Four days now into 10 days of house arrest as my daughter tested positive with covid . I have never done 4 days before without leaving the house for at least a stroll out. It is bonkers if people think this is a way to live .Australia you must be mad with zero covid restrictions
if you are told to self isolate you can't take a walk around the block? Seriously is that the rule?
That’s the law. But I suspect most bent it. I walked the dog in the woods for instance. I was pretty sure I hadn’t caught it as the contact had been in labs, both wearing face covering and with huge ventilation via fume hoods. I was right.
This site is so middle class, we know this entirely by the cricket talk
Well, yes, the site is pretty middle class. Lots of Times, Telegraph and Guardian; not much Mirror, Sun or Star. But I don't think ghat has anything to do with cricket. You'll notice those papers report on cricket too. Working class people play and watch cricket too. Cricket was always very strong on the coalfields, for example.
I have to say I loved the usual suspects complaining how bad John McDonnell would have been as Chancellor during the pandemic.
Imagine how he'd have to have used public money to bail out the public transport operators and nationalised the likes of TfL, Crossrail and the other rail "franchises"....
I think the idea our economy is not going to be in a state over the next few years is for the birds. The Tories have managed our economy dreadfully over the last decade
This is the trap Labour will fall into again. They'll bang on about the lowest 10% being the same or worse off but it won't translate to the the middle 60% who will likely be better off compared to when they started the pandemic.
The economy looks different for different parts of society. For people in the middle the pandemic hasn't been that bad, lots of money saved, lots of new ways to live that make them more comfortable and choices of how to live post-pandemic. They simply won't recognise Labour banging on about how the economy is shit because for them it won't be, it will be better than ever.
I think you're wrong Max, it's going to be bad for a lot more people than just those at the bottom. Austerity and Tory economics has set us up extremely badly.
The economic fundamentals are still really strong, people are going to be surprised as to how quickly the economy grows in the second half.
I don't agree I am afraid, I think the economy is in an extremely poor state and that will soon be seen. An initial boom yes - but not sustained.
Hope you're right.
The UK economy has plenty of challenges, and it is perfectly possible that the next few years will be disappointing. Simply, no-one has a crystal ball, and there are likely to be external factors no-one (or very few) predict.
For the next three to six months. though, we can see what is in the hopper, and that is things are likely to boom. There is massive pent up demand, for home improvements, for meals out, etc. And this will manifest itself in a sharp jump in growth; not just in the UK but across a host of countries who are putting Covid behind them.
This site is so middle class, we know this entirely by the cricket talk
It's largely a myth that cricket is a middle-class sport. When I joined my local team I was shocked by how working-class it was compared to what I was expecting. I'd got entirely the wrong idea from Richie Benaud's smooth style of commentary on TV. You can buy a ticket for most cricket matches outside London for about £30. How does that compare to going to watch football?
I think the old idea of public schools as the feeders for counties has diminished. My club is pretty mixed class, but we do have some youth on the books who are at posh schools. (It’s that kind of village).
I think the idea our economy is not going to be in a state over the next few years is for the birds. The Tories have managed our economy dreadfully over the last decade
Counter factual
1) Do you think we would have been better under Corbyn 2) If not what we he have not spent on? Furlough, Business support? Those are the two biggies
The notion of McDonnell being in the Treasury last year is absolutely horrific.
Forget business support, he'd have happily let the economy fail and nationalised the whole bloody country instead.
I vaguely recall Labour having some policies on pharmaceutical companies which would probably have ruled out any of them providing the U.K. with any vaccines. If Corbyn’s the anti vaxxer (who still hasn’t had a jab?) had even been interested in pursuing one.
No-one knows if Jeremy Corbyn (*) has had the jab or not. He certainly does not want to say if he has or not, using the excuse that, in the past, 'people' have said nasty things about his health.
Which I take as meaning he has not. Yes, people say nasty things all the time - he was probably chortling when sick ***** like Kevin Maguire were calling for David Cameron to release his medical records because of his son - but this crisis transcends that. Especially when his own brother is so much on the other side of the argument. And saying "Yes, I have had the vaccine" is hardly saying "I once got syphilis from an East German motorcycle repairwoman."
Corbyn's refusal to say whether he has had the vaccine or not is a good indication his handling of the crisis would have been much worse than even Boris's.
(*) I think it's fair safe to say Piers Corbyn has not had it ...
Four days now into 10 days of house arrest as my daughter tested positive with covid . I have never done 4 days before without leaving the house for at least a stroll out. It is bonkers if people think this is a way to live .Australia you must be mad with zero covid restrictions
if you are told to self isolate you can't take a walk around the block? Seriously is that the rule?
That’s the law. But I suspect most bent it. I walked the dog in the woods for instance. I was pretty sure I hadn’t caught it as the contact had been in labs, both wearing face covering and with huge ventilation via fume hoods. I was right.
Trouble is I like in a suburban world with teenage daughters meaning all the neighbours know we are a plague house and also are prudish to observe these sorts of rules. I am trapped in surburbia like the Pet Shop Boys song. i will march out on the dot of the ten day isolation and go down the pub maskless !
I have to say I loved the usual suspects complaining how bad John McDonnell would have been as Chancellor during the pandemic.
Imagine how he'd have to have used public money to bail out the public transport operators and nationalised the likes of TfL, Crossrail and the other rail "franchises"....
Oh wait....
As has been noted before (and I say this as someone not opposed to nationalisation in principle), things being done in a crisis does not automatically mean that proposing that same thing in pre-crisis was a good idea.
Most people supported lockdown as a crisis policy, but if someone had been proposing it as a policy 2 years ago it might give me pause about things they propose now.
So what we really need is some polling on the real question of the moment: Boris Johnston: fucking genius or luckiest man on the planet?
The evidence tends to the former:
Astonishing hit rate on successful vaccines and simply brilliant contracts organised by (surely) Dame Kate. Superb call on delaying the second vaccinations and focussing on the first , decried by various “experts” now accepted as the most effective methodology. A continuation of the lockdown until within 3 days of the peak, just on the right side to be sure.
There have been lesser triumphs; the way the vaccine roll out has been achieved; the building from scratch of vaccine production in this country, I could go on all night. But really, genius has to be the winner, doesn’t it?
Lol.
There have been a lot of politicians and demagogues through history who (along with their unquestioning and adoring fanbase) have mistaken a run of good fortune for genius.
PS. You seem to have missed out all of his complete fuck ups! keep believing David. One day even you will thing "Boris Johnson? Prime Minister? WTF?!"
Test and trace springs to mind. Almost a complete failure on every level, being led by a failed telephone saleswoman who got the gig because of who she was having sex with.
For the amount of money they spent on it, spent intelligently, schools could have been kept open. It would not have been easy but it could have been done.
Can you post spoiler warnings before you saddle me with mind bleach moments like dido harding having sex please. Its merely polite
A trigger warning, surely?
I don’t think a film that included Dido Harding having sex would need any spoiler warnings. After all, nobody would watch it.
We live in a world where people like to have sex with bicycles
There is bound to be someone who would eagerly watch
I think there's a missing 'some' in the first sentence.
We live in a world where people like to have sex with some bicycles.
Doesn't make it much better to be honest.
“The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who are nearly half people and half bicycles....” ― Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman
I have to say I loved the usual suspects complaining how bad John McDonnell would have been as Chancellor during the pandemic.
Imagine how he'd have to have used public money to bail out the public transport operators and nationalised the likes of TfL, Crossrail and the other rail "franchises"....
Oh wait....
TfL and Crossrail are already concessions, not franchises. Care to pick better examples.
This site is so middle class, we know this entirely by the cricket talk
It's largely a myth that cricket is a middle-class sport. When I joined my local team I was shocked by how working-class it was compared to what I was expecting. I'd got entirely the wrong idea from Richie Benaud's smooth style of commentary on TV. You can buy a ticket for most cricket matches outside London for about £30. How does that compare to going to watch football?
I think the old idea of public schools as the feeders for counties has diminished. My club is pretty mixed class, but we do have some youth on the books who are at posh schools. (It’s that kind of village).
it is one of the few sports that is actually played and watched across classes.
This site is so middle class, we know this entirely by the cricket talk
It's largely a myth that cricket is a middle-class sport. When I joined my local team I was shocked by how working-class it was compared to what I was expecting. I'd got entirely the wrong idea from Richie Benaud's smooth style of commentary on TV. You can buy a ticket for most cricket matches outside London for about £30. How does that compare to going to watch football?
I think the old idea of public schools as the feeders for counties has diminished. My club is pretty mixed class, but we do have some youth on the books who are at posh schools. (It’s that kind of village).
it is one of the few sports that is actually played and watched across classes.
My grandson (8) has joined the local cricket club and loves it and lots of interest from youngsters in the area in the sport
Politics is essentially about compromise (when it’s not, living under it generally becomes rather unpleasant), and for activists of left, right, or centre, they got involved and worked hard hoping to see their preferred policies implemented in full, rather than watered down when they come to rub up against the world as it is.
And, relatedly, when we were young we hoped to change the world, or at least see it changed, yet in reality the pace of change is very slow. Even when older and able to appreciate the merits of more gradual change, it is frustrating when there are glaring injustices crying out to be addressed and all governments are willing to do is fiddle round the edges.
Nick must feel this particularly strongly, as he was part of Labour’s 1997 intake and the government that, in its pitifully timid first term, wasted its political capital and became a tragic missed opportunity. By the time Blair acquired the ability in office to lead from the front and take on his opponents, he used it all for the wrong things, and millions died as a consequence.
Well, we'll see what he says if he responds.
Sorry, been a bit busy - a huge contract to translate the German Highway Code is eating all my free time even though I took today off to hit the first 60K word deadline. 120K to go.
Ian is broadly right about how I think, except that I feel Blair and Brown did quite a good job apart from Iraq - the health service improved dramatically, schools got decent funding, we introduced the minimum wage which has stuck despite all the gloomsters, there was substantial liberalisation on things like gay rights, and when the financial crisis came I think Brown handled it as well as anyone could have done. Other points of view are available, I know. So no regrets.
But. Left/right are rough approximations, but essentially I think the divisions of wealth globally are horrific, and they're pretty gruesome just in Britain. If it was entirely up to me, we'd have taxes in the 30-50 range, 2% tax annually on wealth (replacing council tax). and really substantial investment in education and training for all age groups. And 2% of GDP for foreign aid. And 100,000 refugees a year admitted, starting with the people who've helped us abroad.
I'm perfectly aware that this isn't a saleable package in today's Britain. So I want to get as close as possible to it without ceasing to be electable.
I have to say I loved the usual suspects complaining how bad John McDonnell would have been as Chancellor during the pandemic.
Imagine how he'd have to have used public money to bail out the public transport operators and nationalised the likes of TfL, Crossrail and the other rail "franchises"....
Oh wait....
As has been noted before (and I say this as someone not opposed to nationalisation in principle), things being done in a crisis does not automatically mean that proposing that same thing in pre-crisis was a good idea.
Most people supported lockdown as a crisis policy, but if someone had been proposing it as a policy 2 years ago it might give me pause about things they propose now.
Indeed but there's a serious public policy debate to be had .
IF the daily commute is now history, the operating model for most public transport systems is gone with it. My experience is there's a lot of residual leisure travel at weekends.
I'd argue the one time I wouldn't do engineering works in the future would be weekends or public holidays. I'd want to run as full a service as possible to maximise my passenger numbers when people want to travel.
Could we do engineering works midweek - say, close a commuter line on a Monday and Tuesday and run a bus service for those few commuters still travelling.?
What about off-peak weekday services?
Should more "slots" be opened for freight traffic - should we not be trying to get freight off road and onto rail utilising spare rail capacity?
What about buses? What is the post-Covid environment for bus operators? I was in Redhill the other day - the bus picked up 20 passengers - 18 went to one place.
There' s a big debate to be had about the post-Covid public transport system.
Slow news day? Nikola Tesla, pioneer of alternating current electricity, might have been shocked to know how his legacy would cause a row between European states.
Serbia's central bank has threatened to take action with the EU if its neighbour Croatia puts the late great inventor on its coins.
Croatia wants his face on its euros when it joins the currency in 2023.
But Serbia claims him for its own because he saw himself as a Serb though born in what is now Croatia.
Anecdote: the dreaded masks appear to be in the process of being discarded, ever so gradually, by the customers of our local supermarket. Almost ubiquitous immediately post the 19th, now down to about 70-80%.
Don't know what the rest of you think, but I reckon that once it gets to about 50:50 the peer pressure/social nicety motivation will evaporate, and they'll become a security blanket for the exclusive use of the very frightened.
Most almighty thunderstorm raging over Birmingham at the moment. Can hear it all the way to Cannock Chase (and see it, too). Apparently they’ve had eight millimetres of rain in the last 45 minutes.
Had floodwater very nearly reach my doorstep yesterday here in Ilford, but mercifully the rain stopped and the water receded within half an hour. In addition to the usual detritus on my driveway was a whole hen's egg. Anyway, hosed down the driveway and car this morning as a precaution.
Anecdote: the dreaded masks appear to be in the process of being discarded, ever so gradually, by the customers of our local supermarket. Almost ubiquitous immediately post the 19th, now down to about 70-80%.
Don't know what the rest of you think, but I reckon that once it gets to about 50:50 the peer pressure/social nicety motivation will evaporate, and they'll become a security blanket for the exclusive use of the very frightened.
Anecdote: the dreaded masks appear to be in the process of being discarded, ever so gradually, by the customers of our local supermarket. Almost ubiquitous immediately post the 19th, now down to about 70-80%.
Don't know what the rest of you think, but I reckon that once it gets to about 50:50 the peer pressure/social nicety motivation will evaporate, and they'll become a security blanket for the exclusive use of the very frightened.
Yess I agree. Noticeably falling use over this past week, encouraged I suspect by the falling case numbers.
Slow news day? Nikola Tesla, pioneer of alternating current electricity, might have been shocked to know how his legacy would cause a row between European states.
Serbia's central bank has threatened to take action with the EU if its neighbour Croatia puts the late great inventor on its coins.
Croatia wants his face on its euros when it joins the currency in 2023.
But Serbia claims him for its own because he saw himself as a Serb though born in what is now Croatia.
They want Tesla to be exclusively Serbian, with not a hint of Croatian.
well thats a bit childish !
From what I remember of the film, Tesla was in large part American. It would be like Britain claiming Alexander Graham Bell, or America claiming Boris Johnson.
Politics is essentially about compromise (when it’s not, living under it generally becomes rather unpleasant), and for activists of left, right, or centre, they got involved and worked hard hoping to see their preferred policies implemented in full, rather than watered down when they come to rub up against the world as it is.
And, relatedly, when we were young we hoped to change the world, or at least see it changed, yet in reality the pace of change is very slow. Even when older and able to appreciate the merits of more gradual change, it is frustrating when there are glaring injustices crying out to be addressed and all governments are willing to do is fiddle round the edges.
Nick must feel this particularly strongly, as he was part of Labour’s 1997 intake and the government that, in its pitifully timid first term, wasted its political capital and became a tragic missed opportunity. By the time Blair acquired the ability in office to lead from the front and take on his opponents, he used it all for the wrong things, and millions died as a consequence.
Well, we'll see what he says if he responds.
Sorry, been a bit busy - a huge contract to translate the German Highway Code is eating all my free time even though I took today off to hit the first 60K word deadline. 120K to go.
Ian is broadly right about how I think, except that I feel Blair and Brown did quite a good job apart from Iraq - the health service improved dramatically, schools got decent funding, we introduced the minimum wage which has stuck despite all the gloomsters, there was substantial liberalisation on things like gay rights, and when the financial crisis came I think Brown handled it as well as anyone could have done. Other points of view are available, I know. So no regrets.
But. Left/right are rough approximations, but essentially I think the divisions of wealth globally are horrific, and they're pretty gruesome just in Britain. If it was entirely up to me, we'd have taxes in the 30-50 range, 2% tax annually on wealth (replacing council tax). and really substantial investment in education and training for all age groups. And 2% of GDP for foreign aid. And 100,000 refugees a year admitted, starting with the people who've helped us abroad.
I'm perfectly aware that this isn't a saleable package in today's Britain. So I want to get as close as possible to it without ceasing to be electable.
translating the highway code must be easy for a politician - lots of U turns , far left , far rights
Whilst the underlying message of the article may be reasonable enough, it would be good if they did a bit of basic research into the money being ploughed into the Thames "supersewer" project (or at least mention it) before they breathlessly report on London "relying on Victorian infrastructure" to combat climate change...
Slow news day? Nikola Tesla, pioneer of alternating current electricity, might have been shocked to know how his legacy would cause a row between European states.
Serbia's central bank has threatened to take action with the EU if its neighbour Croatia puts the late great inventor on its coins.
Croatia wants his face on its euros when it joins the currency in 2023.
But Serbia claims him for its own because he saw himself as a Serb though born in what is now Croatia.
They want Tesla to be exclusively Serbian, with not a hint of Croatian.
well thats a bit childish !
From what I remember of the film, Tesla was in large part American. It would be like Britain claiming Alexander Graham Bell, or America claiming Boris Johnson.
He was 28 before he moved to the USA, as a skilled migrant, and he had no family connections there.
Edit - AGB was 23 when he emigrated to Canada, which was also considered for legal purposes part of Britain at the time. So I’m not quite sure why Britain couldn’t’claim’ him as British if we wanted to.
Slow news day? Nikola Tesla, pioneer of alternating current electricity, might have been shocked to know how his legacy would cause a row between European states.
Serbia's central bank has threatened to take action with the EU if its neighbour Croatia puts the late great inventor on its coins.
Croatia wants his face on its euros when it joins the currency in 2023.
But Serbia claims him for its own because he saw himself as a Serb though born in what is now Croatia.
They want Tesla to be exclusively Serbian, with not a hint of Croatian.
well thats a bit childish !
From what I remember of the film, Tesla was in large part American. It would be like Britain claiming Alexander Graham Bell, or America claiming Boris Johnson.
Is that the current thinking ? There’ll be some resistance to it.
What do you think it peaks at and will the BoE raise rates anytime soon?
Well I hope interest rates hit at least 20%.
The last decade plus has been so shit for us savers.
Has it really though?
Yes if you've left your savings pot in deposit accounts, but if you've invested most of it in the stock markets you have probably done very well.
I like to have cash on easy access deposit.
If anything it has forced me to become a landlord, so I've made a sounder profit that way. Wish I hadn't but hey ho, I have to play the game but I don't make the rules.
Most almighty thunderstorm raging over Birmingham at the moment. Can hear it all the way to Cannock Chase (and see it, too). Apparently they’ve had eight millimetres of rain in the last 45 minutes.
No sign of them in Sutton Coldfield (just a couple of distant rumbles). Shame cos the garden desperately needs a drink.
I have to say I loved the usual suspects complaining how bad John McDonnell would have been as Chancellor during the pandemic.
Imagine how he'd have to have used public money to bail out the public transport operators and nationalised the likes of TfL, Crossrail and the other rail "franchises"....
Oh wait....
As has been noted before (and I say this as someone not opposed to nationalisation in principle), things being done in a crisis does not automatically mean that proposing that same thing in pre-crisis was a good idea.
Most people supported lockdown as a crisis policy, but if someone had been proposing it as a policy 2 years ago it might give me pause about things they propose now.
Indeed but there's a serious public policy debate to be had .
IF the daily commute is now history, the operating model for most public transport systems is gone with it. My experience is there's a lot of residual leisure travel at weekends.
I'd argue the one time I wouldn't do engineering works in the future would be weekends or public holidays. I'd want to run as full a service as possible to maximise my passenger numbers when people want to travel.
Could we do engineering works midweek - say, close a commuter line on a Monday and Tuesday and run a bus service for those few commuters still travelling.?
What about off-peak weekday services?
Should more "slots" be opened for freight traffic - should we not be trying to get freight off road and onto rail utilising spare rail capacity?
What about buses? What is the post-Covid environment for bus operators? I was in Redhill the other day - the bus picked up 20 passengers - 18 went to one place.
There' s a big debate to be had about the post-Covid public transport system.
Reduced commuting should benefit the rail industry. They won't need to invest in rolling stock that is only required for the morning and evening peaks and either sits in the carriage sidings or carries around fresh air for the rest of the day. And all to carry the folk who pay under the odds for their travel thanks to season tickets.
Most almighty thunderstorm raging over Birmingham at the moment. Can hear it all the way to Cannock Chase (and see it, too). Apparently they’ve had eight millimetres of rain in the last 45 minutes.
No sign of them in Sutton Coldfield (just a couple of distant rumbles). Shame cos the garden desperately needs a drink.
I was conflicted. I did in fact water the garden tonight, so I was thinking, ‘bugger, maybe I didn’t need to.’ Also, it looked and sounded quite spectacular so I wasn’t sorry it passed south of here.
But, my garden and my water tanks are all bone dry and I could do with some rain.
Politics is essentially about compromise (when it’s not, living under it generally becomes rather unpleasant), and for activists of left, right, or centre, they got involved and worked hard hoping to see their preferred policies implemented in full, rather than watered down when they come to rub up against the world as it is.
And, relatedly, when we were young we hoped to change the world, or at least see it changed, yet in reality the pace of change is very slow. Even when older and able to appreciate the merits of more gradual change, it is frustrating when there are glaring injustices crying out to be addressed and all governments are willing to do is fiddle round the edges.
Nick must feel this particularly strongly, as he was part of Labour’s 1997 intake and the government that, in its pitifully timid first term, wasted its political capital and became a tragic missed opportunity. By the time Blair acquired the ability in office to lead from the front and take on his opponents, he used it all for the wrong things, and millions died as a consequence.
Well, we'll see what he says if he responds.
Sorry, been a bit busy - a huge contract to translate the German Highway Code is eating all my free time even though I took today off to hit the first 60K word deadline. 120K to go.
Ian is broadly right about how I think, except that I feel Blair and Brown did quite a good job apart from Iraq - the health service improved dramatically, schools got decent funding, we introduced the minimum wage which has stuck despite all the gloomsters, there was substantial liberalisation on things like gay rights, and when the financial crisis came I think Brown handled it as well as anyone could have done. Other points of view are available, I know. So no regrets.
But. Left/right are rough approximations, but essentially I think the divisions of wealth globally are horrific, and they're pretty gruesome just in Britain. If it was entirely up to me, we'd have taxes in the 30-50 range, 2% tax annually on wealth (replacing council tax). and really substantial investment in education and training for all age groups. And 2% of GDP for foreign aid. And 100,000 refugees a year admitted, starting with the people who've helped us abroad.
I'm perfectly aware that this isn't a saleable package in today's Britain. So I want to get as close as possible to it without ceasing to be electable.
I've just quit my trade as a German-to-English translator. No more word counts for me! Now returning to my former profession as a C++ coder.
Most almighty thunderstorm raging over Birmingham at the moment. Can hear it all the way to Cannock Chase (and see it, too). Apparently they’ve had eight millimetres of rain in the last 45 minutes.
Had floodwater very nearly reach my doorstep yesterday here in Ilford, but mercifully the rain stopped and the water receded within half an hour. In addition to the usual detritus on my driveway was a whole hen's egg. Anyway, hosed down the driveway and car this morning as a precaution.
What do you think it peaks at and will the BoE raise rates anytime soon?
Well I hope interest rates hit at least 20%.
The last decade plus has been so shit for us savers.
Has it really though?
Yes if you've left your savings pot in deposit accounts, but if you've invested most of it in the stock markets you have probably done very well.
It all rather depends on your attitude towards risk and whether you're able to afford to take it. Chronically low interest rates = cheap money = asset price inflation. Good news if you can speculate to accumulate. If you can't - if you're of moderate means and/or an old duck who can't replace any savings you might lose in a crash - not so good.
Reduced commuting should benefit the rail industry. They won't need to invest in rolling stock that is only required for the morning and evening peaks and either sits in the carriage sidings or carries around fresh air for the rest of the day. And all to carry the folk who pay under the odds for their travel thanks to season tickets.
A flatter demand profile is a good thing.
That's not what's happening currently. I travel on a 10-carriage train from Waterloo to Winchester because only 10 people are travelling and we can all have our own carriage !!
Not quite.
The problem is the season ticket holders will move to these new "flexible" tickets for their two days a week in the office so that revenue stream is going to fall away as well.
It just seems daft to have lines closed due to engineering works when the demand for leisure travel is so high.
Reduced commuting should benefit the rail industry. They won't need to invest in rolling stock that is only required for the morning and evening peaks and either sits in the carriage sidings or carries around fresh air for the rest of the day. And all to carry the folk who pay under the odds for their travel thanks to season tickets.
A flatter demand profile is a good thing.
That's not what's happening currently. I travel on a 10-carriage train from Waterloo to Winchester because only 10 people are travelling and we can all have our own carriage !!
Not quite.
The problem is the season ticket holders will move to these new "flexible" tickets for their two days a week in the office so that revenue stream is going to fall away as well.
It just seems daft to have lines closed due to engineering works when the demand for leisure travel is so high.
I have to say I loved the usual suspects complaining how bad John McDonnell would have been as Chancellor during the pandemic.
Imagine how he'd have to have used public money to bail out the public transport operators and nationalised the likes of TfL, Crossrail and the other rail "franchises"....
Oh wait....
As has been noted before (and I say this as someone not opposed to nationalisation in principle), things being done in a crisis does not automatically mean that proposing that same thing in pre-crisis was a good idea.
Most people supported lockdown as a crisis policy, but if someone had been proposing it as a policy 2 years ago it might give me pause about things they propose now.
Indeed but there's a serious public policy debate to be had .
IF the daily commute is now history, the operating model for most public transport systems is gone with it. My experience is there's a lot of residual leisure travel at weekends.
I'd argue the one time I wouldn't do engineering works in the future would be weekends or public holidays. I'd want to run as full a service as possible to maximise my passenger numbers when people want to travel.
Could we do engineering works midweek - say, close a commuter line on a Monday and Tuesday and run a bus service for those few commuters still travelling.?
What about off-peak weekday services?
Should more "slots" be opened for freight traffic - should we not be trying to get freight off road and onto rail utilising spare rail capacity?
What about buses? What is the post-Covid environment for bus operators? I was in Redhill the other day - the bus picked up 20 passengers - 18 went to one place.
There' s a big debate to be had about the post-Covid public transport system.
If WfH becomes the norm then it is quite likely IMO to undermine the concept of the "working week". So the split in travel for leisure at the weekends and work during the week is likely to become more blurred.
It’s to put it mildly a very optimistic and cheery analysis of what was a pretty dark and brutal time in Manchuria. By focusing on the industrial successes, it rather overlooks the fact that under three different regimes - the Japanese, the Soviets and finally the Maoists - the population were reduced to little better than slavery, starved of food and frequently killed.
The same could be said of North Korea, or indeed of China and the Soviet Union itself, of course.
Slow news day? Nikola Tesla, pioneer of alternating current electricity, might have been shocked to know how his legacy would cause a row between European states.
Serbia's central bank has threatened to take action with the EU if its neighbour Croatia puts the late great inventor on its coins.
Croatia wants his face on its euros when it joins the currency in 2023.
But Serbia claims him for its own because he saw himself as a Serb though born in what is now Croatia.
They want Tesla to be exclusively Serbian, with not a hint of Croatian.
well thats a bit childish !
From what I remember of the film, Tesla was in large part American. It would be like Britain claiming Alexander Graham Bell, or America claiming Boris Johnson.
That doesn't seem at all unreasonable, particularly given how much heritage means to many americans.
One of the shittier things EE/BT, Vodafone, o2 and others have done is build in annual price rises mid contract of 3.9% plus CPI.
So it is possible that your broadband and mobile contracts go up by nearly 10% for the next few years.
Who on earth buys phone contracts like this now? One can get so much better deals Sim only on short contracts - why on earth would anyone lock themselves in for more than a year?
One of the shittier things EE/BT, Vodafone, o2 and others have done is build in annual price rises mid contract of 3.9% plus CPI.
So it is possible that your broadband and mobile contracts go up by nearly 10% for the next few years.
Who on earth buys phone contracts like this now? One can get so much better deals Sim only on short contracts - why on earth would anyone lock themselves in for more than a year?
Not everyone can afford to buy a new phone upfront, so spreading the cost over 24 to 36 months is attractive to some.
But for BT and other broadband providers, they lock you into an 18 month contract, so you get hit.
Also EE in particular have buggered up, sorry regularly refreshed their SIM only packages, and the top end packages.
Not so long ago they limited SIM only deals to 60 Mbps on 4G.
Most almighty thunderstorm raging over Birmingham at the moment. Can hear it all the way to Cannock Chase (and see it, too). Apparently they’ve had eight millimetres of rain in the last 45 minutes.
That's less than half an inch in an hour. Not Death Valley levels of rainfall, but on Dartmoor its a barely perceptible drizzle.
It’s to put it mildly a very optimistic and cheery analysis of what was a pretty dark and brutal time in Manchuria. By focusing on the industrial successes, it rather overlooks the fact that under three different regimes - the Japanese, the Soviets and finally the Maoists - the population were reduced to little better than slavery, starved of food and frequently killed.
The same could be said of North Korea, or indeed of China and the Soviet Union itself, of course.
Understood; in this context it’s always seemed to me there’s not a huge difference between the state socialism of the era and fascism.
It’s how the postwar events unravelled that I’m hazy on.
So what we really need is some polling on the real question of the moment: Boris Johnston: fucking genius or luckiest man on the planet?
The evidence tends to the former:
Astonishing hit rate on successful vaccines and simply brilliant contracts organised by (surely) Dame Kate. Superb call on delaying the second vaccinations and focussing on the first , decried by various “experts” now accepted as the most effective methodology. A continuation of the lockdown until within 3 days of the peak, just on the right side to be sure.
There have been lesser triumphs; the way the vaccine roll out has been achieved; the building from scratch of vaccine production in this country, I could go on all night. But really, genius has to be the winner, doesn’t it?
Lol.
There have been a lot of politicians and demagogues through history who (along with their unquestioning and adoring fanbase) have mistaken a run of good fortune for genius.
PS. You seem to have missed out all of his complete fuck ups! keep believing David. One day even you will thing "Boris Johnson? Prime Minister? WTF?!"
Test and trace springs to mind. Almost a complete failure on every level, being led by a failed telephone saleswoman who got the gig because of who she was having sex with.
For the amount of money they spent on it, spent intelligently, schools could have been kept open. It would not have been easy but it could have been done.
Can you post spoiler warnings before you saddle me with mind bleach moments like dido harding having sex please. Its merely polite
A trigger warning, surely?
I don’t think a film that included Dido Harding having sex would need any spoiler warnings. After all, nobody would watch it.
We live in a world where people like to have sex with bicycles
Comments
But I don't think ghat has anything to do with cricket. You'll notice those papers report on cricket too. Working class people play and watch cricket too. Cricket was always very strong on the coalfields, for example.
Imagine how he'd have to have used public money to bail out the public transport operators and nationalised the likes of TfL, Crossrail and the other rail "franchises"....
Oh wait....
For the next three to six months. though, we can see what is in the hopper, and that is things are likely to boom. There is massive pent up demand, for home improvements, for meals out, etc. And this will manifest itself in a sharp jump in growth; not just in the UK but across a host of countries who are putting Covid behind them.
He's pro-vaccine.
Most people supported lockdown as a crisis policy, but if someone had been proposing it as a policy 2 years ago it might give me pause about things they propose now.
― Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman
Great spectacle
Long term boom, I think not.
Story: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/15698757/more-time-to-replace-boilers-2035-target-boris-johnson/
Ian is broadly right about how I think, except that I feel Blair and Brown did quite a good job apart from Iraq - the health service improved dramatically, schools got decent funding, we introduced the minimum wage which has stuck despite all the gloomsters, there was substantial liberalisation on things like gay rights, and when the financial crisis came I think Brown handled it as well as anyone could have done. Other points of view are available, I know. So no regrets.
But. Left/right are rough approximations, but essentially I think the divisions of wealth globally are horrific, and they're pretty gruesome just in Britain. If it was entirely up to me, we'd have taxes in the 30-50 range, 2% tax annually on wealth (replacing council tax). and really substantial investment in education and training for all age groups. And 2% of GDP for foreign aid. And 100,000 refugees a year admitted, starting with the people who've helped us abroad.
I'm perfectly aware that this isn't a saleable package in today's Britain. So I want to get as close as possible to it without ceasing to be electable.
IF the daily commute is now history, the operating model for most public transport systems is gone with it. My experience is there's a lot of residual leisure travel at weekends.
I'd argue the one time I wouldn't do engineering works in the future would be weekends or public holidays. I'd want to run as full a service as possible to maximise my passenger numbers when people want to travel.
Could we do engineering works midweek - say, close a commuter line on a Monday and Tuesday and run a bus service for those few commuters still travelling.?
What about off-peak weekday services?
Should more "slots" be opened for freight traffic - should we not be trying to get freight off road and onto rail utilising spare rail capacity?
What about buses? What is the post-Covid environment for bus operators? I was in Redhill the other day - the bus picked up 20 passengers - 18 went to one place.
There' s a big debate to be had about the post-Covid public transport system.
Don't know what the rest of you think, but I reckon that once it gets to about 50:50 the peer pressure/social nicety motivation will evaporate, and they'll become a security blanket for the exclusive use of the very frightened.
Yes if you've left your savings pot in deposit accounts, but if you've invested most of it in the stock markets you have probably done very well.
As an aside, why are they called boilers when they don't boil?
Whilst the underlying message of the article may be reasonable enough, it would be good if they did a bit of basic research into the money being ploughed into the Thames "supersewer" project (or at least mention it) before they breathlessly report on London "relying on Victorian infrastructure" to combat climate change...
Edit - AGB was 23 when he emigrated to Canada, which was also considered for legal purposes part of Britain at the time. So I’m not quite sure why Britain couldn’t’claim’ him as British if we wanted to.
There’ll be some resistance to it.
If anything it has forced me to become a landlord, so I've made a sounder profit that way. Wish I hadn't but hey ho, I have to play the game but I don't make the rules.
A flatter demand profile is a good thing.
https://twitter.com/ernestleungmt/status/1419500266504687621
Anyone know enough to comment ?
But, my garden and my water tanks are all bone dry and I could do with some rain.
Not quite.
The problem is the season ticket holders will move to these new "flexible" tickets for their two days a week in the office so that revenue stream is going to fall away as well.
It just seems daft to have lines closed due to engineering works when the demand for leisure travel is so high.
The same could be said of North Korea, or indeed of China and the Soviet Union itself, of course.
But for BT and other broadband providers, they lock you into an 18 month contract, so you get hit.
Also EE in particular have buggered up, sorry regularly refreshed their SIM only packages, and the top end packages.
Not so long ago they limited SIM only deals to 60 Mbps on 4G.
NEW THREAD
It’s how the postwar events unravelled that I’m hazy on.