A very cold frosty start! I set off for an early walk and slid about a lot!! Don’t really fancy a broken bone or two!! Got back OK.
I’ve been doing a bit of editing and measuring – I’m going to be applying my Do-It-Yourself skills!! I know. Don’t laugh!! I’m completely doing out my office/den and putting up shelves for the CDs so I can find them easier. I’m moving my writing desk and generally moving stuff around. Should keep me busy.
Storm Barra is beginning to make itself known – wind picking up, rain and freezing temperature. Could be quite breezy by tonight!!
Meanwhile, out in Coronaland our clown prince is starting another war on drugs in order to deflect from his illegal gatherings, sleazy deals and general incompetence. Looks like he might get away with it too!! Despite the fact that his disgusting law-breaking was worse than that of Dominic Cummings I don’t hear the war drums. The shit slides off him. It’s Trump all over again. For some reason people excuse these people everything. They could commit mass murder (actually, they have) and people would just shrug.
The most right-wing extremist government we’ve ever had is sliding along merrily pocketing our money and arrogantly ignoring all laws, rules and morality. They really are disgusting.
So, gradually we descend into an uncaring society that pillories scared, starving refugees, accepts profiteering, thinks that the poor deserve all they get and supports this unpleasant bunch of over-privileged twats who are busy ransacking the country and putting us in debt for generations to come.
Enjoy your austerity.
So yesterday we had another 50,850 new cases with another 180 deaths (only 41 on the official site!!). It’s still spreading.
The Omicron is now establishing itself in a number of regions. There were another 101 recorded cases taking the total to 437. But they think it’s spreading by stealth and evading tests!! The new variant is infecting kids more than the delta and seems to cause different symptoms – fatigue, rashes, loss of appetite and headaches. Early signs are that it is more transmissible than the Johnson variant.
The good news is that the drug sotrovimah works against it and so far (early days) nobody has been hospitalised! Maybe it is less lethal?? Time will tell.
I bet you’re all glad we’ve got a clown in charge!!
Stay safe!! Just a matter of time!!
It’s another cold, dank, foggy day in Yorkshire, not nice. However, being resolute I still took my walk up my hill. Soggy wet leaves, muddy road, fog-laden fields. Not as pleasant as in summer.
Not a lot to see – blackbirds and a small flock of finches. Very quiet.
Back home I’ve completed the rewrite/reorganisation/edit of my Beefheart book. It’s looking good. I will keep going through, reading, trying to improve the flow, making corrections, until I am happy. Then I’ll send it in to the publishers.
Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, our clown of a leader lies through his teeth. On a day when 54 people died of covid, families were forcibly kept apart, people were fined for breaking quarantine, police were involved in breaking up parties and fining hosts £10,000, Boris Johnson was holding illegal parties in 10, Downing Street.
While we were locked down the Tories were partying. The rules don’t apply to them. While we were being fined and threatened for meeting up with relatives Tories were galavanting together.
But Boris Johnson assures us no covid rules were broken. Then he’s a liar!
Under Tier 3 it was illegal for anybody to meet up apart from essential work.
So how is it that 40-50 Tories met up?
How can social distancing apply when they were crammed in one small room?
How can they pretend it was ‘work’ when there were alcoholic drinks, party games and nibbles?
These parties happened on a number of occasions.
Does he think we are stupid?
Are the police in his pocket?
There is no way on earth that the Tory parties did not contravene the law!!
As Tom Peck said – this is not about hypocrisy or even one rule for them and another for us; it’s about criminality!
Lock the lot of them up!!
So, yesterday there were another 51,459 new cases with 54 more deaths. Another 90 Omicron cases putting them up to 336.
Omicron is now out of control and spreading through the community. Within weeks it will be the dominant variant.
Is that good or bad? Well if it is less deadly than the Johnson Delta variant then it might not be too bad. If it is no less deadly and evades vaccines and reinfects those who have had it and is more transmissible it could be a disaster. Time will tell.
Those paying exorbitant prices quarantining in crappy rooms with lousy food are beginning to complain. They want the same food and drinks package that the Tories get at their illegal parties!! Unlike the Tories they are paying for theirs!!
It has come to light that a further 46 VIP PPE deals were given out to Tory chums. Befriend a Tory and get yourself a multimillion-pound deal!! You don’t even have to deliver. Just put together a lot of shoddy crap in your front room and they’ll not only pay you a few million but will store it at taxpayers expense!! You can’t lose!! You can walk off with a fortune.
Why work yourself silly for peanuts when you can become rich by doing nothing! Become a Tory!
Sarah Gilbert (our covid vaccine scientist): Next pandemic could be more lethal than Covid!! Perhaps a good idea for us and the world to put some money in!!
Stay safe!! Party party party! Pretend you’re a Tory!!
It’s been drizzly and cold so I consigned myself to a day of writing – reorganising and editing my Captain Beefheart book. Reorganisation requires a great deal of concentration or you can lose things and everything becomes confused.
I have got on top of it. The editing is going well – something I have to thank my friend Steve Froy for. He’s a Beefheart genius – great inspiration.
It is really good to get a real run at a piece of writing. While I can happily spend twelve hours nonstop writing something straight out of imagination – the ideas flow and carry me along – editing is more difficult. It requires a different kind of concentration, objectivity and analysis. I find I have to do it in bursts and stop after an hour to go and do something – even if it is only to make a cup of coffee.
Meanwhile, out in Coronaland there should be mounting fury. I’m not sure there is. The Tory Christmas Party Scandal.
IT’S WORSE THAN DOMINIC CUMMINGS!!!
He broke the rules and drove to Barnard Castle with the stupid excuse of testing his eyes!!
Boris Johnson flouted the rules that he and his party had introduced and held festive drinks parties in Number 10 for hundreds!! This was at the time that they had brought in tough laws for US!! We got fined for having friends round for a party. We got fined for going too far from home!! We could not meet up with family. We could not travel. Sick relatives could not be visited and died alone in hospital wards. We had the police busting in on us, neighbours reporting us and drones filming dog walkers.
Yet the Tories were all getting together in No. 10 for drinks and party games!!
One rule for you – another for us!!
I think that is ten times worse than what Cummings did!!
Even Raab admits that a party at Downing Street would have broken the rules.
Johnson states that no rules were broken. How can that possibly be??? If they had a social gathering of any description they were breaking the rules. Alcohol and games. On two occasions!!! How can that not be breaking the rules!
There’s one word for it – LIAR!!!
The usual Johnson response to all the lies and sleaze is to ignore it, to refuse to go on TV, refuse to answer reporters, to never apologise or explain, just keep his head down and wait for it to blow over.
People have short memories. He counts on the stupid not remembering. He thinks he can arrogantly disregard it all. He thinks that they put it all down to ‘just Boris being Boris’. But it’s not, is it?
It’s deceit and indicative of the underlying arrogance that is the Tory manner. They feel entitled to do what they like. They get away with murder.
It’s like that arrogant profiteering toff Ree-Mogg said: Jacob Rees-Mogg says: a “convivial fraternal spirit” means the Conservatives do not need to wear masks in the House of Commons “We on this side know each other.” So the rest of us peasants have to wear masks but the Tories don’t!!
How the privileged pull the wool over the eyes of the ignorant!!
So, yesterday there were 42,848 new cases with 127 more deaths. A little down but it is the weekend. We’ll see.
There were another 86 Omicron cases and a leading scientist says that the border arrangements have come too late. They should have been monitoring what was going on around the world and reacting quicker. A pattern of behaviour.
Right now the government is still pretending that we are back to normal. There is no need for plan B although there is likely to be stringent measures after Christmas. The indoors socialising will spread the Omicron very nicely. A Christmas present from the government to the virus.
The NHS is incredibly overstretched (having been starved of funds for twelve years by the Tories). It is already dreading the usual winter surge of illnesses. If the Omicron takes off and causes hospitalisations it’s in trouble.
I suppose that the government is planning just like they’ve done with everything else – Brexit, Covid, hauliers, tariffs, Northern Ireland, trade deals, supply lines, veg pickers, fishermen………………… immaculate planning ahead and solving problems NOT!!!
Their hostile environment and Brexit frenzy has driven nurses, doctors and carers out. The response – a shrug of the shoulders.
They do not care.
Stay safe!! We’re in the hands of profiteering, sleazy morons!
It’s still mighty cold, wet and miserable here in Yorkshire. How long until summer?? Can’t wait. I don’t like winter!!
I stayed in and edited my Captain Beefheart book, played some Larry Williams and then went out for an extended lunch with friends in defiance of covid. It seems strange. But I guess that being triple vaccinated must provide good cover until the Omicron variety establishes itself. We might have a narrow window of opportunity!!
Back home I’m about to do a bit more editing and then watch some Sens8 on TV. Quite enjoying this Sci-fi series.
Meanwhile out in Coronaland, our lying leader says that no covid rules were broken with the parties (yes – no longer a party – more than 1) that he and fellow Tories held last November and December. DuuuuuHHHH????? How can that be?
Last November and December the country was in strict lockdown. We were not allowed to gather. There was to be no mixing at all – punishable with big fines.
Now, let me see, which part of that is hard to understand??? No gathering. Strictly banned. Enforced with big fines. All pretty straightforward.
Who brought these laws in? The Tory government.
So who chose to break the law? The Tory government.
In clear breach of the law of the land that they had themselves just brought in they chose to break the law and hold drinks parties in Number 10.
So families were prohibited from meeting up, dying relatives could not be visited, friends and lovers were kept apart, all enforceable by law and brought in by the Tories, but Boris Johnson thought that it was perfectly OK for him to have a bunch of colleagues round for a party or two.
On the face of it that doesn’t sound terrible – until you start thinking about the massive impact that had on people, the huge mental strain, the way families and lovers were kept apart. Until you start thinking about the huge fines doled out to people who held drinks parties in defiance of the law; the way they were, at the behest of the government, raided and arrested. The fuss there was over people out walking their dogs too far from home.
Yet, the government who made the laws clearly felt that the law did not apply to the likes of them. This wasn’t even Dominic Cummings visiting a castle; this was a party in Number 10.
Talk about arrogant entitlement!!
So today there was another 50,573 new cases with another 143 deaths. It’s building for Christmas – and this is before Omicron kicks in.
Speaking of Omicron (and the brilliance of our £37 billion track and trace teams) the number of cases doubled yesterday. It went up by 75 to 150. At that rate of increase in two weeks time we’ll have two and a half million cases!!
The new variant is more transmissible, infects people that have had the disease easily, avoids vaccines and will put us back to square one very quickly.
The good thing about it is that it may not be as lethal. We’ll see.
We could see ourselves back in a strict lockdown before Christmas. Scientists are saying that the pandemic could last five years. We might have to wait until March to get a vaccine against the variant.
Looks a bit messy.
So what action are we taking to stop this happening?? – er… none.
Where is our leader?? Er….. nowhere.
We’re back to ignoring experts and keeping fingers crossed.
I reckon we’ve got a small window where us fully vaccinated are relatively safe but as soon as the Omicron starts to spread I’m locking down!!
Do as they say – not as they do!! The laws are for you – not for them!!
Stay Safe!! Remember to do as you’re told!!
Not quite so cold today. The snow has melted and it is no longer icy. I worked on my Captain Beefheart book, listened to some Talking Heads and then we walked into Driffield for a gelato at Robertos. Scrumptious and indulgent.
Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, the Tories dipped 10% in the by-election. I am amazed any fools are still voting for them People are blind. Like Trump they must be laughing themselves silly. They know that the sheep will still vote for them no matter what they do. Sleaze, corruption, self-serving – means nothing. The Turkeys vote for Christmas.
Yesterday we had another 53,067 new cases with 143 deaths. It’s going up!
The Omicron variant is already spreading!! We have 42 confirmed cases now!! Looks like that genie is out of the bottle. Fortunately, we have splurged £37 billion on a track and trace system so that should be alright then. Surely, with £37 billion they can keep the lid on a mere 42 cases? I reckon I could do that myself! If only I was a Tory I could probably get a multimillion contract to do just that. You don’t need experience or results. Just deposit the cash directly to the Cayman Islands.
So now, without any leadership, we are tottering towards a future lockdown with more and more restrictions.
Better late than never.
It seems that this Omicron variant likes reinfecting those who have already had it!!
Perhaps it’ll get Johnson at one of his illegal Number 10 gatherings. That’d be poetic justice!!
I wonder how keen the nurses, with their pay-cut rewards, will be to sit up with him through night after night saving him from death?
Hopefully, the whole cabinet will be at the drinks party at Number 10 and the whole lot of the entitled, overprivileged arseholes will go down with Omicron. Serves the elitist, arrogant, rule-breaking bastards right!!
We can but hope!!
Stay safe!! It’s just a pandemic!
A descent into the depths of winter. I got up this morning to a scene of snow and have been cold all day!! The aerial we had repaired is broken again. Everything is gloomy. Days are short. It’s bloody freezing!!
I want to go somewhere warm!! Africa will do nicely!
I’ve been in all day playing some great Fleetwood Mac and editing my Beefheart book. Didn’t get out for a walk. Hardly been out.
It’s too bloody cold!!
Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, it’s hotting up for our resident clown. In order to distract from the sleaze and corruption, the incompetence, cronyism and disasters he is doing what every populist clown has done – he’s looking for scapegoats, using racism and xenophobia and distracting everyone on to something else.
The French are handy.
The immigrant disaster is their fault.
Immigrants are foreigners. We don’t want them here.
The fact that Brexit has been a disaster and we do not have the workforce or skills to deliver so we are bringing in people from Africa and Asia to cover the shortages is being covered up. We’re busy replacing EU workers with other foreigners.
The shortages and rising costs are all due to world-wide problems – nothing to do with Brexit.
The covid mismanagement is ignored.
Nobody is challenging them. They are not being scrutinised. Their lies are not being exposed. They refuse to appear on TV. They have a huge majority in parliament so ride all the usual scrutiny there.
This lot are treating us with disdain. They think they can do what they like while we have to do what we’re told.
So the Tories Party while we are told to isolate!! We get fined if we break the rules and they can do what they want!!
Bastards!!
It’s time Johnson got a severe metaphorical kick in the pants.
So, yesterday we had a big surge in cases – up to 53,945 with 171 deaths. Not good!!!
The WHO says delay boosters. They are obviously thinking we are going to need a new Omicron vaccine.
The evidence is mounting that the Omicron variant evades antibodies and reinfects people who’ve had covid as well as those vaccinated. Hence it will infect large numbers. There are a lot of hosts.
The good news is that it seems to be causing less severe illness and the vaccines work to an extent.
The other two bits of good news is that a Omicrom vaccine could be available in January and the drug sotrovimah should work.
That does raise the question as to why they are not using that drug on our extremely ill patients??? 171 deaths is a lot!
Stay safe!! Pandemics usually burn themselves out in around 3 years.