In the last days of 2021, infection rates soared nationally and locally. The cause was the new Omicron variant first reported in November. Omicron seems to be milder, especially among those who have been vaccinated. Omicron was estimated to have been responsible for four in five cases across England and in Shropshire in the week to Boxing Day and for two-thirds of the cases in Telford & Wrekin. In the last few days cases have continued to surge. Infection rates are the highest we have seen during the pandemic. Fourteen in 100 people in Shropshire have tested positive in the ...
No ill effects yet, though I am braced for an uncomfortable night and morning. The omicron variant is zooming here, as elsewhere, with a massive 82% increase in infections reported today; I would not be surprised if we burst through the delta variant peak in the next few days. (Today: 11778. Record, reported 2 December: 17917.) But hospital numbers have not been rising as rapidly as in previous waves. Yes, they are up a bit but really not a lot, all things considered. And ICU numbers are actually sill decreasing. We'll need another couple of days o be sure, but ...
Second paragraph of third piece ("Jerusalem", a short story):He was glad to be out of it.A collection of mostly minor stories, essays and speeches by Gaiman, including his first ever fiction publication in Imagine issue 14, which came out in May 1984, so I must have bought it at the time without realising its historical importance. A couple of these were already familiar to me, including the famous George R.R. Martin is not your bitch blogpost which I saw when it was first published. There were a surprising number of typos (especially in that first story). Can be safely skipped; ...
x To award or not to award? Is the Queen's New Year's honours list "fit for purpose"? Is it too archaic? Does it reflect well on the real achievements of our "Community Champions"? I must admit that I don't usually pay too much attention to the Queen's New Year's honours list. This year was a bit different mainly because a former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was chosen by the Queen for the knighthood. Not surprisingly, in a couple of days, more than 500,000 people have signed the petition to revoke his knighthood. Some of these calls were driven by families, ...
Liberal Democrat Leader and former Energy Secretary Ed Davey has called for a "Robin Hood" tax on the super-profits of oil and gas firms to raise money to support millions of families facing soaring energy costs. The proposed one-off levy would raise an estimated £5 billion from companies that are making record profits from soaring energy prices. This would be used to support vulnerable families facing a crippling 50% increase to their energy bills. Earlier this week it emerged that Russian energy giant Gazprom's trading arm, based in London, has cashed in a £179 million dividend. Meanwhile, the boss of ...
If there's an opinion poll published by YouGov with figures that do not look great for Labour or the left in general, it often triggers comments on social media about how YouGov shouldn't be trusted because its owners/founders are Conservatives. How fair a criticism is that? One thing that's worth noting is that these criticisms omit a basic piece of evidence: they don't give actual examples of YouGov results being wrong in a way that benefits the Conservatives. It certainly should get your nose for scepticism twitching if someone says 'X is biased because of who they are' but doesn't ...
Liberal Democrat Leader and former Energy Secretary Ed Davey has called for a "Robin Hood" tax on the super-profits of oil and gas firms to raise money to support millions of families facing soaring energy costs. The proposed one-off levy would raise an estimated £5 billion from companies that are making record profits from soaring energy prices. This would be used to support vulnerable families facing a crippling 50% increase to their energy bills. Earlier this week it emerged that Russian energy giant Gazprom's trading arm, based in London, has cashed in a £179 million dividend. Meanwhile, the boss of ...
Responding to reports that Jacob Rees-Mogg during a Cabinet meeting called for the forthcoming National Insurance hike to be scrapped, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Christine Jardine MP said: "This was an insult of a hike to every struggling tax payer from the day it was announced. Where was Jacob Rees Mogg then? "People are already feeling the pinch from soaring heating bills, rising inflation and stagnant wages. This is the worst possible time to hike taxes that will disproportionately hit low and middle income families. "The Tories must scrap this unfair tax that will kick people and businesses when they're ...
Wed, 12:56: So which European city was partly occupied by Japanese forces for almost five years in the 20th century? Wed, 16:05: RT @anneapplebaum: I mean, who could have predicted there would be so many costs and so few benefits to leaving the world's most integrated... Wed, 18:27: The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head is Really Up To, by Dean Burnett https://t.co/DQzxFRZhOj Wed, 19:10: August 2014 books https://t.co/Wq8TXL0WtB Wed, 19:56: RT @archivetvmus71: The first episode of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy was originally broadcast on this day in 1981. https://t.co/s... Thu, 00:06: The answer is Constantinople ...
Until a few years ago I believed that we were, as a world, moving slowly but surely towards a society in which democracy was spreading and flourishing and that dictatorships were in retreat against the forces of enlightenment. Then Donald ... Continue reading →
Sam Collins has been selected to contest the parliamentary seat of Hitchin and Harpenden for the Liberal Democrats at the next General Election.
The Daily Mirror reports: A "Robin Hood" windfall tax on energy giants would offer families a £5billion lifeline this winter, the Lib Dems said... Struggling households facing crippling power bills in the coming months would benefit from the one-off hit to oil and gas firms, the party claimed. The boss of BP triggered fury in the autumn after boasting how the company was a "cash machine" after soaring oil and gas prices boosted its profits to £2.4bn in the third quarter of 2021 alone... Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey ... said: "It can't be right that a few energy ...
Residents will recall that, some time ago, I advised that the City Council was working on a project that, subject to funding support from Sustrans, the walking and cycling charity, would replace the Magdalen Green footbridge across the rail line to Riverside, with a new footbridge. The existing bridge has seen better days and is not suitable for wheelchair users or cyclists, so a bid was made to Sustrans to try to secure money from the Places for Everyone fund to assess the feasibility of replacing it. This was successful which has allowed design work to progress. However, a more ...
It is such a rare occurrrence, somebody actually delivering on a Brexit promise, that it is worth noting, and maybe even shouting from the top of a mountain. Unfortunately, this is not a promise that Boris Johnson or other Brexiteers would put much story on, or even celebrate, in fact it was made by the EU. The Independent reports that tens of thousands of Brexit-related websites have been taken offline by the EU agency in charge of domain names - including the Leave.eu site set up by the pro-Brexit campaign group. This follows the warning by the EU to owners ...
