Current Affairs

[Onelife]

Just an afterthought… if you see any honorary titles going cheap I know of another liar who could be in the market for some.

He's already getting one......

The Right Honourable “I’ve blown it again” would seem appropriate under the circumstances” don’t you think?

I wonder which one of the backbenchers will be the first to say what most of the country is thinking…”your time is up Bos”.

[Kendhni]

The Right Honourable “I’ve blown it again” would seem appropriate under the circumstances” don’t you think?

I wonder which one of the backbenchers will be the first to say what most of the country is thinking…”your time is up Bos”.

It appears Johnson should be getting a bit nervous because at least two conservatives have managed to locate their AWOL integrity ... Douglas Ross and Sir Roger Gale have both called for Johnson to go.

I think the only decision that Johnson now needs to make is whether to go with the tiny shreds of dignity he has left or be kicked out. I am sure HIGNFY would be willing to have their clown back.

[Onelife]

The Right Honourable “I’ve blown it again” would seem appropriate under the circumstances” don’t you think?

I wonder which one of the backbenchers will be the first to say what most of the country is thinking…”your time is up Bos”.

It appears Johnson should be getting a bit nervous because at least two conservatives have managed to locate their AWOL integrity ... Douglas Ross and Sir Roger Gale have both called for Johnson to go.

I think the only decision that Johnson now needs to make is whether to go with the tiny shreds of dignity he has left or be kicked out. I am sure HIGNFY would be willing to have their clown back.

I’d be the first to wish him all the best in his new career... in “Call my bluff” perhaps?

Then again it would just be a load of repeats

[Mervyn and Trish]

I think Stephen's story above is more interesting. A few drinks in the garden or a bit of under age sex by a senior member of the Royal Family (both allegedly of course).

It might be worth checking Merv but I don’t think the girl was underage in the Prince Andrew scandal (alleged) just a bit young for a man of his age.

Personally, I find a shameless brazen liar for a Prime Minister more relevant to my life.

I wasn't sure on the age but apparently she was underage under US law. Different from here.

And I did say more interesting rather than relevant! I'm bored silly with parties. Surely you had plenty.of time to get used to a lying PM in the Blair years!

[Ray B]

Do you mean The Right Honorable Sir Tony Blair
Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

[towny44]

If any of you follow the worldometers covid data site, then you should have noticed how France, Italy and Spain are now showing daily covid cases far higher than the UK, in fact France has now been over 300,000 cases a day all of this week. Germany is managing to massage its figures to just about keep them under 100,000, but since its daily death rate has been over 300 now for most of the last 3 weeks, then I suspect that they are not testing enough people.
In my opinion this is full vindication for our govts handling of the omicron variant, and regardless of what you think about Boris's covid rule breaking, it seems to me that we are far better off with him in charge than our european friends are with their governments.

[Kendhni]

I’d be the first to wish him all the best in his new career... in “Call my bluff” perhaps?

Then again it would just be a load of repeats

Just like his apologies. Johnson having to stand up and apologise for the latest wrongdoing he has been caught for is now more often than the COVID briefings.

Rumour is that he now has a full-time assistant writing his disingenuous apologies for next week.

[Manoverboard]

Covid number are reportedly going down, ditto hospitalisation .... has it peaked ?

[david63]

Covid number are reportedly going down, ditto hospitalisation .... has it peaked ?

It looks as if there are a few optimistic signs but at the same time I think that it is probably too soon to get euphoric about it. The "experts" said at the outset of this wave that we would not be out of it before the end of January and that is starting to look as if it might be right.

[Ray B]

Hospital admissions show a slight downward trend and those testing positive a bigger drop. Deaths are still rising but should follow the downward trend soon if this trend is kept up.

[Gill W]

Lots of issues around testing at the moment.

People had trouble accessing PCR tests and there are some delays in receiving results (in some cases, results are still being received from last week). Also, from 11th January, the requirement for a PCR test has been removed in many cases, so new cases will look like they are falling anyway. As people knew this was coming in, they may have stopped bothering to get a PCR test.

Positivity for PCR tests remains high, over 30% positive in most areas, so that implies there is a lot of virus out there, and not enough PCR tests are being done.

I think the ONS is the most reliable indicator now, as they have not changed their methodology. Their latest figures still say that 1 in 15 people are infected in England for week ending 6 Jan. if cases are genuinely going down, this should improve when the next report is received. They now appear to be releasing their figures each Wednesday.

[david63]

No doubt there will be some who will decry it and say too much too soon - but another sign of improvement is the reduction of isolation when tested positive for Covid down to five days on the proviso of two negative tests.

[oldbluefox]

My glass half full says we are coming out of it and the WHO agrees with me. Not out of the woods yet but we are getting there and no lockdown over Christmas and the New Year.

[barney]

My glass half full says we are coming out of it and the WHO agrees with me. Not out of the woods yet but we are getting there and no lockdown over Christmas and the New Year.

My instinct is similar Foxy.
However, the jury is still very much out on whether to pay for our June cruise.
Mrs B is terrified of being off loaded abroad should the covid hit.
If P&O change policy to isolation on the ship, then we will probably go, but no way if you will be put off in a port to isolate in a hotel then fly back.

[david63]

If P&O change policy to isolation on the ship

I'm not sure that the "offloading" is actually P&O policy as from what I have read it is the country and/or port that insist that anyone having a positive test is offloaded for isolation.

It is something that I cannot get my head round - why would a country knowingly bring Covid positive people into their country when they could leave them on the ship? If the country said that nobody could disembark if there were positive Covid case onboard then that could possibly make sense.

It will be interesting to see if P&O bring isolation down to five days in line with the UK (well England at the moment!) as it is still at 10 days.

[towny44]

If P&O change policy to isolation on the ship

I'm not sure that the "offloading" is actually P&O policy as from what I have read it is the country and/or port that insist that anyone having a positive test is offloaded for isolation.

It is something that I cannot get my head round - why would a country knowingly bring Covid positive people into their country when they could leave them on the ship? If the country said that nobody could disembark if there were positive Covid case onboard then that could possibly make sense.

It will be interesting to see if P&O bring isolation down to five days in line with the UK (well England at the moment!) as it is still at 10 days.

I totally agree that it seems stupid for any country to require passengers who test positive for covid on a cruise ship to be offloaded and sent to a quarantine hotel. UNLESS some port authority jobs worth is getting kickbacks from the hotels for every passenger he sends.

[Manoverboard]

It doesn't make sense for the ship to hang on to them all either especially if there are lots 'n' lots of them requiring isolation. An agreement may therefore have been reached with a number of Countries to permit unloading.

[towny44]

It doesn't make sense for the ship to hang on to them all either especially if there are lots 'n' lots of them requiring isolation. An agreement may therefore have been reached with a number of Countries to permit unloading.

Fortunately so far on P&O there haven't been lots of them, and hardly any have needed medical attention.

[Manoverboard]

It doesn't make sense for the ship to hang on to them all either especially if there are lots 'n' lots of them requiring isolation. An agreement may therefore have been reached with a number of Countries to permit unloading.

Fortunately so far on P&O there haven't been lots of them, and hardly any have needed medical attention.

How do you know that for sure, are you on P&Os mailing list re Covid cases ... of course not. However the agreement may have been reached in the early days when it was a complete unknown.

[towny44]

It doesn't make sense for the ship to hang on to them all either especially if there are lots 'n' lots of them requiring isolation. An agreement may therefore have been reached with a number of Countries to permit unloading.

Fortunately so far on P&O there haven't been lots of them, and hardly any have needed medical attention.

How do you know that for sure, are you on P&Os mailing list re Covid cases ... of course not. However the agreement may have been reached in the early days when it was a complete unknown.

It is apparently as a result of an EU directive. Following the Diamond Princess incident it was agreed that part of the restart of cruising all countries would agree to accept positive tested passengers if they needed to be offloaded to hospital or isolation. Of course this protocol was worded before vaccination was fully implemented, and is aimed at ensuring that cases on board would not result in ships with covid on board being denied access to ports, and having to control the outbreak themselves.
Now that most passengers and crew have been vaccinated there is less pressure on ships to offload all covid cases, but it appears that some EU countries are applying this protocol far too strictly.

[Manoverboard]

It is apparently as a result of an EU directive. Following the Diamond Princess incident it was agreed that part of the restart of cruising all countries would agree to accept positive tested passengers if they needed to be offloaded to hospital or isolation. Of course this protocol was worded before vaccination was fully implemented, and is aimed at ensuring that cases on board would not result in ships with covid on board being denied access to ports, and having to control the outbreak themselves.
Now that most passengers and crew have been vaccinated there is less pressure on ships to offload all covid cases, but it appears that some EU countries are applying this protocol far too strictly.

Sounds about right

[screwy]

Oh, the Grand old Duke of York
he had
10,000 men
he also had some underage girls
But he doesn’t remember them.

[Onelife]

Oh, the Grand old Duke of York
he had
10,000 men
he also had some underage girls
But he doesn’t remember them.

And when he was up he was up
And when he was down, he was down
And when he was only half-way up
He forgot if he’d been up or down,

[Gill W]

Unbelievable! Reports of two more parties in 10 Downing Street the night before Prince Philip’s funeral.

[Onelife]

On Question time last night one panellist stated that there had been 12 parties spread across downing street and the houses of parliament that were in breach with covid rules.

The same panellist also made a good point when she said No 10 and its grounds have a very heavy police presence, which begs the question why wasn’t the get together stopped?

I’m starting to understand why the Metropolitan police are reluctant to take further action at this stage preferring to wait on the Sue Gray’s report... in the hope presumably that they won’t have to take disciplinary action against their own officers?