Tuesday 24th November 2020

[refitman]

Morning all.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Good morefternoon, anything happening?

[Willow904]

Well, there's this:

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HealthServiceJournal
@HSJnews
Hancock "I want to have a change in the British way of doing things, when if in doubt you get a test not just for covid.. Why in Britain do we solider on with flu symptoms and go in and make everyone ill. We are peculiar unusual outliers in soldiering on. That should change". 1/2

Ooh, I don't know Matt, let me think..... is it because if you don't go to work, you don't get paid and wages are so low in this country that one day without pay means not being able to pay your bills. And even if you can afford a day off you'll never hear the end of it from your boss, who likes to run his business with as few staff as possible to maximise profit so is really stuck if you don't come in. Not to mention your colleagues, who berate you for being a wuss, claiming they've never been off ill a day in their life, only to then need a month off themselves for something most people only take a week for.

Though given Tory types like Hancock are the main instigators of these type of attitudes I'm surprised he needs to ask the question, really. Surely he must know.

[Willow904]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... ssion=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

School attendance plunges due to Covid as a fifth of secondary pupils stuck at home
A staggering 22% of all state secondary pupils in England are now at home as of November 19 - many of them due to Covid-19

There's been very little in the media about what's happening in schools but I think there needs to be. Some year 11 & 13 pupils will have missed a month of school already, while others have missed none. Also some pupils still don't have the means to access online learning. The impacts are therefore very unevenly distributed and will leave some unlucky pupils severely disadvantaged by the time they take exams in the summer.

[gilsey]

On October 7, John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills in the Scottish Parliament, announced that the Scottish National 5 exams (equivalent to GCSEs) will be cancelled for 2021. In their stead, the 80,000 pupils who usually sit the exams will be assessed on coursework and teacher judgement.

Scotland leading probably means England less likely to follow.

[gilsey]

Re Hancock and testing, don't you think he's just trying to find a post-pandemic use for the exorbitant lab capacity?

[gilsey]

Thread. Read it and weep.

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Stephen Grey
@StephenGrey
Replying to
@StephenGrey
The national “contact tracing” service – outside genuine work of local outbreak teams – is hardly contact tracing at all. No detective work. Focused on household contacts. As one Public Health Director put it, “more like a reminder service or something. Like a Library .." 9/19

[citizenJA]

Good afternoon, everyone.

[GetYou]

@Femi_Sorry
So it turns out that every Coronavirus Briefing the government gave in March and April was just an informal colloquial chat. Nothing to take too seriously...
#WeFollowedTheScience

[AnatolyKasparov]

On October 7, John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills in the Scottish Parliament, announced that the Scottish National 5 exams (equivalent to GCSEs) will be cancelled for 2021. In their stead, the 80,000 pupils who usually sit the exams will be assessed on coursework and teacher judgement.

Scotland leading probably means England less likely to follow.

Or they will follow, and then claim it was their own idea all along?

[PorFavor]

Good morfternoon.

Trial of Brexit border checks causes five-mile lorry queues in Kent

Queues of trucks stretching for five miles unexpectedly built up in Kent on Tuesday after the French started a trial of post-Brexit checks in Calais.

Lorries on their way across the English channel were forced to stop in long lines up to junction 11 on the M20 as they tried to approach the Eurotunnel entrance just outside Folkestone.

The queues give a glimpse of things to come in January whether a deal is reached or not with the government last month warning of queues of 7,000 lorries on the main motorway routes to both Eurotunnel and Dover ferries in the worst-case scenario. (Guardian - my emphasis)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... es-in-kent

[PorFavor]

PM's ethics adviser queries Johnson's role in Priti Patel inquiry

Boris Johnson’s adviser on ethical standards has questioned whether the prime minister should maintain sole responsibility for the ministerial code days after an outcry over the decision not to sack Priti Patel for bullying staff.

Jonathan Evans, the chair of the committee on standards in public life, said the PM having sole discretion over both launching investigations and deciding to punish an errant minister risked looking like “marking your own homework”. (Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... el-inquiry

[AnatolyKasparov]

Biden has just passed 80 million votes. Quite impressive to "steal an election" in that way.

[citizenJA]

Biden has just passed 80 million votes. Quite impressive to "steal an election" in that way.

Over 52% of the US electorate voted for Biden

[AnatolyKasparov]

Trump still won most of the "good votes, as opposed to real votes" though.

[RogerOThornhill]

Evening all.

Good thread on UK development aid and why it shouldn't be cut from a somewhat unlikely source.

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[gilsey]

Good morfternoon.

Trial of Brexit border checks causes five-mile lorry queues in Kent

Queues of trucks stretching for five miles unexpectedly built up in Kent on Tuesday after the French started a trial of post-Brexit checks in Calais.

Lorries on their way across the English channel were forced to stop in long lines up to junction 11 on the M20 as they tried to approach the Eurotunnel entrance just outside Folkestone.

The queues give a glimpse of things to come in January whether a deal is reached or not with the government last month warning of queues of 7,000 lorries on the main motorway routes to both Eurotunnel and Dover ferries in the worst-case scenario. (Guardian - my emphasis)

'unexpectedly'

[PorFavor]

Ha! Yes - that struck a chord with you, too, eh? Life's full of surprises . . .

[citizenJA]

Goodnight, everyone.
love,
cJA

[PorFavor]

Brexit
UK facing risk of 'systemic economic crisis', official paper says

Exclusive: Cabinet Office briefing seen by Guardian warns that Brexit, Covid, flu, flooding and unrest could lead to chaos (Guardian)

Meanwhile, all eyes on Christmas . . .

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... paper-says

[AnatolyKasparov]

Brexit
UK facing risk of 'systemic economic crisis', official paper says

Exclusive: Cabinet Office briefing seen by Guardian warns that Brexit, Covid, flu, flooding and unrest could lead to chaos (Guardian)

Meanwhile, all eyes on Christmas . . .

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... paper-says

But apart from that its all going swimmingly?