Hmm… that’ll change my summer plans… we’ll wait to see the results of that change, rather than visit where we had intended to on the assumption social distancing would still be in operation. I’m going no where near anywhere touristy and indoors if everyone has been told social distancing can be dropped already… especially if paired with increased international travel. The odds on no winter wave of a new variant change drastically if they take this step.
Saw that headline in MoS while at my parent's yesterday. My mum just said "Don't destroy the paper, dad hasn't read it yet.".
At least I've managed to get mum to realise that stories like this DO matter but dad still thinks it's a conspiracy to overthrow the PM and install someone to destroy this country. I've tried explaining to him that he's a step behind but he won't have any of it.
As for the 21st June thing, that will become a promised date by the end of next week and if there are any backtracks on it then he'll have to find a suitable scapegoat to lay the blame on.
21st of June was always the pot of gold at the end of the road map? I thought he was just repeating what was already out there - possibly because some experts have been casting doubt this weekend
Sort of… the social distancing (that is the keeping a physical gap between people measures, rather than places being closed) part of “step 4” was always very vague, and suggested to me that other mitigations would be needed to enable it to end. Perhaps the mitigations will be announced after the local elections (or not at all). Who knows…?
Review of social distancing
Finally, before Step 4 begins, the government will complete a review of social distancing and other long-term measures that have been put in place to cut transmission. This will inform decisions on the timing and circumstances under which the rules on 1 metre plus, the wearing of face coverings and other measures may be lifted. This will also inform guidance on working from home – which should continue wherever possible until this review is complete.
Ah Freedom day 🙂
Picking a bunfight with Cummings 3 weeks before an election really was a daft idea
https://twitter.com/RedfieldWilton/status/1389248422100733959?s=19
So... regards social distancing, I seem to have missed the WHO announcements that the initial assumptions for transmission of SARS-CoV2 were all wrong....
i hope someone has told the virus, otherwise we could have a repeat of the repeat (I mean just look to the America’s to see how that works out).
And let’s open up international travel wide again while we’re at it. I mean what have we got to lose?
Are you guys going to use the local council elections to back Boris or give him a bloody nose?
if that materializes ^ given the vaccine bounce, the tory grandees will not be happy.
21st of June was always the pot of gold at the end of the road map?
With lots of caveats about the stages we had to get through successfully first before we got there, remember Boris said he would now follow the science and the dates were movable. Now that it's getting close to the crunch date and the scientists are mentioning more caution and putting that date in jeopardy he's reverted to type and just mentioning the date, no mention of the caveats and science any more. As metalheart has said above:
So… regards social distancing, I seem to have missed the WHO announcements that the initial assumptions for transmission of SARS-CoV2 were all wrong….
i hope someone has told the virus, otherwise we could have a repeat of the repeat (I mean just look to the America’s to see how that works out).
And let’s open up international travel wide again while we’re at it. I mean what have we got to lose?
Repeating the same mistakes as last time. The man is a danger to the country and is in no fit state to be PM.
Boris said he would now follow the science and the dates were movable. Now that it’s getting close to the crunch date and the scientists are mentioning more caution and putting that date in jeopardy he’s reverted to type and just mentioning the date, no mention of the caveats and science any more
He's certainly predictable....
With lots of caveats about the stages we had to get through successfully first before we got there, remember Boris said he would now follow the science and the dates were movable. Now that it’s getting close to the crunch date and the scientists are mentioning more caution and putting that date in jeopardy he’s reverted to type and just mentioning the date, no mention of the caveats and science any more.
He'll be busy getting his close acolytes to draw up a list of scapegoats and excuses too - it's not all feet up and shagging on the sofa when it comes to self-preservation - some things are worth putting a bit of effort into.
🙄
if that materializes ^ given the vaccine bounce, the tory grandees will not be happy.
Particularly as the lucid ones know we are on borrowed time with the 'vaccine bounce'. The rest of Europe will come roaring past in their recovery when our tiny head start is gone. Not to mention that relaxing the rules too quickly could actually set us back in itself.
If the vaccine rollout falters in any way then we can expect it'll be quietly renamed the 'NHS vaccination programme"
If there's any fuss whatsoever then the govt can deploy a culture war countermeasure, I'm sure there's quite a few in the bomb bay, perhaps a Lancaster bomber flypast for some reason or tax exemptions for British Bulldog owners. A terrorist attack would be nice
I suspect plenty of rumours of Johnson planning to relax restrictions in the run up to the local elections
If there’s any fuss whatsoever then the govt can deploy a culture war countermeasure, I’m sure there’s quite a few in the bomb bay, perhaps a Lancaster bomber flypast for some reason or tax exemptions for British Bulldog owners.
It's so ****ing predictable. It is just depressing. But it gets worse when you realise how many dickheads will fall for this shit. And even worse when you realise that many of them aren't convinced at all, but are just doubling down in the hope that they'll eventually get a government that will really pander to their nasty prejudices.
What a nasty little country we have become.
Has anyone seen evidence of the startup Arcuri paying back the loans to the taxpayer? The ST reported that the money whizzed out of the company account like greased lightning, whilst she was closely associated with BJ. She is also being pursued for unpaid student loans. Why is this not a story? And what's a truly pneumatic American doing draped in union flags? I guess they wanted to have a laugh and say a very very big thank you. Anyone would squeeze into a jingo bikini for that sort of money.
Her twitter account which seems legit?
Is a Qanon swamp of nonsense
Meanwhile inspite of all the corruption Johnson doing well in hartlepool 🙄
https://twitter.com/Survation/status/1389457465641742339?s=19
Monkey hanging idiots
Monkey hanging idiots
Monkey hanging idiots who still think they are 'part of something' and 'sticking it to the elite'.
Let them eat cake.
£165/h for his personal trainer 🤣
£165/h for his personal trainer
Probably a mate of a mate or some kind of 'in' to a potential shag.
No need to actually do the job and it patently has not worked.
When he had Covid I really wanted him to survive to face an inquiry. Nowadays I'm sorry he didn't perish as they'll never have to be accountable for the mess they helped create.
Hartlepool will have a huge impact on the Tory party actions over the next few years... if they win and i think they will (based on people i know living/working there) then **** me it will give the Tories the biggest hard on ever.
Labour can not recover from a loss at Hartlepool. Two party politics is gone for many many generations.
Much of what the Labour party has achieved since WW2 will be wiped away.
All this supported by the very people they exploit and lie to.
Strange thing is as an older individual with property,pensions and a business i am likely to benefit from whatever the ****s do? My kids will also probably do ok as they have property and degrees and professional jobs.
The people who will suffer (including my extended family) couldn't give a shite about me or mine? Yet i get wound up on their behalf.
Strange times.
In the last 24 years we have only had 4 years of Conservative majority rule.
Whilst it is true that the Labour Party has become totally disconnected with its once solid support there is no evidence that British voters will back the Conservative Party, which is currently being led by an attention seeking clown with more luggage than Melania Trump, to remain in power for "many many generations".
If the Labour Party can't provide the answers then another party will fill the political vacuum.
There is absolutely no way that one political party, here or in any other western democracy, can possibly satisfy the aspirations of ordinary working people.
It just doesn't and can't happen.
Interesting stuff here from the Pew Research Center
I think the problem is that while many people say they want economic reform - especially if that also offers environmental reform - they don't vote for it, and I'm not sure why that is.
Are they lying? Are they being lied to? Do they not understand what they are voting for?
they don’t vote for it, and I’m not sure why that is.
Fear.
While many folk are on the breadline, there's also many folk for whom the current system works reasonably well, they have a house in largely crime fee neighbourhood, they have a couple of nice cars, they can afford a holiday abroad, and their kids are at Uni. Yes, they may have little to no savings or cushion if it goes tits up, but then neither do any of their friends. their saving are "something something house prices" These people see that they don't live in a fair society, they understand global warming and they understand that it's unsustainable but that's not "their fault" they've worked hard, etc etc...They'd love it to be fairer, but can they just stay the same..?
Well put. Combined with the fact the change won't directly help them which then brings out the inner tory "why should I have less" to make society fairer, reduce global warming etc,.
It's always the way, isn't it.
It's very difficult to get people to give things up, once they've got them (even if the car is leased, or what they have is something intangible like social standing etc).
And change brings a human reaction of "what's in it for me".
It's surprisingly difficult to have a conversation with people about fairness, if it doesn't benefit them in some way, or at least not cost them anything. You can see their faces gloss over when they can't argue that those more vulnerable, or less lucky than them shouldn't get help, but they're busy trying to articulate "but why should I pay more tax", or "its not my fault".
We've got very, very entitled as a culture, and this depresses me...
We’ve got very, very entitled as a culture
I think a fairer way of portraying this is: We've taken what was offered to us.
We’ve got very, very entitled as a culture
I think a fairer way of portraying this is: We’ve taken what was offered to us.
A chicken and egg debate there i think
Now the French have conveniently dispatched a boat the Tories will be screaming hysterically about protecting (the Channel Islands) fishing industry. No prizes for red-top headlines.
perhaps a Lancaster bomber flypast for some reason or tax exemptions for British Bulldog owners.
Or we could start a war with the French, although he’s more Henry VIII than Henry V
How do we still not know who gave Johnson a bung gift to do up his pad, and how much they bribed donated to him personally?
We could be seeing a seismic shift in North South politics. Remember it was Lincoln (a republican) who put am end to slavery and the democrats who introduced Jim Crow.
The traditional Labour heartlands of the North have always been a bit racist but that was always sublimated due to class allegiances.
Those allegiances no longer exist. There has always been up to a million voters prepared to vote for a far right party, the Tories being too soft for them and those voters were traditionally beyond the pale for the Conservative party.
Not any longer, Boris has welcomed them into the fold, like when he tweeted out ten times to his Pretorian guard of football hooligans on the day of the London BLM protest to come and protect a statue that Sidique Khan had thoughtfully protected by boarding it up.
They took a dog whistle and turned it into a fog horn. Any growth for Labour, or any other non Nationalist party will have to look to the South for growth, The north will be lost for.a generation (excepting the larger northern Cities which are politically more similar to London)
Any tenuous link to the working class that Labour had is now history, the term 'Labour Party' is meaningless. The term 'New Labour' recognised this fact, it was clever, if you call yourself 'New' you will always be new. Ditching that moniker was political suicide, all they did was define themselves as the old Labour party, the one that nearly died in the early eighties. Through their own volition they defined themselves as the party of the past.
Labour really isn't working.
Agree. I would say they were probably lucky to hold on for so long as the traditional Labour voters were not really interested in Labour principles (if they were there is no way they would ever vote Tory) and voted Labour because of history, the done thing, what their family have always voted etc,.
Any growth for Labour, or any other non Nationalist party will have to look to the South for growth, The north will be lost for.a generation (excepting the larger northern Cities which are politically more similar to London)
A lot of pragmatic sense up there.
Hartlepool now Tory according to the BBC
It's a bit self fulfilling but how long do you keep voting for the losing party before you think about switching colours?
For all but a blip in the last 40+ years the Labour party have achieved very little noticeable difference in the average working class life whereas they've seen those who vote Tory prosper.
It's wrong and I don't agree with it but I do so some people's reasoning.
Worth taking a look at Jill Mortimer's website ( https://www.jillmortimer.org.uk/myplan). Her entire manifesto is six lines (including "cutting red tape", which is ironic given Brexit) yet she managed to get elected with an overwhelming majority.
Perhaps Johnson trying to spark un war petite with France helped.
For all but a blip in the last 40+ years the Labour party have achieved very little noticeable difference in the average working class life whereas they’ve seen those who vote Tory prosper.
It’s wrong and I don’t agree with it but I do so some people’s reasoning.
I really can't see the reasoning. I would love someone to explain it to me. I just don't get how anyone could align with Tory values. Sorry feeling pretty fed up about this result.
I really can’t see the reasoning.
People who vote Tory tend to have better jobs, nicer cars, bigger houses. Voting labour hasn't has levelled up the divide so they vote Tory and see if it helps. Its pretty flawed, but then so is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Lots of people don't want what they have but don't want change either. Don't know what the solution is (but I'm pretty sure its not more Tories).
If anyone thinks that voting Tory will bring a magical leveling up they're delusional
