When will this shit end?

[steviewevie]

Whether Cummings being in the sage meetings is a big story or not will depend on what influence he had in these meetings in pusing the govt along the herd immunity line...and whether this meant more lives were lost than could have been.

I expect he's more interested in how the whole thing plays out for the govt with the public...how to get the public to adhere to lockdown etc.
The lockdown might have been late...but it has worked, and I think the govt have actually done a good job on how strict to make this lockdown, not closing parks etc.

[Mark E. Spliff]

29 minutes ago, zahidf said:

Isnt the govt advisors Job to advise? I dont want him advising the govt, but the guardian story insinuates hes influencing the SAGE committee, which I haven't seen really evidenced or likely.

 

it could have been the govts idea he sits in. We dont know!

The widespread dismay about Cummings being allowed anywhere near SAGE would probably make a lot more sense if you watched the BBC documentary on him.  This is packed full of good evidence to say three things about the man:

Firstly, he has no specialist skills related to public service - he doesn't have any understand of economics, health, defence etc.  His specialist skill is using what I can only describe as populist guerrilla tactics to harness public ignorance.  In other words, he'd be able to come up with a very short punchy message and exactly the right means of delivering it, to stir up a vociferous mass movement amongst the less-educated members of the public to believe the Earth is flat and convince them that this means they must vote to exterminate Woodpeckers.

Secondly, he uses mob-rule tactics to control groups.  He'll quickly fire any principled dissenters and bully any waverers until he's achieved a 'groupthink' ethos where people are not only too scared to challenge him, but are actually swept along in a blind fervour for whatever he's up to

Thirdly, he portrays himself as a weirdo intellectual, but the evidence from his time in the wilderness, after he was last kicked out of the Tory machine, is absolutely clear - he's a fascist.

Hopefully, these three things are enough to explain why people are wary of him going anywhere near SAGE, but I'll spell it out:

1.  SAGE should be providing expert, non-political, science-based advice on controlling this pandemic.  If the Government's primary objective is genuinely to do their best, then they have no need for their political spin-doctors to be involved in these deliberations - they should just act on the most up-to-date and accurate information they can get.  The fact that Cummings is even present is ominous as it tells you that the Government are treating this as a political game.

2.  The idea that Cummings is just a passive observer at these meetings is laughable.  He is pathologically incapable of sitting in a room full of senior people and not exerting influence.  Although the senior scientists might not be persuaded to tell lies about the clear-cut facts, there are still a lot of aspects about this disease which are subject to discussion and interpretation and that leaves Cummings a lot of room to exert influence.

3.  Yesterday's Government denial that Cummings is a member or actively involved in SAGE will have definitely come from Cummings himself.

Edited April 25, 2020 by Mark E. Spliff

[zahidf]

Edited April 25, 2020 by zahidf

[zahidf]

Got your top ten sorted?

[Crazyfool01]

4 minutes ago, zahidf said:

Got your top ten sorted?

Nightmare ... worse than a Radiohead top 10 

[steviewevie]

6 minutes ago, zahidf said:

Got your top ten sorted?

struggle to think of any to be honest.

[dentalplan]

wtf

[ivan]

There would be a few naughty Premier League players that would not pick 10 friends or family , but a bevvy of Brazilian models

 

 

Edited April 25, 2020 by ivan

[Crazyfool01]

 

[Ayrshire Chris]

1 hour ago, zahidf said:

If we all choose Michael and Emily Eavis then can we have Glastonbury back?😉

[rivalschools.price]

1 hour ago, ivan said:

There would be a few naughty Premier League players that would not pick 10 friends or family , but a bevvy of Brazilian models

 

 

I’m shaking my head tutting at them as a way of pretending that I’d be any different if I was a premier league footballer.

[steviewevie]

after exiting their lockdown Iran now have another outbreak.

[Cooter]

We're heading that way on a monthly basis, possibly every 2-3 weeks. And if the people of the UK can't handle the random irregular lockdowns that will come with those outbreaks then they're doomed.

Edited April 25, 2020 by Cooter

[efcfanwirral]

This is pretty worrying:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/24/strokes-coronavirus-young-patients/

Basically saying they're seeing a surge in 30s/40s age groups in the type of strokes that usually occur in 60s plus. And that these people are testing positive in many instances. 

Has anyone seen/heard anything here, maybe in the statistics that might point towards it being right? Could perhaps be part of the larger death rate increase that isn't being attributed to the virus? 

[dentalplan]

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

after exiting their lockdown Iran now have another outbreak.

Can’t see anything about this except that there are “fears” of another outbreak after “relaxing restrictions”.

[JoeyT]

Can't wait for Priti Patel to read the "riot" act to those disobeying the lockdown rules.

I'm not a psychologist by any stretch but given they have "behavioral scientists" giving the government advice surely they know that providing us with some sort of template for an exit to the current rules will curb this sort of behaviour?

[Crazyfool01]

How long are these horrendous death numbers supposed to keep coming ? 

[Ozanne]

15 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

How long are these horrendous death numbers supposed to keep coming ? 

Another couple of weeks, it’s a delay after the drop in daily case number rises.

[Crazyfool01]

Just now, Ozanne said:

Another couple of weeks, it’s a delay after the drop in daily case number rises.

Yep ... I just thought it might start dropping a little by now ... despite what they say it doesn’t look much of a downward trend ... at least those hospital admissions do seem to be dropping though ... that seems to be an accurate figure you can gauge things by 

[Ozanne]

16 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

Yep ... I just thought it might start dropping a little by now ... despite what they say it doesn’t look much of a downward trend ... at least those hospital admissions do seem to be dropping though ... that seems to be an accurate figure you can gauge things by 

I know, it’s demoralising to see them decline at a slow level but it sadly how it goes. Declines in hospitals is good to see though!

[Crazyfool01]

No answer on the Dominic Cummings question unsurprisingly ... 

[fatyeti24]

20 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

No answer on the Dominic Cummings question unsurprisingly ... 

I didn't hear the question, but I think we all know the answer.

[Ozanne]

Which will be they can do whatever they want, no one cares anyway so they can get away with anything.

[steviewevie]

1 hour ago, crazyfool1 said:

How long are these horrendous death numbers supposed to keep coming ? 

numbers coming down slower than they went up....

[Ozanne]

4 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

numbers coming down slower than they went up....

Insightful analysis.