FlyTheNest

'Greed' and 'capitalism' helped UK's vaccines success, says PM

Whether this is true or not is another matter, and one of the reasons the remark is attracting so much attention is that the UK vaccine programme, which has involved massive government investment (even to the extent of the state building its own vaccine factory), AstraZeneca selling the vaccine at cost in the developing world (the very opposite of “greed”) and distribution of jabs via a state-run health service, could be a textbook example of how profit is not the solution to everything.

Willow904 wrote:https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-politic ... ssion=true

'Greed' and 'capitalism' helped UK's vaccines success, says PM

The weirdest thing about this is how back to front it actually is. It was old-fashioned academic research in the pursuit of knowledge, and a lucky break, that gave the Astrazeneca vaccine a head start. Early development relied on regular university research funding - not capitalism at all:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55041371" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Zoe Gardner
@ZoeJardiniere
Replying to
@ZoeJardiniere
But Patel does NOT want a streamlined and efficient asylum system.
She wants permanent crisis. She wants headlines about illegality & smugglers. As long as her solutions do nothing to address the real issues she can play to her base.
She wants a mess & she's got it. #r4today

citizenJA wrote: Is there anything too absurd or injurious Johnson may say or do that'll throw him out of office?

gilsey wrote:

citizenJA wrote: Is there anything too absurd or injurious Johnson may say or do that'll throw him out of office?

Nah. In this case I think he was just cracking a joke, crass and stupid as usual for him.

Has everyone read this, you might have been put off by the 'long read' but it isn't too long.

The clown king: how Boris Johnson made it by playing the fool

"...Johnson is an act, a construct, a mask the better to advance the whole confidence trick...
...a great deal of “Boris Johnson” makes perfect sense if all it’s about is just the unquenchable craving for applause and adulation.
That also provides some mitigation for his almost pathological propensity for bare-faced lying: if it’s only an act, these are merely the lines you speak and none of it’s actually “true” anyway."

citizenJA wrote:The UK's median age is what? It's over forty years, I think. Over fifteen percent of the UK population is over seventy. I don't think we're statistically likely to revolt. Johnson and the Tory party are probably acting with that knowledge.

I think recent legislation protecting statues and making raised voices a crime is a test to find out what we'll collectively tolerate.

Kill the Bill protesters forcibly removed from College Green on another night of conflict