Westminstenders: Following the EU lead

[RedToothBrush]

Coronavirus poses a particularly Irish shaped question. How the UK responds to Irish plans for ending lockdown and whether Arlene continues to back an all Ireland plan will be fascinating to watch and see justified regardless of which way we go.

The UK for all its new found independence is looking very closely to the success / failure of EU strategies before making our own plan public. Mainly because we've yet to write one.

Johnson hasn't led much. He's delegated. Yet he gets all the praise for doing the sum total of fuck all and never being the bad guy. There always another fall guy to blame.

Economically we are stuffed and promises of a very quick bounce back don't look likely based on public confidence and willingness to return to places like pubs restaurants and shops.

Our ability to adapt to new conditions at short notice has been tested and businesses can not afford to do this again soon.

This is the background to which we go into talks. Both sides need an extension to serve their best interests. Johnson is determined to cut our nose of to spite our face for the sake of his legacy and to keep those paying the back handers and dodging tax happy.

I have a very small hope that the IoW is just the pilot version, and that enough screaming about privacy and security has been happening for them to backtrack on several of those data decisions before they decide to rollout nationally.

A bit like Zoom managed to secure their calls AFTER the pornbombing started, but not before.

Oh, Prof Ferguson.

Ferguson (Imperial) quits after it is revealed his married lover visited him twice during lockdown

Always baffling when people in the public eye think they can get away with breaking the rules

• when they know they have angered a great swathe of opinion and the media, hence are under deep scrutiny

Was the Petronella Wyatt cutting on this thread, where she said that the married men in govt wanted the lock down lifted because they were stuck with their wives instead of being able to nip out to see their mistresses? Seems like she was on to something.

Well I criticised CMO Calderwood for breaking her own rules, so I’d better say the same of Prof Ferguson hadn’t i? Not, sure when this story broke, just seen it pop up, but at least he’s gone quickly. Shame to lose any member of SAGE at this critical time, but he really had no option IMO.

Ferguson's data was the story in Private Eye last time
for his personal life to become the story too was daft

twitter.com/BillHanage/status/1256422856436613126

If you see people panicking over what I think is a completely irresponsible media story about a "more contagious" form of the virus, please can you drop them this very informative link? I've had some scared friends and family in touch with me today about the Sky News coverage (see image).

It's overblown and overhyped and I can't even blame the press officer for the uni this time because the authors are out there scaremongering.

Oh, Prof Ferguson.

Just relayed this to DH. His response: “What was the headline? The boffing boffin?”

I am 100% sure that the only deal Johnson and his right wing want is one with the USA. and this the NHS will still get the blame when it inevitably goes horribly wrong are and have to be linked in order for the NHS not to be an obstacle to the former. The UK will be 'broke' and unable to invest In public services and a 'great deal' with the US will be portrayed as being saviours of the NHS.

BigChoc I see that we are both realists cynics...

Well that headline put the frightenerson me MShip.
Thanks for the calming link.

How irresponsible

I think we all knew this on here but www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/michael-goves-bookshelf-contains-some-questionable-inclusions/04/05/?fbclid=IwAR28eVGB11XiJwwv2J9_PC9TKG8kU4d8BUr2VpcBmQNZT9zy8DhdjQqkPAY Gove's bookshelf has been getting some attention

That BBC article is despicable. What a shockingly misleading bloody graph. Putting the US at the top of 'who the UK trades with' and separating out the EU countries as if somehow we'd be negotiating different deals with each of them?! What? Would it be too big a dose of realism for Brits to see in black and white that the uk trades nearly twice as much with the EU than the US?? I really didn't think the BBC was pro-brexit until now...

BBC sucking up to those who control its licence fee

It really is blatant, but feeds into the Brexiter illusion that the UK can strike deals with individual EU countries
It can't
EU members share in the EU trade deals, negotiated using its clout of being an economic & regulatory superpower

Front page of Times. Theresa May critises International cooperation around covid-19...

twitter.com/ncasenmare/status/1257352434428645379

One for DGR

Let's say 1 person who's convinced of misinformation, on average, convinces 3 others. This means R0 = 3.

But! If you teach just 67% of people basic epidemiology/statistics, you can get R < 1, containing the info-demic!

This is called "nerd immunity"

Re: lockdown flauting

So the scottish medical officer has resigned and Ferguson has resigned... but Jenricks continues in post?

And Johnson can stay in whichever house he likes?

Man what a time to be a tory.

There are certainly a lot of dead cat headlines today and not that many on our terrible death rates.

The comments on the BBC article are infuriating. So, so, wrong. Actually factually wrong. People have swallowed the anti EU line and they don't have the first idea of how it works.

I'm still interested in this whole tracing app security story. This is the National Cyber Skills Centre explanation on how the app works, and why they think it's not a data security threat to citizens:

www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/security-behind-nhs-contact-tracing-app

A very good point...... though I don't think anyone here will be surprised that BJ/DC will continue to work to make the house irrelevant

twitter.com/jessphillips/status/1257791338793361411

squid
The weekly ONS data came out yesterday and the excess deaths are still high but the actual effect will only become clear by the end of the year

I HOPE that the focus on testing and PPE will ensure that even when things calm down, more awareness of key stuff like PPE and staffing rotas will trickle into NHS planning
sadly at the moment Johnson is allowing everything to be privatised behind a cloak of Pandemic

Where I was working yesterday they were running a community sewing scrubs and laundry bags to provide to nursing homes and care workers
to take the pressure off NHS supplies
that awareness will last a long time
and will reduce infection rates for all diseases across the sector
a good thing

Scottish MO and Ferguson resigning, but Jenricks and Johnson staying in post - shows that some people can dig deep and find a smidgen of integrity.

Reflecting on May rearing her head, I couldn't but help to think that someone who tries to execute a project which they don't agree with is almost certain to fail.

Good to see that the Speaker is not afraid to criticise the Government. (jessphillips tweet)
I think the Tories thought he would be a tame yes man. Maybe he will end up being detested by the Tories as Bercow was.

So you (it will have be be, because I won't) get the "app".

You set it up as per.

It goes to work, doing it's magick. Silently pinging anyone else who has the "app" in it's vicinity using the low-energy bluetooth stack (which is only available when the phone isn't locked by the way).

Over time it builds up a list of people you have been near.

Then you suddenly think "I might have C19". You inform the app, which then informs it's Lords and Masters, and they then inform all those people you've had "contact" with, and informs them to self isolate for 14 days?

There are already forums full of people saying that it would only take a few people to lie and the whole "app" userbase would end up having to self isolate.

Or (as I suspect) is the data from the "app" not going to be used to inform people they have been exposed ?

In which case what was the point ?

It's hard not to see this as the "app" equivalent of getting MI5 to tail a terrorist suspect only to do nothing when they act.

(Personally discussing the "app" is a hypothetical since I won't be enjoying it.)