Category: Politics

Anyone who has suffered from austerity of the past decade should be troubled by the way a conservative government has suddenly found billions to squander. Once upon a time we were astounded by the closure of public facilities, libraries, schools with class sizes above 35 etc. Not now. Test and trace has cost £12bn and has made little difference to the virus although many peoples bank balances must have benefited. Contracts handed out for PPE that were fraudulent are now being investigated.

Please Bozo do not relax rules yet. We need to bring down the infection levels to low levels let seen in the summer. How vaccines will affect the country is yet to be seen. As the jab is administered to younger age groups the % take up will be reduced (wrongly I believe).

Nice speech – now for actions. He is the first Democrat for 25 years, to have majorities in both Houses of Congress. So he should be able to get things done. And Donald can disappear into the background – I am sure he will get dairy occasionally, but his time will hopefully be spent defending himself from lawsuits.

Can this be shouted out loud as it is one of the underlying beliefs of the Tory Party. Some lives are less valuable than others. Lod Sumption has stated this. How these people consider themselves to be religious in any way is beyond me. And to think that he was a major figure in the Supreme Court until 2018.

To be honest I am a bit speechless – I heard something similar from the vice-president of the World Bank 20/30 years ago who justified dumping toxic waste in Nigeria on the grounds that deaths there were less valuable (in financial terms ) than deaths in America.

Aah teething problems. No Brexiteers you are getting what you voted for – not what you hoped or were led to expect!

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.