A year on for Starmer and he has yet been able to shake the hands of a single voter – politicalbetti

Andy_JS said:

Pulpstar said:

Leon said:

This is one of the weirdest cultural divides. It is definitely a thing

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1378064872647372806?s=20

Is this map accurate ? I always take my shoes off visiting anyone

Really?

Yep - if someone says to keep them on I will but default is shoes off for me

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378076811284905986?s=20

Pulpstar said:

Leon said:

Time_to_Leave said:

Pulpstar said:

Leon said:

This is one of the weirdest cultural divides. It is definitely a thing

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1378064872647372806?s=20

Is this map accurate ? I always take my shoes off visiting anyone

I was thinking about this. I think I do if there’s shoes at the door and my hosts have no shoes on, or if I have crap on them. One or other thing is usually true, so I almost always take my shoes off.

Also I hate wearing shoes indoors.

A few years ago I briefly had a Serbian girlfriend. She was absolutely perplexed by the fact the British did not take their shoes off indoors. Could not understand it

Can't be doing with shoes indoors. It's like wearing socks during sex

At my grandma's house I always used to offer to take my shoes off when I went upstairs into the bedrooms and bathroom. She insisted I keep them on, unless they were very muddy. Not sure I would give the same advice on that subject.

Pulpstar said:

Andy_JS said:

Pulpstar said:

Leon said:

This is one of the weirdest cultural divides. It is definitely a thing

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1378064872647372806?s=20

Is this map accurate ? I always take my shoes off visiting anyone

Really?

Yep - if someone says to keep them on I will but default is shoes off for me

It is effeminate. Sorry

CorrectHorseBattery said:

Damn imagine less than 30 deaths a day by the end of April

https://twitter.com/goalprojection/status/1378071938002776064

One thing that would be good, in many ways, is if there begins (continues?) to be a serious disconnect between case numbers and deaths (eg. case numbers stabilise at a relatively high level, but deaths continue to fall significantly). It would cause serious issues for scientists/politicians attempting to maintain restrictions on everyday life on the basis of fear of rising case numbers alone (under the case number -> hospitalisations -> deaths mantra that they are following - which was entirely justified in an unvaccinated society, but should be under serious question now)

alex_ said:

Pulpstar said:

Leon said:

This is one of the weirdest cultural divides. It is definitely a thing

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1378064872647372806?s=20

Is this map accurate ? I always take my shoes off visiting anyone

Basic common courtesy. Or at a minimum to ask.

If someone doesn't take their shoes off in their own house it's not courtesy for a visitor to do so unprompted, it would be a lack of courtesy (maybe they don't want people walking about in their socks). And if the owner doesn't remove theirs, why even ask?

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

Leon said:

another_richard said:

Leon said:

SeaShantyIrish2 said:

Leon said:

This is one of the weirdest cultural divides. It is definitely a thing

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1378064872647372806?s=20

The German shoe v sock divide is quite interesting. Also looks as though French & Italian Swiss retain their footwear like their kinfolk over the border, while German Swiss kick off their shoes inside their chalets.

In America does anyone take their shoes off? I don't remember it

It might be, I suppose. something to do with wealth. In richer countries, they care less (or cared less) about damaging floor surfaces (whether carpets or woodwork). But then the affluent Swiss and Austrians take shoes off. Perhaps the cultural influence of Islam on the wider east?

But then why is Norway green?

Fascinating but bewildering

Weather perhaps.

The green areas have harsh winters causing footwear to be muddy or snowy and so removed indoors.

Ireland is not exactly known for being un-muddy

Sure but I doubt it gets mud like Eastern Europe does.

BTW I can confirm that outer suburbia continues in its blossomy beauty and that wearing a coat really is no hardship.

Unless that is you're turning eloi

CarlottaVance said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378076811284905986?s=20

He won't be addressing me.

One way I enjoy disregarding Government authoritarianism is paying scant regard to their hectoring.

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

Do we know who this Tory MP is? The fact they aren't named in the report suggest they are a nobody (i.e.. "Senior Tory").

Gallowgate said:

I have hard floors everywhere downstairs to avoid the faff on of guests having to awkwardly take their shoes off in the door way.

Perhaps its a thing where you don't want to appear too much 'at home' in someone else's abode by kicking off your shoes? Dunno.

I always do take them off when visiting unless the host says otherwise. And I have hard floors, but grit from outside ruins them more than it does a carpet, so always prefer people to be sock clad.

Black_Rook said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

Damn imagine less than 30 deaths a day by the end of April

https://twitter.com/goalprojection/status/1378071938002776064

At the current rate of decline (which, whilst fluctuating a little, has effectively been maintained for many weeks) we have a fighting chance of being down into single figures, in terms of Covid deaths confirmed by testing, in several days of each week by the end of the month. We could have our first single figure day since last September as soon as next weekend.

You don't need a model for that, it's simple maths. The total for the last seven days is 302. If that drops by a third a week for four weeks you get down to 57, or an average of about eight per day.

The total rolling seven day rate of decline in deaths is 38.2% and has exceeded 40% in recent days, so this is eminently achievable.

Are there statistics which show when the "28 day proxy" completely breaks down - and just picks up almost exclusively deaths that would have happened anyway?

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

Far from crickets, I approve. Every school should do this

Carpets in bathrooms. Discuss.

Leon said:

another_richard said:

Leon said:

LindonLight said:

Leon said:

MaxPB said:

Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.

So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.

Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.

In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.

Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.

This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.

I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.

Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.

You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.

Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.

Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.

Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.

Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.

Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....

There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.

Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.

Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.

I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)

I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough

the end of March/start of April last year were not too dissimilar to where we are now.

accuweather.com/en/gb/birmingham/b5-5/april-weather/326966?year=2020

turbotubbs said:

ydoethur said:

Black_Rook said:

Malmesbury said:

Age related data

Effect of school holidays here (I can't think of any other explanation) is remarkable. They break up on Friday 26th; cases start to decline significantly from the following Monday, as the drop off in infections feeds through into the numbers.

Kids are evidently the driver in the near-plateauing of cases for most of March - mixing in schools, passing the Plague round, bringing it home to their families. If that's correct then cases will probably continue to drop right through until the weekend of 17/18 April.

It'll be very interesting indeed to see what happens immediately after that. Should cases merely level off again (rather than starting to climb) then it would be reasonable to blame that on the schools, and therefore to conclude that re-opening the shops and beer gardens has had no measurable effect. If so then what's left of physical retail and the hospitality trade, which have of course been shuttered for months because they were claimed to be such a lethal threat, will be absolutely bloody livid. And rightly so, too.

The flaw in the logic of this post is that the majority of schools only broke up yesterday.

So if there is a link, we should see not so much a decline as a Grand Canyon next week.

Although as nobody will be testing over Easter - despite those loathsome scum at the DfE saying we must because they want us to and they know so much better than people with multiple brain cells - cases should fall anyway.

I was wonder about this as our kids were still traipsing in on Thursday too. It may be that lots of testing and resulting isolation might actually work...

Again - although this is purely anecdotal - testing doesn’t seem to have turned up many genuine cases.

What seems to have happened is that secondary schoolchildren have gone from one of the highest rates of infection in December to one of the lowest now.

And of course, having only been in school for 2-3 weeks since the reopening in the week beginning March 15th, there hasn’t been much time for cross infection before we effectively lock down again.

It’s almost as though keeping lots of people in cramped unventilated rooms for hours on end and then limiting the number of people isolating when positive cases were found was a really dumb idea, while encouraging teenagers to sit at home working all day and therefore only meeting other people for brief periods outdoors was effective at stopping the spread among that age group.

Really strange, that.

And yet the likes of Woolhouse, Wotzerface who does press conferences and every civil servant continue to claim there is no evidence of a link.

It’s almost as though they’re deliberately not telling the truth.

Leon said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

Far from crickets, I approve. Every school should do this

Nobody thinks anything of this in the US.

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378051379638452224

Good

"I is a fighter, not a quitter!"

Politico.com - MLB moves All-Star Game from Georgia over new voting law
"Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/02/mlb-all-star-game-georgia-478960

Andy_JS said:

Carpets in bathrooms. Discuss.

Nooo

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378079518452244483

Jesus

On 11th April, two vaccinated people will be prevented from meeting in a private home.

On 12th April 200 people will be able to cram into a small pub if they can all show a vaccine passport.

Of course, on Monday so as usual major announcements aren't made to Parliament first.

Leon said:

Pulpstar said:

Andy_JS said:

Pulpstar said:

Leon said:

This is one of the weirdest cultural divides. It is definitely a thing

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1378064872647372806?s=20

Is this map accurate ? I always take my shoes off visiting anyone

Really?

Yep - if someone says to keep them on I will but default is shoes off for me

It is effeminate. Sorry

No, it's basic hygiene (hint: it's normal in warmer climes).

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378079518452244483

Jesus

No, Boris. Though it's easy to get them confused once they both got into the habit of rising from the dead at Easter...

Sunil_Prasannan said:

Leon said:

Pulpstar said:

Andy_JS said:

Pulpstar said:

Leon said:

This is one of the weirdest cultural divides. It is definitely a thing

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1378064872647372806?s=20

Is this map accurate ? I always take my shoes off visiting anyone

Really?

Yep - if someone says to keep them on I will but default is shoes off for me

It is effeminate. Sorry

No, it's basic hygiene (hint: it's normal in warmer climes).

But the map shows it's a cold climate thing.
I'm with Leon here - shoes on by default. I also disapprove of slippers.

Pulpstar said:

Andy_JS said:

Carpets in bathrooms. Discuss.

Nooo

Definite no. Yuk

Black_Rook said:

CarlottaVance said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378076811284905986?s=20

Could be to do with travel - wasn't the review on sunshine holidays meant to have been brought forward a week from the 12th?

If he delays the reopening schedule I think he may as well throw the next election away. Every single person I know has got stuff happening in that first week.

MaxPB said:

Black_Rook said:

CarlottaVance said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378076811284905986?s=20

Could be to do with travel - wasn't the review on sunshine holidays meant to have been brought forward a week from the 12th?

If he delays the reopening schedule I think he may as well throw the next election away. Every single person I know has got stuff happening in that first week.

That would have been leaked already. The fact there is no news suggest nothing has changed.

MaxPB said:

Black_Rook said:

CarlottaVance said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378076811284905986?s=20

Could be to do with travel - wasn't the review on sunshine holidays meant to have been brought forward a week from the 12th?

If he delays the reopening schedule I think he may as well throw the next election away. Every single person I know has got stuff happening in that first week.

Surely he wont? Everything is moving in the right direction.

another_richard said:

Leon said:

another_richard said:

Leon said:

This is one of the weirdest cultural divides. It is definitely a thing

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1378064872647372806?s=20

That map looks very much like the old EEC in the late 1980s.

Only thing wrong is Denmark.

Yes. Denmark! Every time I think I have worked it out, there is some anomaly which disproves my over-arching theory.

I do believe male self-image is an element. Conquering soldiers wear BOOTS. Taking off your shoes is a faint emasculation

I am reminded of the Duchess of Marlborough's famous and maybe apocryphal diary entry, referencing her warlike husband:

"His Grace Returned From the Wars This Morning, and Pleasured Me Twice in His Top-Boots"

All the red countries have had an empire at some time.

While the green countries were more used to being invaded.

Russia says hello.

Apparently the English upper classes used to pride themselves on having only one bath a year. Can't remember which century it was.

CorrectHorseBattery said:

Damn imagine less than 30 deaths a day by the end of April

https://twitter.com/goalprojection/status/1378071938002776064

Interesting that the model predicted more than a halving in deaths in the last 12 days but the less than a halving in the next 28.

Are we getting into the age groups who die less anyway, so the vaccination benefit on deaths is less because it is already baked in?

In which case, ought we now to be coming into the period during which we see the steepest decline in hospitalisations?

Malmesbury said:

RobD said:

MaxPB said:

Black_Rook said:

CarlottaVance said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378076811284905986?s=20

Could be to do with travel - wasn't the review on sunshine holidays meant to have been brought forward a week from the 12th?

If he delays the reopening schedule I think he may as well throw the next election away. Every single person I know has got stuff happening in that first week.

That would have been leaked already. The fact there is no news suggest nothing has changed.

There was also a promise, IIRC, to give an official announcement a week before each each of the dates in the unlocking schedule, so that business could plan on the basis of an official go/no go.

So Monday would be the go/no go announcement for the 12th

Yeah, but it would have leaked by now if it was going to change.

https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/1378071877269270528

RobD said:

Malmesbury said:

RobD said:

MaxPB said:

Black_Rook said:

CarlottaVance said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378076811284905986?s=20

Could be to do with travel - wasn't the review on sunshine holidays meant to have been brought forward a week from the 12th?

If he delays the reopening schedule I think he may as well throw the next election away. Every single person I know has got stuff happening in that first week.

That would have been leaked already. The fact there is no news suggest nothing has changed.

There was also a promise, IIRC, to give an official announcement a week before each each of the dates in the unlocking schedule, so that business could plan on the basis of an official go/no go.

So Monday would be the go/no go announcement for the 12th

Yeah, but it would have leaked by now if it was going to change.

Quite probably.

I was just surprised that people were surprised that there would be an announcement on Monday, since I understood that the government had said they were going to make official "go/no goes" a week before each step.

RobD said:

another_richard said:

Leon said:

another_richard said:

Leon said:

This is one of the weirdest cultural divides. It is definitely a thing

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1378064872647372806?s=20

That map looks very much like the old EEC in the late 1980s.

Only thing wrong is Denmark.

Yes. Denmark! Every time I think I have worked it out, there is some anomaly which disproves my over-arching theory.

I do believe male self-image is an element. Conquering soldiers wear BOOTS. Taking off your shoes is a faint emasculation

I am reminded of the Duchess of Marlborough's famous and maybe apocryphal diary entry, referencing her warlike husband:

"His Grace Returned From the Wars This Morning, and Pleasured Me Twice in His Top-Boots"

All the red countries have had an empire at some time.

While the green countries were more used to being invaded.

Russia says hello.

Russia aside, however, all the shoe-wearing-indoors countries are the alpha European countries, the traditional conquerors and cultural exporters: Greece, Spain, Italy, France, Holland, UK, and all the others are generally the ones who got beaten up

Meanwhile Germany is brilliantly divided, befitting its peculiarly troubled history of aggression

Amazingly, this weird cultural divide might indeed be related to martial male self-image

another_richard said:

Leon said:

another_richard said:

Leon said:

This is one of the weirdest cultural divides. It is definitely a thing

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1378064872647372806?s=20

That map looks very much like the old EEC in the late 1980s.

Only thing wrong is Denmark.

Yes. Denmark! Every time I think I have worked it out, there is some anomaly which disproves my over-arching theory.

I do believe male self-image is an element. Conquering soldiers wear BOOTS. Taking off your shoes is a faint emasculation

I am reminded of the Duchess of Marlborough's famous and maybe apocryphal diary entry, referencing her warlike husband:

"His Grace Returned From the Wars This Morning, and Pleasured Me Twice in His Top-Boots"

All the red countries have had an empire at some time.

While the green countries were more used to being invaded.

Russia? Turkey?

Andy_JS said:

Apparently the English upper classes used to pride themselves on having only one bath a year. Can't remember which century it was.

I've read that Henry VIII only ever had two baths - the first to wash him after his birth and the second to wash him after his death.

BannedinnParis said:

Leon said:

another_richard said:

Leon said:

LindonLight said:

Leon said:

MaxPB said:

Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.

So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.

Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.

In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.

Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.

This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.

I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.

Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.

You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.

Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.

Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.

Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.

Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.

Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....

There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.

Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.

Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.

I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)

I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough

the end of March/start of April last year were not too dissimilar to where we are now.

accuweather.com/en/gb/birmingham/b5-5/april-weather/326966?year=2020

In favour of first lockdown, facemasks weren't required back then.

Of course it isn't just the American's that fly their flag in schools....

French and European flags to fly in classrooms of schools in France

https://www.thelocal.fr/20190213/french-classrooms-to-fly-national-and-europe-flags-from-now-on/

---

Chancellor Angela Merkel's party will vote on whether all schools in Germany should fly the national flag outside their buildings, alongside the flag of the appropriate state and that of the European Union, following an initiative launched by one regional organization of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

https://www.dw.com/en/flags-outside-schools-patriotic-or-populist/a-51349417

CarlottaVance said:

Better late than never I suppose.....

https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1378058433203744771?s=20


"Leading COVAX donors"

After:
USA: 2.5bn
DE: 1.1bn
UK: 0.7bn
EU: 0.5bn

https://www.gavi.org/sites/default/files/covid/covax/COVAX-AMC-Donors-Table.pdf

In this instance though, the EU can only donate what the member states give them to donate.

@Floater it isn't looking too good in Ukraine right now, is it?

MaxPB said:

Gallowgate said:

MaxPB said:

Black_Rook said:

CarlottaVance said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378076811284905986?s=20

Could be to do with travel - wasn't the review on sunshine holidays meant to have been brought forward a week from the 12th?

If he delays the reopening schedule I think he may as well throw the next election away. Every single person I know has got stuff happening in that first week.

Surely he wont? Everything is moving in the right direction.

I don't trust him at all or anyone in the government. Gove particularly seems to be completely captured by the lockdown ultras. Hancock too. They both need to be dumped from the Cabinet asap.

I don't trust those two either, but then again I don't trust *any* of them. Far, far too keen on the whole "papers please" bullshit.

However, even allowing for that I very much doubt that there'll be heel dragging with respect to April 12th. The direction of all the data at the moment looks so good that I'd made the assumption in my previous remarks that it would be happening on time; I'd quite forgotten that an announcement a week in advance, to let people get ready for it, would in fact be necessary. It's part of the stated rationale for the five week baby steps: open the prison gates a smidge, wait an entire months for any sign of the Plague taking off, announce next stage of opening if all has gone well, one additional week for businesses to get ready.

Sunil_Prasannan said:

another_richard said:

Leon said:

another_richard said:

Leon said:

This is one of the weirdest cultural divides. It is definitely a thing

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1378064872647372806?s=20

That map looks very much like the old EEC in the late 1980s.

Only thing wrong is Denmark.

Yes. Denmark! Every time I think I have worked it out, there is some anomaly which disproves my over-arching theory.

I do believe male self-image is an element. Conquering soldiers wear BOOTS. Taking off your shoes is a faint emasculation

I am reminded of the Duchess of Marlborough's famous and maybe apocryphal diary entry, referencing her warlike husband:

"His Grace Returned From the Wars This Morning, and Pleasured Me Twice in His Top-Boots"

All the red countries have had an empire at some time.

While the green countries were more used to being invaded.

Russia? Turkey?

I bet Russians and Turks didn't take off their shoes when they were the conquerors.

another_richard said:

Andy_JS said:

Apparently the English upper classes used to pride themselves on having only one bath a year. Can't remember which century it was.

I've read that Henry VIII only ever had two baths - the first to wash him after his birth and the second to wash him after his death.

Others will correct me I’m sure, but there is a misconception about hygiene in the Middle Ages. People rarely took baths, as in immersing in water in the modern fashion. They did however wash, using cloths and water. The idea that everyone was dirty is nonsense.

Andy_JS said:

Carpets in bathrooms. Discuss.

Discuss-ting

Black_Rook said:

GarethoftheVale2 said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

Damn imagine less than 30 deaths a day by the end of April

https://twitter.com/goalprojection/status/1378071938002776064

You have to wonder if deaths can ever go much lower than that. There must be at least some people who get COVID and then get run over by the proverbial bus within the 28 days.

The rolling average of Covid deaths fell below ten per day for most of last August, and that's obviously before anyone was vaccinated. It's realistic to imagine that a product of widespread vaccination and a large fraction of the restrictions still being in place until at least 17 May could mean that this metric will be driven even lower in the relatively near future.

Agreed, I expect the rolling average deaths to be in single figures by the end of the month.

ydoethur said:

justin124 said:

RobD said:

CorrectHorseBattery said:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1378055338587529219

Bet we hear crickets from the usual suspects

Do we know who this Tory MP is? The fact they aren't named in the report suggest they are a nobody (i.e.. "Senior Tory").

Did schools in 1930s Germany have to fly the swastika?

I think they did, as pretty much everyone had to if they didn’t want the SA to pay them unwelcome attention.

But the main act of Nazi propaganda in schools was a large photo of Hitler in every classroom to which children would give a Nazi salute at the start of the day.

And in Weimar Germany.

And in Imperial Germany.

And in Prussia before that.

Germany had big influence in strange places - Fredrick the Great made alot of people say "one of those please" as far as armies went.

So in Peru, they introduced marching... "clubs"? in th schools. Complete with the goose step.

Scene : a quiet afternoon in the Plaza de Armas of Trujillo. The coffee was good, and the first Stinger of the day was doing it's pre-dinner work... Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

The schools of the town started marching past, by class. Weirds, wacky and a bit hypnotic. All they need was to start singing the "Panzerlied"...

isam said:

stodge said:

moonshine said:

Keir/Kier Starmer would make a pleasant neighbour. He’d bring his wheelie bin in the very day it’s emptied. He’d smile and say hello if we crossed paths on our morning rounds. I doubt he’d annoy me with gangster rap at 3am or throw used jonnies in my garden, as previous neighbours have done.

But he’s not leader of the neighbourhood watch material. And not that I assume to speak for her, but I don’t imagine my wife getting weak at the knees if she saw him jogging up the hill either. In short, he’s stuffed. Next!

Well, it's always good to read such serious, informed, impartial and expert analysis.

Back in the real world, there's what I think and what I think is going on. From a personal perspective (and I would consider myself centre-left in outlook), Starmer has made a decent start. Cleaning the Augean stables of post-Corbyn Labour is and was never going to be easy and it's still very much a work in progress. How it will work in 2024 is hard to know and as Starmer extends his personal influence and control over policy, we'll see what kind of programme Labour puts forward.

The data so persistently put up by @isam tells a story - it doesn't tell the story. These have been unprecedented times and until now it's been easy to counter criticism of the Government and its actions. To paraphrase the American quiz show Jeopardy if the answer is "Labour would have done exactly the same" you can probably work out the question. I struggle to know what Starmer would have done differently had he been Prime Minister - he'd have hidden behind the "science" as adroitly as Johnson and would no doubt have dolled out the cash as enthusiastically as Sunak.

Only now are we starting to see some flickers of deviation from the general "let's get behind the Government" meme. The crisis is easing and normal service is returning and, to be fair, those speculating on the divide between authoritarian and liberal as the new political divide were doing so pre-Covid as well.

I've never voted Labour because they are an authoritarian, centralising party which believes any problem can be solved by enough State and Government (as you can see, I see Starmer and Johnson as two cheeks of the same posterior in that regard). In essence, therefore, why do we need a Labour Government when we already have one?

To be fair, that's just my serious, informed, partial and inexpert analysis but there you go...

I am 47 in December and in my lifetime only 3 LOTOs have become PM - Maggie, Blair and Cameron. It is a very rare occurrence. Those three all had something about them that Foot, Kinnock, Hague, IDS, Howard, Miliband, & Corbyn didn’t. I happen to think Sir Keir fits into the latter group more easily, and there is nothing in any data to persuade me otherwise. The eye test and the numbers concur. I post about it a lot because if you only read the headers you’d think the incumbent who leads the polls in almost every measure is the one who is struggling, and I think that is ridiculous

Although if we take the 47 years prior to your birth, back to 1927, only three leaders of the Opposition didn’t become PM - Henderson, Lansbury and Gaitskell.

Things can change.

MaxPB said:

Luckyguy1983 said:

CarlottaVance said:

Better late than never I suppose.....

https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1378058433203744771?s=20


"Leading COVAX donors"

After:
USA: 2.5bn
DE: 1.1bn
UK: 0.7bn
EU: 0.5bn

https://www.gavi.org/sites/default/files/covid/covax/COVAX-AMC-Donors-Table.pdf

In this instance though, the EU can only donate what the member states give them to donate.

No, they can borrow for this stuff and pay the borrowing costs out of the future budget.

Perhaps in theory, but if we were still members, I know exactly what I'd think about the EU borrowing cash to spread its largesse around the world, and then getting members to stump up more the next year.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't touch the EU with a bargepole, but in this process there's a blur of competences between the EU and nation states. I don't blame the EU for making a token donation, I think there's more blame to wealthy countries in the EU (France?) if they haven't donated much.