It was quite warm in the morning when I went for my walk. The wind got up in the afternoon though and made it feel a lot colder. Up my hill, the blossom and buds are coming out. A pair of kestrels flew over my head into the copse. I think we might be seeing some baby kestrels later in the year.
I was quite upset to hear that we’ve lost an estimated 40 million birds from the UK in the last fifty years – upset but not surprised. The loss of wildlife since my childhood is staggering. What used to be commonplace is now rare. So much has simply disappeared. Am I the only one left who cares?
I’ve been reading today and playing some Downliners Sect and Eels. Don Craine was buried today. That took me back to being all nostalgic for when I was fifteen. 1965. All hair, long sides, Cuban-heeled Chelsea boots, frayed out jeans, girls, parties and loud music. I was into Kinks, Stones, Who, Yardbirds, Pretty Things, Others, Undertakers and Downliners Sect. Good days. Perhaps I could have done a tad more school work?
Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, our leader is probably hiding in a fridge again. The Partygate scandal is too recent. The media just might ask him about lying and law-breaking. His usual tactic is avoidance. It all blows over! Incredible! Where is Sue Gray??? What about the rest of the MET fines??
I keep bumping into people who have just had Covid. The secret government policy of herd immunity is certainly working. Perhaps it would have been a good idea for Johnson to tell us all about it though? Just bringing it in blind is sneaky and risky. But then is it a Tory cunning scheme?? It’s the poor who get ill and die – the ones from deprived areas – and they predominantly vote Labour – are they trying to bump them off? Or are they trying to reduce the benefit payments? They did a good job of that dumping all the sick people back into the Care Homes in the early days of the pandemic!
Putin is certainly taking a bashing. They are picking his tanks off as they retreat from Kyiv.
The Russians have left behind a trail of misery – executions of civilians, torture, rape, looting and destruction. Schools and hospitals wrecked, housing blocks burnt out and traumatised people left in their wake.
A lot of the Russian soldiers were young kids who were conscripted in. They have been looting alcohol and getting drunk. Probably terrified out of their lives and traumatised for life. They’ve seen their friends shot and blown up and have taken it out on the Ukrainian people they’ve met. There are mass graves, dead tortured people with hands tied behind their back and tales of atrocities.
This is what war does. It’s an abomination for all concerned.
It’s cost trillions and wrecked lives. Putin has a lot to answer for. I hope he finds himself in a dock somewhere in the Haigh.
The short-term result is that it’s going to cost us all a lot of money. Oil, gas and food prices will shoot up. The long-term result is likely even worse. Our governments will use it as a lever to put up taxes, fund the military and produce an even nastier set of weapons.
We humans are not very good at solving poverty, at producing fair societies, at being tolerant and welcoming, but we can produce the most expensive, dastardly ways of killing each other. There’s always enough money for that! Prepare for a new generation of tanks, ships, missiles, planes and nuclear bombs.
We’re into an arms race with Russia, China and North Korea!! Yippeee!! Plenty money to be made for the wealthy!!
The Capitalist way!! We spend a fortune (and make huge amounts of money) destroying cities and killing people and then we spend a fortune (and make huge amounts of money) building them up again!
We are mad!!
So, now we have no testing for coronavirus we have to make guesses. They think that 1 in 7 people had it last week!! We’re at record levels despite the fact that the pandemic is officially over!! Big Dog Turd is saved!!
Lo and behold – when you stop testing the level goes down! Ony 69,689 new cases yesterday. But an increase of 1466 into hospitals and another 191 deaths!! Yipee!! It’s over!! (Didn’t Trump suggest doing away with testing?? – that was his ploy – to pretend it wasn’t happening?>?) Yep I think so!!)
Mind you, we have a new UK variant!! Perhaps it will be a really mild one? Or perhaps it’ll be the death bug?? Who knows? Mutation is random!
Stay Safe!!
Opher, the new cases figure I’m seeing for yesterday (from the government dashboard) is 143,382 for Saturday, Sunday and Monday combined. That is well down on the 215,000 or so from a week ago. I suspect the reason you keep on meeting people who have just had the thing is that this variant is so transmissible it is getting even to people who have been trying to hide away from it. As you and I have both been saying, this thing is going to get to everyone sooner or later.
Anyway, I’ve issued the second part of my latest three-part COVID rant: https://libertarianism.uk/2022/04/04/covid-19-are-we-over-the-final-hump-part-2/. Look at what the Swedes have done! I really do think they have it beaten.
Oh, and I don’t think it’s “we humans” who are so fond of killing each other. It’s the political classes. “War is the health of the state,” as Randolph Bourne told us. War is built in to current political systems – including so-called democracy. Politics is what has to change. In a big way.
It’s becoming incredibly difficult to get any accurate stats Neil.
I’m just out to lunch. I’ll check out your rant when I get back!!
No – I think it’s we humans. Those soldiers in Ukraine were doing that off their own bat!