Thursday 20th May 2021

[refitman]

Morning all.

[Willow904]

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... ssion=true

Most Covid patients in East Lancashire hospital had jab, says council leader
Stop blaming vaccine hesitancy for spread of India Covid variant, says Mohammed Khan

What the government is doing is divisive and dangerous. Even with two doses there will always be a small percentage of people who remain vulnerable. A responsible government would be working out what long term sustainable measures can be used to effectively keep the risk of importing new cases to a minimum rather than indulging in victim blaming and scapegoating. I would like to hope people will see through their attempts to evade accountability but I don't suppose they will.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Rumours that an "interesting" poll of Chesham/Amersham could be on the way.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Covid: Test and Trace failure helped Indian variant spread, report says.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57186059

Failures in England's test-and-trace system are partly responsible for a surge in the Indian variant in one of the worst affected parts of the country, a report seen by the BBC says.

For three weeks in April and May, eight local authorities in England did not have access to the full data on positive tests in their area.

The number of missing cases was highest in Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire.

[AnatolyKasparov]

"Great British Railways", then. Are they also bringing back the glorious BR pork pie?

[Willow904]

If a Labour government presided over an expensive failure like track and trace we'd never hear the end of it from the media. Remember the fuss made about some early issues with the child tax credits. Or the less than successful NHS computer upgrade.
Yet the costly travesty that is track and trace is being ignored in favour of plugging the government line that it's all our fault - despite a very decent uptake of the vaccine and really quite good adherence to covid guidelines by the vast majority of individuals.
As Sky points out, it feels like we're all having to change our dates for second vaccines (yet again pointlessly tying NHS staff on the phone) not because of good scientific reasons but so the government can be seen to doing something, while not doing what they should be doing, which is dump the clueless private sector and give the money to local public health teams to do the job properly.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Following up on yesterday's Michael Rosen story that Refitman highlighted, tragically it seems the Twitter account of the perpetrator has shuffled off this digital coil.

https://twitter.com/petenewbon?lang=en

[AnatolyKasparov]

They may have just "de-activated" until the present storm has passed, though.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Agree 100% with both your posts above Willow.

As far as I'm aware we have the highest vaccine take up percentage in the world and yet, (and I wouldn't recommend this) if you read the comments under that BBC article I posted above half of them are saying the government are doing a brilliant job and it's all the fault of the feckless public. Although quite how ordinary members of the public could be responsible for the failure of a government outsourced IT system is quite beyond me.

I cancelled my second vaccine appointment this morning and will book another one in 4 weeks time. If anyone asks why I'll simply say I'm following the science.

[gilsey]

it's all the fault of the feckless public

Govt message has got less and less subtle as the pandemic's gone on.
Far too many people take it on board.

[gilsey]

Great thread.

[refitman]

Covid: Test and Trace failure helped Indian variant spread, report says.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57186059

Failures in England's test-and-trace system are partly responsible for a surge in the Indian variant in one of the worst affected parts of the country, a report seen by the BBC says.

For three weeks in April and May, eight local authorities in England did not have access to the full data on positive tests in their area.

The number of missing cases was highest in Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire.

Don't worry, it was only a "glitch", according to Laura K

[refitman]

Following up on yesterday's Michael Rosen story that Refitman highlighted, tragically it seems the Twitter account of the perpetrator has shuffled off this digital coil.

https://twitter.com/petenewbon?lang=en

[AnatolyKasparov]

it's all the fault of the feckless public

Govt message has got less and less subtle as the pandemic's gone on.
Far too many people take it on board.

They've been saying it pretty much from the start tbh, one of the few things they have been consistent on.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

They may have just "de-activated" until the present storm has passed, though.

Yup, he's back. Despite the Guardian saying the account had been deleted.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Yay, Devi Sridhar.

[AnatolyKasparov]

Nick Thomas-Symonds - he lives!

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Oh dear Zahawi stammering and sweating his way through trying to justify why they didn't place India on the red list earlier. He appears to persuade no one. Which is no surpise because he's transparently lying.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I'd love to know what 'innovations' Harriet Green thinks the private sector brought to our railways besides slurping up subsidies and gouging their customers.

Even the tories in the audience think privatisation has been a failure.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Idiot in audience thinks we can feed ourselves by going 'homegrown'. Tower block rooves covered in cows.

(Edited because the plural of roof is not roofs).

[PorFavor]

British Rail may have had many faults but, at its worst, I don't remember it rivalling the awfulness of the expensive privatised disaster which succeeded it. It's now accepted as a given that BR was a failure and it's used to garner an unjustifiable cheap laugh.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Quick review.

Nick Thomas-Symonds - The best thing that can be said for him, in response to Anatoly's post above, is that he did show signs of life, in as much as he appeared conscious and capable of expressing thought. The problem was it was very much life as we know it. There was no spontaneity, no passion, no originality to those thoughts. I doubt he'd have passed the Turing test. A well programmed Labour bot could have replaced him and nobody would have noticed.

Nadhim Zahawi - You'd think the one guy in this government most responsible for the vaccine rollout would be able to sit back and rest on his laurels but oh no, poor old Nadhim had to face hostile questions, lie through his teeth to defend government failures, sweat profusely, stammer, try to reel out the Captain Hindsight thing the Tories stole from South Park, all to no avail. What an utter chump. His party has used and abused him for years, he must be one of their most prolific performers on QT, pushed out in front of the public to take the flack and act as a human shield. It's tragic to watch him, knowing he's at the peak of his political career and yet the Tories still see him as cannon fodder. An acceptable loss. What a fool.

Harriet Green - Once again I fail to be surprised by the fact that successful business people can be a bit dim.

Richard Walker - Once again I fail to be surprised by the fact that successful business people can be a bit dim.

Devi Sridhar - Pulled her punches a bit tonight I thought but I was mostly just wondering if she'd like it if I sent her a poem with some flowers or if I should challenge Andrew Neil to a duel. He really hates her and I reckon I could take him.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

(Edit. I changed my mind.)

[PorFavor]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I was 8 years old. Fuck off.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[Sky'sGoneOut]