I don't know if COVID is to blame for this mind. Retail shops have been dying for ages; can't remember the last time I bought something in person.
Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!
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I don't know if COVID is to blame for this mind. Retail shops have been dying for ages; can't remember the last time I bought something in person.
tsubaki
Player Valuation: £90m
In terms of the housing market, possibly although I think people assume that the government will prop it up somehow (either directly or by taking mortgages off failing banks).
Debenhams and especially Arcadia though are down to a toxic mix of managerial incompetence or outright theft, plus government actively bending over backwards for the online competition.
I’d hope (vainly) that Starmer or anyone else reminds everyone how important it is that we have an honest services offence brought into being, making it a serious criminal offence for an owner or officer of a company to act against that companies interests. If such an offence existed in the UK it would already have done for Green (over BHS) and would massively clean up the City.
Obviously not to blame but lockdowns and then subsequently over the next few years less and less people working in city centres, commuting etc if working from home, then possible travel restrictions (or even just something basic like having to faff about with a mask or whatever) it'll all add up to people not going in. Then that's before you have the financial impact on people anyway.
It's the final nail in the coffin, or so it seems.
The Bank of England have simultaneously printed loads of cash and reduced interest rates to practically nothing. That's bound to have a big impact on asset prices as borrowing becomes cheaper and the benefit of keeping cash becomes weaker. That's probably the main reason why the stock market has been doing so well.
Barnfred 55
Player Valuation: £80m
So I went through the stem cell collection procedure for my brother yesterday and the good news is that I provided 4 times the number required. The process sounds pretty straightforward but the truth is that the last 10 days have been both physically and emotionally draining, and I take my cap off to the thousands who voluntarily put themselves on the cell stem donor register.
My brother is due to have the transfusion later this month. I'm a 100% match which is apparently unusual in siblings outside of twins, but makes the chances of his body accepting my blood that much better. So fingers crossed.
Over the last 10 days I have spent a lot of time in medical establishments, and I have to say that the medical staff, mainly nurses, that have looked after me have been absolutely brilliant. I have been critical in the past of our NHS as an organisation, but there's no doubt that there is no issue whatsoever with the quality of the people we have in the front line. They've all been fantastic.
My brother is due to have the transfusion later this month. I'm a 100% match which is apparently unusual in siblings outside of twins, but makes the chances of his body accepting my blood that much better. So fingers crossed.
Over the last 10 days I have spent a lot of time in medical establishments, and I have to say that the medical staff, mainly nurses, that have looked after me have been absolutely brilliant. I have been critical in the past of our NHS as an organisation, but there's no doubt that there is no issue whatsoever with the quality of the people we have in the front line. They've all been fantastic.
Barnfred 55
Player Valuation: £80m
Just my take on it and I may be wrong, but I don't think this is an English/Welsh issue, but a political one. Welsh covid policy is driven by Labour, ergo it's good. English covid policy is driven by Tory death scum, ergo it's bad.
Rather than admit that the Labour driven Welsh policy hasn't worked it's easier to blame the Tories policy in England. IMO that's just very convenient but, as you've seen, impossible to prove.
The simple fact is that almost every country is having problems controlling this virus as they try to balance health and the economy, including the likes of Germany which is generally seen as a country that has performed well.
@tsubaki
Is this through the Antony Nolan Trust mate ?
The only reason I ask, is that I`ve been on the register as a volunteer for well over 20 years and so far I`ve never been called.
You`re a star mate.
Debenhams are like John Lewis stores mate.
They don`t sell tat, well laid out, the staff are all professional, properly trained and seem to stay there for a long time - a sign of a well run place.
I detest shopping with a passion, but the Debenhams in Manchester and Southport are shops that I can venture into with my missus without it ending up in a massive row.
Barnfred 55
Player Valuation: £80m
On the contrary mate, you're the one here who is a star. Not me. I've done this to hopefully save the life of my brother. A total no brainer. You've put yourself forward to potentially do this for somebody you'll probably never meet. As I said, I take my cap off to you.
I'm not surprised you haven't been called upon tbh. I believe it works on DNA and the chances of you having a high enough DNA match with people outside of your family are pretty slim.
Where stem cell or bone marrow transfer is needed, they always look to the family first. There are six of us in our family and I was the only one to have a match, the fact it was a perfect match was a total bonus. I had an older brother who died of leukemia 20 years ago and none of his 6 siblings or 2 children were a match for him. If they can't get a match from the family they will try the register, which is apparently world wide and presumably the Antony Nolan Trust is part of this.
Just as there are always poor people, there are always - I won't say rich, but the still got a decent job even if they are working from home.
These are the people who have been buying their house for 5, 10yrs...add in historic low interest rates.
5,6,7,yrs ago the mortgage rate was 4%?, now I've seen 1.99%
OK so your pay has remained static, remortgage or move and you're saving money paying the same amount @1.99% as 4.0%
The Antony Nolan Trust is like a " bank " of donors across the world mate, although there`s a bigger pick up in white communities for some reason.
I`ve never heard of anyone in " real life " having their marrow harvested and I`m really interested in hearing about the procedure and the experience.
IE : Does it hurt !!!!!
I believe they stick things up your bottom. Jiggle about a bit.
tsubaki
Player Valuation: £90m
That’s not it at all. Drakeford put the Welsh lockdown in when scientific advice in Wales *and* England said was the appropriate time to do it.
If Johnson had done it then, we wouldn’t be in lockdown now and the phenomenon described wouldn’t have happened because there wouldn’t have been the need to do it (to go to Wales because shops etc were open there unlike home).
Of course he didn’t do that, with the results we all see from our much longer lockdown that he was panicked into bringing in - and Drakeford didn’t do that much about it either (other than to warn that it might happen). It’s basically been an entirely preventable mess and it must not happen in any subsequent lockdown.
Those wondering about the tactic of abstention should read this.
www.theguardian.com
... which is right on the money.
Labour has to ensure that the Tories fully own the disaster that is Brexit and the mishandling of the coronavirus. Voting for measures alongside the Tories would be like turkeys voting for Christmas, as it makes Labour complicit. At the same time, they can't vote against either because the former has already been done and there's no benefit to be gained, and the latter would mean Labour painted as obstructionist and playing party politics with lives.
Labour are giving the Tories their own rope to hang themselves with. It's the smart thing to do.
Boris Johnson will get a deal: but it will be a betrayal of the Brexiters | Polly Toynbee
This is the moment when he’ll have to accept that no-deal is a disaster – and break all those fairy-dust promises, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee
... which is right on the money.
Labour has to ensure that the Tories fully own the disaster that is Brexit and the mishandling of the coronavirus. Voting for measures alongside the Tories would be like turkeys voting for Christmas, as it makes Labour complicit. At the same time, they can't vote against either because the former has already been done and there's no benefit to be gained, and the latter would mean Labour painted as obstructionist and playing party politics with lives.
Labour are giving the Tories their own rope to hang themselves with. It's the smart thing to do.
Barnfred 55
Player Valuation: £80m
Where to start?
It's the stem cells that the recipient needs, which I think bone marrow produces. Back in the day, this was done by way of a bone marrow transplant, which is a full blown operation that requires a general anaesthetic and an overnight stay in hospital. They take the marrow from the hip bone. However more recently they have developed a method of harvesting the stem cells from the blood which is a bit like giving yourself a blood transfusion I suppose. Simplistically, they take the blood out of one arm, which goes through a machine that separates and removes the stem cells, before putting it back in through the other arm.
Whilst some rare forms of leukemia require an actual bone marrow transplant, it is normally the personal choice of the donor which method is opted, and apparently 95% of the procedures are done via blood transfers. As was mine.
Does it hurt? Depends on your pain threshold and how you are with needles I suppose. You need to have daily injections of a drug that boosts the stem cell production for 5 days prior to the harvest. These are what I would call uncomfortable, and you will get a lot of achiness (similar to growing pains) as your body goes into overdrive producing extra stem cells. There are rarer more serious side effects which luckily I didn't suffer.
As regards the stem cell collection, you're on the machine for about 4 hours when basically you can't even feed yourself or take a piss, and you're probably more at risk from boredom than anything else. Because I had such a high count of stem cells, my bloods only had to be circulated twice through the machine, but others would probably need more, so there are the obvious risks of clotting etc that go with it. Luckily, my collection was pretty straightforward in that regard.
My biggest issue was the nurses decided to have a game of darts with my veins as they tried to find one in each arm big enough to take the extremely large needles required for the collection. So I was subjected to approximately an hour and a half of what I would call "legalised torture" as 3 different nurses tried and failed. My arms look like a chess board today lol. But if you have prominent veins in your arms you probably won't have this issue and the day would have been relatively pain free. And whilst there are always risks when the collection is in process, a nurse is permanently monitoring both you and the machine.
Hope that doesn't put you off. I went through it yesterday and I'm sitting at home now feeing no worse than a bit tired and achy. I know my brother is going to have things a lot harder than me.
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