COVID19

[morepork]

Meanwhile...https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59561876

[Stom]

So, some examples of our rules…

We have Christmas markets. Outdoor events, you can only get in with vaccination proof. No mask needed.

There is ice skating. Indoor changing room, mask needed. Outdoor, physical activity, high chance of physical contact with another, no mask, no vaccine needed.
Local ice skating: banned.

Shops: mask
Public transport: mask
Workplaces: proof of vaccine within the past 6 months.

Just a complete mess of different regulations. There needs to be some consistency.

[Sandydragon]

This is looking very bad. Once again a complete disregard for the rules they put in place and how that might be perceived by the public. It’s almost like Johnson can’t physically tell the truth either.

What are the odds on a leadership challenge next year?

[Sandydragon]

On another note the leaking of that video is interesting timing. I wonder who has been sat on that for 12 months.

[Son of Mathonwy]

How odd. The Met chooses not to investigate the alleged No. 10 party.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... tmas-party

The corruption is both breathtaking and unsurprising. Since every guest would have passed the police on the way in, the police will already be aware if party had taken place. So they should be able to say definitively whether or not there was a party. That they didn't indicates that they turned a blind eye at the time, and don't want any attention drawn to this. Naturally they are also happy to cover up for politicians who can not only make or break their careers but also provide them with honours in due course.

[Which Tyler]

How odd. The Met chooses not to investigate the alleged No. 10 party.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... tmas-party

The corruption is both breathtaking and unsurprising. Since every guest would have passed the police on the way in, the police will already be aware if party had taken place. So they should be able to say definitively whether or not there was a party. That they didn't indicates that they turned a blind eye at the time, and don't want any attention drawn to this. Naturally they are also happy to cover up for politicians who can not only make or break their careers but also provide them with honours in due course.

You don't bump up from DBE to GBE by pissing off #10

[Son of Mathonwy]

How odd. The Met chooses not to investigate the alleged No. 10 party.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... tmas-party

The corruption is both breathtaking and unsurprising. Since every guest would have passed the police on the way in, the police will already be aware if party had taken place. So they should be able to say definitively whether or not there was a party. That they didn't indicates that they turned a blind eye at the time, and don't want any attention drawn to this. Naturally they are also happy to cover up for politicians who can not only make or break their careers but also provide them with honours in due course.

You don't bump up from DBE to GBE by pissing off #10

Hell no. Unfortunately, none of 'the great and the good' are independent. They love their gongs and titles too much.

[Puja]

How odd. The Met chooses not to investigate the alleged No. 10 party.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... tmas-party

The corruption is both breathtaking and unsurprising. Since every guest would have passed the police on the way in, the police will already be aware if party had taken place. So they should be able to say definitively whether or not there was a party. That they didn't indicates that they turned a blind eye at the time, and don't want any attention drawn to this. Naturally they are also happy to cover up for politicians who can not only make or break their careers but also provide them with honours in due course.

Green Peer Jenny Jones stirring the pot on this one:

capture.jpg

Puja

[morepork]

What does Boris have to do to get fired? Take a shit on the Queen?

[cashead]

What does Boris have to do to get fired? Take a shit on the Queen?

He's surrounded himself with goldbricking yesmen and yeswomen, and utter dipshits, so one should be asking when the penny is going to drop for the Tory MPs, because sooner or later, it's going to occur to them that the trash isn't going to take itself out.

In the meantime, the longer Boris is in office, the better it seems for the opposition.

[Puja]

What does Boris have to do to get fired? Take a shit on the Queen?

He's surrounded himself with goldbricking yesmen and yeswomen, and utter dipshits, so one should be asking when the penny is going to drop for the Tory MPs, because sooner or later, it's going to occur to them that the trash isn't going to take itself out.

In the meantime, the longer Boris is in office, the better it seems for the opposition.

I was thinking today that we actually might not necessarily want Boris-Out. If an election was held now, he'd lose handily, not because anything material has changed from 2019, but because his shittiness has permeated public consciousness to the extent that Ant and Dec are taking cheap shots on prime-time television. I don't know that would carry over to the inevitable rise of Rishi Sunak, despite him being only marginally less awful.

Puja

[Son of Mathonwy]

What does Boris have to do to get fired? Take a shit on the Queen?

He's surrounded himself with goldbricking yesmen and yeswomen, and utter dipshits, so one should be asking when the penny is going to drop for the Tory MPs, because sooner or later, it's going to occur to them that the trash isn't going to take itself out.

In the meantime, the longer Boris is in office, the better it seems for the opposition.

I was thinking today that we actually might not necessarily want Boris-Out. If an election was held now, he'd lose handily, not because anything material has changed from 2019, but because his shittiness has permeated public consciousness to the extent that Ant and Dec are taking cheap shots on prime-time television. I don't know that would carry over to the inevitable rise of Rishi Sunak, despite him being only marginally less awful.

Puja

Most of the press would hail Sunak as the shiny new messiah; there wouldn't be a bad word said about him until well after the next election.

Having said that, if they switch to Sunak, the Tories would lose Johnson's charm. Sunak would be clean but would not clearly win any charisma contest with Starmer.

I honestly don't know which would be better for Labour. Who can be sure that the Tories won't be polling back at 40% once the press have moved on to the next story?

[Sandydragon]

He's surrounded himself with goldbricking yesmen and yeswomen, and utter dipshits, so one should be asking when the penny is going to drop for the Tory MPs, because sooner or later, it's going to occur to them that the trash isn't going to take itself out.

In the meantime, the longer Boris is in office, the better it seems for the opposition.

I was thinking today that we actually might not necessarily want Boris-Out. If an election was held now, he'd lose handily, not because anything material has changed from 2019, but because his shittiness has permeated public consciousness to the extent that Ant and Dec are taking cheap shots on prime-time television. I don't know that would carry over to the inevitable rise of Rishi Sunak, despite him being only marginally less awful.

Puja

Most of the press would hail Sunak as the shiny new messiah; there wouldn't be a bad word said about him until well after the next election.

Having said that, if they switch to Sunak, the Tories would lose Johnson's charm. Sunak would be clean but would not clearly win any charisma contest with Starmer.

I honestly don't know which would be better for Labour. Who can be sure that the Tories won't be polling back at 40% once the press have moved on to the next story?

Of Labour can’t capitalise on this then there is no hope for them. The Labour leader needs to cut through with their own message. Blair had no issues getting key media outlets onboard and exploiting the weakness of the Major government.

Sunak does lack the charisma, but he is a safe pair of hands and is popular. Truss is an empty vessel and Patel a spitting image writers wet dream. Sunak is the PM Labour should fear the most. Patel will excite some of the conservative base but they would never vote for anyone else. I don’t see her getting wider appeal. Truss is lightweight but unknown largely. If she took over sooner rather than later then there would be time to expose her.

Give I don’t see as a realistic candidate given his history. I can’t imagine him getting the votes amongst his peers. I don’t think anyone from the liberal side of the party has too much hope as the Spartans and the Red Wall MPs are firmly going to support a Brexiteer.

[Donny osmond]

I'm not convinced it really matters who the next Tory leader is, I think people have taken against Labour and would vote for the Tory party rather than a specific leader.

There is a bizarre absence of charisma across politics at the moment. Not sure why, might be the poisonous state of public discourse (inc social media), might be there's more money to be made elsewhere, whatever charisma is utterly absent.

Sent from my CPH2195 using Tapatalk

[Which Tyler]

Of Labour can’t capitalise on this then there is no hope for them. The Labour leader needs to cut through with their own message. Blair had no issues getting key media outlets onboard and exploiting the weakness of the Major government.

Surely it helped a tiny little bit that Blair had Rupert Murdock in his back pocket - for which he paid a high price on policy.
Also helped that the BCB hadn't yet been bullied to toe the line anywhere near as much as the current iteration

[Banquo]

I'm not convinced it really matters who the next Tory leader is, I think people have taken against Labour and would vote for the Tory party rather than a specific leader.

There is a bizarre absence of charisma across politics at the moment. Not sure why, might be the poisonous state of public discourse (inc social media), might be there's more money to be made elsewhere, whatever charisma is utterly absent.

Sent from my CPH2195 using Tapatalk

Absence of charisma, ideas and competence- and I think our public servants also lack competence eg the FCO and other senior civil servants- toxic combination. And, as you, say, who'd want to be a politician; and even then, if you do, as we have seen, professional politicians are pretty ordinary!

[Son of Mathonwy]

How odd. The Met chooses not to investigate the alleged No. 10 party.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... tmas-party

The corruption is both breathtaking and unsurprising. Since every guest would have passed the police on the way in, the police will already be aware if party had taken place. So they should be able to say definitively whether or not there was a party. That they didn't indicates that they turned a blind eye at the time, and don't want any attention drawn to this. Naturally they are also happy to cover up for politicians who can not only make or break their careers but also provide them with honours in due course.

Green Peer Jenny Jones stirring the pot on this one:

capture.jpg

Puja

I'm glad someone is!

I suppose I can understand Labour not pushing this at the moment: why make an enemy of the police (at least while you have no power over them), and there are a number of voters in the centre/centre-right who will be turned off (as they don't like to think - or cannot even conceive - that the police could be corrupt).

I wonder if the Met's own anti-corruption squad could take a look at this. (I know this is fantasy land )

[Donny osmond]

I'm not convinced it really matters who the next Tory leader is, I think people have taken against Labour and would vote for the Tory party rather than a specific leader.

There is a bizarre absence of charisma across politics at the moment. Not sure why, might be the poisonous state of public discourse (inc social media), might be there's more money to be made elsewhere, whatever charisma is utterly absent.

Sent from my CPH2195 using Tapatalk

Absence of charisma, ideas and competence- and I think our public servants also lack competence eg the FCO and other senior civil servants- toxic combination. And, as you, say, who'd want to be a politician; and even then, if you do, as we have seen, professional politicians are pretty ordinary!

Thing is, I see in education and I'm sure you see in health care plenty of hugely commited, competent people who love being public servants and who would love to be able to do more... but there's def a ceiling beyond which these good guys don't want to move, which leaves the higher up jobs open for the wasters.

I don't know how we fix that, or remove that ceiling, while the top jobs are as toxic as they are. It's that cliche of people who want to be in that environment are the people who shouldn't be there. The people who should be there take one look at it and say fuck that.

Sent from my CPH2195 using Tapatalk

[Banquo]

I'm not convinced it really matters who the next Tory leader is, I think people have taken against Labour and would vote for the Tory party rather than a specific leader.

There is a bizarre absence of charisma across politics at the moment. Not sure why, might be the poisonous state of public discourse (inc social media), might be there's more money to be made elsewhere, whatever charisma is utterly absent.

Sent from my CPH2195 using Tapatalk

Absence of charisma, ideas and competence- and I think our public servants also lack competence eg the FCO and other senior civil servants- toxic combination. And, as you, say, who'd want to be a politician; and even then, if you do, as we have seen, professional politicians are pretty ordinary!

Thing is, I see in education and I'm sure you see in health care plenty of hugely commited, competent people who love being public servants and who would love to be able to do more... but there's def a ceiling beyond which these good guys don't want to move, which leaves the higher up jobs open for the wasters.

I don't know how we fix that, or remove that ceiling, while the top jobs are as toxic as they are. It's that cliche of people who want to be in that environment are the people who shouldn't be there. The people who should be there take one look at it and say fuck that.

Sent from my CPH2195 using Tapatalk

Yes to all that!

[Son of Mathonwy]

How odd. The Met chooses not to investigate the alleged No. 10 party.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... tmas-party

The corruption is both breathtaking and unsurprising. Since every guest would have passed the police on the way in, the police will already be aware if party had taken place. So they should be able to say definitively whether or not there was a party. That they didn't indicates that they turned a blind eye at the time, and don't want any attention drawn to this. Naturally they are also happy to cover up for politicians who can not only make or break their careers but also provide them with honours in due course.

Green Peer Jenny Jones stirring the pot on this one:

capture.jpg

Puja

I'm glad someone is!

I suppose I can understand Labour not pushing this at the moment: why make an enemy of the police (at least while you have no power over them), and there are a number of voters in the centre/centre-right who will be turned off (as they don't like to think - or cannot even conceive - that the police could be corrupt).

I wonder if the Met's own anti-corruption squad could take a look at this. (I know this is fantasy land )

I should add to all this that the head of the Met (ie the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Cressida Dick) is politically appointed (strictly speaking, appointed by the Queen, on the recommendation of the Home Secretary), so there is a blindingly obvious conflict of interest whenever the Met makes decisions re investigating the government.

[Which Tyler]

[Donny osmond]

Yes, there will soon be 2 million cases per day.

2 million. per day.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... dApp_Other

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[Stom]

Yes, there will soon be 2 million cases per day.

2 million. per day.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... dApp_Other

Sent from my CPH2195 using Tapatalk

It just feels that the numbers are a little off...

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare

Hospitalisation rate compared to case rate...

Case rate is similar to eary Jan, hospitalisation 1/4.

potential good news.

[Puja]

Yes, there will soon be 2 million cases per day.

2 million. per day.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... dApp_Other

Sent from my CPH2195 using Tapatalk

It just feels that the numbers are a little off...

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare

Hospitalisation rate compared to case rate...

Case rate is similar to eary Jan, hospitalisation 1/4.

potential good news.

It is what we've all been hoping for - a variant that's infectious, but a lot less serious, that will take over as the main variant. Too early to tell if Omicron is definitely the magic combo, but here's hoping.

Puja

[morepork]

Yes, there will soon be 2 million cases per day.

2 million. per day.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... dApp_Other

Sent from my CPH2195 using Tapatalk

It just feels that the numbers are a little off...

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare

Hospitalisation rate compared to case rate...

Case rate is similar to eary Jan, hospitalisation 1/4.

potential good news.

It is what we've all been hoping for - a variant that's infectious, but a lot less serious, that will take over as the main variant. Too early to tell if Omicron is definitely the magic combo, but here's hoping.

Puja

It will keep mutating for as long as it is able to replicate in millions of people. It won't stay less serious for long.