Lol – Thanks to John Peachey for these. I’ll put them out in threes so you can savour them. I think they are brilliant and sum up the stupidity that is going on!!
The Corona Diaries – Day 170.
Ha Ha Ha Ha – excuse me while I laugh. Operation Moonshot – mass testing of the whole country. Ha Ha Ha Ha. They can’t even deliver the limited testing we’ve got now! How many times have we been hived off with these grandiose, exaggerated soundbites??? We’ve had world-beating apps, world-beating PPS, world-beating Track and Trace, imaginary protective rings, world-beating vaccines (now stalled), oven-ready Brexit, Deals that are the best deals ever (now considered so bad we have to renege on our word and flout international law).
I’m sick of arrogant soundbites! I’m sick of the arrogance, incompetence and stupidity. They are treating us like fools.
Now we have mass testing Operation Moonshot – more likely a £1 rocket left over from the last Guy Fawkes day, likely to go off like a damp squib.
Today I feel ashamed, tainted by these Bullingdon boys total disregard for the law or the electorate. With a majority of 80, no election for another three years and still enjoying a lead in polls, they think they can do anything – and they are. They don’t really care. They know they can make a complete pig’s ear of the whole thing and then waltz off into a life of luxury as they are offered huge sums of money for doing next to nothing – just like Cameron, Osborne and May. It’s the rest of us who will pick up the bill!
Our covid cases are shooting up – another 2699 yesterday, and the deaths are starting to rise too – 10 yesterday. As there is a two to three-week gap between rises in cases and deaths, we can expect that increase to come through further down the line.
Meanwhile, in Trumpville, the virus is on the rise again – another 29,946 new cases yesterday and another 1176 new cases. Trump is wriggling. He now claims he deliberately downplayed the virus so as not to panic people. I imagine that over 190,000 deaths is pretty scary. Maybe if he had reinforced the safety procedures – distancing, handwashing and masks – instead of calling it a hoax a good number of those 190,000 might still be alive! The bleach doesn’t seem to be working on this ‘hoax’. Or is it a ‘Deep State’ plot????
The same thing is happening in Brazil where Bolsonaro is overseeing another drastic burning of rainforests while the rate goes up to 35,816 new cases and 1075 deaths.
All these clowns care about is wealth and power!!
I walk to forget. I did a 16.5K walk today on the beautiful Yorkshire Wolds. Up roman roads, past 2nd World War airfields, neolithic earthworks and the beautiful ‘slacks’ (valleys). I’ll put some photos up soon. The sun shone for half the time and there was a delightful old abandoned church.
Back home I’ve been playing a bit of Charlie Poole.
Great stuff.
Stay Safe everyone!
Today’s Music to keep me SAAANNNEEEE in Islolation – Charlie Poole
The Corona Diaries – Day 169
Here we are 169 days into lockdown and isolation and we are actually going backwards! The numbers are rising and heading for a second wave and Test and Trace is a farce sending people to the other side of the moon to get tested. We have schools back and already closing. We have pubs and restaurants opening and closing like a pair of scissors in a dress-making factory. We have soundbites and dithering and an invisible Johnson – though that’s probably for the best and why they are keeping in out of the limelight.
What we need are facts and leadership! We want a leader who will stand up every day and tell what is happening and what we should be doing and why!
Why aren’t we getting that?
It’s obvious why – Johnson’s blustering is so incoherent he’s a liability. He doesn’t understand and can’t lead. He is unclear in his speech and can’t talk properly.
Nobody knows what the hell is going on, what the rules are or what they are meant to be doing. A lot of the younger people think it’s all over or that it doesn’t affect them. As soon as Cummings and Johnson’s father flouted the rules they think anything goes. Many people now believe that the virus is no longer lethal. Trump’s hoax garbage is being taken up over here. There is talk of herd immunity!
The problem we have is the delay between the new cases and the hospitalisation and death. There is a two to three-week gap!
The Russians seem to have an effective vaccine. Will we use it?? We’d rather die!
The problem is that Johnson chucked all the semi-sane Tories out in a big pure – people like Rory Stewart, Kenneth Clarke and Philip Hammond were unceremoniously dumped. What we have left are a bunch of mad Brexiteers. They are incompetent and rabid. All that is in their heads is Brexit at any cost.
I just arrived home from a walk with friends to find the invisible man Johnson has been reading my blog and surfaced! The government is looking at the figures – another 2659 cases today – 30 more deaths. – and saw that we were heading for another bout of mayhem.
At last, we have a bit of clarity and some universal law that people can understand – no gathering in groups above six in number, socially distance, wash your hands and take care.
I want this sort of consistent message every day! I want explanation and reasons. I want to know the outcome if we don’t. It’s only taken 169 days to get to this! Billy Bunter has finally started doing what he should be doing every single day!! Is that it? Will he disappear tomorrow??
He talks of mass testing and getting back to normal by Christmas. Bloody Hell!! We can’t even do the testing we’re meant to be doing now! What chance have we got???
I had a nice walk. I enjoyed playing my Bruce Springsteen. It’s time for tea!! All the best. Stay safe!!
The Corona Diaries – Day 168
A nice warm day today as I walked up my hill to survey the world – back in T-shirt again. There is still not much sign of any nature since they mowed the verges though. A dozen cabbage white butterflies is not much to show for a 10 K walk.
I came back – did a bit of writing and played some Albert Collins. It was too nice to stay indoors so I headed for the garden to do some reading.
Outside in the unreal world, it’s the same old shit.
Incredibly the gap between Trump and Biden is narrowing and the Tories are still in the lead. Such is the power of the media and the depth of human gullibility.
According to the WHO we’re on the verge of a second wave of Covid-19. It is now 6000 new cases in the last two days! The death rate is low but hospital entry is going up. The deaths lag a few weeks behind.
I’m afraid there’s been too much complacency and too much meeting up. The government have been sending the wrong messages. This is far from over. We are seeing the results of pubs and restaurants. With schools now back I think we’re going to see a big escalation. Already 160 schools have reported cases. It’s just the tip of an unseen iceberg.
This disease is not a hoax and it isn’t getting any weaker. Kids are now going down with the nasty Kawasaki symptoms – inflamed heart and blood vessels, fit young people are still ill after months – they are calling it long covid.
The stats show that the biggest increase in numbers is among the 20 and 30 year-olds. Too many are not social distancing. They think they are safe.
Our Track and Trace is still pathetic and not doing its job. Unfortunately, we cannot count on the government for anything! They are hopeless. All that is in their head is Brexit (and the amount of dosh some of them are going to make out of it). Oven-ready???? World-beating????? What a joke!!!
The country is in a mess. As furlough ends the real extent of the damage is becoming clear. Already firms have filed for over 300,000 redundancies.
In both Brazil and the USA Covid-19 cases appear to be going down – but I’m not sure I trust the figures.
Brazil had another 10,273 cases and 310 deaths, while the USA had 26,850 new cases and 261 deaths,
We’ll see how that goes in future days.
The clowns in charge press ahead with their power madness, greed and stupidity. How I hate being ruled by the Bullingdon Boys – a bunch of inept overprivileged toffs. Who put Billy Bunter in charge of our country? But then, who put the ignorant orange clown in charge of the States?
Stay safe everyone!
Today’s Music to keep me SSSaaaaNNNNeeeee in Isolation – Albert Collins – The Ice Man.
The Corona Diaries – Day 167 (with Billy Bunter on Methedrine)
Today is a bit mixed – still quite warm but showery. I went for a nice 10 K walk this morning, read some of the really interesting Humankind and am playing Jackson Browne – which is very pleasant.
Apart from trimming the wisteria, I am working on my Harper book!
Predictably the morons in charge of us are messing up all over the place. Who knows what a mess Brexit is going to be???????
Johnson goes into this school doing his Billy Bunter impersonation, spluttering over the kids and telling them that all measures are in place and it’s safe. Now that school is among the first to go down with the virus. No wonder one of the kids called him an arsehole! He is an arsehole.
Kids education is important but this half-arsed way is ridiculous. They should have gone in to talk with the teaching staff about what was required and how to do it instead of just arrogantly issuing orders, failing to give support, advice, funds or assistance. What a bunch of tossers.
The first thing that should have been in place was the testing of staff with regular follow-up testing. That should have been along with testing for all students with symptoms.
But then that would probably have meant everybody having to travel to Scotland or Germany to get tested.
The leap in cases to nearly 3000 yesterday caused one of the scientific advisers to comment that they had lost control. That is, of course, complete rubbish. They have never been in control from day one.
Eat out to Help out and slim down for COVID. Opening restaurants, pubs and schools, encouraging people to use public transport, Barnard Castle, it’ll all be over by Christmas, mixed messages, U-turns, 2 metre – no 1 metre, changing messages, face masks are useless, no they are essential, you have to go back to the workplace, being in the same unventilated room for 15 minutes is dangerous, no it’s safe, kids can’t catch it – oh Kawasaki syndrome, – is it any wonder that the virus is going back through the roof! We’re being led by idiots.
People no longer understand what they are meant to be doing. Most think it’s all over. Many think it’s a hoax. Many think it’s been overstated. Many think it is no longer lethal.
No wonder – our buffoon is not out there explaining it clearly and leading. All we get are photo ops and spluttering garbage. It’s like Billy Bunter on methedrine.
It will take two weeks before we start seeing the rise in deaths as a result of the rise in cases – then we’ll see if it is still lethal or not. If Brazil and the USA are anything to go by, with around a thousand deaths a day, I reckon it’s as bad as ever.
Today’s Music to keep me sanEEEEE in Isolation – Jackson Browne
The Corona Diaries – Day 166
Not such a beautiful day today. It’s raining. But we had a nice morning and I partook of my usual 10K walk with the sun shining. There was a little wildlife around – rabbits and a squirrel, but I’m not seeing anything like the same since they moved all the verges. I think they did for it.
I was brave today; I ventured into a supermarket. Lidls had some fabulous Pastel de Natas. Worth the risk.
It seems that Trumpism is permeating the global consciousness. They had a big rally in Scotland against masks and lockdown. They wanted things back to normal.
I want things back to normal too. I just don’t want to die. If we we go back to normal hundreds of thousands will die.
In the middle of a pandemic, we have to take precautions in order to stop the virus from spreading out of control. We have an inept, dithering government, but I can work it out for myself – distancing, handwashing and masks all make perfect sense. We are dealing with ignorance and stupidity. It’s like the Trump virus is spreading as much as the Corona. This virus is no hoax!
In the UK today there were 1813 new cases and the deaths were up to 12.
There is a debate to be had over whether the virus is less lethal and one to be had over whether we should allow the young to mingle and get the disease in order to create herd immunity. I’d leave that to the scientists who have the data.
Once more I would say that I want good clear information – not this subterfuge and muddled crap.
The USA and Brazil are good examples of what not to do. In the USA there was another 42,080 cases and 711 deaths. In Brazil, it was 31,199 new cases with 701 deaths (but they are up and down like a yoyo). When you have leaders actively promoting fake cures and giving out the message that it’s a hoax or some Deep State plot, the gullible are in trouble. Every one of those hundreds of deaths is a family affected. Most of those could have been saved with good leadership.
I’ll leave you on that note to get back to writing my Harper book. Stay safe!