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The great Brexit divide – Approval of Johnson and Starmer – by referendum vote and social class – po

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  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
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    eekeek Posts: 25,007
    edited July 2021
    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Which is fine provided food keeps arriving on shelves, jobs don't disappear and prices don't rise too much.

    If any of those things occur then Boris has problems and in Red Wall seats if things don't improve* Boris will have problems

    * this may be a problem as everyone has their own personal unicorn version of what improve means
  • Options
    CorrectHorseBatteryCorrectHorseBattery Posts: 21,436
    edited July 2021

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
  • Options
    Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,389
    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    ...do you understand the saying "cutting your nose off to spite your face?....
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    FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,901
    edited July 2021
    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:




    Ouch. Airflow issue starving the engine?

    'Cold Cat' is an insufficiency of steam pressure in the catapult caused by a fault in the system or setting it for the incorrect TO weight or a/c type.

    I have been off the front of Invincible in 0 deg nozzle instead of 10 deg. A similar mistake with flaps was almost always a death sentence but I prevailed through a cloud of spray and later an artfully raised eyebrow from Cdr Air. I was shaking like Michael J. Fox shitting a penknife out for hours after. Happy days..
    Ooh, so the catapult only half goes, and the engine alone can’t provide sufficient flying speed for the weight of the aircraft. Which in mil ops, includes the weapons complement and can vary wildly even with the same aircraft type.
    That's it. The possibility of a cold cat was always front of mind in the F-14 as we regularly used to launch at 70,000lbs plus. In the D model we couldn't use afterburner on the cat as it didn't have enough yaw authority in case of an engine failure in reheat so we needed a very heavy cat shot.
    Engines spaced too far apart?

    Was it not dangerous to use afterburners at any time, then, or was it just at low airspeed? I can't imagine it would be terribly stable with so much thrust applied asymmetrically.

    Cat failures are going to get very expensive with these F-35s...
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    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,126

    Guess the replies to this:

    Wealth is more unequal in Sweden and Germany than in the UK (higher Gini coefficient = less equal): Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2021; see also https://credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/global-wealth-report.html

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1419943259032412163?s=20

    Sweden is the most unequal country? (Sweden 87.2; USA 85.0; UK 71.7). That's unexpected.
    Seems to be simply wrong. Here's the official list:

    https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gini-coefficient-by-country

    Sweden 28.8, UK 34.8, USA 48
    Might be a question of income vs wealth. Sweden has a relatively equal income distribution owing in part to highly progressive taxation but I would guess its wealth distribution may be highly concentrated as there are a handful of *very* rich families, linked to some of its successful multinationals.
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    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,352

    The gap between ABC1 Leavers and C2DE Leavers is interesting. The current Tory party is basically a party of, by and for ABC1 Leavers, masquerading as one that has the interests of C2DE Leavers at heart (it doesn't give two shits about Remainers of any background).

    Are C2DE Leavers starting to get this? It would be nice to think so, but I'm sceptical for now.

    ABC1 Leavers seem to feel more strongly - both more pro-Johnson and anti-Starmer, perhaps because they are more aware of their detailed involvement? Might also explain why ABC1 Remainers are more pro-Starmer, though in general class seems to matter much less than the Leave/Remain split.
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,919

    Sure people from all sides will join me in saying that it's great news Wes Streeting has recovered from his cancer

    Great news, wasn’t aware that he was ill. He’s pretty young too, 40s.
  • Options
    The culture wars have a clear and obvious limit - and the Tories passed it with their Euro 2020 comments.
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    RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 27,264
    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    The *act* of Brexit is done. The *effects* of Brexit are ongoing.
  • Options
    Sandpit said:

    Sure people from all sides will join me in saying that it's great news Wes Streeting has recovered from his cancer

    Great news, wasn’t aware that he was ill. He’s pretty young too, 40s.
    Future leadership material
  • Options
    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,313
    edited July 2021

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished he fucked up.
    Corrected
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,007


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
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    CorrectHorseBatteryCorrectHorseBattery Posts: 21,436
    edited July 2021
    PB Tories insulting the people of Northern Ireland by pretending they're not important. Such is their hatred for anything or anyone that gets in the way of Brexit.

    They won't admit it - but the deal Boris Johnson wanted and negotiated has ended in a disaster. The cult is strong and that is bad for us all
  • Options
    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,126

    The gap between ABC1 Leavers and C2DE Leavers is interesting. The current Tory party is basically a party of, by and for ABC1 Leavers, masquerading as one that has the interests of C2DE Leavers at heart (it doesn't give two shits about Remainers of any background).

    Are C2DE Leavers starting to get this? It would be nice to think so, but I'm sceptical for now.

    ABC1 Leavers seem to feel more strongly - both more pro-Johnson and anti-Starmer, perhaps because they are more aware of their detailed involvement? Might also explain why ABC1 Remainers are more pro-Starmer, though in general class seems to matter much less than the Leave/Remain split.
    I think there is a tendency for richer and more educated people to pay more attention to politics in general. More free time, and a political discourse more tuned to their preoccupations.
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    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    The *act* of Brexit is done. The *effects* of Brexit are ongoing.
    That's fair. And they'll be ongoing for the rest of our lives. History doesn't end.
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    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,370
    kinabalu said:

    The revelations on misleading hospitalisation number are astounding enough in themselves, but they do not reveal whether the data has been completely bogus just for this wave, or for all waves.

    If true hospitalisations because of covid were bogus for all waves, for example, then the peak of hospitalisations primarily owing to covid was not more than 4,000 a day, it was actually less than two thousand a day....??

    If that is the case, then the notion the NHS was going to be overwhelmed at any stage in the pandemic was one of the biggest lies ever told to the people of Britain by its own government...??

    Am I missing something?

    I think so. You're missing that the NHS was on the very edge of being overwhelmed - and arguably was in places - at 2 stages during the pandemic.
    Fear of being overwhelmed. Let us not forget that it is supposed to be overwhelmed without fail every year according to the Graun.

    But yes, we saw the pictures of Northern Italy and any sane government would have thought: we can't have that here, not in the slightest. And hence they cleared the decks, as @Malmesbury noted. Was it the right decision? Not sure.
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    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
  • Options
    Philip is so deep into the cult that he won't acknowledge that the deal his leader personally negotiated and signed has been a disaster for NI. That's when you know you're deep down the rabbit hole, I found myself there with Corbyn a few times
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,919

    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:




    Ouch. Airflow issue starving the engine?

    'Cold Cat' is an insufficiency of steam pressure in the catapult caused by a fault in the system or setting it for the incorrect TO weight or a/c type.

    I have been off the front of Invincible in 0 deg nozzle instead of 10 deg. A similar mistake with flaps was almost always a death sentence but I prevailed through a cloud of spray and later an artfully raised eyebrow from Cdr Air. I was shaking like Michael J. Fox shitting a penknife out for hours after. Happy days..
    Ooh, so the catapult only half goes, and the engine alone can’t provide sufficient flying speed for the weight of the aircraft. Which in mil ops, includes the weapons complement and can vary wildly even with the same aircraft type.
    That's it. The possibility of a cold cat was always front of mind in the F-14 as we regularly used to launch at 70,000lbs plus. In the D model we couldn't use afterburner on the cat as it didn't have enough yaw authority in case of an engine failure in reheat so we needed a very heavy cat shot.
    Engines spaced too far apart?

    Was it not dangerous to use afterburners at any time, then, or was it just at low airspeed? I can't imagine it would be terribly stable with so much thrust applied asymmetrically.

    Cat failures are going to get very expensive with these F-35s...
    IIRC there were certain parts of the flight envelope with Concorde, where the very first action on the engine failure memory items, was to throttle back the engine opposite the failed one. It was easier to recover with 2.5 engines, than to try and fight the yaw caused by the asymmetric thrust.
  • Options

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    So therefore the deal Johnson negotiated, has been a disaster. Why did you not say so at the time, you were telling us how good it was then. What has changed?

    This is really embarrassing Philip, like pulling teeth
  • Options
    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,757

    Guess the replies to this:

    Wealth is more unequal in Sweden and Germany than in the UK (higher Gini coefficient = less equal): Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2021; see also https://credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/global-wealth-report.html

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1419943259032412163?s=20

    Sweden is the most unequal country? (Sweden 87.2; USA 85.0; UK 71.7). That's unexpected.
    Seems to be simply wrong. Here's the official list:

    https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gini-coefficient-by-country

    Sweden 28.8, UK 34.8, USA 48
    Might be a question of income vs wealth. Sweden has a relatively equal income distribution owing in part to highly progressive taxation but I would guess its wealth distribution may be highly concentrated as there are a handful of *very* rich families, linked to some of its successful multinationals.
    The IKEA effect. Don't know if IKEA specifically, but the Credit Suisse report supports your theory. Sweden has a larger number of very wealthy individuals compared with similar countries that means the median income as a proportion of the mean income is much smaller.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,919

    Sandpit said:

    Sure people from all sides will join me in saying that it's great news Wes Streeting has recovered from his cancer

    Great news, wasn’t aware that he was ill. He’s pretty young too, 40s.
    Future leadership material
    Possibly, although my experience of him is limited to his being a total arse as chair of the NUS two decades ago.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,007
    FF43 said:

    Guess the replies to this:

    Wealth is more unequal in Sweden and Germany than in the UK (higher Gini coefficient = less equal): Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2021; see also https://credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/global-wealth-report.html

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1419943259032412163?s=20

    Sweden is the most unequal country? (Sweden 87.2; USA 85.0; UK 71.7). That's unexpected.
    Seems to be simply wrong. Here's the official list:

    https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gini-coefficient-by-country

    Sweden 28.8, UK 34.8, USA 48
    Might be a question of income vs wealth. Sweden has a relatively equal income distribution owing in part to highly progressive taxation but I would guess its wealth distribution may be highly concentrated as there are a handful of *very* rich families, linked to some of its successful multinationals.
    The IKEA effect. Don't know if IKEA specifically, but the Credit Suisse report supports your theory. Sweden has a larger number of very wealthy individuals compared with similar countries that means the median income as a proportion of the mean income is much smaller.
    Tetra Pak will be another part of it but I do believe it's because of a few very wealthy individuals.
  • Options

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    How utterly insulting. Of course NI is part of Brexit.
  • Options
    FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 3,901
    FF43 said:

    Guess the replies to this:

    Wealth is more unequal in Sweden and Germany than in the UK (higher Gini coefficient = less equal): Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2021; see also https://credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/global-wealth-report.html

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1419943259032412163?s=20

    Sweden is the most unequal country? (Sweden 87.2; USA 85.0; UK 71.7). That's unexpected.
    Seems to be simply wrong. Here's the official list:

    https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gini-coefficient-by-country

    Sweden 28.8, UK 34.8, USA 48
    Might be a question of income vs wealth. Sweden has a relatively equal income distribution owing in part to highly progressive taxation but I would guess its wealth distribution may be highly concentrated as there are a handful of *very* rich families, linked to some of its successful multinationals.
    The IKEA effect. Don't know if IKEA specifically, but the Credit Suisse report supports your theory. Sweden has a larger number of very wealthy individuals compared with similar countries that means the median income as a proportion of the mean income is much smaller.
    Wallenbergs? They seem to own everything in Sweden.
  • Options
    Sean_FSean_F Posts: 35,855

    Sean_F said:

    BoJo is absolutely hated by Remainers, goodbye Tory southern seats!

    You do know, most Southern Tory seats voted Leave?
    Seats like Winchester, Guildford, will almost certainly be going Lib Dem next time, I've put some bets down.
    There will be some that are vulnerable, but most are solid
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    eekeek Posts: 25,007

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    NI can't vote for the Conservatives, unless you regard a vote for the DUP as a proxy Conservative vote?
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,352



    The problem is once you look at overall costs, versus takehome pay, you can end up with very disparate results. The £100 per week extra that he wanted, would cost me much, much, much more than that.

    In the end I couldn't meet his demands as I couldn't afford them. I know from acquaintances he ended up at a competitor that was paying him £100 cash in hand per week on top of his salary. That's cost them £100 cash (which no doubt has dodged VAT and other taxes too) rather than the many multiples of that you end up with once you properly account for all taxes.

    It's grossly inequitable, and I'm in no doubt that many businesses reckon that the risk of getting caught is so small that they might as well skip paying. It doesn't seem politically biased to say that HMRC should be strengthened significantly and the penalties for getting caught (already significant) should be terrifying - basically bankruptcy and prison for repeat offenders. Even if we were entirely dedicated to a free market, it needs to be a fair one where you aren't punished for being honest. If we had that, potentially taxes on business could actually be lowered, since you'd be getting them collected.

    Similar issues arise with income tax for global earnings. When a company in (say) Spain sends me a PayPal payment for a translation, I dutifully report it, but without any confidence that other freelance translators who I know do not will ever be caught.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    edited July 2021

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    So therefore the deal Johnson negotiated, has been a disaster. Why did you not say so at the time, you were telling us how good it was then. What has changed?

    This is really embarrassing Philip, like pulling teeth
    Its not been a disaster. I couldn't care much less about NI, I don't live in NI I live in England and in England the deal is working out great.

    May let the tail wag the dog and prioritised NI over the rest of the UK. Boris quite rightly fudged NI onto the "sort it out later" pile and dealt with England and GB as the priority. Since GB is 97% of the United Kingdom, that was completely the right decision.

    Now its later, we can sort out NI now having sorted out Brexit. Putting to right the wrong May did in agreeing to resolve NI before Brexit.
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,313
    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sure people from all sides will join me in saying that it's great news Wes Streeting has recovered from his cancer

    Great news, wasn’t aware that he was ill. He’s pretty young too, 40s.
    Future leadership material
    Possibly, although my experience of him is limited to his being a total arse as chair of the NUS two decades ago.
    I know him very well. He’s a capable guy, but he has spent his entire adult life in politics or pressure groups. Taking the long view, his lack of experience of life outside politics may prove to be his Achilles.
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    CorrectHorseBatteryCorrectHorseBattery Posts: 21,436
    edited July 2021
    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    NI can't vote for the Conservatives, unless you regard a vote for the DUP as a proxy Conservative vote?
    Maybe they're voting DUP to be anti-Tory? After all, people voting for a party can support whatever they want now, as Philip has shown with his vote for the BXP actually being a vote against them
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    Sean_F said:

    Sean_F said:

    BoJo is absolutely hated by Remainers, goodbye Tory southern seats!

    You do know, most Southern Tory seats voted Leave?
    Seats like Winchester, Guildford, will almost certainly be going Lib Dem next time, I've put some bets down.
    There will be some that are vulnerable, but most are solid
    We will see.
  • Options
    Daveyboy1961Daveyboy1961 Posts: 3,389
    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    NI can't vote for the Conservatives, unless you regard a vote for the DUP as a proxy Conservative vote?
    A few tories stood in the NI constituencies for some reason, didn't make much difference though. I suspect that in a couple of years NI voters will be choosing between FG,FF,Lab, SF etc anyway.
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    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    NI can't vote for the Conservatives, unless you regard a vote for the DUP as a proxy Conservative vote?
    NI can vote for the Conservatives, if the Conservatives put up candidates, which they have done in the past.

    If NI voters choose to ostracise themselves from GB's body politic by not voting for nationwide parties then they shouldn't whinge when GB politicians prioritise GB over NI. That's just democracy in action.
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,352

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
  • Options

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    So therefore the deal Johnson negotiated, has been a disaster. Why did you not say so at the time, you were telling us how good it was then. What has changed?

    This is really embarrassing Philip, like pulling teeth
    Its not been a disaster. I couldn't care much less about NI, I don't live in NI I live in England and in England the deal is working out great.

    May let the tail wag the dog and prioritised NI over the rest of the UK. Boris quite rightly fudged NI onto the "sort it out later" pile and dealt with England and GB as the priority. Since GB is 97% of the United Kingdom, that was completely the right decision.

    Now its later, we can sort out NI now having sorted out Brexit. Putting to right the wrong May did in agreeing to resolve NI before Brexit.
    There we have it, Tories actually hate the people of Northern Ireland, they hate an entire part of the UK.

    Unionist? You're a little Englander, you're not a Tory at all. BXP is where you belong
  • Options
    felixfelix Posts: 15,124

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    Yes - clever point. how long before the penny drops for CHB on that one.
  • Options
    ydoethurydoethur Posts: 67,320
    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    NI can't vote for the Conservatives, unless you regard a vote for the DUP as a proxy Conservative vote?
    WEll, they could - the Tories fielded four candidates.

    But most of them chose not to, those four candidates racking up fewer than 5,500 between them and not one even rising as high as fourth.
  • Options
    felix said:

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    Yes - clever point. how long before the penny drops for CHB on that one.
    Another little Englander, what an utterly despicable attitude you have to the people of NI.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,919



    The problem is once you look at overall costs, versus takehome pay, you can end up with very disparate results. The £100 per week extra that he wanted, would cost me much, much, much more than that.

    In the end I couldn't meet his demands as I couldn't afford them. I know from acquaintances he ended up at a competitor that was paying him £100 cash in hand per week on top of his salary. That's cost them £100 cash (which no doubt has dodged VAT and other taxes too) rather than the many multiples of that you end up with once you properly account for all taxes.

    It's grossly inequitable, and I'm in no doubt that many businesses reckon that the risk of getting caught is so small that they might as well skip paying. It doesn't seem politically biased to say that HMRC should be strengthened significantly and the penalties for getting caught (already significant) should be terrifying - basically bankruptcy and prison for repeat offenders. Even if we were entirely dedicated to a free market, it needs to be a fair one where you aren't punished for being honest. If we had that, potentially taxes on business could actually be lowered, since you'd be getting them collected.

    Similar issues arise with income tax for global earnings. When a company in (say) Spain sends me a PayPal payment for a translation, I dutifully report it, but without any confidence that other freelance translators who I know do not will ever be caught.
    That’s because you’re honest! :)

    Do the “Special Branch” at HMRC who deal with tax returns for MPs, also deal with former MPs?
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    NI can't vote for the Conservatives, unless you regard a vote for the DUP as a proxy Conservative vote?
    Maybe they're voting DUP to be anti-Tory? After all, people voting for a party can support whatever they want now, as Philip has shown with his vote for the BXP actually being a vote against them
    Yes we've been over this I cast a protest vote in the European elections and as a foreseeable result of my protest vote how many BXP MPs are there in Westminster? How many BXP MEPs in Brussels? Oh that's right - zero and zero respectively. Mission accomplished.

    Voting BXP was like pressing the self-destruct button for our MEPs in the European Parliament. Since I didn't mind seeing our MEPs like Farage lose their jobs by pressing the self-destruct button, it was the right thing to do.

    Voting a Westminster election would be completely different and I voted Tory there as I have every election since 2005.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    So therefore the deal Johnson negotiated, has been a disaster. Why did you not say so at the time, you were telling us how good it was then. What has changed?

    This is really embarrassing Philip, like pulling teeth
    Its not been a disaster. I couldn't care much less about NI, I don't live in NI I live in England and in England the deal is working out great.

    May let the tail wag the dog and prioritised NI over the rest of the UK. Boris quite rightly fudged NI onto the "sort it out later" pile and dealt with England and GB as the priority. Since GB is 97% of the United Kingdom, that was completely the right decision.

    Now its later, we can sort out NI now having sorted out Brexit. Putting to right the wrong May did in agreeing to resolve NI before Brexit.
    There we have it, Tories actually hate the people of Northern Ireland, they hate an entire part of the UK.

    Unionist? You're a little Englander, you're not a Tory at all. BXP is where you belong
    I've never claimed to be a Unionist, I even fly a flag in my avatar in case its not obvious - yes I am an unabashed English Nationalist. People accuse Johnson of being one, he's not unfortunately, I am.

    As for NI, I don't hate it, I just don't prioritise it.

    England is the priority for me. NI is the priority for NI voters. Let NI voters elect NI MPs to prioritise NI. Let English voters elect English MPs to prioritise England.
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    IanB2IanB2 Posts: 47,313
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,919
    IanB2 said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sandpit said:

    Sure people from all sides will join me in saying that it's great news Wes Streeting has recovered from his cancer

    Great news, wasn’t aware that he was ill. He’s pretty young too, 40s.
    Future leadership material
    Possibly, although my experience of him is limited to his being a total arse as chair of the NUS two decades ago.
    I know him very well. He’s a capable guy, but he has spent his entire adult life in politics or pressure groups. Taking the long view, his lack of experience of life outside politics may prove to be his Achilles.
    Something that could be said for so many in politics today, of all political viewpoints. Never had a proper job, and has no idea how life works for “ordinary” people.
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    MattWMattW Posts: 18,642
    eek said:

    FF43 said:

    Guess the replies to this:

    Wealth is more unequal in Sweden and Germany than in the UK (higher Gini coefficient = less equal): Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2021; see also https://credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/global-wealth-report.html

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1419943259032412163?s=20

    Sweden is the most unequal country? (Sweden 87.2; USA 85.0; UK 71.7). That's unexpected.
    Seems to be simply wrong. Here's the official list:

    https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gini-coefficient-by-country

    Sweden 28.8, UK 34.8, USA 48
    Might be a question of income vs wealth. Sweden has a relatively equal income distribution owing in part to highly progressive taxation but I would guess its wealth distribution may be highly concentrated as there are a handful of *very* rich families, linked to some of its successful multinationals.
    The IKEA effect. Don't know if IKEA specifically, but the Credit Suisse report supports your theory. Sweden has a larger number of very wealthy individuals compared with similar countries that means the median income as a proportion of the mean income is much smaller.
    Tetra Pak will be another part of it but I do believe it's because of a few very wealthy individuals.
    I thought most of the relevant Rausings had moved to the UK.

  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,731
    IanB2 said:

    Worth a read from Justin Webb...

    Not sure it is.
  • Options
    LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 15,365

    What's interesting about these approval figures is that ABC1 Leavers are the people in the Tory twittersphere, and there's quite a disconnect between them and the C2DE Leavers they need to keep the votes of for the next election.

    Labour aren't the only party at risk of listening only to people in their bubble.

    Culture wars putting them off perhaps?
    Johnson is all talk and no trousers, except when he manages to appoint someone to run something who can actually make that thing happen. We've seen that twice now, with Gilligan and cycle lanes in London, and Bingham with the vaccine taskforce.

    My guess is that eventually the C2DE Leavers will tire of the routine if they don't see any real improvements. So what Johnson needs now is someone he can put in charge of "Levelling-Up" who can deliver something tangible.
    Isn't that true of pretty much every Prime Minister?

    A PM can't "do" that much themselves, they can shape the big picture but whether that's developed and runs into trouble or succeeds very much depends upon others and not just the PM. One of the primary skills of a good PM is helping to identify those who can do well and put them where they're needed.
    I think the difference is especially marked with Johnson because his talk is all the more grandiose and the standard calibre of his underlings/Cabinet is particularly poor.
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    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    I seem to recall @RochdalePioneers assuring us haughtily that supermarkets would never agree to pay more to lorry drivers as it was essentially set in stone?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57983698

    Oh looks as if "market forces" actually do exist afterall. Who could have ever foreseen that? 🤔
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    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,502
    TOPPING said:

    kinabalu said:

    The revelations on misleading hospitalisation number are astounding enough in themselves, but they do not reveal whether the data has been completely bogus just for this wave, or for all waves.

    If true hospitalisations because of covid were bogus for all waves, for example, then the peak of hospitalisations primarily owing to covid was not more than 4,000 a day, it was actually less than two thousand a day....??

    If that is the case, then the notion the NHS was going to be overwhelmed at any stage in the pandemic was one of the biggest lies ever told to the people of Britain by its own government...??

    Am I missing something?

    I think so. You're missing that the NHS was on the very edge of being overwhelmed - and arguably was in places - at 2 stages during the pandemic.
    Fear of being overwhelmed. Let us not forget that it is supposed to be overwhelmed without fail every year according to the Graun.

    But yes, we saw the pictures of Northern Italy and any sane government would have thought: we can't have that here, not in the slightest. And hence they cleared the decks, as @Malmesbury noted. Was it the right decision? Not sure.
    They got to 100%+ of nominal capacity in a number of areas. In some cases massively over 100%.

    They did this by calling in everyone they could find who had medical skills including people nominally still in training.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,007
    edited July 2021

    I seem to recall @RochdalePioneers assuring us haughtily that supermarkets would never agree to pay more to lorry drivers as it was essentially set in stone?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57983698

    Oh looks as if "market forces" actually do exist afterall. Who could have ever foreseen that? 🤔

    I don't remember either of us saying that - what we said was that the agencies wouldn't be in a position to pay those sort of offers because supermarkets keep costs low.

    Mind you it's worth looking at the actual job advert https://www.tesco-careers.com/jobdetails/641063/

    20 days holiday rising to 22 tells you everything you need to know about the treatment of drivers even now.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,502
    DavidL said:

    The gap between ABC1 Leavers and C2DE Leavers is interesting. The current Tory party is basically a party of, by and for ABC1 Leavers, masquerading as one that has the interests of C2DE Leavers at heart (it doesn't give two shits about Remainers of any background).

    Are C2DE Leavers starting to get this? It would be nice to think so, but I'm sceptical for now.

    ABC1 Leavers seem to feel more strongly - both more pro-Johnson and anti-Starmer, perhaps because they are more aware of their detailed involvement? Might also explain why ABC1 Remainers are more pro-Starmer, though in general class seems to matter much less than the Leave/Remain split.
    I think there is a tendency for richer and more educated people to pay more attention to politics in general. More free time, and a political discourse more tuned to their preoccupations.
    Look at PB for instance, or "what has Waitrose run out of this week" as I like to call it.
    Surely we cannot beat the absolute essential of ready flaked parmesan cheese? What more proof of the complete collapse of civilisation as we know it do we need?
    Ready flaked parmesan is the kind of thing you put on pineapple pizza, while listening to Radiohead and coding in python. Returning untyped arrays.......

    When I am unDictator of Britain.....
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    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,919

    TOPPING said:

    kinabalu said:

    The revelations on misleading hospitalisation number are astounding enough in themselves, but they do not reveal whether the data has been completely bogus just for this wave, or for all waves.

    If true hospitalisations because of covid were bogus for all waves, for example, then the peak of hospitalisations primarily owing to covid was not more than 4,000 a day, it was actually less than two thousand a day....??

    If that is the case, then the notion the NHS was going to be overwhelmed at any stage in the pandemic was one of the biggest lies ever told to the people of Britain by its own government...??

    Am I missing something?

    I think so. You're missing that the NHS was on the very edge of being overwhelmed - and arguably was in places - at 2 stages during the pandemic.
    Fear of being overwhelmed. Let us not forget that it is supposed to be overwhelmed without fail every year according to the Graun.

    But yes, we saw the pictures of Northern Italy and any sane government would have thought: we can't have that here, not in the slightest. And hence they cleared the decks, as @Malmesbury noted. Was it the right decision? Not sure.
    They got to 100%+ of nominal capacity in a number of areas. In some cases massively over 100%.

    They did this by calling in everyone they could find who had medical skills including people nominally still in training.
    Also including a number of retired people, many in the vulnerable categories, some of whom paid the ultimate price for their dedication.

    When this is all done, we need to formally remember them.
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    MattWMattW Posts: 18,642
    edited July 2021

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
    That 'equivalent' retaliation is 'permitted'. Perhaps also that 'equivalent' can be in unrelated areas.

    The referral would not be to the European Court aiui, but to the neutral structures ("joint committee"?) set up to arbitrate disputes.

    The role of the European Court is restricted to matters related to the interpretation of EU Law where mentioned in the treaty. I do not think that the ECJ be sure to have jurisdiction over article 16.

    That is not all of it, but I think it is a gist. I have read the NIP but not recently.

    AIUI the EuCo have so far only begun to take action under areas presided over by the ECJ. Which suggests they are not going all out, or are scared they may not win, if they go for other areas.

    Plus I guess the loss of power of having played a final card.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,502
    eek said:

    I seem to recall @RochdalePioneers assuring us haughtily that supermarkets would never agree to pay more to lorry drivers as it was essentially set in stone?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57983698

    Oh looks as if "market forces" actually do exist afterall. Who could have ever foreseen that? 🤔

    I don't remember either of us saying that - what we said was that the agencies wouldn't be in a position to pay those sort of offers because supermarkets keep costs low.

    Supermarkets have kept costs low by some pretty startling tactics. Tesco building a negotiation centre, custom designed so that suppliers can be brow-beaten by teams of negotiators, using room designs from books on interrogations....

    Fuck 'em if they can't take the joke.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    eek said:

    I seem to recall @RochdalePioneers assuring us haughtily that supermarkets would never agree to pay more to lorry drivers as it was essentially set in stone?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57983698

    Oh looks as if "market forces" actually do exist afterall. Who could have ever foreseen that? 🤔

    I don't remember either of us saying that - what we said was that the agencies wouldn't be in a position to pay those sort of offers because supermarkets keep costs low.

    Mind you it's worth looking at the actual job advert https://www.tesco-careers.com/jobdetails/641063/

    20 days holiday rising to 22 tells you everything you need to know about the treatment of drivers even now.
    20 days holiday (plus bank holidays) is the law. That's pretty standard in much of the private sector.

    Rising to 22 is 10% higher than much of the country gets.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610
    MattW said:

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
    That 'equivalent' retaliation is 'permitted'. Perhaps also that 'equivalent' can be in unrelated areas.

    The referral would not be to the European Court aiui, but to the neutral structures ("joint committee"?) set up to arbitrate disputes.

    The role of the European Court is restricted to matters related to the interpretation of EU Law where mentioned in the treaty. I do not think that the ECJ be sure to have jurisdiction over article 16.

    That is not all of it, but I think it is a gist. I have read the NIP but not recently.

    AIUI the EuCo have so far only begun to take action under areas presided over by the ECJ. Which suggests they are not going all out, or are scared they may not win, if they go for other areas.
    The other issue is ability to enforce an ECJ judgement on the UK. The reason the EU wouldn't go down that road is that the ECJ is no longer a recognised court in the UK and they have no ability to enforce any judgement it hands down. The UK government would, rightly, ignore any ruling and just keep on doing what it's doing without a second thought.

    As I said at the time, I really was shocked that the EU gave up ECJ jurisdiction over EU/UK matters. I guess for them a bad deal was better than no deal and from an EU perspective the TCA is a pretty awful deal.
  • Options
    MattWMattW Posts: 18,642
    MaxPB said:

    MattW said:

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
    That 'equivalent' retaliation is 'permitted'. Perhaps also that 'equivalent' can be in unrelated areas.

    The referral would not be to the European Court aiui, but to the neutral structures ("joint committee"?) set up to arbitrate disputes.

    The role of the European Court is restricted to matters related to the interpretation of EU Law where mentioned in the treaty. I do not think that the ECJ be sure to have jurisdiction over article 16.

    That is not all of it, but I think it is a gist. I have read the NIP but not recently.

    AIUI the EuCo have so far only begun to take action under areas presided over by the ECJ. Which suggests they are not going all out, or are scared they may not win, if they go for other areas.
    The other issue is ability to enforce an ECJ judgement on the UK. The reason the EU wouldn't go down that road is that the ECJ is no longer a recognised court in the UK and they have no ability to enforce any judgement it hands down. The UK government would, rightly, ignore any ruling and just keep on doing what it's doing without a second thought.

    As I said at the time, I really was shocked that the EU gave up ECJ jurisdiction over EU/UK matters. I guess for them a bad deal was better than no deal and from an EU perspective the TCA is a pretty awful deal.
    Is that a result of them excluding the UK from the Lugano Convention for Civil Court Order enforcement?

    That would be a wonderful irony.
  • Options
    felixfelix Posts: 15,124
    edited July 2021

    felix said:

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    Yes - clever point. how long before the penny drops for CHB on that one.
    Another little Englander, what an utterly despicable attitude you have to the people of NI.
    People have to take responsibility for their actions. The people in NI have repeatedly made appalling choices. The notion that NI can dictate the entire Brexit arrangement is simply not sustainable. Some form of Irish unification is both inevitable and the right future for the people of NI. The most despicable attitude to the province seen in recent times was when the EU came within a hair's breath of invoking Article 16 through their blind rage at being comprehensively out-manouevred on vaccines. Their attitude remains still one which seeks to weaponise the issue as a stick with which to punish the UK. The term you need is 'lttle European'.
  • Options
    SelebianSelebian Posts: 7,468
    algarkirk said:

    While it seems overwhelmingly probable that Boris's wheels will come off at some point I'm not sure that it is now or soon.

    Lockdowns and clear rules are both comprehensible and fairly popular with a large group of Tory voters who have an unfortunate propensity for authoritarianism. SFAICS a few would be quite pleased if they all went on for ever.

    Obvs it and they are all bonkers, but they all vote.

    The current stage has nothing in it for any of the Toryish groups. Libertarians are ATM a lost cause. Authoritarians don't like the opening up or the uncertainty. Boris is far from his best at a moment where he has to explain there are no Covid laws, except that there are, and lots more to come.

    Many older Tory voters don't like either freedom or the talk of 'passports', especially if it involves digital gadgets, for some of them are less comfortable with that than they are with proper blue passports you can wave at Johnny foreigner.

    And the absence of actual laws of distancing, masks etc means that everyone has to do what is right in their own eyes. Many older Tories prefer being told what to do. And they don't like the confusion in government.

    So I don't think Boris's wheels have come off, but we are in for a season of confusing trench warfare for most of the rest of the year.

    I agree.

    And couple to that, if the unlocking goes well without crashing the NHS/needing to reimpose restrictions (and indications are that it is going well) then he will get and deserve praise for having the balls to do it, in the face of the various naysayers. He might be criticised for the delay, but there was no one serious making the running on reopening fully in June, so no one to benefit from saying he was too cautious. Those who criticised the 19 July changes will look silly.

    I say all this as someone who thinks Johnson is unfit to be PM for a number of reasons. Many mistakes were made by his government during this pandemic. But vaccines have been done pretty well (excellent start, could have followed through a little better, but the most vulnerable were already done by then) and he had the balls to make (it seems, so far) the right call on 19 July. So the vaccine efforts do seem to have had tangible benfits not only in reducing deaths but also getting us back to normal.

    Starmer has been a mess on this and vaccine passports and a mess through much of the pandemic. The LDs have done a bit better at least in having a clear position on vaccine passports (a liberal one, even!).

    I expect Johnson to continue to balls many things up before he is eventually forced out, but he deserves credit just now. Starmer needs to decide what he believes in and work out how to communicate that. The LDs are, for now, largley irrelevant. They may become more so if they're the only people scrutinising extensions of Covid legislation and vaccine passports.
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,007
    edited July 2021

    eek said:

    I seem to recall @RochdalePioneers assuring us haughtily that supermarkets would never agree to pay more to lorry drivers as it was essentially set in stone?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57983698

    Oh looks as if "market forces" actually do exist afterall. Who could have ever foreseen that? 🤔

    I don't remember either of us saying that - what we said was that the agencies wouldn't be in a position to pay those sort of offers because supermarkets keep costs low.

    Mind you it's worth looking at the actual job advert https://www.tesco-careers.com/jobdetails/641063/

    20 days holiday rising to 22 tells you everything you need to know about the treatment of drivers even now.
    20 days holiday (plus bank holidays) is the law. That's pretty standard in much of the private sector.

    Rising to 22 is 10% higher than much of the country gets.
    Yet a public sector job will likely give you a minimum of 25 days - the issue that a lot of firms have is that drivers have seen that other sectors offer equivalent or better pay without the hassle of being away from home in a tin can overnight.

    Remember the main complaint about driving is not just that the pay is bad, but every other part of the job is bad as well.

    What I find interesting is that your viewpoint is that 22 days is great, mine is that it really, really isn't.

    There is a firm currently trying to recruitment me who are offering 30 days with bank holidays on top (38 total) - and I'm not that interested....

  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,343

    DavidL said:

    The gap between ABC1 Leavers and C2DE Leavers is interesting. The current Tory party is basically a party of, by and for ABC1 Leavers, masquerading as one that has the interests of C2DE Leavers at heart (it doesn't give two shits about Remainers of any background).

    Are C2DE Leavers starting to get this? It would be nice to think so, but I'm sceptical for now.

    ABC1 Leavers seem to feel more strongly - both more pro-Johnson and anti-Starmer, perhaps because they are more aware of their detailed involvement? Might also explain why ABC1 Remainers are more pro-Starmer, though in general class seems to matter much less than the Leave/Remain split.
    I think there is a tendency for richer and more educated people to pay more attention to politics in general. More free time, and a political discourse more tuned to their preoccupations.
    Look at PB for instance, or "what has Waitrose run out of this week" as I like to call it.
    Surely we cannot beat the absolute essential of ready flaked parmesan cheese? What more proof of the complete collapse of civilisation as we know it do we need?
    Ready flaked parmesan is the kind of thing you put on pineapple pizza, while listening to Radiohead and coding in python. Returning untyped arrays.......

    When I am unDictator of Britain.....
    This is blatant diversion. The lack of ready flaked parmesan was conclusive proof that Brexit is a disaster and that the world is collapsing. I take all of my hundreds of posts pointing out that we would hardly notice the economic effect of Brexit back. Clearly I was wrong. I voted for Brexit with a reckless disregard to the supply chain effects on ready flaked parmesan. I admit it. 😢
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610
    MattW said:

    MaxPB said:

    MattW said:

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
    That 'equivalent' retaliation is 'permitted'. Perhaps also that 'equivalent' can be in unrelated areas.

    The referral would not be to the European Court aiui, but to the neutral structures ("joint committee"?) set up to arbitrate disputes.

    The role of the European Court is restricted to matters related to the interpretation of EU Law where mentioned in the treaty. I do not think that the ECJ be sure to have jurisdiction over article 16.

    That is not all of it, but I think it is a gist. I have read the NIP but not recently.

    AIUI the EuCo have so far only begun to take action under areas presided over by the ECJ. Which suggests they are not going all out, or are scared they may not win, if they go for other areas.
    The other issue is ability to enforce an ECJ judgement on the UK. The reason the EU wouldn't go down that road is that the ECJ is no longer a recognised court in the UK and they have no ability to enforce any judgement it hands down. The UK government would, rightly, ignore any ruling and just keep on doing what it's doing without a second thought.

    As I said at the time, I really was shocked that the EU gave up ECJ jurisdiction over EU/UK matters. I guess for them a bad deal was better than no deal and from an EU perspective the TCA is a pretty awful deal.
    Is that a result of them excluding the UK from the Lugano Convention for Civil Court Order enforcement?

    That would be a wonderful irony.
    No, that's for civil cases/judgements, this is part of the TCA which precludes the ECJ having any jurisdiction over the deal. The Lugano Convention just makes it more difficult for EU and UK consumers to seek compensation from companies in each others jurisdictions. So a UK consumer now has to sue Volkswagen UK rather than Volkswagen AG (the parent) which is based in the EU. Contracting parties will just have a slightly tougher road, and really for nothing more than pettiness.
  • Options
    OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,126
    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    The gap between ABC1 Leavers and C2DE Leavers is interesting. The current Tory party is basically a party of, by and for ABC1 Leavers, masquerading as one that has the interests of C2DE Leavers at heart (it doesn't give two shits about Remainers of any background).

    Are C2DE Leavers starting to get this? It would be nice to think so, but I'm sceptical for now.

    ABC1 Leavers seem to feel more strongly - both more pro-Johnson and anti-Starmer, perhaps because they are more aware of their detailed involvement? Might also explain why ABC1 Remainers are more pro-Starmer, though in general class seems to matter much less than the Leave/Remain split.
    I think there is a tendency for richer and more educated people to pay more attention to politics in general. More free time, and a political discourse more tuned to their preoccupations.
    Look at PB for instance, or "what has Waitrose run out of this week" as I like to call it.
    Surely we cannot beat the absolute essential of ready flaked parmesan cheese? What more proof of the complete collapse of civilisation as we know it do we need?
    Ready flaked parmesan is the kind of thing you put on pineapple pizza, while listening to Radiohead and coding in python. Returning untyped arrays.......

    When I am unDictator of Britain.....
    This is blatant diversion. The lack of ready flaked parmesan was conclusive proof that Brexit is a disaster and that the world is collapsing. I take all of my hundreds of posts pointing out that we would hardly notice the economic effect of Brexit back. Clearly I was wrong. I voted for Brexit with a reckless disregard to the supply chain effects on ready flaked parmesan. I admit it. 😢
    You voted for it. If you don't like it, hard cheese!
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,502
    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    The gap between ABC1 Leavers and C2DE Leavers is interesting. The current Tory party is basically a party of, by and for ABC1 Leavers, masquerading as one that has the interests of C2DE Leavers at heart (it doesn't give two shits about Remainers of any background).

    Are C2DE Leavers starting to get this? It would be nice to think so, but I'm sceptical for now.

    ABC1 Leavers seem to feel more strongly - both more pro-Johnson and anti-Starmer, perhaps because they are more aware of their detailed involvement? Might also explain why ABC1 Remainers are more pro-Starmer, though in general class seems to matter much less than the Leave/Remain split.
    I think there is a tendency for richer and more educated people to pay more attention to politics in general. More free time, and a political discourse more tuned to their preoccupations.
    Look at PB for instance, or "what has Waitrose run out of this week" as I like to call it.
    Surely we cannot beat the absolute essential of ready flaked parmesan cheese? What more proof of the complete collapse of civilisation as we know it do we need?
    Ready flaked parmesan is the kind of thing you put on pineapple pizza, while listening to Radiohead and coding in python. Returning untyped arrays.......

    When I am unDictator of Britain.....
    This is blatant diversion. The lack of ready flaked parmesan was conclusive proof that Brexit is a disaster and that the world is collapsing. I take all of my hundreds of posts pointing out that we would hardly notice the economic effect of Brexit back. Clearly I was wrong. I voted for Brexit with a reckless disregard to the supply chain effects on ready flaked parmesan. I admit it. 😢
    No, it is part of my master plan.

    First the flaked parmesan runs out. Then Radiohead albums are no longer available. Then a copyright issue makes python unusable in the UK......

    Then I strike.
  • Options
    RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 27,264

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    The *act* of Brexit is done. The *effects* of Brexit are ongoing.
    That's fair. And they'll be ongoing for the rest of our lives. History doesn't end.
    Whither "get Brexit done". From a practical perspective, we've barely begun...
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,370
    edited July 2021

    TOPPING said:

    kinabalu said:

    The revelations on misleading hospitalisation number are astounding enough in themselves, but they do not reveal whether the data has been completely bogus just for this wave, or for all waves.

    If true hospitalisations because of covid were bogus for all waves, for example, then the peak of hospitalisations primarily owing to covid was not more than 4,000 a day, it was actually less than two thousand a day....??

    If that is the case, then the notion the NHS was going to be overwhelmed at any stage in the pandemic was one of the biggest lies ever told to the people of Britain by its own government...??

    Am I missing something?

    I think so. You're missing that the NHS was on the very edge of being overwhelmed - and arguably was in places - at 2 stages during the pandemic.
    Fear of being overwhelmed. Let us not forget that it is supposed to be overwhelmed without fail every year according to the Graun.

    But yes, we saw the pictures of Northern Italy and any sane government would have thought: we can't have that here, not in the slightest. And hence they cleared the decks, as @Malmesbury noted. Was it the right decision? Not sure.
    They got to 100%+ of nominal capacity in a number of areas. In some cases massively over 100%.
    No they didn't.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    MaxPB said:

    MattW said:

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
    That 'equivalent' retaliation is 'permitted'. Perhaps also that 'equivalent' can be in unrelated areas.

    The referral would not be to the European Court aiui, but to the neutral structures ("joint committee"?) set up to arbitrate disputes.

    The role of the European Court is restricted to matters related to the interpretation of EU Law where mentioned in the treaty. I do not think that the ECJ be sure to have jurisdiction over article 16.

    That is not all of it, but I think it is a gist. I have read the NIP but not recently.

    AIUI the EuCo have so far only begun to take action under areas presided over by the ECJ. Which suggests they are not going all out, or are scared they may not win, if they go for other areas.
    The other issue is ability to enforce an ECJ judgement on the UK. The reason the EU wouldn't go down that road is that the ECJ is no longer a recognised court in the UK and they have no ability to enforce any judgement it hands down. The UK government would, rightly, ignore any ruling and just keep on doing what it's doing without a second thought.

    As I said at the time, I really was shocked that the EU gave up ECJ jurisdiction over EU/UK matters. I guess for them a bad deal was better than no deal and from an EU perspective the TCA is a pretty awful deal.
    What Remainers are struggling with mentally, why they keep relying on the notion of "but Boris agreed this so why is Boris looking to renegotiate" is they're not familiar with the ratchett effect in European politics since it worked in their favour in the past.

    Boris having got a good deal in the TCA that removes the ECJ etc can now go back to the negotiating table to get a better deal for NI. Which is what the EU had spent five years prioritising and is now coming undone for them since we have the ability to invoke Article 16 and they have limited room to retaliate.

    Previously no sooner had we passed an EU Treaty like Maastricht and the Eurocrats were already planning for the next one. Like Nice and Lisbon. Now that same effect can work to Boris and Frost's favour and there's little Remainers can do about it other than to Tweet each other about how mad it is that Boris is renegotiating his own deal.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,502
    felix said:

    felix said:

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    Yes - clever point. how long before the penny drops for CHB on that one.
    Another little Englander, what an utterly despicable attitude you have to the people of NI.
    People have to take responsibility for their actions. The people in NI have repeatedly made appalling choices. The notion that NI can dictate the entire Brexit arrangement is simply not sustainable. Some form of Irish unification is both inevitable and the right future for the people of NI. The most despicable attitude to the province seen in recent times was when the EU came within a hair's breath of invoking Article 16 through their blind rage at being comprehensively out-manouevred on vaccines. Their attitude remains still one which seeks to weaponise the issue as a stick with which to punish the UK. The term you need is 'lttle European'.
    Given that they had the SDLP, Alliance, UUP to vote for, who did the NI voting public chose?

    DUP & the Shiners.

    As someone born in NI - they deserve exactly what they voted for.
  • Options
    felixfelix Posts: 15,124
    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    The gap between ABC1 Leavers and C2DE Leavers is interesting. The current Tory party is basically a party of, by and for ABC1 Leavers, masquerading as one that has the interests of C2DE Leavers at heart (it doesn't give two shits about Remainers of any background).

    Are C2DE Leavers starting to get this? It would be nice to think so, but I'm sceptical for now.

    ABC1 Leavers seem to feel more strongly - both more pro-Johnson and anti-Starmer, perhaps because they are more aware of their detailed involvement? Might also explain why ABC1 Remainers are more pro-Starmer, though in general class seems to matter much less than the Leave/Remain split.
    I think there is a tendency for richer and more educated people to pay more attention to politics in general. More free time, and a political discourse more tuned to their preoccupations.
    Look at PB for instance, or "what has Waitrose run out of this week" as I like to call it.
    Surely we cannot beat the absolute essential of ready flaked parmesan cheese? What more proof of the complete collapse of civilisation as we know it do we need?
    Ready flaked parmesan is the kind of thing you put on pineapple pizza, while listening to Radiohead and coding in python. Returning untyped arrays.......

    When I am unDictator of Britain.....
    This is blatant diversion. The lack of ready flaked parmesan was conclusive proof that Brexit is a disaster and that the world is collapsing. I take all of my hundreds of posts pointing out that we would hardly notice the economic effect of Brexit back. Clearly I was wrong. I voted for Brexit with a reckless disregard to the supply chain effects on ready flaked parmesan. I admit it. 😢
    Surely for anyone with a palate ready flaked parmesan is an abomination. Maybe some of our 'sophisticated m/c remainers' are just a little bit not quite the thing!
  • Options
    eekeek Posts: 25,007

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    The *act* of Brexit is done. The *effects* of Brexit are ongoing.
    That's fair. And they'll be ongoing for the rest of our lives. History doesn't end.
    Whither "get Brexit done". From a practical perspective, we've barely begun...
    I wonder if that is the issue here

    Brexiters believed that Brexit was a one off exercise, while everyone else knew it was an ongoing project which probably featured death by a million little gains and losses.

    Something that we didn't need to worry about when in the EU....
  • Options
    felixfelix Posts: 15,124

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    The gap between ABC1 Leavers and C2DE Leavers is interesting. The current Tory party is basically a party of, by and for ABC1 Leavers, masquerading as one that has the interests of C2DE Leavers at heart (it doesn't give two shits about Remainers of any background).

    Are C2DE Leavers starting to get this? It would be nice to think so, but I'm sceptical for now.

    ABC1 Leavers seem to feel more strongly - both more pro-Johnson and anti-Starmer, perhaps because they are more aware of their detailed involvement? Might also explain why ABC1 Remainers are more pro-Starmer, though in general class seems to matter much less than the Leave/Remain split.
    I think there is a tendency for richer and more educated people to pay more attention to politics in general. More free time, and a political discourse more tuned to their preoccupations.
    Look at PB for instance, or "what has Waitrose run out of this week" as I like to call it.
    Surely we cannot beat the absolute essential of ready flaked parmesan cheese? What more proof of the complete collapse of civilisation as we know it do we need?
    Ready flaked parmesan is the kind of thing you put on pineapple pizza, while listening to Radiohead and coding in python. Returning untyped arrays.......

    When I am unDictator of Britain.....
    This is blatant diversion. The lack of ready flaked parmesan was conclusive proof that Brexit is a disaster and that the world is collapsing. I take all of my hundreds of posts pointing out that we would hardly notice the economic effect of Brexit back. Clearly I was wrong. I voted for Brexit with a reckless disregard to the supply chain effects on ready flaked parmesan. I admit it. 😢
    You voted for it. If you don't like it, hard cheese!
    Oooh clever bet that grated on his nerves!
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,985
    eek said:

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    The *act* of Brexit is done. The *effects* of Brexit are ongoing.
    That's fair. And they'll be ongoing for the rest of our lives. History doesn't end.
    Whither "get Brexit done". From a practical perspective, we've barely begun...
    I wonder if that is the issue here

    Brexiters believed that Brexit was a one off exercise, while everyone else knew it was an ongoing project which probably featured death by a million little gains and losses.

    Something that we didn't need to worry about when in the EU....
    Isn't it the same inside, an ongoing project of relentless integration and centralisation?
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,343
    MattW said:

    MaxPB said:

    MattW said:

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
    That 'equivalent' retaliation is 'permitted'. Perhaps also that 'equivalent' can be in unrelated areas.

    The referral would not be to the European Court aiui, but to the neutral structures ("joint committee"?) set up to arbitrate disputes.

    The role of the European Court is restricted to matters related to the interpretation of EU Law where mentioned in the treaty. I do not think that the ECJ be sure to have jurisdiction over article 16.

    That is not all of it, but I think it is a gist. I have read the NIP but not recently.

    AIUI the EuCo have so far only begun to take action under areas presided over by the ECJ. Which suggests they are not going all out, or are scared they may not win, if they go for other areas.
    The other issue is ability to enforce an ECJ judgement on the UK. The reason the EU wouldn't go down that road is that the ECJ is no longer a recognised court in the UK and they have no ability to enforce any judgement it hands down. The UK government would, rightly, ignore any ruling and just keep on doing what it's doing without a second thought.

    As I said at the time, I really was shocked that the EU gave up ECJ jurisdiction over EU/UK matters. I guess for them a bad deal was better than no deal and from an EU perspective the TCA is a pretty awful deal.
    Is that a result of them excluding the UK from the Lugano Convention for Civil Court Order enforcement?

    That would be a wonderful irony.
    One of the major effects of the Lugano Convention, and indeed the Brussels Conventions for EU members, is that the power of the court to disregard a decision on the grounds that it is contrary to public policy is severely curtailed. Without us being signatories to the Convention the Courts could have regard to the much broader common law power and are likely to conclude that it is contrary to the public interest to give effect to a ruling by a political court that we have specifically renounced the jurisdiction of.

    For most countries we have pre-existing treaties reflected in UK statutes that allow mutual enforcement of judgments. These have largely been in abeyance because the Brussels Convention was both cheaper and easier to comply with. Businesses will have to go back to the statutes in future.
  • Options
    Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    The *act* of Brexit is done. The *effects* of Brexit are ongoing.
    That's fair. And they'll be ongoing for the rest of our lives. History doesn't end.
    Whither "get Brexit done". From a practical perspective, we've barely begun...
    Brexit is done.

    Post-Brexit isn't done and won't end.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,502
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    kinabalu said:

    The revelations on misleading hospitalisation number are astounding enough in themselves, but they do not reveal whether the data has been completely bogus just for this wave, or for all waves.

    If true hospitalisations because of covid were bogus for all waves, for example, then the peak of hospitalisations primarily owing to covid was not more than 4,000 a day, it was actually less than two thousand a day....??

    If that is the case, then the notion the NHS was going to be overwhelmed at any stage in the pandemic was one of the biggest lies ever told to the people of Britain by its own government...??

    Am I missing something?

    I think so. You're missing that the NHS was on the very edge of being overwhelmed - and arguably was in places - at 2 stages during the pandemic.
    Fear of being overwhelmed. Let us not forget that it is supposed to be overwhelmed without fail every year according to the Graun.

    But yes, we saw the pictures of Northern Italy and any sane government would have thought: we can't have that here, not in the slightest. And hence they cleared the decks, as @Malmesbury noted. Was it the right decision? Not sure.
    They got to 100%+ of nominal capacity in a number of areas. In some cases massively over 100%.
    No they didn't.
    Yes, they did.

    Quite literally - intensive care beds were increased beyond original capacity. Staff found anywhere and everywhere to man them....

    In some hospitals they were well beyond 100% of original capacity and getting close to the limits of the new, duct-tape-and-string capacity.
  • Options
    felixfelix Posts: 15,124

    felix said:

    felix said:

    Aslan said:

    Voters will surely only take so much nonsense.

    They were told Brexit was done in the 2019 GE, that's why many voted for Johnson. Yet it's evidently not done, patience will surely run out

    I think you misunderstand Brexit voters. For everyone in Great Britain, we are no longer subject to the rule of the European Commission, we can and are limiting EU immigration, and we can sign trade deals around the world. That is Brexit done, regardless of the endless difficulties in Northern Ireland.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite his own Brexit deal if Brexit is finished?
    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.
    Why is Boris Johnson trying to rewrite the NI Protocol he asked for and negotiated? NI is part of Brexit, I know you don't like to admit that but the people of NI understand that
    NI is not part of Brexit. NI is part of the UK. A pretty trivial and minor part of it, lets be honest, but still a part all the same.

    If the voters in NI are unhappy then they can vote accordingly and not vote Conservative at the next election.
    Yes - clever point. how long before the penny drops for CHB on that one.
    Another little Englander, what an utterly despicable attitude you have to the people of NI.
    People have to take responsibility for their actions. The people in NI have repeatedly made appalling choices. The notion that NI can dictate the entire Brexit arrangement is simply not sustainable. Some form of Irish unification is both inevitable and the right future for the people of NI. The most despicable attitude to the province seen in recent times was when the EU came within a hair's breath of invoking Article 16 through their blind rage at being comprehensively out-manouevred on vaccines. Their attitude remains still one which seeks to weaponise the issue as a stick with which to punish the UK. The term you need is 'lttle European'.
    Given that they had the SDLP, Alliance, UUP to vote for, who did the NI voting public chose?

    DUP & the Shiners.

    As someone born in NI - they deserve exactly what they voted for.
    Absolutely.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610

    MaxPB said:

    MattW said:

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
    That 'equivalent' retaliation is 'permitted'. Perhaps also that 'equivalent' can be in unrelated areas.

    The referral would not be to the European Court aiui, but to the neutral structures ("joint committee"?) set up to arbitrate disputes.

    The role of the European Court is restricted to matters related to the interpretation of EU Law where mentioned in the treaty. I do not think that the ECJ be sure to have jurisdiction over article 16.

    That is not all of it, but I think it is a gist. I have read the NIP but not recently.

    AIUI the EuCo have so far only begun to take action under areas presided over by the ECJ. Which suggests they are not going all out, or are scared they may not win, if they go for other areas.
    The other issue is ability to enforce an ECJ judgement on the UK. The reason the EU wouldn't go down that road is that the ECJ is no longer a recognised court in the UK and they have no ability to enforce any judgement it hands down. The UK government would, rightly, ignore any ruling and just keep on doing what it's doing without a second thought.

    As I said at the time, I really was shocked that the EU gave up ECJ jurisdiction over EU/UK matters. I guess for them a bad deal was better than no deal and from an EU perspective the TCA is a pretty awful deal.
    What Remainers are struggling with mentally, why they keep relying on the notion of "but Boris agreed this so why is Boris looking to renegotiate" is they're not familiar with the ratchett effect in European politics since it worked in their favour in the past.

    Boris having got a good deal in the TCA that removes the ECJ etc can now go back to the negotiating table to get a better deal for NI. Which is what the EU had spent five years prioritising and is now coming undone for them since we have the ability to invoke Article 16 and they have limited room to retaliate.

    Previously no sooner had we passed an EU Treaty like Maastricht and the Eurocrats were already planning for the next one. Like Nice and Lisbon. Now that same effect can work to Boris and Frost's favour and there's little Remainers can do about it other than to Tweet each other about how mad it is that Boris is renegotiating his own deal.
    The issue is that the retaliation is limited in scope to NI matters and the ultimate sanction is to put up a border on the island of Ireland (as they threatened to do previously). The UK pulling the trigger on A16 would be to ensure no border between GB and NI is erected so within the scope of that it would be tough for them to do something not border related or push into the wider TCA which is an entirely separate deal (on their insistence, no less).

    The whole WA/NI protocol is a disaster, there's no doubt about it. The disaster is on both sides, it's not a wholly UK issue or a wholly EU issue. Both sides need to show some level of flexibility and compromise. The UK has already done so by accepting, in principle, a GB/NI border, the EU has not responded in kind with the promised trusted trader scheme so the UK acting to look after its own interests by no longer adhering to the previously agreed principle of a GB/NI border is quite fair.
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,444

    Philip is so deep into the cult that he won't acknowledge that the deal his leader personally negotiated and signed has been a disaster for NI. That's when you know you're deep down the rabbit hole, I found myself there with Corbyn a few times

    Maybe you've developed a bit since then but your posts on here show how far you still have to go.

    You're young, and your posts make you out to be obviously young like an excited twelve-year old coming out of the cinema having seen the latest Marvel film; "Kewl!"

    Be a bit more measured and sober, and you'll be worth reading.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,370
    edited July 2021

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    kinabalu said:

    The revelations on misleading hospitalisation number are astounding enough in themselves, but they do not reveal whether the data has been completely bogus just for this wave, or for all waves.

    If true hospitalisations because of covid were bogus for all waves, for example, then the peak of hospitalisations primarily owing to covid was not more than 4,000 a day, it was actually less than two thousand a day....??

    If that is the case, then the notion the NHS was going to be overwhelmed at any stage in the pandemic was one of the biggest lies ever told to the people of Britain by its own government...??

    Am I missing something?

    I think so. You're missing that the NHS was on the very edge of being overwhelmed - and arguably was in places - at 2 stages during the pandemic.
    Fear of being overwhelmed. Let us not forget that it is supposed to be overwhelmed without fail every year according to the Graun.

    But yes, we saw the pictures of Northern Italy and any sane government would have thought: we can't have that here, not in the slightest. And hence they cleared the decks, as @Malmesbury noted. Was it the right decision? Not sure.
    They got to 100%+ of nominal capacity in a number of areas. In some cases massively over 100%.
    No they didn't.
    Yes, they did.

    Quite literally - intensive care beds were increased beyond original capacity. Staff found anywhere and everywhere to man them....

    In some hospitals they were well beyond 100% of original capacity and getting close to the limits of the new, duct-tape-and-string capacity.
    Acute beds occupancy:

    2012/13 Q1 87.9%
    2012/13 Q2 86.7%
    2012/13 Q3 87.9%
    2012/13 Q4 89.8%
    2013/14 Q1 88.5%
    2013/14 Q2 86.5%
    2013/14 Q3 87.6%
    2013/14 Q4 89.6%
    2014/15 Q1 88.1%
    2014/15 Q2 87.7%
    2014/15 Q3 89.4%
    2014/15 Q4 90.7%
    2015/16 Q1 88.4%
    2015/16 Q2 87.1%
    2015/16 Q3 89.1%
    2015/16 Q4 91.2%
    2016/17 Q1 90.2%
    2016/17 Q2 89.2%
    2016/17 Q3 90.5%
    2016/17 Q4 91.4%
    2017/18 Q1 89.1%
    2017/18 Q2 89.0%
    2017/18 Q3 90.7%
    2017/18 Q4 92.6%
    2018/19 Q1 89.8%
    2018/19 Q2 88.9%
    2018/19 Q3 90.2%
    2018/19 Q4 91.7%
    2019/20 Q1 90.3%
    2019/20 Q2 90.0%
    2019/20 Q3 92.0%
    2019/20 Q4 88.4%
    2020/21 Q1 63.1%
    2020/21 Q2 77.4%
    2020/21 Q3 83.1%
    2020/21 Q4 83.0%

    Having gone through the regional quarterly breakdowns, I can't find any region in any quarter that had occupancy over 100% (one or two at 100% from the smaller trusts).

    Am I looking in the wrong place, in which case would appreciate a steer.

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/bed-data-overnight/
  • Options
    Dura_AceDura_Ace Posts: 13,012

    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    Sandpit said:




    Ouch. Airflow issue starving the engine?

    'Cold Cat' is an insufficiency of steam pressure in the catapult caused by a fault in the system or setting it for the incorrect TO weight or a/c type.

    I have been off the front of Invincible in 0 deg nozzle instead of 10 deg. A similar mistake with flaps was almost always a death sentence but I prevailed through a cloud of spray and later an artfully raised eyebrow from Cdr Air. I was shaking like Michael J. Fox shitting a penknife out for hours after. Happy days..
    Ooh, so the catapult only half goes, and the engine alone can’t provide sufficient flying speed for the weight of the aircraft. Which in mil ops, includes the weapons complement and can vary wildly even with the same aircraft type.
    That's it. The possibility of a cold cat was always front of mind in the F-14 as we regularly used to launch at 70,000lbs plus. In the D model we couldn't use afterburner on the cat as it didn't have enough yaw authority in case of an engine failure in reheat so we needed a very heavy cat shot.
    Engines spaced too far apart?

    Was it not dangerous to use afterburners at any time, then, or was it just at low airspeed? I can't imagine it would be terribly stable with so much thrust applied asymmetrically.

    Cat failures are going to get very expensive with these F-35s...
    A combination of the relatively wide engine spacing and the mighy 30,000lbf each side available from the F110 engine. The a/c was originally designed for the 20,000lbf TF30 engine. At higher speeds (than takeoff) it wasn't an issue.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,985
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    kinabalu said:

    The revelations on misleading hospitalisation number are astounding enough in themselves, but they do not reveal whether the data has been completely bogus just for this wave, or for all waves.

    If true hospitalisations because of covid were bogus for all waves, for example, then the peak of hospitalisations primarily owing to covid was not more than 4,000 a day, it was actually less than two thousand a day....??

    If that is the case, then the notion the NHS was going to be overwhelmed at any stage in the pandemic was one of the biggest lies ever told to the people of Britain by its own government...??

    Am I missing something?

    I think so. You're missing that the NHS was on the very edge of being overwhelmed - and arguably was in places - at 2 stages during the pandemic.
    Fear of being overwhelmed. Let us not forget that it is supposed to be overwhelmed without fail every year according to the Graun.

    But yes, we saw the pictures of Northern Italy and any sane government would have thought: we can't have that here, not in the slightest. And hence they cleared the decks, as @Malmesbury noted. Was it the right decision? Not sure.
    They got to 100%+ of nominal capacity in a number of areas. In some cases massively over 100%.
    No they didn't.
    Yes, they did.

    Quite literally - intensive care beds were increased beyond original capacity. Staff found anywhere and everywhere to man them....

    In some hospitals they were well beyond 100% of original capacity and getting close to the limits of the new, duct-tape-and-string capacity.
    Acute beds occupancy:

    2012/13 Q1 87.9%
    2012/13 Q2 86.7%
    2012/13 Q3 87.9%
    2012/13 Q4 89.8%
    2013/14 Q1 88.5%
    2013/14 Q2 86.5%
    2013/14 Q3 87.6%
    2013/14 Q4 89.6%
    2014/15 Q1 88.1%
    2014/15 Q2 87.7%
    2014/15 Q3 89.4%
    2014/15 Q4 90.7%
    2015/16 Q1 88.4%
    2015/16 Q2 87.1%
    2015/16 Q3 89.1%
    2015/16 Q4 91.2%
    2016/17 Q1 90.2%
    2016/17 Q2 89.2%
    2016/17 Q3 90.5%
    2016/17 Q4 91.4%
    2017/18 Q1 89.1%
    2017/18 Q2 89.0%
    2017/18 Q3 90.7%
    2017/18 Q4 92.6%
    2018/19 Q1 89.8%
    2018/19 Q2 88.9%
    2018/19 Q3 90.2%
    2018/19 Q4 91.7%
    2019/20 Q1 90.3%
    2019/20 Q2 90.0%
    2019/20 Q3 92.0%
    2019/20 Q4 88.4%
    2020/21 Q1 63.1%
    2020/21 Q2 77.4%
    2020/21 Q3 83.1%
    2020/21 Q4 83.0%

    Having gone through the regional quarterly breakdowns, I can't find any region in any quarter that had occupancy over 100% (one or two at 100% from the smaller trusts.

    Am I looking in the wrong place, in which case would appreciate a steer.

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/bed-data-overnight/
    I suppose it depends how "original capacity" is defined. Current capacity likely includes temporary arrangements.
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,343
    felix said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    The gap between ABC1 Leavers and C2DE Leavers is interesting. The current Tory party is basically a party of, by and for ABC1 Leavers, masquerading as one that has the interests of C2DE Leavers at heart (it doesn't give two shits about Remainers of any background).

    Are C2DE Leavers starting to get this? It would be nice to think so, but I'm sceptical for now.

    ABC1 Leavers seem to feel more strongly - both more pro-Johnson and anti-Starmer, perhaps because they are more aware of their detailed involvement? Might also explain why ABC1 Remainers are more pro-Starmer, though in general class seems to matter much less than the Leave/Remain split.
    I think there is a tendency for richer and more educated people to pay more attention to politics in general. More free time, and a political discourse more tuned to their preoccupations.
    Look at PB for instance, or "what has Waitrose run out of this week" as I like to call it.
    Surely we cannot beat the absolute essential of ready flaked parmesan cheese? What more proof of the complete collapse of civilisation as we know it do we need?
    Ready flaked parmesan is the kind of thing you put on pineapple pizza, while listening to Radiohead and coding in python. Returning untyped arrays.......

    When I am unDictator of Britain.....
    This is blatant diversion. The lack of ready flaked parmesan was conclusive proof that Brexit is a disaster and that the world is collapsing. I take all of my hundreds of posts pointing out that we would hardly notice the economic effect of Brexit back. Clearly I was wrong. I voted for Brexit with a reckless disregard to the supply chain effects on ready flaked parmesan. I admit it. 😢
    You voted for it. If you don't like it, hard cheese!
    Oooh clever bet that grated on his nerves!
    The problem with it is that the cheese is going to be harder much faster if it is already flaked. Which is one of the reasons we just might cope without it after all. There may be others.
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,444
    Sean_F said:

    Sean_F said:

    BoJo is absolutely hated by Remainers, goodbye Tory southern seats!

    You do know, most Southern Tory seats voted Leave?
    Seats like Winchester, Guildford, will almost certainly be going Lib Dem next time, I've put some bets down.
    There will be some that are vulnerable, but most are solid
    I think the A C Grayling crowd are concentrated largely in south-west London, with Winchester having a small outpost of them but not enough to be decisive.

    I think Tory economic policy and performance will be a greater driver of migrating votes to the Lib Dems than Brexit in 2023/4.
  • Options
    RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 27,264
    IanB2 said:
    Fascinating piece. Instinctively I agree with the "fight fire with fire, radicalise the Democratic Party" notion - as the GOP keep slugging away and keep pushing decency back. However, what happens when the extreme polarisation pushes too far and society breaks down?

    It is a fiction. And there have been many similar fictions. But what is remarkably believable about the Republic of Gilead as portrayed in The Handmaid's Tale isn't so much the extreme "Christian" ethos adopted as one side realising the only way for national salvation was to take out the other side. Whilst the attempted coup in January ended in farce, it could have been significantly worse. And thats without the backing of the military.

    America needs to calm down and remember that the enemy of America is not the half of Americans who voted for the other party. How they achieve that I do not know.
  • Options
    FF43FF43 Posts: 15,757
    edited July 2021

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
    Triggering Article 16 buys you one month before the other party can clobber your with countervailing measures - which won't be normal WTO tariffs, but much more focused and punitive ones. In principle A16 is designed for temporary and unforeseen crises, which isn't what the UK government intends on the NIP.

    If the UKG goes down this route I would suggest stopping all Irish Sea checks without telling the EU. It will take them a couple of weeks to work out what's going on. Which is what the Soviet Union did with the Berlin Blockade. Of course that gambit didn't pay off.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,370
    edited July 2021
    RobD said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    kinabalu said:

    The revelations on misleading hospitalisation number are astounding enough in themselves, but they do not reveal whether the data has been completely bogus just for this wave, or for all waves.

    If true hospitalisations because of covid were bogus for all waves, for example, then the peak of hospitalisations primarily owing to covid was not more than 4,000 a day, it was actually less than two thousand a day....??

    If that is the case, then the notion the NHS was going to be overwhelmed at any stage in the pandemic was one of the biggest lies ever told to the people of Britain by its own government...??

    Am I missing something?

    I think so. You're missing that the NHS was on the very edge of being overwhelmed - and arguably was in places - at 2 stages during the pandemic.
    Fear of being overwhelmed. Let us not forget that it is supposed to be overwhelmed without fail every year according to the Graun.

    But yes, we saw the pictures of Northern Italy and any sane government would have thought: we can't have that here, not in the slightest. And hence they cleared the decks, as @Malmesbury noted. Was it the right decision? Not sure.
    They got to 100%+ of nominal capacity in a number of areas. In some cases massively over 100%.
    No they didn't.
    Yes, they did.

    Quite literally - intensive care beds were increased beyond original capacity. Staff found anywhere and everywhere to man them....

    In some hospitals they were well beyond 100% of original capacity and getting close to the limits of the new, duct-tape-and-string capacity.
    Acute beds occupancy:

    2012/13 Q1 87.9%
    2012/13 Q2 86.7%
    2012/13 Q3 87.9%
    2012/13 Q4 89.8%
    2013/14 Q1 88.5%
    2013/14 Q2 86.5%
    2013/14 Q3 87.6%
    2013/14 Q4 89.6%
    2014/15 Q1 88.1%
    2014/15 Q2 87.7%
    2014/15 Q3 89.4%
    2014/15 Q4 90.7%
    2015/16 Q1 88.4%
    2015/16 Q2 87.1%
    2015/16 Q3 89.1%
    2015/16 Q4 91.2%
    2016/17 Q1 90.2%
    2016/17 Q2 89.2%
    2016/17 Q3 90.5%
    2016/17 Q4 91.4%
    2017/18 Q1 89.1%
    2017/18 Q2 89.0%
    2017/18 Q3 90.7%
    2017/18 Q4 92.6%
    2018/19 Q1 89.8%
    2018/19 Q2 88.9%
    2018/19 Q3 90.2%
    2018/19 Q4 91.7%
    2019/20 Q1 90.3%
    2019/20 Q2 90.0%
    2019/20 Q3 92.0%
    2019/20 Q4 88.4%
    2020/21 Q1 63.1%
    2020/21 Q2 77.4%
    2020/21 Q3 83.1%
    2020/21 Q4 83.0%

    Having gone through the regional quarterly breakdowns, I can't find any region in any quarter that had occupancy over 100% (one or two at 100% from the smaller trusts.

    Am I looking in the wrong place, in which case would appreciate a steer.

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/bed-data-overnight/
    I suppose it depends how "original capacity" is defined. Current capacity likely includes temporary arrangements.
    No idea, it seems a fairly consistent time series from 2011 onwards.
  • Options
    DavidLDavidL Posts: 51,343
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    MattW said:

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
    That 'equivalent' retaliation is 'permitted'. Perhaps also that 'equivalent' can be in unrelated areas.

    The referral would not be to the European Court aiui, but to the neutral structures ("joint committee"?) set up to arbitrate disputes.

    The role of the European Court is restricted to matters related to the interpretation of EU Law where mentioned in the treaty. I do not think that the ECJ be sure to have jurisdiction over article 16.

    That is not all of it, but I think it is a gist. I have read the NIP but not recently.

    AIUI the EuCo have so far only begun to take action under areas presided over by the ECJ. Which suggests they are not going all out, or are scared they may not win, if they go for other areas.
    The other issue is ability to enforce an ECJ judgement on the UK. The reason the EU wouldn't go down that road is that the ECJ is no longer a recognised court in the UK and they have no ability to enforce any judgement it hands down. The UK government would, rightly, ignore any ruling and just keep on doing what it's doing without a second thought.

    As I said at the time, I really was shocked that the EU gave up ECJ jurisdiction over EU/UK matters. I guess for them a bad deal was better than no deal and from an EU perspective the TCA is a pretty awful deal.
    What Remainers are struggling with mentally, why they keep relying on the notion of "but Boris agreed this so why is Boris looking to renegotiate" is they're not familiar with the ratchett effect in European politics since it worked in their favour in the past.

    Boris having got a good deal in the TCA that removes the ECJ etc can now go back to the negotiating table to get a better deal for NI. Which is what the EU had spent five years prioritising and is now coming undone for them since we have the ability to invoke Article 16 and they have limited room to retaliate.

    Previously no sooner had we passed an EU Treaty like Maastricht and the Eurocrats were already planning for the next one. Like Nice and Lisbon. Now that same effect can work to Boris and Frost's favour and there's little Remainers can do about it other than to Tweet each other about how mad it is that Boris is renegotiating his own deal.
    The issue is that the retaliation is limited in scope to NI matters and the ultimate sanction is to put up a border on the island of Ireland (as they threatened to do previously). The UK pulling the trigger on A16 would be to ensure no border between GB and NI is erected so within the scope of that it would be tough for them to do something not border related or push into the wider TCA which is an entirely separate deal (on their insistence, no less).

    The whole WA/NI protocol is a disaster, there's no doubt about it. The disaster is on both sides, it's not a wholly UK issue or a wholly EU issue. Both sides need to show some level of flexibility and compromise. The UK has already done so by accepting, in principle, a GB/NI border, the EU has not responded in kind with the promised trusted trader scheme so the UK acting to look after its own interests by no longer adhering to the previously agreed principle of a GB/NI border is quite fair.
    When I was a trainee we had a cartoon on the wall of someone sitting at a desk with 3 baskets. In, out and too hard. The last was of course the one that was overflowing and where the NI protocol would undoubtedly be found.
  • Options
    Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 55,444
    MaxPB said:

    MattW said:

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
    That 'equivalent' retaliation is 'permitted'. Perhaps also that 'equivalent' can be in unrelated areas.

    The referral would not be to the European Court aiui, but to the neutral structures ("joint committee"?) set up to arbitrate disputes.

    The role of the European Court is restricted to matters related to the interpretation of EU Law where mentioned in the treaty. I do not think that the ECJ be sure to have jurisdiction over article 16.

    That is not all of it, but I think it is a gist. I have read the NIP but not recently.

    AIUI the EuCo have so far only begun to take action under areas presided over by the ECJ. Which suggests they are not going all out, or are scared they may not win, if they go for other areas.
    The other issue is ability to enforce an ECJ judgement on the UK. The reason the EU wouldn't go down that road is that the ECJ is no longer a recognised court in the UK and they have no ability to enforce any judgement it hands down. The UK government would, rightly, ignore any ruling and just keep on doing what it's doing without a second thought.

    As I said at the time, I really was shocked that the EU gave up ECJ jurisdiction over EU/UK matters. I guess for them a bad deal was better than no deal and from an EU perspective the TCA is a pretty awful deal.
    Yes, that's the part of the TCA I was most pleased with - no mean feat either.
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 54,031

    Guess the replies to this:

    Wealth is more unequal in Sweden and Germany than in the UK (higher Gini coefficient = less equal): Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2021; see also https://credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/global-wealth-report.html

    https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/1419943259032412163?s=20

    I'm slightly sceptical of these numbers, because of the very different ways pensions are accounted for in each country. So, in the UK the vast majority of people (these days) have defined contribution plans where their pension savings are counted among their assets. While in Germany it's largely defined benefit. If you added the notional capital required to pay pensions to workers assets, then it would reduce inefficiency quite a significant amouny.

    The other factor that plays a big role, of course, is housing. In
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,502
    RobD said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    kinabalu said:

    The revelations on misleading hospitalisation number are astounding enough in themselves, but they do not reveal whether the data has been completely bogus just for this wave, or for all waves.

    If true hospitalisations because of covid were bogus for all waves, for example, then the peak of hospitalisations primarily owing to covid was not more than 4,000 a day, it was actually less than two thousand a day....??

    If that is the case, then the notion the NHS was going to be overwhelmed at any stage in the pandemic was one of the biggest lies ever told to the people of Britain by its own government...??

    Am I missing something?

    I think so. You're missing that the NHS was on the very edge of being overwhelmed - and arguably was in places - at 2 stages during the pandemic.
    Fear of being overwhelmed. Let us not forget that it is supposed to be overwhelmed without fail every year according to the Graun.

    But yes, we saw the pictures of Northern Italy and any sane government would have thought: we can't have that here, not in the slightest. And hence they cleared the decks, as @Malmesbury noted. Was it the right decision? Not sure.
    They got to 100%+ of nominal capacity in a number of areas. In some cases massively over 100%.
    No they didn't.
    Yes, they did.

    Quite literally - intensive care beds were increased beyond original capacity. Staff found anywhere and everywhere to man them....

    In some hospitals they were well beyond 100% of original capacity and getting close to the limits of the new, duct-tape-and-string capacity.
    Acute beds occupancy:

    2012/13 Q1 87.9%
    2012/13 Q2 86.7%
    2012/13 Q3 87.9%
    2012/13 Q4 89.8%
    2013/14 Q1 88.5%
    2013/14 Q2 86.5%
    2013/14 Q3 87.6%
    2013/14 Q4 89.6%
    2014/15 Q1 88.1%
    2014/15 Q2 87.7%
    2014/15 Q3 89.4%
    2014/15 Q4 90.7%
    2015/16 Q1 88.4%
    2015/16 Q2 87.1%
    2015/16 Q3 89.1%
    2015/16 Q4 91.2%
    2016/17 Q1 90.2%
    2016/17 Q2 89.2%
    2016/17 Q3 90.5%
    2016/17 Q4 91.4%
    2017/18 Q1 89.1%
    2017/18 Q2 89.0%
    2017/18 Q3 90.7%
    2017/18 Q4 92.6%
    2018/19 Q1 89.8%
    2018/19 Q2 88.9%
    2018/19 Q3 90.2%
    2018/19 Q4 91.7%
    2019/20 Q1 90.3%
    2019/20 Q2 90.0%
    2019/20 Q3 92.0%
    2019/20 Q4 88.4%
    2020/21 Q1 63.1%
    2020/21 Q2 77.4%
    2020/21 Q3 83.1%
    2020/21 Q4 83.0%

    Having gone through the regional quarterly breakdowns, I can't find any region in any quarter that had occupancy over 100% (one or two at 100% from the smaller trusts.

    Am I looking in the wrong place, in which case would appreciate a steer.

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/bed-data-overnight/
    I suppose it depends how "original capacity" is defined. Current capacity likely includes temporary arrangements.
    The increased capacity was used in the published figures, IIRC. Because the published figures were supposed to give an idea of how close to breaking point things were getting.
  • Options
    LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 15,365

    eek said:

    I seem to recall @RochdalePioneers assuring us haughtily that supermarkets would never agree to pay more to lorry drivers as it was essentially set in stone?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57983698

    Oh looks as if "market forces" actually do exist afterall. Who could have ever foreseen that? 🤔

    I don't remember either of us saying that - what we said was that the agencies wouldn't be in a position to pay those sort of offers because supermarkets keep costs low.

    Mind you it's worth looking at the actual job advert https://www.tesco-careers.com/jobdetails/641063/

    20 days holiday rising to 22 tells you everything you need to know about the treatment of drivers even now.
    20 days holiday (plus bank holidays) is the law. That's pretty standard in much of the private sector.

    Rising to 22 is 10% higher than much of the country gets.
    Do you have any statistics on holiday entitlements in the private sector, or is that only your personal experience?

    My own experience is different, with 25 days being standard.
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    tlg86tlg86 Posts: 25,193
    I see the Germans have finally won a gold medal (in the pony dancing).
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,610
    FF43 said:

    eek said:


    He's not.

    He's trying to rewrite the NI Protocol because NI is not finished.

    I have to ask in what way is NI not finished yet? Border poll with Ireland not been called or something else?

    Assuming you mean the protocol, well the issue there is that it's working perfectly for the EU (unintentionally) but creating way bigger problems than expected for us....

    I think the reason why re-negotiation it isn't working out can be seen in the middle part of my previous sentence.
    Agreed which is why we need to invoke Article 16 and it seems like that threat is now very much on the table. Hopefully the threat will be enough to see the EU move without requiring us to pull the trigger, in which case its worked. If it doesn't, we need Frost and Boris to have enough backbone to proceed.
    What exactly is the downside of triggering Article 16, apart from worsening relations and getting a possible referral to the European Court? Retaliation? (Genuine question - I don't know.)
    Triggering Article 16 buys you one month before the other party can clobber your with countervailing measures - which won't be normal WTO tariffs, but much more focused and punitive ones. In principle A16 is designed for temporary and unforeseen crises, which isn't what the UK government intends on the NIP.

    If the UKG goes down this route I would suggest stopping all Irish Sea checks without telling the EU. It will them a couple of weeks to work what's going on. Which is what the Soviet Union did with the Berlin Blockade. Of course that gambit didn't pay off.
    Within the scope of the WA, though. So the options are actually very limited. The ultimate sanction would be to cut NI off from the south, but I can't imagine Ireland would agree to that. If that isn't on the table, what recourse does the EU actually have?
  • Options
    RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 27,264

    I seem to recall @RochdalePioneers assuring us haughtily that supermarkets would never agree to pay more to lorry drivers as it was essentially set in stone?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57983698

    Oh looks as if "market forces" actually do exist afterall. Who could have ever foreseen that? 🤔

    Oh Dear God. Tesco are NOT paying more. The cost is being clawed from the suppliers who use Tesco Primary distribution to move products from their factories into Tesco's distribution network.

    As I keep pointing out, the huge shortage in drivers cannot be filled by paying the remaining ones more cash. A scheme to offer incentives to bring people in to replace this year's retirees is not "new drivers". It is replacement drivers.
  • Options
    TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 41,370

    RobD said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    kinabalu said:

    The revelations on misleading hospitalisation number are astounding enough in themselves, but they do not reveal whether the data has been completely bogus just for this wave, or for all waves.

    If true hospitalisations because of covid were bogus for all waves, for example, then the peak of hospitalisations primarily owing to covid was not more than 4,000 a day, it was actually less than two thousand a day....??

    If that is the case, then the notion the NHS was going to be overwhelmed at any stage in the pandemic was one of the biggest lies ever told to the people of Britain by its own government...??

    Am I missing something?

    I think so. You're missing that the NHS was on the very edge of being overwhelmed - and arguably was in places - at 2 stages during the pandemic.
    Fear of being overwhelmed. Let us not forget that it is supposed to be overwhelmed without fail every year according to the Graun.

    But yes, we saw the pictures of Northern Italy and any sane government would have thought: we can't have that here, not in the slightest. And hence they cleared the decks, as @Malmesbury noted. Was it the right decision? Not sure.
    They got to 100%+ of nominal capacity in a number of areas. In some cases massively over 100%.
    No they didn't.
    Yes, they did.

    Quite literally - intensive care beds were increased beyond original capacity. Staff found anywhere and everywhere to man them....

    In some hospitals they were well beyond 100% of original capacity and getting close to the limits of the new, duct-tape-and-string capacity.
    Acute beds occupancy:

    2012/13 Q1 87.9%
    2012/13 Q2 86.7%
    2012/13 Q3 87.9%
    2012/13 Q4 89.8%
    2013/14 Q1 88.5%
    2013/14 Q2 86.5%
    2013/14 Q3 87.6%
    2013/14 Q4 89.6%
    2014/15 Q1 88.1%
    2014/15 Q2 87.7%
    2014/15 Q3 89.4%
    2014/15 Q4 90.7%
    2015/16 Q1 88.4%
    2015/16 Q2 87.1%
    2015/16 Q3 89.1%
    2015/16 Q4 91.2%
    2016/17 Q1 90.2%
    2016/17 Q2 89.2%
    2016/17 Q3 90.5%
    2016/17 Q4 91.4%
    2017/18 Q1 89.1%
    2017/18 Q2 89.0%
    2017/18 Q3 90.7%
    2017/18 Q4 92.6%
    2018/19 Q1 89.8%
    2018/19 Q2 88.9%
    2018/19 Q3 90.2%
    2018/19 Q4 91.7%
    2019/20 Q1 90.3%
    2019/20 Q2 90.0%
    2019/20 Q3 92.0%
    2019/20 Q4 88.4%
    2020/21 Q1 63.1%
    2020/21 Q2 77.4%
    2020/21 Q3 83.1%
    2020/21 Q4 83.0%

    Having gone through the regional quarterly breakdowns, I can't find any region in any quarter that had occupancy over 100% (one or two at 100% from the smaller trusts.

    Am I looking in the wrong place, in which case would appreciate a steer.

    https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/bed-data-overnight/
    I suppose it depends how "original capacity" is defined. Current capacity likely includes temporary arrangements.
    The increased capacity was used in the published figures, IIRC. Because the published figures were supposed to give an idea of how close to breaking point things were getting.
    The numbers in that time series have been pretty consistent for the past decade.

    Do you think they added in Nightingale? Doesn't have a capacity bump for them in terms of available beds - consistently 118-122k beds over the period.

    In any case, they weren't "over 100%" in many places. At all. Not close. Or rather, no different from normal.
This discussion has been closed.