WTF is happening in the UK?

[Boac]

Not sure how 'accurate' this is, but from Twatter from 'YouGov:

Most Britons want MPs to vote to accept the EU trade deal...

All - 57% accept / 9% reject

Con - 78% accept / 5% reject
Leave - 69% accept / 8% reject
Remain - 58% accept / 10% reject
Lab - 48% accept / 12% reject

[barkingmad]

boac, as you confessed "I am a life-time member of my local 'Hunt saboteurs' group", do you think in the light of recent news that your group may wish to influence this gentleman?

"A former UK health secretary has proposed taxing the over-40s to cover the costs of social care for the elderly.
Jeremy Hunt, Conservative chair of parliament's health and social care committee, called for "boldness" from prime minister Boris Johnson, his rival for the party leadership last year.
Hunt said Johnson should seize the opportunity created by his large majority in the Commons and the public mood in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
"I just think the year after the pandemic, if we don't do it now, it really is now or never. Because the public have never understood better how important our care system is," he told PA.
The current funding model for social care is widely seen as unfit for purpose, leaving huge bills for many who need care and significant pressure on cash-strapped local authorities and providers.
But efforts to fix the system have repeatedly hit a wall, with ministers shying away from reform as many proposals have sparked a fierce backlash.
Hunt broke ranks on Tuesday to propose a "tax surcharge to people over 40," a measure introduced in Germany and Japan. He said the taxes were "only a small amount extra, but as you get older you start to pay a little bit more."
The MP, a cabinet member for much of the past decade including as health secretary between 2012 and 2018, said both countries had avoided "public pushback" with the measures.
"I think the biggest battle now is with the Treasury, because the sums of money are eye-watering. We were even more bankrupt as a country after the Second World War and then we had the imagination and vision to set up the NHS, and I think this is another 1948 moment."
Johnson promised to "fix the crisis in social care once and for all" on the steps of Downing Street in his first speech as prime minister last year.
He said the government had a "clear plan," but proposed reforms have not yet been published.
But the government was reported in July to be considering a tax on the over-40s. Current health secretary Matt Hancock is said to be keen on the idea, and a cross-party group of MPs have made similar proposals before.
A department of health and social care spokesman said: "We are focused on ensuring all those who need it get the care and support to stay safe and well during the Covid-19 pandemic and throughout this winter, including through regular testing of staff and residents and free PPE.
"We remain committed to sustainable improvement of the adult social care system and will bring forward proposals as soon as possible."

In principle, as a wealthy retired crumbly, I am in favour of an ethical disposal of some of my assets, but I'm very wary of the dosh being used to pay off the awful debts incurred by HMG on dodgy plague alleviation contracts and I would return from the grave to haunt the Serco directors as they sunned themselves thanks to my generosity.

So Dear Deirdre, what should I do? And alas she has retired too from her advice role so am I reduced to seeking the opinions of my O-N colleagues?

Printable answers only please and what are your opinions on such a taxation move, folks?

[om15]

Keep taking your Clozaril om15 and don't forget to gurn (sorry smile) at yourself in the mirror in the morning

I have much to smile about.

[barkingmad]

Well, look on the bright side, as they said at the end of the film "The Life of Brian";

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/202 ... l-tyranny/

Things can only get better, to plagiarise the New Labour anthem of the Tony Bliar era?!

And a Happy New Year to all my fans, both of them!

[om15]

The Bill has been approved in the House of Commons by a majority of 448.

Labour have demonstrated that they are about as unified and responsible as they were under Corbyn, and the SNP would appear to have lost all reason.
No matter, they are both an irrelevance, the Brexiteers have triumphed against all machiavellian plotting and have won the day, thank goodness.

[4mastacker]

Geezuschrystonabike!! I like the Scots folk, fine people, but find it hard to believe that they are so devoid of common sense and good judgement that they can return a fat whinging windbag as their parliamentary representative. Having watched today's proceedings in the HoC and seen the fat whinging windbag behaving like a recalcitrant child and being handed his arse on several occasions one has to ask, is he the best they can come up with?

[Pontius Navigator]

4ma, you think wee Jimmy would want to be upstaged?

[barkingmad]

I refer the honourable gentlemen to post # 528 in the Chaos in Jockistan thread some moments ago...

Fat windbag being a very apt description, though no mention of gales in sea area Thames during this morning’s Shipping Forecast.

Wot’s the Beeb’s address so’s I can complain?

[PHXPhlyer]

4Ma:
I'll see your parliamentary representative (whomever that is) and raise you one DT.
I don't think 2 BoJos would be enough to call.

PP

[Pontius Navigator]

Gareth Davis, seems quite a good chap actually.

[barkingmad]

An ex-pilot writes:

Bullish email from a former military fast-jet pilot. He thinks he could have made a better decision about how to respond to the pandemic than the British Prime Minister:

“I have spent most of my life in aviation as a military fast jet pilot and then as a captain for Thomas Cook until I was forced into redundancy last year. As aviators we have many skills including decision making in difficult situations. We have many tricks of the trade and most processes involve some sort of pneumonic. The latest one in Thomas Cook was FORDEC. It all starts with FACTS – you must must must start with as many facts from as many different sources as possible. Next comes OPTIONS – scope out how you can play the scenario out whilst considering the RISKS and BENEFITS of each option. Finally DECIDE, EXECUTE and then CHECK constantly to see if stuff has changed – the FACTS, for instance.

I’m guessing you know where my story fits into the current situation? This is not rocket science (ha). If required, a fast jet pilot can run through this in about five seconds!

I was also a CRMI crew resource management instructor and we had a whole history over 110 years of past accidents and incidents to learn from.

My common thread is that we have simply lost sight of the big picture. There is no voice of reason breaking through in the MSM. Where is Nigel Farage when you need him?

At the end of the day, as my father used to say, “Life Is A Near Death Experience”. Enjoy it as much as you can and let’s get on with the show”.

[barkingmad]

After a devastating piece from a Test and Trace contact tracer working for one of Serco’s sub-contractors back in October, another contact tracer has got in touch to tell us Branch Covidians how little she has had to do recently despite the surge in “cases”. The following piece is anonymous as contact tracers are required to sign non-disclosure agreements.

"When I started working for Test and Trace in May, little did I know I’d end up a ‘lockdown sceptic’.

I think readers would be most interested in recent events in the Test and Trace saga. As a previously written article from one of my colleagues from Tier 3 (nothing to do with lockdown Tiers) has already highlighted, the many problems of contact tracing and the antiquated NHS system seem to be more about confusing and harassing the public with incorrect isolation advice, rather than helping them.

I work as a Tier 2 Contact Tracer; my job is to call people who have tested positive, but have failed to complete the online form that is sent to them by text and email to ask about their contacts.

With 40,000+ people now testing positive every day, you would think I would be very busy, but, in fact, I am making just 1.5 calls per hour – most people don’t answer the phone, so I can go hours without speaking to anyone. This would lead you to believe that all those positive cases must be completing their online forms, but I think that would be highly unlikely, because I’ve also worked on Tier 3 calls and it’s obvious that people can’t be bothered to answer the phone, let alone fill in a lengthy form (which takes about 30 minutes to complete) about all their contacts and activities in the run up to testing positive.

I must question why, on November 24th, Serco employed 500+ more Contact Tracers, when we were so quiet? Did the Government know about the new variant before December and want to be prepared? Does someone in Government have a finger or two in the lucrative Test and Trace programme? Or might a more worrying explanation be that thousands of details of positive cases are being lost in the system somewhere, and not making it on to the call list? The managers don’t seem to know what’s going on, but it’s time to question why billions of pounds are being paid to Serco to employ Contact Tracers, who are only making a handful of calls a day.

In addition to the questions we have over the accuracy of PCR and Lateral flow testing, just where is the data to show that any of this is working? I don’t want to talk myself out of a job because, without it, I wouldn’t be able to pay the bills, but I’m starting to feel like a fraud".

"We know they are lying. They know they are lying, They know that we know they are lying. We know that they know that we know they are lying. And still they continue to lie".
Alexander Solschenizyn

[4mastacker]

...and it’s obvious that people can’t be bothered to answer the phone...

Could that be because folks are wary of answering a phone, especially if it's a "Number withheld" or "International Unavailable", just in case it's "Henry" or "Josephine" calling from "Microsoft Technical Centre"/"HMRC"/" the Bank" trying to scam money out of folks?

We have a specific ring tone set for family and friends and another for generic calls. If' it's the generic ring tone, we don't answer; if the call is important, whoever is ringing can leave a message on the answerphone.

[Pontius Navigator]

4ma, we have a simpler system - hunt the handset. Works a treat.

[barkingmad]

A special video for all our Nigel Farage fans here, look away now if you are not a fan.

I am NOT in favour of the honours system, looking at many of the dorks and dumbos who do get recommended but if we're going to have this system of rewards then Nigel should be in the frame and NOT for dork/dumbo reasons!

It is possible that BoJo is holding his fire, possibly until his departure list when he might reward the one person who assured the Tories of their victory last year in December.

[Woody]

First Government u-turn of the year, didn’t take long

All primary schools in London will now close for the start of the new term after the government U-turned on its decision to keep some open despite rising Covid cases.

The government bowed to protests, legal pressure and scientific advice on New Year's Day after it initially omitted a number of boroughs from the forced closures.

Gavin Williamson had released a list of primary schools in coronavirus 'hotspots' that would stay shut for two weeks after the start of term next week.

[Pontius Navigator]

Or to rep6eat Fraser Nelson :

When Boris Johnson cheerfully declared that things should be much better by Easter, hearts will have sunk all over the country. One of the few reliable features of the pandemic is the Prime Minister’s optimistic predictions being quickly disproven. He spoke of “normality” by November. Then Christmas. We were also promised no more lockdowns, or school closures. So now, when he says we could be less than three months away from the taming of Covid, it’s hard to banish the idea of something going rather drastically wrong.

[barkingmad]

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY READERS. This greeting is late and possibly not relevant nor efficient IAW HMG’s current performance in the handling of the plague pan(dem)ic.

On a lighter note, this golden oldie seems prophetic in view of the current confusion over the Nightingale Hospitals, are they decommissioned, are they not, is there staff to run them, is there not, are they intended for Covid-1984 CPAP/deep ventilation plus coma treatment, or are they going to be Vac Scene centres?



And then read this item and ponder are we in for an equally dystopian year as last year and for how long will the great unwashed (taxpayers) put up with this sort of crap;

‘Something a bit fishy going on. Matt Hancock did the rounds of the broadcast studios on December 30th claiming that the London Nightingale had been “reactivated”. But to date there isn’t any sign of the ExCel Centre being readied for new patients. And how does Hancock plan to overcome the staffing shortages we’ve heard so much about? The Telegraph has more.

Nightingale hospitals will not be able to come to the rescue of hospitals overwhelmed by Covid patients because there is no “magic pile” of nurses to staff them, health leaders have warned.

Consultants and nursing leaders said high levels of nursing vacancies, coupled with large numbers of staff off sick with coronavirus or stress will make it nearly impossible to use the Nightingale hospitals, which built around the country at the start of the pandemic.

The makeshift hospitals were built at an estimated cost of £220 million, with sites in London, Manchester, Bristol, Sunderland, Harrogate, Exeter and Birmingham.

Of these, the Exeter site received its first Covid patients in November while Manchester, Bristol and Harrogate are currently in use for non-Covid patients.

London’s Nightingale has been “reactivated”, the NHS said earlier this week, while other sites currently not in use are being readied.

But Mike Adams, the Royal College of Nursing’s England director, said on Friday the expectation that the Nightingale hospitals could deliver a significant increase in capacity was “misplaced”.

He said: “I have real concerns that the expectation that this mass rollout in capacity can happen is misplaced because there aren’t the staff to do it. If we are having to cancel leave to staff these areas, the obvious question is where will the staff come from to open the Nightingales?

“Nursing is already stretched beyond capacity, so there is no magic pile of nurses we can call upon.”
The top doctor who provides Lockdown Sceptics with regular updates from inside the NHS says he thinks it’s unlikely the London Nightingale will be reactivated. “My understanding is that it will ‘reopen’ as a vaccination centre,” he tells me. “St John Ambulance people to redeploy there from Jan 11th for vaccination. Can’t see how it can reopen as an inpatient facility and none of my colleagues think it will either.”

[Boac]

BM - I have recovered the OED (suitably dis-infected, of course) we supplied to BenThere a while back when he was having trouble with his second language (in his absence).

For your benefit:

"adjective: dystopian

relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice. "

Keep taking those pills.

[barkingmad]

boac, I have located my well-thumbed dictionary, liberally covered in Covid-1984 infected infested particles of snot and spittle and I believe my use of the word still stands as valid;

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... /dystopian

Said definition allows “imagined” as a secondary meaning, but you’ll evidently demur, as you’re back out from purdah and suitably refreshed for some verbal sparring.

If you don’t believe Britain is currently dystopian, have a read of this account and especially note the very last sentence in the piece which indicates a mass outbreak of self-inflicted foot-shooing by our NHS staff, on the advice of the BoJo, Whitty, Damn Van Tamm and Ferguson ‘circus’ still being broadcast by our Soviet-style State meeja;

One intrepid Branch Covidian ventured into Central London on Thursday night to celebrate New Year’s Eve. She didn’t have much fun.

“Last night I went to London. I live east of the city and drove in down the A11. Which, for those who don’t know, goes right past the Royal London Hospital, as mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter.

I could not resist a little drive round the block to go past the ambulance and A&E entrance of the hospital. Only one ambulance to be seen and no people. Pretty bloody unusual for 10pm on New Year’s Eve…

Carrying on, I parked in Covent Garden, which was deserted except for covid marshals. On the way, I took another detour over London Bridge to see the river. It was boarded up on the sides. Lots of ‘guards’ in high vis but there might have been fireworks set up on it.

Having parked, Covent Garden was like a ghost town. I got a Boris bike and went for a ride. Trafalgar Square was totally boarded up. Large police presence, not many people. Picadilly and Leicester Square were empty. Then I went down Whitehall towards Parliament Square – it was getting close to midnight by then. Loads of police, including the Tactical Support Group (TSG) and horses. A few hundred people waiting. Most people in very small groups or pairs, all very calm and well behaved. I did not see any sign of the protestors organised by Piers Corbyn but they might have been blending (no placards).

I stopped on the Embankment about 50 yards from Westminster Bridge. It was five to midnight according to my photo of Big Ben. Then, at about two minutes to midnight, the TSG decided to move everyone on…

That made the crowding bad as everyone was being shepherded in the same direction and there was a fair bit of traffic so people could not walk in the roads. Seemed a mad thing to do – to wait until so close to midnight.

One of the police horses was getting extremely fractious (I am a horse person for a living, I can tell) and it was between myself and the bike rack where I was going to return the bike, so I held my ground. A police woman told me to move along. I said no way while that horse is between me and the exit. Even she could see it was dangerous so she let me be and then the clock struck.

There was massive cheering, the fireworks went off across the river and then everyone did start dispersing, without being asked really as there was no real reason for staying.

As we left I found myself beside a young woman with a scooter. Turns out she was a nurse of 10 years experience at one on the large London hospitals. She said it was busy and hard work, everyone was doing 12 hour shifts, but no worse than usual for the time of year. She said she had decided to come (unmasked) because she had been working so hard she was treating herself to a night out because it was a historic night and you would never see London like this again on New year’s Eve.

She said people’s good will kept them all going at her hospital, but many of her colleagues felt as she did, that the measures were out of proportion to the risk and the NHS has been badly managed in preparation for this crisis. She said the staff shortages were being created by constant testing so many staff perfectly fit for work were sitting at home”.

I presume in this testing regime, which is actively sabotaging the efforts of an already understaffed service In a time of standard winter crisis, we are referring to the much discredited PCR and lateral flow testing?

If we are, then I am living in a real-time actual dystopia.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/ refers...