buctootim

You live in Birmingham right?

"Boris Johnson is a terrible prime minister and a worse human being. But he is not a monster newly sprung from a rent between this world and the next. Twenty years have passed since the Conservative party first selected him as a candidate. Michael Howard and David Cameron made him a shadow minister, and Theresa May gave him the Foreign Office. Thirty years of celebrity made him famous for his mendacity, indifference to detail, poor administration, and inveterate betrayal of every personal commitment. Yet, knowing this, the majority of Conservative MPs, and party members, still voted for him to be prime minister. He is not, therefore, an aberration, but a product of a system that will continue to produce terrible politicians long after he is gone. MPs selected him because they would not risk the possibility of a smaller majority under a better leader. Winning mattered more than governing well. And the public often seems to share this indifference. Dominic Cummings’ seven-hour testimony last year on exactly how bad Johnson had been at exercising power had little effect on his popularity. And his current collapse is not because of his gross mishandling of the Brexit negotiations, or one of the worst combinations of Covid death-rates and economic damage anywhere in the world, but because he went to a party. Which is why — although British politics is undermined by Johnson’s brutal indifference to constitutional structures or expert judgment — his very presence reveals a more fundamental problem: the narrowness and partisanship of our political parties, and their focus on the permanent campaign. By focusing more on gossip and games against the opposition, than on the detail of running the country, parliament has long turned previously dignified MPs into humiliated automatons." Rory Stewart former Tory MP and leadership candidate writing in the FT. Hard to disagree https://www.ft.com/content/dec2e1ed-d827-41de-a827-b9d7fbf06fd0

Did you not read it or simply not understand it? Just FYI it was an exposition of an abrupt climate change event that happened previously. Flagging it as an outlying risk not a prediction for the future https://www.iatp.org/sites/default/files/An_Abrupt_Climate_Change_Scenario_and_Its_Impl.pdf

Ed Miliband might seem harmless in a dopey kind of way but he has done more damage to this country than any other Labour politician. He stopped us getting David Miliband, the able brother who would have beaten Cameron, avoided Brexit and the whole Johnson mess which followed. He has a frickin huge amount to answer for.

Quite possibly the same as my GF.

How are their policies working out in Scotland and NI? The Union getting ever tighter presumably?

Thats such an old inaccurate trope though. Trotted out by the Daily Mail and people like, well you. It has no real basis in fact. Since WW2 there has been little difference in the total tax take as a percentage of GDP (the standard measure) whether it is Labour or Tories in power. Both are actually quite low by international standards. The Tories however tend to leave behind more debt because they like to pretend they spend more and tax less less because they are so awesomely efficient and they really whip those lazy crap public services into shape - in reality they just borrow money to bridge the tax take / spending gap. The Tories are pretty much hostage to the fact that their voters tend to be older with many retired. Older people cost more to look after - pensions, healthcare, social care and they tend to pay little tax. The Tory public spend is therefore more focussed on consumption Labour have historically spent more on younger people things like education, training, nurseries, working family credits etc in pursuit of their social mobility and levelling up agenda. Arguably these have a positive effect long term for the economy so have an element of investment, not simple consumption. I know you wont engage with the issues Batman but others might.

He lied about almost everything - defence procurement, triple lock, northern regeneration ad infinitum. The parties were just the final straw.

I'm more surprised by the Brexity MPs sticking the knife in. Would be interesting to know if they sense a Brexit 'betrayal'

Is Johnson contradicting Cummings then? Has he rebutted any of the Cummings allegations? Or are you just attempting to blow smoke?

This makes zero sense economically, environmentally or heathwise. Sugar beet growing in the UK isn't viable in the UK without huge subsidies. They are grown on huge East Anglia prairie like monoculture fields with zero biodiversity. Every year the peat is eroded by another millimetre getting ever closer to bare clay which will end the growing crop anyway. The cost of processing is huge as it needs massive amounts of electricity. Thiamethoxam is an indiscriminate systemic insecticide - ie it is absorbed by the plant and poisons and kills pretty much all insects which come into contact with it. These include bees which visit for pollen, butterfly caterpillars which eat the leaves and feed birds, aphids which feed ladybirds etc etc. Then we eat the poison absorbed by the beet. Stop growing beet, save on the subsidies, restore hedgerows, let insects and the other species which feed on them recover and import cane sugar at one third of the price from traditional sources like the Caribbean.

There must be some things you can grasp? Surely? As has been discussed here already the point of SAGE is to avoid situations where healthcare services are overwhelmed and we fall into a situation like India where people are left gasping for air and dying in the street. To that end they issue warnings and action plans if there is a realistic possibility of that happening in the UK. That is not the same as predicting it will happen or is most likely to happen. They modelled four scenarios in which Omnicron was 10%, 20%, 50% and 100% as severe as Delta. Under 10% and 20% scenarios the modelling showed the NHS would cope. However there was a realistic possibility that 50% could occur and the NHS would be overwhelmed or have to cancel unacceptable amounts of elective work with concomittent impacts on non covid patients. That was the reason for advising control measures - its called the Precautionary Principle. It's been discussed here before. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1043176/S1452_9_Note_from_SPI-M-O_Chairs_for_SAGE.pdf

Yay!! Ditch Brexit!!

And I had to pay my taxes. In any event there has always been a balance between individual rights and the rights of the general population to be protected from harm by that individual. Whole villages were isolated during the plague whilst ships were not allowed to dock. Babies compulsorily vaccinated for small pox during Victorian era. Personally I think if vaccinations were going to be mandatory it should have been a year ago. Omnicron is less of a threat and harder to prevent - but I’m not going to get my knickers twisted or pretend it’s some dystopian plot o

Yep Im not saying I agree with him - I don't even know what his policies are - but he does seem competent and principled, which would be a big step in the right direction

The next election is certainly still winnable for the Tories if they ditch Johnson, resolve Brexit possibly by joining EEA / EFTA and appoint someone credible. Sunak could certainly beat the limited Starmer. I don't want to even consider Truss could win.

Me too. In the early 2000s I imagined the internet would increase diversity of information flows making people less indoctrinated by the big five or six newspapers. In practice most people have become more siloed and less challenged as they are able to stay in their comfort zones by choosing 'news' sources which reinforce their existing views

Do the angels know why they are there? Would be tragic if serious soul saving was mistaken for a hooley

I think he might crumble before Deutsche bank.

In the garden, with his wife, bringing his own bottle. Sure.

Definitely. Anybody but Johnson would give the Tories a bounce, but especially if it was Sunak rather than Truss

This is from a DM article, possibly same source.

Thats their claim - although I did read once that since WW2 the Tory governments had left behind more debt than Labour ones and the tax takes of both parties was very similar. Not sure if true but believable

Most TV is pretty bad currently tbh, just in different ways. Netflix and Amazon have a few decent story ideas that would make a good series of 4-6 programmes - but they drag it out for 30 or more. They just become repetitive and tedious.

I honestly cant decide if you really are catastrophically stupid, whether you simply lack courage to admit when you are wrong or are simply engaged in a pointless, humourless long winded windup. You're like GM, even your own links are against you. 2.5.1 Exemptions from self-isolation if a staff member is fully vaccinated[footnote 1] and is identified as a contact of a case Staff members notified that they are a contact of a COVID-19 case are not required to self-isolate if they are fully vaccinated. They should inform their line manager or employer immediately if they are required to work in the 10 days following their last contact with a COVID-19 case. If the staff member develops symptoms of COVID-19 during this period, follow the guidance in section 2.1. The majority of fully vaccinated health and social care staff will be able to continue in their usual role. The following apply to staff returning to work: the staff member should not have any COVID-19 symptoms the staff member should not have any travel related isolation requirements the staff member should immediately arrange for a PCR test, either through their workplace arrangements or via the NHS Test and Trace service, and the result of this PCR test should be negative prior to returning to work following the negative PCR result, the staff member should undertake an LFD antigen test every day for the 10 days following their last contact with the case (even on days they are not at work)