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Reply | All this Budget Speculation
at 18:46 8 Feb 2025
I don't want to say it is a hanging offence, but if the aim of the lockdown restrictions was to stop the virus jumping between geographical areas (and a key worker wasn't involved), the voice coach travel was a worse breach than parties attended by people who work together. |
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Reply | A woke policy agenda now emerging?
at 18:38 8 Feb 2025
Too few young people? Our situation isn't as bad as that of many European countries. A country faces a problem if the shape of the "population pyramid" is more like a diamond, with fewer younger people in the age cohorts near the bottom. Actually, the UK pyramid looks more like a space rocket, so that roughly speaking there is a pointed apex above a rectangle. This is because there isn't much reduction in cohort sizes as we move towards the younger age groups at the bottom. The situation might be considered better now than in 2008 from that point of view. If you look at this link you can compare the image for 2018 with the projection for 2028.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/popul [Post edited 8 Feb 19:05]
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Reply | Where is Joe?
at 16:10 8 Feb 2025
I'm not saying Joey can carry on as a player for much longer. But, being fair, he is responsible for the only league point we've got in 2025. |
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Reply | A woke policy agenda now emerging?
at 16:03 8 Feb 2025
Re the Telegraph links, I think the two I posted are accessible. If not the try the GB News version below. I think the suggestion is that the agreement to meet the Reparations Commission of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) in April moves the UK a step closer to having to offer some concession. My guess is that the UK's offer will take the form of non-cash assistance (perhaps in the areas of education or social welfare), which will nevertheless have a financial cost.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/lammy-to-open-slavery-reparations-talks-af |
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Reply | Tulip Sadiq
at 10:11 8 Feb 2025
The story keeps rumbling along.
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/tulip-siddiqs-holiday-home-under-in
For those who cannot see beyond the paywall, there is a nice little compound in a rural village outside Dhaka that contains a number of luxurious bungalows, together with impressive gardens and an artificial lake. A sign at the main gate says "Tulip's Territory", and one of the bungalows has a sign bearing her name, while others are labelled with the names of relatives. The property deeds are in the name of Tulip's father, an academic. The Bangladesh authorities are investigating whether the compound was built with money from bribes associated with the letting of a contract for a Russian nuclear power station constructed with the facilitation of Tulip's aunt and former PM. Sheikh Hasina.
If the allegations are proven this makes Boris' parties look like chicken-feed and may be on a par with dodgy PPE contracts.
'Asked to comment on the ACC investigation into the Kanaiya property, a Labour official said: “No evidence has been presented for these allegations. Tulip Siddiq has not been contacted by anyone on the matter and totally denies the claims.”' [Post edited 8 Feb 10:14]
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Thread | A woke policy agenda now emerging?
at 08:19 8 Feb 2025
Two news items today raise the question of whether the Labour Government is now unveiling more of the "progressive" policies that they have long had in mind, but were previously kept in the background.
It is reported that David Lammy will shortly meet the Reparations Commission of the Caribbean Community to discuss the reparations issue.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/07/foreign-office-opens-talks-on-paying
Then we hear that university research funding will increasingly depend on showing that institutions are pushing ahead with diversity, equality and inclusion policies. This will involve changing the rules of the next Research Excellence Framework to increase the % of funding dependent in DEI performance, and would encourage changes in patterns of staff recruitment and research topics funded.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/08/universities-punished-champion-diver
Both will be extremely controversial and did not feature in the manifesto. On the back of the mooted Chagos deal, this may signal the direction of travel of policy. Some will say this is what happens when you have a government of human rights lawyers. [Post edited 8 Feb 8:31]
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Reply | Lucy Letby Guilty
at 13:05 5 Feb 2025
I did notice that you made this point in your earlier post, and I acknowledge that I do not have the expertise to know if the facts are as described. However, the panel of medical experts reviewed each death or adverse event in detail, and from their general statement it is evident that they contest that claim. When (and if) their full report is published we will be able to see what they say in respect of those cases and whether the argument they advance is compelling. Dr Dewi Evans, the key prosecution expert witness, is not qualified in the relevant specialist fields to the same level as the medical professionals in the independent expert panel. Whether Letby herself thought insulin had been put in the drips is neither here nor there (unless she confessed to doing it herself) as she is not a highly-qualified expert in medical science. When it comes to the previous defence teams in the various cases, the argument is that they did not organise the effective presentation of key evidence.
As to whether there is a great weight of circumstantial evidence, what do you have in mind beyond the three main types of evidence that I mentioned and which are all being contested by specialists in the respective fields? I would not be concerned if the arguments were in just one area, but I do find it disturbing that there seem to be doubts in all the main areas.
The expert panel deny that there was a killer. Analysis of activity in the special care baby unit at the Countess of Chester hospital suggests that the period where the deaths occurred was one where a greater number of complex cases was treated and where there were documented problems in staffing. I don't know whether you heard what Dr Shoo Lee had to say yesterday, but it was basically that all the deaths could be accounted for because the babies were either very ill or there were shortcomings in the quality of care they received.
So overall I still have an open mind and would like some of the evidence reviewed in greater depth with proper expert witness input. [Post edited 5 Feb 15:39]
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Reply | Lucy Letby Guilty
at 08:03 5 Feb 2025
This is a very difficult case. On the one hand, many of the issues were explored in two trials and a couple of appeals. Some commentators have been saying that the convictions were based on multiple grounds, and not just the cause-of-death evidence discussed in the press conference given on Tuesday by the independent panel of specialist doctors. However, what worries me is that experts in several domains are now raising doubts. It is not just the evidence from the medical experts, but expert statisticians are casting doubt on the evidence about the correspondence of Letby's rotas with adverse incidents (something also cast in doubt by police notes that have now come to light) , and some psychologists say that it is wrong to interpret Letby's own scribblings as evidence of guilt. In a case like this where all the evidence is circumstantial these multiple controversies are disturbing. I can't help thinking of the Lucia de Berk case where there was a major miscarriage of justice affecting a Dutch paediatric nurse. So it seems right that the case will now be looked at again by the Criminal Cases Review Committee. I do feel sorry for the parents, but they as well as everybody else need to know the truth. If it should turn out that Letby was a scapegoat used to cover up deficiencies in NHS care that would be a matter of huge public concern, and that possibility needs to be investigated. [Post edited 5 Feb 8:08]
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Reply | Free agents
at 15:38 4 Feb 2025
His time with Rangers suggests he is worth looking at. The red (or amber) flag is that he only made 8 Super Lig appearances for Fenerbahce between June 2023 and October 2024, when he was released by mutual consent. [Post edited 4 Feb 15:42]
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Reply | Swansea City : Transfer Deadline Day
at 14:11 3 Feb 2025
Re Fireboy2's post about Vipotnik.
Can't disagree. And you'll remember months ago that I said we needed to see him playing in the Championship for a bit before we said he is "different gravy". [Post edited 3 Feb 14:18]
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Reply | Matt Grimes wife
at 07:22 2 Feb 2025
The trick is to make a good life where you want to live. In my case I got a better job here than I had had while living away. True, there was a compromise in that the organisation here was (and is) less prestigious, but the grade was higher - so not really a "graveyard of ambition" scenario brought about by sentimentality. I guess the best Mrs Grimes can hope for if she really loves Swansea is a return in a few years. Matt can probably afford a house in both places. |
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Reply | Matt Grimes wife
at 18:08 1 Feb 2025
There are some who slag Swansea off, but for others of us it is a hard place to leave. I had to move away around 40 years ago to stay in a job, and it took me 13 years to get back. |
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