Vaccinations – why is London so far behind the rest of the UK? A simplistic view would be that roll-out would be easier/quicker in an area of more dense population. Or is this because there is a lower number of higher-risk groups?

Could be plenty of things. More diverse population with social and cultural reasons to not get the vaccine, higher number of older people in work and no time to get the vaccine, more staff isolation due to increased covid risk so less staff to give vaccines. I know my borough is one of the worst and one of the best is Richmond which is just full of old rich retired people.

Are you trying reeeeeeelllllly hard to be offended?

Im not offended at all, I just think your justification / definition is absolutely laughable and so out of touch.

I have a beard, contract for the Beeb and C4, and ride a fixie. I also.owm at least one item of Dickies clothing, and the obligatory down jacket (not North Face or Arcetectryx though). If I ate cereal in a cafe I’d be full hipster.

I like that you have added a specific requirement that means you’re not a “hipster” because god forbid anyone calls you that. 🙄

I think the OP is using an espresso machine so the Wilfa won’t work.

Out of interest why? I only drink filter at home, but im pretty sure the wilfa dial goes all the way to espresso on the grind settings.

A simple test, if it’s 1992 and you’re a hip-hop artist from the USA rust belt conveying your roots by wearing a $50 workwear jacket, then it’s hip-hop fashion.

If you live in Camberwell and have a well-kept beard trying to look like you don’t work on an Macbook Air from home by wearing a badly fitting £150 jacket then it’s hipster.

And there is the classic SingleTrack judgment. What a load of nonsense.

IIRC Carhartt operates as two separate companies. There’s the USA based workwear company and Carhartt-WIP is the EU based hipster brand.

Ditto Dickies Vs Dickies life.

This is true, but I feel you and I have a different definition of “hipster.” For me Carhartt is classic 00s hip hop / skate culture defo not hipster. I feel like people throw the word hipster around in a little derogatory way or use it as a catch all for anything they feel is trendy or in fashion.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re good jackets. Carhaart and Dickies have been around ages and are proper workwear. But now I can buy what is essentially a thick shirt, bung it on an aging hipster, show a bloke in a leather apron hammering one together and bung £200 on the price.

You say that like its something new. In my teens I wore dickies a lot and had two options by them from the builders place my stepdad used or the local skate shop, you can guess which shop was considerably cheaper.

I sure they care hugely – but it works. No ads on my facebook for the last couple of days

Side Topic, i mean you’re always going to get ads of some sort its how FB make their money so why not get ones from stuff that you might be interested in? I would rather see ads from brands I like than an offering me a subscription to pens weekly or some female perfume.

I have chore coat. Didn’t even know that’s what it was called i just liked the look of it and seeing as I already have plenty of Carhartt stuff figured why not get that too. I do like how the hipster is now used to describe something even remotely trendy despite the whole hipster thing dying out a few years ago.

I have mine set up similar to the OP and did almost 100k on it last weekend and gotta admit it was a struggle on long flat sections. Took in mainly road, fire-roads and the odd single track i dont think travel was the issue it was more the massive tyres. Some 2.1s or similar would have been so much quicker. On a normal weekend ride (non lockdown) its amazing but it really doesn’t like to plod a long. The best way i could describe this bike is its a hardtail someone forget to tell was a hardtail.

massive love for this! I had my first “commute” (really a morning loop of from my house) in the light too this morning. Mentally its so much easier than the winter months.

Don’t really read much but I would say my top 3 are

Fatherland – Robert Harris
Book about a world where Hitler never died.

The dead do not improve – Jay Caspian Kang
Set in the Bay area the book centres around gentrification and a murder

World War Z – Max Brooks
Historical account of a zombie apocalypse

Do you think we should pay the same tax as an employed person. Just throwing the question out there.

Yes 100%. Im employed if myself and the OP earn the same amount of money our employment status should mean we pay exactly the same no more or no less. why should it? That obviously sits outside of corporation tax and all that im just talking basic tax on salary.

At the risk of brining up an old topic i agree with TJ the self employed loops holes need to shut the idea of paying a min then topping up with tax free/less tax dividends needs to be closed. I am amazed though how much the Tories have hung self employed out to dry.

No we shouldn’t pay the same level of tax as we create jobs and tax take.

This is nonsense and just trolling.

I actually can’t believe this bloke got away with it. Well… I sorta can hes white and privileged. How people who have been given power to do the right thing can just refuse to do it is really depressing.

People may have noted my irritation with the mobs of pensioners ignoring all sensible advice on this side of the channel. The latest group to cause some eye rolling went off to Costa Rica. 20/22 of them tested positive.

That doesn’t surprise me at all going by the typical pensioner in the uk. Basically they know best, had it worst, no one can tell them what to do. Just a massive sense of entitlement. At the height of the summer lockdown a 75yr old husband and wife (husband has parkinsons) in my street decided to have a street party handing out drinks to who ever walked past.

Well yeah but that could be smaller cities or even towns. I’d like to live in a small town but the reason I don’t is that there would never have been a job for me. But if I WFH I easily can.

What about about if you actually don’t want it to be a smaller town? I feel like this a concept some people just can’t grasp. Some people myself included actually like living in a big city and want to go “back to how it was” as hard that is for some to believe. I grew up in London the idea of living in a small town where I have to drive to the supermarket, don’t have every type of restaurant at my doorstep or the end of an app and can’t rely on a tube or bus to get me somewhere is madness.

I’d love an office job right now. Not for the money, nor the work, just to mix with people again. I’ve had it with lockdown and the same few faces and nowhere to get away.

Im with you dude, im so over working from home. My setup isn’t that bad, but I would much rather be in an office with people and talk about the stuff we are doing rather than sending endless slack and email messages.

suburban shared offices/co-working spaces etc become more of “a thing”

these are such a non starter for me. who pays for them? The team im in is split across london it would require us all to live near the same co work space. Its not about chatting to anyone that isnt my GF its about talking to the people I work with building relationships, sharing ideas, solving problems together rather than isolation and so on.

On whether to just let it rip through society after 1st phase of vaccinations

I mean you could counter that with let it rip through the old and vulnerable so and its survival of the fittest jab the healthy so I can go back to work and have a holiday. (yes I know that sounds mental.)

It seems some scientists have the luxury of not seeing the impact of their decisions im sure NHS love the sound of potentially thousands of people ending up in ICU again. If we were struggling to get vaccines I could see the sense but it seems the UK Gov have got enough to jab the country 3 or 4 times over.

As someone who has worked/stayed away from home for the last 20 years to be sat in an office in or around London, Working from home this last year has been a dream for me!! i do not miss the office or people one bit but i am starting to wish i could get out of the house a day or 2 of the week on site visits or something… but im not complaining. i shudder at the thought of going back to ‘normal’

I think this is exactly why we need a flexible solution going forwards. Im pretty much totally the opposite. I live about a 40 min cycle from work, miss the office, miss the people in it, miss working as a team not online, I miss extended bike rides home with the people i work with for chat laps. Im that odd person who would be more than happy to go back to “normal” in the office 9-5 mon-fri. Just because a few people don’t want it why shouldn’t my needs / wants be catered for too. I know this isn’t what your but people seem to talk about it as if it’s one of the other when its not its both. If my company went 100% remote I would likely leave for a company that isn’t.

I run a saddle bag on my gravel bike and had a similar issue. I ended up just attaching my rear light to the seat tube works ok. If you’re after a saddle bag check out this these from Wizard Works https://wizard.works/collections/saddle-bags/products/teeny-houdini https://wizard.works/collections/saddle-bags/products/mag-neato

I’m not sure how that can work in practice, though. I work closely with the members of my team, depending on who you include there are about 10 of us. If I go in on Monday, and the other 9 head in on Tuesday, what’s the point? Likewise if I decide I only want to WFH, and the rest decide to head into the office, what then?

I think it will and will have to. My employer is talking about a “blended work environment” where we will get the option come to work X days a week or just be remote full time. My previous employer Expedia took the same stance (and the office is already back open – well outside of lockdowns) come in when you want / need to.

Collaborative work is just better face to face waiting for someone to mute / unmute on zoom is just painful and doesn’t foster a natural communication. I totally get some are happy with it but sociable people struggle I know I do. I miss the pub after work when everyone gets to talk rubbish and moan about stuff its cathartic. My partner doesn’t understand why im moaning about a dev who has built something wrong.

This guy gets it

I would say he really doesn’t. Everything he talks about is the benefit to the business. while businesses (mine included) would save thousands on physical buildings will that be passed down to the staff who are now spending more running their homes… i very much doubt it. If you hate the office vibe such has chatting to colleagues / friends, don’t enjoy your commute or have a very long one I can see the upside. For me, I enjoy cycling to work, I enjoy being in an office and the perks it has such as free coffee and that, and I like the physical and mental separation of work and my home. The office isn’t dead it’s just changing people like me will still be in 9-5 mon-fri some might not. Its not a binary decision it should be a choice.

fatmountain, Can I ask you a question are you in one of the initial groups to be vaccinated? If so I think its pretty hypocritical to suggest a younger group just because the virus has less impact shouldn’t get it. I don’t know about you but most the people i see working in hospitality are pretty young so it would be nice to give them some protection.

Question: if the virus is still transmissible for those who are vaccinated, what is the purpose of vaccinating age groups 18-39, given their risk of death is negligible?

As someone in that bracket if it limits the impact the virus can have on you (ie not ending up in hospital) I would very much like to have it no matter how negligible the impact of Covid maybe on me. I know a few friends that have had it and I would rather get a jab to stop me going through what they did. Plus I fancy going back to work at some point / living a “normal” life so the idea of some protection sounds good.

One thing I was thinking about just now in reference to what Wobbliscot said and Bails response.For a more realistic example if there should be no repercussion from “free speech” is the suggest from Wobbliscot that Trump should not be facing the charges hes facing now? After all be basically incited a bunch of people to storm capitol hill

WHAT about the people that work for the holiday companies? There will be no companies left to take you on holiday in 2022.

I left the travel industry (one of the bigger online travel agents) at the start of the pandemic and the general feeling is the big companies ie your booking.com, Airbnb, and Expedia will be fine and have took on massive investment and or made massive redundancies. The smaller ones likely will not survive. And the big three will just buy them up for the inventory.

If people are allowed to go I say let them go for some people its their passion like mine is riding bikes. We just have to hope the gov’ put a process in place for people coming and going. Judging someone for their actions isn’t helpful because no one is perfect.

It’s not conditional – it’s more that it has consequences, like most things in life. I’m amazed that anyone would think it shouldn’t.

As others have said I really don’t get why people can’t grasp this simple concept. Yes you can say what you want BUT, if that’s deemed to have broken the rule of law expect consequences. If someone wants to argue “free speech” should be free from repercussions that’s clearly wrong.

I can’t help but feel in this sort of incident (actually the thought came long ago wrt speeding motorists, drink drivers, mobile users) that when something like this happens, then instead of some poor police officer having to go round someone’s house and tell them their Dad / husband / daughter / whatever isn’t going home tonight, the person responsible should have to do it.

I think this has happened in the past, it’s discussed in Jon Ronsons book So You’re Been Publicly Shamed. It doesn’t really work its reform needed not punishment. But yeh, this is a whole other discussion. Check the book out if you want to find out more.

All Ive seen is a report of “significantly reduced” but not being given a number to provide meaning.

At this stage in the game I would take significantly reduced.

Rapsody sampling Liquid Swords with an extra verse from GZA. The vid also features Roxanna Shante & as far as I’m aware its the only song about hijab wearing olympic fencers..

The album thats off Eve is incredible by far one the best in 2019. Love that fact the album is named after all her female heroes.

To be honest, I think it’s the NHS getting this right, and the government claiming the glory. Happy to have my cynicism proved wrong. I suppose they got the initial vaccine order in early.

I would say that’s pretty true. Amazing what happens when the Tories leave people to do jobs they are good at.

Repatriating Brits – I don’t know – is this who they all are?

I’m struggling to think of another justifiable group.

I wonder this too, like why and who would actually want to come to the UK right now on holiday with everything shut. But I guess there are like a million reasons why people could come back to the UK. Family emergency, spent the last year working from your native country, work if you can’t zoom. I would rather everyone have to isolate rather than just the ones on a watch list.

yep, 100%. After 4 punctures on one ride I made the swap. best decision ever.

All I’m looking to do is be vaccinated in the group the nhs have consistently told me I belong to, ie those that fall into the clinically vulnerable group, group 6. If the nhs had said theyll vaccinate shop workers before the ‘clinically vulnerable’ then fair enough. But they didn’t, they made it quite clear that they were prioritising based on risk of illness.

I can understand that but one thing this pandemic has shown is nothing stays the same. Priorities change to coin an awful work phrase “its a fluid situation.”

Also, if you work for a bank you should hopefully know that not all of us have been able to stay at home every day. So saying ‘suck it up and stay at home a little longer’ may apply to you, but not those of us that are required to go into the office.

Yep, I do know that and I know a lot of people have still been going in when allowed. Im technically “back office staff” which is bank for a product designer who designs the app/website stuff so im never in a branch. As for me telling you to suck it up that was simply in reference to what you have told others to do. Treat others as you wish to be treated and all that, dont ask others to do what you’re not willing to do yourself.

tpbiker, can i ask why you feel so entitled to get a vaccine over another group? I think it simply comes down to risk of infection and risk of infecting. If all you’re doing like me is working from home (i also work for a bank) how at risk are you? After all you could just “suck it up” and stay at home a little longer. I see a handful of people a day but being in my 30s may (if we go by age) mean i get a vaccine before the people at my local coffee shop who are in their 20s and they see hundreds a day. Teachers, hospitality, and supermarket staff could spread the virus a lot more than myself if they were asymptomatic.

Of course we all think we are important (well actually I’m not that bothered, but I recognise my privilege in being able to take that view).

I think thats what irks me the most about the original comment the entitlement of it.

Shop workers and teachers should just suck it up, a bit like I’ve been told to do.

I get your in a stressful situation vulnerable so potentially shielding. You may feel like a fit 25yr old is a waste of a vaccine because they won’t get “very sick.” But unless you’re in a position where you can’t work from home a 25yr old shop worker may need it more than you for many reasons. Personally I feel once these first groups are done they should do who ever can get this country moving again no matter their age.

Try being me fit 30s bloke who has spent the year wfh… I’m so far down the list I’m not even on it /attempt at a joke

I’d personally be really pissed if a healthy 25 year-old shop worker got a vaccine before myself.

why? if said shop work has spent the whole pandemic being told they are “essential” ie works at your local bike shop, supermarket or even coffee shop why shouldn’t they get it before you? Want kids in school, want pubs, and restaurants open the people that run these things need protection.

Notvreally no, posting shite still means its shite even if you try and hide behind, its a joke or trolling.

Agree. im out. this is going to become a pointless “debate.”

some of the not so savoury aspects of the British Empire, rightfully not present in the curriculum, that this great nation was once a civilising force in the world. And that plenty of it is still thankful for that

“that this great nation was once a civilising force in the world.” WOW! Must. Not. Get. Triggered.

Can you just like… clarify what you mean by civilising force in the world?

Not sure why we should be felt to be embarrased by it. Why do we have to be the only nation on earth that some feel should be embarrassed by ourselves and be on some sort of path of self destruction?

embarrassed specifical by a flag no, embarrassed and ashamed of what it/ours represent 100%.