The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
And that is why it really is "the equivalent of the WW2 Manhattan Project".
Los Alamos was of course peopled largely by immigrant scientists under the leadership of the US/UK following the Quebec Agreement. It was an international scientific effort.
@rcs1000 has found a really brilliant & telling historical analogy.
Surely, his comparison is waiting to be nicked by the mainstream media. We'll find out soon enough which journos crib from the site.
It's actually an area I think the UK needs to start looking at too. Our reliance on Taiwan for silicon chips is becoming extreme and it might be time to start seriously considering what the future looks like with Taiwan under Chinese occupation and planning on that basis.
We've let graphene completely slip away from us, but there's still time to onshore it as it's so small right now.
The government really needs to figure out how to properly incentivise invesmtment in manufacturing of high margin goods based on IP developed in the UK. As a nation we're absolutely shit at doing it and our tax system incentivises companies to design amazing products and then licence those designs to foreign companies who benefit from the economic development that comes with actually making stuff.
I'd agree with that if I thought there was an effective way of doing it. The EU has similar concerns about semiconductor manufacturing and high-performance computing, but at first glance their plans look almost guaranteed to funnel barrowloads of money to the usual suspects. That's not a solution.
We can clearly do the science, R&D, and engineering in the UK, that's indisputable, but we are really quite bad at turning that work into a global profitable business. All to often UK businesses stall at the point they need investment to go mass-market.
Oh dear another bit of Nat hypocrisy. The tendency to 'select the bits of history that make you feel good' is exactly what Scottish Nationalists do with regularity. Actually, strike "Scottish" and just leave it at "nationalists". Nationalism of all stripes selects the history it likes and burns the bits that don't fit the narrative. English nationalism, Russian nationalism, Scottish nationalism, Trumpism. Nasty rotten peas in the same pod.
You're just a hypocrite.
Everyone believes in a nation somewhere. You just believe it should be on a European level. You're no better than an English or Scottish nationalist.
Britain played a huge role in the transatlantic slave trade at its peak, to our shame, and a grassroots and parliamentary campaign was also instrumental in its abolition - not only within the British Empire, but through our navy managed to suppress it and make it unviable for most other nations globally. Millions were enslaved and transported against their will, which is disgusting, and millions more would have been had we not.
I don't see why historians can't point out both sides of the ledger. My beef is with those who pick their stories selectively, usually to advance their own preferred politics today.
Historians specialise. It is not their job to provide balance. It is their job to present arguments and for others to decide. On slavery, some will focus on the role of the abolitionists; others will focus on the slavers; some will look at the abolition; others will look at the reparations paid to slave owners; and so on. That is exactly as it should be because it allows us to make our own judgments with as much information as possible. The problems arise when arguments are suppressed, when one side or the other claims that its version is the only true version there can be and that other versions are distortions. That is what we must guard against.
It absolutely is part of the job of an historian to present balance. They should - and do - come to an overall conclusion based on the balanced evidence they provided, but an historian that only gives one side would never get any job in academia or indeed teaching. They go into journalism or write popular pseudo-history (or in the case of Catherine Nixey, both.)
Hmmm - historians specialise. They look at specific topics in great detail. When I studied history at university, for example, we had lecturers who fervently disagreed on the origins of medieval field systems - were they imposed from the top or the consequence of collectivised action from the bottom? The different schools of thought presented their evidence and we made judgements. We judged whether the evidence was presented convincingly, whether it was complete and whether it was interpreted correctly. I would say there is actually more of an onus on those engaged in popular history to be balanced because their audiences have less time and inclination to go to the primary sources. Popular historians are essentially filtering information and making judgements for their audiences in a way that academics are not - hence all the footnotes.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
Turkish, no? In view of the discussion today on PB of another Turkish immigrant to another A/S country.
The Moderna founder (and also cofounder of Celera Genomics, along with a great deal of other stuff) was an Armenian born in Beirut.
On the timetable: why not publicise the numbers they're looking for at each stage instead of a date?
Case numbers no higher than X while hospital numbers are no higher than Y and ICU numbers no higher than Z with vaccination down to Group whatever completed (and ALL four must be met) mean that we'll try [insert single relaxation; eg schools back] and watch how R changes for two weeks before [insert next step with same metrics].
The error of giving specific dates and then finding out that the virus doesn't care about published timetables wouldn't be repeated.
I agree. Catchy slogan: the timetable for easing restrictions will be set by the data, not by the date.
But unfortunately it looks to me as though Johnson is about to make the same mistake as before - do what plays well with his voters and potential voters in a day’s headlines, and not what would actually be the smart option in the medium term.
This argument is ridiculous. If schools reopen on the 8th then that will be because the data shows it's ok for schools to reopen on the 8th.
It's a deliberate policy to give schools and parents weeks notice rather than change it on the drop of a pin.
The eighth isn't a random date it is a date based upon data.
I'm not sure what other choice there is.
Come March cases are going to be really low in any case. We cant stay fully "locked down" just for the sake of it. There has to be *some* relaxation and it makes sense for it to be schools to begin with.
There is always the choice to plan properly and make sure risk is minimised, possibly through rotas, possibly through a phased return, rather than just ‘it’s not as bad as it was so let’s just reopen all schools at once even though a blind semi-paralytic village idiot can see this is going to mean we must lock everything else down for longer.’
Edit - of course, we don’t know that is what he’s going to do. There was one report in The Times, another in The Express, neither of which are exactly reliable. Several other papers, including the TES, are saying something else.
By that time (8th March) there will be a significant number of vaccinees. As with everything so far it is a balance. If it is perceived that the extra weeks of schooling in young children is vital, then the schools should open. If you think about it, at that age the lockdown has been immense. On and off 20% of your life if you are a five year old. Three weeks under such circumstances might be absolutely vital.
Your post reads as though nothing has changed. But vaccinations.
On the other hand, very few of those vaccines will have been given to teachers, parents or pupils; very few of them are even going to be 50+.
There's a tricky bit of politics coming up, exemplified by Steve Baker this morning. The UK has probably done enough vaccination to keep the death rate very low from about 3 weeks time. Heck, Ireland has done first doses for care home residents and staff, is doing people aged 85+ over the next 3 weeks... that's a big bite out of their potential future death rate. The temptation to scamper back to business as usual is going to grow.
But there are still a lot of people out there who haven't been vaccinated, and getting Covid is not a good thing. And a lot of the people who have been vaccinated are less mobile; frankly, they're not going to cut R by that much. Reopening all schools at once is a big dollop of extra mixing all at once. Is it worth risking Spike 4?
Question for people in schools- has there been any thinking about when to release Years 11 and 13 from school this year? Normally, it would be about Whitsun, because exams were largely over. But this year, is there a case for making that final half term available for some sort of "get ready for the next step" work? As exam cohorts, they've had two disrupted years.
In any case, our overall response to COVID pales in comparison to the countries in the Far East, who appear not to matter for some reason.
To be fair they were far better prepared for a pandemic at the outset because of SARS and bird Flu.
Yeah, but that doesn’t take away from their success.
Posters don’t seem to mention Israel much, or just seem to write them off as a small country.
It is very transparent, and sad, and the worst of it is that it masks the actual reality which is that we are running a very successful vaccine programme but are still in the early days of the most self-destructive foreign policy since Suez.
Ceteris paribus, our economic race car is suffering several punctures and no obvious source of fuel as we “race” out of the covid traps.
Suez was about the UK still trying to maintain the pretence of being a military and economic superpower, without the means to back it up.
Brexit is simply a decision to exercise more political and regulatory independence through leaving a regulatory union that had political aspirations we didn't share, and that were increasingly predominating.
Yes, there will be challenges but I don't see it as self-destructive. I think the decision will be vindicated in the medium-long term, to the benefit of both the EU and UK.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You're being cretinous yourself. Or illiterate.
The entire premise of the article is that the EU won't fail too badly, because the UK and USA have led the way out of this pandemic and the EU will be able to benefit from our success.
The EU failing would be a bad thing, we don't want that. We want them to be able to catch up with us, its a shame they didn't do the right thing in the first place but we can show them the way out and they can follow us.
I've never expressed a desire for the EU to fail or collapse - although I have criticised them vociferously and argued for fundamental reform - so this looks like @Gardenwalker projecting to me.
He has his good days and bad days, just like most of us.
Indeed.
A successful EU is a good thing for the UK. Being outside of it but having a large single market on our doorstep that we're not a part of but are able to sell into is a 'cake and eat it' scenario.
I have no interest whatsoever in seeing the EU fail.
Unless you're one of the test tube wankers that brewed up the vaccine then you've really got nothing to be proud of.
Hey. I made a small contribution to the writing and development of some of the processes that went into the manufacture of one small component that is used in the manufacturing of the vaccines. Do I qualify?
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You're being cretinous yourself. Or illiterate.
The entire premise of the article is that the EU won't fail too badly, because the UK and USA have led the way out of this pandemic and the EU will be able to benefit from our success.
The EU failing would be a bad thing, we don't want that. We want them to be able to catch up with us, its a shame they didn't do the right thing in the first place but we can show them the way out and they can follow us.
I've never expressed a desire for the EU to fail or collapse - although I have criticised them vociferously and argued for fundamental reform - so this looks like @Gardenwalker projecting to me.
He has his good days and bad days, just like most of us.
I’m not sure I was talking about you. Rather, the general vibe of Brexity posters.
As PT says, we actually need the EU to succeed economically.
However for Brexiters, having cast them as an evil, “sclerotic” enemy & made a decision to vote Leave, it is now necessary to find and celebrate reasons for the EU’s failure.
This is a well known example of psychological self-justification in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
On the timetable: why not publicise the numbers they're looking for at each stage instead of a date?
Case numbers no higher than X while hospital numbers are no higher than Y and ICU numbers no higher than Z with vaccination down to Group whatever completed (and ALL four must be met) mean that we'll try [insert single relaxation; eg schools back] and watch how R changes for two weeks before [insert next step with same metrics].
The error of giving specific dates and then finding out that the virus doesn't care about published timetables wouldn't be repeated.
I agree. Catchy slogan: the timetable for easing restrictions will be set by the data, not by the date.
But unfortunately it looks to me as though Johnson is about to make the same mistake as before - do what plays well with his voters and potential voters in a day’s headlines, and not what would actually be the smart option in the medium term.
This argument is ridiculous. If schools reopen on the 8th then that will be because the data shows it's ok for schools to reopen on the 8th.
It's a deliberate policy to give schools and parents weeks notice rather than change it on the drop of a pin.
The eighth isn't a random date it is a date based upon data.
I'm not sure what other choice there is.
Come March cases are going to be really low in any case. We cant stay fully "locked down" just for the sake of it. There has to be *some* relaxation and it makes sense for it to be schools to begin with.
There is always the choice to plan properly and make sure risk is minimised, possibly through rotas, possibly through a phased return, rather than just ‘it’s not as bad as it was so let’s just reopen all schools at once even though a blind semi-paralytic village idiot can see this is going to mean we must lock everything else down for longer.’
Edit - of course, we don’t know that is what he’s going to do. There was one report in The Times, another in The Express, neither of which are exactly reliable. Several other papers, including the TES, are saying something else.
By that time (8th March) there will be a significant number of vaccinees. As with everything so far it is a balance. If it is perceived that the extra weeks of schooling in young children is vital, then the schools should open. If you think about it, at that age the lockdown has been immense. On and off 20% of your life if you are a five year old. Three weeks under such circumstances might be absolutely vital.
Your post reads as though nothing has changed. But vaccinations.
On the other hand, very few of those vaccines will have been given to teachers, parents or pupils; very few of them are even going to be 50+.
There's a tricky bit of politics coming up, exemplified by Steve Baker this morning. The UK has probably done enough vaccination to keep the death rate very low from about 3 weeks time. Heck, Ireland has done first doses for care home residents and staff, is doing people aged 85+ over the next 3 weeks... that's a big bite out of their potential future death rate. The temptation to scamper back to business as usual is going to grow.
But there are still a lot of people out there who haven't been vaccinated, and getting Covid is not a good thing. And a lot of the people who have been vaccinated are less mobile; frankly, they're not going to cut R by that much. Reopening all schools at once is a big dollop of extra mixing all at once. Is it worth risking Spike 4?
Question for people in schools- has there been any thinking about when to release Years 11 and 13 from school this year? Normally, it would be about Whitsun, because exams were largely over. But this year, is there a case for making that final half term available for some sort of "get ready for the next step" work? As exam cohorts, they've had two disrupted years.
I don't disagree. But it is a testament to the place we've come to whereby we are prepared to tolerate closed schools (and all the rest of lockdown - can't go out, can't see your parents, can't have sex with the person you want to have sex with) because "getting Covid is not a good thing".
As long as the hospitals can cope, death rates are down, and the most vulnerable have been vaccinated, then that is sufficient.
Oh dear. EU descending into Comical Ali levels of delusion now...
If “kowtowing to big pharma” means investing in vaccine production and making sure you’re first in the queue, then that’s exactly what everyone should have done!
(Ignore for a minute that AZ are doing the whole thing on a non-profit basis, for the good of humanity).
It's a load of crap on all levels.
In any event, national industrial strategies may be making a comeback. The US, for example, is becoming increasingly aware of its massive strategic weakness in chip manufacturing (in contrast to its great strength in chip design).
With the rise of China to great power economic status, at the same time as it descends back into a modern form of authoritarianism, relying on the international free market, and that alone, is becoming increasingly insecure.
It's actually an area I think the UK needs to start looking at too. Our reliance on Taiwan for silicon chips is becoming extreme and it might be time to start seriously considering what the future looks like with Taiwan under Chinese occupation and planning on that basis.
We've let graphene completely slip away from us, but there's still time to onshore it as it's so small right now.
The government really needs to figure out how to properly incentivise invesmtment in manufacturing of high margin goods based on IP developed in the UK. As a nation we're absolutely shit at doing it and our tax system incentivises companies to design amazing products and then licence those designs to foreign companies who benefit from the economic development that comes with actually making stuff.
It is one potential benefit of Brexit that I'd happily acknowledge. Thus far largely potential, though.
Yes, definitely just potential. What we really need to do is make bankruptcy much less punishing for potential investors. There's huge unwillingness for investors to back capital intensive projects and companies in the UK because the risk of failure is so high and they know they get completely wiped out by bankruptcy. We also need tax free holidays for companies and investors putting money into developing UK IP onshore, it's a zero cost policy becuase right now we lose it all anyway. Any investment we get from it and the resulting jobs will be a gain and eventually a very large one.
For a country that has such a great research tradition the development is just so awful.
In any case, our overall response to COVID pales in comparison to the countries in the Far East, who appear not to matter for some reason.
To be fair they were far better prepared for a pandemic at the outset because of SARS and bird Flu.
Yeah, but that doesn’t take away from their success.
Posters don’t seem to mention Israel much, or just seem to write them off as a small country.
It is very transparent, and sad, and the worst of it is that it masks the actual reality which is that we are running a very successful vaccine programme but are still in the early days of the most self-destructive foreign policy since Suez.
Ceteris paribus, our economic race car is suffering several punctures and no obvious source of fuel as we “race” out of the covid traps.
Suez was about the UK still trying to maintain the pretence of being a military and economic superpower, without the means to back it up.
Brexit is simply a decision to exercise more political and regulatory independence through leaving a regulatory union that had political aspirations we didn't share, and that were increasingly predominating.
Yes, there will be challenges but I don't see it as self-destructive. I think the decision will be vindicated in the medium-long term, to the benefit of both the EU and UK.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
And that is why it really is "the equivalent of the WW2 Manhattan Project".
Los Alamos was of course peopled largely by immigrant scientists under the leadership of the US/UK following the Quebec Agreement. It was an international scientific effort.
@rcs1000 has found a really brilliant & telling historical analogy.
Surely, his comparison is waiting to be nicked by the mainstream media. We'll find out soon enough which journos crib from the site.
I explained at the beginning of the thread why it's a deeply flawed analogy.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
And that is why it really is "the equivalent of the WW2 Manhattan Project".
Los Alamos was of course peopled largely by immigrant scientists under the leadership of the US/UK following the Quebec Agreement. It was an international scientific effort.
@rcs1000 has found a really brilliant & telling historical analogy.
Surely, his comparison is waiting to be nicked by the mainstream media. We'll find out soon enough which journos crib from the site.
Unless you're one of the test tube wankers that brewed up the vaccine then you've really got nothing to be proud of.
Hey. I made a small contribution to the writing and development of some of the processes that went into the manufacture of one small component that is used in the manufacturing of the vaccines. Do I qualify?
Bloody right you do. I will be name-dropping you at dinner parties when such things re-emerge.
Oh dear. EU descending into Comical Ali levels of delusion now...
If “kowtowing to big pharma” means investing in vaccine production and making sure you’re first in the queue, then that’s exactly what everyone should have done!
(Ignore for a minute that AZ are doing the whole thing on a non-profit basis, for the good of humanity).
It's a load of crap on all levels.
In any event, national industrial strategies may be making a comeback. The US, for example, is becoming increasingly aware of its massive strategic weakness in chip manufacturing (in contrast to its great strength in chip design).
With the rise of China to great power economic status, at the same time as it descends back into a modern form of authoritarianism, relying on the international free market, and that alone, is becoming increasingly insecure.
It's actually an area I think the UK needs to start looking at too. Our reliance on Taiwan for silicon chips is becoming extreme and it might be time to start seriously considering what the future looks like with Taiwan under Chinese occupation and planning on that basis.
We've let graphene completely slip away from us, but there's still time to onshore it as it's so small right now.
The government really needs to figure out how to properly incentivise invesmtment in manufacturing of high margin goods based on IP developed in the UK. As a nation we're absolutely shit at doing it and our tax system incentivises companies to design amazing products and then licence those designs to foreign companies who benefit from the economic development that comes with actually making stuff.
It is one potential benefit of Brexit that I'd happily acknowledge. Thus far largely potential, though.
I would be interested in reading some stats wrt University spin-out companies, and whcih Unis retain significant portfolios.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
Very much so. I’d love for the UK ago look at what makes the USA so attractive for scientists and entrepreneurs, the UK has a great reputation for innovation - but much less of growing companies to exploit those innovations.
Historical openness to immigration + large internal market + large source of investor capital + lack of red tape.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You're being cretinous yourself. Or illiterate.
The entire premise of the article is that the EU won't fail too badly, because the UK and USA have led the way out of this pandemic and the EU will be able to benefit from our success.
The EU failing would be a bad thing, we don't want that. We want them to be able to catch up with us, its a shame they didn't do the right thing in the first place but we can show them the way out and they can follow us.
I've never expressed a desire for the EU to fail or collapse - although I have criticised them vociferously and argued for fundamental reform - so this looks like @Gardenwalker projecting to me.
He has his good days and bad days, just like most of us.
I’m not sure I was talking about you. Rather, the general vibe of Brexity posters.
As PT says, we actually need the EU to succeed economically.
However for Brexiters, having cast them as an evil, “sclerotic” enemy & made a decision to vote Leave, it is now necessary to find and celebrate reasons for the EU’s failure.
This is a well known example of psychological self-justification in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
I don't detect the vibe you describe. If there is one it's that some have a frustration that the UK and USA are more often than not singled-out as to blame for all the world's past and present ills - and undoubtedly that will be fomented and encouraged by the likes of China behind the scenes - and it was a simple reminder that both, at their core, remain good nations. They are also, I believe, crucial to global leadership to ensure we have a happy, safe and prosperous future as human beings.
There is a lot of emotion felt around the EU and Brexit (I share some of it) but if the EU fell wholesale the carcass would be crowbarred open and ruthlessly picked at by vultures like China and Russia.
That's not an outcome that's in British interests, quite aside from anything else.
Q: which proposition holds more water, the SNP being to blame for Scots thinking BJ is a dick, or the Chennai pitch is to blame for England being a bit crap?
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You're being cretinous yourself. Or illiterate.
The entire premise of the article is that the EU won't fail too badly, because the UK and USA have led the way out of this pandemic and the EU will be able to benefit from our success.
The EU failing would be a bad thing, we don't want that. We want them to be able to catch up with us, its a shame they didn't do the right thing in the first place but we can show them the way out and they can follow us.
I've never expressed a desire for the EU to fail or collapse - although I have criticised them vociferously and argued for fundamental reform - so this looks like @Gardenwalker projecting to me.
He has his good days and bad days, just like most of us.
I’m not sure I was talking about you. Rather, the general vibe of Brexity posters.
As PT says, we actually need the EU to succeed economically.
However for Brexiters, having cast them as an evil, “sclerotic” enemy & made a decision to vote Leave, it is now necessary to find and celebrate reasons for the EU’s failure.
This is a well known example of psychological self-justification in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
The EU are sclerotic.
On this the EU are failing.
Pointing out failures isn't willing them to fail. The first step to fixing your problems is to acknowledge they exist.
Oh dear. EU descending into Comical Ali levels of delusion now...
If “kowtowing to big pharma” means investing in vaccine production and making sure you’re first in the queue, then that’s exactly what everyone should have done!
(Ignore for a minute that AZ are doing the whole thing on a non-profit basis, for the good of humanity).
It's a load of crap on all levels.
In any event, national industrial strategies may be making a comeback. The US, for example, is becoming increasingly aware of its massive strategic weakness in chip manufacturing (in contrast to its great strength in chip design).
With the rise of China to great power economic status, at the same time as it descends back into a modern form of authoritarianism, relying on the international free market, and that alone, is becoming increasingly insecure.
It's actually an area I think the UK needs to start looking at too. Our reliance on Taiwan for silicon chips is becoming extreme and it might be time to start seriously considering what the future looks like with Taiwan under Chinese occupation and planning on that basis.
We've let graphene completely slip away from us, but there's still time to onshore it as it's so small right now.
The government really needs to figure out how to properly incentivise invesmtment in manufacturing of high margin goods based on IP developed in the UK. As a nation we're absolutely shit at doing it and our tax system incentivises companies to design amazing products and then licence those designs to foreign companies who benefit from the economic development that comes with actually making stuff.
It is one potential benefit of Brexit that I'd happily acknowledge. Thus far largely potential, though.
Yes, definitely just potential. What we really need to do is make bankruptcy much less punishing for potential investors. There's huge unwillingness for investors to back capital intensive projects and companies in the UK because the risk of failure is so high and they know they get completely wiped out by bankruptcy. We also need tax free holidays for companies and investors putting money into developing UK IP onshore, it's a zero cost policy becuase right now we lose it all anyway. Any investment we get from it and the resulting jobs will be a gain and eventually a very large one.
For a country that has such a great research tradition the development is just so awful.
The failure of the U.K. to industrialise and commercialise our inventions seems to go back into the dark ages.
See also, poor provision of non-academic further education.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
Very much so. I’d love for the UK ago look at what makes the USA so attractive for scientists and entrepreneurs, the UK has a great reputation for innovation - but much less of growing companies to exploit those innovations.
Historical openness to immigration + large internal market + large source of investor capital + lack of red tape.
We’re busy torching most of that.
Except we're not?
I wish you were right. But you ain’t.
Except I am. You seem to be stuck on replay wrt brexit. It's time to move on.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
And that is why it really is "the equivalent of the WW2 Manhattan Project".
Los Alamos was of course peopled largely by immigrant scientists under the leadership of the US/UK following the Quebec Agreement. It was an international scientific effort.
@rcs1000 has found a really brilliant & telling historical analogy.
Surely, his comparison is waiting to be nicked by the mainstream media. We'll find out soon enough which journos crib from the site.
Who's the Fuchs du jour?
I very much admire Klaus Fuchs.
(In fact, I even have a physics text-book with his autograph signature in it).
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
Very much so. I’d love for the UK ago look at what makes the USA so attractive for scientists and entrepreneurs, the UK has a great reputation for innovation - but much less of growing companies to exploit those innovations.
Historical openness to immigration + large internal market + large source of investor capital + lack of red tape.
We’re busy torching most of that.
Except we're not?
I wish you were right. But you ain’t.
Except I am. You seem to be stuck on replay wrt brexit. It's time to move on.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You're being cretinous yourself. Or illiterate.
The entire premise of the article is that the EU won't fail too badly, because the UK and USA have led the way out of this pandemic and the EU will be able to benefit from our success.
The EU failing would be a bad thing, we don't want that. We want them to be able to catch up with us, its a shame they didn't do the right thing in the first place but we can show them the way out and they can follow us.
I've never expressed a desire for the EU to fail or collapse - although I have criticised them vociferously and argued for fundamental reform - so this looks like @Gardenwalker projecting to me.
He has his good days and bad days, just like most of us.
I’m not sure I was talking about you. Rather, the general vibe of Brexity posters.
As PT says, we actually need the EU to succeed economically.
However for Brexiters, having cast them as an evil, “sclerotic” enemy & made a decision to vote Leave, it is now necessary to find and celebrate reasons for the EU’s failure.
This is a well known example of psychological self-justification in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
You might have a point if you could go back six months and look for Brexiteers wishing the EU ill with regards to vaccines.
Actually, the whole thing came as a bit of a surprise. Sure we had posters (both remainers and leavers) saying that the UK looked to have done a decent job in procurement. But even when it became evident that the EU was going to be behind, I don't think we thought it was going to be a big issue. It was just going to be an area where they would be a bit behind, but they could catch up.
What was really surprising is that the EU themselves turned it into a cluster**** of epic proportions by threatening to ban exports. I don't have a particularly high opinion of the EU, but I'd never have contemplated them behaving as they did.
Does it on it's own prove Brexit was right. Probably not, but I think it has highlighted the contradictions of the whole EU project. Personally I think they need to go the whole hog and form a federal state and let the people decide who runs the thing. I'm not holding my breath, though.
Q: which proposition holds more water, the SNP being to blame for Scots thinking BJ is a dick, or the Chennai pitch is to blame for England being a bit crap?
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
Very much so. I’d love for the UK ago look at what makes the USA so attractive for scientists and entrepreneurs, the UK has a great reputation for innovation - but much less of growing companies to exploit those innovations.
Historical openness to immigration + large internal market + large source of investor capital + lack of red tape.
We’re busy torching most of that.
Except we're not?
I wish you were right. But you ain’t.
Except I am. You seem to be stuck on replay wrt brexit. It's time to move on.
You are guilty I’m afraid of “shiny uplands-ism”.
If you have actual evidence, you should share it.
The vaccines are evidence. They're benefiting the UK now but also will benefit our pharmaceutical industry in years, potentially decades to come.
This was a case of the UK showing how nimble can beat sclerotic. It is the most recent example, it wasn't the first and won't be the last.
Oh dear. EU descending into Comical Ali levels of delusion now...
If “kowtowing to big pharma” means investing in vaccine production and making sure you’re first in the queue, then that’s exactly what everyone should have done!
(Ignore for a minute that AZ are doing the whole thing on a non-profit basis, for the good of humanity).
It's a load of crap on all levels.
In any event, national industrial strategies may be making a comeback. The US, for example, is becoming increasingly aware of its massive strategic weakness in chip manufacturing (in contrast to its great strength in chip design).
With the rise of China to great power economic status, at the same time as it descends back into a modern form of authoritarianism, relying on the international free market, and that alone, is becoming increasingly insecure.
It's actually an area I think the UK needs to start looking at too. Our reliance on Taiwan for silicon chips is becoming extreme and it might be time to start seriously considering what the future looks like with Taiwan under Chinese occupation and planning on that basis.
We've let graphene completely slip away from us, but there's still time to onshore it as it's so small right now.
The government really needs to figure out how to properly incentivise invesmtment in manufacturing of high margin goods based on IP developed in the UK. As a nation we're absolutely shit at doing it and our tax system incentivises companies to design amazing products and then licence those designs to foreign companies who benefit from the economic development that comes with actually making stuff.
It is one potential benefit of Brexit that I'd happily acknowledge. Thus far largely potential, though.
I would be interested in reading some stats wrt University spin-out companies, and whcih Unis retain significant portfolios.
The biggest single miss I know of was Cambridge Antibody technology, and their arthritis drug Humira - which was licensed to Abbott for peanuts, and became the world's best selling drug. (AZN later bought CAT.)
Abbvie, the company which Abbott spun out with the drug, is currently worth around $180bn.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You're being cretinous yourself. Or illiterate.
The entire premise of the article is that the EU won't fail too badly, because the UK and USA have led the way out of this pandemic and the EU will be able to benefit from our success.
The EU failing would be a bad thing, we don't want that. We want them to be able to catch up with us, its a shame they didn't do the right thing in the first place but we can show them the way out and they can follow us.
I've never expressed a desire for the EU to fail or collapse - although I have criticised them vociferously and argued for fundamental reform - so this looks like @Gardenwalker projecting to me.
He has his good days and bad days, just like most of us.
I’m not sure I was talking about you. Rather, the general vibe of Brexity posters.
As PT says, we actually need the EU to succeed economically.
However for Brexiters, having cast them as an evil, “sclerotic” enemy & made a decision to vote Leave, it is now necessary to find and celebrate reasons for the EU’s failure.
This is a well known example of psychological self-justification in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
The EU are sclerotic.
On this the EU are failing.
Pointing out failures isn't willing them to fail. The first step to fixing your problems is to acknowledge they exist.
Why are you still pointing out the EU’s failures? Isn’t there enough in your wank bank already?
Imagine if you put this much energy into solving the problems of increased red tape for exporters.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
Very much so. I’d love for the UK ago look at what makes the USA so attractive for scientists and entrepreneurs, the UK has a great reputation for innovation - but much less of growing companies to exploit those innovations.
Historical openness to immigration + large internal market + large source of investor capital + lack of red tape.
We’re busy torching most of that.
Except we're not?
I wish you were right. But you ain’t.
Except I am. You seem to be stuck on replay wrt brexit. It's time to move on.
You are guilty I’m afraid of “shiny uplands-ism”.
If you have actual evidence, you should share it.
Immigration is now based on income, less red tape than the tier 2 system and it doesn't discriminate against country of origin very much. The rest aren't really anything to do with the EU anyway and for manufactured and semi-manufactured goods the UK has a tariff and quota free trade deal with the EU giving us full access to that part of the single market. You'll notice that the major part of the bitching about the deal is from agriculture, industry is just quietly getting on with adjusting supply chains and building warehouses to allow for customs checking on site.
If anything not being in the EU will allow for creative tax regimes that incentivise onshore development of domestic IP. Those sorts of schemes come under the state aid rules in the EU and the needle needs to be very carefully threaded as we did with cultural relevance testing on movies, TV and gaming development subsidies. We can simply junk all of that red tape and give simple tax incentives.
No chance, I wonder if there is even a limit to remoaning?
Of course not, if by using the childish "remoaning" phrase you are referring to those that thought Brexit was a pointless economically damaging pile of populist dog shit reminding those of little brain that voted for it that it is still a pointless economically damaging pile of shit, then yes "remoaning" will continue. Stupid decisions that are encouraged by politicians need to be called out for what they are.
Britain will survive, and even prosper, but it will not change the reality that Brexit was damaging and pointless. And yes, you can try and brush all the failures of Brexit under the carpet, and harp on ad nauseam about the vaccines (which is a British success - hurrah hurrah!), but our success here was largely because we have a world leading pharma sector, not because we have a populist clown as our head of government. The pharma sector is one sector of many that has been massively damaged by the stupidity of Brexit.
A more recent example is the testing company spun out of the Univ of Southampton, which was sold to the Anglo-French Novacyt for a couple of million. Out government spent £300m or so on their tests in the last six months.
Oh dear. EU descending into Comical Ali levels of delusion now...
If “kowtowing to big pharma” means investing in vaccine production and making sure you’re first in the queue, then that’s exactly what everyone should have done!
(Ignore for a minute that AZ are doing the whole thing on a non-profit basis, for the good of humanity).
It's a load of crap on all levels.
In any event, national industrial strategies may be making a comeback. The US, for example, is becoming increasingly aware of its massive strategic weakness in chip manufacturing (in contrast to its great strength in chip design).
With the rise of China to great power economic status, at the same time as it descends back into a modern form of authoritarianism, relying on the international free market, and that alone, is becoming increasingly insecure.
It's actually an area I think the UK needs to start looking at too. Our reliance on Taiwan for silicon chips is becoming extreme and it might be time to start seriously considering what the future looks like with Taiwan under Chinese occupation and planning on that basis.
We've let graphene completely slip away from us, but there's still time to onshore it as it's so small right now.
The government really needs to figure out how to properly incentivise invesmtment in manufacturing of high margin goods based on IP developed in the UK. As a nation we're absolutely shit at doing it and our tax system incentivises companies to design amazing products and then licence those designs to foreign companies who benefit from the economic development that comes with actually making stuff.
It is one potential benefit of Brexit that I'd happily acknowledge. Thus far largely potential, though.
I would be interested in reading some stats wrt University spin-out companies, and whcih Unis retain significant portfolios.
The biggest single miss I know of was Cambridge Antibody technology, and their arthritis drug Humira - which was licensed to Abbott for peanuts, and became the world's best selling drug. (AZN later bought CAT.)
Abbvie, the company which Abbott spun out with the drug, is currently worth around $180bn.
That's interesting.
Abbott are another of the biggies in the Diabetic market.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
Very much so. I’d love for the UK ago look at what makes the USA so attractive for scientists and entrepreneurs, the UK has a great reputation for innovation - but much less of growing companies to exploit those innovations.
Historical openness to immigration + large internal market + large source of investor capital + lack of red tape.
We’re busy torching most of that.
Except we're not?
I wish you were right. But you ain’t.
Except I am. You seem to be stuck on replay wrt brexit. It's time to move on.
You are guilty I’m afraid of “shiny uplands-ism”.
If you have actual evidence, you should share it.
The vaccines are evidence. They're benefiting the UK now but also will benefit our pharmaceutical industry in years, potentially decades to come.
This was a case of the UK showing how nimble can beat sclerotic. It is the most recent example, it wasn't the first and won't be the last.
This is the most recursive circle jerk known to geometry.
Go back to my original post, which was a reply to a question on the factors that make American innovation so successful.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
And that is why it really is "the equivalent of the WW2 Manhattan Project".
Los Alamos was of course peopled largely by immigrant scientists under the leadership of the US/UK following the Quebec Agreement. It was an international scientific effort.
@rcs1000 has found a really brilliant & telling historical analogy.
Surely, his comparison is waiting to be nicked by the mainstream media. We'll find out soon enough which journos crib from the site.
I explained at the beginning of the thread why it's a deeply flawed analogy.
You said "The science, production technology and much of the infrastructure behind even the mRNA vaccines was well characterised and in place before the pandemic began: that was certainly not true in any respect for the bomb and WWII."
The Manhattan Project was a greater challenge, but then it took 4 years.
The Covid Project had the advantage of more things in place beforehand, so we expect it done more quickly. It took under a year.
Both are still incredible achievements of international teams of scientists.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You're being cretinous yourself. Or illiterate.
The entire premise of the article is that the EU won't fail too badly, because the UK and USA have led the way out of this pandemic and the EU will be able to benefit from our success.
The EU failing would be a bad thing, we don't want that. We want them to be able to catch up with us, its a shame they didn't do the right thing in the first place but we can show them the way out and they can follow us.
I've never expressed a desire for the EU to fail or collapse - although I have criticised them vociferously and argued for fundamental reform - so this looks like @Gardenwalker projecting to me.
He has his good days and bad days, just like most of us.
I’m not sure I was talking about you. Rather, the general vibe of Brexity posters.
As PT says, we actually need the EU to succeed economically.
However for Brexiters, having cast them as an evil, “sclerotic” enemy & made a decision to vote Leave, it is now necessary to find and celebrate reasons for the EU’s failure.
This is a well known example of psychological self-justification in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
The EU are sclerotic.
On this the EU are failing.
Pointing out failures isn't willing them to fail. The first step to fixing your problems is to acknowledge they exist.
Why are you still pointing out the EU’s failures? Isn’t there enough in your wank bank already?
Imagine if you put this much energy into solving the problems of increased red tape for exporters.
Because people like you still deny they exist and still deny that the UK has any advantages from taking back control.
In any case, our overall response to COVID pales in comparison to the countries in the Far East, who appear not to matter for some reason.
To be fair they were far better prepared for a pandemic at the outset because of SARS and bird Flu.
Yeah, but that doesn’t take away from their success.
Posters don’t seem to mention Israel much, or just seem to write them off as a small country.
It is very transparent, and sad, and the worst of it is that it masks the actual reality which is that we are running a very successful vaccine programme but are still in the early days of the most self-destructive foreign policy since Suez.
Ceteris paribus, our economic race car is suffering several punctures and no obvious source of fuel as we “race” out of the covid traps.
Suez was about the UK still trying to maintain the pretence of being a military and economic superpower, without the means to back it up.
Brexit is simply a decision to exercise more political and regulatory independence through leaving a regulatory union that had political aspirations we didn't share, and that were increasingly predominating.
Yes, there will be challenges but I don't see it as self-destructive. I think the decision will be vindicated in the medium-long term, to the benefit of both the EU and UK.
Tell that to exporters.
Don't be silly. We now rather wonderfully have the same rules worldwide, removing the pro-EU bias. OK, for so many SMEs the cost / complexity of exporting globally wasn't worth doing so unlike the effortless ability to do so in the UK. Which means that EU market is now as cut off as ROW was, and they have little if any ability to recover those lost sales.
But that's definitely a *good thing*. Anyway Liz Truss has signed a whole load of (continuity) trade deals which make no changes at all to ROW trade so its all fixed now and can't these Brexit-campaigning businesses stop their remoaning already?
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You’re allowed to hate Johnson, and hate Trump, but still acknowledge that the UK and USA have been by far the biggest contributors to getting the world out of this mess.
That's fair. I'd also note that most of the key work underpinning the mRNA vaccines was the contribution of recent immigrants to the US. Their openness and attraction to foreign talent is a great strength that they should not surrender.
Very much so. I’d love for the UK ago look at what makes the USA so attractive for scientists and entrepreneurs, the UK has a great reputation for innovation - but much less of growing companies to exploit those innovations.
Historical openness to immigration + large internal market + large source of investor capital + lack of red tape.
We’re busy torching most of that.
Except we're not?
I wish you were right. But you ain’t.
Except I am. You seem to be stuck on replay wrt brexit. It's time to move on.
You are guilty I’m afraid of “shiny uplands-ism”.
If you have actual evidence, you should share it.
Immigration is now based on income, less red tape than the tier 2 system and it doesn't discriminate against country of origin very much. The rest aren't really anything to do with the EU anyway and for manufactured and semi-manufactured goods the UK has a tariff and quota free trade deal with the EU giving us full access to that part of the single market. You'll notice that the major part of the bitching about the deal is from agriculture, industry is just quietly getting on with adjusting supply chains and building warehouses to allow for customs checking on site.
If anything not being in the EU will allow for creative tax regimes that incentivise onshore development of domestic IP. Those sorts of schemes come under the state aid rules in the EU and the needle needs to be very carefully threaded as we did with cultural relevance testing on movies, TV and gaming development subsidies. We can simply junk all of that red tape and give simple tax incentives.
I notice bitching in many sectors, Max. Not just agriculture and fisheries.
And the idea that we are more open to immigration than before is laughable.
As for the size of our single market, we’ve actually made it smaller than the UK’s population by chopping out Northern Ireland. Surely a diplomatic first!
Your second paragraph is where I am more inclined to agree with you.
Oh dear another bit of Nat hypocrisy. The tendency to 'select the bits of history that make you feel good' is exactly what Scottish Nationalists do with regularity. Actually, strike "Scottish" and just leave it at "nationalists". Nationalism of all stripes selects the history it likes and burns the bits that don't fit the narrative. English nationalism, Russian nationalism, Scottish nationalism, Trumpism. Nasty rotten peas in the same pod.
Nationalism yes but freedom movements no. The line is often blurred but after the EU referendum I'd classify Scotland as a freedom movement. Their governance was changed against their will. No country should have to put up with that.
A freedom movement? Don't be ridiculous. The Scots are not repressed. If you look at a large part of British Empire history it was the Scots who did the repressing. They were massively overrepresented in the structures of British government and the British Empire. Their fearsome regiments were heavily engaged in Ireland and other parts of the world in what might be regarded as repression. The Scots are not a colony, but one of the main drivers of British colonisation of the rest of the world. This is the type of history the Nats would rather cover up.
Very good thread headers from RCS & MattW - many thanks.
One thing I'm surprised about is... presumably the UK delayed dose strategy is working? I would imagine we would have reports of people vaccinated once turning up in hospital if not...
Good news for the West Midlands! I think it makes sense from a branding perspective.
It does make a sort of sense - to be focused on one type of engine means the maker becomes known for that. There is plenty of potential there, with Tesla currently the only electric specialist marque, and therefore reaping the benefits. However, I am not entirely sure I'd try and make Jaguar that brand, as opposed to starting a new one. However, it's an interesting strategy.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You're being cretinous yourself. Or illiterate.
The entire premise of the article is that the EU won't fail too badly, because the UK and USA have led the way out of this pandemic and the EU will be able to benefit from our success.
The EU failing would be a bad thing, we don't want that. We want them to be able to catch up with us, its a shame they didn't do the right thing in the first place but we can show them the way out and they can follow us.
I've never expressed a desire for the EU to fail or collapse - although I have criticised them vociferously and argued for fundamental reform - so this looks like @Gardenwalker projecting to me.
He has his good days and bad days, just like most of us.
I’m not sure I was talking about you. Rather, the general vibe of Brexity posters.
As PT says, we actually need the EU to succeed economically.
However for Brexiters, having cast them as an evil, “sclerotic” enemy & made a decision to vote Leave, it is now necessary to find and celebrate reasons for the EU’s failure.
This is a well known example of psychological self-justification in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
The EU are sclerotic.
On this the EU are failing.
Pointing out failures isn't willing them to fail. The first step to fixing your problems is to acknowledge they exist.
Why are you still pointing out the EU’s failures? Isn’t there enough in your wank bank already?
Imagine if you put this much energy into solving the problems of increased red tape for exporters.
Because people like you still deny they exist and still deny that the UK has any advantages from taking back control.
Nope.
It would be very odd to deny the EU experiences failures, and their vaccination programme is surely the most notable.
I would not pass so lightly over Borrell’s disastrous trip to Moscow a few weeks ago either. Some are calling it the effective end of EU as a foreign policy actor.
It’s possible to walk *and* chew gum at the same time, you know. You should try it some time.
Vaccine passports for travel are coming very soon. It's the only way to revive tourism and business travel. Other countries are demanding them so we will have to provide them to Brits who want a holiday
Vaccine visas for everyday life.. hmmm... I wouldn't rule it out
Good news for the West Midlands! I think it makes sense from a branding perspective.
That's my next Jag sorted then.
They keep calling me but I'm not going to replace my XE (which I love, and isn't even four-years old yet) until there's an affordable electric alternative.
Vaccine passports for travel are coming very soon. It's the only way to revive tourism and business travel. Other countries are demanding them so we will have to provide them to Brits who want a holiday
Vaccine visas for everyday life.. hmmm... I wouldn't rule it out
The government has this right, I think.
Although I agree with the sentiment last night that anti-vax doctors and nurses should be stood down. (Though not that vaccination should be compulsory).
I recently replaced the airbag computer on a new-ish Evoque for my mate (the main stealer had already told the owner they could ram the faulty computer up their arse) and did note that JLR are finally learning some production engineering from their Indian overlords. The Evoque has a reduced fastener count and 10mm hex heads abound everywhere. It was still an absolute piece of garbage that was 85% plastic.
I think it says a lot of good things about me as a person that I can remain on fairly amicable terms with somebody who would buy an Evoque.
Good news for the West Midlands! I think it makes sense from a branding perspective.
It does make a sort of sense - to be focused on one type of engine means the maker becomes known for that. There is plenty of potential there, with Tesla currently the only electric specialist marque, and therefore reaping the benefits. However, I am not entirely sure I'd try and make Jaguar that brand, as opposed to starting a new one. However, it's an interesting strategy.
ICE cars are going to be heading through a phased obselecence in the 2030s, as EVERY manufacturer will be doing this. Tesla's ludicrous valuation will approach reality as the all electric horizon dawns.
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You're being cretinous yourself. Or illiterate.
The entire premise of the article is that the EU won't fail too badly, because the UK and USA have led the way out of this pandemic and the EU will be able to benefit from our success.
The EU failing would be a bad thing, we don't want that. We want them to be able to catch up with us, its a shame they didn't do the right thing in the first place but we can show them the way out and they can follow us.
I've never expressed a desire for the EU to fail or collapse - although I have criticised them vociferously and argued for fundamental reform - so this looks like @Gardenwalker projecting to me.
He has his good days and bad days, just like most of us.
I’m not sure I was talking about you. Rather, the general vibe of Brexity posters.
As PT says, we actually need the EU to succeed economically.
However for Brexiters, having cast them as an evil, “sclerotic” enemy & made a decision to vote Leave, it is now necessary to find and celebrate reasons for the EU’s failure.
This is a well known example of psychological self-justification in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
The EU are sclerotic.
On this the EU are failing.
Pointing out failures isn't willing them to fail. The first step to fixing your problems is to acknowledge they exist.
Why are you still pointing out the EU’s failures? Isn’t there enough in your wank bank already?
Imagine if you put this much energy into solving the problems of increased red tape for exporters.
Because people like you still deny they exist and still deny that the UK has any advantages from taking back control.
I can't speak for others, but the UK will certainly have some advantages from Brexit, to deny that would be as stupid . There are always opportunities for some in any period of change. The problem that Brexit apologists have is that only the most odd ball economists think there will be an overall benefit, and most mainstream economists calculate a massive disbenefit. To most of those of us that run businesses it is just common sense.
Brexit was/is an irrational emotional belief set, that is largely built on distrust or even hatred of foreigners and this was manipulated by populists. I will do my best to make the most of opportunities I see, but it will not stop me from seeing the bigger picture that Brexit is an ideology for numpties.
I recently replaced the airbag computer on a new-ish Evoque for my mate (the main stealer had already told the owner they could ram the faulty computer up their arse) and did note that JLR are finally learning some production engineering from their Indian overlords. The Evoque has a reduced fastener count and 10mm hex heads abound everywhere. It was still an absolute piece of garbage that was 85% plastic.
I think it says a lot of good things about me as a person that I can remain on fairly amicable terms with somebody who would buy an Evoque.
I recently replaced the airbag computer on a new-ish Evoque for my mate (the main stealer had already told the owner they could ram the faulty computer up their arse) and did note that JLR are finally learning some production engineering from their Indian overlords. The Evoque has a reduced fastener count and 10mm hex heads abound everywhere. It was still an absolute piece of garbage that was 85% plastic.
I think it says a lot of good things about me as a person that I can remain on fairly amicable terms with somebody who would buy an Evoque.
LOL
I remember when my brother purchased a post BMW Discovery. The shock at the reduction in little bits of crap that rattled....
Oh dear another bit of Nat hypocrisy. The tendency to 'select the bits of history that make you feel good' is exactly what Scottish Nationalists do with regularity. Actually, strike "Scottish" and just leave it at "nationalists". Nationalism of all stripes selects the history it likes and burns the bits that don't fit the narrative. English nationalism, Russian nationalism, Scottish nationalism, Trumpism. Nasty rotten peas in the same pod.
Nationalism yes but freedom movements no. The line is often blurred but after the EU referendum I'd classify Scotland as a freedom movement. Their governance was changed against their will. No country should have to put up with that.
A freedom movement? Don't be ridiculous. The Scots are not repressed. If you look at a large part of British Empire history it was the Scots who did the repressing. They were massively overrepresented in the structures of British government and the British Empire. Their fearsome regiments were heavily engaged in Ireland and other parts of the world in what might be regarded as repression. The Scots are not a colony, but one of the main drivers of British colonisation of the rest of the world. This is the type of history the Nats would rather cover up.
How very odd you should claim that. Actually Scotland's role in the slave trade has been very actively explored and debated in the last decade or two - and very interestingly (and shockingly), too.
Vaccine passports for travel are coming very soon. It's the only way to revive tourism and business travel. Other countries are demanding them so we will have to provide them to Brits who want a holiday
Vaccine visas for everyday life.. hmmm... I wouldn't rule it out
Vaccine visas won't happen for free entry general stuff like the pub, or the supermarket. Places that cost on entry - cinemas, some nightclubs maybe.
Buried deep in the rolling feed on the BBC world news web page:
The EU has approved vaccine exports to 21 non-EU countries this month, including the US, UK and China - despite continuing vaccine shortages in the EU, German broadcaster ARD reports. The vaccine delays have caused anger in much of Europe, where far fewer people have had the jab than in the UK and US.
Vaccine passports for travel are coming very soon. It's the only way to revive tourism and business travel. Other countries are demanding them so we will have to provide them to Brits who want a holiday
Vaccine visas for everyday life.. hmmm... I wouldn't rule it out
Vaccine visas won't happen for free entry general stuff like the pub, or the supermarket. Places that cost on entry - cinemas, some nightclubs maybe.
Can't see it. 20-30yr olds not vaccinated until the Autumn so what...the youngsters stay at home will the old gits head off to the flicks?
Vaccine passports for travel are coming very soon. It's the only way to revive tourism and business travel. Other countries are demanding them so we will have to provide them to Brits who want a holiday
Vaccine visas for everyday life.. hmmm... I wouldn't rule it out
Pretty much every long haul destination out of the UK, is going to want to see proof of vaccination by this summer for tourists and business travellers. Some places will be vaccine or quarantine, others will be no vaccine no entry.
Unless you're one of the test tube wankers that brewed up the vaccine then you've really got nothing to be proud of.
I hope that is not the process for development, more people may refuse if people are just wanking into test tubes.
May not be Dura Ace's meaning, but a friend of mine from uni (physics) who went into secondary teaching for a while told me a story about being momentarily shocked when he walked past the classroom of his head of department (with whom he did not get on at all and had had a run in with earlier in the day). The HoD had a chemistry class in and met his eye through the classroom window while apparently making a 'wanker' gesture with his hand. It was only after a moment that he realised the teacher was holding a capped test-tube and doing a demo on something at the front of the class.
(I never quite worked out whether this was a true story or made up, but it was told as if true)
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You're being cretinous yourself. Or illiterate.
The entire premise of the article is that the EU won't fail too badly, because the UK and USA have led the way out of this pandemic and the EU will be able to benefit from our success.
The EU failing would be a bad thing, we don't want that. We want them to be able to catch up with us, its a shame they didn't do the right thing in the first place but we can show them the way out and they can follow us.
I've never expressed a desire for the EU to fail or collapse - although I have criticised them vociferously and argued for fundamental reform - so this looks like @Gardenwalker projecting to me.
He has his good days and bad days, just like most of us.
I’m not sure I was talking about you. Rather, the general vibe of Brexity posters.
As PT says, we actually need the EU to succeed economically.
However for Brexiters, having cast them as an evil, “sclerotic” enemy & made a decision to vote Leave, it is now necessary to find and celebrate reasons for the EU’s failure.
This is a well known example of psychological self-justification in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
The EU are sclerotic.
On this the EU are failing.
Pointing out failures isn't willing them to fail. The first step to fixing your problems is to acknowledge they exist.
Why are you still pointing out the EU’s failures? Isn’t there enough in your wank bank already?
Imagine if you put this much energy into solving the problems of increased red tape for exporters.
Because people like you still deny they exist and still deny that the UK has any advantages from taking back control.
Nope.
It would be very odd to deny the EU experiences failures, and their vaccination programme is surely the most notable.
I would not pass so lightly over Borrell’s disastrous trip to Moscow a few weeks ago either. Some are calling it the effective end of EU as a foreign policy actor.
It’s possible to walk *and* chew gum at the same time, you know. You should try it some time.
Philip's very binary belief in Brexit Britain being marvellous and the EU being the personification of evil is quaint and shocking at the same time. Admittedly he is probably not quite at the level of the QAnon fanatic, but when you see such religious faith in a political ideology and such a hatred of an alternative one it is possible to see how the QAnon movement has grown in the US
That's a story to be proud of and, of course, such political embarrassments and cover-ups still occur today.
I would recommend watching both Amistad (1997) and Amazing Grace (2007) for interesting films about the slave trade and the abolition movement. The former is particularly good because it shows how a few good men try to work realistically within "the system" to rid it of its worst evils.
A short clip of Captain Fitzgerald, who's a fervent abolitionist captain:
Oh dear another bit of Nat hypocrisy. The tendency to 'select the bits of history that make you feel good' is exactly what Scottish Nationalists do with regularity. Actually, strike "Scottish" and just leave it at "nationalists". Nationalism of all stripes selects the history it likes and burns the bits that don't fit the narrative. English nationalism, Russian nationalism, Scottish nationalism, Trumpism. Nasty rotten peas in the same pod.
Nationalism yes but freedom movements no. The line is often blurred but after the EU referendum I'd classify Scotland as a freedom movement. Their governance was changed against their will. No country should have to put up with that.
A freedom movement? Don't be ridiculous. The Scots are not repressed. If you look at a large part of British Empire history it was the Scots who did the repressing. They were massively overrepresented in the structures of British government and the British Empire. Their fearsome regiments were heavily engaged in Ireland and other parts of the world in what might be regarded as repression. The Scots are not a colony, but one of the main drivers of British colonisation of the rest of the world. This is the type of history the Nats would rather cover up.
How very odd you should claim that. Actually Scotland's role in the slave trade has been very actively explored and debated in the last decade or two - and very interestingly (and shockingly), too.
Sure, but no doubt most Nats in some way blamed the English
Why must you persist giving this clown oxygen? He's an idiot. Ignore him.
He's a prominent Brussels reporter - and clearly represents a strain of "thinking" (sic) - I'd rather know what they're "thinking" than not. Wouldn't you?
Vaccine passports for travel are coming very soon. It's the only way to revive tourism and business travel. Other countries are demanding them so we will have to provide them to Brits who want a holiday
Vaccine visas for everyday life.. hmmm... I wouldn't rule it out
Vaccine visas won't happen for free entry general stuff like the pub, or the supermarket. Places that cost on entry - cinemas, some nightclubs maybe.
Can't see it. 20-30yr olds not vaccinated until the Autumn so what...the youngsters stay at home will the old gits head off to the flicks?
It'll come in if enough customers demand it. Seat distancing (As it will be once cinemas are allowed again) and not a vax QR code will be the temporary "new normal" but cinemas may well want to get back to full capacity, and vax codes will be a way of doing that. I'd expect it to be implemented after everyone has been offered a first jab.
On a slight aside, you never seem to be able to forsee any sort of health measure that might come at the expense of one person giving up ~ 1/1000th of their privacy that they do to Facebook on a daily basis. Are you in the Covid research group ?
The Johnson and Anglosphere worship is truly pathetic this morning.
Johnson is a cretin, and five minutes ago the US was in the middle of an attempted coup d’etat by the worst President or its history.
As always for the incel crowd, it is not enough for Brexit to succeed, the EU must also fail.
You're being cretinous yourself. Or illiterate.
The entire premise of the article is that the EU won't fail too badly, because the UK and USA have led the way out of this pandemic and the EU will be able to benefit from our success.
The EU failing would be a bad thing, we don't want that. We want them to be able to catch up with us, its a shame they didn't do the right thing in the first place but we can show them the way out and they can follow us.
I've never expressed a desire for the EU to fail or collapse - although I have criticised them vociferously and argued for fundamental reform - so this looks like @Gardenwalker projecting to me.
He has his good days and bad days, just like most of us.
I’m not sure I was talking about you. Rather, the general vibe of Brexity posters.
As PT says, we actually need the EU to succeed economically.
However for Brexiters, having cast them as an evil, “sclerotic” enemy & made a decision to vote Leave, it is now necessary to find and celebrate reasons for the EU’s failure.
This is a well known example of psychological self-justification in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
The EU are sclerotic.
On this the EU are failing.
Pointing out failures isn't willing them to fail. The first step to fixing your problems is to acknowledge they exist.
Why are you still pointing out the EU’s failures? Isn’t there enough in your wank bank already?
Imagine if you put this much energy into solving the problems of increased red tape for exporters.
Because people like you still deny they exist and still deny that the UK has any advantages from taking back control.
Nope.
It would be very odd to deny the EU experiences failures, and their vaccination programme is surely the most notable.
I would not pass so lightly over Borrell’s disastrous trip to Moscow a few weeks ago either. Some are calling it the effective end of EU as a foreign policy actor.
It’s possible to walk *and* chew gum at the same time, you know. You should try it some time.
Philip's very binary belief in Brexit Britain being marvellous and the EU being the personification of evil is quaint and shocking at the same time. Admittedly he is probably not quite at the level of the QAnon fanatic, but when you see such religious faith in a political ideology and such a hatred of an alternative one it is possible to see how the QAnon movement has grown in the US
Except its not true. You're projecting.
I have always acknowledged that the EU has its advantages and I was torn as to whether we should remain or leave. I nearly voted Remain and I still see the advantages of Remaining.
I don't believe Brexit Britain will be marvellous. I do believe there will be costs as well as benefits for Britain leaving.
I don't believe the EU is a personification of evil. I believe it is sclerotic and undemocratic but not evil. It has some good things going for it, but being democratic and being nimble are not a part of that. I have no hatred for the EU I just see it as a flawed institution and expect it will evolve into a more Federal more democratic more centralised institution over time.
I believe that Britain will be better off out of the EU, but only just. It was and remains in my eye a very close thing. But having made the decision we should do it properly.
Vaccine passports for travel are coming very soon. It's the only way to revive tourism and business travel. Other countries are demanding them so we will have to provide them to Brits who want a holiday
Vaccine visas for everyday life.. hmmm... I wouldn't rule it out
Vaccine visas won't happen for free entry general stuff like the pub, or the supermarket. Places that cost on entry - cinemas, some nightclubs maybe.
Can't see it. 20-30yr olds not vaccinated until the Autumn so what...the youngsters stay at home will the old gits head off to the flicks?
It'll come in if enough customers demand it. Seat distancing (As it will be once cinemas are allowed again) and not a vax QR code will be the temporary "new normal" but cinemas may well want to get back to full capacity, and vax codes will be a way of doing that. I'd expect it to be implemented after everyone has been offered a first jab.
On a slight aside, you never seem to be able to forsee any sort of health measure that might come at the expense of one person giving up ~ 1/1000th of their privacy that they do to Facebook on a daily basis.
The fellow who ran CI (not Nix or the founders) is a good friend of mine. He noted, wryly, that just about all the things we don't want people to know about ourselves (eg bank details, credit scores, etc) are available if you want to acquire them, but all the things you don't care about (what you had for breakfast, pictures or stories of dogs/children/sunsets/ponies/etc) are actually quite difficult to get if you are not a "friend" on one of the social media platforms.
Comments
Los Alamos was of course peopled largely by immigrant scientists under the leadership of the US/UK following the Quebec Agreement. It was an international scientific effort.
@rcs1000 has found a really brilliant & telling historical analogy.
Surely, his comparison is waiting to be nicked by the mainstream media. We'll find out soon enough which journos crib from the site.
We can clearly do the science, R&D, and engineering in the UK, that's indisputable, but we are really quite bad at turning that work into a global profitable business. All to often UK businesses stall at the point they need investment to go mass-market.
Katalin Kariko, without whom the mRNA technology simply would not have existed at this point, was born in Hungary.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-hungarian-immigrant-behind-messenger-rna-key-to-covid-19-vaccines/
There's a tricky bit of politics coming up, exemplified by Steve Baker this morning. The UK has probably done enough vaccination to keep the death rate very low from about 3 weeks time. Heck, Ireland has done first doses for care home residents and staff, is doing people aged 85+ over the next 3 weeks... that's a big bite out of their potential future death rate. The temptation to scamper back to business as usual is going to grow.
But there are still a lot of people out there who haven't been vaccinated, and getting Covid is not a good thing. And a lot of the people who have been vaccinated are less mobile; frankly, they're not going to cut R by that much. Reopening all schools at once is a big dollop of extra mixing all at once. Is it worth risking Spike 4?
Question for people in schools- has there been any thinking about when to release Years 11 and 13 from school this year? Normally, it would be about Whitsun, because exams were largely over. But this year, is there a case for making that final half term available for some sort of "get ready for the next step" work? As exam cohorts, they've had two disrupted years.
https://twitter.com/MadsAlbertsen85/status/1361259560707776513?s=20
Brexit is simply a decision to exercise more political and regulatory independence through leaving a regulatory union that had political aspirations we didn't share, and that were increasingly predominating.
Yes, there will be challenges but I don't see it as self-destructive. I think the decision will be vindicated in the medium-long term, to the benefit of both the EU and UK.
I've always thought them pointless (unless there were only one or two balls remaining).
A successful EU is a good thing for the UK. Being outside of it but having a large single market on our doorstep that we're not a part of but are able to sell into is a 'cake and eat it' scenario.
I have no interest whatsoever in seeing the EU fail.
https://www.politico.eu/coronavirus-in-europe/
Rather, the general vibe of Brexity posters.
As PT says, we actually need the EU to succeed economically.
However for Brexiters, having cast them as an evil, “sclerotic” enemy & made a decision to vote Leave, it is now necessary to find and celebrate reasons for the EU’s failure.
This is a well known example of psychological self-justification in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.
As long as the hospitals can cope, death rates are down, and the most vulnerable have been vaccinated, then that is sufficient.
For a country that has such a great research tradition the development is just so awful.
Just been reading up Ziylo, which developed molecules around diabetes treatment (binding glucose in the bloodstream), and was bought out from Uni of Bristol and others in 2019 for $800m ... by Novo Nordisk.
https://globaluniversityventuring.com/exit-of-the-year-ziylo/#:~:text=Founded in 2014, Ziylo has,sugar levels, known as hypoglycaemia.
But you ain’t.
https://twitter.com/Cambridge_COGUK/status/1360685488940670980?s=20
Thanks @rcs1000 – a better roundup than anything I have read in the papers.
There is a lot of emotion felt around the EU and Brexit (I share some of it) but if the EU fell wholesale the carcass would be crowbarred open and ruthlessly picked at by vultures like China and Russia.
That's not an outcome that's in British interests, quite aside from anything else.
On this the EU are failing.
Pointing out failures isn't willing them to fail. The first step to fixing your problems is to acknowledge they exist.
See also, poor provision of non-academic further education.
If we can solve these we will be laughing.
(In fact, I even have a physics text-book with his autograph signature in it).
If you have actual evidence, you should share it.
Actually, the whole thing came as a bit of a surprise. Sure we had posters (both remainers and leavers) saying that the UK looked to have done a decent job in procurement. But even when it became evident that the EU was going to be behind, I don't think we thought it was going to be a big issue. It was just going to be an area where they would be a bit behind, but they could catch up.
What was really surprising is that the EU themselves turned it into a cluster**** of epic proportions by threatening to ban exports. I don't have a particularly high opinion of the EU, but I'd never have contemplated them behaving as they did.
Does it on it's own prove Brexit was right. Probably not, but I think it has highlighted the contradictions of the whole EU project. Personally I think they need to go the whole hog and form a federal state and let the people decide who runs the thing. I'm not holding my breath, though.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=uq-gYOrU8bA
This was a case of the UK showing how nimble can beat sclerotic. It is the most recent example, it wasn't the first and won't be the last.
Abbvie, the company which Abbott spun out with the drug, is currently worth around $180bn.
Imagine if you put this much energy into solving the problems of increased red tape for exporters.
If anything not being in the EU will allow for creative tax regimes that incentivise onshore development of domestic IP. Those sorts of schemes come under the state aid rules in the EU and the needle needs to be very carefully threaded as we did with cultural relevance testing on movies, TV and gaming development subsidies. We can simply junk all of that red tape and give simple tax incentives.
Britain will survive, and even prosper, but it will not change the reality that Brexit was damaging and pointless. And yes, you can try and brush all the failures of Brexit under the carpet, and harp on ad nauseam about the vaccines (which is a British success - hurrah hurrah!), but our success here was largely because we have a world leading pharma sector, not because we have a populist clown as our head of government. The pharma sector is one sector of many that has been massively damaged by the stupidity of Brexit.
Out government spent £300m or so on their tests in the last six months.
Abbott are another of the biggies in the Diabetic market.
Go back to my original post, which was a reply to a question on the factors that make American innovation so successful.
The Manhattan Project was a greater challenge, but then it took 4 years.
The Covid Project had the advantage of more things in place beforehand, so we expect it done more quickly. It took under a year.
Both are still incredible achievements of international teams of scientists.
Science is the real hero of our time.
https://twitter.com/autocar/status/1361255028535787520?s=21
I think it makes sense from a branding perspective.
But that's definitely a *good thing*. Anyway Liz Truss has signed a whole load of (continuity) trade deals which make no changes at all to ROW trade so its all fixed now and can't these Brexit-campaigning businesses stop their remoaning already?
https://twitter.com/markmcgeoghegan/status/1361277599444525058?s=20
Not just agriculture and fisheries.
And the idea that we are more open to immigration than before is laughable.
As for the size of our single market, we’ve actually made it smaller than the UK’s population by chopping out Northern Ireland.
Surely a diplomatic first!
Your second paragraph is where I am more inclined to agree with you.
One thing I'm surprised about is... presumably the UK delayed dose strategy is working?
I would imagine we would have reports of people vaccinated once turning up in hospital if not...
So why aren't more countries copying us on that?
Still seems mad we aren't properly evaluating our strategy:
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/20/revisiting-the-uks-strategy-for-delaying-the-second-dose-of-the-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine/
It would be very odd to deny the EU experiences failures, and their vaccination programme is surely the most notable.
I would not pass so lightly over Borrell’s disastrous trip to Moscow a few weeks ago either. Some are calling it the effective end of EU as a foreign policy actor.
It’s possible to walk *and* chew gum at the same time, you know. You should try it some time.
Vaccine visas for everyday life.. hmmm... I wouldn't rule it out
If only Jaguar were as successful and well-values as Tesla!
They keep calling me but I'm not going to replace my XE (which I love, and isn't even four-years old yet) until there's an affordable electric alternative.
It will easily last another 5-6 years.
Although I agree with the sentiment last night that anti-vax doctors and nurses should be stood down. (Though not that vaccination should be compulsory).
Appearing in a context of new food business health scare:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56032185
I think it says a lot of good things about me as a person that I can remain on fairly amicable terms with somebody who would buy an Evoque.
Brexit was/is an irrational emotional belief set, that is largely built on distrust or even hatred of foreigners and this was manipulated by populists. I will do my best to make the most of opportunities I see, but it will not stop me from seeing the bigger picture that Brexit is an ideology for numpties.
I remember when my brother purchased a post BMW Discovery. The shock at the reduction in little bits of crap that rattled....
But they are very prolific in company formations on the Finchley Road.
(Niche PB joke)
The EU has approved vaccine exports to 21 non-EU countries this month, including the US, UK and China - despite continuing vaccine shortages in the EU, German broadcaster ARD reports. The vaccine delays have caused anger in much of Europe, where far fewer people have had the jab than in the UK and US.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world
Blink and you'll miss it.
(I never quite worked out whether this was a true story or made up, but it was told as if true)
The PM's next car will be an SUV or 4x4 of some kind as that is what the market wants.
On a slight aside, you never seem to be able to forsee any sort of health measure that might come at the expense of one person giving up ~ 1/1000th of their privacy that they do to Facebook on a daily basis. Are you in the Covid research group
https://guernseypress.com/news/2021/02/15/alderney-will-not-rush-its-exit-from-lockdown/
I have always acknowledged that the EU has its advantages and I was torn as to whether we should remain or leave. I nearly voted Remain and I still see the advantages of Remaining.
I don't believe Brexit Britain will be marvellous. I do believe there will be costs as well as benefits for Britain leaving.
I don't believe the EU is a personification of evil. I believe it is sclerotic and undemocratic but not evil. It has some good things going for it, but being democratic and being nimble are not a part of that. I have no hatred for the EU I just see it as a flawed institution and expect it will evolve into a more Federal more democratic more centralised institution over time.
I believe that Britain will be better off out of the EU, but only just. It was and remains in my eye a very close thing. But having made the decision we should do it properly.