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Post by leftieliberal on Aug 13, 2022 10:08:38 GMT
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Post by robbiealive on Aug 13, 2022 10:13:43 GMT
The old story was that Labour is a party gripped by ideology & the Tories were pragmatic, concerned to keep power by whatever means.
The unanimous verdict of this site is that Sunak would make the best Tory PM: as he is economics-literate & thus better equipped to deal with the major problems ahead; has experience of emergency payments in a crisis; & is a capable & confident communicator.
Yet the Tories have chosen Truss who echoes, in her clumsy & comically vacilitating fashion, a basic Thatcherite ideology & who will fill the cabinet with Thatcher-venerating, woke-obsessed, hard line Brexiteer ideologues: technically known as nut-jobs. Truss may be much more pragmatic in practice but her agenda seems at the moment inflexible, too focused on the culture war, & electorally v risky?
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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A step on the way toward the demise of the liberal elite? Or just a blip…
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 13, 2022 10:25:20 GMT
Yes, we’ve postponed a couple of matches already Shev. We are still suffering for not owning our own ground… 😠 “ Sky Blues Chief Executive Dave Boddy added: “We are very disappointed to report the lack of improvement in the pitch, and we are very disappointed for our supporters, players and staff again that we have now had to postpone Tuesday’s home game against Wigan Athletic.
“To be clear, this is not the fault of the grounds staff. Promised investment into a new pitch, which was a fundamental part of the extensive negotiations for the club to return and then again a promise made publicly following the announcement of our return in March 2021, has not happened and there has been no significant refurbishment or repair work over the Summer either.
…
“We do not wish to deal with this matter in public, but we are trying to keep fans updated. Instead, we simply want our landlords Wasps to provide a pitch which is safe and fit for purpose for their tenant, the City’s Football Club, to play at home.”
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Post by isa on Aug 13, 2022 10:29:10 GMT
The game looks increasingly up for Sunak and Truss' appointment as Tory leader appears virtually a formality. That being the case, perhaps Sunak should just end this self-indulgent leadership charade now, and withdraw, so that we might get back to having a semblance of a functioning government, rather than this seemingly neverending, paralytic, navel-gazing nonsense continuing for weeks. Meanwhile the economy implodes, millions face financial hardship, even ruin, and the country is quite literally burning. Do these people have no shame? I take your point, but lack any optimism that Truss will produce the "semblance of a functioning government", unless banging on about 'wokeism', whatever that is, and further crashing the economy counts. I entirely share your lack of optimism. The prospect of a Truss premiership is thoroughly depressing. I just want this whole miserable farce we are currently enduring to stop.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2022 10:29:14 GMT
Robert Buckland has switched from Sunak to Truss now. I had him down as a sensible bloke with some principles. I would not have suspected him of jumping on a moving band wagon. Sunak,s key claim to legitimacy _support at Westminster seems to be crumbling. Why ? The game looks increasingly up for Sunak and Truss' appointment as Tory leader appears virtually a formality. That being the case, perhaps Sunak should just end this self-indulgent leadership charade now, and withdraw, so that we might get back to having a semblance of a functioning government, rather than this seemingly neverending, paralytic, navel-gazing nonsense continuing for weeks. Meanwhile the economy implodes, millions face financial hardship, even ruin, and the country is quite literally burning. Do these people have no shame? It seems to-I agree. I think there is a very significant difference between their fundamental beliefs. So if Sunak thinks he is fighting for a different direction to Truss and believes in it, he will stick with it. As to the timescale intruding into governance of the country. Yes it is certainly at a bad time. But the removal of Johnson was something the country in general wanted according to the polls I think and it was done quickly. The Leadership election timetable is the thing which is intruding. Looking at the last LP leadership campaigns :- 2020-39 days 2016-33 days 2015-29 days 2010-40 days This one will be 54 days. Which seems unnecessarily long by comparison . I agree.
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Post by alec on Aug 13, 2022 10:30:22 GMT
@danny - "I see NICE is sceptical about the latest antibody based covid treatment. Being pushed by some, but as per usual is this another case of drug companies pushing their products? The obvious problem with an antibody based treatment if you plan to give it en masse to a large group of people, is that it will encourage mutation of the virus specifically to avoid those particular antibodies."
Another misleading and thoroughly confused post on covid from you.
There is no evidence that NICE are sceptical about Evushield - it's merely that their assessment won't be completed until next April. We'll find out then what NICE actually think.
Second, yes, giving Evushield and other treatments to lots of patients who have contracted covid will encourage mutations that evade those treatments. This is precisely what I've been patiently trying to explain to you for over two years now. All you now need to do to get on the right side of the facts are to extend your concern regarding viral mutation to the first base issue, which is transmission.
It's very simple. In order to protect the efficacy of both vaccines and anti virals, we need to deploy these in tandem with measures to suppress transmission, in order to reduce the risk of immune evading variants. You have finally appeared to accept the fact of viral mutation, now it's just one small step for you to rejoin the rest on mankind in gaining a sensible understanding of covid.
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Post by graham on Aug 13, 2022 10:39:59 GMT
The old story was that Labour is a party gripped by ideology & the Tories were pragmatic, concerned to keep power by whatever means. The unanimous verdict of this site is that Sunak would make the best Tory PM: as he is economics-literate & thus better equipped to deal with the major problems ahead; has experience of emergency payments in a crisis; & is a capable & confident communicator. Yet the Tories have chosen Truss who echoes, in her clumsy & comically vacilitating fashion, a basic Thatcherite ideology & who will fill the cabinet with Thatcher-venerating, woke-obsessed, hard line Brexiteer ideologues: technically known as nut-jobs. Truss may be much more pragmatic in practice but her agenda seems at the moment inflexible, too focused on the culture war, & electorally v risky? Whilst Truss - ie Mrs O'Leary - likes to present herself as Thatcher's heir, in truth her policies are very much at variance with what Thatcher did in office. Sunak is the real Thatcherite - prepared to return to Osborne and Howe style austerity policies , but most Tory members are far too dumb to see that.
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Post by isa on Aug 13, 2022 10:41:37 GMT
The game looks increasingly up for Sunak and Truss' appointment as Tory leader appears virtually a formality. That being the case, perhaps Sunak should just end this self-indulgent leadership charade now, and withdraw, so that we might get back to having a semblance of a functioning government, rather than this seemingly neverending, paralytic, navel-gazing nonsense continuing for weeks. Meanwhile the economy implodes, millions face financial hardship, even ruin, and the country is quite literally burning. Do these people have no shame? It seems to-I agree. I think there is a very significant difference between their fundamental beliefs. So if Sunak thinks he is fighting for a different direction to Truss and believes in it, he will stick with it. As to the timescale intruding into governance of the country. Yes it is certainly at a bad time. But the removal of Johnson was something the country in general wanted according to the polls I think and it was done quickly. The Leadership election timetable is the thing which is intruding. Looking at the last LP leadership campaigns :- 2020-39 days 2016-33 days 2015-29 days 2010-40 days This one will be 54 days. Which seems unnecessarily long by comparison . I agree. I'll take your word for it on the LP campaign lengths. I think the big difference is that LAB was in opposition for those campaigns, and timings weren't much of an issue, whereas CON are in government now, and the country is beset by crises at home and abroad. And our government might just as well be a bunch of tailor's dummies for all the grip they have over current events.
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Post by alec on Aug 13, 2022 10:49:59 GMT
Whatever happened to The March of the Makers?
/photo/1
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pjw1961
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Post by pjw1961 on Aug 13, 2022 10:56:11 GMT
Whatever happened to The March of the Makers? They got trampled by the unicorns from the sunlit uplands.
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Aug 13, 2022 11:04:18 GMT
There is no evidence that NICE are sceptical about Evushield - it's merely that their assessment won't be completed until next April. We'll find out then what NICE actually think. The head of nice was being interviewed on womans hour the other day. She was talking about how they had expedited decisions during the covid epidemic because it was important to put in place new treatments very quickly.
Obviously since they have not expedited this decision it means they dont think its important. If they thought it was a significantly beneficial treatment they would have fast tracked it.
Instead they have treated it just the same as new cancer drugs which do some good but are very expensive. They quietly avoid decisions as long as possible. Because in the case of those drugs, they simply arent cost effecive, but its difficult telling people they cant have them because of money. Even if they wouldnt do much good.
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Aug 13, 2022 11:20:55 GMT
So heres the most recent cumulative deaths totals from the Ft website.
The oddest thing really is the negligible death toll in China. You might be excused for thinking that as the place covid originated, actually it had been endemic there for years and quietly infecting people too, who had lots more immunity than the rest of the world.
However forgetting that for a moment, Sweden has had only about 2/3 the deaths of England and also done better than the US or EU as a whole. As everywhere else, it is countries geographically placed closest to the origin point of covid which have had significantly fewest deaths. Funny how the one thing they have in common is proximity to the starting point. It really suggests they had pre exisitng immunity.
So if sweden didnt close schools then kids didnt suffer educationally, plus fewer people died anyway. They say they could have done better in protecting older people and I dare say they could. But they STILL did better than most european nations by having a policy of minimising restrictions.
The implication is we could have saved 1/3 of deaths by having fewer restrictions.
And there is a perfectly good rationale why. Young people have most cases and spread the illness, old people have fewest cases and get most ill. The faster the young catch it and a wave passes out of circulation, then the fewer old people are exposed to it, so total deaths falls. The trick is to end it quickly by the young catching it. Keep schools open but tell them all to stop visiting granny till its over.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2022 11:40:44 GMT
It seems to-I agree. I think there is a very significant difference between their fundamental beliefs. So if Sunak thinks he is fighting for a different direction to Truss and believes in it, he will stick with it. As to the timescale intruding into governance of the country. Yes it is certainly at a bad time. But the removal of Johnson was something the country in general wanted according to the polls I think and it was done quickly. The Leadership election timetable is the thing which is intruding. Looking at the last LP leadership campaigns :- 2020-39 days 2016-33 days 2015-29 days 2010-40 days This one will be 54 days. Which seems unnecessarily long by comparison . I agree. I'll take your word for it on the LP campaign lengths. I think the big difference is that LAB was in opposition for those campaigns, and timings weren't much of an issue, whereas CON are in government now, and the country is beset by crises at home and abroad. And our government might just as well be a bunch of tailor's dummies for all the grip they have over current events. Sure-so you would have preferred Johnson to stay in power till the GE and get defeated by Starmer ?
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oldnat
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Extremist - Undermining the UK state and its institutions
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Post by oldnat on Aug 13, 2022 11:42:51 GMT
Given that Truss, Sunak and Cameron all took PPE degrees at Oxford can I suggest that course be shut down immediately as it clearly is a training ground for half-wits. However, they all made money from a career in politics - thus supporting Sunak's case!
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Post by eotw on Aug 13, 2022 11:47:13 GMT
I'll take your word for it on the LP campaign lengths. I think the big difference is that LAB was in opposition for those campaigns, and timings weren't much of an issue, whereas CON are in government now, and the country is beset by crises at home and abroad. And our government might just as well be a bunch of tailor's dummies for all the grip they have over current events. Sure-so you would have preferred Johnson to stay in power till the GE and get defeated by Starmer ? Wow, that is jump. I wouldn't want to assume what isa meant but I wish the process of selecting a new "leader" was a little speedier.
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oldnat
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Post by oldnat on Aug 13, 2022 11:56:31 GMT
Heavy rain does run off dry ground, but that video doesn't show why.
If you understood surface tension, then you would understand why the water in the glass doesn't quickly soak into the drought-stricken ground. Your level of argument doesn't rise above chanting "It's oor oil". It's because I do understand surface tension that I say that the video doesn't explain the phenomenon!
Like you, most of my grass remains uncut - often because it is so bloody wet (due to "oor rain") that it can't be cut without clogging the mower!
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Post by isa on Aug 13, 2022 11:57:15 GMT
I'll take your word for it on the LP campaign lengths. I think the big difference is that LAB was in opposition for those campaigns, and timings weren't much of an issue, whereas CON are in government now, and the country is beset by crises at home and abroad. And our government might just as well be a bunch of tailor's dummies for all the grip they have over current events. Sure-so you would have preferred Johnson to stay in power till the GE and get defeated by Starmer ? I think the Privileges Committee might still be a problem for Johnson's ongoing membership of the HoC in the coming weeks. Anyhoo, as the truism informs us, we are where we are.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2022 11:57:51 GMT
Sure-so you would have preferred Johnson to stay in power till the GE and get defeated by Starmer ? Wow, that is jump. I wouldn't want to assume what isa meant but I wish the process of selecting a new "leader" was a little speedier. Not too much of a jump. He differentiated with LP leadership elections by saying "the big difference is that LAB was in opposition for those campaigns, and timings weren't much of an issue, whereas CON are in government now, and the country is beset by crises at home and abroad." So I assumed he would have preferred what I suggested.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2022 11:59:54 GMT
Sure-so you would have preferred Johnson to stay in power till the GE and get defeated by Starmer ? I think the Privileges Committee might still be a problem for Johnson's ongoing membership of the HoC in the coming weeks. Anyhoo, as the truism informs us, we are where we are. Yes thats a point. We are -sadly.
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Post by johntel on Aug 13, 2022 12:51:29 GMT
The June ONS trade figures are out. You may like to look at the actual numbers rather than the cherry-picked headlines from the FT etc. www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/bulletins/uktrade/june2022It includes a nice pair of graphs showing the effect of Brexit on imports and exports, which I've attached. To my mind, except for a couple of months disruptions to exports to the EU at the end of the transition period, it's hard to see any difference between EU and non-EU trends - they are both equally poor. Attachment Deleted
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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A step on the way toward the demise of the liberal elite? Or just a blip…
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 13, 2022 12:52:51 GMT
“Water companies pay £1bn dividends as the taps run dry
Bosses were rewarded with bumper pay rises and bonuses despite losing millions of litres a day to leaks”
Amid mounting criticism of the response to the drought by the 15 companies in England, it emerged that dividend payments to parent companies totalled £1.1 billion in the past year, up 18.7 per cent on the previous 12 months.
An analysis of Companies House records found that chief executives at the companies earned £34.1 million in the past two years, including £22 million in bonuses and incentives.
Thames Water, which has said it will ban hosepipes in the coming weeks, paid shareholders £37.1 million last year and £1.6 billion over the past 12 years.
The company, England’s largest, loses 605 million litres a day through leaks, the most of any English firm. Its chief executive, Sarah Bentley, received £3.2 million in the past two years. Bentley, who lives in a £1.5 million five-bedroom home in Surrey and has been pictured holidaying in the French ski resort of Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, received a £496,000 bonus last year, almost double her previous year’s performance-related payout, plus a salary of £750,000.”
Times
🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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A step on the way toward the demise of the liberal elite? Or just a blip…
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 13, 2022 12:57:40 GMT
On the plus side…
“The ability to launch satellites from British soil for the first time should bolster intelligence services, the head of the country’s first spaceport has said.
The first launch from Britain is expected later this year when eight small satellites are taken into space from Newquay airport in Cornwall by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit. They will be carried by a rocket that will first be lifted to an altitude of 35,000ft under the wing of a heavily modified jumbo jet.
This kind of “horizontal launch” can operate in weather conditions that would keep traditional “vertical launch” rockets grounded, and be ready at much shorter notice, according to Melissa Thorpe, the chief executive of Spaceport Cornwall.
The military and intelligence agencies are among the target customers. “If an asset is taken down in space, we will look with Virgin to work towards replacing it within 24 to 48 hours,” she said.
She believes that rapid response times could act as a deterrent to hostile states. “Why would you take out an asset that’s easily replaced? That’s the ambition — that there will be a rocket ready to go if any of the Five Eyes nations need a responsive launch.””
Times
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2022 13:46:30 GMT
That latter day Jeremy Corbyn and nouveau darling of the Tory Bashing cognoscenti , Mick Lynch has found time in his busy schedule to tell NS what he believes in-or not as the case may be :- Starmer's Labour -Not really - "They’re not saying anything about anything. In fact, they could be another version of the Conservative Party.” Mick Lynch thinks Starmer’s Labour has a “veneer of not caring”, Brexit-Yes- "“Because the European Union has privatisation embedded in its constitution.I don’t like the idea that you give your sovereignty and democracy away to a load of bureaucrats and bankers.” “The free movement of labour I don’t think helps anyone,” he continued, “because it means the countries that people are coming from have lost some of their most able people… and it didn’t help the labour market in Britain,” he said. “But people don’t argue that – they argue that they can’t get olives, or they’ve got a long queue to get to Tuscany.” Ukraine-Putinish- " “The EU also provoked a lot of the trouble in Ukraine. It was all about being pro-EU and all the rest of it,” he said, referring to the pro-EU Maidan revolution in Ukraine in 2014. “There were a lot of corrupt politicians in Ukraine. And while they were doing that, there were an awful lot of people [in Ukraine] playing with Nazi imagery, and going back to the [Second World] war, and all that. So, it’s not just that this stuff has sprung from one place.” The Uyghurs - what about Leicester ? -“Slave labour is happening in Leicester,” he retorted. “Why do we want to start on the Uyghurs if we don’t want to start on the Palestinians?” Patriotism -why not ? " Labour, he said, should return to “what used to be called Old Labour: you believed in some fairly traditional values, communitarian values, but you also weren’t ashamed of being patriotic because I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that”. www.newstatesman.com/encounter/2022/08/mick-lynch-starmers-labour-could-be-another-version-of-the-tories
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Post by hireton on Aug 13, 2022 13:52:58 GMT
The June ONS trade figures are out. You may like to look at the actual numbers rather than the cherry-picked headlines from the FT etc. www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/bulletins/uktrade/june2022It includes a nice pair of graphs showing the effect of Brexit on imports and exports, which I've attached. To my mind, except for a couple of months disruptions to exports to the EU at the end of the transition period, it's hard to see any difference between EU and non-EU trends - they are both equally poor. View AttachmentExcept the non-EU markets were supposed by Brexiter supporters to be where buccaneering Britain coul proposer after leaving the moribund Single Market of the EU. It hasn't and has made trading with our nearest, largest market more expensive and difficult.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2022 13:56:39 GMT
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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A step on the way toward the demise of the liberal elite? Or just a blip…
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 13, 2022 14:05:05 GMT
From the parallel universe of the Telegraph…
Spectre of jobs bloodbath hangs over the City as recession looms
Chatter of potential cuts rife in the Square Mile after quiet dealmaking period
“I’m currently on holiday and spending half the time worrying about whether I’ll have a job to come back to,” says one investment banker at a mid-sized firm.
Last Monday, those concerns became a reality for dozens of employees at the London office of German lender Berenberg. One by one, bankers were called into meetings with management, told to pack up their belongings and leave.
It took bosses about four hours to sack 30 staff, which insiders said represented about one in 10 jobs in its investment banking arm. Berenberg has a total of 500 London-based employees.”
And…
Germany is about to be plunged into a rolling crisis that will make Britain look like an oasis
Dry Rhine threatens to trigger a full-scale industrial shock
“Facing a recession, and grappling with the prospect of acute winter energy shortages thanks to its shocking over-dependence on oil and gas from Vladimir Putin, a dry Rhine is something that the region’s economic powerhouse can ill-afford. Factories, agriculture, municipal buildings, commercial premises and vital civic amenities, already asked to dim their lights and use less water to save energy, all stand to be badly affected.
There are ramifications too for other parts of Europe, particularly landlocked countries in central and eastern Europe that normally get fuel via the Rhine, according to the International Energy Agency.”
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Post by graham on Aug 13, 2022 14:07:25 GMT
The Arbeit Macht Frei wing of the Tory party asserts itself!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2022 14:10:43 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2022 14:11:55 GMT
The Arbeit Macht Frei wing of the Tory party asserts itself! A phraseology Mr Lynch would approve of it would seem.
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c-a-r-f-r-e-w
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A step on the way toward the demise of the liberal elite? Or just a blip…
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Post by c-a-r-f-r-e-w on Aug 13, 2022 14:27:39 GMT
yes, well I like to try and flit between the universes. You get more of the horror than if you just stay in one version of reality, but sometimes, some additional good bits!
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