Many areas across England have now gone months without enough Covid cases to justify the publication of their data, as the Prime Minister is urged to honour his pledge of following “data not dates”. The Telegraph has the story.
Over half of people in England now live in an area in which new cases of Covid have all but vanished, with some places not reporting a case in public data for more than a month.
Infections have been so low in areas with a total population of 34.5 million that Public Health England has redacted their latest weekly case tallies in order to protect the privacy of those – if any – who test positive.
These 4,307 areas could have had at most two new cases but potentially zero in the seven days to April 4th – and 1,091, home to 8.2 million people, have had their data suppressed every week since the end of February.
Around 20,000 cases are now being detected across England each week – a fall of nearly 95% from the peak of more than 380,000 during the worst week of the second wave.
At that time in January, only six neighbourhoods out of a total of 6,791 in PHE’s data had low enough cases to require redaction under data protection rules, as the more contagious Kent variant of the virus left few areas untouched.
However, many places have now gone months without enough cases to justify publication of their data.
Areas of Devon including Bampton, Holcombe, Westleigh, Lynton and Combe Martin have all gone 10 weeks with close to zero cases, while in Cornwall Towednack, Lelant, Carbis Bay, Probus and Roseland have gone nine.
On average, areas that have had their most recent weekly case total redacted are now in their third week in a row with close to zero cases, suggesting infections are staying low even after the recent relaxation of lockdown measures.
Conservative MP William Wragg said that the emphasis now should be on “data and not dates”.
It is good that we are making such strong progress and I would hope therefore that there should be no impediment to progress. If the roadmap can be accelerated, it should be accelerated.
Last month, Mark Harper, the Chairman of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG), said that the idea Boris Johnson is following “data not dates” could look “increasingly ridiculous” unless the opening of some things was “[brought] forward”. Infections rose week-on-week in only one in seven areas across England between March 28th and April 4th, which some MPs argue is not enough to excuse the continuation of the “roadmap” out of lockdown at its current slow pace.
Steve Baker, the CRG’s Deputy Chairman, suggested the “stellar success” of the vaccine rollout meant people should now be treated as “responsible adults”.
Worth reading in full.
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“Death of meritocracy in Britain”
Advancement in the UK is not too dissimilar to anywhere else. If the parents went to the right schools and universities, if they go to the right golf and tennis clubs. If they are well networked with the power and money, then the child a far greater chance of success. Once in the nice jobs, well, people promote people like them, don’t they.? Lets not kid ourselves that social and financial advancement has ever really come as the natural conclusion of competence and hard work. But even that pretence is hard to keep up when competence and hard work are wilfully ignored over choosing people solely for their immutable characteristics.
Grammar schools gave us proles a chance to advance when TPTB needed extra brain power . The fact that the kids from these excellent schools who went onto Oxbridge were known as “Stains” by the silver spoon brigade tells us all we need to know !
Went up to Oxford 1969; four of my peers studying Eng. Lit & Lang were working class Grammar School educated lads. Very smart. All went on to good jobs. Two as teachers. All agreed Grammar Schools a huge helop to them
Grammar schools provided a route to self improvement as did the proper technical colleges. Comprehensives do not.
Grammar school boy here, work for an SME. We’re an eclectic bunch, AFAIK no-one from an especially deprived background, but no-one from an especially privileged one either. I think we’re broadly here, earning decent money, on brainpower and hard work, and the bosses are generally the smartest and most productive. I guess most of us had stable families. Perhaps we’re an outlier.
“Britain’s arts scene is as woefully woke as ever”
Woke is supposed to be about equity, which can only guarantee that we all end up at the lowest common denominator.
Absolutely spot on, Neil. You end up with rubbish art. Emperor’s New Clothes art. Equity is a nonsense word in this regard. The woke community have taken a few words such as equity, inclusivity and diversity and basically weaponised them so that these three words, so redolent of the French Revolution’s ‘Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité’ now play a massive part in business, arts, sport, and politics….to your peril if you do not play along. You dilute the talent to please the less talented because that’s ‘fair’ rather than deal with the education and skills transfer aspects so that the less talented can earn their place. You include everyone to provide an entirely skewed perspective on reality because it’s ‘fair’. I have no problems with anyone of any race, colour, religion, sexual orientation etc of taking their place but only if or when they are worthy of that place due to their own efforts and abilities like all fo us, not because of some unwritten rules. And when they reach their goals, they act as inspiration to the others who follow, because they want to be better and more talented not because it’s ‘fair’.
“The Sunday Times has an extract from Anthony Seldon’s new biography of Boris Johnson revealing what really went on in Number during the first lockdown.”
Yes, of course this will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
“Net zero fuel failure triggers train chaos across South West”
So, will this effect E10 petrol for cars?
Maybe why it was released in the winter months? because they know the algae will become a problem when the temperature picks up?
Curious!
Curious couple of lines in the report:
…it is understood that engines were blocked by algae, which forms “organic growths” in train fuel tanks. The algae forms if biofuel sits unused for a period of time and is not treated with chemical additives…. Engineers are racing to flush fuel tanks and potentially fill them with standard diesel instead.’
1) I bet the additives are fossil fuel based (!) and 2) wot, not replacing with more ‘clean’ ecofuel then??
I was under the impression that the E10 just has a greater percentage of Ethanol. But as Ethanol is usually derived from Corn, we are growing food, then processing it and using it to power cars.
Feel free to correct me as I’m a bit sketchy on this.
What it’s derived from depends where you are. Corn (Maize) mostly used in the USA, Sugar in Brazil, Wheat (animal grade) in the UK. But the source is not the problem. When moist air comes into contact with the fuel, some of the ethanol mixes with the water, whereas the rest of the mix doesn’t, so it’s possible to end up with water/ethanol junk in the system, at the bottom of a container. If that gets sucked into the system, you’ve had it. Apparently the “shelf life” of E10 is only about 90 days.
The fuel which includes plant based material also rusts in internal components of engines. Small engines which are not used regularly are particularly at risk of rapid wear, such as mowers, chain saws etc.
One solution is to only use new petrol but that raises the question what to do with the remaining old stock. Also an inhibiter can be used but it too has an expiry date. 2-D oil additive is also recommended to be used when fresh.
What all this leads to is worn out engines and/or discarded fuel. Green, eh?
“The U.N.’s conflation of words with violence is dangerous“ The image above of the handgun hidden within the loudhailer and the words ‘It’s not just a comment’ has to be one of the most Orwellian images I have seen so far. It’s basically saying ‘Speech is not free’. Large unaccountable international organisations full of unelected bureaucrats many of whom are probably still ambitious ex-politicians or thwarted politicians, wanting to impose their ideas, making grandstanding virtuous pronouncements which then get filtered down to the country level and aimed at the masses…What could go wrong? The true violence is the way in which we are being silenced. And slowly herded into our future, no, THEIR future. We must resist, not comply, and be free – I won’t use the words ‘civil disobedience’ here as they imply that we are somehow being naughty and have transgressed. We haven’t. They have.
Instead of civil disobedience how about we civilly frustrate their dystopian plan?
Spot on Aethelred
Happy St George’s Day! I celebrate my ‘Englishness’ because there is much to celebrate about it. I consider myself more English than any other even though I have a lot of Scottish, some Irish and Welsh, and no doubt other, bloods in me too. I love this country for the humour, the pubs, the quirky eccentrics it has produced, the folk music, rock music, the landscape, the old architecture, the politeness, the coastlines, the fact that it was this country that set the ball rolling in the anti-slavery movement, our common law and so much more and our ability to not give up but to continue our fight when the odds are against us. It is not because of a perverse sense of superiority over others, a nationalist stance. It is not easy to pinpoint what it is to be English but I feel there is something in the ability for self-deprecation, modesty and tolerance – maybe it’s that last one that could be our undoing, I don’t know, but it’s a good attribute to have. And yes, there are some who don’t have these qualities but they are relatively few. If you travel about the country, you will more likely meet good, kind people. And I know I could probably go into a pub with many of you and have a pint, a laugh and a chinwag and that we can agree or disagree with humour and courtesy and part friends. Anyway, just some Sunday morning musings….Gawd bless yer all!
..cheers Aethelred…I was thinking about having a ‘dry’ day…ah well, the best laid plans….LOL!
Thanks Aethelred. Lovely words and much appreciated.
Most welcome, HP, and Gums. Actually, I have subsequently learned that our patron saint should be St Edmund and the original flag of ancient England was a white dragon on a red background. This was the dragon slain by St George!
Well this is interesting….
https://www.emerald.tv/p/did-the-fda-just-admit-that-it-overdosed?utm_source=direct&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Two days ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made some monumental changes in the COVID vaccine schedule in the proverbial dead of night that should concern everyone.
The FDA essentially revoked the authorization for all previously licensed COVID vaccines. It’s the end of the old “monovalent” doses. The FDA also cut the dosage for all the new “bivalent” vaccinations by 75%.
So what ‘new’ data is informing this decision? Worth a read….
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-mob-fear-and-the-new-totalitarianism/
How the Davis Deviants are winding up and using mob tactics to destroy societies.
I think this is a double read.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-guardian-goes-from-badge-to-worse-with-its-slavery-slurs/
The Groan is going after football club badges in its campaign against slavery but not realising that it’s own masthead uses Guardian Egyptian type.
Firkin marvellous.
Both clubs founded long after slavery was ended by the UK. 1894 for City, early 20th C for United. City founded originally by a Vicar’s daughter, to provide sport for working people. Obvs all HUGE supporters of slavery. As were the railway workers of Newton Heath FC, who were to morph into United a while after they went bust.
If British citizens are enjoying time off for good behaviour in Spain will they receive UK emergency alerts today?
It seems like nearly nobody received the emergency alerts even on UK territory. Massive incompetence or?
They just changed the headline from ‘fails to go off on all phones’ to ‘on some (most…?!?) phones’. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/23/emergency-alert-phones-live-updates-london-marathon/
As Mrs B. just said, the really worrisome thing is that this massive failure and display of incompetence doesn’t surprise us at all.
World beating my a*se.
But luckily for Brits, it’s currently going downhill in all other countries as well.
Saw earlier that the bill for todays test was, wait for it…£22 million…
Worth every penny if it saves lives from tornado’s and avalanches…
£22 million?
That’s BS. What that figure tells us is that another £22 million was stolen from British taxpayers and went in to the pockets of our so-called elites. For accounting purposes it will be logged as ‘Emergency Alerts,’ but that us simply cover for stealing.
Seriously?
The test was successful for me because I did not receive the alert.
JC wrapping up on the SARS-Cov-2 topic, apparently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpdTQbiflYU
YOU WILL GO NOWHERE AND BE HAPPY
The age of “cheap flights” is over, Bloomberg reported this week. They go on to say that the cost of flying to Europe from the UK has already increased by over 30%, and that’s not just a temporary bounce thanks to the “pandemic”.
Tellingly, the article does not in any way consider this a bad thing – indeed, it goes out of its way to celebrate the passing of the age of “absurdly cheap” air travel.
This is all due to climate change, apparently, since airlines have to “decarbonise” they are being “forced” to increase their prices. Under European rules, airlines have to pay for their carbon emissions, and the price per unit is set to increase a lot over the next couple of years. Meaning air travel in Europe – and potentially the rest of the world – is going to keep getting more and more expensive.
This is all part of the Great Reset, clearly. The thinking behind lockdowns, and the Covid narrative in general, was about making our world smaller – physically AND conceptually – boxing people in and keeping them separate. Lowering people’s expectations of freedom and standard of living, whilst at the same time telling them it’s all for the greater good.
Oddly, the cost of flying in the US is also increasing rapidly, but for (allegedly) totally different reasons. It’s weird how much that happens recently.
From, “Our Week in the New Normal” at Off-G.
Thanks, HP. We must fight these barstewards and get our world back because they are lesser people and do not deserve it!