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[chenks]

It’s a great idea to take somebody along with you if you are confirming your own fitness to drive.

nonsense.
if you have even the slightest thought that you aren't fit to drive then you don't drive at all, not even 1 inch.
having the thought that you aren't fit to drive means you aren't fit to drive.

you don't go out and test the fact.

If checking eyesight, you can ask your passenger(s) to read the road signs as early as they can at the longest distance, and compare that with your own abilities.  I do that quite regularly in fact, it can be interesting as it lets you know your own real-world strengths and weaknesses in different lighting, even if an optician has recently assured you that your eyesight is 20/20 or better.

you can, and should, do that without getting into a car.

[tubaman]

Certainly agree that if you have any doubts about your eyesight then testing it by driving is a bad idea.
I don't know about now, but the first part of my driving test was to read a car number plate from the requisite 20 meters in the car park of the test centre. If I had failed that then the test would have been over without me even getting into my car.
 

[sevenlayermuddle]

If you have doubts then, of course, don’t drive.

But if you feel fine to drive, and want to confirm your are indeed fine to drive, it’s a good idea to put it to the test by trying it out.   After recovering from any serious medical problem, it would take a lot more than a spin around the block to convince me I was fit to drive from Durham to London.

And stress again, the 20 metre number plate test does not prove you are fit to drive.  Failing it proves you are not fit, but passing it merely suggests you might be fit.    Try it, it can be passed with vision that many people would regard as totally unacceptable for driving.

It’s been suggested he stopped during the test drive and went walking.  I’d have done the same thing and again, an assistant can help for comparisons’ sakes.  E.g. Who can count most clearly the lines on that electricity pylon on that hilltop?    Does that gate at the far end of the field have a padlock?

[jelv]

This tweet thread from @Russincheshire sums it up pretty well:

Too good to miss. It clears up everything. Enjoy. The week in Tory (Cummings special):

1. Dominic Cummings, one of the few men to have ever been found in contempt of Parliament, moved onto contempt for everything.

2. When the story broke, and he was accused of doing things that look bad, he said he didn't care how things looked.

3. Then ministers said press outrage meant nothing, only the opinion of the people mattered.

4. Then polls showed 52% of people wanted Cummings to resign.

5. So Cummings decided to show the public some respect, by turning up 30 minutes late to make his explanation.

6. He began by saying he wasn't speaking for the govt, which must be why he was in the Rose Garden of 10 Downing Street.

7. Then the self-styled "enemy of the Islington media elite" said his wife, who works in the media, had been ill in their house in Islington.

8. But she was only a bit ill, so he popped home, got himself nice and infected, then went back to Downing Street for meetings with lots of vitally important people in the middle of a national crisis.

9. But then he got ill too, so then it was suddenly important.

10. Sadly he couldn't get childcare in London, even though 3 immediate relatives live within 3 miles of his London home.

11. So because he was carrying a virus that can cross a 2 metre distance and kill, he immediately locked himself in a car with his wife and child for 5 hours.

12. He then drove 264 miles without stopping in a Land Rover that gets maybe 25 MPG.

13. Then the scourge of the metropolitan elites made himself extra-relatable by describing his family's sprawling country estate, multiple houses and idyllic woodlands.

14. He explained that he'd warned about a coronavirus years ago in his blog.

15. Then it was revealed he actually secretly amended old blogs after he'd returned from Durham.

16. And anyway, if he'd warned years ago, why was he so massively unprepared and slow to react?

17. Then he said he was too ill to move for a week.

18. But in the middle of that week, presumably with "wonky eyes", he drove his child to hospital.

19. Then he said that to test his "wonky eyes" he put his wife and child in a car and drove 30 miles on public roads.

20. Then it was revealed his wife drives, so there was no reason for the "eye test", cos she could have driven them back to London.

21. Then it was revealed the "eye test" trip to a local tourist spot took place on his wife's birthday.

22. Then cameras filmed as he threw a cup onto the table, smirked and left.

23. And then it emerged his wife had written an article during the time in Durham, describing their experience of being in lockdown in London, which you'd definitely do if you weren't hiding anything.

24. A govt scientific advisor said "more people will die" as a result of what Cummings had done.

25. Boris Johnson said he "wouldn't mark Cummings " down for what he'd done.

26. The Attorney General said it was ok to break the law if you were acting on instinct.

27. The Health Minister said it was OK to endanger public health if you meant well.

28. Johnson said Cummings' "story rings true" because his own eyesight was fine before coronavirus, but now he needs glasses.

29. But in an interview with The Telegraph 5 years ago, Johnson said he needed glasses cos he was "blind as a bat"

30. Michael Gove went on TV and said it was "wise" to drive 30 miles on public roads with your family in the car to test your eyesight.

31. The DVLA tweeted that you should never, ever do this.

32. Then ministers started claiming Cummings had to go to Durham because he feared crowds attacking his home. The streets were empty because we were observing the lockdown.

33. And then a minister finally resigned.

34. Steve Baker, Richard Littlejohn, Isabel Oakeshott, Tim Montgomerie, Jan Moir, Ian Dale, Julia Hartley Brewer, 30 Tory MPs, half a dozen bishops and the actual Daily Mail said Cummings should go.

35. The govt suggested we can ignore them, because they're all left-wingers.

36. Then a vicar asked Matt Hancock if other people who had been fined for doing exactly what Cummings did would get their fine dropped. Matt Hancock said he'd suggest it to the govt.

37. The govt said no within an hour. Cummings' statement had lasted longer than that.

38. And if the guidelines were so clear, why were people being stopped and fined for driving to find childcare in the first place?

39. Then a new poll found people who wanted Cummings sacked had risen from 52% to 57%.

40. Cummings is considered the smartest man in the govt

41. And in the middle of all this, in case we take our eye off it: we reached 60,000 deaths. One of the highest per capita death rates worldwide.

42. We still face Brexit under this lot.

43. It's 4 years until an election.

44. And it's still only Wednesday

[sevenlayermuddle]

This tweet thread from @Russincheshire sums it up pretty well:

I expect he’ll be getting a job offer from the BBC.

[Bowdon]

I think the BBC is more bias today than it used to be. There are people in the BBC who have been wanting to express opinions rather than just report the news. Jon Sopel is an example of someone who as gone on record wanting this.

I think the biggest problem when it comes to reporting the news these days is that there is a mind set that if they interview someone with views they think the public don't like then they have to attack and ridicule the person, because if they don't then others assume they agree with the persons views. I see that as a big problem to the neutral reporting of news.

As for DC, I agree that he should have resigned or been sacked. Though I think constantly hijacking the coronavirus press conference days after the news broke seems to be dragging it a bit. People are still dying and we're still in a lockdown. It starts to become a bit tedious when journalists seem more interested in scoring a political point than getting the updates on the coronavirus.

[jelv]

I think the BBC is more bias today than it used to be.

I quite agree. Why they've kept Andrew Neil with his obvious bias is beyond me.

[sevenlayermuddle]

I quite agree. Why they've kept Andrew Neil with his obvious bias is beyond me.

Agreement at last.

I’m not familiar with Andrew Neil or his views but if he ever exhibits bias to the extent BBC need to acknowledge it and apologise for it, proving you right,  hopefully he’ll be sacked.

Unfortunately, despite Maitlis having already proven me right by being publicly reprimanded, the signs are she has not gone for good, and will be back. 

So don’t pin your hopes on it.   

[chenks]

a person having an opinion and voicing it does not equate to corporate bias.
if anyone believes that then they clearly have an agenda.

as i said, you could ask 100 people and 50 of them will say something is biased in one direction and the other 50 will say the opposite.

[sevenlayermuddle]

a person having an opinion and voicing it does not equate to corporate bias.

Not that simple.

If I were to compose a message with a radical political content and send it from my personal email account, signed by me personally, I’d expect people to accept it as a personal opinion.  It may not make me popular, but it shouldn’t get me into trouble.

If I sent the same email from my employer’s corporate email address, signed by my job title, I’d rather expect people to think it was a corporate view. 

A TV newsreader, is closer to the second of these scenarios.  Unless they go out of their way to make clear they are expressing a personal opinion,  they can reasonably assumed to be representing the employer.

In my case (second scenario) since my imaginary employer does not want to show corporate political bias, I’d also expect to be fired, just as Maitlis should be fired.

[digbey]

A TV newsreader, is closer to the second of these scenarios.  Unless they go out of their way to make clear they are expressing a personal opinion,  they can reasonably assumed to be representing the employer.

In my case (second scenario) since my imaginary employer does not want to show corporate political bias, I’d also expect to be fired, just as Maitlis should be fired.

Emily Maitlis is not a newsreader.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Emily Maitlis is not a newsreader.

Pedantic point accepted.

Even more pedantic... in that post, I never actually said she was.

[busterboy]

Emily Maitlis is a Canadian-born British journalist, documentary filmmaker and newsreader for the BBC. She presents BBC Two's news and current affairs programme Newsnight, and also covers elections for the BBC in UK, US and Europe.

[digbey]

Emily Maitlis is a Canadian-born British journalist, documentary filmmaker and newsreader for the BBC. She presents BBC Two's news and current affairs programme Newsnight, and also covers elections for the BBC in UK, US and Europe.

Even Wikipedia can get it wrong sometimes.

[Bowdon]

Scrap the tv fee and they can say and do what they want