politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Joe Biden’s VP pick – the case for Amy Klobuchar

AlastairMeeks said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

Oh dear...

https://twitter.com/rob_marchant/status/1261275770879705088

Wasn't everyone expecting that?

Philip_Thompson said:

bigjohnowls said:

Theuniondivvie said:

Old Andy seems to have gone full PB Tory. I'm sure you lads will give him a warm welcome.

https://twitter.com/Andrew_Adonis/status/1261167168575733760?s=20

He has been full on PB Tory since at least 1992

So PB Tory = Blairite to you?

No wonder you think behind every shadow is a PB Tory.

KentRising said:

Lockdown is over in Whitstable.

Just been out to the supermarket for the first time in a week:

- Streets heaving with people enjoying themselves like it's a normal summer Friday afternoon.

FrancisUrquhart said:

KentRising said:

Lockdown is over in Whitstable.

Just been out to the supermarket for the first time in week:

- Streets heaving with people enjoying themsleves like it's a normal summer Friday afternoon.
- I was the only one wearing a mask.
- No limit on the number of people in Sainsbury's, and no one social distancing.
- All restaurants and takeaways open for takeaway. Long queues and barely any social distancing.

Meanwhile, everyone's on furlough and the economy's going down the shitter,

What a complete farce.

Its like the behavioural scientists known a thing or two when they said people won't stick to a full lockdown for extended periods of time.

Theuniondivvie said:

HYUFD said:

Burgessian said:

HYUFD said:

Theuniondivvie said:

HYUFD said:

No, there is nothing wrong with devolved governments taking a slightly different approach while maintaining the Union.

In domestic policy Westminster is effectively the English Parliament now anyway, it just sets some tax and foreign policy for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Yeah, that's all.

Part 1.

List of reserved matters

Reserved matters are subdivided into two categories: General reservations and specific reservations.

General reservations cover major issues which are always handled centrally by the Parliament in Westminster:[5]

the Crown
the Union with England, Wales and Northern Ireland
the making of peace or war
defence
treaties or any relations with foreign states or dominions
naturalisation
external trade
quarantine
navigation (including merchant shipping)
submarine cables
wireless telegraphy
aerial navigation
lighthouses
currency
copyright
treason
the UK Parliament
registration and funding of political parties
international development
the Home Civil Service

Specific reservations cover particular areas of social and economic policy which are reserved to Westminster, listed under 11 'heads':[6]

Head A - Financial and Economic Matters

fiscal, economic and monetary policy
currency
financial services
financial markets
money laundering

Head B - Home Affairs

data protection and access to information
elections
film classification
immigration and nationality
scientific procedures on live animals
national security and counter-terrorism
betting, gaming and lotteries
emergency powers
extradition
lieutenancies
charities

Head C – Trade and Industry

business associations
insolvency
competition
intellectual property
import and export control
sea fishing outside the Scottish zone
customer protection
product standards, safety and liability
weights and measures
telecommunications
postal services
research councils

So as I said the vast majority of health, education, welfare, housing, transport, police, social care policy etc is devolved to Holyrood.

Scotland also has its own criminal and civil legal system

One of the interesting things about the Scottish Nationalists is their apparent enthusiasm to join one union - the EU - which is rapidly centralising and sucking power to Brussels. While leaving another one - the UK - which has moved extraordinarily fast in the other direction.

Meanwhile within Scotland the SNP Govt has gone to great lengths to snuff out or emasculate any organisation which has a degree of autonomy from Holyrood.

They are not so much pro-Scottish as anti-British.

Indeed, if they were truly pro Scottish they would back leaving the UK and EU.

They are mainly anti Tory and anti UK

So to be truly pro Scottish you definitely have to back leaving the UK? Fair enough.

DavidL said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Looks like the quattro has been fired up on testing. Incoming tweet from a journalist saying but tested some people multiple times.

https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1261301748943257606?s=19

69,590 people. Its almost 2 tests each. Is that not a bit weird?

Socky said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Seems twitter are very angry that under 18s losing their free public transport in London.

As they only ever seem to stay on the bus for one stop, maybe this is part of Sadiq's anti-obesity drive?

DavidL said:

Malmesbury said:

DavidL said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Looks like the quattro has been fired up on testing. Incoming tweet from a journalist saying but tested some people multiple times.

https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1261301748943257606?s=19

69,590 people. Its almost 2 tests each. Is that not a bit weird?

I have heard it stated that the negative for the swab test is 75% accurate.

So the first negative is 75% probability of being right.
So you try again and get a negative - 93.75% probability of being right.
So you try again.....

On the same day?

DavidL said:

What we need to know and should be routinely asked at these press conferences is what is the average turnaround time for the tests? If its more than 48 hours it is not good enough.

Socky said:

kinabalu said:

I do not apply my political preferences to matters of sexual assault. Women do not usually lie about these things.

Some Googling suggests at least 5% of claims are false, so 1 in 20.

Not low enough I would suggest to drop innocent until proved guilty.

williamglenn said:

MaxPB said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Looks very much like they are just stuck at 80 deaths a day.

https://twitter.com/cricketwyvern/status/1261271110697586690?s=20

Yes, there's no downwards trend in Sweden, to put it into context, 80 deaths per day in Sweden is the same as ~520 in the UK, just in hospitals. The problem for the Swedish strategy is that it may produce better short term economic growth (or lesser contraction) but it's a situation they are going to be stuck with for a long time and may end up causing irreversible damage as companies decide to up sticks and move to countries which are fully open for business in October.

How will any country be fully open for business in October without a vaccine?

MaxPB said:

williamglenn said:

MaxPB said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Looks very much like they are just stuck at 80 deaths a day.

https://twitter.com/cricketwyvern/status/1261271110697586690?s=20

Yes, there's no downwards trend in Sweden, to put it into context, 80 deaths per day in Sweden is the same as ~520 in the UK, just in hospitals. The problem for the Swedish strategy is that it may produce better short term economic growth (or lesser contraction) but it's a situation they are going to be stuck with for a long time and may end up causing irreversible damage as companies decide to up sticks and move to countries which are fully open for business in October.

How will any country be fully open for business in October without a vaccine?

Ideally we'll have the infection rate at close to zero and be monitoring all incoming people with tests and mandatory quarantine periods. What we (and other European countries) are trying to do is get the domestic transmission rate to as close to zero as possible and ensure all arrivals are tested on the way or put into quarantine. That will allow for a pretty wide reopening of the economy including pubs and bars. The question is whether we can achieve this by October before it gets very cold and the viral transmission rate rises due to people coughing and sneezing more.

williamglenn said:

MaxPB said:

williamglenn said:

MaxPB said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Looks very much like they are just stuck at 80 deaths a day.

https://twitter.com/cricketwyvern/status/1261271110697586690?s=20

Yes, there's no downwards trend in Sweden, to put it into context, 80 deaths per day in Sweden is the same as ~520 in the UK, just in hospitals. The problem for the Swedish strategy is that it may produce better short term economic growth (or lesser contraction) but it's a situation they are going to be stuck with for a long time and may end up causing irreversible damage as companies decide to up sticks and move to countries which are fully open for business in October.

How will any country be fully open for business in October without a vaccine?

Ideally we'll have the infection rate at close to zero and be monitoring all incoming people with tests and mandatory quarantine periods. What we (and other European countries) are trying to do is get the domestic transmission rate to as close to zero as possible and ensure all arrivals are tested on the way or put into quarantine. That will allow for a pretty wide reopening of the economy including pubs and bars. The question is whether we can achieve this by October before it gets very cold and the viral transmission rate rises due to people coughing and sneezing more.

We’re not trying to do that. We’re trying to balance reopening the economy with keeping the domestic transmission rate around 1 or below.

MaxPB said:

williamglenn said:

MaxPB said:

williamglenn said:

MaxPB said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Looks very much like they are just stuck at 80 deaths a day.

https://twitter.com/cricketwyvern/status/1261271110697586690?s=20

Yes, there's no downwards trend in Sweden, to put it into context, 80 deaths per day in Sweden is the same as ~520 in the UK, just in hospitals. The problem for the Swedish strategy is that it may produce better short term economic growth (or lesser contraction) but it's a situation they are going to be stuck with for a long time and may end up causing irreversible damage as companies decide to up sticks and move to countries which are fully open for business in October.

How will any country be fully open for business in October without a vaccine?

Ideally we'll have the infection rate at close to zero and be monitoring all incoming people with tests and mandatory quarantine periods. What we (and other European countries) are trying to do is get the domestic transmission rate to as close to zero as possible and ensure all arrivals are tested on the way or put into quarantine. That will allow for a pretty wide reopening of the economy including pubs and bars. The question is whether we can achieve this by October before it gets very cold and the viral transmission rate rises due to people coughing and sneezing more.

We’re not trying to do that. We’re trying to balance reopening the economy with keeping the domestic transmission rate around 1 or below.

It's pretty clear that it's the medium term goal, otherwise why bother with quarantine on arrival.

KentRising said:

Lockdown is over in Whitstable.

Just been out to the supermarket for the first time in week:

- Streets heaving with people enjoying themsleves like it's a normal summer Friday afternoon.
- I was the only one wearing a mask.
- No limit on the number of people in Sainsbury's, and no one social distancing.
- All restaurants and takeaways open for takeaway. Long queues and barely any social distancing.

Meanwhile, everyone's on furlough and the economy's going down the shitter,

What a complete farce.

FrancisUrquhart said:

Buts its well racist appears to be twitters verdict.

noneoftheabove said:

HYUFD said:

https://twitter.com/ClarkeMicah/status/1261294729502785537?s=20

He really has lost it now (although that incorrectly assumes he ever had it).

Nigel_Foremain said:

malcolmg said:

HYUFD said:

Black_Rook said:

HYUFD said:

Black_Rook said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

"It comes as Drakeford publishes the lockdown exit plan for Wales, setting out a traffic light system for progressive easing of restrictions on education, social life and business."

Its all a bit silly isn't it. We can't have the UK government 5 level system, we have to show everybody we have control and power, so we will use a traffic light system instead.

I think in part this splintered approach to the lockdown is a natural consequence of devolution - after all, if everybody always does the same thing and fails to take account of local conditions, then what's the point of it? But also there are political imperatives at work - as you say, they have to show everybody that they're in charge. In Wales this is because we're Labour and we don't take orders from the evil Tories. In Scotland this is because we want independence and to be rid of the evil Tories. In Northern Ireland this is because our Government is a two-headed snake and the heads are too busy trying to bite each other for the body to move very far.

The easiest solution to all of this is to scrap the Union as soon as the immediate crisis is out of the way. Then everyone can do their own thing 100% of the time and these sorts of differences will cease to be a problem.

No, there is nothing wrong with devolved governments taking a slightly different approach while maintaining the Union.

In domestic policy Westminster is effectively the English Parliament now anyway, it just sets some tax and foreign policy for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Westminster is obviously not the English Parliament because it still contains 117 members who aren't elected in England.

Conversely, why the situation should still prevail in which these other countries require large areas of policy to be decided by an assembly consisting mainly of English people, goodness only knows.

We must remember that (with all the usual caveats around Northern Ireland,) the UK is a union of nations and not one of regions like most properly constituted federations (the US, Canada, Australia, Germany etc.) And it's one that's outlived its usefulness.

What conceivable value the Union with Scotland, for example, holds for the English people is never adequately articulated. The only obvious answers anybody can come up with are 'we need somewhere to put our ballistic missile submarines' and 'we might have to give up our UN Security Council seat otherwise,' and these are matters of no importance to almost the entire general population of the country - who are mostly interested in getting on with their lives in peace and, to the extent that politics troubles them at all, are primarily concerned with resolving England's many internal problems.

All of the conditions that promoted the creation of the United Kingdom and necessitated its continuity have been removed. It should be euthanized compassionately and given a decent burial.

Rubbish, the UK is now effectively a Federal nation and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland are basically regions of the UK, none have been independent nations for centuries.

Bavaria was once an independent country, that does not stop it now being a region of a Federal Germany.

Scotland also has plenty of oil and renewable energy, a thriving financial sector and whisky industry and some excellent universities and regiments as well as holding Trident. It contributes a great deal to the UK

You get dafter by the day, delusion does not cover it. You make Trump sound like a reasonable sensible person.

He is the mirror to yourself Malcolm. He is an unthinkingly loyal keyboard warrior for The Clown, and you an unthinkingly loyal keyboard warrior for Jimmy Krankie