Westminstenders: No pubs till Christmas?

[RedToothBrush]

Today the news has moved towards acknowledging covid-19 reality: Nicola Sturgeon has explicitly stated that some social distancing will carry on until the new year in all likelihood.

When Matt Hancock asked if this was true for England too, he refused to say yes but he said that Scotland was working from the same framework as England.

In case anyone does still need this spelling out, this means the outlook for the hospitality and leisure industries is bleak.

There are extremely unlikely to be many enjoying a holiday in the sun any time soon, whether it be in Devon or Spain.

We won't be celebrating birthdays in restaurants nor having a pint in the pub.

Conversations on the doorstep from a couple of metres away is as good as it gets.

That means if you can't adapt you may not survive.

To add into the mix changes to customs to those companies who are operating seems insanity. But that's a political not a scientific decision to be made.

Whether reality in this will kick in, in the next six weeks or so before EU budgetary decisions relating to an extension have to be made remains to be seen.

Until then, there is no news but covid-19.

So how do posters here feel about subbing up an airline whose tickets you'll never afford ?

Exactly the same as I would do when supporting other vanity projects for the super wealthy. Annoyed, but what do we do about it?

He [Johnson] says he wants “maximum transparency” about how the decisions to relax restrictions are taken. He says he wants to involve the opposition parties as much as possible.

The cynic in me says, of course he does. He knows that he has boobed with letting Cummings sit in on the SAGE meetings, especially when the Medical and Scientific Officers of devolved governments were only allowed there as Observers. This is a classic case illustrating Heseltine's saying about him. He has seen the way the crowd is running and is now darting ahead to cry 'follow me'.

He knows that the Opposition needs to be involved so that he can pass as much of the buck as possible. It's a bit trickier with his 80 seat majority, but he will try.

Exactly the same as I would do when supporting other vanity projects for the super wealthy. Annoyed, but what do we do about it?

Isn't that what voting is for ?

There is an awful lot not to like about the US. But there's also a lot to admire. One aspect is the way that federal spending is automatically assumed to be for the benefit of the taxpayer - hence the amazing volume of NASA research that is freely available (or CIA or FBI, if you like ...). Compare and contrast with the UK where (for example) the Ordnance Survey use your money to map the UK and then charge you^ to see the data

Anyway, it's nice the Observer told the government to fuck off yesterday. Rather saved me the bother.

I hope patriots get their votes behind Priti ! Let the world hear Britain roar !!!

I think it must be abundantly clear that I didn't vote for the present shower. I got active in politics to get the useless Nicola Blackwood out - who immediately got bumped up to the Lords. So much for the will of the people.

I didn't see the Observer Headline - what was it?

I didn't see the Observer Headline - what was it?

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/downing-street-bars-sunday-times-journalists-from-posing-questions-during-coronavirus-briefing-toby-helm-observer-1-6625055

explains more ...

The natural progression after othering of the elderly .... move onto the next expendable & expensive group

www.hsj.co.uk/coronavirus/unprecedented-number-of-dnr-orders-for-learning-disabilities-patients/7027480.article

A learning disability care provider said it has received an “unprecedented” number of do not resuscitate forms from doctors that it believes to be illegal.

Peregrina I think it was this headline:

Public trust plummets in Britain’s handling of pandemic, new poll reveals

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/26/trust-wanes-in-uk-ministers-handling-of-coronavirus-pandemic-poll

Re the Observer (and Channel 4 news and the Today programme and GMB and, and..... ): Cummings Downing Street is getting positively Trumpian in its attitude towards the press aka "false news" /true journalism.

It was always, always the Trump handbook for BJ.

The Americans had their own Concorde which was going to be bigger and better and everything, and failed to get off the drawing board.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_2707

The failings of postwar British civil aviation have been well documented: The Mighty Brabazon. The Comet with the square windows that could easily have killed the Queen. Agreeing to supply BAC-111s to Romania in return for a promise of strawberries that never turned up. (The Romanians have been picking our strawberries ever since as a penance.)

Yes, the USA - Boeing especially - didn't want to share the glory of a supersonic civil airliner

Boeing had a stranglehold on US aviation policy and still has, more than ever

The Americans had their own Concorde which was going to be bigger and better and everything, and failed to get off the drawing board.

For the very reasons the declined to get involved in Concorde ... SST was only ever going to be available to the rich and pampered, and it was politically impossible (for Americans) to stomach that. So no funding. No funding. No plane.

What is fascinating is that Obamacare - which put federal money towards the poorest in society - also received a bum rap.

Leading to a correct (and very simple) conclusion that at the heart of it all, Americans really begrudge paying any tax. Which makes them more of an anarchy than the more pragmatic Britain ...

What's peculairly American is the number of low-wage folks who vote for policies that cut the public services they depend on and cut the taxes they don't pay. They would be materially better off with the things they oppose, but they think not of how they are now but how they see themselves when they become rich and sucessful in the future, when they don't want to be paying any taxes.

(Spoiler alert: 99.9% of them don't get to be rich.)

The American public as a whole are made up for people who will become millionaires tomorrow. Hence they vote as they do. They'll benefit tomorrow, when they are rich too.

Americans believe in the myth of self sufficiency. Which quickly cracks apart if you have the misfortune to be I'll.

"SST was only ever going to be available to the rich and pampered, and it was politically impossible (for Americans) to stomach that."

Americans have continually voted to benefit the "rich and pampered" because so many Americans still believe they can be one of them someday ....

A joint project with France and the UK, instead of the USA leading the project and telling everyone else what to do

was never going to be acceptable

We have seen more clearly over the last few years how the USA hates to be bound by rules for other countries
and is busy actively wrecking the organisations that involve cooperation instead of US giving the orders
e.g. UN, WHO, NATO, ICC ....

However, that inclination has been there for several decades, ever since they became a superpower
and too big for their boots

Boeing receives massive subsidies from the US taxpayer .... for American projects

Boeing receives massive subsidies from the US taxpayer .... for American projects

(Looks at 737Max)

So, hows that working out for you then ?

Useful to watch video afterwards

Thursday: Chris Whitty on Coronavirus - lecture at Gresham College

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/covid-19?mc_cid=cde0b857f2

About voting for policies on the basis of “I’ll be rich one day...”

It’s a known cognitive bias to overestimate individual capabilities (most people rate themselves as above average in capability and as having better luck than average).

It’s also common to blame failure on “people interfering” or bad luck rather than taking stock of one’s capabilities and working out how to improve.

I’d generally the US population generally has quite a high appetite for risk- many are descendants of people who decided to brave the risks of travel and emigration (or are those people themselves).

Put those two together and you’ve got a recipe for the “American Dream to flourish, either as an ideal or a toxic sales pitch designed to make people happy to probably end up with the shitty end of the stick.

It’s like those surveys you’re asked to complete in exchange for a “chance to win”. Offering one prize worth £100 is a lot cheaper for the people writing the rules than paying everyone a pound.

Oh, and add in the pyramid scheme qualities of the “American Dream” as a concept to fuel immigration too.

It’s like an MLM.

Also add in the idea that God rewards true believers by making them wealthy

and punishes those who don't "deserve" heathcare, food, housing etc because they are "poor, lazy, feckless"
and didn't believe / pray hard enough that they could succeed

America?
I'd argue that Britons have recently been voting against their own interests. Maybe not to the same degree, but...