Fan The Flames

You can vote fot something you dont agree with if the alternative is worse. You can either vote on principles or for the best outcome. It is simple to explain, I look forward to see the tory press fail to make this simple position into a trap.

We are constantly being told that this is observing the will of the people, what can they do, this deal represents the best deal possible between this government and EU, they have to ensures that it happens, we can then move on and hd the tories accountable for their deal. Abstaining creates the possibility that it gets voted down and a no deal is worse for the people. Labour putting the country before politics.

Since LD1 we have been doing various levels of measures inbetween lockdown and normal life. The government have been fumbling around trying to find the magic balance. I do think the NHS shut down too many services in LD1 and have created a big backlog which they are now trying to solve. GPs have been the weak link and still are, but that's what happens when you have private contractors as the gateway to the system.

Their position is simple, the deal is better than a no deal but the deal belongs 100% to the Tory party.

What a lumpy argument. It's not any old letter it's one from a Spanish diplomat based in Scotland, of course it's newsworthy even in a nationalist rag. He's one from Reuters, is that neutral enough https://www.google.com/amp/s/uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKKCN1NP25P Anyway it's safe to say any veto will depend on who's in power in Spain or any other EU country for that matter.

Mad because they don't agree with you.

It wasn't SNPs mouthpiece who wrote the letter they just reported it, I guess then the answer is it depends who's in power in Spain.

Apparently not https://www.thenational.scot/news/17686950.spain-will-not-block-independent-scotlands-eu-membership/

Healthy not healthy isn't a distinction in my mind, a healthy person or diabetic or cancer patient dying of covid is equally as valid. Yes some cases are less of a tragedy than others but I wouldn't want to make that call. Looking at things at a macro level is an interesting intellectual exercise but things are experienced at the micro level and there are nearly 70000 individual cases that has affected families. I am torn on whether lockdown is the right action to take, but in the balance I think it probably is. Also I can't see a Tory government doing it if it wasn't absolutely necessary.

What will be interesting is what hsppens when Scotland joins the EU

We will never rejoin, I say this as a remainer, it's too much of a hard sell. I would rather energy be spent now on keeping standards high here and on making things work.

No, nor if you are over 60.

This is a good question, the London one closed s while back and I think only ever had 50 people in it. It was never really used because if you wanted to send a patient there you had to send nurses with them. They weren't needed in LD1 as all schedule operations were cancelled this freed up beds, equipment and staff and this extra capacity along with lock down was enough to cope. I think they were built as a last resort in reaction to the scenes in Italy of inflatable wards in their car parks and probably to the Chinese container hospital. They were there to be used if the hospitals became overwhelmed and would have been staffed I believe by a mixture of thinning out hospital and community staff, students, returnees and volunteers. I get the impression that there are less really bad cases this time, although I have no hard facts for this, but since August and throughout LD2/tier 3 and 4 the theatres in my hospital kept working and have been doing every Saturday as well for months. During LD1 these staff and ventilators were on covid wards. We got a load of free beds, sinks and some expensive medical air equipment from the London Nightingale as all the stuff was farmed out to local hospitals.

Also in the book Sapiens, the author reckons that humans became the dominant species because it's the only large species that can live in large numbers and this ability to co-operate at close quarters is due to it's tendency to believe in myths. Religion, conspiracy theories and PFC are the unfortunate side affects of this.

Google's got that covered already. That cat is well and truly out of the bag.

What a fuckin waste of time and energy over the last 10 years, to put us in the same but different position. There will be great chatter between the old twats on Facebook.

We're still in Europe.

You do realise that in a free democratic society people can still voice disagreement with a democratic decision and, get this, can still campaign against it if they want. Call it bleating on, toy's out of the pram or what ever pejorative term but people have this rght and you just have to suck it up and let your agrument stand up for itself.

Yes it is a good thing. But from my experience they would have only gone to the effort of a covert investigation if a. the unit was way out of control or b. they were looking for something else. I think you can read between the lines of what the intelligence office was saying. That sort of behaviour doesn't get that bad that quickly and it wouldn't have gone unnoticed. Hampshire police can spin and if this sends out a signal then it's good. But I think it's naive to think that this was prompted by one complaint. My monies on they were looking for something else, but each to their own.

Hmmmm from a Briefings for Brexit website.

I have little sympathy for him, he's well out of his depth.

It's not a sham, probably just a mistake to have had them in Tier 2.

You've got to have some sympathy with the government, they are constantly treading a fine line, but the Christmas relaxation always seemed a bit of an indulgence. I can see that it may have been more appropriate when announced then it is now, especially with the new variant in circulation. Nothing cynical about it.

Playing well.

You say zero tolerance but that's not quiet true, in the Basingstoke incident it took a whilstle blower to get the force to look into a widely known out of control team. I know where I work I couldnt say any of those things with out a reprimand, that's zero tolerance. Maybe if they had more black people, gay people or women in higher positions this would not have got so far out of hand.