AlfieMoon

Plateaued in sense of daily vaccine numbers?

My other half’s mum got all outraged at the EU last week when I told her that the Asics trainers we returned on 31/12/2020 (destined for Belgium) are still stuck at UK customs. I’ve been trying to return a separate item to Germany the last couple of weekends without any success. Pre-Brexit, UPS access point used to just scan the box label, i’d get w receipt and that was it. Now it needs additional invoice copies and customs declaration. I‘ve had to email the company to ask for these forms ... they’re playing catch-up after having to completely re-write processes overnight. Shock! Anyway... the other half’s mum thinks the EU are to blame as this has all worked fine for 40 years. The concept of ‘levelling the playing field’ as a result of choosing not to be in a customs union is lost on her. Similar to your post above - people ideologically opposed to the EU shaped the arguments to suit in their head and now don’t want any responsibility for the fall-out.

Getting over the 50k in one day is big! They mentioned a while back they hoped to get to 400k a week capacity by end-Feb I think, so >50k is edging towards that. 800k+ already done. 400k p/w over next 6 weeks would see 2.4m (+800k already done) = 3.2m by end of March. Then you start eating into your capacity a bit by gradually having to deal with 2nd doses in increasing numbers over a 6 week ramp in following the weeks. Can’t imagine it will run quite to that plan but we’re definitely making progress now.

I was wondering what sort of numbers of army personnel are involved in the programme. I thought it was just a fairly small number that were deciding on suitable venues for vaccination centres and presumably input to the setup of them. I’d have imagined that after that, it was over to the NHS. My mum got her vaccine yesterday and said there wasn’t a soldier to be seen.

The only reference point I have is my mum (turns 72 on Saturday) who lives in Paisley. Her experience is exactly as the ScotGov said it should be. 2 weeks ago they said that letters would be coming out in a to her age group before the end of the month. Last Monday she got her letter. Her appointment is for this Friday @ the Lagoon leisure centre (mass vaccination centre) in Paisley. This is well in line with target to do her age group by mid-Feb. I appreciate people and health boards wi have different experiences but I’d hope what I’ve seen provides some level of reassurance.

I tend to think everyone’s opinions here about the vaccine rollout have an element of truth and relevance. As Orraloon said, all UK nations having vaccinated between 10-13% of population is not a huge variance. I think looking at the individual day figures - where you see large spikes and big numbers for England - combined with the media hysteria being created about the whole process and Scotland not being fast enough - all creates a level of frustration and/or anxiety in some. This is without any of us having any real appreciation of the underlying data, logistics and process. There’s surely complexity from geography and reduced population density. When you get into the supply chain then assuming vaccines arriving via Dover (possibly) then England already has a head start there. I’m sure I also heard someone say that vast majority of vaccines in Scotland have been Pfizer - which is more complex to manage, store, breakdown and distribute. Not sure if that’s the case as I’ve not seen numbers of Pfizer vs AZ. If you look at the 7 day figures it does give confirmation that Scotland is ‘ramping’. It’s possibly a better indicator of progress. There are, however, relevant criticisms for ScotGov. It seems strange that mass vaccination centres weren’t ready. Additionally, I think they’ve had some criticism for the vaccinator recruitment being considerably more complex than what England has. Having heard from someone applying for that post, it does seem a valid criticism. I’m sure Sturgeon answered a question about it the other week but don’t know if it has progressed but again, that’s something that will impact capacity.

Who is ‘they’ 😳 That’s what we should all be asking ourselves. 😂

I know you get a lot of self-entertainment out of your trolling - and more than a few bites - but maybe you should choose your topic more carefully. When there’s nearly 100,000 dead in the UK and folk losing loved ones, worried about loved ones and facing all sorts of struggles - maybe ask yourself if it’s really all about you getting your 2 minutes of giggling to yourself.

I’ve not paid much attention to Lennon but she comes across relatively well I think. I can imagine her getting in ahead of Sarwar. The sneering, aggressive approach that Sarwar would bring is very much yesterday’s approach. Didn’t work for Murphy, won’t work for Sarwar. Seeing people buying into a softer, more compassionate, leadership approach (like Sturgeon and NZ prime minister) seems to be what a decent % of the population are after. I wouldn’t be surprised if they think Sarwar is the person to answer their problems though.

Why does anyone engage with this guy? 😂

Thanks. I’ll need to spend a bit of time looking at the management fees. I must admit that I do find the whole area of charges very confusing. The first one I’ve looked at with Aegon - I believe the AMC is 0.7% which may be a bit high but there are rebates as well. I can see those figures on my annual statement - although that approach doesn’t seem to be consistent across my 3 providers. When it comes to selecting funds, the KIID for each fund displays another Charge (for example 1.01% on one of my Aegon funds). I’m assuming that those costs are baked in to my holding in the fund with units increasing/decreasing as required to pay fees. Meaning that the true cost of that fund is essentially 1.71% (Aegon 0.7% AMC + Fund charge 1.01%)?

Just realised with the resurfacing of this thread that I hadn’t thanked you both for replies. Thanks! I’m in Local Gov Pension Scheme so AVC partner is Prudential and the scheme for Scotland allows access for AVC drawdowns from 55 - you can’t take the pot in one go unless you take your Local Gov pension at same time (which is not attractive due to reduction in final pension). I’m 38 now. Have 3x smaller private sector pensions ticking over on medium-high risk for long term so got a good while left yet until retirement!! Only been in local gov for last 4 years but that’s accruing defined benefit, adjusted for inflation annually. My intention is to stick around in that employment for long term now. So the aim would be the leave the LGPS pot until 68 (or as close to) and have other investments to try and bridge the gap to allow retirement at a reasonable age. Seem to have a few options available now for consideration so just need to do a bit of thinking as I think a mix of these each have their own merits: - AVC’s: straight from payroll, save on tax and NI, accessible from 55. - LISA: can open before the age of 40, 25% bonus from gov on contributions. Not accessible until 60. - Stocks & Shares ISA: option to choose stock/share/funds for investment with no tie in for age so a bit more flexibility. Downside being that payments are post-tax.

Yeah it must be complicated. Every article/comment I read carries different figures. Latest from BBC’s Douglas Fraser says: Some things will have changed by then. UK vessels will have around an eighth more of the total catch from UK waters, or roughly 25% more than they have now. They will have received £100m from the UK government to expand and update the fleet. That highlights that some of the headline of taking back 25% catch over 5 years is actually far from it. It’s actually a 25% increase on UK catch which would be a much smaller number and not as good a headline. If working from a starting baseline of 50% catch (which I’ve seen loosely reported), it means share going up to 62.5%.

I’ve been reading some of the details on fishing but couldn’t see any figures other than 25% reduction over 5 years. Where do the 47% to 43% come from?

I assume there are custom checks for goods arriving from NI/IRE into the UK? This would presumably be one complication of an independent Scotland having a border with England. While the basis would be there for trade to take place, there would need to be some border checks I assume and trusted trader stuff like they’ve trumpeted for the past few years (unsuccessfully) for Ireland. Albeit that the unique circumstances of Ireland made that unattractive.

Just had a laugh at the Brexit ‘Reality Check’ article from BBC where they present 10 parts of Brexit, with Questions & Answers as to what the outcome of the 1000 page document means for the UK. Unfortunately the ‘Answers’ actually mainly provide further questions and uncertainties. Interestingly, N.Ire doesn’t merit it’s own question but it is snuck into point 4 that they will remain in EU customs and single market. No mention of checks for goods UK to/from N.Ire. Answers around Financial Services, Data, Product Regulation and Security highlight the real mess we’ve created. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/55252388

This is kinda my point. Yes jumped into the lead immediately after Brexit. It was a knee-jerk reaction not based on any tangible reality. How long did that last? Not long. It’s been a long drip feed of fear of no deal Brexit and the mess of May and Bono’s reigns with Yes support again no doubt getting a boost from a majority Boris government within all that mix. All I’m saying is that there must be some level of fragility of that Yes support as Brexit normalises and peoples fear of change then becomes focussed on Indyref instead. Add in the prospect of a backlash against Boris/Tories at next GE and you’ll have a small %age of Scotland who are happy to look to a Labour UK Gov as protection from Tories without having the risk of Indy. All just my opinion of course. What I’m essentially saying is that it’s far from plain sailing for SNP and Indy. I think it would be foolish to think it is.

The fact that Scotland didn’t vote for it has played out well since 2016 but for me, that narrative doesn’t work as well when the big scary backdrop of Brexit and no-deal is removed and the situation is normalised. People are fickle and move on. Brexit didn’t move the Scottish polls significantly. COVID did - but in time that will pass as well. It becomes about whether the SNP can retain that support after those issues pass and people’s outrage has subsided. The major positive is that the age demographic will continue to shift in favour. A lot of it will be down to timing. Does Holyrood election fall at a good/bad time for whatever politics are getting played out around COVID? That will determine how much political capital there is for the next term and whether indyref is achievable.

First rule about agreeing a trade deal... Both sides will come out smiling, friends, a good deal for both sides, etc. Whoever is perceived to have ‘won’ more out of negotiations will fade irrelevantly into the background against the positive feat of achieving an agreement in less than 12 months. Any concessions around fisheries will still see the UK in a stronger position than they were under CFP. I think that will keep fishing mainly onside. This will be the start of the normalisation of Brexit. It’ll be a challenge for the SNP to maintain momentum as that reality beds in and the threat of no deal is gone.

McLean is better than Jack. That would be my only change. The team pretty much picks itself which is good.

I’m not sure the penny has dropped at all. Still striking out at the SNP in the final paragraph. The listening exercise is just a common sense thing to say but the rest of the statement seems riddled with confusion. It’s just a typical empty statement to me - hinting at some sort of devo max +++ , and of course the need for a Scottish Labour Government to address the ills of SNP failures.

The variety of responses on the Scottish results programmes was interesting last night. Pretty much started with Henry McLeish and Paulines McNeill backing up the SNP that they Tories cannot democratically ignore and deny the SNP win. Some other Labour voices then sporadically chucking in the usual aimless devo max. Things then hardened when they got the likes of Neil Findlay and Alex Cole Hamilton only interested in drawing a hard line and taking aim at the SNP. The Tories never budged an inch and only real line was that the SNP didn't win because they didn't get 50%+ of the vote and also that indyref was once in a generation. AC Hamilton also adopted this ridiculous %age argument as well. The response of McLeish and McNeill early on made me optimistic that maybe, just maybe the Labour party will at some point move from their uniform opposition to independence. What came later however showed the bitterness as to why that can't happen even despite the damage they've done themselves since 2014. The Labour answer to Scotland's problems is always a Labour government. Here we are now subjected to another 5 years of Tory rule. For Labour, they're happy to chuck us under the bus in hope of future power in 5, 10, 15 years.

So close in Caithness.

What’s left? Orkney/Shetland and Caithness will both stick Libs I think. Other than those - another 2 to come?

Ooft. Great close win in Gordon. Thought the Tories would have had that.