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The Positive Brexit Thread

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13 hours ago, Rock The Boat said:

To be frank, I think we've had enough of so called experts, and in particular, the data modellers. We saw it with Covid and all the fake statistics and unbelievably wild assumptions and forecasts that bore no relation to reality. We saw it with the Blob trying to prevent Brexit after the country voted for it. And we are seeing it once more from the same people who led us into the current mess in the first place. So junk the lot of them, and if Truss and her friends get it wrong vote 'em out. If they get it right, let 'em stay.

I am astounded you thought there were merely wild assumptions and not accurate forecasts. During the pandemic, forecasting was highly important. And if some were over the top, wasn't that better than the Trump macho image of its just the flu it will go away?

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14 minutes ago, keelansgrandad said:

I am astounded you thought there were merely wild assumptions and not accurate forecasts. During the pandemic, forecasting was highly important. And if some were over the top, wasn't that better than the Trump macho image of its just the flu it will go away?

Indeed! This month's Private Eye quotes Lee Cain (No.10's Director of Communications 2019/2020, writing in The Spectator) refuting every ignorant word of what RTB says. "I sat around the cabinet table as politicians, scientists, economists and epidemiologists agonised over the extent to which lockdown would devastate lives and livelihoods", he concluded, "We locked down because we knew the cost of letting Covid rip was far more damaging to the health and wealth of the nation ... the biggest mistake we made was not locking down but doing so too late."

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11 hours ago, keelansgrandad said:

I am astounded you thought there were merely wild assumptions and not accurate forecasts. During the pandemic, forecasting was highly important. And if some were over the top, wasn't that better than the Trump macho image of its just the flu it will go away?

All the forecasts were massively over the top, and you know what? Covid has gone away (almost, I grant you it won't go away completely but it will end up just like the flu). You think there will be more Covid lockdowns? I can't, even if the Sage group says yes.

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6 hours ago, Rock The Boat said:

All the forecasts were massively over the top, and you know what? Covid has gone away (almost, I grant you it won't go away completely but it will end up just like the flu). You think there will be more Covid lockdowns? I can't, even if the Sage group says yes.

All forecasts give a range of outcomes based on modelling, the media usually pick the most headline grabbing one.

 

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8 hours ago, Rock The Boat said:

All the forecasts were massively over the top, and you know what? Covid has gone away (almost, I grant you it won't go away completely but it will end up just like the flu). You think there will be more Covid lockdowns? I can't, even if the Sage group says yes.

If only we had followed the modelling of your Irish friend, as did Brazil, he thought the flu season was in May and June. Conspiracy theorists like him nurse Johnson and Trump killed many, the reason covid has become more like flu is through vaccination and treatment. If they ever allow an enquiry ( it will only be allowed if they want to throw Johnson under a bus ) you will see how your comments stack up.

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14 hours ago, Rock The Boat said:

All the forecasts were massively over the top, and you know what? Covid has gone away (almost, I grant you it won't go away completely but it will end up just like the flu). You think there will be more Covid lockdowns? I can't, even if the Sage group says yes.

Yes it has stopped causing chaos. But are you trying to erase history? Are you actually saying we were too tough?

 

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8 hours ago, Well b back said:

If only we had followed the modelling of your Irish friend, as did Brazil, he thought the flu season was in May and June. Conspiracy theorists like him nurse Johnson and Trump killed many, the reason covid has become more like flu is through vaccination and treatment. If they ever allow an enquiry ( it will only be allowed if they want to throw Johnson under a bus ) you will see how your comments stack up.

I agree with your comment that it was the arrival of the vaccine that brought down the number of infectious to endemic level (and a tip of the hat to all that were involved in the rapid rollout) but even during the rollout and for a long time after, modelling forecasts were way over eventual outcomes and they were bothered to use out of date data on occasions when it suited the Sage narrative. Ricardo was posting these modelling charts on a regular basis, so the evidence is there of the scaremongering and the desire to reimpose lockdown sanctions, and we now learn in hindsight that social and economic factors were not included in Sage recommendations 

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On 26/09/2022 at 16:24, Rock The Boat said:

I agree with your comment that it was the arrival of the vaccine that brought down the number of infectious to endemic level (and a tip of the hat to all that were involved in the rapid rollout) but even during the rollout and for a long time after, modelling forecasts were way over eventual outcomes and they were bothered to use out of date data on occasions when it suited the Sage narrative. Ricardo was posting these modelling charts on a regular basis, so the evidence is there of the scaremongering and the desire to reimpose lockdown sanctions, and we now learn in hindsight that social and economic factors were not included in Sage recommendations 

Scaremongering is not the right word. I do not believe anyone was deliberately making it sound worse. It was just the models they used.

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Daniel "Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the Single Market" Hannan says the meltdown in the markets is because traders don't like the prospect of a Labour government...

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16 minutes ago, PurpleCanary said:

Daniel "Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the Single Market" Hannan says the meltdown in the markets is because traders don't like the prospect of a Labour government...

Someone described this as the Tory equinox, the point where they stop blaming the previous Labour govt. and start blaming the next one.

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3 hours ago, PurpleCanary said:

Daniel "Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the Single Market" Hannan says the meltdown in the markets is because traders don't like the prospect of a Labour government...

Is that the same Daniel "The coronavirus is not going to kill you.It really isn't." Hannan?

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On 26/09/2022 at 08:40, Well b back said:

If only we had followed the modelling of your Irish friend, as did Brazil, he thought the flu season was in May and June. Conspiracy theorists like him nurse Johnson and Trump killed many, the reason covid has become more like flu is through vaccination and treatment. If they ever allow an enquiry ( it will only be allowed if they want to throw Johnson under a bus ) you will see how your comments stack up.

Johnson was not on the same hymn sheet as Trump on Covid. Maybe a fair bit of his party was, but he wasn't. 

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15 hours ago, littleyellowbirdie said:

Johnson was not on the same hymn sheet as Trump on Covid. Maybe a fair bit of his party was, but he wasn't. 

According to Trump he was 10 out of 10 for the way he handled Covid.

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18 minutes ago, keelansgrandad said:

According to Trump he was 10 out of 10 for the way he handled Covid.

11 out of 10 if he had used bleach on himself.

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17 hours ago, Herman said:

Is that the same Daniel "The coronavirus is not going to kill you.It really isn't." Hannan?

The fact that you've posted this seems to prove he was right in your case😉

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1 minute ago, Yellow Fever said:

11 out of 10 if he had used bleach on himself.

An excellent example of a clear difference between them. 

By his own statement, Sunak was more on song with Trump on the Covid score than Johnson, God only knows how the pandemic would have gone with Truss in the hot seat.

Johnson was only ever leader because he was seen to be the best chance to get the party elected, but policy-wise he was regularly criticised as not being 'Conservative enough', which was ultimately why so many in the Conservative party were dead set on getting rid of him post-election. 

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35 minutes ago, Yellow Fever said:

11 out of 10 if he had used bleach on himself.

Sadly, he used it all up on his hair.

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2 hours ago, ricardo said:

The fact that you've posted this seems to prove he was right in your case😉

I don't think he was aiming it at me, more at the people that strangely took him seriously. 

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4 hours ago, How I Wrote Elastic Man said:

Steve Baker apologises to the EU

Good 

Now hopefully we can all start working towards a better relationship 

It is an odd and interesting apology. I would be wary of reading it as an optimistic sign but who knows. Truss so far has confirmed what people said about her. Namely that she glories - in effect for its own sake - in going against received wisdom. Given all her other problems, smoothing over relations with the EU and agreeing to only moderate changes to the protocol, rather than tearing it up, as the Unionists want, would be the smart move, but also the received-wisdom smart move.

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I'm not sure this was a full apology as such but more Baker trying to soften a position in order to negotiate.

Baker is an interesting character. At time he shows an emotional intelligence, even during the Johnson period. At other times, he goes off full c*ck like his performance when asked on live TV about whether he might consider putting himself forward as a possible leader. An incredible 1 minute speech followed where he became an 18 year old boy arguing to be made captain of his team. All his emotions leaked. An eye-opening piece of television.

I'm never hopeful when I read how Truss says she intends to go about her job. She has sounded like she is going to be tough on the protocol. Baker, at the very least, seems he is trying to build bridges, say the right things. For that, at the least, we should be grateful. It is the right start.

Remarkable what the experience of actual responsibility does to (some) politicians. 

Edit: (some)...this administration especially as we have seen through countless U Turns. Conviction and bravado cannot / has not been carried through.  

Edited by sonyc
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Perhaps now that Baker has to take some ministerial responsibility for the Brexit fu*ck-up that he played a major part in fomenting from the security of the backbenches, he realises just how much we have lost and still have to lose if we don't act urgently to stabilize and improve relations with our major trading partners. So bad was that deal that we have still yet to implement many of the rules that we insisted on being included. Our economy is in a dire state, and the cost of Brexit is estimated at 4% of GDP. Maybe Baker has finally realised just how much his former bigoted jingoism has cost the nation he claims to love.

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