Westminstenders: War and Weirdos

[RedToothBrush]

With weirdos set to run No10 and Trump seemingly having started a new war in the Middle East, 2020 already looks set to be a cracking year.

To start off your year, it turns out that chinese curse about interesting times is actually a fallacy...

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times

Happy New Year.

May we make 2030...

Custard concerns were raised by a number of professional bodies and health charities with regards to medication supply chains. Building in a 3 month buffer is a sensible precaution, building in a 3 year buffer would be tricky for all the reasons other posters have already mentioned.

Iran attacks us airbase in iraq

A plane with 180 passengers from Iran to Ukraine crashes

A 4.9 earthquake close to Iran's nuclear base (which the US says is completely natural)

All since I went to bed.

I think we have a war on our hands...

Garret M Graff @vermontgmg
Reminder that as this crisis escalates, we have no Director of National Intelligence, no Dep Dir, no Homeland Security Secretary, no Dep Sec, no head of CBP or ICE, no State Dept Under Sec of Arms Control, no Asst Sec for Europe, and no Navy Sec.

He said they had built / leased a whole new warehouse (in Staffordshire I think) as well as the existing one he works in in Warrington.

So they have the space. I specifically asked about insulin and he said they have it.

he may be misinformed.

However he is working in the distribution warehouse. So would know the difference between 3 months worth and 3 years worth.

Stored properly why / how can drugs go off?

This website says insulin lasts a year: consumermedsafety.org/tools-and-resources/insulin-safety-center/storage-of-insulin

But I bet in a temperature/ humidity / light controlled storage facility it lasts longer.

It’s not just stored in a household fridge.

Brexitcast will be back, though!

I think BJ will be kept out of the HOC as much as possible by his minders, in the same way that he was kept out of the way during the election, due to being a potential liability.

A few rockets lobbed in the general direction of a US Base, the military equivalent of recalling your ambassador for consultations. Or a slap on the face with a silk glove. Honour is satisfied.

So it looks like we have a responsible nation-state replying to the aggression of an out of control rogue regime.

I think we have a war on our hands...

I think you’re scaremongering

We already have a number of wars on our hands, any of which could escalate at any given moment. No scaremongering required.

Iran is seismically active (being where two plates converge), a similar magnitude earthquake hit close to the Bushehr nuclear plant on 27/12/19. Today’s quake is probably at a shallower depth though.

We already have a number of wars on our hands, any of which could escalate at any given moment. No scaremongering required

ME is a volatile area and has been for many many years, over a certain age and you would have seen this before. Calling war within 48 hours is scaremongering.

Officials are blaming a mechanical issue for the civilian plane crash.

Officials are blaming a mechanical issue for the civilian plane crash.

They would say that, wouldn't they?

They would say that, wouldn't they?

It depends on who ''they' are.

The plane was a Boeing 737.

Conflicts to watch
foreignpolicy.com/2019/12/26/10-conflicts-to-watch-2020/

The plane was a Boeing 737.

Ah, that does explain it.

Having reasonable concerns about unstable situations escalating into actual conflict, in a volatile and unpredictable political situation unparalleled in the last quarter century, and expressing those concerns, is not scaremongering.

This could be described as scaremongering, from its tone, but it is the Express:
www.express.co.uk/news/world/1224361/world-war-3-map-where-could-world-war-3-start-in-2020-ww3-latest-news

Stored properly why / how can drugs go off?
Many drugs are 'organic' chemicals - which basically means they degrade or 'rot' in the same way as meat, vegetables etc. Many drugs owe their activity to being a specific optical isomer - these are especially prone to degradation over time.

Even the hardiest form of insulin will be degraded to uselessness in 18 months. (insulin is actually destroyed by freezing)

(& Even inorganic drugs degrade - chemical reactions are only slowed by cooling not stopped - any complex chemical will degrade over time)

3yr storage of aspirin, paracetamol is feasible, assuming storage space - 3yr storage of insulin is not - so your 'friend' has no credibility.

Insulin, cancer drugs and everything else.

Shelf life of insulin = 1 year.

Some radioisotopes with longer half-lives can be stored for a number of weeks (eg iodine 125 and iridium 192)

Others have shorter half-lives - what is their contingency planning for those? (eg technetium-99m, a radioisotope with a 6-hour half-life). These are used in lung, heart, bone and kidney scans, and breast cancer procedures.

Tc99 is made from MO99 but there are no reactors that produce MO99 in the U.K. so it has to be imported from Europe.

If the lorries get held up the tests don’t get done. There are roughly 1 million a year diagnostic nuclear medicine tests.

(The UK also imports Radium-223, Iodine-123, and Iridium-192 to treat variously - bone, thyroid cancer, cervical and prostate cancer.)

I have just seen that a Lib Dem amendment to allow appeals to settled status decisions has been defeated.

Hmm, I think the only thing you can say here is that if this erupts into another Windrush style scandal, which it looks as though it may, then the blame can be laid squarely at this Government. In the way that May can't shake off Windrush.

Civil Service World Oct 2019:

"DHSC has Brexit 'plan for every medicine' as it awards £25m door-to-door urgent delivery contracts."

"Freight service will transport medical supplies with short shelf lives like radioisotopes and human organs."

"The contracts run for 12 months, with the option to renew for a second year."

"Mike Thompson, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said: “Whilst there are many things beyond their control, this is an important contingency plan that will help our members continue their preparations – alongside the stockpiles they have already built and alternative freight routes they have secured.”

www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/dhsc-has-brexit-plan-every-medicine-it-awards-%C2%A325m-door-door-urgent-delivery-contracts

Conflating earthquake, missile strike and plane crash in Iran with us activity is a bit woo :) I'm a kiss fan:
As noted above earthquakes in Iran are common.
The 737-800 that came down was only 3yrs old - the debris field was huge, meaning mid air break-up - wreckage images show multiple signs of shrapnel damage - pprune consensus is the aircraft was brought down by a missile. Under kiss I'd suggest that the most likely explanation is that Iranian air defence would be on high alert just after the missile attack and mistook the low flying 737 (just after take off) for an American attack

(3 brits, 73 Canadians thought to be on board)