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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Andrew Neil’s right – Starmer’s first PMQs showed that the Gov

After today's exchanges at PMQs it is clear that the United Kingdom now has a functioning, probing, measured, informed Official Opposition. The government will need to raise its game.
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Starmer's first effort was competent, which is a massive step up from Corbyn; Raab was Raab.
https://innoviamedical.com/protective-equipment-production-expands-globally/
It might still be that the DoH ignored them and they went straight to NHS Trusts, but it appears they have had their face shields properly accredited and deployed.
Smith was also a top lawyer and QC
No idea how they will be able to do that at the rate required.
https://twitter.com/lapublichealth/status/1252326234077487107
It's one thing to say the government has had a bad few weeks on PPE and asking how that will be improved it's another to point score with a public list.
Its not bloody rocket science....
maybe. Remember TBlair's fulsome praise for Michael Howard at what I believe was the latter's first PMQ's outing. Fat lot of good that did him.
"How EM Forster predicted our socially distanced world
The Machine Stops serves as a warning as to why we shouldn’t allow this to become the new normal.
ELLIOT LEAVY"
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/04/22/how-em-forster-predicted-our-socially-distanced-world/
https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1252941371343765505?s=20
The opposition is right to ask questions, but posing them in that manner, they ought to be sure of their own facts.
How much government time is being wasted, that would better be deployed actually fighting the virus? But hey, it sells papers and generates clicks and likes, so who cares?
And if they weren't incompetent they could actually devote some attention to the care home situation, and do proper journalism, reporting reality.
I wonder if, in the aftermath of everything that's going on right now, government should be taking (and acting on) advice from people like Toto?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8mGymE7bXo
Maybe it’s best to compare with Corbyns first score, vs Cameron in 2015, which was -26
Opinium polls only
It did not crash and was fast
It was very easy to use, we asked a question and got an answer within an hour.
Our application has been accepted and we will get the money within a week.
That is a fantastic effort by the Government.
We don't yet know whether he's Starmerterial.
Cases, not deaths
However, if there are repeats of the mistakes made now, be difficult not to see massive upheaval in the opinion polls which really sticks.
https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1252948748537397248?s=20
https://twitter.com/iainmacwhirter/status/1252948784193122305?s=20
Graph with the percentage increase/decrease vs 7 days ago:
This is for 7 days worth of cumulative reporting per date of death.
The simple line chart:
It would not surprise me if Boris goes back to the pre-Blair arrangement of two PMQs a week, so that KS gets only three questions to build a case.
That seems ..... brave. You can understand when say Austria or Denmark does likewise, but Belgium's numbers are horrific.
By the time you know you've got a problem we will be 1 week into a very big problem (you're contagious a week before you know you are ill).
(Sweden has a low population density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre)
https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1252911289132703744?s=20
Howard and Neil Kinnock in 1992 gained the most seats of any opposition leader who failed to become PM in the last 50 years
Obviously not all countries are the same in demographics, population density, behavioural characteristics, transport etc, but there will be some general points that can be drawn.
There will also be complicating factors such as Ramadan - I can't see any lifting of the draconian regulations in my part of the world for at least another month, if only to stop huge social Iftar groups forming.
I mean anyone who talks about Sweden and doesn't mention they have a de facto rather than a de jure lockdown can be safely ignored.
??
Then there are a number of academics on twitter that like to feed all the new data in and give decent updates on the actual situation, not the media incorrect overview.
e.g https://twitter.com/cricketwyvern
From here, the daily stats can be compiled with a bit of manual copying, pasting and vlookups.
To save you the time, 87% of deaths from today's figure was for the last 7 days, that compares to 80% yesterday and around 93% on average.
When people on Furlough get paid at the end of the month the Governments ratings will soar.
Who has the best chance of GTTO next time?
There is no sign of civil unrest, there are no real shortages in the shops, internet has held up.
Howard gains = 32
Hague gains = 1
We were talking about the news - he said he can tell when unemployment is going down in the country.
When it is not reported.
https://twitter.com/AndyBiotech/status/1252950302333992962
I think it'd be verging on miraculous if the media started reporting competently, objectively, and in an intelligent way. Individual journalists may be sound, or not, but the widespread ignorance, scalp-hunting, and irresponsible shrieking alarm calls do not inspire confidence in the media as a class.
I've been saying this for years on here, but the biggest problem with UK politics is wretched political reporting. This crisis has only emphasised that point.
The Medical Detection Dogs charity says it hopes the dogs will be able to let medics know if a person needs to be tested or not.
Norman, Digby, Storm, Star, Jasper, Asher"
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-dogs-being-trained-to-find-passengers-with-covid-19-at-airports-11976965
That might have a massive effect on the false negatives problem.