Suella Braverman’s husband, Rael, is joining Reform as a senior campaigner to fight Labour’s inheritance tax hike for farmers. The Telegraph has the details.
The move is likely to fuel speculation that Mrs. Braverman could join Reform although she said she was not defecting.
Mrs. Braverman said: “My husband and I have a healthy respect for each other’s independence – he doesn’t tell me how to do my job, and I don’t tell him how to pick a political party.”
It follows defections last week of former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns and Boris Johnson’s former adviser Tim Montgomerie, who founded the Conservative Home website.
It also comes amid evidence of growing support for Reform as an opinion poll last week showed Mr. Farage’s party had overtaken Labour for the first time, pushing Sir Keir Starmer’s party into third place.
Nigel Farage’s party commands 24% of public support, according to Find Out Now – up by two points on last week.
The poll of 2,607 adults, conducted on Wednesday, shows Labour on 23% – down two points on last week – while the Tories lead with 26%.
There is, however, growing unease on the right of the Conservative Party that Kemi Badenoch’s strategy of reviewing policy rather than setting out clear-cut positions on issues like immigration and taking the fight to Reform is letting Mr. Farage strengthen his position.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Is the algorithm used to determine what counts as “close contact” documented/ published somewhere? And ideally, also the implementation.
If it either isn’t or involves any amount of non-deterministic behaviour, there’s no reason to ascribe more weight to its outputs than to that of flipping a coin.
The authorities have been very vague, other than suggesting that it involves being “in close proximity” for at least 15 minutes.I assume that the time function is relatively easy to calibrate, but that the determination of proximity may depend on the architecture in the immediate vicinity, the state of the smart-phone’s battery, and possible interference from WiFi etc. (I’m pretty sure this was why Robert Jenrick was immediately slapped down a couple of weeks ago when he suggested that the authorities might reduce the sensitivity of the system.) It’s not something that is under their control. (See https://www.techwalla.com/articles/the-effective-range-of-bluetooth)
I wonder how long the android OS has been performing Traffic analysis on EVERYONE via bluetooth.
If they’ve been “vague” about this, the default assumption is that the algorithm is the usual “random” mix of out-of-the-blue assumptions, timeouts and hacks intended to reduce the frequency of crashes “real-world software” tends to contain. If it’s also supposed to be “sensitive”, it’s entirely possible that it keeps tack of past results in order to emit as many positive ones as whoever made the purchasing decision wanted to have regardless of “proximity” of anyone to anything.
Hidden software developed to the “specification” of a political agenda is completely untrustworthy.
Good rant…..
But the reality is the full source code is available to the public along with compilation instructions on the NHSX Git hub.
So its the polar opposite to hidden and vague.
I did see somewhere a week or so back an explanation of the algorithm. It is based on a points system and is integrated. Up to five minutes 1m way from an infected phone gives one amount of points, 15 minutes for 2m gives another amount. The total, integrated over time so you can move away from somebody then back again, triggers the alert when it exceeds a certain number (1500 points if |I remember). What it doesn’t reflect is that the 1m/2m calculation is really a finger in the air as the range and strength of bluetooth depends on all sorts of factors.
Nobody mentioned that it might be triggering on white noise…
How do we ping the political classes out of office? They can easily make a decision like in Texas
Texas Prohibits Vaccine Passports
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOXPa5IRqBM
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
The full source code of the app is available online so yes the algorithm is completely public, as is the implementation.
Its all on GitHub.
The car industry has joined calls for the Government to bring forward the date for exempting fully-vaccinated adults from self-isolation rules.
might as well exempt everyone from self-isolating – its unlikely the un-vaxxed are dim enough to have the absurd app (except those who want to be pinged)
I know of a small pub chain who suggested that all staff remove the app on ‘Freedom Day’ (unofficially of course). Meanwhile the competition have had to temporarily close 2 of their pubs due to staff shortage caused by the very same.
In the same way, my vet has a notice on their staff notice board instructing their staff to ensure that the app is deactivated when they are on the premises.
One word : ‘Ludicrous’.
But what isn’t that comes out of government?
More evidence that the pre-2020 pandemic plans were right.
In my view there is no justification for any of this. “Asymptomatic” transmission is an unproven theory, and there is no certainty about how close or how long someone should be near to another before isolating.
In my view we should scrap all of this and lateral flow as well. PCR testing is designed for those with symptoms only. Temperature scanners are used in some places – that would be better than all these tests and pings (if needed at all).
Pingdemic is just lockdown with a new name
I wonder if this “pingdemic” is the result of buggy software or hackers having some fun. Both, perhaps?
Imagine receiving a ping notification for a sub-par performance on your weekly social credit ledger. No of course not, But PCR scores using Ct > 35 is fine. Carry one.
PS: I love the CCP
—
Digital wallet: IamLosin6It#1984
Can’t they just get VanTam to announce that Track’n’Trace has saved 20 million infections and over 60,000 deaths? That way everyone would rejoice at its success and the 680,000 pings a week would be worth it.
The app is basically used by people who cant be bothered going to work.
ITs completely optional, if it advises you to isolate, that too is completely voluntary.
So these people are deliberately choosing to not go to work. Its a convenient excuse.
They might have sent out 689313 ping alerts but that’s not the number being received. Many have deleted the app, many others are ignoring. Others taking tests but not uploading results. The decline in case numbers reflects a mini rebellion gathering pace since the onset of the pingdemic.
how do we ping the political classes out of office? They can easily make a decision like in Texas
Texas Prohibits Vaccine Passports
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOXPa5IRqBM
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
The deaths the MSM wont report: 1000 COVID Stories Share Your Story https://1000covidstories.com/
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell