IntenseDebate - James

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Bordering on impossible · 0 replies · +1 points

To me it is simply saying to those flying home from Mauritius (via Paris and the Eurostar), "Don't worry, you know we will never prosecute - it will make us look ridiculous".

I flew back from Lisbon in September, about 12 hours after the reintroduction of quarantine restrictions for those coming from Portugal. I suspect that I was one of very few who filled in the requisite form - there was nothing on the flight or at the airport to so indicate and even fewer who actually observed the quarantine. Nobody checked.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Bordering on impossible · 0 replies · +1 points

The long prison sentences are simple "dog whistling". It is saying to the Red Wall, "Look we are REALLY REALLY serious about this", while at the same time saying to people flying back from Mauritius (via Paris), "You know perfectly well that we will never investigate or prosecute for this - it will make us look stupid".

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Invictus: Is it time t... · 0 replies · +1 points

I think there is a difference between Jimmy Saville and say Edward Colston or Cecil Rhodes in that in the case of Saville, the decision to remove his monuments was made while he was alive or shortly after he died (when the fear of a libel writ is no longer present). in the case of the others, we should be more willing to respect the views of those who decided to erect the statue in the first place. The mere fact that a "revisionist" historian may (with the benefit of hindsight) decide that a particular action of an individual was misguided should not of itself be sufficient grounds to remove a statue, Churchill and the Dardanelles campaign is a case in point.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Invictus: Is it time t... · 0 replies · +1 points

The statue to Cromwell outside Parliament was indeed paid for by Lord Rosebery because the Irish National Party successfully opposed it in Parliament. An interesting story is the statue of Queen Victoria at University College Cork. It was removed in 1934 and buried in the garden, only to be put back on display in 1995.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Invictus: Is it time t... · 1 reply · +1 points

Why is it absurd to remove a statue? Because the criteria used are lopsided and as a nod to the Twitter generation depend entirely on individual incidents (taken out of context and which the subject may have later come to regret), rather than a balanced appraisal of the life of the subject (including the reasons why the local populace chose to put the statue there in the first place).

An example, I'm sure that those wanting to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes would love to use this quotation.
"A general belief seems to prevail in the Colony that the Indians are little better, if at all, than savages or the Natives of Africa. Even the children are taught to believe in that manner, with the result that the Indian is being dragged down to the position of a raw K*****".

Why don't they? Because the quote is not from Rhodes at all (by contrast, Rhodes funded the newspaper of the organisation that was the forerunner of the ANC). The quote is actually from Mahatma Gandhi. Where is the campaign to remove his statue?

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - As the Treasury digs i... · 3 replies · +1 points

There is a world of difference between possessing a smartphone and being willing (and able) to put an intrusive app onto it. I do have a smartphone, but it is a fairly "low spec" one and from experience know that most apps are written by people for whom having a top-of-the-range phone is essential for "street cred" purposes and tend to assume that the users of the app will be similarly equipped. That is apart from the risk of being effectively imprisoned if I should happen to have walked past someone who it turned out had been infected until such time that the Government (which had up to that point been trying to suppress testing to keep the figures down) finally got around to testing me.

The rest of your post seems to confuse correlation and causation. I wouldn't doubt that "pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes as making up 14.5% of all common locations where infected people had been", I dare say that a lot of them had watched the news on television and ate carrots too. What you need to show is that infected people are selectively more likely to have been at these places.

Incidentally, neither education nor leisure & travel occupations are particularly high in the ONS statistics for COVID mortality by occupation (of people aged 20-64). https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommuni...

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - As the Treasury digs i... · 5 replies · +1 points

To what extent is that a consequence of the fact that people in restaurants would be much more likely than the general population to have an app on their phone? Some pubs and restaurants insisted on the app (although its use was not in fact compulsory).

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - As the Treasury digs i... · 1 reply · +1 points

Frankly, I doubt if eating in restaurants would contribute much in itself to spread of infection, though if (as is likely) it caused more people to travel outside their own area, there may have been some tendency to spread infection.

What interests me more is how much this thing cost and who is ultimately picking up the bill?

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Brandon Lewis: I am no... · 1 reply · +1 points

The Anglo-Irish Treaty, agreed by both sides provided in Article XII for a Boundary Commission. The Irish Government's representative Eoin MacNeill withdrew from the Commission, but nevertheless voted in favour of the final settlement. In the end the report of the Commission was suppressed by both Governments which then agreed that the border would remain where it was (at the historical boundary of the counties) and in return the British Government did not demand the share of the UK national debt that was to have been paid under the Treaty.

3 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Brandon Lewis: I am no... · 0 replies · +1 points

The Anglo-Irish Treaty, agreed by both sides https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/LON/...
in Article XII allowed the Parliament of Northern Ireland to secede from the jurisdiction of the Irish Free State. If the British did the "carving" it was under procedures agreed by Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins.

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