Beyond "get Brexit done", as I have remarked on before, the Tories seem completely out of ideas.
Housing, where is the big plan?
Cost of living, where is the big plan?
Climate change, where is the big plan?
Transport, where is the big plan?
They have this massive majority and yet I can't see a single thing they've actually used it for.
They have concentrated on reversing/weakening policies of the 2010-2015 government. "Suspending" the triple lock. Cutting overseas aid. Getting rid of the FTPA.
Can’t wait for @HYUFD to redefine his redline so that the government lockdown isn’t in fact a lockdown and therefore retains his full support.
As a family we have decided to effectively go into our own voluntary lockdown and have cancelled pre Christmas parties and gatherings reducing as much social contact as possible so all ten of us can be together on Christmas day
Isn't personal freedom great? We should stop telling people how to live their lives and pretending we can control a virus,
Utter, and frankly quite evil, tosh.
We have a responsibility to look out for one another in this country and world. Your sort of utterly selfish attitude can lead people to die.
We need to be responsible and try to contain this for as long as possible in order to get as many people booster jabbed as possible and to protect the NHS, which I and others care about even if you don't.
What a load of sanctimonious tosh.
Living life isn't evil. Telling other people to stay imprisoned in their homes is much closer to any definition of evil that I've ever seen....
If we are to look at time, it seems reasonable the Tories are headed for the end of this period in Government. They've had a good run (well not good in my view but long).
I really think it would be good for the country for them to spend some time in opposition and go back to being the proud institution they once were, perhaps then I might consider voting for them in the future.
Can’t wait for @HYUFD to redefine his redline so that the government lockdown isn’t in fact a lockdown and therefore retains his full support.
As a family we have decided to effectively go into our own voluntary lockdown and have cancelled pre Christmas parties and gatherings reducing as much social contact as possible so all ten of us can be together on Christmas day
Isn't personal freedom great? We should stop telling people how to live their lives and pretending we can control a virus,
Utter, and frankly quite evil, tosh.
We have a responsibility to look out for one another in this country and world. Your sort of utterly selfish attitude can lead people to die.
We need to be responsible and try to contain this for as long as possible in order to get as many people booster jabbed as possible and to protect the NHS, which I and others care about even if you don't.
Yes, the next fortnight is no time to get ill. Staff rotas are going to be a mess. They are thin already and if you add in 10%+ absences for staff isolation and no beds, then you really don't want to get ill. Not just with Omicron, this is no time to have a broken hip or a heart attack or appendicitis.
Its main thrust appears to be "Boris promised all things to all men. Boris has not delivered all things to all men. This is why he is now unpopular. To fix this, Boris must deliver all things to all men."
If you get to be a professor by spouting opinions like that, hand me a mortarboard sized for a five-year old because Capitano Junior could have told me that.
The problem isn't that Boris has personally failed to deliver his promises, the problem is that they were always undeliverable. Much was made (principally by Classic Dom) of "Bringing the winning tactics of Vote Leave into the heart of Government", which is exactly what Boris did: win by promising the impossible, then find yourself in trouble when you have to actually implement it. Hence the never-ending shitstorm over Northern Ireland and the slowly dawning realisation over fishing and agriculture.
Goodwin asserts that Boris is being punished for "failing to get his arms around illegal migration". Maybe Boris shouldn't have promised that, then, because no-one is going to be able to get their arms around illegal migration. The Middle East is awash in AK-47s and fundamentalists (thanks Tony!). No kidding that some of the displaced people are trying to get here.
I have a little more sympathy on levelling up, where a serious strategy implemented from the first day after GE 2019 might have started to show a few little rewards by 2023. Maybe. But that didn't happen, and it's too late now. You can't deliver serious capital projects in the time left to this parliament. If (to take a random example) DfT had not wasted time by requiring several rounds of bidding in order to get to a feasibility study to reopen a railway, but simply thrown £200m at reopening Leicester-Burton, then maybe Boris would have seen some eventual rewards.
But Goodwin really doesn't grasp any of this. He concludes "the only way forward for him now is to start ditching advisors and doubling down on where he began". Right. Boris is going to win the next election by ditching advisors and relying on his force of personality to magically deliver projects on the ground. Good luck, as they say, with that.
Can’t wait for @HYUFD to redefine his redline so that the government lockdown isn’t in fact a lockdown and therefore retains his full support.
As a family we have decided to effectively go into our own voluntary lockdown and have cancelled pre Christmas parties and gatherings reducing as much social contact as possible so all ten of us can be together on Christmas day
Isn't personal freedom great? We should stop telling people how to live their lives and pretending we can control a virus,
Utter, and frankly quite evil, tosh.
We have a responsibility to look out for one another in this country and world. Your sort of utterly selfish attitude can lead people to die.
We need to be responsible and try to contain this for as long as possible in order to get as many people booster jabbed as possible and to protect the NHS, which I and others care about even if you don't.
If, as reports suggest, the vast majority of people who are getting seriously ill are not vaxxed then I simply do not care any more.
Boosters have been available to the vulnerable groups for weeks/months now. No excuses.
What I do care about is NHS care being withdrawn from cancer patients etc. I'll accept lockdown in that circumstance, but I'll be furious about it. Yet again, young people and vulnerable people shafted by a self-centred older generation.
Can’t wait for @HYUFD to redefine his redline so that the government lockdown isn’t in fact a lockdown and therefore retains his full support.
As a family we have decided to effectively go into our own voluntary lockdown and have cancelled pre Christmas parties and gatherings reducing as much social contact as possible so all ten of us can be together on Christmas day
Isn't personal freedom great? We should stop telling people how to live their lives and pretending we can control a virus,
Utter, and frankly quite evil, tosh.
We have a responsibility to look out for one another in this country and world. Your sort of utterly selfish attitude can lead people to die.
We need to be responsible and try to contain this for as long as possible in order to get as many people booster jabbed as possible and to protect the NHS, which I and others care about even if you don't.
What a load of sanctimonious tosh.
Living life isn't evil. Telling other people to stay imprisoned in their homes is much closer to any definition of evil that I've ever seen....
One reason I avoid the places where people don't wear masks and don't respect personal space is that mindset is likely to ignore other rules, particularly on testing and isolating.
The lack of a formal lockdown while speaking of tsunamis and the dead rising from their graves shafts hospitality while evading responsibility for aid to support otherwise viable businesses.
Can’t wait for @HYUFD to redefine his redline so that the government lockdown isn’t in fact a lockdown and therefore retains his full support.
As a family we have decided to effectively go into our own voluntary lockdown and have cancelled pre Christmas parties and gatherings reducing as much social contact as possible so all ten of us can be together on Christmas day
Isn't personal freedom great? We should stop telling people how to live their lives and pretending we can control a virus,
Utter, and frankly quite evil, tosh.
We have a responsibility to look out for one another in this country and world. Your sort of utterly selfish attitude can lead people to die.
We need to be responsible and try to contain this for as long as possible in order to get as many people booster jabbed as possible and to protect the NHS, which I and others care about even if you don't.
Yes, the next fortnight is no time to get ill. Staff rotas are going to be a mess. They are thin already and if you add in 10%+ absences for staff isolation and no beds, then you really don't want to get ill. Not just with Omicron, this is no time to have a broken hip or a heart attack or appendicitis.
Nobody wants to get ill, and many of us are taking precautions to avoid the, thankfully very small, risk of our loved ones ending up in hospital.
My thoughts are with Foxy and his colleagues, nobody is minimising the challenges faced by the NHS but at the end of the day there are many of us who don't believe continued lockdowns are warranted and dislike being guilted or shamed for their political position on this. The NHS, if past experience is anything to go by, will always be at breaking point. This can't justify lockdowns forever.
Can’t wait for @HYUFD to redefine his redline so that the government lockdown isn’t in fact a lockdown and therefore retains his full support.
As a family we have decided to effectively go into our own voluntary lockdown and have cancelled pre Christmas parties and gatherings reducing as much social contact as possible so all ten of us can be together on Christmas day
Isn't personal freedom great? We should stop telling people how to live their lives and pretending we can control a virus,
Utter, and frankly quite evil, tosh.
We have a responsibility to look out for one another in this country and world. Your sort of utterly selfish attitude can lead people to die.
We need to be responsible and try to contain this for as long as possible in order to get as many people booster jabbed as possible and to protect the NHS, which I and others care about even if you don't.
If, as reports suggest, the vast majority of people who are getting seriously ill are not vaxxed then I simply do not care any more.
Boosters have been available to the vulnerable groups for weeks/months now. No excuses.
What I do care about is NHS care being withdrawn from cancer patients etc. I'll accept lockdown in that circumstance, but I'll be furious about it. Yet again, young people and vulnerable people shafted by a self-centred older generation.
About half of our covid inpatients are vaccinated, but those on ICU are unvaxxed.
Can’t wait for @HYUFD to redefine his redline so that the government lockdown isn’t in fact a lockdown and therefore retains his full support.
As a family we have decided to effectively go into our own voluntary lockdown and have cancelled pre Christmas parties and gatherings reducing as much social contact as possible so all ten of us can be together on Christmas day
Isn't personal freedom great? We should stop telling people how to live their lives and pretending we can control a virus,
Utter, and frankly quite evil, tosh.
We have a responsibility to look out for one another in this country and world. Your sort of utterly selfish attitude can lead people to die.
We need to be responsible and try to contain this for as long as possible in order to get as many people booster jabbed as possible and to protect the NHS, which I and others care about even if you don't.
Yes, the next fortnight is no time to get ill. Staff rotas are going to be a mess. They are thin already and if you add in 10%+ absences for staff isolation and no beds, then you really don't want to get ill. Not just with Omicron, this is no time to have a broken hip or a heart attack or appendicitis.
Nobody wants to get ill, and many of us are taking precautions to avoid the, thankfully very small, risk of our loved ones ending up in hospital.
My thoughts are with Foxy and his colleagues, nobody is minimising the challenges faced by the NHS but at the end of the day there are many of us who don't believe continued lockdowns are warranted and dislike being guilted or shamed for their political position on this. The NHS, if past experience is anything to go by, will always be at breaking point. This can't justify lockdowns forever.
I am not arguing for lockdown, merely locking myself down outside work, as far as viable!
Its main thrust appears to be "Boris promised all things to all men. Boris has not delivered all things to all men. This is why he is now unpopular. To fix this, Boris must deliver all things to all men."
If you get to be a professor by spouting opinions like that, hand me a mortarboard sized for a five-year old because Capitano Junior could have told me that.
The problem isn't that Boris has personally failed to deliver his promises, the problem is that they were always undeliverable. Much was made (principally by Classic Dom) of "Bringing the winning tactics of Vote Leave into the heart of Government", which is exactly what Boris did: win by promising the impossible, then find yourself in trouble when you have to actually implement it. Hence the never-ending shitstorm over Northern Ireland and the slowly dawning realisation over fishing and agriculture.
Goodwin asserts that Boris is being punished for "failing to get his arms around illegal migration". Maybe Boris shouldn't have promised that, then, because no-one is going to be able to get their arms around illegal migration. The Middle East is awash in AK-47s and fundamentalists (thanks Tony!). No kidding that some of the displaced people are trying to get here.
I have a little more sympathy on levelling up, where a serious strategy implemented from the first day after GE 2019 might have started to show a few little rewards by 2023. Maybe. But that didn't happen, and it's too late now. You can't deliver serious capital projects in the time left to this parliament. If (to take a random example) DfT had not wasted time by requiring several rounds of bidding in order to get to a feasibility study to reopen a railway, but simply thrown £200m at reopening Leicester-Burton, then maybe Boris would have seen some eventual rewards.
But Goodwin really doesn't grasp any of this. He concludes "the only way forward for him now is to start ditching advisors and doubling down on where he began". Right. Boris is going to win the next election by ditching advisors and relying on his force of personality to magically deliver projects on the ground. Good luck, as they say, with that.
Goodwin in his study of populism crossed the line from empathy to sympathy. Which means he's rationalising the outcome he desires. His analysis maybe correct in this instance but in general he's not particularly reliable.
I see we are back to SAGE members being all over the media "speaking in a personal capacity" shouting for more measures and more lockdown.
It's like a bad dream that never ends.
What are the exit conditions for a proposed lockdown? We are presumably waiting for something to make it okay again, but what? In 2-3 months time the vulnerable may well be needing another round of boosters....
That is the worry. That 2 weeks turns into 3 months while we wait for new Pfizer booster for the vulnerable to be delivered from, say, early March.
The lack of a formal lockdown while speaking of tsunamis and the dead rising from their graves shafts hospitality while evading responsibility for aid to support otherwise viable businesses.
It's bullshit.
I’m sorry, but no.
Government (taxpayers) do(es) not have the responsibility to bail out hospitality businesses. It’s part of the risk that these business owners took on.
I’m probably going to feel the wrath of @Cyclefree now, but so be it.
I see we are back to SAGE members being all over the media "speaking in a personal capacity" shouting for more measures and more lockdown.
It's like a bad dream that never ends.
Professor Whitty was effectively suggesting the other day that we would have to put up with all of this for another eighteen months whilst polyvalent vaccines were developed. That's effectively restrictions and lockdowns this Winter, next Winter, and the Winter after that as well by time the jab campaign has run its course. We are told that each six months of the coming slog will be less bad than the six months that preceded it - colour me sceptical on that one for starters. And quite why polyvalent vaccines should be any more effective at preventing these endless cycles of variant panic than the ones we already have, Lord alone knows, because the variants will always, always trigger the same questions: how much does it escape the protection offered by existing jabs, is it more transmissible, and what about the bloody refusers? The answer to which is always: panic, panic, more restrictions.
We're basically reliant on the virus evolving into a form so transmissible that lockdowns are useless against it. Until that happens, if the hospitals scream loudly enough and the modellers come up with sufficiently terrifying death projections, all the levers will keep getting pulled over and over and over again. They can and will prevaricate for a while, but ultimately neither this nor any other likely alternative Government will prioritise keeping society open over trying to stop the hospitals from falling over. The former will only take priority when it becomes clear that nothing will prevent the latter.
Alongside all the boosters, we still seem to be giving about 20-30k first jabs per day on average.
Obviously some of that will be children reaching 12 and becoming eligible but there must also be quite a few who are being persuaded even at this late stage to get vaccinated for the first time.
I find that interesting.
For those vaccinated in England on Thursday first doses were:
• Scientists (literally) make up scary numbers & call for restrictions. • Media lobby & agitate for restrictions. • Govt claims to believe made-up numbers & implements measures which have never been effective before & for which they present no evidence.
... • Measures have no impact. • Implement stricter measures. • Move to an unnecessary full lockdown which causes economic, social & emotional costs many times any possible benefit.
Again and again and again.
Are we dealing with clueless clowns or seriously bad faith actors?
I see we are back to SAGE members being all over the media "speaking in a personal capacity" shouting for more measures and more lockdown.
It's like a bad dream that never ends.
What are the exit conditions for a proposed lockdown? We are presumably waiting for something to make it okay again, but what? In 2-3 months time the vulnerable may well be needing another round of boosters....
That is the worry. That 2 weeks turns into 3 months while we wait for new Pfizer booster for the vulnerable to be delivered from, say, early March.
From past experience if its another round of vaccines we are waiting for, we would probably open up at around the over 40s done stage, which will be at least 2 months from the start of the campaign. If we are waiting for an omicron specific vaccine we will be locked down til around June again.
This part of the decision is not being discussed. If there is a sensible lockdown path for 1-2 months then the exit path needs to be discussed as well as the entry decision.
Can’t wait for @HYUFD to redefine his redline so that the government lockdown isn’t in fact a lockdown and therefore retains his full support.
As a family we have decided to effectively go into our own voluntary lockdown and have cancelled pre Christmas parties and gatherings reducing as much social contact as possible so all ten of us can be together on Christmas day
Isn't personal freedom great? We should stop telling people how to live their lives and pretending we can control a virus,
Utter, and frankly quite evil, tosh.
We have a responsibility to look out for one another in this country and world. Your sort of utterly selfish attitude can lead people to die.
We need to be responsible and try to contain this for as long as possible in order to get as many people booster jabbed as possible and to protect the NHS, which I and others care about even if you don't.
What a load of sanctimonious tosh.
Living life isn't evil. Telling other people to stay imprisoned in their homes is much closer to any definition of evil that I've ever seen....
Especially given that the booster jabs are only going to boost protection until the next significant variant comes along in 6 months…
Yes, fine form. Having a quiet weekend at home. I am on call the holiday week so trying to keep bug free until the new year.
Short straw, eh. Have you no Hindu, Jewish, or Moslem colleagues who would cover for The Day itself? At one time I worked with a (fairly) devout Jewish pharmacist who would always cover for Christian (or nominally Christian) colleagues at major Christian holidays provided that they would cover for him on major Jewish ones. And if he wasn't needed he'd go off and find somewhere else that needed cover.
I see we are back to SAGE members being all over the media "speaking in a personal capacity" shouting for more measures and more lockdown.
It's like a bad dream that never ends.
Professor Whitty was effectively suggesting the other day that we would have to put up with all of this for another eighteen months whilst polyvalent vaccines were developed. That's effectively restrictions and lockdowns this Winter, next Winter, and the Winter after that as well by time the jab campaign has run its course. We are told that each six months of the coming slog will be less bad than the six months that preceded it - colour me sceptical on that one for starters. And quite why polyvalent vaccines should be any more effective at preventing these endless cycles of variant panic than the ones we already have, Lord alone knows, because the variants will always, always trigger the same questions: how much does it escape the protection offered by existing jabs, is it more transmissible, and what about the bloody refusers? The answer to which is always: panic, panic, more restrictions.
We're basically reliant on the virus evolving into a form so transmissible that lockdowns are useless against it. Until that happens, if the hospitals scream loudly enough and the modellers come up with sufficiently terrifying death projections, all the levers will keep getting pulled over and over and over again. They can and will prevaricate for a while, but ultimately neither this nor any other likely alternative Government will prioritise keeping society open over trying to stop the hospitals from falling over. The former will only take priority when it becomes clear that nothing will prevent the latter.
Lockdowns are useless against Omicron.
We can also thank Boris and his gang for flouting lockdown restrictions last Christmas which will mean everyone will flout any future lockdown restriction.
Alongside all the boosters, we still seem to be giving about 20-30k first jabs per day on average.
Obviously some of that will be children reaching 12 and becoming eligible but there must also be quite a few who are being persuaded even at this late stage to get vaccinated for the first time.
I find that interesting.
For those vaccinated in England on Thursday first doses were:
There's been a significant increase in first doses among the 16-39 groups.
The emergence of Omicron has given a boost to protection against Delta.
Some of this may be improved ease for getting a vax. e.g. I had an email yesterday about a vaccine bus arriving for the morning at a car park a couple of streets away. I'm boosted so no need to go, but that would have been very convenient if not.
Mr. Ping, if the Government were formally locking down and not going for furlough on business grounds or suchlike, that would be a case I might or might not agree with, but one I could respect.
Instead, they're avoiding following the precedent of furlough will* still actively harming business through rhetoric designed to discourage people who had booked restaurants, pubs, and so forth.
Yes, fine form. Having a quiet weekend at home. I am on call the holiday week so trying to keep bug free until the new year.
Short straw, eh. Have you no Hindu, Jewish, or Moslem colleagues who would cover for The Day itself? At one time I worked with a (fairly) devout Jewish pharmacist who would always cover for Christian (or nominally Christian) colleagues at major Christian holidays provided that they would cover for him on major Jewish ones. And if he wasn't needed he'd go off and find somewhere else that needed cover.
Hey @OldKingCole! I hope you are well and keeping safe.
Can’t wait for @HYUFD to redefine his redline so that the government lockdown isn’t in fact a lockdown and therefore retains his full support.
As a family we have decided to effectively go into our own voluntary lockdown and have cancelled pre Christmas parties and gatherings reducing as much social contact as possible so all ten of us can be together on Christmas day
Isn't personal freedom great? We should stop telling people how to live their lives and pretending we can control a virus,
Utter, and frankly quite evil, tosh.
We have a responsibility to look out for one another in this country and world. Your sort of utterly selfish attitude can lead people to die.
We need to be responsible and try to contain this for as long as possible in order to get as many people booster jabbed as possible and to protect the NHS, which I and others care about even if you don't.
Given that you regard anti-vaxxers as evil can you say what action you want taken against them ?
Why is that so implausible? Plenty of evidence that AZ isn't much use against Omicron. The figure means that your chances of not dying from COVID are only 30% lower if you have 2 xAZ. But that is 30% lower than your background risk of death which is very small for most.
Also that 30% is for people who had their 2nd does 6 months + ago and haven't been boosted yet
It's the same playbook every time. Start with a conclusion, fit the model inputs to get there, disregard real world evidence of necessary. It's a joke.
I just broke my lurking to say me and my partner are E&W inhabitants and long time con voters. We cheered at 4am in 2019 December when Raab beat off a big Lib Dem challenge to hold on.
We are now both Reform supporters, and I donate to Reform significantly.
I just broke my lurking to say me and my partner are E&W inhabitants and long time con voters. We cheered at 4am in 2019 December when Raab beat off a big Lib Dem challenge to hold on.
We are now both Reform supporters, and I donate to Reform significantly.
Hope that helps.
Out
Welcome, please can you help them come up with a better short name than REFUK.
Yes, fine form. Having a quiet weekend at home. I am on call the holiday week so trying to keep bug free until the new year.
Short straw, eh. Have you no Hindu, Jewish, or Moslem colleagues who would cover for The Day itself? At one time I worked with a (fairly) devout Jewish pharmacist who would always cover for Christian (or nominally Christian) colleagues at major Christian holidays provided that they would cover for him on major Jewish ones. And if he wasn't needed he'd go off and find somewhere else that needed cover.
Hey @OldKingCole! I hope you are well and keeping safe.
What a lovely anecdote, thanks for sharing.
I'm fine thanks Horse! (I think that's right, if not apples) We've got Younger Son and his wife and daughters over. The girls are currently sorting out our Christmas Tree. All regularly tested! As are we. Trust and yours are well!
Can’t wait for @HYUFD to redefine his redline so that the government lockdown isn’t in fact a lockdown and therefore retains his full support.
As a family we have decided to effectively go into our own voluntary lockdown and have cancelled pre Christmas parties and gatherings reducing as much social contact as possible so all ten of us can be together on Christmas day
Isn't personal freedom great? We should stop telling people how to live their lives and pretending we can control a virus,
Utter, and frankly quite evil, tosh.
We have a responsibility to look out for one another in this country and world. Your sort of utterly selfish attitude can lead people to die.
We need to be responsible and try to contain this for as long as possible in order to get as many people booster jabbed as possible and to protect the NHS, which I and others care about even if you don't.
What a load of sanctimonious tosh.
Living life isn't evil. Telling other people to stay imprisoned in their homes is much closer to any definition of evil that I've ever seen....
Living life isn't evil.
Recklessly choosing to place other, especially more vulnerable, people, at unnecessary risk, arguably is.
It seems to me that long term the 2019 strategy ends in defeat
All political strategies end in defeat in democratic systems. Labour in 1964, the Tories in 1979, Labour in 1997 - it won them power but in the end it cost them power again.
The question is, how long does it keep working, how badly does it end and what do you do next?
This doesn't look to be working for long, it's clearly not going to end well.
But most of all the Tories are clearly completely lost on what to do next. They seem to have been so obsessed with sorting out Europe for its own sake they forgot that actually there is a whole set of issues that they are barely aware of and need addressing.
There's some interesting psychology there, I reckon.
Obviously, if BoJo looks like a loser and AN Other looks like a winner, the Conservatives will dump BoJo, airbrush him from history, new leader etc...
But what if BoJo looks like a loser and AN Other doesn't look like winning, but does look like losing less badly? What will the party do? What will AN Other do?
And what if BoJo snaps and goes off in a huff because everyone is being so mean to him?
Well they never replaced John Major despite being 30 points behind, why are people so confident they'll get rid of BoJo?
I'd say they've learned from what happened after that - but given the current Tory party, anything is possible.
I don't think lockdown, circuit breaker, or whatever you want to call it, needs to be long. It needs to last just long enough to slow the growth down to a rate we can cope with, and to allow us to build a level of immunity through boosters. The calculation is different this time, thanks to vaccines.
But it is time critical. An early intervention is many times more effective than a late one.
Why is that so implausible? Plenty of evidence that AZ isn't much use against Omicron. The figure means that your chances of not dying from COVID are only 30% lower if you have 2 xAZ. But that is 30% lower than your background risk of death which is very small for most.
Also that 30% is for people who had their 2nd does 6 months + ago and haven't been boosted yet
Haven't been boosted and haven't previously been infected.
Its not actually that big a group and diminishing each day.
I don't think lockdown, circuit breaker, or whatever you want to call it, needs to be long. It needs to last just long enough to slow the growth down to a rate we can cope with, and to allow us to build a level of immunity through boosters. The calculation is different this time, thanks to vaccines.
But it is time critical. An early intervention is many times more effective than a late one.
Whilst we are gaining immunity in the young through boosters, wont the vulnerable who were boosted a couple of months ago start to see immunity wane? Is that really a net win?
The Government need to make the call, that at what points we "learn to live" with the virus vs locking down.
The problem seems to be that there's never been any criteria that determines this
An astute point. Like levelling up and Red Wall, first define your terms. Thatcher was great at that. You could agree or disagree with them, but you knew what they were. With this lot you don't.
Can’t wait for @HYUFD to redefine his redline so that the government lockdown isn’t in fact a lockdown and therefore retains his full support.
As a family we have decided to effectively go into our own voluntary lockdown and have cancelled pre Christmas parties and gatherings reducing as much social contact as possible so all ten of us can be together on Christmas day
Isn't personal freedom great? We should stop telling people how to live their lives and pretending we can control a virus,
Utter, and frankly quite evil, tosh.
We have a responsibility to look out for one another in this country and world. Your sort of utterly selfish attitude can lead people to die.
We need to be responsible and try to contain this for as long as possible in order to get as many people booster jabbed as possible and to protect the NHS, which I and others care about even if you don't.
If, as reports suggest, the vast majority of people who are getting seriously ill are not vaxxed then I simply do not care any more.
Boosters have been available to the vulnerable groups for weeks/months now. No excuses.
What I do care about is NHS care being withdrawn from cancer patients etc. I'll accept lockdown in that circumstance, but I'll be furious about it. Yet again, young people and vulnerable people shafted by a self-centred older generation.
About half of our covid inpatients are vaccinated, but those on ICU are unvaxxed.
Best of luck over the Xmas period, Foxy. I will raise a mug of mulled wine in your honour.
Its main thrust appears to be "Boris promised all things to all men. Boris has not delivered all things to all men. This is why he is now unpopular. To fix this, Boris must deliver all things to all men."
If you get to be a professor by spouting opinions like that, hand me a mortarboard sized for a five-year old because Capitano Junior could have told me that.
The problem isn't that Boris has personally failed to deliver his promises, the problem is that they were always undeliverable. Much was made (principally by Classic Dom) of "Bringing the winning tactics of Vote Leave into the heart of Government", which is exactly what Boris did: win by promising the impossible, then find yourself in trouble when you have to actually implement it. Hence the never-ending shitstorm over Northern Ireland and the slowly dawning realisation over fishing and agriculture.
Goodwin asserts that Boris is being punished for "failing to get his arms around illegal migration". Maybe Boris shouldn't have promised that, then, because no-one is going to be able to get their arms around illegal migration. The Middle East is awash in AK-47s and fundamentalists (thanks Tony!). No kidding that some of the displaced people are trying to get here.
I have a little more sympathy on levelling up, where a serious strategy implemented from the first day after GE 2019 might have started to show a few little rewards by 2023. Maybe. But that didn't happen, and it's too late now. You can't deliver serious capital projects in the time left to this parliament. If (to take a random example) DfT had not wasted time by requiring several rounds of bidding in order to get to a feasibility study to reopen a railway, but simply thrown £200m at reopening Leicester-Burton, then maybe Boris would have seen some eventual rewards.
But Goodwin really doesn't grasp any of this. He concludes "the only way forward for him now is to start ditching advisors and doubling down on where he began". Right. Boris is going to win the next election by ditching advisors and relying on his force of personality to magically deliver projects on the ground. Good luck, as they say, with that.
Much truth in this. Two comments. Matthew Goodwin is a little more thoughtful than described here.
The big thing he misses is competence. With Post-Brexit + pandemic to sort the government has to exude competence. Stuff is bound to happen, but the number of unnecessary errors points to a significant intellectual and moral gap.
On Brexit, this is a special case. Given the politics of the UK as of 2000-now and continuing, no satisfactory EU/UK settlement is likely. getting out of a 40 year alliance will always take years. Parliament, with a Remain majority failed to agree a sensible compromise timetable (eg Norway for Now) leaving no choice between a fairly hard Brexit and rejoin. Neither can work.
It may mean the Tories are replaced by another lot next time, but the problem of there being no acceptable solution (including status quo and status quo ante) will remain.
If the Lab/rainbow alliance can exude competence and moderation they will win.
I don't think lockdown, circuit breaker, or whatever you want to call it, needs to be long. It needs to last just long enough to slow the growth down to a rate we can cope with, and to allow us to build a level of immunity through boosters. The calculation is different this time, thanks to vaccines.
But it is time critical. An early intervention is many times more effective than a late one.
Schools are shut next week.
Businesses have begun to close from yesterday / workers begun to take their holidays.
Those about to get / have just had their booster have become more careful.
Those obsessed about Christmas Day have become more careful.
There is plenty of downward pressure on infections already coming into play.
A spectacularly ungracious tweet from North Shropshire CLP illustrates the cultural mountain that much of grassroots Labour still needs to climb, if the party wants to be in power.
It’s the kind of tweet you would never see from a Lib Dem constituency association (the worst they manage are cocky yah-boo gloats), nor indeed even the most knuckle-dragging Tory one. It contains within it several of the features that characterise the toxic far left:
1. Entitlement: Labour owns all anti Tory votes so how dare another party pick them up 2. Distaste for actual voters, especially floating ones: never mind that 60% of people on NS previously voted Tory. We don’t want them. Just our own core vote. 3. Tribalism above electoral strategy: I think they would honestly have preferred a Tory hold if it meant Labour coming second 4. Sanctimony and exclusivity: only we are pure, the rest are just Tory scum 5. Petulance and bad grace: the default emotion seems for these people seems to be anger.
The comments below the tweet are universally scathing, many from Labour supporters, but I expect the author considers that he or she did nothing wrong. This is what Starmer still evidently has to deal with in some CLPs.
Your extensive post is an utter work of fiction compared to the few words actually posted, namely "Thank you @btwodo for a great campaign that didn't get the reward it so deserved - onwards and upwards when people realize the #FibDems are just yellow Tories.."
There's nothing wrong with congratulating a hard working candidate and stating that he deserved better.
And it's perfectly reasonable for Labour to continue to remind people that 5 years of very recent Conservative austerity was facilitated by the Lib Dems. When I read Telegraph commentators and the likes of John Redwood this week bemoaning the looser fiscal policies of Johnson compared to the hard line gruel that Osborne and Cameron served up, it only confirms that the 2010 to 2015 years really were true blue ones.
Lib Dem hopes at the next GE will be focused entirely on picking up mainly Conservative votes in Conservative held seats. The reminder of their recent past probably helped the Lib Dems in N Shropshire and will help them in similar seats elsewhere.
"Yellow Tories" just puts every other party into either Labour or Tory boxes. Which isn't reality.
What made me chuckle though was "FibDems". Labour put out at least one leaflet saying they were the challenger. And a set of numbers claiming to be on 30%...
Labour can't win a majority without Scotland. The sooner they wake up to this reality and start working with allies the better.
Compete in the seats you can win. NS was not such a seat. Let others compete where they can defeat the Tory. That is the war - Tories and not Tories. "Yellow Tory" is fighting the last war and will bring defeat to pudding-headed Labour activists who think that way
I don't think lockdown, circuit breaker, or whatever you want to call it, needs to be long. It needs to last just long enough to slow the growth down to a rate we can cope with, and to allow us to build a level of immunity through boosters. The calculation is different this time, thanks to vaccines.
But it is time critical. An early intervention is many times more effective than a late one.
The big issue ATM, of course, is the Midwinter Festival. That's been celebrated here since the Celts arrived. It was bolstered by the Saxons (etc) and we're damned if we'e doing to let anything interfere with it. That's the sound of it, anyway.
Yes, fine form. Having a quiet weekend at home. I am on call the holiday week so trying to keep bug free until the new year.
Short straw, eh. Have you no Hindu, Jewish, or Moslem colleagues who would cover for The Day itself? At one time I worked with a (fairly) devout Jewish pharmacist who would always cover for Christian (or nominally Christian) colleagues at major Christian holidays provided that they would cover for him on major Jewish ones. And if he wasn't needed he'd go off and find somewhere else that needed cover.
I had a nurse girlfriend who always worked Christmas Day. She did an early shift and enjoyed being with the patients for their Christmas lunch and then went home for Christmas Dinner with her parents.
I just broke my lurking to say me and my partner are E&W inhabitants and long time con voters. We cheered at 4am in 2019 December when Raab beat off a big Lib Dem challenge to hold on.
We are now both Reform supporters, and I donate to Reform significantly.
The Government need to make the call, that at what points we "learn to live" with the virus vs locking down.
The problem seems to be that there's never been any criteria that determines this
The sole criterion is that allowing the hospitals to burn without doing everything possible to stop it first is the only defensible course of action for any plausible Government of this country. Firstly they don't want to be blamed for a mass slaughter, and secondly the NHS is the national deity and must not be profaned.
So the lockdown cycles will continue in response to each and every variant, for years, or decades, until one of two things occurs: a variant emerges with a sufficiently big R number that restrictions are useless against it, or total socio-economic implosion.
It's actually quite shocking that of the three available tables, the first two use real data sources and have 2x AZ efficacy against death at 45% and 65% respectively, the third table puts in a completely made up additional efficacy dilution rate and completely discounts any longer loved immunity and that's the one that gets used in the official projection. It's farcical and sadly no politicians will notice the trick because they're all too stupid.
I just broke my lurking to say me and my partner are E&W inhabitants and long time con voters. We cheered at 4am in 2019 December when Raab beat off a big Lib Dem challenge to hold on.
We are now both Reform supporters, and I donate to Reform significantly.
Hope that helps.
Out
Welcome MISTY
Welcome MISTY indeed. Good to have someone from Reform. Just a small point; it's 'my partner and I'!
It seems to me that long term the 2019 strategy ends in defeat
All political strategies end in defeat in democratic systems. Labour in 1964, the Tories in 1979, Labour in 1997 - it won them power but in the end it cost them power again.
The question is, how long does it keep working, how badly does it end and what do you do next?
This doesn't look to be working for long, it's clearly not going to end well.
But most of all the Tories are clearly completely lost on what to do next. They seem to have been so obsessed with sorting out Europe for its own sake they forgot that actually there is a whole set of issues that they are barely aware of and need addressing.
There's some interesting psychology there, I reckon.
Obviously, if BoJo looks like a loser and AN Other looks like a winner, the Conservatives will dump BoJo, airbrush him from history, new leader etc...
But what if BoJo looks like a loser and AN Other doesn't look like winning, but does look like losing less badly? What will the party do? What will AN Other do?
And what if BoJo snaps and goes off in a huff because everyone is being so mean to him?
Well they never replaced John Major despite being 30 points behind, why are people so confident they'll get rid of BoJo?
The reason Major was not replaced was that all the contenders were even worse. The Tory party was that toxic by the mid nineties.
I am suggesting that the contenders will be even worse, do we think Sunak will continue the Johnson policies?
I am not really convinced that Johnson has policies. He is a cork in a storm, and lets everyone do as they like. Priti to hammer ancient rights and liberties, Truss to pretend that she is Mrs Thatcher, Sunak to pull the plug on levelling up, Dorries to display her ignorance etc etc.
What distinctive policies does Johnson have?
Fair point - but will the contenders really be coming forward with more state spending and more levelling up? Surely it's got to be a reversion to Cameronite policies if Sunak wins
Beneath the smooth exterior, Sunak is a bit of a right wing ideologue. Don't expect a One Nation government if he takes over.
The Government need to make the call, that at what points we "learn to live" with the virus vs locking down.
The problem seems to be that there's never been any criteria that determines this
An astute point. Like levelling up and Red Wall, first define your terms. Thatcher was great at that. You could agree or disagree with them, but you knew what they were. With this lot you don't.
Did she ?
You knew what Thatcher's general beliefs and strategy was but she worked on a step by step basis and would always be flexible if reality required it.
What she did have was a willingness to work hard and do proper preparation.
A spectacularly ungracious tweet from North Shropshire CLP illustrates the cultural mountain that much of grassroots Labour still needs to climb, if the party wants to be in power.
It’s the kind of tweet you would never see from a Lib Dem constituency association (the worst they manage are cocky yah-boo gloats), nor indeed even the most knuckle-dragging Tory one. It contains within it several of the features that characterise the toxic far left:
1. Entitlement: Labour owns all anti Tory votes so how dare another party pick them up 2. Distaste for actual voters, especially floating ones: never mind that 60% of people on NS previously voted Tory. We don’t want them. Just our own core vote. 3. Tribalism above electoral strategy: I think they would honestly have preferred a Tory hold if it meant Labour coming second 4. Sanctimony and exclusivity: only we are pure, the rest are just Tory scum 5. Petulance and bad grace: the default emotion seems for these people seems to be anger.
The comments below the tweet are universally scathing, many from Labour supporters, but I expect the author considers that he or she did nothing wrong. This is what Starmer still evidently has to deal with in some CLPs.
Your extensive post is an utter work of fiction compared to the few words actually posted, namely "Thank you @btwodo for a great campaign that didn't get the reward it so deserved - onwards and upwards when people realize the #FibDems are just yellow Tories.."
There's nothing wrong with congratulating a hard working candidate and stating that he deserved better.
And it's perfectly reasonable for Labour to continue to remind people that 5 years of very recent Conservative austerity was facilitated by the Lib Dems. When I read Telegraph commentators and the likes of John Redwood this week bemoaning the looser fiscal policies of Johnson compared to the hard line gruel that Osborne and Cameron served up, it only confirms that the 2010 to 2015 years really were true blue ones.
Lib Dem hopes at the next GE will be focused entirely on picking up mainly Conservative votes in Conservative held seats. The reminder of their recent past probably helped the Lib Dems in N Shropshire and will help them in similar seats elsewhere.
"Yellow Tories" just puts every other party into either Labour or Tory boxes. Which isn't reality.
What made me chuckle though was "FibDems". Labour put out at least one leaflet saying they were the challenger. And a set of numbers claiming to be on 30%...
Labour can't win a majority without Scotland. The sooner they wake up to this reality and start working with allies the better.
Compete in the seats you can win. NS was not such a seat. Let others compete where they can defeat the Tory. That is the war - Tories and not Tories. "Yellow Tory" is fighting the last war and will bring defeat to pudding-headed Labour activists who think that way
It's also insulting to the fairly large part of the electorate who are at least reasonably comfortable with the moderates from all three parties*. And who, now Brexit is losing its salience, will determine the outcome of future elections.
*assuming the Tories haven't expelled all of theirs.
I see we are back to SAGE members being all over the media "speaking in a personal capacity" shouting for more measures and more lockdown.
It's like a bad dream that never ends.
Professor Whitty was effectively suggesting the other day that we would have to put up with all of this for another eighteen months whilst polyvalent vaccines were developed. That's effectively restrictions and lockdowns this Winter, next Winter, and the Winter after that as well by time the jab campaign has run its course. We are told that each six months of the coming slog will be less bad than the six months that preceded it - colour me sceptical on that one for starters. And quite why polyvalent vaccines should be any more effective at preventing these endless cycles of variant panic than the ones we already have, Lord alone knows, because the variants will always, always trigger the same questions: how much does it escape the protection offered by existing jabs, is it more transmissible, and what about the bloody refusers? The answer to which is always: panic, panic, more restrictions.
We're basically reliant on the virus evolving into a form so transmissible that lockdowns are useless against it. Until that happens, if the hospitals scream loudly enough and the modellers come up with sufficiently terrifying death projections, all the levers will keep getting pulled over and over and over again. They can and will prevaricate for a while, but ultimately neither this nor any other likely alternative Government will prioritise keeping society open over trying to stop the hospitals from falling over. The former will only take priority when it becomes clear that nothing will prevent the latter.
Lockdowns are useless against Omicron.
We can also thank Boris and his gang for flouting lockdown restrictions last Christmas which will mean everyone will flout any future lockdown restriction.
I hope that you're right. When we arrive at a variant which cannot be suppressed by lockdown, the end of the pandemic will be at hand. But it doesn't mean that the Government won't test that theory to destruction if and when things become really desperate.
• Scientists (literally) make up scary numbers & call for restrictions. • Media lobby & agitate for restrictions. • Govt claims to believe made-up numbers & implements measures which have never been effective before & for which they present no evidence.
... • Measures have no impact. • Implement stricter measures. • Move to an unnecessary full lockdown which causes economic, social & emotional costs many times any possible benefit.
Again and again and again.
Are we dealing with clueless clowns or seriously bad faith actors?
David Paton? There's a blast from the Covid Data Wrangler past.
All these accounts would have a lot more credibility if they hadn't spent the last 18 months torturing data to say it was no worse than the flu/herd immunity by summer 2020/no sign of a second wave etc
I don't think lockdown, circuit breaker, or whatever you want to call it, needs to be long. It needs to last just long enough to slow the growth down to a rate we can cope with, and to allow us to build a level of immunity through boosters. The calculation is different this time, thanks to vaccines.
But it is time critical. An early intervention is many times more effective than a late one.
Schools are shut next week.
Businesses have begun to close from yesterday / workers begun to take their holidays.
Those about to get / have just had their booster have become more careful.
Those obsessed about Christmas Day have become more careful.
There is plenty of downward pressure on infections already coming into play.
Which is good. I would make two points.
There needs to be a sense of urgency. If measures are going to be needed later, they are better deployed now when they are more effective.
It doesn't need to be all or nothing. Some cutting of the growth rate is better than none Maybe growth is still higher than is safe, but there's no appetite to restrict further. So that's the decision. We should be explicit, and honest, in our trade-offs. Linking back to the first point. The more we do earlier, the less restriction is needed overall.
A survey by Bank of America found just under half of Britons now believe life will never return to normal - a record high and up sharply from around 20pc at the start of the year.
And we still haven't implemented the border checks.
Or "taken control of our borders"
Its "lost its salience" as the single issue that will bind together the Singapore-on-Thames / Mercantilist / Workers Collective groups as it did in 2019. It was always impossible to keep the Singaporist and Collectivist groups together as their aims contradict each other. And the Mercantilists are seeing only more costs and red tape and less opportunities.
OK so some people may vote in anger, but I suspect for many people Brexit recedes into the distance as a lost opportunity and just another brick in the wall of Boris's broken promises.
Its "lost its salience" as the single issue that will bind together the Singapore-on-Thames / Mercantilist / Workers Collective groups as it did in 2019.
Ah, right.
As others have noted though, what it might do is bind together those who never wanted it, with those who did but now feel betrayed by it.
Of American adults who are fully vaccinated and eligible for a booster shot, only about 30 percent have received one, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
I don't think lockdown, circuit breaker, or whatever you want to call it, needs to be long. It needs to last just long enough to slow the growth down to a rate we can cope with, and to allow us to build a level of immunity through boosters. The calculation is different this time, thanks to vaccines.
But it is time critical. An early intervention is many times more effective than a late one.
Schools are shut next week.
Businesses have begun to close from yesterday / workers begun to take their holidays.
Those about to get / have just had their booster have become more careful.
Those obsessed about Christmas Day have become more careful.
There is plenty of downward pressure on infections already coming into play.
Which is good. I would make two points.
There needs to be a sense of urgency. If measures are going to be needed later, they are better deployed now when they are more effective.
It doesn't need to be all or nothing. Some cutting of the growth rate is better than none Maybe growth is still higher than is safe, but there's no appetite to restrict further. So that's the decision. We should be explicit, and honest, in our trade-offs. Linking back to the first point. The more we do earlier, the less restriction is needed overall.
I don't think anything can be done because of Christmas and even if it was people will ignore any personal restrictions because of the way Boris and his gang ignored the restrictions last Christmas.
So all that leaves is restrictions on business from January.
And by then there will be massive levels of boosters and Omicron will be too widespread anyway (which might be a good thing in any case).
So all of this over a possible 3k hospitalisations per day under the same model that got the 7k per day wrong last time out?
The hundred Tory politicians need to hold firm and tell Boris and to get fucked. No more lockdowns, no more restrictions, no more tyranny of unelected experts.
It's the same playbook every time. Start with a conclusion, fit the model inputs to get there, disregard real world evidence of necessary. It's a joke.
No, the playbook here is read a scientific paper, make a childish misunderstanding of the data and then uses it to claim the experts are stoooopid.
Yes, fine form. Having a quiet weekend at home. I am on call the holiday week so trying to keep bug free until the new year.
Short straw, eh. Have you no Hindu, Jewish, or Moslem colleagues who would cover for The Day itself? At one time I worked with a (fairly) devout Jewish pharmacist who would always cover for Christian (or nominally Christian) colleagues at major Christian holidays provided that they would cover for him on major Jewish ones. And if he wasn't needed he'd go off and find somewhere else that needed cover.
Hey @OldKingCole! I hope you are well and keeping safe.
What a lovely anecdote, thanks for sharing.
I'm fine thanks Horse! (I think that's right, if not apples) We've got Younger Son and his wife and daughters over. The girls are currently sorting out our Christmas Tree. All regularly tested! As are we. Trust and yours are well!
You can call me whatever you wish OKC but I like Horse
Glad you are all keeping safe and sending you all my very best wishes, I hope you have a lovely Christmas.
A survey by Bank of America found just under half of Britons now believe life will never return to normal - a record high and up sharply from around 20pc at the start of the year.
Telegraph
Which is why Omicron is likely a good thing.
The way out of covid is for everyone to be infected.
Vaccines and a milder variant allow that to happen almost infinitely easier than with the original virus.
Of American adults who are fully vaccinated and eligible for a booster shot, only about 30 percent have received one, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
NY Times
Anecdotally I know of a few people who are collecting vaccine doses like there's a loyalty card. One of my colleagues got 2 doses in California, 2 in Florida and now she's going home for Xmas to her home state and has been contacted to get her first dose by local health authorities.
So all of this over a possible 3k hospitalisations per day under the same model that got the 7k per day wrong last time out?
The hundred Tory politicians need to hold firm and tell Boris and to get fucked. No more lockdowns, no more restrictions, no more tyranny of unelected experts.
It's the same playbook every time. Start with a conclusion, fit the model inputs to get there, disregard real world evidence of necessary. It's a joke.
No, the playbook here is read a scientific paper, make a childish misunderstanding of the data and then uses it to claim the experts are stoooopid.
I read the paper, there's three tables of VE all based on different variables, the one being used in the SAGE model uses an additional 6x dilution effect vs observed dilution. They've put their finger on the scales and said everyone's going to die.
Yes, fine form. Having a quiet weekend at home. I am on call the holiday week so trying to keep bug free until the new year.
Short straw, eh. Have you no Hindu, Jewish, or Moslem colleagues who would cover for The Day itself? At one time I worked with a (fairly) devout Jewish pharmacist who would always cover for Christian (or nominally Christian) colleagues at major Christian holidays provided that they would cover for him on major Jewish ones. And if he wasn't needed he'd go off and find somewhere else that needed cover.
Hey @OldKingCole! I hope you are well and keeping safe.
What a lovely anecdote, thanks for sharing.
I'm fine thanks Horse! (I think that's right, if not apples) We've got Younger Son and his wife and daughters over. The girls are currently sorting out our Christmas Tree. All regularly tested! As are we. Trust and yours are well!
You can call me whatever you wish OKC but I like Horse
Glad you are all keeping safe and sending you all my very best wishes, I hope you have a lovely Christmas.
Of American adults who are fully vaccinated and eligible for a booster shot, only about 30 percent have received one, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
NY Times
Anecdotally I know of a few people who are collecting vaccine doses like there's a loyalty card. One of my colleagues got 2 doses in California, 2 in Florida and now she's going home for Xmas to her home state and has been contacted to get her first dose by local health authorities.
There will be people taking additional doses impersonating others to help them get their vaxport status, especially in countries with stricter vaxport rules.
Dr Jennings [chief medical officer at St George's Hospital in Tooting] says it's too early to say whether Omicron is going to make people more or less ill, but what is certain is that it's much more transmissible. "So the wave of Covid that hits the NHS is steeper and faster than it would have been if Omicron had not come along. I think we're preparing for something different to what we saw last year, but something that's really quite challenging," he says.
One major difference with last year is that the vaccine is having an effect, and reducing the number of Covid patients who are being hospitalised or dying.
But not everyone is vaccinated.
"The people who are getting very ill with Covid are quite often people who have not, for whatever reason, had the vaccine," says Dr Jennings.
He says it's a pattern that is repeated across the country. "More than three-quarters of our patients who need life-saving treatments in intensive care have not been vaccinated. And we have had deaths in intensive care - deaths that might have been avoided if they'd had the vaccine. It's a very sad thing to see."
The hospital has increased the number of beds for Covid patients - the 30-bed Covid ward, which briefly closed earlier in the year, is full again, and another is being prepared.
So all of this over a possible 3k hospitalisations per day under the same model that got the 7k per day wrong last time out?
The hundred Tory politicians need to hold firm and tell Boris and to get fucked. No more lockdowns, no more restrictions, no more tyranny of unelected experts.
They've waited until recess.
Hmmmm. Interesting.
Boris will be out within a few days if he tries to use parliamentary procedural game playing to avoid a vote. 100 Tory MPs becomes 200 overnight if MPs aren't consulted over any kind of lockdown.
So all of this over a possible 3k hospitalisations per day under the same model that got the 7k per day wrong last time out?
The hundred Tory politicians need to hold firm and tell Boris and to get fucked. No more lockdowns, no more restrictions, no more tyranny of unelected experts.
Unelected experts > Elected morons. You're seriously more happy with the our fate in the hands of the geniuses who make plugging Peppa Pig part of government policy?
A survey by Bank of America found just under half of Britons now believe life will never return to normal - a record high and up sharply from around 20pc at the start of the year.
Telegraph
Madness. South Africa seems pretty normal right now and that's where the dominant new variant started.
I wonder how much of the concern is that with so many cases a large proportion of hospital staff will have to be isolating.
Of American adults who are fully vaccinated and eligible for a booster shot, only about 30 percent have received one, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
NY Times
Anecdotally I know of a few people who are collecting vaccine doses like there's a loyalty card. One of my colleagues got 2 doses in California, 2 in Florida and now she's going home for Xmas to her home state and has been contacted to get her first dose by local health authorities.
If that's widespread it would suggest that the real level of vaccination in the USA is somewhat lower than it is reported to be.
So all of this over a possible 3k hospitalisations per day under the same model that got the 7k per day wrong last time out?
The hundred Tory politicians need to hold firm and tell Boris and to get fucked. No more lockdowns, no more restrictions, no more tyranny of unelected experts.
Unelected experts > Elected morons. You're seriously more happy with the our fate in the hands of the geniuses who make plugging Peppa Pig part of government policy?
Any day of the week, I can vote out the Peppa pig crew if I disagree with them. I have no way of voting out the expert class. Your faith in them is disturbing, it's sad that so many British people are so comfortable with living in a technocratic country where they have zero influence on the big decisions of the day.
A survey by Bank of America found just under half of Britons now believe life will never return to normal - a record high and up sharply from around 20pc at the start of the year.
Telegraph
Which is why Omicron is likely a good thing.
The way out of covid is for everyone to be infected.
Vaccines and a milder variant allow that to happen almost infinitely easier than with the original virus.
That's probably true (and is a reasonable argument against the THEY want us IMPRISONED FOREVER claim.)
However, even the original Sombrero Squashing model was going to have some controls.
Think of Omicron like those tiny pots of UHT milk. You may want them open, but you still have to open them carefully, or the milk goes everywhere.
And immunity through vaccination is still better than immunity through infection.
Dr Jennings [chief medical officer at St George's Hospital in Tooting] says it's too early to say whether Omicron is going to make people more or less ill, but what is certain is that it's much more transmissible. "So the wave of Covid that hits the NHS is steeper and faster than it would have been if Omicron had not come along. I think we're preparing for something different to what we saw last year, but something that's really quite challenging," he says.
One major difference with last year is that the vaccine is having an effect, and reducing the number of Covid patients who are being hospitalised or dying.
But not everyone is vaccinated.
"The people who are getting very ill with Covid are quite often people who have not, for whatever reason, had the vaccine," says Dr Jennings.
He says it's a pattern that is repeated across the country. "More than three-quarters of our patients who need life-saving treatments in intensive care have not been vaccinated. And we have had deaths in intensive care - deaths that might have been avoided if they'd had the vaccine. It's a very sad thing to see."
The hospital has increased the number of beds for Covid patients - the 30-bed Covid ward, which briefly closed earlier in the year, is full again, and another is being prepared.
So all of this over a possible 3k hospitalisations per day under the same model that got the 7k per day wrong last time out?
The hundred Tory politicians need to hold firm and tell Boris and to get fucked. No more lockdowns, no more restrictions, no more tyranny of unelected experts.
From what we have seen with opinion polls, normals are more likely to believe the opinions of medics and scientists over Covid than they are some gobby wee shite Tory MP with all of their lack of knowledge.
Politicians and the establishment generally refuse to engage with science. It is noteworthy that the Central Library of the University of London (the Senate House Library) has no collections of modern books in science and engineering, despite being one of the oldest and largest universities in England. Journalists constantly make elementary mistakes in reporting numerical facts. Today the BBC reported on Breakfast that cases might reach 3,000 per day. Actually, there were 93,045 cases yesterday. I think they might have meant admissions, but they said cases.
The establishment attitude is that it does not matter if the science is wrong, because they can’t be expected to understand it anyway. Science should be more respected in the UK. The University of London should treat all its students equally and fairly. It is time for us to have politicians and journalists who can get the science right. If they do not, we are at the mercy of “scientific advisors” who are not elected, or accountable, or objective, but who are free to pursue their own personal beliefs and agendas to the cost of the wider public.
A spectacularly ungracious tweet from North Shropshire CLP illustrates the cultural mountain that much of grassroots Labour still needs to climb, if the party wants to be in power.
It’s the kind of tweet you would never see from a Lib Dem constituency association (the worst they manage are cocky yah-boo gloats), nor indeed even the most knuckle-dragging Tory one. It contains within it several of the features that characterise the toxic far left:
1. Entitlement: Labour owns all anti Tory votes so how dare another party pick them up 2. Distaste for actual voters, especially floating ones: never mind that 60% of people on NS previously voted Tory. We don’t want them. Just our own core vote. 3. Tribalism above electoral strategy: I think they would honestly have preferred a Tory hold if it meant Labour coming second 4. Sanctimony and exclusivity: only we are pure, the rest are just Tory scum 5. Petulance and bad grace: the default emotion seems for these people seems to be anger.
The comments below the tweet are universally scathing, many from Labour supporters, but I expect the author considers that he or she did nothing wrong. This is what Starmer still evidently has to deal with in some CLPs.
Your extensive post is an utter work of fiction compared to the few words actually posted, namely "Thank you @btwodo for a great campaign that didn't get the reward it so deserved - onwards and upwards when people realize the #FibDems are just yellow Tories.."
There's nothing wrong with congratulating a hard working candidate and stating that he deserved better.
And it's perfectly reasonable for Labour to continue to remind people that 5 years of very recent Conservative austerity was facilitated by the Lib Dems. When I read Telegraph commentators and the likes of John Redwood this week bemoaning the looser fiscal policies of Johnson compared to the hard line gruel that Osborne and Cameron served up, it only confirms that the 2010 to 2015 years really were true blue ones.
Lib Dem hopes at the next GE will be focused entirely on picking up mainly Conservative votes in Conservative held seats. The reminder of their recent past probably helped the Lib Dems in N Shropshire and will help them in similar seats elsewhere.
I'm more inclined to think that North Shropshire clp (or at least the Comrades running the Twitter Account) are perhaps cavemen still living in the stone age, and just haven't stopped twitching yet.
It's only a couple of years since a former Mayor of Shrewsbury was forced out of the Lab Party for comparing Netanyahu to Hitler on Social Media, which is way more recent than 'Lib Dems facilitating Tory austerity'. I think they've learnt the political lessons of that one, whatever your opinion of them.
So all of this over a possible 3k hospitalisations per day under the same model that got the 7k per day wrong last time out?
The hundred Tory politicians need to hold firm and tell Boris and to get fucked. No more lockdowns, no more restrictions, no more tyranny of unelected experts.
Unelected experts > Elected morons. You're seriously more happy with the our fate in the hands of the geniuses who make plugging Peppa Pig part of government policy?
Any day of the week, I can vote out the Peppa pig crew if I disagree with them. I have no way of voting out the expert class. Your faith in them is disturbing, it's sad that so many British people are so comfortable with living in a technocratic country where they have zero influence on the big decisions of the day.
Any day of the week? Last time I checked, General Elections were held at 5 year intervals.
So all of this over a possible 3k hospitalisations per day under the same model that got the 7k per day wrong last time out?
The hundred Tory politicians need to hold firm and tell Boris and to get fucked. No more lockdowns, no more restrictions, no more tyranny of unelected experts.
Unelected experts > Elected morons. You're seriously more happy with the our fate in the hands of the geniuses who make plugging Peppa Pig part of government policy?
Any day of the week, I can vote out the Peppa pig crew if I disagree with them. I have no way of voting out the expert class. Your faith in them is disturbing, it's sad that so many British people are so comfortable with living in a technocratic country where they have zero influence on the big decisions of the day.
Any day of the week? Last time I checked, General Elections were held at 5 year intervals.
And when are elections on voting the experts out held?
A survey by Bank of America found just under half of Britons now believe life will never return to normal - a record high and up sharply from around 20pc at the start of the year.
Telegraph
Madness. South Africa seems pretty normal right now and that's where the dominant new variant started.
I wonder how much of the concern is that with so many cases a large proportion of hospital staff will have to be isolating.
People are simply giving up because we are nearly two years into this thing, on the third round of vaccinations, and still we're labouring under restrictions with the drumbeat for yet another lockdown growing louder by the minute. Especially if you're not following what's going on closely - those of us who are can cling to the hope that Omicron, or whatever comes next, will defeat the lockdowns and finish off the pandemic - then it must feel to many people as if the torment will never come to and end.
> If an employee goes off sick on or after 10 December 2021, up to and including 26 January 2022, you cannot ask them for proof of sickness until they have been off for 28 days or more.
Which I thought was mildly interesting in terms of what the government are expecting to be going on. Anyway, 'Hello' once again.
Seems almost inevitable that Raab will lose a la Chris Patten in his existing seat even if the Tories hang on nationally but I'm guessing he won't chicken run unless the Tories are both absolutely certain to lose nationally and he has concrete leadership ambitions.
So all of this over a possible 3k hospitalisations per day under the same model that got the 7k per day wrong last time out?
The hundred Tory politicians need to hold firm and tell Boris and to get fucked. No more lockdowns, no more restrictions, no more tyranny of unelected experts.
Unelected experts > Elected morons. You're seriously more happy with the our fate in the hands of the geniuses who make plugging Peppa Pig part of government policy?
Any day of the week, I can vote out the Peppa pig crew if I disagree with them. I have no way of voting out the expert class. Your faith in them is disturbing, it's sad that so many British people are so comfortable with living in a technocratic country where they have zero influence on the big decisions of the day.
Whilst I appreciate the sentiment, there is a basic issue of competence. Doctors, scientists, medics are capable of diagnosing if that lump on your bollock is cancerous or not. A gob on legs Tory MP ideologically focused on getting you and your cancerous testes back to work is not.
So whilst you want want to listen to the person saying "its fine, back to work" the problem is that they don't have the first fucking clue what they are saying. Which is why the couple of MPs who have said "we've had enough of these unelected Doctors, listen to us elected people and our Prime Minister" are being so roundly laughed at.
A spectacularly ungracious tweet from North Shropshire CLP illustrates the cultural mountain that much of grassroots Labour still needs to climb, if the party wants to be in power.
It’s the kind of tweet you would never see from a Lib Dem constituency association (the worst they manage are cocky yah-boo gloats), nor indeed even the most knuckle-dragging Tory one. It contains within it several of the features that characterise the toxic far left:
1. Entitlement: Labour owns all anti Tory votes so how dare another party pick them up 2. Distaste for actual voters, especially floating ones: never mind that 60% of people on NS previously voted Tory. We don’t want them. Just our own core vote. 3. Tribalism above electoral strategy: I think they would honestly have preferred a Tory hold if it meant Labour coming second 4. Sanctimony and exclusivity: only we are pure, the rest are just Tory scum 5. Petulance and bad grace: the default emotion seems for these people seems to be anger.
The comments below the tweet are universally scathing, many from Labour supporters, but I expect the author considers that he or she did nothing wrong. This is what Starmer still evidently has to deal with in some CLPs.
Your extensive post is an utter work of fiction compared to the few words actually posted, namely "Thank you @btwodo for a great campaign that didn't get the reward it so deserved - onwards and upwards when people realize the #FibDems are just yellow Tories.."
There's nothing wrong with congratulating a hard working candidate and stating that he deserved better.
And it's perfectly reasonable for Labour to continue to remind people that 5 years of very recent Conservative austerity was facilitated by the Lib Dems. When I read Telegraph commentators and the likes of John Redwood this week bemoaning the looser fiscal policies of Johnson compared to the hard line gruel that Osborne and Cameron served up, it only confirms that the 2010 to 2015 years really were true blue ones.
Lib Dem hopes at the next GE will be focused entirely on picking up mainly Conservative votes in Conservative held seats. The reminder of their recent past probably helped the Lib Dems in N Shropshire and will help them in similar seats elsewhere.
"Yellow Tories" just puts every other party into either Labour or Tory boxes. Which isn't reality.
What made me chuckle though was "FibDems". Labour put out at least one leaflet saying they were the challenger. And a set of numbers claiming to be on 30%...
Labour can't win a majority without Scotland. The sooner they wake up to this reality and start working with allies the better.
Compete in the seats you can win. NS was not such a seat. Let others compete where they can defeat the Tory. That is the war - Tories and not Tories. "Yellow Tory" is fighting the last war and will bring defeat to pudding-headed Labour activists who think that way
Says an SNP voting Lib Dem. you would say that.
The tweet from labour is correct and they are right to draw a distinction between themselves and the Lib Dem’s.
They are only allies as they are in opposition. There are many parts of the country where labour and the Tories are enemies. All this progressive alliance cobblers is a wet dream of centrist dad and Owen Jones types on Twitter
If, after the next election, the Tories has 320 seats and the Lib Dem’s enough form a majority govt in coalition or offer confidence and supply then of course they would.
Comments
Living life isn't evil. Telling other people to stay imprisoned in their homes is much closer to any definition of evil that I've ever seen....
I really think it would be good for the country for them to spend some time in opposition and go back to being the proud institution they once were, perhaps then I might consider voting for them in the future.
Its main thrust appears to be "Boris promised all things to all men. Boris has not delivered all things to all men. This is why he is now unpopular. To fix this, Boris must deliver all things to all men."
If you get to be a professor by spouting opinions like that, hand me a mortarboard sized for a five-year old because Capitano Junior could have told me that.
The problem isn't that Boris has personally failed to deliver his promises, the problem is that they were always undeliverable. Much was made (principally by Classic Dom) of "Bringing the winning tactics of Vote Leave into the heart of Government", which is exactly what Boris did: win by promising the impossible, then find yourself in trouble when you have to actually implement it. Hence the never-ending shitstorm over Northern Ireland and the slowly dawning realisation over fishing and agriculture.
Goodwin asserts that Boris is being punished for "failing to get his arms around illegal migration". Maybe Boris shouldn't have promised that, then, because no-one is going to be able to get their arms around illegal migration. The Middle East is awash in AK-47s and fundamentalists (thanks Tony!). No kidding that some of the displaced people are trying to get here.
I have a little more sympathy on levelling up, where a serious strategy implemented from the first day after GE 2019 might have started to show a few little rewards by 2023. Maybe. But that didn't happen, and it's too late now. You can't deliver serious capital projects in the time left to this parliament. If (to take a random example) DfT had not wasted time by requiring several rounds of bidding in order to get to a feasibility study to reopen a railway, but simply thrown £200m at reopening Leicester-Burton, then maybe Boris would have seen some eventual rewards.
But Goodwin really doesn't grasp any of this. He concludes "the only way forward for him now is to start ditching advisors and doubling down on where he began". Right. Boris is going to win the next election by ditching advisors and relying on his force of personality to magically deliver projects on the ground. Good luck, as they say, with that.
Christmas is causing a week's delay, during which Omicron is going to surge. Let's just hope it doesn't translate into hospitalisations.
Boosters have been available to the vulnerable groups for weeks/months now. No excuses.
What I do care about is NHS care being withdrawn from cancer patients etc. I'll accept lockdown in that circumstance, but I'll be furious about it. Yet again, young people and vulnerable people shafted by a self-centred older generation.
Though pursued by Grabcoque once of this parish rather than a nymphomaniac Ruth Madoc.
It's bullshit.
My thoughts are with Foxy and his colleagues, nobody is minimising the challenges faced by the NHS but at the end of the day there are many of us who don't believe continued lockdowns are warranted and dislike being guilted or shamed for their political position on this. The NHS, if past experience is anything to go by, will always be at breaking point. This can't justify lockdowns forever.
Government (taxpayers) do(es) not have the responsibility to bail out hospitality businesses. It’s part of the risk that these business owners took on.
I’m probably going to feel the wrath of @Cyclefree now, but so be it.
We're basically reliant on the virus evolving into a form so transmissible that lockdowns are useless against it. Until that happens, if the hospitals scream loudly enough and the modellers come up with sufficiently terrifying death projections, all the levers will keep getting pulled over and over and over again. They can and will prevaricate for a while, but ultimately neither this nor any other likely alternative Government will prioritise keeping society open over trying to stop the hospitals from falling over. The former will only take priority when it becomes clear that nothing will prevent the latter.
12-15 6210
16-17 2751
18-24 3814
25-29 2635
30-34 2489
35-39 1680
40-44 1111
45-49 761
50-54 569
55-59 487
60-64 355
65-69 278
70-74 223
75-79 149
80+ 153
There's been a significant increase in first doses among the 16-39 groups.
The emergence of Omicron has given a boost to protection against Delta.
@cricketwyvern
How many times?
• Scientists (literally) make up scary numbers & call for restrictions.
• Media lobby & agitate for restrictions.
• Govt claims to believe made-up numbers & implements measures which have never been effective before & for which they present no evidence.
...
• Measures have no impact.
• Implement stricter measures.
• Move to an unnecessary full lockdown which causes economic, social & emotional costs many times any possible benefit.
Again and again and again.
Are we dealing with clueless clowns or seriously bad faith actors?
This part of the decision is not being discussed. If there is a sensible lockdown path for 1-2 months then the exit path needs to be discussed as well as the entry decision.
At one time I worked with a (fairly) devout Jewish pharmacist who would always cover for Christian (or nominally Christian) colleagues at major Christian holidays provided that they would cover for him on major Jewish ones.
And if he wasn't needed he'd go off and find somewhere else that needed cover.
We can also thank Boris and his gang for flouting lockdown restrictions last Christmas which will mean everyone will flout any future lockdown restriction.
Instead, they're avoiding following the precedent of furlough will* still actively harming business through rhetoric designed to discourage people who had booked restaurants, pubs, and so forth.
Edited extra bit: while*. Bit sleepy.
The problem seems to be that there's never been any criteria that determines this
What a lovely anecdote, thanks for sharing.
1) Philip T making torches and sharpening his pitchfork to lead the revolt, or
2) Cyclefree going after the govt and suing them into the ground, or
3) All of the above.
C U later
Also that 30% is for people who had their 2nd does 6 months + ago and haven't been boosted yet
I just broke my lurking to say me and my partner are E&W inhabitants and long time con voters. We cheered at 4am in 2019 December when Raab beat off a big Lib Dem challenge to hold on.
We are now both Reform supporters, and I donate to Reform significantly.
Hope that helps.
Out
All regularly tested!
As are we.
Trust and yours are well!
Recklessly choosing to place other, especially more vulnerable, people, at unnecessary risk, arguably is.
But it is time critical. An early intervention is many times more effective than a late one.
I had thought that I did, but when Mrs BigRich looked it does not seem to be the case.
Its not actually that big a group and diminishing each day.
Like levelling up and Red Wall, first define your terms. Thatcher was great at that. You could agree or disagree with them, but you knew what they were.
With this lot you don't.
I will raise a mug of mulled wine in your honour.
The big thing he misses is competence. With Post-Brexit + pandemic to sort the government has to exude competence. Stuff is bound to happen, but the number of unnecessary errors points to a significant intellectual and moral gap.
On Brexit, this is a special case. Given the politics of the UK as of 2000-now and continuing, no satisfactory EU/UK settlement is likely. getting out of a 40 year alliance will always take years. Parliament, with a Remain majority failed to agree a sensible compromise timetable (eg Norway for Now) leaving no choice between a fairly hard Brexit and rejoin. Neither can work.
It may mean the Tories are replaced by another lot next time, but the problem of there being no acceptable solution (including status quo and status quo ante) will remain.
If the Lab/rainbow alliance can exude competence and moderation they will win.
Businesses have begun to close from yesterday / workers begun to take their holidays.
Those about to get / have just had their booster have become more careful.
Those obsessed about Christmas Day have become more careful.
There is plenty of downward pressure on infections already coming into play.
What made me chuckle though was "FibDems". Labour put out at least one leaflet saying they were the challenger. And a set of numbers claiming to be on 30%...
Labour can't win a majority without Scotland. The sooner they wake up to this reality and start working with allies the better.
Compete in the seats you can win. NS was not such a seat. Let others compete where they can defeat the Tory. That is the war - Tories and not Tories. "Yellow Tory" is fighting the last war and will bring defeat to pudding-headed Labour activists who think that way
That's the sound of it, anyway.
So the lockdown cycles will continue in response to each and every variant, for years, or decades, until one of two things occurs: a variant emerges with a sufficiently big R number that restrictions are useless against it, or total socio-economic implosion.
You knew what Thatcher's general beliefs and strategy was but she worked on a step by step basis and would always be flexible if reality required it.
What she did have was a willingness to work hard and do proper preparation.
And who, now Brexit is losing its salience, will determine the outcome of future elections.
*assuming the Tories haven't expelled all of theirs.
All these accounts would have a lot more credibility if they hadn't spent the last 18 months torturing data to say it was no worse than the flu/herd immunity by summer 2020/no sign of a second wave etc
Frosty still trying to unpick his own deal.
Mordaunt begging the US to help us.
And we still haven't implemented the border checks.
Or "taken control of our borders"
There needs to be a sense of urgency. If measures are going to be needed later, they are better deployed now when they are more effective.
It doesn't need to be all or nothing. Some cutting of the growth rate is better than none
Maybe growth is still higher than is safe, but there's no appetite to restrict further. So that's the decision. We should be explicit, and honest, in our trade-offs. Linking back to the first point. The more we do earlier, the less restriction is needed overall.
Telegraph
OK so some people may vote in anger, but I suspect for many people Brexit recedes into the distance as a lost opportunity and just another brick in the wall of Boris's broken promises.
As others have noted though, what it might do is bind together those who never wanted it, with those who did but now feel betrayed by it.
That could be a very big group indeed.
NY Times
So all that leaves is restrictions on business from January.
And by then there will be massive levels of boosters and Omicron will be too widespread anyway (which might be a good thing in any case).
The hundred Tory politicians need to hold firm and tell Boris and to get fucked. No more lockdowns, no more restrictions, no more tyranny of unelected experts.
Glad you are all keeping safe and sending you all my very best wishes, I hope you have a lovely Christmas.
The way out of covid is for everyone to be infected.
Vaccines and a milder variant allow that to happen almost infinitely easier than with the original virus.
Hmmmm. Interesting.
If animals are dumb, how can this act of kindness and intelligence be explained?
One major difference with last year is that the vaccine is having an effect, and reducing the number of Covid patients who are being hospitalised or dying.
But not everyone is vaccinated.
"The people who are getting very ill with Covid are quite often people who have not, for whatever reason, had the vaccine," says Dr Jennings.
He says it's a pattern that is repeated across the country. "More than three-quarters of our patients who need life-saving treatments in intensive care have not been vaccinated. And we have had deaths in intensive care - deaths that might have been avoided if they'd had the vaccine. It's a very sad thing to see."
The hospital has increased the number of beds for Covid patients - the 30-bed Covid ward, which briefly closed earlier in the year, is full again, and another is being prepared.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59667190
The charge sheet against the refusers continues to lengthen.
I wonder how much of the concern is that with so many cases a large proportion of hospital staff will have to be isolating.
It's why the Lib Dems just won in a "Leave" seat. I wonder how much longer splitting the country in this way will be useful?
However, even the original Sombrero Squashing model was going to have some controls.
Think of Omicron like those tiny pots of UHT milk. You may want them open, but you still have to open them carefully, or the milk goes everywhere.
And immunity through vaccination is still better than immunity through infection.
The establishment attitude is that it does not matter if the science is wrong, because they can’t be expected to understand it anyway. Science should be more respected in the UK. The University of London should treat all its students equally and fairly. It is time for us to have politicians and journalists who can get the science right. If they do not, we are at the mercy of “scientific advisors” who are not elected, or accountable, or objective, but who are free to pursue their own personal beliefs and agendas to the cost of the wider public.
It's only a couple of years since a former Mayor of Shrewsbury was forced out of the Lab Party for comparing Netanyahu to Hitler on Social Media, which is way more recent than 'Lib Dems facilitating Tory austerity'. I think they've learnt the political lessons of that one, whatever your opinion of them.
https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/shrewsbury/2019/02/28/councillor-leaves-party-amid-allegations/?fbclid=IwAR3haAw5lrC362uYJVD0qzQRQypCt61DotLYnwk-Td2fvGg73IQKcl-cjBw
Hello.
Thought I'd post this little titbit that came to my attention that I don't think has been posted already.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-sick-pay-employee-fitness-to-work
> If an employee goes off sick on or after 10 December 2021, up to and including 26 January 2022, you cannot ask them for proof of sickness until they have been off for 28 days or more.
Which I thought was mildly interesting in terms of what the government are expecting to be going on. Anyway, 'Hello' once again.
So whilst you want want to listen to the person saying "its fine, back to work" the problem is that they don't have the first fucking clue what they are saying. Which is why the couple of MPs who have said "we've had enough of these unelected Doctors, listen to us elected people and our Prime Minister" are being so roundly laughed at.
The tweet from labour is correct and they are right to draw a distinction between themselves and the Lib Dem’s.
They are only allies as they are in opposition. There are many parts of the country where labour and the Tories are enemies. All this progressive alliance cobblers is a wet dream of centrist dad and Owen Jones types on Twitter
If, after the next election, the Tories has 320 seats and the Lib Dem’s enough form a majority govt in coalition or offer confidence and supply then of course they would.