Bijou Drains
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Tories going in guns blazing (note also, they are branding themselves “Conservative and Unionist” in Scotland).
The Unionist Party was a separate party until 1965, although it was known and recognised as part of the Tory Party, Alec Douglas Home was actually a member of the Unionist Party and was technically the last PM who was neither a member of the Conservative or Labour Party. (useless information is my stock in trade)
Hi L Bird,
Many thanks for your words (genuinely). I agree with you that social engagement (perhaps enhanced with a few jars) would have been an excellent addition to the on line discussion. Hopefully that will come in the not too distant future.
Having spent my politically formative years around, but not joining the Leninist/Trotskyist sects I remember finding the democratic, open, straightforward approach of the SPGB and the comrades I met at that time an absolute revelation. No behind the scenes caucuses, no party within a party, no elitist groups. Hopefully you will find the same atmosphere, plenty of bickering, some falling outs, the occasional row, but all done in an honest, open and principled way!
“Implicit in what you’ve written, is that ‘science’ within a democratic socialist mode of production would based upon very different ‘purse strings’, ‘outcomes’, ‘compatible with socialism’, ‘democratic wishes’, ‘funding’ and ‘reality’, and an end to the ‘dichotomy’ between ‘pure abstract’ and human ‘need’. And indeed, our ‘scientists’ would become ‘servants’, not of a ruling class, but of humanity.”
Wouldn’t disagree with most of that, however not sure about “purse strings” and “funding”, but assume you mean that in terms of allocation of resources, as opposed to money??????
L Bird, you appear to be backing away from your previous view that scientific theory should be voted on, can you clarify your current position on this?
” It’s revealing, too, that you think I’m the only Marxist in the world that argues for democracy.”
I didn’t say that, did I?
To put it more bluntly. You are the only person in the world who I have ever come across who puts forward the idea that we should all vote on “science”, whatever science is. For example I have not come across another living person who thinks that we should vote on whether or not the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, or who thinks that if we voted in the contrary the sun would conveniently fit in with our voting patterns and start rising in the west.
I do believe in democracy, however that does not mean that I agree with all decisions that are made democratically. For instance, if all of the world voted that you were in fact a genius, I for one (I suspect there may be others) would still think you were off your rocker. Interesting, well read, erudite, personable, but still as mad as mince.
(Good to know you’re alive and well L Bird).
I do, however, find it ironic, that in terms of your interpretation of democracy, you appear to be in a world wide minority of one.I think the small number of Covid deaths in some relatively hot countries is much more likely to be as a result of different demographic patterns. If most deaths are in the over 60s and a country doesn’t have many over 60s, then that country will probably not have many Covid deaths.
Paddy, it’s not just “likes” they’re after, it’s cash. David Icke’s estimated net worth is $2million, lots of the anti vaxxers, nut job Qanon misleaders, etc. have a nice little side line in peddling books, videos, subscriptions and other tat.
Wes – whilst it’s correct to say that Big Pharma’s main interest is profit, the situation here is a little more complex. It might also be true that a restaurant owner is only motivated by profit, but that doesn’t mean the chef is not motivated by a desire to provide beautiful food.
In the same way many of the scientists, researchers, etc. working for big pharma will be motivated by a wish to help humanity by controlling this dreadful virus.
Therefore to simply dismiss the results of these workers’ efforts, because of the social system they were produced in is a little like denying the artistic value of Michealangelo’s work because the Pope paid for it.
Another factor in this situation is the fact that this is a pandemic, pan meaning all. The owners of Big Pharma are not immune from this virus, nor are their friends and family. Not only that, a situation has arisen where to an extent the well being of themselves, their friends and their family is dependent to some degree on the welfare of the whole community. If the virus is not controlled on a world wide basis, it will continue to be a threat to them as much as it is to us. No virus control, no luxury ski resorts, no lavish restaurants, etc alongside the ever present risk of mutation. Although the poor have had higher rates of mortality, plenty of rich and famous people have died in this pandemic.
Moving on, whilst I can understand why “some are dubious” about the vaccines, a little research into methodology reveals an awful lot of information. Unfortunately some of the what might be termed the “Vaccine Skeptics” are as averse to studying the boring subject of statistics as the “anti vaxers” are. However a study of research methodology and statistics are very enlightening when it comes to understanding why vaccines have been produced so quickly, whilst also adding to evidence of their safety.
Again the key to understanding this is the fact that there’s a pandemic.
Say for instance we compare the development of the COVID vaccine with the Hepatitis C vaccine.
To prove the safety and efficacy of the Heb C vaccine you would need to recruit many thousands of volunteers and carry out a classic double blind study.
You divide the volunteers into two groups, one group gets the vaccine, one group gets a placebo, no one knows who got what until the end of the trial. At the end of the trial you compare the rate of infection between the two groups, showing the rate of effectiveness of the vaccine. Safety is also measured by comparing illnesses, reactions, etc between the two groups.
The difficulty for the Heb C trial is that it is very difficult and costly to recruit high numbers of volunteers, so they tend to be run with smaller numbers, so safety data is less thorough. Crucially because the prevalence of Heb C is quite low in the community the numbers of infections in the two groups are also very low, so much longer trials (often many years) are needed to increase the likelihood of infection and so provide the volume of data required to show efficacy and safety.
However for the Covid vaccine there was no shortage of volunteers, providing quick and accurate information on safety.
Also and crucially, because of the high level of prevalence of Covid in the community, determining efficacy, with high quality and very plentiful data, is really quite easy, shortening studies by many many years.
Also because of the current urgent situation, researchers are not waiting months and sometimes years to get their data in front of the regulators.
When you add the research already undertaken on SARS and MERS by vaccine researchers, it is easy to see why the Covid vaccines have been produced so quickly, yet can be judged as effective and safe.
The proof of this is flooding in, infection rates in vaccinated subjects in Israel have been very, very low. Globally very high numbers of vaccines have been given, with very high safety data coming back.
To put it into context, 100s of people are dying daily in the UK, due to Covid. Do you seriously believe that “big Pharma” and the government are suppressing big numbers of deaths or illness from the vaccine????
“a plot by Bill Gates to reduce the world’s population.”
He’s a bit of a tinker is that Bill Gates. Apparently he is also sticking a 5G micro chip in all of our arms through the vaccine so he can find out what everybody’s doing.I can imagine he’s thrilled with the progress of the vaccine roll out in the UK, as he will now know that a lot of the over 80’s in the UK watch Countdown in the afternoons and enjoy the occasional Werther’s Original.
I’m sure if I had $115 billion and a superyacht to travel the world in I would be focussing on finding out what time of day the average over 80 year old in the UK had a dump
Finally some good news about coronavirus
