FlyTheNest

Dominic Cummings and family ‘avoid huge council tax bill on Durham properties’

gilsey wrote:Not sure I buy the Band A and Band C either.

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Anybody any clearer about anything on the government's virus response than they were yesterday?

citizenJA wrote:

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Anybody any clearer about anything on the government's virus response than they were yesterday?

No.

AnatolyKasparov wrote:

citizenJA wrote:

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Anybody any clearer about anything on the government's virus response than they were yesterday?

No.

Thought not, just checking

citizenJA wrote:

gilsey wrote:Not sure I buy the Band A and Band C either.

?!

lisa o'carroll
@lisaocarroll
NEW: Govt to install portaloos for drivers on Kent roads in case of Brexit congestion

Transport min Rachel MacLean: "we have detailed plans that we've worked up for provision of not only portaloos but other facilities for drivers"

These pictures Shame our City, attacking our brave Police Officers is unacceptable. Our Health Service is creaking, 300 in Hospital & 30 people dead in week Face screaming in fear ignoring these facts is why we are in Tier 3 measures.

I walked home through town from the studio last night and the bars and restaurants were deserted apart from the student hotspots. Don’t start blaming this city, making out this is our fault when thousands of students have been enrolled here for university life when it’s not safe

Sky'sGoneOut wrote:---
Most of the responses aren't blaming the students but asking what the hell they're still doing there when they're a danger to themselves and everyone else in the city.

A question many of us in similarly affected cities would like answered.

AnatolyKasparov wrote:Starmer on very good form last night, and again at PMQs today.

PorFavor wrote:Universities are now predominantly engines for making money rather than places of education (that now comes a poor second). That, I think, goes a long way to answering the question.

"...the dashboard says there have been at least 57,690 deaths where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate."
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... c87240255a" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Deaths with COVID-19 on the death certificate
Weekly number of deaths where COVID-19 is mentioned as a cause on the death certificate, registered during the week ending Friday, 2 October 2020.
Weekly
343
Total
57,690
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/deaths" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sky'sGoneOut wrote:We've got a new Coronavirus interactive map today from gov.uk.

https://coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk ... active-map

And guess what? It's junk.

The colours representing infection rates are clearly wrong, for example 0-10 is supposed to be yellow and I can't see any yellow anywhere on the map. The 'Case rate compared to national average' indicator (blue good/red bad) has obviously been set to work the wrong way round. There are huge areas of missing data and on top of that it keeps crashing altogether.

I'm guessing one of Cummings mates produced it for about £10 million.

PorFavor wrote:Universities are now predominantly engines for making money rather than places of education (that now comes a poor second). That, I think, goes a long way to answering the question.

England, Wales and Scotland among worst countries for excess deaths during pandemic, report says

An international study led by academics from Imperial College London has concluded that, out of 21 industrialised countries, England, Wales and Scotland had among the highest rates of excess deaths between February and May, during the first wave of the pandemic.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... 22e43fad4e" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

citizenJA wrote:have they called you yet, PorFavor? To fix it?

citizenJA wrote:I've re-read Ethan Frome. I should've taken up adam's book club suggestion and read the more cheerful Heart of Darkness instead.

PorFavor wrote:

citizenJA wrote:have they called you yet, PorFavor? To fix it?

Yes. "GIGO," I said.

PorFavor wrote:Some of them have connections to Dido Harding.

PorFavor wrote:

citizenJA wrote:I've re-read Ethan Frome. I should've taken up adam's book club suggestion and read the more cheerful Heart of Darkness instead.

Indeed. Many's the time I've had a good chortle over Heart of Darkness!

PorFavor wrote:

PorFavor wrote:

citizenJA wrote:have they called you yet, PorFavor? To fix it?

Yes. "GIGO," I said.

(Last I heard, they were trying to fix it by inserting a leg of lamb.)

The UK has recorded 19,724 new coronavirus cases - a new daily record and an increase of almost 2,500 (or 14%) on the figure for yesterday.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... 6165ffc2b1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Magnitude, demographics and dynamics of the effect of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on all-cause mortality in 21 industrialized countries

From mid-February through May 2020, 206,000 (95% credible interval, 178,100–231,000) more people died in these countries than would have had the pandemic not occurred. The number of excess deaths, excess deaths per 100,000 people and relative increase in deaths were similar between men and women in most countries.

England and Wales and Spain experienced the largest effect: ~100 excess deaths per 100,000 people, equivalent to a 37% (30–44%) relative increase in England and Wales and 38% (31–45%) in Spain.

Bulgaria, New Zealand, Slovakia, Australia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Norway, Denmark and Finland experienced mortality changes that ranged from possible small declines to increases of 5% or less in either sex.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1112-0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

citizenJA wrote:Starmer reminds me of Al Gore a little bit.
Solid, boring, competent, trustworthy, rather wooden, probably Superman beneath their suits

Coronavirus live news: France declares public health state of emergency as president addresses the nation

AnatolyKasparov wrote:

citizenJA wrote:Starmer reminds me of Al Gore a little bit.
Solid, boring, competent, trustworthy, rather wooden, probably Superman beneath their suits

Of course, Gore has become a bit more "interesting" since his agonisingly close 2000 failure.

UK govt is paying management consultants the equivalent of million and a half pound salaries to work on Test & Trace.
I’ve seen documents showing senior staff from Boston Consulting Group are being paid day rates of around £7k, equivalent to £1.5m on an annual basis.

The docs show some BCG consultants charging day rates of £7,360. They’ve given govt a “COVID discount” of 10-15%. That works out at £6.6k a day - equivalent to £1.5m a year. In a single week govt is paying these senior consultants more than they pay an experienced nurse in a year

Labour MP Toby Perkins raised the matter during a House of Commons debate on contact-tracing on Wednesday afternoon.

Referring to his previous career in the sales industry, Mr Perkins also told MPs: "I never came across a customer nearly as naive as what we have with the government."

"I just wish that at some point in my life I could have come across a customer with as much money as the government has, as willing to be so easily impressed as this government is, and as willing to give it to people and then defend the people who let them down as a supplier," he added.

Sky'sGoneOut wrote:I wish someone would pay me 7 grand a day to have a marginal impact.

That's more in a day than my ESA pays for a whole year.

And for what?

What tangible results have we seen for this money? Because I've noticed when trying to defend the test and trace system these days even Hancock barely tries to make out that it's any good, he just blathers on about how quickly it was set up and how big it is.

So what? Give us £12 billion and I'm pretty confident that as a group we could quickly produce a bloated system that didn't work while skimming off millions of quid for ourselves and giving jobs to our mates.