When will this shit end?

[steviewevie]

1 minute ago, Ozanne said:

I also don’t think that Cummings is the genius he thinks he is. Look at everything since the election for proof. 

Yeah, definitely. He thinks he is some sort of maths/science wizard who hasn't actually done any science since his GCSEs.

Always felt like the Vote Leave running Downing St thing would all in tears.

[onthebeach]

4 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

I also don’t think that Cummings is the genius he thinks he is. Look at everything since the election for proof. 

Definitely - I think the evil genius persona took a nose dive during the No 10 garden press conference - all a bit ‘wizard of oz’.

I remember watching it and thinking how does this man command so much power and influence 

[squirrelarmy]

1 hour ago, zahidf said:

Peter Sutcliffe dies of Covid 19.

 

Ah well!

Someone I used to work with knew him before he was the ripper. 
 

He said he was always a weird twat.
 

My dad was actually involved in the manhunt tracking him down too. 

[Punksnotdead]

12 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

you can find loads of embarrassments for England.

Mostly because England have been to more tournaments.  

Lord Nelson! Lord Beaverbrook! Sir Winston Churchill! Sir Anthony Eden! Clement Attlee! Henry Cooper! Lady Diana! Maggie Thatcher! Can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher! Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating! 😄😄

[balthazarstarbuck]

29 minutes ago, onthebeach said:

Possibly mentioned it in his obscure blog ‘just in case’ - doesn’t happen, no-one notices/remembers. Leaves - it was part of his ‘master plan’ and he can claim to always be in charge of events/his destiny

 

The same blog he retrospectively edited to “predict” Covid. 

[onthebeach]

20 minutes ago, balthazarstarbuck said:

The same blog he retrospectively edited to “predict” Covid. 

Has anyone looked yet so see if any further editing has been done? Maybe not for this because the chances were he was always off once ‘brexit Was done’

[Gingerfish79]

Cummings is a campaigner, not a leader. He helped Johnson get his majority so that he could force through a no-deal EU exit, sticking around long enough to ensure Johnson would fulfil his promise and also to put his people in key positions throughout Whitehall so that there can be no immediate backtracking now that he's off to reap the rewards of all his hard work.

[Copperface]

12 hours ago, shoptildrop said:

This sounds like tricky legal ground as will be discrimination against beliefs for a start and right to chose

Happily, being a twat is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act.

[SheffJeff]

This is a very dangerous tweet from a man with nearly 40 million followers... more fuel for the conspiracy theory nuts.

 

[eFestivals]

3 minutes ago, SheffJeff said:

This is a very dangerous tweet from a man with nearly 40 million followers... more fuel for the conspiracy theory nuts.

 

Uh? I thought it was well known that (some of?) the anti-gen tests are unreliable?

 

[eFestivals]

Interesting nugget in some of the reporting of Cummings (although I can't remember where I saw it now).....

It said that the leak about the new lockdown came from Cummings and Cain, to 'bounce' Johnson into acting.

I can't decide if that's Cummings & co trying to leave themselves a 'good guys' marker, or whether it's true.

Spaffer famously can't make decisions himself (which is why he has so many advisers), and there's quite a strong anti-lockdown element amongst the tories who will have been leaning on him.

[FestivalJamie]

It was reported in Tagesschau last night that in a poll taken of German citizens, only 37% have said that they would take a vaccine if one becomes available. In august, the percentage was 44% so this has decreased over the last few months, presumably due to spread of false information.

I wonder how that compares to how many people in the UK would be willing to take a vaccine (if even offered one).

[eFestivals]

13 minutes ago, FestivalJamie said:

I wonder how that compares to how many people in the UK would be willing to take a vaccine (if even offered one).

in the UK, acceptance of the vaccine (roughly) goes up with age - so in theory a big enough chunk of those who need it most should get vaccinated.

Also, I expect greater acceptance of it as it gets rolled out and people can see its not making people drop dead, and that it's the people who haven't had the vaccine who end up in hospital.

Around 70+% of people supported a 2nd lockdown, so I reckon there's a strong underlying desire for a public health solution.

Edited November 13, 2020 by eFestivals

[Fuzzy Afro]

16 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Interesting nugget in some of the reporting of Cummings (although I can't remember where I saw it now).....

It said that the leak about the new lockdown came from Cummings and Cain, to 'bounce' Johnson into acting.

I can't decide if that's Cummings & co trying to leave themselves a 'good guys' marker, or whether it's true.

Spaffer famously can't make decisions himself (which is why he has so many advisers), and there's quite a strong anti-lockdown element amongst the tories who will have been leaning on him.

Leaks of SAGE minutes suggest Cummings was a big lockdown supporter (The “Herd immunity, protect the economy and if some old people die then so be it” comment has been denied) 

[Avalon_Fields]

Just now, Fuzzy Afro said:

Leaks of SAGE minutes suggest Cummings was a big lockdown supporter (The “Herd immunity, protect the economy and if some old people die then so be it” comment has been denied) 

What's the 'leaks' of SAGE minutes...when they're publicly published?? 

[steviewevie]

20 minutes ago, FestivalJamie said:

It was reported in Tagesschau last night that in a poll taken of German citizens, only 37% have said that they would take a vaccine if one becomes available. In august, the percentage was 44% so this has decreased over the last few months, presumably due to spread of false information.

I wonder how that compares to how many people in the UK would be willing to take a vaccine (if even offered one).

Think there will be a big vaccine PR push by the government over the coming weeks and months.

[steviewevie]

10 minutes ago, Fuzzy Afro said:

Leaks of SAGE minutes suggest Cummings was a big lockdown supporter (The “Herd immunity, protect the economy and if some old people die then so be it” comment has been denied) 

that true?

I know press was briefed that Cummings pushed for lockdown back in March when it was realised that we had been too slow to lockdown...but who does this briefing?

Edited November 13, 2020 by steviewevie

[zahidf]

31 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Uh? I thought it was well known that (some of?) the anti-gen tests are unreliable?

 

yeah they are. Saying that, Elon is rich enough for a PCR test

[eFestivals]

 

[DeanoL]

 

1 hour ago, Ozanne said:

I also don’t think that Cummings is the genius he thinks he is. Look at everything since the election for proof. 

He's an outside-the-box thinker, that doesn't concern himself with the traditional way things are done in politics. And while that sounds good on paper, that doesn't mean his outside-the-box ideas will actually be any good. They worked for Vote Leave and haven't since.

He does seem to have an awareness of some of the shit coming down the pipeline in terms of the world, and realises massive change is needed to actually deal with that. He's smart enough to realise that which does put him shoulders above most of Westminster. But that doesn't mean he's smart enough to have any good answers to it. His support for Brexit seemed to come from a genuine belief such change couldn't happen while we were part of the EU, so I do think it would be odd for him to leave now.

24 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Interesting nugget in some of the reporting of Cummings (although I can't remember where I saw it now).....

It said that the leak about the new lockdown came from Cummings and Cain, to 'bounce' Johnson into acting.

I can't decide if that's Cummings & co trying to leave themselves a 'good guys' marker, or whether it's true.

I think Cummings has his own spreadsheet, which he put together Excel. And part of it pulls in the predicted death figures, and part of it pulls in the projected economic damage of lockdown. Then he probably had a think and assigned a £ value to each life, and until the other week the death figures came out cheaper but as cases went up, it flipped over and at that point he changed his advice. It's "being led by the science" sort of, but there'll be huge assumptions in parts of his data that come from his own beliefs rather than evidence.

What I can't see is him being ideologically pro or anit lockdown.

[steviewevie]

Covid vaccines in the UK: who is in charge, and what is the plan?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/13/covid-vaccines-in-the-uk-who-is-in-charge-and-what-is-the-plan

[Gingerfish79]

From the Guardian live feed. Says it all really.

[zahidf]

Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool, told BBC Breakfast this morning that around 90,000 people have been tested for coronavirus in the city’s mass testing regime introduced last Friday - with 430 testing positive and going into isolation. He said:

Four hundred and thirty people are not spreading the virus, it means that we can break the chain of infection.

Since we’ve been into tier 3 we had 680 people per 100,000 that were positive in the city, we’ve now got that down ... to around 300 per 100,000, so that’s a positive move and a positive step for us.

Anderson also said of the 430 who tested positive, only around 200 showed any symptoms.

Liverpool, which has has a population of around half a million, currently has 38 test centres, but Anderson said he hoped that would increase to around 45 from Monday.

He also said he asks people to get tested twice during the next month.

[stuartbert two hats]

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

in the UK, acceptance of the vaccine (roughly) goes up with age - so in theory a big enough chunk of those who need it most should get vaccinated.

Also, I expect greater acceptance of it as it gets rolled out and people can see its not making people drop dead, and that it's the people who haven't had the vaccine who end up in hospital.

Around 70+% of people supported a 2nd lockdown, so I reckon there's a strong underlying desire for a public health solution.

This doesn't seem to be mentioned enough.  I can understand how people are spooked when the vaccine testing has been so compressed, even if most of it is because various stages are being done in parallel, but most are likely to fall into line if it still seems to be effective and safe six months hence.  The figures about who wouldn't take the covid vaccine in 2019 are not going to be the same mid 2020. 

[Fuzzy Afro]

Citymapper data shows movement in London reached 60% of usual level in the days leading up to the lockdown, which is the highest it’s been since a week before the first lockdown. Kinda explain the 33,000 cases. Good news is that movement has slowed right down since the lockdown has been in force.