OneGuyFromBarlick

Pity someone can't operate on Johnson David, he can't even join words together in a sentence. And as for being brief and to the point in his answers, Dream on....

Stanley wrote: ↑28 May 2020, 01:59 Pity someone can't operate on Johnson David, he can't even join words together in a sentence. And as for being brief and to the point in his answers, Dream on....

It was in fact what Boris Johnson said. In the committee interrogation piece that you switched off in frustration. He was chided by the chairman for repetition, and said 'what can I do when I keep getting asked the same question?'

I agree - he is the master of waffle - 'first amongst equals' to coin a phrase.

"Not my circus. Not my monkeys!"
Polish proverb.

Professor Jonathan Van Tam at today's press briefing -

"In my opinion the rules are clear and they have always been clear.

"In my opinion they are for the benefit of all.

"In my opinion they apply to all."

From his mouth to God's ear!

Mrs P watches the briefings, every word every chart which gets quoted at me on every opinion I utter. Last night she came bounding out, big grin on face, ready to quote Professor Jonathan Van Tam. I'd just picked up Tripps post and got my two penny worth in first. Well done Tripps for getting off the mark so quickly.

OG scores again!

You're welcome - right place, right time. . .

"I can't breathe"
George Floyd.

YES! I heard that and the man is correct.
"Feather covered balls of fat flying non stop over the Sahara"
Richard Attenborough describing Sedge Warblers this morning.... Lovely image!

The founder of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei was reported by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday to have told staff in 2018 that the company was in a battle with the US and they should "surge forward, killing as you go, to blaze us a trail of blood". From a BBC report.

Colourful language indeed but if he wasn't quoting directly from 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu he and his workers recognise the language. Different culture, different ways of expressing things.
Compare with Machiavelli; His advice is to "Kill all the Princes!"

George Orwell 1984.

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

"We are shortly going to reach 50,000 deaths and the government is talking about opening zoos and Sunday trading. Give me a break".
Anonymous MP.

The mood seems to be that the virus is on the wain, and it's just a matter of gauging the speed with which life is brought back to normal - however -

Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser said today

"We are not at the end of this epidemic - not by a long way - we are in the middle of it."

I don't think we have reached the middle of it yet. We are still in the thick of it and will be here in one way or another until a vaccine is produced and used and we have got out of the economic consequences.
I came across this this morning:
"Doubt is uncomfortable but certainty is absurd" Voltaire.

Speaking very critically on Today on R4 about Johnson's proposal to set up an in house enquiry into Race Relations voiced in a Telegraph article David Lammy said;
"...it was written on the back of a fag packet yesterday to assuage the demands of the black community"

Asked about the triple lock by MPs last month, Mr Johnson said: “We are going to meet all of our manifesto commitments. Unless I specifically tell you otherwise.”

From The Guardian
I don't think they ever thought this would happen in the 2010 Coalition arrangements. i think they will find a way round it.

Rishi Sunak is being forced to consider ways of getting round the “triple lock” on pensions next year amid signs that the bounce back in wages for furloughed workers could put state pensioners in line for an 18% increase.
While the Treasury said it had no plans to ditch the arrangement – by which pensions rise by the rate of inflation, average earnings or 2.5%, whichever is greater – the chancellor has accepted a problem is looming in 2021 as the economy recovers from the coronavirus lockdown.
Officials will spend the next few months seeking a solution that “does not screw pensioners” but outside experts said a temporary suspension of the triple lock was inevitable unless the government is prepared to pay a massive bill next year.
Sunak’s dilemma has been caused by forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility showing a drop of more than 7% in earnings this year as a result of millions of furloughed workers receiving 80% of their wages, which will be followed by an 18% increase next year as they return to full pay.

Under the triple lock – which Boris Johnson pledged to keep in the Tory’s 2019 election manifesto – pensioners will receive a minimum increase of 2.5% in this year’s uprating but will be in line to receive 18% the following year.
Q&A

You're right David. Like doing away with it altogether....

From today's Independent -

"As one senior government official with a ludicrously firm grip on the obvious was quoted as saying: “No app is better than a bad app.”

Perhaps Hancock will stop using the phrase 'world beating' after this debacle.

A quote today from the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), saying that some building firms had barely improved since the Grenfell disaster in 2017: Banning things [such as flammable cladding] is no guarantee that people will follow the rules, and it is our view that much of the combustible cladding on the side of buildings is already banned under the current regime. To date, there is little evidence of a culture change [since Grenfell]. There is much more to be done to ensure the safety of building occupants, now and in the future. NFCC advocates that the current building control system is overhauled to ensure that it is robust, independent of client and market influence, and has sufficient teeth to enforce appropriate fire safety standards as necessary.