Westminstenders: How many Dead Cats Do You Get In A Thunderstorm?

[RedToothBrush]

It never rains. It only pours.

What I wouldn't give for a bit of old fashioned drizzle right now.

4 years on and we are facing a torment of calamities. Brexit, serious political instability in the USA ahead of an election that Trump will refuse to lose even if he does, trade deals with the rest of the world put on 6 week deadlines, anger within the commonwealth, a sick weak dependent PM on the back foot and ill briefed, rampant growing corruption in the Tory party, woke nut jobs out of touch with reality, councils on the brink of bankruptcy and the whole covid-19 crisis.

I think the government made a conscious choice to only release the information they did. Those figures suit the narrative they are playing to. The full figures don't. This government doesn't give a shit about the lives of people, only how much money they are making. Tier 1 figures = they make money, tier 2 figures= they lose money. So tier 1 it is, and if 10s of thousands lose their lives, so be it.

I’m in lockdown in Leicester, and there is widespread anger from people who have been checking the figures which showed us as low incidence and with a falling rate.
People are also angry that the lockdown was announced at 9.15;Pm, but the specific area was not released for 13 hours. No information given about stuff like bubbles and if we could still meet in our gardens. There is also a lot of racism about, with BAME communities being blamed for breaking rules.
The numbers don’t make sense to me but what I have noticed is that we are hearing a lot of sirens again, and I really need to find accurate information.
So DGR, the figures are important to me. And I hope you Enders keep bringing the good Covid info to my attention.
Thanks so much. You keep me sane.

‘Why weren’t we told?’: Anger in Yorkshire town at centre of major coronavirus outbreak kept secret by council

In a pandemic, trust is essential - the govt must share info and stop hiding things.
Otherwise, wild rumours will fly.

• if you think there has been "scare-mongering" before ....

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-yorkshire-cleckheaton-outbreak-meat-packing-plant-factory-a9576396.html

“If we disclose the location and name of any business or organisation we seriously risk discouraging others from coming forward.”
< that's not going to work >

Zebracat
The Leicester extra lockdown could have been done worse

possibly

So it was Cleckheaton not Keighley and not even really Kirklees, just a part of it. My social media today has been full today of people panicking, especially people shielding, not just in Keighley and Cleckheaton but also the outskirts of Leicester, not knowing if they are in or out. It is just so far from normal competent management and planning that you would think it was deliberate, I know you can debate whether this has pandemic response been cock up versus conspiracy but no denying this is, "don't know anyone who lives there , and don't care"

It is all driven by politics. We need to prove we acted decisively so let's close down a city, highlight clusters. Leaving communities scared and uncertain because they do not bother even to firm up the details before they spin it.

I know I am a broken record but in the countries that are on top of this and in my experience you get told where the outbreaks are (in Hong Kong's case the building, which is a street in the sky) and the means of transmission. Then your public health teams move in take appropriate action and advise and as an individual you act accordingly. Your risk is not subject to the priority of political spin instead of your safety.

Land tax won't happen as it will screw Dyson over..... I like that idea personally. Plus all those very expensive homes in London owned by offshore nationals would attract a tax that would ensure they contribute to the country.....

I completely agree Mashed potatoes- my DH and I were just discussing it. I can't believe it wasn't a conscious decision to paint the picture they wanted.
I think we have the reason that serco and Deloittes were used.
I would bet Whitty does have full visability if those numbers either.

Iirc - and I suspect this was the same for local health authorities/administrations around England - the devolved administrations were prevented from getting any (at first) data, or any useful breakdown of data, from the centralised privatised testing centres "because of GDPR"

This was supposed to have been resolved - but it looks like there is still an issue

V early Chinese vaccine approved for their military only - fit young guinea pigs ?

It will be interesting, but I'd presume they'd only inject a small % of them at this early stage, just in case ...

fortune.com/2020/06/29/china-coronavirus-vaccine-military/

Chinese troops will be among the first to get jabs of one of China’s leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

On Monday, the Chinese biotech firm CanSino Biologics said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange that

China’s Central Military Commission gave the go-ahead for China’s military to inject soldiers with Ad5-nCoV,
the company’s leading vaccine candidate, for a period of one year.

Wednesday papers:

what is that "Read how only the paranoid survive, Cummings tells Aides"?

Back in Brexitannia:

Barnier doesn’t pull any punches in a speech to Eurofi:

What does this mean in practice?

It means that you need to get ready for 1 January 2021!

 We now know that the transition period will not be extended.
 The EU was open to an extension. But the UK refused. It is the UK’s choice.

So, 1 January 2021 will bring big changes. UK firms will lose the benefit of the financial services passports.

This should not come as a surprise to you. We have been warning about this for the past 3 years.

ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/speech-barnier-eurofi-30062020_en.pdf

And the UK Government publishes its plans (in a PowerPoint) to keep trucks moving across the border on 1st Jan - using a new and (as yet) untested IT system, the Goods Vehicle Movement Service.

All consignments heading to RoRo ports will have to have a Goods Movement Reference in place before arriving at the port, assigned using the new IT system.

So, deal or no-deal, trucks will have to go through a new bureaucratic process, which relies on an IT system that is yet to be built, from a Government with a poor record on IT projects.

What could possibly go wrong?

what is that "Read how only the paranoid survive, Cummings tells Aides"?

Article says that Cummings has told staff to go away and read “Superforecasting” and “High Output Management” ready for an away day next month - the latter warns that “success breeds complacency” and “only the paranoid survive”.

^V early Chinese vaccine approved for their military only - fit young guinea pigs ?

It will be interesting, but I'd presume they'd only inject a small % of them at this early stage, just in case ...^

It's effectively a phase 3 trial on their own military ...

It wouldn't be considered ethical or be allowed in Europe but you can see why it's attractive to the Chinese. This is old vaccine technology, it appears to be safe and it appears to work, now they need to know if it actually protects people and whether there are any serious but rare adverse reactions which will only become visible in a larger trial.

And a military population makes follow-up extremely easy (no early withdrawals or patients lost to follow up...), while these are also young people who have a lot of social interactions. A potential issue in China is that with no community circulation of the coronavirus, vaccine subjects won't be exposed to the virus at all - but I assume that some Chinese military are active outside China in places that do have community covid transmission.

They will still need to do a proper phase 3 study of the vaccine in a population with active virus circulation though (unfortunately, this should not present a practical problem at the moment, it's just a question of getting regulatory approval).

the figures are important to me

They should be important to everyone who wants accurate information about how or whether the virus is circulating in their area. Where Leicester goes today, other cities may follow.

Article says that Cummings has told staff to go away and read “Superforecasting” and “High Output Management” ready for an away day next month - the latter warns that “success breeds complacency” and “only the paranoid survive”

He had a knack for slogans and using SM micro targeting for manipulation. But this genuinely confirms we have a madman effectively in charge of our government. The owners and editors of the British press have so much to answer for.

I keep thinking 'it can't get any worse' and then it does.

“success breeds complacency"

Well they've not got to worry about complacency at least

Cummings basically giving them self help books to become... millionaires? Wtf. He really doesn't get what the Civil Servants do, does he?

Why is Johnson allowing all this nonsense from Cummings? Doesn't he realise that it makes him look weak? Or more weak, I should say.

Bozo couldn't be in charge of his own shoelaces. He is the puppet.

IMO it's why he said it was on him re PPE and that COVID was a disaster. Cummings shifting blame telling Bozo he needs to show humility. This despite all of us knowing it is Cummings who decides what Bozo sees daily.

DrBlackbird pp upthread, agree entirely just when you think it can’t get any worse it does.

In a pandemic, trust is essential - the govt must share info and stop hiding things.
“If we disclose the location and name of any business or organisation we seriously risk discouraging others from coming forward.” < that's not going to work >

Just to point out that the quotation above comes from the local council spokesperson;

"Yet despite the calls for greater transparency across the town, Kirklees Council [Labour controlled] itself stands by its decision not to tell people what was happening."

"A spokesperson said: “We want all businesses to act in the same responsible way as this one has done because it has helped us contain the spread in the fastest way possible."

“If we disclose the location and name of any business or organisation we seriously risk discouraging others from coming forward.”

"It is not clear if Kirklees Council would have announced the outbreak at all if the Health Secretary had not mentioned it during the daily briefing last Thursday."

See also: Prof. Alice Roberts and Francis Pryor ("Fascist drivel")

clavinova A major problem for the whole country is that central government is keeping secrets, in particular the pillar 2 tests, even from local authorities

The Uk is one of the most centralised democracies in the world, so national govt secrecy is dominant
Yes, some local authorities are also keeping secrets

Sadly, "Secrecy is the British disease"

It goes on under all parties,
but is particularly damaging during a pandemic when public trust & cooperation is vital
and is completely against international public health recommendations

Knowledge is power
and those who rule in the UK have never wanted to share even this little bit of power with ordinary people