FlyTheNest

Morning all.

Morning all.

I saw David Irving trending - yes, that one - and for a moment thought me might had died.

Nope, it's just that Michael Gove has a copy of one of his books on his shelf...and Atlas Shrugged and the Bell Curve.

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The thing that struck me most is how disorganised it is.

Let's get out of the EU and cut all that red tape! Oh wait...

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Jim Pickard
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Meanwhile, in another galaxy, ministers are stepping up plans to train up to 50,000 people needed to fill in customs forms for post-Brexit trade with the EU through the creation of a special academy.

https://www.ft.com/content/3c1ae9bd-97e ... d0d5b8f4ff" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; … via @financialtimes

Yes, an academy. So yes, this is pure-Gove...

Oops!

Lewis Goodall
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NEW: Conor Burns, trade minister and long standing Boris Johnson ally resigns after the publication of this report from Parliament’s Standards Committee. Report says that he threatened use of parliamentary privilege to intimidate a member of the public. https://www.parliament.uk/business/comm ... hed-19-21/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

its a morning for resignations, with Jennie Formby announcing she is standing down as Labour's Gen Sec.

Finally an article about something I've been wondering about, who's still at work in the UK:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureco ... -as-usual/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Don’t buy the lockdown lie – this is a government of business as usual
In England there is no new legislation to protect workers' safety, and remarkably little to enforce workplace lockdown, despite what the media tells you.

A lot of the time, it has actually been left up to the employer. Some have been understanding of the present situation, others rather less so.

AnatolyKasparov wrote:A lot of the time, it has actually been left up to the employer. Some have been understanding of the present situation, others rather less so.

Exactly, leaving us with a "lockdown" that is potentially far less effective than some of the more extreme measures employed by Spain and Italy to successfully get their infection rates down. What happens here if our infection rate persists at the same higher levels? Do we follow suit with a tighter lockdown? Because a track and trace approach to preventing a second wave is surely only possible if you've reduced the infection rate sufficiently with lockdown to make implementation of such a manpower heavy operation feasible. If we ease restrictions from where we are right now we're straight back to the managing the spread to not overwhelm the NHS approach that we started with and not a real attempt at stopping the spread and saving lives at all.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Canaries down the coalmine.

Under 300 virus deaths announced today, we've got a while to go yet but at least things are moving in the right direction.

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Under 300 virus deaths announced today, we've got a while to go yet but at least things are moving in the right direction.

number of new Covid-19 cases is high

How is the virus moving through the UK population?

citizenJA wrote:

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Under 300 virus deaths announced today, we've got a while to go yet but at least things are moving in the right direction.

number of new Covid-19 cases is high

As I said, we are still some way from out of the woods - only a very gradual lifting of lockdown should be attempted.

Interesting to see which Tory Minister invested in the AI company given shedloads of taxpayer cash.

Vote Leave AI firm wins seven government contracts in 18 months

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... -18-months

An artificial intelligence startup that was hired to work with Dominic Cummings on the Vote Leave campaign has been awarded at least seven government contracts worth almost £1m in the space of 18 months.

Faculty, which has links to senior Tory figures in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, is rapidly expanding its reach into various corners of Whitehall and last year was tasked with finding ways to apply artificial intelligence across government.

A Cabinet Office minister, Theodore Agnew, who is responsible for the government department that promotes the use of digital technology within public services, is resisting calls to sell a £90,000 shareholding in the company amid claims of a conflict of interest.

Ah yes, the Theodore Agnew who initially was a non-exec Directory of the DfE while Gove was SoS and Cummungs his right hand man...

Funny that.

Willow904 wrote:

AnatolyKasparov wrote:A lot of the time, it has actually been left up to the employer. Some have been understanding of the present situation, others rather less so.

Exactly, leaving us with a "lockdown" that is potentially far less effective than some of the more extreme measures employed by Spain and Italy to successfully get their infection rates down. What happens here if our infection rate persists at the same higher levels? Do we follow suit with a tighter lockdown? Because a track and trace approach to preventing a second wave is surely only possible if you've reduced the infection rate sufficiently with lockdown to make implementation of such a manpower heavy operation feasible. If we ease restrictions from where we are right now we're straight back to the managing the spread to not overwhelm the NHS approach that we started with and not a real attempt at stopping the spread and saving lives at all.

The company I work for is preparing to bring some people back from furlough. We're having to make safety procedures up, as there is absolutely no guidance.

I went to the DfE website to find those "transparent" board minutes which told you nothing whatsoever and found this.

https://www.gov.uk/government/people/nick-timothy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So Nick Timothy is now a non-exec Director at DfE.

He is an author, a newspaper columnist and a member of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee.

At the Daily Telegraph. So look out for education "exclusives" from now on.

There are 2,033 people in hospital with COVID-19 in London, compared to 2,191 in the north west, according to figures released at Sunday's Downing Street press conference.
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The peak of the virus appears to have been on April 15 in the north west, while it London it is believed to have occurred on April 8.

On Sunday, the number of confirmed infections in Greater Manchester went up by 455 to 7,246 - by far the biggest daily increase so far.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... l-18193723" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(cJA bold)
I've no reason to doubt this is accurate. It scares the hell out of me.

Goodnight, everyone.
love,
cJA

citizenJA wrote:

There are 2,033 people in hospital with COVID-19 in London, compared to 2,191 in the north west, according to figures released at Sunday's Downing Street press conference.
---
The peak of the virus appears to have been on April 15 in the north west, while it London it is believed to have occurred on April 8.

On Sunday, the number of confirmed infections in Greater Manchester went up by 455 to 7,246 - by far the biggest daily increase so far.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... l-18193723" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(cJA bold)
I've no reason to doubt this is accurate. It scares the hell out of me.

edit:- had thought it was possibly just a reflection on testing rates going up, but having read similar article in guardian, I've changed my mind.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... oronavirus" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"We have identified 297 societal options to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission or spread"
https://covid-19.biorisc.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This work is a collaboration between BioRISC (the
Biosecurity Research Initiative at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge), Conservation Evidence based in the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge and the
Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. It was created by documenting our experience of options, consulting guidance, contacting people working in different countries to explore the range of options and crowd-sourcing ideas through social media. We welcome suggestions for options missed (especially those implemented outside of the UK), innovations for novel options or means of improving existing options. Please contact
biorisc@caths.cam.ac.uk .

I liked the idea of people cutting each others hair whilst receiving expert advice via webcam, bit like the 'golden shot', up a bit, down a bit, snip...
Other options listed bit more restrictive & depressing.