Weston Super Saint

Option 2 is safer for society! Although, as far as I'm aware, all stop and searches have to provide a record to the person being stopped and gives them the opportunity to make a complaint. Surely a better way to measure the statistic is to find out how many complaints about unfair / unreasonable stop and searches were upheld, which officers have the most compaints upheld against them and correct the behaviours that way rather than just reporting how many searches were carried out?

Yes. Can even stay the night or two.

Another example of things that weren't offensive at the time but need to be cancelled in accordance with today's standards : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57422751

I understand your point entirely, but it doesn't add up! The current figures show that around 80% of all UK adults have CoVid antibodies - whether through vaccination or previous infection. I understand that still leaves 20% of all UK adults that don't have the antibodies and are therefore at risk of community transmission. I fully accept that once all of the measures that are currently in place are lifted, it is inevitable that the number of cases will rise due to the number of people without antibodies, however, given that the virus has more serious effects in older people the chances of hospitalisation for under 50's is somewhere in the region of 2 per 100,000 people which diminishes the younger people are. My argument has been pretty clear and as yet you haven't answered the very simple question. Of the remaining people who are not fully immunised and are therefore at risk of community transmission, who, from this group will cause the NHS to be overloaded and thus force another lockdown? Simple question, but one which you have repeatedly avoided answering, yet continue to trot out the example of having to re-enter a lockdown if we don't wait another three weeks! I also understand your point that there are a tiny minority of people who are vulnerable but cannot be vaccinated, but once more I am happy to state that I don't think there is enough of them to overwhelm the NHS even if they all caught the virus on the 22nd June! I've also asked the question, when should individuals like this, who through no fault of their own find themselves in this position, take responsibility for their own health and well being (I suspect the answer to that question is that those with any sense are already doing this and probably have been long before CoVid became an issue as they are likely to be susceptible to a whole host of complaints!). Comparing our current situation with the time between the first and second waves last year, when no vaccine had even been invented, let alone a comprehensive programme succesfully rolled out, is utter lunacy and does you no favours!

The ECB has set a precedent now, those guys are going to have to be suspended whilst an investigation is carried out - to not do so will be treating Robinson diffently / unfairly.... I think the whole statue debacle of last summer has taught us that it's not acceptable to claim they weren't offensive at the time. Slavery wasn't (considered) offensive at the time yet we've spent the last year trying to destroy all links to it, especially in cities built on / by the slave trade like Bristol and Liverpool. Whilst I agree entirely with your point that those tweets / comments were made during 'different times', sadly the whole cancel culture brigade don't accept that as a valid reason and everybody throughout all of history needs to be judged by today's morals and standards!

Again, you use lots of rhetoric but don't actually quantify anything. Explain how another 3 weeks wait will avoid decimating the NHS compared to re-opening on the 21st? I appreciate that there will still be 'some' vulnerable people who cannot be vaccinated for one reason or another, but don't believe the cost of keeping millions of people away from their livelihoods is justifiable to protect such a small percentage of people. At what point do we hand responsibility back to the individual rather than dictate to the majority to protect the overwhelming minority? The whole point of lockdowns was to stop the NHS being overwhelmed. We could open everything up today and there isn't a scenario where that will happen anymore due to the fact that the biggest risks to the NHS have all been offered a vaccine.

For you, perhaps. For the millions of people who are still not able to work, facing redundancy, mounting debts etc, then another 3 weeks is a hardship.

Surely it will be the same risk even once we've hit the targets required to provide adequate protection to the majority, the two groups you mentioned aren't likely to be significantly impacted until around 95% of the population has had two vaccines? In which case shouldn't we extend the lockdown until that time?

Did you need an envelope or did you do a life size drawing on the stamp?

Seems about right to be fair. Efficacy of first dose is estimated to be between 50-85% but even then this will only happen gradually up until around week 4, so plenty of opportunities for the 28 with one dose to end up in hospital (and let's not forget this is just people in hospital who have tested positive who could have a completely unrelated medical issue). Then we have 3 who have had both doses - again they could have completely unrelated medical issues. Given there is another four week period for the vaccine to get to work they could be moving from 50-85% efficacy to around 99% efficacy over that period so still opportunities for them to catch the virus. Then there is the inevitable margin of error (false positives / negatives), which could also account for the other 9 for instance!

I agree, there are 'outliers' with every disease that end up in hospital with no real explanation as to why, however, the numbers of these tends to be very small. Similarly, I expect the number who are unable to receive the vaccine is also very small and very unlikely to 'overwhelm' the NHS even if they all contracted the virus on the same day. Not only that but I would expect that anyone who is unable to have the vaccine would take additional personal measures to protect themselves. I don't see enough people in those two groups to overwhelm the NHS.

I imagine the ECB panel members who are looking into historic social media atrocities probably aren't up to date enough to have their own social media accounts. Might need to have a look in their 'desk diaries' instead.

Who will the virus 'take hold' of that will mean they end up risking the NHS?

Absolutely! According to Michael Vaughn : Because I'm sure Michael is spot on, only now will he realise, educate himself and become a better person for it, there's no way he could possibly have done that over the last 8 or 9 years when he was growing up and couldn't possibly have figured out that what he posted in 2012 was stupid without someone pointing it out to him 9 years later! Thank heavens they've managed to catch it just in time!

According to Professor Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epedemiology at King's College, we were seeing the effects of herd immunity in April... https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/is-the-uk-close-to-herd-immunity

Starmer could be playing an absolute blinder as surely he has access to the information that says how many people in hospital have / haven't been vaccinated. Pretty simple task to use that info to his advantage, hard to think of a reason why isn't doing so.

Herd immunity is not 'all or nothing' it is a gradual process. It can be achieved when more than 50% of a population is immune to a virus (through previous infection or vaccination), however, even with mumps and measles where we have incredibly high vaccination numbers we still see 'outbreaks' from time to time in those that haven't been vaccinated. It's an American website but the principles are the same : https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/achieving-herd-immunity-with-covid19.html

If 76.2% (40 million) of adult population has had vaccination, then 23.8% of the adult population (roughly 15 million people) HASN'T had the vaccination. The variant isn't "getting past" the vaccine and with only 31,395 infections in the last 7 days it is pretty clear that the only people who are being infected are those that haven't yet had the vaccination. Given that ALL vulnerable people were first in the queue for their jab, those that are currently being infected aren't vulnerable - i.e. they are young, fit and healthy and much less likely to suffer severe symptoms. This is highlighted in the fact that only 869 people have been hospitalised in the past 7 days and 61 have died. All figures available here There is an article that asks the question of whether we will need a third vaccine here which is quite long, however, one quote from Professor Brown that is hidden within it is quite poignant and he's saying what we have guessed at for a while now, but there have oddly been no figures released to confim it (Hancock said something similar a week or two ago) :

We reached 'critical mass' (herd immunity) about a month ago. 76.2% of the adult population have had one vaccination and 51.6% have had two.

Make your mind up! You've gone from the 'little bits' that people can't do, to (I think) recognising that WHOLE INDUSTRIES are still shut down / severely impacted by the lockdown regulations! The point is, which I think you understand, that whilst you and I and many others aren't really inconvenienced by the current regulations, hundreds of thousands of people are still massively impacted - over 750,00 in the "night time industry" alone.

Hospitality Outside Catering Pilots Airline staff Airport staff Cruise ship workers Travel Agents Wedding venues Hotels Night Clubs Night Club security Breweries Distribution networks - for food, catering, alcohol Nightlife ancillaries - e.g takeaways, taxis and associated distribution networks / suppliers Farmers Farm workers Farm distribution networks I could go on but hopefully this indicates that it is not just a few people in hospitality that are being affected by the current restrictions limiting the business opportunities, income and job opportunities. All those listed above are currently having their livelihoods affected in some way. Whilst you personally may not be affected at the moment (similarly, nor am I or my family), it's disingenous to dismiss out of hand that a lot of people are still genuinely being affected by the lockdown restrictions still in place.

I've said it before, but it's worth repeating. This war of words and increased rhetoric has nothing to do with the NHS being overwhelmed this time around. The 20 - 30 year old age group is the biggest in terms of anti vaxxers. The closer we get to that group being vaccinated, the louder the calls for extending lockdown have become - and let's face it the only parts still left to open fully are night clubs, music venues and social distancing in pubs / no masks. The blackmail has been pretty obvious for a number of months now, if the 'youth' want to go and enjoy themselves, they must have their vaccine first. I don't think the lockdown will be extended but I'm assuming the rhtetoric will 'encourage' more of that age group to have their jab....

No need to worry. No more countries added to the green list and Portugal taken off it so no other choice but to holiday in the UK, which means all the money spent will go back to the treasury.

Bloody companies 'profiteering' from the pandemic. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57336030

It's almost as if the data is telling us that the vaccine is working 😲