Europe joined the vaccine race late, but the pace at which jabs have been going into arms in recent months has been staggering. France is now fractionally ahead of us on single jabs, while Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Spain and Portugal now all have a significantly greater proportion of their citizens fully vaccinated.
Europe has also been quicker to start vaccinating its teenagers. In France, Spain and Italy, more than half of those aged 12 to 18 are already vaccinated, for example.
Aren’t they just making the same point twice
All citizens inc kids
Kid specifically
Its vaccination rates per year group which count.
In particular the older year groups.
Vaccinating kids doesn't stop the hospitals filling up with unvaccinated oldies.
Obviously it does if it reduces transmission.
Of course we've long been familiar with anti-vaccine campaigners arguing that people should refuse vaccination on the basis of a naive calculation of narrow self-interest (which often involves assuming the majority will behave in a less short-sighted way). The disturbing thing is the extent to which this bone-headed viewpoint seems to have become prevalent.
Everyone is going to come into contact with Delta sooner or later.
Reducing transmission rates delays but does not stop that.
It is the vaccination rates among the high risk groups which will affect the numbers hospitalised.
Seems like on balance the "world beating" vaccine programme was just about as good as other countries.
Shame about all the people here that have died
Aren't you ignoring the cumulative millions of additional days worth of protection offered by having the vaccinations earlier? Of course they were going to end up in similar places, although the numbers in France are definitely flattered by them having far more eligible.
We start from way behind with the amount of people that have died here, so what you're saying is that we end up still behind, what an achievement
You were talking about the vaccination program. The majority of deaths unfortunately happened before it got off the ground.
I said shame about all the people that have died.
The world beating vaccine program which isn't world beating + the deaths mean we come out of this objectively as one of the worst performing countries in the world
The counterfactual you need to consider is what would the situation been like had the vaccination roll out been as slow as it was in the EU. In that situation, deaths would have been higher still. I'm not sure how you can claim the programs were basically the same.
Have you looked at the stats recently. The UK is relatively middling, nowhere near worst in the world.
So the counterfactual is that more people would have died, that's not a great endorsement when so many had died anyway.
You lot called it world beating and I remember many here saying we were going to crush Europe and yet I don't hear those same people going off anymore, why not?
Again, you were talking about the vaccine program, saying it was about the same as in other countries. You are therefore suggesting that had the UK been as slow as other countries vaccinating it would have had no material effect on the figures. I think that assumption is wrong, it would have resulted in many more deaths that have been prevented from the cumulative million+ days' worth of protection offered by having the vaccinations earlier. Of course that is a good thing.
The vaccine programme is not world beating, even though you lot said repeatedly it was.
What are you basing that claim on? The whole point of the program was to vaccinate the at risk groups as quickly as possible. The UK was one of the best countries on that metric.
It was claimed the UK's vaccine programme was world beating, that we would be the first country to jab ourselves back to normality.
Even the Government doesn't believe what you are saying, it's funny you still do
CHB: there will be, and are, plenty of things to castigate the government over wrt their handling of the Covid crisis. Fortunately, the government did very well - better than almost every other country - in obtaining vaccines and vaccinating the vulnerable. The fact many other countries have caught up is unsurprising and to be welcomed.
The point is that we managed to get our most vulnerable people vaccinated before others. It may only have been six or eight weeks earlier, but that would have saved lives.
The point you are trying to make is a little bit silly, and if you/Labour/the left try to concentrate on it, you will make yourselves look silly, and miss much more open goals.
Sometimes it is good to praise your opponents when they do the right thing, even if you do so grudgingly. It gives your later criticisms more power. Criticising them when they do the right thing negates future arguments.
(This is true for all parties and politicians, not just Labour.)
Seems like on balance the "world beating" vaccine programme was just about as good as other countries.
Shame about all the people here that have died
It was only April when pb.com tories were blasting poleslaw into each other's faces at the thought of how bad the summer was going to be for covid in the EU compared to the UK.
I do recall that. Not the most appetizing period on here.
I'm positively tumescent at the prospect of watching this very wet Belgian Grand Prix.
Hope we can avoid a 1998.
Yes. We've had some juicy F1 (and Indy!) races recently. I spent the first session of qualifying yesterday agog at how well the Williams was. And the final minutes of Q3 shouting expletives at the TV.
I'm positively tumescent at the prospect of watching this very wet Belgian Grand Prix.
Hope we can avoid a 1998.
I've got a confession.
I think George Russell is a real talent, but something's always bothered me about him. Yesterday I realised what it was: his face. He really needs some mascara, and would look brilliant as a glam rocker.
Seems like on balance the "world beating" vaccine programme was just about as good as other countries.
Shame about all the people here that have died
It was only April when pb.com tories were blasting poleslaw into each other's faces at the thought of how bad the summer was going to be for covid in the EU compared to the UK.
I do recall that. Not the most appetizing period on here.
IIRC it was a response to people getting excited that Delta had arrived in the UK before other European countries.
With wild predictions of the imminent collapse of the NHS and claims that the UK had uniquely become a breeding ground for variants.
Alongside denial that Delta would eventually spread, as indeed it has, across the world.
Yes but these are rolling polls so I'm not sure how reliable they are.
Mainstreet in particular is throwing out some extraordinary numbers for the Conservatives.
I would certainly want to wait for a large-sample poll from Counsel or IPSOS but I do agree Trudeau's position has worsened since the campaign started but the Conservatives are still a way from a majority.
It's odd how a number of pollsters haven't reported for a while, such as Angus Reid, Ipsos, Leger, Abacus. I look forward to their next surveys.
The usual convention in Canada is that whichever party gets the most seats becomes the government, because they don't seem to like coalitions. But that may change this time.
Forget about opinion polls, the recent Scottish elections are a mandate for the Scottish government to hold a Sindy ref. The UK government isn't obliged to grant one but they should because the case for it - the election result and the material change of circumstances (since 2014) of being involuntarily hauled out of the EU - is compelling.
The UK government should also grant a vote out of self-interest. It would probably return another No to independence, which would kill it as a serious proposition for a long time. "As in a generation?" shouts a quick but shallow thinking heckler. Ho ho. But in fact yes. Another No ends this. The SNP would have to backburner it or face a loss of votes and influence. Either way it's off the table.
As to whether a Sindy ref before 2025 is likely, the betting says yes, a probability of about 40%, and I agree with this. I think many pundits on here are underestimating the chances.
Sorry, how does a probability of 40% indicate that something is "likely"? As it happens, I agree with you to the extent that I think that it is more likely than the markets are indicating but they are indicating probably not, no doubt for the reasons @HYUFD expounds repeatedly.
Depends how you use the term "likely". To me it means something that has a very good chance of happening and 40% is certainly that. The alternative at 60% is more likely but the 40% chance is nevertheless likely, just not quite as likely.
Eg, given there's been much war talk recently, I become Dura Ace and am sent on a mission with a 60/40 chance of coming back alive. Am I likely to die on that mission? I'd say I am. I'm even more likely to scrape through it but I'm still likely to die.
I define likely as more probable than not. The idea that it covers things that are highly possibly but in probability, well, unlikely, is a bit of a new one for me.
So "likely" has to be an odds on shot for you. A greater than 50% probability. Otherwise it's not likely. Fair enough, that's a good and clear def, but then there's no room when describing possible outcomes for terms such as "quite likely" or "more likely" or "likeliest".
But anyway, we understand each other now, which has to be a plus.
Taking @noneoftheabove's example I can see how you could use the phrase "most likely" for something that was not odds on but had a higher probability than the alternatives. So, in his example, you might say Man City are most likely to win the league among the teams in it but that is, in my opinion, different from saying that they are likely to do so.
Anyway, we have probably bored everyone else stupid with this by now.
That is how superlatives work generally, not a special feature of "likely." Presumably one of Snow White's 7 dwarves was the tallest of the lot. Doesn't mean he was tall.
Illustrating the interesting linguistic trick of describing something that is very much not X as being the most X of a group whose other members are even less X.
"Ivanka is the smartest of all of Trump's offspring."
Going back to "likely", I'd say it needs to pass a threshold of probability - eg 20% - to get into the conversation. Eg, 1000 possible outcomes for something, all pretty remote, the highest probability one at 1%, I personally would baulk at describing that as the "most likely" outcome, I'd be going with least unlikely.
But I claim no authority, moral or intellectual, on the matter.
The Government called it world beating, when it is not.
They did a very good job - and I have said so on many occasions here and elsewhere. But they did over promise by calling it “world beating”, which is something they have a habit of doing. And that will be their downfall.
The USP of this government is over promise and under deliver.
If Labour had achieved what the Tories have achieved, they would be ridiculed by many here for over promising. As usual the standards are not consistent.
Andrew Lilico @andrew_lilico · 1h Has anyone found a single report in any paper from any broadcaster, today, noting that cases in England are now unambiguously falling - down on average over the past week?
Are they? Guardian figures are 32406 (+348 on last week), hospitalisation 6942 (+467), deaths 133 (+29). I think hospitalisation is probably the best guide, since lots of people (including me) aren't routinely testing, just staying out of the way. Feels like a moderate upward trend at the moment.
I'm positively tumescent at the prospect of watching this very wet Belgian Grand Prix.
Hope we can avoid a 1998.
I'm on under 16.5 finishers. think Mr Dancer tipped that up and forecast looks bad all race. wanted to back under 4 sec winning margin in case they finish under safety car but all suspended now.
Yes but these are rolling polls so I'm not sure how reliable they are.
Mainstreet in particular is throwing out some extraordinary numbers for the Conservatives.
I would certainly want to wait for a large-sample poll from Counsel or IPSOS but I do agree Trudeau's position has worsened since the campaign started but the Conservatives are still a way from a majority.
It's odd how a number of pollsters haven't reported for a while, such as Angus Reid, Ipsos, Leger, Abacus. I look forward to their next surveys.
The usual convention in Canada is that whichever party gets the most seats becomes the government, because they don't seem to like coalitions. But that may change this time.
If the Tories win most seats, but are some way from a majority, there won't be a rizla between their policies and what Trudeau would have done with a majority in practical terms. The facea will be different. Blacked up or no.
Seems like on balance the "world beating" vaccine programme was just about as good as other countries.
Shame about all the people here that have died
It was only April when pb.com tories were blasting poleslaw into each other's faces at the thought of how bad the summer was going to be for covid in the EU compared to the UK.
I do recall that. Not the most appetizing period on here.
Now they’re spinning their wheels. If they’d just said we were doing a good job and not had to try and put Europe down we would all be in a much better place.
They’d certainly have got a lot more credit and I believe Johnson’s boost would have lasted longer
I'm positively tumescent at the prospect of watching this very wet Belgian Grand Prix.
Hope we can avoid a 1998.
I'm on under 16.5 finishers. think Mr Dancer tipped that up and forecast looks bad all race. wanted to back under 4 sec winning margin in case they finish under safety car but all suspended now.
16.5? Is that where Hamilton smashes Verstappen’s car in pieces as usual but half of it still crosses the line?
Seems like on balance the "world beating" vaccine programme was just about as good as other countries.
Shame about all the people here that have died
It was only April when pb.com tories were blasting poleslaw into each other's faces at the thought of how bad the summer was going to be for covid in the EU compared to the UK.
I do recall that. Not the most appetizing period on here.
Now they’re spinning their wheels. If they’d just said we were doing a good job and not had to try and put Europe down we would all be in a much better place.
They’d certainly have got a lot more credit and I believe Johnson’s boost would have lasted longer
I was lurking on PB at the time, and saw it a very different way. We were doing well, thanks to the deals the government did, and the population generally being very keen on vaccination. In response, some in the EU - including in high positions - tried to dump on us. Some on the left backed them in this.
The EU not only tried to sabotage our roll-out; they actively bad-mouthed a vaccine that will do most of the work in vaccinating the world. They caused immense harm to the world's vaccination efforts.
Don't blame 'PB Tories'; blame VdL, Macron and the EU's poor rollout.
Yes but these are rolling polls so I'm not sure how reliable they are.
Mainstreet in particular is throwing out some extraordinary numbers for the Conservatives.
I would certainly want to wait for a large-sample poll from Counsel or IPSOS but I do agree Trudeau's position has worsened since the campaign started but the Conservatives are still a way from a majority.
It feels strange how unreliable rolling polls are, as the theory seems fairly sound. Say you poll 250 people a day and take a 4-day average. Some of those may be duff samples, but they'll only have a quarter of the impact, and it should surely show the evolution. The problem, I guess, is that they aren't making an effort to keep the overall 4-day sample demographically balanced - 4 duff samples don't add up to one good sample in that case.
The Government called it world beating, when it is not.
They did a very good job - and I have said so on many occasions here and elsewhere. But they did over promise by calling it “world beating”, which is something they have a habit of doing. And that will be their downfall.
The USP of this government is over promise and under deliver.
If Labour had achieved what the Tories have achieved, they would be ridiculed by many here for over promising. As usual the standards are not consistent.
Almost world beating then. There are very few countries that can claim to have rolled out a vaccine as quickly to the most vulnerable groups as the UK. Instead, you somehow think the UK's program was just about as good as any other country.
The Government called it world beating, when it is not.
They did a very good job - and I have said so on many occasions here and elsewhere. But they did over promise by calling it “world beating”, which is something they have a habit of doing. And that will be their downfall.
The USP of this government is over promise and under deliver.
If Labour had achieved what the Tories have achieved, they would be ridiculed by many here for over promising. As usual the standards are not consistent.
Almost world beating then. There are very few countries that can claim to have rolled out a vaccine as quickly to the most vulnerable groups as the UK. Instead, you somehow think the UK's program was just about as good as any other country.
I'd say it was as near world-beating as makes no difference. In the early months, two countries beat us per capita: Israel and UAE. Both have populations about a seventh of ours, and Israel had the advantage of a deal with Pfizer that gave them almost unlimited jabs in return for a premium payment and data.
We did best of any large country, and third-best of any country. I can imagine how you'd be complaining if Boris had signed an Israel-style deal that meant Pfizer got data ...
The Government called it world beating, when it is not.
They did a very good job - and I have said so on many occasions here and elsewhere. But they did over promise by calling it “world beating”, which is something they have a habit of doing. And that will be their downfall.
The USP of this government is over promise and under deliver.
If Labour had achieved what the Tories have achieved, they would be ridiculed by many here for over promising. As usual the standards are not consistent.
Almost world beating then. There are very few countries that can claim to have rolled out a vaccine as quickly to the most vulnerable groups as the UK. Instead, you somehow think the UK's program was just about as good as any other country.
For some the UK must be seen to have failed at everything.
Thus an obsession with trying to prove a success on vaccination is somehow not.
When there are so many easy targets of where the UK has done badly.
I haven't seen how bad the damage to Perez's car is, but if they get it back to the pits, and with the delayed start, if they can fix it, would they be allowed to start? I know Verstappen crashed out on the way to the grid in Hungary last year, but he made it back to the pits under his own steam.
I haven't seen how bad the damage to Perez's car is, but if they get it back to the pits, and with the delayed start, if they can fix it, would they be allowed to start? I know Verstappen crashed out on the way to the grid in Hungary last year, but he made it back to the pits under his own steam.
not sure sorry. gem on radio 5 live extra "the rain will make a wet track wetter".
think perez had damaged suspension from his crash which i dont think is fixable in a hurry.
Andrew Lilico @andrew_lilico · 1h Has anyone found a single report in any paper from any broadcaster, today, noting that cases in England are now unambiguously falling - down on average over the past week?
Are they? Guardian figures are 32406 (+348 on last week), hospitalisation 6942 (+467), deaths 133 (+29). I think hospitalisation is probably the best guide, since lots of people (including me) aren't routinely testing, just staying out of the way. Feels like a moderate upward trend at the moment.
UK....England....TOO CONFUSING....shakes head.
Yes ENGLAND is down a small amount, for now*, Scotland is way up = UK up a bit.
* When the super spreader go back to school it will go up, as it has done in Scotland.
The Observer reports the Foreign Office did not read emails, including from government ministers, outlining cases for Afghan refugees.
the Observer has seen evidence that an official email address used to collate potential Afghan cases from MPs and others regularly contained 5,000 unread emails throughout the week.
In many cases, emails detailing the cases of Afghans who fear for their families’ lives appear to have been unopened for days. An email from the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, sent on Monday was still unread on Thursday. There also appeared to be unread messages from the offices of Victoria Atkins, the newly appointed minister for Afghan resettlement, the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the Tory chair of the defence select committee, Tobias Ellwood. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/28/revealed-foreign-office-ignored-pleas-help-afghans-mps-evacuation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
How many staff would be needed to read 5,000 emails?
I haven't seen how bad the damage to Perez's car is, but if they get it back to the pits, and with the delayed start, if they can fix it, would they be allowed to start? I know Verstappen crashed out on the way to the grid in Hungary last year, but he made it back to the pits under his own steam.
not sure sorry. gem on radio 5 live extra "the rain will make a wet track wetter".
think perez had damaged suspension from his crash which i dont think is fixable in a hurry.
apparently they are now working on the car with all the delays. would be pitlane start.
The Government called it world beating, when it is not.
They did a very good job - and I have said so on many occasions here and elsewhere. But they did over promise by calling it “world beating”, which is something they have a habit of doing. And that will be their downfall.
The USP of this government is over promise and under deliver.
If Labour had achieved what the Tories have achieved, they would be ridiculed by many here for over promising. As usual the standards are not consistent.
Almost world beating then. There are very few countries that can claim to have rolled out a vaccine as quickly to the most vulnerable groups as the UK. Instead, you somehow think the UK's program was just about as good as any other country.
For some the UK must be seen to have failed at everything.
Thus an obsession with trying to prove a success on vaccination is somehow not.
When there are so many easy targets of where the UK has done badly.
You mean former-Remainer traitors, of which I wear my badge with pride.
Credit where it is due, the UK vaccine rollout has been excellent, primarily because Ministers' chose not to interfere. Don't forget the mantra "Labour jabber, Conservatives jab" (even if the retort was oddly made in the context of low rape prosecution figures).
The Observer reports the Foreign Office did not read emails, including from government ministers, outlining cases for Afghan refugees.
the Observer has seen evidence that an official email address used to collate potential Afghan cases from MPs and others regularly contained 5,000 unread emails throughout the week.
In many cases, emails detailing the cases of Afghans who fear for their families’ lives appear to have been unopened for days. An email from the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, sent on Monday was still unread on Thursday. There also appeared to be unread messages from the offices of Victoria Atkins, the newly appointed minister for Afghan resettlement, the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the Tory chair of the defence select committee, Tobias Ellwood. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/28/revealed-foreign-office-ignored-pleas-help-afghans-mps-evacuation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
How many staff would be needed to read 5,000 emails?
"unread for days": in other words, time to get staff in from other offices/depts to at least do an initial screening and triage into shite/urgent/needs attention in due course.
Lovely people the new reformed Teletubby Taliban...
Taliban murder Afghan singer: Folk musician who played the lute and sang traditional songs for locals in the mountains was 'dragged out of his home and shot in the head'
The Observer reports the Foreign Office did not read emails, including from government ministers, outlining cases for Afghan refugees.
the Observer has seen evidence that an official email address used to collate potential Afghan cases from MPs and others regularly contained 5,000 unread emails throughout the week.
In many cases, emails detailing the cases of Afghans who fear for their families’ lives appear to have been unopened for days. An email from the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, sent on Monday was still unread on Thursday. There also appeared to be unread messages from the offices of Victoria Atkins, the newly appointed minister for Afghan resettlement, the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the Tory chair of the defence select committee, Tobias Ellwood. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/28/revealed-foreign-office-ignored-pleas-help-afghans-mps-evacuation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
How many staff would be needed to read 5,000 emails?
I think this story is one of those that was just overwhelmed by the shear urgency of the task in Afghanistan with foreign office staff being flown out and total concentration on the ground to the real crisis
In other words the circumstances made the prioritising of the immediate supercede the ability to respond to thousands of e mails, each of which would have required a team of investigators and responders
There are times when too much is expected, and this is one of them
'Adrian Jones, a national officer for Unite, which represents workers throughout vital supply chains, from warehouse staff to lorry drivers. “This has come after decades of drivers being undervalued. Ten pounds an hour does not reflect the skills and knowledge needed to even start work as a lorry driver, or the responsibility of driving 44-tonne vehicles on congested roads in the UK. They are treated with disdain.”
It’s not hard to find dissatisfaction on the roads. Mark Hughes, 44, who has been driving HGVs for 20 years, says pay has barely changed in his working life, with retention bonuses only emerging in the last few months as companies have attempted belatedly to hang on to their drivers. [...] A lack of facilities and time pressure means drivers are often forced to use their cabs as toilets and wash by the side of the road. “The main thing you need for this job is a blanket, pillow, wet wipes and plastic bags,” says Hughes. “The laybys are sometimes covered in shit so it’s safer to crap in a plastic bag inside your cab. You wash with soap and water in a plastic bowl. It is degrading. It’s like living on the streets.”'
'Adrian Jones, a national officer for Unite, which represents workers throughout vital supply chains, from warehouse staff to lorry drivers. “This has come after decades of drivers being undervalued. Ten pounds an hour does not reflect the skills and knowledge needed to even start work as a lorry driver, or the responsibility of driving 44-tonne vehicles on congested roads in the UK. They are treated with disdain.”
It’s not hard to find dissatisfaction on the roads. Mark Hughes, 44, who has been driving HGVs for 20 years, says pay has barely changed in his working life, with retention bonuses only emerging in the last few months as companies have attempted belatedly to hang on to their drivers. [...] A lack of facilities and time pressure means drivers are often forced to use their cabs as toilets and wash by the side of the road. “The main thing you need for this job is a blanket, pillow, wet wipes and plastic bags,” says Hughes. “The laybys are sometimes covered in shit so it’s safer to crap in a plastic bag inside your cab. You wash with soap and water in a plastic bowl. It is degrading. It’s like living on the streets.”'
< £30k a year for driving a HGV seems a very low wage, not surprising so many people who had licences left the industry. You can earn more than that doing so many other skilled manual labour type jobs.
Organised crime has been the biggest theme in much of popular literature ("noir") in Sweden for years, even if political discourse has mostly ignored it. Sweden is in any case a highly whackball country. Stuff like people sitting around the TV set eating the same dinner that the royal family consume at the annual Nobel prize event. And "lagom" - please can no-one mention that word to me.
Also rarely mentioned is the "Wallenberg grip" that all Swedes know about and will acknowledge if asked.
What's the problem with "lagom" - essentially "everything in moderation"?
Having lived in Sweden for a while and been driven up the wall by this attitude, which permeates Swedish society (while a kind of "parallel" Sweden dominated by organised crime appears in much of the country's popular literature - a case of the "return of the repressed"?), I would change perspective and frame it as "nothing to excess".
I'm with William Blake: "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom".
Or one could go further and frame "lagom" as "don't challenge anything" or "just be a zombie". (I have to apologise for any offence caused to Swedish readers here, but I've heard several emigrant Swedes say things like "Oh dear, was I like that when I was in Sweden? Well you can see why I emigrated.")
Many who espouse the attitude say the word is hard to translate, even if they are fluent in English and perhaps even speak English to native-tongue level. That in itself says a lot. It's like being wrapped in cotton wool or swimming in treacle or being on tranquilisers for life and not knowing anything different.
The number of new Covid cases reported in Scotland has hit another record high of 7,113.
Around two thirds of cases are in the under-40 group. About 30% of Covid-related hospital admissions in the last month were also from the same age bracket.
At least he didn't end up in Peterborough by mistake.
Interesting, all the same - why should that loon* come all the way up to the NE? Even if it were for a pull, there are many more quines in London town. And, remember, the cancellation of EVEL (did it ever actually happen)? Do you think he's trying to become MP for a Deeside constituency?
At least he didn't end up in Peterborough by mistake.
Interesting, all the same - why should that loon* come all the way up to the NE? Even if it were for a pull, there are many more quines in London town. And, remember, the cancellation of EVEL (did it ever actually happen)? Do you think he's trying to become MP for a Deeside constituency?
At least he didn't end up in Peterborough by mistake.
Interesting, all the same - why should that loon* come all the way up to the NE? Even if it were for a pull, there are many more quines in London town. And, remember, the cancellation of EVEL (did it ever actually happen)? Do you think he's trying to become MP for a Deeside constituency?
A source at the Afghan Ministry of Health separately told the BBC that the blast was near the airport, while two witnesses told Reuters that a house north of the airport was struck by a rocket. A Kabul police chief said a child was killed in the explosion on Sunday.
Organised crime has been the biggest theme in much of popular literature ("noir") in Sweden for years, even if political discourse has mostly ignored it. Sweden is in any case a highly whackball country. Stuff like people sitting around the TV set eating the same dinner that the royal family consume at the annual Nobel prize event. And "lagom" - please can no-one mention that word to me.
Also rarely mentioned is the "Wallenberg grip" that all Swedes know about and will acknowledge if asked.
What's the problem with "lagom" - essentially "everything in moderation"?
Having lived in Sweden for a while and been driven up the wall by this attitude, which permeates Swedish society (while a kind of "parallel" Sweden dominated by organised crime appears in much of the country's popular literature - a case of the "return of the repressed"?), I would change perspective and frame it as "nothing to excess".
I'm with William Blake: "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom".
Or one could go further and frame "lagom" as "don't challenge anything" or "just be a zombie". (I have to apologise for any offence caused to Swedish readers here, but I've heard several emigrant Swedes say things like "Oh dear, was I like that when I was in Sweden? Well you can see why I emigrated.")
Many who espouse the attitude say it's hard to translate, even if they are fluent in English and perhaps even speak English to native-tongue level. That in itself says a lot. It's like being wrapped in cotton wool or swimming in treacle or being on tranquilisers for life and not knowing anything different.
Interesting. Was chatting to a friend about the wonders of Denmark, and she expressed similar reservations - she's a successful actress who made her way up the ladder from a tough background, and feels that the incentive to excel is crucial for an enjoyable society, while everyone peacefully bobbing along is a bit dull.
I disagree with her - I think that a secure consensual basis for a society with few great inequalities is exactly what you need to have the courage to try new stuff, experiment with different careers, etc. That's IMO why Scandinavia combines reasonably high living standards and harmony with economic success driven by the private sector - it's a compromise that I didn't altogether agree with in my communist youth, but I've come to see its merits. In Britain, people are all too conscious of the depths that one can fall, so they cling to jobs they don't really enjoy.
But I know there are different views on all that, and obviously people who chose to leave will be among those who really don't like it. (The gang rivalries in Sweden are mostly a separate issue and I agree they're unnerving.)
At least he didn't end up in Peterborough by mistake.
Interesting, all the same - why should that loon* come all the way up to the NE? Even if it were for a pull, there are many more quines in London town. And, remember, the cancellation of EVEL (did it ever actually happen)? Do you think he's trying to become MP for a Deeside constituency?
At least he didn't end up in Peterborough by mistake.
Interesting, all the same - why should that loon* come all the way up to the NE? Even if it were for a pull, there are many more quines in London town. And, remember, the cancellation of EVEL (did it ever actually happen)? Do you think he's trying to become MP for a Deeside constituency?
*Not pejorative in Doric.
Gove's hometown isn't it?
Siri, show me a mass of contradictions.
Gove raves at a nightclub called Bohemia in Aberdeen.
You can take the tightwad out of grippit Aberdeen but..
'"People were buying him drinks but were also joking that he should be getting the rounds after he racked up £100,000 in expenses last year. Nobody else ever appeared, he was by himself. It's also rumoured that he never paid to get in, but I can't be sure of that. This was the last thing I expected to see on a Saturday night in Aberdeen."
The number of new Covid cases reported in Scotland has hit another record high of 7,113.
Around two thirds of cases are in the under-40 group. About 30% of Covid-related hospital admissions in the last month were also from the same age bracket.
Scotland has just reached the 80% mark for double vaccinations. Meanwhile, IIRC, it was only earlier in the week that Sturgeon was forced to refute dark rumours of a circuit breaker lockdown being planned.
Hopefully this is just a case of Delta filling in the gaps, in the context of a population that has experienced a lower case rate than England's throughout the full course of the pandemic to date - though OTOH the latest ONS antibody prevalence modelling has the two nations both well in excess of 90% of all adults, and very close to one another.
You have to wonder how many more months/years it is going to be before this wretched disease finally begins to run out of victims.
The Observer reports the Foreign Office did not read emails, including from government ministers, outlining cases for Afghan refugees.
the Observer has seen evidence that an official email address used to collate potential Afghan cases from MPs and others regularly contained 5,000 unread emails throughout the week.
In many cases, emails detailing the cases of Afghans who fear for their families’ lives appear to have been unopened for days. An email from the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, sent on Monday was still unread on Thursday. There also appeared to be unread messages from the offices of Victoria Atkins, the newly appointed minister for Afghan resettlement, the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the Tory chair of the defence select committee, Tobias Ellwood. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/28/revealed-foreign-office-ignored-pleas-help-afghans-mps-evacuation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
How many staff would be needed to read 5,000 emails?
I think this story is one of those that was just overwhelmed by the shear urgency of the task in Afghanistan with foreign office staff being flown out and total concentration on the ground to the real crisis
In other words the circumstances made the prioritising of the immediate supercede the ability to respond to thousands of e mails, each of which would have required a team of investigators and responders
There are times when too much is expected, and this is one of them
Don't think I agree, though I guess neither of us know for sure. I'm sceptical that many of the clerical staff in the Foreign Office were flown out, and frankly any of us could do a first pass through 5000 emails solo in a few days. It would have needed someone to set up three standard replies - "appreciate that's urgent, we'll try", "we are overwhelmed but we'll get to it ASAP" and "we are overwhelmed but will respond in due course" - and then at least try to action the 100 most urgent every day. What you shouldn't do is provide MPs with an address for urgent emails and then not look at it at all.
Can’t Westminster just pass an act for Scottish Independence now? Devolution doesn’t work, federalism probably won’t work, going beck to the status quo ante 1998 is politically unacceptable which leaves dissolving the Union the only logical next step. It’s a damaging Union for all parties.
Federalism might well work.
Probably not, and it is unlikely to be tried either. Everyone can appreciate that the devolution settlement is a mess that wholly satisfies almost no-one, but the overriding aim of the pro-Union parties at Westminster is (from their point of view) to avoid making a bad situation even worse.
The problem with federalism is that you either create an English Parliament - in which case, there's a tremendous risk of an actual ENP emerging and finishing Britain off from the centre - or you try to cut England up into (mostly artificial) regions, which then means that Westminster has a dozen or more constantly aggrieved devolved First Ministers to deal with instead of just three.
From the point of view of the Unionists, the least worst option is to leave things more-or-less as they are, and to try to make it too scary for voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to leave - primarily by throwing vast amounts of money at them, and therefore inviting them to contemplate how they would cope without it.
Couple of points. On Federalism. An English parliament remains the missing link in the constitutional settlement. Yes it would be large and unwieldy compared to the other parliaments but the English block in Westminster already does that. If England then wants regional devolution thats up to them - a matter for their new parliament.
On throwing money at us - fat chance. England isn't about to throw money at England so there is no chance of it being flung across the wall or across the water.
On the English Parliament: it might not pump rocket fuel into a populist independence movement, but I wouldn't count on it. Look at Holyrood.
On the money: the devolved administrations are already heavily subsidised by Westminster. In the Scottish case, the GERS figures tell us this. If you're moving towards the denialist camp on this then there's no point in my trying to convince you otherwise, but it is what it is.
On the squirrelly idea that opinion polls should decide whether there’s another referendum, wouldn’t it have to become legislation to have any relevance? Anyone care to sketch out a path to that coming to pass?
Just the usual bollox, when it comes to it they will just say we have not enough 60% 's yet, ad infinitum. It is F*** all to do with these snivelling cowardly arseholes whether we want a vote or not.
Comments
Reducing transmission rates delays but does not stop that.
It is the vaccination rates among the high risk groups which will affect the numbers hospitalised.
The point is that we managed to get our most vulnerable people vaccinated before others. It may only have been six or eight weeks earlier, but that would have saved lives.
The point you are trying to make is a little bit silly, and if you/Labour/the left try to concentrate on it, you will make yourselves look silly, and miss much more open goals.
Sometimes it is good to praise your opponents when they do the right thing, even if you do so grudgingly. It gives your later criticisms more power. Criticising them when they do the right thing negates future arguments.
(This is true for all parties and politicians, not just Labour.)
I'm positively tumescent at the prospect of watching this very wet Belgian Grand Prix.
Hope we can avoid a 1998.
Pretty much as Mr Horner now is...
I think George Russell is a real talent, but something's always bothered me about him. Yesterday I realised what it was: his face. He really needs some mascara, and would look brilliant as a glam rocker.
With wild predictions of the imminent collapse of the NHS and claims that the UK had uniquely become a breeding ground for variants.
Alongside denial that Delta would eventually spread, as indeed it has, across the world.
The usual convention in Canada is that whichever party gets the most seats becomes the government, because they don't seem to like coalitions. But that may change this time.
Giz a job. I can do that.
"Ivanka is the smartest of all of Trump's offspring."
Going back to "likely", I'd say it needs to pass a threshold of probability - eg 20% - to get into the conversation. Eg, 1000 possible outcomes for something, all pretty remote, the highest probability one at 1%, I personally would baulk at describing that as the "most likely" outcome, I'd be going with least unlikely.
But I claim no authority, moral or intellectual, on the matter.
They did a very good job - and I have said so on many occasions here and elsewhere. But they did over promise by calling it “world beating”, which is something they have a habit of doing. And that will be their downfall.
The USP of this government is over promise and under deliver.
If Labour had achieved what the Tories have achieved, they would be ridiculed by many here for over promising. As usual the standards are not consistent.
They’d certainly have got a lot more credit and I believe Johnson’s boost would have lasted longer
The EU not only tried to sabotage our roll-out; they actively bad-mouthed a vaccine that will do most of the work in vaccinating the world. They caused immense harm to the world's vaccination efforts.
Don't blame 'PB Tories'; blame VdL, Macron and the EU's poor rollout.
Or is there more to it than that?
But I did not get the shot myself.
We did best of any large country, and third-best of any country. I can imagine how you'd be complaining if Boris had signed an Israel-style deal that meant Pfizer got data ...
Thus an obsession with trying to prove a success on vaccination is somehow not.
When there are so many easy targets of where the UK has done badly.
The Ivermectin apostles are out in force in the comments under the Rolling Stone piece I read.
'Never mind that any mention of effective treatments like Ivermectin will be censored'
think perez had damaged suspension from his crash which i dont think is fixable in a hurry.
Yes ENGLAND is down a small amount, for now*, Scotland is way up = UK up a bit.
* When the super spreader go back to school it will go up, as it has done in Scotland.
Credit where it is due, the UK vaccine rollout has been excellent, primarily because Ministers' chose not to interfere. Don't forget the mantra "Labour jabber, Conservatives jab" (even if the retort was oddly made in the context of low rape prosecution figures).
Taliban murder Afghan singer: Folk musician who played the lute and sang traditional songs for locals in the mountains was 'dragged out of his home and shot in the head'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9937425/Family-Taliban-kills-Afghan-folk-singer-restive-province.html
In other words the circumstances made the prioritising of the immediate supercede the ability to respond to thousands of e mails, each of which would have required a team of investigators and responders
There are times when too much is expected, and this is one of them
'Adrian Jones, a national officer for Unite, which represents workers throughout vital supply chains, from warehouse staff to lorry drivers. “This has come after decades of drivers being undervalued. Ten pounds an hour does not reflect the skills and knowledge needed to even start work as a lorry driver, or the responsibility of driving 44-tonne vehicles on congested roads in the UK. They are treated with disdain.”
It’s not hard to find dissatisfaction on the roads. Mark Hughes, 44, who has been driving HGVs for 20 years, says pay has barely changed in his working life, with retention bonuses only emerging in the last few months as companies have attempted belatedly to hang on to their drivers. [...] A lack of facilities and time pressure means drivers are often forced to use their cabs as toilets and wash by the side of the road. “The main thing you need for this job is a blanket, pillow, wet wipes and plastic bags,” says Hughes. “The laybys are sometimes covered in shit so it’s safer to crap in a plastic bag inside your cab. You wash with soap and water in a plastic bowl. It is degrading. It’s like living on the streets.”'
Looks like some Banchory marching powder was taken.
https://twitter.com/Record_Politics/status/1431956280931979265?s=20
I'm with William Blake: "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom".
Or one could go further and frame "lagom" as "don't challenge anything" or "just be a zombie". (I have to apologise for any offence caused to Swedish readers here, but I've heard several emigrant Swedes say things like "Oh dear, was I like that when I was in Sweden? Well you can see why I emigrated.")
Many who espouse the attitude say the word is hard to translate, even if they are fluent in English and perhaps even speak English to native-tongue level. That in itself says a lot. It's like being wrapped in cotton wool or swimming in treacle or being on tranquilisers for life and not knowing anything different.
Around two thirds of cases are in the under-40 group. About 30% of Covid-related hospital admissions in the last month were also from the same age bracket.
Interesting, all the same - why should that loon* come all the way up to the NE? Even if it were for a pull, there are many more quines in London town. And, remember, the cancellation of EVEL (did it ever actually happen)? Do you think he's trying to become MP for a Deeside constituency?
*Not pejorative in Doric.
US carry out military strike in Kabul
Silly sausages. If they'd only built a roof like what Wimbledon did, they'd be fine.
He is deeply fucking weird.
I disagree with her - I think that a secure consensual basis for a society with few great inequalities is exactly what you need to have the courage to try new stuff, experiment with different careers, etc. That's IMO why Scandinavia combines reasonably high living standards and harmony with economic success driven by the private sector - it's a compromise that I didn't altogether agree with in my communist youth, but I've come to see its merits. In Britain, people are all too conscious of the depths that one can fall, so they cling to jobs they don't really enjoy.
But I know there are different views on all that, and obviously people who chose to leave will be among those who really don't like it. (The gang rivalries in Sweden are mostly a separate issue and I agree they're unnerving.)
NEW THREAD
NEW THREAD
Gove raves at a nightclub called Bohemia in Aberdeen.
You can take the tightwad out of grippit Aberdeen but..
'"People were buying him drinks but were also joking that he should be getting the rounds after he racked up £100,000 in expenses last year.
Nobody else ever appeared, he was by himself.
It's also rumoured that he never paid to get in, but I can't be sure of that.
This was the last thing I expected to see on a Saturday night in Aberdeen."
Hopefully this is just a case of Delta filling in the gaps, in the context of a population that has experienced a lower case rate than England's throughout the full course of the pandemic to date - though OTOH the latest ONS antibody prevalence modelling has the two nations both well in excess of 90% of all adults, and very close to one another.
You have to wonder how many more months/years it is going to be before this wretched disease finally begins to run out of victims.
https://twitter.com/markdiffley1/status/1432003901520236554?s=21