Emily Maitless saying it like it is

So having established it's not new, how do you feel about that?

Phew baggs in glad you added that last post

I’m!

So having established it's not new, how do you feel about that?

How I feel about it is what I said about the importance of reducing poverty.

Me to - because for a moment there Baggs it sounded as if you were effectively saying that an increased risk of contracting and dying of covid was just one of the things the poor need to accept as their lot in life.

Too

One can accept a fact that simply is a fact without thinking it's a 'nice' fact or doesn't need to have something done about it.

And the particular fact in question I thought everyone knew already. It has been pointed out often enough in all sorts of ways.

But without a valuation a fact is meaningless.

I am 5 foot tall, fact. I live in a house, fact.

More poor people die of Covid than their wealthy counterparts, fact and outrage.

greymar are you really 5ft tall?

I hope you don't vote tory, Baggs. That would be a most hypocritical statement...

I sdon't fond WWM's question. You seem... bigger.

The one about the importance of working to reduce poverty, I mean. The thread's moved a bit fast...

I suppose it too early to generalise

I think so too.

More men than women have died.
I heard that more people with a certain blood type have died.
People who took ibuprofen have reputedly had less of a chance of overcoming this virus.

We just don't know yet. We hear on the news about people who have died and it is dreadful to hear the stories of their families, but we only hear a few.

Several people who have had cancer or have lost loved ones have said they dislike the term " fighting" in this context.
-ditto-

As calli says, there are all sorts of things about this pandemic that nobody understands properly yet. Hopefully, at least it will make governments make a bit more in the way of preparation for such events in future, as South Korea and Singapore did after SARS.

Over the last few decades absolute poverty has decreased all over the world and concomitantly life expectancies, a basic indicator of improvement in the average health of a population, have increased. I think COVID might cause a blip in this trend.

I should have said the economic consequences of covid might cause a blip.

Urmstongran Strictly speaking, Emily Maitlis is not a news presenter. The 10 o'clock news on BBC 1 and ITV have newsreaders who read the news headlines and introduce footage relating to those headlines (although Tom Bradby on ITV is a new brand of newsreader who does sometimes throw in a comment or two).

Newnight is not the news headlines. It looks in more depth at specific issues. A large part of Maitlis's role is to carry out rigorous interviews relating to the topics headlined, and to press interviewees on issues and information that have come to light and which are relevant to those topics.

The BBC is now almost wholly dependent on this Conservative government for its existence and many members of the Conservative Party have expressed the view that the BBC is no longer needed in its present form. So it is highly unlikely that it is going out of its way to rile the party in power. As you say yourself, John Humphreys was expressing an opinion, and that opinion is not shared by everybody. One wonders how he could bear to work for the BBC for so long if he found the organisation to be so unprofessional and its reporting so unreliable because of its alleged left wing bias.

Recently, there have been complaints about the rude and combative comments made on some Gransnet threads. I think the tone of your posts here is deliberately provocative and I hope it is noted that right wingers too can make disparaging and sarcastic remarks that are based on their own opinions, and which characterise anyone who raises issues relating to social deprivation as being hypocritical and insincere.

Everyone makes remarks based on their own opinions!
Fact.

One wonders how he could bear to work for the BBC for so long if he found the organisation to be so unprofessional and its reporting so unreliable because of its alleged left wing bias.

Erm ... money? JH was paid a helluva lot.

Urmstongran. Um, What is a leftie luvvie? I take it from the tone Of your posts it is a terrible thing to be, but I’d love a full definition. Is everybody who does not vote Tory a leftie luvvie? Are leftie luvvies not allowed on —torynet—. Gransnet?

Baggs Absolute poverty might have decreased globally, but inequality in some countries, including the UK, has increased.

There is a significant difference between the number of male and female deaths. However, I believe those figures are based on statistics from China (and maybe Italy). The hypothesis is that men in China tend to have unhealthier lifestyles eg. smoking. Very few Chinese females smoke. AFAIK the UK has not published statistics differentiated by gender.

The issue in the UK is that most key workers are poorly paid and in insecure jobs. It's impossible to be a care worker, supermarket worker, warehouse packer, etc. from home, whereas most white collar and senior jobs can be done in front of a computer at home.

Moreover, many people in low income/insecure jobs carried on working for longer than was wise because they were more worried about loss of income. They are also more likely to use informal childcare arrangements (eg. grandparents).

What's a luvvie anyway?