This Georgia runoff polling’s looking positive for the Democrats and Senate control might be in reac

ping!

FeersumEnjineeya said:

Malmesbury said:

MaxPB said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

So when are Wales going to have to give in to the inevitable and have another proper lockdown? And this time, will it be for long enough?

Perhaps they can drag it out until the rest of the UK goes back into one after Christmas hall pass scheme causes a spike.

It's amazing that no one talks about this idiotic 2 week circuit breaker any more. We saw how ineffective it was in Wales which has got surging cases again.

What I always find interesting is how certain comments/ideas sink without trace.

I remember when the late Senator John Glenn (the ex-astronaut) tore into GW Bush for allowing Enron to become the biggest bankruptcy in US history. About 10 minutes before the fraud became evident.

Strangely, no-one ever mentioned Senator Glenn's position on this, ever again....

The years of right-wing derision of wind farms, energy-saving appliances and other "green crap" pushed by the lefties and eco-nuts. All forgotten, now that we are apparently leading the world in renewable energy.

Climate-change denial, which was at root an import from the American evangelical Right, always sat uncomfortably with British conservatism, which has a strong traditional streak of environmentalism. (Delingpole etc. dabbled for a while but it never took hold.)

Interesting little proposal for the whole site of the Broadmarsh Centre in Nottingham City Centre to be turned into a wildlife park, as Intu have handed back the lease.

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/new-broadmarsh-plan-revealed-could-4760679

I can see it happening at least in part if the Council can square their lost revenue.

MarqueeMark said:

Mexicanpete said:

kinabalu said:

Mexicanpete said:

MarqueeMark said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Coronavirus cases increased in 20 of Wales’s 22 local authority areas on Thursday, with a “rising tide” of infections seen in both urban and rural areas, health minister Vaughan Gething said.

On the back of what, 17 last week?

The different national lockdown regimes to allow petty nationalistic point-scoring have been pathetic.

I am surprised at your calm non-partisan analysis. Has someone hijacked your account?

Mr Urquhart does seem rather enthusiastic as to our dropping like flies here in Wales.

Whereas, I agree Drakeford is an idiot, I don't want to be a statistic used to prove it. For what it's worth I think the responses to Covid across the four home nations have been universally pretty piss-poor, as they have across Europe and North America.

Why are people saying the 2 week firebreak was a bad idea?

Surely without it the situation now would be worse than it is, no?

The 2 week fire-break was fine, however it was too short and the release was too relaxed.

And allowed huge numbes of people to travel to Wales to shop 'til they dropped from locked-down Bristol and the West Midlands.

Indeed. Mr Urquhart, however suggested I had little evidence for shopping trips from England.

Mexicanpete said:

MarqueeMark said:

Mexicanpete said:

kinabalu said:

Mexicanpete said:

MarqueeMark said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Coronavirus cases increased in 20 of Wales’s 22 local authority areas on Thursday, with a “rising tide” of infections seen in both urban and rural areas, health minister Vaughan Gething said.

On the back of what, 17 last week?

The different national lockdown regimes to allow petty nationalistic point-scoring have been pathetic.

I am surprised at your calm non-partisan analysis. Has someone hijacked your account?

Mr Urquhart does seem rather enthusiastic as to our dropping like flies here in Wales.

Whereas, I agree Drakeford is an idiot, I don't want to be a statistic used to prove it. For what it's worth I think the responses to Covid across the four home nations have been universally pretty piss-poor, as they have across Europe and North America.

Why are people saying the 2 week firebreak was a bad idea?

Surely without it the situation now would be worse than it is, no?

The 2 week fire-break was fine, however it was too short and the release was too relaxed.

And allowed huge numbes of people to travel to Wales to shop 'til they dropped from locked-down Bristol and the West Midlands.

Indeed. Mr Urquhart, however suggested I had little evidence for shopping trips from England.

No I didn't. I inquired how did you know from when you made a definite statement about visiting a shopping centre and there were loads of English. I just said, from accent alone, a lot of people originally from England now live across the border.

felix said:

kjh said:

kinabalu said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

...
The use of "education" in quotation marks is because so many of the products of these institutions seem to be so lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency as to raise questions as to what they are learning there. Of course in terms of A level results they obviously do a good job, but that is not the sole purpose of education, or at least it shouldn't be.

What utter nonsense. You really do have the most massive chip on your shoulder. Are you really so prejudiced by it that you seriously believe that those who went to top public schools are, as a group, more 'lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency' than any other group of people on this earth?

Why wouldn't a thorough immersion in a 'born to rule' environment during one's formative years have that effect?

At my first job in 1976 at one of the big consultancies the intake was primarily toffs from Eton and Harrow (I'm convinced to this day I was taken on as a comptometer operator and slipped through the net). I was paid £2300 a year to start with. One of these guys was talking about the security system he had just had installed at £800 and could not grasp the fact that at £800 it would be the only thing worth stealing if it was mine.

He also commented on another occasion on how most people had there own private income.

He had not a clue how the other half lived.

Oh well that's it - case closed - anecdote rules ok.

It was just an example (I hope an amusing one) in response to another's post and wasn't supposed to prove anything, although then, and probably still now but to a much lesser extent, these people were exceedingly privileged and probably didn't realize by how much.

However the example I gave was a particular prat and thought to be a prat also by the other posh employees who were not so ignorant of their luck in life.

https://twitter.com/adampayne26/status/1334847647589543937

https://twitter.com/adampayne26/status/1334857962473590786

Well, yes. UK Patient zero returned from a French Ski holiday. Second wave imported from Spain. As was pointed out at the time.

https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1334861950577221633?s=20

CarlottaVance said:

Silly Doctors.....it wasn't about you - it was about getting one over on the Toreeees

https://twitter.com/HTScotPol/status/1334862153657020416?s=20

Hasn't it come too from money Rishi had given to allow support for businesses like hospitality businesses that have been hammered by the pandemic?

Sparking an argument over income tax was a better use for a billion for her than supporting struggling Scottish businesses I suppose.

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

...
The use of "education" in quotation marks is because so many of the products of these institutions seem to be so lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency as to raise questions as to what they are learning there. Of course in terms of A level results they obviously do a good job, but that is not the sole purpose of education, or at least it shouldn't be.

What utter nonsense. You really do have the most massive chip on your shoulder. Are you really so prejudiced by it that you seriously believe that those who went to top public schools are, as a group, more 'lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency' than any other group of people on this earth?

I really don't have a chip on my shoulder. I did when I was younger and these people intimidated me, but not any more to be honest. I've done all right, I could send my kids to these schools if I wanted to, but I don't.
I can offer a couple of pieces of evidence/experience in support of my argument. First, the Cabinet. Second, my own experience of going from a Scottish Comprehensive school to Oxbridge. I had honestly never in my life come across people so casually rude and entitled in my life. It was eye-opening.
Have I met some very lovely people from these schools? Yes. Have I met some right scrotes from the other end of society? Of course, I went to school with some of them. But as a whole I think we suffer as a country from being ruled by people who have a born to rule mentality, lack compassion for those born without their privileges, and are so unaware of it that they don't even realise that their attitudes are a problem.

People are a product of their environment, so if one group have a completely different environment they grow up, such as Eton vs an ordinary school, they will inevitably have different qualities and characteristics. Some advantageous, some disadvantageous. If this did not happen no-one would give a damn which school their kids went to.

Nothing to do with a chip on a shoulder to observe those differences. It seems entirely expected that someone who went to Eton would, on average, have less self awareness than most people, as they are less likely to have understood how lucky and privileged their families were. Decency and compassion are harder to judge but those are your observations.

FrancisUrquhart said:

Mexicanpete said:

MarqueeMark said:

Mexicanpete said:

kinabalu said:

Mexicanpete said:

MarqueeMark said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Coronavirus cases increased in 20 of Wales’s 22 local authority areas on Thursday, with a “rising tide” of infections seen in both urban and rural areas, health minister Vaughan Gething said.

On the back of what, 17 last week?

The different national lockdown regimes to allow petty nationalistic point-scoring have been pathetic.

I am surprised at your calm non-partisan analysis. Has someone hijacked your account?

Mr Urquhart does seem rather enthusiastic as to our dropping like flies here in Wales.

Whereas, I agree Drakeford is an idiot, I don't want to be a statistic used to prove it. For what it's worth I think the responses to Covid across the four home nations have been universally pretty piss-poor, as they have across Europe and North America.

Why are people saying the 2 week firebreak was a bad idea?

Surely without it the situation now would be worse than it is, no?

The 2 week fire-break was fine, however it was too short and the release was too relaxed.

And allowed huge numbes of people to travel to Wales to shop 'til they dropped from locked-down Bristol and the West Midlands.

Indeed. Mr Urquhart, however suggested I had little evidence for shopping trips from England.

No I didn't. I inquired how did you know from when you made a definite statement about visiting a shopping centre and there were loads of English. I just said, from accent alone, a lot of people originally from England now live across the border.

The convoy returned to Essex by South Wales Police (admittedly in their case, they claimed shopping was not the prime motive for their visit) should be proof enough, plus the cars turned around at the Bridge last weekend.

MarqueeMark said:

HYUFD said:

https://twitter.com/DominicRaab/status/1334821772538023936?s=20

So get behind tidal lagoon power stations, Boris. No good saying they were a wonderful thing we should be doing during your leadership swing through Wales, then doing naff all to stop BEIS officials blocking them....

Yes, this Green Pivot is just more of the grandiose Johnson verbals, isn't it?

Someone had a good lunch.....

https://twitter.com/Brexit/status/1334865651148738562?s=20

kinabalu said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

kinabalu said:

Mexicanpete said:

MarqueeMark said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Coronavirus cases increased in 20 of Wales’s 22 local authority areas on Thursday, with a “rising tide” of infections seen in both urban and rural areas, health minister Vaughan Gething said.

On the back of what, 17 last week?

The different national lockdown regimes to allow petty nationalistic point-scoring have been pathetic.

I am surprised at your calm non-partisan analysis. Has someone hijacked your account?

Mr Urquhart does seem rather enthusiastic as to our dropping like flies here in Wales.

Whereas, I agree Drakeford is an idiot, I don't want to be a statistic used to prove it. For what it's worth I think the responses to Covid across the four home nations have been universally pretty piss-poor, as they have across Europe and North America.

Why are people saying the 2 week firebreak was a bad idea?

Surely without it the situation now would be worse than it is, no?

It has been explained a 1000 times on here why it is.

But not to my satisfaction.

Why was a 2 week Lockdown in Wales worse than no Lockdown in Wales?

- The "one last hurrah / big opening up party" syndrome causes small spike either side of the period.
- It takes a few days for people to fully engage with all the lockdown rules, which in 2 weeks is a significant percentage of the "transmission reduction period".
- It is already circulating, so then locking people down back into their homes means for a period you are still circulating it within their household (and likely increase the chances of this, as people are stuck their 24/7). So again initial 3-5 you are a best not reducing transmission, maybe even increasing it.
- You come out of it blind, with no idea if it worked or not and which areas are still very problematic, so no idea where to target resources, which to have further restrictions on, etc.
- You disrupt all sorts of other health related activities, so again potential for increases in other areas.

I could go on...basically your 2 weeks only has a very small window where transmission is being stopped in its tracks. And hence why we have seen problems both in NI and Wales.

geoffw said:

  

DavidL said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

CarlottaVance said:

Encouraging news from Scotland

https://twitter.com/ChrisMusson/status/1334842815097016323?s=20

So we are all going to reduced to the tiers we should be on then for Christmas? Not. A. Chance.

Mammy knows best.

So in Angus we currently have 51 cases per 100k in the last week which means we are about to fall out the bottom of tier 1. We are currently in tier 3. It is nuts.

It doesn't seem to be sufficiently flexible to adapt to the changing circumstances on the ground.

Its been ramped up for political reasons. We should never have been tier 3. Never. Dundee touched tier 3 but should now also be at tier 1, albeit more clearly in that than Angus. No one in Scotland should ever have been on tier 4. Currently over 2m people are.

Nicola thinks she has to show that she is tougher about this than Boris. After all she really cares and he is a Tory (spit). It's just pathetic and many, many businesses will fail unnecessarily as a result. But our media, they say nothing.

https://twitter.com/fact_covid/status/1334866418828009472?s=20

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

...
The use of "education" in quotation marks is because so many of the products of these institutions seem to be so lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency as to raise questions as to what they are learning there. Of course in terms of A level results they obviously do a good job, but that is not the sole purpose of education, or at least it shouldn't be.

What utter nonsense. You really do have the most massive chip on your shoulder. Are you really so prejudiced by it that you seriously believe that those who went to top public schools are, as a group, more 'lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency' than any other group of people on this earth?

I really don't have a chip on my shoulder. I did when I was younger and these people intimidated me, but not any more to be honest. I've done all right, I could send my kids to these schools if I wanted to, but I don't.
I can offer a couple of pieces of evidence/experience in support of my argument. First, the Cabinet. Second, my own experience of going from a Scottish Comprehensive school to Oxbridge. I had honestly never in my life come across people so casually rude and entitled in my life. It was eye-opening.
Have I met some very lovely people from these schools? Yes. Have I met some right scrotes from the other end of society? Of course, I went to school with some of them. But as a whole I think we suffer as a country from being ruled by people who have a born to rule mentality, lack compassion for those born without their privileges, and are so unaware of it that they don't even realise that their attitudes are a problem.

The pieces of 'evidence' you cite are classics of prejudice. The Cabinet, you say? Well for a start most of them didn't go to elite schools, but, if we look at those who did and those who didn't, your 'evidence' is the contrast between one group (Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak) and another (Priti Patel, Gavin Williamson, Dominic Raab, Michael Gove, Thérèse Coffey. Liz Truss), with Matt Hancock and George Eustice falling somewhere between the two groups. Do you really see any kind of a pattern there to support your prejudice?

OK, so you met some rude youngsters from elite schools at Oxbridge. So did I. Mostly they were rather insecure youngsters who needed to group up a bit more. I also met some quite delightful and compassionate people from the top schools there. In other words, individuals, who vary. Just like any other group.

Apropos nothing else my son has his 3 interviews for PPE at St Annes on Monday. Going to be a slightly nervous weekend.

CarlottaVance said:

Well, yes. UK Patient zero returned from a French Ski holiday. Second wave imported from Spain. As was pointed out at the time.

https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1334861950577221633?s=20

Opening up Europe for foreign holidays looked utter stupidity at the time. As many of us said - at the time.

We'll probably still let everyone go off on skiing hlidays again this winter. Which will again be a predictably twattish thing to do.

Anthony Wells on the (so called) "Red Wall":

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/10153

MarqueeMark said:

CarlottaVance said:

Well, yes. UK Patient zero returned from a French Ski holiday. Second wave imported from Spain. As was pointed out at the time.

https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1334861950577221633?s=20

Opening up Europe for foreign holidays looked utter stupidity at the time. As many of us said - at the time.

We'll probably still let everyone go off on skiing hlidays again this winter. Which will again be a predictably twattish thing to do.

God yes. Shapps really should be indicted for manslaughter.

noneoftheabove said:

FeersumEnjineeya said:

felix said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

CarlottaVance said:

And probably won't be the last.....

https://twitter.com/Independent/status/1334831179535691777?s=20

Ireland seems to be going the same way. Vaccination certificates are seductive cover for a national ID card and database.

ID cards are an area where the British approach is quite distinct. I live in Spain where everyone has to have them but they are also extremely useful. I cannot understand why they are viewed so negatively in the UK. It's almost as if a lot of people have something to hide!

Yes, it's a strange one. In Germany, a country where data privacy is highly valued, nobody bats an eyelid at ID cards. Being able to identify yourself is just seen as an integral part of running a social democracy. The strong feelings they arouse in the UK seem to be more a cultural thing, like abortion in the US.

Historically and instinctively I have been against ID cards, wavering now and certainly open to persuasion. So much state surveillance can be done without them regardless. ID verification in the UK is a mess and bureaucratic. And a single ID card system well implemented can remove much of that mess and bureaucracy.

I might be in favour next time we have a competent govt but please lets not have this bunch try to implement it.

The ID card scheme that was tried previously tied everything about you online to a centralised system. To the point that there was a special opt out for data for VIPs - Politicians, Senior civil servants, celebrities - who wouldn't have their data available for one-stop-theft.

The problem isn't in an ID card - it's what comes with it.

Note that in Germany, for example, the above nonsense is forbidden in the constitution.

F1: Bottas not looking fantastic.

FrancisUrquhart said:

DavidL said:

MarqueeMark said:

CarlottaVance said:

Well, yes. UK Patient zero returned from a French Ski holiday. Second wave imported from Spain. As was pointed out at the time.

https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1334861950577221633?s=20

Opening up Europe for foreign holidays looked utter stupidity at the time. As many of us said - at the time.

We'll probably still let everyone go off on skiing hlidays again this winter. Which will again be a predictably twattish thing to do.

God yes. Shapps really should be indicted for manslaughter.

What is mind blowing to me is how every European country went with it. The Germans were pretty quick to say screw freedom of movement stuff, the border is SHUT. Then decided well what harm can letting millions of our citizens travel off across Europe and mix with millions of others from all over the world. It was absolutely collective incompetence.

I can't help thinking that its a class thing and you wouldn't normally class me as a class warrior. Its one thing to ask the proles to do without their pubs but you really don't want to interfere with your mates' skiing trips. After all they are the right sort of people and will be "sensible".

FrancisUrquhart said:

kinabalu said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

kinabalu said:

Mexicanpete said:

MarqueeMark said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Coronavirus cases increased in 20 of Wales’s 22 local authority areas on Thursday, with a “rising tide” of infections seen in both urban and rural areas, health minister Vaughan Gething said.

On the back of what, 17 last week?

The different national lockdown regimes to allow petty nationalistic point-scoring have been pathetic.

I am surprised at your calm non-partisan analysis. Has someone hijacked your account?

Mr Urquhart does seem rather enthusiastic as to our dropping like flies here in Wales.

Whereas, I agree Drakeford is an idiot, I don't want to be a statistic used to prove it. For what it's worth I think the responses to Covid across the four home nations have been universally pretty piss-poor, as they have across Europe and North America.

Why are people saying the 2 week firebreak was a bad idea?

Surely without it the situation now would be worse than it is, no?

It has been explained a 1000 times on here why it is.

But not to my satisfaction.

Why was a 2 week Lockdown in Wales worse than no Lockdown in Wales?

- The "one last hurrah / big opening up party" syndrome causes small spike either side of the period.
- It takes a few days for people to fully engage with all the lockdown rules, which in 2 weeks is a significant percentage of the "transmission reduction period".
- It is already circulating, so then locking people down back into their homes means for a period you are still circulating it within their household (and likely increase the chances of this, as people are stuck their 24/7). So again initial 3-5 you are a best not reducing transmission, maybe even increasing it.
- You come out of it blind, with no idea if it worked or not and which areas are still very problematic, so no idea where to target resources, which to have further restrictions on, etc.
- You disrupt all sorts of other health related activities, so again potential for increases in other areas.

I could go on...basically your 2 weeks only has a very small window where transmission is being stopped in its tracks. And hence why we have seen problems both in NI and Wales.

Ok thanks. I get you. But did that actually happen? I mean, are infections now HIGHER than where they were projected to be without the firebreak?

DavidL said:

MarqueeMark said:

CarlottaVance said:

Well, yes. UK Patient zero returned from a French Ski holiday. Second wave imported from Spain. As was pointed out at the time.

https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1334861950577221633?s=20

Opening up Europe for foreign holidays looked utter stupidity at the time. As many of us said - at the time.

We'll probably still let everyone go off on skiing hlidays again this winter. Which will again be a predictably twattish thing to do.

God yes. Shapps really should be indicted for manslaughter.

Why is it beyond the whit of politicians to tell people their holibobs will have to slip a year? When I think what all those selfish pillocks demanding their skiing trips have inflicted on us for the past nine months. But nobody wa sprepared to tell them they were being selfish pillocks and no, you can't go.

The outcome was utterly inevitable. It woud certainly see the DPP considering corporate manslaughter charges. Arguably, the Grenfell cladding disaster was less predictable an outcome than letting us mingle across a Covid-rife continent. Twice.

Interesting discussion on WATO. The priority for vaccination remains Tier 1 (Care Homes), but given logistics that may be blended with some Tier 2 (80+ and NHS staff). The JVIC chap was very clear - Tier 1 is not a "nice to have" but "the priority".

Given we're vaccinating the very elderly, and in many cases no doubt frail people, some of them will die (almost certainly of other things) - but what are the chances the anti-vaxers seize on it?

Recent remarks by the EMA has made their lives easier "The British weren't thorough enough" and all the rest of our lives more difficult.

Gaussian said:

DavidL said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

CarlottaVance said:

Encouraging news from Scotland

https://twitter.com/ChrisMusson/status/1334842815097016323?s=20

So we are all going to reduced to the tiers we should be on then for Christmas? Not. A. Chance.

Mammy knows best.

So in Angus we currently have 51 cases per 100k in the last week which means we are about to fall out the bottom of tier 1. We are currently in tier 3. It is nuts.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=ltla&areaName=Angus

I see that fall in in numbers is only in the last few days. It was still in the 90s only a week ago. East Lothian did go down to level 2 after that sort of decrease, so you might get lucky in the review next week if the numbers hold.

Also, it's not primarily the current number of daily cases that needs to determine the tier/level, but the growth rate. Dropping straight to level 1 or 0 would just invite the virus right back, Wales style.

The bands are 500+ level 4, 300+ level 3, 100+ level 2, 50+ level 1 cases per 100,000. So at 90 we were still level 1 albeit more clearly in the band. Almost all of Scotland is 2 bands higher than they should be.

Edit and on your chart we peaked at 89 in early November.

TOPPING said:

TrèsDifficile said:

MattW said:

kinabalu said:

IshmaelZ said:

kinabalu said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

...
The use of "education" in quotation marks is because so many of the products of these institutions seem to be so lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency as to raise questions as to what they are learning there. Of course in terms of A level results they obviously do a good job, but that is not the sole purpose of education, or at least it shouldn't be.

What utter nonsense. You really do have the most massive chip on your shoulder. Are you really so prejudiced by it that you seriously believe that those who went to top public schools are, as a group, more 'lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency' than any other group of people on this earth?

Why wouldn't a thorough immersion in a 'born to rule' environment during one's formative years have that effect?

All one's years are formative years.

Where I went, the whole "born to rule" vibe just wasn't there.

And thirdly, nomenklaturas gonna nomenk, irrespective of secondary education arrangements. Donald Trump Jr did not attend Eton, and that didn't prevent him from turning into Donald Trump Jr. Ditto Vasily Iosifovich Stalin.

Yes but the early years are on balance more formative. Of course the likes of Eton don't imbue everybody who attends with a feeling of superiority. Likewise a person can obtain that without going anywhere near such institutions. Tons of examples of both of those. But as generalizations go, "attendance at Eton and ilk net net increases the level of born to rule sentiment in this world" is imo defensible and not necessarily indicative of prejudice.

Isn't the Born to Rule problem more about Oxford University than Eton (based on Prime Ministers and perhaps Cabinet Ministers)?

What about those who Think They're Born To Rule But Never Do So Have A Grudge Against The Other Place For The Rest Of Their Lives That's So Bad They Even Sound Like Anti Vaxxers Some Of The Time?

You mean Old Harrovians?

Stanley Baldwin joked about having to appoint more Old Harrovians to his Cabinet to offset the Etonians.

TOPPING said:

kinabalu said:

Peter_the_Punter said:

kinabalu said:

kjh said:

kinabalu said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

...
The use of "education" in quotation marks is because so many of the products of these institutions seem to be so lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency as to raise questions as to what they are learning there. Of course in terms of A level results they obviously do a good job, but that is not the sole purpose of education, or at least it shouldn't be.

What utter nonsense. You really do have the most massive chip on your shoulder. Are you really so prejudiced by it that you seriously believe that those who went to top public schools are, as a group, more 'lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency' than any other group of people on this earth?

Why wouldn't a thorough immersion in a 'born to rule' environment during one's formative years have that effect?

At my first job in 1976 at one of the big consultancies the intake was primarily toffs from Eton and Harrow (I'm convinced to this day I was taken on as a comptometer operator and slipped through the net). I was paid £2300 a year to start with. One of these guys was talking about the security system he had just had installed at £800 and could not grasp the fact that at £800 it would be the only thing worth stealing if it was mine.

He also commented on another occasion on how most people had there own private income.

He had not a clue how the other half lived.

I've come across many crass public schoolers in my time too. OTOH, my best friend for a few years in my 20s was a real posho who'd been to Eton. He was just a lovely person.

As a lad I was a member of the Eton Manor boys club in Hackney. As the name implies, it had connections with Eton although most members were scruffy-arsed eastenders like me. When I was 17 I got on one of the club's summer jollies, a week around Greece in a minibus. I was one of five grammar school boys from the club, there were five lads from Eton, and a couple of teachers, one of them also from Eton. We all got on fine. It was a very happy trip and nobody appeared remotely interested in or bothered by social difference or educational background.

Maybe that's why I just don't get these public/grammar/comprehensive school prejudices.

You should take people as they come. It is prejudice if you make blanket assumptions about individuals based not on their behaviour but on where they went to school. However it's not prejudice to make reasoned deductions about the impact in general of an elitist educational establishment on those who pass through it. Only proviso is that you should be prepared to review that if you have extensive personal experience which flatly contradicts it. For example, if I had met lots of Old Etonians in my life and seen little trace of entitlement and superiority complex, then I'd be concluding that people like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees Mogg were outliers rather than the norm. But as it is ...

Let's do the math. Zillions of OEs around and about and two you don't like.

I used to have a fair amount of contact with OEs, in fact, but that has now dwindled, as have so many things, to almost zero. My oldest friend's sister, however, has sent her son to Eton, so I can report on that, albeit vicariously through his uncle. Snotty little git, he's become, apparently.

DavidL said:

Gaussian said:

DavidL said:

CarlottaVance said:

DavidL said:

CarlottaVance said:

Encouraging news from Scotland

https://twitter.com/ChrisMusson/status/1334842815097016323?s=20

So we are all going to reduced to the tiers we should be on then for Christmas? Not. A. Chance.

Mammy knows best.

So in Angus we currently have 51 cases per 100k in the last week which means we are about to fall out the bottom of tier 1. We are currently in tier 3. It is nuts.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=ltla&areaName=Angus

I see that fall in in numbers is only in the last few days. It was still in the 90s only a week ago. East Lothian did go down to level 2 after that sort of decrease, so you might get lucky in the review next week if the numbers hold.

Also, it's not primarily the current number of daily cases that needs to determine the tier/level, but the growth rate. Dropping straight to level 1 or 0 would just invite the virus right back, Wales style.

The bands are 500+ level 4, 300+ level 3, 100+ level 2, 50+ level 1 cases per 100,000. So at 90 we were still level 1 albeit more clearly in the band. Almost all of Scotland is 2 bands higher than they should be.

Edit and on your chart we peaked at 89 in early November.

Niot just the current numbers but the general rate of increase, surely. And because she has been forced to follow the Christmas maniacs in London we have to get it down even more just to prepare for Christmas.

DavidL said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

DavidL said:

Apropos nothing else my son has his 3 interviews for PPE at St Annes on Monday. Going to be a slightly nervous weekend.

Fingers crossed for him. Presumably these are virtual interviews? Difficult both for your son and for the dons, I would think.

Yes, all virtual. Which is a great shame. He is in a very strong year at his school and 7 of them have Oxbridge interviews, 5 at Oxford. Normally they would all be going down on the train together and getting a proper feel of the college etc. as well as sharing their anxieties.

I agree it will be tough for the Dons too. Much harder to get a proper feel on someone on a screen in my experience.

Given the limited evidence for the predictive power of interviews, I'd have dropped them completely. Mind you, I never went to Oxford. Good luck to the @DavidL 7.

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

...
The use of "education" in quotation marks is because so many of the products of these institutions seem to be so lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency as to raise questions as to what they are learning there. Of course in terms of A level results they obviously do a good job, but that is not the sole purpose of education, or at least it shouldn't be.

What utter nonsense. You really do have the most massive chip on your shoulder. Are you really so prejudiced by it that you seriously believe that those who went to top public schools are, as a group, more 'lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency' than any other group of people on this earth?

I really don't have a chip on my shoulder. I did when I was younger and these people intimidated me, but not any more to be honest. I've done all right, I could send my kids to these schools if I wanted to, but I don't.
I can offer a couple of pieces of evidence/experience in support of my argument. First, the Cabinet. Second, my own experience of going from a Scottish Comprehensive school to Oxbridge. I had honestly never in my life come across people so casually rude and entitled in my life. It was eye-opening.
Have I met some very lovely people from these schools? Yes. Have I met some right scrotes from the other end of society? Of course, I went to school with some of them. But as a whole I think we suffer as a country from being ruled by people who have a born to rule mentality, lack compassion for those born without their privileges, and are so unaware of it that they don't even realise that their attitudes are a problem.

The pieces of 'evidence' you cite are classics of prejudice. The Cabinet, you say? Well for a start most of them didn't go to elite schools, but, if we look at those who did and those who didn't, your 'evidence' is the contrast between one group (Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak) and another (Priti Patel, Gavin Williamson, Dominic Raab, Michael Gove, Thérèse Coffey. Liz Truss), with Matt Hancock and George Eustice falling somewhere between the two groups. Do you really see any kind of a pattern there to support your prejudice?

OK, so you met some rude youngsters from elite schools at Oxbridge. So did I. Mostly they were rather insecure youngsters who needed to group up a bit more. I also met some quite delightful and compassionate people from the top schools there. In other words, individuals, who vary. Just like any other group.

Gove went to a private school too, albeit a not very highly rated one in Aberdeen. Rees-Mogg is in the Cabinet too. We also had Cameron and Osborne in the previous regime. You really don't think these people exude an arrogant vibe? Really?
People like Patel and Williamson have their own problems of course but they don't come across as arrogant or entitled to be honest, at least not to me.
Of course people are all individuals - I offered up some counterexamples of my own. But we are all products of our upbringing.

Osborne went to St Paul's, which was famously liberal. I remember an alumnus appeared in that sociological documentary 'Up'. He said that while St Paul's teaches you to be well mannered if you wish, it doesn't teach you to 'sniff' at poorer people.

Richard_Nabavi said:

MarqueeMark said:

DavidL said:

MarqueeMark said:

CarlottaVance said:

Well, yes. UK Patient zero returned from a French Ski holiday. Second wave imported from Spain. As was pointed out at the time.

https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1334861950577221633?s=20

Opening up Europe for foreign holidays looked utter stupidity at the time. As many of us said - at the time.

We'll probably still let everyone go off on skiing hlidays again this winter. Which will again be a predictably twattish thing to do.

God yes. Shapps really should be indicted for manslaughter.

Why is it beyond the whit of politicians to tell people their holibobs will have to slip a year? When I think what all those selfish pillocks demanding their skiing trips have inflicted on us for the past nine months. But nobody wa sprepared to tell them they were being selfish pillocks and no, you can't go.

The outcome was utterly inevitable. It woud certainly see the DPP considering corporate manslaughter charges. Arguably, the Grenfell cladding disaster was less predictable an outcome than letting us mingle across a Covid-rife continent. Twice.

Aren't you misremembering the timing there? The skiing trips (and also trips to Spain), which seem to have been particularly damaging in bringing multiple cases back to the UK, occurred in February and the beginning of March, before almost anyone realised what was happening.

A state of emergency to me suggests people knew what was happening:

"On 31 January, the Italian government suspended all flights to and from China and declared a state of emergency. In February, eleven municipalities in northern Italy were identified as the centres of the two main Italian clusters and placed under quarantine. The majority of positive cases in other regions traced back to these two clusters." from Wiki

DecrepiterJohnL said:

DavidL said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

DavidL said:

Apropos nothing else my son has his 3 interviews for PPE at St Annes on Monday. Going to be a slightly nervous weekend.

Fingers crossed for him. Presumably these are virtual interviews? Difficult both for your son and for the dons, I would think.

Yes, all virtual. Which is a great shame. He is in a very strong year at his school and 7 of them have Oxbridge interviews, 5 at Oxford. Normally they would all be going down on the train together and getting a proper feel of the college etc. as well as sharing their anxieties.

I agree it will be tough for the Dons too. Much harder to get a proper feel on someone on a screen in my experience.

Given the limited evidence for the predictive power of interviews, I'd have dropped them completely. Mind you, I never went to Oxford. Good luck to the @DavidL 7.

Many thanks.

Stark_Dawning said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

...
The use of "education" in quotation marks is because so many of the products of these institutions seem to be so lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency as to raise questions as to what they are learning there. Of course in terms of A level results they obviously do a good job, but that is not the sole purpose of education, or at least it shouldn't be.

What utter nonsense. You really do have the most massive chip on your shoulder. Are you really so prejudiced by it that you seriously believe that those who went to top public schools are, as a group, more 'lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency' than any other group of people on this earth?

I really don't have a chip on my shoulder. I did when I was younger and these people intimidated me, but not any more to be honest. I've done all right, I could send my kids to these schools if I wanted to, but I don't.
I can offer a couple of pieces of evidence/experience in support of my argument. First, the Cabinet. Second, my own experience of going from a Scottish Comprehensive school to Oxbridge. I had honestly never in my life come across people so casually rude and entitled in my life. It was eye-opening.
Have I met some very lovely people from these schools? Yes. Have I met some right scrotes from the other end of society? Of course, I went to school with some of them. But as a whole I think we suffer as a country from being ruled by people who have a born to rule mentality, lack compassion for those born without their privileges, and are so unaware of it that they don't even realise that their attitudes are a problem.

The pieces of 'evidence' you cite are classics of prejudice. The Cabinet, you say? Well for a start most of them didn't go to elite schools, but, if we look at those who did and those who didn't, your 'evidence' is the contrast between one group (Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak) and another (Priti Patel, Gavin Williamson, Dominic Raab, Michael Gove, Thérèse Coffey. Liz Truss), with Matt Hancock and George Eustice falling somewhere between the two groups. Do you really see any kind of a pattern there to support your prejudice?

OK, so you met some rude youngsters from elite schools at Oxbridge. So did I. Mostly they were rather insecure youngsters who needed to group up a bit more. I also met some quite delightful and compassionate people from the top schools there. In other words, individuals, who vary. Just like any other group.

Gove went to a private school too, albeit a not very highly rated one in Aberdeen. Rees-Mogg is in the Cabinet too. We also had Cameron and Osborne in the previous regime. You really don't think these people exude an arrogant vibe? Really?
People like Patel and Williamson have their own problems of course but they don't come across as arrogant or entitled to be honest, at least not to me.
Of course people are all individuals - I offered up some counterexamples of my own. But we are all products of our upbringing.

Osborne went to St Paul's, which was famously liberal. I remember an alumnus appeared in that sociological documentary 'Up'. He said that while St Paul's teaches you to be well mannered if you wish, it doesn't teach you to 'sniff' at poorer people.

I am a great fan of George Osborne and deeply regret that he is not involved in front line politics today. He has many attributes. Politeness? Probably not in the top 5.

LOL. Just plugged my data into the NYT vaccine priority calculator. Of 100, I am 93rd in line. Within the US, there are 268.7 million people ahead of me!

As a 62 year old, I am not quite sure how they arrive at that calculation. I would have thought there would have been more than 7% of the population who are younger than me, without co-morbidities, and who also work from home. Apparently not, or I am misunderstanding the algorithm.

TimT said:

LOL. Just plugged my data into the NYT vaccine priority calculator. Of 100, I am 93rd in line. Within the US, there are 268.7 million people ahead of me!

As a 62 year old, I am not quite sure how they arrive at that calculation. I would have thought there would have been more than 7% of the population who are younger than me, without co-morbidities, and who also work from home. Apparently not, or I am misunderstanding the algorithm.

PS, my wife would be 2nd in line out of 100

Philip_Thompson said:

kinabalu said:

Mexicanpete said:

MarqueeMark said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Coronavirus cases increased in 20 of Wales’s 22 local authority areas on Thursday, with a “rising tide” of infections seen in both urban and rural areas, health minister Vaughan Gething said.

On the back of what, 17 last week?

The different national lockdown regimes to allow petty nationalistic point-scoring have been pathetic.

I am surprised at your calm non-partisan analysis. Has someone hijacked your account?

Mr Urquhart does seem rather enthusiastic as to our dropping like flies here in Wales.

Whereas, I agree Drakeford is an idiot, I don't want to be a statistic used to prove it. For what it's worth I think the responses to Covid across the four home nations have been universally pretty piss-poor, as they have across Europe and North America.

Why are people saying the 2 week firebreak was a bad idea?

Surely without it the situation now would be worse than it is, no?

Because its useless at worst and counterproductive at best as was called out at the time.

A fortnight just isn't that long to drive down numbers. Then combine that with the fact that people party and have "last nights of freedom" before the fortnight and then have "hooray free from Covid lockdown" parties afterwards and you've achieved diddly squat apart from deeply damaging the businesses that had to shut down and throw away all their stock etc.

But oh well, at least there was tape stopping people from buying a new kettle from a supermarket if theirs broke during the fortnight.

Contrast with England - did it for twice as long giving time for case numbers to actually drop, then put stricter tiers in place afterwards.

Ok. Schooling me there, I confess. Quite the role reversal. My pandemic following dial has been slipping for some time now. Still I'd have thought the aggregate net impact on infections of a 14 day Lockdown would be a reduction compared to the counterfactual of No Lockdown. Is Drakeford admitting this is not the case?

RochdalePioneers said:

George Russell sets the fastest lap in Free Practice 1.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha Bottas.

And ha ha ha Lewis if Russell goes pole, win, fastest lap?

Richard_Nabavi said:

MarqueeMark said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

MarqueeMark said:

DavidL said:

MarqueeMark said:

CarlottaVance said:

Well, yes. UK Patient zero returned from a French Ski holiday. Second wave imported from Spain. As was pointed out at the time.

https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1334861950577221633?s=20

Opening up Europe for foreign holidays looked utter stupidity at the time. As many of us said - at the time.

We'll probably still let everyone go off on skiing hlidays again this winter. Which will again be a predictably twattish thing to do.

God yes. Shapps really should be indicted for manslaughter.

Why is it beyond the whit of politicians to tell people their holibobs will have to slip a year? When I think what all those selfish pillocks demanding their skiing trips have inflicted on us for the past nine months. But nobody wa sprepared to tell them they were being selfish pillocks and no, you can't go.

The outcome was utterly inevitable. It woud certainly see the DPP considering corporate manslaughter charges. Arguably, the Grenfell cladding disaster was less predictable an outcome than letting us mingle across a Covid-rife continent. Twice.

Aren't you misremembering the timing there? The skiing trips (and also trips to Spain), which seem to have been particularly damaging in bringing multiple cases back to the UK, occurred in February and the beginning of March, before almost anyone realised what was happening.

A state of emergency to me suggests people knew what was happening:

"On 31 January, the Italian government suspended all flights to and from China and declared a state of emergency. In February, eleven municipalities in northern Italy were identified as the centres of the two main Italian clusters and placed under quarantine. The majority of positive cases in other regions traced back to these two clusters." from Wiki

At the time, people thought it was a Chinese outbreak plus a containable problem in some parts of Northern Italy. Of course now we know that that was a mistake, and that there were already a lot of cases more widely in Europe, and in particular in those skiing resorts and in Spain, but that's with the benefit of hindsight.

It was quite early on in this pandemic that one of SeanT's various guises was posting the footage from Wuhan. And regaling us of his mask purcheses.

There was plenty to be aware of back in February. I was visiting Parliament and was somewhat surprised to see MPs still shaking hands with all and sundry - with large parties of foreign students still wandering around the place. And of course, not a face-mask in sight back then. I was very happy to get out of Dodge. And stay out.

.

MaxPB said:

This George Russell chap looks pretty handy in a proper car doesn't he!

Most annoyed I didn't get round to placing a bet today.
I think he has a very good shot at winning (and his contemporary Leclerc said exactly the same thing yesterday).

Richard_Nabavi said:

MarqueeMark said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

MarqueeMark said:

DavidL said:

MarqueeMark said:

CarlottaVance said:

Well, yes. UK Patient zero returned from a French Ski holiday. Second wave imported from Spain. As was pointed out at the time.

https://twitter.com/bopanc/status/1334861950577221633?s=20

Opening up Europe for foreign holidays looked utter stupidity at the time. As many of us said - at the time.

We'll probably still let everyone go off on skiing hlidays again this winter. Which will again be a predictably twattish thing to do.

God yes. Shapps really should be indicted for manslaughter.

Why is it beyond the whit of politicians to tell people their holibobs will have to slip a year? When I think what all those selfish pillocks demanding their skiing trips have inflicted on us for the past nine months. But nobody wa sprepared to tell them they were being selfish pillocks and no, you can't go.

The outcome was utterly inevitable. It woud certainly see the DPP considering corporate manslaughter charges. Arguably, the Grenfell cladding disaster was less predictable an outcome than letting us mingle across a Covid-rife continent. Twice.

Aren't you misremembering the timing there? The skiing trips (and also trips to Spain), which seem to have been particularly damaging in bringing multiple cases back to the UK, occurred in February and the beginning of March, before almost anyone realised what was happening.

A state of emergency to me suggests people knew what was happening:

"On 31 January, the Italian government suspended all flights to and from China and declared a state of emergency. In February, eleven municipalities in northern Italy were identified as the centres of the two main Italian clusters and placed under quarantine. The majority of positive cases in other regions traced back to these two clusters." from Wiki

At the time, people thought it was a Chinese outbreak plus a containable problem in some parts of Northern Italy. Of course now we know that that was a mistake, and that there were already a lot of cases more widely in Europe, and in particular in those skiing resorts and in Spain, but that's with the benefit of hindsight.

Even at the time, it was surely obvious that Italians and Chinese people can board planes?

BTW, did a sizeable pre-Crimble M&S shop today - lots of stuff for the festivities.

Handed over my Sparks card. And it said "your shopping today is free". £236 worth.

Nice present!

Trump EV market on Betfair Exchange - you can lay 390 or more at 60.
Why ?

Alistair said:

Pulpstar said:

Nigelb said:

HYUFD said:

Nigelb said:

HYUFD said:

kinabalu said:

HYUFD said:

As Nate Silver said yesterday be very wary of these Georgia polls, they imply a much lower GOP turnout than at the Presidential election.

Which might happen given the orange hued Love Object is not on the ballot for this.

That will lower Democratic turnout too and the prospect of AOC and the far left driving the agenda will push GOP turnout once Biden is confirmed as EC winner by the EC on Dec 14th

There is no prospect of that, except in the fevered imagination of the Trumpaloopas.

A Republican win would mean at least two years of legislative standstill, if not outright budget sabotage.

It would mean Biden forced to compromise with the GOP, not the Democrats in control of every branch of Federal Government and AOC and Pelosi pushing the agenda leading to Tea Party 2 with bells on and a huge conservative backlash in the 2022 midterms

There is no compromise with the GOP - did you not follow Obama's presidency at all ? And that was when they were relatively moderate compared to the present incarnation.
As has been pointed out to you above, a 50/50 Senate (with a Harris casting vote) would still need the votes of the right of centre Democrats to get any legislation through. The chances of AOC "pushing the agenda" are zero.
A Republican majority led by McConnell would block everything, as they did before.

Yes, it's a nonsense - Manchin won't vote for court expansion for instance.

HYUFD said:

Alistair said:

HYUFD said:

Pulpstar said:

Nigelb said:

HYUFD said:

Nigelb said:

HYUFD said:

kinabalu said:

HYUFD said:

As Nate Silver said yesterday be very wary of these Georgia polls, they imply a much lower GOP turnout than at the Presidential election.

Which might happen given the orange hued Love Object is not on the ballot for this.

That will lower Democratic turnout too and the prospect of AOC and the far left driving the agenda will push GOP turnout once Biden is confirmed as EC winner by the EC on Dec 14th

There is no prospect of that, except in the fevered imagination of the Trumpaloopas.

A Republican win would mean at least two years of legislative standstill, if not outright budget sabotage.

It would mean Biden forced to compromise with the GOP, not the Democrats in control of every branch of Federal Government and AOC and Pelosi pushing the agenda leading to Tea Party 2 with bells on and a huge conservative backlash in the 2022 midterms

There is no compromise with the GOP - did you not follow Obama's presidency at all ? And that was when they were relatively moderate compared to the present incarnation.
As has been pointed out to you above, a 50/50 Senate (with a Harris casting vote) would still need the votes of the right of centre Democrats to get any legislation through. The chances of AOC "pushing the agenda" are zero.
A Republican majority led by McConnell would block everything, as they did before.

Yes, it's a nonsense - Manchin won't vote for court expansion for instance.

If the Democrats win all 3 branches of government the GOP will win a landslide in the 2022 midterms that will make 2010 look like a damp squib, Americans voted to get rid of Trump, narrowly, that was it, they did not vote for any shift left at all and certainly not on cultural matters

Impressive predictive skills. How was Trump's margin in Orange County California this time out compared to 2016?

Irrelevant as California is now safe Democratic anyway, Trump did however hold Florida and Ohio, the first losing presidential candidate to do since 1960

I could have sworn someone on here made a firm prediction about Trump going to do much better in OC this time round yet in the end he lost by an even larger margin than last time.

Whoever it was, we best take their predictions with a pinch of salt this time round.

Maybe you could help me track down the prediction.

Clinton won Orange by 51% to 42% in 2016, the latest numbers have Biden on 53% in Orange but Trump on 44.5%.

So I was in fact correct and Trump has done better in Orange County with a higher voteshare there than he did in 2016, so put that in your pompous, patronising pipe and smoke it!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election_in_California

https://edition.cnn.com/election/2020/results/state/california

Nigelb said:

Trump EV market on Betfair Exchange - you can lay 390 or more at 60.
Why ?

Around 60 seems to be the price for all postal votes not to count as far as I can tell. Its very similar to the Biden 54m or less market.

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

OnlyLivingBoy said:

Gove went to a private school too, albeit a not very highly rated one in Aberdeen. Rees-Mogg is in the Cabinet too. We also had Cameron and Osborne in the previous regime. You really don't think these people exude an arrogant vibe? Really?
People like Patel and Williamson have their own problems of course but they don't come across as arrogant or entitled to be honest, at least not to me.
Of course people are all individuals - I offered up some counterexamples of my own. But we are all products of our upbringing.

Ah yes, Rees-Mogg, I forgot him. Sui generis, I would say!

It's interesting now that you've switched to talking about an 'arrogant vibe', because of course no-one in remotely anything like a right mind could accuse David Cameron of (to use your original phrase) "lacking in basic compassion, self-awareness or decency". (If anything I would accuse him of being over-sentimental, but be that as it may). So I think it is you reacting to a manner, nothing to do with the compassion or decency of the individuals concerned. In that sense, no different to someone from the more well-off parts of the South East having a prejudiced reaction to someone with a Geordie accent.

Cameron never came across as particularly compassionate to me. The whole "calm down, dear" thing certainly didn't come over as very self-aware either. Obviously I don't know him personally. And of course he suffered personal tragedy in his life, for which I have great sympathy.
There is a lot more to disliking someone's manner and the way they treat those around them than their accent. I honestly couldn't give two shits about how people speak, although as a matter of personal preference obviously the Geordie accent is a lot easier on the ear than the dulcet tones of Rees Mogg. But you can learn a lot about people's character in those moments when they think they aren't doing anything worth watching, such as how they interact with the waiting staff at a meal.

But for the pandemic I could have met JRM. He's four or five years older than me but we were both down to attend our mutual history tutor's retirement dinner on March 21. Oh, does the tragedy of this pandemic never end!

kinabalu said:

Philip_Thompson said:

kinabalu said:

Mexicanpete said:

MarqueeMark said:

FrancisUrquhart said:

Coronavirus cases increased in 20 of Wales’s 22 local authority areas on Thursday, with a “rising tide” of infections seen in both urban and rural areas, health minister Vaughan Gething said.

On the back of what, 17 last week?

The different national lockdown regimes to allow petty nationalistic point-scoring have been pathetic.

I am surprised at your calm non-partisan analysis. Has someone hijacked your account?

Mr Urquhart does seem rather enthusiastic as to our dropping like flies here in Wales.

Whereas, I agree Drakeford is an idiot, I don't want to be a statistic used to prove it. For what it's worth I think the responses to Covid across the four home nations have been universally pretty piss-poor, as they have across Europe and North America.

Why are people saying the 2 week firebreak was a bad idea?

Surely without it the situation now would be worse than it is, no?

Because its useless at worst and counterproductive at best as was called out at the time.

A fortnight just isn't that long to drive down numbers. Then combine that with the fact that people party and have "last nights of freedom" before the fortnight and then have "hooray free from Covid lockdown" parties afterwards and you've achieved diddly squat apart from deeply damaging the businesses that had to shut down and throw away all their stock etc.

But oh well, at least there was tape stopping people from buying a new kettle from a supermarket if theirs broke during the fortnight.

Contrast with England - did it for twice as long giving time for case numbers to actually drop, then put stricter tiers in place afterwards.

Ok. Schooling me there, I confess. Quite the role reversal. My pandemic following dial has been slipping for some time now. Still I'd have thought the aggregate net impact on infections of a 14 day Lockdown would be a reduction compared to the counterfactual of No Lockdown. Is Drakeford admitting this is not the case?

Just extrapolating the timeline from before the firebreak; cases in Wales would probably be 3-4x higher than they currently are if there were no firebreak.

RochdalePioneers said:

kinabalu said:

RochdalePioneers said:

George Russell sets the fastest lap in Free Practice 1.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha Bottas.

And ha ha ha Lewis if Russell goes pole, win, fastest lap?

Hamilton needs someone challenging him. Bottas just isn't quick enough. If Russell beats Bottas they should ditch Valtteri and offer him to Williams as a swap deal.

Yes. Bottas started the season well but has really dropped off. But my point is, if this young replacement gets into Lewis' car and performs as well as or better than him, this would not help the HAM = GOAT case.

DecrepiterJohnL said:

DavidL said:

DecrepiterJohnL said:

DavidL said:

Richard_Nabavi said:

DavidL said:

Apropos nothing else my son has his 3 interviews for PPE at St Annes on Monday. Going to be a slightly nervous weekend.

Fingers crossed for him. Presumably these are virtual interviews? Difficult both for your son and for the dons, I would think.

Yes, all virtual. Which is a great shame. He is in a very strong year at his school and 7 of them have Oxbridge interviews, 5 at Oxford. Normally they would all be going down on the train together and getting a proper feel of the college etc. as well as sharing their anxieties.

I agree it will be tough for the Dons too. Much harder to get a proper feel on someone on a screen in my experience.

Given the limited evidence for the predictive power of interviews, I'd have dropped them completely. Mind you, I never went to Oxford. Good luck to the @DavidL 7.

Many thanks.

To state the bleeding obvious, there might be a case for checking his connection beforehand, making sure dad is not using all the wifi bandwidth next door, camera works, microphone works, there is sufficient contrast between him and the background, no embarrassing books behind him, enough soft furnishings to soften the audio. If you've got more than one laptop, compare them all.

And the same goes for anyone making Zoom calls or similar.

One of my friends suggested having an extract of Einstein's workings on relativity handwritten on the whiteboard behind his head!