I had to laugh today – there was Tory fury when it was leaked that Rule Brittania and Land of Hope and Glory were being looked at with a view to drop them from the last night of the Proms due to their slavery connections. Never mind the jingoistic nationalism or patriotic xenophobia. Tories went ape-shit!! That’s what they stand for!! They still mentally inhabit the days of empire and colonial subjugation – that’s where all their wealth came from!!
I suggested using Roy Harper’s ‘I Hate The Whiteman’ as the new national anthem! Better still, we could ask him to write one!
Today has been a bit of a wash-out. It’s been raining most of the day and the cricket has been washed out! Tragedy! I couldn’t go for a walk so I did my exercise on the treadmill listening to Phil Ochs, Billy Bragg and Linton Kwesi Johnson.
I came back and started work on my book again – I’ve nearly completed the rewrite. I was then playing some George Harrison to raise my spirits!! Good old George!!
On the virus front, there is news of people becoming reinfected both here and in Hong Kong. That’s not good news for either herd immunity or a vaccine.
Trump is looking to fast-track the vaccine – which really could be a bad day for safety. If the vaccine had adverse reactions in just 1% of people that would put millions at risk of damaging their health – and those symptoms might take time to become apparent. Vaccines do not always work – sometimes they can make it more deadly should someone get the disease. There are no safety short-cuts. They need thorough testing on large numbers – but then all that is in Trump’s head is re-election – he really doesn’t care about peoples’ health – I think he has quite clearly demonstrated that.
The reduction in death-rates in the UK, which has been quite dramatic – just 6 yesterday, is attributable to the younger age of the victims coupled with much better treatments. That’s good news. At least the NHS is doing a better job than the government!
Johnson has popped up out of hiding. He is urging parents to send children back to school next week – sacrifice them for the good of the nation (along with their teachers)! You have a moral obligation! Once they are in school you can get back to your zero-hours slavery and boost the economy!! The wealthy need you!
An interesting snippet was that a survey found that kids are less stressed despite the pandemic. It seems that life among their peers, in school, or hanging out, is more stressful than fear of the virus. That that tell us something about bullying levels?
So on day 154 of my isolation, the UK staggers along with 1041 new cases but only 6 deaths.
Meanwhile, out there in the land of John Wayne another 33,618 cases were registered with 565 deaths – people are still saying it’s a hoax and everything should be opened up and threatening to start a civil war if it isn’t. My my!!
In Brazil with the callous Bolsonaro, who loves playing to his base as much as Trump does, there’s another 17,078 new cases and 565 deaths.
All the worst countries in the world have the same populist fools who only care about cash!
So endeth day 154!! Take care everyone!! Stay Safe!!