William Burroughs, with the amazing voice, recorded a number of works to musical backing. I find them fascinating and hypnotic.
Very explicit words.
Brexit, Johnson and the Virus – cartoons
The Corona Diaries – Day 182.
‘I I I need to tell the great British people, aaaah, gashooks, that we are in great peril! Periculum magni! Gosh, it’s bad!’
‘There, there, there is only one answer. By Zeus. We’ve got to all come together to, aah, errr, fight this enemy. By Jove.’
‘We’ll um, er, wotsit, fight it in the fish and chip shops. Yes we will! In the supermarkets. Gosh. And in the pubs, yes the pubs. We, er, er, will stop at nothing! We will never, er, ever, surrender!’
‘And, and, this is why I’m telling the British people, the er gosh, freedom-loving people of our great country, that we have to, awf awf, destroy this virus, by golly, drive it into the sea! We shall, er er, never bally stop!’
‘So today I am taking major strides towards, yew yew, aaagh, making us all safe. And, and and we have to jolly well follow the rules. It’s jolly important! So from today the pubs will shut at 10 pm! That’ll show the blighter! We’re changing, arf arf, aaagh, social distancing to aaah, 1 metre 26, outside and .954 of a metre inside, or something like that. I can’t quite remember what that Whitty fellow said. Anyway, keep apart, except if you’re very rich er er, then you can shoot grouse and party all night because, aaaah aaaah, you won’t be spreading the disease. teams can play sport but, aaah, aaah, arf, they can only have three in a team, unless, aaah, urgh, they are all from the same family, or or or similar families, then it can be up to, um um a hundred. But er, er, only if they wear knee-length boots to er protect against airborne virus on the grass.’
‘And, um, er, er, remember – you have to jolly well work from home – but nip out to buy sandwiches and er er gosh, always use public transport! And er arf arf, wear a mask – though not one of me – or aaaah that serial killer chappie.’
‘So, err, eat out to save my arse and stay in to aaaah,save yours.’
‘So, arf arf, my friends, remember, we’re all in it together. An an an to jolly well bring into line, all those arf, pesky youngsters out partying like there’s no tomorrow – well actually, there isn’t any tomorrow, is there arf arf – we’re going to um er er fine you all, well huh, not quite all of you, but those blighters not following the rules, to the letter. My good friend Rishi says we need the cash. This, er er bally virus, is costing us a fortune! So it’ll be £10,000 quid a pop! Straight, um um, from your bank into, er eer, my pocket!’
‘I’m jolly, er, glad, we cleared all that up! Now it’s bally well past two-o-clock – er errr, time for my bottle of red and, err er, my afternoon nap.’
I always find it exhilarating to hear our illustrious leader speak. He manages to clarify things in such a magnificent manner. His oratory and use of language reminds me of Churchill after his fifth bottle.
So nice to see him being allowed out to use the teleprompter. I bet Cummings had his heart in his mouth.
It’s so good to see that despite being in a terrible state with a fast-rising rate (up to 4,368 new cases yesterday and science experts predicting up to 50,000 cases a day if this rate continues, hospital cases rising fast and death not too far behind) Johnson is proposing to shut pubs by 10.00 pm. That’ll stop it! There’s nowt like firm, decisive action – and this is nothing like firm, decisive action.
In the States there was another 39,127 cases and 426 deaths, while in Brazil it was only 13,439 with 377 deaths!
Today, being the last day of summer and temperatures of 22 degrees here in Yorkshire, we headed out for the day onto the moors. Walked up to the Roman road and had a drive around – glorious.
Tomorrow the temperatures drop and autumn is upon us. I wonder what autumn and winter, under the heroic leadership of Johnson, Rees-Mogg and Cummings, has in store for us?
Stay Safe everyone!
Today’s Music to keep me SSSSAAAANNNNEEEE in Isolation – Cliff Richard
OK – I guess you think I’ve really gone nuts – that isolation has done me in. Maybe.
But Cliff, before he became a sugary-sweet pop, mainstream Christian boy – was probably Britain’s greatest Rock ‘n’ Roller. His first album and first few singles were dynamite.
If he had died then we’d be in awe of how good he was (instead of thinking of him as wet).
Take a listen to this:
(unfortunately that first album is not on youtube – it’s been removed). this is Cliff as you might not have heard him.
Todays Music to keep me Saaaannnee – Tom Paxton.
The Corona Diaries – Day 180
Even though it was a lot cooler and cloudy we managed a nice walk up my hill. There was an amazing sight. I heard a lot of loud cawing and looked behind me to find a whole group of hundreds of crows massing together, flying round in spirals, rising upward and cawing loudly. They rose high in the sky, drifted away and then disappeared. I’d never seen crows behave quite that way. Very interesting. Anybody know what that was about?
Nature is amazing.
Back home I started back on my Roy Harper book and played some Carl Perkins to get my blood flowing!
Outside in coronaland it’s becoming dire. The rate of new cases has risen to 4422 with 27 deaths. It’s on the up. The government has let it get out of control again. Sadiq Khan called them hapless. He’s right. They are useless. We are well past the level where we locked down last time and that was too late.
They are now talking about £1000 fines for those who break isolation and are talking about giving £500 relief to poor families who have to isolate. I wonder what hoops you have to jump through to get that?
It is obvious that a lot of things need to tighten up and work better if we are to regain control – the testing, tracking and tracing must surely be top of that list. Working from home, not meeting inside (pubs and restaurants) and avoiding public transport must be part of it.
They are talking about a 2-week lockdown to act as a circuit breaker.
What would be good would be if Johnson was to start giving us a daily explanation of thinking and action – to start to really put us in the picture. But the Tories would rather keep him out of sight because he keeps putting his foot in it. With Johnson and Rees-Mogg who needs enemies?
The sad truth is that with parliament not functioning properly, emergency conditions and an eighty seat majority this inept bunch of extremists are not accountable for anything they do on Covid or Brexit. They are literally getting away with murder!
Trump must be getting pretty desperate – still trailing badly in the polls and another 43,628 new cases and 672 deaths. Bolsonaro likewise, 33057 new cases and 735 deaths.
Populists are literally killing people!
It’s up to us! Stay safe!
Today’s Music to keep me SSSaaaaNNNeee in Isolation – Carl Perkins
Today’s Music to keep me SSAAANNNNEEE in Isolation – Paul Simon.
The Corona Diaries – Day 179
Another fabulous day in Yorkshire. We got our flu jabs and went for a walk on the wolds – down Holm Dale, up Horse Dale, to the pub at Huggate! Have a pint and a baguette and walked back!
Fabulous!
Back home I started on my Roy Harper book and felt like a bit of Paul Simon to chill me out!
So here we are – back in the second wave of Coronavirus – as if we could not see that coming! Perhaps Johnson is regretting telling people to get back to work in their offices and on the public transport? Perhaps eating inside and drinking inside was not a good idea – particularly when the weather was nice enough for outside? Perhaps he should have sacked Cummings? Perhaps he shouldn’t have said it’ll be all over by Christmas and sent out wrong messages?
Perhaps he should have said he’s got some oven-ready coffins and a world-beating plan to do worse than anybody else?
Perhaps operation moonshot should be to fire him off into outer space??
It’s a mess! Another 4322 new cases – far higher than when we locked down.
Another 27 deaths – steadily up – and lagging a few weeks behind the hospital cases (which are rising quickly).
We’ve had 600 health workers dead so far. They are putting themselves on the line and can’t even get a lousy pay rise! While Johnson is complaining that he can’t manage on what he’s pulling in! I wish he’d try and live on a nurse’s pay!
Once again they are dithering and leaving it too late. They should have taken measures quickly days ago. No inside eating/drinking. Work from home. Avoid public transport.
GET THE BLOODY TRACK AND TRACE SYSTEM WORKING!!!!
It’s not moon rocket science.
Meanwhile in the States Trump is getting desperate as Biden continues to enjoy a substantial lead. The death of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg is going to be a major fight. The Republicans, who opposed Obama putting a judge in, now seem fine in trying to steamroller a conservative judge in. Hypocrisy???
Olivia Troye a previous member of the covid taskforce, attacks Trump and claims that he called his own supporters ‘Disgusting people he no longer had to shake hands with’.
Trump claims that a vaccine will be available by November. Biden says listen to the scientists not Trump.
I reckon I’d listen to the scientists.
The mud is being slung.
The virus is on the increase – 47136 new cases and another 946 deaths. It’ll soon be 130,000 deaths!
In Brazil Bolsonaro is pissed off – only 39797 new cases and 858 deaths – so he’s having the amazon rainforest burnt down! That should distract everyone – seeing animals being fried!
Anyway, enough! Stay safe!
The Corona Diaries – Day 178
Today was another sunny day in Yorkshire. I went for an early walk up my favourite hill. I find a two-hour walk allows my mind time to think.
Today I thought about capitalism, democracy, the destruction of the environment, right-wing propaganda, Trump, Coronavirus, poetry, the Israeli/Palestinian situation and my Roy Harper book.
I came back feeling a bit refreshed!
Before setting to work I had to move furniture and lay some new rugs. Then I played Roy Harper’s first album, answered some emails and started work!
These days in Coronaland are strange.
Dewin sent me an article from the Guardian pointing out how the government has been caught out lying again. They knew all along that kids passed the virus on as good as any adult but they wanted to open schools – so they lied. I wonder how many school workers will die or become severely ill?? A price worth paying?? Maybe.
I just wish they would be honest. We have become so used to Johnson lying that we accept it. He’s like Trump. People accept that they live by other rules.
The virus is now at a higher level than when we went into lockdown. The increase is all over the country. Their policy of stamping out local outbreaks has failed. The government is dithering and panicking again. They are considering taking nation-wide measures.
So what went wrong this time? Another easy one.
The Dominic Cumming episode meant that the public no longer did what they were told. One rule for us another for them.
All semblance of order disappeared and we started seeing people congregating and flouting the rules.
Secondly, Dido Harding failed. Track and Trace wasn’t good enough. With the virus spreading asymptomatically we needed a robust system. We did not get one. It is quite laughable when she says that nobody saw the need for increased testing once people were sent back to work, public transport became packed, schools and universities went back and people were intermingling like before. Really?? Wasn’t it her job to plan ahead?
Thirdly, we didn’t get an app.
They are bunging old people back into the Care Homes again! A bit like Daniel being thrown to the lions. But they are kindly giving PPE to the Care Homes. So the Care Workers will be able to care for the dying a bit easier. It seems that not enough pensioners were killed with the first wave. We’ve got to pay for the Corvid crisis somehow.
On a positive front, it appears that there is a new test out that works on saliva and produces results in 90 minutes – but may not be suitable for mass testing. Is this what Johnson is pinning his hopes on for his Moonshot??
Our cases have soared up to 4322 yesterday with 27 new deaths and hospital critical care up by half. Quite scary. Much higher than when we went into lockdown. Lessons learnt??
In the USA it has jumped up to 42,592 with another 849 deaths.
In Brazil it was 36,303 new cases and 829 deaths.
So today’s winner of ineptitude goes to Trump and the USA!! Raa Raa!!
On that sad note, I leave you. Stay safe! I’m getting back to work.