Quote ="wotsupcas"But he didn't did he? But of course you know that. The blokes a fruitloop so you dont need to exaggerate his stupidity'" He went on to say: “Is there a way we can do something, by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... oronavirus

Quote ="wotsupcas"But he didn't did he? But of course you know that. The blokes a fruitloop so you dont need to exaggerate his stupidity'" He went on to say: “Is there a way we can do something, by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... oronavirus

Breaking news.....................
Bozza has been found, and is, apparently, returning to work tomorrow.
It's time for the greedy and gullible to rejoice.

No10 Cabinet Office table Monday morning,

BOZZA - 'Hi everybody, it's good to be back. It was 50/50 at one stage, even though I didn't need a ventilator.....It was a couple of foreigners that pulled me through, and while I've been at Chequers, recovering, my friend Donald rang and advised me to take lots of bleach.....I feel great and I've even made a promise to Carrie that I'm gonna start going to nappy change classes, so I might have to leave early.'

CUMMINGS - 'Ok Boris, good to see you, now go and sit in the corner and we'll give you a shout if we need anything.'

Dont tell the Daily Express, they have his return to work down as "the second coming".

One of the issues that has started to puzzle me and annoy me too, is that while Raab was telling us that there was no point in testing anyone because "there wasn't a reliable enough test", our former EU friends in Germany were more than happy to test their people and their number of deaths and death rate are a fraction of ours and not only do we know their strategy for coming out of lockdown, they are already beginning to open up.
The UK on the other hand, has a number of deaths, which is close to double that of the official figure and isn't even prepared to contemplate publicly just how we even to begin to end the lockdown.
The damage to business is colossal, something which we will take decades to recover from and there is no lead coming from government, none whatsoever.

I cant see Johnson hiding away though, it's not his style

I asked about this testing panacea by Germany before. Why is their death rate so low compared to Italy and Spain when their test rates per million are about the same. What other reasons are there because looking at the figures it can't be just testing.

Quote ="wotsupcas"I asked about this testing panacea by Germany before. Why is their death rate so low compared to Italy and Spain when their test rates per million are about the same. What other reasons are there because looking at the figures it can't be just testing.'" It's a very good point. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52234061 "if you test a lot, you're also going to be testing a lot of people who don't have the virus or who have only mild symptoms. So, statistically, your death rate will look a lot lower than if you test only people who are already ill in hospital." I know they have more hospital ICU beds than the UK but they have more boarders & a larger population, from what we are being told it doesn't add up. I would like to know the facts about their lockdown process and protection for care homes. Do their care homes have resident doctors/consultants that don't visit multiple homes?

Quote ="wotsupcas"I asked about this testing panacea by Germany before. Why is their death rate so low compared to Italy and Spain when their test rates per million are about the same. What other reasons are there because looking at the figures it can't be just testing.'" It's a very good point. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52234061 "if you test a lot, you're also going to be testing a lot of people who don't have the virus or who have only mild symptoms. So, statistically, your death rate will look a lot lower than if you test only people who are already ill in hospital." I know they have more hospital ICU beds than the UK but they have more boarders & a larger population, from what we are being told it doesn't add up. I would like to know the facts about their lockdown process and protection for care homes. Do their care homes have resident doctors/consultants that don't visit multiple homes?

Maybe it was just who they were testing ?

The point that I was making is that, the UK said the test wasn't good enough but, it does seem that Germany has a test that it is happy to use and that does appear to have been successful in helping.
Meanwhile, in the UK we seem to go for over promising tests, PPE, number of deaths and have failed to hit any of its own targets.
We also have a daily roll call for deaths in hospitals, which although possibly accurate, is utterly meaningless if it only includes around half of the total deaths caused by the virus.

BOZZA 'Dommy, seeing as I've been a really good boy sat in the corner all this time while you've been having your important meeting, is there any chance I can ask you a question?'

CUMMINGS 'Go ahead Boris but make it brief'.

BOZZA 'Well I was just thinking Dommy, is there any chance I can stay up late on Thursday night so I can clap for the carers as I really had fun with little Rishi from next door last time?'

CUMMINGS 'We'll see Boris'.

Germany has a vast network of decentralised private laboratories which has certainly helped. We simply don't have that capacity or flexibility. According to Speigel International [url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/corona-challenge-germany-reaching-the-upper-limit-of-testing-capacity-a-4d75e7bd-dd0e-41e3-9f09-eb4364c43f2eit hasn't been all plain sailing[/url, but they've done a great job.



I've mentioned this before, but they also have a far more disciplined and compliant society. They follow government instruction and don't have house parties or flock to parks and have mates round for bbqs just because it's sunny. There have been some small protests against their lockdown but the vast majority are sensible and compliant.

Also - and this is key - it seems Germany records the cause of death as any underlying condition even if the patient is confirmed with CV19, and testing for CV19 after death is not all that common. In the UK doctors can record CV19 as the direct or underlying cause of death regardless of underlying condition, and without the need for a positive CV19 test result, or the need for a coroner. Another reason why comparing different countries is never accurate.

We'll see a better picture when Germany publishes their number of total deaths for March, on 30th April.

Either way, this isn't going away. If someone tests positive and everyone around them is placed in quarantine, what happens next? They're back in society within about 2 weeks. Then - as we're seeing in Asia - it just comes back. Until there's a vaccine it'll just keep moving among the population and we simply cannot stay in lockdown in perpetuity, so we'll likely see a gradual easing of restrictions, maintaining social distancing, recommending masks, working from home where possible, perhaps changing how schools operate, continue to isolate those most at risk, continue to restrict mass gatherings, etc.

Testing capacity here is increasing rapidly and we'll soon see it rolled out nationwide, which will help enormously.

You have to laugh at the return of the prodigal son. Just before the election, when he was ducking and diving, hiding in fridges, avoiding interviews, the Tory apologists were out in force saying Boris was being clever by avoiding all scrutiny and refusing interviews from high profile shows. Now those of us who knew he was a charlatan, and didn't vote for him, are expected to put our faith in him and trust him to do the right thing, despite being ridiculed for expecting him to face the music on the campaign trail. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic.

This is why our leaders need to be held to account before, during and after elections.

StIll waitong for Blair to face trial....

How about that old slag Thatcher for creating an underclass in our society that will never go away now?
I'd dig her up and have her in the dock along with Phoney Tony.

In other news - I'm happy to report that after an extensive international procurement exercise involving me, my online financial specialists, Walmart and a specialist distribution operative, I took delivery of 4,000 pieces of PPE; prior to the Tory rebranding, traditionally and perhaps colloquially known as ordering a 4 pack of bog rolls off of Asda.

8,000 pieces if it's 2-ply. Your cup runneth over if it's 3-ply.

Quote ="IR80"StIll waitong for Blair to face trial....'" I wonder who helped in arming Iraq? https://www.ft.com/content/52add2c4-30b ... 144feabdc0 or who voted for it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_P ... on_of_Iraq

Quote ="IR80"StIll waitong for Blair to face trial....'" I wonder who helped in arming Iraq? https://www.ft.com/content/52add2c4-30b ... 144feabdc0 or who voted for it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_P ... on_of_Iraq

Who keeps arming Saudi Arabia, who kept supporting South Africa during apartheid and who treated a known dictator and murderer of his own people.

Whilst ever we manufacture arms/ships/aircraft/tanks i.e. items used in warfare we have to sell them to somebody - not sure we can sell it all to Switzerland?

Do we really ??

Yes, manufacturing these items would mean that we COULD sell them to other nations but it doesn't mean that we HAVE to ??
We could just produce equipment for our own armed forces and not feel that we have to supply other nations / groups.

Of course there can be deals done to reciprocate the supply of arms but, when we begin to offer such things to "unstable" governments / nations, there is always the danger that they will be used either against us or against our allies.
The only reason that some of these things are sold to "dodgy" organisations is to make money.

Not the only reason surely. There are the 135k quality jobs and that's just those directly employed. How many would be lost if we stopped exports?

And there is the conundrum.

If we are saying that there has to be that number of employees within the industry, to enable us to arm and protect ourselves and the consequence of that is that there will be "X" spare capacity, then a decision has to be made as to whether to allow the excess "stock" to be sold elsewhere and how to control those sales or, should the industry be "shrunk", in order to prevent having to "chase" sales to "dodgy" customers.

You would think where the supply of arms is concerned, it should be on a defence and safety remit and not just selling additional arms because we have over capacity ??

So if you were in charge how many of those people would you sack? And therein lies the problem. I wish, like you, that it was a perfect world without the need for arms. But it isn't and if we don't sell them someone else will.

If we were a member of the EU we could have a coordinated manufacture & procurement policy plus a ready market, hence an economy of scale.

There is an episode of 'Yes Minister' where Jim Hacker faces a moral dilemma when he learns that British manufactured arms are ending up in the hands of Italian terrorists.

Brings a little humour to your comments and is worth a look.

"Yes Minister" Series 3. Episode 6. "The Whiskey Priest".

I think you are missing a point - the R&D required on some of these projects is vast - similar to pharmaceuticals - unless you can spread this cost over volume of product it is simply uneconomic to develop cutting edge technology. No point going into battle with one hand tied behind your back because the planes/tanks are not up to it. So unless you think the British tax payer should pay well over the odds what is the alternative - these businesses employ tens of thousands of people.

Why would we it didn't happen when were a member what would change if we had stayed in?

The biographer for Boris Johnson was on the radio earlier and when asked he didn't know how may children he had (abandoned). To be fair to him though he is consistent, in that he doesn't want to tell us an accurate birth or death rate.