This is one of the effects of not having out in the open independent econ-epidemiological models to do policy experiments.
In such a framework, the £ spent on supporting self isolation can be compared to the £ returned in a combination of looser restrictions / less £ on furlough and healthcare.
As @willbott4 reminds us, the govt say they were worried about people gaming the system. You could work out what amount of gaming could happen while still leaving the policy a good one in £ terms. I bet it would be a lot.
This is the policy wonk equivalent of 15 months into a war writing a memo internally assessing that wearing helmets and body armour stop bullets going into a body.
Next: internal assessment reveals that giving money to people to go to restaurants where you can catch covid caused people to go to restaurants and catch covid.
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The madness has many concrete sources. The invisibility and forgettability of the difficulties of doing business pre the single market / difficulties in understanding large numbers / lack of comprehension of the counter factual / ..
/ the unsexiness of the status quo next to the grand critique / the fragmentation of the left / the concentration of Remain votes in large urban constituencies /
I confess I tripped over the phrase 'Andrew Neil - who really should still be on the BBC -...'
But back to the main point of this thread.
'we, producers of the website with the most junk code, browser incompatability, spamming videos, and unreadable layout, a mantle we have held for years, will make some comments about the sound quality on a TV program launch...'
There seems to be some mistake. This is actually me writing a parody of a column by Dan Hodges, but the Daily Mail have scrubbed my credit at the last minute and published it as a column by Dan Hodges. dailymail.co.uk/debate/article…
I was particularly proud of this paragraph, where, not once, but four times, I turn the tables on the 'ingore the bit before the but' and in fact telegraph that you should only read the bit before the but.
It's a shame that the subs decided to delete "barely audible over the Cornish surf were the ghosts of Cameron clan summer holidays from the time of Remania"
I was going to write a recap thread on the impossible trinity of no border between RoI/NI, no border between NI/GB and leaving the single market, but I just got fresh chilli in my eye so you are spared.
Right. So probably the fundamental cause of the problem is that trade is mostly good; trade is easier with those close by. And nations have commitment problems.
This leads - following a very bumpy road - to the set up of the WTO and its legal structures. Facilitating nations, often close by each other, signing FTAs, and providing some kind of rule based structure to enforce them.
Do you think we may have hit on an entirely new social science methods literature exploring non verbal transcribed outburst responses to propositions? @patricksturg@robfordmancs@chrishanretty ?
1. trying to evade accountability for the policy of sending patients out of hospitals into care homes without testing.
2. trying to defend not adequately funding catch up programs for schoolchildren affected by school closures during the lockdoens.
3. attempting to unpick the Northern Ireland protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement, and argue that the thing it designed and negotatied and presented as a triumph was a thing imposed on it and having effects it was briefed on but now claims were unforeseen.