Betting on new PM.

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

A clearly identifying shot of individual Mirror and/or Guardian photographers in that scrum, together with public demands for their sacking with their chain of command right up to the Board, ought to sharpen people's attention somewhat! They were not allowing a member of the public his due respect and safety by wilfully invading his 2 metre radius personal space.

[corsechris]

8 hours ago, Arm said:

Unfortunately they don't. Hancock cut  Peston down to size earlier but that's been about it. I feel the hysteria we have in the UK is from the press.  I'm really disappointed in their actions more now than ever before. I simply don't listen to them anymore and my group of friends and acquaintances are of the same view.

Same here. Watch the briefings, listen to the first few questions, the second there's a hint if the usual dog-with-a-bone bulls*** from the press ‘luminaries’ and it goes off. I’m struggling to recall a single worthwhile question any of these professional types have come up with during this whole business.    
 

And by professional, I mean they get paid to do it. I do not mean to imply any level of competence on their part.

[Arm]

My statements are not a political siding. I feel Jeremy Corbyn was given a very bad time by the press and I've tried to be fair to all sides throughout recent years. The press arnt capable of holding anyone to account that's not their intention - drama to sell news they need to find or create instead. It's not acceptable at this stage in a national crisis to create further hysteria. I try to make balanced views irrespective of who is in power and I do my best to give support to those leaders even if I don't agree with policy. I now limit my exposure to the news and separate myself from the ranty people.  I just try and form a reasonable balanced view by separating the incident from political position. How many could consider their view of DC and his actions if they took their own political leaning from the situation ? I feel DC was an idiot having has explained what happened. But I wasnt in his situation and we only had a 20 minute snapshot of what allegedly happened. Quite frankly it doesn't bother me. His actions made no difference to the spread of an already spread virus but he made errors in his reasoning for some of the actions. In my family we have been on standby for an elderly relative. Vulnerable and living alone. A long way away and I'm designated to go and collect should he be affected. I have checked with a policeman friend and there are no issues with the trip whatsoever. He said explain what you are doing and be reasonable and not cocky. If anyone else tried to ask me why or if it was necessary to make a 450 mile trip they would get told to f**k off on short order.

[jeff oakley]

The media have lost their way and when we have people like Piers Morgan, the one who was the editor or the Mirror when they hacked the phone of a dead Girl and was still there when they published pictures from Iraq that claimed to show British atrocities, which were faked, suddenly being seen by many as the only one in the room worth listening to, it shows how short the memory of the public is. 

Once the media reported the news, now they are all looking for that gotcha moment. They had the details of Cummings trip weeks ago, yet did not use it as beating the government over the amount dying was enough to sell papers and advertising space. Now it has slowed down, roll this out this will sell papers for another week or so.

Most people never read past stay at home, but there were so many reasons why you could be outside and healthcare was one of them. Cummings has made so many enemies with the press and his refusal to leak news, even getting rid of the chancellors aid who was leaking against agreed policy and his success in the leave campaign. Many of the Tory MP's calling for his head are also trying to settle scores, especially ones whose future abruptly stopped when Boris was elected.

 

Yes there is outrage as the way it has been reported is that he broke rules and the law, he did neither. That does not stop the social media generation parroting "Tracey from Basingstoke" who has a degree in bingo but is suddenly the world expert of the lockdown rules and the font of all knowledge around the subject.

 

What the press should be doing is chasing China who need holding to account. Where have all the whistle blowing Dr's disappeared to? Was this virus man made and if so was it an accidental release or deliberate? They always say follow the money and I have read that China is buying up lots of stock in companies at the moment for pennies, was this an economic mugging? And while the worlds focus is on the virus China are flexing their authoritarian muscle in Hong Kong and wondering if the rest of the world cares enough about Taiwan to react if they invade there. But that is much harder than standing outside a private home shouting at people.

[Steve (sdh2903)]

37 minutes ago, corsechris said:

And by professional, I mean they get paid to do it. I do not mean to imply any level of competence on their part.

 

So true. And not just the journos either

[Jim RS]

8 minutes ago, jeff oakley said:

What the press should be doing is chasing China who need holding to account. Where have all the whistle blowing Dr's disappeared to? Was this virus man made and if so was it an accidental release or deliberate? They always say follow the money and I have read that China is buying up lots of stock in companies at the moment for pennies, was this an economic mugging? And while the worlds focus is on the virus China are flexing their authoritarian muscle in Hong Kong and wondering if the rest of the world cares enough about Taiwan to react if they invade there. But that is much harder than standing outside a private home shouting at people.

I thought I was the only person with these theories😨

[DonPeffers]

14 hours ago, corsechris said:

I’m expecting odds on DC getting sacked myself. Press really won’t let it drop will they....

 

 

Betfair shows  'will Dominic Cummings still be in current job on 01 June 2020' as.......Yes  odds 2/5   &  No  odds 7/4.

[DonPeffers]

2 hours ago, jeff oakley said:

Yes there is outrage as the way it has been reported is that he broke rules and the law, he did neither.

 

What the press should be doing is chasing China who need holding to account. Where have all the whistle blowing Dr's disappeared to? Was this virus man made and if so was it an accidental release or deliberate? They always say follow the money and I have read that China is buying up lots of stock in companies at the moment for pennies, was this an economic mugging? And while the worlds focus is on the virus China are flexing their authoritarian muscle in Hong Kong and wondering if the rest of the world cares enough about Taiwan to react if they invade there. But that is much harder than standing outside a private home shouting at people.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52814833   Mr Hancock said: "We will have local (coronavirus) lockdowns in future where there are flare-ups."

 

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick "measures can be introduced which hopefully the public will get behind, enable us to control the virus in that locality".     Hopefully the public don't fancy a 60 mile drive to test their eyesight.

 

Regarding China and the virus I read a report from a scientist stating that covid seemed uniquely adapted to infect humans right from the start so either a freak mutation at outset or possibly lab. made. Many investigations into the virus origin now.

[Blatman]

3 hours ago, jeff oakley said:

That does not stop the social media generation parroting "Tracey from Basingstoke" who has a degree in bingo but is suddenly the world expert of the lockdown rules and the font of all knowledge around the subject.

 

The proper noun for any female who sets themselves apart be being self righteous / self important / social justice warriors, is "Karen" 

And now, back to the studio...

[jim_l]

Cummings' story hurts his and Boris' credibility, a lot,  but there is a long queue of people and organisations trading in their credibility for clicks and points: 

 

 

 

A race to the bottom, Fed up with them all tbh, fed up watching dogs fight while there is important stuff to be focussing on, the S*n , Express etc. are the lowest of the low, the Guardian being, at the very least, duplicitous, and some from the Labour party, well I don't know how they can keep a straight face. 

 

 

 

 

[corsechris]

Saying the virus is uniquely adapted to infecting humans is sort of stating the obvious...if it wasn't, we wouldn't be where we are. If said scientist was implying it was designed, that's another matter entirely.

 

Personally, I really don't think it was man-made. Discovered, researched and escaped, perhaps, but far far more likely is the simple and Occams Razor satisfying notion that it just happened by chance, the way those in the know have been predicting something like this would for a long time. I usually support dangler-up over conspiracy.

 

 

[DonPeffers]

I don't think this was the article and can't track it down just now; still an interesting read but way above my pay grade  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01315-7    especially the Power Spikes paragraph.

 

Eventually we might discover the origin of the virus as forensic virologists do their work.

[Blatman]

27 minutes ago, corsechris said:

Saying the virus is uniquely adapted to infecting humans is sort of stating the obvious.

 

Uniquely adapting sounds like there was purpose involved, which is not possible unless framed as and evolutionary change. It happens to have evolved/mutated (depending on which description suits the narrative) into an organism that has matching receptors in humans. Next week it might evolve/mutate those receptors so that they are no longer human compatible. Or it might develop more human receptors. We just don't know.

[corsechris]

That was my point, it's just the way they work, plus, if it hadn't evolved/mutated to be uniquely adapted to infecting humans....it wouldn't have infected humans...

 

The sense of the quote was that said scientist was supporting the conspiracy theory of it having been engineered rather than just happened. Not a notion I subscribe to.

 

We appear to be strenuously agreeing.

[Blatman]

24 minutes ago, corsechris said:

We appear to be strenuously agreeing.

 

One of my favourite ways to agree...

 

51 minutes ago, DonPeffers said:

an interesting read but way above my pay grade

 

Read it again! It's a great article. Well written and they only use science when absolutely necessary. The graphs took a couple of coats of looking at, but they make sense. As is tacitly mentioned in the closing paragraph, it may be that SARS-CoV-2 goes the way of it's closely related RaTG13 and loses it's ability to infect humans.