Every article accepts the housing shortage to be true. Is it though? House prices are rising due to second home buyers and buy to rent. Three quarters of a million homes are second homes and empty for most of the year. Yet we condone the erasure of the countryside for new homes. yet another example of the law working for the rich.
FOOTBALL
Benitez goes – Duncan Ferguson takes over. Interesting as Everton are/were sliding downwards.
Liverpool in contract discussions with Salah – will they sell hi to pay for Haaland? Or will ManC come up with £250 million, or will he be off to Real Madrid (Barca probably cannot afford him?), or PSG (pocket a couple of hundred million and move on).
CULTURE WAR
The right wing gutter press is whooping with joy at Dorries attack on the BBC. I have been critical of the BBC and like any large institution it needs constant revision and updating. I even think it has shown pro-establishment bias at times. But this attack is more than that – her attack is because it does not report like the Telegraph and the Mail. It is not unquestioning of government policies and statements. The ‘bias’ mentioned is really just a lack of bias to the government and Brexit. It is not anti-woke and has even allowed presenters who are not white , mostly male and from Public Schools in the south of England.
POLICE
It is necessary to be very careful when criticising the police. As The former Chief Constable of Durham has pointed out – we police this country by consent rather than force or fear. It is therefore important that the police are seen to be impartial is all aspects. They have fallen short of this regarding racism over past years – this is recognised and hopefully measures are being taken to counter this institutional racism.
SAD
The total lack of integrity by supporters of Johnson. It is clear that he has broken the ministerial code, the proprietary we should expect from a PM, has lied and blustered; and still many MP’s have no qualms in jockeying for places in their perception of future leadership games. STOP the games and call him out – Sir Kenneth Clarke was correct in calling for him organise a leaving party.
TSUNAMI
Tsunami hits Tonga after giant volcano eruption. New Zealand issues tsunami warning.
Few details at the moment but hopefully no casualties as warnings seem to have been effective.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/15/tonga-tsunami-warning-as-volcano-erupts-at-sea
NHS PRIVATISED
Sajid Javid has ordered the NHS to pay £270 million to private hospitals to be on stand by in case they are needed in the next 3 months. That is your tax money.
NOVAC DJOKOVIC
Australia is exercising its right to police its borders. Farage is upset! I think it has been very badly handled but he probably tried to avoid the rules and use his money to influence in his favour. Out of interest does this mean the entire England cricket team and support staff were vaccinated?
SCOTLAND
The current crisis in the Tory Party is causing a major schism with its Scottish Party. Sleaze-Dogg reverted to type talking about taking the king’s shilling (we have had neither for rather a long time), when criticising the Scottish Tory Leader for being a lightweight when Douglas Ross said he thought Johnson should resign. Only one of the 6 Scottish Tory MP’s and 31MSP’s has come out in support of Johnson.
PAPERS
Interested to see how the Mail, Telegraph and Sun react to the circus. They hope to steer political views via there journalists. But they also are aware of the need to boost sales of their rags. The Telegraph will probably continue to support the unacceptable. The Mail will be looking at public opinion (especially middle class woman) and to be honest no one cares what the Sun thinks anymore now it has stopped reluctantly pedalling porn (Look at its recent front pages!??!!).