#COVID19 | Page 143 | Vital Football

#COVID19

Yes thats right the head of the commissions research committee, the top bloke. How I read it was he thought that they ( the EU) couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.
So do you think the EU should have more power? The power to do the things you seem to want it to be doing right now?
And do you want that power to reside at the level of the EU Commission full of its appointed bureaucrats? Seems a little at odds with your general antipathy towards the EU.
 
So do you think the EU should have more power? The power to do the things you seem to want it to be doing right now?
And do you want that power to reside at the level of the EU Commission full of its appointed bureaucrats? Seems a little at odds with your general antipathy towards the EU.
No and no. I am of course just using this as another stick to beat them with.
 
That's a big brush of tar you've got there!
A bit broad maybe..?


Also, you make it sound like it exonerates the govt.

I'm not absorbing them, I'm just sick of science acting innefectually or out of fear. The government's failings are clear but the advice given to them appears to be mixed, muddled and limp.
 
I'm not absorbing them, I'm just sick of science acting innefectually or out of fear. The government's failings are clear but the advice given to them appears to be mixed, muddled and limp.
The really frightening thing for the future is how spectacularly the experts have failed.

In the west we have been fighting a culture war between instinct/emotion and expertise for the last 5 years at least.

Brexit was the English epitomy of that. Gove's 'tired of experts was a gaffe at the time but has become the phrase that characterised an era.

AfD is the equivalent in Germany, Trump of course in the USA.

But in the USA, instinct is going to kill tens of thousands

Unfortunately, in this country those deaths will be caused by faulty science and flawed experts. People will see that and the anti-intellectualism of the last few years will gain legitimacy
 
I'm not absorbing them, I'm just sick of science acting innefectually or out of fear. The government's failings are clear but the advice given to them appears to be mixed, muddled and limp.
I agree it was muddled and limp in that it wasn't put across sufficiently forcefully to spur government action early enough.
But you are being far too broad saying you are sick of "science", and that is quite a damaging thing to do. Science led to the lockdown in Wuhan. Science led to the South Korean response. Science led to German response. Science has provided medical care apparatus in its existing form and science will soon produce more effectual medicines and eventually a vaccine. A scientific approach was used to gauge the NHS's readiness for a pandemic and found it wanting. That science was done by scientists.
After all that came the politics.

By the same token, science is not a magic bullet that can answer all questions instantly. We knew what the known unknowns were. Some of those blanks could have been filled in by preparedness or a faster response to building up testing capacity. There was weeks of notice to put that action into place from around the world and even the much maligned scientists at Imperial.
Why didn't it happen? That's politics again.

Some of the failings happened because the committee was not looking for consensus but relying instead on a single group. They, in turn, were trying their best with a limited data set in the early days. Questions should have been asked when that small team were clearly at odds with other scientists the world over.
 
I think it’s exceptionally poor how few football figures have come out to take a pay cut.

on a separate note gents, if you’re bored and missing football, there’s a very entertaining series on Netflix called “Sunderland till I die” that looks at the behind the scenes of Sunderland in the year they were in the championship. Series 2 out now following last year in league 1. Totally worth a watch and emphasises what a tosser Jack Roswell is as just one example.
I will give that a watch Will, ta. Also on Netflix is a programme called Tiger King. Watch it, the people on it make Trump look sane. It’s mental. A slow starter but bear with it.
 
I agree it was muddled and limp in that it wasn't put across sufficiently forcefully to spur government action early enough.
But you are being far too broad saying you are sick of "science", and that is quite a damaging thing to do. Science led to the lockdown in Wuhan. Science led to the South Korean response. Science led to German response. Science has provided medical care apparatus in its existing form and science will soon produce more effectual medicines and eventually a vaccine. A scientific approach was used to gauge the NHS's readiness for a pandemic and found it wanting. That science was done by scientists.
After all that came the politics.

By the same token, science is not a magic bullet that can answer all questions instantly. We knew what the known unknowns were. Some of those blanks could have been filled in by preparedness or a faster response to building up testing capacity. There was weeks of notice to put that action into place from around the world and even the much maligned scientists at Imperial.
Why didn't it happen? That's politics again.

Some of the failings happened because the committee was not looking for consensus but relying instead on a single group. They, in turn, were trying their best with a limited data set in the early days. Questions should have been asked when that small team were clearly at odds with other scientists the world over.

You've been around climate change for a long time, care to explain why the odd economist have been far more powerfully effective advocates of change than virtually the whole scientific community?

I've met a number of brilliant men (and women) who were wonderful at talking to themselves but in terms of bringing power with them...
 
The really frightening thing for the future is how spectacularly the experts have failed.

In the west we have been fighting a culture war between instinct/emotion and expertise for the last 5 years at least.

Brexit was the English epitomy of that. Gove's 'tired of experts was a gaffe at the time but has become the phrase that characterised an era.

AfD is the equivalent in Germany, Trump of course in the USA.

But in the USA, instinct is going to kill tens of thousands

Unfortunately, in this country those deaths will be caused by faulty science and flawed experts. People will see that and the anti-intellectualism of the last few years will gain legitimacy

Spot on.