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The polling finds Brits top the world rankings when it comes to willingness to be vaccinated – polit

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  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,567

    Liam Byrne wins the W Mids mayor job in May?
    Unless Yvette Cooper gives up her seat, it will have to be in Yorkshire.

    Admittedly, she very nearly lost it anyway 15 months ago.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 10,022

    We shouldn't be surprised by the increase in British willingness to get vaccinated. There's nothing as effective
    as stuffing it to the EU for encouraging Brits to do something.

    You may be joking but I really don't think most British people care that much about the EU. That was part of the problem.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905

    To be fair I post here and I’m therefore politically engaged, but if asked unprompted I’m not sure I’d remember Dodds was Shadow CX. I have to look up the other Shadow Ministers every time.
    I don't know how many other people can name, but off the top of my head I know:

    Starmer: leader
    Rayner: deputy
    Dodds: shadow chancellor
    Nandy: shadow foreign sec
    A Welsh MP called Nick with a double-barrelled surname: shadow home sec
    Ashworth: health
    Lammy: justice
    EdM: business
    Reeves: shadow Gove

    And after that I struggle. I also know that Kate Green shadows Williamson, but I can only remember that because I caught reports about her reply to his statement the other day, and I think Thornberry is still in the shadow cabinet but I don't know what her brief is. Still, such is life for Opposition MPs, I suppose.
  • alex_alex_ Posts: 7,518
    Are there prominent figures within the Scottish Independence movement who actually don't want their main policy and have been getting a bit concerned about its apparent inevitability?
  • BluestBlueBluestBlue Posts: 4,556
    Andy_JS said:

    That mustn't happen IMO. No facemasks for normal life, and flu is part of normal life.
    I wouldn't worry about it too much. I'm 100% in support of facemasks for as long as the pandemic is active, but I'll be damned if I put one on again once everyone's been fully jabbed. Until the next pandemic, obviously...
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 18,366
    edited February 2021

    I think voluntary face masks, social distancing, and hand sanitiser are here to stay.
    One of the interesting things about the excess deaths graphs at https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938 is that the UK is unusual on having such a sharp spike in the baseline in January-ish. (It flatters our excess deaths data a bit more right now, I imagine.) I assume that's flu, and if improved hygiene can squash that, it's surely a good thing.
  • Interesting anecdote from today's Guernsey briefing - they had been told to expect 20% wastage in the vaccine roll out - the actual figure is 0.5% - which was one 10ml vial that was a bit cloudy they decided to ditch in the first 20,000 vaccinations. Like many places in the UK they have people on standby to get any spare doses at the end of the day - they are also routinely getting an extra dose out of each vial.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 10,022
    rcs1000 said:

    Did they use the hall by the Nursery ground? (God, I can't wait to get back to Lords to watch cricket.)
    I'd like to have mine in the long room.

  • Philip_ThompsonPhilip_Thompson Posts: 65,826
    edited February 2021
    kinabalu said:

    (i) "I disagree with the table showing we are 4th worst in the world on covid outcome. There are other ways of comparing that I think give a fairer result."

    (ii) "4th in the world is not true. There is no semblance of truth to it whatsoever."

    Language is all there is on an internet forum and you are abusing it here. It's fine - you write what you want - but so will I.

    And here I use it to charge and convict you of arguing in bad faith, aka LYING.
    No you are acting in bad faith.

    There is categorically no semblance of truth to the Worldometers figures. Just because someone compiles dodgy data does not give it a semblance of truth.

    When Italy are recording two excess deaths for every one Covid death there is no good faith reason at all to be using the Worldometers data when accurate alternatives are out there.

    It is like a few days ago when Leon claimed that France had a 25% death toll from Covid19 because that is what Worldometers gives as the closed case death rate.

    Anybody still using Worldometers as their primary source and trying to make political claims based on that is either malicious or ignorant.

    Worldometers table is not "unfair" or "disagreeable" it is wrong and using wrong data leads to wrong outcomes. Garbage in, garbage out.
  • One of the interesting things about the excess deaths graphs at https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938 is that the UK is unusual on having such a sharp spike in the baseline in January-ish. (It flatters our excess deaths data a bit more right now, I imagine.) I assume that's flu, and if improved hygiene can squash that, it's surely a good thing.
    Quite a few people I know who haven't been working from home have noted a complete lack of sniffles this winter, something they experience nearly every winter.

    These are people who work in public facing roles and use public transport.
  • YorkcityYorkcity Posts: 4,382
    kle4 said:

    I find that she has become memorable for me because people talk about how unmemorable she is. Contrarily, I'd have no idea who the Shadow Home Secretary is.
    Nick Thomas symonds is the shadow home Secretary.
    I think he is good comes across very well.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 11,482
    edited February 2021

    I'd like to have mine in the long room.

    No - it was the 'banqueting' suite above Lord's Tavern, and it was only on exiting that one was in the cricket ground proper, exiting via Grace gate. (This to @rcs1000 obviously)
  • fox327fox327 Posts: 373
    edited February 2021

    I think voluntary face masks, social distancing, and hand sanitiser are here to stay.
    Yes, as long as the memories of the great COVID waves of hospitalisations and deaths are fresh in people's minds. But when the deaths go down and the hospitalisations stabilise at a lower level, will people forget? Most events get forgotten in time and slowly society creeps back to normal, until the next big upset.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 10,022

    I said to Dave the best way to win the referendum was to tell the public that the French wanted us to Leave.

    Remain landslide.
    This whole bashing the French thing is a peculiar middle class Tory obsession. There's a fair bit of suspicion even paranoia amongst the public towards our Gallic cousins but most people have got better things to do.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905

    I think voluntary face masks, social distancing, and hand sanitiser are here to stay.
    I think that most people (apart from real germophobes, who have discovered a new fetish) will gradually forget about the constant slathering with hand sanitiser. There's no place for social distancing in a fully functional society, and it would certainly kill much of the hospitality trade and venues like theatres stone dead.

    Masks are a different matter. I can actually see them being mandated in certain settings again this Winter, because of concern about flu and Covid hitting at once. Going forward, it's not impossible that they might become a social norm on crowded public transport as well, or for people who have to go out despite being ill (and actually, one social change I really would like to see coming out of this pandemic - and this has been called for by a number of boffins recently - is for the culture of presenteeism to go in the dustbin and for it to become socially unacceptable for people who are really quite ill to keep dragging themselves into workplaces. Although that would probably necessitate the ditching both of zero hours contracts and the gig economy model, so that's probably not going to happen at all, and certainly not under a Conservative Government.)
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 18,630

    Quite a few people I know who haven't been working from home have noted a complete lack of sniffles this winter, something they experience nearly every winter.

    These are people who work in public facing roles and use public transport.
    There is no question that the anti Covid measures also are suppressing other viruses. Whether we as a society would want mandated wearing post Covid (assuming we get to post Covid) is a different question as to whether some will carry on wearing them.
    One issue I think should change is the oversanitizing that is now taking place, despite the evidence showing little to no risk of vomited being a significant cause of Covid spread.
  • FrankBoothFrankBooth Posts: 10,022

    Interesting anecdote from today's Guernsey briefing - they had been told to expect 20% wastage in the vaccine roll out - the actual figure is 0.5% - which was one 10ml vial that was a bit cloudy they decided to ditch in the first 20,000 vaccinations. Like many places in the UK they have people on standby to get any spare doses at the end of the day - they are also routinely getting an extra dose out of each vial.

    I do wonder if we should have been so keen to share our vaccine with the tax avoiding crown dependencies.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,746

    I think voluntary face masks, social distancing, and hand sanitiser are here to stay.
    Facemasks maybe, hand sanitiser without a shadow of a doubt, but I’m less sure about social distancing in the same way that condom use declined when the perceived threat of AIDS receded.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    rcs1000 said:

    I believe those who have previously voted LibDem are not eligible for vaccination, so that's probably the reason.
    In that case, given that OGH had his ages ago, compiling the Yellow List of the Treasonous was clearly a Grayling project.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,746
    edited February 2021
    kle4 said:

    I don't like facemasks either, but if it is not law but people choose to do it what business is that of yours or mine?
    Do you remember what would have happened this time last year if you walked in to a bank with a face mask on?
  • stodgestodge Posts: 14,485
    rcs1000 said:

    I believe those who have previously voted LibDem are not eligible for vaccination, so that's probably the reason.
    I'm sure it won't be long before those who are vaccinated realise it's going to turn them into Lib Dem voting zombies though the effect may not happen until 2024.

    What do you mean, Sir Ed? People don't know...

    Oh dear....
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 121,682
    edited February 2021

    This whole bashing the French thing is a peculiar middle class Tory obsession. There's a fair bit of suspicion even paranoia amongst the public towards our Gallic cousins but most people have got better things to do.
    Nonsense, our distrust of the French goes back centuries.

    Would you like me to repeat the comments of the Labour party towards Chirac and the French when Chirac threaten to use the French veto at the UN over the plans to liberate Iraq?
  • rcs1000 said:

    I believe those who have previously voted LibDem are not eligible for vaccination, so that's probably the reason.
    Explains 94% getting it then. 😇
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,302
    stodge said:

    Evening all :)

    Have to say still no invitation for this 60+ to get a vaccine. Hearing widespread stories of those in their 50s getting a vaccine and the unwillingness of Government to publish detailed figures on the progress of vaccination does make me suspicious the rollout programme is proceeding rapidly in some areas and less well in others.

    The cohort of those aged 16-64 with underlying health conditions is admittedly one of the largest at over 7 million nationally but progress through this and down the population appears inconsistent to this observer whatever the national numbers are saying..

    Not sure if you saw my earlier post this afternoon @Stodge.


    Someone on our zoom bookclub yesterday evening said their husband (62, no health issues) had just gone online and booked his first jab.

    So this morning I tried the same for me (60) and Mrs P (63).

    Success! First jab for both of us booked for Monday at 9:30; 2nd jab also booked (for 17 May).

    https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/

    We each put in our NHS number, DoB, answered 'No' to the list of vulnerabilities, and hey presto - we were offered a range of nearby locations and dates.

  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,538

    I think that most people (apart from real germophobes, who have discovered a new fetish) will gradually forget about the constant slathering with hand sanitiser. There's no place for social distancing in a fully functional society, and it would certainly kill much of the hospitality trade and venues like theatres stone dead.

    Masks are a different matter. I can actually see them being mandated in certain settings again this Winter, because of concern about flu and Covid hitting at once. Going forward, it's not impossible that they might become a social norm on crowded public transport as well, or for people who have to go out despite being ill (and actually, one social change I really would like to see coming out of this pandemic - and this has been called for by a number of boffins recently - is for the culture of presenteeism to go in the dustbin and for it to become socially unacceptable for people who are really quite ill to keep dragging themselves into workplaces. Although that would probably necessitate the ditching both of zero hours contracts and the gig economy model, so that's probably not going to happen at all, and certainly not under a Conservative Government.)
    I think the one thing that will change is that people will not go to work if they have so much as a sniffle.

    But there's no way I'm wearing a mask on the train just in case.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,414

    a) https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-tracker

    We don't know everything but there's a substantial amount of data there.

    Italy until 30/11/20 had 157 excess deaths per 100k population.
    Britain until 22/01/21 had 160 excess deaths per 100k population.

    Given the figures that have come out from Italy in December and January it seems reasonable to expect more than 3 deaths per 100k in the eight weeks they have missing from the data.
    The problem with doing it on "per 100k" is that it flatters those with younger populations. I'd do it percentage-wise personally.
  • I think that most people (apart from real germophobes, who have discovered a new fetish) will gradually forget about the constant slathering with hand sanitiser. There's no place for social distancing in a fully functional society, and it would certainly kill much of the hospitality trade and venues like theatres stone dead.

    Masks are a different matter. I can actually see them being mandated in certain settings again this Winter, because of concern about flu and Covid hitting at once. Going forward, it's not impossible that they might become a social norm on crowded public transport as well, or for people who have to go out despite being ill (and actually, one social change I really would like to see coming out of this pandemic - and this has been called for by a number of boffins recently - is for the culture of presenteeism to go in the dustbin and for it to become socially unacceptable for people who are really quite ill to keep dragging themselves into workplaces. Although that would probably necessitate the ditching both of zero hours contracts and the gig economy model, so that's probably not going to happen at all, and certainly not under a Conservative Government.)
    I think some people will be cautious.

    I'm a cinema and gig goer, I might wait a year to see what the impacts of non mask wearing at the cinema and a lack of social distancing at those two venues has on Covid numbers.
  • RogerRoger Posts: 20,463

    I think even "appalling misogynists" deserve "due process" and "the rule of law".

    Don't you?
    The hypocrisy of the Tories on here has become one of the great features of the site.All the bright Tories peeled off after Brexit but the ones that are left are a gift!

    Now that Salmond's put the boot into the Nats what about a seat in the HoL? Minister for women perhaps?
  • Not on this board, no:

    https://twitter.com/MacaesBruno/status/1365388085563850754?s=20

    Indeed one was done today!
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,786

    This whole bashing the French thing is a peculiar middle class Tory obsession. There's a fair bit of suspicion even paranoia amongst the public towards our Gallic cousins but most people have got better things to do.
    I agree. I absolutely love France, the country, and like the French; I thought I was alone on here, but maybe not. Since I started posting on here, I've never understood the animosity and, sometimes, bile aimed at the French. I guess some of it is meant to be amusing, but still. Most strange.
  • One of the interesting things about the excess deaths graphs at https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938 is that the UK is unusual on having such a sharp spike in the baseline in January-ish. (It flatters our excess deaths data a bit more right now, I imagine.) I assume that's flu, and if improved hygiene can squash that, it's surely a good thing.
    It is doubly strange given that the UK has (apparently) the highest uptake of flu vaccinations in Europe - something that many are saying is one of the underlying reasons why our current covid vaccination is meeting such little resistance.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 56,022
    DougSeal said:

    They say 72%. Data from Turkey, Brazil and Indonesia puts it anywhere between 50% and 90%. I think it’s better than nowt.
    Sinopharm is okay, similar to AZ. Sinovac is the dud one.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 14,485


    I think voluntary face masks, social distancing, and hand sanitiser are here to stay.

    Of the three, I think social distancing is the least likely. So many people I talk to seem fixated with going down to the pub and just meeting with and talking to people.

    I'm an anti-social grumpy old git so that doesn't have the same appeal.

    Face masks - some will wear them on the Tube in particular and I can see some logic for no other reason than the air quality in London in certain weather conditions is poor.

    I would like to think one of the few positives from all this will be greater awareness of the importance of personal hygiene and a sense of collective responsibility so we don't "just soldier on" when ill and we accept keeping surfaces germ-free isn't a bad idea. The public health lessons need to be re-enforced once the vaccination programme has done its work.

    After all, we don't know how long immunity from the vaccine will last - it's entirely possible there will need to be a round of booster vaccinations in October or November and there's a worry the take-up of those may not be as encouraging as we are seeing currently. That said, as vaccines improve, it's entirely possible we'll get to a point where one vaccination could provide 18-24 months of immunity if not more.

    At a simpler level, if better hygiene and public health reduces the numbers of colds and outbreaks of norovirus, that can be no bad thing.

  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,302

    Not on this board, no:

    https://twitter.com/MacaesBruno/status/1365388085563850754?s=20

    Indeed one was done today!

    What does "until it is available across the channel" ereally mean though?

    Vaccines are available across the channel - maybe not in such great numbers but they're available.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    tlg86 said:

    I think the one thing that will change is that people will not go to work if they have so much as a sniffle.

    But there's no way I'm wearing a mask on the train just in case.
    With regard to presenteeism: as I suggested in my previous post, that's only changing if the attitude of employers as well as employees changes. One rather suspects (partly based on personal experience) that HR departments are so paranoid about the possibility of being fleeced by malingerers that it really takes very little in many firms to trigger an automated treadmill of sickness absence reviews and warning letters. It's quite likely that all of that will come flooding back as soon as the workload of Covid-enforced absences abates, I'm afraid.
  • TimTTimT Posts: 6,468

    Nonsense, our distrust of the French goes back centuries.

    Would you like me to repeat the comments of the Labour party towards Chirac and the French when Chirac threaten to use the French veto at the UN over the plans to liberate Iraq?
    The French do it too - 'how can you rule a country with 246 different cheeses?' is not a Tory quote.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 11,482

    It is doubly strange given that the UK has (apparently) the highest uptake of flu vaccinations in Europe - something that many are saying is one of the underlying reasons why our current covid vaccination is meeting such little resistance.
    No doubt at least in part due to the great trust there is in the NHS. (To perhaps slightly irrational levels)
  • ozymandiasozymandias Posts: 1,503

    I agree. I absolutely love France, the country, and like the French; I thought I was alone on here, but maybe not. Since I started posting on here, I've never understood the animosity and, sometimes, bile aimed at the French. I guess some of it is meant to be amusing, but still. Most strange.
    The English and French have been insulting each other, and indeed fighting each other, for the best part of 1000 years!

    It's nothing new and some might say a rivalry which has been mutually beneficial to both. Both countries keep each other on its toes!
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 9,012
    rcs1000 said:

    The problem with doing it on "per 100k" is that it flatters those with younger populations. I'd do it percentage-wise personally.
    :D

  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 18,630
    stodge said:

    Of the three, I think social distancing is the least likely. So many people I talk to seem fixated with going down to the pub and just meeting with and talking to people.

    I'm an anti-social grumpy old git so that doesn't have the same appeal.

    Face masks - some will wear them on the Tube in particular and I can see some logic for no other reason than the air quality in London in certain weather conditions is poor.

    I would like to think one of the few positives from all this will be greater awareness of the importance of personal hygiene and a sense of collective responsibility so we don't "just soldier on" when ill and we accept keeping surfaces germ-free isn't a bad idea. The public health lessons need to be re-enforced once the vaccination programme has done its work.

    After all, we don't know how long immunity from the vaccine will last - it's entirely possible there will need to be a round of booster vaccinations in October or November and there's a worry the take-up of those may not be as encouraging as we are seeing currently. That said, as vaccines improve, it's entirely possible we'll get to a point where one vaccination could provide 18-24 months of immunity if not more.

    At a simpler level, if better hygiene and public health reduces the numbers of colds and outbreaks of norovirus, that can be no bad thing.

    I’m quite confident of rather long immunity. I believe others have posted about sars immunity lasting 20 years or so. Certainly we are now a year in with no evidence of widespread re infection. Also my colleague who had Covid in March 2020 mounted a very strong reaction on immunisation. A year is a minimum I’d think...
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,295
    One explanation for the data in the header may be that in this country the vast majority of anti-lockdown supporters are nevertheless big supporters of the vaccines. That probably isn't so much the case in other countries.
  • tlg86tlg86 Posts: 26,538
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,808
    Roger said:

    The hypocrisy of the Tories on here has become one of the great features of the site.All the bright Tories peeled off after Brexit but the ones that are left are a gift!

    Now that Salmond's put the boot into the Nats what about a seat in the HoL? Minister for women perhaps?
    Considering you still are a polanski apologist maybe take the beam out of your own eye before tarring others
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,414
    tlg86 said:

    I think the one thing that will change is that people will not go to work if they have so much as a sniffle.

    But there's no way I'm wearing a mask on the train just in case.
    I'm flying to New York next week, and plan on wearing one of these:

    https://microclimate.com/
  • stodge said:

    I'm sure it won't be long before those who are vaccinated realise it's going to turn them into Lib Dem voting zombies though the effect may not happen until 2024.

    What do you mean, Sir Ed? People don't know...

    Oh dear....
    Which ones were the LibDems? Were they the ones with the yellow ties?
  • rcs1000 said:

    The problem with doing it on "per 100k" is that it flatters those with younger populations. I'd do it percentage-wise personally.
    Somebody could write a thesis trying to figure out a sensible way to compare countries controlling for factors.

    Any comparison that doesn't control for age profile, population density, care home population and obesity is going to be simplistic at best.

    Its too early to judge how the UK has performed but being reasonable controlling for key variables I'd suggest the UK is distinctly average. Could have done better on some issues, worse on others.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 121,682
    edited February 2021

    I agree. I absolutely love France, the country, and like the French; I thought I was alone on here, but maybe not. Since I started posting on here, I've never understood the animosity and, sometimes, bile aimed at the French. I guess some of it is meant to be amusing, but still. Most strange.
    I was a Francophile up until the age of 15.

    I voluntarily chose to learn the French language, I love the food, the country but when in 1994 as a callow school student my school arranged a trip to Normandy to coincide with the 50th anniversary of D-Day.

    I was genuinely moved and humbled walking around places like the American and Commonwealth cemeteries in places like Colleville-sur-Mer and Bayeux, seeing the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, it had a profound effect on me, it showed war isn't all glory but lots of sacrifice.

    One evening on that trip, I heard a bunch of Frenchmen laughing and making derogatory comments the Anglos and Los Rosbifs, it pissed me off, I got the feeling that they would have preferred to have remained under German control than liberated by the Anglos.

    Hence my lifelong dislike of the French.
  • Black_RookBlack_Rook Posts: 8,905
    Questions from one who knows nothing of this procedure:

    1. Is it really as simple as making such a request of the solicitors?
    2. Does it require unanimity amongst the Committee members (i.e. could objections from the SNP members thwart the request)?
    3. Does the Crown Office have any power to obstruct the request?
    4. If the Committee obtains the information then does a concept of Parliamentary privilege exist in the devolved set-up which would enable it to discuss and to publish said information openly, without fear of prosecution for contempt of court?
  • There are definitely some who should wear a face mask permanently.

    Or a paper bag.
  • Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 8,786

    I was a Francophile up until the age of 15.

    I voluntarily chose to learn the French language, I love the food, the country but when in 1994 as a callow school student my school arranged a trip to Normandy to coincide with the 50th anniversary of D-Day.

    I was genuinely moved and humbled walking around places like the American and Commonwealth cemeteries in places like Colleville-sur-Mer and Bayeux, seeing the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, it had a profound effect on me, it showed war isn't all glory but lots of sacrifice.

    One evening on that trip, I heard a bunch of Frenchmen laughing and making derogatory comments the Anglos and Los Rosbifs, it pissed me off, I got the feeling that they would have preferred to have remained under German control than liberated by the Anglos.

    Hence my lifelong dislike of the French.
    Fair enough, but seems like an over-reaction to a small subset of the French. Rather like foreigners over here taking lifelong umbrage at the English because they were vilified by a bunch of Leeds supporters...
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,302

    I was a Francophile up until the age of 15.

    I voluntarily chose to learn the French language, I love the food, the country but when in 1994 as a callow school student my school arranged a trip to Normandy to coincide with the 50th anniversary of D-Day.

    I was genuinely moved and humbled walking around places like the American and Commonwealth cemeteries in places like Colleville-sur-Mer and Bayeux, seeing the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, it had a profound effect on me, it showed war isn't all glory but lots of sacrifice.

    One evening on that trip, I heard a bunch of Frenchmen laughing and making derogatory comments the Anglos and Los Rosbifs, it pissed me off, I got the feeling that they would have preferred to have remained under German control than liberated by the Anglos.
    One evening over 25 years ago has coloured your whole opinion of a nation? You should try to to get over it and move on.

    The French and Brits are so very much alike. Not surprising given the proximity and shared heritage.
  • One evening over 25 years ago has coloured your whole opinion of a nation? You should try to to get over it and move on.

    The French and Brits are so very much alike. Not surprising given the proximity and shared heritage.
    I visit France a lot, it is a common feeling shared by many French.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,670

    Questions from one who knows nothing of this procedure:

    1. Is it really as simple as making such a request of the solicitors?
    2. Does it require unanimity amongst the Committee members (i.e. could objections from the SNP members thwart the request)?
    3. Does the Crown Office have any power to obstruct the request?
    4. If the Committee obtains the information then does a concept of Parliamentary privilege exist in the devolved set-up which would enable it to discuss and to publish said information openly, without fear of prosecution for contempt of court?
    https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/46/part/I/crossheading/proceedings-etc

    ?
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,302

    I visit France a lot, it is a common feeling shared by many French.
    And many Brits dislike the French. We've established that.

    For all that I respect most of your views, as expressed in your posts, I find your periodic stereotyped abuse of the French rather juvenile tbh.
  • One evening over 25 years ago has coloured your whole opinion of a nation? You should try to to get over it and move on.

    The French and Brits are so very much alike. Not surprising given the proximity and shared heritage.
    And the similarly is what leads to the mutual love-hate relationship and the somewhat pathetic attempts to exaggerate the differences.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,414

    Somebody could write a thesis trying to figure out a sensible way to compare countries controlling for factors.

    Any comparison that doesn't control for age profile, population density, care home population and obesity is going to be simplistic at best.

    Its too early to judge how the UK has performed but being reasonable controlling for key variables I'd suggest the UK is distinctly average. Could have done better on some issues, worse on others.
    My guess, and it's just a guess FWIW, is that (when it's all over) we will have performed better than the US, Sweden, Italy and Spain, but probably worse than Germany, and the Netherlands and the rest of Scandinavia.

    However, we will also have put the bug behind us by the end of May, while many of those other countries will only beat it by the end of Summer.
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 9,012
    MattW said:

    https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/46/part/I/crossheading/proceedings-etc

    ?
    Exactly as Wee Eck said.

  • BluestBlueBluestBlue Posts: 4,556
    edited February 2021

    I agree. I absolutely love France, the country, and like the French; I thought I was alone on here, but maybe not. Since I started posting on here, I've never understood the animosity and, sometimes, bile aimed at the French. I guess some of it is meant to be amusing, but still. Most strange.
    < hushed tones >

    I secretly find it a bit childish too, though there are times when they deserve it, and Macron's recent behaviour certainly counts. We're rival siblings in a way, and on that subject doesn't Nero tell us, in Racine's Britannicus, 'j’embrasse mon rival, mais c’est pour l’étouffer'?
  • Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 34,295

    Not on this board, no:

    https://twitter.com/MacaesBruno/status/1365388085563850754?s=20

    Indeed one was done today!

    What on earth is he talking about?
  • < hushed tones >

    I secretly find it a bit childish too, though there are times when they deserve it, and Macron's recent behaviour certainly counts. We're rival siblings in a way, and on that subject doesn't Nero tell us, in Racine's Britannicus, 'j’embrasse mon rival, mais c’est pour l’étouffer'?
    I see it as the banter of rivals.
  • stodgestodge Posts: 14,485



    I’m quite confident of rather long immunity. I believe others have posted about sars immunity lasting 20 years or so. Certainly we are now a year in with no evidence of widespread re infection. Also my colleague who had Covid in March 2020 mounted a very strong reaction on immunisation. A year is a minimum I’d think...

    That wasn't the issue to which I was referring. The vaccines do two key things as I see it - one, if you catch the virus, the effects are substantially mitigated and two, you become significantly less able to transmit the virus. With these two keys in place, it's all about "returning to normal" (horrible concept, let's have a new normal, not the boring old normal).

    Once we are all "cheek by jowl" as the Prime Minister once put it, the vaccines prevent the re-igniting of Covid but that works only as long as the vaccines work. Once the immunity declines or wears off, we'll be back to large outbreaks among people bunched together indoors in confined spaces. This isn't a risk for summer but it's a risk for autumn and next winter because we don't know how long the immunity provided by the vaccines will last.

    The first vaccines were only administered less than 3 months ago - let's say where we are in six months.
  • Scott_xP said:
    All things considered, they’d have been better advised to say nothing.
  • Time_to_LeaveTime_to_Leave Posts: 2,547
    edited February 2021

    I see it as the banter of rivals.
    Yes. Note also that if someone picks on the French it annoys us, and we defend them, because picking on the French is our job.
  • CookieCookie Posts: 14,834

    < hushed tones >

    I secretly find it a bit childish too, though there are times when they deserve it, and Macron's recent behaviour certainly counts. We're rival siblings in a way, and on that subject doesn't Nero tell us, in Racine's Britannicus, 'j’embrasse mon rival, mais c’est pour l’étouffer'?
    The only thing I have against the French is that their leaders don't seem to like us very much.
    But really, of all the neighbours we could have, we've done ok.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 56,022
    Roger said:

    The hypocrisy of the Tories on here has become one of the great features of the site.All the bright Tories peeled off after Brexit but the ones that are left are a gift!

    Now that Salmond's put the boot into the Nats what about a seat in the HoL? Minister for women perhaps?
    The Roman Polanski award for treatment of women, perhaps?
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,808

    Yes. Note also that if someone picks on the French it annoys us, and we defend them, because that’s our job.
    Well in the past certainly, not so sure people would be so willing to go rescue europe again
  • Pagan2 said:

    Well in the past certainly, not so sure people would be so willing to go rescue europe again
    Nah, we need to continue to help the French (e.g. sending them some vaccine) if for no other reason than they’d hate it.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,414
    Pagan2 said:

    Well in the past certainly, not so sure people would be so willing to go rescue europe again
    I don't think things would have worked out well for us if we'd sued for peace with Hitler. War was - ultimately - very much to our benefit.
  • rcs1000 said:

    I don't think things would have worked out well for us if we'd sued for peace with Hitler. War was - ultimately - very much to our benefit.
    Was it? I mean it bankrupted us and cost us the India and most of the Empire.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,414
    stodge said:

    That wasn't the issue to which I was referring. The vaccines do two key things as I see it - one, if you catch the virus, the effects are substantially mitigated and two, you become significantly less able to transmit the virus. With these two keys in place, it's all about "returning to normal" (horrible concept, let's have a new normal, not the boring old normal).

    Once we are all "cheek by jowl" as the Prime Minister once put it, the vaccines prevent the re-igniting of Covid but that works only as long as the vaccines work. Once the immunity declines or wears off, we'll be back to large outbreaks among people bunched together indoors in confined spaces. This isn't a risk for summer but it's a risk for autumn and next winter because we don't know how long the immunity provided by the vaccines will last.

    The first vaccines were only administered less than 3 months ago - let's say where we are in six months.
    The immunity doesn't disappear all in one go, it will slowly fade with time. (And may well last a decade, as tetanus, or for life, as with measels, polio, etc.)

    We'll have booster shots from time-to-time. Big deal.
  • rcs1000 said:

    I believe those who have previously voted LibDem are not eligible for vaccination, so that's probably the reason.
    What's happening is that GCHQ is monitoring internet chat, and every time someone complains about not having had the vaccine yet they get put to the back of the queue.

    --AS
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 35,302
    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think things would have worked out well for us if we'd sued for peace with Hitler. War was - ultimately - very much to our benefit.
    Indeed.

    Dominion by C J Sansom paints a very believable picture of how things might well have been had Britain sued for peace with Hitler. Good book.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,808
    rcs1000 said:

    I don't think things would have worked out well for us if we'd sued for peace with Hitler. War was - ultimately - very much to our benefit.
    I didn't claim we shouldn't have however now the eu in general and france in particular have buddied up with china which is the next enemy of the west.....not so sure we should help out
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,414

    Was it? I mean it bankrupted us and cost us the India and most of the Empire.
    It didn't cost us India and the Empire, because they were going to go anyway. We would have had a belligerent behemoth on our doorstep, and that would not be fun.
  • MattWMattW Posts: 26,670
    edited February 2021
    geoffw said:

    Exactly as Wee Eck said.

    There may be a procedural question, as to how it is issued.

    ie Can than be done by the committee chair, committee majority, or has to be by Parliament.

    Will depend on Standing Orders, Terms of Reference for Committee; I am not familiar with those.

    I think that he has set it up to be slightly tricky for anyone to refuse to issue the Notice.

    Is emergency legal intervention possible, I wonder?

    Not a Salmond fan, but that was the best political Prestige I have seen for some time.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,414
    Pagan2 said:

    I didn't claim we shouldn't have however now the eu in general and france in particular have buddied up with china which is the next enemy of the west.....not so sure we should help out
    I'm struggling with your scenario. You worry about us having to rescue Europe from an enemy of the West, which is fair enough. But then you identify that enemy as China, and say that France and Germany are allied with it. So, who is China going to invade? Finland?

  • ozymandiasozymandias Posts: 1,503
    rcs1000 said:

    It didn't cost us India and the Empire, because they were going to go anyway. We would have had a belligerent behemoth on our doorstep, and that would not be fun.
    Left to their own devices without the UK sticking its nose in, the Reich would have cleaned up in all of Europe, finished off the Russians and then had all the time in the world to develop their own nuclear programme. With the UK looking on - rather helpless.

    All without the USA poking its nose in too.
  • MattW said:

    There may be a procedural question, as to how it is issued.

    ie Can than be done by the committee chair, committee majority, or has to be by Parliament.

    Will depend on Standing Orders, Terms of Reference for Committee; I am not familiar with those.

    I think that he has set it up to be slightly tricky for anyone to refuse to issue the Notice.

    Is emergency legal intervention possible, I wonder?

    For him, it’s just as useful if no request can be made (especially if there’s a bun fight over it) because it makes his case for a cover up.
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 59,414

    Left to their own devices without the UK sticking its nose in, the Reich would have cleaned up in all of Europe, finished off the Russians and then had all the time in the world to develop their own nuclear programme. With the UK looking on - rather helpless.

    All without the USA poking its nose in too.
    And the UK would have been cut off from its sources of oil in the Middle East. It would have been very ugly indeed.
  • Left to their own devices without the UK sticking its nose in, the Reich would have cleaned up in all of Europe, finished off the Russians and then had all the time in the world to develop their own nuclear programme. With the UK looking on - rather helpless.

    All without the USA poking its nose in too.
    Hitler started with a view that we were one of his few legitimate allies. We may have just about been able to coexist. All the more reason to be proud of my grandparent’s generation for telling him to do one.
  • Pagan2Pagan2 Posts: 10,808
    rcs1000 said:

    I'm struggling with your scenario. You worry about us having to rescue Europe from an enemy of the West, which is fair enough. But then you identify that enemy as China, and say that France and Germany are allied with it. So, who is China going to invade? Finland?

    The most likely military threat to europe is russia, if russia invades europe I suggest we let them call on china. Russia and china are both enemies of the west. Fighting a war over europe will weaken both.
  • DougSealDougSeal Posts: 12,746
    edited February 2021

    Was it? I mean it bankrupted us and cost us the India and most of the Empire.
    For the Jewish population of this country at the very least I think the right choice was made. Given the eliminationist drive of the Nazi party they would have been at great risk had we sued for peace.
  • rcs1000 said:

    My guess, and it's just a guess FWIW, is that (when it's all over) we will have performed better than the US, Sweden, Italy and Spain, but probably worse than Germany, and the Netherlands and the rest of Scandinavia.

    However, we will also have put the bug behind us by the end of May, while many of those other countries will only beat it by the end of Summer.
    Seems a reasonable summary. 👍
  • ozymandiasozymandias Posts: 1,503

    Hitler started with a view that we were one of his few legitimate allies. We may have just about been able to coexist. All the more reason to be proud of my grandparent’s generation for telling him to do one.
    Absolutely, But Hitler's Germany ruling supreme from the Atlantic to the Russian Pacific would have dwarfed us in every resource and strategic advantage you could possibly imagine. I'm sure, although Hitler did have an admiration for the English gentry in particular, I'm sure that admiration wouldn't have stretched to giving the UK any beneficial treatment. We would have been a client-State, very much dependent on his goodwill.
  • BluestBlueBluestBlue Posts: 4,556
    Scott_xP said:
    By any chance, was this spokesperson called Comical Aileen?
  • geoffwgeoffw Posts: 9,012

    Hello all!
    I had my first Pfizer dose yesterday. I'm only early 40s but have had some health problems so pushed up the list. The local set up was really efficient; I arrived ten minutes early and had my jab four minutes later, so six minutes before I was meant to arrive. I tried to loiter outside the centre (away from anyone) to not be so early, but got urged in by one of the volunteers.
    I found the whole experience unexpectedly uplifting. Everybody involved was so positive, their masks didn't seem to be hiding their smiles. I imagine only the bitterest opponents of the government/Boris/Brexit will deny the enormous success our vaccine strategy has been.
    I've been lurking here a while. I wanted to join the other day so I could get on the Meeks "useful list", but it seems I may have been too slow - unless the list is still alive despite his awkward departure? I'd like to respond to his insane accuation that supporters of Brexit and the current givernment have tried to kill his partner, by pointing out that his preferred policies would have been trying to kill me and many close to me by delaying our vaccinations by many months in the useless EU scheme.
    Was death-cult the mot-juste once?

    Good first post Hoc.

  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 73,567

    All things considered, they’d have been better advised to say nothing.
    That would have been true from the start of this whole shambles going back years.
This discussion has been closed.