The Corona Diaries – Day 711

Posted on by Opher

Another warmish day but much cloudier. I went for a walk up my hill. I needed some peace!!

Sometimes everything seems to go wrong at the same time. My energy switch is looking like a disaster. They’ve refused to take on my gas transfer because they erroneously say that my consumption is too high.

My TV has gone down. I cannot link to the hub for streaming.

My fitbit bust.

All this requires literally hours on the phone. You are put on hold for over an hour only to be shunted over to a different department and start all over again!!

Life used to be easy!! One gas provider. One electricity provider. One water provider. One TV licence. You just paid your bills. Now you have to spend hours sorting who to renew with. Now it’s all become complex. This competition was supposed to provide better service and make things cheaper!! Ha Ha. It is just a means of putting more money in very rich peoples’ pockets.

I’m sick of listening to Muzak and talking to people who don’t know how to solve the problem!! BT and all energy companies should be disestablished!!!

Sick of it!!

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, out sleazy clown is up to his usual tricks trying to persuade people that he’s the man who gets things done!

What a load of bollocks!!

He got Brexit done so badly it’s costing us a staggering £30 Billion a year.

He got Covid dealt with so badly that we’ve got one of the worst-hit economies and highest death rates.

We are now having to write off an incredible £9.4 billion of useless PPE because they put those untendered contracts out to their chums instead of firms that could do it properly.

We’ve had £4.5 billion written off because they dolloped out our money to firms that didn’t exist.

Then there’s useless apps, T&T and other ‘world-beating initiative’ which didn’t work and cost tens of billions!!

We’ve got billionaires making huge sums from profiteering and poor people starving.

Food banks are our biggest growth sector!!

These profiteering sleazy fools think we are stupid!!

Doing a good job??? Getting things done????

You must be kidding.

Now we’ve got promises of ‘Levelling up’ and solving ‘Care’. I’m not holding my breath. All a distraction!!

So, yesterday there were another 86,854 new cases in this pandemic that is supposedly over!! We had another 534 deaths!! Great eh??

The estimate is worse than this – they reckon we’re running at around 200,000 cases a day. It is rising in all age groups.

We have a fifth vaccine coming on line – developed on a different principle.

We need to vaccinate the world!! 3.5 million doses are sitting in UK fridges and are going to be dumped because they are past their sell-by date!! They could have gone to 3rd world countries and saved many lives as well as making the world safer. If we are going to defeat the virus and stop more variants emerging we need to vaccinate everyone!

We already have a new Omicron variant taking off!! It’s very contagious!!

Stay safe!! The incompetent clown is juggling with our futures!!

Today’s Music To keep me SssSSAaaaNNnnnEee in Isolation – Bob Dylan – Another Side of

Posted on by Opher

I like music that says something. This says lots!!

The Corona Diaries – Day 710

Posted on by Opher

It’s mild here today. The wind has dropped. Very pleasant. It feels like an early early early Spring. They’ll probably be a nasty cold snap which will kill off all the fruit!! That’s what happened last year. This global warming is messing with the weather. It’s hitting strange unpredictable extremes. The winds over the last few days are like March winds.

But I’m not sorry to be out of the cold. I don’t like cold. The impact of global warming has yet to be felt in its full extremes. More places on the planet are going to become uninhabitable. Expect extreme heatwaves, rain, drought, cold, floods, forest fires and mass migration.

Not something I’m looking forward to. I think the present migrant situation is the tip of a very big problem.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, our slimy lying leader is doing everything he can to hang on to his job. He’s promising the earth to everyone, threatening, cajoling, pleading and sending out his minions to repeat their parrotted mantra.

I think we’ve heard all these empty promises before – levelling up, make Brexit work, make Britain great – all empty words with no money to back it up. The reality is always rubbish.

He’s frantically buying time.

Incredible to see that Bas Javid, Sajid’s brother, is blatantly leading the MET investigation into Johnson. Haven’t they heard of vested interests?? Are we supposed to think this is all coincidence??

Quite opportune that Bas stepped in at one minute to midnight as the sword of Damocles was about to descend in the form of Sue Green’s unredacted report!!

Do you think words were secretly spoken??

The level of corruption is now beyond belief. We are being treated as mindless fools.

So Johnson kicks the can down the road and hopes we all get bored or circumstances prevail. He’s probably on the phone to Putin trying to persuade him to invade Ukraine. If Putin won’t play ball he’ll probably have to start a war himself.

To this sleazy lying clown all that matters is his own power and wealth. Behind the ruffled hair and jovial silliness is a cynical chancer!!

Don’t you think that the primary duty of an MP is to look after the interests of their constituents and the country??

This bunch of Tories don’t give a damn about people or the country. All they are weighing up is their own survival as an MP and how to stay on the gravy train.

They don’t care if Johnson lies, cheats or is inept. They don’t care if he’s messing the country up. All they care about is whether he is popular enough to get them re-elected in the next election.

They think that he is charismatic and people (for reasons that utterly escape me) like him.

The only questions going around in their heads are :

Will all this mess of Partygate fade away?
Will Johnson’s unpopularity be a blip and people forgive him?

Will he regain popularity and get them elected?

Or will another leader be a better bet? If so who?

I think this is symptomatic of everything that is wrong with politics. Everything is reduced down to the level of will this win votes or not?

Who cares about votes?? What is important is what is right and what is wrong!!!

Lying to parliament, being inept and using the position to make money is plain wrong!!

The whole tenet of this bunch of arrogant Tories is simply wrong. They are greedy profiteers who are doing this job as a means of making themselves more important and wealthier.

It’s about time that ordinary people were put first.

So, when it comes to Coronavirus your guess is as good as mine. The data is scrambled and doesn’t make sense. I keep seeing totally different stats being bandied around.

On the same site it says that yesterday there were either 112,000 new cases or 88,085 new cases. Either 1,121 deaths or 534 deaths. Quite different to yesterday where it came out with the staggering 820,000 new cases!!

Nobody seems to know. Stats are all over the place. It’s a mess.

All I can see is that the number of cases and deaths seem to be going up but Omicron is nowhere near as bad as Delta.

The triple vaccines are holding up. It’s the unvaccinated most at risk.

We wait on the mutation of new variants.

Stay safe!! We don’t become one of the worst in the world for nothing – it’s due to Johnson and the Tories.

Oh – and just bear in mind that the big price rises and tax hikes are due to Brexit. Those sunny uplands were a lie – just like all his other promises!!

Help make Britain great! Starve and freeze to put gold in the pockets of the elite! The inequality gap has never been bigger!!

Today’s Music to keep me SsSSAaaaNNnnneEE in Isolation – Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here

Posted on by Opher

Probably their best album and featuring Roy Harper on vocal on ‘Have A Cigar’. Great stuff.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+music+pink+floyd+full+album+wish&view=detail&mid=23370CB28DD3BDDACC9623370CB28DD3BDDACC96&FORM=VIRE

The Corona Diaries – Day 709

Posted on by Opher

What a strange day. It feels as if we are on the cusp of a turning point but not quite there!!

The sun shone but it was windy. We walked into Driffield (about 4 miles round trip) for a coffee. A long way to walk for a coffee.

Friends can round to visit in the afternoon. The topic of conversation veered around from Rock Music to Boris Johnson.

I did a bit of editing of my Beefheart book – now on Page 135.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, whatever I did the mind kept coming back to Boris Johnson. How did such an inept, greedy entitled Eton public schoolboy rise to a position of total incompetence? How could people be taken in by such a lightweight clown??

He got Brexit done – but he negotiated such a bad deal that it is costing us an estimated £30 Billion a year!!

He got us through covid – but he had the worst death rate in Europe and the worst hit economy. Some leadership!! (Not to mention that we’re still in the midst of this pandemic – no matter what he says and how we act – it has gone berserk today!!)

He is off to Ukraine today in a show of strength!! Who knows what Putin will make of a scarecrow showing up on the battlefield? He’ll laugh!! The UK has become the laughing stock of the world. We’re led by Coco the clown!!

The display in the House of Commons yesterday was shameful!! We have a Prime Minister guilty of lying to the public, lying to the Queen and lying to the House – yet totally dishonourably refusing to resign. He resorted to flinging far-right propaganda lies at Keir Starmer, claimed the opposition were all on drugs and made a spectacle of himself.

He refused to answer any questions. ‘Were you are the parties?’ ‘You’ll have to wait for the report!’ For fuck’s sake! He must know if he was there or not!! It stinks.

Praise Ian Blackford. He called him the liar he is and said he’d lied to the House and was kicked out.

That was the moment when every other MP with any morality should have stood up, called him a liar and walked out. Johnson would have been left with his immoral sycophants.

That would have gone down in history – I AM SPARTACUS!!!

How long do we have to put up with immoral Tories????

This clown is once again promising the earth – he will lift a £billion of Brexit Red tape (that’d still leave £29 billion loss!!). He will personally stop Russia from invading Ukraine. He will do anything to keep in power. He’s a conman. Like a serial killer he’ll go on making the same mistakes until he’s finally dealt with!!

I will never fathom out how poor working-class people think these overprivileged Tory millionaires, who take from the poor and give to the rich, have their interests at heart! It is utterly illogical!!

So, yesterday, I could not believe the figures I was seeing. Covid cases jumped from 62,000 the day before to 847,371. That is a staggering 14 times jump!! We’ve never seen numbers like that ever!!. Close to a million people caught covid the day before.

They are telling us that the death rate is low – just 56.

They are telling us that Omicron is milder than thought.

They are telling us that they are adding in reinfections for the first time. – What the fuck has that got to do with it? You either have covid or you don’t. Does it matter if you’ve had it before?? They should have been counted anyway!!

847,000 more cases and they are pretending this pandemic is over.

Death rates lag two weeks or more. Let’s see if it’s over in two weeks time!! This lifting of restrictions is a political decision. It was done because Johnson thought it would make him popular!

Stay safe!!

The Corona Diaries – Day 708

Posted on by Opher

Very blowy today – makes it feel colder than it is – but the sun was shining and the sky was blue!!

It’s been a busy day. I was focused and into some heavy editing. Trying to get the Captain Beefheart book finished and in to the publisher. On page 130 now!! Reworking sentences and retaining the meaning takes time.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, we have further erosion of democracy and open displays of arrogance, lies and deception.

Sue Gray produced a report that was intended to produce the facts. Due to Johnson and the police, it is now a report without facts!! It has become a farce.

The Lying Prime Minister stood up with neat and tidy hair. The shambolic clownish appearance being a ploy to appeal to a gullible group of the electorate.

The only facts we do have are these:

Of the 16 parties at Number 10 brought to the notice of Sue Gray 12 were considered serious enough to send to the police for criminal investigation.

Two of these involved the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister is now being investigated by the police for criminal activity.

The other 4 lesser cases were considered serious enough to warrant a castigation of Number 10 for lack of leadership and routine breaking of rules. The other 12 were more serious.

That the Prime Minister has lied to Parliament. He said on a number of occasions that no parties took place, that all rules were followed. These are lies. He knew about the parties and was at two of them!

The police have been sent 300 photos and 500 pages of evidence.

All our lying Prime Minister said was that he would review the codes and fix it. He stood up and tried to deflect the terrible truth by banging on about Brexit, Covid and the economy.

He said he got Brexit done. Yes, he did. He got a very badly negotiated Brexit done; a Brexit that will harm this country for generations.

He crowed about Covid without mentioning the fact that we had one of the worst death rates in the world.

He crowed about having the fastest rising economy in the G7 without mentioning that he’d produced the biggest slump. It’s easy to get a rise when the slump has been so bad.

He is now going to sack the Permanent Secretary and many other staff because he is not man enough to take the blame himself. It is everybody’s fault but his.

This man has no shame, no honour, no integrity and no moral authority. He is hiding behind the police.

At any other time a Prime Minister being investigated for crimes by the police would have the decency to resign.

He will not even commit to release the report in full ASAP.

The shame for the Prime Ministers wilful lying to parliament has tarnished the whole Tory Party. For them to go out on the media supporting this liar, parroting the mantra that they have practised.

Theresa May, who I do not have a lot of time for, spoke some sense. She said that it was the duty of the Prime Minister to set an example. Number 10 was not observing the rules. He thought the rules did not apply to himself.

He has dishonoured the office.

This was the evolution of his lying to Parliament:

‘I didn’t know there was a party. We followed all the covid rules. There was a party but all rules were broken. There was a party and rules were broken but I wasn’t there. I was there at some of the parties.’

We now await the Police Report on the Priminister’s criminality. It should be here in the next decade or so!!!

TALK ABOUT A WHITEWASH!! This is a travesty.

Boris Johnson said that we could trust him. HOW CAN ANYONE TRUST A SERIAL LIAR.

All the fool says is that we have to wait for the result of the Police Report.

This liar is unfit to hold office!! But, I expect that there are enough idiots out there who will support this moron.

The Tory Party and Tory voters should all hang their heads in shame. They are supporting immorality, greed and profiteering.

The report and the Prime Ministers response is utterly predictable. IT’S A FARCE!!!

This is a very bad day for democracy.

Nothing short of a resignation will do!!

So yesterday there were another 62,399 new cases with another 85 deaths. The pandemic seems to be receding.

This liar seems to be the luckiest person on the planet. Disaster after disaster.

I despair.

Stay safe. We are in the hands of a lying chancer.

The Corona Diaries – Day 707

Posted on by Opher

I’m a bit knackered today! Having a grandchild to stay for two days is pretty full-on. I’ve played so many games of Candyland that I( don’t think I ever want to see it again, let alone play it!!

We’ve been to Bridlington, walked along the beach in the sunshine and ate ice cream on the front!!

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, it feels as if we are in a hiatus. Our slippery lying Prime Minister is playing for time. He’s hanging by a thread and throwing everything he can at it. The Met need taking to court!!!

Over the next few weeks we’ll probably find him chucking money right left and centre.

There’ll be lots of ‘Levelling Up’ money chucked at the ‘Red Wall’ seats (all for show – none of it will make a lot of difference).

There’ll be money shoved at the ‘Cost of Living’ to show that, despite everything we know about greedy Tories, they really care about us plebs.

There’ll be money chucked at the ‘Care Home’ problem. Far too little, far too late.

Of course, the tax hikes and National insurance hikes will go ahead. They really don’t mind robbing from the poor. These are long-term.

Who will pick up the bill for splashing the cash?? It’ll be more debt for the future. They’ve been borrowing like mad (most of the billions either wasted or going to Tory chums). Oh how they crucified Corbyn for his proposed levels of borrowing.

The red meat is being thrown.

Next week, when the Sue Green report finally sees the light of day they’ll start wrecking the careers of a multitude of civil servants.

The huge price rises in food, petrol, gas, oil and gas which have sent the cost of living through the roof and sent inflation soaring will be blamed on the EU, or global reasons. It was predicted when Brexit was being discussed. They called it Project Fear. Well, Project Fear has all become Project Reality.

Brexit has cost us tens of billions. It has driven up prices and done huge damage. But these lying nutcases will never admit that they lied!!

For some this extra cost and inflation is worth it. At least let them be honest. The cost of Brexit will be paid over generations. We have wrested control back from those unelected EU bureaucrats and put it in the hands of a bunch of Public Schoolboy, toffee-nosed profiteers. It makes me quite nostalgic for those EU bureaucrats. These greedy Tories are so much more extreme and worse.

Oh for collaboration instead of this xenophobic isolation.

Where are all these wonderful trade deals? We were told the world would be queuing up!! Liars.

I bet we’re going to get a lot more about Ukraine. War is always a great distraction from any national issues!

I’m sick of all these Tory lies that have been trotted out this last week. Every singly Tory has been saying the same thing. I can imagine the meeting to ‘Save The Big Dog’ where they all decided what needed saying that would throw the electorate into confusion.

According to them Johnson is a great leader who has made all the right calls and got Brexit done. Which planet are they living on??

So yesterday there were either 62,399 or 72,143 new cases – depending on which sites you access. There were either 296 or 85 more deaths!!

With it hard to get hold of testing kits I wonder how accurate anything can be??

There is a huge difficulty in sorting out numbers of deaths. There have been 178,000 deaths – except that is probably an underestimate. It drives me nuts when idiots come out with stupid stats – like saying that only 17,000 have died from Covid. Plain stupid!!

Covid rarely kills on its own. It causes major problems with internal organs. It damages heart and lungs, kidneys and brain. It kills people with diabetes, asthma or immune problems. Death certificates will record the secondary reasons – asthma attack, heart attack and all manner of other problems – but they are all really Covid. Sometimes these deaths occur long after covid.

I see that Harry and Megan have joined Neil Young and Joni Mitchell in attacking Spotify for putting out false info on covid vaccination. That’s strange because I didn’t know that Harry and Meghan had a back catalogue on Spotify!

I’m definitely not using Spotify!! We’ve got more than enough fake news from the right-wing internet and Tories. I don’t need more!!

Stay safe!! Avoid Spotify! Shun those right-wing internet sites spewing Trumpist shit!! Don’t buy that propaganda newspapers!!

The Corona Diaries – Day 706

Posted on by Opher

We have one of our grandchildren staying with us this weekend. It’s going to be a busy weekend.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland democracy (or at least the insipid version we have of it) is being thrown to the wolves.

I had a terrible dream last night.

I dreamt that Johnson took charge of a machinegun and mowed down twenty troublesome reporters in full daylight, in front of the entire cabinet. He threw red meat to the electorate.

Johnson told the press that there was no machinegun.

When shown photos of him holding the machinegun he told everyone that had been thrust into his hands when he wasn’t looking.

When shown the receipt he had signed to procure the machinegun from the MOD he said that OK yes he had ordered the gun but no bullets.

When shown the receipt for the bullets with his signature on it he remembered he had ordered the machinegun and bullets because he had been intending to help defend Ukraine against the Russians.

When the cabinet were asked about the murder of the 20 reporters they all claimed not to have been there.

When shown photos showing they were there, it turns out that they were all looking out the window at the time and saw nothing.

When asked why he had mown down the reporters Johnson claimed there had something wrong with the trigger. He had followed all the rules putting it together but it had just gone off in his hands.

That it hadn’t been a massacre but a robust working exchange of views.

When the police were asked why they had not investigated the mass murder they said ‘What murder?’

Johnson then asked a civil servant that he employed to investigate him.

When it appeared that the civil servant wasn’t going to play ball and might say that the PM had deliberate killed the 20 reporters, Johnson got on the phone to his mates in the police.

He organised the cabinet to save the Big Dog’s skin. They all rushed out to tell everyone what a great job he had been doing on Brexit, Covid and everything else (glossing over deaths, rising prices, shortages, tax rises, National Insurance prices…..). He’d got all the big decisions right. They explained that there were huge problems that only Big Dog could solve – the War in Ukraine, the spiralling inflation, the cost of living, Care Homes etc. (Without mentioning that Big Dog was responsible for most of these problems). Were we going to put a trifle like a faulty trigger get in the way of dealing with these problems?

The civil servant was about to release a damning report saying that it was beyond doubt that Johnson had mown down the reporters.

The police stepped in to prevent the report being released so that they could spend the next forty years investigating whether Johnson had been there, whether the machine gun existed and if the accident of the faulty trigger was worth checking.

I woke in a sweat!!

You know I can’t help thinking that in the past any Prime Minister caught out lying and breaking the law would have resigned.

But then they at least had some integrity. This man is immoral. He can’t be trusted.

We have to remember back to then – people were fined for having a socially distanced cup of tea in the garden with the next-door neighbour.

Yet, according to these ministers trying to play down what has been going on at Number 10, it’s perfectly alright, just a trivial thing, for there to be a culture of parties of up to 50 people. Bring your own bottle, booze brought in disguised in shopping trolleys.

This isn’t just haphazard, impromptu, this is calculated, planned and carried out with arrogance. They made the law and did not believe it applied to them!

There were no parties!

All rules were followed!

They were work meetings!

Everyone involved will be punished.

I was only there for a short time!

It’s the dishonesty, the hypocrisy and the complete lack of integrity. These people have no honour. It is a culture that permeates the whole of the Tory culture and I believe it stems from their Public School entitlement. They believe they are superior. They think we are gullible, stupid and they can wriggle out of anything.

We’ll see.

So yesterday there were 89,176 new cases with 277 deaths – still higher than when we went to Plan B. Politically the pandemic is over. In reality it is still running high!

In the USA cases are higher than last autumn!.

The new variant is spreading even faster than omicron!! Yipee!!

Stupid claims that only 17,000 have died have been shown to be plain stupid. The real figure in now 178,000.

Good on Neil Young and Joni Mitchell for pulling their stuff from Spotify over its spreading of false antivaxxer garbage.

New studies show that in Long Covid there may be underlying lung damage (probably damage to other internal organs as well). They will affect people for life.

Don’t be a stubborn fool – look at the evidence – get vaccinated!

Stay safe!!

The Corona Diaries Day 705

Posted on by Opher

It’s still dry and mild today though not quite as sunny. I’ve been doing a bit of catch-up along with some editing of the Captain Beefheart book while playing some excellent Sonny Boy Williamson very loud!!

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland the slimy toad slip slips away, wearing a high vis jacket, doing his usual smirking photoshoots and avoiding answering any questions. He won’t appear anywhere where he might be held accountable.

The tactics are the same as ever – hide, avoid answering, keep low, wait for it to blow over, take the heat out, sooner or later everybody moves on and forgets.

The truth is that we have a lying, law-breaking Prime Minister leading an immoral band of profiteers. They are not fit to govern at the best of times and these aren’t the best of times.

The crimes are piling up. The accountability is being kicked down the road.

It’s one thing after another. International reneging on contracts just signed. Illegal Proroguing of parliament. Lying to the Queen. Illegal tendering for PPE equipment and Corona contracts. Lies about Care Homes. Lies about the £350 million on the side of a bus. Terrible number of deaths. Incompetent handling of covid. Illegal lobbying. Illegal breaking of parliamentary procedure. Now we have Liz Truss charging us £500,000 to take a fancy jet flight to Australia.

They arrogantly believe they can do what they like and are above the law!!

It’s all piling up!! Sue Gray’s Report, the Met investigation, future reports on how they handled Covid with all that illegal tendering, the peerages for cash, the audiences with Boris for cash, the wallpaper and Tory donors, the illegal lobbying, second jobs………………

Now we find that Sur Gray’s report has been scuppered. She can release but is not allowed to include anything that might be illegal. That’s the bulk of the report!! This is a farce!!! The police have to investigate and that might take months!!

The police didn’t have any trouble handing out on the spot fines to anyone caught having illegal gatherings. They did not take months to investigate all of those did they?

I can’t see how Sue Gray’s investigation can be anything other than helpful to the police. I bet she regrets passing it on to them before publishing it now!

So what are all those Tories going to do now? Look at a heavily redacted report that tells them nothing? Wait for the police report? Or go ahead and kick the lying cheat out!!

What the Tory backers of Johnson seem to want to cover up is that this isn’t about the cake at all. It isn’t even about the parties. It is about the arrogance of these Tory bastards who believe they are above the law. While everybody else has to do as they are told (to extremes – to the point of being separated from dying spouses) and the Tories can go on partying without regard. It is about the blatant lying to the House and to the public, vehemently denying there were any parties or wrong-doing when he was actually there at the parties! It’s about the morality and integrity of the twerp in charge.

This arrogant, entitled overgrown Billy Bunter has been gorging himself at our expense. He’s a lazy, careless, lying conman. He should never have been elevated to these positions.

The government is now paralysed as our resident clown is held hostage by rabid rightwingers. He can’t appeal to the nation to do anything as two thirds no longer believe a word he says and don’t trust the worm an inch.

So, yesterday there were another 96,155 new cases with 338 deaths in this pandemic that is now over. They forget to add that the levels are higher now than when we went to Plan B, that hotspots are springing up with cases soaring.

I was pleased to see that everybody in our supermarket today was wearing a mask!! Common sense and consideration for others rules. They are ignoring the clown!

Stay Safe!! Do what you know to be right!!

Today’s Music to keep me SsSSSAAaaAAnnNNeeee in Isolation – Sonny Boy Williamson

Posted on by Opher

One of the great Blues singers and harp players. A real showman.