General Chat

I have not posted any praise for France on this thread, far from it.
I have pointed out that France has restarted junior education without a robust TTI effort in place - just what England is about to do. France has already had to close 7 schools. France also has a smart phone app built on the same logic as the Nhsx app on trial in the IOW. It has run into the same problems and has not been deployed.

Essex CC has joined the Leas who are not yet ready to reopen schools.

My grandmother told me that if I saw someone with their hand in the fire not to follow suit.

I was taught never to give a politician an easy ride if something seemed not quite right. They can take the flak well enough, so thick skinned are they. They put self first every time as we have seen by claims for second house equipment, travel ... and even a duck-house. Often they think the rules don't apply to them, only to everyone else. It's not surprising how many of them, their family members and their friends have shares or directorships in many companies who receive contracts from government.

Family comes next - many employ unsuitable relatives at public expense as if they were running their own factories where relatives would expect to be employed but not at public expense.

Many politicians forget about transparency and accountability that is necessary for good governance.

Their salaries are paid from the 'nation's coffers' so we are entitled to question them and their decisions and behaviour. For instance, if we had not questioned the duck-house guy he would have got away with it. We ought to have dug our heels in and questioned Cyril Smith (oops) more, as well as others I can think of.

I have no time for Thornberry, the 'white van man' woman, but I see she has raised questions about Dominic Cummings, he who went off to Russia to, as he put it, start up an airline. That was a simplistic view because he helped others with the start-up. It failed pretty quickly before it was barely off the ground.

So what did Michael Gove then Boris see in him? Heaven knows and I still wonder!

Read all about it then question it - if you're satisfied, fine, but if you're not satisfied then for heaven's sake question and dig because some of them couldn't even lie straight in bed!

Britain's Hidden War

https://www.channel4.com/press/news/britains-hidden-war-channel-4-dispatches

Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s most senior aide, is facing conflict of interest accusations over a publicly undisclosed consultancy job at a healthcare start-up endorsed by the government and in pole position to receive cash from a £250m NHS fund.

Cummings advised Babylon Health, a controversial AI start-up, on its communications strategy and senior recruitment just months before its “GP at Hand” app was publicly backed by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, a joint investigation with The Guardian can reveal.

Cummings’ paid role with Babylon concluded in July last year but he continued to advise the company until September 2018. That month Hancock visited the company and told staff he wanted the NHS to help Babylon expand.

In August this year, shortly after Boris Johnson entered No 10 with Cummings as his top adviser, Downing Street and the Department of Health announced a new £250m fund for boosting the use of artificial intelligence for diagnoses and data analysis in the NHS. Although the money has yet to be allocated, Babylon welcomed the announcement.

There are no rules requiring special advisers to disclose previous private sector roles, but MPs said Cummings’ undisclosed advisory role raised serious questions about potential conflicts of interest.

“The links between Dominic Cummings in the heart of Downing Street, the health secretary and this AI health firm are increasingly murky and highly irresponsible," the shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said.

“Mr Cummings’ work for this company raises serious questions about a potential conflict of interest given the firm could be in line to receive public money from this new £250m AI fund.

“We need to know if he declared his work for the firm to the cabinet secretary when he joined the government payroll.

“Cummings should come clean on any other consultancy work he did before entering Downing Street so the public can have confidence that there are no other conflict of interest issues at play.”

Sarah Wollaston, the Liberal Democrat chair of the health select committee, called for reforms to the rules governing the conduct of special advisers.

“We need greater transparency on the potential conflicts of interest for all special advisers, especially given the scale of their power and influence,” she said.

Babylon confirmed Cummings was paid via his company, Dynamic Maps Ltd, which he set up in October 2017 as the sole director.

No 10 declined to answer detailed questions about Cummings’ consultancy work, including his salary for Babylon, what other firms he had advised for and why it has not been publicly disclosed. A Downing Street spokesman said: “Special advisers act in accordance with Special Advisers’ Code and the relevant provisions of the Civil Service Code, acting with integrity, and serving the public interest. Special advisers have no role in authorising expenditure of public funds.”

Babylon already holds a contract with Hammersmith and Fulham Clinical Commissioning Group, in west London, to provide NHS GP appointments by phone and video link via its GP at Hand app. More than 50,000 people have signed up for the app, but its popularity with patients outside the area has driven up costs for the group, creating a £21.6m funding hole.

Andy Slaughter, the Labour MP for Hammersmith, said: “Babylon is an organisation which is, via its GP at Hand app, distorting and undermining the whole basis on which primary care has worked since the founding of the NHS.

“It’s not just privatisation, it is undermining the ability of local GPs to serve their patients in a sustainable way.”

The GP at Hand app has expanded into Birmingham and will launch in Manchester by early 2020.

Babylon had been repeatedly boosted by Matt Hancock, who even promised to help change rules to benefit the company. At his visit to the company in September 2018, soon after his appointment as health secretary, he told staff how much he admired their work.

October 11 2019

All you people mouthing off about the British government should try doing the job, it seems everyone is an expert these days.

To be honest Sue, I have stopped reading Rollo's posts because I am never sure that he is not just talking for the sake of something to say (or potentially Shock!).

My last comment because I'm speechless for a change.

Seriously? Putting the UK in the same category as those Countries?

I would laugh if it wasn't so ludicrous!

In today's UK serious criticism of the govenment , publicly owned businesses such as the NHS, government contractors ( eg HS2 , NHS ) can very quickly lead to loss of job and punitive consequences for friends, family and colleagues. That can reach as far as civil servant PPS.

Never the most democratic of countries despite its boasting the lights are going out in the UK.

I have worked in some dengerous and extremely undemocratic countries. I have an ongoing conversation with friends in the Middle East right now.

The biggest difference with the UK is that they often imprison and occasionally kill people. The levels of dishonesty are about the same. Dislike of democracy is one of the driving forces behind brexit thouogh using Orwellian logic the opposite is always claimed.

Birds of a feather flock together.
Saudi Arabia China Brunei Trumpland Burma Hungary UK

I’ve given up listening to the questions on the daily update as they ask exactly the same question all the time.

My OH has started downloading some of the statistics to try and get some understanding.

Given that the Tories have been in power for the past 10 years there is no reason at all to shed a single tear for the government and its civil service advisors. They have let us down there is no excuse. On top we have the looming disaster of a no deal exit from the EU and the possibility of a good ol' sterling crisis.

current/upcoming expensive white elephants

1. HS2 2. Hinkley Point 3. 5G 4. 4. GWR electrification 5. brexit

are we supposed to say never mind everybody makes mistakes?

I am somewhat surprised that Supercrutch has not noticed the many parallels between the hapless Callaghan government and the current crew.

Analyse yes, by experts in the appropriate field of expertise.

Open criticism by some journalists has been recognised simply as a point scoring exercise and some have been condemned for their endless, pointless questions.

The time for a thorough review will come when all the information has been crunched by academics who understand the raw data and the many strands of society that have suffered in varying degrees.

I have relatives/friends that live in Countries where to demonstrate will win you a prize of a night in the cells, a fine or worse! No I wouldn't swap places lol

I agree Sue; they are going to be damned if they do and damned if they don’t but would you want to live in a country where you weren't free to criticise the government?

Could not have written it better myself (probably could not have written it as well actually) so thanks Sue for that.

Rollo we do know that in your eyes France can do no wrong. I do wish you had decided to stay there then we would be spared all the anti UK stuff from you.

I am sick to the back teeth of continued criticism of the Government, it's advisors and every Tom, Dick and Harry who has uttered any 'official' opinion on how to manage the pandemic.

Who on earth would swap places with those in power? I certainly wouldn't for a King's ransom even if I was qualified to do so.

Every country will make mistakes, it's impossible to take the strictest course of action when dealing with a free society. You are juggling personal freedom (demanded by a very vocal minority) with enforced home imprisonment! You aren't going to win over every single person in a quest to curtail the spread.

Let's not even mention businesses failing daily and how defeated those owners feel. If any of us were in retail then we would be crying out for our market place to reopen, if only in a limited fashion.

It's a no win scenario for those in power it seems.

Then why single out The Telegraph? In fact it was reported in The Telegraph online, which is where I read it.

no it was not in the Grauniad. Source RTL RadioTelevisionLuxembourg http://www.rtl.fr
(French only)

When you say ‘not reported in the Telegraph’ I assume you mean it was reported in the Guardian.

Well they did have all the answers - their own Cygnus report warnings, WHO, experience of the SARS pandemic, the remnants of local govt public health, the sufferings of Italy ... Now Johnson's government is all set for an encore.

Without having a real test, trace, isolate strategy in place ( as in Denmark for instance ) - or even an app - Johnson intends to plough on with winding down the lockdown regardless. A little foresight and taking on warnings from outside of the inner circle would be a good idea if another "spike" is to be avoided. The current spikefor new cases has morphed into a plateau the downside has yet to show up.

Scotland has pretty well distanced itself from London on public health matters. The deepening cracks will be of little help to the Union - which most Tories don't care about in any case.

The French govt is trying to deploy an app "Stop-covid" similar in design to that on trial in the IOW. It has run into the same problems. Nevertheless primary schools in the green zone have reopened.

Not reported in the Telegraph:

'French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer sounded the alarm on Monday, telling French radio RTL that the return has put some children in new danger of contamination [ with 70 cases linked to schools ]. He said the affected seven schools are being closed immediately.

France has a much tougher lockdown policy than the UK. Like the UK it does not have much in the way of TTI except for an app yet to be deployed. The country is divided into a red zone - Paris and the east - and a green zone where junior children have returned to school.

Exactly!
My tongue was very firmly in my cheek when I wrote that. I just don’t see the point of haranguing the people who are studying the virus and learning something new every day.

Sorry, nobody could be an expert on a completely new disease which even now they don't know how it will progress.