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Thread | Spurs vs Fulham
at 21:51 13 Jan 2021
Anybody else hear Ally McCoist utter the words "anus lips" in commentary tonight. Would have expected better to be honest... |
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Reply | If we persevere
at 19:27 5 Jul 2020
For a club with the meagre attendances and backing by the board that we have, the only way we can punch above our weight is by appreciating the value of our players and selling them on for a sizeable profit. I would estimate that Grimes, Roberts and Byers at the end of last season would have been worth around £15 million, give or take £5 million. Now, we'd struggle to get half that for all three- so a loss of about £7-8 million. That is almost entirely down to Cooper and his brand of football. What's he on? If he's on £1 million a year I'd be surprised. Forget about aesthetics for a second, for financial sustainability reasons only we cannot afford to keep him. Hopefully we could find someone with a better pedigree than Toshack, but I'm confident that he would at least get us playing the Swansea Way, which our history shows is a pre-requisite for us to succeed.
Strange how quickly people forget the lessons of recent history, let alone the entire basis of our success in getting to the Premier League and thriving there. If Cooper is the answer the question must be a pretty stupid one. |
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Reply | New cases
at 23:44 29 Jun 2020
Read this and compare Wales' stats with those in England and Scotland: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53222182
Excess deaths are the most reliable indicators of all the stats that have been churned out arond COVID, and it makes very bad reading for the UK government. Right now I think we can fairly say that England has the worst record in the World. Given the head start the UK government had that is (or should be) hugely embarrassing. In a normally functioning society needless deaths in the thousands or tens of thousands should result in resignations. Fat chance with the current bunch of chancers.
The report on the 10 o'clock News suggested that the data hasn't yet been refined with the age profile of populations in mind. This will paint an even worse picture for relatively young England and a better picture for relatively old Wales. |
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Reply | Scrap the ineffective Senedd-Welsh Assembly
at 20:06 26 Jun 2020
The figures here indicate that only 842 tests from non-NHS Wales laboratories (preumably Pillar 2 tests) have been positive, against 29,858 negative (i.e. less than 3%): https://public.tableau.com/profile/public.health.wales.health.protection#!/vizho
It's not clear what the corresponding figures are for England's pillar two tests, but it does suggest Public Health Wales are doing a good job of detecting infections across Wales from their lab tests.
The difference in ethnic mix in England as compared to Wales is an important consideration when comparing the two countries, but in England you still have over 87% of deaths among "whites", see figure 30: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attac
Wales on the other hand has a more elderly population, and a greater proportion with health conditions that make people vulnerable to COVID.
When all these factors are taken into consideration I doubt whether there's much of a difference across the UK, but that delay in starting lockdown had a massive impact in terms of avoidable deaths. That was very much the UK government's call. |
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Reply | Scrap the ineffective Senedd-Welsh Assembly
at 19:03 26 Jun 2020
I don't think it helps to be partial in this situation, when the evidence is confusing and conflicting. As I indicated in an earlier post the most reliable source of death statistics suggest 10% more deaths per capita in England than Wales. Not a huge difference, but a difference nevertheless. The infection rate on the other hand does appear to be significantly higher in Wales than England - but the stats you quote Lisa exclude Tier 2 testing stats. The discrepancy could also be accounted for by a more efficient approach to testing with Public Health Wales than their English counterparts. It's hard to believe that Welsh people would be that more resilient to the disease than their English counterparts, so the statistical discrepancy may well be an artefact of differences in testing regimes.
Once lockdown kicked in I don't think there's much to distinguish the approaches of the respective administrations, nor the outcomes. The big, big mistake was with the timing of the lockdown, which was inevitably mainly Westminster's call. That's not to stay that the Welsh government couldn't have done things differently in those critical two weeks or so before lockdown, as Ceredigion council demonstrated by continuing track and trace when abandoned at UK and WG levels. |
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Reply | Scrap the ineffective Senedd-Welsh Assembly
at 18:00 26 Jun 2020
The events of the past few days in England and Wales does tend to support the Welsh government's decision to go with the 5 mile limit, even if the extent of the limit is very probably somewhat arbitrary. I'm guessing that the limit was determined for behavioural reasons as much as anything, as a 5 mile limit is local, and obviously so, and therefore straightforward from a messaging perspective. In the absence of such a limit we end up with the scenes we've witnessed in Bournemouth, where people have clearly acted without any common sense. This isn't exactly surprising, as it mirrors what happened just before lockdown was announced - with people flocking to beaches around the UK and up Snowdon.
It's pretty obvious that there's a large section of the population that are willing to obey the law, but are incapable of using any sort of discretion in the absence of any legal prohibition on their actions. Governments need to make proper allowance for this stupidity and selfishness. The Welsh government appears to have done so, whereas Westminster hasn't. |
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Reply | Travel to Wales
at 16:25 24 Jun 2020
I think there's a danger of over-playing these comparisons between Wales and England either way. The ONS figures suggest that the daily death figures provided by Public Health Wales underestimate overall COVID related deaths to a much greater extent that the figures produced by Public Health England. If you take yesterday's ONS figures you have a total of 46,110 deaths in England, and 2357 in Wales, or 819 deaths per million population in England compared to Wales' 748. In other words there have been about 10% more deaths per head of population in England than in Wales. This is reflected in the excess death tallies, where Wales has one of the lowest per capita excess deaths in all the nations and regions of the UK, but isn't exactly an anomalous outlier.
So, there is some reason to think that Wales has performed better than England, but there are so many complex demographics working in either direction (BAME proportions, age profile, health) that it's hard to argue convincingly that Wales has significantly out-performed England.
Much as I admire Drakeford's more cautious and measured approach (not difficult to outperform Boris there) I think there's an argument, that, if anything, the Welsh government's approach has been too timid, especially in the early stages of the pandemic, when swift action would have saved many lives. This article on Ceredigion's approach gives food for thought: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53142088
The fact that Ceredigion has done so well compared to other rural Welsh counties is down to a number of factors, as the article states, but the fact that care homes were quarantined at an early stage and contact tracing has continued throughout, even after it was abandoned in Westminster and by the Senedd, may well be significant factors.
If there is one thing that this disease has exposed is that the status of an institution is no reliable guide to a good outcome. If we are to learn the lessons of COVID we should have the humility to recognise that we have a lot to learn not only from the management of other countries but perhaps even counties. |
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Reply | Scrap the ineffective Senedd-Welsh Assembly
at 15:55 19 Jun 2020
Excellent, balanced post, which is some achievement on here.
I don't think there's been a huge difference between Wales and England when it comes to tackling coronavirus, but it's certainly helps that in Wales we've got a grown-up in charge, who had a command of detail.
If this sorry episode proves anything it's that the devolved administrations should be bolder in future, and be willing to take firmer action earlier, even if it goes against the UK government's approach. |
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Reply | You can stick your f#*king chariots....
at 15:40 19 Jun 2020
Talk about historical revisionism. Anybody who had any dealings with rugby clubs in the 80s will know how that the song was entrenched in rugby culture long before the dates referred to in that article. Not exclusive to England, but it's England fans that chose to make it their unofficial anthem.
Next time it gets sung at Twikkers I fully expect to see the traditions of the song in rugby circles to be fully honoured with accompanying wancking gestures. |
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Reply | You can stick your f#*king chariots....
at 22:32 18 Jun 2020
It was a rugby club song accompanied by appropriate hand gestures. I wonder if you can guess the wrist movement that accompanied "coming for to carry me home"?
Doesn't it say something about the lack of self-awareness, or simple crass insensitivity of the average English rugby supporter that this embarrassment has endured as long as it has. |
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Reply | Corona Virus
at 21:19 1 Jun 2020
Sweden, population 10 million, 4403 Covid deaths.
Denmark, Norway and Finland aggregate 16.7 million, combined 1130 Covid deaths. On a per capita basis Sweden has 6.5 times the Covid deaths of its neighbours - or around 3500 extra deaths. Hardly the poster boy for herd immunity - especially when you consider that only 7.3% of people in Stockholm (the worst affected area) had developed the antibodies needed to fight the disease by late April: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/21/health/sweden-herd-immunity-coronavirus-intl/
Attaining herd immunity via infection spread (as opposed to vaccination) is looking increasingly looking like a reckless gamble, which has needlessly cost thousands of lives in Sweden, and quite possibly tens of thousands of lives in the UK.
When it comes to the economic side of things I'd much rather be in the shoes of those countries that locked down early (New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Denmark et al) - and now have a good chance of opening up their economies (and forming bubbles with other "clean" countries) whilst controlling likely localised spikes in infection. The UK and the USA in contrast are going to find emerging from lockdown far more challenging and may well find themselves in the ignominious position of being treated as international lepers. |
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Reply | Corona Virus
at 19:06 19 May 2020
I suspect a cunning plan by Pelosi to get Trump to increase his dosage. |
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Reply | Little England beyond Wales
at 11:07 13 May 2020
The travel restrictions are justifiable throughout Wales, but have a particular relevance to those parts of Wales (and the UK for that matter) with big tourism sectors i.e. West Wales. The hospital provision in West Wales is geared towards the needs of the resident population by and large, and the last thing the hospitals in Haverfordwest, Aberystwyth and Bangor need right now is an influx of holidaymakers. You only have to look at what happened the weekend before the lockdown, with record numbers flocking to Snowdon and resorts being inundated, to see what the realistic consequences of allowing people to travel freely would be, both within Wales and from outside Wales.
It's also worth noting that even if second home owners pay Council Tax (which many avoid by registering as businesses, where they get generous small business tax relief) this doesn't pay for the health service, and only a fraction of local government expenditure. Trivial compared to the health issues at stake, but the idea that second home owners are making the same contribution to the local economy as year-round residents is clearly false.
Making this a Welsh-English thing isn't helpful. Cornwall, the Lakes (with the South Lakes having some of the highest infection rates in the UK) and and other popular tourist destinations,will face some real challenges over the coming weeks - with people likely to descend in their thousands on towns and villages where cafes, restaurants and public facilities (including public toilets) are closed. Remind me again of Boris' advice is to those caught short a couple of hours' drive from home? Shyt in a bag? |
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Reply | Why does the WAG get away with it?
at 22:14 10 May 2020
Give me a grey, boring, ponderous, but serious leader, over a charismatic, superficial, feckless idiot any day of the week. |
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Reply | Disunited Britain
at 11:03 8 May 2020
I enjoy your posts, even if I rarely agree with them, but you've embarrassed yourself here. |
| | BytholWyn
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