Dr Ursula von der Leyen

Should she stay or should she go?


  • Total voters
    45
It makes no difference overall. You can't conjurer up extra vaccine from nowhere. Big pharma oversold it's capacity to produce in order to secure contracts with countries.
if they had had firm orders that covered costs in may last year they would have got the factory up an running 3 to 4 months earlier and ironed out any problems
no company can go out and commit to an unknown market with out some gaurantees

phizor did it but their cost per shot is 10 times the astra shot and their covid profit will be in the order of 7 to 10 billion as reported last weekend
astra at £2 a shot only have sales of 2 billion per year and have stated their contract is to produce at cost

the uk used astra because the govement did not trust the americans to deliver
but we still orders as early as possible to give producers a clear run to concentrate on production
then the uk could also concentrate on the organisation of the delivery
2500 sites have opened up for delivery in the last 2 months

the eu could have done the same if they had banged heads together and got on with it
the leadership of the eu was asleep or worse negligent
 

Bongodog

Member
if they had had firm orders that covered costs in may last year they would have got the factory up an running 3 to 4 months earlier and ironed out any problems
no company can go out and commit to an unknown market with out some gaurantees

phizor did it but their cost per shot is 10 times the astra shot and their covid profit will be in the order of 7 to 10 billion as reported last weekend
astra at £2 a shot only have sales of 2 billion per year and have stated their contract is to produce at cost

the uk used astra because the govement did not trust the americans to deliver
but we still orders as early as possible to give producers a clear run to concentrate on production
then the uk could also concentrate on the organisation of the delivery
2500 sites have opened up for delivery in the last 2 months

the eu could have done the same if they had banged heads together and got on with it
the leadership of the eu was asleep or worse negligent
Last April the UK was already realising that vaccination was the way out of covid 19 and ordering super cold freezers hundreds of millions of glass vials and everything else we might need, meanwhile Ursula and Co were probably sitting in Brussels (or Strasbourg if it was that week of the month) and ordering lunch.
 

Danllan

Member
Location
Sir Gar / Carms
Cutting to the chase, UVDL made a bad situation worse, but the key to the massive cock-up with / within the EU and its dealing with vaccinations - and this prior to the almost glacial start of the administering in countries such as France - has been twofold:

1) Over-regulation and over-centralised regulation preventing the earlier authorisation of vaccines;

2) The EU not immediately and fully indemnifying vaccine manufacturers, something HMG did a.s.a.p..

In combination this meant the EU could not order and that the manufacturers would not agree to supply as soon as for the UK, and this put the EU behind others too. UVDL exacerbated this, panicked, acted ill-advisedly, and then u-turned - all her own work, since she insisted that the whole thing be 'organised' for the EU by the EC, i.e. her...

And that despite countries such as Germany ignoring the joint approach as it suits and ordering >75m doses unilaterally, to which the EU has of course objected, but done nothing else, because it can't... we can only take it that this shows how much faith the German Government has in UVDL and the EU / EC to deliver sufficient vaccine for its needs. 😐*




*And also, as we've seen before, there's one rule for Germany & another for everyone else. Europe 'united'...
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
The real stuff too expensive, now your not working?🥴

In local ASDA two brands French Brie stocked (Le President and another) and then Cornish or Somerset Brie. Last week the Le President was £9.50kg. The Somerset was £10kg. The Other 'premium' brand French was £11k, if I recall. A fair bit of the beef Irish. I do quite a bit of our shopping and find ASDA the least 'patriotic' LIDL and Morrisons beef always UK. Just my observation. Very sad, I know, but when daughter bck at home she likes Brie, and of late there has been a bit in these threads, so thought would monitor the price of brie. Ah well, takes all sorts.
 
Last edited:

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Didn’t have you as so naive.
Had a touring holiday in the CR with a farmers daughter FRIEND. we were in a square taking a coffe, she looked around a bit and said « my god, there are all models! »


Well you presumably took note!! But I have commented to mates that if I was 21 again I would have had a good look at the East European models on offer. Having said that they might not have taken to a rusty old Fen built model - but as I am now in my dotage and at the 'ooh isn't that nice stage' I shall never find out!!
 
Funny how it's not been a disaster for the other 27 countries, nor was it for the UK as they always opted out of anything they didn't fancy.


Well you know that is not factually correct.

Because everyone within the EU is affected by policy. So to state that 27 countries - of which each holds millions of people - is factually incorrect.

SOME people benefitted, some people do not.

I'd also point out that you are really talking about a very few people who are directly going to benefit, mostly in the civil service & politicians.
 
Last edited:
UvdL should stay IMHO.

Doing the best job so far of doing the worst job. Also highlighting the ability of the EU to be extreme.

As regards the average EU citizens perspective, well that depends on who the replacement is .. of course UvdL was chosen from a list of candidates ..


oh wait a minute ! Correction she was imposed by Germany & France ...


Von der Leyen was born in 1958 in Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium, where she lived until she was 13 years old. In the family, she has been known since childhood as Röschen, a diminutive of Rose. Her father Ernst Albrecht worked as one of the first European civil servants from the establishment of the European Commission in 1958, first as chef de cabinet to the European commissioner for competition Hans von der Groeben in the Hallstein Commission, and then as director-general of the Directorate-General

She studied economics (1977–80) at the Universities of Göttingen and Münster as well as at the London School of Economics but never graduated.

Instead, she went into medicine and graduated (1987) from Hanover (Germany) Medical School (MHH). She worked as an assistant physician (1988–92) at the MHH’s gynecological clinic and in 1991 was awarded a doctorate in medicine. She lived (1992–96) in the United States while her husband, Heiko von der Leyen, was on the faculty at Stanford University. After her return to Germany, she served as a faculty member (1998–2002) at the MHH’s department of epidemiology, social medicine, and health systems research. In addition, she earned a master’s degree (2001) in public health.

..

On July 16, 2019, von der Leyen was narrowly confirmed, receiving 383 of 747 votes (with 374 needed). The following day she resigned as Germany’s defense minister and was succeeded by Kramp-Karrenbauer.
 

Muck Spreader

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Limousin
Well you know that is not factually correct.

Because everyone within the EU is affected by policy. So to state that 27 countries - of which each holds millions of people - is factually incorrect.

SOME people benefitted, some people do not.

I'd also point out that you are really talking about a very few people who are directly going to benefit, mostly in the civil service & politicians.
Maybe, but people just got on with it and worked out the benefits, instead of squealing like a spoilt wean all the time.
 

Danllan

Member
Location
Sir Gar / Carms
I thought it was going to be a 'I shouldn't but I would ! ' thread when I clicked on it :sneaky:
You sure you wanted to share that? :woot:

Sorry I know I shouldn't but I would, but being German might need shearing first 😱
:yuck:


1612462393104.png
 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged failures in the procurement of coronavirus vaccines in an interview with German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and other foreign media on Thursday evening.

"We focussed a lot on the question of whether there would be a vaccine, on its development," the EU chief said.

"In hindsight we should have given more thought in parallel to the challenges of mass production."

Many EU countries have been under fire for their lackluster vaccination programs in comparison to countries such as Israel and the UK. The major barrier for further roll out has been a lack of doses for which many blame the EU's joint vaccine procurement program.
 
Last April the UK was already realising that vaccination was the way out of covid 19 and ordering super cold freezers hundreds of millions of glass vials and everything else we might need, meanwhile Ursula and Co were probably sitting in Brussels (or Strasbourg if it was that week of the month) and ordering lunch.

Pure coincidence of course, but Dry Ice has the right properties for storing this.....
 

czechmate

Member
Mixed Farmer

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged failures in the procurement of coronavirus vaccines in an interview with German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and other foreign media on Thursday evening.



"We focussed a lot on the question of whether there would be a vaccine, on its development," the EU chief said.

"In hindsight we should have given more thought in parallel to the challenges of mass production."

Many EU countries have been under fire for their lackluster vaccination programs in comparison to countries such as Israel and the UK. The major barrier for further roll out has been a lack of doses for which many blame the EU's joint vaccine procurement program.


putting your hands up has to be better than lying👍
 

nivilla1982

Member
Livestock Farmer
"No Irish EU official was consulted before the Northern border clause was triggered
John Downing February 03 2021 02:30 AM
Simon Coveney is a man who will rarely use one word where three dozen can be poured in. But he was momentarily lost for words when asked a tricky question this week.

If Phil Hogan was still Ireland’s Commissioner, would the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol have been used in the bitter EU versus AstraZeneca vaccine export ban row? Since Mr Hogan was responsible for trade, and had been up to his oxters in the Brexit details over almost five years, would he not have strangled at birth the idea of Brussels invoking emergency powers on the North which caused dismay in Dublin, Belfast and London?

The Foreign Affairs Minister was nonplussed for a moment – which can seem like a fortnight on radio. “I think that discussion is kind of an abstract one to be honest. I mean I don’t know the answer to that question,” he faltered in his reply to RTÉ’s Claire Byrne.

But while the question is complex – it is far from abstract. On the one hand Hogan, as trade commissioner up to last August 26, had a crucial role in signing off on trade laws last spring, relating to Covid protective clothes and equipment, which were measures somewhat similar to the latest EU import limitations on vaccines.

His successor in the trade portfolio, Valdis Dombrovskis, the former Latvian prime minister, was also closely involved in the trade aspects of the benighted package announced on what turned out to be Ursula von der Leyen’s ‘Long Bad Friday’ and which triggered a big blame game.

But it is most unlikely that a more experienced or better-connected Irish Commissioner could have stopped this one before it hit. Mr Hogan’s successor could not stop it – and neither could anyone else – for the very good reason that few knew about it until it was vastly too late.

“Absolutely no Irish person was consulted about this proposal until it was a fait accompli. There was never any attempt to attach an ‘Irish political earth wire’. Nobody on the Irish Commissioner’s team was informed in any kind of time,” one Brussels official told the Irish Independent.

“The press conference to announce the measures was scheduled in parallel with the process to approve them by the European Commission. It represented a total systems failure.”

Despite her midnight about-turn, she is seen as having triggered a Northern Ireland crisis in efforts to tackle a vaccine supply crisis.

In the hot-house that is EU Commission HQ, a nasty game of ‘pass the parcel’ has kicked off. An early attempt by some of Ms von der Leyen’s staff to blame Trade Commissioner Dombrovskis proved ill-judged.

The Commission boss will not find it easy to pass this parcel and she’s under direct attack from her predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker.

It’s unusual for a senior office holder to publicly attack his or her immediate successor. But he did just that in a speech on Tuesday night when he criticised the EU’s sluggish vaccine roll-out and suggested that an "EU-first approach” was reminiscent of a certain Donald Trump.

Last night she was called upon to give an account of herself to the main political groupings, but calls for her resignation are rather rhetorical and exaggerated – for now at least.

The reality is that she still has support from Berlin and Paris. She was trying, perhaps a little too hard and artlessly, to do their bidding in curbing movement of AstraZeneca vaccines, after the company failed in EU supply pledges.

Right now the Commission President is getting it from all sides. To her critics, it is a lesson in humility, and a reminder that she needs to stop trying to run the Brussels machine with just the help of a handful of advisers."
 

Bongodog

Member
Pure coincidence of course, but Dry Ice has the right properties for storing this.....
Dry ice having worked with it in the past is only a temporary solution to cold storage, no matter how well insulated the outer container it soon starts to melt. We were obtaining it via the University labs for theatrical purposes, and were fine during the week as it could be obtained at 4pm from the store ready for the evening, for Saturday though we were using supplies that were obtained on Friday and we had definitely lost a fair bit.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.2%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.8%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,289
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top