Numbers seem to be falling which is brilliant news. A note of caution though, with schools on holiday and people deleting the NHS app the number of tests might be significantly lower. So probably best to wait for the ONS survey in the community on Friday, or to see if hospitalisations (up 26% on the week) and deaths(up 50% on the week) follow the trend and reduce rapidly.
INSECTS – STOP MOWIN’ THE EFFIN’ LAWN
I am concerned that my attempts at wildlife gardening are not resulting in many insects. My friend Di has said the same and she has a very well established garden with lots of pollination plants. Maybe it is too early after some unseasonal Weather earlier this year. Claims are often made that pesticide use is reducing in the UK. The variety of pesticides being used on single crops has increased and their toxicity is breathtaking – some neonicotinoid insecticides are 10,000 times more toxic than the most notorious insecticide in history, DDT. If we do not look after all parts of the food chain things will not node well for Planet Earth. It has been suggested that solar farms could be planted with native flowers and pollinator plants to encourage biodiversity and insects. Read this
IT IS NOT FUNNY!
64 people died of Covid yesterday, and 133 people entered hospital because of it. 36000 new cases were reported (much lower than earlier in the week (so a positive), but the number of first vaccinations is down to 43000. Mixed messages from the government regarding quarantine requirements. Either it is important, or it is not – there cannot be a rule for some, and dispensation for others. personally a requirement to test if pinged, but only isolate if positive is mind numbingly obvious and sensible.
However back to the stats. 133 dead in a day warrants extreme caution – not fuc*ing freedom day! 133 beds taken away from other patients is also a serious matter. Both these stats would result in the government being asked what it is doing about it. The answer would be … very little. Travellers from some foreign countries are being asked to isolate. 600000 people were told that they should isolate last week – mostly for no reason other than justify the £26 billion test and trace charge. Hmmm, I think that is it!
One person tries to vote twice at a general election and the law is changed to require photo ID. Journalists and others who leak information in the public interest will now face prison. Money is found to increase the number of nuclear weapons, to bail out HS2, to build a new yacht for the royals (£200+ million), but nurses cannot even have a cost of living equivalent pay rise, NatWest shares are being sold by the government at a 50% loss, Brexit is a multi-facet disaster, 25000 truck drivers have left the UK. Then PEP – 32 billion ordered, 11 billion distributed, 12.6 billion in store (@£6.7m a week), 2.1 billion unusable for medical purposes and the rest not delivered yet. I had not released the scale of this calamity! Cameroon is let of the hook for now – although his reputation is in tatters.
And it has started – MP’s have started to publicise the need to cut the debt – a slow drip feed will follow to allow the government to cut public services (including the NHS), and sell bits off whilst refusing to tax people like Branson. I would keep it simple – employ a team of accountants for a couple of weeks to calculate how much companies and individuals can pay – then send out the bills. There would be lots of whinging from the right wing press, but a one off tax should cut the deficit by a third to a half in one easy measure.
Then a tax on landlords, too many houses are being sold for rent. Introduce standards of accommodation, tax on rental income, and a 50% value added tax on re-sale. Serious landlords will cope, those in it for a quick buck will not. Properties left empty for more than 4 weeks a year will have to pay extra council tax. Council tax needs a complete overhaul, together with business rates.
Building regulations – STOP BUILDING HOUSES WITHOUT SOLAR PANELS,ETC.
On education can I suggest some compulsory subjects for public schools like Eton. We will start with empathy, charity, honesty, equality, fairness and then develop more.
Northern Ireland
I think I finally grasp what the problem is. Basically two opposing realities. Northern Ireland has a land border with the Republic of Ireland and therefore the EU. Northern Ireland is part of the UK which is no longer part of the EU. With Brexit the government chose the former as being more important, freedom from Brussels meant more than the integretary of the UK. Thus the need for customs protocol through the Irish Sea.
Coco can wish this problem away in his dreams but it will not and cannot disappear. He cannot realistically blame it on retainers (although that will not stop him). He also has a couple of other problems related to trade. To invoke Article 16 and create a trade war with Europe and therefore also provoke trade talks with the Biden administration to collapse leaving Brexit as a huge economic disaster (well, well!). All this at a time when the British public are showing signs that the vaccine success may not be enough to counter the litany of failures.
I do not know enough about the nasty party to say how the cookie crumbles regarding the ERG and the ‘red wall’ seats. But I suspect it will take more than a few bypasses and housing estates to satisfy the demands for ‘levelling up’. I can just imagine the fuckwit actually trying to blag that ‘levelling up’ was just a euphemism for projects which would make it easier for the residents of the north to reach London.
And then the problem of London. A Labour Mayor with some charisma. His idea of levelling up seems to be creating local mayors who can then be blamed for inadequacies. I think he is already realising that this might not go to plan. Andy Burnam in Manchester has been a formidable opponent and proponent of the area. Even Andy Street in the West Midlands has not been a pushover. But again we have a muddle – creating overlapping mayors (West Midlands and Birmingham for e.g.) – appearing to devolve decision making to the regions whilst centralising power . new structure for NHS will do this. Education is similar, give the impression of freeing schools from local authority control (locally elected control) and pass it over to academies answerable only to Westminster. And Londons place as a financial centre and economic centre of the UK. 1 in 7 live in London and another 2 in 7 are inexorably entwined.
HOLIDAYS
100 DAYS TO GO
COP26 will be held in Glasgow. It is time to stop the prevarication, the promises, the lies, basically the bollocks, and do something. I will promise not to write another damning comment on Coco if he delivers this time! No slogans, fist pumping, arm waving, just guaranteed policies to do what needs to be done. No comments about us doing better than, more committed than, what is needed is leadership bozo! Electricity generation and infra structure need to be forefront, energy efficiency in all areas close behind. `No comments like ‘by 2030 all houses in the uk will need to be energy efficient”, replace the 2030 with from tomorrow – that is the sort of kick up the backside builders need. Aviation fuel tax made prohibitive for private planes – if mega rich people leave the ok we can always send them a Xmas card!
EDUCATION
Any parent of school aged students or related to a teacher/support staff, will state that the system is in a shambles. Children in different year groups being sent hope without warning, school trips cancelled, exam uncertainty, universities making up covid rules independently, head teachers getting conflicting advice or no advice at all.
A VERY ENGLISH DISEASE
Brash unwarranted confidence, overlaid with arrogance and a hefty dollop of selfishness, variable amounts of ignorance, a lack of empathy, . We see it in coco, and the huge numbers of people socialising with no regard for others – not just in night clubs, etc. – but also with no regard for their families welfare.
NEW PLANTS
The smallest plug plants ever! 6 of each of the following: Achillea Cerise Queen; Echinacea Nectar pink; Delphinium dark blue and white; salvia Salvatore blue; Verbena Buenos Aires. I have potted them up but will be chuffed if 50% survive. They are on the table as the greenhouse is probably too hot, and the pots will dry out. This way I can nurture them.
2 more cucumbers and my first big tomato – was half eaten by a slug – grrr! Deterents applied. But another handful of smaller ones and another bush providing.