Councils given five minutes’ notice of local lockdown confirmation

[Borg Refinery]

Nicola Sturgeon has done better.

But we are limited by the 3 party monopoly/FPTP etc but yeah we should have had new parties and all of that...

You might wanna bear this in mind when you're getting the sniper rifle out and picking at a distance with sly remarks linking me to Stammer.

I mean, it's not like I'm not even-handed..to paraphrase you.. "I hate everycant".

[Borg Refinery]

You are another one who has a feckin strange idea of what a democracy should look like.

You would be the first person squealing in anger if brussells tried to centralise an eu wide covid repsonse while stripping your prliament of its power , yet here you wish to do this very thing to us in scotland?

Need i remind you , a vote was held for a devolved scottish parliament , and unlike your pissy vote in 2016 , where you barely managed to scrape past the half way mark to get 52% to leave the eu , we in scotland voted overwhelmingly by 75% for devolution and the scottish parliament  to hold the very powers you wish to take away from us.

For the last twenty years right across the scottish public and political spectrum , the scottish people have overwhelmingly and continually supported the scottish parliaments existence , and more not less powers for it.

Another thing you might find very interesting Thomas, that I discovered by chance the other day -

Polling firms found a way to tap deep-pocketed commercial clients for election polling during the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014. It all started when a pair of YouGov polls in the British press set off a national panic ahead of the vote. YouGov had nationalists closing the gap, and then, days later, jumping ahead with fewer than two weeks left in the campaign. Nervous investors sent the British pound and bank stocks down sharply. Shocked government leaders responded, just days before the vote, by promising a greater devolution of powers to the Scottish people if they stayed in the U.K., a pledge known as "The Vow." Critics would later charge that misleading YouGov data, which proved fantastically off the vote, had shaped the future of an entire country.

The phones in YouGov's offices rang like mad in the days between the Scottish polls and the referendum. Hedge fund executives were among those on the line. If YouGov was conducting another poll before the vote, traders said, they'd be willing to pay vast sums for a heads-up just 30 minutes to an hour before publication, according to two knowledgeable sources. Since news of the poll alone likely would move markets, the survey's accuracy was meaningless; traders simply needed to know the results before they became public. They offered YouGov several multiples more than the newspapers had paid to commission the polls in the first place, the two insiders recalled. YouGov rejected these offers, the insiders said. Survation, along with at least one other pollster, saw other opportunities.

Survation organized and sold last-minute tracking polls and a syndicated exit poll for the Scottish referendum to some of the world's biggest hedge funds, according to three knowledgeable sources. Clients included Brevan Howard Asset Management, then managing about $37 billion, Tudor Investment Corp. and the Japanese firm Nomura Holdings Inc., according to one knowledgeable source. Brevan Howard even hired a second U.K. pollster, ICM Unlimited, and merged data from the two companies into its trading decisions, the source said. Pollsters at Survation and ICM streamed results throughout the day of the vote, allowing their hedge fund clients to place bets while voters were still casting ballots. Brevan Howard, Tudor and Nomura declined to comment for this story.

By early the next morning, it was clear that Scottish voters had rejected independence overwhelmingly. The YouGov poll that had sparked the most turmoil had missed the final mark by 6 points. Survation's private exit poll, however, was accurate enough that its clients had what they needed to profit, according to knowledgeable sources. A lucrative  line of business was born for two industries.

relates to The Brexit Short: How Hedge Funds Used Private Polls to Make Millions
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: BRÁULIO AMADO; SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES
In 2015, the Conservatives, under David Cameron, swept to dominance in the U.K.'s general election. Cameron had promised to hold a referendum on the nation's membership in the European Union if he won. Hedge funds realized immediately that if the Scottish campaign had moved markets, a referendum on the U.K.'s membership in the world's largest trading bloc might shake them to their very core. YouGov started getting hedge fund calls right away, according to sources familiar with the matter. So did the other polling companies. Buying a trading advantage through private exit polls on the day of the referendum was a primary interest, according to executives across the polling industry. But public-opinion-driven swings in the market during the campaign also could offer lucrative trading opportunities.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-25/brexit-big-short-how-pollsters-helped-hedge-funds-beat-the-crash

[Thomas]

My point is that we have had a year of f**king about and three different sets of tossers thinking they have the right to f**k about in a pissing contest to make boris look bad.

What Boris should do is declare a state of national emergency, strip the welsh, scottish and northernirish dwarves of their pissing content tickets and run the united kingdom's response from one place with one voice.

If I had my way the whole country would be tested right now and anyone tested positive would be dragged off to medical internment. And any T@@@ who tried to stop him should be seeing the wrong side of a proison cell. elected or not.

THAT, plus some decent border controls - shoot the rubber boats forst, ask questionslater - would rif this country of thepox permanently in a fotnight. Had we done it inMarch we would have spent less than a tenth of the money we have spent to date.

Now, what was that whinge of yours again

You are another one who has a feckin strange idea of what a democracy should look like.

You would be the first person squealing in anger if brussells tried to centralise an eu wide covid repsonse while stripping your prliament of its power , yet here you wish to do this very thing to us in scotland?

Need i remind you , a vote was held for a devolved scottish parliament , and unlike your pissy vote in 2016 , where you barely managed to scrape past the half way mark to get 52% to leave the eu , we in scotland voted overwhelmingly by 75% for devolution and the scottish parliament  to hold the very powers you wish to take away from us.

For the last twenty years right across the scottish public and political spectrum , the scottish people have overwhelmingly and continually supported the scottish parliaments existence , and more not less powers for it.

[Borg Refinery]

proison cell

This freudian typo is absolutely brilliant.   

[T00ts]

My point is that we have had a year of f**king about and three different sets of tossers thinking they have the right to f**k about in a pissing contest to make boris look bad.

What Boris should do is declare a state of national emergency, strip the welsh, scottish and northernirish dwarves of their pissing content tickets and run the united kingdom's response from one place with one voice.

If I had my way the whole country would be tested right now and anyone tested positive would be dragged off to medical internment. And any T@@@ who tried to stop him should be seeing the wrong side of a proison cell. elected or not.

THAT, plus some decent border controls - shoot the rubber boats forst, ask questionslater - would rif this country of thepox permanently in a fotnight. Had we done it inMarch we would have spent less than a tenth of the money we have spent to date.

Now, what was that whinge of yours again

Oh I love it. If only.... Trouble is BJ is reputedly a libertarian and expected us to do as told for our own good. Not because we were under orders but because it made sense. 

[johnofgwent]

Um. Did you actually read the thread title? The clue is in the title.

I mean 5 minutes notice is a bit silly by any account but presumably you think it OK, others do not, incluu
ding several Tories and Tory councils by the looks of it but oohkay, you can invent my arguments for me like Javert if you prefer.

My point is that we have had a year of fucking about and three different sets of tossers thinking they have the right to F@@@ about in a pissing contest to make boris look bad.

What Boris should do is declare a state of national emergency, strip the welsh, scottish and northernirish dwarves of their pissing content tickets and run the united kingdom's response from one place with one voice.

If I had my way the whole country would be tested right now and anyone tested positive would be dragged off to medical internment. And any T@@@ who tried to stop him should be seeing the wrong side of a proison cell. elected or not.

THAT, plus some decent border controls - shoot the rubber boats forst, ask questionslater - would rif this country of thepox permanently in a fotnight. Had we done it inMarch we would have spent less than a tenth of the money we have spent to date.

Now, what was that whinge of yours again

[Borg Refinery]

so what is your whinge then ? That Boris acted ? had he dithered instead you would criticise him for dithering ?

Um. Did you actually read the thread title? The clue is in the title.

I mean 5 minutes notice is a bit silly by any account but presumably you think it OK, others do not, incluu
ding several Tories and Tory councils by the looks of it but oohkay, you can invent my arguments for me like Javert if you prefer.

[johnofgwent]

Selective quoting would make it sound like that yes.

Actually, Starmer's statement was an unintended artifact of copying the top and final paragraph, I should've cut it out really.

so what is your whinge then ? That Boris acted ? had he dithered instead you would criticise him for dithering ?

[Borg Refinery]

Sounds more like "opposition pissed at united kingdom government's decision to govern"

Selective quoting would make it sound like that yes.

Actually, Starmer's statement was an unintended artifact of copying the top and final paragraph, I should've cut it out really.

[johnofgwent]

https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/02/councils-given-five-minutes-notice-of-local-lockdown-confirmation

Council leaders in England were given five minutes' notice of local lockdown rules being confirmed in their areas, according to emails seen by the Guardian.

Amid growing calls for local authorities to have more control over restrictions, Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, is urging ministers to put councils "in the driver's seat".

Sounds more like "opposition pissed at united kingdom government's decision to govern"

[Borg Refinery]

Has she really? I might agree simply because she is a woman with far less responsibility overall. As a woman she has the instinct that men lack but no I don't think she has been that amazing.

Your misandry is noted. 

She has done pretty well, they have done by far the best out of the '4 nations'. IMHO she's done very well given the awful hobbled options offered to her thanks to Westminster's dictatorship....

From fullfact: "Claim: England the fatality rate is 50% higher than Scotland, at 20.9%.

The proportion of people with NHS-lab confirmed cases who have died so far is 50% higher in England than in Scotland."

[T00ts]

Nicola Sturgeon has done better.

But we are limited by the 3 party monopoly/FPTP etc but yeah we should have had new parties and all of that...

But still, the point stands that criticism and holding the govt's "feet to the fire" to paraohrase you, is important to force higher standards out of them.

Has she really? I might agree simply because she is a woman with far less responsibility overall. As a woman she has the instinct that men lack but no I don't think she has been that amazing.

[Borg Refinery]

Why should I? I don't follow lemmings either. As far as dance training goes I certainly hope that I recognised when a student was doing their best. I have said it so many times - show me someone who could/would take over and do better.

Nicola Sturgeon has done better.

But we are limited by the 3 party monopoly/FPTP etc but yeah we should have had new parties and all of that...

But still, the point stands that criticism and holding the govt's "feet to the fire" to paraohrase you, is important to force higher standards out of them.

[T00ts]

As a ballet instructor, did you not offer frequent criticism when your students were getting something wrong, you'd just let them carry on repeating the mistake?

Of course you wouldn't. Look, folks round the world are 'criticising' us badly and over half the country too.

I really do respect your loyalty to these folks, it's actually quite admirable the way you stand firm in their defense in the face of criticism but.. I'd refer the honourable lady to..well..the past 9 months or so and everything everyone's been saying for that time. 

Why should I? I don't follow lemmings either. As far as dance training goes I certainly hope that I recognised when a student was doing their best. I have said it so many times - show me someone who could/would take over and do better.

[Borg Refinery]

It would be so nice to live in a perfect world! It's just criticism for criticism sake.

As a ballet instructor, did you not offer frequent criticism when your students were getting something wrong, you'd just let them carry on repeating the mistake?

Of course you wouldn't. Look, folks round the world are 'criticising' us badly and over half the country too.

I really do respect your loyalty to these folks, it's actually quite admirable the way you stand firm in their defense in the face of criticism but.. I'd refer the honourable lady to..well..the past 9 months or so and everything everyone's been saying for that time.