woodenhead

I can go with that, sometimes I write what I think without considering how others may read it back.

And had we done that early on before Mrs May went off on her re-election to get a mandate voyage, there was a sufficient majority in the house to do the necessary deals with the EU and get them signed off without having to worry what the DUP might think about the deal or allow the DUP to do all sorts to undermine anything that may have benefited anyone else but DUP supporters. Having the balance of power in the hands of a small vested interest did nothing for the progression of BREXIT. Looking back now, I can see the folly of having a Remainer (like myself) in charge of the Government when you needed to leave the EU, she was all about consensus and making the deal, a deal that was not there to be had because the two sides (EU & Brexiteers) were so far apart and remain so far apart. The border between NI and Ireland was used by both sides in the debates as a weapon, it hasn't helped anyone as all it has done is stir up trouble, both sides knew this and continued to wield it. It even drew Biden in at the end, but perhaps that put a focus on things and helped us agree an outcome.

Scenario 1 will only be known in 12 months once sufficient people have been vaccinated and it is understood that not only can they not get COVID but also that they are not a vector to infecting other people. Given they are not even sure that the current vaccines will do more than lessen symptoms and potentially still allow infection of others I think getting to Scenario 1 is a long way off. And to use HIV as a reference, it did have an impact on sexual relations, we recognised that condoms did more than just stop babies being produced - but of course the Catholic church did not like that and actually worked against heath organisations in Africa. However, to bring it back to Covid, we still don't have a definite fully effective vaccine to HIV so assuming we can beat a virus like COVID in 12 months is probably a big stretch.

Rabies hasn't been eradicated, it has been controlled and it doesn't transmit through the air but through saliva just before the host dies. It can be prevented through vaccination and the main route to human infection is through dogs, so vaccinating dogs was the chosen route to control the infection and stop it killing humans, but you cannot vaccinate every animal so it is still prevalent throughout the world we're just less likely to get bitten by other rabid animals than dogs. Australia & New Zealand have the Pacific ocean to help keep themselves isolated, as do many other islands in that region, in fact any island that isn't a staging for people fleeing their home country. I would be doubtful that China has shed itself of Covid, if it can hide the abuse of it's own citizens by the Government then it can hide illness just as effectively.

I'm not implying intelligence and ultimately we're all stardust at the most basic level, but I do believe if something has at least a cell, can divide/mulitply and grow even if that means taking over a different healthy cell then it is in some way living, like a tree or a plant but not like a rock. The base programming of any cell is to divide and replicate and survive in a Darwinian manner - I wonder how many failed attempts Covid had at replicating or mutating before it found it's first form that could be fatal to man.

Even if we did, what happens when the next corona virus leaps from animal to human.

May not be pleasant but sometimes it has to be said, we are after all just animals, we're at the top of the chain but we treat the whole environment around us like a parasite. Without large conflicts as Dagworth points out, starvation and viruses are the only things that can wipe out large numbers of us. Mother nature always finds a way to control numbers and you ignore that at your peril.

A virus is a living organism, it follows the same rules as any other living organism it strives to survive and replicate it's species. Like water in the example above which will follow the route of least resistance as it flows so will a virus, it isn't clever or intelligent, it just finds a way to transmit itself and then does so as effectively as it can. Quite how some plants developed a solution that required birds and bees to transfer seeds through faeces and polinate using a sweet nectar that some insects love I really don't know, it's amazing but it certainly wasn't by some invisible creator cos if there was one he's an evil one - why create parasites if you're all loving, all caring.

Well you've put the cat among the pigeons now Phil. If the answer to resolving our current crisis is this then actually it's time to give up trying to contain it and let it spread until it eventually stops spreading. Like any penned animal humans react negatively to imprisonment, the outcome of what you are saying would be anarchy because it will lose the consensus of support from the majority that one thing that keeps society functioning.

I do my own hair, no2 or no1 cut depending how hot it is, much to the annoyance of Mrs W I only shave when I cut my hair so perhaps I should be cutting my hair more often.

Possibly or it would have been a very specific negotiation to resolve a material issue that everyone would agree was serious and didn't impact anyone's red lines. All eyes would have been focussed on one aspect, fishing rights and the London financial zone, employee rights wouldn't have been in that discussion. Like I said, I wanted to remain, but it shouldn't have taken 4 years to resolve the Good Friday agreement issues - and if that was the crux of our problems in negotiations with the EU we would have a deal right now and we don't because they are too far apart on other issues yet have managed to amicably resolve Northern Ireland. It was being used as a pawn somewhere I suspect as neither side really wanted to be blamed for ending the agreement - once it was necessary to find agreement, lo they found it.

I was thinking more the Christmas bubbles - it was basically accepting the inevitable that people would meet up and they wanted to give us something nice - but since then with divergence by the other nations and messaging saying you can do it but we'd really wish you wouldn't, it was clear someone's 'good idea' had fallen flat and everyone was back peddling. The lockdown in November was to stem rising cases, all I could see coming from the Christmas bubble was a new stringent lockdown starting just before New Year's Eve then the other nations began announcing them and here we are. Everyone, I hope, expected this winter would be difficult, they've been talking about it since the first lockdown so as measures increase why on earth would you then go and abandon everything for 5 days unless there was a plan to doubledown the following week. Furlough now covers till April, I don't think we will see the end of Tier 3/4 in the North, London and the South East before March at the earliest. With those expectations I cannot be disappointed with what happens over the winter now, any easing for other than polictical stunts will be a bonus for me.

And that is exactly why 'nose dive' is a perfectly good description for a journalist to use because I have no idea what what you are on about

I did wonder about NHS - surely I thought there were more important matters to attend to than changing the registration on a plane so we know it is helping the NHS. Does that mean 9H PPE can only carry PPE, it's not allowed to bring in medicines or ventilators or anything else not made of plastic. To think in all this mess there are people who use this as an excuse to display their marketing skills.

Give it a new name and they don't have to call it another failure to anticipate that a political decision was a failure. So now Lockdown is Tier 4 - well they cannot have a Tier 5 at least, there isn't anything else to shut in the South East. I could see this coming, the messaging was all there they just needed to find the right moment and excuse to apply it. Doesn't change much really though, we knew we shouldn't be meeting up and all the non essential shops will be doing their sales via the internet which is no bad thing, there is no way such an event could be run successfully in a shop with the volumes of people you'd expect down Oxford Street.

I was really confused by this post, as it's in prototype questions I was thinking there was some Claughton build underway, funded in part by Hornby and using parts recovered from a Schools Class loco - rare indeed if you cut up a real one to create an LNWR loco.

In some respects the simplest, cheapest and least crippling thing would have been that when we voted out we went straight out. I voted remain but I can see how damaging all the 'negotiations' have been ever since 2016 - first to agree legal terms for a transition and now to try and make some sort of agreement for a deal. Both sides must desperately want a deal, both must know it is their best interests to have a deal but neither side want to be seen to be backing down continuing the stalemate that has existed, just like the vote being 50/50. This whole debacle is being caused by politicians on all sides, in all countries and is doing nothing to sell the virtues of the EU or the UK Government - China, Russia and America must be laughing at the mess being made in Europe which they can all reap benefit from. I don't like it but it seems a No Deal exit in 2016 might actually have been a better outcome, by now we would be negotiating with the EU as a potential partner and not arguing over a divorce deal still. How much money might we have saved on all sides fighting, arguing and simply talking but getting nowhere. This is like one of those horror divorce cases you read about where both parties cannot see the collatoral damage they are causing all around them and continue to batter one another without making any progress.

As a layman will understand the term 'nose dive', it more accurately portrays the message required than using technical jargon a pilot may understand but me, someone who doesn't fly a plane, wont.

There is the issue of GDPR so people need to be segregated from others if the work they do is sensitive - works great for us as we have rooms on different floors that are our personal space too. But I can see how it would be an issue when you've effectively lost personal space, you also need to put up his rent to cover the cost of the bills and he then needs to address this with his employer or with the taxman as there are allowances.

Xiamen from Bournemouth currently over the Baltic Sea

However, I will just add - no-one foresaw a pandemnic in 2021, no Government around the world except perhaps the more authoritarian ones have created a robust plan to deal with it and everyone is learning as they go along. I don't like that 'Project Fear' is the blueprint for all Government responses to crises now but I don't think any Government in the world was prepared for a Covid.

Rather sad that they have to complete the KX work between March and June 2021 - just as we will hopefully be escaping pandemnic restrictions they have to reduce station capacity 50%. Mind, maybe there still won't be 50% of the passenger numbers we used to have on the trains then and actually the impact will not be noticed too much.

Possibly a belief that somehow somewhere a deal would be pulled out of the hat despite all the rhetoric since 2016 being that 'no deal' was a good thing and the best solution to a large percentage of people who voted to leave. The banks have left it as late as they could to do this, too quickly and you've lost a customer base, too late you're stuck with customers whose facilities now cost more to provide if you can even actually provide it in the absence of authority. Like many businesses they are stuck between a rock and a hard place - 12 days to the end of transition and businesses still don't know which set of rules they will be working to on the 1st January. It's not as if they haven't got enough to be dealing with, you know staying afloat in the midst of a pandemnic which is being handled almost as well as the negotiations.

Bl**dy industrialisation, but for that we wouldn't have model trains to keep us entertained though.

You know what the best thing might be - stop looking at the dashboard every day, similarly stop listening to the news which is a constant drip of warnings about the state of the nation. You may not realise it but all it does is scare the living daylights out of you (and others). My mother in law describes herself as a tough old bird, but she aint, and listening to Matt Hancock, Andy Burnham and the medical officers everyday have made her so frightened that she refuses to go out of the house now except to go to Sainsburys (and I wonder if that is only because she feels guilty that I was doing her shopping every week) or a short walk around the block. My wife has to spend time in schools working in very close proximity to children with and without masks, one of my children works in hospitality and the other works in retail - none of them so far have been made very ill by covid if we've even had it - there was one scare back in March/April but no-one was tested so we don't know. Rather than spend your time analysing the data looking who is infecting who etc, just focus on your very close family, keep your distance from people, limit your exposure to people and take the necessary precautions. I was also focussed on the news and listening to the media briefings (and they are just that with no opportunity for the press to challenge or ask probing questions), it did me no good so I stopped and I am happier for it. Expect another full lockdown after Christmas - all the messaging is pointing to it and Wales / Northern Ireland have already announced it, Tier 3 for the South East is to keep people apart despite the mixed messaging from Government about bubbles, they have allowed something that most medical people do not want but in reality it is just about giving people a break because they know some will want to meet family regardless of what is said. Vaccinations are beginning, aligned with a lockdown expect to see a dramatic fall in numbers of hospitalisations from February onwards - whether that is lockdown related, vaccine related or a mix of the two will be difficult to fathom at first but hopefully it is the beginning of the end.