ariotofmyown

Pro lockdown is reasonable as it's the law of the land at a time when information updates need to be given. They do report on people having the opposing view on that as I noticed this morning.
It strikes me that most people (not aimed at you) think something is impartial when it agrees with them and biased when it doesn't.
 

No way dude, they are fighting the elites and sticking it to the man. The real enemies are those students who wanted to take down a picture of the queen. That is the real problem with this country!

Having looked at the history of some of the major backers of GB News I would be very surprised if the overall narrative does not push for further deregulation of financial markets, more privatisations of public services, pro-corporate agendas, anti trade union legislation, campaigns against tax dodging laws, corporate courts that overrule government decisions, Freeports/Charter Cities that are outside the jurisdiction of the host country.
The so called culture wars are nothing but a smokescreen. We'll fight against each other while the major players continue to destroy any semblance of a decent society in their relentless pursuit of power and profit.
 

Is this the new camouflaged Politics Thread??

Can't really see what gb news does differently apart from being almost exclusively commentary.
It all seems like LBC/TalkRadio but in TV so I wouldn't say its unique in that way either. 
I don't think gb news presents a positive outlook either, it looks for conflict and certainly its main role is not presenting news. 
Sky has set the standard for TV news for years. CNN International isn't bad either but the US focused stuff can be tedious. 
From what I've seen so far (just opening night) it wasn't civil. Sky News press preview is civil. 
First night excitement... 

I thought they were supposed to be some revolutionary new media outlet that wasn't afraid to broadcast unpopular opinions?
So the perpetually enraged will be expecting it to be their go-to channel for hearing what they want to hear. Not to have them point out that actually yes, the majority of the general public support extending the lockdown
?
 

I enjoyed the big caption that said "General public seem to be in favour of extending lockdown"
That must have driven their core audience straight to the keyboard in rage ?
 

Don't worry, Johnson has seen nothing in the data to suggest everything can't open in 4 weeks time!

Absolutely! Pretty sure my end of it was close to £3k and this was a good 7 or 8 years back too. The pool complex was great and had a blast on the huge slides their with the nipper. Enjoyed the high ropes thing too, but honestly, it wasn't even close to fair value. Great business model though as folk seem happy to shell out for it year in, year out and they always seem busy. Go figure! 
By contrast, I took my dad and my lad on a road trip to Cornwall last year. We did a little bit of self-catering but basically ate in lovely restaurants in and around Padstow every night and some lunchtimes too. Did the Padstow sea-life safari which was incredible, 18 holes of golf on a beautiful links course, some mad adrenaline buzz activities at Hangloose including a 100MPH zipwire over the top of the Eden Project, followed by a serene wonder around the project itself. Coastal walks between pubs, a gastro trip to Rock... We had a blast and slept like babies every night and despite eating a ton of fine food and drinking my bodyweight in some of the best Guinness I've ever tasted, I lost half a stone in weight too. I picked up the tab for everything as it was kind of a bday prezzy for both dad and the boy and yet it only cost me £1,100 all in ?‍♂️

First question please:
"Primeminister, are you being over cautious now because your actions throughout the pandemic have caused 1000s of extra deaths already?"

For those struggling to picture Andrew Neil, here's a photographic reminder.

You may not need to be stupid to be a journalist but obviously it helps:
Jason Groves at the Daily Mail asks Prof Whitty if he is as confident as the PM that 19 July will be the end of all restrictions in England. 
He asks the PM if he can give a "cast iron guarantee that this will be the last delay" provided no new variants of concern turn up.
How can anybody possibly give a cast iron guarantee regardless of whether new variants turn up?

Excellent post @BucksRam.  Particularly the point about ignorance.  We’re seeing cases growing with some restrictions in place, if they were lifted completely then they would grow even more.  Also, the more it spreads, the greater the risk of another variant coming into circulation.  Personally, whilst nothing can be guaranteed, it’s better to wait a month rather have a lockdown in a couple of months time.

First question please:
"Primeminister, are you being over cautious now because your actions throughout the pandemic have caused 1000s of extra deaths already?"

Whilst I would have thought that, too, it has been stated that the recent covid hospitalisations in Bolton have been much younger people than previous waves.
As long as these people keep going to hospitals for treatment then public health people are going to be worried. 
Does it mean this strain affects people more? Who knows? This is the main reason they want to delay, to give more time for hospitalisation and fatality data to either develop, or prove there is nothing to worry about. A further 4.5 million being more fully protected during this time will help, too.

I guess the fact that currently an average of 170,000 people a day are getting their first jab and 300,000 their second so in four weeks another 4.5 million will have had one jab, and over 8 million their second if the rate continues. 

Difficult to gauge how people feel, i was all for opening but happy to wait if it means there will be less likely a chance of re-instating restrictions.
All my work colleagues I have spoken to today seem to feel the same, that we have waited this long, we may as well wait another 4 weeks.
How much longer we are happy to wait of course remains to be seen should there be a further extension in 4 weeks.

It's really difficult to gauge how many people are on each side of this debate, even on here, so across society as a whole even more so.
I get the feeling that the people on here against extending the date on fully lifting restrictions are more vociferous on here at least.
I would have accepted either decision, but feel more comfortable with a delay. 
I do think there'll be a few more concessions announced today, particularly on limits for funerals and weddings.

OK, I may be biased as someone with a vulnerable wife, but I'm OK with deferring the wholescale reopening as it's likely doing so will create a huge rise in cases.  We're all supposedly following restrictions now, and most still are (rule of 6 / 2 families etc) but I've seen loads of people mingling as if life is normal.  Cases in my area (Aylesbury Vale) continue to rise, and currently stand at around 330 live cases, up by over a 100 on last week.....and obviously that's only those tested or reported.  Cases have been rising consistently since the May lift of restrictions.  If delaying it provides opportunity for x million more to get vaccinated then this makes perfect sense. 
There's still a scary amount of ignorance out there too; only this morning I saw a post from one of my Facebook "friends" arguing that the lockdown should be lifted as most people have had 2 jabs and are therefore immune and so it's OK for them to go about their business, indeed it's their right to do so, as they won't a) catch it and b) pass it on.  No, no, no.  It's thinking like this that backs up any decision to defer lifting all restrictions IMO. 
At some point we're absolutely going to have to just accept and live with this virus, as we do with the flu, but we're no-where near that point yet due to the current lack of understanding and experience around all the variants and mutations.  Flu still mutates but we've had decades to understand it and tailor vaccines accordingly.  Much as we've done an amazing job developing and rolling out vaccines for COVID it is still early days.  
Using a Health Foundation report as a source, in a bad flu year the UK sees between 25000 - 30000 deaths (flu and pneumonia combined) - that equates to some 250,000 life years lost (i.e. how much longer those people would have lived had they not died). 
With COVID, since March 2020, in the UK alone, COVID related deaths have resulted in the loss of around 1,500,000 life years - 6 times the amount.  
Only one report, I agree but it's quite a powerful message. So if BJ decides to defer for 4 weeks, I for one will comply even if, like most, I too want to get back to complete normality.

Lamps will suggest taking Phillips and Rice off for Rashford and DCL. Then say how he's not happy we conceded 4 in 2nd half.

It's more than a lot - it's everybody. I'm supposedly a "woke leftie" - You don't think I feel like I don't have a voice and I'm having to battle my way through a constant stream of stuff in the media I don't agree with?
No matter what your personal politics are - you're in that boat
I don't know why you can't just be honest and say that the reason you like the idea of GB News is because it's going to annoy the people you really can't stand. That's a perfectly valid reason - just be honest about it
 
It's like you've never watched Question Time
 

GB news main backers are Sir Paul Marshall, a hedge fund manager with a personal net worth of £630m and Christopher Chandler a New Zealander who heads a multi-billion dollar investment fund and has a net worth of $1.7b.
Its a fair bet that it will not be a particularly anti-establishment organisation.