"A quarter of Britons haven't been hugged since the first lockdown last March and 44% haven't made a single new friend, survey finds
25% of Brits haven't been hugged in a year, while 37% haven't in six months Meanwhile, nearly half haven't made a new friend in the last year Researchers say there is 'huge risk' community spirit will be lost"
Not hugging people is one of the few upsides of the pandemic.
Got my new car yesterday and me and the salesman instinctively shook hands. For both of us it was the first time in a year - we simultaneously apologised to one another!
Is surface-to-surface transmission still a thing?
This morning our carpet fitter insisted on the elbow bump thing while speaking directly to me from about a metre.
More Covid-theatre absurdity as far as I'm concerned.
Ironically the same car dealership and I had a bit of a row in May when they insisted I use the one way system in their emply showroom which would have involved me spending more time indoors and thus placing myself at greater risk. Ah well. Rome wasn't built in a day.
Talking of newspapers, does anyone know how to read die Zeit.
There's a glorious faceplant of an article by Bettina Schulz (who I thought reputable) starting thusly:
The pandemic as an excuse for empty supermarket shelves
Great Britain is in crisis, the new wave of infections is affecting countless industries. The government does not want to admit that many problems are due to Brexit.
An analysis by Bettina Schulz , London
For a long time the British supermarkets were able to hide their misery. For months, pasta, canned soups, avocados or honey were pushed onto the shelves so skilfully that it wasn't even noticeable how meager the selection really was. It is no longer possible, because now the employees are also missing. So there is no one who has time to sort the meager range of goods into Potemkin villages in a land of milk and honey. ... https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2021-07/grossbritannien-corona-krise-lieferengpaesse-supermaerkte-brexit-delta-personalmangel-pingedemic
LOL!. Does she actually believe the rubbish she writes?
England's run of success in the Euros really revealed how bitter the European journalist class is over Brexit. They are like a jilted ex-girlfriend, always obsessively criticizing the man that ruined their life.
"A quarter of Britons haven't been hugged since the first lockdown last March and 44% haven't made a single new friend, survey finds
25% of Brits haven't been hugged in a year, while 37% haven't in six months Meanwhile, nearly half haven't made a new friend in the last year Researchers say there is 'huge risk' community spirit will be lost"
Not hugging people is one of the few upsides of the pandemic.
Got my new car yesterday and me and the salesman instinctively shook hands. For both of us it was the first time in a year - we simultaneously apologised to one another!
Is surface-to-surface transmission still a thing?
This morning our carpet fitter insisted on the elbow bump thing while speaking directly to me from about a metre.
More Covid-theatre absurdity as far as I'm concerned.
Now I get that “rules are rules” but... “gaffer tapes sealing windows and door shut” - for a virus where ventilation and fresh air are the main weapon?
Delighted to see the covid theatre of plastic screens and one way systems dismantled at Sainsbury’s last night.
Yes me too.
To the contrary - this is a message from our local Snowdome (indoor skiing):
"Following the Government’s announcement regarding the easing of restrictions from Monday 19th July, Snozone will still request our members and guests to wear face coverings at all times within our venues.
We further request that guests and members respectfully retain social distancing measures as before, using their good judgement as prescriptive internal signage will now be removed.
Whilst we acknowledge the steps taken to re-establish previous practices, we also recognise that the pandemic is still very much with us and the health, safety and well-being of our team, members and guests is and will continue to be of paramount importance.
We therefore kindly request that these measures are adhered to and that a respectful space is given to each other.
We appreciate your support."
Ah, baby steps and all that. Haven’t felt as chipper as I have this week for a while. If the sun stays out I’m going to the beach.
It hasn't though. It's gone in.
Broken sunshine here after some rain. Not as nice as last week but not bad either. Probably won’t risk a barbecue but I think it’s warm enough to go swimming.
For the last five days, the forecast has been very wet: the reality has been pleasant and breezy with the odd shower. If it stays like this for my holiday in the west country next week I will be very happy.
I'm actually looking forward to my holiday this year, rather than, as last year, dreading its last minute cancellation or its being rendered utterly joyless due to the sudden imposition of arbitrary restrictions. God last year was awful. My mental health is so much better now than it was in 2020.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
"The cost of this donation has been funded through UK Overseas Development Assistance, and will come over and above the ODA spending target of 0.5% of GNI if needed."
They could have kept the 0.7% target and spent 0.2% on delivering vaccines and it would have been the same, but I guess they wouldn't have been able to fight a skirmish in the culture war over it.
"A quarter of Britons haven't been hugged since the first lockdown last March and 44% haven't made a single new friend, survey finds
25% of Brits haven't been hugged in a year, while 37% haven't in six months Meanwhile, nearly half haven't made a new friend in the last year Researchers say there is 'huge risk' community spirit will be lost"
"A quarter of Britons haven't been hugged since the first lockdown last March and 44% haven't made a single new friend, survey finds
25% of Brits haven't been hugged in a year, while 37% haven't in six months Meanwhile, nearly half haven't made a new friend in the last year Researchers say there is 'huge risk' community spirit will be lost"
Not hugging people is one of the few upsides of the pandemic.
Got my new car yesterday and me and the salesman instinctively shook hands. For both of us it was the first time in a year - we simultaneously apologised to one another!
Is surface-to-surface transmission still a thing?
This morning our carpet fitter insisted on the elbow bump thing while speaking directly to me from about a metre.
More Covid-theatre absurdity as far as I'm concerned.
Now I get that “rules are rules” but... “gaffer tapes sealing windows and door shut” - for a virus where ventilation and fresh air are the main weapon?
If you could catch covid by walking under his balcony the virus would have an r0 of about 90 and the entire planet would be infected within a couple of weeks.
Delighted to see the covid theatre of plastic screens and one way systems dismantled at Sainsbury’s last night.
Yes me too.
To the contrary - this is a message from our local Snowdome (indoor skiing):
"Following the Government’s announcement regarding the easing of restrictions from Monday 19th July, Snozone will still request our members and guests to wear face coverings at all times within our venues.
We further request that guests and members respectfully retain social distancing measures as before, using their good judgement as prescriptive internal signage will now be removed.
Whilst we acknowledge the steps taken to re-establish previous practices, we also recognise that the pandemic is still very much with us and the health, safety and well-being of our team, members and guests is and will continue to be of paramount importance.
We therefore kindly request that these measures are adhered to and that a respectful space is given to each other.
We appreciate your support."
Ah, baby steps and all that. Haven’t felt as chipper as I have this week for a while. If the sun stays out I’m going to the beach.
It hasn't though. It's gone in.
Broken sunshine here after some rain. Not as nice as last week but not bad either. Probably won’t risk a barbecue but I think it’s warm enough to go swimming.
For the last five days, the forecast has been very wet: the reality has been pleasant and breezy with the odd shower. If it stays like this for my holiday in the west country next week I will be very happy.
I'm actually looking forward to my holiday this year, rather than, as last year, dreading its last minute cancellation or its being rendered utterly joyless due to the sudden imposition of arbitrary restrictions. God last year was awful. My mental health is so much better now than it was in 2020.
I hope you have a great time! My wife is over in the States at the moment visiting her family and, even though I didn't go, it's great to know for so many people the worst of this nightmare is (fingers crossed) coming to an end.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
I am happy - nay, delighted - to report that the great Ready Flaked Parmesan Emergency has finally, after hours of widespread and harrowing deprivation, where people were forced to do home flaking with their bare hands and a grater, has now abated
That's great, but I'm not sure any of us will ever be the same again after this.
My late Father in law as far back as the 60's maintained that harnessing the tides in the Pentland Firth would be the energy source of the future
He used to recount that on many times when returning to his home port of Lossiemouth from fishing in the west of Scotland he would experience times when his fishing boat would actually be going astern even with full engines due to the strength of the tides
My granddad had a similar story. He was on an old merchantman in a convoy going through the English Channel during the war. There was a storm, and after a day they were further back than they had been before, and they were alone as the convoy had steamed well ahead. I don't know much more about the story, but as he was a gunner in DEMS it must have meant a long shift at the guns - unless the weather was so bad German planes couldn't fly and the submarines couldn't easily attack.
I wish I'd talked more about it with him whilst he was alive.
For Operation Sealion, many of the barges the Germans were planning to use had a lower speed than the tide running in the Channel. So the invasion fleet would have spent half a day being pushed around by the tide. With a freeboard measured in inches.....
Yes, it wasn't the best-planned operation...
Talking about low freeboard, have you ever seen videos of narrowboats crossing the Wash?
I liked the time they gamed it with the entire RN and RAF going to the pub for the actual invasion. The Germans sustained 30% losses on the Channel crossing, all by themselves.........
I've long been tempted to write a novel about an invasion (after I walked around a very atmospheric gun battery on the south coast and imagined a fleet of invasion ships coming across). Having read up on it, IMV to make it realistic a number of things would have to change.
For one thing, the Germans would have had to wanted to invade England for several years; enough time to build a proper invasion fleet of landing craft, torpedo boats and other craft to harry the Royal Navy. Winning the Battle of Britain would also have been very important, and spies/saboteurs within the UK would have helped. There were others.
I've got these changes written down somewhere, as the starting point for the writing. without them I couldn't really have the major battles I wanted on the mainland.
There are alternative invasion routes you should consider for your novel. One is from Norway to Scotland (which was also considered in the other direction for D-Day). More realistic would be to use paratroopers for the initial invasion and have them capture and secure a British port, which could then be used to land German reinforcements of troops and armour. This was a genuine fear, and the Admiralty had plans to destroy ports by scuttling ships, dumping coal, and blowing up facilities, had the Nazis been about to invade.
Yes, they might make be interesting outlines. In the plot outline I have, the Kriegsmarine defeat the Royal Navy in the Channel, and it is a battle for the Home Fleet to fight its way down from Scarpa Flow. And yes, I have German paratroopers playing a major part.
I have written some; from memory, the first scene is of a nineteen year old boy watching the German invasion fleet come in as planes bomb the battery he has volunteered in. One strand of the book follows him during the retreat and then the fightback. As I'm a modern sort of person, another strand is from the viewpoint of a German sailor who gets stranded on the mainland. And that's the part I have a problem with, as I found it very hard to write from that viewpoint ...
I am not a writer (tm).
The ahistorical problem with that scenario is that in the summer of 1940 the Kriegsmarine had almost no operational ships so could never have defeated the Royal Navy. Perhaps if you posit a Pearl Harbor-like attack on the fleet at Scapa Flow. Though come to think of it, even that would not work because we'd have recalled the RN Mediterranean Fleet.
"A quarter of Britons haven't been hugged since the first lockdown last March and 44% haven't made a single new friend, survey finds
25% of Brits haven't been hugged in a year, while 37% haven't in six months Meanwhile, nearly half haven't made a new friend in the last year Researchers say there is 'huge risk' community spirit will be lost"
Not hugging people is one of the few upsides of the pandemic.
Got my new car yesterday and me and the salesman instinctively shook hands. For both of us it was the first time in a year - we simultaneously apologised to one another!
Is surface-to-surface transmission still a thing?
This morning our carpet fitter insisted on the elbow bump thing while speaking directly to me from about a metre.
More Covid-theatre absurdity as far as I'm concerned.
The elbow bump is a bit silly, and it feels a bit silly doing it, but for that same reason it's likely to retain its popularity for a while. It naturally creates an air of self-conscious clowning jocularity between the people doing it, and this can act as ice-breaker. Watch how Head Clown himself, Johnson, clearly loves doing it.
So pleased to see Primož Roglič winning gold in the ITT. That solidifies the European Union lead in the medal tallies.
Sorry? The highest EU team is France, who are 8th.
Huh? The EU has won 63 medals so far, including 16 golds, easily beating China, Japan, England etc.
Late to this nonsense. If you want an eu team, they only get a limited number of athletes in each event. You can’t have it both ways.
It's such an obvious point that it renders the initial claim an obvious troll, since I don't believe Stuart is silly enough to not realise the above. I think trolling needs to be believable to be really funny.
So pleased to see Primož Roglič winning gold in the ITT. That solidifies the European Union lead in the medal tallies.
Sorry? The highest EU team is France, who are 8th.
Huh? The EU has won 63 medals so far, including 16 golds, easily beating China, Japan, England etc.
Late to this nonsense. If you want an eu team, they only get a limited number of athletes in each event. You can’t have it both ways.
It's such an obvious point that it renders the initial claim an obvious troll, since I don't believe Stuart is silly enough to not realise the above. I think trolling needs to be believable to be really funny.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the T45s begin with a D. HMS Duncan is a storied ship name in the RN which goes back to the 18th C.
"The cost of this donation has been funded through UK Overseas Development Assistance, and will come over and above the ODA spending target of 0.5% of GNI if needed."
They could have kept the 0.7% target and spent 0.2% on delivering vaccines and it would have been the same, but I guess they wouldn't have been able to fight a skirmish in the culture war over it.
The culture war is like a permanent revolution because no side can ever actually "win".
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The WW2 Flower Class Corvettes had some less than intimidating names.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the T45s begin with a D. HMS Duncan is a storied ship name in the RN which goes back to the 18th C.
Is it perchance named after the same guy as the famous Soho gay pub?
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the T45s begin with a D. HMS Duncan is a storied ship name in the RN which goes back to the 18th C.
Named after the same cove as the Admiral Duncan pub of somewhat unhappy memory?
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the T45s begin with a D. HMS Duncan is a storied ship name in the RN which goes back to the 18th C.
Is it perchance named after the same guy as the famous Soho gay pub?
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the T45s begin with a D. HMS Duncan is a storied ship name in the RN which goes back to the 18th C.
Named after the same cove as the Admiral Duncan pub of somewhat unhappy memory?
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
There was a hunt (as in pack of foxhounds) class destroyer in ww2. Probably not going to be reprised
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
Ooops, there isn't an HMS Clyde, but there is an HMS Forth.
So pleased to see Primož Roglič winning gold in the ITT. That solidifies the European Union lead in the medal tallies.
Sorry? The highest EU team is France, who are 8th.
Huh? The EU has won 63 medals so far, including 16 golds, easily beating China, Japan, England etc.
Late to this nonsense. If you want an eu team, they only get a limited number of athletes in each event. You can’t have it both ways.
It's such an obvious point that it renders the initial claim an obvious troll, since I don't believe Stuart is silly enough to not realise the above. I think trolling needs to be believable to be really funny.
He's an obvious troll all right.
I'm far from opposed to trolling, it can be a fun time, but it's a fine line and no one wants to be the next Piers Morgan seeking to provoke outrage.
My late Father in law as far back as the 60's maintained that harnessing the tides in the Pentland Firth would be the energy source of the future
He used to recount that on many times when returning to his home port of Lossiemouth from fishing in the west of Scotland he would experience times when his fishing boat would actually be going astern even with full engines due to the strength of the tides
My granddad had a similar story. He was on an old merchantman in a convoy going through the English Channel during the war. There was a storm, and after a day they were further back than they had been before, and they were alone as the convoy had steamed well ahead. I don't know much more about the story, but as he was a gunner in DEMS it must have meant a long shift at the guns - unless the weather was so bad German planes couldn't fly and the submarines couldn't easily attack.
I wish I'd talked more about it with him whilst he was alive.
For Operation Sealion, many of the barges the Germans were planning to use had a lower speed than the tide running in the Channel. So the invasion fleet would have spent half a day being pushed around by the tide. With a freeboard measured in inches.....
Yes, it wasn't the best-planned operation...
Talking about low freeboard, have you ever seen videos of narrowboats crossing the Wash?
One podcast I listened to put the allies winning World War I down to the cutting of the cables in the first days of the war. It meant the Germans had to use radio, and that allowed the Zimmerman telegram to be intercepted, and helped lead the US to war.
In the Cold War the Americans and UK tried intercepting communications in Berlin using a tunnel. Interestingly the Russians knew about the tunnel immediately due to George Bake's treachery, but they did not stop using the communication cables because they wanted to protect Blake ...
There's a similar story about the Enigma machine (or similar) and the Doodlebugs. They were 'misdirected' away from Central London.
I don't think that involved the Enigma, but a much more open form of misdirection. From memory, when a bomb exploded, the radio and newspapers would report it as being further north and west. This made the Germans think they were overshooting and reduce the range, meaning they were more likely to land in the lesser-populated southeast than London.
Someone can probably correct me.
It was a combination - the primary channel were the German agents in Britain. Who were all working for MI6.....
What was interesting was that they didn't misreport hits - they actually reported a skewed sample of the actual hits.
I've been watching the documentary on iPlayer about the turnaround in UK Olympic sport between Atlanta and London 2012. An amusing snippet is that when the IOC inspection team visited London early in the bidding process, it had been pre-arranged with TfL that traffic lights would switch to green as the IOC coach approached each junction.
Brilliant planning by Mayor Boris. Shocking underhandedness from Ken.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The WW2 Flower Class Corvettes had some less than intimidating names.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
There was a hunt (as in pack of foxhounds) class destroyer in ww2. Probably not going to be reprised
Yes, I was very suprrised to find there had been an "HMS Blean" - Blean is the name of the tiny village between Canterbury and Whitstable my folks live in, but it was in fact named after the Blean Hunt. It's a diving wreck off the coast of North Africa now IIUC.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
There was a hunt (as in pack of foxhounds) class destroyer in ww2. Probably not going to be reprised
The Hunt class ships look like the oldest ones still in service (besides Victory).
Ledbury, Cattistock, etc.
Minehunters appropriately enough. Clearly an irresistible association.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The WW2 Flower Class Corvettes had some less than intimidating names.
Were they real, or just in The Cruel Sea?
The ship in the Cruel Sea was fictitious but the Flower Class itself was real.
My late Father in law as far back as the 60's maintained that harnessing the tides in the Pentland Firth would be the energy source of the future
He used to recount that on many times when returning to his home port of Lossiemouth from fishing in the west of Scotland he would experience times when his fishing boat would actually be going astern even with full engines due to the strength of the tides
My granddad had a similar story. He was on an old merchantman in a convoy going through the English Channel during the war. There was a storm, and after a day they were further back than they had been before, and they were alone as the convoy had steamed well ahead. I don't know much more about the story, but as he was a gunner in DEMS it must have meant a long shift at the guns - unless the weather was so bad German planes couldn't fly and the submarines couldn't easily attack.
I wish I'd talked more about it with him whilst he was alive.
For Operation Sealion, many of the barges the Germans were planning to use had a lower speed than the tide running in the Channel. So the invasion fleet would have spent half a day being pushed around by the tide. With a freeboard measured in inches.....
Yes, it wasn't the best-planned operation...
Talking about low freeboard, have you ever seen videos of narrowboats crossing the Wash?
I liked the time they gamed it with the entire RN and RAF going to the pub for the actual invasion. The Germans sustained 30% losses on the Channel crossing, all by themselves.........
I've long been tempted to write a novel about an invasion (after I walked around a very atmospheric gun battery on the south coast and imagined a fleet of invasion ships coming across). Having read up on it, IMV to make it realistic a number of things would have to change.
For one thing, the Germans would have had to wanted to invade England for several years; enough time to build a proper invasion fleet of landing craft, torpedo boats and other craft to harry the Royal Navy. Winning the Battle of Britain would also have been very important, and spies/saboteurs within the UK would have helped. There were others.
I've got these changes written down somewhere, as the starting point for the writing. without them I couldn't really have the major battles I wanted on the mainland.
There are alternative invasion routes you should consider for your novel. One is from Norway to Scotland (which was also considered in the other direction for D-Day). More realistic would be to use paratroopers for the initial invasion and have them capture and secure a British port, which could then be used to land German reinforcements of troops and armour. This was a genuine fear, and the Admiralty had plans to destroy ports by scuttling ships, dumping coal, and blowing up facilities, had the Nazis been about to invade.
Yes, they might make be interesting outlines. In the plot outline I have, the Kriegsmarine defeat the Royal Navy in the Channel, and it is a battle for the Home Fleet to fight its way down from Scarpa Flow. And yes, I have German paratroopers playing a major part.
I have written some; from memory, the first scene is of a nineteen year old boy watching the German invasion fleet come in as planes bomb the battery he has volunteered in. One strand of the book follows him during the retreat and then the fightback. As I'm a modern sort of person, another strand is from the viewpoint of a German sailor who gets stranded on the mainland. And that's the part I have a problem with, as I found it very hard to write from that viewpoint ...
I am not a writer (tm).
The ahistorical problem with that scenario is that in the summer of 1940 the Kriegsmarine had almost no operational ships so could never have defeated the Royal Navy. Perhaps if you posit a Pearl Harbor-like attack on the fleet at Scapa Flow. Though come to think of it, even that would not work because we'd have recalled the RN Mediterranean Fleet.
That was one of the alterations at the start of the scenario: the Kriegsmarine had more surface ships and fewer submarines, and managed to lay minefields either side of their invasion route across the channel.
It didn't happen, and probably wouldn't have happened that way, but it's the sort of thing you need to alter to make any German invasion even remotely feasible.
One counterfactual I quite like is Hitler and Churchill meeting in the Munich hotel in 1932, and them hating each other so much that Hitler decides that the UK is a main threat to his project, and he builds up accordingly. Yes, I know Churchill wasn't PM at the time of Sealion, but I like the idea that he'd upset Hitler that much.
Jessica von Bredow-Werndl - must be the most 'definitely in the european aristocracy' sounding olympian ever. Bet her Dad has a massive castle somewhere in Bavaria.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The WW2 Flower Class Corvettes had some less than intimidating names.
Were they real, or just in The Cruel Sea?
They were real alright, 100s of 'em. HMS Pansy (re-named to Heartsease) is the one everyone remembers. I always wonder if it was the staunch shipbuilders of Harland and Wolff that demanded the re-naming.
OT Sainsbury's have had a delivery since last week but there are still (or again) big gaps on the shelves. Customers all masked up, along with some staff, including all on tills and customer service.
Remember when inflight movies meant a screen at the front of the cabin and the speakers were in the armrest you had to listened to through tube earphones?
Jessica von Bredow-Werndl - must be the most 'definitely in the european aristocracy' sounding olympian ever. Bet her Dad has a massive castle somewhere in Bavaria.
Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg deserves a mention here. Slalom skiier at the Olympics into his mid fifties and still competing in the world championships at the age of 61 this year. How? He founded the Mexican Ski Federation and is its only regular competitor!
Putting the buk of the pandemic behind us by October isn't a remotely complaisant or bold claim though, is it.
Not even the biggest zero covid loon would suggest we have more cases and deaths in the future than in the past (at least on a reasonable timescale rather than 25 years worth of endemic low level activity).
OT Sainsbury's have had a delivery since last week but there are still (or again) big gaps on the shelves. Customers all masked up, along with some staff, including all on tills and customer service.
Most stores have a delivery everyday. Even convenience are normally 5 days a week. Product turnover is much quicker than many seem to assume, and the recent gaps are as much about a heatwave sales spike as anything else - same thing happens every Summer, but this year people are projecting their politics on to it.
Based on the below I think we can expect England at least to break the seven day run of day on day falls today unfortunately -
That's why I compare the "previous" days seven day average with "todays" seven day average. Individual days of data are not really suitable for such comparisons.
Tell the media that. They’ll be clutching their pearls at 4.05 this PM.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The planned T31 frigates (if the tories don't bin them) all appear to be named at random: Active, Bulldog, Campbeltown, Formidable and Venturer.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The WW2 Flower Class Corvettes had some less than intimidating names.
My late Father in law as far back as the 60's maintained that harnessing the tides in the Pentland Firth would be the energy source of the future
He used to recount that on many times when returning to his home port of Lossiemouth from fishing in the west of Scotland he would experience times when his fishing boat would actually be going astern even with full engines due to the strength of the tides
My granddad had a similar story. He was on an old merchantman in a convoy going through the English Channel during the war. There was a storm, and after a day they were further back than they had been before, and they were alone as the convoy had steamed well ahead. I don't know much more about the story, but as he was a gunner in DEMS it must have meant a long shift at the guns - unless the weather was so bad German planes couldn't fly and the submarines couldn't easily attack.
I wish I'd talked more about it with him whilst he was alive.
For Operation Sealion, many of the barges the Germans were planning to use had a lower speed than the tide running in the Channel. So the invasion fleet would have spent half a day being pushed around by the tide. With a freeboard measured in inches.....
Yes, it wasn't the best-planned operation...
Talking about low freeboard, have you ever seen videos of narrowboats crossing the Wash?
I liked the time they gamed it with the entire RN and RAF going to the pub for the actual invasion. The Germans sustained 30% losses on the Channel crossing, all by themselves.........
I've long been tempted to write a novel about an invasion (after I walked around a very atmospheric gun battery on the south coast and imagined a fleet of invasion ships coming across). Having read up on it, IMV to make it realistic a number of things would have to change.
For one thing, the Germans would have had to wanted to invade England for several years; enough time to build a proper invasion fleet of landing craft, torpedo boats and other craft to harry the Royal Navy. Winning the Battle of Britain would also have been very important, and spies/saboteurs within the UK would have helped. There were others.
I've got these changes written down somewhere, as the starting point for the writing. without them I couldn't really have the major battles I wanted on the mainland.
There are alternative invasion routes you should consider for your novel. One is from Norway to Scotland (which was also considered in the other direction for D-Day). More realistic would be to use paratroopers for the initial invasion and have them capture and secure a British port, which could then be used to land German reinforcements of troops and armour. This was a genuine fear, and the Admiralty had plans to destroy ports by scuttling ships, dumping coal, and blowing up facilities, had the Nazis been about to invade.
Yes, they might make be interesting outlines. In the plot outline I have, the Kriegsmarine defeat the Royal Navy in the Channel, and it is a battle for the Home Fleet to fight its way down from Scarpa Flow. And yes, I have German paratroopers playing a major part.
I have written some; from memory, the first scene is of a nineteen year old boy watching the German invasion fleet come in as planes bomb the battery he has volunteered in. One strand of the book follows him during the retreat and then the fightback. As I'm a modern sort of person, another strand is from the viewpoint of a German sailor who gets stranded on the mainland. And that's the part I have a problem with, as I found it very hard to write from that viewpoint ...
I am not a writer (tm).
The ahistorical problem with that scenario is that in the summer of 1940 the Kriegsmarine had almost no operational ships so could never have defeated the Royal Navy. Perhaps if you posit a Pearl Harbor-like attack on the fleet at Scapa Flow. Though come to think of it, even that would not work because we'd have recalled the RN Mediterranean Fleet.
That was one of the alterations at the start of the scenario: the Kriegsmarine had more surface ships and fewer submarines, and managed to lay minefields either side of their invasion route across the channel.
It didn't happen, and probably wouldn't have happened that way, but it's the sort of thing you need to alter to make any German invasion even remotely feasible.
One counterfactual I quite like is Hitler and Churchill meeting in the Munich hotel in 1932, and them hating each other so much that Hitler decides that the UK is a main threat to his project, and he builds up accordingly. Yes, I know Churchill wasn't PM at the time of Sealion, but I like the idea that he'd upset Hitler that much.
A fun WI - Churchill goes with his original decision and turns up at Gallipoli on the first day.
Given his ActionThisDay style, and the fact that at several point in the campaign, just pushing forward (especially in the early naval phase) would have worked....
Delighted to see the covid theatre of plastic screens and one way systems dismantled at Sainsbury’s last night.
Yes me too.
To the contrary - this is a message from our local Snowdome (indoor skiing):
"Following the Government’s announcement regarding the easing of restrictions from Monday 19th July, Snozone will still request our members and guests to wear face coverings at all times within our venues.
We further request that guests and members respectfully retain social distancing measures as before, using their good judgement as prescriptive internal signage will now be removed.
Whilst we acknowledge the steps taken to re-establish previous practices, we also recognise that the pandemic is still very much with us and the health, safety and well-being of our team, members and guests is and will continue to be of paramount importance.
We therefore kindly request that these measures are adhered to and that a respectful space is given to each other.
We appreciate your support."
Ah, baby steps and all that. Haven’t felt as chipper as I have this week for a while. If the sun stays out I’m going to the beach.
It hasn't though. It's gone in.
Broken sunshine here after some rain. Not as nice as last week but not bad either. Probably won’t risk a barbecue but I think it’s warm enough to go swimming.
For the last five days, the forecast has been very wet: the reality has been pleasant and breezy with the odd shower. If it stays like this for my holiday in the west country next week I will be very happy.
I'm actually looking forward to my holiday this year, rather than, as last year, dreading its last minute cancellation or its being rendered utterly joyless due to the sudden imposition of arbitrary restrictions. God last year was awful. My mental health is so much better now than it was in 2020.
it's great to know for so many people the worst of this nightmare is (fingers crossed) coming to an end.
How exactly does that tie-in with the ridiculous offensive message you posted back to me this morning? You chastised me, erroneously, for wanting more vaccinations in the UK at the expense of the rest of the world. The diatribe from you all about we shouldn't be so English-centric and how the rest of the world is suffering from lack of vaccination is entirely at variance with this post.
Perhaps you were hacked. Or asleep when you wrote it.
My late Father in law as far back as the 60's maintained that harnessing the tides in the Pentland Firth would be the energy source of the future
He used to recount that on many times when returning to his home port of Lossiemouth from fishing in the west of Scotland he would experience times when his fishing boat would actually be going astern even with full engines due to the strength of the tides
My granddad had a similar story. He was on an old merchantman in a convoy going through the English Channel during the war. There was a storm, and after a day they were further back than they had been before, and they were alone as the convoy had steamed well ahead. I don't know much more about the story, but as he was a gunner in DEMS it must have meant a long shift at the guns - unless the weather was so bad German planes couldn't fly and the submarines couldn't easily attack.
I wish I'd talked more about it with him whilst he was alive.
For Operation Sealion, many of the barges the Germans were planning to use had a lower speed than the tide running in the Channel. So the invasion fleet would have spent half a day being pushed around by the tide. With a freeboard measured in inches.....
Yes, it wasn't the best-planned operation...
Talking about low freeboard, have you ever seen videos of narrowboats crossing the Wash?
I liked the time they gamed it with the entire RN and RAF going to the pub for the actual invasion. The Germans sustained 30% losses on the Channel crossing, all by themselves.........
I've long been tempted to write a novel about an invasion (after I walked around a very atmospheric gun battery on the south coast and imagined a fleet of invasion ships coming across). Having read up on it, IMV to make it realistic a number of things would have to change.
For one thing, the Germans would have had to wanted to invade England for several years; enough time to build a proper invasion fleet of landing craft, torpedo boats and other craft to harry the Royal Navy. Winning the Battle of Britain would also have been very important, and spies/saboteurs within the UK would have helped. There were others.
I've got these changes written down somewhere, as the starting point for the writing. without them I couldn't really have the major battles I wanted on the mainland.
There are alternative invasion routes you should consider for your novel. One is from Norway to Scotland (which was also considered in the other direction for D-Day). More realistic would be to use paratroopers for the initial invasion and have them capture and secure a British port, which could then be used to land German reinforcements of troops and armour. This was a genuine fear, and the Admiralty had plans to destroy ports by scuttling ships, dumping coal, and blowing up facilities, had the Nazis been about to invade.
Yes, they might make be interesting outlines. In the plot outline I have, the Kriegsmarine defeat the Royal Navy in the Channel, and it is a battle for the Home Fleet to fight its way down from Scarpa Flow. And yes, I have German paratroopers playing a major part.
I have written some; from memory, the first scene is of a nineteen year old boy watching the German invasion fleet come in as planes bomb the battery he has volunteered in. One strand of the book follows him during the retreat and then the fightback. As I'm a modern sort of person, another strand is from the viewpoint of a German sailor who gets stranded on the mainland. And that's the part I have a problem with, as I found it very hard to write from that viewpoint ...
I am not a writer (tm).
The ahistorical problem with that scenario is that in the summer of 1940 the Kriegsmarine had almost no operational ships so could never have defeated the Royal Navy. Perhaps if you posit a Pearl Harbor-like attack on the fleet at Scapa Flow. Though come to think of it, even that would not work because we'd have recalled the RN Mediterranean Fleet.
That was one of the alterations at the start of the scenario: the Kriegsmarine had more surface ships and fewer submarines, and managed to lay minefields either side of their invasion route across the channel.
It didn't happen, and probably wouldn't have happened that way, but it's the sort of thing you need to alter to make any German invasion even remotely feasible.
One counterfactual I quite like is Hitler and Churchill meeting in the Munich hotel in 1932, and them hating each other so much that Hitler decides that the UK is a main threat to his project, and he builds up accordingly. Yes, I know Churchill wasn't PM at the time of Sealion, but I like the idea that he'd upset Hitler that much.
Here is an excellent summary of the problems in a 15-minute Youtube video by an Austrian military historian. References are given if you want to follow anything up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnPo7V03nbY
The warship whose name most amused me was HMS Caligula. On it were painted the words “Oderint dum metuant”, “Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.”
Scott Beasley @SkyScottBeasley SyringeNEW: A large real world study (over one million people) of AstraZeneca & Pfizer vaccines looking at blood clotting disorders
White heavy check mark Confirms safety profiles of both vaccines are similar
So pleased to see Primož Roglič winning gold in the ITT. That solidifies the European Union lead in the medal tallies.
Sorry? The highest EU team is France, who are 8th.
Huh? The EU has won 63 medals so far, including 16 golds, easily beating China, Japan, England etc.
Late to this nonsense. If you want an eu team, they only get a limited number of athletes in each event. You can’t have it both ways.
It's such an obvious point that it renders the initial claim an obvious troll, since I don't believe Stuart is silly enough to not realise the above. I think trolling needs to be believable to be really funny.
He's an obvious troll all right.
And calling a seasoned poster on here a troll just really shows how pathetic and pea-brained you are. Grow up.
Delighted to see the covid theatre of plastic screens and one way systems dismantled at Sainsbury’s last night.
Yes me too.
To the contrary - this is a message from our local Snowdome (indoor skiing):
"Following the Government’s announcement regarding the easing of restrictions from Monday 19th July, Snozone will still request our members and guests to wear face coverings at all times within our venues.
We further request that guests and members respectfully retain social distancing measures as before, using their good judgement as prescriptive internal signage will now be removed.
Whilst we acknowledge the steps taken to re-establish previous practices, we also recognise that the pandemic is still very much with us and the health, safety and well-being of our team, members and guests is and will continue to be of paramount importance.
We therefore kindly request that these measures are adhered to and that a respectful space is given to each other.
We appreciate your support."
Ah, baby steps and all that. Haven’t felt as chipper as I have this week for a while. If the sun stays out I’m going to the beach.
It hasn't though. It's gone in.
Broken sunshine here after some rain. Not as nice as last week but not bad either. Probably won’t risk a barbecue but I think it’s warm enough to go swimming.
For the last five days, the forecast has been very wet: the reality has been pleasant and breezy with the odd shower. If it stays like this for my holiday in the west country next week I will be very happy.
I'm actually looking forward to my holiday this year, rather than, as last year, dreading its last minute cancellation or its being rendered utterly joyless due to the sudden imposition of arbitrary restrictions. God last year was awful. My mental health is so much better now than it was in 2020.
it's great to know for so many people the worst of this nightmare is (fingers crossed) coming to an end.
How exactly does that tie-in with the ridiculous offensive message you posted back to me this morning? You chastised me, erroneously, for wanting more vaccinations in the UK at the expense of the rest of the world. The diatribe from you all about we shouldn't be so English-centric and how the rest of the world is suffering from lack of vaccination is entirely at variance with this post.
Perhaps you were hacked. Or asleep when you wrote it.
The weather's cooler but still a bit warm for our snowflake contingent.
"A quarter of Britons haven't been hugged since the first lockdown last March and 44% haven't made a single new friend, survey finds
25% of Brits haven't been hugged in a year, while 37% haven't in six months Meanwhile, nearly half haven't made a new friend in the last year Researchers say there is 'huge risk' community spirit will be lost"
Not hugging people is one of the few upsides of the pandemic.
Got my new car yesterday and me and the salesman instinctively shook hands. For both of us it was the first time in a year - we simultaneously apologised to one another!
Is surface-to-surface transmission still a thing?
This morning our carpet fitter insisted on the elbow bump thing while speaking directly to me from about a metre.
More Covid-theatre absurdity as far as I'm concerned.
Not really no. I have no issue with washing your hands fairly often, and definitely before food, but the idea that shaking hands is a big vector for Covid is false.
Alas, my other friends, I fear we are by no means out of the woods on this.
At the moment 45% of our population are not protected by double vaccines. Even when they have their second jabs we will still have 1/3rd of our population unvaccinated, thanks in part to our refusal to vaccinate under-18's and piss poor take up recently amongst the young.
We are creating a potentially perfect petri dish for variants to spawn.
When you factor in that 40% of those hospitalised with the Delta variant are double vaccinated the situation we are in is NOT rosy.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The planned T31 frigates (if the tories don't bin them) all appear to be named at random: Active, Bulldog, Campbeltown, Formidable and Venturer.
At least they haven't decided to name one Thatcher yet.
So pleased to see Primož Roglič winning gold in the ITT. That solidifies the European Union lead in the medal tallies.
Sorry? The highest EU team is France, who are 8th.
Huh? The EU has won 63 medals so far, including 16 golds, easily beating China, Japan, England etc.
Late to this nonsense. If you want an eu team, they only get a limited number of athletes in each event. You can’t have it both ways.
It's such an obvious point that it renders the initial claim an obvious troll, since I don't believe Stuart is silly enough to not realise the above. I think trolling needs to be believable to be really funny.
He's an obvious troll all right.
And calling a seasoned poster on here a troll just really shows how pathetic and pea-brained you are. Grow up.
Whit knighting Mr Dickson? I'm sure he'll be delighted.
Alas, my other friends, I fear we are by no means out of the woods on this.
At the moment 45% of our population are not protected by double vaccines. Even when they have their second jabs we will still have 1/3rd of our population unvaccinated, thanks in part to our refusal to vaccinate under-18's and piss poor take up recently amongst the young.
We are creating a potentially perfect petri dish for variants to spawn.
When you factor in that 40% of those hospitalised with the Delta variant are double vaccinated the situation we are in is NOT rosy.
The complacency is remarkable.
Yeah - you said that this morning. And as I pointed out then you keep making stuff up. This claim you continuously repeat was contained in an open letter from 1,200 people (many of whom are not scientists, one of whom is stated to be a WHO adviser) not the WHO. The letter was organised by The Citizens, Carol Cadwalladr’s organisation.
Again, I’m not a Tory, never voted for them, but their many faults can be exposed without manipulating the truth as you do on this board consistently.
The "petri dish for variant" line is snappy, and maybe appropriate for some countries in the world, just not the UK.
So pleased to see Primož Roglič winning gold in the ITT. That solidifies the European Union lead in the medal tallies.
Sorry? The highest EU team is France, who are 8th.
Huh? The EU has won 63 medals so far, including 16 golds, easily beating China, Japan, England etc.
Wait - are we saying that the EU should be treated as a single entity that's allowed to enter 27 separate teams into every event? Hardly a level playing field. Should the US be allowed to enter 50 teams (one for each state)? Or at least 27 teams to be fair. The UK as well? Should every country be allowed 27 entries?
"A quarter of Britons haven't been hugged since the first lockdown last March and 44% haven't made a single new friend, survey finds
25% of Brits haven't been hugged in a year, while 37% haven't in six months Meanwhile, nearly half haven't made a new friend in the last year Researchers say there is 'huge risk' community spirit will be lost"
Not hugging people is one of the few upsides of the pandemic.
Got my new car yesterday and me and the salesman instinctively shook hands. For both of us it was the first time in a year - we simultaneously apologised to one another!
Is surface-to-surface transmission still a thing?
This morning our carpet fitter insisted on the elbow bump thing while speaking directly to me from about a metre.
More Covid-theatre absurdity as far as I'm concerned.
The elbow bump is a bit silly, and it feels a bit silly doing it, but for that same reason it's likely to retain its popularity for a while. It naturally creates an air of self-conscious clowning jocularity between the people doing it, and this can act as ice-breaker. Watch how Head Clown himself, Johnson, clearly loves doing it.
Cricket has embraced the fist bump way more, and I kind of like it. Not averse to hand shakes though.
So pleased to see Primož Roglič winning gold in the ITT. That solidifies the European Union lead in the medal tallies.
Sorry? The highest EU team is France, who are 8th.
Huh? The EU has won 63 medals so far, including 16 golds, easily beating China, Japan, England etc.
Wait - are we saying that the EU should be treated as a single entity that's allowed to enter 27 separate teams into every event? Hardly a level playing field. Should the US be allowed to enter 50 teams (one for each state)? Or at least 27 teams to be fair. The UK as well? Should every country be allowed 27 entries?
I think Dickson was trolling by this point in the discussion.
Alas, my other friends, I fear we are by no means out of the woods on this.
At the moment 45% of our population are not protected by double vaccines. Even when they have their second jabs we will still have 1/3rd of our population unvaccinated, thanks in part to our refusal to vaccinate under-18's and piss poor take up recently amongst the young.
We are creating a potentially perfect petri dish for variants to spawn.
When you factor in that 40% of those hospitalised with the Delta variant are double vaccinated the situation we are in is NOT rosy.
The complacency is remarkable.
And yet…..
In England, it is estimated that around 9 in 10 adults, or 91.9% of the adult population (95% credible interval: 90.5% to 93.0%) would have tested positive for antibodies against coronavirus (COVID-19) - SARS-CoV-2 - on a blood test in the week beginning 28 June 2021, suggesting they had the infection in the past or have been vaccinated.
Alas, my other friends, I fear we are by no means out of the woods on this.
At the moment 45% of our population are not protected by double vaccines. Even when they have their second jabs we will still have 1/3rd of our population unvaccinated, thanks in part to our refusal to vaccinate under-18's and piss poor take up recently amongst the young.
We are creating a potentially perfect petri dish for variants to spawn.
When you factor in that 40% of those hospitalised with the Delta variant are double vaccinated the situation we are in is NOT rosy.
The complacency is remarkable.
You keep repeating that falsehood which shows you have got no understanding of what environment variants are most likely to arise.
It's veering into fake news bullshit at this point in time.
Jessica von Bredow-Werndl - must be the most 'definitely in the european aristocracy' sounding olympian ever. Bet her Dad has a massive castle somewhere in Bavaria.
Alas, my other friends, I fear we are by no means out of the woods on this.
At the moment 45% of our population are not protected by double vaccines. Even when they have their second jabs we will still have 1/3rd of our population unvaccinated, thanks in part to our refusal to vaccinate under-18's and piss poor take up recently amongst the young.
We are creating a potentially perfect petri dish for variants to spawn.
When you factor in that 40% of those hospitalised with the Delta variant are double vaccinated the situation we are in is NOT rosy.
The complacency is remarkable.
You keep repeating that falsehood which shows you have got no understanding of what environment variants are most likely to arise.
It's veering into fake news bullshit at this point in time.
It is fake news bullshit. And he keeps repeating it.
OT Sainsbury's have had a delivery since last week but there are still (or again) big gaps on the shelves. Customers all masked up, along with some staff, including all on tills and customer service.
Waitrose mostly still masked up and screens, but there ha# never been a one way route. Local butchers have stopped wearing masks themselves and I suspect are happy for customers to do so too. Certainly removed their Covid notices. Bakers are asking customers to wear masks, but some staff are not. So mixed bag, which may take a while to ease, probably linked to cases.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The planned T31 frigates (if the tories don't bin them) all appear to be named at random: Active, Bulldog, Campbeltown, Formidable and Venturer.
Wikipedia suggests that there is a theme for those names, however tenuous. I wonder how many hobnobs the naming committee had to go through to come up with that?
"A quarter of Britons haven't been hugged since the first lockdown last March and 44% haven't made a single new friend, survey finds
25% of Brits haven't been hugged in a year, while 37% haven't in six months Meanwhile, nearly half haven't made a new friend in the last year Researchers say there is 'huge risk' community spirit will be lost"
Not hugging people is one of the few upsides of the pandemic.
Got my new car yesterday and me and the salesman instinctively shook hands. For both of us it was the first time in a year - we simultaneously apologised to one another!
Is surface-to-surface transmission still a thing?
This morning our carpet fitter insisted on the elbow bump thing while speaking directly to me from about a metre.
More Covid-theatre absurdity as far as I'm concerned.
The elbow bump is a bit silly, and it feels a bit silly doing it, but for that same reason it's likely to retain its popularity for a while. It naturally creates an air of self-conscious clowning jocularity between the people doing it, and this can act as ice-breaker. Watch how Head Clown himself, Johnson, clearly loves doing it.
Cricket has embraced the fist bump way more, and I kind of like it. Not averse to hand shakes though.
Yes, I don't mind the fist bump. Its advantage over the handshake is you don't have to worry either about your own or the other person's palm being clammy.
But my favourite is the little bow with hands clasped in front of you. It sets a nice tone, so long as you don't go all performative with it.
Scott Beasley @SkyScottBeasley SyringeNEW: A large real world study (over one million people) of AstraZeneca & Pfizer vaccines looking at blood clotting disorders
Confirms safety profiles of both vaccines are similar
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The WW2 Flower Class Corvettes had some less than intimidating names.
Active was the adopted ship of the town of Burnley in Lancashire, North-West England. The ship and its crew were granted the freedom of the town in 1989. Part of the town's inner ring-road between Westgate and the traffic lights at the Church Street junction with Colne Road is called Active Way. One of Active's anchors is displayed at the Anchor Retail Park next to Active Way.
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The planned T31 frigates (if the tories don't bin them) all appear to be named at random: Active, Bulldog, Campbeltown, Formidable and Venturer.
Wikipedia suggests that there is a theme for those names, however tenuous. I wonder how many hobnobs the naming committee had to go through to come up with that?
"The names were selected to represent key themes of the future plans of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines."
What is the theme? That they are all recycled HMS names?
Campbelltown of course was rammed into the dry dock gates during the St Nazaire raid, saving the Allies from having to face the German's battleships in the Atlantic in perhaps one of the most idiotically brave, and successful actions of the war.
Alas, my other friends, I fear we are by no means out of the woods on this.
At the moment 45% of our population are not protected by double vaccines. Even when they have their second jabs we will still have 1/3rd of our population unvaccinated, thanks in part to our refusal to vaccinate under-18's and piss poor take up recently amongst the young.
We are creating a potentially perfect petri dish for variants to spawn.
When you factor in that 40% of those hospitalised with the Delta variant are double vaccinated the situation we are in is NOT rosy.
So pleased to see Primož Roglič winning gold in the ITT. That solidifies the European Union lead in the medal tallies.
Sorry? The highest EU team is France, who are 8th.
Huh? The EU has won 63 medals so far, including 16 golds, easily beating China, Japan, England etc.
Wait - are we saying that the EU should be treated as a single entity that's allowed to enter 27 separate teams into every event? Hardly a level playing field. Should the US be allowed to enter 50 teams (one for each state)? Or at least 27 teams to be fair. The UK as well? Should every country be allowed 27 entries?
Wait till you see how many teams 'Oxford' and 'Cambridge' are allowed to enter into University Challenge!
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The planned T31 frigates (if the tories don't bin them) all appear to be named at random: Active, Bulldog, Campbeltown, Formidable and Venturer.
At least they haven't decided to name one Thatcher yet.
Thatcher would be an Icebreaker, and named "Iron Lady".
My late Father in law as far back as the 60's maintained that harnessing the tides in the Pentland Firth would be the energy source of the future
He used to recount that on many times when returning to his home port of Lossiemouth from fishing in the west of Scotland he would experience times when his fishing boat would actually be going astern even with full engines due to the strength of the tides
My granddad had a similar story. He was on an old merchantman in a convoy going through the English Channel during the war. There was a storm, and after a day they were further back than they had been before, and they were alone as the convoy had steamed well ahead. I don't know much more about the story, but as he was a gunner in DEMS it must have meant a long shift at the guns - unless the weather was so bad German planes couldn't fly and the submarines couldn't easily attack.
I wish I'd talked more about it with him whilst he was alive.
For Operation Sealion, many of the barges the Germans were planning to use had a lower speed than the tide running in the Channel. So the invasion fleet would have spent half a day being pushed around by the tide. With a freeboard measured in inches.....
Yes, it wasn't the best-planned operation...
Talking about low freeboard, have you ever seen videos of narrowboats crossing the Wash?
One podcast I listened to put the allies winning World War I down to the cutting of the cables in the first days of the war. It meant the Germans had to use radio, and that allowed the Zimmerman telegram to be intercepted, and helped lead the US to war.
In the Cold War the Americans and UK tried intercepting communications in Berlin using a tunnel. Interestingly the Russians knew about the tunnel immediately due to George Bake's treachery, but they did not stop using the communication cables because they wanted to protect Blake ...
There's a similar story about the Enigma machine (or similar) and the Doodlebugs. They were 'misdirected' away from Central London.
I don't think that involved the Enigma, but a much more open form of misdirection. From memory, when a bomb exploded, the radio and newspapers would report it as being further north and west. This made the Germans think they were overshooting and reduce the range, meaning they were more likely to land in the lesser-populated southeast than London.
Someone can probably correct me.
It was a combination - the primary channel were the German agents in Britain. Who were all working for MI6.....
What was interesting was that they didn't misreport hits - they actually reported a skewed sample of the actual hits.
IIRC what they did was particularly subtle - they provided accurately the approximate times and locations of impact - but for different V1s. They matched the times of impact for the ones which had fallen short to the locations of the ones which had gone long.
Both of these peices of information were relatively easy for the Germans to verify (they knew the launch times and approximate flight time and could take ariel photos of the bomb sites), which added to their agent's veracity.
The combined effect was to make it look if the bombs which had been set to run the shortest had tended to go long - and the Germans had no way to discover this was in fact entirely untrue.
If one is interested in both how we did intelligence and attempted countermeasures against the Germans, particularly on new technology, R V Jones "Most Secret War" is worth a read (he was one of the scientists in the "scientific intelligence" unit involved with a lot of this stuff).
Speaking of maritime symbols of doubtful purpose, probably £500m in the unlikely event of it ever coming to fruition? And I thought it was not going to be a 'royal' yacht, or are they going to persist with that terminology despite Brenda's disapproval?
It was only £100m when Johnson started wanking off over it.
Meanwhile the RN are down to one functional air warfare destroyer (Defender) and that's in the South China Sea while Diamond is broken in (ironically) Taranto, Daring and Duncan are in deep maintenance, Dauntless is getting a power system upgrade so they can plug the kettle in when it's more than 25 deg C and Dragon is in pre-deployment maintenance.
That's tory defence priorities for you.
All our ships start with a D then? I didn't realize that. Defender, Diamond, Daring, Dauntless, Dragon and ... fair enough ... Duncan.
All the different classes of ship have some sort of naming theme. The destroyers all start with a "D", the Trident-armed subs all start with a "V", a class of smallish patrol ships are all named after rivers (Mersey, Clyde, etc).
The planned T31 frigates (if the tories don't bin them) all appear to be named at random: Active, Bulldog, Campbeltown, Formidable and Venturer.
Wikipedia suggests that there is a theme for those names, however tenuous. I wonder how many hobnobs the naming committee had to go through to come up with that?
So pleased to see Primož Roglič winning gold in the ITT. That solidifies the European Union lead in the medal tallies.
Sorry? The highest EU team is France, who are 8th.
Huh? The EU has won 63 medals so far, including 16 golds, easily beating China, Japan, England etc.
Wait - are we saying that the EU should be treated as a single entity that's allowed to enter 27 separate teams into every event? Hardly a level playing field. Should the US be allowed to enter 50 teams (one for each state)? Or at least 27 teams to be fair. The UK as well? Should every country be allowed 27 entries?
Wait till you see how many teams 'Oxford' and 'Cambridge' are allowed to enter into University Challenge!
As an Oxford graduate myself this is a fair point.
So pleased to see Primož Roglič winning gold in the ITT. That solidifies the European Union lead in the medal tallies.
Sorry? The highest EU team is France, who are 8th.
Huh? The EU has won 63 medals so far, including 16 golds, easily beating China, Japan, England etc.
Wait - are we saying that the EU should be treated as a single entity that's allowed to enter 27 separate teams into every event? Hardly a level playing field. Should the US be allowed to enter 50 teams (one for each state)? Or at least 27 teams to be fair. The UK as well? Should every country be allowed 27 entries?
Wait till you see how many teams 'Oxford' and 'Cambridge' are allowed to enter into University Challenge!
I reckon Oxford or Cambridge would win Uni Challenge every year if they entered single teams.
Comments
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-begins-donating-millions-of-covid-19-vaccines-overseas
https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-hands-down-punishment-to-james-roberts-over-quarantine-breach/news-story/621300cb876dd9d82f834381595e3787
Now I get that “rules are rules” but... “gaffer tapes sealing windows and door shut” - for a virus where ventilation and fresh air are the main weapon?
I'm actually looking forward to my holiday this year, rather than, as last year, dreading its last minute cancellation or its being rendered utterly joyless due to the sudden imposition of arbitrary restrictions. God last year was awful. My mental health is so much better now than it was in 2020.
Will be seen as sign of continuity as the NHS attempts to recover from the pandemic
https://twitter.com/Smyth_Chris/status/1420339572412715012?s=20
They could have kept the 0.7% target and spent 0.2% on delivering vaccines and it would have been the same, but I guess they wouldn't have been able to fight a skirmish in the culture war over it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_Royal_Navy_ships
Brilliant planning by Mayor Boris.Shocking underhandedness from Ken.Ledbury, Cattistock, etc.
Minehunters appropriately enough. Clearly an irresistible association.
It didn't happen, and probably wouldn't have happened that way, but it's the sort of thing you need to alter to make any German invasion even remotely feasible.
One counterfactual I quite like is Hitler and Churchill meeting in the Munich hotel in 1932, and them hating each other so much that Hitler decides that the UK is a main threat to his project, and he builds up accordingly. Yes, I know Churchill wasn't PM at the time of Sealion, but I like the idea that he'd upset Hitler that much.
Bet her Dad has a massive castle somewhere in Bavaria.
https://twitter.com/Birdseed501/status/1420344089963233284?s=20
Not even the biggest zero covid loon would suggest we have more cases and deaths in the future than in the past (at least on a reasonable timescale rather than 25 years worth of endemic low level activity).
The gift that keeps on giving.
We nearly had an 'HMS Pansy'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Heartsease_(K15)
edit; beaten to it ...
Given his ActionThisDay style, and the fact that at several point in the campaign, just pushing forward (especially in the early naval phase) would have worked....
Perhaps you were hacked. Or asleep when you wrote it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnPo7V03nbY
@SkyScottBeasley
SyringeNEW: A large real world study (over one million people) of AstraZeneca & Pfizer vaccines looking at blood clotting disorders
White heavy check mark Confirms safety profiles of both vaccines are similar
Open book You can read the study (Lancet preprint) here: https://bit.ly/3zJnz5r
At the moment 45% of our population are not protected by double vaccines. Even when they have their second jabs we will still have 1/3rd of our population unvaccinated, thanks in part to our refusal to vaccinate under-18's and piss poor take up recently amongst the young.
We are creating a potentially perfect petri dish for variants to spawn.
When you factor in that 40% of those hospitalised with the Delta variant are double vaccinated the situation we are in is NOT rosy.
The complacency is remarkable.
Again, I’m not a Tory, never voted for them, but their many faults can be exposed without manipulating the truth as you do on this board consistently.
The "petri dish for variant" line is snappy, and maybe appropriate for some countries in the world, just not the UK.
Or at least 27 teams to be fair.
The UK as well?
Should every country be allowed 27 entries?
In England, it is estimated that around 9 in 10 adults, or 91.9% of the adult population (95% credible interval: 90.5% to 93.0%) would have tested positive for antibodies against coronavirus (COVID-19) - SARS-CoV-2 - on a blood test in the week beginning 28 June 2021, suggesting they had the infection in the past or have been vaccinated.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveyantibodyandvaccinationdatafortheuk/latest
It's veering into fake news bullshit at this point in time.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_31_frigate
"The names were selected to represent key themes of the future plans of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines."
But my favourite is the little bow with hands clasped in front of you. It sets a nice tone, so long as you don't go all performative with it.
NEW: A large real world study (over one million people) of AstraZeneca & Pfizer vaccines looking at blood clotting disorders
Confirms safety profiles of both vaccines are similar
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3886421
Not yet peer-reviewed (Lancet preprint), but's it's a serious-looking study.
@SkyScottBeasley
SyringeNEW: A large real world study (over one million people) of AstraZeneca & Pfizer vaccines looking at blood clotting disorders
Confirms safety profiles of both vaccines are similar
You can read the study (Lancet preprint) here: https://bit.ly/3zJnz5r
Previous HMS Active was associated with Burnley:
Active was the adopted ship of the town of Burnley in Lancashire, North-West England. The ship and its crew were granted the freedom of the town in 1989. Part of the town's inner ring-road between Westgate and the traffic lights at the Church Street junction with Colne Road is called Active Way. One of Active's anchors is displayed at the Anchor Retail Park next to Active Way.
Campbelltown of course was rammed into the dry dock gates during the St Nazaire raid, saving the Allies from having to face the German's battleships in the Atlantic in perhaps one of the most idiotically brave, and successful actions of the war.
Both of these peices of information were relatively easy for the Germans to verify (they knew the launch times and approximate flight time and could take ariel photos of the bomb sites), which added to their agent's veracity.
The combined effect was to make it look if the bombs which had been set to run the shortest had tended to go long - and the Germans had no way to discover this was in fact entirely untrue.
If one is interested in both how we did intelligence and attempted countermeasures against the Germans, particularly on new technology, R V Jones "Most Secret War" is worth a read (he was one of the scientists in the "scientific intelligence" unit involved with a lot of this stuff).
Jeremy Corbyn: 48% worse
Rishi Sunak: 39% about the same
Theresa May: 36% worse
Tony Blair: 33% worse
https://twitter.com/RedfieldWilton/status/1420353762733043714?s=20