In the news

True, this is also known as solhipsism.

Which is better not to be confused with syphilism.

I don't know how they find the time, I'm too busy pottering about working :P

Yeah, I don't know, either, much prefer playing golf all day.

Can any of the Dutch people on here shed light onto why the anti lockdown demonstrations in the Netherlands seem to be biggest and most intense at the moment?

@JWestland

I've lived abroad for quite a while so I'm reluctant to speculate too much, but here's two paragraphs from https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/11/21/kritische-grens-is-in-zicht-de-politie-vreest-nog-veel-meer-rellen-a4066310 (translated with DeepL) which you might find interesting:

The pattern of violence was the same as for the curfew riots in February. First evening: too few officers on the scene because the police had not anticipated the huge turnout: Violence. Second evening: copycat behavior in other cities and towns: Less violence, because the police were now up to strength.

Why did things go wrong again this weekend? Judging from social media reports, there were at least three issues at play in Rotterdam, says security expert Marnix Eysink Smeets of InHolland University of Applied Sciences. "There was anger about possible 2G policies. Soccer supporters have not been allowed to go to matches since a week. And on Friday a general fireworks ban was also announced for New Year's Eve. That's sensitive in the neighborhoods where the people come from who are stirring things up."

"2G policies" here refers to policies restricting access to buildings/events/etc. to those who have either been vaccinated ("gevaccineerd") or have recently recovered ("genezen") from COVID-19 (and are therefore expected to be reasonably immune).

These (proposed) measures are in response to the recent sharp increase in infections, see the attached screenshot (source: https://coronadashboard.government.nl/landelijk/positief-geteste-mensen).

This is also rapidly filling up IC beds. Thankfully there's still room, but it has started eating into crucial buffer capacity already, see second attachment (source: https://twitter.com/YorickB/status/1462428679628279808).

In summary: Things are bad and on track to get much worse. People are unhappy about it and letting it be known. Violently. :(.

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Looks like the future's still all about the car then:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/21/all-new-buildings-in-england-to-have-electric-car-charge-points-from-2022

SUV used to kill 5 people at parade in USA

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59369492

What gjo42 said, but also bear in mind football hooligans got involved, and in some parts of some towns there are now big riots during new year's eve.

So I think it is also part due to people that just want any excuse to riot, not just people that are concerned about the new Covid rules.

I can ask my parents but they don't live in this cities.

It is worrying cases are rising so sharply, now NL is very densely populated everywhere which doesn't help.

At the same time, the UK has a lower vaccination rate and also lots of people that behave like Covid is gone, so is this going to come to us here? Or is the "mwah herd immunity" approach earlier in the UK that resulted in a huge death rate now keeping cases lower?

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Yep, everyone can now pretend that driving is not bad for the environment and ignore all the other negative impacts it has.

At the same time, the UK has a lower vaccination rate and also lots of people that behave like Covid is gone, so is this going to come to us here? Or is the "mwah herd immunity" approach earlier in the UK that resulted in a huge death rate now keeping cases lower?

I heard a piece on the radio saying that the UK was in a better place than most of Europe as it is the Delta variant that is really growing in Europe whereas in the UK the Delta variant had already taken over a while ago.

Lol. Better place = loads are already dead because we gave zero fucks, so we are now immune.

Yep, I heard that too.

But the infection rate here has been persistently higher for months and is now going up again.

A big peak from a low base looks spectacular, but it all depends on what happens next, if NL can get theirs under control while ours keeps rising, then it's trouble ahead.

But not Boris... yet

Lol. Better place = loads are already dead because we gave zero fucks, so we are now immune.

I'm fairly sure the UK has fewer excess deaths than a number of other European countries, including Italy and Spain. (https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-excess-deaths-per-million-covid?tab=chart&country=FRA~GBR~ITA~ESP~NLD~BEL~DEU~BGR~AUT~CZE~POL)

Everything I've read from actual experts reports that, hopefully, the UK will be in a relatively "better place" because the virus (and specifically delta) has been circulating amongst a population with fairly high vaccine numbers for a longer time resulting in higher levels of immunity in the population with fewer hospitalisations and deaths. This is what everyone wants to happen, right? Even NZ has given up on elimination.

This isn't to say that that the Tories should be taken as an example of how to manage a pandemic. Far, far, from it.

Is there any talk in NL about possible foreign influence or support for these violent events?

Related:
https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2021/11/20/russia-preparing-to-attack-ukraine-by-late-january-ukraine-defense-intelligence-agency-chief/

I assume the driver will just claim self defence!

I haven't heard of anything suggesting this yet. I think it's more likely that some people are using this as a convenient excuse to riot, like @JWestland said.

I've asked around though, if I hear anything interesting I'll report back.

Edit: Consensus so far seems to be that it's very unlikely. Maybe we're all naive?

Involuntary manslaughter, cleared by jury for Christmas parades in November.

Oh God. Seems to be as a result of the driver trying to get away from something else, possibly in a police chase, although that's not said in the article:

The suspect appeared to have been fleeing another scene when he ran into people at the parade, the law enforcement official - who is familiar with the early findings of the investigation - told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

In addition, the police apparently opened fire on the car ...

I haven't looked up the stats for a few weeks, but the last I saw was that the UK had about twice as many deaths relative to population as Germany (which would have had far fewer if they hadn't made the very bad decision to 'open up' in summer 2020, which prepared a terrible winter wave), and that the UK's vaccination rates are no longer particularly special in Europe at about 2/3rds of adults.

Obviously, elimination's not an option (and hasn't been since about January 2020), and would have caused only a delay, although that would still have been useful in the vaccine race.

I haven't looked up the stats for a few weeks, but the last I saw was that the UK had about twice as many deaths relative to population as Germany (which would have had far fewer if they hadn't made the very bad decision to 'open up' in summer 2020, which prepared a terrible winter wave), and that the UK's vaccination rates are no longer particularly special in Europe at about 2/3rds of adults.

Come on, Oliver. You know that I didn't say that the UK had fewer deaths than Germany, nor that the UK vaccination rate was particularly special.

one for #NotAllSUV folks