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Trump becoming a stronger favourite for WH2024 – politicalbetting.com

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  • Options
    FarooqFarooq Posts: 10,775

    Corbynites rapidly back pedal as Burnham supports Tory policies, Red Tory I can hear it again now. No logic with these muppets

    I don't know why Boris doesn't just fuck off and join the Tories
  • Options
    Pro_RataPro_Rata Posts: 4,802
    I see Austria's tiering plan includes a lockdown of the unvaccinated. An interesting crossing of the Rubicon that others will be looking at no doubt.
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,321

    Scott_xP said:

    OBSERVER: Ministers pave way to bring in tough ‘Plan B’ Covid rules #TomorrowsPapersToday https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1452017644471832577/photo/1

    "Bureaucrats pave way to blame ministers for not implementing 'Plan B'"
    My reading is that they want to introduce plan B, but put any blame onto councils - "we asked them what they felt and they seemed to want it, who are we to argue?"
  • Options
    "Why can't SKS attack the Tories more? Andy Burnham does, he's King of the North"

    * SKS attacks the Tories, Andy Burnham praises them *

    "Why can't SKS support the Tories more? Andy Burnham does, he's King of the North".

    Bad faith nonsense, on current polling and current trajectory Starmer will be PM of a minority Government
  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,943
    edited October 2021
    Scott_xP said:

    Another poll showing how the tectonic plates have shifted decisively in Irish politics. https://twitter.com/toghanneire/status/1452002912088084482

    There is a FG and FF government and combined the governing parties still have 37% to 33% for SF, the main opposition party, as they approach midterm
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,242
    eek said:

    Scott_xP said:

    SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Chancellor to spend billions to digitise NHS #TomorrowsPapersToday https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1452017905177092097/photo/1


    A previous government already gave Fujitsu billions to digitise the NHS. IIRC the project ended up in court...

    Such a typical negative comment
    What's the betting it was the NHS and the civil servants who messed up the contract rather than the company?
    Fujitsu and BT should share the blame - no one comes out of that scheme well.

    It should be easier now though as technology has moved on and lessons should have been learnt
    The previous NHS IT disaster went thus -

    1) A single gigantic program was created to implemented (largely) by waterfall methodology, and variants thereof
    2) The program was old style IT - an attempt to build vast monolithic systems.
    3) The various pieces of the program were contracted out to the big players in IT
    4) Who knew that the result was inevitable. But MONEY!!!

    I was at a conference, around that time, and a certain Canadian project management expert asked me if I knew as the British guy in the room why the UK government was doing this, since no waterfall project of anything like the size had ever succeeded.....
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,865

    If the requirements hadn't been a moving target it might have gone better...

    There were a few too many cooks on both the implementation and the NHS side.

    I thought the Child Support system rewrite would be the textbook for Government IT procurement fuckups, but the NHS project won the crown
  • Options
    Pro_Rata said:

    I see Austria's tiering plan includes a lockdown of the unvaccinated. An interesting crossing of the Rubicon that others will be looking at no doubt.

    Absolutely more acceptable than locking down everyone.

    Let the unvaccinated pay for their own choices. Screw them.
  • Options
    SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 20,581

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    I've been out all day today, what did I miss?
    Not sure about Manchester, but the government is funding a cycle path in Bradford.
  • Options
    Scott_xP said:

    Because it had problems before does not mean it will have in the future

    I never said it would.

    You imagined it, then got upset about it, then posted about it.

    Chill out.

    Care less about what I write, man. You'll be happier, and live longer...
    I am totally happy with a wife of near 60 years, children and grandchildren, but more importantly I do not obsess my every moment over brexit which I believe you have said is a life cause
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,242

    eek said:

    Scott_xP said:

    SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Chancellor to spend billions to digitise NHS #TomorrowsPapersToday https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1452017905177092097/photo/1


    A previous government already gave Fujitsu billions to digitise the NHS. IIRC the project ended up in court...

    Such a typical negative comment
    What's the betting it was the NHS and the civil servants who messed up the contract rather than the company?
    Fujitsu and BT should share the blame - no one comes out of that scheme well.

    It should be easier now though as technology has moved on and lessons should have been learnt
    If the requirements hadn't been a moving target it might have gone better...

    There were a few too many cooks on both the implementation and the NHS side.
    One of the problems was that it was an attempt at a vast, waterfall project. Which could only work if the requirements were utterly frozen.

    In the real world things change. This is why other project management methodologies embrace change, rather than treating it as evil.

    Think small steps, lots of them. A eco system of small pieces, evolving forwards from basic functionality....
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,321
    HYUFD said:



    Maybe not intentionally but the fact is Congress can elect the president under the Electoral Count Act 1887 if both chambers object to states' EC results and the constitution does not prohibit that.

    Indeed as I said in Italy, Germany, India and South Africa their legislature and parliament already elects their President not the voters directly. In the US too it is the EC which technically elects the President, not the popular vote directly as in France and the elected Congress confirms the validity of the EC results and who becomes President therefore.

    If I was genuinely a fascist I would be advocating a military coup to make Trump President as still does occur in some Middle Eastern or African nations from time to time

    Well, changing the way the President is elected after the election has happened is not a military coup, but it's also not exactly cricket. It would call the validity of American democracy into serious question, and with respect I think that would be worse than any possible election result.
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,826

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    Would be churlish not to.£6 bn on transport in the North is not to be sniffed at Starmers reaction makes him look pathetic.

    Muppets like CHB who think SKS will offer working people anything worthwhile are in for a massive shock when vast swathes of the retained red wall says no thanks to the useless nonentity.

    Roll on GE 2024 Working class hero Boris vs the useless nonentity.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,848

    Scott_xP said:

    SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Chancellor to spend billions to digitise NHS #TomorrowsPapersToday https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1452017905177092097/photo/1


    A previous government already gave Fujitsu billions to digitise the NHS. IIRC the project ended up in court...

    Such a typical negative comment
    What's the betting it was the NHS and the civil servants who messed up the contract rather than the company?
    Of course it was. They had no idea of the scope of their own project, and several changes of the minister in charge led to it being redefined so much that it was impossible for the contractor to execute.
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,826

    Corbynites rapidly back pedal as Burnham supports Tory policies, Red Tory I can hear it again now. No logic with these muppets

    What do you stand for?
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,865

    Think small steps, lots of them. A eco system of small pieces, evolving forwards from basic functionality....

    The problem with agile development for some of these large scale systems is you need a minimum viable system from which to iterate.

    I don't think the NHS project ever got close to that
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,826

    Corbynites rapidly back pedal as Burnham supports Tory policies, Red Tory I can hear it again now. No logic with these muppets

    What do you stand for?
    Is £6bn for transport outside London levelling up. What would your hero offer?
  • Options
    kinabalukinabalu Posts: 39,129

    Scott_xP said:

    OBSERVER: Ministers pave way to bring in tough ‘Plan B’ Covid rules #TomorrowsPapersToday https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1452017644471832577/photo/1

    They can f##k off.

    I have no intentions of respecting any further lockdowns or restrictions. They can go jump.

    Life is for living. Let the antivaxxers own their choices.

    The scientists said at the start the public wouldn't remain locked down for long, they got that wrong but I've long ran out of patience with this bollocks. I'd rather 'let the bodies pile high' than have any more legal restrictions, this bullshit has to end.
    Ok, Spartacus. But thankfully you're nowhere near the decision.
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,865

    I do not obsess my every moment over brexit

    I didn't mention Brexit.

    You imagined it.

    Obsessed...
  • Options

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    Would be churlish not to.£6 bn on transport in the North is not to be sniffed at Starmers reaction makes him look pathetic.

    Muppets like CHB who think SKS will offer working people anything worthwhile are in for a massive shock when vast swathes of the retained red wall says no thanks to the useless nonentity.

    Roll on GE 2024 Working class hero Boris vs the useless nonentity.
    If people like you are leaving Labour than thank God because it can get back to being a moderate. centre left party once again. Nobody sane goes from supporting Corbyn to lavishing praise on BoJo.
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,826

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    I've been out all day today, what did I miss?
    Not? sure about Manchester, but the government is funding a cycle path in Bradford.
    What is your Party offering "A serious plan for cyclists"?
  • Options

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    Would be churlish not to.£6 bn on transport in the North is not to be sniffed at Starmers reaction makes him look pathetic.

    Muppets like CHB who think SKS will offer working people anything worthwhile are in for a massive shock when vast swathes of the retained red wall says no thanks to the useless nonentity.

    Roll on GE 2024 Working class hero Boris vs the useless nonentity.
    If people like you are leaving Labour than thank God because it can get back to being a moderate. centre left party once again. Nobody sane goes from supporting Corbyn to lavishing praise on BoJo.
    Andy Burnham has tonight
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 46,853
    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,865
    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up.

    There's a one word answer to that...
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,161
    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

  • Options
    HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 116,943
    edited October 2021

    HYUFD said:



    Maybe not intentionally but the fact is Congress can elect the president under the Electoral Count Act 1887 if both chambers object to states' EC results and the constitution does not prohibit that.

    Indeed as I said in Italy, Germany, India and South Africa their legislature and parliament already elects their President not the voters directly. In the US too it is the EC which technically elects the President, not the popular vote directly as in France and the elected Congress confirms the validity of the EC results and who becomes President therefore.

    If I was genuinely a fascist I would be advocating a military coup to make Trump President as still does occur in some Middle Eastern or African nations from time to time

    Well, changing the way the President is elected after the election has happened is not a military coup, but it's also not exactly cricket. It would call the validity of American democracy into serious question, and with respect I think that would be worse than any possible election result.
    It wouldn't, it would just mean the President effectively served at the pleasure of the elected Congress and would shift power in the US away from the Presidency to Congress. Just as a GOP Congress could make Trump President in 2024 even if he lost the EC, a Democratic Congress elected in the 2026 midterms could prevent the GOP candidate in 2028 becoming President even if they won the EC.

    I am not advocating it but but nor would it be a coup either
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 46,853

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
  • Options
    I predict Wednesday's budget will be barnstorming and talk of lockdown will recede, as we then move onto COP26 which is going to be another big event but is likely to cause enormous controversy across the globe

    Interesting days
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,321
    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:



    Maybe not intentionally but the fact is Congress can elect the president under the Electoral Count Act 1887 if both chambers object to states' EC results and the constitution does not prohibit that.

    Indeed as I said in Italy, Germany, India and South Africa their legislature and parliament already elects their President not the voters directly. In the US too it is the EC which technically elects the President, not the popular vote directly as in France and the elected Congress confirms the validity of the EC results and who becomes President therefore.

    If I was genuinely a fascist I would be advocating a military coup to make Trump President as still does occur in some Middle Eastern or African nations from time to time

    Well, changing the way the President is elected after the election has happened is not a military coup, but it's also not exactly cricket. It would call the validity of American democracy into serious question, and with respect I think that would be worse than any possible election result.
    It wouldn't, it would just mean the President effectively served at the pleasure of the elected Congress and would shift power in the US away from the Presidency to Congress. Just as a GOP Congress could make Trump President in 2024 even if he lost the EC, a Democratic Congress elected in the 2026 midterms could prevent the GOP candidate in 2028 becoming President even if they won the EC.

    I am not advocating it but but nor would it be a coup either
    It's perfectly defensible (and not unlike the British system) if it's made clear in advance, which would I think require a constitutional amendment to be clear. It's not acceptable if Congress decides they don't like the result and rummage around in the toolbox for a way to change it.
  • Options
    pigeonpigeon Posts: 4,129

    Pro_Rata said:

    I see Austria's tiering plan includes a lockdown of the unvaccinated. An interesting crossing of the Rubicon that others will be looking at no doubt.

    Absolutely more acceptable than locking down everyone.

    Let the unvaccinated pay for their own choices. Screw them.
    I understand and sympathise with the sentiment, although giving the refusers a good shoeing comes with its own problems: vaxports for everyone, making businesses check them, and - if they're going to be really effective - Italian-style sanctions preventing the refusers from going to work. The refusers are also disproportionately non-white, so howling about racism would likely be both immediate and deafening were it to be tried.

    The Government will doubtless be hoping that the more panicky scientists are wrong this time - the modelling of the effects of the great unlock in the Summer was wildly inaccurate, after all - but if ministers feel forced to reimpose restrictions in Winter then they may well decide that punishing refusers in any meaningful way is more trouble than it's worth. We shall see.
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    turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 15,130
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    We’re really not approaching another lockdown. Chill.
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,161

    Second World War tweets from 1943 @RealTimeWWII
    ·
    15m
    Female Soviet tank driver Mariya Oktyabrskaya goes into battle against the Germans near Smolensk; after her husband was killed by Nazis two years ago, Mariya sold all her possessions to donate a tank to the the Red Army, on condition she be allowed to drive it.


    https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII/status/1452026203309756417
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,242
    Is this offensive?

    image
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,826

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    Would be churlish not to.£6 bn on transport in the North is not to be sniffed at Starmers reaction makes him look pathetic.

    Muppets like CHB who think SKS will offer working people anything worthwhile are in for a massive shock when vast swathes of the retained red wall says no thanks to the useless nonentity.

    Roll on GE 2024 Working class hero Boris vs the useless nonentity.
    If people like you are leaving Labour than thank God because it can get back to being a moderate. centre left party once again. Nobody sane goes from supporting Corbyn to lavishing praise on BoJo.
    Andy Burnham has tonight
    Beat me to it BigG

    CHB can't give a single example of anything SKS is offering.

    And I have always been able to praise politicians when they do the right thing.

    So far I have therefore never praised the useless nonentity in charge of Labour

  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,865
    EXC 🚨🚨🚨 Prince Charles's flagship charity is bankrolled by the world's biggest fossil fuel company

    Last night the Prince's Foundation said it had launched an internal review of donor policy

    Ahead of COP26 it has taken hundreds of thousands of pounds from Saudi Aramco

    https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1452020120956678148
  • Options
    turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 15,130
    pigeon said:

    Pro_Rata said:

    I see Austria's tiering plan includes a lockdown of the unvaccinated. An interesting crossing of the Rubicon that others will be looking at no doubt.

    Absolutely more acceptable than locking down everyone.

    Let the unvaccinated pay for their own choices. Screw them.
    I understand and sympathise with the sentiment, although giving the refusers a good shoeing comes with its own problems: vaxports for everyone, making businesses check them, and - if they're going to be really effective - Italian-style sanctions preventing the refusers from going to work. The refusers are also disproportionately non-white, so howling about racism would likely be both immediate and deafening were it to be tried.

    The Government will doubtless be hoping that the more panicky scientists are wrong this time - the modelling of the effects of the great unlock in the Summer was wildly inaccurate, after all - but if ministers feel forced to reimpose restrictions in Winter then they may well decide that punishing refusers in any meaningful way is more trouble than it's worth. We shall see.
    Interestingly the latest SAGE modelling suggests a far better prognosis than previously. That is the context for me saying there won’t be a lockdown. We are not revisiting furlough, and closed businesses. At worst I can see masks being mandated again and wfh strongly pushed if possible.
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,321
    HYUFD said:

    Scott_xP said:

    Another poll showing how the tectonic plates have shifted decisively in Irish politics. https://twitter.com/toghanneire/status/1452002912088084482

    There is a FG and FF government and combined the governing parties still have 37% to 33% for SF, the main opposition party, as they approach midterm
    What separates Labour from Social Democrats in Ireland? - I see they're both members of the S&D European grouping.
  • Options

    Is this offensive?

    image

    Possibly, but it's hilarious all the same :lol:
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 46,853

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    We’re really not approaching another lockdown. Chill.
    The news - everywhere - suggests otherwise. This looks very much like another belated panicky handbrake turn by Boris

    I hope half term slows the growth and I’m proven wrong.

    They should bring in vaxports anyway. Everywhere else is doing it, so it will be the only way of ever travelling
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,826

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    Would be churlish not to.£6 bn on transport in the North is not to be sniffed at Starmers reaction makes him look pathetic.

    Muppets like CHB who think SKS will offer working people anything worthwhile are in for a massive shock when vast swathes of the retained red wall says no thanks to the useless nonentity.

    Roll on GE 2024 Working class hero Boris vs the useless nonentity.
    If people like you are leaving Labour than thank God because it can get back to being a moderate. centre left party once again. Nobody sane goes from supporting Corbyn to lavishing praise on BoJo.
    Factional crap.

    Try offering an alternative to the Tories.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,903
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    Feels like collective punishment for the unvaccinated arseholes.
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,321
  • Options
    Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 32,865
    MAIL ON SUNDAY: NHS calls in Army to halt booster shambles #TomorrowsPapersToday https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1452031251876098052/photo/1
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    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,242

    Is this offensive?

    image

    Possibly, but it's hilarious all the same :lol:
    To me, it seems... accurate. The Saudi government and associated corporations and institutions are not nice people. They are clearly guilty of everything on that list.
  • Options
    kinabalu said:

    Scott_xP said:

    OBSERVER: Ministers pave way to bring in tough ‘Plan B’ Covid rules #TomorrowsPapersToday https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1452017644471832577/photo/1

    They can f##k off.

    I have no intentions of respecting any further lockdowns or restrictions. They can go jump.

    Life is for living. Let the antivaxxers own their choices.

    The scientists said at the start the public wouldn't remain locked down for long, they got that wrong but I've long ran out of patience with this bollocks. I'd rather 'let the bodies pile high' than have any more legal restrictions, this bullshit has to end.
    Ok, Spartacus. But thankfully you're nowhere near the decision.
    I absolutely am near the decision.

    You see, the Prime Minister can issue whatever mandates he damned well likes.

    If the public don't respect them, then what can you do about that?
  • Options

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    Would be churlish not to.£6 bn on transport in the North is not to be sniffed at Starmers reaction makes him look pathetic.

    Muppets like CHB who think SKS will offer working people anything worthwhile are in for a massive shock when vast swathes of the retained red wall says no thanks to the useless nonentity.

    Roll on GE 2024 Working class hero Boris vs the useless nonentity.
    If people like you are leaving Labour than thank God because it can get back to being a moderate. centre left party once again. Nobody sane goes from supporting Corbyn to lavishing praise on BoJo.
    Factional crap.

    Try offering an alternative to the Tories.
    So hold on you think Labour is simultaneously not doing enough to differentiate itself from the Tories but you also think it's right that Burnham is praising the Tories?

    Let's be honest, you came into Labour during Corbyn and you've left because Labour is no longer a home for revolutionaries.

    I was there long before Corbyn, I will be there long after. I support Labour because I believe in centre-left social democracy. If you don't then Labour is not the party for you.

    Keir Starmer has a very good chance of being PM, current polling agrees with me and you just can't accept that. Boris Johnson will disappoint you as he has the people of London.
  • Options
    SandpitSandpit Posts: 49,848
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    The solution to dealing with a small bunch of refuseniks, is not to make everyone else jump through hoops but to target the refuseniks themselves.
  • Options

    Is this offensive?

    image

    Possibly, but it's hilarious all the same :lol:
    To me, it seems... accurate. The Saudi government and associated corporations and institutions are not nice people. They are clearly guilty of everything on that list.
    A Labour Government should immediately cut all ties with them. Disgusting country
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,572
    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    Feels like collective punishment for the unvaccinated arseholes.
    Why is being asked to prove you have been vaccinated a punishment?

    I'm 100% with @Leon on this one.
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 46,853
    Sandpit said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    The solution to dealing with a small bunch of refuseniks, is not to make everyone else jump through hoops but to target the refuseniks themselves.
    And how exactly do you do that? Without vaccine passports?
  • Options
    To be honest I think I'm coming round to the idea of vaccine passports if it gets us out of this
  • Options

    To be honest I think I'm coming round to the idea of vaccine passports if it gets us out of this

    What's wrong with just letting the unvaccinated die?

    They've made their choice. They can die with it.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,903
    edited October 2021

    Is this offensive?

    image

    Possibly, but it's hilarious all the same :lol:
    To me, it seems... accurate. The Saudi government and associated corporations and institutions are not nice people. They are clearly guilty of everything on that list.
    Meanwhile amongst the home fans...
    The fans could be seen mixing with Saudi nationals and waving the country’s green and white flag while bragging about their long-neglected club's newfound wealth.
    “We're Saudis. We can afford anything,” fans chanted
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,242

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    Would be churlish not to.£6 bn on transport in the North is not to be sniffed at Starmers reaction makes him look pathetic.

    Muppets like CHB who think SKS will offer working people anything worthwhile are in for a massive shock when vast swathes of the retained red wall says no thanks to the useless nonentity.

    Roll on GE 2024 Working class hero Boris vs the useless nonentity.
    If people like you are leaving Labour than thank God because it can get back to being a moderate. centre left party once again. Nobody sane goes from supporting Corbyn to lavishing praise on BoJo.
    Andy Burnham has tonight
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/23/andy-burnham-hails-alignment-with-whitehall-after-1bn-funding-boost

    So, it seems that Andy Burnham led a bid, as Mayor of Manchester, to get £1Bn to fund improved public transport in Manchester. And got £1B in funding from the Treasury for that plan.


    But it appeared his heavy lobbying at the Conservative party conference in Manchester earlier this month, where he held meetings with the new levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, and the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, had paid off.


    Interesting.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,242

    Is this offensive?

    image

    Possibly, but it's hilarious all the same :lol:
    To me, it seems... accurate. The Saudi government and associated corporations and institutions are not nice people. They are clearly guilty of everything on that list.
    A Labour Government should immediately cut all ties with them. Disgusting country
    Then we should cut ties with a long list of countries.
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,572


    Second World War tweets from 1943 @RealTimeWWII
    ·
    15m
    Female Soviet tank driver Mariya Oktyabrskaya goes into battle against the Germans near Smolensk; after her husband was killed by Nazis two years ago, Mariya sold all her possessions to donate a tank to the the Red Army, on condition she be allowed to drive it.


    https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII/status/1452026203309756417


    But it's a picture of Aleksandra Samusenko...

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandra_Samusenko
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,924
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    None of the options are good ones.

    In Los Angeles, if you want your kid to go to a public school (or indeed, my daughter's private one), they need to be vaccinated.

    In New York or Paris or Jerusalem, if you want to a bar or restaurant, you need to have a VaxPort of some kind.

    These are all infringements on liberty. (As are mask requirements in stores and on public transport)

    But if there's one thing we've learned, it's that if you don't act decisively and early, then you end up having to impose more draconian measures later.

    Now, the UK wave can be brought - one would have thought - fairly decisively to an end. How? Well, let's make sure that people who were double jabbed more than four or five months ago, get a booster (especially as there seems to be a 12-15x increase in antibodies from AZ + Pfizer from AZ alone). And let's make sure that kids are encouraged to be vaccinated too. I wouldn't go the US route of requiring it to attend public school, but let's encourage it.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,903

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    Feels like collective punishment for the unvaccinated arseholes.
    Why is being asked to prove you have been vaccinated a punishment?

    I'm 100% with @Leon on this one.
    No lol I'm with Leon. Measures should be 100% on the unvaxxed. Flashing your phone to a scanner isn't overly onerous.
  • Options

    Scott_xP said:

    OBSERVER: Ministers pave way to bring in tough ‘Plan B’ Covid rules #TomorrowsPapersToday https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1452017644471832577/photo/1

    They can f##k off.

    I have no intentions of respecting any further lockdowns or restrictions. They can go jump.

    Life is for living. Let the antivaxxers own their choices.

    The scientists said at the start the public wouldn't remain locked down for long, they got that wrong but I've long ran out of patience with this bollocks. I'd rather 'let the bodies pile high' than have any more legal restrictions, this bullshit has to end.
    ‘Life is for the living.’

    Posts: 62,671 (& counting).
  • Options
    Pulpstar said:

    Is this offensive?

    image

    Possibly, but it's hilarious all the same :lol:
    To me, it seems... accurate. The Saudi government and associated corporations and institutions are not nice people. They are clearly guilty of everything on that list.
    Meanwhile amongst the home fans...
    The fans could be seen mixing with Saudi nationals and waving the country’s green and white flag while bragging about their long-neglected club's newfound wealth.
    “We're Saudis. We can afford anything,” fans chanted
    Sounds they have gone all Millwall
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,572
    edited October 2021
    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    None of the options are good ones.

    In Los Angeles, if you want your kid to go to a public school (or indeed, my daughter's private one), they need to be vaccinated.

    In New York or Paris or Jerusalem, if you want to a bar or restaurant, you need to have a VaxPort of some kind.

    These are all infringements on liberty. (As are mask requirements in stores and on public transport)

    But if there's one thing we've learned, it's that if you don't act decisively and early, then you end up having to impose more draconian measures later.

    Now, the UK wave can be brought - one would have thought - fairly decisively to an end. How? Well, let's make sure that people who were double jabbed more than four or five months ago, get a booster (especially as there seems to be a 12-15x increase in antibodies from AZ + Pfizer from AZ alone). And let's make sure that kids are encouraged to be vaccinated too. I wouldn't go the US route of requiring it to attend public school, but let's encourage it.
    That's a bit like saying: "Hunger can be brought - one would have thought - fairly decisively to an end. How? Well, let's make sure that people have enough to eat."

    Your solution is fine if delivered but it's the delivery that's proving seemingly unachievable.
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,826

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    Would be churlish not to.£6 bn on transport in the North is not to be sniffed at Starmers reaction makes him look pathetic.

    Muppets like CHB who think SKS will offer working people anything worthwhile are in for a massive shock when vast swathes of the retained red wall says no thanks to the useless nonentity.

    Roll on GE 2024 Working class hero Boris vs the useless nonentity.
    If people like you are leaving Labour than thank God because it can get back to being a moderate. centre left party once again. Nobody sane goes from supporting Corbyn to lavishing praise on BoJo.
    Factional crap.

    Try offering an alternative to the Tories.
    So hold on you think Labour is simultaneously not doing enough to differentiate itself from the Tories but you also think it's right that Burnham is praising the Tories?

    Let's be honest, you came into Labour during Corbyn and you've left because Labour is no longer a home for revolutionaries.

    I was there long before Corbyn, I will be there long after. I support Labour because I believe in centre-left social democracy. If you don't then Labour is not the party for you.

    Keir Starmer has a very good chance of being PM, current polling agrees with me and you just can't accept that. Boris Johnson will disappoint you as he has the people of London.
    One of us will be wrong about SKS time will tell who.

    BTW I have been a member of the Labour Party from 1975 to 2002 and from 2010 to 2021 and I voted for the most right wing Candidate in 2020

    I am a Democratic Socialist like the back of your card says the Labour Party is. SKS and Evans are neither Democratic or Socialists hence I will for only the 2nd time in my life vote for a Party other than Labour.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,378

    HYUFD said:

    HYUFD said:



    Maybe not intentionally but the fact is Congress can elect the president under the Electoral Count Act 1887 if both chambers object to states' EC results and the constitution does not prohibit that.

    Indeed as I said in Italy, Germany, India and South Africa their legislature and parliament already elects their President not the voters directly. In the US too it is the EC which technically elects the President, not the popular vote directly as in France and the elected Congress confirms the validity of the EC results and who becomes President therefore.

    If I was genuinely a fascist I would be advocating a military coup to make Trump President as still does occur in some Middle Eastern or African nations from time to time

    Well, changing the way the President is elected after the election has happened is not a military coup, but it's also not exactly cricket. It would call the validity of American democracy into serious question, and with respect I think that would be worse than any possible election result.
    It wouldn't, it would just mean the President effectively served at the pleasure of the elected Congress and would shift power in the US away from the Presidency to Congress. Just as a GOP Congress could make Trump President in 2024 even if he lost the EC, a Democratic Congress elected in the 2026 midterms could prevent the GOP candidate in 2028 becoming President even if they won the EC.

    I am not advocating it but but nor would it be a coup either
    It's perfectly defensible (and not unlike the British system) if it's made clear in advance, which would I think require a constitutional amendment to be clear. It's not acceptable if Congress decides they don't like the result and rummage around in the toolbox for a way to change it.
    It’s not acceptable or defensible for Congress to set aside a national vote for President - which is what HYUFD is defending. Not if you put any importance in democracy.
    There is going to be no constitutional amendment on the electoral system in the foreseeable future. The extreme difficulty of putting through any amendment is why archaic procedures designed for the pre-telegraph era are still in place.
  • Options
    bigjohnowlsbigjohnowls Posts: 21,826

    Is this offensive?

    image

    Possibly, but it's hilarious all the same :lol:
    To me, it seems... accurate. The Saudi government and associated corporations and institutions are not nice people. They are clearly guilty of everything on that list.
    A Labour Government should immediately cut all ties with them. Disgusting country
    Zero chance SKS would do that.
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,572
    Pulpstar said:

    Pulpstar said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    Feels like collective punishment for the unvaccinated arseholes.
    Why is being asked to prove you have been vaccinated a punishment?

    I'm 100% with @Leon on this one.
    No lol I'm with Leon. Measures should be 100% on the unvaxxed. Flashing your phone to a scanner isn't overly onerous.
    Ah, I see. Misunderstod your post. Sorry

    Still, I'd like to repeat: I agree 100% with @Leon. (It may never happen again!)
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,572

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    Would be churlish not to.£6 bn on transport in the North is not to be sniffed at Starmers reaction makes him look pathetic.

    Muppets like CHB who think SKS will offer working people anything worthwhile are in for a massive shock when vast swathes of the retained red wall says no thanks to the useless nonentity.

    Roll on GE 2024 Working class hero Boris vs the useless nonentity.
    If people like you are leaving Labour than thank God because it can get back to being a moderate. centre left party once again. Nobody sane goes from supporting Corbyn to lavishing praise on BoJo.
    Factional crap.

    Try offering an alternative to the Tories.
    So hold on you think Labour is simultaneously not doing enough to differentiate itself from the Tories but you also think it's right that Burnham is praising the Tories?

    Let's be honest, you came into Labour during Corbyn and you've left because Labour is no longer a home for revolutionaries.

    I was there long before Corbyn, I will be there long after. I support Labour because I believe in centre-left social democracy. If you don't then Labour is not the party for you.

    Keir Starmer has a very good chance of being PM, current polling agrees with me and you just can't accept that. Boris Johnson will disappoint you as he has the people of London.
    One of us will be wrong about SKS time will tell who.

    BTW I have been a member of the Labour Party from 1975 to 2002 and from 2010 to 2021 and I voted for the most right wing Candidate in 2020

    I am a Democratic Socialist like the back of your card says the Labour Party is. SKS and Evans are neither Democratic or Socialists hence I will for only the 2nd time in my life vote for a Party other than Labour.
    But not the Tories, please God?
  • Options
    pigeonpigeon Posts: 4,129
    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    There won't be another lockdown.
    Probably. It would shred what's left of the reputation of the Government, and the country can't afford to bear the cost of it. I also think that the panic over more Covid waves is being seriously overdone (and yes, I know the scientists doing the panicking know a vast amount more about the subject than I do, but that hasn't done anything to prevent numerous august institutions from issuing doomsday scenario models in the recent past which turned out to have the predictive accuracy of a horoscope.) The cases are now largely concentrated in almost invulnerable teenagers, something like a fifth to a quarter of all existing Covid hospitalisations were actually admitted for something else IIRC, and the greatly reduced Covid death toll is mostly concentrated amongst anti-vaxxers and a modest number of very old people with multiple pre-existing health problems, i.e. those who are getting what's coming to them or were already living on borrowed time. There's no real basis for re-imposing NPIs on the basis of Covid alone.

    The fly in the ointment is flu. If the flu season this year is terrible - and nobody has the faintest idea how bad it is going to get, so it could plausibly be terrible - then the desperate screaming from the hospitals may yet be enough for the Government to reach for its plan B, or worse.

    The public - or enough of it, at any rate, to exert unbearable pressure, particularly amongst the Tories' elderly core vote - has got used to this notion of shutting everything down if the hospitals can't cope and mitigating the damage with borrowed money. If it's done again it will wreck the recovery and cause catastrophic damage - much of the hospitality sector will turn up its toes if there's a second lost Christmas, especially if further massive support isn't advanced by the Treasury - and ministers will therefore be desperate to avoid lockdown. However, the idea of yet another one isn't wholly fanciful given the correct circumstances.
  • Options
    NigelbNigelb Posts: 62,378

    Is this offensive?

    image

    Only if you’re a supporter of the current Saudi regime.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    There won't be a lockdown. The treasury won't pay for furlough or any business support packages again. That's the bottom line. The most we'll get is mandatory masks and possibly mandatory domestic vaccine passports for large indoor venues.

    Also keep in mind that week on week case growth has dropped from about 20-25% to 0-5% and it's still dropping I think I called R under 1 three or four days too early.

    In a couple of weeks we could actually be beyond the herd immunity threshold, especially when you consider that another 5m people will have had third doses by then too.

    Ultimately the politicians need to grow a pair and tell the NHS whiners to shut up and deal with it, tell the scientists to shut the fuck up and just tough it out. The people who are dying are very old and of ill health or they are unvaccinated by choice.
  • Options

    Tonight's BBC news

    KotN says today is a day to celebrate and not a day for negativity as an important step in leveling up is proposed. The Government has listened.

    SKS negative bollocks about the Government not having a serious plan.

    Useless nonentity should look in the mirror.

    Looks like Burnham has fucked off to the Tories with me!!

    He is head and shoulders above SKS get him a seat quick and Labour still has a chance.

    As I said Andy was very effusive about Rishi and many in labour may have been quite upset how far he went in complementing the investment in Greater Manchester
    Would be churlish not to.£6 bn on transport in the North is not to be sniffed at Starmers reaction makes him look pathetic.

    Muppets like CHB who think SKS will offer working people anything worthwhile are in for a massive shock when vast swathes of the retained red wall says no thanks to the useless nonentity.

    Roll on GE 2024 Working class hero Boris vs the useless nonentity.
    If people like you are leaving Labour than thank God because it can get back to being a moderate. centre left party once again. Nobody sane goes from supporting Corbyn to lavishing praise on BoJo.
    Factional crap.

    Try offering an alternative to the Tories.
    So hold on you think Labour is simultaneously not doing enough to differentiate itself from the Tories but you also think it's right that Burnham is praising the Tories?

    Let's be honest, you came into Labour during Corbyn and you've left because Labour is no longer a home for revolutionaries.

    I was there long before Corbyn, I will be there long after. I support Labour because I believe in centre-left social democracy. If you don't then Labour is not the party for you.

    Keir Starmer has a very good chance of being PM, current polling agrees with me and you just can't accept that. Boris Johnson will disappoint you as he has the people of London.
    One of us will be wrong about SKS time will tell who.

    BTW I have been a member of the Labour Party from 1975 to 2002 and from 2010 to 2021 and I voted for the most right wing Candidate in 2020

    I am a Democratic Socialist like the back of your card says the Labour Party is. SKS and Evans are neither Democratic or Socialists hence I will for only the 2nd time in my life vote for a Party other than Labour.
    Labour has only ever won by offering centre-left social democratic policies. You support losers and policies that will only lose elections.

    I was wrong to support Corbyn and I was wrong to have voted for him to be leader, something which I will regret for the rest of my life. But lesson learned, you have learned nothing.
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,321

    Pro_Rata said:

    I see Austria's tiering plan includes a lockdown of the unvaccinated. An interesting crossing of the Rubicon that others will be looking at no doubt.

    Absolutely more acceptable than locking down everyone.

    Let the unvaccinated pay for their own choices. Screw them.
    I have a friend in Austria who has explained their approach in some detail. Essentially they require that to enter a crowded space you should either be double-vaccinated or have a recent test showing that you are virus-free. Subject to that, everyone can go everywhere. So it is a sort of vaxport system, but with an alternative of frequent testing.

  • Options
    londonpubmanlondonpubman Posts: 3,174
    Anyway...we need:
    - an immediate return to mandatory masks in all enclosed spaces Inc shops pubs and transport
    - an acceleration of the boosters to cover every one within 5 months of the second dose
    - vaccine passports for any indoor venue with big crowds over 500 or nightclubs
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,572
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    We’re really not approaching another lockdown. Chill.
    The news - everywhere - suggests otherwise. This looks very much like another belated panicky handbrake turn by Boris

    I hope half term slows the growth and I’m proven wrong.

    They should bring in vaxports anyway. Everywhere else is doing it, so it will be the only way of ever travelling
    You're forgetting that @Cookie was on here yesterday 'proving' that we passed the peak earlier this week.
  • Options

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    We’re really not approaching another lockdown. Chill.
    The news - everywhere - suggests otherwise. This looks very much like another belated panicky handbrake turn by Boris

    I hope half term slows the growth and I’m proven wrong.

    They should bring in vaxports anyway. Everywhere else is doing it, so it will be the only way of ever travelling
    You're forgetting that @Cookie was on here yesterday 'proving' that we passed the peak earlier this week.
    The goalposts have been shifted again and again by these people.

    First it was that vaccines would be the way out, if we got the elderly done we'd be free and cases would fall through the floor and so would deaths. Didn't happen.

    Then it was get most of us vaccinated. Deaths and cases would disappear and we could live with COVID forever. Didn't happen.

    Every time we have not acted early, we have been worse off. So let's for once act early and do something.
  • Options
    Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,524
    edited October 2021
    It will be an absolute disgrace if Boris Johnson and his Government Ministers reintroduce any Covid restrictions whatsoever, however minor.
    And let's be clear, if they do so, it will be the fault of:
    a) iSage
    b) Starmer.
    Is that about right?
  • Options
    BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 31,572
    pigeon said:

    Andy_JS said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    There won't be another lockdown.
    Probably. It would shred what's left of the reputation of the Government, and the country can't afford to bear the cost of it. I also think that the panic over more Covid waves is being seriously overdone (and yes, I know the scientists doing the panicking know a vast amount more about the subject than I do, but that hasn't done anything to prevent numerous august institutions from issuing doomsday scenario models in the recent past which turned out to have the predictive accuracy of a horoscope.) The cases are now largely concentrated in almost invulnerable teenagers, something like a fifth to a quarter of all existing Covid hospitalisations were actually admitted for something else IIRC, and the greatly reduced Covid death toll is mostly concentrated amongst anti-vaxxers and a modest number of very old people with multiple pre-existing health problems, i.e. those who are getting what's coming to them or were already living on borrowed time. There's no real basis for re-imposing NPIs on the basis of Covid alone.

    The fly in the ointment is flu. If the flu season this year is terrible - and nobody has the faintest idea how bad it is going to get, so it could plausibly be terrible - then the desperate screaming from the hospitals may yet be enough for the Government to reach for its plan B, or worse.

    The public - or enough of it, at any rate, to exert unbearable pressure, particularly amongst the Tories' elderly core vote - has got used to this notion of shutting everything down if the hospitals can't cope and mitigating the damage with borrowed money. If it's done again it will wreck the recovery and cause catastrophic damage - much of the hospitality sector will turn up its toes if there's a second lost Christmas, especially if further massive support isn't advanced by the Treasury - and ministers will therefore be desperate to avoid lockdown. However, the idea of yet another one isn't wholly fanciful given the correct circumstances.
    No need for a lockdown with vaccine passports; major error on the part of HMG not to implement them so far.

    I don't think there will be a lockdown but I do think vaxccine passports are (belatedly) coming.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,903

    Anyway...we need:
    - an immediate return to mandatory masks in all enclosed spaces Inc shops pubs and transport
    - an acceleration of the boosters to cover every one within 5 months of the second dose
    - vaccine passports for any indoor venue with big crowds over 500 or nightclubs

    I don't think masks should be mandatory in "sociable" spaces such as a pub. They're not somewhere someone has to go, such as a supermarket.
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,961

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    We’re really not approaching another lockdown. Chill.
    The news - everywhere - suggests otherwise. This looks very much like another belated panicky handbrake turn by Boris

    I hope half term slows the growth and I’m proven wrong.

    They should bring in vaxports anyway. Everywhere else is doing it, so it will be the only way of ever travelling
    You're forgetting that @Cookie was on here yesterday 'proving' that we passed the peak earlier this week.
    The goalposts have been shifted again and again by these people.

    First it was that vaccines would be the way out, if we got the elderly done we'd be free and cases would fall through the floor and so would deaths. Didn't happen.

    Then it was get most of us vaccinated. Deaths and cases would disappear and we could live with COVID forever. Didn't happen.

    Every time we have not acted early, we have been worse off. So let's for once act early and do something.
    Act and do what? The overwhelming majority of cases are school children.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    We’re really not approaching another lockdown. Chill.
    The news - everywhere - suggests otherwise. This looks very much like another belated panicky handbrake turn by Boris

    I hope half term slows the growth and I’m proven wrong.

    They should bring in vaxports anyway. Everywhere else is doing it, so it will be the only way of ever travelling
    You're forgetting that @Cookie was on here yesterday 'proving' that we passed the peak earlier this week.
    The goalposts have been shifted again and again by these people.

    First it was that vaccines would be the way out, if we got the elderly done we'd be free and cases would fall through the floor and so would deaths. Didn't happen.

    Then it was get most of us vaccinated. Deaths and cases would disappear and we could live with COVID forever. Didn't happen.

    Every time we have not acted early, we have been worse off. So let's for once act early and do something.
    It did happen, you just haven't realised it yet. The Italian study showed pretty conclusively it happened exactly as we thought it would. Deaths are now concentrated among the very old with severe health conditions and the unvaccinated by choice. The former group, while sad that they may die a few months earlier than they would otherwise have, are not going to warrant locking down a nation. The latter group made their choice and we can't impose a lockdown to protect people from their own stupidity.

    This is how we live with COVID. It is endemic now. There is no getting rid of it and a lockdown is just displacement activity. You still haven't answered what a lockdown would even achieve. You're just having a knee jerk reaction to what you perceive as high case numbers.
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 46,853

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    We’re really not approaching another lockdown. Chill.
    The news - everywhere - suggests otherwise. This looks very much like another belated panicky handbrake turn by Boris

    I hope half term slows the growth and I’m proven wrong.

    They should bring in vaxports anyway. Everywhere else is doing it, so it will be the only way of ever travelling
    You're forgetting that @Cookie was on here yesterday 'proving' that we passed the peak earlier this week.
    The goalposts have been shifted again and again by these people.

    First it was that vaccines would be the way out, if we got the elderly done we'd be free and cases would fall through the floor and so would deaths. Didn't happen.

    Then it was get most of us vaccinated. Deaths and cases would disappear and we could live with COVID forever. Didn't happen.

    Every time we have not acted early, we have been worse off. So let's for once act early and do something.
    That’s a little unfair. The world would have been well through this, and the rosier predictions would have come true, but then we all got Delta. Which was a horrible game changer

    Delta means you need 85-90% immune (through vax or prior infection) to escape more lockdowns, masks, wfh, etc

    A very high threshold and only achievable if you really enforce vaccination, probably via vaxports, as most countries are now doing (I see Canada has just joined the list)

    https://twitter.com/heyintuition/status/1452025487614746624?s=21

    ‘Canada Is Planning To Launch A Standardized Vaccine Passport’
  • Options
    williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 48,027

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    We’re really not approaching another lockdown. Chill.
    The news - everywhere - suggests otherwise. This looks very much like another belated panicky handbrake turn by Boris

    I hope half term slows the growth and I’m proven wrong.

    They should bring in vaxports anyway. Everywhere else is doing it, so it will be the only way of ever travelling
    You're forgetting that @Cookie was on here yesterday 'proving' that we passed the peak earlier this week.
    The goalposts have been shifted again and again by these people.

    First it was that vaccines would be the way out, if we got the elderly done we'd be free and cases would fall through the floor and so would deaths. Didn't happen.

    Then it was get most of us vaccinated. Deaths and cases would disappear and we could live with COVID forever. Didn't happen.

    Every time we have not acted early, we have been worse off. So let's for once act early and do something.
    But it did happen, and we are free.

    We're also making good progress on boosters, and with every day that passes, more young people are getting antibodies the natural way.
  • Options
    Andy_JSAndy_JS Posts: 26,470
    "@LukeTryl

    Whether it’s vaccination liberation or covid fatigue, the balance of public opinion is moving against new restrictions. Our @Kantar_UKI @MiC_Global polling featured in @POLITICOEurope London playbook today finds majorities across all age groups concerned about another lockdown."

    https://twitter.com/LukeTryl/status/1451165703453675528
  • Options

    It will be an absolute disgrace if Boris Johnson and his Government Ministers reintroduce any Covid restrictions whatsoever, however minor.
    And let's be clear, if they do so, it will be the fault of:
    a) iSage
    b) Starmer.
    Is that about right?

    It will be Labour's fault for opposing too much and not opposing enough, as it always is.

    But the reality is that on the current trajectory Starmer despite being apparently total shite, is on his way to being PM just by not being Boris Johnson. The Joe Biden approach.
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,321
    Nigelb said:



    It’s not acceptable or defensible for Congress to set aside a national vote for President - which is what HYUFD is defending. Not if you put any importance in democracy.
    There is going to be no constitutional amendment on the electoral system in the foreseeable future. The extreme difficulty of putting through any amendment is why archaic procedures designed for the pre-telegraph era are still in place.

    Yes, that's what I was trying to say. I know that the change wouldn't have any chance of getting through, but was offering HYUFD a possible retreat from the really untenable position that he seemed to be adopting.
  • Options
    pigeonpigeon Posts: 4,129

    Pro_Rata said:

    I see Austria's tiering plan includes a lockdown of the unvaccinated. An interesting crossing of the Rubicon that others will be looking at no doubt.

    Absolutely more acceptable than locking down everyone.

    Let the unvaccinated pay for their own choices. Screw them.
    I have a friend in Austria who has explained their approach in some detail. Essentially they require that to enter a crowded space you should either be double-vaccinated or have a recent test showing that you are virus-free. Subject to that, everyone can go everywhere. So it is a sort of vaxport system, but with an alternative of frequent testing.
    Testing is a cop-out, and the system is too easily abused.

    One can very well imagine that if the Government provided a get-out clause for vaxports it would probably consist of mailing out tests to the refusers, which are done entirely on trust and can readily be falsified. You only get around that problem by making them turn up to testing centres and have the tests supervised, and that's obviously impractical. If the numbers of refusers were tiny enough to make that idea viable then vaccine coverage would be in excess of 99% and action to deal with the refuser problem wouldn't need to be contemplated to begin with.

    Resorting to vaccine passports is something to be done only if the problem of hospitalised refusers becomes serious enough to imperil everybody else's freedom, and in that case you may as well do the job properly. If you won't have the jab without being specifically medically exempt then you rot at home. No pubs, no restaurants, no shopping, no work, no get out clauses.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,242
    edited October 2021
    On vaccinations

    England only data

    12 to 15 21.08%
    16 to 17 63.89%
    18 to 24 75.83%
    25 to 29 77.66%
    30 to 34 84.32%
    35 to 39 86.85%
    40 to 44 91.64%
    45 to 49 90.79%
    50 to 54 94.70%
    55 to 59 96.54%
    60 to 64 97.91%
    65 to 69 95.92%
    70 to 74 96.19%
    75 to 79 98.06%
    80 to 84 93.52%
    85 to 89 91.38%
    90 upwards 83.05%
    Program 90.95%

    UK 18+ vaccinations

    SCOTLAND 96.92%
    NORTHERN IRELAND 90.76%
    WALES 95.35%
    ENGLAND 93.49%

    EDIT: Both using ONS Mid-2021 population data
  • Options
    NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,321



    One of us will be wrong about SKS time will tell who.

    BTW I have been a member of the Labour Party from 1975 to 2002 and from 2010 to 2021 and I voted for the most right wing Candidate in 2020

    I am a Democratic Socialist like the back of your card says the Labour Party is. SKS and Evans are neither Democratic or Socialists hence I will for only the 2nd time in my life vote for a Party other than Labour.

    Isn't it a bit soon to be deciding how you'll vote in 2-3 years' time, big john? The three of us cross over, in that I did vote for Corbyn, partly from personal affection for him and partly as I want a meaningful Labour Party rather than a poolitely neutered one, but I'm willing to give Starmer a chance to pursue his strategy, which is to show now that he's responsible and bring out interesting policies nearer the actual election.Why not suspend judgment for now?
  • Options
    Waning immunity must also be a concern, we must get boosters into arms as well and as quickly as we did the initial vaccines. So what has gone wrong
  • Options
    rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 58,161

    It will be an absolute disgrace if Boris Johnson and his Government Ministers reintroduce any Covid restrictions whatsoever, however minor.
    And let's be clear, if they do so, it will be the fault of:
    a) iSage
    b) Starmer.
    Is that about right?

    It will be Labour's fault for opposing too much and not opposing enough, as it always is.

    But the reality is that on the current trajectory Starmer despite being apparently total shite, is on his way to being PM just by not being Boris Johnson. The Joe Biden approach.
    I don't think is a fair comparison. Biden has been a senator for like 30 or 40 years. Then veep. Candidate several times. Biden didn't win just by being not trump. He was respected. A decent bloke who had been around for eons and was seen as safe and a healer. The bloke on the Wilmington train who bothered to speak to everyone.

    Is that Starmer?
  • Options
    RobDRobD Posts: 58,961

    Waning immunity must also be a concern, we must get boosters into arms as well and as quickly as we did the initial vaccines. So what has gone wrong

    A concern yes, but there’s no evidence in the ONS survey that it’s having any effect whatsoever.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    We’re really not approaching another lockdown. Chill.
    The news - everywhere - suggests otherwise. This looks very much like another belated panicky handbrake turn by Boris

    I hope half term slows the growth and I’m proven wrong.

    They should bring in vaxports anyway. Everywhere else is doing it, so it will be the only way of ever travelling
    You're forgetting that @Cookie was on here yesterday 'proving' that we passed the peak earlier this week.
    The goalposts have been shifted again and again by these people.

    First it was that vaccines would be the way out, if we got the elderly done we'd be free and cases would fall through the floor and so would deaths. Didn't happen.

    Then it was get most of us vaccinated. Deaths and cases would disappear and we could live with COVID forever. Didn't happen.

    Every time we have not acted early, we have been worse off. So let's for once act early and do something.
    But it did happen, and we are free.

    We're also making good progress on boosters, and with every day that passes, more young people are getting antibodies the natural way.
    Exactly right. People want to lockdown to protect freedom. It's weird. Let's not throw away our progress against COVID by throwing it all away.

    Normally smart people are panicking for nothing. Everyone can get a vaccine. 90% of adults have done so, 1 in 9 adults have now had third doses and we're definitely ramping that up. I saw a lot of advertising for it out in London last night that wasn't there last week.

    Final point around half of all cases are in under 18s which I'd why the hospitalisation rate to case rate has been steadily dropping. I think we've got a severe case of fear of large numbers wrt cases. That's where this all stems from.
  • Options
    PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 75,903

    On vaccinations

    England only data

    12 to 15 21.08%
    16 to 17 63.89%
    18 to 24 75.83%
    25 to 29 77.66%
    30 to 34 84.32%
    35 to 39 86.85%
    40 to 44 91.64%
    45 to 49 90.79%
    50 to 54 94.70%
    55 to 59 96.54%
    60 to 64 97.91%
    65 to 69 95.92%
    70 to 74 96.19%
    75 to 79 98.06%
    80 to 84 93.52%
    85 to 89 91.38%
    90 upwards 83.05%
    Program 90.95%

    UK 18+ vaccinations

    SCOTLAND 96.92%
    NORTHERN IRELAND 90.76%
    WALES 95.35%
    ENGLAND 93.49%

    EDIT: Both using ONS Mid-2021 population data

    85 to 89 91.38%
    90 upwards 83.05%

    I expect the 90+ group has done its level best on vaccination but it's difficult to come forward for a jab when you're dead.
  • Options
    MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 37,607

    Waning immunity must also be a concern, we must get boosters into arms as well and as quickly as we did the initial vaccines. So what has gone wrong

    The studies don't support the first point on severe disease. Waning immunity makes people more susceptible to infection and mild symptoms but the protection against severe symptoms and death are still very strong and basically undiminished.
  • Options
    MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 44,242
    Pulpstar said:

    On vaccinations

    England only data

    12 to 15 21.08%
    16 to 17 63.89%
    18 to 24 75.83%
    25 to 29 77.66%
    30 to 34 84.32%
    35 to 39 86.85%
    40 to 44 91.64%
    45 to 49 90.79%
    50 to 54 94.70%
    55 to 59 96.54%
    60 to 64 97.91%
    65 to 69 95.92%
    70 to 74 96.19%
    75 to 79 98.06%
    80 to 84 93.52%
    85 to 89 91.38%
    90 upwards 83.05%
    Program 90.95%

    UK 18+ vaccinations

    SCOTLAND 96.92%
    NORTHERN IRELAND 90.76%
    WALES 95.35%
    ENGLAND 93.49%

    EDIT: Both using ONS Mid-2021 population data

    85 to 89 91.38%
    90 upwards 83.05%

    I expect the 90+ group has done its level best on vaccination but it's difficult to come forward for a jab when you're dead.
    There are also a large number in that group, so I understand, who haven't been vaccinated on medical ground. See Captain Sir Tom Moore etc.
  • Options
    LeonLeon Posts: 46,853
    MaxPB said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    We’re really not approaching another lockdown. Chill.
    The news - everywhere - suggests otherwise. This looks very much like another belated panicky handbrake turn by Boris

    I hope half term slows the growth and I’m proven wrong.

    They should bring in vaxports anyway. Everywhere else is doing it, so it will be the only way of ever travelling
    You're forgetting that @Cookie was on here yesterday 'proving' that we passed the peak earlier this week.
    The goalposts have been shifted again and again by these people.

    First it was that vaccines would be the way out, if we got the elderly done we'd be free and cases would fall through the floor and so would deaths. Didn't happen.

    Then it was get most of us vaccinated. Deaths and cases would disappear and we could live with COVID forever. Didn't happen.

    Every time we have not acted early, we have been worse off. So let's for once act early and do something.
    But it did happen, and we are free.

    We're also making good progress on boosters, and with every day that passes, more young people are getting antibodies the natural way.
    Exactly right. People want to lockdown to protect freedom. It's weird. Let's not throw away our progress against COVID by throwing it all away.

    Normally smart people are panicking for nothing. Everyone can get a vaccine. 90% of adults have done so, 1 in 9 adults have now had third doses and we're definitely ramping that up. I saw a lot of advertising for it out in London last night that wasn't there last week.

    Final point around half of all cases are in under 18s which I'd why the hospitalisation rate to case rate has been steadily dropping. I think we've got a severe case of fear of large numbers wrt cases. That's where this all stems from.
    I think it is understandable fear and even paranoia. Because of recent history. The lockdowns got increasingly worse even as they kept saying ‘this will never happen again’

    I know a lot of people - eg me - who were properly fucked up by lockdown 3. Psychologically. There are others like me on here

    We’re scared. Because we have been here before and the optimists were wrong
  • Options
    Northern_AlNorthern_Al Posts: 7,524

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    How has the government so comprehensively fucked this up. They should have introduced vaxports ten weeks ago. And now we’d be free. Fucking cretins

    No. No. No.

    Whether you like it or not, I’m right. We need 85% of the country vaxxed. That hasn’t happened because we’ve let refuseniks like Dura Ace live normally.

    Now we approach another lockdown, a much greater imposition on our liberty - and economy - and mental health - than a bloody online certificate of vaccination
    We’re really not approaching another lockdown. Chill.
    The news - everywhere - suggests otherwise. This looks very much like another belated panicky handbrake turn by Boris

    I hope half term slows the growth and I’m proven wrong.

    They should bring in vaxports anyway. Everywhere else is doing it, so it will be the only way of ever travelling
    You're forgetting that @Cookie was on here yesterday 'proving' that we passed the peak earlier this week.
    The goalposts have been shifted again and again by these people.

    First it was that vaccines would be the way out, if we got the elderly done we'd be free and cases would fall through the floor and so would deaths. Didn't happen.

    Then it was get most of us vaccinated. Deaths and cases would disappear and we could live with COVID forever. Didn't happen.

    Every time we have not acted early, we have been worse off. So let's for once act early and do something.
    But it did happen, and we are free.

    We're also making good progress on boosters, and with every day that passes, more young people are getting antibodies the natural way.
    We may be making good progress on boosters now, but it's been a bit of a shambles hasn't it?

    The authorities have had plenty of time to construct a plan to make sure that everybody gets a booster spot on six months after dose two. But they failed; I think I read that so far 4 million out of 7 million eligible had had their boosters. If they'd got this right, we may not be seeing the number of hospitalisations / deaths that we have recently. It's been pretty slack, though I accept that it looks like they're picking up the pace now.
  • Options
    MrEdMrEd Posts: 5,578
    Just come back from watching No Time to Die. Didn’t think the plot was as woke as some of the critics were saying. I thought though the villain was sh1t as was the ending.

    Anyway, on topic, no great surprise re Trump as favourite when you look at what is going on with Biden both personally and politically. To be fair, I don’t think inflation is actually his fault but this is politics.

    I think it’s going to be a few grim weeks for the Democrats. It feels like increasingly they will lose the VA Governorship (check out what is happening with the Loudoun School System Board and the alleged rape of a student by.a transgender person, which is rapidly becoming the story of the last few weeks). The polling from NJ also suggests there is a chance of a shock there. And when the ‘#1/2 downloaded tune on Apple Music is “Let’s go Brandon” (have. A look), you know the mood music is moving against you
  • Options
    rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 53,924
    MaxPB said:

    Waning immunity must also be a concern, we must get boosters into arms as well and as quickly as we did the initial vaccines. So what has gone wrong

    The studies don't support the first point on severe disease. Waning immunity makes people more susceptible to infection and mild symptoms but the protection against severe symptoms and death are still very strong and basically undiminished.
    That's not quite true: the charts in the FT show the efficacy of AZ against hospitalization fading faster than we'd like

    https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1438100728623546373/photo/1
This discussion has been closed.