Category: Politics

Chilly but not cold and as I don’t do the papers until 7.30 my first daylight start. Sunny now. Pruning the tree bit by bit as I can re-assess as I clear a bit. I think just a few more of the high rise vertical bits, then a think. n A few more bits to take from Apricot and we will see how it is in 6 weeks.

And what do with the trimmings? Stack them or dispose of them? Obviously I will stack them!

Tomato sauce is a tad sweet and vinegary, but maybe that is how it should be? I will certainly use it in pasta and bologeise.

Do I get more bulbs? Only a few are coming up from the 200 already planted. At £14 for 200 more it is worth it I guess? Just bought them! 8 different sorts, whatever. What else would be good?

Covid figures beginning to stabilise and fall a little. Hopefully we will see some big decreases over the next week. However I do not think the present restrictions will be relaxed until Easter – well of course they will as the need to make money will be upmost in the minds of the Tories. My feeling is that if we can vaccinate over 50’s and vulnerable, we would then be in a position to open pubs and restaurants, etc. on a piece meal basis – maybe on county or larger area chunks. We know the idiots will travel out of area, m but increase the fines as a deterrent. If we could achieve approx 40% vaccination I guess we could relax a bit. The 20-50 year group probably have a reasonably high immunity as many will have had it already.

I however will not radically change my present attitude, even if I feel a small prick! until the all numbers are down very low, and most people have been jabbed. Even then I suspect social distancing, etc. will be required and it will not be until next autumn when we see whether we have the beating of the virus. And remember it needs to be rolled out across the world to be totally effective.

Football – I think we are in the football transfer window? Could be interesting.

Premiership is now sort of divided into 2 or 3, but room for change still apparent, The title looks like a given for the North West. My prediction is MC, Liv.Chel.Manu. With Leic and Everton or Southampton pushing hard. Will Leeds fall away and be relegated? Will WBA revive?

Just got a yellow warning for rain for Weds.

Keep your friends close – but your enemies closer. Trump should be suspended from Twitter for a couple of weeks, not barred as we need to know what he is up to!

Grinding opponents in the dirt does not pay dividends – WWI, Iraq to name just 2 examples. Be humble in victory even if your opponent cannot be gracious in defeat.

Before I check them we should see a significant drop if lockdown mark 3 is working.

See next page for table of stats.

The government has given contracts to private companies to provide free school meals (after being humiliated by Marcus Rashford). You might not agree with giving free school meals but you must be totally appalled, ashamed, aggravated, by the callous way these companies are using your tax money to enrich themselves whilst not providing the care and help needed.,

So the government says there will be stricter shut downs. To be honest it is as if nothing has changed here for 4/5 months. Most seem to be working as normal – well the new normal, some from home, but lots out and about.

Schools have more children attending than in the first lockdown. I have total sympathy for working parents who want their children educated properly. But at the same time it defeats the purpose of the lock down and shutting schools if they have a large attendance.

There is also the pressure on teachers expected to teach and set and mark online work. And the children who have no access to broadband or a laptop. Cluelesss Williamson apparently turned down free broadband for these children last week – what a horrible specimen he is; both useless and vindictive. What planning was put in place over the last 6 months before this predictable second wave occurred (and it was predicted – it might be worse than predicted, but all people with functioning brains knew it was coming.

Will there need to be a distinction between essential workers and critical workers? Certainly if the infection rate does not start to fall imminently I suspect this distinction will have to be made, at least for the 3 weeks to see if the infection rate -r- can fall below 1. in Essex it must have been much higher. Thought, how is the r number affected by the speed of transition, I know it should not really matter but…?

Britain will soon have 2 new “news channels’ from the likes of Fox News. Those who criticise the BBC should be careful what they wish for. At least with the BBC any perceived bias from left or right is fiercely debated. This will not happen with news channels promoted by the like of Murdoch and Discovery. These channels will have no duty to the public, they will be free to peddle the false news of the kind that propelled Trump to his Presidency. The British public have shown themselves equally mall-able to false news, so could we be seeing the development of yet more media promoting populism.

Populism – what an oxymoronic word? Let us all vote for less tax – until we need the NHS, or other services. More tax would be sensible at the moment – especially the rich who have made billions due to share rises in lock down. Unfortunately the centre left and right is too liberal to demand constraints on this pernicious influence on our democracy.

I guess I need to say something! The guy is an idiot! But worse he is now causing deaths due to his irrational rants. Twitter has taken his feed down – probably to ensure they are not prosecuted for encouraging insurrection. Could it happen here?

I know its only 4 days since last statistical post, but the figures are horrendous, and its 13 days since idiot Johnson let people meet for Xmas! Although the figures are 6 days behind.