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Jacob-

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Posts posted by Jacob-

    It gets worse, though. The government are proposing to ban the delivery of leaflets by party volunteers. They want to increase the spending limit to allow parties to pay for leaflets to be delivered instead. This will, of course, affect the Lib Dems and Greens far more than the Tories and Labour. Given the fact that the Tories will be publishing large leaflets every day (and calling them the Daily Mail, Express and Telegraph) and television news bulletins rarely mention anyone other than the Tories and Labour, leafletting is almost the only way for other parties to get their message across. This proposal, then, is a blatant attack on democracy.
    Other leaflets can be produced but they will have to be delivered by post. That, of course, adds an additional cost which will be a lot harder for the Lib Dems and Greens to afford.

     

    Just to underline the imbalance, the 2021 elections are for county councils where the Tories are generally at their strongest. Well over half the seats on those councils are currently Tory. They are also comfortably the largest party in the seats up for grabs in the district elections held over from last year. Obviously some of those councillors will be stepping down but the incumbents (who won't have to pay for their leaflets to be delivered atm) will still be overwhelmingly Tory. The Lib Dems will have been looking for some decent gains in both sets of elections - having done poorly in both 2016 and 2017 - but these rules will make it a lot more difficult. As well as leaflets, the Lib Dems (and Greens) rely a lot more on door-to-door campaigning than the Tories and Labour. It looks like no such campaigning will be allowed.

    My Dad's standing for Lib Dems in local elections and he used to hand deliver hundreds of leaflets, he was describing this exact issue to me last time we spoke. Leaflets are still allowed but only via post, not via volunteers, meaning Tories can afford the postage for thousands of leaflets far better than other parties can.

    When even Common Sense is speaking common sense. :lol:

    Oh yeah and edited to add:

     

    gD78VwI.png

     

    Cases may be coming down but we're still at roughly TWICE the peak we were at in April last year. To get some perspective.

    I agree with everything you said but this is slightly misleading, we’re testing over 10x as much as we were at the peak last year, so we’re arguably in a considerably better position than we were in April. Still too early to open schools though. Give it a month.

    I wouldn't say it's misleading at all, in fact - that we're more familiar with the virus and how it works is less of an excuse to end lockdown prematurely because we know what will happen. My point was that it was enough to stay locked down then because it was "new" but the government is getting complacent because this has become normal and they can get away with it. Now we know that they're at a high level and we know the R rate has only just dropped below 1 so reopening schools will easily bring that up to 1.5, 2, 2.5 and those nearly 10000 confirmed cases (even with much more testing there will still be more unidentified) will quickly become 15000, 20000 etc.

     

    That we're better prepared in regards to testing (which results in higher numbers) doesn't change the fact that we're at an unacceptably high level of cases that will exponentially increase the moment we open up schools rapidly. Not to mention that we were far better equipped to test in August/ September than we were in March/ April and we all know what happened to the numbers there. With barely 1/10 of the numbers we're seeing now it rose gradually to December levels of 50k+.

     

    But obvs, we 100% agree this is too soon. x

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56148160

     

    Can't believe (but actually can because Tories making the wrong decision can always be relied on apparently) that there are early reports of schools actually being reopened on 8th March. They've been pushing this "15 million vaccine" message for ages which is a good figure, well done NHS, but they're all FIRST DOSES because the government made the terrible decision that people shouldn't be properly vaccinated, just half vaccinated. They're then using the 15 million figure as justification for reopening schools, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of people in schools haven't had even the first dose of the vaccine. If schools are SUCH a priority for them why the hell haven't they prioritised vaccinating the people in schools??? All this means is the virus is going to rip through schools again among the non-vaccinated population and cases are going to skyrocket again. It's like we FINALLY get the r rate below 1 and instead of pushing the advantage we have, the government squanders it by reopening too soon, inviting another lockdown in a couple months time, or worse, they just ignore the death rates this time around because it's "irreversible". I am so done with this shit and we're not getting back to normal if the crisis keeps getting mishandled like this.

     

    Also what the hell is the point of opening schools for two weeks before Easter then closing again for the holidays?? It would be so easy to start a new term fresh after Easter with a good full 6 weeks to increase the vaccination program but no, for the sake of 10 school days they're pushing sending them back on the 8th.

     

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    Not only that, comparatively astronomically lower risk "non-essential" businesses are also unlikely to reopen at a similar time. Look at China, schools were one of the last things they reopened and they got it under control in a matter of months.

     

    Oh yeah and edited to add:

     

    gD78VwI.png

     

    Cases may be coming down but we're still at roughly TWICE the peak we were at in April last year. To get some perspective.

    We could use discord as well. We've got the rhythm/ groove bot, can all just join the voice chat on mute, add the playlist via the bot and go, use one of the text channels to chat. Though something like sync tube may be easier to avoid people cutting in on mic accidentally. Might even be able to set up a voice channel where only admins can talk to minimise that mind you. But I'm happy to go wherever it's happening!

     

    If anyone's not in you can join via: https://discord.gg/66AJrnM3eX

    me 30 minutes ago: Why would Jay fake medbay though?

    Jay: :jump:

    Omg see it's possible for Jay to lie about that, why couldn't you trust mee more? :o

     

     

    Lee & Dirca's impostor round was so embarrassing for Lee. He got caught and voted off the first round and Dirca pulled it off (unsurprisingly) while Haus and Jacob did f*** KNOWS WHAT for 5 minutes instead of looking for bodies or sticking together or calling emergency meetings.
    I was just finishing tasks, was just about to call emergency meeting because I wasn't 100% on whether it was Dirca or James. I was pretty sure by the end but Dirca got Bal just before I could call it. :(

     

     

    Oh and yesterday...

    Most of the time you were all just clumping together. And when I got you on your own you wouldn't stop running away, making it sus for me to chase. Was so angry after this ahahaha.

    Jacob did I see you in an unrelated game minutes after the bj one ended?!
    Nah I was last to leave the lobby, might have been it.
    Jacob and I winning the last game was ikonek <3 I only killed Lee there and he took care of 5 (!) other kills.

     

    Also Klaus is INSANE when impostor. Killing spree all day every day.

    I loved it! Was so sleek and quick, I wasn't even suspected, you took care of Lee potentially clocking the murders. :o

     

    Made sure to take out Dirca early because he's too good at figuring things out. x

    Whaaat there is new SunShock? :o

    Ick self promo yet again but it's the same thread, we'll live. Pretend I'm still Indie Mod. :heart:

     

     

    I did lead vocals this time and this one's quite different. Interestingly enough we started it at a similar time to Hope In This but abandoned it for like 2 years. Then made it a lot better.

     

    This time round we got Linkin Park, Muse influences. But still a bit electronic and weird, keeping a bit of NIN there.

     

    We did a remix each for this one as well:

     

    Bandmate's remix:

     

    His is a bit Battlestar Galatica influenced.

     

    Mine:

     

    My remix is much more elongated, chopped up and electronic I guess, while the main song is more rocky. (oops Riser, dw still loads of audio manipulation and production x)

     

    Aaand we had another song back in May last year. It has sax:

    I’m quite glad to be in Wales because all of that school reopening stuff for England looks very inconsistent and complicated. I do feel for the Primary School staff. Many will have not seen any family over the holiday but get to mix with tens of households from Monday.
    I have no idea what's going on- going back on the 11th but not? Only year 11 and 13 for that week but still a week late...? Then all back on 18th?... So what's happening week of the 4th, online learning?

     

    Going to have to wait for a work email to see how I'm affected it seems.

    If we're going to be in high intensity tier 4 lockdown with a rampant new strain there's absolutely no way schools should reopen. If schools reopen then the (logical) message is it can't be that bad and we shouldn't have been in tier 4 anywhere and families should have been able to meet for Christmas. If it's not safe for small gatherings of fewer than 10 people how in the hell is it okay for hundreds of people to mix in schools which includes kids that have absolutely no concept of social distancing??

     

    Can't have it both ways.

    A major decision like this, a deal unapproved by the people- all happening four and a half years after the vote. We re-elect new governments in this timeframe usually.

     

    I guarantee if another referendum was run now (based on our current situation and the deal we have) remain would win- new voters have turned 18+, many many people will have changed their minds given false promises, the shitshow that has been run, the fact that full implications absolutely weren't laid out in the original referendum, and a lot of the leave voters, to put it bluntly will have died out. The public isn't typically given referendums on policies or international relations, it's all so farcical.

     

    It is good that we have a deal at least but it's only marginally better than nothing. I really really hope we can work out something like the Norway deal over time but I do worry about the future of this country over the coming decade. And on a personal note travelling (when it's allowed again) will be a bitch.

    Soz wasn't around last week, home with fam now and last week wasn't online in the afternoon. I usually join when I happen to see the BJ discord light up. Might be able to join briefly tomorrow but not sure (hope there will be enough people to make it happen anyway!)

     

    I love that after suggesting Sunday 2pm as a one off this has become a regular thing pretty much every week for months, has been lovely to chat and play games with you all.

    I understand that but has it not already ran amok? I don't think an instant return to complete normalcy is feasible for those reasons but what I am saying is I fail to see a discernible between the entire country being in say tier 2 levels of restrictions and the shoddy tier 1-4 system we currently have. Either do a proper lockdown (including schools ffs) or stick with the lighter restrictions (still excluding mass gatherings etc) because whatever the f*** is going on right now is not helping.