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Latest COVID related polling and an excellent cartoon on Boris’s challenge – politicalbetting.com

13

Comments

  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    rcs1000 said:

    That's a pretty mean thing to say about physicists and mathematicians.
    You may think this is funny. I really don't. Its an appalling situation.
  • A huge app-based survey of symptoms people get with COVID- they are one of the groups who recognised the importance of loss of taste/smell as a key symptom.

    One of the things they can do with their data set is a real-time estimate of the number of infections each day. (They make it 14 thousand new infections yesterday across the UK.)

    If you're not signed up, it's here:

    https://covid.joinzoe.com/
    Thanks. So the table is of people who have a symptom that ZOE flags up? In which case a lot will be normal colds surely?
  • Foxy said:

    There seems to be a complete failure by Brexiteers to understand that Brexit means Brexit. They were so wrapped up in flag waving culture war that they didn't make any proper plans for third country status. Chickens are coming home to roost.
    The guiding ethos was always that we just needed to show Brussels that we were serious and the EU would bend over backwards to keep us happy. Instead they've turned our formerly serious image into a joke.
  • kyf_100 said:

    I don't think I'd be paying 10k a year to watch live stream videos in a tiny dorm room and no student bar.
    And you must only socialise with those from your flat. You better hope you haven't got unlucky and been put in alongside 1 or 2 total knobheads.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 55,180

    Just imagine going to university and not being able to congregate in groups of more than six. Gruesome. Gruesome. Barbaric.

    And when you come out, laden with debt, what are your prospects in lockdown Britain?
    My son is due to go to University in October next year. I am seriously thinking about a gap year for him even although it would delay my retirement. The options available to our young people right now are nothing short of horrendous.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670
    Andy_JS said:

    National polls have never been so irrelevant. It's the state polls that are important.
    If you had looked at the state polls (like I did in 2016) yo d have thought there was no chance of Clinton losing.

    If you looked at the National polling you'd have seen massive Trump momentum.
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    kyf_100 said:

    I don't think I'd be paying 10k a year to watch live stream videos in a tiny dorm room and no student bar.
    And then to come out into a world where five million are unemployed and the economy has been scarred for decades.

    With a huge deficit and debt to contend with. High taxes for ever.

    Yeh but a few eighty year old with two co-morbidities lived a few months longer. So that's OK then.

    FFS
  • FF43 said:

    Additional important point. You mentioned respect. A charlatan has no respect for the people he is cheating. Johnson in general lacks respect for people.
    “Sincerity is the key to success. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.”

    There's another intriguing thing going on here. If you start from the theory that Boris is a charlatan (and it explains a lot), then his ascent to power is the biggest grift in history, and the population of the UK are his marks (as I believe the parlance goes).

    But part of the art of the con-artist is to make it really shameful for the victim to admit that they're a victim. Either because it makes them look stupid, or it shows them up for being dishonest themselves. Hence the catchphrase "offer them something for nothing, give them nothing for something".

    https://youtu.be/m4nLURpHGQg

    That might help explain some of the more... contorted expressions of loyalty to Boris. It might also help explain the ongoing floor of 40 % the Conservatives have in the polls. But it doesn't explain what happens next, when the irresistible force of global reality meets the immovable object Boris's story.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,240
    kyf_100 said:

    I don't think I'd be paying 10k a year to watch live stream videos in a tiny dorm room and no student bar.
    The reason student numbers are up is because the alternatives are crap too. Getting a mcjob in hospitality? Gap year travel? Neither looks much good this year either.

    The first term will be weird, but this is the new normal. Get used to it.

    Fox jr starts this week at KCL. Not living in halls though, but a flat share, so no lockdown.
  • DavidL said:

    My son is due to go to University in October next year. I am seriously thinking about a gap year for him even although it would delay my retirement. The options available to our young people right now are nothing short of horrendous.
    Difficult decisions.

    Personally I would say delay if at all possible. You only get one chance at being a student (well, usually) and all the wonderful opportunities and chances that offers. Best to try and experience a normal year.

  • rcs1000 said:

    That's a pretty mean thing to say about physicists and mathematicians.
    Forcing physicists into groups as large as six? What kind of monstrosity is this?
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    DavidL said:

    My son is due to go to University in October next year. I am seriously thinking about a gap year for him even although it would delay my retirement. The options available to our young people right now are nothing short of horrendous.
    It doesn;t get better after college. We have some young people working for us, single, bright, full of life, who have spent the last six months in sh8tty accommodation in grotty parts of London working and doing not a lot else. One said to me today that another lockdown really would be a massive blow.

    Its bloody awful
  • Scott_xP said:

    https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1308802593230147585
    Somebody else is currently sitting in the same office thinking we will need a permits for people to enter Sussex, G London, Essex and Surrey given the number stuck in Kent.
  • I guess if you are a 2nd or 3rd year it won't be quite as bad as hopefully you already got a friendship group and if you weren't there you would be just stuck at home.

    But freshers, got to be hellish.
  • Thanks. So the table is of people who have a symptom that ZOE flags up? In which case a lot will be normal colds surely?
    I don't know, but I think the questions are smarter and better calibrated than that. Up to now, it's agreed pretty well against the ONS survey, just quite a bit faster.
  • contrariancontrarian Posts: 5,818
    Foxy said:

    The reason student numbers are up is because the alternatives are crap too. Getting a mcjob in hospitality? Gap year travel? Neither looks much good this year either.

    The first term will be weird, but this is the new normal. Get used to it.

    Fox jr starts this week at KCL. Not living in halls though, but a flat share, so no lockdown.
    You blasted effing hypocrite. How was six years at medical school? bet it was all work and no play (NOT).

    All so that some very old and very sick people can stay very old and very sick a bit longer

    You are happy with that trade off for your children?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,240

    It doesn;t get better after college. We have some young people working for us, single, bright, full of life, who have spent the last six months in sh8tty accommodation in grotty parts of London working and doing not a lot else. One said to me today that another lockdown really would be a massive blow.

    Its bloody awful
    The thing about the virus though is that it exists and yes life would be sweeter without, but wishes won't make it go away. Ignoring it is not really an option. I note that Swedish Universities are much the same in terms of going online.

    https://twitter.com/thehowie/status/1304123055090724864?s=09
  • https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1308855356580401153

    Maybe BSE has spread more widely into humans: it certainly seems to have hit the Cabinet and their advisors.
  • When will Brexiters simply fess up and say, “whoops, I made a really stupid decision and cost the country £200bn (and counting), and it’s international reputation?”.

    The only Brexit ever even slightly palatable was EEA-style, and this was made nigh on impossible by the Brexiter’s own campaign which focused mostly on immigration.

    It really is that simple.

    All we can do now is wait at least a generation for the cancer to abate, if it ever does.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,240
    edited September 2020

    You blasted effing hypocrite. How was six years at medical school? bet it was all work and no play (NOT).

    All so that some very old and very sick people can stay very old and very sick a bit longer

    You are happy with that trade off for your children?
    Yeah, I worked hard but had a good time too. Not that that means much to this pandemic.

    Yes, life will be peculiar for Fox jr, but he was keen to go and get on with life. What alternative is there?

    BTW Covid-19 does not only kill the very old and very sick, on average a covid victim actuarily lost 10 years of life in the first wave.
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,884

    “Sincerity is the key to success. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.”

    There's another intriguing thing going on here. If you start from the theory that Boris is a charlatan (and it explains a lot), then his ascent to power is the biggest grift in history, and the population of the UK are his marks (as I believe the parlance goes).

    But part of the art of the con-artist is to make it really shameful for the victim to admit that they're a victim. Either because it makes them look stupid, or it shows them up for being dishonest themselves. Hence the catchphrase "offer them something for nothing, give them nothing for something".

    https://youtu.be/m4nLURpHGQg

    That might help explain some of the more... contorted expressions of loyalty to Boris. It might also help explain the ongoing floor of 40 % the Conservatives have in the polls. But it doesn't explain what happens next, when the irresistible force of global reality meets the immovable object Boris's story.
    @Casino_Royale also mentioned cognitive dissonance, which is a coping mechanism. I guess some people will stick with him to the bitter end and others go back to doing and thinking what they did before. Don't know...

    One thing that puzzles me about successful charlatans, is why they have a deep rooted need to cheat people. Salesman is an honourable profession that not many people are really good at. They are very marketable. Why don't they sell an honest product?
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 9,012
    RIP  Juliette Greco
  • dr_spyndr_spyn Posts: 11,307
    Looks as if SKS has forced out some rebellious juniors. Might upset some of the woke, but may be a blessing in disguise.

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/labour-mps-quit-keir-starmers-22732524

  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,296
    edited September 2020
    DavidL said:

    My son is due to go to University in October next year. I am seriously thinking about a gap year for him even although it would delay my retirement. The options available to our young people right now are nothing short of horrendous.
    That makes no sense.

    Covid-wise things will be vastly better by October 2021, or if not they won't improve any further between October 2021 and October 2022.

    We'll have a functioning vaccine within 12 months or not at all.

    PS You're seriously thinking about a gap year for him?? What is it about kids today that they need their parents to make such decisions?
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169
    edited September 2020
    The NHS trace app is live.
  • The NHS trace app is live.

    It'll be down by 10:30.
  • On Covid, Boris was actually OK last night.
    He has very strange verbal and facial tics, but reading direct from autocue saved him from “comic” asides.

    Having reflected on it for a day l, though, if the virus is spiralling out of control, why is the appropriate measure to shut the pub an hour earlier. Surely that will do the grand sum of fuck all.

    I am worried we are heading straight for Lockdown 2.0, and the consequent economic collapse and mental health calamity.
  • AlistairAlistair Posts: 23,670

    And then to come out into a world where five million are unemployed and the economy has been scarred for decades.

    With a huge deficit and debt to contend with. High taxes for ever.

    Yeh but a few eighty year old with two co-morbidities lived a few months longer. So that's OK then.

    FFS
    10 years.
  • When will Brexiters simply fess up and say, “whoops, I made a really stupid decision and cost the country £200bn (and counting), and it’s international reputation?”.

    The only Brexit ever even slightly palatable was EEA-style, and this was made nigh on impossible by the Brexiter’s own campaign which focused mostly on immigration.

    It really is that simple.

    All we can do now is wait at least a generation for the cancer to abate, if it ever does.

    Brexit will be a tremendous success not that you will ever admit it.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,240

    When will Brexiters simply fess up and say, “whoops, I made a really stupid decision and cost the country £200bn (and counting), and it’s international reputation?”.

    The only Brexit ever even slightly palatable was EEA-style, and this was made nigh on impossible by the Brexiter’s own campaign which focused mostly on immigration.

    It really is that simple.

    All we can do now is wait at least a generation for the cancer to abate, if it ever does.

    Good to see you back.

    There will be a hell of a lot of buyers remorse next year, but not easy to go back.

    Brexiteers are doing a "Cleveland Steamer" on the EU, to ensure that they will not want us back.
  • The same I expect from Geordies, because in my eyes and ears you're both the same.
    That's the sort of comment I would expect from a Midlander.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,939

    I guess if you are a 2nd or 3rd year it won't be quite as bad as hopefully you already got a friendship group and if you weren't there you would be just stuck at home.

    But freshers, got to be hellish.

    Would have seriously advised eldest to defer had it not been their final year.
    "May as well get it over with as there's no guarantee it will be any better next year" was their response.
    "There aren't any decent jobs to be had, and I can't go travelling, so at least by then I'll have a degree."
    This was in July. Prescient.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169

    It'll be down by 10:30.
    It seems good to me. It’s using the official apple exposure system on iOS too so it integrates well and you can see what its doing in the background transparently.


  • Brexit will be a tremendous success not that you will ever admit it.
    If we are still trading on SM/CU terms on January 1st, will you admit you were wrong about Johnson's strategy?
  • Since Apple and Google are powering the NHS app does it work with other countries apps?

    EG if someone using the Scottish (or German or other) app comes near for a sustained time someone using the English one then will that count as a contact? Or do you need to download the NHS, Scottish, NI (and Welsh?) apps separately?
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,296

    The NHS trace app is live.

    Oh great, just checked it and I need to buy a new iPhone - requires iOS 13.5 so it's not going to work in my iPhone 6 :disappointed:
  • Brexit will be a tremendous success not that you will ever admit it.
    Must be hard to be a prophet in the wilderness.
  • Since Apple and Google are powering the NHS app does it work with other countries apps?

    EG if someone using the Scottish (or German or other) app comes near for a sustained time someone using the English one then will that count as a contact? Or do you need to download the NHS, Scottish, NI (and Welsh?) apps separately?

    No, you have to use the separate scottish app.
  • isamisam Posts: 41,317
    And they sacked people who voted against it?

    https://twitter.com/uklabour/status/1308836454731313154?s=21
  • PJHPJH Posts: 814

    I guess if you are a 2nd or 3rd year it won't be quite as bad as hopefully you already got a friendship group and if you weren't there you would be just stuck at home.

    But freshers, got to be hellish.

    I just dropped my daughter off at the weekend for her first year at Uni. There is nothing much going on, no contact from anybody, they are just left alone to fester in their rooms. It's appalling, they can't be expected to endure this for the rest of the year. I expect the dropout rate for first years will be astronomical this year.

    If I was a student I would be agitating against this - the young should be allowed to have a life.
  • If we are still trading on SM/CU terms on January 1st, will you admit you were wrong about Johnson's strategy?
    No. I have said a new transition period from the Brexit transition into whatever new arrangements we have agreed could be entirely logical, so long as its not an extension of the current transition for its own sake and that we have a pre-agreed destination. An implementation transition, which this transition was not.
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,884
    Scott_xP said:

    https://twitter.com/DPJHodges/status/1308802593230147585
    A trade expert, that we apparently need fewer of, explains. An enforced border at Kent is better than chaos at Dover. It's a solution to a problem. [That the problem is a completely stupid one made by the group that Dan Hodges is part of doesn't change that point]

    https://twitter.com/SamuelMarcLowe/status/1308755918922878976

  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169

    Since Apple and Google are powering the NHS app does it work with other countries apps?

    EG if someone using the Scottish (or German or other) app comes near for a sustained time someone using the English one then will that count as a contact? Or do you need to download the NHS, Scottish, NI (and Welsh?) apps separately?

    The system talks about “active region” so perhaps not.


  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,203
    edited September 2020
    Foxy said:

    Good to see you back.

    There will be a hell of a lot of buyers remorse next year, but not easy to go back.

    Brexiteers are doing a "Cleveland Steamer" on the EU, to ensure that they will not want us back.
    Thanks. I managed to avoid PB for most of lockdown, but was lured back by last week’s constitutional showaddywaddy.

    I don’t believe there will be any buyers remorse for the psychological reasons cited above.

    Nor do I think the U.K. will “go back”. But in a generation, the leaders of rump England may decide that closer ties with the EU are overwhelmingly in the country’s best interests.
  • On Covid, Boris was actually OK last night.
    He has very strange verbal and facial tics, but reading direct from autocue saved him from “comic” asides.

    Having reflected on it for a day l, though, if the virus is spiralling out of control, why is the appropriate measure to shut the pub an hour earlier. Surely that will do the grand sum of fuck all.

    I am worried we are heading straight for Lockdown 2.0, and the consequent economic collapse and mental health calamity.

    Yep. Very sadly we are about to go through the whole cycle again.

    The one hour pub shut is just to appear to be doing something. Nicola is on to him and has put down a trump card of no household visits.


  • Oh great, just checked it and I need to buy a new iPhone - requires iOS 13.5 so it's not going to work in my iPhone 6 :disappointed:
    The Scottish App doesn't either....
  • Well on the surface, this app, unlike the first one, doesn't appear to have been cobbled together by some undergrads at a 24hr hackathon.
  • isam said:

    And they sacked people who voted against it?

    https://twitter.com/uklabour/status/1308836454731313154?s=21


    The whip was to abstain. Why hand the Tories ammunition?
  • GardenwalkerGardenwalker Posts: 22,203
    edited September 2020

    Yep. Very sadly we are about to go through the whole cycle again.

    The one hour pub shut is just to appear to be doing something. Nicola is on to him and has put down a trump card of no household visits.


    I really don’t want you to be right.
    For once, I want to believe that Boris has a plan.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169

    Oh great, just checked it and I need to buy a new iPhone - requires iOS 13.5 so it's not going to work in my iPhone 6 :disappointed:
    Best wait as the next generation of iPhones will be announced within the next month.
  • Must be hard to be a prophet in the wilderness.
    The best prophets were always in the wilderness.
  • So basically the former leadership team and their key acolytes.

    What an astonishing turn around.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169

    The best prophets were always in the wilderness.
    And all of them have been loons.
  • I can see this crazy situation where students end up having to do all their lectures online stuck in their uni accommodation and not allowed to leave for months.

    At the moment, most unis plan to do a few hours of in person teaching each week, but if it becomes rife, i can't see it sustainable given how risky it would be for older academics.

    Is it that or they empty out unis and risk spreading it wide and far.

    I fear that bringing the students back has been a mistake, for them and everyone else. As you say, once the virus becomes widespread there are no good options.

    As for face-to-face teaching, I hope the universities will see sense if the virus is rife. At the moment I'm not hearing any movement on that, despite staff and unions raising concerns. Of course, the higher-ups making the decisions aren't the ones being put at risk...

    --AS
  • FF43 said:

    A trade expert, that we apparently need fewer of, explains. An enforced border at Kent is better than chaos at Dover. It's a solution to a problem. [That the problem is a completely stupid one made by the group that Dan Hodges is part of doesn't change that point]

    https://twitter.com/SamuelMarcLowe/status/1308755918922878976

    Thatcher must be spinning in her grave at this anti-markets lunacy.
  • Can somebody explain the bill Labour MPs voted against tonight?

    Also, CCHQ attacks on Starmer remind me of those on Blair.

    They simultaneously - from my reading/understanding - attacked him being too like old Labour whilst also stealing the Tories ideas. Didn't work too well
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169

    I fear that bringing the students back has been a mistake, for them and everyone else. As you say, once the virus becomes widespread there are no good options.

    As for face-to-face teaching, I hope the universities will see sense if the virus is rife. At the moment I'm not hearing any movement on that, despite staff and unions raising concerns. Of course, the higher-ups making the decisions aren't the ones being put at risk...

    --AS
    I have my timetable now and I have 2 hours of face-to-face per week. 1 hour of that is between 7-8pm.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,296

    Best wait as the next generation of iPhones will be announced within the next month.
    Very unlikely I'll be buying the latest generation - I'll take a cheaper option. In any event, my iPhone6 still works perfectly well in all other respects.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169
    edited September 2020

    Very unlikely I'll be buying the latest generation - I'll take a cheaper option. In any event, my iPhone6 still works perfectly well in all other respects.
    Yes but the current generation will then be cheaper!

    If your iPhone 6 is no longer receiving software updates from Apple then it wont be getting patches for security vulnerabilities.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,240

    I fear that bringing the students back has been a mistake, for them and everyone else. As you say, once the virus becomes widespread there are no good options.

    As for face-to-face teaching, I hope the universities will see sense if the virus is rife. At the moment I'm not hearing any movement on that, despite staff and unions raising concerns. Of course, the higher-ups making the decisions aren't the ones being put at risk...

    --AS
    Yeah, but what was the alternative?

    Sitting on the sofa for a year eating lockdown pasta and playing X box?
  • I have my timetable now and I have 2 hours of face-to-face per week. 1 hour of that is between 7-8pm.
    7-8pm. You better hope the lecture doesn't drag on or you'll miss the new last orders time. :smiley:
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,383

    It seems good to me. It’s using the official apple exposure system on iOS too so it integrates well and you can see what its doing in the background transparently.


    Draining your battery by the looks of it.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169

    7-8pm. You better hope the lecture doesn't drag on or you'll miss the new last orders time. :smiley:
    Exactly my thought! To be honest it actually works great for me because parking in Newcastle city centre is free after 5pm.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169
    rcs1000 said:

    Draining your battery by the looks of it.
    It was totally at 100% when I downloaded it. :#
  • Pulpstar said:
    After four years of most of these MPs moaning their heads off that 'people weren't getting behind Jeremy' and 'undermining him every step' they immediately turn into rebels once not in charge.

    Hypocrites.

  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,884
    edited September 2020
    The Star front pages are the best thing around just now. To everyone's surprise I guess. Also the Star confirms the bog roll panic buy situation has come back*. So we know it's true.

    * Extra point for the best bog roll pun so far...
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169
    Using the trace app to scan QR codes at venues is a masterstroke because it will massively drive adoption.

    I’ve just received an email from McDonalds saying they will require customers to use the app to register their track and trace details. Hopefully most others follow suit.
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,295

    Using the trace app to scan QR codes at venues is a masterstroke because it will massively drive adoption.

    I’ve just received an email from McDonalds saying they will require customers to use the app to register their track and trace details. Hopefully most others follow suit.

    What about people who don't have smartphones?
  • Swedish Lockdown incoming...

    Sweden shifts towards lockdown measures: Chief scientist says he is now considering short 'chain-breaking' localised restrictions, amid spike of cases in Stockholm

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8765787/Swedens-lockdown-free-coronavirus-response-risk-officials-mull-chain-breaking-measures.html
  • isamisam Posts: 41,317


    The whip was to abstain. Why hand the Tories ammunition?
    I think the man in the street would assume Labour voted against the bill by virtue of them tweeting their disapproval of the Tories voting for it
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169
    Andy_JS said:

    What about people who don't have smartphones?
    They can stay at home.
  • Using the trace app to scan QR codes at venues is a masterstroke because it will massively drive adoption.

    I’ve just received an email from McDonalds saying they will require customers to use the app to register their track and trace details. Hopefully most others follow suit.

    They should have had the QR code track as soon as we came out of lockdown.
  • Foxy said:

    Yeah, but what was the alternative?

    Sitting on the sofa for a year eating lockdown pasta and playing X box?
    I was thinking that a half year or year of distance learning might be a less bad situation. Obviously not a real University experience (most living with parents) but more comfortable then being locked in halls of residence, safer than shared kitchens, preserving the opportunity to keep small local friendship groups, and allowing learning to start in some fashion.

    There are no good options in a pandemic, but high-density student accommodation has got to be one of the worse ones, especially if it can't be sustained and many end up going home anyway and spreading the virus further. We'll only know with hindsight, of course.

    --AS
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,295

    They can stay at home.
    I refuse to own a smartphone and I'm not staying at home.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,939

    So basically the former leadership team and their key acolytes.

    What an astonishing turn around.
    Indeed. Reduced to an embattled rump in the wilderness. You could have named a similar number at the height of Blair.
    Did someone collectively slip the nation a stupid pill in 2015?
    One which lasted around 5 years? Kent Road Access Pass (KRAP) being the final symptom before we convalesce.
  • I have my timetable now and I have 2 hours of face-to-face per week. 1 hour of that is between 7-8pm.
    You have my heartfelt sympathy. It's a horrible situation. I hope you have some positive experiences despite the circumstances.

    --AS
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169
    Andy_JS said:

    I refuse to own a smartphone and I'm not staying at home.
    To be honest it doesn’t matter. We need approximately 60% usage for effective T&T according to that Guardian article so you can get away with not having one.
  • Using the trace app to scan QR codes at venues is a masterstroke because it will massively drive adoption.

    I’ve just received an email from McDonalds saying they will require customers to use the app to register their track and trace details. Hopefully most others follow suit.

    Dystopian.

  • dixiedean said:

    Indeed. Reduced to an embattled rump in the wilderness. You could have named a similar number at the height of Blair.
    Did someone collectively slip the nation a stupid pill in 2015?
    One which lasted around 5 years? Kent Road Access Pass (KRAP) being the final symptom before we convalesce.
    I assume most of them incluing Corbyn will be expelled from the labour party once the ECHR is published
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,295
    O/T

    This is an interesting essay in Quillette magazine.

    "The Rule of the Masses
    G. Gavin Collins"

    https://quillette.com/2020/09/14/the-rule-of-the-masses/
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,356
    Andy_JS said:

    I refuse to own a smartphone and I'm not staying at home.
    That's fair enough, but they are under no obligation to serve you.
  • GallowgateGallowgate Posts: 20,169

    Dystopian.

    No it isn’t. Having a decentralised app that doesn’t store data is better than lockdown and being confined to our homes.

    It’s no more dystopian than a venue refusing to take cash and instead requiring electronic payment.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 60,356

    No it isn’t. Having a decentralised app that doesn’t store data is better than lockdown and being confined to our homes.

    It’s no more dystopian than a venue refusing to take cash and instead requiring electronic payment.
    Now that it's fully decentralised I don't see what the problem is.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 51,240
    rcs1000 said:

    Have you considered changing your username to 'absurd hyperbole'

    I can just imagine your post at the end of WW2.

    "Hundreds of thousands dead. Millions injured or homeless. No jobs to return to as factories bombed or making the wrong things. National debt at 300% of GDP. Might as well commit suicide now. No future ahead of us."

    Also, I believe that @Foxy has reported the actual number as being ten years of life on average being lost for each CV19 death.

    There is a discussion to have, a serious one, about what level of restrictions we should have, and the costs and the benefits. But you seem to exaggerate the costs ('barbaric' being your most absurdly overused word), while minimising the benefits ('a few eighty years old with two co-morbidities').

    I was thinking that a half year or year of distance learning might be a less bad situation. Obviously not a real University experience (most living with parents) but more comfortable then being locked in halls of residence, safer than shared kitchens, preserving the opportunity to keep small local friendship groups, and allowing learning to start in some fashion.

    There are no good options in a pandemic, but high-density student accommodation has got to be one of the worse ones, especially if it can't be sustained and many end up going home anyway and spreading the virus further. We'll only know with hindsight, of course.

    --AS
    I was told the other day that 50% of students now live at home. Not sure of the source.

    Fox jr decided against halls, opting to live with an acting friend, and has other friends living nearby. A good decision, I think.

  • eristdooferistdoof Posts: 5,076
    edited September 2020

    On Covid, Boris was actually OK last night.
    He has very strange verbal and facial tics, but reading direct from autocue saved him from “comic” asides.

    Having reflected on it for a day l, though, if the virus is spiralling out of control, why is the appropriate measure to shut the pub an hour earlier. Surely that will do the grand sum of fuck all.

    I am worried we are heading straight for Lockdown 2.0, and the consequent economic collapse and mental health calamity.

    Cue Anabobazina to shout "ITS NOT JUST ONE HOUR", missing the real point.
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