British Politics Thread

This assumes that lobbying elected representatives would not have accomplished similar goals for the corporations who profited, and that elected representatives would not have been susceptible to that level of corporate influence. In America.

That's a deeply strange counterfactual to be pushing.

Today's stats:[1]

• 00,119,920 deaths
• 04,095,269 cases
• 16,875,536 first doses
• Unknown second doses

We have vaccinated just under 25% of the UK's population.

The Baroness Tonge, MP for Richmond Park 1997-2005, retired from Parliament today aged 79.

Given that the lobbying had been unable to prevent the law from being implemented and it was a year later?

Yes, in this case I do believe that lobbying would have been quite ineffective.

Today's stats:[1]

• 00,120,365 deaths
• 04,105,675 cases
• 17,247,442 first doses
• Unknown second doses

We have vaccinated just over 25% of the UK's population.
Princess Eugenie's son has been named August Philip Hawke Brooksbank.

Calling someone August in February is just going to be confusing.

It could be worse,they could be May in April

Unless it's a common name on the father's side, I'm a little surprised that they didn't go for Augustus as used by two of Victoria's uncles.

So if we do see Forth Bridge Is Down declared in the near future what bad news do we think the government will try to bury under it?

For context they're referring to possible death of the current queen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_London_Bridge

Its unlikely they'd have much luck to trying bury her death,it would be pointless

I think DBL is referring to if the Duke of Edinburgh dies (edit: Yep, the Wikipedia page you linked even says “the phrase Operation Forth Bridge referred to funeral plans for Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh”) and what separate news the government might release at the same time that they’d want to be missed.

Edited by Silasw on Feb 20th 2021 at 11:16:23 AM

Serves me right for skim reading..but it would help if they added context

Edited by Ultimatum on Feb 20th 2021 at 11:19:09 AM

I mean the fact that Prince Phillip has been in hospital has been common knowledge for a whole now. And the fact that Charles was allowed to visit suggests he's in end-of-life stage care.

And the fact that the whole thing with the crony contract awards being declared unlawful got buried under the latest relitigation of Harry and Meghan's status with the royal family.

Edited by Deadbeatloser22 on Feb 20th 2021 at 11:27:29 AM

If it happens, expect that to be the day all the PPE contracts get published. Hancock has already been accused of breaking the law by not publishing them within 30 days. So yes, if the government want to bury bad news along with the Duke I expect that would be the thing to get memory holed.

You edited that into a pseudo-

Edited by singularityshot on Feb 20th 2021 at 3:28:55 AM

Yes, because of COVID, visits to hospitals are currently only allowed for 'exceptional circumstances' or end-of-life.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Mar 24th 2021 at 6:26:25 PM

Lobbying didn't work in California because the legislators weren't buying it. Uber et al had to go directly to the people (as well as coerce their drivers to be walking bumper stickers for their campaign) to get their drivers' rights revoked.

Government gets convicted of criminal behaviour with regards to giving out big contracts to shell companies run by party donors without the proper tender or announcement process.

Boris Johnson promises all UK adults the vaccine just before the Sunday papers go to print.

No connection.

None at all.

The Duke has been said to resemble a walking corpse for many years now. He is the longest-serving royal consort in British history and the third eldest British royal ever (I'll have to check the records for other countries to see how he ranks internationally.). There were some plans underway to celebrate his upcoming 100th birthday but he seemed to be keen to downplay it. The press also reported some years ago that he declined a state funeral^note Though if he dies now that would probably be impossible anyway. and wants to be buried in a small military ceremony instead.

Oldest royal ever (according to Wikipedia) was a Ghanian Queen Mother who apparently made it to 109 so Phil is well short of the record there

At any rate he seems to be the longest-lived male consort of any European monarch.

Today's stats:[1]

• 00,120,757 deaths
• 04,126,150 cases
• 17,723,840 first doses
• Unknown second doses

We have vaccinated just over 26% of the UK's population.

Simon Burton has been appointed to succeed Edward Ollard as Clerk of the Parliaments, effective from 1st April. [2]

The Duke of Cambridge has reassured the public on his grandfather's health.[3]

The Prime Minister hopes to lift all social contact restrictions by the summer solstice.[4]

All social contact restrictions gone by June 21? That seems overly ambitious.

And as has already been noted by several commentators, England play the Czech Republic in last match of the group stage of the European Championship at Wembley the very next day (22/06/21)

I mean come on: is the government aiming for a world beating super spreader event?

I think the plan is that we’ll have the vast majority of attendees vaccinated.

Why? Once you’ve vaccinated everyone over 65 and everyone with pre-existing conditions, it’s just an ordinary level of risk like many other dangers that we live with every day. And the UK has already vaccinated the bulk of the population over age 70. If anything, June seems late.

Edited by Galadriel on Feb 22nd 2021 at 10:15:56 AM

Two problems with that - one, younger people are still susceptible to long COVID, which has deeply unpleasant effects that we're only just beginning to understand, and two, having a widespread outbreak gives the virus more opportunity to mutate into a more dangerous/infectious/vaccine-resistant form. Herd immunity strategies for diseases like this one help the virus, not the herd.