Latest Savanta/ComRes lockdown tracker finds declining levels of compliance particularly amongst the
Options
Comments
-
Max, if the EU blocks AZ ingredients, how badly does that affect us?MaxPB said:Watching this whole EU vaccine disaster is a bit like watching a friend you've fallen out with threaten to jump off a bridge. You don't want them to, obviously, but there's a bit of morbid curiosity.
Clearly, if they block export of Pfizer jabs, that is disastrous1 -
It seems like the EU attitude to the AZ vaccine is still the same: they want it, but they don't want to use it.3
-
Except the EU are openly conspiring against us right now. They aren't hiding it.Richard_Nabavi said:
Poppycock. I'm perfectly detached from both sets of the deranged. It's just that the similarities between them are so striking. One lot think the EU can do no good and automatically conspiring against us, the other lot think everything the EU does is automatically good and that AZ are conspiring against them. Both lots ignore perfectly obvious and innocents explanations for what they think are dastardly plots.felix said:
Gosh you're so obsessed with the Brexit thing you've lost all ability to be detached. Bizarre that you cannot see what you are doing.Richard_Nabavi said:It's amazing. AZ's tweets (see below in @Leon's 2.25pm post) are perfectly clear, and explain where these vaccines are going and when. And yet the European anti-AZ zealots are somehow managing to find even more fuel for their barmy conspiracy theories, such as this idiocy:
https://twitter.com/chrismiller_uk/status/1374728593448833026
They are just like the Brexiteers, viewing everything through a distorting lens of bile and fantasy. It's a remarkable sight.
But maybe I shouldn't be surprised, come to think of it. It's insecurity driving both, so perhaps it's to be expected that the reactions are so similar.2 -
Ah the old extrapolation fallacy...No_Offence_Alan said:
Why is that news? I will be 84 then.ping said:
Forget the headline. This bit is genuinely alarming;Andy_JS said:O/T
"Human penises are shrinking because of pollution, warns scientist"
https://news.sky.com/story/human-penises-are-shrinking-because-of-pollution-warns-scientist-12255106
“Dr Swan believes that the rapidly decreasing fertility rate means that most men will be unable to produce viable sperm by 2045.“0 -
Actually, in that case there were some serious questions to answer.Sandpit said:
Formula 1 came close to boycotting Italy in 1995, after the death of Ayrton Senna in an accident the previous year.Malmesbury said:
The issue is the Italian system, not the EUFloater said:
There is a long history, there, of thinking that practical matters can be dictated by the wishes of the state.
The Italian magistrates investigating the death wanted to arrest a number of people involved with the Williams team and the F1 organisation as they arrived in Italy.
Bernie Ecclestone told the Italian PM in no uncertain terms, that there would be no races in Italy until they dropped the investigation. It was an accident at a motor race, where everyone involved knew and accepted the inherent risks.
For example the demented bodge of a weld on the steering column. *I* could have done the weld better and would have designed a better fix than that.0 -
We don't know enough, yet. Though @MaxPB argued it was irrelevant.Leon said:
Now that the EU is officially doing ‘the mad thing everyone said they wouldn’t do’, has anyone crunched the numbers to see if this will actually affect the UK vax drive?williamglenn said:
Where’s Max when you need him?
Depends on whether:
- EU tries to ban Pfizer exports (very unlikely).
- When Novavax arrives.
- We have imported very little AZ from EU
Have to admit, given that the EU have gone "threat ... threat !!! ... THREAT !!!!! ... TADA !" I hope that UK rollout continues sailing serenely on its merry way, just ignoring the mad people shouting in the corner.
Update: official UK response is a straight bat.
UK gov spokesperson responds to Commission announcement it could block Pfizer vaccine exports using updated mechanism:
“We remain confident in our supplies and are on track to offer first doses to all over 50s by April 15th and all adults by the end of July."
1 -
Fair point.Philip_Thompson said:
Except the EU are openly conspiring against us right now. They aren't hiding it.Richard_Nabavi said:
Poppycock. I'm perfectly detached from both sets of the deranged. It's just that the similarities between them are so striking. One lot think the EU can do no good and automatically conspiring against us, the other lot think everything the EU does is automatically good and that AZ are conspiring against them. Both lots ignore perfectly obvious and innocents explanations for what they think are dastardly plots.felix said:
Gosh you're so obsessed with the Brexit thing you've lost all ability to be detached. Bizarre that you cannot see what you are doing.Richard_Nabavi said:It's amazing. AZ's tweets (see below in @Leon's 2.25pm post) are perfectly clear, and explain where these vaccines are going and when. And yet the European anti-AZ zealots are somehow managing to find even more fuel for their barmy conspiracy theories, such as this idiocy:
https://twitter.com/chrismiller_uk/status/1374728593448833026
They are just like the Brexiteers, viewing everything through a distorting lens of bile and fantasy. It's a remarkable sight.
But maybe I shouldn't be surprised, come to think of it. It's insecurity driving both, so perhaps it's to be expected that the reactions are so similar.
Unless it's just theatre, of course, which is possible.0 -
Not everyone in the EU is happy with the ban. The Irish are clear-eyed
https://twitter.com/maryeregan/status/1374738346472304650?s=212 -
This thread has been shut down like the export of vaccines from the EU to the UK.1
-
Or brinkmanship. They want the UK to agree to ‘export’ AZ to them. So they can claim a bizarre ‘victory’, disguising their failures. Then the ban is forgottenRichard_Nabavi said:
Fair point.Philip_Thompson said:
Except the EU are openly conspiring against us right now. They aren't hiding it.Richard_Nabavi said:
Poppycock. I'm perfectly detached from both sets of the deranged. It's just that the similarities between them are so striking. One lot think the EU can do no good and automatically conspiring against us, the other lot think everything the EU does is automatically good and that AZ are conspiring against them. Both lots ignore perfectly obvious and innocents explanations for what they think are dastardly plots.felix said:
Gosh you're so obsessed with the Brexit thing you've lost all ability to be detached. Bizarre that you cannot see what you are doing.Richard_Nabavi said:It's amazing. AZ's tweets (see below in @Leon's 2.25pm post) are perfectly clear, and explain where these vaccines are going and when. And yet the European anti-AZ zealots are somehow managing to find even more fuel for their barmy conspiracy theories, such as this idiocy:
https://twitter.com/chrismiller_uk/status/1374728593448833026
They are just like the Brexiteers, viewing everything through a distorting lens of bile and fantasy. It's a remarkable sight.
But maybe I shouldn't be surprised, come to think of it. It's insecurity driving both, so perhaps it's to be expected that the reactions are so similar.
Unless it's just theatre, of course, which is possible.
But we haven’t budged. So they’ve painted themselves into a corner?
Possible3 -
Yes, perhaps. Nixon in China etc. As I say, it's not a hot topic for me. My main interest is seeing the nuclear "deterrent" go. That's the ultimate olde worlde waste of money. Quite a lot of money too. A Tory government scrapping that would be in the frame for my vote. Or at the very least it'd be food for thought.Sandpit said:
As someone who would generally support the government, this review seems like a rare look at the defence sector that ignores the huge vested interests within the military ranks. Recent technological innovations have totally changed how the military needs to work in the future - we don't need hundreds of manned fighter jets and a large standing army when the main threats of the future are from space and online, and unmanned aircraft are better in almost every way than their maned equivalents.kinabalu said:
Yes. "Cyber" sounds like the box to tick there. "Do you at least try and keep up with today's world or are you completely stuck in your ways?" And as a supplementary point, the intricacies of modern warfare would be right towards the top of a list of subjects that most members of the general public know sweet FA about. Which very much includes me in this case. You can pour what I know about military matters into a thimble and it won't overflow.Luckyguy1983 said:
It's also a very leading question. Hardware sounds like the contents of a junkyard, vs. the more relevant sounding 'cyber warfare'. If you said 'ships, helicopters and planes' vs. 'Minitoring of Twitter', you'd get a different outcome.kinabalu said:
Yep, then the follow-ups ask where the priority should be, cyber or hardware, and cyber wins. This does not show public support for cutting troop numbers. It just shows public support for prioritizing cyber over hardware.Big_G_NorthWales said:
You gov say in the question the size of the army is to be reducedkinabalu said:
But the questions don't follow. Troops aren't battlefield hardware. They're battlefield hardnuts.Big_G_NorthWales said:
On the defence review the voters are on HMG sideFloater said:I forgot this little gem
Lisa Nandy’s recent endorsement of a report calling for the army to be abolished and replaced with a woke “peace force
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1374329461286535172?s=19
Maybe it's one of those things that only a Conservative government can do, in the same way that only a Labour government can push serious NHS modernisation through.0 -
I think it definitely started as theatre, otherwise they would simply have enacted emergency powers in January and stopped exports then.Richard_Nabavi said:
Fair point.Philip_Thompson said:
Except the EU are openly conspiring against us right now. They aren't hiding it.Richard_Nabavi said:
Poppycock. I'm perfectly detached from both sets of the deranged. It's just that the similarities between them are so striking. One lot think the EU can do no good and automatically conspiring against us, the other lot think everything the EU does is automatically good and that AZ are conspiring against them. Both lots ignore perfectly obvious and innocents explanations for what they think are dastardly plots.felix said:
Gosh you're so obsessed with the Brexit thing you've lost all ability to be detached. Bizarre that you cannot see what you are doing.Richard_Nabavi said:It's amazing. AZ's tweets (see below in @Leon's 2.25pm post) are perfectly clear, and explain where these vaccines are going and when. And yet the European anti-AZ zealots are somehow managing to find even more fuel for their barmy conspiracy theories, such as this idiocy:
https://twitter.com/chrismiller_uk/status/1374728593448833026
They are just like the Brexiteers, viewing everything through a distorting lens of bile and fantasy. It's a remarkable sight.
But maybe I shouldn't be surprised, come to think of it. It's insecurity driving both, so perhaps it's to be expected that the reactions are so similar.
Unless it's just theatre, of course, which is possible.
However, sometimes boisterous play can go a bit too far - which is why generations of patents have had to warn their children that, "it will end in tears before bedtime."
I think that's where we're heading unless there's a decisive intervention from someone to avert it.1 -
I've been saying that for days - this ban is designed to distract people so they don't look at the real picture and point out the disaster was created by the EU themselves.Leon said:Not everyone in the EU is happy with the ban. The Irish are clear-eyed
https://twitter.com/maryeregan/status/1374738346472304650?s=216 -
It was a prototype car, and if the driver was told that a bodge would make him 0.050 seconds quicker he'd have accepted it unconditionally. He knew the risk and accepted it, that the Italians sought to arrest people involved was a big problem for everyone else who races prototype cars.Malmesbury said:
Actually, in that case there were some serious questions to answer.Sandpit said:
Formula 1 came close to boycotting Italy in 1995, after the death of Ayrton Senna in an accident the previous year.Malmesbury said:
The issue is the Italian system, not the EUFloater said:
There is a long history, there, of thinking that practical matters can be dictated by the wishes of the state.
The Italian magistrates investigating the death wanted to arrest a number of people involved with the Williams team and the F1 organisation as they arrived in Italy.
Bernie Ecclestone told the Italian PM in no uncertain terms, that there would be no races in Italy until they dropped the investigation. It was an accident at a motor race, where everyone involved knew and accepted the inherent risks.
For example the demented bodge of a weld on the steering column. *I* could have done the weld better and would have designed a better fix than that.0 -
"stitched up" is not right. "Did not understand what you were doing" is more like it.FrancisUrquhart said:
I think this is it....remember when they released the AZN contract, screeching, see, look, its says this....it says UK contract doesn't supersede ours, we get our doses the same time. To which a load of lawyers read it and said, erhhh, it doesn't say that at all, you have misunderstood different clauses relate to different parts of the commitment....and the UK contract isn't with the same company....you have been stitched up like a kipper.glw said:
What I find puzzling about this is that the UK didn't keep secret what the VTF was doing, we've been announcing the deals as they are signed, and publicising the projects to support production. The EU/EC knew about this because they have bragged about the "better" deal they were getting, and laughed about the UK over-paying for vaccines. Did nobody in the EC wonder why we are paying so much, or what it would mean for production?FrancisUrquhart said:You see the mistake you are making there is you are applying sensible logic.....If the EU were applying such a strategy you wouldn't rubbish a life saving vaccine that you have millions of doses of and working constructively with all vaccine makers to up supply.
It's as though the EC simply looked at the headline numbers and chortled to themselves about how the UK had been ripped-off, when if they had dug a bit deeper they would have realised we were strapping a rocket to vaccine production and were set to race ahead of them in vaccination.
AIUI the published CureVac contract is not dissimilar to the AZ one.
Remember the EU vaccine-procurer boss Gallina is a Trade Negotiator not a capability-creator.
But it's more than that, Kate the Vaccine has pointed out that they were in contact with at least several EU countries.0 -
That's imo the best ever 8 minutes of stand up comedy. And yet you really like it. Something not computing there.Leon said:
Stewart Lee, a lefty, can be blisteringly funny, in a surreal wayTimT said:
"non-political comedy" You mean comedy? I have seen nothing recently that goes under the label political comedy that is actually funny. It is nearly always a lefty going full on rant.Foss said:
It's odd how little non-political comedy there is now, especially with the long tail earning potential of the streaming services. Black Books is still out there, earning a living on five different platforms, yet the same era HIGNFY doesn’t have enough interest to even see it stuck on Britbox.Sandpit said:
I do miss Mark Lamarr, back in the days when he'd goad guests into walking off Buzzcocks, and didn't care who he offended. Phill Jupitus has also disappeared, and Bill Bailey sticks to his musical comedy show on stage.Brom said:Sandpit said:
I was pretty much the only one defending that joke on here at the time.FrancisUrquhart said:
All that outrage over Lee Hurst joke on twitter over the weekend...I was only thinking yesterday, it was the sort of gag Jimmy Carr would do, as a tame warm up one.Sandpit said:
That was the classic case of people being offended on behalf of others.No_Offence_Alan said:
Yes, there are double standards around Invictus.noneoftheabove said:
Amazing double standards around Harry. He has set up the Invictus games which changed many peoples lives from overwhelming struggle to one of hope and achievement. That already puts him in the top 0.1% or better of people influencing and improving others lives.Cyclefree said:
What does this company actually do? I have an interest in mental health provision because I have personal experience of what it does to people and their families.Charles said:
Not at all. It’s very important.Cyclefree said:
It's a non-job.Gallowgate said:Genuine question: what right does Prince Harry have to work in the USA? Does he have a right to work by virtue of being married to an American? Does he need a visa?
I've always been curious.
He’s not just making oodles of money giving speeches to investment bankers and documentaries for Netflix.
He’s working for a *mental health* company
He’s not such a bad guy giving up his valuable time like that...
Lots of people talk about it. It has become really quite fashionable to do so. Actual practical help is rather thin on the ground, especially afterwards. Try getting a job from companies after explaining that your patchy CV is because of mental health illness and you will find that their interest in better mental health vanishes as fast as snow in summer.
If he is going to do something practical to help with that, good on him. If it's just another talking shop or another forum for him to talk about himself, not so good.
I remember a few years earlier Jimmy Carr made a joke that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would mean Britain would soon have a brilliant Paralympic team, and he got absolute pelters for it.
The war vets, of course, appreciated the dark humour - and went on to get dozens of Paralympic medals!
I think the main issue is the audience. A Twitter audience is different from a TV/radio audience, which is different to a comedy club audience - with decreasing expectations of taste and decency.
Most definitely. I also think those who feigned offence had more problems with the teller of the joke than the joke itself. As has been said even in 2021 if that came out the mouth of Jimmy Carr on Channel 4 it would have got a mixture of laughs and a few groans (if there were a studio audience).
Lee Hurst was pretty funny on TTIAO. I thought Nick Hancock made that show, it's a shame much like Mark Lamarr from Buzzcocks they keep a relatively low profile these days given the dross that currently passes for comedy on the Beeb.
The only UK 'comedy' show I regularly watch now is the late-night Countdown, and occasionally HIGNFY - apart from that it's all Youtube podcasts and Netflix specials. Network TV has pretty much lost comedy completely.
(And the early seasons of Buzzcocks do still provide entertainment).
I love how he takes an idea and runs with it, to absolutely absurd lengths. Also his timing is impeccable
One of my favourite routines:
https://youtu.be/1cgeXd5kRDg
Are you sure you're not virtue-signalling as ballast to your 100+ eurofoamic posts today?0 -
In fact, it's likely. Much of this is sabre-rattling and will amount to nowt.Richard_Nabavi said:
Fair point.Philip_Thompson said:
Except the EU are openly conspiring against us right now. They aren't hiding it.Richard_Nabavi said:
Poppycock. I'm perfectly detached from both sets of the deranged. It's just that the similarities between them are so striking. One lot think the EU can do no good and automatically conspiring against us, the other lot think everything the EU does is automatically good and that AZ are conspiring against them. Both lots ignore perfectly obvious and innocents explanations for what they think are dastardly plots.felix said:
Gosh you're so obsessed with the Brexit thing you've lost all ability to be detached. Bizarre that you cannot see what you are doing.Richard_Nabavi said:It's amazing. AZ's tweets (see below in @Leon's 2.25pm post) are perfectly clear, and explain where these vaccines are going and when. And yet the European anti-AZ zealots are somehow managing to find even more fuel for their barmy conspiracy theories, such as this idiocy:
https://twitter.com/chrismiller_uk/status/1374728593448833026
They are just like the Brexiteers, viewing everything through a distorting lens of bile and fantasy. It's a remarkable sight.
But maybe I shouldn't be surprised, come to think of it. It's insecurity driving both, so perhaps it's to be expected that the reactions are so similar.
Unless it's just theatre, of course, which is possible.0 -
Unlike you I’m not a low-watt ideologue incapable of a plurality of opinions, unlike you I am able to see many points of view, left to rightkinabalu said:
That's imo the best ever 8 minutes of stand up comedy. And yet you really like it. Something not computing there.Leon said:
Stewart Lee, a lefty, can be blisteringly funny, in a surreal wayTimT said:
"non-political comedy" You mean comedy? I have seen nothing recently that goes under the label political comedy that is actually funny. It is nearly always a lefty going full on rant.Foss said:
It's odd how little non-political comedy there is now, especially with the long tail earning potential of the streaming services. Black Books is still out there, earning a living on five different platforms, yet the same era HIGNFY doesn’t have enough interest to even see it stuck on Britbox.Sandpit said:
I do miss Mark Lamarr, back in the days when he'd goad guests into walking off Buzzcocks, and didn't care who he offended. Phill Jupitus has also disappeared, and Bill Bailey sticks to his musical comedy show on stage.Brom said:Sandpit said:
I was pretty much the only one defending that joke on here at the time.FrancisUrquhart said:
All that outrage over Lee Hurst joke on twitter over the weekend...I was only thinking yesterday, it was the sort of gag Jimmy Carr would do, as a tame warm up one.Sandpit said:
That was the classic case of people being offended on behalf of others.No_Offence_Alan said:
Yes, there are double standards around Invictus.noneoftheabove said:
Amazing double standards around Harry. He has set up the Invictus games which changed many peoples lives from overwhelming struggle to one of hope and achievement. That already puts him in the top 0.1% or better of people influencing and improving others lives.Cyclefree said:
What does this company actually do? I have an interest in mental health provision because I have personal experience of what it does to people and their families.Charles said:
Not at all. It’s very important.Cyclefree said:
It's a non-job.Gallowgate said:Genuine question: what right does Prince Harry have to work in the USA? Does he have a right to work by virtue of being married to an American? Does he need a visa?
I've always been curious.
He’s not just making oodles of money giving speeches to investment bankers and documentaries for Netflix.
He’s working for a *mental health* company
He’s not such a bad guy giving up his valuable time like that...
Lots of people talk about it. It has become really quite fashionable to do so. Actual practical help is rather thin on the ground, especially afterwards. Try getting a job from companies after explaining that your patchy CV is because of mental health illness and you will find that their interest in better mental health vanishes as fast as snow in summer.
If he is going to do something practical to help with that, good on him. If it's just another talking shop or another forum for him to talk about himself, not so good.
I remember a few years earlier Jimmy Carr made a joke that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would mean Britain would soon have a brilliant Paralympic team, and he got absolute pelters for it.
The war vets, of course, appreciated the dark humour - and went on to get dozens of Paralympic medals!
I think the main issue is the audience. A Twitter audience is different from a TV/radio audience, which is different to a comedy club audience - with decreasing expectations of taste and decency.
Most definitely. I also think those who feigned offence had more problems with the teller of the joke than the joke itself. As has been said even in 2021 if that came out the mouth of Jimmy Carr on Channel 4 it would have got a mixture of laughs and a few groans (if there were a studio audience).
Lee Hurst was pretty funny on TTIAO. I thought Nick Hancock made that show, it's a shame much like Mark Lamarr from Buzzcocks they keep a relatively low profile these days given the dross that currently passes for comedy on the Beeb.
The only UK 'comedy' show I regularly watch now is the late-night Countdown, and occasionally HIGNFY - apart from that it's all Youtube podcasts and Netflix specials. Network TV has pretty much lost comedy completely.
(And the early seasons of Buzzcocks do still provide entertainment).
I love how he takes an idea and runs with it, to absolutely absurd lengths. Also his timing is impeccable
One of my favourite routines:
https://youtu.be/1cgeXd5kRDg
Are you sure you're not virtue-signalling as ballast to your 100+ eurofoamic posts today?
Also, that is clearly one of the greatest stand up routines of all time1 -
New Fred0
-
Oh here we go... "Osborne inherited a mess"... The problem with this tired old propaganda line is that we do not forget that then the Tories spent 11 years making things much worse. Shifting spending to essentially unusable nukes and cutting troop numbers drastically reduces the overall capability of the armed forces, it is not only a manifesto breach, it is a very obvious strategic blunder. So to cover up the fact that the Tories have screwed things up we get "the Labour and the Lib Dems are just a bunch of cowardly peaceniks" bullshit.Philip_Thompson said:
I don't disagree that there's been cuts over the past decade, Osborne had no choice but to cut expenditure after what he inherited and that was done in the past I completely agree witth you 100% on that. It was also the right thing to do as we needed to fix the black hole in the economy which is why we were able to cope with this pandemic as we went into it without the black hole that had been inherited.Dura_Ace said:
That isn't the choice though, is it? The tories have committed to this global power projection bollocks while cutting 30% of the strategic airlift capability, taking at least a two year capability gap on AWACS and cutting the new AWACS fleet by 40% before the first aircraft even arrives. Etc, etc.Philip_Thompson said:
The armed forces are being modernised with record investment and increased spending, yes.RochdalePioneers said:
Surely this is a pretty straight forward one.Philip_Thompson said:
😂😂😂😂😂CorrectHorseBattery said:https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1374695358979248132
Keir on fire today, Labour can win on the armed forces
You watched a different PMQs to me then. Keir was ridiculous and hasn't a leg to stand on.
Is the government going to cut troop numbers or not?
I'd rather fewer but better equipped armed forces fit for the times, than having more troops operating without the protection, equipment or weaponry that they require. Which would you prefer?
It's all just empty posturing while real capabilities get cut and gapped because they cannot bring themselves to align the goals with the available funding. The government is trying to do global power projection AND have a massive land force committed to NATO on about 60% of the budget needed to do both properly.
The budget has been increased here - do you believe that the increase in budget would be better spent as the integrated review has advised on more modern equipment, or do you believe that the increase in budget would be better spent on more troops but without the equipment they need?
TBH I think these tired Tory tropes are convincing nobody anymore and these, combined with the aggressive braggadocio of the third raters in the cabinet is just turning people off.
I am afraid that I also share the view expressed upthread that the childish drivel that has been on display here of late is immensely frustrating to those, like me, who come to PB for informed and interesting insights, especially from our political opponents. I lost my temper the other day at some of the more egregious garbage being put out, and I see that I am hardly alone.
I don´t mind the Tory Party having a nervous breakdown, but please feel free to do it elsewhere. I can get this ill informed crap from the Daily Mail thanks, so those that want to send tanks to Belgium or whatever, feel free to push off there.1 -
I thought choice was 50K up north or 55K + in London.Malmesbury said:
The rates that I have seen offered for some jobs would result in a cut in standards of living - even outside London.malcolmg said:
A choice of a nice house and good life or living in a rabbit hutch/someone's spare room is hardly a choice unless you are stupid.Malmesbury said:
Yes - but if you offer wages of 50% of London rate or less (which I have seen), don't be surprised if you find all the good ones end up in London.mwadams said:
There's a lot of great talent that really doesn't want to work on what are perceived as soul destroying projects in banks. If you look to recruit in Nottingham, Birmingham etc (especially with the ubiquity of remote working, and the ability to build local clusters of employees who can meet up socially) it can improve everyone's quality of life.Malmesbury said:
Quite possibly - though if you pay lower wages than London, all the top talent goes there.eek said:
London and Bulgaria / Sofia from memory.Malmesbury said:
Quite standard - the productivity multiplier is as real as the wage multiplier.FrancisUrquhart said:
I remember quite a few years ago hiring an Indian firm to build a website for a new business I setup...it was the most frustrating experience of my life. I would point out issues and obvious mistakes, be told yes yes we have it covered, and the next revision, not only would they not be fixed, they had managed to introduce more. I think it took 3-4 months before I had to bin them off and hire some people in Estonia, who sorted it all in a few weeks.Slackbladder said:I am truely amazed how the EU and the EU countries are doing this.
Making a mistake is one thing, continuing time after time to cock it up is another, and not learning from any mistakes.
It's a bit like a job I'm working on. I got given a document riddled with errors. I pointed them out. It comes back with even more errors and the errors not all removed.
You really have to lose faith at a point they have any competency.
When you put them together - the cost vs work actually done is rather interesting.
One company I work for discovered that the cheapest locations for software development were, in order
1) London and Eastern Europe tied in first place
2) US
3) Canada
4) India
Eastern Europe can be very expensive now as productivity isn't as great as it might be.
I would argue that nearshoring to other UK cities will easily match London and might work out cheaper.
I've encountered a few attempts to setup up software development around the UK. The ones that have succeeded have to pay big wages to stop the drift to London. As in at least 2/3rd of the London rate...
I've already mentioned the case of a friend, who was offered a job by his company down the road from where he lived, rather than travelling to London. At a salary that wouldn't pay his mortgage.0 -
I voted Remain - I don't think I would now. The EU is behaving so badly and so incompetently why would I?Richard_Nabavi said:
Poppycock. I'm perfectly detached from both sets of the deranged. It's just that the similarities between them are so striking. One lot think the EU can do no good and automatically therefore must be conspiring against us, the other lot think everything the EU does is automatically good and that therefore AZ are conspiring against EU countries. Both lots ignore perfectly obvious and innocent explanations for what they think are dastardly plots.felix said:
Gosh you're so obsessed with the Brexit thing you've lost all ability to be detached. Bizarre that you cannot see what you are doing.Richard_Nabavi said:It's amazing. AZ's tweets (see below in @Leon's 2.25pm post) are perfectly clear, and explain where these vaccines are going and when. And yet the European anti-AZ zealots are somehow managing to find even more fuel for their barmy conspiracy theories, such as this idiocy:
https://twitter.com/chrismiller_uk/status/1374728593448833026
They are just like the Brexiteers, viewing everything through a distorting lens of bile and fantasy. It's a remarkable sight.
But maybe I shouldn't be surprised, come to think of it. It's insecurity driving both, so perhaps it's to be expected that the reactions are so similar.
You seem to have convinced yourself that this clusterfuck wouldn't be happening if we were still in the EU.
As I see it their current behaviour suggests that the Brexiteers were maybe not so deluded after all.1 -
Even worse they cannot even spell simple words.Andy_JS said:Embarrassing tweets from people who don't have a clue what they're talking about. Like this.
https://twitter.com/Swen_2017/status/13747310139858616370 -
Not massively, the Halix site used to supply the UK with vectors but now it doesn't. I think one of Hancock's goals was to have a fully integrated UK supply and manufacturing chain for AZ which to my knowledge has been achieved.Leon said:
Max, if the EU blocks AZ ingredients, how badly does that affect us?MaxPB said:Watching this whole EU vaccine disaster is a bit like watching a friend you've fallen out with threaten to jump off a bridge. You don't want them to, obviously, but there's a bit of morbid curiosity.
Clearly, if they block export of Pfizer jabs, that is disastrous2 -
I have said this many times before, but will again - Keir Starmer is too du...Leon said:
Stewart Lee, a lefty, can be blisteringly funny, in a surreal wayTimT said:
"non-political comedy" You mean comedy? I have seen nothing recently that goes under the label political comedy that is actually funny. It is nearly always a lefty going full on rant.Foss said:
It's odd how little non-political comedy there is now, especially with the long tail earning potential of the streaming services. Black Books is still out there, earning a living on five different platforms, yet the same era HIGNFY doesn’t have enough interest to even see it stuck on Britbox.Sandpit said:
I do miss Mark Lamarr, back in the days when he'd goad guests into walking off Buzzcocks, and didn't care who he offended. Phill Jupitus has also disappeared, and Bill Bailey sticks to his musical comedy show on stage.Brom said:Sandpit said:
I was pretty much the only one defending that joke on here at the time.FrancisUrquhart said:
All that outrage over Lee Hurst joke on twitter over the weekend...I was only thinking yesterday, it was the sort of gag Jimmy Carr would do, as a tame warm up one.Sandpit said:
That was the classic case of people being offended on behalf of others.No_Offence_Alan said:
Yes, there are double standards around Invictus.noneoftheabove said:
Amazing double standards around Harry. He has set up the Invictus games which changed many peoples lives from overwhelming struggle to one of hope and achievement. That already puts him in the top 0.1% or better of people influencing and improving others lives.Cyclefree said:
What does this company actually do? I have an interest in mental health provision because I have personal experience of what it does to people and their families.Charles said:
Not at all. It’s very important.Cyclefree said:
It's a non-job.Gallowgate said:Genuine question: what right does Prince Harry have to work in the USA? Does he have a right to work by virtue of being married to an American? Does he need a visa?
I've always been curious.
He’s not just making oodles of money giving speeches to investment bankers and documentaries for Netflix.
He’s working for a *mental health* company
He’s not such a bad guy giving up his valuable time like that...
Lots of people talk about it. It has become really quite fashionable to do so. Actual practical help is rather thin on the ground, especially afterwards. Try getting a job from companies after explaining that your patchy CV is because of mental health illness and you will find that their interest in better mental health vanishes as fast as snow in summer.
If he is going to do something practical to help with that, good on him. If it's just another talking shop or another forum for him to talk about himself, not so good.
I remember a few years earlier Jimmy Carr made a joke that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq would mean Britain would soon have a brilliant Paralympic team, and he got absolute pelters for it.
The war vets, of course, appreciated the dark humour - and went on to get dozens of Paralympic medals!
I think the main issue is the audience. A Twitter audience is different from a TV/radio audience, which is different to a comedy club audience - with decreasing expectations of taste and decency.
Most definitely. I also think those who feigned offence had more problems with the teller of the joke than the joke itself. As has been said even in 2021 if that came out the mouth of Jimmy Carr on Channel 4 it would have got a mixture of laughs and a few groans (if there were a studio audience).
Lee Hurst was pretty funny on TTIAO. I thought Nick Hancock made that show, it's a shame much like Mark Lamarr from Buzzcocks they keep a relatively low profile these days given the dross that currently passes for comedy on the Beeb.
The only UK 'comedy' show I regularly watch now is the late-night Countdown, and occasionally HIGNFY - apart from that it's all Youtube podcasts and Netflix specials. Network TV has pretty much lost comedy completely.
(And the early seasons of Buzzcocks do still provide entertainment).
I love how he takes an idea and runs with it, to absolutely absurd lengths. Also his timing is impeccable
One of my favourite routines:
hyoutu.be/1cgeXd5kRDg
No, a friend of mine recommended I watch Stewart Lee, this series I believe, thinking it would be right up my street, so I did. I was thinking to myself how much I loved his delivery, how clever his schtik was etc, might tell some of the lads about him... then as the credits rolled I realised I hadn't laughed once
Same friend recommended Ja'mie Private Schoolgirl too mind, and I cried with laughter, so he knew me quite well0 -
Then the battery runs out.HYUFD said:
To recapture the Falklands, for example, we would need troops and special forces and subs and aircraft carriers, to contribute to UN peacekeeping obligations and our NATO commitments we need troops and boots on the ground.Time_to_Leave said:
Once you’re speaking in numbers of troops and not discussing outputs, you are basically saying you don’t care about military capability, you just want pretty parades. You’re like Sadam, with dozens of Mig29s, almost none of which flew.HYUFD said:
I said on Sunday I thought this decision was appalling and I stick to that now, we made a promise to keep troop numbers as they are and we should stick to that, I know a lot of Tory members are very unhappy with this and Starmer will obviously be able to capitalise on itIanB2 said:
Labour however is choosing whether to oppose based entirely on how it looks. They won’t oppose on anything Brexit related, because it would look bad, despite the fact that the government has got it wrong and is driving small businesses into bankruptcy and individuals into unemployment. Labour will oppose on the armed forces, because they think it looks good, despite the fact that we don’t need so many troops and the changes are probably sensible.CorrectHorseBattery said:https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1374695358979248132
Keir on fire today, Labour can win on the armed forces
You’d expect Tories like HY who are always banging on about the Tory election manifesto to be more vocal with their criticism. But where are they?
Cyberwarfare and drones will only go so far0 -
No, like a lot of us he is fed up with the way you take the worst of everything and then exaggerate it for effect. It’s rather childish.Leon said:
I think kamski is just displaying the same neurosis we see in other mainland Europeans. They all believed the EU was - for all its flaws - a logical and benign institution. Seeing that challenged so profoundly is too destabilising and painful, so it’s easier to retreat from argument, and buy into the conspiracy theories.Luckyguy1983 said:
You can tell yourself that you come here to stoke the nationalist fire by staring into the ugly, gammony face of Toryism, but you're fooling no-one. You come here because it's fun. There's always a lively argument and a well-informed (yes well informed) debate, and clever, interesting and sometimes amusing people, whether or not they agree with you. And consequently this is preferable as an online hangout to an echo chamber of your political comrades.Theuniondivvie said:
Sorry that you feel you have to go. Your clear eyed and often critical view of Germany and the EU were a valuable addition to this place imo.kamski said:
So no actual evidence that any Covax vaccines have been stolen? Quick let's retweet some Austrian.Leon said:
Talking of ‘jumping to conclusions’, here’s an esteemed EU journalist. Austrian.kamski said:
Isn't it a good idea to wait to hear from Covax, or any other reputable source, if any vaccine supplies have been delayed before jumping to conclusions?Chris said:
But surely these poor countries in the developing world fail the reciprocity criterion, because they aren't exporting vaccines to the EU?Malmesbury said:
He's missed out the best bit - COVAX is enthusiastically supported by both the EU and the Italian government.Leon said:
https://twitter.com/macaesbruno/status/1374688979472281607?s=21Philip_Thompson said:
Yes actually.MattW said:
No.kamski said:
Has anyone actually stolen any vaccines from Covax?Floater said:
They need to be publicly shamed by the world communityRobD said:
So not only stealing from the UK, but also stealing from the less well-off in a pathetic attempt to hide their own failures. Sick.CarlottaVance said:
However, MEPs seem to be going increasingly bananas.
Doses due to go to Covax have been impounded.
Every day they're impounded rather than injected is lives lost.
https://twitter.com/grimmse/status/1374639886817443844?s=21
Unfortunately, this site has descended into an ugly form of groupthink.
The rules are you can post anything, no matter how inaccurate, you can just make any crap up, post any irrational conspiracy theory, it's all fine, positively encouraged, so long as the target is the EU or European governments.
It's ugly and shows a worrying fanatical mindset has taken hold in lots of people.
There's plenty to severely criticise the EU for or, for example the German government, while remaining accurate and in touch with reality.
Maybe my impression is coming from a vocal minority of hate-filled posters such as Leon, but I've had enough, I just leave with a plea to people to try to be accurate, and to see how things might look to someone from a different perspective.
There are a number of people with similar opinions that come here to sook each other off, a smaller number who find the spectacle queasily fascinating. I accept that if you're not in the latter category, the charms of PB wear thin pretty quickly.
There's other stuff as well of course..
I hope that generally, @kamski finds the same thing, and although he's finding it trying at present, that he will come back and contribute his valuable viewpoint again.
Or he’s just a pathetic snowflake?
I too hope he returns. He is usually good value
It would be interesting to hear from pb’s other German contributor. I forget his/her name - the one with the mortifyingly brilliant English, with an incredible knowledge of UK politics. Wo ist er?1 -
It's the continuing "Who Guv? Me, Guv?" strategy.eek said:
I've been saying that for days - this ban is designed to distract people so they don't look at the real picture and point out the disaster was created by the EU themselves.Leon said:Not everyone in the EU is happy with the ban. The Irish are clear-eyed
https://twitter.com/maryeregan/status/1374738346472304650?s=210 -
I think there is a degree of middle ground available on this. Whilst people in places which haven't locked down have changed behaviour, a voluntary lockdown is a lot more satisfactory that a state mandated one. People can manage their own risk - so those at low risk continue mostly normal lives, those at high risk can go into hiding if they feel that is appropriate. People know what they value most, and actually have a pretty good idea of what's risky, and what isn't - governments are pretty useless at assessing both (see also the repeated insanity around people going to the beach or walking in the peak district).kinabalu said:
This analysis doesn't work because it assumes an alternative to lockdown in which, as the virus ran riot, people would have gone cheerfully about their daily lives as normal.maaarsh said:
You can't say lockdown life is only worth 50%... because then you'd have to admit it's been a complete and utter mistake.theProle said:
Actually 5 weeks for an entire country is an awful lot to ask. If we say that a life spent locked down is only getting 50% of its normal value (which I don't think is unreasonable), the 5 weeks of lockdown for the country represents about ~40,000 entire birth-death lifetimes lost, or 3 million years of life lost. That's the same loss of years of life as 300,000 covid deaths.Malmesbury said:
Hopefully nice and low. Hopefully.another_richard said:
There's a five week lag between the effect of new vaccinations on hospital admissions.Malmesbury said:
Hospital admissions R is around 0.8Philip_Thompson said:
I think that's a load of bollocks sorry.Malmesbury said:
Given what we know about the current strains, a full unlock now would quickly fill up ICU with 30-50 year olds.Philip_Thompson said:Excess deaths are over. The second wave is over.
We should be rapidly unlocking at least back to the point we were at in July last year domestically, while keeping the border sealed to protect our gains domestically. That's the trade-off.
Telling people to stay at home when nobody is dying is unforgiveable.
That is why the roadmap is linking levels of vaccination to reducing the levels of restrictions.
More than a fifth over 50s have been vaccinated already, the vulnerable under 50s. The majority of adults have been vaccinated now, which means they're much less likely to pass the virus on.
With our level of vaccinations, even with the new variant, there's little reason why ICUs should escalate any more than they did last July.
Who are all these people being admitted to hospital - *now*?
If you let rip, it's not long before you are back at admissions R of 1.x and then we are in the same position as Europe.
Hence a phased approach.
How low do you think hospital admissions will be in five weeks ?
We have a nice 0.8 (or so) R for hospitals at the moment. The issue is that 0.8 turns into 1.05 quite easily.
I don't want to do this all over again. At this point a 5 weeks is not much to ask to get security - at that point we will (the fuckwits willing) have the over 50s done to a high level - including getting areas such as Newham to a better state....
If I told you that lifting lockdown now risks another 50k deaths (but its unlikely to be that bad, and there is a better than evens chance it's less than 10k), but retaining it for 5 weeks cost 300k deaths, this should be a no brainer.
500k lives saved (optimistically) with average 15 years of life left (very optimistic) gives 7.5m years of life saved.
Set against 60m people locked down for over 6 months at 50% life value is >15m years of life spent.
It's the fallacy at the heart of most of this sentiment. It denies the harsh reality of covid and hence is known as covid denialism.
For example, for a three month block last year I didn't see the young lady I'm going out with, despite this being a trivial risk (she was working from home, living alone, not seeing anyone else). Without a lockdown, that would have been a non-issue, even if I'd been holding back on us going for dates in crowded pubs.
Incidentally people argue that state mandated closures were required so that business financial support could be put in place. This is a barefaced lie - there are plenty of ways the government could have hosed money in the correct directions without mandating closure (e.g. they could have compared VAT returns before and after the pandemic, and then made up a percentage of missing turnover), and the furlough scheme has no direct connection with mandated closures at-all.
If you said that life under lockdown was at 50% life value, and life with a pandemic but out a lockdown was 75% life value, then that still requires an incredibly optimistic view of the number of lives saved by the whole lockdown to work out on a cost benefit analysis.
But it's even worse now, as it's likely the lockdown isn't actually saving many lives anyway with where we are in the vaccination program - so we're now burning up the equivalent of 1000 lifetimes a day purely so the government doesn't have to risk getting egg on it's face if cases rise a bit more than expected, and some measure need reimposing. Its absolute scandal, and if they had a brain between them HM opposition should be on about it night and day. But they won't be, because they are also worried about the risk of a bit of eggsplash if relaxing goes wrong.0 -
That is a way of interpreting it. A more balanced view might be that it is possible that the EU is neither benign or malign, it just depends who is in charge at the time. A bit like all governments or clubs in reality. However stupid the EU's behaviour over this series of events (much of it being exaggerated by some who are unhealthily obsessed), it does not automatically mean that Brexit was a good idea. It may mean that on this occasion Brexit MIGHT have benefited us over had we remained.felix said:
I voted Remain - I don't think I would now. The EU is behaving so badly and so incompetently why would I?Richard_Nabavi said:
Poppycock. I'm perfectly detached from both sets of the deranged. It's just that the similarities between them are so striking. One lot think the EU can do no good and automatically therefore must be conspiring against us, the other lot think everything the EU does is automatically good and that therefore AZ are conspiring against EU countries. Both lots ignore perfectly obvious and innocent explanations for what they think are dastardly plots.felix said:
Gosh you're so obsessed with the Brexit thing you've lost all ability to be detached. Bizarre that you cannot see what you are doing.Richard_Nabavi said:It's amazing. AZ's tweets (see below in @Leon's 2.25pm post) are perfectly clear, and explain where these vaccines are going and when. And yet the European anti-AZ zealots are somehow managing to find even more fuel for their barmy conspiracy theories, such as this idiocy:
https://twitter.com/chrismiller_uk/status/1374728593448833026
They are just like the Brexiteers, viewing everything through a distorting lens of bile and fantasy. It's a remarkable sight.
But maybe I shouldn't be surprised, come to think of it. It's insecurity driving both, so perhaps it's to be expected that the reactions are so similar.
You seem to have convinced yourself that this clusterfuck wouldn't be happening if we were still in the EU.
As I see it their current behaviour suggests that the Brexiteers were maybe not so deluded after all.
It is certainly a great distraction for our government from having to provide proper explanation for their culpability in the "world beating" death rate we have, the draconian measures they are introducing, and the massive damage to us as a trading nation that Brexit has done. It also gives the likes of hate filled paper tiger nationalists like Leon the opportunity to wrap himself in a union flag and pleasure himself until he goes blind0
This discussion has been closed.