Inspired perhaps by Boris Johnson’s announcement of the approaching end of pandemic restrictions in England, the Scottish Government has said its Covid powers are to be extended for a further six months. The current restrictions in Scotland cover self-isolation, mask mandates, vaccine passports and a requirement for businesses and services to take steps to minimise the spread of the virus. BBC News has more.
Legislation mandating face coverings and vaccine passports was due to expire on February 28th.
However, this looks set to be pushed back to September 24th, with Deputy First Minister John Swinney saying it was important to keep options on the table.
Scottish ministers will continue to assess the rules every three weeks, with the next review on February 22nd.
The move came hours after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the end date for restrictions in England could be brought forward to later this month.
England’s restrictions, including the legal requirement for self-isolation, are due to expire on March 24th – but Mr Johnson said this could happen “a full month early”. …
Mr Swinney stressed that this did not mean curbs “would necessarily remain in force until September”, and that they would continue to be reviewed on a three-weekly basis.
However, the Deputy First Minister said ministers “believe it is necessary to retain the availability of these baseline measures for now while we review our ongoing response to Covid”.
Mr. Swinney also questioned whether Mr. Johnson’s announcement was based on clinical advice or was “more to do with the survivability of the current Prime Minister in office”.
Supreme Leader Nic Sturge-on claimed “basic protections” had helped get the virus under control and could help keep it under control in future. However, with recent meta-analyses of the effectiveness of lockdowns and face masks finding little or no benefit, and a woeful lack of real-world data that vaccine passports reduce transmission, it’s not clear what evidence she was relying on for these claims.
Worth reading in full.
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I have had an English sparkling wine on a couple of occasions and have been very satisfied on both occasions, one of those being celebrating Boris’ (nearly) Brexit day.
I would also have liked some commentsry on “clones”.
As I vaguely understand the wine industry, it has successfully bred variants of eg chardonnay vines which mature earlier and flower later to reduce frost risk
The Romans produced wine from vineyards as far north as Lincolnshire. There is some evidence of vineyards around York.
48 vineyards are apparently detailed in The Doomsday book. Wine making in Britain isn’t new.
The hillsides where I live in SW England have ancient terraces dotted around which are generally thought to be old Roman vineyards. It was warmer then too, but of course we’re not supposed to mention that, are we?
I attended a very interesting lecture about wine production in England at Denbies (about 15 years ago).
Wine production was extensive in Roman times and only died out after the Romans left and England was colonised by the Germanic tribes of northern Europe who had a beer-drinking tradition.
Excellent and informative article, I particularly enjoyed the historical excursion back to the 18th Century.
This is also one of the rare instances where ‘Climate Change’ propagandising points to what (if true) would be a positive consequence of alleged temperature increases, as opposed to the usual ‘we’re all going to both melt and drown’ apocalyptic terrorising.
Having said that increases in wine production are probably also seen as a terrible menace by the fundamentally anti-joy and misanthropic Green movement, the direct inheritors of the authoritarian and miserabilist 17th century Puritan ideology and agenda (though with an even more negative and dead-end atheistic spin)
I see pigs will fart a semi tone higher by 2100 because of global warming. We must ACT NOW
All the best in the trade! I buy the odd bottle of English white wine, quite often from Lyme Bay Winery via my regular supermarket. I suspect that there have been other issues compared with the weather that have had an effect on it all. E.g. grapevine diseases (that wiped out quite a few vineyards in parts of France), and the levels of excise duty imposed by the Treasury.
Not to mention the female staff of our Education, Health and social services, none of whom could seemingly survive without drinking themselves insensitive on an endless supply of cheapish white wine. (When men had tough and stressful jobs and had a pint or two after work, they dreamed up prohibition…btw).
Well, if you believe in this story: https://www.gbnews.uk/news/king-charles-secret-drinking-habit-revealed-every-night-before-dinner/384410 there’s not much risk of prohibition for the time being!
Great article; thanks.
‘The author of this piece wants to remain anonymous to protect his career as a budding vitner.’
Which explains exactly what the Pagan Environmentalist Religion is about.
England’s Wines boom without climate change
Yellow Freedom Boards – next event
Thursday 10th November 11am to 12pm
Yellow Boards
Junction B3408 London Rd &
John Nike Way, Binfield
Bracknell RG42 4FZ
Stand in the Park Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am – make friends & keep sane
Wokingham
Howard Palmer Gardens Sturges Rd RG40 2HD
Bracknell
South Hill Park, Rear Lawn, RG12 7PA