The sun was shining in Yorkshire, the sky was blue and it is still unseasonably warm, though a stiff Westerly breeze made it feel a bit colder than it was.
Today I’ve been doing some reading!! Yes reading!! Now that I’ve completed the edit of my Beefheart book I have a little time to read and a backlog of books!!
I’ve also been sorting my room out. Going through old paperwork. Finding stuff I’d forgotten I had. Strange to work through the detritus of life, the debris that accumulates through the years.
Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, our resident clown is a frightened wounded beast. The arrows are sticking out his back – there’s a big Peppa Pig one, a huge ERG one, a giant negative popularity poll one, a nasty sleaze one, a big wallpaper one, a massive one that says liar, a second salary one, a gigantic cronyism one, a Christmas parties one, one for entitlement, one for arrogance, one for blithering, one for incompetence, one for lack of leadership, one for being a shambling wreck, one for messing up Brexit, a javelin for ‘One rule for them; another for us’, one for being racist, one for being inept, one for not delivering, one for tax rises, one for National Insurance rises, one from the fishermen, one from the farmers, one from Northern Ireland, Several for lobbying and other crass incomes, one for revolving doors, one for being invisible, one for breaking laws, a whole load for promises not delivered, a bunch for silly media soundbites that come to nothing, a few for ‘levelling up’, one for failing to lead, a couple for being a clown, others for a variety of gaffes and a big spear for being a complete tosser.
Our clown is looking like a porcupine. Straight off his zipline to become a complete joke. 69% now think he’s a wanker. Amazingly 31% think he’s alright. Lol. Goes to show that the country has a lot of very stupid people.
I watch with gleeful interest as the Nasty Party recede in the polls and observe the repugnant Tories waking up to the fact that they are no longer fooling the public; that their popularity is falling through the floor; that they might no longer have all that power and wealth coming their way!! The profiteering conmen are falling from grace.
We all know what they do in those circumstances: like a pack of cowardly syphilitic hyenas they turn and rip each other to bits. Cameron and Osborne jumped ship to multimillion-pound futures to avoid the sort of thing that happened to Thatcher, Major, IDS, May and others. They were all unceremoniously knifed!!
Ha Ha. Great entertainment. I look forward to the evisceration of this clown. When they are of no use they are callously ejected. It’s the Tory way!!
So yesterday there were another 137,583 new cases with 73 more deaths.
There are predictions that 25% of the public sector will be off due to Covid. That’ll ravage Health and Education – but so what?
In the last week there’s been a 43% increase in new cases and a 50% increase in death – but hey – no big deal!!
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all introducing stringent measures – but, you know, we English are all convivial!!
In schools, the kids are wearing masks. There are plans to merge classes and have unqualified people looking after them. Childminding is back!!
The Omicron looks to be milder but the sheer numbers are creating the strain!!
Johnson the gambler doesn’t give a toss! The big wave is coming. You can bet that the Tory profiteers are stashing their loot safely offshore in the Cayman Islands. Everything is hunky-dory!!
Stay Safe!! We’ve been abandoned! Do what makes sense!!
Opher, the appropriate weapon with which to stab someone in the back (or even the front) isn’t an arrow. It’s called a dagger.
COVID new case numbers are certainly looking strange. Worldometers says 157,758 today, 148,504 yesterday (very close to the total deaths!), and 180,885 the day before that. I expect a surge tomorrow (220K? watch this space), but after that a gradual decline.
I’ve almost finished my first response to your “Establishment” diatribe, hope to get it out to you tomorrow.
Lol. Daggers are good. I imagined them doing it from afar!!
I think the main concern is the staffing levels. Not a good time to be ill or to be educated.
I too expect a surge.. I’m wondering what this lame clown will do???
Look forward to your establishment response!! Don’t hold back!!
Sent to you this morning.
Well, I got the 220K right, didn’t I? And Javid seems to be ruling the roost. The circus owner (for the time being) has told Coco the Clown that he’s not funny any more. We wait developments.
Hmmm… 194,747 today. And the result is out ahead of the normal schedule, too. I think the published results may be a bit more accurate from here on in. I stick to my prediction of a general slow decline… but there may be some more upward bumps yet!
I’ve updated my spreadsheets for Europe today. Interesting results. The German numbers suggest that even stringent lockdowns don’t have much effect in curtailing the transmission of omicron. The Italians and the French have similar problems. UK COVID hospital occupancy is up by about 60% in a week. And strange things are happening with the R-rate in Denmark (one of the most trustworthy sources of all) which may suggest there’s some substance to the claim that vaccinations don’t do much if any good against omicron. It may turn out that the clown doesn’t have much choice about what to do; he (and we) will just have to “grin and bear it,” and hope that herd immunity starts to kick in before the ICUs are filled up.
It’s a dicey situation. Johnson is gambling as usual. I think they’re very worried. They’ve invested everything in vaccination.
It’s been a busy day – I will get back to your notes on the establishment!!
I want to put it out on the blog as it is. Is that OK?
Yes, go ahead. Then it will be time for your responses!
179,756 yesterday. I confess I expected it to level out, not start downwards this early. But look at that omicron go! Three quarters of a million in the USA, more than a quarter of a million in France, over 200,000 in Italy.
It’s the sheer numbers that are causing the problem. I reckon we’ll be OK once this Omicron has swept through. Might need to flatten that peak out though.
178,250 yesterday. That’s a “levelling off,” for sure! My best prediction is down over the week-end (because of the reporting cycle), then back up to about the same level next week, then slowly and gradually down as the epicentre of omicron moves to different parts of the country. I’ll get the data from OWID probably early next week, by which time we should be able to see which way the hospitalizations trends are going. I know we can’t see any ICU trends yet, but it’s interesting that Worldometers shows the UK’s “serious, critical” count going very gently downwards over the last couple of weeks.
But the French are in deep doo-doos – 328,214 new cases yesterday!