I like the clapping. It shows extremely warranted appreciation, and while it clearly doesn't make a direct practical difference, I don't think it detracts from making changes that make things practically better so I don't see the problem in that regard. Why not do both to the extent that it is possible for an individual to do? ...However, I do wish that (even where people live near hospitals) people would clap and make as much noise as possible from their own doorstep/window/property. Surely going out and forming a crowd, even one that attempts to maintain distance, is potentially very counterproductive. It would bother me if it started to be seen as an excuse to socialise.
We don't but then that's generally because i'm cooking tea for my NHS partner. She's not a fan but we can see some on the frontline appreciate it. I like that it keeps the NHS in peoples minds, that it reminds them that it needs valuing but I don't like to think that it may be being used as a distraction technique by politicians. If people go out and clap, then go indoors and write to their local MP about making sure PPE is available and so on would be better. As @wolfticket says, the crowds you can see clapping - I mean wtf? If you really appreciate the NHS keep your frickin distance. When I do do it I do it indoors, last night we'd already eaten so I sat on the sofa, turned to her and gave her the clap. A clap. I clapped at her.
Dyson employs a lot of engineers here in the UK. (This is, IMO, a good thing.) Presented with a challenge or problem they are naturally going to want to see what they can do. I seriously don't see why the company trying to make ventilators rather than a new vacuum cleaner for a a few weeks is a bad thing. Well there is a theory that his candidacy was an attempt to boost ratings for his TV show that had unexplained consequences. But to me the one thing that his presidency proves is that there isn't a great sinister CIA etc plot out there, because it there was they would seriously have bumped him down a lift shaft by now. Europe has slightly bigger problems right now than fighting for extra fishing rights and making life hard for Gibraltar. Like working out how tell the German (and Dutch etc( electorates that they are going to have to be sending seriously non-trivial amounts of Euro south for a good while. A compromise is needed by both sides and they are now both aware that there is a reality out there. Not sure who exactly is supposed to be employing illegals here atm. But what I will say is that this crisis is likely to show that there aren't a lot of people willing to pick vegetables in this country so we will be importing more stuff or workers. Take your pick. Boris was never anything like trump other that they are both blond. This crisis has surely shown that.
So why don't they finish what they started then? Especially in light of Chinese supplied ones having to be discarded because they're not up to scratch.
Don't know about that, both were born in New York and both like to ban media outlets they don't like who ask them tricky questions. I'm sure could think of some more.
Between the amount they claim to have spent (around £20million), the amount of time they spent on the project (about six weeks) and the end result (no product, no production) it looks like nothing more than a PR stunt. As much as £20million is a lot of money Dyson himself is worth £4.2billion, or two and a bit Donald Trumps, even if he did spend that much it's pocket change to him. Compare to the companies that really meant it (Airbus, Mercedes, Hope, JCB etc) who partnered with medical companies to build existing designs and the Dyson Ventilator looks farcical.
Silver linings to everything, I suppose. Not seeing much reality awareness in the UK government here. BTW Johnson is a sociopath. Just like Trump. One with more brains and charisma than Trump (which isn't hard), but a sociopath nonetheless. @Vault-Tec: As for the clapping thing: as an NHS professional I don't like it, and many colleagues don't like it much either. I understand it is (largely) well meant and comes from a good place of wanting to be supportive, so I don't dismiss it, but I don't get attached to it either. Way many of us see it, the very same crowd that claps now voted Brexit a few years ago, voted Tory yet again a few months ago, and will be sharpening the pitchforks and lighting the torches to lynch us all a few months from now. You just wait.
I don't clap. Oh, the horror - "The sick ******* hates the NHS" No, I don't, and **** anyone who thinks otherwise. My mother was NHS and my sister still is - they don't like the whole clapping thing either - my sister says she doesn't know anyone at her hospital who does like it, but they know there is no upside to announcing that publicly. It quickly devolved into the fiasco I fully expected - a competition: The first week there were a few folk standing on their door steps clapping. The following week there were more - trying to out-do each by clapping louder and longer than their neighbours, then some started bringing out pots, pans and tupperware boxes and beat on them with wooden spoons. Some of them actually started congregating and congratulating each other! Seriously!! Yesterday, some local ****wit wheeled his massive hifi speakers into the garden and subjected the whole neighbourhood to Land of Hope and Glory, followed by the National Anthem, at full volume. It is meaningless - you want to support the NHS, do a hundred laps of your garden and try and drum up some sponsorship, or contribute monthly to your local air ambulance, or simply stay in your ****ing house. /rant
What do we think - emergency heart surgery and then wheel him out at the earliest possible opportunity for a 30 second public appearance?
TBH (and I do live in a mainly Brexit area) they're all vaginas. The only pitchforks they seem to wield are online, virtually. I've *never* seen any one brave enough to dare speak out in public. There were no rallies demanding Brexit, it was all from the other side trying to stop it. I went out around 10pm one night on my bike to ride back to my old area as there was a Tesco Express there I kinda missed (I love their cous cous with raisins and their pasta bow ties with olive oil and Parmesan) any way, as I approached the beach path exit to my old road I saw some weird dude bent over. I couldn't see too well so I carried on riding. As he saw me he scurried off. When I got there he had drawn "BREXIT" with an arrow pointing off the beach path in chalk. He probably did so because we have a lot of Polish people in our area. However, he waited until it was dark and no one was around, that's how brave he was. That is the only "outward" sort of thing I have seen. The rest? all hide behind keyboards and do their bidding online (usually in the Yahoo comment section). It kinda reminds me of that fake Garfield cartoon doing the rounds in the early 2000s. A mate sent it to me. Basically in the first box Garfield says "I'm going to go out and make fun of n***rs!". In the second caption he's beat to crap. In the third he says "I'm going to go home and make fun of n****rs on the internet!". I don't see cowards having any back bone. So tbh dude I can't see them growing any balls now either. Most of these people came from middle class or above families, were spoilt and couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag.
Don't take this the wrong way but, please, please, please don't let this one morph into another bloody brexit thread.
Can't remember whether it was here or another thread... About 5 weeks ago my cousin sent me a text. "I'm down your way I will be around soon". Erm, no, you won't. Two days after I asked him what he was up to. "Off down the gym then the pub". Now this was before the lockdown. Well, sort of. It was when they advised people (especially the elderly) to stay inside. Any way after that I didn't hear anything from him until today. I figured he was either busy or sulking. It was the last day before all the pubs shut (a Friday). Then my mum messages his sister and asks how they all are. He is just recovering. He spent three weeks in bed, one of them he could not move and had to get his brother to care for him. I knew he was going to get it. Thing is? that would have killed my mother. That may be why he's been a bit quiet.
The initial reports on age ranges have seriously ****ed how people our age and younger think about this virus. It's more than a little concerning. At least he appears to be on the mend.
He's pushing 50 dude. I mean he's fit and bloody strong, but that will be his undoing tbh. He's like his dad, thinks he can brute force through everything. I don't know what made me so blunt that day, but man that would have ended really badly.
That's still.. close ish to the lower risk categories.. Although with how you described his behaviour he sounded twenty to thirty something.
Yeah he's not accepting age gracefully tbh. Playing with something you know nothing about though is just plain daft.
I forgot to mention on Friday I had my own @David moment when shopping, albeit on a smaller scale. I was waiting at the 'top' of an aisle in Tescos (one way system, remember) because there was a person either side so there was no way of walking past without contravening the 2m social distancing policy. This older chap (prolly 50-55) just pushes his trolley right past me and carries on. Grr. Never mind. Anyway, the other two move on, so I carry on down the aisle, passing the older chap on the opposite side. A minute or two later and the same situation arises and the same thing happens again. Grr x 2. Believe it or not, in another aisle, the same situation happens AGAIN with the same older chap. However, this time, just as he's within about a metre behind me, I shoot a look to my side and 'loudly', clearly swear 'under my breath' "For f**k's sake!". The chap looks a bit shocked, backs off and waits behind me instead. Maybe he'll learn from that. Or not.
