Blah Blah

Boris has a track record of being poor on detail, so he finds any scenario where his is not controlling the narrative difficult. He will never be a match for Starmer at PMQ's for example because of that. The reason why a British woman is languishing in a prison term in Iran is also because he can not grasp details. He is invisible for the same reason any leader is invisible, because he is a liability who is prone to making stuff up on the hoof. He was no more visible before he got ill btw. Fundamentally, Boris is lazy, has never worked full time at anything and has winged it for most of his life. I personally thinks he finds the reality of being PM challenging and that is worrying because it invariably leads to an over reliance on advisors and ministers. Fine if you are surrounded by genuine talent. Bad if you are surrounded by mediocrity and narcissism.

If I were you I would call Guys and see if you can see an emergency dentist. If a filling is out, it risks exposing the nerve which will be far worse for pain than a sharp edge (probably caused by the filling taking a piece of the tooth with it). They may at the very least be able to get a dentist to call you back and discuss it. And edited to add that NHS services are still open for advice and emergencies. So do not worry about giving Guys a call. It is just a call and hopefully someone qualified will be able to assess you over the phone.

The London Mayors Office is a bit like a devolved government. So it has a limited range to set local policy, some of which regards how it spends the funding that comes from central government, and other monies it receives from taxpayers. Do we need it? Well the idea is to have a layer between local authorities and central government, in the same was as we used to have regional and metropolitan elected bodies. For me it makes sense in a city with 8 million residents to have an elected office that oversees the infrastructure and policies that pull all that together. That is what the London Assembly is also for. To hold the Mayor and his advisers to account. And just as we elect the Mayor, we also elect the Assembly Members.

What bothers me about the government strategy, is easing lockdown before they have an intensive test, track and trace system in place. By the time we get to that, the virus could already be on its way to another peak. We also need to understand why BAME people are disproportionately impacted. It is very easy for the public to have a false sense of security while that curve is flattened but if that R number rises above 1 again, we'll be back in lockdown. On enforcement, we just do not have enough police officers and wardens etc to do that effectively.

I have seen quite a few cars deliberately go through red lights lately, and the usual run of cyclists doing the same. I even had one car pull out of a stop line right in front of me, with no excuse for not having seen me. He actually continued moving as I was passing in front of his bonnet! My opinion is that the same people who think lock down rules don't apply to them, are the same people who think rules of the road don't apply to them. It's a attitude problem.

first mate Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Malumbu, fairly sure fox poo a whole lot nastier > in terms of pathogens than is dog poo! Not actually true. Both foxes and dogs originate from the same animal family, called canidae. Both dogs and foxes are carnivores and are susceptible to worms. Both also get fleas. Foxes can be treated for those things in the same way domestic dogs are.

Is that B&Q on Old Kent Road?

Maybe try giving Sopers a ring on Nunhead lane KK. They have the 2m rule on queuing in effect and even if they don't have it in, I am sure they can get what you want in. They are an old style fishmonger, so go to the fish market every morning. This is their phone number 020 7639 9729 Give them a call and tell them what you want. I am sure they can get it for you.

CLAIM warning ;)

PnB please give it up. You are neither funny nor clever. FYI I grew up on a farm, that my parents still own and farm. Foxes are neither vermin nor a pain in the ass if farmers take the right protective measures (as most farmers do). They have moved into urban areas because commercial farming has destroyed the hedgerows where the could find the small rodents they could live off. The biggest risk on farms is to chickens and guess what? Most farmers (if not all) have fox proof barns to keep their chickens safe. Have a chat with farmers dealing with mink....you'll soon see who the biggest predators are. Most people moaning about foxes in urban areas are more worried about fox poo in their gardens (as most townies do not keep chickens). Shooting a mother fox is cruel as her cubs may well be left to starve in their set. THAT is why it is illegal.

Deregulation of transport systems is another debate and one on which we would probably agree on a lot of things. Changes to concessionary travel is something government demanded in return for the ?1.6bn bailout they have just given to Tfl. Ultimately it will be tax payers who pay for that. The point here though is that it is the government who have forced this change, not the Mayor. Would a Labour government have made the same demands? Probably not. Life is going to get a bit more costly for all of us and sadly we have a government with a track record of making the poorest pay most. We shall see what happens.

seenbeen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > There are enough passengers on TFL to fund the > service if many people did not evade fares. Also > the free travel for kids has encouraged them to > hop on for 1 or 2 stops and their parents to > choose schools miles away.....does nothing to > combat obesity or cut down air pollution. > TFL fund the 60+ pass How about you provide the data that proves that instead of making stuff up because you want it to be true. Tfl were operating with a ?968 million deficit last year and an overall debt of ?11.7 billion. That just got a whole lot worse because of this pandemic. Some details here. Declining passenger numbers combined with increased running costs have been the trend for some years. https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2019/03/21/tfl-outlines-its-budget-for-2020-focusing-on-more-cost-cutting/

DulwichFox Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Khan has always claimed credit for the 'Freedom > Pass' Even if HE did not bring it in originally. > > But now.. All of a Sudden, The Freedom Pass has > Nothing to do with Him.. Out of His control. > > Hypocrite .. > > Need to get him out. Has too much Power. So your issue is that you just don't like Khan. Now answer the question I asked. How would any Mayor resolve the cost for a huge drop in passengers? Others have pointed out to you that government ordered concessions to stop (so they do not have to bail out Tfl too). It would help if you actually read replies to you and acknowledge the facts over your determination to have a go at Khan.

Tfl was already operating with a subsidy before the pandemic. Now that passenger numbers have dropped significantly, who has the means to fund the shortfall DF? It wouldn't matter who was Mayor, they would face the same issues.

I grew up on a farm that my parents still own. Even in the countryside, there is no need for animal cruelty. Foxes are a pest to chickens, so country folk build cages that protect them at night. Shooting a fox family in an urban area because they simply annoy you is unforgivable. There is always another way, hence my link to an organisation that can trap and relocate the fox family if necessary. Edited to add; The success of urban foxes is entirely down to the available of food vs diminishing country hedgerows. As a child, I learned to shoot a shotgun to deter wildlife threat to the livestock my family reared, but we never shot anything dead. There is always a way to protect wildlife and close off their access to livestock. Country people know this better than anyone. Being humane is easy. Being an impatient urban tw@t however.....

Hsve a chat with the London Wildlife Protection organisation. If he is intent on killing them, they may be able to offer to trap and relocate them. That might be the only way to reason with him sadly. They would also know the law of what is permitted and the RSPCA are the best organisation for prosecuting animal cruelty (if not the best organisation for animal rescue). https://www.londonwildlifeprotection.org/ And let him know asap that they can do that (if they say they can) so that he gives them the chance to get them and relocate them.

Three words.... Game of Thrones! Totally addicted....

Nothing like someone trying to derail a civil conversation Sephiroth ;)

This is going to be the same dilemma for many adults and children alike. I did read a news article this morning reporting that many parents are going to refuse to send their children back to school in June. Overcoming the genuine founded fear is perhaps going to be a bigger hurdle for the economy than anything government now says perhaps. It may also be that government is predicting a significant fall in infection and deaths by then. And thank you for the kind comments above. In truth everyone has a point, from those too scared to go back to work, to those who must, and those who just don't see a problem. My reading of government thinking at this point is that people should be able to determine their own fate on the level of risk. But if that is the way the government want to play it, then people really must be free to decide and not be penalised if they err on the side of caution. And of course, this could all go very wrong if the infection rate picks up again. It could be as much as two weeks after new infections before we see if it does, and by then it is too late. Hence my confusion at doing this before a comprehensive test, track and trace programme is in place. We shall see.

Indeed they have Siousxiesue and to support Malumbu here too, what people think and believe depends on who they choose to listen to. Some people have been jailed for deliberately spitting on others abusing the fear that exists around this virus. Where was their common sense? Depending on the public to uniformly make the right choices and behave in the right way all of the time is a pipe dream. It is indeed complex. In my opinion, it is extremely important that we have the right emphasis on and enforcement of behaviour within enclosed spaces. But here is the word of warning. Come the Autumn, when all the seasonal flu and cold viruses emerge, people are going to be coughing and sneezing everywhere. If we do not get mass testing sorted out by then, we are heading for the disaster of a second peak that may be far worse through the ease of spread from those other seasonal viruses and bacteria. The more we do now to prepare, and change the behaviour we need to change to navigate this virus, the better it will be in the longer term for everyone.

And this is the dilemma for government NewWave, for all governments in fact. How long to stall the economy vs public health? Personally, I feel it is too early to start relaxing the lock down. We are not low enough on any graph yet, or high enough on testing, to prevent a new rise in cases (and deaths) leading to another lock down. But at the same time, we have an economy that only holds together if people can earn money, buy and sell. I don't have the answer to that any more than the government does. If this virus were causing death equally across age and demographics, we would have no option but to shut everything down. But even with the factors as they are, there is going to be no return to things as they were, until we either develop a vaccine that works or the virus itself disappears. And who knows what the politic impacts and ramifications of that will be long term.

Saying that wet markets are a source of livelihood (a point I also made) is not the same as saying they should not be banned. The link you cite Seenbeen is the opinion of one WHO expert, and an opinion in which he states that these markets are at a high risk of causing viral outbreaks. It is not an official WHO statement on policy however. That is an assumption being made by the news channel reporting on it, which is probably why it is being reported nowhere else.

It is government trying to have the best of both worlds but it will backfire when that peak starts rising again.

The virus does not need a lab to mutate, no virus does. But the general rule is that the bigger the spread of infection, the bigger the risk of mutation. In a global pandemic, that becomes a real concern. We already see mutations in influenza regularly, hence the need for new vaccines every flu season. There is no reason to think SARS would be any different in a global pandemic. 'had a glimpse through and couldn't see any relation to Mexico' The D614G mutation was discovered by researchers at a Los Alamos laboratory, which is in New Mexico. That is a very good link JohnL, because it outlines the complexity of what we are up against. And there is still much to be understood and learned. As for labs, all research like this takes place in level 4 facilities, which is the highest biohazard level. To even suggest that any laboratory would create a mutation for financial gain is fanciful. A laboratory would lose its license immediately if it did so.

Can you give a link for that 83 percent stat TheCat? I think you are taking the figure for ALL journeys made as opposed to journeys made to travel to work. The report from the DFT states that when considering both workers and non-workers, more than 80% of people entering Central London during the morning peak used rail-based modes of transport. In London, before the lockdown, that equates to millions of people using public transport to get to work. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/870647/tsgb-2019.pdf You ask for common sense, well here it is. We have an invisible virus that is still infecting 20,000 people a day. Until the government have a well resourced track and trace network in place, accompanied by testing units all over the country that ANY concerned member of the public can access, there is no strategy to stop that infection rate rising again, and a lock down returning. Whilst I agree that no worker is going to return to work until they have been instructed by their employers to do so, the government has to come up with something better than 'avoid public transport if you can'. Labour also have to be careful to not play politics with this pandemic. Pressing the government for exit plans when we are still waiting to see what works for other countries may backfire. Note that China has reported new cases of infection in a province in the North, not linked to people coming into the country from elsewhere. Also, immediately after that statement, Boris was called by Macron protesting the 14 day quarantine announced for people arriving from abroad, and guess what? He caved. Those traveling from France will be exempt from the quarantine. Make of that what you will.