68 thoughts on “Easter Monday’s Papers

    1. :-Joe

      Haha ye.. Turns out his lizard dna was able to kick in and cure itself..
      Coincidentally he felt healthy right after Comrade Cummings gave him a bollocking for not following the plan and looking adult/pm enough. Back on track now tho, whatever it is thar he does?…

      Funny to see how obvious the tory backing / beneficiary media outlets have responded in unison as usual…
      ” Ok everybody listen up, were going with… In 48 hrs It could have gone either way… You all got that?.. Good.”

      :-J

      1. Formerly known as @ireland.com

        It is disgusting that the Tory rags ignore the plight of the people but are making a hero out of the real villain, Bozo Johnson. The British government couldn’t organise a chook raffle. There should be more anger. As for the Queen making another statement, because Bozo stole the publicity from the first one, how pathetic.

        1. Clampers Outside

          How have they ignored the plight of the people when it has been in the papers everyday?

          A curious and odd claim, in fairness.

    2. GiggidyGoo

      But being kept away from any questioning for a month. The fellow more than likely has been a super spreader. Boasting about shaking hands all over the place. All praise for the NHS. Words don’t put food in bellies. And the Tory rags doing their utmost to present him as some type of saviour. At least their sales of hard copy will have taken a dive.

    3. Some old queen

      The UK’s prime minister is faking an illness? Now that really is a conspiracy theory.

      1. Daisy Chainsaw

        It was “touch and go for 48 hours” yet he wasn’t on a ventilator or an induced coma for days like others who pulled through when it was touch and go for them.
        https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/coronavirus-patient-who-spent-six-18053080
        https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/coronavirus/2020/04/he-was-on-a-ventilator-for-covid-19-see-hospital-staff-celebrate-his-return-home-video.html

        I wonder which particular 48 hour period in the official narrative was “touch and go”?
        https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/timeline-boris-johnson-and-coronavirus

        I’m not one of the mad Gemtrails conspiracy types. This is a publicity stunt and it stinks to high heaven.

        1. Some old queen

          Firstly- the up and coming medical thinking is not to ventilate unless absolutely necessary because it can damage the lungs of CoVid-19 patients. In some cases, it may even kill them.

          Secondly, it was stated that he was only in ICU as a precautionary measure which I read as meaning he would not have been there if he was anyone else. I wouldn’t be paying too much attention to the touch and go spin btw.

          And finally, he is not like you or I being released. For security reasons he would be out as soon as possible AND I would be very surprised if he did not have 24/7 private nursing care with a dedicated doctor on call now.

          Above all, there is no hard and fast rules as to how ill an individual can or will get. There may be an average recuperation time but it is just that- he is only in his mid fifties after all.

  1. Matt Pilates

    RIP Tim Brooke-Taylor. Up to the end he was sharp and funny with it too. Loved him on I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. Legend with a legacy. Sad.

      1. Tommy Bohan

        @Jessicamcdonagh If you think the Examiner is running English stories take a look at Daily Mail.
        Most of their front page is British written!

        1. Pól

          The Irish Daily Mail (and I use the word “Irish” very loosely) is clearly a money making operation by the Daily Mail head honchos in London. They charge €1.80 (even more on a Saturday) for a paper that is approximately 80% a copy of the UK version. Their sales have fallen very sharply the last 2-3 years as Irish people slowly cop on to what is happening.

      2. Andrew

        Because Jessica, it’s what people in Ireland do, encouraged by hacks and politicians.
        ‘look at us. we’re doing better than the brits!’
        It’s a diversion and lets our politicians off the hook. The media in this country have been nothing more than cheerleaders throughout this crisis (like they were during the proper bubble) and the public for the most part have lapped it up.
        It’s also just plain anti-British, particularly anti- conservative party sentiment, that’s as old as the hills.

        1. Formerly known as @ireland.com

          The only thing making Ireland’s response look good is how bad the British response to the virus has been. Ireland has a similar death rate to the USA. Ireland is going in the same direction as the UK, just going to get there slower. I wish Irish people would look to the successful European countries and Australia/NZ, to try to emulate their actions. I recommend forcing all arrivals to the island into supervised quarantine for two weeks. I don’t agree that it is plain anti-British sentiment. The British Government happens to be Tories and they have made a mess that will have a direct impact on how Ireland fares. You will see similar comments about Trump and the USA response but most Irish people are not anti-American.

    1. Clampers Outside

      BoJo bad man.

      The desire, it would appear, among some, for bad man BoJo to have faked his trip to ICU is palpable.
      Eye roll inducing.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      Think it was one comment about BoJo that was replied to – basically a thread was started about that comment. As well, not all of the papers front pages appear here at the same time, so there was a glut of UK papers earlier on, and they were all Boris, Boris, Boris.
      Now that there is a selection of Irish papers front pages up, work away and start the ball rolling.

  2. Some old queen

    Given that Sweeten never went into lock-down- should their infection rates not now be soaring?

    I know they were later starting but they are only the 30th in the list of Total Cases / per 1 M Population.

      1. Formerly known as @ireland.com

        I wonder if they are massaging their figures, so that they are shown to have been successful.

          1. Some old queen

            Total Cases = those who live AND those who die surely?

            If the amount recorded who die is smaller because it is ‘from’ rather then ‘with’, then that has no bearing on the overall number who tested positive in the first place.

            Unless they discard those who die in which case it is Total LIVE Cases- unlikely. .

          2. Cian

            TOTAL CASES is based on total testing. The less you test the fewer cases you’ll see.
            Sweden have only tested 54,700 (compared to our 72,000).
            Their tests per million are about 1/3 of ours.

    1. Donnchadh

      It might depend on how many tests they are doing, and I’ve seen it suggested (though I haven’t seen actual numbers) that their testing rates are low.

      On deaths per million, they are not doing so well, and their Nordic neughbours are doing substantially better. The last couple of daily death tolls were very encouraging, but there is a caveat there – there has been a lag in reporting deaths, similar to the UK, so the daily totals might not be giving an accurate picture (https://www.thelocal.se/20200405/swedish-corona-death-rates-may-be-twice-as-high-as-previously-thought ).

      So not an apocalyptic scenario by any means, but too early to say that it’s been a success, imo.

      1. Some old queen

        The only real way you can measure this thing is in hindsight but as of today- 13.04.2020- IMO demanding people stay in their homes suggests radioactivity rather then virology.

        Time will tell.

        1. Cian

          Are you for real?

          You were the loudest voice calling for lockdown.

          Now you’re the loudest saying it should be removed?

          Jeez. Have some consistency.

          1. some old queen

            I was calling for a closure of schools and businesses- not house arrest which has yet to be proved to be of any use- anywhere.

            ‘Stay indoors’ may yet have another reason- time will tell.

          2. Newname

            I’d say house arrest has saved tons of lives, though I’d prefer be out and about, too many can’t seem to follow the distancing guidelines (can’t judge, don’t know peoples situations re spatial awareness or risk comprehension). If you look at where the graph started to flatten in Italy I will happily blow a trumpet for restricted movement.

  3. GiggidyGoo

    I see Sleeveen Brian Hayes doing his usual ‘poor banks’ ritual. Yep, the former Junior Finance Minister who was lambasting the banks while in office, now is at the helm of the banking federation saying the complete opposite. Memories of the Rabbitesque ‘Shure isn’t that what one does….’ A despicable fellow.

      1. Paulus

        I hope Hayes and Tom Parlon had their little black contacts books confiscated when they left the Dail.

    1. Brother Barnabas

      “lambasting the banks while in office”

      did he? as far as i can recall, hayes has always been FG to the core – and all that entailed

      1. GiggidyGoo

        In a speech to BPFI’s 2014 conference, Hayes said Irish mortgage customers were being “fleeced” by our banks, a drum he banged for most of his time in Strasbourg. The following year he called for the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to investigate mortgage rates in Ireland, and separately said a “special bank levy” should be introduced to provide additional relief through the tax system for variable rate mortgage holders.

        But sure you’re correct – FGer speaks with forked tongue. Nothing new there.

  4. f_lawless

    Can anyone direct me to an article by an Irish journalist in an Irish media publication that has questioned the merits of the locdown or the merits of proceeding with it? I’ve yet to come across one. It’s disturbing that there seems to have been a lack of journalists out there willing or able to take a skeptical view of the government’s measures. Are they all scared of being tarred with a G. O’Doherty brush? And watching RTE news these days I can’t help feeling that it’s underlying intention is to try to mold public opinion and instill fear lest anyone start getting complacent, rather than provide any informative, balanced reporting (I know it never really did but it seems to now overtly be just a government mouthpiece).

    I’ve read various articles in UK media, from the Guardian to the Telegraph, questioning whether the UK lockdown is worth the negative consequences or indeed if there’s proof that it’s an effective measure at all.

    Most recent from the Telegraph (behind a firewall unfortunately)
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/11/time-start-loosening-lockdown/

    “Consider this. The closures are costing Britain £2.4 billion a day – enough to build six state-of-the-art mega hospitals. The savings made by all the spending cuts between 2010 and 2019 came to around £30 billion – a reduction that Labour, at the time, claimed was killing thousands of people….

    ..The Swedish authorities, who have kept their shops and schools open, point out that it is the rest of Europe, rather than they, who are conducting an experiment: mass quarantine has never been tried before. Indeed, according to the UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy, drafted in more cool-headed times: “It will not be possible to halt the spread of a new pandemic influenza virus, and it would be a waste of public health resources and capacity to attempt to do so”.”

    1. scottser

      I’ve taken to turning off the radio these days, as I just can’t stand the relentless fearmomgering and scapegoating. And poor Brendan O’Connor is turning into Joe Duffy these days. What a waste.

    2. Some old queen

      Agreed- I sometimes wonder if the person mentioned above is actually a false flag. Guilt by association etc. Maybe she is genuine and if so- for a start, needs to stop trying to force her personal religious beliefs onto others.

      Take the issue of 5G and EMF for example. Something I have had an interest in since the mid eighties when the British Army were using all sorts up north. France and Israel have for the most part both banned WiFi out of schools and France also mobiles for under sixteens? Not one word in the Irish MSM.

    3. Brother Barnabas

      there’s a good overview of the UK Department of Health’s Influenza pandemic preparedness strategy in this article from the Guardian (as well as a link to the actual document):]

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2020/feb/27/what-are-the-uks-plans-for-dealing-with-a-pandemic-virus

      I suppose it’s relevant that coronavirus death rate appears to be a lot higher than influenza (although it’s hard to know the actual rate because different state’s appear to be counting different things – and differing in whether they attribute a particular death to covid-19 or not). We won’t really know how severe it was until we have 12 months of data that we can compare to previous 12 month spans.

      maybe the recent finding that more than half of all deaths are happening in care homes [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/13/half-of-coronavirus-deaths-happen-in-care-homes-data-from-eu-suggests] suggests a different strategy could have been just as effective ?

    4. Donnchadh

      I haven’t read any article like that in the Irish press, and even though I’m broadly in favour of the government’s actions, it would be good to hear some dissenting voices (other than the odd person online).

      That said, some of the heterodox views I’ve read from other countries have been pretty weak. Take the excerpts from Hannan’s piece above. First, the reference to the flu strategy is at best tangentially relevant, since this virus differs from influenza in important respects (principally how quickly it spreads). Second, the oh-so-clever references to the spending cuts that Labour said killed thousands. The question is, did they? If they didn’t, the claim that they did is irrelevant. If they did, then it is very relevant indeed – but in that case, basic intellectual integrity would surely require Dan to clarify whether or not he opposed these lethal cuts at the time.

      1. f_lawless

        I recently read an Interesting German article regarding how quickly the virus is spreading over there (you’d have to copy and paste into Google Translate). It’s quite possible that the initial statistics aren’t so reliable after all.

        https://multipolar-magazin.de/artikel/coronavirus-regierung-ignoriert-daten

        “On April 2, scientists from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) published – for the first time – and largely unnoticed by the press – more detailed figures on the spread of the corona virus…Official figures from the laboratories show that the virus spreads much more slowly than claimed….The increase in the number of cases cannot be viewed in isolation, but must be compared to the increase in the tests.

        …The claim spread by the government and many media that the virus spreads dangerously quickly (Angela Merkel on April 3: ‘The corona virus is still spreading at high speed in Germany’) is false or grossly misleading.”

  5. GiggidyGoo

    And what may have escaped you yesterday – in commemoration of the Easter Rising, Varadkar hoists the UN flag on the GPO. Still peddling his notions of membership of it, and yet again FG scores an own goal almost similar to the RIC one a couple of months ago.
    Easter and the GPO are synonymous with this country becoming a republic and the 26 counties becoming free of British rule. Varadkar trying to dilute history again, sneakily.
    https://mobile.twitter.com/LeoVaradkar/status/1249278839466983424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1249278839466983424&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2F2%2Ftwitter.min.html%231249278839466983424

  6. Ringsend Incinerator

    RIP to all and condolences.

    But ….”Underlying conditions” – what does this mean? – Causation? (People died because of the underlying conditions). Or association?

    And what underlying conditions? – obesity, lung cancer, liver failure – ?

    1. jamesjoist

      That’s interesting, maybe when the smoke clears we can distinguish between those who died from the virus and those who died because of the virus. Lip smacking treat for grammarians and philosophers.

    2. Donnchadh

      This article is from a few weeks ago so may be out of date, but I thought it was pretty good: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/indepth/features/doctor-note-coronavirus-underlying-health-conditions-200317075009221.html

      I think the with/of difference is being overplayed. I suspect that in a lot of cases, maybe most, the patient will have a number of conditions which mean they are more vulnerable, and the virus pushes them over the edge or weakens them sufficiently for one of the other conditions to do so. It won’t be a straightforward either-or. This is my understanding of how many elderly people die more generally. From a terrific book by Atul Gawande, Being Mortal:

      “There is always some final proximate cause that gets written down on the death certificate … But in truth no single disease leads to the end; the culprit is just the accumulated crumbling of one’s bodily systems”

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