https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/oxford-university-astrazeneca-vaccine-uk-flag-union-jack_uk_5fbfdd14c5b68ca87f827a0e

This article is outrageous.

It's only called a Union Jack when it's being flown on a warship and the ship is not in harbour.

>>28992
>HuffPost UK understands No.10′s newly-formed “Union unit”, tasked with fighting calls for Scottish independence and other campaigns to break up the UK, wanted injection kits to bear the flag.
Because what independence movements love and demand more of is cultural chauvinism and being lorded over, right.

>>28992
If the government are this confident our vaccine is going to be effective and widely well received it'll definitely turn out to give people the tism or something equally hideous.

>>28993
You know full well that if this was a Scottish Government vaccine it would have the Saltire all over it. This is something universal when it comes to programmes whether it be EU logos on any cultural products it funds to every aid package having an origin logo displayed.

That's the nature of soft-power. If the leader of the vaccine programme were Scottish I'm sure at least the National would have it proclaimed as a headline.

>>28995
That image highlights how we're doing it wrong as well as making your wider point. USAid (me typing "USAir" at first notwithstanding) has its own distinct brand and little logo. It says "this is from America" without being tacky about it and coming across as chauvinistic. The EU tends to slap flags on infrastructure it funds, but their flag already looks like a corporate logo.

Meanwhile our tendency is to brand things with something like this, which manages to convey all of the British™ crappiness of a car factory kept on life support by the national enterprise board circa 1976 without any of the underdoggish charm.

>>29000
What should ARE new logo be like, lads?

>>29003

A tree stump.

>>29000
>without being tacky about it

>FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

>>28995
They well might, but that's not going to come across as paternalistic finger wagging so Tories don't have risk pissing away the Union on their watch.

>>29011

>>29015
I'm not sure marking a British product developed with public money counts as paternalistic finger wagging. What is more it seems like something that transcends traditional political divides given it's a response to a government whose raison d'être is the destruction of said country.

What's the alternative?

99.999% survival rate.

Tell me again, why did we purposely crash our economy?

>>29032

Yeah nah m8.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

>>29032
How are you bellends still around at this stage of the game?

>>29033
The true number is closer to his than yours once you factor in undetected cases.

>During the period 20 June to 13 July 2020, SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were measured in the community at an overall adjusted prevalence of 6.0% in England.

>>29035

I had a strange cold in September that left me breathless for a few weeks. I wonder if that was one of those undetected cases?

>>29036
https://www.bupa.co.uk/health/payg/covid-testing

>>29037
>"Only" £65

>>28989

That specific example is an obvious over-exaggeration, but in the hypothetical worst-case scenario of anti-microbial resistance where all our current antibiotics are rendered useless, it could very plausibly knock twenty or thirty years off the average life expectancy.

It's a good comparison to covid because it's daft stuff that you might not think about as a young and fit person, but as you start getting older and your immune system gets weaker, things like a simple urinary tract infection can work themselves up to your kidneys, and end up as full blown renal failure. Surgeries would be much more dangerous, because while surgeons nowadays are very careful about preventing infections, they still occur. Germs are persistent little bastards. The kind of operations people need more routinely as they get older would be inherently riskier, and clinical sepsis would more or less be a death sentence.

We live with a popular assumption that modern medical practice is lightyears more advanced than it was at the turn of the century, but in reality it hasn't gone all that far- Antibiotics have been a huge crutch that enabled us to do things which simply weren't feasible before, and that's largely the entire reason life expectancies have shot up since the 50s.

>>29031
Marking it as funded with public money and sticking giant British flags on it are two quite different things. Like most things that transcend traditional political divides, everyone is agreed on doing a mediocre idea in a bad way.
Scots aren't going to look at a union flag on their medicine and thing "Oh, golly, we're #bettertogether", at best they're going to tune it out like they tune out the union flags on their groceries and at worst they're going to resent it as an incompetently cynical PR exercise. (especially in light of the way the Scottish press will be unable to resist trumping up this latest superplan to save the Union.)

The alternative is to pay someone to design a proper logo, run a proper UK-wide PR campaign about the vaccine, have the government save the union by getting at the roots of why it's falling apart in the first place (which frankly is a nation-[re]building project even England needs), and have all the major parties in Scotland stop being so terrible at unionism. At some point in the 90s or 2000s there's been a drift from a unionism that fights for sectional Scottish interest within the UK while firmly believing it should be a permanent part of it, to one that often openly accepts that as 10% of the population Scotland should be quiet and stop being weird. Such a unionism might seem scarcely less annoying than the SNP's nationalism, but if not being annoyed by the Scots anymore is the main aim then you might as well just give the SNP what it wants.

>>29040

I think the Scots just need reminding that they had more than their fair share of the profit out of the Empire and that in fact they were the ones responsible for some of it's most reprehensible legacies. Snap them out of the Braveheart noble victim fantasy and remind them they're actually just pasty, obese hypocrites.

Billboards the nation over that say GLASGOW WAS BUILT BY SLAVES #tearitdown

>>29041
I'm not sure that would work. Despite what a few overenthusiastic people on Twitter would say, Scotland doesn't really have the same sense of colonial grievance that Ireland had. It's more like the same general dissatisfaction that you'll find in the North of England with a dash of resentment over the squandering of North Sea oil, but with a pre-existing nation to use as a rallying point where the North is stuck with regional identity. Sturgeon is very much the type who would voluntarily sign up for big guilt-tripping exhibits about the Scottish role in the British Empire.
It doesn't really undercut the modern Scottish nationalist narrative to mention Scotland's colonial role. Scotland can't and won't ever be a major power, the highest it can aspire to is being a moderately nice place to live. Britain on the other hand remains proud of her imperial history, big enough to send a gunboat over to Cathay again if it has to, and run by politicians who think it's a good idea to do so. It almost risks adding weight to the pro-Independence argument: As part of Britain, you were an active participant in these imperial crimes - if you stay, you'll be an active participant in the next lot. Avoid being involved, vote Yes.

(I have to emphasize, I'm not trying to make a pro-independence argument here, just giving my view on how the situation looks.)

>>29041

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/times-higher-education-awards-2020-winners-announced

I don't know lad, it seems like Scotland is pretty aware of its colonial legacy. The waters of Scotland's Imperial legacy are muddied somewhat by things like the Highland Clearances and the Darien scheme which were perpetrated by the wealthy and very detrimental to the commonweal. Reasons why the Scottish electorate is a lot more left leaning than the good parts of the UK.

Most of what people in England perceive as Nationalism on the part of the Scots is actually a desire for an egalitarian society, less concentration of power in Westminster, and more accountable politicians.

You would have to be a moron to look at the last 10 years of British Politics and its economic fallout *before* COVID-19 and fail to understand the increasing support of Independence. The current gallery of rogues being a particularly egregious example of what people outside of London hate about it all.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o1mNg5lblM

I went in Morrisons last week and just about all of the bog roll averaged out at around 60p a roll. I went in Lidl today and all of it has been cleared out.

All I want to do is wipe my arse.

>>29040
>have the government save the union by getting at the roots of why it's falling apart in the first place (which frankly is a nation-[re]building project even England needs)

I'm not sure there's time nor money to do this. Scottish Parliamentary elections are in spring where it's certain the SNP will take a majority and use this mandate for an early referendum. Perfect timing as no any impact of Brexit will be lingering and people will be feeling more confident/autistic following their vaccinations.

Even if you threw money at the problem it would soon be lost due to devolution. Sunak announced this week a raft of new money for the regions but what does that even mean when the money get's rebadged as Scottish Government doing up the local community centre.

>>29049
>Perfect timing as no any impact of Brexit will be lingering
Good to hear the impact of Brexit will only last until Spring.

>>29050
Oh god I had temporarily forgotten that it's almost the end of the year, and we have that nonsense to look forward to.

>>29048
I've been unable to find my favourite smoked ham at Sainsburys. There's roast but I've always felt it a bit shit.

>>29051
Pack your shitpaper. I've half a mind to start slowly stockpiling but then everyone will do it.

>>29048
Get a bidet mate and your arse wiping days will be in the past where they belong.

I don't remember the police arresting people for the BLM protests in the summer?

>>29057
That's because the twats who are protesting the lockdown are much bigger wankers than any of the BLM lot.

>>29057
Well. One lot were protesting about a valid cause, the others are whiny tinfoilers and conspiracy lunatics.

>>29060

You've never met a policeman socially have you?

>>29057
Didn't BLM get charged by mounted officers?

I remember the student protests back in 2010 when kids in their early teens were kettled in the freezing cold, no access to the bogs or fresh water, until the early hours - meanwhile EDL cunts had a very softly, softly approach, despite dog whistling for genocide.

The police have very interesting targets.

>>29063
I wonder how much of the police reaction to protests is determined simply by what they think they can get away with? I'm not sure who's going on the anti-lockdown protests, but it wouldn't suprise me if it was a lot of radicalised by Facebook types who'd never been on a protest before in their life, as such, unorganised and unprepared. Similarly the students in '10 were in the same position.

I'm stopping this post because I have no idea what I'm talking about.

>>29062
Yes, but a few right wing figures (Farage, Martin Daubney whoever that is, and the Prison Planet dweeb) all made a fuss about pretending they don't remember that and suddenly there are slews of morons repeating the line.

>>29048
>>29056

And don't forget to buy a hair dryer too, so you don't have to wipe your arse on a towel anyway.

Looks like bird flu is back on the menu, lads.

>Avian Influenza incursion risk raised to high in Great Britain

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/avian-influenza-incursion-risk-raised-to-high-in-great-britain

>More than 10,000 turkeys are to be culled at a farm in North Yorkshire after an outbreak of bird flu. It comes after avian influenza of the H5N8 strain was confirmed at a turkey fattening premises near Northallerton.

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/bird-flu-outbreak-confirmed-at-farm-in-north-yorkshire-12145877

>A highly contagious and deadly form of avian influenza is spreading rapidly in Europe, putting the poultry industry on alert with previous outbreaks in mind that saw tens of millions of birds culled and significant economic losses.

>The disease, commonly called bird flu, has been found in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden and, for the first time this week in Croatia, Slovenia and Poland, after severely hitting Russia, Kazakhstan and Israel.

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2020/1126/1180657-bird-flu-europe/

Get ready to watch people scrapping in the aisles to get a turkey.

>>29066
>radicalised by Facebook types

Is it the case that social media has made people dumber, or is it the case that social media has just made dumb people feel more emboldened?

When I see the 5G/Vaccine/Lockdown protestors it really makes me feel like we're circling the drain as a species.

>>29072
>When I see the 5G/Vaccine/Lockdown protestors it really makes me feel like we're circling the drain as a species.

We really are slipping into Idiocracy, you can see how it could happen over the course of a handful of decades.

>>29071
Yeah, puts me right off keeping chickens, these lockdowns are getting rather frequent and sustained. Dunno f we'll start seeing 'these free range eggs come from chickens that aren't actually allowed outside' stickers again.
Still, it's not killing people (yet), which is helpful.
(15 million birds in one Kazakh farm - fuck me, that's a lot of chickens...)

>>29072
>social media has just made dumb people feel more emboldened

I think it's this - it has allowed the dumbocracy to become more organised and more radicalised.

It's all well and good wanking each other off about how much more intelligent you are, but how would you really feel if you lost your business, your livelihood, etc. for what is to you, an invisible cause? And not only that, but one that has been handled so illogically and badly that even a child could pick holes in it? Maybe a part of the anger from these people stems from what feels like an indifference to their suffering.

>>29076
>an invisible cause

This is what seppos feel like after every hurricane where the Prez is hundreds or thousands of miles away playing golf.

>>29076
As a member of the downwardly mobile middle class with a passing interest in economic history, that all sounds like another day at the office.

>>29076

My business has taken a huge blow and I'm very angry with the government, but that has little to do with believing the virus doesn't exist or that 5G causes it.

>>29076
I don't think I've ever been so angry that I disbelieved basic science.

>>29080

It's worth remembering, though, that science changes as our understanding changes.

You can easily be embarrassed if you trust the science too vociferously and then new findings prove otherwise. I'm not standing up for the 5G conspiracies or anything here, but I'm saying covid is one of those things our understanding will probably still go on developing a long way after all of this is history, and a lot of what we currently believe and hold up as the truth could turn out to have been bollocks. I mean we still don't know how long antibodies last or if reinfection is possible.

For context, I'm the covid testing lab lad, and I made a right tit of myself back in January/February going around telling people "don't worry, covid will be fine, even if it does make it over here it'll be easy to handle, and even if it isn't the death rate will be tiny, nothing to worry about" because that's what the science bods much more highly qualified than me were saying. Arguably some of that is still true, even, but you'd laugh in my face if I was to stand by it today and say we weren't wrong.

>>29079
It's quite possible to oppose lockdown and not believe in lizard men and the like.