A CON majority no longer outright favourite for next election – politicalbetting.com
There’s been a little of movement on a few betting markets in reaction to the latest developments in Afghanistan. Probably the most significant is above on the outcome of the next election.
FPT - Sandpit What a monumental cluster that we’re even having to talk about this. But surely by now there are a bunch of such gents [Hereford branch of the diplomatic corp] figuring out an extraction plan for British citizens stranded outside of Kabul.
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I don't think it will make much difference, to be honest. I don't believe in inevitability, but I think the factors that will tip the balance one way or another will cause a political outcome, rather than the political outcome of a GE making much contribution to the shift in opinion. That's not suggesting an insight on Scotland, just that I think the end result there will come, messily or otherwise, whatever the GE, which will just affect how messy it is.
Prof Jeffrey S Morris @jsm2334 · Aug 17 Many are confused by results that >1/2 of hospitalized in Israel are vaccinated, thinking this means vaccines don't work. I downloaded actual Israeli data https://datadashboard.health.gov.il/COVID-19/general… and show why these data provide strong evidence vaccines strongly protect vs. serious disease (1/8)
Short Malta trip report: document check at airport very slick - you go through passport control, baggage check and customs, then the arrival hall has been turned into a covid document check area. Through the whole thing from disembarkation to taxi in 15 mins.
Rather than the usual middle aged englishmen and germans, the place is full of young french and poles, due to it being one of the very few warm places on their green lists. The lady at the Tourist Information said she is hopeful that they will go home and spread the word, and Malta might get more varied tourists in the future.
It is, however, rather hot here. The tomato harvest, much of which goes to Italy, has been spoilt by extreme heat blistering the fruit.
The reverse. NOM likely means PM Starmer, indyref2 + devomax and a narrow No win and securing of Scotland's position in the Union for a genuine generation more.
Also it likely means closer alignment to the SM and CU for GB removing the Irish Sea border also cementing GB closer to NI.
NOM is thus likely bad for the Tories as they lose office, even the DUP may prefer Starmer for the reasons in my second sentence however it would be good for the Union
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I'm not naming names. Yet.
An unconverted member of a people or nation who does not acknowledge the God of the Bible slightly more than others?
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I'm not naming names. Yet.
If there’s going to be a great reckoning, can you advertise the date and time. I wouldn’t want to miss it.
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I'm not naming names. Yet.
How do you know it's a fake email address? Do you ask them to reply?
The reverse. NOM likely means PM Starmer, indyref2 + devomax and a narrow No win and securing of Scotland's position in the Union for a genuine generation more.
Also it likely means closer UK alignment to the SM and CU for GB removing the Irish Sea border also cementing GB closer to NI.
NOM is thus likely bad for the Tories as they lose office, even the DUP may prefer Starmer for the reasons in my second sentence however it would be good for the Union
HYUFD's view on the union distilled:
Tory majority = no IndyRef = good for union. No Tory majority = no Tory PM = good for union.
The reverse. NOM likely means PM Starmer, indyref2 + devomax and a narrow No win and securing of Scotland's position in the Union for a genuine generation more.
Also it likely means closer UK alignment to the SM and CU for GB removing the Irish Sea border also cementing GB closer to NI.
NOM is thus likely bad for the Tories as they lose office, even the DUP may prefer Starmer for the reasons in my second sentence however it would be good for the Union
HYUFD's view on the union distilled:
Tory majority = no IndyRef = good for union. No Tory majority = no Tory PM = good for union.
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Hang on! It's 0-10%, so say 5% of not Con or NOM.
But that's not just a Labour majority. That's also covers:
(1) A party like Reform or the Greens winning a majority (2) The Conservatives cleaving in two and one of the (no longer named Conservatives) parties winning.
The reverse. NOM likely means PM Starmer, indyref2 + devomax and a narrow No win and securing of Scotland's position in the Union for a genuine generation more.
Also it likely means closer UK alignment to the SM and CU for GB removing the Irish Sea border also cementing GB closer to NI.
NOM is thus likely bad for the Tories as they lose office, even the DUP may prefer Starmer for the reasons in my second sentence however it would be good for the Union
HYUFD's view on the union distilled:
Tory majority = no IndyRef = good for union. No Tory majority = no Tory PM = good for union.
You missed out the tanks, and the beating up old ladies.
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I'm not naming names. Yet.
But we’d miss Hyufd. Who else would we wind up for lols?
Edited to add - on the substantive point, that does actually slightly surprise me. I mean, we all knew the poster in question was a gibbering idiot - confusing contingency planning with clairvoyance was a bit of a giveaway - but I was assuming stupidity not malice.
Maybe just another poster trying to put the opposite view to their classic one, so they can be proved right in the end?
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies on Wednesday that federal officials said provided evidence that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be needed by all Americans in the coming months.
NYTimes
Looks like US is heading towards booster shots this winter.
I don't think it will make much difference, to be honest. I don't believe in inevitability, but I think the factors that will tip the balance one way or another will cause a political outcome, rather than the political outcome of a GE making much contribution to the shift in opinion. That's not suggesting an insight on Scotland, just that I think the end result there will come, messily or otherwise, whatever the GE, which will just affect how messy it is.
Your most politely vacuous comment yet, and there is strong competition
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies on Wednesday that federal officials said provided evidence that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be needed by all Americans in the coming months.
NYTimes
Looks like US is heading towards booster shots this winter.
This does rather imply they think Pfizer fades in efficacy. Surely
FPT - Sandpit What a monumental cluster that we’re even having to talk about this. But surely by now there are a bunch of such gents [Hereford branch of the diplomatic corp] figuring out an extraction plan for British citizens stranded outside of Kabul.
There’s probably a few of them arrived already on one of the evac mil flights, or at least stationed forward in UAE or somewhere similar. They’ll be watching very carefully if the Taliban block Westerers from getting to the airport. Sadly there’s some evidence of this today, with more evac planes not being full. There will be an awful lot of plans being run, very difficult with a constantly changing situation.
I remember feeling so sorry for Hague, I think he was Foreign Secretary at the time, getting a real grilling as to why the evac plane to Tripoli hadn’t taken off yet. It became clear a few days later, as a couple of Hercules landed on a makeshift runway in the middle of the Libyan desert, to collect the Western oil field workers - who had all been rounded up by the SAS and ‘built’ the runway! It was of those stories that makes you proud to be British.
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I'm not naming names. Yet.
But we’d miss Hyufd. Who else would we wind up for lols?
Edited to add - that does actually slightly surprise me. I mean, we all knew the poster in question was a gibbering idiot - confusing contingency planning with clairvoyance was a bit of a giveaway - but I was assuming stupidity not malice.
Maybe just another poster trying to put the opposite view to the classic one, so they can be proved right in the end?
Apparently he's not a robot. People have actually met him. Though rather a lot to choose from in the way of local councillors *googles*. Not very socialist in Epping (not sure what Residents Association types are like - are the shy Tories, like 'Independents' in rural Scotland?).
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I'm not naming names. Yet.
But we’d miss Hyufd. Who else would we wind up for lols?
Edited to add - on the substantive point, that does actually slightly surprise me. I mean, we all knew the poster in question was a gibbering idiot - confusing contingency planning with clairvoyance was a bit of a giveaway - but I was assuming stupidity not malice.
Maybe just another poster trying to put the opposite view to their classic one, so they can be proved right in the end?
Have I missed some "fun"? I have no clue what "poster in question" is being spoken about.
Been away on holiday (in Cumbria) this weekend without much in the way of internet. Did I miss any news? Seems to have been like a Smithson holiday. 😕
I still love that Con Maj bet. So much in it's favour history and ratings/VI wise
That's because it's a fantastic bet.
You have a combination of boundary changes, an uninspiring Labour leader, and history on your side.
I tend to concur. After following polls and elections for decades I cannot recall an Opposition winning the following GE without huge and sustained mid-term leads.
Johnson (4 point lead) Sturgeon (22 point lead) and Drakeford (no post May polling?) are all looking good thus far.
(No idea who’s in charge in NI and don’t care. A failed state.)
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I'm not naming names. Yet.
But we’d miss Hyufd. Who else would we wind up for lols?
Edited to add - on the substantive point, that does actually slightly surprise me. I mean, we all knew the poster in question was a gibbering idiot - confusing contingency planning with clairvoyance was a bit of a giveaway - but I was assuming stupidity not malice.
Maybe just another poster trying to put the opposite view to their classic one, so they can be proved right in the end?
Have I missed some "fun"? I have no clue what "poster in question" is being spoken about.
Been away on holiday (in Cumbria) this weekend without much in the way of internet. Did I miss any news? Seems to have been like a Smithson holiday. 😕
Quite an interesting discussion on the nature of a clapper gate in the countryside. Not a mention of Scotland or Brexit, no siree.
NOM, doesn't necessarily mean Labour would have to do a deal with the SNP (presuming the Tories definitely couldn't form a government if they lack a majority). If Labour win 300+ seats they could probably cobble up enough support from the Lib Dems, SDLP and Lucas to get a thin majority if Sinn Fein don't bother to show up. Also if Starmer were willing to give the DUP their pork, 300 would definitely be enough.
I don't think it will make much difference, to be honest. I don't believe in inevitability, but I think the factors that will tip the balance one way or another will cause a political outcome, rather than the political outcome of a GE making much contribution to the shift in opinion. That's not suggesting an insight on Scotland, just that I think the end result there will come, messily or otherwise, whatever the GE, which will just affect how messy it is.
Your most politely vacuous comment yet, and there is strong competition
One cannot change one's nature. Perhaps if I'd said "I don't think the fucking GE result will change the direction of THE UNION, as a cabbie suggested to me the other day in Laos. Shitfuck." it would have more substance?
I'm sorry if thinking the GE result is peripheral to the political direction of Sindy isn't exciting. I lack dramatic flair, we're not all flint knappers extraordinaires.
NOM, doesn't necessarily mean Labour would have to do a deal with the SNP (presuming the Tories definitely couldn't form a government if they lack a majority). If Labour win 300+ seats they could probably cobble up enough support from the Lib Dems, SDLP and Lucas to get a thin majority if Sinn Fein don't bother to show up. Also if Starmer were willing to give the DUP their pork, 300 would definitely be enough.
Ho ho.
There is a website called Electoral Calculus. Run by a nice mathematician/finance chap called Martin Baxter. Have a wee look around there. Take your time. Fiddle about with his various calculators. Then have a good, long, hard, cold look at the words you just typed.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies on Wednesday that federal officials said provided evidence that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be needed by all Americans in the coming months.
NYTimes
Looks like US is heading towards booster shots this winter.
This does rather imply they think Pfizer fades in efficacy. Surely
The problem with using time since vaccination is that that also correlates very strongly with age. Simply older people, whose immune systems are weaker and who are more likely to get seriously sick if they get Covid, got the vaccine first.
So, are you really measuring vaccine efficacy fading? Or are you measuring susceptibility of a person to infection?
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I don't think it will make much difference, to be honest. I don't believe in inevitability, but I think the factors that will tip the balance one way or another will cause a political outcome, rather than the political outcome of a GE making much contribution to the shift in opinion. That's not suggesting an insight on Scotland, just that I think the end result there will come, messily or otherwise, whatever the GE, which will just affect how messy it is.
Your most politely vacuous comment yet, and there is strong competition
One cannot change one's nature. Perhaps if I'd said "I don't think the fucking GE result will change the direction of THE UNION, as a cabbie suggested to me the other day in Laos. Shitfuck." it would have more substance?
I'm sorry if thinking the GE result is peripheral to the political direction of Sindy isn't exciting. I lack dramatic flair, we're not all flint knappers extraordinaires.
I was gently teasing you in an otherwise boring thread
Your politeness is generally commendable, and I see you as a bellwether on PB, ie if Kle4 takes an actual new position there is probably something worth looking at in the argument
I just thought I’d insult you out of random malice. Hope that’s OK
The reverse. NOM likely means PM Starmer, indyref2 + devomax and a narrow No win and securing of Scotland's position in the Union for a genuine generation more.
Also it likely means closer UK alignment to the SM and CU for GB removing the Irish Sea border also cementing GB closer to NI.
NOM is thus likely bad for the Tories as they lose office, even the DUP may prefer Starmer for the reasons in my second sentence however it would be good for the Union
HYUFD's view on the union distilled:
Tory majority = no IndyRef = good for union. No Tory majority = no Tory PM = good for union.
Fable of the wind and the Sun, innit?
The simple fact of a non-Conservative government will do quite a bit to cement the Union in place for a few more decades. That's before we get devoMax with a thistle on top. (It's really obvious how that pas-de-deux plays out. There will be nothing before the election. Afterwards, the SNP will have to do whatever's needed to kick the Conservatives out and Labour will have to offer something in exchange, but not much.) In the event of a Starmer minority government in 2024 and a referendum pencilled in for about 2028 (a short generation, but... let's just say I've been a secondary school teacher and I know of what I speak) would be a win for "No" at a canter. To the extent that I can see the SNP looking for reasons not to hold it.
An ongoing Conservative hegemony, on the other hand, keeps Scotland in the Union by refusing a referendum. That will work as long as the balance of Scottish opinion is in the 45/55 range either way. But it accelerates the time when Scotland breaks decisively for independence. Beyond a certain point, it doesn't matter if Westminster refuses a referendum. I don't know where that point is, but a wildcat referendum where a majority of the electorate (not just voters) voted for independence would be blooming hard to ignore.
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I'm not naming names. Yet.
Better not post from the work VPN anymore then!
I was thinking the same. I might have been in Singapore or London for an hour, earlier in the evening. Will avoid in future!
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Effectively that would be saying that there is a 10% chance of SNP collapse before the next UK GE.
Perhaps the PB Enders of SNP Honeymoons can finally break their duck.
Their record is extraordinarily poor.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
And "Victorious-to-be New Slab Leader".
One year they'll actually appoint a concrete slab to be SLab leader, and it will surprise us by having more personality and electability than any of their recent leaders.
I don't think it will make much difference, to be honest. I don't believe in inevitability, but I think the factors that will tip the balance one way or another will cause a political outcome, rather than the political outcome of a GE making much contribution to the shift in opinion. That's not suggesting an insight on Scotland, just that I think the end result there will come, messily or otherwise, whatever the GE, which will just affect how messy it is.
Your most politely vacuous comment yet, and there is strong competition
One cannot change one's nature. Perhaps if I'd said "I don't think the fucking GE result will change the direction of THE UNION, as a cabbie suggested to me the other day in Laos. Shitfuck." it would have more substance?
I'm sorry if thinking the GE result is peripheral to the political direction of Sindy isn't exciting. I lack dramatic flair, we're not all flint knappers extraordinaires.
I was gently teasing you in an otherwise boring thread
Your politeness is generally commendable, and I see you as a bellwether on PB, ie if Kle4 takes an actual new position there is probably something worth looking at in the argument
I just thought I’d insult you out of random malice. Hope that’s OK
Of course it is, all in good fun, and what a dull place it would be if it were all leons or all kle4s! - frankly I need to toughen up when it comes to mild criticism and teasing in any case, I can take it too personally. I wish I had boldness even pseudonomously. I've been told workwise I also need to be more decisive and direct in setting out my opinions, which will not come as a shock to people I think, so expect some punchy opinions from here on out!
There are lists on the internet of open proxy servers that I run the IPs of posters against from time-to-time. If someone seems to always post through a different open proxy, I tend to get a little suspicious.
If that person also has an obviously fake email address that I do not get a response from, then that scepticism gets increased dramatically.
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Effectively that would be saying that there is a 10% chance of SNP collapse before the next UK GE.
Perhaps the PB Enders of SNP Honeymoons can finally break their duck.
Their record is extraordinarily poor.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
And "Victorious-to-be New Slab Leader".
One year they'll actually appoint a concrete slab to be SLab leader, and it will surprise us by having more personality and electability than any of their recent leaders.
The WHO is right to call a temporary halt to COVID vaccine boosters Richer countries should focus on ramping up vaccine supply to the billions who are still waiting for their first dose.
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I'm not naming names. Yet.
But we’d miss Hyufd. Who else would we wind up for lols?
Edited to add - that does actually slightly surprise me. I mean, we all knew the poster in question was a gibbering idiot - confusing contingency planning with clairvoyance was a bit of a giveaway - but I was assuming stupidity not malice.
Maybe just another poster trying to put the opposite view to the classic one, so they can be proved right in the end?
Apparently he's not a robot. People have actually met him. Though rather a lot to choose from in the way of local councillors *googles*. Not very socialist in Epping (not sure what Residents Association types are like - are the shy Tories, like 'Independents' in rural Scotland?).
He’s given so many clues as to his real identity that he’s basically not anonymous anymore.
NOM, doesn't necessarily mean Labour would have to do a deal with the SNP (presuming the Tories definitely couldn't form a government if they lack a majority). If Labour win 300+ seats they could probably cobble up enough support from the Lib Dems, SDLP and Lucas to get a thin majority if Sinn Fein don't bother to show up. Also if Starmer were willing to give the DUP their pork, 300 would definitely be enough.
Ho ho.
There is a website called Electoral Calculus. Run by a nice mathematician/finance chap called Martin Baxter. Have a wee look around there. Take your time. Fiddle about with his various calculators. Then have a good, long, hard, cold look at the words you just typed.
I think the Labour Party would probably need at least 310 seats, and probably more like 315, to avoid needing the SNP.
PBers: if you are accessing the site through a proxy server to hide your real IP address, and using a fake email address for registration, then I reserve the right to assume you are a troll and to ban you.
I'm not naming names. Yet.
But we’d miss Hyufd. Who else would we wind up for lols?
Edited to add - that does actually slightly surprise me. I mean, we all knew the poster in question was a gibbering idiot - confusing contingency planning with clairvoyance was a bit of a giveaway - but I was assuming stupidity not malice.
Maybe just another poster trying to put the opposite view to the classic one, so they can be proved right in the end?
Apparently he's not a robot. People have actually met him. Though rather a lot to choose from in the way of local councillors *googles*. Not very socialist in Epping (not sure what Residents Association types are like - are the shy Tories, like 'Independents' in rural Scotland?).
He’s given so many clues as to his real identity that he’s basically not anonymous anymore.
Quite. I didn't bother to look further - just curious as to how dominant the Tories were in Epping. Makes Labour Scotland look like a minority government if I'm right about the 'Resident's Association'.
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Effectively that would be saying that there is a 10% chance of SNP collapse before the next UK GE.
Perhaps the PB Enders of SNP Honeymoons can finally break their duck.
Their record is extraordinarily poor.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
And "Victorious-to-be New Slab Leader".
One year they'll actually appoint a concrete slab to be SLab leader, and it will surprise us by having more personality and electability than any of their recent leaders.
What's [insert SLAB leader here] up to thesedays anyway?
NOM, doesn't necessarily mean Labour would have to do a deal with the SNP (presuming the Tories definitely couldn't form a government if they lack a majority). If Labour win 300+ seats they could probably cobble up enough support from the Lib Dems, SDLP and Lucas to get a thin majority if Sinn Fein don't bother to show up. Also if Starmer were willing to give the DUP their pork, 300 would definitely be enough.
300 seats is light years away without Scotland. The single most important factor is the 80 seat majority. That won't be overturned in one go without something remarkably dramatic.
NOM, doesn't necessarily mean Labour would have to do a deal with the SNP (presuming the Tories definitely couldn't form a government if they lack a majority). If Labour win 300+ seats they could probably cobble up enough support from the Lib Dems, SDLP and Lucas to get a thin majority if Sinn Fein don't bother to show up. Also if Starmer were willing to give the DUP their pork, 300 would definitely be enough.
Ho ho.
There is a website called Electoral Calculus. Run by a nice mathematician/finance chap called Martin Baxter. Have a wee look around there. Take your time. Fiddle about with his various calculators. Then have a good, long, hard, cold look at the words you just typed.
Presumably to win 300 seats without Scotland Labour need to be taking seats like, I don't know, Bournemouth West?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies on Wednesday that federal officials said provided evidence that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be needed by all Americans in the coming months.
NYTimes
Looks like US is heading towards booster shots this winter.
This does rather imply they think Pfizer fades in efficacy. Surely
Does it matter? We've bought 60m Pfizer doses as an insurance policy. We've got enough Pfizer doses to do all groups 1-10 with a booster shot and enough other vaccines to do groups 11, 12 and 13 as well.
Additionally GSK has fixed the CureVac vaccine so the 2nd gen version will not only work against all of the variants (current and possibly a few predicted ones now that we have a common evolutionary path figured out) but will have extremely high efficacy.
Finally, waning efficacy is based on the 3 week gap for Pfizer. Moderna notably doesn't see much drop off in efficacy at all in the same time period and incoming PHE numbers based on the 8-12 week gap for Pfizer will show whether our dosing strategy will deliver another victory against COVID. The JCVI has said the preliminary data for keeping the dosing gap at 8 weeks convinced them to hold onto it despite having no supply issues from around May onwards for Pfizer/Moderna.
On a different theme, I wasn't keeping track today: did you get to the Pnyx?
Yes, and it was quite absorbing, tho not quite as epiphanic as the Athenian Agora. But that’s a high bar
Athens is just stuffed with wonderful things to see. I’ve been here nine days (with a couple left) and I could do another week easily and not get bored
Maybe the Pnyx didn’t totally wow me because I was wholly wowed earlier by lunch at the Acropolis Museum. It’s an utterly fantastic restaurant (seriously world class food) AND you get to eat it (and drink great Greek wine) with a majestic view of the Parthenon. That’s also a high bar
I got sloshed and ate split pea with salami and squid and radish and weirdness and it was brilliant and I toasted the goddess Athena
I don’t know if you missed our earlier discussion of modern Greek food (at least in Athens) but it is genuinely first rate. You eat better in Athens, on average, than Paris, very easily. Possibly better than London or Madrid. AND it is markedly cheaper
The reverse. NOM likely means PM Starmer, indyref2 + devomax and a narrow No win and securing of Scotland's position in the Union for a genuine generation more.
Also it likely means closer UK alignment to the SM and CU for GB removing the Irish Sea border also cementing GB closer to NI.
NOM is thus likely bad for the Tories as they lose office, even the DUP may prefer Starmer for the reasons in my second sentence however it would be good for the Union
HYUFD's view on the union distilled:
Tory majority = no IndyRef = good for union. No Tory majority = no Tory PM = good for union.
Fable of the wind and the Sun, innit?
The simple fact of a non-Conservative government will do quite a bit to cement the Union in place for a few more decades. That's before we get devoMax with a thistle on top. (It's really obvious how that pas-de-deux plays out. There will be nothing before the election. Afterwards, the SNP will have to do whatever's needed to kick the Conservatives out and Labour will have to offer something in exchange, but not much.) In the event of a Starmer minority government in 2024 and a referendum pencilled in for about 2028 (a short generation, but... let's just say I've been a secondary school teacher and I know of what I speak) would be a win for "No" at a canter. To the extent that I can see the SNP looking for reasons not to hold it.
An ongoing Conservative hegemony, on the other hand, keeps Scotland in the Union by refusing a referendum. That will work as long as the balance of Scottish opinion is in the 45/55 range either way. But it accelerates the time when Scotland breaks decisively for independence. Beyond a certain point, it doesn't matter if Westminster refuses a referendum. I don't know where that point is, but a wildcat referendum where a majority of the electorate (not just voters) voted for independence would be blooming hard to ignore.
A majority of the electorate is an insanely high threshold to cross though. It would require 62.5% of the vote at an 80% turnout. A wildcat referendum would suppress turnout so that would be even harder to achieve (afterall if you've settled for that ambition then it doesn't matter if 100 No votes are suppressed for every Yes vote, since only Yes votes matter).
NOM, doesn't necessarily mean Labour would have to do a deal with the SNP (presuming the Tories definitely couldn't form a government if they lack a majority). If Labour win 300+ seats they could probably cobble up enough support from the Lib Dems, SDLP and Lucas to get a thin majority if Sinn Fein don't bother to show up. Also if Starmer were willing to give the DUP their pork, 300 would definitely be enough.
Ho ho.
There is a website called Electoral Calculus. Run by a nice mathematician/finance chap called Martin Baxter. Have a wee look around there. Take your time. Fiddle about with his various calculators. Then have a good, long, hard, cold look at the words you just typed.
I think the Labour Party would probably need at least 310 seats, and probably more like 315, to avoid needing the SNP.
The really fun one would be the Tories on 300.
Starmer would be better keeping the Tories in as a minority, than be utterly dependent on the SNP for every vote, and with a fresh election clearly coming quickly down the line.
Read Joshua Rozenberg's Enemies of the People? How judges shape society the other day. Assumed from the title it would be pretty polemical, but it was actually a rather fascinating look at various developments in the law and judicial approaches to interpreting and creating law, and pretty even handed. He quotes Sumption quite a lot and obviously takes issues with some of his more conservative interpretations of judicial authority and responsibilities, but lays everything out pretty fairly as far as I could see, without (to this layman) obvious axes to grind or a single viewpoint to push.
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Effectively that would be saying that there is a 10% chance of SNP collapse before the next UK GE.
Perhaps the PB Enders of SNP Honeymoons can finally break their duck.
Their record is extraordinarily poor.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
And "Victorious-to-be New Slab Leader".
One year they'll actually appoint a concrete slab to be SLab leader, and it will surprise us by having more personality and electability than any of their recent leaders.
What's [insert SLAB leader here] up to thesedays anyway?
Demanding that the Cambo oilfield not be developed and blaming the SNP, apparently. Oh, and celebrating the movement for independence from England. When it comes to Pakistan
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Effectively that would be saying that there is a 10% chance of SNP collapse before the next UK GE.
Perhaps the PB Enders of SNP Honeymoons can finally break their duck.
Their record is extraordinarily poor.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
And "Victorious-to-be New Slab Leader".
One year they'll actually appoint a concrete slab to be SLab leader, and it will surprise us by having more personality and electability than any of their recent leaders.
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Effectively that would be saying that there is a 10% chance of SNP collapse before the next UK GE.
Perhaps the PB Enders of SNP Honeymoons can finally break their duck.
Their record is extraordinarily poor.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
And "Victorious-to-be New Slab Leader".
One year they'll actually appoint a concrete slab to be SLab leader, and it will surprise us by having more personality and electability than any of their recent leaders.
What's [insert SLAB leader here] up to thesedays anyway?
Demanding that the Cambo oilfield not be developed and blaming the SNP, apparently. Oh, and celebrating the movement for independence from England. When it comes to Pakistan
His dad's now a governor out there apparently. What a varied career he must have had.
On a different theme, I wasn't keeping track today: did you get to the Pnyx?
Yes, and it was quite absorbing, tho not quite as epiphanic as the Athenian Agora. But that’s a high bar
Athens is just stuffed with wonderful things to see. I’ve been here nine days (with a couple left) and I could do another week easily and not get bored
Maybe the Pnyx didn’t totally wow me because I was wholly wowed earlier by lunch at the Acropolis Museum. It’s an utterly fantastic restaurant (seriously world class food) AND you get to eat it (and drink great Greek wine) with a majestic view of the Parthenon. That’s also a high bar
I got sloshed and ate split pea with salami and squid and radish and weirdness and it was brilliant and I toasted the goddess Athena
I don’t know if you missed our earlier discussion of modern Greek food (at least in Athens) but it is genuinely first rate. You eat better in Athens, on average, than Paris, very easily. Possibly better than London or Madrid. AND it is markedly cheaper
Well! That's something to add to the bucket list, on which the Wasa, the Aland Islands, and the Finnish Tank Museum are already inscribed. And a ride on the Viking ships at Roskilde.
On which: I have no idea if Hellenic Navy Ship Olympias the trieres/trireme is even accessible to the public. Probably not. And it won't be rowing around. Not easy to drum up so many rowers at once, never mind socially distanced. Thouigh I did meet one on the train once.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies on Wednesday that federal officials said provided evidence that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be needed by all Americans in the coming months.
NYTimes
Looks like US is heading towards booster shots this winter.
This does rather imply they think Pfizer fades in efficacy. Surely
Does it matter? We've bought 60m Pfizer doses as an insurance policy. We've got enough Pfizer doses to do all groups 1-10 with a booster shot and enough other vaccines to do groups 11, 12 and 13 as well.
Additionally GSK has fixed the CureVac vaccine so the 2nd gen version will not only work against all of the variants (current and possibly a few predicted ones now that we have a common evolutionary path figured out) but will have extremely high efficacy.
Finally, waning efficacy is based on the 3 week gap for Pfizer. Moderna notably doesn't see much drop off in efficacy at all in the same time period and incoming PHE numbers based on the 8-12 week gap for Pfizer will show whether our dosing strategy will deliver another victory against COVID. The JCVI has said the preliminary data for keeping the dosing gap at 8 weeks convinced them to hold onto it despite having no supply issues from around May onwards for Pfizer/Moderna.
What would be seen as a successful benchmark for Dose 3 uptake?
Read Joshua Rozenberg's Enemies of the People? How judges shape society the other day. Assumed from the title it would be pretty polemical, but it was actually a rather fascinating look at various developments in the law and judicial approaches to interpreting and creating law, and pretty even handed. He quotes Sumption quite a lot and obviously takes issues with some of his more conservative interpretations of judicial authority and responibilities, but lays everything out pretty fairly as far as I could see, without (to this layman) obvious axes to grind or a single viewpoint to push.
Rozenberg is a superb writer who is always worth a read on any legal issue.
NOM, doesn't necessarily mean Labour would have to do a deal with the SNP (presuming the Tories definitely couldn't form a government if they lack a majority). If Labour win 300+ seats they could probably cobble up enough support from the Lib Dems, SDLP and Lucas to get a thin majority if Sinn Fein don't bother to show up. Also if Starmer were willing to give the DUP their pork, 300 would definitely be enough.
Ho ho.
There is a website called Electoral Calculus. Run by a nice mathematician/finance chap called Martin Baxter. Have a wee look around there. Take your time. Fiddle about with his various calculators. Then have a good, long, hard, cold look at the words you just typed.
I think the Labour Party would probably need at least 310 seats, and probably more like 315, to avoid needing the SNP.
The really fun one would be the Tories on 300.
Starmer would be better keeping the Tories in as a minority, than be utterly dependent on the SNP for every vote, and with a fresh election clearly coming quickly down the line.
The Tories on life support until the plug is turned off would be good for Starmer.
The risk is, a la Corbyn/May, that the Tories get a new leader that rejuvenates the party and finds a winning formula.
I'm sceptical that trick can be repeated again though.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies on Wednesday that federal officials said provided evidence that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be needed by all Americans in the coming months.
NYTimes
Looks like US is heading towards booster shots this winter.
This does rather imply they think Pfizer fades in efficacy. Surely
Does it matter? We've bought 60m Pfizer doses as an insurance policy. We've got enough Pfizer doses to do all groups 1-10 with a booster shot and enough other vaccines to do groups 11, 12 and 13 as well.
Additionally GSK has fixed the CureVac vaccine so the 2nd gen version will not only work against all of the variants (current and possibly a few predicted ones now that we have a common evolutionary path figured out) but will have extremely high efficacy.
Finally, waning efficacy is based on the 3 week gap for Pfizer. Moderna notably doesn't see much drop off in efficacy at all in the same time period and incoming PHE numbers based on the 8-12 week gap for Pfizer will show whether our dosing strategy will deliver another victory against COVID. The JCVI has said the preliminary data for keeping the dosing gap at 8 weeks convinced them to hold onto it despite having no supply issues from around May onwards for Pfizer/Moderna.
It matters psychologically, unfortunately. My Dad is really pretty elderly - with a younger but also very vulnerable wife - they were jabbed back in January and news like this will just prolong their reluctance to have any kind of normal life
A lot of people are still horribly frightened, this won’t help
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Effectively that would be saying that there is a 10% chance of SNP collapse before the next UK GE.
Perhaps the PB Enders of SNP Honeymoons can finally break their duck.
Their record is extraordinarily poor.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
And "Victorious-to-be New Slab Leader".
One year they'll actually appoint a concrete slab to be SLab leader, and it will surprise us by having more personality and electability than any of their recent leaders.
Not fair. Wendy Alexander.
Not terribly recent though.
Another poster was arguing that SNP hegemony isn't that long-lived when it comes to things like the Iapetus Suture and the formation of the Moon (basically). So a bit of that rubbed off.
NOM, doesn't necessarily mean Labour would have to do a deal with the SNP (presuming the Tories definitely couldn't form a government if they lack a majority). If Labour win 300+ seats they could probably cobble up enough support from the Lib Dems, SDLP and Lucas to get a thin majority if Sinn Fein don't bother to show up. Also if Starmer were willing to give the DUP their pork, 300 would definitely be enough.
Starmer doesn't have to treat with the SNP regardless and, what's more, he'd be foolish to do so. Firstly, offering sweeties to separatist Scottish politicians merely risks confirming the Tory narrative that he'll screw over the English and Welsh (who still return Labour MPs in large numbers) to funnel more money to the Scots (who don't.) Secondly, the SNP MPs can't do any worse than make mischief. Their left-leaning, anti-Tory posture makes it, if not theoretically, then in practical political terms impossible for them to support the only available alternative as Prime Minister, i.e. whoever succeeds Boris Johnson if he's beaten.
I stand to be corrected by events, of course, but as I see it the position of Scottish Nationalism at Westminster is extremely weak. This is wholly unsurprising when you consider that they are the third largest party, with less than 10% of the seats; they can't realistically work with one of the big two (and you can hardly extract a price for being kingmakers when you're only willing to back one claimant to the throne;) and parties 1, 2, 4 and 5 are all Unionist and, therefore, diametrically opposed to the SNPs core aim. The sole route to getting what they want is to build a substantial and sustained majority for secession amongst popular opinion at home.
On a different theme, I wasn't keeping track today: did you get to the Pnyx?
Yes, and it was quite absorbing, tho not quite as epiphanic as the Athenian Agora. But that’s a high bar
Athens is just stuffed with wonderful things to see. I’ve been here nine days (with a couple left) and I could do another week easily and not get bored
Sure but you have wasted at least one day with your ahem own company
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies on Wednesday that federal officials said provided evidence that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be needed by all Americans in the coming months.
NYTimes
Looks like US is heading towards booster shots this winter.
This does rather imply they think Pfizer fades in efficacy. Surely
Does it matter? We've bought 60m Pfizer doses as an insurance policy. We've got enough Pfizer doses to do all groups 1-10 with a booster shot and enough other vaccines to do groups 11, 12 and 13 as well.
Additionally GSK has fixed the CureVac vaccine so the 2nd gen version will not only work against all of the variants (current and possibly a few predicted ones now that we have a common evolutionary path figured out) but will have extremely high efficacy.
Finally, waning efficacy is based on the 3 week gap for Pfizer. Moderna notably doesn't see much drop off in efficacy at all in the same time period and incoming PHE numbers based on the 8-12 week gap for Pfizer will show whether our dosing strategy will deliver another victory against COVID. The JCVI has said the preliminary data for keeping the dosing gap at 8 weeks convinced them to hold onto it despite having no supply issues from around May onwards for Pfizer/Moderna.
What would be seen as a successful benchmark for Dose 3 uptake?
70-80% of eligible people, I'd guess so around 40% of the population. I'd be surprised if the government doesn't simply make it available to everyone before the middle of December. There will be a lot of prevarication but ultimately it will be decided that risking a second cancellation of Christmas for the sake of saving 15m vaccine doses we've already bought isn't a good trade off.
NOM, doesn't necessarily mean Labour would have to do a deal with the SNP (presuming the Tories definitely couldn't form a government if they lack a majority). If Labour win 300+ seats they could probably cobble up enough support from the Lib Dems, SDLP and Lucas to get a thin majority if Sinn Fein don't bother to show up. Also if Starmer were willing to give the DUP their pork, 300 would definitely be enough.
Ho ho.
There is a website called Electoral Calculus. Run by a nice mathematician/finance chap called Martin Baxter. Have a wee look around there. Take your time. Fiddle about with his various calculators. Then have a good, long, hard, cold look at the words you just typed.
I think the Labour Party would probably need at least 310 seats, and probably more like 315, to avoid needing the SNP.
The really fun one would be the Tories on 300.
Starmer would be better keeping the Tories in as a minority, than be utterly dependent on the SNP for every vote, and with a fresh election clearly coming quickly down the line.
The Tories on life support until the plug is turned off would be good for Starmer.
The risk is, a la Corbyn/May, that the Tories get a new leader that rejuvenates the party and finds a winning formula.
I'm sceptical that trick can be repeated again though.
Surprised the Liberal Democratic Party (of Japan) don't give out training courses on that trick.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies on Wednesday that federal officials said provided evidence that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be needed by all Americans in the coming months.
NYTimes
Looks like US is heading towards booster shots this winter.
This does rather imply they think Pfizer fades in efficacy. Surely
Does it matter? We've bought 60m Pfizer doses as an insurance policy. We've got enough Pfizer doses to do all groups 1-10 with a booster shot and enough other vaccines to do groups 11, 12 and 13 as well.
Additionally GSK has fixed the CureVac vaccine so the 2nd gen version will not only work against all of the variants (current and possibly a few predicted ones now that we have a common evolutionary path figured out) but will have extremely high efficacy.
Finally, waning efficacy is based on the 3 week gap for Pfizer. Moderna notably doesn't see much drop off in efficacy at all in the same time period and incoming PHE numbers based on the 8-12 week gap for Pfizer will show whether our dosing strategy will deliver another victory against COVID. The JCVI has said the preliminary data for keeping the dosing gap at 8 weeks convinced them to hold onto it despite having no supply issues from around May onwards for Pfizer/Moderna.
It matters psychologically, unfortunately. My Dad is really pretty elderly - with a younger but also very vulnerable wife - they were jabbed back in January and news like this will just prolong their reluctance to have any kind of normal life
A lot of people are still horribly frightened, this won’t help
It's quite possible that by the middle of September they'll already be being called up for their third doses.
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Effectively that would be saying that there is a 10% chance of SNP collapse before the next UK GE.
Perhaps the PB Enders of SNP Honeymoons can finally break their duck.
Their record is extraordinarily poor.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
And "Victorious-to-be New Slab Leader".
One year they'll actually appoint a concrete slab to be SLab leader, and it will surprise us by having more personality and electability than any of their recent leaders.
Not fair. Wendy Alexander.
Not terribly recent though.
Another poster was arguing that SNP hegemony isn't that long-lived when it comes to things like the Iapetus Suture and the formation of the Moon (basically). So a bit of that rubbed off.
Ah, fair enough. I will concede that on cosmological timescales SLab have had good leaders.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies on Wednesday that federal officials said provided evidence that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be needed by all Americans in the coming months.
NYTimes
Looks like US is heading towards booster shots this winter.
This does rather imply they think Pfizer fades in efficacy. Surely
Does it matter? We've bought 60m Pfizer doses as an insurance policy. We've got enough Pfizer doses to do all groups 1-10 with a booster shot and enough other vaccines to do groups 11, 12 and 13 as well.
Additionally GSK has fixed the CureVac vaccine so the 2nd gen version will not only work against all of the variants (current and possibly a few predicted ones now that we have a common evolutionary path figured out) but will have extremely high efficacy.
Finally, waning efficacy is based on the 3 week gap for Pfizer. Moderna notably doesn't see much drop off in efficacy at all in the same time period and incoming PHE numbers based on the 8-12 week gap for Pfizer will show whether our dosing strategy will deliver another victory against COVID. The JCVI has said the preliminary data for keeping the dosing gap at 8 weeks convinced them to hold onto it despite having no supply issues from around May onwards for Pfizer/Moderna.
What would be seen as a successful benchmark for Dose 3 uptake?
70-80% of eligible people, I'd guess so around 40% of the population. I'd be surprised if the government doesn't simply make it available to everyone before the middle of December. There will be a lot of prevarication but ultimately it will be decided that risking a second cancellation of Christmas for the sake of saving 15m vaccine doses we've already bought isn't a good trade off.
I had assumed we didn’t have enough doses to do the whole country. Don’t see why else you’d prevaricate on that.
Read Joshua Rozenberg's Enemies of the People? How judges shape society the other day. Assumed from the title it would be pretty polemical, but it was actually a rather fascinating look at various developments in the law and judicial approaches to interpreting and creating law, and pretty even handed. He quotes Sumption quite a lot and obviously takes issues with some of his more conservative interpretations of judicial authority and responibilities, but lays everything out pretty fairly as far as I could see, without (to this layman) obvious axes to grind or a single viewpoint to push.
I only know him from his stints on R4 but he does seem almost preternaturally evenhanded. Still can’t believe he’s married to Melanie Phillips.
The reverse. NOM likely means PM Starmer, indyref2 + devomax and a narrow No win and securing of Scotland's position in the Union for a genuine generation more.
Also it likely means closer UK alignment to the SM and CU for GB removing the Irish Sea border also cementing GB closer to NI.
NOM is thus likely bad for the Tories as they lose office, even the DUP may prefer Starmer for the reasons in my second sentence however it would be good for the Union
HYUFD's view on the union distilled:
Tory majority = no IndyRef = good for union. No Tory majority = no Tory PM = good for union.
Fable of the wind and the Sun, innit?
The simple fact of a non-Conservative government will do quite a bit to cement the Union in place for a few more decades. That's before we get devoMax with a thistle on top. (It's really obvious how that pas-de-deux plays out. There will be nothing before the election. Afterwards, the SNP will have to do whatever's needed to kick the Conservatives out and Labour will have to offer something in exchange, but not much.) In the event of a Starmer minority government in 2024 and a referendum pencilled in for about 2028 (a short generation, but... let's just say I've been a secondary school teacher and I know of what I speak) would be a win for "No" at a canter. To the extent that I can see the SNP looking for reasons not to hold it.
An ongoing Conservative hegemony, on the other hand, keeps Scotland in the Union by refusing a referendum. That will work as long as the balance of Scottish opinion is in the 45/55 range either way. But it accelerates the time when Scotland breaks decisively for independence. Beyond a certain point, it doesn't matter if Westminster refuses a referendum. I don't know where that point is, but a wildcat referendum where a majority of the electorate (not just voters) voted for independence would be blooming hard to ignore.
A majority of the electorate is an insanely high threshold to cross though. It would require 62.5% of the vote at an 80% turnout. A wildcat referendum would suppress turnout so that would be even harder to achieve (afterall if you've settled for that ambition then it doesn't matter if 100 No votes are suppressed for every Yes vote, since only Yes votes matter).
No question- it's an very high threshold. In 2014, the referendum was roughly 38% Yes, 50% No, 12% did not vote. It's a lot of votes to shift. And the only way it happens is a decade or so of hyper-unionist pulling (and noises about pulling) powers back to Westminster as the sole true focus of democracy.
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Effectively that would be saying that there is a 10% chance of SNP collapse before the next UK GE.
Perhaps the PB Enders of SNP Honeymoons can finally break their duck.
Their record is extraordinarily poor.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
And "Victorious-to-be New Slab Leader".
One year they'll actually appoint a concrete slab to be SLab leader, and it will surprise us by having more personality and electability than any of their recent leaders.
Not fair. Wendy Alexander.
Not terribly recent though.
Another poster was arguing that SNP hegemony isn't that long-lived when it comes to things like the Iapetus Suture and the formation of the Moon (basically). So a bit of that rubbed off.
Well we have to mollify our despair about the endurance of the SNP hegemony somehow.
NOM, doesn't necessarily mean Labour would have to do a deal with the SNP (presuming the Tories definitely couldn't form a government if they lack a majority). If Labour win 300+ seats they could probably cobble up enough support from the Lib Dems, SDLP and Lucas to get a thin majority if Sinn Fein don't bother to show up. Also if Starmer were willing to give the DUP their pork, 300 would definitely be enough.
Ho ho.
There is a website called Electoral Calculus. Run by a nice mathematician/finance chap called Martin Baxter. Have a wee look around there. Take your time. Fiddle about with his various calculators. Then have a good, long, hard, cold look at the words you just typed.
I think the Labour Party would probably need at least 310 seats, and probably more like 315, to avoid needing the SNP.
Thing is that's assuming the Lib Dems remain static. I think there's a fair chance Labour are making gains against the Tories, then so would the Lib Dems (ala 1997). Assume Labour actually need the support of 330 MPs in the Commons to govern stably enough. If the Lib Dems have 20 seats, then Labour would need 310 for that. Assume Labour are willing to give the DUP their pork, and the SDLP (if they retain their 2 existing constituencies) support Labour. Then they'd only need 300.
Sainsbury's -- masks worn by almost all customers but fewer staff than last time. Same in B&M. Some gaps on shelves, including Coke and some brands of cat food. A pallet of bottled water was being manoeuvred to replenish shelves that have been empty for some weeks.
Not as many customers as usual, and there was not much traffic on the roads either. Not sure why.
On a different theme, I wasn't keeping track today: did you get to the Pnyx?
Yes, and it was quite absorbing, tho not quite as epiphanic as the Athenian Agora. But that’s a high bar
Athens is just stuffed with wonderful things to see. I’ve been here nine days (with a couple left) and I could do another week easily and not get bored
Maybe the Pnyx didn’t totally wow me because I was wholly wowed earlier by lunch at the Acropolis Museum. It’s an utterly fantastic restaurant (seriously world class food) AND you get to eat it (and drink great Greek wine) with a majestic view of the Parthenon. That’s also a high bar
I got sloshed and ate split pea with salami and squid and radish and weirdness and it was brilliant and I toasted the goddess Athena
I don’t know if you missed our earlier discussion of modern Greek food (at least in Athens) but it is genuinely first rate. You eat better in Athens, on average, than Paris, very easily. Possibly better than London or Madrid. AND it is markedly cheaper
Well! That's something to add to the bucket list, on which the Wasa, the Aland Islands, and the Finnish Tank Museum are already inscribed. And a ride on the Viking ships at Roskilde.
On which: I have no idea if Hellenic Navy Ship Olympias the trieres/trireme is even accessible to the public. Probably not. And it won't be rowing around. Not easy to drum up so many rowers at once, never mind socially distanced. Thouigh I did meet one on the train once.
IIRC The Olympias is displayed in a dry dock. No longer sea worthy, but maintained - triremes had/have a short life.
Read Joshua Rozenberg's Enemies of the People? How judges shape society the other day. Assumed from the title it would be pretty polemical, but it was actually a rather fascinating look at various developments in the law and judicial approaches to interpreting and creating law, and pretty even handed. He quotes Sumption quite a lot and obviously takes issues with some of his more conservative interpretations of judicial authority and responibilities, but lays everything out pretty fairly as far as I could see, without (to this layman) obvious axes to grind or a single viewpoint to push.
I only know him from his stints on R4 but he does seem almost preternaturally evenhanded. Still can’t believe he’s married to Melanie Phillips.
Read Joshua Rozenberg's Enemies of the People? How judges shape society the other day. Assumed from the title it would be pretty polemical, but it was actually a rather fascinating look at various developments in the law and judicial approaches to interpreting and creating law, and pretty even handed. He quotes Sumption quite a lot and obviously takes issues with some of his more conservative interpretations of judicial authority and responibilities, but lays everything out pretty fairly as far as I could see, without (to this layman) obvious axes to grind or a single viewpoint to push.
I only know him from his stints on R4 but he does seem almost preternaturally evenhanded. Still can’t believe he’s married to Melanie Phillips.
Bloody hell, I didn't know that. Amazing. Poor old Joshua.
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Effectively that would be saying that there is a 10% chance of SNP collapse before the next UK GE.
Perhaps the PB Enders of SNP Honeymoons can finally break their duck.
Their record is extraordinarily poor.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
And "Victorious-to-be New Slab Leader".
One year they'll actually appoint a concrete slab to be SLab leader, and it will surprise us by having more personality and electability than any of their recent leaders.
Not fair. Wendy Alexander.
Not terribly recent though.
Another poster was arguing that SNP hegemony isn't that long-lived when it comes to things like the Iapetus Suture and the formation of the Moon (basically). So a bit of that rubbed off.
Ah, fair enough. I will concede that on cosmological timescales SLab have had good leaders.
Only an eyeblink since they had K. Hardie in charge.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies on Wednesday that federal officials said provided evidence that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be needed by all Americans in the coming months.
NYTimes
Looks like US is heading towards booster shots this winter.
This does rather imply they think Pfizer fades in efficacy. Surely
Does it matter? We've bought 60m Pfizer doses as an insurance policy. We've got enough Pfizer doses to do all groups 1-10 with a booster shot and enough other vaccines to do groups 11, 12 and 13 as well.
Additionally GSK has fixed the CureVac vaccine so the 2nd gen version will not only work against all of the variants (current and possibly a few predicted ones now that we have a common evolutionary path figured out) but will have extremely high efficacy.
Finally, waning efficacy is based on the 3 week gap for Pfizer. Moderna notably doesn't see much drop off in efficacy at all in the same time period and incoming PHE numbers based on the 8-12 week gap for Pfizer will show whether our dosing strategy will deliver another victory against COVID. The JCVI has said the preliminary data for keeping the dosing gap at 8 weeks convinced them to hold onto it despite having no supply issues from around May onwards for Pfizer/Moderna.
It matters psychologically, unfortunately. My Dad is really pretty elderly - with a younger but also very vulnerable wife - they were jabbed back in January and news like this will just prolong their reluctance to have any kind of normal life
A lot of people are still horribly frightened, this won’t help
It's quite possible that by the middle of September they'll already be being called up for their third doses.
That's the plan, isn't it? I'm pretty sure that one of the medical posters here mentioned being actually told this was happening - not just the usual vague plans.
Read Joshua Rozenberg's Enemies of the People? How judges shape society the other day. Assumed from the title it would be pretty polemical, but it was actually a rather fascinating look at various developments in the law and judicial approaches to interpreting and creating law, and pretty even handed. He quotes Sumption quite a lot and obviously takes issues with some of his more conservative interpretations of judicial authority and responibilities, but lays everything out pretty fairly as far as I could see, without (to this layman) obvious axes to grind or a single viewpoint to push.
I only know him from his stints on R4 but he does seem almost preternaturally evenhanded. Still can’t believe he’s married to Melanie Phillips.
Ugh, I hate people who always try to present as evenhanded. It's just smugness and self satisfaction really. *shifts*
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
As high as a 10% chance of a Labour majority?
Effectively that would be saying that there is a 10% chance of SNP collapse before the next UK GE.
Perhaps the PB Enders of SNP Honeymoons can finally break their duck.
Their record is extraordinarily poor.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
And "Victorious-to-be New Slab Leader".
One year they'll actually appoint a concrete slab to be SLab leader, and it will surprise us by having more personality and electability than any of their recent leaders.
Not fair. Wendy Alexander.
Not terribly recent though.
Another poster was arguing that SNP hegemony isn't that long-lived when it comes to things like the Iapetus Suture and the formation of the Moon (basically). So a bit of that rubbed off.
Well we have to mollify our despair about the endurance of the SNP hegemony somehow.
You do have the heat death of the universe to look forward to, as a clear termination thereof.
On a different theme, I wasn't keeping track today: did you get to the Pnyx?
Yes, and it was quite absorbing, tho not quite as epiphanic as the Athenian Agora. But that’s a high bar
Athens is just stuffed with wonderful things to see. I’ve been here nine days (with a couple left) and I could do another week easily and not get bored
Maybe the Pnyx didn’t totally wow me because I was wholly wowed earlier by lunch at the Acropolis Museum. It’s an utterly fantastic restaurant (seriously world class food) AND you get to eat it (and drink great Greek wine) with a majestic view of the Parthenon. That’s also a high bar
I got sloshed and ate split pea with salami and squid and radish and weirdness and it was brilliant and I toasted the goddess Athena
I don’t know if you missed our earlier discussion of modern Greek food (at least in Athens) but it is genuinely first rate. You eat better in Athens, on average, than Paris, very easily. Possibly better than London or Madrid. AND it is markedly cheaper
Well! That's something to add to the bucket list, on which the Wasa, the Aland Islands, and the Finnish Tank Museum are already inscribed. And a ride on the Viking ships at Roskilde.
On which: I have no idea if Hellenic Navy Ship Olympias the trieres/trireme is even accessible to the public. Probably not. And it won't be rowing around. Not easy to drum up so many rowers at once, never mind socially distanced. Thouigh I did meet one on the train once.
Add the Solovetsky Islands. In the White Sea. Notably difficult to reach but one of THE great travel destinations.
Plus you get to boast forever after. Simply because you’ve been. I did it in 2019
“Oh yes my favourite holidays was in the Solovetsky Islands”
“Where???”
“Oh it’s a remote Russian archipelago in the White Sea, and a sacred mediaeval site of Orthodoxy, with a sensational microclimate, and it was the first Gulag, and Peter the Great built a chapel on an island of lesbians, and they make the world’s best fish and chips, have you not been? You just need to go to St Petersburg then get a night train then persuade a driver to take you to the tiny port which is only open two months a year, it’s lovely”
A colleague in her twenties has been off work sick this week with you-know-what.
Single jabbed, I think.
And guess what - this is going to happen to most people in the coming years. A week off with a bad cold. Some people might have to go to hospital. Or worse.
Comments
My estimate would be 65-70% probability Conservative majority, 25-30% NOM.
What a monumental cluster that we’re even having to talk about this. But surely by now there are a bunch of such gents [Hereford branch of the diplomatic corp] figuring out an extraction plan for British citizens stranded outside of Kabul.
I'm not naming names. Yet.
Prof Jeffrey S Morris
@jsm2334
·
Aug 17
Many are confused by results that >1/2 of hospitalized in Israel are vaccinated, thinking this means vaccines don't work. I downloaded actual Israeli data https://datadashboard.health.gov.il/COVID-19/general… and show why these data provide strong evidence vaccines strongly protect vs. serious disease (1/8)
https://mobile.twitter.com/jsm2334/status/1427465003007942659?s=20
Rather than the usual middle aged englishmen and germans, the place is full of young french and poles, due to it being one of the very few warm places on their green lists. The lady at the Tourist Information said she is hopeful that they will go home and spread the word, and Malta might get more varied tourists in the future.
It is, however, rather hot here. The tomato harvest, much of which goes to Italy, has been spoilt by extreme heat blistering the fruit.
Also it likely means closer alignment to the SM and CU for GB removing the Irish Sea border also cementing GB closer to NI.
NOM is thus likely bad for the Tories as they lose office, even the DUP may prefer Starmer for the reasons in my second sentence however it would be good for the Union
You have a combination of boundary changes, an uninspiring Labour leader, and history on your side.
Tory majority = no IndyRef = good for union.
No Tory majority = no Tory PM = good for union.
But that's not just a Labour majority. That's also covers:
(1) A party like Reform or the Greens winning a majority
(2) The Conservatives cleaving in two and one of the (no longer named Conservatives) parties winning.
Edited to add - on the substantive point, that does actually slightly surprise me. I mean, we all knew the poster in question was a gibbering idiot - confusing contingency planning with clairvoyance was a bit of a giveaway - but I was assuming stupidity not malice.
Maybe just another poster trying to put the opposite view to their classic one, so they can be proved right in the end?
Uncertainty in the Tory leader at election time is feeding this trend regardless of what the odds on Johnson exit date might say.
Does someone want to put up any odds ?
NYTimes
Looks like US is heading towards booster shots this winter.
I remember feeling so sorry for Hague, I think he was Foreign Secretary at the time, getting a real grilling as to why the evac plane to Tripoli hadn’t taken off yet. It became clear a few days later, as a couple of Hercules landed on a makeshift runway in the middle of the Libyan desert, to collect the Western oil field workers - who had all been rounded up by the SAS and ‘built’ the runway! It was of those stories that makes you proud to be British.
Been away on holiday (in Cumbria) this weekend without much in the way of internet. Did I miss any news? Seems to have been like a Smithson holiday. 😕
Johnson (4 point lead) Sturgeon (22 point lead) and Drakeford (no post May polling?) are all looking good thus far.
(No idea who’s in charge in NI and don’t care. A failed state.)
I'm sorry if thinking the GE result is peripheral to the political direction of Sindy isn't exciting. I lack dramatic flair, we're not all flint knappers extraordinaires.
End of SNP Honeymoon* is as much a PB meme as “Scottish Tory Surge” used to be.
(*most honeymoons do not last 14 years)
There is a website called Electoral Calculus. Run by a nice mathematician/finance chap called Martin Baxter. Have a wee look around there. Take your time. Fiddle about with his various calculators. Then have a good, long, hard, cold look at the words you just typed.
So, are you really measuring vaccine efficacy fading? Or are you measuring susceptibility of a person to infection?
Your politeness is generally commendable, and I see you as a bellwether on PB, ie if Kle4 takes an actual new position there is probably something worth looking at in the argument
I just thought I’d insult you out of random malice. Hope that’s OK
The simple fact of a non-Conservative government will do quite a bit to cement the Union in place for a few more decades. That's before we get devoMax with a thistle on top. (It's really obvious how that pas-de-deux plays out. There will be nothing before the election. Afterwards, the SNP will have to do whatever's needed to kick the Conservatives out and Labour will have to offer something in exchange, but not much.) In the event of a Starmer minority government in 2024 and a referendum pencilled in for about 2028 (a short generation, but... let's just say I've been a secondary school teacher and I know of what I speak) would be a win for "No" at a canter. To the extent that I can see the SNP looking for reasons not to hold it.
An ongoing Conservative hegemony, on the other hand, keeps Scotland in the Union by refusing a referendum. That will work as long as the balance of Scottish opinion is in the 45/55 range either way. But it accelerates the time when Scotland breaks decisively for independence. Beyond a certain point, it doesn't matter if Westminster refuses a referendum. I don't know where that point is, but a wildcat referendum where a majority of the electorate (not just voters) voted for independence would be blooming hard to ignore.
There are lists on the internet of open proxy servers that I run the IPs of posters against from time-to-time. If someone seems to always post through a different open proxy, I tend to get a little suspicious.
If that person also has an obviously fake email address that I do not get a response from, then that scepticism gets increased dramatically.
Richer countries should focus on ramping up vaccine supply to the billions who are still waiting for their first dose.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02219-w
That won't be overturned in one go without something remarkably dramatic.
Additionally GSK has fixed the CureVac vaccine so the 2nd gen version will not only work against all of the variants (current and possibly a few predicted ones now that we have a common evolutionary path figured out) but will have extremely high efficacy.
Finally, waning efficacy is based on the 3 week gap for Pfizer. Moderna notably doesn't see much drop off in efficacy at all in the same time period and incoming PHE numbers based on the 8-12 week gap for Pfizer will show whether our dosing strategy will deliver another victory against COVID. The JCVI has said the preliminary data for keeping the dosing gap at 8 weeks convinced them to hold onto it despite having no supply issues from around May onwards for Pfizer/Moderna.
Athens is just stuffed with wonderful things to see. I’ve been here nine days (with a couple left) and I could do another week easily and not get bored
Maybe the Pnyx didn’t totally wow me because I was wholly wowed earlier by lunch at the Acropolis Museum. It’s an utterly fantastic restaurant (seriously world class food) AND you get to eat it (and drink great Greek wine) with a majestic view of the Parthenon. That’s also a high bar
I got sloshed and ate split pea with salami and squid and radish and weirdness and it was brilliant and I toasted the goddess Athena
I don’t know if you missed our earlier discussion of modern Greek food (at least in Athens) but it is genuinely first rate. You eat better in Athens, on average, than Paris, very easily. Possibly better than London or Madrid. AND it is markedly cheaper
Starmer would be better keeping the Tories in as a minority, than be utterly dependent on the SNP for every vote, and with a fresh election clearly coming quickly down the line.
Am I the first on PB?
Though the chances of England leaving the Union are low but would be hilarious if it ever happened.
((For All Time timeline this exact situation happened))
On which: I have no idea if Hellenic Navy Ship Olympias the trieres/trireme is even accessible to the public. Probably not. And it won't be rowing around. Not easy to drum up so many rowers at once, never mind socially distanced. Thouigh I did meet one on the train once.
The risk is, a la Corbyn/May, that the Tories get a new leader that rejuvenates the party and finds a winning formula.
I'm sceptical that trick can be repeated again though.
A lot of people are still horribly frightened, this won’t help
I stand to be corrected by events, of course, but as I see it the position of Scottish Nationalism at Westminster is extremely weak. This is wholly unsurprising when you consider that they are the third largest party, with less than 10% of the seats; they can't realistically work with one of the big two (and you can hardly extract a price for being kingmakers when you're only willing to back one claimant to the throne;) and parties 1, 2, 4 and 5 are all Unionist and, therefore, diametrically opposed to the SNPs core aim. The sole route to getting what they want is to build a substantial and sustained majority for secession amongst popular opinion at home.
A colleague in her twenties has been off work sick this week with you-know-what.
Single jabbed, I think.
Not as many customers as usual, and there was not much traffic on the roads either. Not sure why.
Plus you get to boast forever after. Simply because you’ve been. I did it in 2019
“Oh yes my favourite holidays was in the Solovetsky Islands”
“Where???”
“Oh it’s a remote Russian archipelago in the White Sea, and a sacred mediaeval site of Orthodoxy, with a sensational microclimate, and it was the first Gulag, and Peter the Great built a chapel on an island of lesbians, and they make the world’s best fish and chips, have you not been? You just need to go to St Petersburg then get a night train then persuade a driver to take you to the tiny port which is only open two months a year, it’s lovely”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solovetsky_Islands
A bit like most respiratory viruses.