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Post by JohnC on Feb 1, 2024 18:01:19 GMT
leftieliberal Maybe but I've just had a check in the top drawer of the freezer none of the meat products in there from Asda, Aldi and Iceland have this label. As I understand it, if a producer is supplying a product to Northern Ireland which is not destined for the EU the label has to contain 'Not for EU'. To avoid needing to have two production lines the producer will put those words on the label regardless of whether that product is destined for Northern Ireland or GB. Unless the legislation contains exemptions, all producers will now have to label their products with 'Not for EU' even if they have no intention of exporting to Northern Ireland, eg even a farm shop selling its produce to the local community. |
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neilj
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Post by neilj on Feb 1, 2024 18:26:19 GMT
Simon Danczuk has been announced as the Reform candidate in the Rochdale by-election He used to be a Labour MP, but he was prevented from standing for Labour again after he was found to have sent explicit sex messages to a 17-year-old girl To top it off last year the 56 year old married a 28 year old beautician from Rwanda, intending to set up home in the UK In fairness I suppose the tories want to send people to Rwanda, Danczuk wants to bring people from Rwanda here... |
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Post by guymonde on Feb 1, 2024 18:26:47 GMT
I applaud their forethought |
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Post by ciderman on Feb 1, 2024 18:39:03 GMT
I applaud their forethought |
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Feb 1, 2024 19:08:19 GMT
Meanwhile, the story of covid mutations continues to unfold. Japan is currently experiencing a significant wave of hospitalisations with the HK.1 variant thought to be responsible. They seemed to miss the JN.1 sweep, and it remains unclear if this means that HK.1 is heading our way or not. I just love it when you come along here and provide more evidence for what I have long been arguing. Japan experiencing infections now is exactly what you would expect to see if they had been essentially immune to the original covid strain before it arrived. Which is of course possible, because exposure to other corona viruses creates cross immunity to that covid variant too. During the first wave there was lots of speculation just how come Japan was virtually untouched. The obvious reason was it was immune, but those not believing this came up with all sorts of other possible reasons such as different lifestyle, or even mask wearing. But all those possibilities disappear once it turns out a later strain can infect Japanese just as well as anyone else. Any new strain of covid now can only succeed because it bypasses immunity to earlier strains, whether thats from related viruses, original covid or vaccination ( the vaccines being mostly based on the first covid strain anyway). It makes total sense that as this goes on new versions will have more success in Japan, because they have evolved to avoid all the early type immunity. Its exactly the same as how Hastings had negligible covid during the 2020 spring wave but then when the new kent strain came along in the autumn, caught it just the same as the rest of the country. The obvious explanation is Hastings had covid early, over the winter, and never noticed. The further implication, of course, there was never any point in lockdown because covid would always have self limited pretty much the same as what happened. Because thats exactly what did happen when it was allowed to do this (and in places other than Hastings, too). This totaly isnt alarming, its rather normal. The basic 1918 flu strain is still with us and still causes deaths. Its no doubt mutated somewhat and continues to do so and stage modest comebacks. Covid will do the same, but the likelihood is it will always be much milder so long as we keep up regular exposure to its latest incarnations, and keep that immunity topped up. Thats how humans stay safe from big hits all at once. How many times now have you given us here a warning of the dire resurgence of covid about to hit us, which never has?
Do you work for a drug company as well as everything else you do?
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pjw1961
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Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
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Post by pjw1961 on Feb 1, 2024 19:24:06 GMT
Simon Danczuk has been announced as the Reform candidate in the Rochdale by-election He used to be a Labour MP, but he was prevented from standing for Labour again after he was found to have sent explicit sex messages to a 17-year-old girl Danczuk stood as an Independent in Rochdale in 2017 and polled 883 votes (1.8%) compared to the 29,035 of Tony Lloyd for Labour, finishing fifth overall. So it doesn't exactly sound like he has a huge personal following! |
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Post by alec on Feb 1, 2024 19:25:39 GMT
Danny - You do talk such shite, don't you. I counted 13 factual errors in your latest effort. Where you say " During the first wave there was lots of speculation just how come Japan was virtually untouched" I have to point out that no, there really wasn't. Japan, S Korea, Vietnam - they all dealt with the first wave with basic public health measures. No, there was no speculation. Everyone understood it, save for a few fringe nutters like yourself. And no, as evidenced by actual data, infection with other coronaviruses makes you more prone to covid infection. You still haven't produced the evidence for your false claim, yet you still repeat it, in classic Trumpian fake news style. It's bullshit, but I think you know that. You do this not because you believe it, but because somehow it makes you feel better. "How many times now have you given us here a warning of the dire resurgence of covid about to hit us.." I actually said that it could be something or nothing, we don't know what it will do, viruses can become harmless or deadly, etc etc. Weird that you feel the need to lie about what other posters have said, when what they actually said is right there, in black and white.
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Post by alec on Feb 1, 2024 19:27:03 GMT
pjw1961 - "Danczuk stood as an Independent in Rochdale in 2017 and polled 883 votes (1.8%) compared to the 29,035 of Tony Lloyd for Labour, finishing fifth overall. So it doesn't exactly sound like he has a huge personal following!" That 883 is around 52% of the 17 year old females in Rochdale though......
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Feb 1, 2024 19:38:28 GMT
...the argument could be made that the UK does need to bolster the numbers in the military, but, any kind of conscription or compulsion is not the way to go about this. The lesson so far from Ukraine is not really a shortage of soldiers. Its a shortage of stockpiled ammunition or capacity to rapidly create more. Which ironically mirrors the debate at the start of the covid pandemic about why the UK did not have stockpiles of PPE, and why it used to have such but disposed of them. Well the same would seem to apply to ammunition, its costly to stockpile and maintain so someone decided to save some money. I'm not sure thats true. First off, I dont see any war progressing to nuclear weaponry because thats a guarantee of your own side losing. Nuclear weapons tend to engender caution in invaders but most of all having them stops your opponent using them either. So I think that kinda neutralises itself, and then its a question of how likely Russia might be to want to invade britain. We are a long way from Russia, making it unlikely, but on the other hand there would be potential to seize an island. Not sure there is any strategic benefit beyond perhaps blowing up British infrastructure such as power stations or gas fields (or offshore wind turbine fields nowadays). So perhaps more likely to be sniping attacks to make life difficult in Britain, not a million miles from what we are seeing now in the gulf or missile attacks on Ukraine. Sinking ships coming to the UK would cause a lot of poblems for the UK and its not at all clear how well we could guarantee their safety. The Ukraine invasion went horribly wrong for Russia. They may still get to keep another big chunk of the country, but the cost to Russia has been vast compared to what must have been predicted. I doubt they ever expected it to last two years either, planners would have anticipated everything was over, win lose or draw, by now and trade back to normal, sanctions forgotten. But that wasnt how it turned out and one of the results is that Russia is now militarily more powerful than before it invaded, whereas NATO at the moment looks a bit short of ammunition. No indeed, but as I said the obvious problem is ammunition not bods to fire it. If we needed to support an ally in NATO then I guess it would come to sending troops. But before that its very likely we could face a situation like Ukraine, where what they need is more shells and rockets for their own troops to fire. What the Uk has done is concentrate on two specialties. One, nuclear weapons, which has its own niche. But the other has become the two aircraft carriers. Which frankly are dubious at best even to send to the gulf as we are now doing. Big target for retaliation, and do we really want to be attacking them with manned aircraft with the possibility of them being shot down, instead of using guided missiles?If Ukraine has taught anything it should be the enormous usefulness of miniature unmanned aircraft. I do wonder why conscription has been raised as an issue. It smacks of claiming covid would kill us all, just an attempt to create fear. Although it is also the wrong thing to do and would waste our military resources, so you can see why Russians would like to plant such an idea. And we must always assume that stuff which just turns up on the internet usually starts out as a vested interest pushing something. |
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Feb 1, 2024 20:02:29 GMT
Simon Danczuk has been announced as the Reform candidate in the Rochdale by-election He used to be a Labour MP, but he was prevented from standing for Labour again after he was found to have sent explicit sex messages to a 17-year-old girl Lots of people do that...particularly when they are also 17. Which I suspect isnt your case, but is an important one often forgotten when making such statements. Demonising sending messages to your peers is not very sensible. You infer however its a bad thing? I think it would be illegal, but is that sensible either? |
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Feb 1, 2024 20:06:06 GMT
Danny - You do talk such shite, don't you. I counted 13 factual errors in your latest effort. Where you say " During the first wave there was lots of speculation just how come Japan was virtually untouched" I have to point out that no, there really wasn't. Japan, S Korea, Vietnam - they all dealt with the first wave with basic public health measures. They did virtually nothing. No lockdown, no reason to because it just never took off. They even held the olympics because the number of cases was so tiny. Are you claiming that today Japanese have simply stopped bothering about covid and thats why they have it now? (incidentally, there was a study that confirmed covid did indeed reach and infect people in Japan in the first wave. It was most definitely present in an uncontrolled way amongst the population. It just never became serious) |
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Post by ptarmigan on Feb 1, 2024 20:17:23 GMT
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Post by athena on Feb 1, 2024 20:19:17 GMT
The MP for Finchley and Golders Green has announced that he is standing down at the next election, citing threats, abuse and an arson attack (motive unclear) on his constituency office. He and his staff wear stab vests at public events on police advice. We can't call ourselves a functioning democracy when people are driven from public office by abuse and threats to their safety or deterred from seeking it. The deterrent effect is now significant, particularly for women and those with younger children. (My instinct is that this isn't mainly a case of a rat leaving a sinking ship. Electoral Calculus says his seat goes Lab if they get 329 seats, but it's one of the few seats where Jewish voters could swing the result. Luciana Berger increased the LD vote from less than 7% to over 25% when she stood there in 2019.) |
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steve
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Post by steve on Feb 1, 2024 20:36:19 GMT
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domjg
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Post by domjg on Feb 1, 2024 20:42:46 GMT
At the very least to bring back decency, probity, basic competence and moral principle to govt as opposed to the venality, entitlement, dog whistling and plain 3rd world level cronyism and corruption of the current lot. Anything more than that, and I'm sure there will be plenty, is a bonus. |
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neilj
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Post by neilj on Feb 1, 2024 21:09:03 GMT
A damning report on the tory party machine in Wellingborough, all the more so because its written by Conservative Home Worth reading the whole piece conservativehome.com/2024/02/01/by-election-sketch-in-wellingborough-the-conservative-machine-is-broken/'In front of the Conservative office in Wellingborough... stands an immoveable car, pictured above. Its rear off-side wheel is clamped and flat, its bodywork spattered with bird droppings, and grass has sprouted from the rotten leaves which have accumulated round the windscreen wipers. No going concern would tolerate the presence of such an eyesore outside its premises, but 44 Midland Road, though still named on the leaflets of Wellingborough Conservative Association as its address, was on Tuesday locked and deserted. And this is curious, for in two weeks’ time a by-election will be held in Wellingborough... ConservativeHome has heard that Conservative MPs are refusing to come and canvas for Harrison (Tory candidate)... The Labour Party election headquarters, at 6 Sheep Street, a more prosperous thoroughfare than Midland Road, had an open door and was a hive of activity, one wall covered in the signatures of people who have already been to campaign for Kitchen, she herself just setting off in a red coat to canvas along with a colleague, and Toby Perkins, Labour MP for Chesterfield, setting out with two more campaigners in the opposite direction...' |
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Feb 1, 2024 21:25:24 GMT
The MP for Finchley and Golders Green has announced that he is standing down at the next election, citing threats, abuse and an arson attack (motive unclear) on his constituency office. He and his staff wear stab vests at public events on police advice. We can't call ourselves a functioning democracy when people are driven from public office by abuse and threats to their safety or deterred from seeking it. The deterrent effect is now significant, particularly for women and those with younger children. Its funny you should post that. Just a page earlier we had: Simon Danczuk has been announced as the Reform candidate in the Rochdale by-election. He used to be a Labour MP, but he was prevented from standing for Labour again after he was found to have sent explicit sex messages to a 17-year-old girl The thing is, what one person considers a just cause to hound someone from office is another person' step too far. |
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Post by alec on Feb 1, 2024 22:15:16 GMT
Danny - "They did virtually nothing. No lockdown, no reason to because it just never took off. They even held the olympics because the number of cases was so tiny." Your lack of self awareness is painful to watch. Japan actually cancelled the Olympics in 2020. And yes, those who understand about these things are aware that Japan's problems with covid - which remain far less than most other western countries - really came once their government announced it was no longer an emergency. Regular mask wearing dropped from around 90% to something like 30% today, and the Japanese experience is completely consistent with the idea that public health interventions work. You simply don't know what you are talking about.
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Post by alec on Feb 1, 2024 22:19:56 GMT
steve - "Labour continues its transformation into brexittory lite" I think this is being a bit unfair. I'd like to see as much investment in green infrastructure as we can manage, but from what I understand, Labour are committing to the specific policy promises they have already made, which don't amount to £28bn, but are refraining with continuing to hold to a fix monetary amount, without any defined plans against the cash promise. I'm reasonably OK with the fact that Labour is trimming expectations, and politically it's probably a sensible move, given the state the public finances will be in.
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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 Feb 1, 2024 22:42:58 GMT
As Deep Throat advised - "Follow the money".
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Post by mercian on Feb 1, 2024 22:46:37 GMT
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Post by crossbat11 on Feb 1, 2024 22:50:51 GMT
A bit harsh. The detail in the article that seems to have so infuriated you is rather more nuanced. The green investment plan is being re-packaged rather than abandoned as far as I can see, and will be fully outlined much nearer the election. What I see here is an attempt to shoot a Tory fox early by removing the totemic and increasingly meaningless £28 billion headline price tag. Probably tactically sensible. Take some short term flak from political enemies (betrayal, flip-flopping, indecision etc) and then argue that economic reality and a firm commitment to fiscal rules when in office, has caused a thoughtful and responsible opposition to reframe a policy announced in very different economic times. Toynbee made some good points about this (see below). The £28 billion price tag was becoming a distraction. Binning it seems good politics to me in an election year. But, hey ho, I'm just a cynical old political game playing Hector. Tribal, expedient and intent on shafting this Tory government/party. With a view to getting rid of them. The fleas of a thousand camels will now no doubt infest my Corbynless armpits. www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/01/labour-tory-28bn-green-spending-conservative-austerity🤣🐑 |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2024 23:05:02 GMT
Danny - "They did virtually nothing. No lockdown, no reason to because it just never took off. They even held the olympics because the number of cases was so tiny." Your lack of self awareness is painful to watch. Japan actually cancelled the Olympics in 2020. And yes, those who understand about these things are aware that Japan's problems with covid - which remain far less than most other western countries - really came once their government announced it was no longer an emergency. Regular mask wearing dropped from around 90% to something like 30% today, and the Japanese experience is completely consistent with the idea that public health interventions work. You simply don't know what you are talking about. Speaking as someone who was contracted to work at Tokyo 2020 and declined to go in '21, I can tell you the conditions for those who did go weren't great. They were effectively confined to their hotel rooms for the duration with no after work socialising in bars or restaurants permitted. Every morning before boarding the bus to work they had to produce a negative covid test, and once at work they were confined to their designated workplace.
alec is quite correct on this, the notion that the Japanese authorities took a laissez-faire approach to hosting the Olympics is palpable nonsense. |
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Post by leftieliberal on Feb 1, 2024 23:08:14 GMT
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Post by crossbat11 on Feb 1, 2024 23:23:07 GMT
Savanta (polls a little contrary to day, but both YouGov and Savanta have a similar end result) NEW Westminster Voting Intention 📈19pt Labour lead 🌹Lab 46 (+3) 🌳Con 27 (-2) 🔶LD 10 (=) ➡️Reform 9 (+1) 🌍Green 3 (-1) 🎗️SNP 2 (-1) ⬜️Other 4 (=) 2,279 UK adults, 26-28 January (chg 19-21 January) Savanta getting on board now, I see Long overdue. What on earth was keeping them? |
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Post by crossbat11 on Feb 1, 2024 23:25:21 GMT
As Deep Throat advised - "Follow the money".
If you follow the money in Scottish politics you end up in Nicola Sturgeon's campervan. |
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Feb 1, 2024 23:32:56 GMT
Japan actually cancelled the Olympics in 2020. No, it postponed them. You seem to be forgetting that for the first wave of covid there was no mandatory mask wearing. Nor was there any covid to speak of in Japan. They certainly did not avoid it because of compulsory mask wearing. As to voluntary which they are prone to, I find it hard to believe that after the covid experience they today engage in less mask wearing than before the epidemic. And yet you claim covid is rising when it did not first time round? The entire level of covid disease today worldwide is insufficient in any respect to justify legislated interventions. And yet you act as if governments are being negligent in ignoring it. The real truth is covid NEVER justified the level of interventions which took place, and were in fact counter productive because of the economic consequences (not to mention the issue of everyone being under house arrest for months).
It puzzles me why you persist in this rearguard action to try to justify what the conservative government, supported by the labour opposition, did to britain. Its funny how the libs are regularly lambasted for having enabled con 2010 to 2015, yet labour enabled brexit and lockdown, or at least did nothing to try to campaign against them, which have done an awful lot more to harm the UK.
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domjg
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Post by domjg on Feb 1, 2024 23:37:08 GMT
Whereas being conservative generally correlates with lack of imagination/curiosity, fearfulness and dare I say it sometimes being a bit challenged in the reasoning department😀 |
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Post by mercian on Feb 1, 2024 23:44:42 GMT
domjgAnd of course you have data to support that assertion, and it's not just your mental illness talking? 🤩
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Feb 2, 2024 0:15:03 GMT
Speaking as someone who was contracted to work at Tokyo 2020 and declined to go in '21, I can tell you the conditions for those who did go weren't great. They were effectively confined to their hotel rooms for the duration with no after work socialising in bars or restaurants permitted. Every morning before boarding the bus to work they had to produce a negative covid test, and once at work they were confined to their designated workplace. alec is quite correct on this, the notion that the Japanese authorities took a laissez-faire approach to hosting the Olympics is palpable nonsense. The Japanese introduced special regulations BECAUSE of the forthcoming olympics and the fear it would somehow break their covid free record. It didn't. Alec points out its only much more recently their incidence of covid has picked up. Though its still essentially negligible in terms of justifying legal interventions. |
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