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They Gush over Truss: Betting on the next Tory Leader – politicalbetting.com

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  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,283
    Foxy said:

    Its hardly a surprise that normal people aren't as gung-ho as some on here and their government. It is their lives the government are risking. "Covid doesn't pose them a risk anymore" I keep hearing. And yet we have a stack of medics including the CMO saying that it does.

    Perhaps they find it instructive that FREEDOM DAY goes hand in hand with instruction to go back to the office and start spending money on public transport and twatty coffee again and the abrupt ending to furlough. Not that this is a financial decision at all...

    I am always bemused by the bile many on the left have about take away coffee. i mean i am not the most massive coffee drinker myself and certianly ain't fussy about whether it is a lattee, frappe, americano etc . When I do have one though i enjoy it , not because of the actual coffee bu the fact that usually you are out of your house , seeing people, doing stuff, maybe even chatting with the shop assistant making it - you know living a human life.

    Also feel the same when people sneer at high street bookies - Personally love to bet in a betting shop rather than on the internet as most of the fun is the social interaction with a little bit of shiftiness that goes with high street bookies. -
    I don't think I qualify as "the left". My issue with the likes of Starbucks is the stupid amount they charge for ok coffee combined with their mysterious lack of profit from selling said coffee meaning no tax paid.
    I agree, my dislike is the usage of non recycling paper cups too for their overpriced confections.

    I have no problem with enjoying a well made coffee, sitting down out of a proper cup with friends, indeed it is quite the pleasure. Walking round with a takeaway is just naff. As a general rule it is good manners that food and drink should not be taken while moving around.
    I have to agree: when I want a coffee I normally want to sit and drink it in comfort. In fact the I regard the price of the coffee as the rent I paying on somewhere comfortable to sit while I do the crossword.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,226
    kle4 said:

    If you want to understand Tory grassroots opinion, HYUFD is a must read. He cuts through the spin. And he’s often been proved right, despite the ridicule he’s taken.

    He does understand the grass roots, absolutely, and is very useful as a loyalist insight. He knows the party mind pretty well I'd say.

    That is a rather separate issue to a view that decades of being a Tory doesn't make you a Tory, one area where as pointed out polls (or surveys at least) of party members seem to indicate the grass roots disagree, and dont care about.

    They care about winning and appearing competent, not if someone has been consistent.
    Tory members elected IDS in 2001 remember too
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    edited July 2021
    TOPPING said:

    TOPPING said:

    Charles said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Somebody is a member of the Conservative Party. They are an MP who takes the Conservative whip. They are a Cabinet minister in a majority Conservative government.

    I’d say it’s pretty cut and dried they are a conservative.

    Even if they disagree with you
    @HYUFD's "Tory Party" is like that AI thought experiment. If you take one brain synapse and replace it with a computer you are still you. At what point, one synapse at a time, do you stop becoming you.
    Whoooah boy! Too early. My brain needs three decent coffees before trying to cope with Zeno’s paradox.
    Soy latte frappucino?
    No thanks. Just had a disgusting latte at Chania airport for €4,75. The beer is significantly cheaper and better.
    In my experience you’re best going for straightforward Greek coffee: it’s universally drinkable. It’s just that I don’t really like sugar in my coffee much.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,753
    HYUFD said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    TOPPING said:

    If you want to understand Tory grassroots opinion, HYUFD is a must read. He cuts through the spin. And he’s often been proved right, despite the ridicule he’s taken.

    No one should ridicule him but he is not the only Tory around here. Strictly speaking by his own criteria he is not a Tory as he voted remain. Leave is, today, a sine qua non of being a Tory.
    As long as you accepted the Brexit result I don't think that is necessarily so. After all some Leavers still vote Labour as Batley and Spen showed and some former Remainers like Javid, Coffey and Williamson and indeed Truss are in the Cabinet
    Do you think Truss accepts that the monarchy will not be abolished?
    She would certainly have to now if she wants to be Tory leader, the Tory Party will not elect an ex Remainer, who is also an ex LD and republican as its leader
    So either she accepting the monarchy and you accepting Brexit means you are both Tories; or the fact that she once advocated abolition of the monarchy and you voted remain means that neither of you are Tories.
    Except Truss also advocated Remain too but now accepts Brexit like me, I have always been a monarchist though unlike her.

    I also expect Leavers to win the Tory leadership for at least the next decade or two, that would rule both of us out, though obviously I am not in contention as she might be
    Never say never.
  • kjhkjh Posts: 11,695
    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Did you actually read the article before rushing to post your thoughts? If you had done so you would have learned that Liz Truss is enormously popular with the membership. Had you have clicked the link you would have seen that she's out in front, beating even Rishi Sunak. https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2021/07/two-by-elections-and-one-health-secretary-losses-see-johnson-fall-by-16-points-in-our-cabinet-league-table

    The rest of your post says rather more about you, which I'm not really interested in, especially from a betting perspective.

    Johnson could yet again prove a lucky general (England tomorrow) but no one could describe the pandemic as good fortune. The whole situation remains precarious for all sorts of reasons and not just for health but public finance. Money is clearly a problem which besets Boris wherever he goes. That may be a factor for him in stepping down sooner rather than later. It can't be much fun being PM on the verge of bankruptcy.

    The really interesting question will be the direction the Conservatives next take. If as I suspect they are losing their heartland down south and if the appeal to the north eventually turns sour then their support will continue to slide away. They might under such circumstances retreat to the Far Right with the likes of Patel but that will confine them to the wastelands. Power resides in this country in the centre even if, as with Brexit, the definition of that needs recalibrating (Mondeo Man and Brexit Man were not, after all, so very different).

    It's really quite ironic. If you look at the English football team and read their stories you'll find there a cause for patriotism that is out of kilter with the direction some Conservatives currently seem to be headed.

    The Conservatives will have to return to being a One Nation party if they are going to win.
    If you were here yesterday you will have seen I asked the same question about a dozen times. I'm sure HYUFD does read the posts but is incapable of taking in contradictory data to his view or the application of logic. All responses will just be to repeat the same words over and over again. The fact that the article contains data that contradicts his view won't be addressed. It will be ignored and his previous posts ignoring it will be repeated.

    It is a shame as there is no reason why he couldn't put a counter argument. See yesterday; there were plenty of rational arguments against my position that could have been argued. I even tried putting a few up for him.
    No, I just have my own views and refuse to change them to suit you.

    Your argument yesterday was essentially that mortgage and rent paying taxpayers should continue to subsidise an earnings related increase in state pensions rather than an inflation related one.

    There is no logic which automatically means that your view is always right as you always assume in your sometimes rather patronising way and certainly no logic that the average taxpayer must accept funding earnings related rises in the state pension for pensioners who own their own property and have substantial private pensions too. As I stated poorer pensioners who still rent could be helped with higher pension credit or higher housing benefit rather than across the board earnings related increases in the state pension as you advocated
    I'm not going to get into this discussion again but your post again demonstrates that you do appear not to read the posts you you respond to (I'm sure you do), because you often completely misunderstand them.

    a) Not asking you to change your view. Your position (as I pointed out several times yesterday and also in the post you have just responded to) is a perfectly valid one, but put an argument forward in support of it and respond to the counter arguments put to you. You never do. You just go on a mantra repeating yourself without responding to valid counter arguments.

    b) Re your 2nd sentence - No it wasn't. I was pointing out your position was irrational because earning increase faster than inflation which you were either denying or didn't understand the consequences of (I am guessing the latter). I will admit that is my position though, although it is far more nuanced than you have described which you should have seen when I replied to someone who did put a rational argument together and asked what I would propose.

    c) You don't seem to understand the difference between logic and opinion. We both have opinions and there is no right or wrong in either of our set of opinions. Yours are of course as valid as mine. Logic however is factual. So:

    If you apply logic to a fact it produces a fact
    If you apply logic to an opinion it is still just an opinion, the result is valid, but only based on the original opinion being valid and an opinion is still subjective

    If you state a fact or opinion but apply an irrational process to it you produce nonsense (although that could still be the correct result, but by luck).

    If someone challenges your opinion by applying logic to and that produces a nonsense result that should generate a discussion whereby you show their logic is faulty (yes we all do it). That was what I was doing yesterday and you never once countered my logic when I showed it produced a nonsense result. There were plenty of opportunities to do so. I even tried feeding a couple to you.

    I'm sorry if you find I am sometimes patronising. I am, so I do apologise. I am afraid the inability to put apply logic very frustrating, which puts me into that patronising mode.

    I have no problem with different opinions. I don't think I am always right. I am often wrong and I have made a few howlers on here which I have owned up to, and I to can be irrational, although when pointed out I hope I see it immediately.

    PS HYUFD I love your posts, but you do wind me up sometimes when you get into an argument with someone (even when I agree with you). And it isn't just me.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,826

    Starbucks is to coffee what McDonald’s is to the burger.

    I despise coffee anyway, but McDonald's is tasty. I know it's not 'good' burgers, but when the mood strikes it hits the spot.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,637

    Charles said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Somebody is a member of the Conservative Party. They are an MP who takes the Conservative whip. They are a Cabinet minister in a majority Conservative government.

    I’d say it’s pretty cut and dried they are a conservative.

    Even if they disagree with you
    The day Mogg becomes PM I will resign and PB posters can hold me to that
    How many weeks for this time?
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,753
    Foxy said:

    TOPPING said:

    Notice to those on the left and all points East.

    Buying coffee from Starbucks, like going to Heaven (the nightclub) on July 20th, is not mandatory.

    I have no problem with people doing those things, I just want a safe environment for essential contacts of those who do not wish to be exposed, such as masks on public transport, and for shops and businesses to decide, rather than customers.
    How do you ensure a safe environment for those essential workers who have to drive to work?

    Shall we ban all other traffic while they are on their commute?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,473

    Foxy said:

    Its hardly a surprise that normal people aren't as gung-ho as some on here and their government. It is their lives the government are risking. "Covid doesn't pose them a risk anymore" I keep hearing. And yet we have a stack of medics including the CMO saying that it does.

    Perhaps they find it instructive that FREEDOM DAY goes hand in hand with instruction to go back to the office and start spending money on public transport and twatty coffee again and the abrupt ending to furlough. Not that this is a financial decision at all...

    I am always bemused by the bile many on the left have about take away coffee. i mean i am not the most massive coffee drinker myself and certianly ain't fussy about whether it is a lattee, frappe, americano etc . When I do have one though i enjoy it , not because of the actual coffee bu the fact that usually you are out of your house , seeing people, doing stuff, maybe even chatting with the shop assistant making it - you know living a human life.

    Also feel the same when people sneer at high street bookies - Personally love to bet in a betting shop rather than on the internet as most of the fun is the social interaction with a little bit of shiftiness that goes with high street bookies. -
    I don't think I qualify as "the left". My issue with the likes of Starbucks is the stupid amount they charge for ok coffee combined with their mysterious lack of profit from selling said coffee meaning no tax paid.
    I agree, my dislike is the usage of non recycling paper cups too for their overpriced confections.

    I have no problem with enjoying a well made coffee, sitting down out of a proper cup with friends, indeed it is quite the pleasure. Walking round with a takeaway is just naff. As a general rule it is good manners that food and drink should not be taken while moving around.
    I have to agree: when I want a coffee I normally want to sit and drink it in comfort. In fact the I regard the price of the coffee as the rent I paying on somewhere comfortable to sit while I do the crossword.
    Yes, much as it would be pointless to buy a pint of beer in a plastic cup, then walk around the town centre. The price of a drink is a half hour of rent on chair or table. It is one reason takeaways are a racket. The same price for inferior experience.
  • theProletheProle Posts: 1,178

    MattW said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Two Whitehall sources told the Guardian that ministers had been spooked by internal polling. One said the data showed just 10% of the public support the policy of scrapping all restrictions at once, while another said substantially more people believed the government was moving too quickly than at the last reopening step on 17 May. These accounts were denied by No 10.

    https://twitter.com/GdnPolitics/status/1413725938504769536

    They aren't scrapping all restrictions at once.

    That if anything shows that wall to wall media wibble has some effect on short term opinion polls.
    As usual the shit for brains PM is digging a pit when he speaks without thinking. He may not be scrapping all restrictions at once. But he is *saying* that he is. FREEDOM DAY. Two preannouncements so far, ministers saying ditch the mask, Johnson photographed having already ditched the mask.

    So yes they are scrapping them all. It doesn't matter that the WHO have described the plan as demonstrably stupid. It has to happen. The Boris has to have his moment of adoration. Some of you are going to die, martyrs of course to the freedom I shall provide...
    The WHO has been totally wrong about pretty much everything this pandemic. They may or may not be wrong now, but if you take them seriously on anything then you're more stupid than I thought you were.

    I don't think some of the "masks and distancing forever" types understand the economic damage it causes.
    Take distancing - I'm involved at a steam railway. Iirc our 64 seat "open" coaches are down to a capacity of 27. If we fill every seat on every train, we now just about break even on a day's running.
    No one wants to come anyway, all the while they are expected to wear masks, and be marshalled around one way systems etc, so we're also struggling to sell the tickets we have available.

    I personally have considered several bits of economic activity (eg going to the cinema) and every time its ultimately been the masking that's killed it for me - it just means it won't be enjoyable enough to be worth doing.

    Anyone suggesting masks are a cost free option needs their head examining - it's quite the opposite.

    Same with public transport vs car use. I'm not going to be sitting on a train in a mask when I could be sat in my car without. Anyone who is wondering why car use is through the roof, and public transport is still quiet - it really is this simple.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,792
    MaxPB said:

    Starbucks is to coffee what McDonald’s is to the burger.

    A Big Mac is amazing when drunk. Starbucks coffe is terrible, always. They aren't comparable as McDonald's still fulfills the brief. Starbucks could be selling burnt brown water for all we know.
    Selling burnt brown water. For £4. To people who see throwing £4 at a company as disreputable as Starfux as some kind of positive statement.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 122,226
    kjh said:

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Did you actually read the article before rushing to post your thoughts? If you had done so you would have learned that Liz Truss is enormously popular with the membership. Had you have clicked the link you would have seen that she's out in front, beating even Rishi Sunak. https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2021/07/two-by-elections-and-one-health-secretary-losses-see-johnson-fall-by-16-points-in-our-cabinet-league-table

    The rest of your post says rather more about you, which I'm not really interested in, especially from a betting perspective.

    Johnson could yet again prove a lucky general (England tomorrow) but no one could describe the pandemic as good fortune. The whole situation remains precarious for all sorts of reasons and not just for health but public finance. Money is clearly a problem which besets Boris wherever he goes. That may be a factor for him in stepping down sooner rather than later. It can't be much fun being PM on the verge of bankruptcy.

    The really interesting question will be the direction the Conservatives next take. If as I suspect they are losing their heartland down south and if the appeal to the north eventually turns sour then their support will continue to slide away. They might under such circumstances retreat to the Far Right with the likes of Patel but that will confine them to the wastelands. Power resides in this country in the centre even if, as with Brexit, the definition of that needs recalibrating (Mondeo Man and Brexit Man were not, after all, so very different).

    It's really quite ironic. If you look at the English football team and read their stories you'll find there a cause for patriotism that is out of kilter with the direction some Conservatives currently seem to be headed.

    The Conservatives will have to return to being a One Nation party if they are going to win.
    If you were here yesterday you will have seen I asked the same question about a dozen times. I'm sure HYUFD does read the posts but is incapable of taking in contradictory data to his view or the application of logic. All responses will just be to repeat the same words over and over again. The fact that the article contains data that contradicts his view won't be addressed. It will be ignored and his previous posts ignoring it will be repeated.

    It is a shame as there is no reason why he couldn't put a counter argument. See yesterday; there were plenty of rational arguments against my position that could have been argued. I even tried putting a few up for him.
    No, I just have my own views and refuse to change them to suit you.

    Your argument yesterday was essentially that mortgage and rent paying taxpayers should continue to subsidise an earnings related increase in state pensions rather than an inflation related one.

    There is no logic which automatically means that your view is always right as you always assume in your sometimes rather patronising way and certainly no logic that the average taxpayer must accept funding earnings related rises in the state pension for pensioners who own their own property and have substantial private pensions too. As I stated poorer pensioners who still rent could be helped with higher pension credit or higher housing benefit rather than across the board earnings related increases in the state pension as you advocated
    I'm not going to get into this discussion again but your post again demonstrates that you do appear not to read the posts you you respond to (I'm sure you do), because you often completely misunderstand them.

    a) Not asking you to change your view. Your position (as I pointed out several times yesterday and also in the post you have just responded to) is a perfectly valid one, but put an argument forward in support of it and respond to the counter arguments put to you. You never do. You just go on a mantra repeating yourself without responding to valid counter arguments.

    b) Re your 2nd sentence - No it wasn't. I was pointing out your position was irrational because earning increase faster than inflation which you were either denying or didn't understand the consequences of (I am guessing the latter). I will admit that is my position though, although it is far more nuanced than you have described which you should have seen when I replied to someone who did put a rational argument together and asked what I would propose.

    c) You don't seem to understand the difference between logic and opinion. We both have opinions and there is no right or wrong in either of our set of opinions. Yours are of course as valid as mine. Logic however is factual. So:

    If you apply logic to a fact it produces a fact
    If you apply logic to an opinion it is still just an opinion, the result is valid, but only based on the original opinion being valid and an opinion is still subjective

    If you state a fact or opinion but apply an irrational process to it you produce nonsense (although that could still be the correct result, but by luck).

    If someone challenges your opinion by applying logic to and that produces a nonsense result that should generate a discussion whereby you show their logic is faulty (yes we all do it). That was what I was doing yesterday and you never once countered my logic when I showed it produced a nonsense result. There were plenty of opportunities to do so. I even tried feeding a couple to you.

    I'm sorry if you find I am sometimes patronising. I am, so I do apologise. I am afraid the inability to put apply logic very frustrating, which puts me into that patronising mode.

    I have no problem with different opinions. I don't think I am always right. I am often wrong and I have made a few howlers on here which I have owned up to, and I to can be irrational, although when pointed out I hope I see it immediately.

    PS HYUFD I love your posts, but you do wind me up sometimes when you get into an argument with someone (even when I agree with you). And it isn't just me.
    Point taken but you know what I am like
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 95,826
    HYUFD said:

    kle4 said:

    If you want to understand Tory grassroots opinion, HYUFD is a must read. He cuts through the spin. And he’s often been proved right, despite the ridicule he’s taken.

    He does understand the grass roots, absolutely, and is very useful as a loyalist insight. He knows the party mind pretty well I'd say.

    That is a rather separate issue to a view that decades of being a Tory doesn't make you a Tory, one area where as pointed out polls (or surveys at least) of party members seem to indicate the grass roots disagree, and dont care about.

    They care about winning and appearing competent, not if someone has been consistent.
    Tory members elected IDS in 2001 remember too
    I never said they were good at making those judgements. Just that party history and ideology won't be at the forefront when they decide who they like as a Tory.

    Whoever is liked will be a 'True' Tory.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,473

    Starbucks is to coffee what McDonald’s is to the burger.

    Though paradoxically McDonald's coffee is considerably better than Starbucks, as well as less than half the price.

    An egg mcmuffin and black coffee is an occasional treat.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,792
    Foxy said:

    TOPPING said:

    Notice to those on the left and all points East.

    Buying coffee from Starbucks, like going to Heaven (the nightclub) on July 20th, is not mandatory.

    I have no problem with people doing those things, I just want a safe environment for essential contacts of those who do not wish to be exposed, such as masks on public transport, and for shops and businesses to decide, rather than customers.
    But there Is No Risk. So what that there could be 100k new cases a day. Nobody is going to hospital and die, well OK some people are going to get ill and die, and more people are going to suffer the as yet partially known hell of long Covid.

    But none of that matters, the PM needs to be popular, and the plebs need to get back into Starbucks to buy their £4 burnt brown water on their way into the office. So get on with it lower orders. And stop talking about science and medicine and other stupid excuses. We've had enough of experts.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314
    One of my few back bets, in a sea of laying the favourite for the next Tory leader.

    She’s quietly getting on with the job, with yet another deal announced this week, and the TPP admission process in the background - a group that sets out to revolutionise free trade across developed nations. Definitely one of the best performing ministers at the moment.

    The worry, as suggested upthread, is that she ends up as another contender’s Chancellor candidate, a role to which she might actually be better suited than the top job.
  • FlatlanderFlatlander Posts: 4,595
    edited July 2021
    MattW said:


    A smallish piece of land which had been properly purchased was then unlawfully developed. Multiple developments without Planning. Significantly high sheds and fences put up against the tiny gardens of small bungalows. Appropriation and development of further land. Double the allowed occupancy. Blocking of public footpaths. Big dogs loose. Illegal renting. All after the Council miserably failed in their initial Enforcement attempt. That's basically the factual stuff without getting into speculation.

    My take.

    That kind of thing happens with neighbouring councils too.

    Here we had fields purchased 'for the horses', then an application for a shed / caravan made so that the 'horses can be looked after', then a massive bungalow appears with iron gates.

    For some reason planning is never enforced properly...

    Most also have houses in Cork or Dublin
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,753
    theProle said:

    MattW said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Two Whitehall sources told the Guardian that ministers had been spooked by internal polling. One said the data showed just 10% of the public support the policy of scrapping all restrictions at once, while another said substantially more people believed the government was moving too quickly than at the last reopening step on 17 May. These accounts were denied by No 10.

    https://twitter.com/GdnPolitics/status/1413725938504769536

    They aren't scrapping all restrictions at once.

    That if anything shows that wall to wall media wibble has some effect on short term opinion polls.
    As usual the shit for brains PM is digging a pit when he speaks without thinking. He may not be scrapping all restrictions at once. But he is *saying* that he is. FREEDOM DAY. Two preannouncements so far, ministers saying ditch the mask, Johnson photographed having already ditched the mask.

    So yes they are scrapping them all. It doesn't matter that the WHO have described the plan as demonstrably stupid. It has to happen. The Boris has to have his moment of adoration. Some of you are going to die, martyrs of course to the freedom I shall provide...
    The WHO has been totally wrong about pretty much everything this pandemic. They may or may not be wrong now, but if you take them seriously on anything then you're more stupid than I thought you were.

    I don't think some of the "masks and distancing forever" types understand the economic damage it causes.
    Take distancing - I'm involved at a steam railway. Iirc our 64 seat "open" coaches are down to a capacity of 27. If we fill every seat on every train, we now just about break even on a day's running.
    No one wants to come anyway, all the while they are expected to wear masks, and be marshalled around one way systems etc, so we're also struggling to sell the tickets we have available.

    I personally have considered several bits of economic activity (eg going to the cinema) and every time its ultimately been the masking that's killed it for me - it just means it won't be enjoyable enough to be worth doing.

    Anyone suggesting masks are a cost free option needs their head examining - it's quite the opposite.

    Same with public transport vs car use. I'm not going to be sitting on a train in a mask when I could be sat in my car without. Anyone who is wondering why car use is through the roof, and public transport is still quiet - it really is this simple.
    Just like their view of the correct way to drink coffee, those advocating continued mask usage are simply projecting their own preferences as some kind of universal truth.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,473
    TOPPING said:

    Foxy said:

    TOPPING said:

    Notice to those on the left and all points East.

    Buying coffee from Starbucks, like going to Heaven (the nightclub) on July 20th, is not mandatory.

    I have no problem with people doing those things, I just want a safe environment for essential contacts of those who do not wish to be exposed, such as masks on public transport, and for shops and businesses to decide, rather than customers.
    How do you ensure a safe environment for those essential workers who have to drive to work?

    Shall we ban all other traffic while they are on their commute?
    In cars they are safe, but many vulnerable people cannot commute by car.

    There is also the exposure of transports staff, who do have high mortality from covid.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314
    IanB2 said:

    HYUFD said:

    IanB2 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Did you actually read the article before rushing to post your thoughts? If you had done so you would have learned that Liz Truss is enormously popular with the membership. Had you have clicked the link you would have seen that she's out in front, beating even Rishi Sunak. https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2021/07/two-by-elections-and-one-health-secretary-losses-see-johnson-fall-by-16-points-in-our-cabinet-league-table

    The rest of your post says rather more about you, which I'm not really interested in, especially from a betting perspective.

    Johnson could yet again prove a lucky general (England tomorrow) but no one could describe the pandemic as good fortune. The whole situation remains precarious for all sorts of reasons and not just for health but public finance. Money is clearly a problem which besets Boris wherever he goes. That may be a factor for him in stepping down sooner rather than later. It can't be much fun being PM on the verge of bankruptcy.

    The really interesting question will be the direction the Conservatives next take. If as I suspect they are losing their heartland down south and if the appeal to the north eventually turns sour then their support will continue to slide away. They might under such circumstances retreat to the Far Right with the likes of Patel but that will confine them to the wastelands. Power resides in this country in the centre even if, as with Brexit, the definition of that needs recalibrating (Mondeo Man and Brexit Man were not, after all, so very different).

    It's really quite ironic. If you look at the English football team and read their stories you'll find there a cause for patriotism that is out of kilter with the direction some Conservatives currently seem to be headed.

    The Conservatives will have to return to being a One Nation party if they are going to win.
    An outrageous slur from yourself on @HYUFD. We all know that the essicks massiv is the only gay in the village true Tory.
    He’s off on one again if he’s back touting that twat Mogg. That was a great betting lay that largely offset my failure to believe that Tory MPs would ever put a clown into Downing Street.

    Tories have enough awareness to tell JRM to take a long foreign holiday whenever there is an election on. They aren’t going to make him leader.
    Not in government no, Sunak remains the likely successor if Boris wins the next general election and departs still as PM.

    If the Tories lose a general election or 2 I would certainly not rule the Mogg out, if they could make IDS their leader they could certainly make the Mogg their leader.

    The Mogg has charisma whether you like him or not and appeals to the Tory base in much the same way as Corbyn appealed to the Labour base

    That went well.

    Choosing someone in opposition like IDS or Corbyn is a mistake; it isn't a compulsory step oppositions must go through.
    Disagree, it’s an important stage for oppositions to go through, so that they are reminded that it doesn’t work.

    Oppositions win elections by talking to the country at large, rather than focussing on their base support.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 59,980
    TOPPING said:

    Notice to those on the left and all points East.

    Buying coffee from Starbucks, like going to Heaven (the nightclub) on July 20th, is not mandatory.

    I don't know why so many people keep on telling me I should care about Pret.

    I couldn't give a shit about Pret. I didn't like their ubiquitous boring overpriced and tedious sandwiches before the pandemic, and I like them even less now. As for jobs they mainly employ those from overseas.

    It's a fantastic PR/lobbying effort by the owner though - first class.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,753
    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    Its hardly a surprise that normal people aren't as gung-ho as some on here and their government. It is their lives the government are risking. "Covid doesn't pose them a risk anymore" I keep hearing. And yet we have a stack of medics including the CMO saying that it does.

    Perhaps they find it instructive that FREEDOM DAY goes hand in hand with instruction to go back to the office and start spending money on public transport and twatty coffee again and the abrupt ending to furlough. Not that this is a financial decision at all...

    I am always bemused by the bile many on the left have about take away coffee. i mean i am not the most massive coffee drinker myself and certianly ain't fussy about whether it is a lattee, frappe, americano etc . When I do have one though i enjoy it , not because of the actual coffee bu the fact that usually you are out of your house , seeing people, doing stuff, maybe even chatting with the shop assistant making it - you know living a human life.

    Also feel the same when people sneer at high street bookies - Personally love to bet in a betting shop rather than on the internet as most of the fun is the social interaction with a little bit of shiftiness that goes with high street bookies. -
    I don't think I qualify as "the left". My issue with the likes of Starbucks is the stupid amount they charge for ok coffee combined with their mysterious lack of profit from selling said coffee meaning no tax paid.
    I agree, my dislike is the usage of non recycling paper cups too for their overpriced confections.

    I have no problem with enjoying a well made coffee, sitting down out of a proper cup with friends, indeed it is quite the pleasure. Walking round with a takeaway is just naff. As a general rule it is good manners that food and drink should not be taken while moving around.
    I have to agree: when I want a coffee I normally want to sit and drink it in comfort. In fact the I regard the price of the coffee as the rent I paying on somewhere comfortable to sit while I do the crossword.
    Yes, much as it would be pointless to buy a pint of beer in a plastic cup, then walk around the town centre. The price of a drink is a half hour of rent on chair or table. It is one reason takeaways are a racket. The same price for inferior experience.
    Would you be so kind as to let us know where we can find the list of inferior experiences so that we can try to avoid them.

    TIA.
  • Damn, Paul Mariner gone at 68. A real blast from my childhood, he always looked like a shaggy maned shire horse charging down the middle.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,639

    Its hardly a surprise that normal people aren't as gung-ho as some on here and their government. It is their lives the government are risking. "Covid doesn't pose them a risk anymore" I keep hearing. And yet we have a stack of medics including the CMO saying that it does.

    Perhaps they find it instructive that FREEDOM DAY goes hand in hand with instruction to go back to the office and start spending money on public transport and twatty coffee again and the abrupt ending to furlough. Not that this is a financial decision at all...

    I am always bemused by the bile many on the left have about take away coffee. i mean i am not the most massive coffee drinker myself and certianly ain't fussy about whether it is a lattee, frappe, americano etc . When I do have one though i enjoy it , not because of the actual coffee bu the fact that usually you are out of your house , seeing people, doing stuff, maybe even chatting with the shop assistant making it - you know living a human life.

    Also feel the same when people sneer at high street bookies - Personally love to bet in a betting shop rather than on the internet as most of the fun is the social interaction with a little bit of shiftiness that goes with high street bookies. -
    I don't think I qualify as "the left". My issue with the likes of Starbucks is the stupid amount they charge for ok coffee combined with their mysterious lack of profit from selling said coffee meaning no tax paid.
    Morning all≥

    Agree, not for the first time, with Mr RP. I'm happy to identify as 'on the left' but don't like Starbucks for the same reason as him, and for the fact that their coffee comes at a temperature similar to that of molten lava. On the rare effusions I go into a Starbucks I have to ask them to drop a couple of lumps of ice into my Americano.
    And I like drinking beer. Not at home though. I take the same view as Mr (I assume) "state_go_away" does about gambling; I like to drink it in pubs where I can chat to 'all sorts and conditions of men'.
    Getting the barista to put ice in hot coffee. Like the Teller-Ulam model for the hydrogen bomb, one is not sure whether to be more astounded by the elegance or the counterintuitiveness of such a solution to a seemingly intractable problem.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,269
    edited July 2021

    Stereodog said:

    Liz Truss might be popular with the membership but do they see her as Prime Minister material? My impression is that she is a competent minister and something of a happy warrior which party members tend to like. However she does seem to fundamentally lack gravitas and she's a bit too keen to wander into a soundbite. The disgraceful cheese speech is very hard to forget. I think if she did run for the leadership she'd be a bit like Andrea Leadsom. Respected as a minister and well liked because she's happy to do battle in the media but just not quite imaginable in the top job.

    To declare a bias I'm a big fan of Truss. While for obvious personal financial reasons my book hopes it's Sunak, she would be my preferred other choice.

    But it's worth noting that any criticism of her comes back to that speech to Conference. While the speech was amusing, it was her first speech as Cabinet Secretary. Since then she's been in Cabinet for seven more years and nobody has anything new to criticise her with. That's rather remarkable!

    By the time of the next election, which Boris will almost certainly be PM until, she will be one of the countries longest standing Cabinet Secretaries and have been in Cabinet for a decade.

    So yes she has the necessary gravitas. She learns too, which is important.
    She also quietly and cleverly dealt with the GRA consultation in a sensible way, leaving Labour to tie itself in knots over the self-id question and what women's rights mean in practice if women are recategorised to include men. Without making a noise about it she ensured that sex-based rights are safer under a Tory minister than a Labour leader. That shows some political skill.

    More worryingly I see that Covid/ID passports are back on the agenda. The government may as well shut the hospitality industry down and tell young people not to go out and have fun than this endless death by a thousand cuts. FFS! What are they thinking?

    Re the Everard case, the story of that poor girl's end is harrowing. I can only hope that the family will, now that Couzens has pleaded guilty, be able to start the process of finding some consolation.

    But there is always a clue, always - often a small one - that an employee is or may be a wrong'un. In my experience, the clues are ignored or brushed aside as unimportant because the process of due diligence/vetting/checking CVs is simply not taken as seriously as it should be, because it is not understood how important they are in telling you about a person's character and why character is important.

    It was not just the indecent exposure a few days beforehand but the indecent exposure incidents back in 2015 which were not followed up by the police. Indecent exposure is a crime. A policeman should not be doing this. If he had, why on earth was he allowed to stay a policeman for another 6 years? What other improper/illegal things might he have been doing? Etc.

    Of course, not every person waving his tackle about in front of women and children turns out to be a rapist/murderer or paedophile. Just as not everyone who tells a lie on their CV or in interviews etc turns out to be a fraudster. But how can one tell the difference? And if one can't, why take the risk?
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,753
    Foxy said:

    TOPPING said:

    Foxy said:

    TOPPING said:

    Notice to those on the left and all points East.

    Buying coffee from Starbucks, like going to Heaven (the nightclub) on July 20th, is not mandatory.

    I have no problem with people doing those things, I just want a safe environment for essential contacts of those who do not wish to be exposed, such as masks on public transport, and for shops and businesses to decide, rather than customers.
    How do you ensure a safe environment for those essential workers who have to drive to work?

    Shall we ban all other traffic while they are on their commute?
    In cars they are safe, but many vulnerable people cannot commute by car.

    There is also the exposure of transports staff, who do have high mortality from covid.
    In cars they absolutely are not safe. What are the stats of RTAs? They are at risk. You said you wanted them to be safe. Jumping into a car and driving is not safe.

    Or did you mean that you wanted them to face a balanced and reasonable risk? Now we're talking.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,528

    MaxPB said:

    Starbucks is to coffee what McDonald’s is to the burger.

    A Big Mac is amazing when drunk. Starbucks coffe is terrible, always. They aren't comparable as McDonald's still fulfills the brief. Starbucks could be selling burnt brown water for all we know.
    Selling burnt brown water. For £4. To people who see throwing £4 at a company as disreputable as Starfux as some kind of positive statement.
    Is it that expensive now?!

    But they do pride month and black history month and all the other things. So people fall for it. That's always what these companies achieve by "supporting" these causes with a free logo change and it obscures their other terrible corporate practices such as industrial scale tax dodging.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 59,980

    They gush over Truss sound like a crossword clue.
    Or a very niche, surgical appliance centred kink.

    This is either cleverly cryptic or totally nonsensical.

    Yep, I'll go for the latter.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,792
    theProle said:

    MattW said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Two Whitehall sources told the Guardian that ministers had been spooked by internal polling. One said the data showed just 10% of the public support the policy of scrapping all restrictions at once, while another said substantially more people believed the government was moving too quickly than at the last reopening step on 17 May. These accounts were denied by No 10.

    https://twitter.com/GdnPolitics/status/1413725938504769536

    They aren't scrapping all restrictions at once.

    That if anything shows that wall to wall media wibble has some effect on short term opinion polls.
    As usual the shit for brains PM is digging a pit when he speaks without thinking. He may not be scrapping all restrictions at once. But he is *saying* that he is. FREEDOM DAY. Two preannouncements so far, ministers saying ditch the mask, Johnson photographed having already ditched the mask.

    So yes they are scrapping them all. It doesn't matter that the WHO have described the plan as demonstrably stupid. It has to happen. The Boris has to have his moment of adoration. Some of you are going to die, martyrs of course to the freedom I shall provide...
    The WHO has been totally wrong about pretty much everything this pandemic. They may or may not be wrong now, but if you take them seriously on anything then you're more stupid than I thought you were.

    I don't think some of the "masks and distancing forever" types understand the economic damage it causes.
    Take distancing - I'm involved at a steam railway. Iirc our 64 seat "open" coaches are down to a capacity of 27. If we fill every seat on every train, we now just about break even on a day's running.
    No one wants to come anyway, all the while they are expected to wear masks, and be marshalled around one way systems etc, so we're also struggling to sell the tickets we have available.

    I personally have considered several bits of economic activity (eg going to the cinema) and every time its ultimately been the masking that's killed it for me - it just means it won't be enjoyable enough to be worth doing.

    Anyone suggesting masks are a cost free option needs their head examining - it's quite the opposite.

    Same with public transport vs car use. I'm not going to be sitting on a train in a mask when I could be sat in my car without. Anyone who is wondering why car use is through the roof, and public transport is still quiet - it really is this simple.
    Forever? Don't be absurd. Anyway I am glad that instead of clueless fools like the World Health Organisation we have PB experts to set us straight.

    I totally get the difficulty this causes for steam railways and lots of other businesses. Which is why the government shouldn't have pulled its support. As for why steam railway enthusiasts like me don't want to come in sufficient numbers is because of the pox.

    Saying "you don't need to worry about it, ignore the 100k new cases every day, ignore all the people you know who now have it or are isolating" is going to do what? Make us come unmasked and sit shoulder to shoulder to shoulder?

    Its wishful thinking - too many people are cautious even when the government are not. We won't come, businesses will go bust, they won't support you and they will blame you. Stop supporting their efforts to destroy you.
  • StuartDicksonStuartDickson Posts: 12,146
    edited July 2021

    TOPPING said:

    Charles said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Somebody is a member of the Conservative Party. They are an MP who takes the Conservative whip. They are a Cabinet minister in a majority Conservative government.

    I’d say it’s pretty cut and dried they are a conservative.

    Even if they disagree with you
    @HYUFD's "Tory Party" is like that AI thought experiment. If you take one brain synapse and replace it with a computer you are still you. At what point, one synapse at a time, do you stop becoming you.
    Whoooah boy! Too early. My brain needs three decent coffees before trying to cope with Zeno’s paradoxes.
    Do you mean the ship of Theseus?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

    No. On the flight out I had downloaded the In Our Time episode on Zeno’s paradoxes, and the synapse example seems identical to Zeno’s puzzler regarding baldness. If a man has only one hair, everyone knows that he is bald, but what about 100 hairs or 1000 hairs: is he still bald? At what point does a man lose one hair and become bald?
    Very good episode.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 59,980
    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    Starbucks is to coffee what McDonald’s is to the burger.

    A Big Mac is amazing when drunk. Starbucks coffe is terrible, always. They aren't comparable as McDonald's still fulfills the brief. Starbucks could be selling burnt brown water for all we know.
    Selling burnt brown water. For £4. To people who see throwing £4 at a company as disreputable as Starfux as some kind of positive statement.
    Is it that expensive now?!

    But they do pride month and black history month and all the other things. So people fall for it. That's always what these companies achieve by "supporting" these causes with a free logo change and it obscures their other terrible corporate practices such as industrial scale tax dodging.
    That's exactly right. And, to be fair, it works.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,573

    Scott_xP said:

    Two Whitehall sources told the Guardian that ministers had been spooked by internal polling. One said the data showed just 10% of the public support the policy of scrapping all restrictions at once, while another said substantially more people believed the government was moving too quickly than at the last reopening step on 17 May. These accounts were denied by No 10.

    https://twitter.com/GdnPolitics/status/1413725938504769536

    Time for Boris to get some balls of steel and ignore the polling and lead the country rather than follow it.

    More respect for him if he does.
    Is this Christmas all over again? Last December, Christmas was to be free but in the days before Christmas – too late, I suspect, for many families even to notice let alone cancel their plans – the shutters came down. July 19th will be freedom day. FREEDOM! Unless it won't.

    Perhaps the mooted bank holiday is to compensate for Covid restrictions largely remaining in place, with the choice of FREEDOM or a day off (subject to an England win tomorrow) being made Monday.

    Most people are not like us. If you spend weeks telling the public to take off their masks and invite the village in for tea, and only one day telling them you've changed your mind, it is anyone's guess what will actually happen.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,344

    Charles said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Somebody is a member of the Conservative Party. They are an MP who takes the Conservative whip. They are a Cabinet minister in a majority Conservative government.

    I’d say it’s pretty cut and dried they are a conservative.

    Even if they disagree with you
    The day Mogg becomes PM I will resign and PB posters can hold me to that
    Doubt you'll need to. To become PM he'd have to be the Last Man Alive.....
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,573
    IanB2 said:

    HYUFD said:

    IanB2 said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Did you actually read the article before rushing to post your thoughts? If you had done so you would have learned that Liz Truss is enormously popular with the membership. Had you have clicked the link you would have seen that she's out in front, beating even Rishi Sunak. https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2021/07/two-by-elections-and-one-health-secretary-losses-see-johnson-fall-by-16-points-in-our-cabinet-league-table

    The rest of your post says rather more about you, which I'm not really interested in, especially from a betting perspective.

    Johnson could yet again prove a lucky general (England tomorrow) but no one could describe the pandemic as good fortune. The whole situation remains precarious for all sorts of reasons and not just for health but public finance. Money is clearly a problem which besets Boris wherever he goes. That may be a factor for him in stepping down sooner rather than later. It can't be much fun being PM on the verge of bankruptcy.

    The really interesting question will be the direction the Conservatives next take. If as I suspect they are losing their heartland down south and if the appeal to the north eventually turns sour then their support will continue to slide away. They might under such circumstances retreat to the Far Right with the likes of Patel but that will confine them to the wastelands. Power resides in this country in the centre even if, as with Brexit, the definition of that needs recalibrating (Mondeo Man and Brexit Man were not, after all, so very different).

    It's really quite ironic. If you look at the English football team and read their stories you'll find there a cause for patriotism that is out of kilter with the direction some Conservatives currently seem to be headed.

    The Conservatives will have to return to being a One Nation party if they are going to win.
    An outrageous slur from yourself on @HYUFD. We all know that the essicks massiv is the only gay in the village true Tory.
    He’s off on one again if he’s back touting that twat Mogg. That was a great betting lay that largely offset my failure to believe that Tory MPs would ever put a clown into Downing Street.

    Tories have enough awareness to tell JRM to take a long foreign holiday whenever there is an election on. They aren’t going to make him leader.
    Not in government no, Sunak remains the likely successor if Boris wins the next general election and departs still as PM.

    If the Tories lose a general election or 2 I would certainly not rule the Mogg out, if they could make IDS their leader they could certainly make the Mogg their leader.

    The Mogg has charisma whether you like him or not and appeals to the Tory base in much the same way as Corbyn appealed to the Labour base

    That went well.

    Choosing someone in opposition like IDS or Corbyn is a mistake; it isn't a compulsory step oppositions must go through.
    The Conservatives did choose someone like Corbyn. His name is Boris Johnson and he won the general election by 80 seats.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,269
    I see we are discussing coffee again.

    This - https://grancaffegambrinus.com/en/caffetteria-2/ - is where and how one has a decent coffee.

    Starbucks sells dishwater.
  • RochdalePioneersRochdalePioneers Posts: 28,792
    TOPPING said:

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    HYUFD said:

    kjh said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Did you actually read the article before rushing to post your thoughts? If you had done so you would have learned that Liz Truss is enormously popular with the membership. Had you have clicked the link you would have seen that she's out in front, beating even Rishi Sunak. https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2021/07/two-by-elections-and-one-health-secretary-losses-see-johnson-fall-by-16-points-in-our-cabinet-league-table

    The rest of your post says rather more about you, which I'm not really interested in, especially from a betting perspective.

    Johnson could yet again prove a lucky general (England tomorrow) but no one could describe the pandemic as good fortune. The whole situation remains precarious for all sorts of reasons and not just for health but public finance. Money is clearly a problem which besets Boris wherever he goes. That may be a factor for him in stepping down sooner rather than later. It can't be much fun being PM on the verge of bankruptcy.

    The really interesting question will be the direction the Conservatives next take. If as I suspect they are losing their heartland down south and if the appeal to the north eventually turns sour then their support will continue to slide away. They might under such circumstances retreat to the Far Right with the likes of Patel but that will confine them to the wastelands. Power resides in this country in the centre even if, as with Brexit, the definition of that needs recalibrating (Mondeo Man and Brexit Man were not, after all, so very different).

    It's really quite ironic. If you look at the English football team and read their stories you'll find there a cause for patriotism that is out of kilter with the direction some Conservatives currently seem to be headed.

    The Conservatives will have to return to being a One Nation party if they are going to win.
    If you were here yesterday you will have seen I asked the same question about a dozen times. I'm sure HYUFD does read the posts but is incapable of taking in contradictory data to his view or the application of logic. All responses will just be to repeat the same words over and over again. The fact that the article contains data that contradicts his view won't be addressed. It will be ignored and his previous posts ignoring it will be repeated.

    It is a shame as there is no reason why he couldn't put a counter argument. See yesterday; there were plenty of rational arguments against my position that could have been argued. I even tried putting a few up for him.
    No, I just have my own views and refuse to change them to suit you.

    Your argument yesterday was essentially that mortgage and rent paying taxpayers should continue to subsidise an earnings related increase in state pensions rather than an inflation related one.

    There is no logic which automatically means that your view is always right as you always assume in your sometimes rather patronising way and certainly no logic that the average taxpayer must accept funding earnings related rises in the state pension for pensioners who own their own property and have substantial private pensions too. As I stated poorer pensioners who still rent could be helped with higher pension credit or higher housing benefit rather than across the board earnings related increases in the state pension as you advocated
    I'm not going to get into this discussion again but your post again demonstrates that you do appear not to read the posts you you respond to (I'm sure you do), because you often completely misunderstand them.

    a) Not asking you to change your view. Your position (as I pointed out several times yesterday and also in the post you have just responded to) is a perfectly valid one, but put an argument forward in support of it and respond to the counter arguments put to you. You never do. You just go on a mantra repeating yourself without responding to valid counter arguments.

    b) Re your 2nd sentence - No it wasn't. I was pointing out your position was irrational because earning increase faster than inflation which you were either denying or didn't understand the consequences of (I am guessing the latter). I will admit that is my position though, although it is far more nuanced than you have described which you should have seen when I replied to someone who did put a rational argument together and asked what I would propose.

    c) You don't seem to understand the difference between logic and opinion. We both have opinions and there is no right or wrong in either of our set of opinions. Yours are of course as valid as mine. Logic however is factual. So:

    If you apply logic to a fact it produces a fact
    If you apply logic to an opinion it is still just an opinion, the result is valid, but only based on the original opinion being valid and an opinion is still subjective

    If you state a fact or opinion but apply an irrational process to it you produce nonsense (although that could still be the correct result, but by luck).

    If someone challenges your opinion by applying logic to and that produces a nonsense result that should generate a discussion whereby you show their logic is faulty (yes we all do it). That was what I was doing yesterday and you never once countered my logic when I showed it produced a nonsense result. There were plenty of opportunities to do so. I even tried feeding a couple to you.

    I'm sorry if you find I am sometimes patronising. I am, so I do apologise. I am afraid the inability to put apply logic very frustrating, which puts me into that patronising mode.

    I have no problem with different opinions. I don't think I am always right. I am often wrong and I have made a few howlers on here which I have owned up to, and I to can be irrational, although when pointed out I hope I see it immediately.

    PS HYUFD I love your posts, but you do wind me up sometimes when you get into an argument with someone (even when I agree with you). And it isn't just me.
    Point taken but you know what I am like
    You are awful, @HYUFD, but we like you.
    Stop it! Before I start picturing Dick Emery every time HYUFD self-righteously going off on one.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,344
    edited July 2021
    Truss will be remembered for killing off any realistic chance of Rejoin. It will involve dismantling too many other trade deals she has put in place, even if the EU decided to do away with united states ambitions and just become a trade body again, a la the EEC.

    For that, the Party will love her.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,639

    Charles said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Somebody is a member of the Conservative Party. They are an MP who takes the Conservative whip. They are a Cabinet minister in a majority Conservative government.

    I’d say it’s pretty cut and dried they are a conservative.

    Even if they disagree with you
    The day Mogg becomes PM I will resign and PB posters can hold me to that
    Doubt you'll need to. To become PM he'd have to be the Last Man Alive.....
    Not quite. Last hominine alive.

    Other sexes/genders are available.
  • Morris_DancerMorris_Dancer Posts: 61,700
    Good morning, everyone.

    I have a little on Truss.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,473

    Foxy said:

    TOPPING said:

    Notice to those on the left and all points East.

    Buying coffee from Starbucks, like going to Heaven (the nightclub) on July 20th, is not mandatory.

    I have no problem with people doing those things, I just want a safe environment for essential contacts of those who do not wish to be exposed, such as masks on public transport, and for shops and businesses to decide, rather than customers.
    But there Is No Risk. So what that there could be 100k new cases a day. Nobody is going to hospital and die, well OK some people are going to get ill and die, and more people are going to suffer the as yet partially known hell of long Covid.

    But none of that matters, the PM needs to be popular, and the plebs need to get back into Starbucks to buy their £4 burnt brown water on their way into the office. So get on with it lower orders. And stop talking about science and medicine and other stupid excuses. We've had enough of experts.
    More just what used to be traditional good manners. We should not impose our choices on other people. So if anti-social anti-maskers pile onto a tube tain, what can you do other than get off?

    Somethings are free decisions, such as maskless pubs or nightclubs, or having house parties and I have no problems with those rules being applied.

    I just want to be able to travel safely, in a distanced, masked environment, and to be able to do the same in essential shops. It is just good manners and consideration to do so.
  • noneoftheabovenoneoftheabove Posts: 22,599

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    Starbucks is to coffee what McDonald’s is to the burger.

    A Big Mac is amazing when drunk. Starbucks coffe is terrible, always. They aren't comparable as McDonald's still fulfills the brief. Starbucks could be selling burnt brown water for all we know.
    Selling burnt brown water. For £4. To people who see throwing £4 at a company as disreputable as Starfux as some kind of positive statement.
    Is it that expensive now?!

    But they do pride month and black history month and all the other things. So people fall for it. That's always what these companies achieve by "supporting" these causes with a free logo change and it obscures their other terrible corporate practices such as industrial scale tax dodging.
    That's exactly right. And, to be fair, it works.
    People liked drinking in Starbucks well before most of them had heard of black history month. £4 a cup of coffee is certainly not for me, but others have their reasons for it. I doubt more than 0.01% of them would say the reason for it is black history month or pride! Not everything is about the culture war, honestly!
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,573

    TOPPING said:

    Notice to those on the left and all points East.

    Buying coffee from Starbucks, like going to Heaven (the nightclub) on July 20th, is not mandatory.

    I don't know why so many people keep on telling me I should care about Pret.

    I couldn't give a shit about Pret. I didn't like their ubiquitous boring overpriced and tedious sandwiches before the pandemic, and I like them even less now. As for jobs they mainly employ those from overseas.

    It's a fantastic PR/lobbying effort by the owner though - first class.
    I like Pret. I preferred the old-fashioned sandwich shops in the City where a beef or cheese sandwich would be freshly made with fresh bread, be an inch thick and cost three times as much as a McDonalds hamburger, because a dozen staff in a City location did not come cheap. But I'd rather Pret than Subway or a supermarket.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,573

    Truss will be remembered for killing off any realistic chance of Rejoin. It will involve dismantling too many other trade deals she has put in place, even if the EU decided to do away with united states ambitions and just become a trade body again, a la the EEC.

    For that, the Party will love her.

    The party of entrist Brexiteers? Well, yes, they are the ones with the votes.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,344
    Carnyx said:

    Charles said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Somebody is a member of the Conservative Party. They are an MP who takes the Conservative whip. They are a Cabinet minister in a majority Conservative government.

    I’d say it’s pretty cut and dried they are a conservative.

    Even if they disagree with you
    The day Mogg becomes PM I will resign and PB posters can hold me to that
    Doubt you'll need to. To become PM he'd have to be the Last Man Alive.....
    Not quite. Last hominine alive.

    Other sexes/genders are available.
    Mogg ain't ever going to become any other gender. Of that we can be more certain than death and taxes.
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,208
    I find Liz Truss preposterous, Very active on Twitter where she runs her own parody account. A deeply unserious politician for unserious political times. @Quincel is surely right. BUY!
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,639
    edited July 2021

    Carnyx said:

    Charles said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Somebody is a member of the Conservative Party. They are an MP who takes the Conservative whip. They are a Cabinet minister in a majority Conservative government.

    I’d say it’s pretty cut and dried they are a conservative.

    Even if they disagree with you
    The day Mogg becomes PM I will resign and PB posters can hold me to that
    Doubt you'll need to. To become PM he'd have to be the Last Man Alive.....
    Not quite. Last hominine alive.

    Other sexes/genders are available.
    Mogg ain't ever going to become any other gender. Of that we can be more certain than death and taxes.
    Oh, yes. But I meant, who's going to pick him as party leader when a hermaphrodite is available, never mind a woman?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,473
    edited July 2021

    MaxPB said:

    MaxPB said:

    Starbucks is to coffee what McDonald’s is to the burger.

    A Big Mac is amazing when drunk. Starbucks coffe is terrible, always. They aren't comparable as McDonald's still fulfills the brief. Starbucks could be selling burnt brown water for all we know.
    Selling burnt brown water. For £4. To people who see throwing £4 at a company as disreputable as Starfux as some kind of positive statement.
    Is it that expensive now?!

    But they do pride month and black history month and all the other things. So people fall for it. That's always what these companies achieve by "supporting" these causes with a free logo change and it obscures their other terrible corporate practices such as industrial scale tax dodging.
    That's exactly right. And, to be fair, it works.
    People liked drinking in Starbucks well before most of them had heard of black history month. £4 a cup of coffee is certainly not for me, but others have their reasons for it. I doubt more than 0.01% of them would say the reason for it is black history month or pride! Not everything is about the culture war, honestly!
    Considering the economics of coffee, based on poverty wages in developing countries, and profits to tax avoiding international companies, Black History month is real chutzpah for Starbucks.
  • DecrepiterJohnLDecrepiterJohnL Posts: 27,573
    Will there be a reshuffle before Boris is replaced? Will Rishi be as good at the Home Office? Priti Patel at the FCO? And, on-topic, how will Liz Truss perform in a job that needs more than photo-op signing deals negotiated by diplomats and that largely duplicate EU deals.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,528
    Cyclefree said:

    I see we are discussing coffee again.

    This - https://grancaffegambrinus.com/en/caffetteria-2/ - is where and how one has a decent coffee.

    Starbucks sells dishwater.

    I've been there. It's nothing special in terms of the coffee. The experience is great though. The Aussies have got coffee figured out better than everyone else. Coffee around Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith, West Kensington etc... is the best you can get. Old Street and Shoreditch get a special mention. Anything is better than the chains though. A proper Aussie coffee shop beats everything else though.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,297
    Back of the queue and prison for these tossers.

    Covid vaccinators are facing abuse, threats and aggression from people demanding their second jab early so they can go on holiday this summer, doctors have said.

    In one incident, vaccination site staff were so concerned for their safety that they called the police, while some GP-led vaccination centres have had to hire security guards to protect them, the Guardian has learned.

    Those involved appear to be “angry and frustrated” people who want to have their second Covid jab sooner than eight weeks after the first one – the official minimum gap – so they can go abroad.

    One vaccination lead in the south-east of England said: “We’ve had a number of violent and aggressive incidents at sites, and even had to call the police, with people demanding their vaccine earlier than eight weeks.

    “These incidents involved verbal abuse and aggressive and threatening behaviour. We have had to bring in security for our walk-in and ‘grab-a-jab’ sessions.”

    A GP in London said: “Just the other day one of our volunteers was spat at, which was awful. We’ve had to hire security to deal with the abuse we’re getting.”

    Another family doctor, in the north-east of England, said the vaccination site they helped to run had had to assign a nurse to work full-time talking to people who were seeking second jabs before the eight-week gap set down by the government’s advisory Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

    “That’s one less clinician actually vaccinating people. Some people come back in day after day to every session waiting to see if there might be some leftover vaccines and asking again and again if we will give it earlier,” the GP said.


    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/10/nhs-staff-abused-by-people-seeking-second-covid-jab-early-for-holiday
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,297
    ydoethur said:

    It was the headline I was sniggering over, not the snide allusion to Sunak’s height.

    Was it deliberate or did TSE/Quincel just not think it through?

    This was all Quincel.

    I am shocked and appalled you could think I could come up with this headline.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,528

    Back of the queue and prison for these tossers.

    Covid vaccinators are facing abuse, threats and aggression from people demanding their second jab early so they can go on holiday this summer, doctors have said.

    In one incident, vaccination site staff were so concerned for their safety that they called the police, while some GP-led vaccination centres have had to hire security guards to protect them, the Guardian has learned.

    Those involved appear to be “angry and frustrated” people who want to have their second Covid jab sooner than eight weeks after the first one – the official minimum gap – so they can go abroad.

    One vaccination lead in the south-east of England said: “We’ve had a number of violent and aggressive incidents at sites, and even had to call the police, with people demanding their vaccine earlier than eight weeks.

    “These incidents involved verbal abuse and aggressive and threatening behaviour. We have had to bring in security for our walk-in and ‘grab-a-jab’ sessions.”

    A GP in London said: “Just the other day one of our volunteers was spat at, which was awful. We’ve had to hire security to deal with the abuse we’re getting.”

    Another family doctor, in the north-east of England, said the vaccination site they helped to run had had to assign a nurse to work full-time talking to people who were seeking second jabs before the eight-week gap set down by the government’s advisory Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

    “That’s one less clinician actually vaccinating people. Some people come back in day after day to every session waiting to see if there might be some leftover vaccines and asking again and again if we will give it earlier,” the GP said.


    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/10/nhs-staff-abused-by-people-seeking-second-covid-jab-early-for-holiday

    Linking being double jabbed to something tangible before allowing everyone to be double jabbed was always going to result in those who haven't been allowed it to be pretty upset. Their ire would be better directed at the politicians and JCVI who are unnecessarily holding on to the 8 week gap despite first dose demand dropping to nothing.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 41,947
    Slight variation from me from the majority view on coffee from cafes. I prefer a takeaway cup even if I'm having it there. Reason being I like to retain a sense of dynamism and transience and spontaneity about things. The notion that although I might be sat down and ostensibly settled I could at any moment jump up and leave. Indeed I often do this - drink half there and walk away with the rest, finish it on the move. You can't do this unless you have a paper cup. You're trapped.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,297
    On topic, I've got some good odds on Truss, but don't take that bet to maturity, trade out early.

    Remember Truss has an ability to wind up certain Tory members and that isn't good for her leadership ambitions.

    Remember Dave (pbuh) had to get involved to quell the rebellion to save her skin, this was when Dave had 98% approval with Tory voters.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/david-cameron-warns-turnip-taliban-they-could-damage-whole-party-6747513.html
  • IshmaelZIshmaelZ Posts: 21,830

    ydoethur said:

    It was the headline I was sniggering over, not the snide allusion to Sunak’s height.

    Was it deliberate or did TSE/Quincel just not think it through?

    This was all Quincel.

    I am shocked and appalled you could think I could come up with this headline.
    There's a poster who keeps talking about "wet finger in the air" estimates, which puts me in mind of Camilla jokes at which even you would draw the line.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,528
    kinabalu said:

    Slight variation from me from the majority view on coffee from cafes. I prefer a takeaway cup even if I'm having it there. Reason being I like to retain a sense of dynamism and transience and spontaneity about things. The notion that although I might be sat down and ostensibly settled I could at any moment jump up and leave. Indeed I often do this - drink half there and walk away with the rest, finish it on the move. You can't do this unless you have a paper cup. You're trapped.

    Very bad for the environment as 90% of coffee cups aren't recyclable and most aren't made from recycled paper either and use regulatory loopholes to advertise they are. If you're sitting in you should get a proper cup and saucer, if you need to leave you can always get them to put it in a paper one.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 26,469
    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    TOPPING said:

    Notice to those on the left and all points East.

    Buying coffee from Starbucks, like going to Heaven (the nightclub) on July 20th, is not mandatory.

    I have no problem with people doing those things, I just want a safe environment for essential contacts of those who do not wish to be exposed, such as masks on public transport, and for shops and businesses to decide, rather than customers.
    But there Is No Risk. So what that there could be 100k new cases a day. Nobody is going to hospital and die, well OK some people are going to get ill and die, and more people are going to suffer the as yet partially known hell of long Covid.

    But none of that matters, the PM needs to be popular, and the plebs need to get back into Starbucks to buy their £4 burnt brown water on their way into the office. So get on with it lower orders. And stop talking about science and medicine and other stupid excuses. We've had enough of experts.
    More just what used to be traditional good manners. We should not impose our choices on other people. So if anti-social anti-maskers pile onto a tube tain, what can you do other than get off?

    Somethings are free decisions, such as maskless pubs or nightclubs, or having house parties and I have no problems with those rules being applied.

    I just want to be able to travel safely, in a distanced, masked environment, and to be able to do the same in essential shops. It is just good manners and consideration to do so.
    I just want to be able to travel safely, in a distanced, masked environment, and to be able to do the same in essential shops. It is just good manners and consideration to do so.

    Are you prepared to pay extra for so doing ?
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,853
    MaxPB said:

    Back of the queue and prison for these tossers.

    Covid vaccinators are facing abuse, threats and aggression from people demanding their second jab early so they can go on holiday this summer, doctors have said.

    In one incident, vaccination site staff were so concerned for their safety that they called the police, while some GP-led vaccination centres have had to hire security guards to protect them, the Guardian has learned.

    Those involved appear to be “angry and frustrated” people who want to have their second Covid jab sooner than eight weeks after the first one – the official minimum gap – so they can go abroad.

    One vaccination lead in the south-east of England said: “We’ve had a number of violent and aggressive incidents at sites, and even had to call the police, with people demanding their vaccine earlier than eight weeks.

    “These incidents involved verbal abuse and aggressive and threatening behaviour. We have had to bring in security for our walk-in and ‘grab-a-jab’ sessions.”

    A GP in London said: “Just the other day one of our volunteers was spat at, which was awful. We’ve had to hire security to deal with the abuse we’re getting.”

    Another family doctor, in the north-east of England, said the vaccination site they helped to run had had to assign a nurse to work full-time talking to people who were seeking second jabs before the eight-week gap set down by the government’s advisory Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

    “That’s one less clinician actually vaccinating people. Some people come back in day after day to every session waiting to see if there might be some leftover vaccines and asking again and again if we will give it earlier,” the GP said.


    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/10/nhs-staff-abused-by-people-seeking-second-covid-jab-early-for-holiday

    Linking being double jabbed to something tangible before allowing everyone to be double jabbed was always going to result in those who haven't been allowed it to be pretty upset. Their ire would be better directed at the politicians and JCVI who are unnecessarily holding on to the 8 week gap despite first dose demand dropping to nothing.
    An edge case I've just considered is that if vaxports are in use for licensed premises,17 year olds should be allowed vaccination.
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,502

    Will there be a reshuffle before Boris is replaced? Will Rishi be as good at the Home Office? Priti Patel at the FCO? And, on-topic, how will Liz Truss perform in a job that needs more than photo-op signing deals negotiated by diplomats and that largely duplicate EU deals.

    That's not correct. Truss has made consistent controversial choices in her new and planned trade deals with regard to agriculture, in each case putting zero-tariff free trade (more efficiency, lower prices) over maintaining high standards (better for farmers and welfare). I don't agree with her approach at all, but it's not trivial and it's properly Thatcherite.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,297
    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    It was the headline I was sniggering over, not the snide allusion to Sunak’s height.

    Was it deliberate or did TSE/Quincel just not think it through?

    This was all Quincel.

    I am shocked and appalled you could think I could come up with this headline.
    There's a poster who keeps talking about "wet finger in the air" estimates, which puts me in mind of Camilla jokes at which even you would draw the line.
    Nah, I'd be the wrong side of that line.

    I used have a client many years ago, in his 70s, who literally used to drop off about 20 bags of receipts in Tesco carrier bags to his accountants in his Rolls Royce, so his accountant could have a good fingering and tell him how much tax he owed that year.

    It took all my professionalism to not laugh at that, in said client's head, a good fingering was his accountant using his fingers on the computer and calculator.
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,753
    kinabalu said:

    Slight variation from me from the majority view on coffee from cafes. I prefer a takeaway cup even if I'm having it there. Reason being I like to retain a sense of dynamism and transience and spontaneity about things. The notion that although I might be sat down and ostensibly settled I could at any moment jump up and leave. Indeed I often do this - drink half there and walk away with the rest, finish it on the move. You can't do this unless you have a paper cup. You're trapped.

    Banished from PB young lad.

    But I agree the Carrie Bradshaw attitude is a strong one.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,177
    Cyclefree said:

    I see we are discussing coffee again.

    This - https://grancaffegambrinus.com/en/caffetteria-2/ - is where and how one has a decent coffee.

    Starbucks sells dishwater.

    Starbucks may be bad, but the ‘coffee’ our uni sells is even worse. Last week I had a latte from a man with a van at Westbury white horse that was 100x better. It’s not hard...
  • TOPPINGTOPPING Posts: 42,753
    MaxPB said:

    kinabalu said:

    Slight variation from me from the majority view on coffee from cafes. I prefer a takeaway cup even if I'm having it there. Reason being I like to retain a sense of dynamism and transience and spontaneity about things. The notion that although I might be sat down and ostensibly settled I could at any moment jump up and leave. Indeed I often do this - drink half there and walk away with the rest, finish it on the move. You can't do this unless you have a paper cup. You're trapped.

    Very bad for the environment as 90% of coffee cups aren't recyclable and most aren't made from recycled paper either and use regulatory loopholes to advertise they are. If you're sitting in you should get a proper cup and saucer, if you need to leave you can always get them to put it in a paper one.
    Now now Max leave your authoritarian instincts at the door.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,473

    Foxy said:

    Foxy said:

    TOPPING said:

    Notice to those on the left and all points East.

    Buying coffee from Starbucks, like going to Heaven (the nightclub) on July 20th, is not mandatory.

    I have no problem with people doing those things, I just want a safe environment for essential contacts of those who do not wish to be exposed, such as masks on public transport, and for shops and businesses to decide, rather than customers.
    But there Is No Risk. So what that there could be 100k new cases a day. Nobody is going to hospital and die, well OK some people are going to get ill and die, and more people are going to suffer the as yet partially known hell of long Covid.

    But none of that matters, the PM needs to be popular, and the plebs need to get back into Starbucks to buy their £4 burnt brown water on their way into the office. So get on with it lower orders. And stop talking about science and medicine and other stupid excuses. We've had enough of experts.
    More just what used to be traditional good manners. We should not impose our choices on other people. So if anti-social anti-maskers pile onto a tube tain, what can you do other than get off?

    Somethings are free decisions, such as maskless pubs or nightclubs, or having house parties and I have no problems with those rules being applied.

    I just want to be able to travel safely, in a distanced, masked environment, and to be able to do the same in essential shops. It is just good manners and consideration to do so.
    I just want to be able to travel safely, in a distanced, masked environment, and to be able to do the same in essential shops. It is just good manners and consideration to do so.

    Are you prepared to pay extra for so doing ?
    I would suggest that businesses set their own rules, and choose themselves. Some pubs might like to have a mask free bar, and a socially distanced saloon with table service, or a supermarket to have masked mornings and mask free afternoons, so as to cater to both groups.

    Mrs Foxy is off to London with her cousin today, to see Foxjr2 in his play, now nearly sold out. Travelling First Class on the train, so socially distanced, FFP3 mask for the tube.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,509
    ydoethur said:

    It was the headline I was sniggering over, not the snide allusion to Sunak’s height.

    Was it deliberate or did TSE/Quincel just not think it through?

    If TSE had a hand in there, undoubtedly the former.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,853
    It's bizzare the 8 week rule is being strict enforced on
    i The portion of the population where a 3-8 week gap difference will make sod all difference
    Ii The vaccine primarily where it makes little difference
    Iii When first dose demand is dropping
    iv The JCVI is preventing new demand from under 18s.
    v It is being linked to external incentives

    Has no-one in Government considered this lot in the round ?
  • squareroot2squareroot2 Posts: 6,662
    I had to look up pbuh . It was new to.me.
  • MarqueeMarkMarqueeMark Posts: 52,344

    Good morning, everyone.

    I have a little on Truss.

    Preferable to having a little truss on.....
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,509

    If you want to understand Tory grassroots opinion, HYUFD is a must read. He cuts through the spin. And he’s often been proved right, despite the ridicule he’s taken.

    Totally agree and he never bull shits
    I also agree - though to be fair, Tory grassroots opinion is fairly often both ridiculous and impervious to argument, too.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,473
    Pulpstar said:

    It's bizzare the 8 week rule is being strict enforced on
    i The portion of the population where a 3-8 week gap difference will make sod all difference
    Ii The vaccine primarily where it makes little difference
    Iii When first dose demand is dropping
    iv The JCVI is preventing new demand from under 18s.
    v It is being linked to external incentives

    Has no-one in Government considered this lot in the round ?

    Yes, no reason not to go to 3-4 weeks now and get everyone protected.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,297
    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    It was the headline I was sniggering over, not the snide allusion to Sunak’s height.

    Was it deliberate or did TSE/Quincel just not think it through?

    If TSE had a hand in there, undoubtedly the former.
    Nah, I would never belittle Sunak over his height.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,344

    Truss will be remembered for killing off any realistic chance of Rejoin. It will involve dismantling too many other trade deals she has put in place, even if the EU decided to do away with united states ambitions and just become a trade body again, a la the EEC.

    For that, the Party will love her.

    I thought all her deals, except the recent Aussie one, were the EU arrangements rewritten for the UK.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,473

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    It was the headline I was sniggering over, not the snide allusion to Sunak’s height.

    Was it deliberate or did TSE/Quincel just not think it through?

    If TSE had a hand in there, undoubtedly the former.
    Nah, I would never belittle Sunak over his height.
    Just getting in a tiny dig?
  • JonathanJonathan Posts: 21,555
    Nigelb said:

    If you want to understand Tory grassroots opinion, HYUFD is a must read. He cuts through the spin. And he’s often been proved right, despite the ridicule he’s taken.

    Totally agree and he never bull shits
    I also agree - though to be fair, Tory grassroots opinion is fairly often both ridiculous and impervious to argument, too.
    To work so closely with Tory grassroots must be hazardous, I hope proper PPE is provided.
  • jonny83jonny83 Posts: 1,270
    MaxPB said:

    Back of the queue and prison for these tossers.

    Covid vaccinators are facing abuse, threats and aggression from people demanding their second jab early so they can go on holiday this summer, doctors have said.

    In one incident, vaccination site staff were so concerned for their safety that they called the police, while some GP-led vaccination centres have had to hire security guards to protect them, the Guardian has learned.

    Those involved appear to be “angry and frustrated” people who want to have their second Covid jab sooner than eight weeks after the first one – the official minimum gap – so they can go abroad.

    One vaccination lead in the south-east of England said: “We’ve had a number of violent and aggressive incidents at sites, and even had to call the police, with people demanding their vaccine earlier than eight weeks.

    “These incidents involved verbal abuse and aggressive and threatening behaviour. We have had to bring in security for our walk-in and ‘grab-a-jab’ sessions.”

    A GP in London said: “Just the other day one of our volunteers was spat at, which was awful. We’ve had to hire security to deal with the abuse we’re getting.”

    Another family doctor, in the north-east of England, said the vaccination site they helped to run had had to assign a nurse to work full-time talking to people who were seeking second jabs before the eight-week gap set down by the government’s advisory Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

    “That’s one less clinician actually vaccinating people. Some people come back in day after day to every session waiting to see if there might be some leftover vaccines and asking again and again if we will give it earlier,” the GP said.


    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/10/nhs-staff-abused-by-people-seeking-second-covid-jab-early-for-holiday

    Linking being double jabbed to something tangible before allowing everyone to be double jabbed was always going to result in those who haven't been allowed it to be pretty upset. Their ire would be better directed at the politicians and JCVI who are unnecessarily holding on to the 8 week gap despite first dose demand dropping to nothing.
    We regularly had to deal with situations like this at our hospital vaccination hub. You would think members of the public were some of the worst (we did have many) for this but surprisingly staff some of my fellow colleagues were rude and aggressive at times to us working there. Having to tell people they couldn't have a second dose until 8 weeks (which became 9 when the North West as our local area couldn't get a supply of Pfizer - which meant everyone had to wait an extra week) provoked plenty of ire in people.

    We said it's out of our hands, blame Boris etc but some were having none of it.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,853
    Pulpstar said:

    It's bizzare the 8 week rule is being strict enforced on
    i The portion of the population where a 3-8 week gap difference will make sod all difference
    Ii The vaccine primarily where it makes little difference
    Iii When first dose demand is dropping
    iv The JCVI is preventing new demand from under 18s.
    v It is being linked to external incentives

    Has no-one in Government considered this lot in the round ?

    I mean NIGHTCLUBS are being opened on the 19th (Quite rightly). I'd have thought you would want as much vaccine immunity as you can get in those
  • Fysics_TeacherFysics_Teacher Posts: 6,283
    MaxPB said:

    kinabalu said:

    Slight variation from me from the majority view on coffee from cafes. I prefer a takeaway cup even if I'm having it there. Reason being I like to retain a sense of dynamism and transience and spontaneity about things. The notion that although I might be sat down and ostensibly settled I could at any moment jump up and leave. Indeed I often do this - drink half there and walk away with the rest, finish it on the move. You can't do this unless you have a paper cup. You're trapped.

    Very bad for the environment as 90% of coffee cups aren't recyclable and most aren't made from recycled paper either and use regulatory loopholes to advertise they are. If you're sitting in you should get a proper cup and saucer, if you need to leave you can always get them to put it in a paper one.
    Do coffee shops still give you a discount for bringing your own reusable cup?
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,637

    Will there be a reshuffle before Boris is replaced? Will Rishi be as good at the Home Office? Priti Patel at the FCO? And, on-topic, how will Liz Truss perform in a job that needs more than photo-op signing deals negotiated by diplomats and that largely duplicate EU deals.

    That's not correct. Truss has made consistent controversial choices in her new and planned trade deals with regard to agriculture, in each case putting zero-tariff free trade (more efficiency, lower prices) over maintaining high standards (better for farmers and welfare). I don't agree with her approach at all, but it's not trivial and it's properly Thatcherite.
    Whats our (Labours) policy on trade?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,473

    Truss will be remembered for killing off any realistic chance of Rejoin. It will involve dismantling too many other trade deals she has put in place, even if the EU decided to do away with united states ambitions and just become a trade body again, a la the EEC.

    For that, the Party will love her.

    I thought all her deals, except the recent Aussie one, were the EU arrangements rewritten for the UK.
    Mostly, but some are subtly different. Import duties on Japanese cars go immediately, rather than phased out over a decade for example.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,668
    Thailand deep into its new wave. Arguably its first wave

    Nearly 10,000 cases, nearly 100 dead, in a day

    Quite serious now. My friends out there say they expect another year of this. Meaning covid will have taken 2 years and 3 months out of their economy, with almost zero tourism
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,344

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    It was the headline I was sniggering over, not the snide allusion to Sunak’s height.

    Was it deliberate or did TSE/Quincel just not think it through?

    This was all Quincel.

    I am shocked and appalled you could think I could come up with this headline.
    There's a poster who keeps talking about "wet finger in the air" estimates, which puts me in mind of Camilla jokes at which even you would draw the line.
    Nah, I'd be the wrong side of that line.

    I used have a client many years ago, in his 70s, who literally used to drop off about 20 bags of receipts in Tesco carrier bags to his accountants in his Rolls Royce, so his accountant could have a good fingering and tell him how much tax he owed that year.

    It took all my professionalism to not laugh at that, in said client's head, a good fingering was his accountant using his fingers on the computer and calculator.
    Many, many years ago my daughter, then in her mid teens decided she wanted to do articles in accountancy instead of going to Uni. Went to the interview, at a small, local firm with her, and the boss said something about 'sorting out the shoebox full of assorted till receipts and such which your client laughingly calls his records'.

    And, to be fair, over the years she did have clients like that.
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,473
    jonny83 said:

    MaxPB said:

    Back of the queue and prison for these tossers.

    Covid vaccinators are facing abuse, threats and aggression from people demanding their second jab early so they can go on holiday this summer, doctors have said.

    In one incident, vaccination site staff were so concerned for their safety that they called the police, while some GP-led vaccination centres have had to hire security guards to protect them, the Guardian has learned.

    Those involved appear to be “angry and frustrated” people who want to have their second Covid jab sooner than eight weeks after the first one – the official minimum gap – so they can go abroad.

    One vaccination lead in the south-east of England said: “We’ve had a number of violent and aggressive incidents at sites, and even had to call the police, with people demanding their vaccine earlier than eight weeks.

    “These incidents involved verbal abuse and aggressive and threatening behaviour. We have had to bring in security for our walk-in and ‘grab-a-jab’ sessions.”

    A GP in London said: “Just the other day one of our volunteers was spat at, which was awful. We’ve had to hire security to deal with the abuse we’re getting.”

    Another family doctor, in the north-east of England, said the vaccination site they helped to run had had to assign a nurse to work full-time talking to people who were seeking second jabs before the eight-week gap set down by the government’s advisory Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

    “That’s one less clinician actually vaccinating people. Some people come back in day after day to every session waiting to see if there might be some leftover vaccines and asking again and again if we will give it earlier,” the GP said.


    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/10/nhs-staff-abused-by-people-seeking-second-covid-jab-early-for-holiday

    Linking being double jabbed to something tangible before allowing everyone to be double jabbed was always going to result in those who haven't been allowed it to be pretty upset. Their ire would be better directed at the politicians and JCVI who are unnecessarily holding on to the 8 week gap despite first dose demand dropping to nothing.
    We regularly had to deal with situations like this at our hospital vaccination hub. You would think members of the public were some of the worst (we did have many) for this but surprisingly staff some of my fellow colleagues were rude and aggressive at times to us working there. Having to tell people they couldn't have a second dose until 8 weeks (which became 9 when the North West as our local area couldn't get a supply of Pfizer - which meant everyone had to wait an extra week) provoked plenty of ire in people.

    We said it's out of our hands, blame Boris etc but some were having none of it.
    Yes, earlier in the roll out quite a few incidents like that at our place too, mostly staff.

    I know of a few trying to get boosters in early too, from the leftovers.
  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,210

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    It was the headline I was sniggering over, not the snide allusion to Sunak’s height.

    Was it deliberate or did TSE/Quincel just not think it through?

    This was all Quincel.

    I am shocked and appalled you could think I could come up with this headline.
    There's a poster who keeps talking about "wet finger in the air" estimates, which puts me in mind of Camilla jokes at which even you would draw the line.
    Nah, I'd be the wrong side of that line.

    I used have a client many years ago, in his 70s, who literally used to drop off about 20 bags of receipts in Tesco carrier bags to his accountants in his Rolls Royce, so his accountant could have a good fingering and tell him how much tax he owed that year.

    It took all my professionalism to not laugh at that, in said client's head, a good fingering was his accountant using his fingers on the computer and calculator.
    Many, many years ago my daughter, then in her mid teens decided she wanted to do articles in accountancy instead of going to Uni. Went to the interview, at a small, local firm with her, and the boss said something about 'sorting out the shoebox full of assorted till receipts and such which your client laughingly calls his records'.

    And, to be fair, over the years she did have clients like that.
    I spoke to a taxi driver during lockdown who was a bit bemused about how to declare his income and expenses for UC. He usually just gave his accountant a carrier bag full of receipts every year and paid as much tax as he was told to.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,706
    This thread has explained to me why I like Truss. A Tory who is really an Orange Booker, what's not to like?

    She has had a lot of success in her current job but will soon face the laws of diminishing returns (with the potentially significant exception of TPP). If she is to be a real player for the leadership she will need to find a different role and show that she can handle that too. Boris, like Cameron before him, doesn't seem very keen to reshuffle his pack so this may prove tricky.

    Chancellor to PM Rishi seems a very good solution to me.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,528

    MaxPB said:

    kinabalu said:

    Slight variation from me from the majority view on coffee from cafes. I prefer a takeaway cup even if I'm having it there. Reason being I like to retain a sense of dynamism and transience and spontaneity about things. The notion that although I might be sat down and ostensibly settled I could at any moment jump up and leave. Indeed I often do this - drink half there and walk away with the rest, finish it on the move. You can't do this unless you have a paper cup. You're trapped.

    Very bad for the environment as 90% of coffee cups aren't recyclable and most aren't made from recycled paper either and use regulatory loopholes to advertise they are. If you're sitting in you should get a proper cup and saucer, if you need to leave you can always get them to put it in a paper one.
    Do coffee shops still give you a discount for bringing your own reusable cup?
    Some do, my local one gives us a stamp for a free coffee (you need 8). They say 8 cups is about the same cost for them as the coffee because they use more expensive biodegradable ones.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,637
    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    It was the headline I was sniggering over, not the snide allusion to Sunak’s height.

    Was it deliberate or did TSE/Quincel just not think it through?

    If TSE had a hand in there, undoubtedly the former.
    Nah, I would never belittle Sunak over his height.
    Just getting in a tiny dig?
    He only has a small chance of becoming PM
  • NemtynakhtNemtynakht Posts: 2,329

    Foxy said:

    Its hardly a surprise that normal people aren't as gung-ho as some on here and their government. It is their lives the government are risking. "Covid doesn't pose them a risk anymore" I keep hearing. And yet we have a stack of medics including the CMO saying that it does.

    Perhaps they find it instructive that FREEDOM DAY goes hand in hand with instruction to go back to the office and start spending money on public transport and twatty coffee again and the abrupt ending to furlough. Not that this is a financial decision at all...

    I am always bemused by the bile many on the left have about take away coffee. i mean i am not the most massive coffee drinker myself and certianly ain't fussy about whether it is a lattee, frappe, americano etc . When I do have one though i enjoy it , not because of the actual coffee bu the fact that usually you are out of your house , seeing people, doing stuff, maybe even chatting with the shop assistant making it - you know living a human life.

    Also feel the same when people sneer at high street bookies - Personally love to bet in a betting shop rather than on the internet as most of the fun is the social interaction with a little bit of shiftiness that goes with high street bookies. -
    I don't think I qualify as "the left". My issue with the likes of Starbucks is the stupid amount they charge for ok coffee combined with their mysterious lack of profit from selling said coffee meaning no tax paid.
    I agree, my dislike is the usage of non recycling paper cups too for their overpriced confections.

    I have no problem with enjoying a well made coffee, sitting down out of a proper cup with friends, indeed it is quite the pleasure. Walking round with a takeaway is just naff. As a general rule it is good manners that food and drink should not be taken while moving around.
    I have to agree: when I want a coffee I normally want to sit and drink it in comfort. In fact the I regard the price of the coffee as the rent I paying on somewhere comfortable to sit while I do the crossword.
    When I used to travel round for work I found a few hotel lobbies were the best - pot of coffee quiet seat and WiFi for as long as I needed it for £8-10.
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 70,509

    Carnyx said:

    Charles said:

    HYUFD said:

    Truss is an Orange Book libertarian LD not a Tory, good on the trade deals but not a real conservative. Indeed in her younger days she was a LD.

    Boris won't be going for a long time but if and when he does Rishi Sunak is clearly the obvious choice to succeed him if the Tories are still in power as the Chancellor.

    If the Tories go into opposition then a populist traditional rightwinger like Patel or even Rees-Mogg is more likely to be the membership's choice of successor as leader than Truss

    Somebody is a member of the Conservative Party. They are an MP who takes the Conservative whip. They are a Cabinet minister in a majority Conservative government.

    I’d say it’s pretty cut and dried they are a conservative.

    Even if they disagree with you
    The day Mogg becomes PM I will resign and PB posters can hold me to that
    Doubt you'll need to. To become PM he'd have to be the Last Man Alive.....
    Not quite. Last hominine alive.

    Other sexes/genders are available.
    Mogg ain't ever going to become any other gender. Of that we can be more certain than death and taxes.
    He does give off a pantomime dame vibe, though.
  • bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 22,637

    Foxy said:

    Nigelb said:

    ydoethur said:

    It was the headline I was sniggering over, not the snide allusion to Sunak’s height.

    Was it deliberate or did TSE/Quincel just not think it through?

    If TSE had a hand in there, undoubtedly the former.
    Nah, I would never belittle Sunak over his height.
    Just getting in a tiny dig?
    He only has a small chance of becoming PM
    Betting tip short Sunak DYOR
  • jonny83jonny83 Posts: 1,270
    Foxy said:

    jonny83 said:

    MaxPB said:

    Back of the queue and prison for these tossers.

    Covid vaccinators are facing abuse, threats and aggression from people demanding their second jab early so they can go on holiday this summer, doctors have said.

    In one incident, vaccination site staff were so concerned for their safety that they called the police, while some GP-led vaccination centres have had to hire security guards to protect them, the Guardian has learned.

    Those involved appear to be “angry and frustrated” people who want to have their second Covid jab sooner than eight weeks after the first one – the official minimum gap – so they can go abroad.

    One vaccination lead in the south-east of England said: “We’ve had a number of violent and aggressive incidents at sites, and even had to call the police, with people demanding their vaccine earlier than eight weeks.

    “These incidents involved verbal abuse and aggressive and threatening behaviour. We have had to bring in security for our walk-in and ‘grab-a-jab’ sessions.”

    A GP in London said: “Just the other day one of our volunteers was spat at, which was awful. We’ve had to hire security to deal with the abuse we’re getting.”

    Another family doctor, in the north-east of England, said the vaccination site they helped to run had had to assign a nurse to work full-time talking to people who were seeking second jabs before the eight-week gap set down by the government’s advisory Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

    “That’s one less clinician actually vaccinating people. Some people come back in day after day to every session waiting to see if there might be some leftover vaccines and asking again and again if we will give it earlier,” the GP said.


    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/10/nhs-staff-abused-by-people-seeking-second-covid-jab-early-for-holiday

    Linking being double jabbed to something tangible before allowing everyone to be double jabbed was always going to result in those who haven't been allowed it to be pretty upset. Their ire would be better directed at the politicians and JCVI who are unnecessarily holding on to the 8 week gap despite first dose demand dropping to nothing.
    We regularly had to deal with situations like this at our hospital vaccination hub. You would think members of the public were some of the worst (we did have many) for this but surprisingly staff some of my fellow colleagues were rude and aggressive at times to us working there. Having to tell people they couldn't have a second dose until 8 weeks (which became 9 when the North West as our local area couldn't get a supply of Pfizer - which meant everyone had to wait an extra week) provoked plenty of ire in people.

    We said it's out of our hands, blame Boris etc but some were having none of it.
    Yes, earlier in the roll out quite a few incidents like that at our place too, mostly staff.

    I know of a few trying to get boosters in early too, from the leftovers.
    Every day we had that with people trying to get their second early. We told them to come back towards the end of the day/session and if we had leftovers we ended up giving them. This happened less so at the begining because instead we would go around the hospital and try and get people to come down for a 1st. But as we went on we allowed it as most had already had their 1st.

    Just couldn't waste doses of Pfizer.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 26,469
    Pulpstar said:

    It's bizzare the 8 week rule is being strict enforced on
    i The portion of the population where a 3-8 week gap difference will make sod all difference
    Ii The vaccine primarily where it makes little difference
    Iii When first dose demand is dropping
    iv The JCVI is preventing new demand from under 18s.
    v It is being linked to external incentives

    Has no-one in Government considered this lot in the round ?

    This seems to be the thinking:

    Prof. Anthony Harnden is on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and he advises the government on the vaccine rollout.

    He says: "The data suggests very strongly that the longer you leave that second dose, the better longer term protection you will have.

    "There is a sort of sweet spot from about eight weeks onwards, and we wouldn't advise anybody to really have the second dose before then."


    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57682233

    I don't know about this but wouldn't a second dose after 3 weeks rather than 8 weeks give quicker short term protection at the cost of worse long term protection ?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,473

    Pulpstar said:

    It's bizzare the 8 week rule is being strict enforced on
    i The portion of the population where a 3-8 week gap difference will make sod all difference
    Ii The vaccine primarily where it makes little difference
    Iii When first dose demand is dropping
    iv The JCVI is preventing new demand from under 18s.
    v It is being linked to external incentives

    Has no-one in Government considered this lot in the round ?

    This seems to be the thinking:

    Prof. Anthony Harnden is on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and he advises the government on the vaccine rollout.

    He says: "The data suggests very strongly that the longer you leave that second dose, the better longer term protection you will have.

    "There is a sort of sweet spot from about eight weeks onwards, and we wouldn't advise anybody to really have the second dose before then."


    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57682233

    I don't know about this but wouldn't a second dose after 3 weeks rather than 8 weeks give quicker short term protection at the cost of worse long term protection ?
    In Israel and America the short (recommended) interval is showing good efficacy.
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,528
    TOPPING said:

    MaxPB said:

    kinabalu said:

    Slight variation from me from the majority view on coffee from cafes. I prefer a takeaway cup even if I'm having it there. Reason being I like to retain a sense of dynamism and transience and spontaneity about things. The notion that although I might be sat down and ostensibly settled I could at any moment jump up and leave. Indeed I often do this - drink half there and walk away with the rest, finish it on the move. You can't do this unless you have a paper cup. You're trapped.

    Very bad for the environment as 90% of coffee cups aren't recyclable and most aren't made from recycled paper either and use regulatory loopholes to advertise they are. If you're sitting in you should get a proper cup and saucer, if you need to leave you can always get them to put it in a paper one.
    Now now Max leave your authoritarian instincts at the door.
    I said should, not must. No compulsion, just strikes me as a but hypocritical from kinabalu who wants to advertise bow virtuous he is.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,706

    IshmaelZ said:

    ydoethur said:

    It was the headline I was sniggering over, not the snide allusion to Sunak’s height.

    Was it deliberate or did TSE/Quincel just not think it through?

    This was all Quincel.

    I am shocked and appalled you could think I could come up with this headline.
    There's a poster who keeps talking about "wet finger in the air" estimates, which puts me in mind of Camilla jokes at which even you would draw the line.
    Nah, I'd be the wrong side of that line.

    I used have a client many years ago, in his 70s, who literally used to drop off about 20 bags of receipts in Tesco carrier bags to his accountants in his Rolls Royce, so his accountant could have a good fingering and tell him how much tax he owed that year.

    It took all my professionalism to not laugh at that, in said client's head, a good fingering was his accountant using his fingers on the computer and calculator.
    Many, many years ago my daughter, then in her mid teens decided she wanted to do articles in accountancy instead of going to Uni. Went to the interview, at a small, local firm with her, and the boss said something about 'sorting out the shoebox full of assorted till receipts and such which your client laughingly calls his records'.

    And, to be fair, over the years she did have clients like that.
    I spoke to a taxi driver during lockdown who was a bit bemused about how to declare his income and expenses for UC. He usually just gave his accountant a carrier bag full of receipts every year and paid as much tax as he was told to.
    Its one of the reasons I never went for the standardised rate of VAT when that was an option. Doing a VAT return every quarter meant that was something rather more meaningful to give the accountant at the end of the year.
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 77,853

    Pulpstar said:

    It's bizzare the 8 week rule is being strict enforced on
    i The portion of the population where a 3-8 week gap difference will make sod all difference
    Ii The vaccine primarily where it makes little difference
    Iii When first dose demand is dropping
    iv The JCVI is preventing new demand from under 18s.
    v It is being linked to external incentives

    Has no-one in Government considered this lot in the round ?

    This seems to be the thinking:

    Prof. Anthony Harnden is on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and he advises the government on the vaccine rollout.

    He says: "The data suggests very strongly that the longer you leave that second dose, the better longer term protection you will have.

    "There is a sort of sweet spot from about eight weeks onwards, and we wouldn't advise anybody to really have the second dose before then."


    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57682233

    I don't know about this but wouldn't a second dose after 3 weeks rather than 8 weeks give quicker short term protection at the cost of worse long term protection ?
    For people under 40 ?
    Doubt it
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,528

    Pulpstar said:

    It's bizzare the 8 week rule is being strict enforced on
    i The portion of the population where a 3-8 week gap difference will make sod all difference
    Ii The vaccine primarily where it makes little difference
    Iii When first dose demand is dropping
    iv The JCVI is preventing new demand from under 18s.
    v It is being linked to external incentives

    Has no-one in Government considered this lot in the round ?

    This seems to be the thinking:

    Prof. Anthony Harnden is on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and he advises the government on the vaccine rollout.

    He says: "The data suggests very strongly that the longer you leave that second dose, the better longer term protection you will have.

    "There is a sort of sweet spot from about eight weeks onwards, and we wouldn't advise anybody to really have the second dose before then."


    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57682233

    I don't know about this but wouldn't a second dose after 3 weeks rather than 8 weeks give quicker short term protection at the cost of worse long term protection ?
    For the people getting it now it really doesn't matter, the gain is better in the short term to reduce spread.
  • JosiasJessopJosiasJessop Posts: 42,205
    A couple of years ago I was walking though Liverpool when I came across an orange order march in the wild. They looked utterly glum and subdued; funereal.

    At least this bunch look like they're having fun...
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,639
    edited July 2021
    Yep, lots of midgies about already; that poor chap is having terrible trouble with them.
This discussion has been closed.