though. The Hunter and the Canadian CSC are much closer to each other being Type 41 VLS/Aegis systems than they are to the British T26.
In the overall scheme there are relatively few "support/development services" for the UK in either the Hunter or the CSC. They have bought the rights to the design which are now heavily modified for their needs and preferences. That's it.
Another bigging up of Global Britain blown out of the water with reality. Still we can sell cheese to Japan now.
Comments
The US government did not change its guidance on mask wearing, despite debates going on in the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about whether those who have been vaccinated should once again be officially advised to wear masks indoors to prevent the spread.
Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said that the Delta variant of coronavirus “is now spreading with incredible efficiency” in the US and that, compared with the original coronavirus strain that broke out in the US in early 2020, this variant is “more aggressive”.
I suspect, as always, we're comparing apples and Boeing 747s. Efficiency at preventing any kind of detectable infection has never been the measure for vaccines. But in test-and-trace, it becomes so. Very mild - or even entirely asymptomatic cases - become evidence of vaccine escape. (See the story in the UK of the nursing home where double vaccinated patients caught South African Covid.)
Delta causes much higher levels of viral shedding. This means that initial doses are bigger, and means vaccines start when the body has a much higher level of infection.
And that sucks.
But it still means the body has a huge headstart. Not enough to prevent detectable infection (and sometimes hospitalisation and death), but enough to mean that cases are 19 times out of 20 dramatically less severe.
As Pingdemic shifts to Pingdemonium, is summer starting to slip away?
No point in Labour MPs banging on about Boris the liar, plays to the gallery, and fails. When Tory voters decide that Boris is failing on competence, leadership et al he is finished.
So normal service resumed by the English weather!
Really, the smart move would be to open a new airport in South Monmouthshire near Severn Tunnel Junction and have it replace both of them.
But it will never happen. Too much regional pride at stake.
And @MikeSmithson I am still using my Poco phone bought for £230 a couple of years ago. Yes the Chinese government knows my every move but it's a great cheap phone.
I did think of going, but a lot of my colleagues are off on holiday, so am covering them.
It’s better for a kid to get chickenpox and be immune to shingles naturally
So it’s for the benefit of *them as adults* not adults generally
Even the songs the crowd were singing were the same as t20.
Shan't bother any more. Not really interested in watching games where I've no local interest.
Of course, as someone who watches cricket anyway and doesn't live in a conurbation, I'm not part of the target audience!
The issue with UK airports is that they are located on WW2 raf bases, most wouldn't be built there were you building a new commercial airport
King Cole, is this a surprise? I haven't kept up with it, but assuming it's a hundred each way, that's just 100 vs 120 for T20.
Sounds daft to me, though I'm not a cricketist.
Edit: and were going to whichever one was next.
The ex-RAF label can work though. Castle Donington’s a lovely airport.
Your last sentence is spot on
And no shortages obvious in Asda nor seen in our weekly delivery
I should not that if they were looking for a light hearted p*ss up in the sun, then they aren’t the target audience either.
one of highest COVID rates in 🌍
- vaccinations slowing to crawl & not starting 💉 teenagers due to supply problems
- truck driver shortage leading to empty supermarkets
- Govt wants to tear up NI Protocol, 🇪🇺 rejects
- MP expelled from Commons for telling truth about PM
https://twitter.com/jonworth/status/1418437848936722434?s=21
Point 2 comprehensively debunked yesterday, but he repeats it…
Teenage mums and their stupid offspring who have lived among the Mole People since March 2016, don’t really know what cricket is but somehow like T20… but also don’t like cricket, have the attention spans of concussed goldfish and enjoy getting a rise out of others.
As if not, the ECB has messed up.
https://www.thecricketer.com/Topics/domestic/who_on_earth_is_the_hundred_for_we_try_to_identify_the_ecb's_mysterious_'new_audience'.html
Unfortunately for us, his next fall might affect us all badly.
Could have very big implications for Israel and the US heading into winter. Loads of EU countries also stuck to the manufacturer recommendation of 3 weeks as well.
Hopefully everyone who wants a booster dose will be able to get one.
As someone who lives 15 minutes from Rhoose, yet finds myself having to (now) almost exclusively use South Bristol's useless airport, including yesterday, it would be a compromise I could more than live with.
The 'southerners' have a very efficient and organised campaign. As far as I can see, the 'northerners' are nowhere near as organised. I'd love to know who's behind CamsBedRailRoad.
And yes, it should have been electrified from the start.
… [Professor Devi] Sridhar, who advises the Scottish Government on covid policy, has suggested England may be forced to reimpose the use of face coverings and close down "risky" environments like nightclubs.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-adviser-warns-covid-24595354.amp
And as for the failure to electrify the reopened stretches of the Waverley route, don’t get me started.
I saw my neices and nephew over the weekend with some of their friends and they were raving about it.
They are either at or have just finished uni and my nephew in particular is/was a very good school and uni cricketer.
Not a very diverse group, that said, unless you count one of them not having gone to Eton as being diverse (he went to Radley according to his hoodie).
personally it would have been better to have stuck with T20 and avoided the pointless gizmos.
be taken away from the counties conservative and self interested control
have fewer teams and therefore higher quality players per team
give equality to the womens game
get back on terrestrial tv
I am hoping it turns out to be as inspired as his gamble over schools in March, which I thought would be a disaster but did work, after a fashion, albeit at a formidable cost due to mask wearing requirements.
It may not of course. That said, the fact that Pagel and Sridhar think it’s a bad idea gives grounds for optimism.
Incidentally, AIUI a big issue with the MML electrification is a bridge immediately to the south of Leicester station. From memory, it is too low, and it cannot be raised because the station building is on the bridge as well as a main road, and it is hard to lower the tracks as the platforms are immediately beyond. The obvious choice is to have a unpowered section of the OLE, but that's awkward right by a station stop, when trains might not be able to coast through the unpowered section.
The "sophisticated modelling" is surely looking at the calendar and realising when schools break up for summer and realising two things - kids not being at school will slow spread, and people are going to be much less likely to appreciate or respect restrictions during the holidays anyway so may as well scrap them then.
Higher quality players per team - you must be having a laugh. Some of the best white ball players in the land weren’t even hired at first.
Equality to the women’s game - which had been lost because the ECB a cancelled the successful KSL for no very obvious reason three years ago.
Get back on terrestrial TV - when the BBC had originally signed up to a T20 tournament.
The Hundred may be a success, I don’t know yet, but there hasn’t yet been a convincing argument put forward for it that doesn’t ultimately come back to ‘the ECB are a load of prejudiced small minded fuckwits who have screwed up and are desperately trying to solve the problems their incompetence and greed have created.’
And yet @OldKingCole immediately jumped in to confirm that when he’s wrong it’s his fault and when he’s right he’s merely lucky
https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/coronavirus/2021/01/devi-sridhar-uk-needs-zero-covid-strategy-prevent-endless-lockdowns
Even if she won't admit to them:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/31/rich-countries-vaccines-covid-19-manageable-health-issue-pandemic
My biggest issue with The Hundred is that we're not going to end up with international Hundred competitions and a Hundred World Cup etc since we already having IT20s and an IT20 World Cup already and they're effectively the same thing. So we should surely have our player playing the real thing and not a dumbed down 83.33% version of the real thing.
Plus, no championship cricket for the whole of August just when the wickets are hot and dry and might be turning. Then we will wonder why batsmen of the future can’t play spin, and we have no attacking spin bowlers.
Was the tournament BBC signed up to not an eight team franchise as well?
No previous womens tournament is getting the coverage or male cricket star involvement that the hundred is giving them.
And yes I mean the counties, that does not mean the ECB has got things right in the past, but 18 competing clubs run by members committee is not a good platform for a new tournament.
CON: 44.7% (+18.4)
LAB: 33.2% (-15.6)
LDEM: 11.0% (+1.2)
GRN: 8.0% (-7.1)
FBM: 1.6% (+1.6)
REFUK: 1.6% (+1.6
Conservative GAIN from Labour.
https://twitter.com/RobertJenrick/status/1418471156978528257?s=20
Great for passengers who like an uninterrupted view straight down the runway, out of the side windows on short final!
Heck the hundred could be a trojan horse to get the franchises in place ready for a switch to a T20 format in a couple of years time.
Unless you're
a) motivated by malice
b) have a misplaced sense of humour
c) are simply trying to provoke.
The order of this is purely co-incidental.
I was just observing that haters have to hate and it impacts the quality of political discourse and judgement
In terms of internationals, I can’t offhand think of one that featured 15 internationals but there are more international players in domestic cricket than is supposed. For example, this county championship match featured eleven players capped at international level; https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/county-championship-2021-1244186/somerset-vs-surrey-group-2-1244264/full-scorecard
On the BBC point, yes, because that’s what they were being offered. The ECB are clinging on to the rights to other matches, albeit many of them are now streamed live, for free, on YouTube.
As for the counties, do you not feel that an organisation that innovated T20 cricket and all the ‘razzmatazz’ that goes with it - music, hype etc, plus numerous rule changes - is perhaps not terribly conservative? I know the ECB say they are but that’s because it suits their agenda to marginalise and then reduce the county structure. And they’re not willing to admit any facts that show they’re talking bullshit.
Labour won in Rhondda and lost everywhere else?
Go Kier!
There are also local loyalties.
One thing I did like was the opportunity to watch the women's game on TV. It's certainly developing, although I'm not sure that the differences ...... ball weight, size of boundaries .........can and will last much longer.
PB epidemiologists opposed to the delay were outraged, saying the models were ludicrous and insisted the scientists be called to account, maybe jailed, for their irresponsibility and their agenda-driven modelling.
In fact the Warwick Model was out, more on timeframe than scale. The value with such models is in the A/B outcomes rather than coming up with actual predictions - if you do A what do you get?; if do B what do you get? What's the difference?
Why should employers fill in lengthy forms when the app pings are simply guidance? Why are they not making clear this should be for NHS Test and Trace only?
The lack of clarity on pingdemic will continue to be big news over the weekend unless something major happens elsewhere. They really are completely incompetent.
Anyway, passing Aldi, around 90% of shoppers wearing masks. On the train, which is very quiet, around 50%. I covered up before boarding, but as I have a table of 4 to myself I took it off again. Let's see what the rest of the day brings...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/07/23/no10-chaos-has-hamstrung-bank-england/