UKH

..a tanker"

Interesting nuanced article here from the BBC - and an astounding quote from UvdL

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55948360

Just glancing through some stats the last few days - Denmark have done and are doing extremely well across most covid domains, as are Ireland despite the recent wobble.

I know which I'd pick in a storm.

China?

I was hoping this was a poll thread...

Interesting analogy isn't it. 

A tanker is (as already stated) good in a storm, sturdy, has a steady heading and gets where it needs to... eventually.

However a tanker is very hard to stop, change direction and causes untold damage when it hits the rocks.

That's not to say a speedboat is ideal, far from it, but why pick such a poor comparison?

Indeed - its an interesting situation for the EU - would it respond better by being more federal - like the US - or would each country acting independently but with support directed to the poorer members be a better solution?

The EU is like a tanker and the UK is like the Teignmouth Electron!

We're more like a leaky inflatable dinghy which is pretty useless in anything but calm conditions (i.e. can't cope with strong winds or tides). I'm sure the foreign lifeboat that eventually comes to rescue us will be mightily impressed by the little Union Jack we're flying. And the fact that we can only speak English. And have a crew that doesn't understand what the English Channel is, or what the term 'island' means.

What type of boat we and/or the EU are isn't what is important, what matters is that our boat, whatever that may be, is now surrounded by much happier fish.

Whatever kind of boat it is, it will work better when the captain isn't a tw*t.

The problem is the eu tanker has a failed pedalo captain at the helm. We've all seen them, people of a certain age who can't steer and accurately pedal at the same time. 

But at least you're vaccinated, sweden foolishly followed the rules and is still waiting for enough vaccine to do the over 80s, despite the Astra in AZ being originally Swedish. Most think we should gone it alone like the UK.

Have a nice cup of tea and cheer up Gordon.

we could at least be a nice steam powered boat on Windermere?

I wonder if the speedboat in the quote is Israel?

good luck convincing the Swedes the leave the EU...

Having the (relatively) rich EU countries buying up the vaccines before the poorer ones really does wonders for European solidarity.

All countries are wealthy enough in Europe to afford the vaccine, it's more expensive to not buy it, because of the economic impact. 

As opposed to the eu not buying anything for months and not bothering to consider production. At least everyones old and vulnerable are dying together, solidarity?

Edit, hasn't Germany broken the party line and ordered some of its own anyway? 

Did you see this the other day?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-55928910

EU, all for one and one for all, my arse.

Or 

https://www.theweek.co.uk/951628/germany-buy-30-million-vaccine-jabs-outsid...

All in it together. As they slate the uk for being selfish. They do exactly the same. 

No, not right now. But this eu / german led incompetence is feeding the far right parties with enough ammo for decades, which clearly isn't a good thing. 

In our area there are 23,000 old and vulnerable due a vaccination, old being born before 1941, in the next two weeks there will be 1600 doses. Of course the dead can't vote, but their relatives can and anti eu sentiment is growing. 

New Zealand

Supposing the AZ vaccine had turned out to be a dud, worse still it actively harmed people?

I find it hard to blame anyone, on the one hand I think we went a bit early but it worked out well, luckily. On the other I can see why the EU waited a bit longer for results.

At the end of the day, we're all f*cked if most people don't get the vaccine. It'll keep on muting until the vaccine we have isn't any use against it, and we're back to square one. Being first is nice, but it doesn't mean we're going to be safe.

I don't understand your point. If either of those things had applied, the vaccine wouldn't have been used.

Not all Covid vaccine development programs have turned out to be successful, the French Pasteur Institute's effort being one such.