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Retsdon

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Everything posted by Retsdon

  1. Retsdon

    Sedwill gone

    Sack the whole civil service and start from scratch!
  2. Retsdon

    Sedwill gone

    Oh well. But I liked this one from Priti, warning of more heads to roll. “This is the people’s government, delivering on the people’s priorities....." Was there something in the Conservative Party manifesto about dismembering the Civil Service? I must have missed it. But these revolutionaries are always the same. They always invoke 'the people' and they either won't or can't ever articulate their real aims. As Lennon wrote in Revolution 'you say you've got a real solution, we'd all love to see the plan'. So what he's torn everything to pieces, what is Cummings going to replace it all with? Does anyone know?
  3. Saved OneWeb from bankruptcy anyway. At least for the meantime......
  4. You can't blame either the British or the French authorities for complying with international maritime law. T The problem is that the migrants, or at least the people selling them places on these boats, know how to exploit the loopholes in these laws. What's to be done about it is open to debate, but creating a false narrative of collusion or treachery as Farange is doing is not the way to go. But Farange loves the limelight doesn't believe in letting inconvenient facts get in the way of a good story. It's par for the course really...
  5. It's a good story, thanks for linking.
  6. Well, this is it, isn't it? The wheels have come off.
  7. Ask Australia, or Thailand, or New Zealand, China, Korea, etc, etc, etc. Plenty of countries have effective quarantine regulations and its probably no coincide that they're the ones that have also got their internal transmissions down too. And they're mostly in Asia and around the Pacific Rim. But Britain isn't unique in not getting on top of its virus response and this pandemic has done, and is doing, enormous damage to the global prestige of western democracies. When many of these supposedly advanced countries are apparently incapable of implementing straightforward epidemiological methodology, why should anyone else on the planet regard them in any kind of leadership role? This virus will have political consequences too.
  8. In theory you have to 'self-isolate' in one location for two weeks. But anybody staying there with you can come and go as they please unless you or they start to display symptoms. In practice I doubt that many people actually even comply with these minimal rules. It's the old story - it's not the policy, it's the appearance of a policy that's the important part. Britain has a 'quarantine' regulation. There, that's enough. That it's totally useless doesn't matter.
  9. As their infections spiral upwards, US states that lifted lockdown before getting case numbers under control and a working tracing system up and running are now having to go back to the drawing board because they're finding out the hard way that the virus couldn't just be wished away. England will very likely follow the same path.
  10. Robert Jenrick: Richard. As Secretary of State it is important not to give any appearance of being influenced by applicants of cases that I may have a role in or to have predetermined them and so I think it is best that we don't meet until after the matter has been decided, one way of [sic] another ... Why not - 'not to be influenced by applicants' if that's what he meant to say. Or is it just the appearance part that's important to him?
  11. His only crime was to become careless and get caught. Otherwise, his behavior was par for the course. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/revealed-the-elite-dining-club-behind-130m-donations-to-the-tories/ As they say, if you want to know who's pulling the strings - just follow the money.
  12. That's a bit like asking a prisoner in a jail if he's getting his oats.... There's no opportunity eithe here or in Thailand, so currently not. But, seeing as you're asking, it so happens that I shall be arriving in the UK at the end of next week and expect to be there for at least 6 weeks with not much to do. I'm going to have to do a Cummings and self-isolate for 2 weeks after arrival - not having a handy cottage, a tent in the garden is the plan - but after that, if you (or any other members of PW) were to be so generous as to invite me to shoot pigeons or any other legal quarry for that time of year I would be most extremely appreciative of the offer. Will have car, would travel. It's been a good few years so I wouldn't expect to hit as much as I probably should. On the other hand if anyone were kind enough, I could guarantee that I'm as safe a shot as anyone could ever wish to sit with in a hide or walk alongside in a line, and in any shooting environment I'm not going to embarrass either myself, my host, or the company I'm in. Does that answer your question? They will, don't worry. But really, it's too late to do anything now and I shouldn't probably have been posting stuff that I guessed was likely to irritate people. Nothing good ever comes of it. Anyway, I don't care anymore. After 4 months in basically what's been solitary confinement, I'm just happy to be getting on a plane. Nothing else is the least bit important just now. And while people might thing I'm anti the UK, I'm not. It will always be my home, and it's the only country in the world where I have any kind of citizen's rights at all. I'ts just that I can't help but chirp up when I think the country is being driven down a dead end. Whatever. They all went to Oxbridge though! It's almost as difficult a club to get into as Boodles....
  13. I agree with this. Obviously there's no guarantee that a pup coming off a top notch lineage will turn out better than one that comes from a less exalted pedigree, but overall the odds are in favour of it. But the best thing - regardless of what's in the pedigree book - is a) to see at least one parent working, and b) even better - see an older half-brother or sister of the pup working as well. Some dogs just seem to throw good pups, even when their pedigree isn't great -and vice versa, so if a brother or sister is already working well the odds are even more in your favour. That said, unless you have aspirations to trial the dog or have shed-loads of work for it, it probably doesn't make much difference. In fact, a dog that's a bit less driven might make a better all around companion.
  14. Why not? Canada https://www.international.gc.ca/trade-commerce/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/index.aspx?lang=eng Australia https://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/Pages/trade-agreements New Zealand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_free-trade_agreements On those lists above, they all have negotiations for an additional agreement with a post-Brexit Britain pencilled in.
  15. My point exactly. And it's very destructive, because it's impossible to make decent progress if you're always looking backwards over your shoulder the whole time. Also, if you wander along daydreaming about the past and imagining you're somewhere other than where you really are, and not paying attention to where you're going, if you're not careful you'll very likely end up falling down a manhole or walking in front of a bus or whatever, and getting very badly hurt. And unfortunately, it rather looks as if that's exactly what's happened. Brexit, when it kicks in next year, is going to be one hell of a rude awakening.
  16. Par for the course. Chris Grayling awarded a £50 million + contract to an as yet unformed shipping company to run ships they didn't have into ports that lacked the infrastructure to take them even if they'd had them. And nobody cares less. So why not spaff a bit more up the wall - where's the problem?
  17. Retsdon

    Antibody test

    Apparently, antibodies may only be part of the equation. 'Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Understanding both the immunological processes providing specific immunity and potential immunopathology underlying the pathogenesis of this disease may provide valuable insights for potential therapeutic interventions. Here, we quantified SARS-CoV-2 specific immune responses in patients with different clinical courses. Compared to individuals with a mild clinical presentation, CD4+ T cell responses were qualitatively impaired in critically ill patients. Strikingly, however, in these patients the specific IgG antibody response was remarkably strong. The observed disparate T and B cell responses could be indicative of a deregulated immune response in critically ill COVID-19 patients.' In other words, in terms of the severity of the disease, how your T and B cells respond is as important as your antibody response - if not more so. And maybe this runs over into potential immunity too. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.18.159202v1
  18. I've no time for that nonsense either. It's just the other side of the same coin. It doesn't make a difference whether it's slavery or the D Day landings, if you're allowing events that happened before you were even born and of which you ( an I'm using 'you' in a general term here ) have no experience to frame your political and social reference points, then you're basically taking a line through Miss Haversham in Great Expectations, who refused to move on from her wedding day. The past is gone and it's not coming back. Yes, it can be learned from, and yes, we can look at people's actions or philosophy and admire what we see, but this obsession ( and it is an obsession) with events that happened 80 years ago is downright unhealthy. Nobody can go back - ever.
  19. It's ironic that the first chance they had to vote, the generation that are so lionized by the right wing these days got shot of Churchill and voted in a socialist government by a landslide. If they were still alive today, most of the posters on these boards would be totally at odds with the people they're placing on a pedestal. The past is gone, and if you try and live in it you're making yourself homeless.
  20. Following the Americans down the route of conducting political campaigns as warfare is my theory. And that's a by-product of the FPTP system. Politics in the Anglophone world has now become all about winning at whatever cost. So they bring in highly-paid professional gun-for-hire campaign managers like Lynton Crosby who only care about winning, and these guys have discovered that the best way to do that is to appeal to the voters baser emotions and prejudices. So out of the window go political philosophy and vision, and in come catchy slogans and repeatable lies. It works too. But then the problem is that eventually the whole thing becomes so squalid that decent, moral people want no part of it anymore, and they and stop going into politics. So you finish up with a political class peopled almost exclusively by thickos, sleaze-merchants, and chancers. And so it goes on......ever downwards...
  21. An interview with Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg. https://youtu.be/E7fZ2wZYiFU?t=719 I don't know what his politics are - if he's left or right - but either way I'd happily vote for this bloke. He's like a breath of fresh air compared to the UK's lot.
  22. What's wrong with it? Or do you think it's wrong that an EU country's representatives can veto Brussels pushing through deal that would be against their country's interests? It's being binned, yes? I wonder how much money the whole debacle cost ...old Dido made out alright probably.
  23. Apparently a cool 4.5 million quid to sell the message - although quite what's supposed to be in the message is hard to fathom from the relevant document. (The link to the PDF is at the bottom). Below is a typical excerpt from this nonsensical and ungrammatical bit of writing. We have developed a theory of change based on behavioural science that uses three communication levers to deliver our campaign effectively: a. Drives motivation to act b. Demonstrates that our audience are capable of taking action c. Communicates about resources or activities (e.g. grants, support, upskilling) that make taking action easier to those without the opportunity to act" Here are the "strategic goals" The success of the readiness programme will be measured against achieving five strategic goals, which communications plays a significant role in achieving. These goals are: "1/ the Government is fully prepared to implement the changes necessary for the end of the transition; 2/ business and citizens are ready for the end of the transition; 3/ the opportunities arising from the transition are identified and pursued, and action taken for the transition aligns with the wider domestic agenda; 4/ the end of the transition period has been de-dramatised by minimising potential short-term disruption and managing the adjustment to a new relationship with the EU; and 5/ the EU is clear that the UK has made the necessary preparations to leave the transition without a further negotiated outcome." Who writes this stuff? And who proof reads it? And who approves if for publication? Because never mind one's political perspective, it has to be a big worry that the Cabinet Office, with all the resources at its disposal, is apparently incapable of producing an intelligible document in the English language. The thing is, it's not just about the language - although you would expect somebody, somewhere, at that level, to know that the main verb of a sentence or clause requires a subject, and that there is no comma before a defining clause. No, the main concern is that sloppy and imprecise language like this will be symptomatic of the sloppy and imprecise thinking that gave rise to it. I'm not joking when I say that if I were asked to proof read writing like this in something like a thesis proposal (from an Arab) , I'd send it back to the student and tell them to re-write it, because not only is the English pretty atrocious, but also the goals are so (probably deliberately) opaque as to make it impossible to judge any outcome of what's being proposed. It's utterly mind-boggling that this is the operating level of the Cabinet Office. God helps the country. ...Although, fair play, I couldn't help but laugh at this little gem further down the page - "Leave voters are less likely to prepare as they don’t believe in any potential negative consequences of leaving." 😆😆 Perhaps Cummings actually has a sense of humour after all....
  24. A timeline of Covid development in the UK. https://appeasement.org/
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