The Times is carrying an article asking whether Rishi Sunak is to blame for the second wave.
Fair question. Does make me wonder if the Tories are heading for Blair/Brown territory.
Well who would have thunk itâŠ
Shapps raised a good point - T&T have contacted 9m people which, assuming a good proportion did isolate / have test would have made a difference
The is issue here is that there is no way of measuring the impact of test / trace on the number of cases. You are trying to measure something that didnât happen
As for value for money - god only knows. ÂŁ37bn is an eye watering amount but then if we hadnât spent anything what would be the death toll - what consistutes a good return on investment
I have no idea
I think the important thing now, with hindsight, is to see how the money was allocated, what links the beneficiaries had to the Tories and why the process in a lot of cases was not transparent/ was there a genuine need to award contracts without competitive tender / why were the awards not all confirmed as per governmentâs own guidelines etc?
ÂŁ37 billion is insane considering the tech involved. Genuinely insane.
Itâd be like someone building a 1300 sq ft house out of standard materials, but charging ÂŁ200m for it.
I guess if more than about 12 of us had actually downloaded the app it might have had more of an effect. Perhaps it should have been compulsory? 
Still plenty of people who donât use a smartphone so youâre always going to have gaps in this system
I donât think itâs just the app, I think itâs the phone based system as well, the one where they ask for all your contacts and then they have to be phoned as wellâŠ
To put this into perspective, 37bn represents approximately one third of the total NHS budget. Something to ponder on when nurses are awarded a real terms pay cut. Despite Johnsonâs bare faced lie in parliament a week ago that all contracts had now been published, there are still more than 100 that havenât. Yesterday a health minister was asked repeatedly about this by the opposition health spokesman but just ignored the questions every time and reverted to the usual trick of answering a question that hadnât been asked, ie, boasting about the vaccine rollout. Itâs obvious that the government have no intention of putting these contracts in the public domain, as they are legally required to do. Too much to hide regarding who got these billion pound contracts and their relationships with the Conservative Party, especially ministers. A few weeks ago it was disclosed that 20 million pounds worth of PPE is completely unaccounted for, canât be traced, paid for but in reality it doesnât exist. I bet the 20 million still exists though, that will be stashed away in various bank accounts, offshore somewhere probably. This is no less than theft of public money, staggering corruption in plain sight, but nothing is done about it, with government cheerleaders falling over themselves to try to excuse and justify it, giving the known serial liar the benefit of the doubt, even though he is clearly nothing less than contemptuous of them. Baffling! They know who they are.
Today at PMQs Johnson stood up and told another bare faced lie when he said the Labour Party opposed an NHS pay rise. At the end of the session a point of order was raised by Labour, asking for the PM to be recalled to the chamber and apologize for âmisleadingâ the House. The Speakerâs response was to say that Ashworth had made his point and that the matter is now dealt with. This is the third time in the last few weeks that Johnson has got to his feet and lied to parliament, yet there is no holding him to account, he can clearly do this with complete impunity. Lindsay Hoyle is utterly craven and useless, you may as well have a garden gnome in the Speakerâs chair. He has clearly noted what happened to Bercow, and he wants his peerage when he retires.
Just now the PMâs new press secretary refused 19 times to accept Johnson mislead parliament this afternoon when he wrongly said(lied) that Labour had voted against the last NHS pay rise. When pushed as to whether the PM was perceived to have a problem with honesty, her breathtaking reply to this was," his various election wins demonstrate the widespread admiration and affection the UK public feel for the prime ministerâ. Which sadly, is probably true for many of them. What an indictment of their self interest and lack of moral compass though.
Itâs worth remembering that moment during the 2019 general election live TV debate when Johnson was asked,âDoes the truth matter in this election?â, and he responded, âI think it doesâ. The audience spontaneously burst into derisive laughter. That alone would be enough to finish most Prime Ministerial campaigns.But not this one, he was rewarded for his openly contemptuous dishonesty with an 80 seat majority. What a stark illustration of just how far this country has fallen.
Oh fook.
Holidays? May not be anyone to serve you anywhere.
Poland today, 17000+ new cases.
Shit shit shit
affection?
Bertie at RB Stephenâs DM
Thatâs the problem with Track and Trace.
37 billion is enough to buy every single human being in the country a smart phone.
Well, people / governments keep ignoring the stupidity of population and are too scared to actually properly enforce a lockdown. Capitalist lives matter 
Could I have a new lens for my camera?
Interesting insight why test and trace was never going to work
modelled on the South Korean test and trace system, which has been credited with keeping infection numbers low there, our system tries to do the same job without access to the data which fuels the Korean system: GPS phone tracking, surveillance cameras and credit card transactions.
Wow
â But Border Force said many passengers were arriving without having bought mandatory Covid testing packages.
The enforcement body added that people should only be travelling for limited reasonsâŠ
⊠"Unfortunately, a large number of passengers are continuing to arrive without having purchased their mandatory testing packages for the second and eighth days of quarantine in the UK.
âThis causes delays as passengers may receive a fine or be subject to other enforcement action.â
Mr Jariwalla said all arriving passengers had to purchase the testing package before leaving the airport.
âWe make absolutely no apologies for this,â he added. "Every essential check stops the spread of coronavirus in the UK.
"These people should not have been allowed to travel without their testing packages and we are following up with regulators and carriers to ensure the law is enforcedâŠâ
Some people may have real justification for traveling, I suspect most donât & why do they complain if they wonât follow the ârulesâ?