The Tories can try to shaft Khan but it won’t work at least in terms of London Mayoral elections....Khan will easily be re-elected...all they more-so now Labour have a competent new leader....they may still well struggle elsewhere but inLondon Labour will sweep home again....imho...Maunder, I see you have a 180 degree turn now on taxation and raising taxes on the elderly and especially the wealthy elderly ...that is very welcome...Does it also mean you now wish to retain inheritance tax too?

ORB poll done Wednesday and Thursday on government handling of the crisis

Approve 38% (-12)

Disapprove 54% (+11)

https://orb-international.com/2020/05/15/covid19-uk-perceptions-and-behaviours-week-9-13-14-may/

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 Unfortunately I agree with this. My wife has a little experience of one of the university hospitals in London and she tells me it is fantastic. However, get out of town and you will see some utter horror shows. Scarborough hospital is high on the list. Even York hospital looked like a scene from Threads when I visited my auntie in January. 

... and of course that is where Johnson was. He should try a week in an assessment ward in Basildon hospital if he wants to get a real idea.

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Unfortunate as these incidents are they're not related to the point I was raising with regards to criticism leveled at Jennie Harries' presentation at today's "briefing"  

I meant the Government is doing the spinning but she appears to be fearfully following it. A graph with three rising consecutive points is not a "continuing downward trend".

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And what exactly is the relevance of that comment?

I am not a great fan of Hancock and would prefer Hunt in the role, but cut the guy some slack - he has been under the most severe pressure imaginable for the past couple of months.

 

Yes, no doubt.  “O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!”

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Even with a monumental amount of massaging and revision of Italy/Spain/France's statistics, the fact remains that we are the 21st most populous country on the planet, had more than a month's head start and still ended up with one of the most appalling death tolls globally. It is an absolute disgrace - we can only pray that the inevitable public inquiry gets up and running within the next 12 months.

Not a chance. Enquiry? Why when they have done so well! Hancock's self congratulation on how well the Govt had dealt with care homes today was on a Trump scale of lying.

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With the greatest respect, you've missed the point and then managed to support my argument at the same time.

I'll try to keep it simple for you and take you through the steps slowly....

Yes, 10 people carrying the virus is better than 100.

But what do those ten people do, if they're not traced and isolated (which we were not doing effectively)?

The 10 very rapidly becomes 25 to 30 and those then become 60 to 90 which then become 125 to 180.

 

Now, that is bleeding obvious - but clearly not sufficiently obvious for you.

Gandalf is right. Once you have allowed the exponential phase then you are just delaying it and not by that much with doubling every three days as it was. In fact at the peak there was a good argument for free travel in and out of the UK as the odds were then that we were diluting our number infected! But once it is back down low and falling it is sensible to close borders and quarantine, especially till we can track and tra e.

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Well good night from the  last man standing. Can't be much fun at parties, some of these, they go to bed soo early

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Well good night from the  last man standing. Can't be much fun at parties, some of these, they go to bed soo early

Parties suck - much better to be up and about early in the morning, before all the "lads" are out and about!

Not that you'll see this while the thread is open, as you'll be sleeping no doubt... I don't know, you owls...

And back to covid, there's a right old bruhaha in the papers this morning over schools. I wonder which side will win - the cautious or gung-ho side? All I know is that at my academy Trust plans are underfoot for both primaries and secondaries, but nothing concrete yet.

Oh, I've also had a flurry of emails and even a letter from Unison. I doubt they would have been impressed at my reply, which mentioned that the school has stocks of certain PPE, such as masks, visors, gloves and hand gel... everything was very much set up to nudge you along the "it's too dangerous" path...

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