"Democracy should not be cancelled because of covid," says the Conservative spokesman. No problem. The Conservatives have already killed it off.
The latest wheeze of making candidates pay a small fortune to get their leaflets delivered to electors is the last straw. Campaigning is effectively at an end. The only messages getting through to electors will be the ones telling them how wonderful Johnson is.
"The Government can commit to go ahead with these polls with confidence" said another Conservativve spokesman (reported on another post). You bet they can! When you have rigged the entire system in your favour, you can be pretty confident about the result.
On Biden, what if he decides to stand? Would there be a serious challenge on the basis of his age?
I don't think there would. Incumbent Patients have run for subsequent terms in the past, while hiding health problems. My expectation is that Biden would do the same - and doubly so if he was still reasonably fit.
The latest wheeze of making candidates pay a small fortune to get their leaflets delivered to electors is the last straw. Campaigning is effectively at an end. The only messages getting through to electors will be the ones telling them how wonderful Johnson is.
Do we know whether this means jabbed once or jabbed twice? Given the report this morning that Greece, for example, will require both jabs before entry it may affect Granny’s chance of spending May in Mykonos.
Pretty certain it means once, which would require an uptick in our current rate but achievable.
Two doses would mean a very big increase.
Having flights to Athens for June, we are hanging on in hope (naive perhaps) that we will be able to go having had both jabs, being in the 60-65 group. Of course, it may be technically possible but worries about the importation of some new variant mean that we choose not to go anyway.
You'll likely get two weeks in a hotel on your return for your troubles, vaccinated or not.
Not according to the Times...
That doesn't say anything about what will happen on your return.
The latest wheeze of making candidates pay a small fortune to get their leaflets delivered to electors is the last straw. Campaigning is effectively at an end. The only messages getting through to electors will be the ones telling them how wonderful Johnson is.
Have the rules changed on delivery or something ?
Presumably the candidates now have to pay for postage for their leaflets, rather than relying on free volunteer leafleters - who aren’t allowed out because of covid restrictions?
Basically we assume the measured antibody production is indicative of an immune response that will provide protection, the Germans are saying you haven't proved it does, even if the response is roughly the same as the lower age cohorts. Normally the German approach would be fine, in the midst of a pandemic it does seem excessively cautious.
A friend of mine just got vaccinated in Farnham aged 65. I think he may have found a bit of a loophole!
He got a text asking if he could turnup at short notice at the end of the day. The text provided a link. He was too late. He used the link anyway and got another appointment. Just had it done.
On the most important matter of the day - oh Channel 4 what have you done? You’re not making Channel 4 better; you’re making cricket worse. And they used to be innovators....
Pressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.
Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis.
The Guardian would clearly prefer that we import the coal from some stinky plant out of sight in India or China, rather than produce it cleanly and efficiently at home.
It's coking coal for steelworks. It should not be controversial in the slightest.
HS2 is designed to take traffic off the roads and put it on a railway powered by renewable energy. It should not be controversial in the slightest (at least from an environmental point of view).
Yet a random nutter actually shut Euston Station the other day climbing on the roof to protest about it.
Is HS2 actually going to generate the electricity itself? If not, we'd be better off not wasting the green energy.
So, we'd be better off environmentally continuing to import 55 million barrels of oil a year to power aircraft, cars and lorries?
(Yes, cars may go electric within a few years of HS2 opening. The other two won't.)
I think it's very naive to assume that HS2 will have much of an impact of road/air traffic. As I understand it, the real case for HS2 is on capacity (i.e. the WCML is close to capacity). That obviously looks a little suspect given what COVID has done to usage.
It is about capacity, and about increasing capacity to divert traffic from elsewhere. But then, this is like Sindy or Brexit (or indeed the coal mine). It ultimately seems to be about emotions rather than facts. Particularly at the Beeb, whose every hopeful mention of its cancellation includes the false claim that the Oakervee review said it would cost £106 billion. I suspect they're just unnerved at the thought when HS2 is opened management may move them all to Manchester.
It's not like the coal mine. To make steel, you need coke. It's an ingredient. Perhaps the environment nutters want to ban the production of steel, but I'd have thought it very much a minority view. If there's a business case for mining it off Cumbria, great.
HS2 is infrastructure investment, which is very much not a no-brainer even before COVID revolutionizes the way we live and work. Personally I'm happy as my brother-in-law works for Network Rail and as long as HS2 is being built, the government cannot possibly scale back spending on the regular network. It would look utterly horrific. But would I be spending money on a new railway line? No.
Fantastic double-century partnership with a real captain's innings so far from Root. Very goot strike rate so far for him too.
Sibley has done well, despite now being out, but to bat an entire day for 87 runs...It's pretty grim stuff. He needs to find a few more scoring shots.
Yes agreed completely. It's a shame he didn't get a century but frankly even if it is a Test his strike rate is poor. A decent innings but if he'd been a bit more aggressive perhaps he could have got his century?
3 down but definitely England's day I think.
Not a lot in the pitch for anyone, according to the commentariat.
How Sully looked at the picture in front of him, with at least two airports visible, and still chose the river, was some feat of airmanship. I think almost all of us would have tried to squeak back to a piece of tarmac.
Ex F-4 driver. An a/c that had to be 100% flown 100% of the time.
The latest wheeze of making candidates pay a small fortune to get their leaflets delivered to electors is the last straw. Campaigning is effectively at an end. The only messages getting through to electors will be the ones telling them how wonderful Johnson is.
Have the rules changed on delivery or something ?
Presumably the candidates now have to pay for postage for their leaflets, rather than relying on free volunteer leafleters - who aren’t allowed out because of covid restrictions?
Is leafleting banned though ? It's not meeting anyone and could reasonably be described as exercise..
The latest wheeze of making candidates pay a small fortune to get their leaflets delivered to electors is the last straw. Campaigning is effectively at an end. The only messages getting through to electors will be the ones telling them how wonderful Johnson is.
Have the rules changed on delivery or something ?
Presumably the candidates now have to pay for postage for their leaflets, rather than relying on free volunteer leafleters - who aren’t allowed out because of covid restrictions?
Unless the spending limit has changed even if you do have the funds it will be tricky to do it by post (one maybe).
Pressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.
Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis.
The Guardian would clearly prefer that we import the coal from some stinky plant out of sight in India or China, rather than produce it cleanly and efficiently at home.
It's coking coal for steelworks. It should not be controversial in the slightest.
HS2 is designed to take traffic off the roads and put it on a railway powered by renewable energy. It should not be controversial in the slightest (at least from an environmental point of view).
Yet a random nutter actually shut Euston Station the other day climbing on the roof to protest about it.
Is HS2 actually going to generate the electricity itself? If not, we'd be better off not wasting the green energy.
So, we'd be better off environmentally continuing to import 55 million barrels of oil a year to power aircraft, cars and lorries?
(Yes, cars may go electric within a few years of HS2 opening. The other two won't.)
I think it's very naive to assume that HS2 will have much of an impact of road/air traffic. As I understand it, the real case for HS2 is on capacity (i.e. the WCML is close to capacity). That obviously looks a little suspect given what COVID has done to usage.
It is about capacity, and about increasing capacity to divert traffic from elsewhere. But then, this is like Sindy or Brexit (or indeed the coal mine). It ultimately seems to be about emotions rather than facts. Particularly at the Beeb, whose every hopeful mention of its cancellation includes the false claim that the Oakervee review said it would cost £106 billion. I suspect they're just unnerved at the thought when HS2 is opened management may move them all to Manchester.
It's not like the coal mine. To make steel, you need coke. It's an ingredient. Perhaps the environment nutters want to ban the production of steel, but I'd have thought it very much a minority view. If there's a business case for mining it off Cumbria, great.
HS2 is infrastructure investment, which is very much not a no-brainer even before COVID revolutionizes the way we live and work. Personally I'm happy as my brother-in-law works for Network Rail and as long as HS2 is being built, the government cannot possibly scale back spending on the regular network. It would look utterly horrific. But would I be spending money on a new railway line? No.
Well, yes, they do. That is ultimately what they want.
Out of interest, what would you consider a more useful project than building a new railway line to relieve pressure on the most congested railway line in Europe while simultaneously creating sufficient extra capacity at a high enough speed to potentially attract people away from cars or internal flights? (serious question)
We’re going to have local elections within days of the older, more inclined to vote, population all having been jabbed; and when nobody can really campaign but the Gvt gets a couple of prime time news conferences a week, and gets to announce good news?
On the most important matter of the day - oh Channel 4 what have you done? You’re not making Channel 4 better; you’re making cricket worse. And they used to be innovators....
The only thing worse than C4, will be the Indian broadcaster I’ve been watching all day.
Either no replays or replays over the next ball, the coverage regularly disappearing to a box in the corner for ads that don’t appear to be timed to the action on the field, commentators randomly breaking into Hindi, doing their ‘analysis’ bits during play, etc...
This is already an issue for airline pilots, there’s plenty of accident reports that cite “Automation Dependency” as a factor - pilots who initially trained on highly automated modern planes, who struggle with basic flying skills under pressure of a failure of the automatics.
The next generation of arrested carrier landings are going to be automated only via the appallingly named MAGIC CARPET technology.
In an arrested landing the pilot typically makes over 80 control inputs in the last 20 seconds of the flight - we regularly did over 100 in the F-14. Achieving and maintaining that level of skill is very expensive so the computers are taking over. The next generation of USN trainers (T-7) isn't even going to be carrier capable.
So the pilots will become so rusty at this difficult manoeuvre, that a failure of the automatics results in a £100m bang-out?
Well if the current FCS fails and the jet reverts to hyds you're not landing it anyway! There's a couple of Hornets at the bottom of the Pacific to testify to that.
Carrier quals phase of training alone (9 day landings, 6 night) costs > $2m per pilot and the USN have to dedicate a CVN to that task so they'll take the automated solution if it works.
Problem solved. The latest training kit can't be flown over water anyway:
Do we know whether this means jabbed once or jabbed twice? Given the report this morning that Greece, for example, will require both jabs before entry it may affect Granny’s chance of spending May in Mykonos.
Pretty certain it means once, which would require an uptick in our current rate but achievable.
Two doses would mean a very big increase.
Having flights to Athens for June, we are hanging on in hope (naive perhaps) that we will be able to go having had both jabs, being in the 60-65 group. Of course, it may be technically possible but worries about the importation of some new variant mean that we choose not to go anyway.
You'll likely get two weeks in a hotel on your return for your troubles, vaccinated or not.
Not according to the Times...
That doesn't say anything about what will happen on your return.
Fair point, however the report goes on to say that U.K. officials have told the Greek Tourism Ministry that U.K. vaccinations are so far ahead that U.K. holiday makers will save the Greek summer season. That doesn’t suggest that U.K. holiday makers are going to have to quarantine on their return, though I accept the point isn’t explicit.
Although we all say "You're only as old as you feel" I'm not sure we think that through. At 71 I feel, behave and work in much the same way as when I was 61, and if Biden keeps up a crisp pace I expect we'll get used to thinking that his age isn't that significant. My understanding is that most people perform pretty much on a plateau until something goes wrong, and then if they're elderly they can decline very quickly. It's going to be hard to judge the prospects if he's still hale and hearty in 3 years' time, but I'd think he'd have a fair chance of standing and winning again if he's generally perceived as having performed well.
Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of the claim that it was a Member State that asked for Article 16 to be triggered?
No - what she is saying is “it was someone else’s mistake. Of course I’m saying I’ll take responsibility but I’m going to make sure everyone thinks it was Gallina (regardless of whether it actually was)”
On the most important matter of the day - oh Channel 4 what have you done? You’re not making Channel 4 better; you’re making cricket worse. And they used to be innovators....
The only thing worse than C4, will be the Indian broadcaster I’ve been watching all day.
Either no replays or replays over the next ball, the coverage regularly disappearing to a box in the corner for ads that don’t appear to be timed to the action on the field, commentators randomly breaking into Hindi, doing their ‘analysis’ bits during play, etc...
In defence of Channel 4 (not my usual standpoint) when you bag a short term cricket deal with 3 days notice I think the production was always going to be fairly basic (with an international stream). At least they did a better job of this than with the 2011 Athletics World Championships.
Pressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.
Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis.
The Guardian would clearly prefer that we import the coal from some stinky plant out of sight in India or China, rather than produce it cleanly and efficiently at home.
It's coking coal for steelworks. It should not be controversial in the slightest.
HS2 is designed to take traffic off the roads and put it on a railway powered by renewable energy. It should not be controversial in the slightest (at least from an environmental point of view).
Yet a random nutter actually shut Euston Station the other day climbing on the roof to protest about it.
Is HS2 actually going to generate the electricity itself? If not, we'd be better off not wasting the green energy.
So, we'd be better off environmentally continuing to import 55 million barrels of oil a year to power aircraft, cars and lorries?
(Yes, cars may go electric within a few years of HS2 opening. The other two won't.)
I think it's very naive to assume that HS2 will have much of an impact of road/air traffic. As I understand it, the real case for HS2 is on capacity (i.e. the WCML is close to capacity). That obviously looks a little suspect given what COVID has done to usage.
It is about capacity, and about increasing capacity to divert traffic from elsewhere. But then, this is like Sindy or Brexit (or indeed the coal mine). It ultimately seems to be about emotions rather than facts. Particularly at the Beeb, whose every hopeful mention of its cancellation includes the false claim that the Oakervee review said it would cost £106 billion. I suspect they're just unnerved at the thought when HS2 is opened management may move them all to Manchester.
It's not like the coal mine. To make steel, you need coke. It's an ingredient. Perhaps the environment nutters want to ban the production of steel, but I'd have thought it very much a minority view. If there's a business case for mining it off Cumbria, great.
HS2 is infrastructure investment, which is very much not a no-brainer even before COVID revolutionizes the way we live and work. Personally I'm happy as my brother-in-law works for Network Rail and as long as HS2 is being built, the government cannot possibly scale back spending on the regular network. It would look utterly horrific. But would I be spending money on a new railway line? No.
Well, yes, they do. That is ultimately what they want.
Out of interest, what would you consider a more useful project than building a new railway line to relieve pressure on the most congested railway line in Europe while simultaneously creating sufficient extra capacity at a high enough speed to potentially attract people away from cars or internal flights? (serious question)
Why do we need extra capacity? We stopped building roads because we learned that if you build it people will come. If that happens with HS2, then that's fine. What really worries me is the thought that it will be the M6 toll on steroids. And I was worried about that pre-COVID.
On Biden, what if he decides to stand? Would there be a serious challenge on the basis of his age?
I don't think there would. Incumbent Patients have run for subsequent terms in the past, while hiding health problems. My expectation is that Biden would do the same - and doubly so if he was still reasonably fit.
Although we all say "You're only as old as you feel" I'm not sure we think that through. At 71 I feel, behave and work in much the same way as when I was 61, and if Biden keeps up a crisp pace I expect we'll get used to thinking that his age isn't that significant. My understanding is that most people perform pretty much on a plateau until something goes wrong, and then if they're elderly they can decline very quickly. It's going to be hard to judge the prospects if he's still hale and hearty in 3 years' time, but I'd think he'd have a fair chance of standing and winning again if he's generally perceived as having performed well.
It has nothing to do with age. The Queen is an extremely active Head of State in her 90's. It's the individual. Biden has shown concerning signs of being a very spent force.
On the most important matter of the day - oh Channel 4 what have you done? You’re not making Channel 4 better; you’re making cricket worse. And they used to be innovators....
The only thing worse than C4, will be the Indian broadcaster I’ve been watching all day.
Either no replays or replays over the next ball, the coverage regularly disappearing to a box in the corner for ads that don’t appear to be timed to the action on the field, commentators randomly breaking into Hindi, doing their ‘analysis’ bits during play, etc...
It is bad enough not having control over the pictures (Sky's coverage of Sri Lanka was noticeably worse than usual)...but not having any control over the pictures, the commentary and ability to add any sort of direction about which video feed to switch to is a recipe for disaster.
Pressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.
Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis.
The Guardian would clearly prefer that we import the coal from some stinky plant out of sight in India or China, rather than produce it cleanly and efficiently at home.
It's coking coal for steelworks. It should not be controversial in the slightest.
HS2 is designed to take traffic off the roads and put it on a railway powered by renewable energy. It should not be controversial in the slightest (at least from an environmental point of view).
Yet a random nutter actually shut Euston Station the other day climbing on the roof to protest about it.
Is HS2 actually going to generate the electricity itself? If not, we'd be better off not wasting the green energy.
So, we'd be better off environmentally continuing to import 55 million barrels of oil a year to power aircraft, cars and lorries?
(Yes, cars may go electric within a few years of HS2 opening. The other two won't.)
I think it's very naive to assume that HS2 will have much of an impact of road/air traffic. As I understand it, the real case for HS2 is on capacity (i.e. the WCML is close to capacity). That obviously looks a little suspect given what COVID has done to usage.
It is about capacity, and about increasing capacity to divert traffic from elsewhere. But then, this is like Sindy or Brexit (or indeed the coal mine). It ultimately seems to be about emotions rather than facts. Particularly at the Beeb, whose every hopeful mention of its cancellation includes the false claim that the Oakervee review said it would cost £106 billion. I suspect they're just unnerved at the thought when HS2 is opened management may move them all to Manchester.
It's not like the coal mine. To make steel, you need coke. It's an ingredient. Perhaps the environment nutters want to ban the production of steel, but I'd have thought it very much a minority view. If there's a business case for mining it off Cumbria, great.
HS2 is infrastructure investment, which is very much not a no-brainer even before COVID revolutionizes the way we live and work. Personally I'm happy as my brother-in-law works for Network Rail and as long as HS2 is being built, the government cannot possibly scale back spending on the regular network. It would look utterly horrific. But would I be spending money on a new railway line? No.
Well, yes, they do. That is ultimately what they want.
Out of interest, what would you consider a more useful project than building a new railway line to relieve pressure on the most congested railway line in Europe while simultaneously creating sufficient extra capacity at a high enough speed to potentially attract people away from cars or internal flights? (serious question)
Why do we need extra capacity? We stopped building roads because we learned that if you build it people will come. If that happens with HS2, then that's fine. What really worries me is the thought that it will be the M6 toll on steroids. And I was worried about that pre-COVID.
The M6 Toll isn't used because the people who run it are complete morons. There's ample traffic to fill it on the M6/M5 and the A5 (speaking as somebody who drives along the A5 every day) but they take (and block) these other roads because of the high toll. If they cut it to£7 for a lorry, £2 for a car and free for a motorbike, it would be the most profitable toll road in the world.
Your worry that fares on HS2 may be placed too high and have a similar effect is logical and justifiable. But at the same time, it's much more likely that if fares on a railway are too high they'll be cut to attract passengers. That's how we ended up with a £10 ticket to London day return from Cannock (including travelcard).
On the most important matter of the day - oh Channel 4 what have you done? You’re not making Channel 4 better; you’re making cricket worse. And they used to be innovators....
The only thing worse than C4, will be the Indian broadcaster I’ve been watching all day.
Either no replays or replays over the next ball, the coverage regularly disappearing to a box in the corner for ads that don’t appear to be timed to the action on the field, commentators randomly breaking into Hindi, doing their ‘analysis’ bits during play, etc...
In defence of Channel 4 (not my usual standpoint) when you bag a short term cricket deal with 3 days notice I think the production was always going to be fairly basic (with an international stream). At least they did a better job of this than with the 2011 Athletics World Championships.
I mostly agree, but no one forced them to take it. Might have been better to heroically come in from the second Test.
Although we all say "You're only as old as you feel" I'm not sure we think that through. At 71 I feel, behave and work in much the same way as when I was 61, and if Biden keeps up a crisp pace I expect we'll get used to thinking that his age isn't that significant. My understanding is that most people perform pretty much on a plateau until something goes wrong, and then if they're elderly they can decline very quickly. It's going to be hard to judge the prospects if he's still hale and hearty in 3 years' time, but I'd think he'd have a fair chance of standing and winning again if he's generally perceived as having performed well.
It has nothing to do with age. The Queen is an extremely active Head of State in her 90's. It's the individual. Biden has shown concerning signs of being a very spent force.
The Queen has now handed over most tours to the Cornwalls and Cambridges, she just signs legislation and meets the odd dignitary and does the Queen's speech etc.
Biden effectively has to do the PM's job as well in the US as head of the executive branch, Boris, as the Queen's chief minister, does most of that for her.
Pressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.
Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis.
The Guardian would clearly prefer that we import the coal from some stinky plant out of sight in India or China, rather than produce it cleanly and efficiently at home.
It's coking coal for steelworks. It should not be controversial in the slightest.
HS2 is designed to take traffic off the roads and put it on a railway powered by renewable energy. It should not be controversial in the slightest (at least from an environmental point of view).
Yet a random nutter actually shut Euston Station the other day climbing on the roof to protest about it.
Is HS2 actually going to generate the electricity itself? If not, we'd be better off not wasting the green energy.
So, we'd be better off environmentally continuing to import 55 million barrels of oil a year to power aircraft, cars and lorries?
(Yes, cars may go electric within a few years of HS2 opening. The other two won't.)
I think it's very naive to assume that HS2 will have much of an impact of road/air traffic. As I understand it, the real case for HS2 is on capacity (i.e. the WCML is close to capacity). That obviously looks a little suspect given what COVID has done to usage.
It is about capacity, and about increasing capacity to divert traffic from elsewhere. But then, this is like Sindy or Brexit (or indeed the coal mine). It ultimately seems to be about emotions rather than facts. Particularly at the Beeb, whose every hopeful mention of its cancellation includes the false claim that the Oakervee review said it would cost £106 billion. I suspect they're just unnerved at the thought when HS2 is opened management may move them all to Manchester.
It's not like the coal mine. To make steel, you need coke. It's an ingredient. Perhaps the environment nutters want to ban the production of steel, but I'd have thought it very much a minority view. If there's a business case for mining it off Cumbria, great.
HS2 is infrastructure investment, which is very much not a no-brainer even before COVID revolutionizes the way we live and work. Personally I'm happy as my brother-in-law works for Network Rail and as long as HS2 is being built, the government cannot possibly scale back spending on the regular network. It would look utterly horrific. But would I be spending money on a new railway line? No.
Well, yes, they do. That is ultimately what they want.
Out of interest, what would you consider a more useful project than building a new railway line to relieve pressure on the most congested railway line in Europe while simultaneously creating sufficient extra capacity at a high enough speed to potentially attract people away from cars or internal flights? (serious question)
Why do we need extra capacity? We stopped building roads because we learned that if you build it people will come. If that happens with HS2, then that's fine. What really worries me is the thought that it will be the M6 toll on steroids. And I was worried about that pre-COVID.
So you argued against Crossrail, as building that would increase travel?
On another point above, HS2 will substitute out domestic air depending on how far it goes. I think that WCML took out 20% of air passengers from Glasgow to London. It works.
Pressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.
Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis.
The Guardian would clearly prefer that we import the coal from some stinky plant out of sight in India or China, rather than produce it cleanly and efficiently at home.
It's coking coal for steelworks. It should not be controversial in the slightest.
HS2 is designed to take traffic off the roads and put it on a railway powered by renewable energy. It should not be controversial in the slightest (at least from an environmental point of view).
Yet a random nutter actually shut Euston Station the other day climbing on the roof to protest about it.
Is HS2 actually going to generate the electricity itself? If not, we'd be better off not wasting the green energy.
So, we'd be better off environmentally continuing to import 55 million barrels of oil a year to power aircraft, cars and lorries?
(Yes, cars may go electric within a few years of HS2 opening. The other two won't.)
I think it's very naive to assume that HS2 will have much of an impact of road/air traffic. As I understand it, the real case for HS2 is on capacity (i.e. the WCML is close to capacity). That obviously looks a little suspect given what COVID has done to usage.
It is about capacity, and about increasing capacity to divert traffic from elsewhere. But then, this is like Sindy or Brexit (or indeed the coal mine). It ultimately seems to be about emotions rather than facts. Particularly at the Beeb, whose every hopeful mention of its cancellation includes the false claim that the Oakervee review said it would cost £106 billion. I suspect they're just unnerved at the thought when HS2 is opened management may move them all to Manchester.
It's not like the coal mine. To make steel, you need coke. It's an ingredient. Perhaps the environment nutters want to ban the production of steel, but I'd have thought it very much a minority view. If there's a business case for mining it off Cumbria, great.
HS2 is infrastructure investment, which is very much not a no-brainer even before COVID revolutionizes the way we live and work. Personally I'm happy as my brother-in-law works for Network Rail and as long as HS2 is being built, the government cannot possibly scale back spending on the regular network. It would look utterly horrific. But would I be spending money on a new railway line? No.
Well, yes, they do. That is ultimately what they want.
Out of interest, what would you consider a more useful project than building a new railway line to relieve pressure on the most congested railway line in Europe while simultaneously creating sufficient extra capacity at a high enough speed to potentially attract people away from cars or internal flights? (serious question)
Why do we need extra capacity? We stopped building roads because we learned that if you build it people will come. If that happens with HS2, then that's fine. What really worries me is the thought that it will be the M6 toll on steroids. And I was worried about that pre-COVID.
So you argued against Crossrail, as building that would increase travel?
On another point above, HS2 will substitute out domestic air depending on how far it goes. I think that WCML took out 20% of air passengers from Glasgow to London. It works.
The ultimate goal should be, as it was with electrification fifty years ago, to reach Glasgow and Edinburgh. Whether that will happen, or what form it will take, is another question.
Pressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.
Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis.
The Guardian would clearly prefer that we import the coal from some stinky plant out of sight in India or China, rather than produce it cleanly and efficiently at home.
It's coking coal for steelworks. It should not be controversial in the slightest.
HS2 is designed to take traffic off the roads and put it on a railway powered by renewable energy. It should not be controversial in the slightest (at least from an environmental point of view).
Yet a random nutter actually shut Euston Station the other day climbing on the roof to protest about it.
Is HS2 actually going to generate the electricity itself? If not, we'd be better off not wasting the green energy.
So, we'd be better off environmentally continuing to import 55 million barrels of oil a year to power aircraft, cars and lorries?
(Yes, cars may go electric within a few years of HS2 opening. The other two won't.)
I think it's very naive to assume that HS2 will have much of an impact of road/air traffic. As I understand it, the real case for HS2 is on capacity (i.e. the WCML is close to capacity). That obviously looks a little suspect given what COVID has done to usage.
It is about capacity, and about increasing capacity to divert traffic from elsewhere. But then, this is like Sindy or Brexit (or indeed the coal mine). It ultimately seems to be about emotions rather than facts. Particularly at the Beeb, whose every hopeful mention of its cancellation includes the false claim that the Oakervee review said it would cost £106 billion. I suspect they're just unnerved at the thought when HS2 is opened management may move them all to Manchester.
It's not like the coal mine. To make steel, you need coke. It's an ingredient. Perhaps the environment nutters want to ban the production of steel, but I'd have thought it very much a minority view. If there's a business case for mining it off Cumbria, great.
HS2 is infrastructure investment, which is very much not a no-brainer even before COVID revolutionizes the way we live and work. Personally I'm happy as my brother-in-law works for Network Rail and as long as HS2 is being built, the government cannot possibly scale back spending on the regular network. It would look utterly horrific. But would I be spending money on a new railway line? No.
Well, yes, they do. That is ultimately what they want.
Out of interest, what would you consider a more useful project than building a new railway line to relieve pressure on the most congested railway line in Europe while simultaneously creating sufficient extra capacity at a high enough speed to potentially attract people away from cars or internal flights? (serious question)
Why do we need extra capacity? We stopped building roads because we learned that if you build it people will come. If that happens with HS2, then that's fine. What really worries me is the thought that it will be the M6 toll on steroids. And I was worried about that pre-COVID.
If we build it and people want to come then how is that a bad thing?
Extra movement, extra activity should be productive. Better than people being say idle in a traffic jam because we've not built any more roads but have 25% more people living here.
On the most important matter of the day - oh Channel 4 what have you done? You’re not making Channel 4 better; you’re making cricket worse. And they used to be innovators....
The only thing worse than C4, will be the Indian broadcaster I’ve been watching all day.
Either no replays or replays over the next ball, the coverage regularly disappearing to a box in the corner for ads that don’t appear to be timed to the action on the field, commentators randomly breaking into Hindi, doing their ‘analysis’ bits during play, etc...
In defence of Channel 4 (not my usual standpoint) when you bag a short term cricket deal with 3 days notice I think the production was always going to be fairly basic (with an international stream). At least they did a better job of this than with the 2011 Athletics World Championships.
Ah, all done at the last minute, so they’ll not have a team there and have to make do with a satellite feed. Maybe they’ll get a full production for the next matches, even their own commentary from a studio in London would probably be better if they can’t travel.
Although we all say "You're only as old as you feel" I'm not sure we think that through. At 71 I feel, behave and work in much the same way as when I was 61, and if Biden keeps up a crisp pace I expect we'll get used to thinking that his age isn't that significant. My understanding is that most people perform pretty much on a plateau until something goes wrong, and then if they're elderly they can decline very quickly. It's going to be hard to judge the prospects if he's still hale and hearty in 3 years' time, but I'd think he'd have a fair chance of standing and winning again if he's generally perceived as having performed well.
It has nothing to do with age. The Queen is an extremely active Head of State in her 90's. It's the individual. Biden has shown concerning signs of being a very spent force.
Within 2 years Biden will need to be replaced as he will not be capable of doing the job
On Biden, what if he decides to stand? Would there be a serious challenge on the basis of his age?
I don't think there would. Incumbent Patients have run for subsequent terms in the past, while hiding health problems. My expectation is that Biden would do the same - and doubly so if he was still reasonably fit.
I agree.
Yep, risks looking disloyal/damaging the Dem's next campaign if he does get the nomination (endless attack videos of challenger saying Biden's too old/not up to the job) which would stymie any future attempt. The challenger would have to be very sure of winning.
Might be activity behind the scenes to try and pressure him out, but actually challenging is risky.
Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of the claim that it was a Member State that asked for Article 16 to be triggered?
No - what she is saying is “it was someone else’s mistake. Of course I’m saying I’ll take responsibility but I’m going to make sure everyone thinks it was Gallina (regardless of whether it actually was)”
Correct.
She's bullshitting and misdirecting again.
She is mentioning 5 days for EU members to approve contracts, and a couple of weeks extra to get EHRA approval through.
The things that will kill EU Citizens are the 4-5 months the EU was behind in investing in vaccines and doing the early work in getting supply infrastructure in place from March to August 2020, and the decision to focus on buying a scarce resource rather than helping create it earlier. The irrecoverable part of that delay is now going on the critical path of EU rollout building up and finishing.
65% of EU Covid deaths have been since November 2020 to now, and that is without full new variant impact. (Germany etc were slow but only a few weeks behind). Given that they are (in their optimistic target) talking about 70% vaccine by the autumn, starting in a bigger way in April, I do not see how that is going to slow down too much.
Current COVID death run rate in the EU is 100k per month. Tragedy unfolding, and even all UK excess vaccine supplies (which are fewer than I thought they were having run the numbers) would not scratch the surface.
Pressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.
Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis.
The Guardian would clearly prefer that we import the coal from some stinky plant out of sight in India or China, rather than produce it cleanly and efficiently at home.
It's coking coal for steelworks. It should not be controversial in the slightest.
HS2 is designed to take traffic off the roads and put it on a railway powered by renewable energy. It should not be controversial in the slightest (at least from an environmental point of view).
Yet a random nutter actually shut Euston Station the other day climbing on the roof to protest about it.
Is HS2 actually going to generate the electricity itself? If not, we'd be better off not wasting the green energy.
So, we'd be better off environmentally continuing to import 55 million barrels of oil a year to power aircraft, cars and lorries?
(Yes, cars may go electric within a few years of HS2 opening. The other two won't.)
I think it's very naive to assume that HS2 will have much of an impact of road/air traffic. As I understand it, the real case for HS2 is on capacity (i.e. the WCML is close to capacity). That obviously looks a little suspect given what COVID has done to usage.
It is about capacity, and about increasing capacity to divert traffic from elsewhere. But then, this is like Sindy or Brexit (or indeed the coal mine). It ultimately seems to be about emotions rather than facts. Particularly at the Beeb, whose every hopeful mention of its cancellation includes the false claim that the Oakervee review said it would cost £106 billion. I suspect they're just unnerved at the thought when HS2 is opened management may move them all to Manchester.
It's not like the coal mine. To make steel, you need coke. It's an ingredient. Perhaps the environment nutters want to ban the production of steel, but I'd have thought it very much a minority view. If there's a business case for mining it off Cumbria, great.
HS2 is infrastructure investment, which is very much not a no-brainer even before COVID revolutionizes the way we live and work. Personally I'm happy as my brother-in-law works for Network Rail and as long as HS2 is being built, the government cannot possibly scale back spending on the regular network. It would look utterly horrific. But would I be spending money on a new railway line? No.
Well, yes, they do. That is ultimately what they want.
Out of interest, what would you consider a more useful project than building a new railway line to relieve pressure on the most congested railway line in Europe while simultaneously creating sufficient extra capacity at a high enough speed to potentially attract people away from cars or internal flights? (serious question)
Why do we need extra capacity? We stopped building roads because we learned that if you build it people will come. If that happens with HS2, then that's fine. What really worries me is the thought that it will be the M6 toll on steroids. And I was worried about that pre-COVID.
Incidentally, I would disagree with your comment about building roads. There were three very good reasons why the road building programme was modified (not stopped):
1) The then Tory government was looking to make cuts, and road building was unfashionable so an easy hit;
2) Most major trunk routes that were needed were already in place, so enhancements were a realistic alternative;
3) The ecowarriors pushed up the cost of clearance and security making new roads a less attractive option.
That doesn't mean 'we stopped building roads.' For example, the A5 between Lichfield and Tamworth was built as a new dual carriageway ten (edit - fifteen on checking) years ago (largely because of the M6 Toll's failure to attract traffic). The old one through Weeford is still there, and actually a lovely road to drive on now there aren't three mile queues. There's been a huge amount of road building in and around BRistol in recent years as well, and indeed near Worcester, converting bi-directional roads to dual carriageway. It's done rather under the radar so it doesn't attract attention, but it's definitely happening.
Although we all say "You're only as old as you feel" I'm not sure we think that through. At 71 I feel, behave and work in much the same way as when I was 61, and if Biden keeps up a crisp pace I expect we'll get used to thinking that his age isn't that significant. My understanding is that most people perform pretty much on a plateau until something goes wrong, and then if they're elderly they can decline very quickly. It's going to be hard to judge the prospects if he's still hale and hearty in 3 years' time, but I'd think he'd have a fair chance of standing and winning again if he's generally perceived as having performed well.
It has nothing to do with age. The Queen is an extremely active Head of State in her 90's. It's the individual. Biden has shown concerning signs of being a very spent force.
Within 2 years Biden will need to be replaced as he will not be capable of doing the job
Extremely unlikely. Though if Harris were to take over she would want to do so past the 2 year mark. That way she could face 2 elections herself.
Certainly bringing forward malicious cases that are patently politically driven and a blind man could see would be thrown out in 2 minutes. We have a long line of them now and all politically driven by the Lord Advocate as a government minister and Crown Agent who is / was MI5/MI6. We are having to pay huge damages on these blatant attempts to convict innocent people, and they are stupid enough to put their plans on whatsapp etc, luckily they can ban evidence being allowed.
On the most important matter of the day - oh Channel 4 what have you done? You’re not making Channel 4 better; you’re making cricket worse. And they used to be innovators....
The only thing worse than C4, will be the Indian broadcaster I’ve been watching all day.
Either no replays or replays over the next ball, the coverage regularly disappearing to a box in the corner for ads that don’t appear to be timed to the action on the field, commentators randomly breaking into Hindi, doing their ‘analysis’ bits during play, etc...
In defence of Channel 4 (not my usual standpoint) when you bag a short term cricket deal with 3 days notice I think the production was always going to be fairly basic (with an international stream). At least they did a better job of this than with the 2011 Athletics World Championships.
Ah, all done at the last minute, so they’ll not have a team there and have to make do with a satellite feed. Maybe they’ll get a full production for the next matches, even their own commentary from a studio in London would probably be better if they can’t travel.
Can’t say I remember the 2011 Athletics.
How come the India tour right weren't signed up ages ago? How come it resulted in such a last night deal? Don't Sky normally sign deals for overseas tours years into the future?
On Biden, what if he decides to stand? Would there be a serious challenge on the basis of his age?
I don't think there would. Incumbent Patients have run for subsequent terms in the past, while hiding health problems. My expectation is that Biden would do the same - and doubly so if he was still reasonably fit.
I agree.
Yep, risks looking disloyal/damaging the Dem's next campaign if he does get the nomination (endless attack videos of challenger saying Biden's too old/not up to the job) which would stymie any future attempt. The challenger would have to be very sure of winning.
Might be activity behind the scenes to try and pressure him out, but actually challenging is risky.
Good point, the way American politics works it would need to be the men in dark suits taking him to one side, rather than an overt primary challenger, who would make all the Republicans’ attack ads for them if they didn’t succeed.
"Democracy should not be cancelled because of covid," says the Conservative spokesman. No problem. The Conservatives have already killed it off.
The latest wheeze of making candidates pay a small fortune to get their leaflets delivered to electors is the last straw. Campaigning is effectively at an end. The only messages getting through to electors will be the ones telling them how wonderful Johnson is.
"The Government can commit to go ahead with these polls with confidence" said another Conservativve spokesman (reported on another post). You bet they can! When you have rigged the entire system in your favour, you can be pretty confident about the result.
Normally I would think that Labour had a clear advantage with members canvassing, but with both reports over the last few years of aggressive corbynites, and Kinabalu saying yesterday that Labour don't want voters who like the British flag, then perhaps it will help them instead.
'The pursuer failed the sufficient interest test. He was a busybody.' (p.9)
In fairness that is in the summary of the submissions of the Advocate General representing the UK government. The Judge decided that the petitioner did not have sufficient standing for the questions he was seeking declarator on but more on the grounds that the questions were hypothetical, premature and not linked to a specific decision or act.
One of the interesting aspects of the case is that the second defender was the Lord Advocate, essentially representing the Scottish government who had been a party but had then withdrawn. So Nicola's Lord Advocate did not want the court to express an opinion on whether or not the Scottish Parliament could pass a bill for an Independence Referendum. It is indicative of the tensions within the SNP that this was the case and that, unlike Wightman and Cherry, no SNP MP or MSP was willing to put their name to this.
On the most important matter of the day - oh Channel 4 what have you done? You’re not making Channel 4 better; you’re making cricket worse. And they used to be innovators....
The only thing worse than C4, will be the Indian broadcaster I’ve been watching all day.
Either no replays or replays over the next ball, the coverage regularly disappearing to a box in the corner for ads that don’t appear to be timed to the action on the field, commentators randomly breaking into Hindi, doing their ‘analysis’ bits during play, etc...
Pressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.
Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis.
The Guardian would clearly prefer that we import the coal from some stinky plant out of sight in India or China, rather than produce it cleanly and efficiently at home.
It's coking coal for steelworks. It should not be controversial in the slightest.
HS2 is designed to take traffic off the roads and put it on a railway powered by renewable energy. It should not be controversial in the slightest (at least from an environmental point of view).
Yet a random nutter actually shut Euston Station the other day climbing on the roof to protest about it.
Is HS2 actually going to generate the electricity itself? If not, we'd be better off not wasting the green energy.
So, we'd be better off environmentally continuing to import 55 million barrels of oil a year to power aircraft, cars and lorries?
(Yes, cars may go electric within a few years of HS2 opening. The other two won't.)
I think it's very naive to assume that HS2 will have much of an impact of road/air traffic. As I understand it, the real case for HS2 is on capacity (i.e. the WCML is close to capacity). That obviously looks a little suspect given what COVID has done to usage.
It is about capacity, and about increasing capacity to divert traffic from elsewhere. But then, this is like Sindy or Brexit (or indeed the coal mine). It ultimately seems to be about emotions rather than facts. Particularly at the Beeb, whose every hopeful mention of its cancellation includes the false claim that the Oakervee review said it would cost £106 billion. I suspect they're just unnerved at the thought when HS2 is opened management may move them all to Manchester.
It's not like the coal mine. To make steel, you need coke. It's an ingredient. Perhaps the environment nutters want to ban the production of steel, but I'd have thought it very much a minority view. If there's a business case for mining it off Cumbria, great.
HS2 is infrastructure investment, which is very much not a no-brainer even before COVID revolutionizes the way we live and work. Personally I'm happy as my brother-in-law works for Network Rail and as long as HS2 is being built, the government cannot possibly scale back spending on the regular network. It would look utterly horrific. But would I be spending money on a new railway line? No.
Prior to Covid HS2 had a purpose. By separating out slow and fast trains on to different tracks you can massively increase capacity. From memory post HS2 4 to 5 times as many trains can use the tracks as can currently use it.
I've been oscillating on this between 2 equally strong poles:
(1) People do not, they just don't, give up positions of great power voluntarily. Biden is old, sure, and not the most robust, but 81 is not a step change from 78, and assuming he can still do the job and has good numbers he will run again. Absurd that he isn't favourite. BACK HIM.
(2) The guy is quite clearly not going to run for a 2nd term. It will take all of his reserves to manage a successful 1st given the challenges. A prime of life, mixed race woman of clear ability and charisma is teed up for 2024. That's Dem plan A and plan B is to go with whoever might be popular enough to beat her to the nom. Joe's a No. LAY HIM.
A few days ago it resolved in my head - a lovely moment - and I'm now locked in with a strong intuition that I'm happy to start promoting and betting upon. As it happens it aligns with the header. It's (2).
For WH24 openers I'm laying the grizzled troubadours who fought out WH20. Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump will be on the ballot next time.
Just a thought from your resident 82 year old.
At 78, I was a lot more positive about my future, Just looked back through my diary for that year and most of the time I was very positive; much more than I am now at 82. And my wife says Seem to have aged somewhat in the last couple of years.
In other words, while it looks as though I would have considered standing to election to something at 78 I wouldn't now. So, as far as Biden is concerned I agree with Mr K. Trump, of course, will likely be in the pokey, or deeply mired in financial troubles before very long.
I'm sorry my post triggered slightly bearish reflections for you, OKC. But, yes, this is how I see it. I will be very surprised indeed if Joe is up for 4 more years IN 4 years. And Trump at the current 6.5 for the GOP nomination is imo spectacularly short.
Surely part of that is the increase in plate resolution due to smaller silver particles. Pretty sure Abe would have looked similarly old at the start of the term with a higher Res camera.
'The pursuer failed the sufficient interest test. He was a busybody.' (p.9)
In fairness that is in the summary of the submissions of the Advocate General representing the UK government. The Judge decided that the petitioner did not have sufficient standing for the questions he was seeking declarator on but more on the grounds that the questions were hypothetical, premature and not linked to a specific decision or act.
One of the interesting aspects of the case is that the second defender was the Lord Advocate, essentially representing the Scottish government who had been a party but had then withdrawn. So Nicola's Lord Advocate did not want the court to express an opinion on whether or not the Scottish Parliament could pass a bill for an Independence Referendum. It is indicative of the tensions within the SNP that this was the case and that, unlike Wightman and Cherry, no SNP MP or MSP was willing to put their name to this.
So I realised later. My bad
Not that she was much more flattering about the plaintiff herself when she got to the judgement.
The latest wheeze of making candidates pay a small fortune to get their leaflets delivered to electors is the last straw. Campaigning is effectively at an end. The only messages getting through to electors will be the ones telling them how wonderful Johnson is.
Have the rules changed on delivery or something ?
Presumably the candidates now have to pay for postage for their leaflets, rather than relying on free volunteer leafleters - who aren’t allowed out because of covid restrictions?
Is leafleting banned though ? It's not meeting anyone and could reasonably be described as exercise..
We had a letter yesterday, apparently hand-delivered, inviting us to a Jehovah's Witnesses meeting.
Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of the claim that it was a Member State that asked for Article 16 to be triggered?
No - what she is saying is “it was someone else’s mistake. Of course I’m saying I’ll take responsibility but I’m going to make sure everyone thinks it was Gallina (regardless of whether it actually was)”
Correct.
She's bullshitting and misdirecting again.
She is mentioning 5 days for EU members to approve contracts, and a couple of weeks extra to get EHRA approval through.
The things that will kill EU Citizens are the 4-5 months the EU was behind in investing in vaccines and doing the early work in getting supply infrastructure in place from March to August 2020, and the decision to focus on buying a scarce resource rather than helping create it earlier. The irrecoverable part of that delay is now going on the critical path of EU rollout building up and finishing.
65% of EU Covid deaths have been since November 2020 to now, and that is without full new variant impact. (Germany etc were slow but only a few weeks behind). Given that they are (in their optimistic target) talking about 70% vaccine by the autumn, starting in a bigger way in April, I do not see how that is going to slow down too much.
Current COVID death run rate in the EU is 100k per month. Tragedy unfolding, and even all UK excess vaccine supplies (which are fewer than I thought they were having run the numbers) would not scratch the surface.
Sorry - my Germany slow comment is in wrong para. Relates to the 4 countries trying to trigger action investing in vaccines before Merkel and EC made them stop.
Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of the claim that it was a Member State that asked for Article 16 to be triggered?
No - what she is saying is “it was someone else’s mistake. Of course I’m saying I’ll take responsibility but I’m going to make sure everyone thinks it was Gallina (regardless of whether it actually was)”
Correct.
She's bullshitting and misdirecting again.
She is mentioning 5 days for EU members to approve contracts, and a couple of weeks extra to get EHRA approval through.
The things that will kill EU Citizens are the 4-5 months the EU was behind in investing in vaccines and doing the early work in getting supply infrastructure in place from March to August 2020, and the decision to focus on buying a scarce resource rather than helping create it earlier. The irrecoverable part of that delay is now going on the critical path of EU rollout building up and finishing.
65% of EU Covid deaths have been since November 2020 to now, and that is without full new variant impact. Given that they are (in their optimistic target) talking about 70% vaccine by the autumn, starting in a bigger way in April, I do not see how that is going to slow down too much.
Current COVID death run rate in the EU is 100k per month. Tragedy unfolding, and even all UK excess vaccine supplies (which are fewer than I thought they were) would not scratch the surface.
On the last point - the UK vaccine capacity. It is worth noting in the discussions about helping other countries etc, that we are not building the billion dose a year level industry here in this country.
India is implementing a plan (in association with COVAX) to produce multiple billions of doses per year.
Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of the claim that it was a Member State that asked for Article 16 to be triggered?
No - what she is saying is “it was someone else’s mistake. Of course I’m saying I’ll take responsibility but I’m going to make sure everyone thinks it was Gallina (regardless of whether it actually was)”
Correct.
She's bullshitting and misdirecting again.
She is mentioning 5 days for EU members to approve contracts, and a couple of weeks extra to get EHRA approval through.
The things that will kill EU Citizens are the 4-5 months the EU was behind in investing in vaccines and doing the early work in getting supply infrastructure in place from March to August 2020, and the decision to focus on buying a scarce resource rather than helping create it earlier. The irrecoverable part of that delay is now going on the critical path of EU rollout building up and finishing.
65% of EU Covid deaths have been since November 2020 to now, and that is without full new variant impact. Given that they are (in their optimistic target) talking about 70% vaccine by the autumn, starting in a bigger way in April, I do not see how that is going to slow down too much.
Current COVID death run rate in the EU is 100k per month. Tragedy unfolding, and even all UK excess vaccine supplies (which are fewer than I thought they were) would not scratch the surface.
On the last point - the UK vaccine capacity. It is worth noting in the discussions about helping other countries etc, that we are not building the billion dose a year level industry here in this country.
India is implementing a plan (in association with COVAX) to produce multiple billions of doses per year.
The Serum Institute of India is quite some outfit.
On the most important matter of the day - oh Channel 4 what have you done? You’re not making Channel 4 better; you’re making cricket worse. And they used to be innovators....
The only thing worse than C4, will be the Indian broadcaster I’ve been watching all day.
Either no replays or replays over the next ball, the coverage regularly disappearing to a box in the corner for ads that don’t appear to be timed to the action on the field, commentators randomly breaking into Hindi, doing their ‘analysis’ bits during play, etc...
An Indian channel speaking Hindi? Whatever next?
They had a Hindi audio channel and an English audio channel - one naïvely expected the Hindi channel to speak Hindi and the English one to speak English!
Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of the claim that it was a Member State that asked for Article 16 to be triggered?
No - what she is saying is “it was someone else’s mistake. Of course I’m saying I’ll take responsibility but I’m going to make sure everyone thinks it was Gallina (regardless of whether it actually was)”
Correct.
She's bullshitting and misdirecting again.
She is mentioning 5 days for EU members to approve contracts, and a couple of weeks extra to get EHRA approval through.
The things that will kill EU Citizens are the 4-5 months the EU was behind in investing in vaccines and doing the early work in getting supply infrastructure in place from March to August 2020, and the decision to focus on buying a scarce resource rather than helping create it earlier. The irrecoverable part of that delay is now going on the critical path of EU rollout building up and finishing.
65% of EU Covid deaths have been since November 2020 to now, and that is without full new variant impact. Given that they are (in their optimistic target) talking about 70% vaccine by the autumn, starting in a bigger way in April, I do not see how that is going to slow down too much.
Current COVID death run rate in the EU is 100k per month. Tragedy unfolding, and even all UK excess vaccine supplies (which are fewer than I thought they were) would not scratch the surface.
On the last point - the UK vaccine capacity. It is worth noting in the discussions about helping other countries etc, that we are not building the billion dose a year level industry here in this country.
India is implementing a plan (in association with COVAX) to produce multiple billions of doses per year.
I think by the time the government has finalised its strategy we will have north of 1bn doses per year worth of capacity, we're already at 600m doses planned and more investment is being planned.
I think the government should hold off having any vaccine passports until the vast majority of over adults have been given both doses of vaccine.
Young people have been asked to make great sacrifices for the last year so we didn't end up with half a million dead old people, if the oldies start getting back on their cruise ships at the first possible moment it would break the current social contract we have where we're all in it together.
It also puts pressure on the government to keep up the pace of rollout and not to stand down once the over 50s are done as many people my age expect. We'll be thrown to the dogs and all of our vaccines will be given away when it's our turn.
If all the old buggers went on s cruise I might get the chance of z Tesco delivery though
Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of the claim that it was a Member State that asked for Article 16 to be triggered?
No - what she is saying is “it was someone else’s mistake. Of course I’m saying I’ll take responsibility but I’m going to make sure everyone thinks it was Gallina (regardless of whether it actually was)”
Correct.
She's bullshitting and misdirecting again.
She is mentioning 5 days for EU members to approve contracts, and a couple of weeks extra to get EHRA approval through.
The things that will kill EU Citizens are the 4-5 months the EU was behind in investing in vaccines and doing the early work in getting supply infrastructure in place from March to August 2020, and the decision to focus on buying a scarce resource rather than helping create it earlier. The irrecoverable part of that delay is now going on the critical path of EU rollout building up and finishing.
65% of EU Covid deaths have been since November 2020 to now, and that is without full new variant impact. Given that they are (in their optimistic target) talking about 70% vaccine by the autumn, starting in a bigger way in April, I do not see how that is going to slow down too much.
Current COVID death run rate in the EU is 100k per month. Tragedy unfolding, and even all UK excess vaccine supplies (which are fewer than I thought they were) would not scratch the surface.
On the last point - the UK vaccine capacity. It is worth noting in the discussions about helping other countries etc, that we are not building the billion dose a year level industry here in this country.
India is implementing a plan (in association with COVAX) to produce multiple billions of doses per year.
That's correct - but we do have a touch of extra capacity now, but only 10 or 20 million of our 140 million guaranteed supply.
Presumably the India COVAX deal is separate form the SII setup(?), as that is 100 million a month and India itself needs nearly 2 years of that level of supply.
Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of the claim that it was a Member State that asked for Article 16 to be triggered?
No - what she is saying is “it was someone else’s mistake. Of course I’m saying I’ll take responsibility but I’m going to make sure everyone thinks it was Gallina (regardless of whether it actually was)”
Correct.
She's bullshitting and misdirecting again.
She is mentioning 5 days for EU members to approve contracts, and a couple of weeks extra to get EHRA approval through.
The things that will kill EU Citizens are the 4-5 months the EU was behind in investing in vaccines and doing the early work in getting supply infrastructure in place from March to August 2020, and the decision to focus on buying a scarce resource rather than helping create it earlier. The irrecoverable part of that delay is now going on the critical path of EU rollout building up and finishing.
65% of EU Covid deaths have been since November 2020 to now, and that is without full new variant impact. Given that they are (in their optimistic target) talking about 70% vaccine by the autumn, starting in a bigger way in April, I do not see how that is going to slow down too much.
Current COVID death run rate in the EU is 100k per month. Tragedy unfolding, and even all UK excess vaccine supplies (which are fewer than I thought they were) would not scratch the surface.
On the last point - the UK vaccine capacity. It is worth noting in the discussions about helping other countries etc, that we are not building the billion dose a year level industry here in this country.
India is implementing a plan (in association with COVAX) to produce multiple billions of doses per year.
The Serum Institute of India is quite some outfit.
India needs to produce anything like a vaccine in ginormous quantities for it's own population though
I've been oscillating on this between 2 equally strong poles:
(1) People do not, they just don't, give up positions of great power voluntarily. Biden is old, sure, and not the most robust, but 81 is not a step change from 78, and assuming he can still do the job and has good numbers he will run again. Absurd that he isn't favourite. BACK HIM.
(2) The guy is quite clearly not going to run for a 2nd term. It will take all of his reserves to manage a successful 1st given the challenges. A prime of life, mixed race woman of clear ability and charisma is teed up for 2024. That's Dem plan A and plan B is to go with whoever might be popular enough to beat her to the nom. Joe's a No. LAY HIM.
A few days ago it resolved in my head - a lovely moment - and I'm now locked in with a strong intuition that I'm happy to start promoting and betting upon. As it happens it aligns with the header. It's (2).
For WH24 openers I'm laying the grizzled troubadours who fought out WH20. Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump will be on the ballot next time.
Just a thought from your resident 82 year old.
At 78, I was a lot more positive about my future, Just looked back through my diary for that year and most of the time I was very positive; much more than I am now at 82. And my wife says Seem to have aged somewhat in the last couple of years.
In other words, while it looks as though I would have considered standing to election to something at 78 I wouldn't now. So, as far as Biden is concerned I agree with Mr K. Trump, of course, will likely be in the pokey, or deeply mired in financial troubles before very long.
I'm sorry my post triggered slightly bearish reflections for you, OKC. But, yes, this is how I see it. I will be very surprised indeed if Joe is up for 4 more years IN 4 years. And Trump at the current 6.5 for the GOP nomination is imo spectacularly short.
Surely part of that is the increase in plate resolution due to smaller silver particles. Pretty sure Abe would have looked similarly old at the start of the term with a higher Res camera.
There is that, sure - and the over exposure of the first. And then you have some photographers scraping the lines etc off plates vs realism....
But the Lincoln on the right is definitely more haggard and worn than the left. And it matches with what contemporaries said - that his presidency aged him 20 years.
Pressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.
Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis.
The Guardian would clearly prefer that we import the coal from some stinky plant out of sight in India or China, rather than produce it cleanly and efficiently at home.
It's coking coal for steelworks. It should not be controversial in the slightest.
HS2 is designed to take traffic off the roads and put it on a railway powered by renewable energy. It should not be controversial in the slightest (at least from an environmental point of view).
Yet a random nutter actually shut Euston Station the other day climbing on the roof to protest about it.
Is HS2 actually going to generate the electricity itself? If not, we'd be better off not wasting the green energy.
So, we'd be better off environmentally continuing to import 55 million barrels of oil a year to power aircraft, cars and lorries?
(Yes, cars may go electric within a few years of HS2 opening. The other two won't.)
I think it's very naive to assume that HS2 will have much of an impact of road/air traffic. As I understand it, the real case for HS2 is on capacity (i.e. the WCML is close to capacity). That obviously looks a little suspect given what COVID has done to usage.
It is about capacity, and about increasing capacity to divert traffic from elsewhere. But then, this is like Sindy or Brexit (or indeed the coal mine). It ultimately seems to be about emotions rather than facts. Particularly at the Beeb, whose every hopeful mention of its cancellation includes the false claim that the Oakervee review said it would cost £106 billion. I suspect they're just unnerved at the thought when HS2 is opened management may move them all to Manchester.
It's not like the coal mine. To make steel, you need coke. It's an ingredient. Perhaps the environment nutters want to ban the production of steel, but I'd have thought it very much a minority view. If there's a business case for mining it off Cumbria, great.
HS2 is infrastructure investment, which is very much not a no-brainer even before COVID revolutionizes the way we live and work. Personally I'm happy as my brother-in-law works for Network Rail and as long as HS2 is being built, the government cannot possibly scale back spending on the regular network. It would look utterly horrific. But would I be spending money on a new railway line? No.
Prior to Covid HS2 had a purpose. By separating out slow and fast trains on to different tracks you can massively increase capacity. From memory post HS2 4 to 5 times as many trains can use the tracks as can currently use it.
Not quite that much! It increases capacity from around 16tph at present to around 30 (from memory) while HS2 itself will have 18 (best case scenario, more likely 14). So it wouldn't quite triple it.
Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of the claim that it was a Member State that asked for Article 16 to be triggered?
No - what she is saying is “it was someone else’s mistake. Of course I’m saying I’ll take responsibility but I’m going to make sure everyone thinks it was Gallina (regardless of whether it actually was)”
Correct.
She's bullshitting and misdirecting again.
She is mentioning 5 days for EU members to approve contracts, and a couple of weeks extra to get EHRA approval through.
The things that will kill EU Citizens are the 4-5 months the EU was behind in investing in vaccines and doing the early work in getting supply infrastructure in place from March to August 2020, and the decision to focus on buying a scarce resource rather than helping create it earlier. The irrecoverable part of that delay is now going on the critical path of EU rollout building up and finishing.
65% of EU Covid deaths have been since November 2020 to now, and that is without full new variant impact. Given that they are (in their optimistic target) talking about 70% vaccine by the autumn, starting in a bigger way in April, I do not see how that is going to slow down too much.
Current COVID death run rate in the EU is 100k per month. Tragedy unfolding, and even all UK excess vaccine supplies (which are fewer than I thought they were) would not scratch the surface.
On the last point - the UK vaccine capacity. It is worth noting in the discussions about helping other countries etc, that we are not building the billion dose a year level industry here in this country.
India is implementing a plan (in association with COVAX) to produce multiple billions of doses per year.
That's correct - but we do have a touch of extra capacity now, but only 10 or 20 million of our 140 million guaranteed supply.
Presumably the India COVAX deal is separate form the SII setup(?), as that is 100 million a month and India itself needs nearly 2 years of that level of supply.
IIRC, yes, it is additional. The COVAX money is going to setup more lines at the existing mega facilities, I believe.
Do we know whether this means jabbed once or jabbed twice? Given the report this morning that Greece, for example, will require both jabs before entry it may affect Granny’s chance of spending May in Mykonos.
Pretty certain it means once, which would require an uptick in our current rate but achievable.
Two doses would mean a very big increase.
Having flights to Athens for June, we are hanging on in hope (naive perhaps) that we will be able to go having had both jabs, being in the 60-65 group. Of course, it may be technically possible but worries about the importation of some new variant mean that we choose not to go anyway.
You'll likely get two weeks in a hotel on your return for your troubles, vaccinated or not.
Not according to the Times...
That doesn't say anything about what will happen on your return.
Fair point, however the report goes on to say that U.K. officials have told the Greek Tourism Ministry that U.K. vaccinations are so far ahead that U.K. holiday makers will save the Greek summer season. That doesn’t suggest that U.K. holiday makers are going to have to quarantine on their return, though I accept the point isn’t explicit.
If there is still an outbreak in Greece do you really think they will be letting people come back without quarantining after finally getting the bug under control?
Fantastic double-century partnership with a real captain's innings so far from Root. Very goot strike rate so far for him too.
Sibley has done well, despite now being out, but to bat an entire day for 87 runs...It's pretty grim stuff. He needs to find a few more scoring shots.
Totally disagree. We have plenty of players who can attack, but an anchor batter is much better for our chances of winning series.
We don't want him to end up too negative though. There was a wonderfully flamboyant number three strokemaker from Kent whom England thrust into opening with orders to block so Gooch, Gower and Botham could attack from the other end.
I don't think Chris Tavare or his reputation ever quite recovered from the effects.
I think the government should hold off having any vaccine passports until the vast majority of over adults have been given both doses of vaccine.
Young people have been asked to make great sacrifices for the last year so we didn't end up with half a million dead old people, if the oldies start getting back on their cruise ships at the first possible moment it would break the current social contract we have where we're all in it together.
It also puts pressure on the government to keep up the pace of rollout and not to stand down once the over 50s are done as many people my age expect. We'll be thrown to the dogs and all of our vaccines will be given away when it's our turn.
If all the old buggers went on s cruise I might get the chance of z Tesco delivery though
I probably fall into the category described, and my wife fancies a River Cruise for a big birthday later this year. Whether the Douro will open for cruises this summer I don't know! Don't fancy, as posted before, going through two or three customs points on the Rhine or Danube.
And the excluded chair and the disruptive councillors can hardly complain about their exclusions on the basis of non-compliance with the Standing Orders if, as they maintained, the committee meeting was illegitimate to begin with.
For on their own version of events, there was no valid committee meeting even taking place.
On the most important matter of the day - oh Channel 4 what have you done? You’re not making Channel 4 better; you’re making cricket worse. And they used to be innovators....
The only thing worse than C4, will be the Indian broadcaster I’ve been watching all day.
Either no replays or replays over the next ball, the coverage regularly disappearing to a box in the corner for ads that don’t appear to be timed to the action on the field, commentators randomly breaking into Hindi, doing their ‘analysis’ bits during play, etc...
In defence of Channel 4 (not my usual standpoint) when you bag a short term cricket deal with 3 days notice I think the production was always going to be fairly basic (with an international stream). At least they did a better job of this than with the 2011 Athletics World Championships.
Ah, all done at the last minute, so they’ll not have a team there and have to make do with a satellite feed. Maybe they’ll get a full production for the next matches, even their own commentary from a studio in London would probably be better if they can’t travel.
Can’t say I remember the 2011 Athletics.
How come the India tour right weren't signed up ages ago? How come it resulted in such a last night deal? Don't Sky normally sign deals for overseas tours years into the future?
The Indian broadcaster Star India paid Cricket India for the global rights to the series, and up until a couple of weeks ago were going to run it on one of their own streaming services to the UK audience - until they realised the U.K. broadcast rights could be worth £20m to C4 or Sky.
The very first thing the Government (any government) will do upon them being commercially available is ban any owner or driver from using them - even as a 100% passenger - whilst under the influence. There will be an incident sooner or later that's ambiguous on the face of it, even though it isn't, which will generate a tabloid headline, and that will be that.
They will therefore kill off the main rationale for them for many people - i.e. as a personal taxi to support rural pubs and restaurants, and go out with friends.
You're welcome.
It wouldn't require legislation; drunk in charge is already drunk in charge.
But that is a lesser offence than the actual act of driving under the influence. Drunk in Charge , if I recall correctly, doesn’t have the mandatory 1year ban and can instead be punished with 11 penalty points. (Again this is from memory)
So the question of how the law would define using a self driving car while pissed is still a legitimate one, surely?
Anyone who thinks that being off your face in charge of a driverless car will be treated as anything other than the same as being off your face in a car they are driving, must be, er, off their face.
The legal question will be whether you will actually have any control over it. If you don't, there's no problem. But more likely there'll be some emergency buttons to make it stop or swerve, which when drunk it might be tempting to have a play with....
Another big problem there is that at some point, you'll have drivers on the road who learned to drive on automated vehicles and don't actually have any experience worth relying on. Teaching them sufficient awareness to know what to do in an emergency is likely to be extremely difficult.
More generally, as others have said, automated vehicles are kind of an all-or-nothing deal. Fully automated with no human input is much simpler to implement than mostly automated. But it also means the tech has to be damn near perfect, which is an incredibly hard place to get to. Even if it could be proved to reduce accidents by (say) 50% on average, I think it would be very hard to get public opinion onside for it.
If its proven to reduce accidents the insurance rate will take care of it being introduced.
Bring your own biro is bollocks. The government should simply buy millions of disposable pencils.
I'm not sure turnout will be very low. It will be an adventure going out and voting.
I'm not sure what people mean by very low. Turnout for many locals will be in the 25-35% range a lot of the time anyway, though luckier places will get higher.
Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of the claim that it was a Member State that asked for Article 16 to be triggered?
No - what she is saying is “it was someone else’s mistake. Of course I’m saying I’ll take responsibility but I’m going to make sure everyone thinks it was Gallina (regardless of whether it actually was)”
Would that be more or less responsibility than BJ claims to be taking for 110000+ plus Covid deaths?
Wonder if we'll ever get to the bottom of the claim that it was a Member State that asked for Article 16 to be triggered?
No - what she is saying is “it was someone else’s mistake. Of course I’m saying I’ll take responsibility but I’m going to make sure everyone thinks it was Gallina (regardless of whether it actually was)”
Correct.
She's bullshitting and misdirecting again.
She is mentioning 5 days for EU members to approve contracts, and a couple of weeks extra to get EHRA approval through.
The things that will kill EU Citizens are the 4-5 months the EU was behind in investing in vaccines and doing the early work in getting supply infrastructure in place from March to August 2020, and the decision to focus on buying a scarce resource rather than helping create it earlier. The irrecoverable part of that delay is now going on the critical path of EU rollout building up and finishing.
65% of EU Covid deaths have been since November 2020 to now, and that is without full new variant impact. Given that they are (in their optimistic target) talking about 70% vaccine by the autumn, starting in a bigger way in April, I do not see how that is going to slow down too much.
Current COVID death run rate in the EU is 100k per month. Tragedy unfolding, and even all UK excess vaccine supplies (which are fewer than I thought they were) would not scratch the surface.
On the last point - the UK vaccine capacity. It is worth noting in the discussions about helping other countries etc, that we are not building the billion dose a year level industry here in this country.
India is implementing a plan (in association with COVAX) to produce multiple billions of doses per year.
That's correct - but we do have a touch of extra capacity now, but only 10 or 20 million of our 140 million guaranteed supply.
Presumably the India COVAX deal is separate form the SII setup(?), as that is 100 million a month and India itself needs nearly 2 years of that level of supply.
So the UK has invested in around 600m per year worth of capacity between AZ, Novavax and Valneva at 6 sites across the country. These are essentially direct industry subsidies to build the capacity, we have reserved 260m of these for domestic use (100m AZ, 100m Valneva and 60m Novavax). In addition we have got the VMIC which will have around 150m worth of capacity to produce various types of vaccine under licence and another few projects are under consideration by the UK. I think the government may give GSK a mega subsidy to onshore vaccine manufacturing from Belgium for their CureVac global rights purchase.
I think the government should hold off having any vaccine passports until the vast majority of over adults have been given both doses of vaccine.
Young people have been asked to make great sacrifices for the last year so we didn't end up with half a million dead old people, if the oldies start getting back on their cruise ships at the first possible moment it would break the current social contract we have where we're all in it together.
It also puts pressure on the government to keep up the pace of rollout and not to stand down once the over 50s are done as many people my age expect. We'll be thrown to the dogs and all of our vaccines will be given away when it's our turn.
If all the old buggers went on s cruise I might get the chance of z Tesco delivery though
I probably fall into the category described, and my wife fancies a River Cruise for a big birthday later this year. Whether the Douro will open for cruises this summer I don't know! Don't fancy, as posted before, going through two or three customs points on the Rhine or Danube.
On the most important matter of the day - oh Channel 4 what have you done? You’re not making Channel 4 better; you’re making cricket worse. And they used to be innovators....
The only thing worse than C4, will be the Indian broadcaster I’ve been watching all day.
Either no replays or replays over the next ball, the coverage regularly disappearing to a box in the corner for ads that don’t appear to be timed to the action on the field, commentators randomly breaking into Hindi, doing their ‘analysis’ bits during play, etc...
In defence of Channel 4 (not my usual standpoint) when you bag a short term cricket deal with 3 days notice I think the production was always going to be fairly basic (with an international stream). At least they did a better job of this than with the 2011 Athletics World Championships.
Ah, all done at the last minute, so they’ll not have a team there and have to make do with a satellite feed. Maybe they’ll get a full production for the next matches, even their own commentary from a studio in London would probably be better if they can’t travel.
Can’t say I remember the 2011 Athletics.
How come the India tour right weren't signed up ages ago? How come it resulted in such a last night deal? Don't Sky normally sign deals for overseas tours years into the future?
The Indian broadcaster Star India paid Cricket India for the global rights to the series, and up until a couple of weeks ago were going to run it on one of their own streaming services to the UK audience - until they realised the U.K. broadcast rights could be worth £20m to C4 or Sky.
Haven't all attempts at this model for the UK market failed miserably. Isn't it Eleven Sports (the guy who now owns Leeds) that has been very successful in using that model in many other countries, where he buys up rights and then streams them. They tried it in the UK and it failed terribly, with nobody willing to pay for the streams.
"Democracy should not be cancelled because of covid," says the Conservative spokesman. No problem. The Conservatives have already killed it off.
The latest wheeze of making candidates pay a small fortune to get their leaflets delivered to electors is the last straw. Campaigning is effectively at an end. The only messages getting through to electors will be the ones telling them how wonderful Johnson is.
"The Government can commit to go ahead with these polls with confidence" said another Conservativve spokesman (reported on another post). You bet they can! When you have rigged the entire system in your favour, you can be pretty confident about the result.
Campaigning does not have as much impact as campaigners pretend it does. Many many people never get anything more than a single leaflet from each candidate. My councillor admitted to me they didn't even canvass half the ward, the part I live in. Yes, a dedicated effort can make a difference, I have seen that as well, but it is not as common an experience as campaigners would like to think it is.
I'd prefer people being able to campaign properly, in fact it might welll have persuaded me that perhaps there should be a delay just to be on the safe side campaigning wise, but canvassers and the like are very much over egging the pudding on the point.
'The pursuer failed the sufficient interest test. He was a busybody.' (p.9)
In fairness that is in the summary of the submissions of the Advocate General representing the UK government. The Judge decided that the petitioner did not have sufficient standing for the questions he was seeking declarator on but more on the grounds that the questions were hypothetical, premature and not linked to a specific decision or act.
One of the interesting aspects of the case is that the second defender was the Lord Advocate, essentially representing the Scottish government who had been a party but had then withdrawn. So Nicola's Lord Advocate did not want the court to express an opinion on whether or not the Scottish Parliament could pass a bill for an Independence Referendum. It is indicative of the tensions within the SNP that this was the case and that, unlike Wightman and Cherry, no SNP MP or MSP was willing to put their name to this.
So I realised later. My bad
Not that she was much more flattering about the plaintiff herself when she got to the judgement.
Aiden O'Neill QC, senior counsel for the petitioner, is something of an acquired taste.
My favourite was a hearing before Lord Doherty in the Cherry case. O'Neill was getting on his oratorical high horse about Scotland's wonderfully distinct (and largely fictional) constitutional history.
The Judge intervened with, "I'm not having any trouble hearing you, Mr O'Neill". Cue much tittering.
Given we've had shows about parish councils before, as has been noted for Vicar of Dibley (despite the common misconception about their status), why not indeed?
... Particularly at the Beeb, whose every hopeful mention of its cancellation includes the false claim that the Oakervee review said it would cost £106 billion. I suspect they're just unnerved at the thought when HS2 is opened management may move them all to Manchester.
Could be worse, they might get moved to Manchester without being able to zip back to civilisation on HS2.
"Democracy should not be cancelled because of covid," says the Conservative spokesman. No problem. The Conservatives have already killed it off.
The latest wheeze of making candidates pay a small fortune to get their leaflets delivered to electors is the last straw. Campaigning is effectively at an end. The only messages getting through to electors will be the ones telling them how wonderful Johnson is.
"The Government can commit to go ahead with these polls with confidence" said another Conservativve spokesman (reported on another post). You bet they can! When you have rigged the entire system in your favour, you can be pretty confident about the result.
Campaigning does not have as much impact as campaigners pretend it does. Many many people never get anything more than a single leaflet from each candidate. My councillor admitted to me they didn't even canvass half the ward, the part I live in. Yes, a dedicated effort can make a difference, I have seen that as well, but it is not as common an experience as campaigners would like to think it is.
I'd prefer people being able to campaign properly, in fact it might welll have persuaded me that perhaps there should be a delay just to be on the safe side campaigning wise, but canvassers and the like are very much over egging the pudding on the point.
Indeed, unless you live in a marginal ward most people will not get more than 1 leaflet from each candidate and party.
The parties will instead focus their canvassing resources and follow up leaflets and GOTV efforts on their marginal and target wards.
If Biden did not seek a second term, at what point would he (realistically) need to confirm it? Presumably some time before the Jan 2024 Iowa caucuses? Just trying to understand how long I'd be locking up money in a lay Biden bet.
Comments
The latest wheeze of making candidates pay a small fortune to get their leaflets delivered to electors is the last straw. Campaigning is effectively at an end. The only messages getting through to electors will be the ones telling them how wonderful Johnson is.
"The Government can commit to go ahead with these polls with confidence" said another Conservativve spokesman (reported on another post). You bet they can! When you have rigged the entire system in your favour, you can be pretty confident about the result.
I don't think there would. Incumbent Patients have run for subsequent terms in the past, while hiding health problems. My expectation is that Biden would do the same - and doubly so if he was still reasonably fit.
He got a text asking if he could turnup at short notice at the end of the day. The text provided a link. He was too late. He used the link anyway and got another appointment. Just had it done.
HS2 is infrastructure investment, which is very much not a no-brainer even before COVID revolutionizes the way we live and work. Personally I'm happy as my brother-in-law works for Network Rail and as long as HS2 is being built, the government cannot possibly scale back spending on the regular network. It would look utterly horrific. But would I be spending money on a new railway line? No.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgGmYeAm0jk
Sorry if already posted but one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
Out of interest, what would you consider a more useful project than building a new railway line to relieve pressure on the most congested railway line in Europe while simultaneously creating sufficient extra capacity at a high enough speed to potentially attract people away from cars or internal flights? (serious question)
Seems perfectly fair to me. Nothing to see here.
Either no replays or replays over the next ball, the coverage regularly disappearing to a box in the corner for ads that don’t appear to be timed to the action on the field, commentators randomly breaking into Hindi, doing their ‘analysis’ bits during play, etc...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55943431
So, after doing ~15 million in ~6 weeks, they have a target to do ~17 million more (plus <10 million second doses) in ~10 weeks.
It's not very ambitious is it? They'll hit that target at the current rate.
They could try for Easter. Even that wouldn't be too hard, because second doses don't have to start in large numbers until then.
Your worry that fares on HS2 may be placed too high and have a similar effect is logical and justifiable. But at the same time, it's much more likely that if fares on a railway are too high they'll be cut to attract passengers. That's how we ended up with a £10 ticket to London day return from Cannock (including travelcard).
Biden effectively has to do the PM's job as well in the US as head of the executive branch, Boris, as the Queen's chief minister, does most of that for her.
On another point above, HS2 will substitute out domestic air depending on how far it goes. I think that WCML took out 20% of air passengers from Glasgow to London. It works.
Extra movement, extra activity should be productive. Better than people being say idle in a traffic jam because we've not built any more roads but have 25% more people living here.
Can’t say I remember the 2011 Athletics.
Might be activity behind the scenes to try and pressure him out, but actually challenging is risky.
https://twitter.com/ossoff/status/1357646352554090497?s=20
She's bullshitting and misdirecting again.
She is mentioning 5 days for EU members to approve contracts, and a couple of weeks extra to get EHRA approval through.
The things that will kill EU Citizens are the 4-5 months the EU was behind in investing in vaccines and doing the early work in getting supply infrastructure in place from March to August 2020, and the decision to focus on buying a scarce resource rather than helping create it earlier. The irrecoverable part of that delay is now going on the critical path of EU rollout building up and finishing.
65% of EU Covid deaths have been since November 2020 to now, and that is without full new variant impact. (Germany etc were slow but only a few weeks behind). Given that they are (in their optimistic target) talking about 70% vaccine by the autumn, starting in a bigger way in April, I do not see how that is going to slow down too much.
Current COVID death run rate in the EU is 100k per month. Tragedy unfolding, and even all UK excess vaccine supplies (which are fewer than I thought they were having run the numbers) would not scratch the surface.
1) The then Tory government was looking to make cuts, and road building was unfashionable so an easy hit;
2) Most major trunk routes that were needed were already in place, so enhancements were a realistic alternative;
3) The ecowarriors pushed up the cost of clearance and security making new roads a less attractive option.
That doesn't mean 'we stopped building roads.' For example, the A5 between Lichfield and Tamworth was built as a new dual carriageway ten (edit - fifteen on checking) years ago (largely because of the M6 Toll's failure to attract traffic). The old one through Weeford is still there, and actually a lovely road to drive on now there aren't three mile queues. There's been a huge amount of road building in and around BRistol in recent years as well, and indeed near Worcester, converting bi-directional roads to dual carriageway. It's done rather under the radar so it doesn't attract attention, but it's definitely happening.
And even so, traffic continues to grow.
One of the interesting aspects of the case is that the second defender was the Lord Advocate, essentially representing the Scottish government who had been a party but had then withdrawn. So Nicola's Lord Advocate did not want the court to express an opinion on whether or not the Scottish Parliament could pass a bill for an Independence Referendum. It is indicative of the tensions within the SNP that this was the case and that, unlike Wightman and Cherry, no SNP MP or MSP was willing to put their name to this.
Whatever next?
Not that she was much more flattering about the plaintiff herself when she got to the judgement.
India is implementing a plan (in association with COVAX) to produce multiple billions of doses per year.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9221927/BBC-TWICE-value-Netflix-cost-400-year-subscription-service-Tim-Davie-claims.html
Presumably the India COVAX deal is separate form the SII setup(?), as that is 100 million a month and India itself needs nearly 2 years of that level of supply.
But the Lincoln on the right is definitely more haggard and worn than the left. And it matches with what contemporaries said - that his presidency aged him 20 years.
IIRC, yes, it is additional. The COVAX money is going to setup more lines at the existing mega facilities, I believe.
I don't think Chris Tavare or his reputation ever quite recovered from the effects.
https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/1357656549104230400
And the excluded chair and the disruptive councillors can hardly complain about their exclusions on the basis of non-compliance with the Standing Orders if, as they maintained, the committee meeting was illegitimate to begin with.
For on their own version of events, there was no valid committee meeting even taking place.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2021/01/27/tv-rights-england-tour-india-still-grabs-three-possiblescenarios/
It will be like inverted Dunkirk.
I'd prefer people being able to campaign properly, in fact it might welll have persuaded me that perhaps there should be a delay just to be on the safe side campaigning wise, but canvassers and the like are very much over egging the pudding on the point.
My favourite was a hearing before Lord Doherty in the Cherry case. O'Neill was getting on his oratorical high horse about Scotland's wonderfully distinct (and largely fictional) constitutional history.
The Judge intervened with, "I'm not having any trouble hearing you, Mr O'Neill". Cue much tittering.
The parties will instead focus their canvassing resources and follow up leaflets and GOTV efforts on their marginal and target wards.