Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

Khan's statement was basically that he made clear to her last week the scale of change he believes is necessary to rebuild trust and confidence and to root out racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination and misogyny in the Met. Then goes on:

"I am not satisfied with the Commissioner's response. On being informed of this, Dame Cressida Dick has said she will be standing aside. It's clear that the only way to start to deliver the scale of the change required is to have new leadership."

Dick's statement:
https://news.met.police.uk/news/statement-from-commissioner-cressida-dick-442200

One line that sticks out - "difficult protests" is one way of phrasing it:

There have been many tough calls. And many challenges. The 2017 terrorist attacks, the Grenfell fire, difficult protests, the pandemic, the murder of serving officers.

[Sheilbh]

Rather unpleasant story about Labour MP Neil Coyle - hopefully the party and parliamentary authorities deal with this

Henry Dyer: A personal statement on my interaction with Neil Coyle
Insider politics reporter Henry Dyer Supplied

On Tuesday, February 1, I went for a Chinese New Year dinner with my family then returned to Parliament for work, before going to Strangers' Bar.

I had been at Strangers' the previous evening and witnessed Neil Coyle, a Labour MP, angrily shouting at a Labour staffer I know personally, silencing the bar. This led to reports on Twitter that evening and later in the Mail on Sunday.

On Tuesday evening, I spoke to other journalists at Strangers'. Coyle approached the small group I was in. He did not acknowledge my presence at the incident the previous evening, and spoke on several topics, including his claim that his constituency has the most restaurants with Michelin stars.

The topic eventually moved to Barry Gardiner, the Labour MP who had received funding from a suspected Chinese spy. Coyle made a remark suggesting Gardiner was being paid by "Fu Manchu", a comment that struck me at the time as not right, given it had been well reported who had been giving Gardiner money, and so there was no need to refer to a 20th Century trope of a Chinese supervillain.

I gently pushed back at Coyle about this. He asked me if it was just the case that I was being over-sensitive, before saying that he would apologise if he had said something bad and it wasn't just me being sensitive, which I believe was insincere. He then said that he had relatives of Chinese descent.

I responded by saying that I am British-Chinese, to which Coyle responded that he could tell, "from how you look like you've been giving renminbi [the Chinese currency] to Barry Gardiner."

He then left our group. The two other journalists in the group ask me what he had just said, perhaps having not heard clearly, and I repeat Coyle's remark to them.

Later that evening, as a group of us were leaving the bar, others turned and waved goodbye to other journalists. I also turned, and saw Coyle. Keen to defuse the tension from earlier, I waved goodbye to him, to which he responded by putting two fingers up at me.

I told friends that evening that someone had made Sinophobic remarks to me. But it was not until the following day that I fully realised his remarks were not just inappropriate but made me feel uncomfortable.

The next day, I encountered Coyle twice on the Parliamentary estate including on Wednesday evening when we were both in separate groups at Strangers'. He made no acknowledgement or recognition of me. I felt uncomfortable seeing him both times.

On Thursday morning, I informed the Speaker of the House of Commons what had happened. The Speaker and his staff took immediate action, in conjunction with the Serjeant at Arms and the House of Lords' authorities, to suspend Coyle from the bars on the Parliamentary estate pending an investigation by the Labour Whips office into the incidents on Monday and Tuesday evening.

Part of my job as a politics reporter is to develop and speak with contacts, be that over coffee in Portcullis House or a drink on the Terrace at the Palace of Westminster. I have always enjoyed working on the parliamentary estate, so the sense of discomfort I felt after seeing Coyle in Parliament came as a real surprise to me. The fact that I was made to feel uncomfortable in my place of work is one of the main reasons I informed the Speaker of this incident.

But another reason I am speaking out is because I feel a responsibility to those in the Parliamentary community as well as in political and public life to do so. I feel this is especially important given the fact that racism and hate crimes against Chinese, East Asian, and South East Asian people are reported to have increased during the pandemic.

At the Chinese New Year dinner on Tuesday evening, my mother asked me if there were many journalists of Chinese descent in the parliamentary lobby. I told her I believed there was just one, me – though I offer my sincere apologies if there are others.

Stereotyping someone because of their ethnicity should not happen to anyone. I have experienced very little racial hatred, and so it felt awkward and difficult to accept it had happened to me, especially in my place of work.

I am incredibly grateful to friends and colleagues in the press gallery and at Insider for all their support and reassurance that what had happened was inappropriate. The Speaker and his office have been excellent and supportive throughout. I am very grateful also to the MP I spoke with in the past week for their advice and support.

I do not believe it is my job as a journalist to get involved in the internal affairs of the Parliamentary Labour Party, nor, frankly, do I have any desire to do so, and so leave the investigation and any subsequent decisions to them.

One of the most helpful pieces of advice I was given was to consider what it is I hope to achieve by taking action. I think there are three things I wish to achieve through this.

The first is that this action of speaking out "will be no more than a footnote in my career", to quote Ailbhe Rea's thoughtful and helpful piece on speaking out about Stanley Johnson, the prime minister's father, in November 2021.

The second is that I hope this raises awareness of the issues of anti-Asian racism and of inappropriate conduct, especially where alcohol is involved.

And finally, I hope that others from ethnic minority backgrounds hoping to work in political journalism, in politics, or in any role on the Parliamentary estate do not feel disheartened or discouraged to do so. It is a great privilege and a joy to work in Parliament, and with any luck I will have the opportunity to do so for many years to come.

[Sheilbh]

What a set of headlines on the end of Dick's tenure as Commissioner:

Leader of Black police body calls Cressida Dick 'defensive and dismissive'
Andy George praises outgoing commissioner, but says it was right that she stood down

'She paid lip service': friends and relatives of Stephen Port's victims on Cressida Dick
Departure welcomed by those who says she was too ready to reject idea Met had a problem with homophobia

Misogyny in Met played key role in downfall of Cressida Dick
Commissioner-led series of missteps that eroded confidence and loyalty came before dealing with toxic culture

All three on the front page of the Guardian and all three seem pretty fair to me. Probably not how anyone hoped the Met's first woman and LGBT commissioner's time would go.

Separately I cannot think of a better example of pennywise but pound foolish than this (except possibly for the proposed privatisation of the Vaccine Manufacture and Innovation Centre):

Covid testing: 'Gold standard' ONS testing set to be scrapped making it more difficult to monitor virus spread
ExclusiveThe survey is due to lapse in April and it will be either scaled back or phased out altogether if the Treasury does not sign off on funding for another year
By Jane Merrick, Hugo Gye
February 10, 2022 5:43 pm

The gold standard for measuring the level of coronavirus in the community is expected to be scrapped from this April, as part of the government's major shift in its response to the pandemic, i understands.

The weekly Covid infection survey run by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which measures both infection rates and antibodies in households, is due to lapse this spring and it will be either scaled back or phased out altogether if the Treasury does not sign off on funding for another year.

As part of the transition to a new phase of "living with covid" in the UK, which was accelerated by Boris Johnson this week, mass testing – including free daily covid tests for anyone who wants them – is also likely to end within weeks, alongside the requirement for anyone with the virus to self-isolate, due to be removed by the end of this month.

But while covid case rates and admissions are now falling rapidly, there are concerns that scrapping the ONS infection survey on top of mass testing will hinder the ability to track the virus in the UK, particularly if a new variant emerges.

The ONS survey is known as the "gold standard" of covid measurements because, while it lags daily case rates, it has been tracking the same households since June 2020 and is therefore not subject to fluctuations in numbers of people self-testing for covid.

Covid testing is expected to continue for health workers, so progression of the virus can be monitored in hospitals in case a new wave emerges.

But the continued monitoring of cases in care homes, known as the Vivaldi study, may also be discontinued, it is understood.

Scientists searching for "the next Omicron", who use laboratory genome sequences from thousands of positive results a day from mass testing to detect new variants, will have a drastically reduced pool of samples to work with.

They will continue to use the international database, GISAID, which monitors emerging variants across the globe, as well as the smaller set of results from health workers and the ZOE app, which is independent of government, for any possible future waves.

While this means a new variant that could significantly drive up case rates will still be detected, it will take longer to assess whether it is more severe or reduces vaccine effectiveness.

When Omicron first emerged in southern Africa in November, it was assessed as serious by the UK Health Security Agency within around 24 hours of it being formally identified, and classed as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation within 72 hours.

The UKHSA, which oversees the ONS and Vivaldi programmes, is understood to be in the dark over whether the Treasury will sign off on the funding to extend them for another year, with a final decision expected in the coming weeks.

A source involved in the covid response said: "Ending mass testing is understandable but killing off the ONS survey is nuts. It's just an obsession with saving money."

A No 10 spokesman said that ministers had not yet decided whether the ONS and Vivaldi studies should continue: "No decisions have been made about the future of them, but obviously we want to maintain our world-leading surveillance capacity to track the development of Covid-19."

As they say I can understand ending mass testing, but ending the surveillance/monitoring side strikes me as madness (not least because those samples might actually be relevant for future epidemics/pandemics so it's useful to have). And from what I've read the UK has been really, really good on the data side of things - both in the amount that's made available and the speed with which things can be analysed - it seems incredibly stupid to knee-cap that rather than use it as a baseline for any new variants or for general public health surveillance.

Totally agree with Cummings on this:

Dominic Cummings
@Dominic2306
Abandoning the ONS random sample survey we set up spring 2020, a global standard setter, is so stupid obviously it's tory policy 'to save money'. Failing to prepare for pandemics also 'saved money', then cost 100s of billions & >100k needless deaths

[Tamas]

Met police did not initially investigate No 10 parties because nobody admitted taking part, legal paper shows

[Sheilbh]

From the officer:

.... observed that the press reports did not identify who had been at the gatherings, no one had come forward to admit presence at any of the gatherings, and there was no evidence from social media showing these gatherings taking place, and from which those present could be identified.

It followed that if these events had taken place, the organisers could not be identified from the material available to the police at that time and nor could [the officer] draw any conclusions as to whether the gatherings breached the Covid regulations, and if so, whether those present at the gatherings had no reasonable excuse for their presence at the gatherings.

It feels like it would be a great idea to set up an organisation whose job is to investigate crimes and gather evidence about them

[celedhring]

Met police did not initially investigate No 10 parties because nobody admitted taking part, legal paper shows

Ah well, that's it then!

[Jacob]

It feels like it would be a great idea to set up an organisation whose job is to investigate crimes and gather evidence about them

... it just might work.

[Josquius]

So. The new railways logo has been revealed. My first impressions were mixed. OK in isolation but probably not going to work in practice.
But the more I see it the more it hurts.
It's like... Iceland got very drunk and lost its glasses.

[mongers]

So. The new railways logo has been revealed. My first impressions were mixed. OK in isolation but probably not going to work in practice.
But the more I see it the more it hurts.
It's like... Iceland got very drunk and lost its glasses.

Doesn't seem to know if it's coming or going.


Rather like this conservative 'government'.

[HVC]

Looks like planes. Thus That flag makes me think of forgoing trains and flying to my destination

[Richard Hakluyt]

It is the old intercity logo with a mildly fascist makeover 

About what one expects from the UK in 2022

[Sheilbh]

Yeah it's just an update on the old British Rail logo isn't it? I think it's fine. I prefer it to the multi-green version they initially were going with (I'm just not sure five shades of the same colour is good design)


And it's not entirely unheard of for national railway companies to somehow incorporate the national flag:




TrenItalia too - but only on certain lines from my memory but I think they're a bit like Spain and have national plus regional lines

[Admiral Yi]

Looks like planes. Thus That flag makes me think of forgoing trains and flying to my destination

It's planes in a near collision.  Ride a train and don't die a horrible flaming death.

[The Larch]

TrenItalia too - but only on certain lines from my memory but I think they're a bit like Spain and have national plus regional lines

You said? 



No idea about that remark regarding regional lines, though.

[Josquius]

Yeah it's just an update on the old British Rail logo isn't it? I think it's fine. I prefer it to the multi-green version they initially were going with (I'm just not sure five shades of the same colour is good design)
[i

Funny you bring up that one, the original designer of the BR logo had words to say on that.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/sep/22/british-rail-logo-designer-appalled-by-green-makeover-mess

Gerry Barney says temporary branding update by rail industry group uses too many colours

He's still alive. Awaiting his commentary on this one.

And it's not entirely unheard of for national railway companies to somehow incorporate the national flag:

Yes....The Scottish one has me thinking there. Incorporating the flag into the logo fair enough...but are the colours red, white and blue really the distinguishing feature of the UK flag?
I'm absolutely not a graphic designer but nonetheless got to thinking of alternatives, and it strikes me the * shape is more the union flag's distinguishing feature.

Maybe something like this.



Only, you know, done by someone competent and not in 5 minutes on MS paint so it doesn't look like the logo of an Austrian fascist party.

ORRRR most ideally. And this is crazy so bare with me here... Just keep the design classic existing logo.