Thursday 2nd December 2021

[refitman]

Morning all.

[gilsey]

[AnatolyKasparov]

Bit quiet yesterday, can we make today busier?

[refitman]

Remember when Glenn Greewald was normal?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

That's me boosterised. With Moderna this time.

Total shambles at the vaccination place. I had a time slot but it was rendered meaningless because they'd run out of vaccines last week and were catching up, which basically meant they were double booked. The queue was taking nearly and hour and couldn't fit inside the tiny GP surgery so the first half an hour was spent outside. Because I'd walked there I was well wrapped up but some people who'd driven were in their ordinary clothes and it was pretty cold so there was quite a bit of shivering and grumbling going on. Personally I'd have been happier staying out in the fresh air until someone called me in.

Now I play the side effect waiting game.

[frog222]

@Sky Tiny premises not recommended these days ...

Good luck on the rest !

[frog222]

Well well well, they finally found a Tory for the panel !

Just what we need, the Vaccines Minister --

[frog222]

[frog222]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I like Thangam, especially her taste in jumpers.

[frog222]

Natalie Kenny of BioGrad Diagnostics accused some competitors of buying tests from her company for £50 and advertising them on their own websites at huge mark ups to unsuspecting members of the public preparing to travel to and from the UK.

She claims to have reported a number of these “profiteering” firms to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), but said that even when companies are removed from the Government’s list of PCR test providers, some simply reapply for accreditation under new names and reappear.

The Government has admitted that the providers listed on its own webpage “may be at various stages of the accreditation process” and “may not have full accreditation” – in order to appear on the list, providers only need to have complied with “the required minimum standards as they progress through the process

”.

https://inews.co.uk/news/travel-profite ... es-1330514

English Capitalism does have its own special odour !

Govt recommended price here, just under €44

"So, how much will these screening tests cost from October 15, 2021? According to several consistent sources shared by BFMTV and France Info, you will have to pay at least €22 for antigenic tests if performed in a laboratory, or between €25 and €30 for antigenic tests performed in pharmacies. As for PCR tests, they will cost €44. These rates will apply to adults who are not vaccinated and who would like to get tested without a prescription."

https://www.sortiraparis.com/news/coron ... ly/lang/en

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I just watched the whole Hancock section from Peston on the ITV online player thingy. You would think he might have learned a little humility after the very public humiliation he brought upon himself but not a bit of it. He's as smug and patronising as ever. What can you do with people who clearly don't know the meaning of shame? I mean the man's a national embarrassment yet he's carrying on like nothing happened. It's genuinely disturbing.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I seem to recall, back when Covid first appeared, Johnson claimed they'd bring in a law to prosecute those profiteering from the pandemic. He was talking about people selling hand sanitiser and the like on Amazon at hugely inflated prices. It never happened and he never mentioned it again. Strange that.

[AnatolyKasparov]

I like Thangam, especially her taste in jumpers.

She's actually not universally popular locally, and the Greens fancy her seat next time (boundary changes permitting)

I don't mind her, but last resided in Bristol three decades ago.....

[frog222]

I just watched the whole Hancock section from Peston on the ITV online player thingy. You would think he might have learned a little humility after the very public humiliation he brought upon himself but not a bit of it. He's as smug and patronising as ever. What can you do with people who clearly don't know the meaning of shame? I mean the man's a national embarrassment yet he's carrying on like nothing happened. It's genuinely disturbing.

Our Norwegian-French anti-corruption magistrate Eva Joly made the distinction between white collar criminals and the others . The former never admit guilt, while the latter may say "It's a fair cop" !

She got quite a long way up the food chain with her prosecutions, compared to the UK ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Joly

[Sky'sGoneOut]

She's actually not universally popular locally, and the Greens fancy her seat next time (boundary changes permitting)

They're going to have to make a Herculean effort, she got 62% in Bristol West last time out and her majority alone is bigger than the entire green vote.

She must be one of the safest Labour MPs despite not being in a traditional Labour seat.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Our Norwegian-French anti-corruption magistrate Eva Joly made the distinction between white collar criminals and the others . The former never admit guilt, while the latter may say "It's a fair cop" !

She got quite a long way up the food chain with her prosecutions, compared to the UK ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Joly

Splendid.

Here's our 'Anti-Corruption Champion'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Penrose

[frog222]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -christmas

CRACE

[RogerOThornhill]

Good evening.

And lucky, lucky New Stateman gets...Andrew Marr.

[gilsey]

Rishi Sunak was on the local news, waffling about the power cuts which are ongoing in the North East.

He was in Yarm, which isn't even in his constituency. Talked the usual shit about Ben Houchen, and how Yarm is getting £20m leveling-up money.
Yarm is probably the only place between Newcastle and Northallerton which doesn't need leveling-up.

[RogerOThornhill]

But the Spectator reported tickets for the event had sold slowly, which organisers blamed on the venue requiring vaccine or test certificates be shown on entry.

It's claimed just 400 tickets had been shifted when the event was pulled.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Boo she's hiding her jumper under a jacket. Still looks like a nice one though.

[frog222]

[Sky'sGoneOut]

It took all of 5 seconds for the Tory Maggie Throup to be laughed at this week once she began speaking. A new record I reckon. She seemed to enjoy it.

[frog222]

It took all of 5 seconds for the Tory Maggie Throup to be laughed at this week once she began speaking. A new record I reckon. She seemed to enjoy it.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

Genius in audience proposes stopping the channel crossings by buying all the dinghies in France.

[frog222]

Since they're stockpiled in Germany ...

[tinyclanger2]

I do like a nice bit of knitwear.

[tinyclanger2]

I may not say much - but it's always worth the wait.
...oh...

[PorFavor]

Garbo Talks!

[Sky'sGoneOut]

QT tonight from Weston-super-Mare, a Tory seat represented by our aforementioned 'Anti-Corruption Champion' John Penrose (husband of Dido Harding). There were some genuine oddballs in the audience I wouldn't like to meet even in a brightly lit alley.

For the Tories we had the truly appalling Maggie Throup, who had the distinction of being told the audience were laughing at her twice. She seemed to spend the entire hour barely concealing a smirk despite the fact she was being pummeled from all sides and was being laughed at by the public. I'd usually put such a performance down to stupidity but Maggie has 'an Honours degree in Biology' so she's can't be that dim (unless she went to the same university as Iain Duncan Smith). Maybe she was on drugs or drunk? Terrifyingly this woman is a minister for vaccines and public health. I'm genuinely struggling to put into words how weird and awful she was, as if being humiliated was a big joke that she was somehow in on. No Maggie, you may think appearing to be wryly amused raised you above it all. It didn't. You looked like you were either pissed or had brain damage.

In all the QT's I've reviewed hers was the worst and weirdest performance I've ever seen.

For Labour we had Thangam Debbonaire who sadly hid her nice jumper under a jacket. As previously mentioned I like Thangam and wasn't disappointed, she trounced Maggie without even having to try and took her to task over creating safe routes for refugees to get to this country. Maybe it's just me but I'd not heard anyone from the shadow cabinet be so forceful about creating such routes previously and it was good to hear. There were a couple of times when she gave pre-prepared responses like 'the joke's not funny anymore' about Johnson but other than that it was all her. She's smart, she can think on her feet and she's a credit to the Labour Party.

Theo Paphitis was also great, he went further than Thangam and actually mocked Maggie Throup, he's cancelled his Christmas parties, he laid into Johnson about his disrespect for Macron (the twitter letter) and talked a lot of sense about business rates.

Wendy Chamberlain for the Lib Dems did ok. She was kind of just there on the peripherary saying things most of us would agree with.

Peter Openshaw was what he is, a genuine scientist (unlike Maggie). Though in answer to a question from a particularly stupid member of the audience who wondered if this Omicron variant might actually be a good thing in my opinion he was far too reassuring. Viruses only become less deadly if there's an evolutionary benefit for them to be so. Covid mostly spreads before we have symptoms. It's done its work long before we become sick or die so there's no evolutionary pressure on it to be less deadly. It has already replicated and spread even if it kills us. He said 'in certain animals coronaviruses have become less deadly' but those animals aren't humans. I guess he was just offering us a bit of hope. Bah humbug.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

I do like a nice bit of knitwear.

Cable knit, cross weave, basket weave?

I must admit I'm a cable knit man myself. Thangam was wearing a ribbed knit which is boring but sturdy. I think she might only have that one jumper because she's worn it every time she's been on QT. It's hard to tell with people who wear black all the time as she does. I'm pretty sure everyone thinks I have one single outfit.

[PorFavor]

[PorFavor]

Found it -

[PorFavor]

Night night.

[Sky'sGoneOut]

What the?

[Sky'sGoneOut]

[Sky'sGoneOut]