RANDOM THOUGHTS

Schools round here go start to go back today. As far as I can tell there only a few precautions – flow tests for year 7 I think over the past few days, and the vertical tutoring system abandoned for the time being. Both sensible ideas. I would also hope that rooming has been done taking class sizes into consideration – upstairs in Hanover and Windsor there are a couple of rooms with poor ventilation – perhaps the newest 6th form rooms could be used as the 3 of them are large. The government will provide CO2 monitors eventually, but Williamson was wrong to say that they were in place and has not said what will happen with negative tests. Surely masks should be worn on buses.

Shopping – I did not see anyone wearing a mask of the 25 people in the shop before 7.30am. No message about sensible behaviour from government despite record levels of infection, no discussion of what is a reasonable death toll?

Night clubs – should vaccine passports be needed? Given that there is no point of a nightclub with social distancing I guess they should at least register the names and addresses of all on entry with the proviso that isolation maybe necessary until a full test shows negative results.

Football – I personally will not be going to any major match with a large crowd anytime soon. Whether this will be a shared action will be interesting as it seems likely that there maybe some polarisation of age groups socially. And also a polarisation of ethnic groups and other groups via poverty/wealth.

Employment – I know it is the USA, but interesting that McDonalds in Oregon are advertising for 14/15 year olds to work (subject to school hours). I understand the reduction of migrant workers in agriculture and meat packaging industries. And the issues related to HGV drivers are similar, although complicated by increased regulation (and relaxing the hours is not the solution). I just read that the DoT was aware of this problem in 2006! High Street shops have shut down in large numbers – what are their former workers doing now? Gig economy workers presumably have the opportunities for alternative employment. It is easy to blame people for being lazy – they might be less so if wages were sensible – no firm with 50+ employees should be allowed to pay their workers less than a living wage if their profits/management wages exceed a certain point. Bonus payments to directors should have a mandatory element of an increase in the wages of workers (maybe the bottom 80% – it could be worked out), not just on share price and profits. Basically this would be the John Lewis model by the back door.

Raab – yet another pathetic excuse for a Government Official. With any element of humanity, justice, proprietary in his body he would have resigned. Basically we have a government of incompetents led by a baboon.

Economics – we are fucked. Manufacturing has almost disappeared. We produce less produce than 10 years ago. The government spokesperson on the economy – Lord Whatever – says that foreign owned and managed firms in the UK are more efficient and more profitable. Quite what he has done about this is unclear.

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