We are a 'threat to the world'.

[Hamble]

The most vulnerable in our society are suffering from Covid restrictions.
From the disabled to children and then double again if they are poor.

The Gov's strategy for freedom day is based on forcing the consequences in the school holidays and seasonal weather time to protect the nhs in the winter and from seasonal Flu addition on people and the nhs.

I am supportive of the logic in that.
There is a lot as individuals we can do.
Get double vaccinated.
Wear a mask in crowded areas indoor and out.
Avoid crowded areas popular with the young (unvaccinated).
Be even stricter on hand washing and sanitising when out.
Try hold family gatherings outside.

We are not complacent.
Having never been pinged or tested positive we could still catch the virus.
We are still morally intent on protecting our elderly neighbours supported throughout the pandemic and our elderly relatives share in the family.

[Alikado]

Now that the Cummings Puppet Master theory has been doused by reality is the ERG the regurgitated phantom pantomime baddy of the left?

Line the home with tin foil, the ERG are coming

Rather than the ERG I think it is probably the' Britannia Unchained' group

[Desert Region]

Now that the Cummings Puppet Master theory has been doused by reality is the ERG the regurgitated phantom pantomime baddy of the left?

Line the home with tin foil, the ERG are coming

I'm always slightly surprised to hear or read any mention or introduction of Dom Cummings in/into a conversation, despite how newsworthy he's been recently. When the left now quote disgruntled Dom, they're quoting a man they've for years reviled and derided as a serial liar, deceiver and manipulator. And the right are generally better off pretending as though Cummings never existed, given his endless, drip-drip-drip barrage of indiscrete insights and information re this Government's incompetency.

I do think its a reasonable proposition to believe and posit that business interests, the needs of commercial real estate owners, etc, are driving the timing of this reopening. Just like the desire to achieve herd immunity by whatever means available has apparently never left Government thinking, it's also reasonable to believe, for example, that the desire to get the workforce back into the office(s) has always remained a priority for this Government. It doesn't seem unfair to conclude that that the new Secretary of State for Health is the ex Chancellor was a sign of things to come. With many businesses and entire business sectors on their collective knees due to the ****ing Covid debt mountains they're carrying, the desire to fast track the infection's "move through the population" (to quote the PM, there) must, again, be tempting, now that much of the population is enjoying the fruits of (a deal of) protection from the worst of the disease. The temptation to get it 'all over in one go' has to be strong.

[Toodles McGinty]

Now that the Cummings Puppet Master theory has been doused by reality is the ERG the regurgitated phantom pantomime baddy of the left?

Line the home with tin foil, the ERG are coming

Why does there have to be a 'pantomime baddy'?

Are you 5 years old? Don't you actually read anything?

Cummings was Johnson's chief advisor. So what, Johnson ignored him completely? He had no influence at all, despite being in the position of the most influence? Despite all evidence? Despite that actually being his job?

As for the ERG, don't you know they've been most vocal about lifting restrictions? You haven't read of, or seen any interviews with Steve Baker? Andrea Jenkyns? Coffey, Jenkin, Leadsom? Lewis? Penfold Francois? You have no concept of their Libertarian policies whatsoever? How could you possibly comment on politics without so much as a basic knowledge of the players involved?

[Hamble]

[Desert Region]

Sage adviser claims ministers trying to get as many as possible infected with Covid

"What we are seeing is a decision by the government to get as many people infected as possible, as quickly as possible."

"A large wave of infections, coupled with mass vaccination, would push the UK closer to “herd immunity”, where enough people in the population are resistant to the virus that it no longer spreads. The threshold for herd immunity with the Delta variant is unclear, but scientists estimate that transmission would need to be blocked in about 85% of the population. Ministers have repeatedly denied that achieving herd immunity by letting cases rise is the government’s goal."

"Prof John Drury, a social psychologist at the University of Sussex, is concerned about the changes that came into force on Monday, such as dropping the mandate on mask-wearing, which “sent a very strong signal” that the Covid crisis is now less serious."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...adviser-claims

[local]

Why does there have to be a 'pantomime baddy'?

Are you 5 years old? Don't you actually read anything?

Cummings was Johnson's chief advisor. So what, Johnson ignored him completely? He had no influence at all, despite being in the position of the most influence? Despite all evidence? Despite that actually being his job?

As for the ERG, don't you know they've been most vocal about lifting restrictions? You haven't read of, or seen any interviews with Steve Baker? Andrea Jenkyns? Coffey, Jenkin, Leadsom? Lewis? Penfold Francois? You have no concept of their Libertarian policies whatsoever? How could you possibly comment on politics without so much as a basic knowledge of the players involved?

Oh come on take it on the chin, your puppet master theory was always nonsense.

Trying to steer off into another group of alleged string-pullers is an ineffective smokescreen.

Your understanding of politics is Labouring quite literally under a dislike of the Conservatives and everything they say and do.

[sandGroundZero]

Two years ago Dominic Cummings became the most powerful man in Downing Street – apart, perhaps, from the prime minister himself. … In his revealing BBC interview, Cummings claimed that even in 2020, just weeks after the general election, he and a group of allies were discussing how they could remove the prime minister, rather than be turfed out by Boris Johnson’s then fiancee.

Oh come on take it on the chin, your puppet master theory was always nonsense. | Trying to steer off into another group of alleged string-pullers is an ineffective smokescreen.
Your understanding of politics is Labouring quite literally under a dislike of the Conservatives and everything they say and do.

But they said Cummings and others around him had grown disillusioned with Johnson by the end of that year, which was when the No 10 power struggle began between the Vote Leave crowd and those around Carrie Symonds, now Johnson. It was at that point that rumours started to surface that some in Downing Street would prefer to see Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, in the top job and believed Johnson was not up to it. Former insiders have corroborated many other aspects of Cummings’s account: the prime minister’s obsession with press headlines, his tendency to change his mind, and the immense power wielded by his partner. — Two years after winning with Dominic Cummings, Johnson looks rudderless

[Toodles McGinty]

Oh come on take it on the chin, your puppet master theory was always nonsense.

Trying to steer off into another group of alleged string-pullers is an ineffective smokescreen.

Your understanding of politics is Labouring quite literally under a dislike of the Conservatives and everything they say and do.

It isn't another group of string pullers. It's the same.

Read a little.

What I've said still stands. A pandemic interrupted, but it stands. Johnson had one job: get Brexit over the line. Those behind the leave campaign financed it and his bid for leadership. Cummings, darling of the leave campaign, was put in to ensure he did it. Of course he was pulling the strings. Just because you've now decided Cummings is a pathological liar, after defending his little eye-test trip, is immaterial.

It is all in the public domain, just because you didn't read it in the Mail or Express doesn't make it untrue.

Your understanding of politics is anything that your idol spews up. There is more to politics than those ar$es on seats in the Commons. There's certainly more than your little beloved Boris vs 'The Left'.

[local]

Two years ago Dominic Cummings became the most powerful man in Downing Street – apart, perhaps, from the prime minister himself. … In his revealing BBC interview, Cummings claimed that even in 2020, just weeks after the general election, he and a group of allies were discussing how they could remove the prime minister, rather than be turfed out by Boris Johnson’s then fiancee.

But they said Cummings and others around him had grown disillusioned with Johnson by the end of that year, which was when the No 10 power struggle began between the Vote Leave crowd and those around Carrie Symonds, now Johnson. It was at that point that rumours started to surface that some in Downing Street would prefer to see Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, in the top job and believed Johnson was not up to it. Former insiders have corroborated many other aspects of Cummings’s account: the prime minister’s obsession with press headlines, his tendency to change his mind, and the immense power wielded by his partner. — Two years after winning with Dominic Cummings, Johnson looks rudderless

Complete tosh so clearly evidenced by the fact it was Cummings that went.
And further the complete lack of knowledge of how leaders of the Conservative Party are picked and sacked.

[sandGroundZero]

Complete tosh so clearly evidenced by the fact it was Cummings that went.
And further the complete lack of knowledge of how leaders of the Conservative Party are picked and sacked.

Supposing for the sake of argument that (on this occasion) Dominic Cummings' remarks can be taken at face value; Conservative party rules about defenestration of its leader would not have been an insurmountable obstacle.

It appears Ms. Symonds (as she then was) proved to be the more formidable manipulator. The question becomes which of the two is the scarier? Carrie was, after all, a party operative when she met BoJo.

[local]

So you have fallen for a change of personnel in the puppet master theory Cummings out Carrie in.

It will be the Downing street cat next.

[sandGroundZero]

So you have fallen for a change of personnel in the puppet master theory Cummings out Carrie in.
It will be the Downing street cat next.

Without Carrie & friends, the PM struggles to organize his p¡ss-up in a brewery.

[Toodles McGinty]

Sage adviser claims ministers trying to get as many as possible infected with Covid

"What we are seeing is a decision by the government to get as many people infected as possible, as quickly as possible."

"A large wave of infections, coupled with mass vaccination, would push the UK closer to “herd immunity”, where enough people in the population are resistant to the virus that it no longer spreads. The threshold for herd immunity with the Delta variant is unclear, but scientists estimate that transmission would need to be blocked in about 85% of the population. Ministers have repeatedly denied that achieving herd immunity by letting cases rise is the government’s goal."

"Prof John Drury, a social psychologist at the University of Sussex, is concerned about the changes that came into force on Monday, such as dropping the mandate on mask-wearing, which “sent a very strong signal” that the Covid crisis is now less serious."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...adviser-claims

I don't think herd immunity has ever been off the agenda.

I wish we could achieve it with vaccinations, rather than people getting the virus.

You can see what Prof. Drury means. Everything has opened, no masks required. All seems a lot at once.

Of course, the economy has to kick into gear at some point, but I'd have been happier if it had been after a huge campaign to get the under 30s jabbed.

[Toodles McGinty]

Without Carrie & friends, the PM struggles to organize his p¡ss-up in a brewery.

Interesting column in the Guardian, as published by the FT, recently.

National security is threatened when politics is in thrall to cash

Explains perfectly how the upper echelons of the Conservative party work. While the local constituencies may trundle along as they ever have, the Parliamentary party are up to their necks in Russian money. Hence the determination the Russia report shouldn't come to light.

The days of Russia being 'red' are long gone. Blue is the colour.

And wasn't Princess Nut Nut involved? Conservative Friends of Russia? The Tufton Street cabal?

I guess this isn't published in the Mail or Express, as their base is that local Tory club.

Funny really. Not so long ago Russian involvement was 'Red Ken' and 'comrades'. Now they own the Tory party. Again, all in the public domain.

And again, not at local party level. Or once again, they just don't care.

I'm guessing that one day, when they notice the emperor is naked, there will be one hell of a fallout. I hope then the traditional one-nation Tories will return. I might not agree with them, but I respect their point of view.