- The numbers (of cases) speak for themselves. They are increasing and they are not going to decrease quickly. (OBVIOUS)
- I think it is likely that some measures of restriction are going to need to be in place for a while to try and get those numbers down.. (MEANINGLESS - for how long and OBVIOUS)
- A lot depends now on what happens over the next few weeks.(OBVIOUS)
- At the moment, the numbers are heading in the wrong direction but there are some signs in some places of a potential flattening off of that. (OBVIOUS and MEANINGLESS as the flattening out might be in the Scilly Isles)
- We need to wait and see and monitor the numbers very carefully.(OBVIOUS)
October 1st 2020 - ACROSS THE STAGNANT POND
The current POTUS made it clear when he came into office that he had one aim for his country and, on Tuesday night, he proved to me, without a shadow of a
doubt that he had achieved it. If his performance is indicative of the United States way of life than I have to say I have never heard anything that would grate on me more
than his display.
He was rude, disrespectful, ignorant, ill-mannered, incapable of answering any question, full of himself and, in my humble opinion, a bumbling buffoon. If you
reflect on the fact that this man leads one of the most powerful countries in the world, you can only live your life in fear. He failed to condemn a right wing white
supremacist organisation then tweeted something different. When asked about the organisation he said he'd never heard of them but, sadly, this is an approach he
has taken before when he is questioned on a statement he has made. He denies it although recordings actually exist of him saying it.
It really is an amazing world that we live in. Still, let's hope that after November we can all hope that the United States might move toward becoming great
again, if it ever was, and no longer just grate on us all from everything the POTUS does.
October 2nd 2020 - THINKING YOU KNOW BETTER AND DISCOVERING YOU DON'T
Not wishing harm on anyone, I hope that the President of the Untied States of America, his wife and a fair few number of his staff, make a full recovery
from COVID-19. However, in the same way people have been criticising students and others for not adhering to advice on ways to slow the spread of the disease,
it has been very obvious to all who watch, that the POTUS, his family and close colleagues have also failed to take the sensible advice which has been given out
by, in his case, his own medical advisers.
Let's leave it at that for the week. Have a good weekend and see you next week.
October 5th 2020 - DID YOU KNOW MACHINES CAN GO WRONG?
I wrote last month, September 25th to be precise, that we have become completely dependent on modern technology and worryingly often have no back-up when,
as it inevitably will, it fails. I read today that Dr Vyv Evans, a linguist, has said that the younger generations won't know when we oldies tap our wrist to
indicate we want to know the time or write in the air to indicate we want the bill at a restaurant. Time is now told on a phone and I can see that and we all
use contactless payment, don't we?
How wonderful this new technology dependent world is; sometimes. Today some of the UK's most important figures in industry were hoping (???) to take part
in an exclusive on-line question-and-answer session with the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. However, for over an hour, they were left looking at a buffering
screen before it could start. Whether they then got any answers from the PM is obviously debatable. No one else ever does.
How wonderful this new technology dependent world is: sometimes. It was a computer problem, albeit man-made, that has been blamed for Public Health England
somehow losing nearly 16,000 people who had tested positive for coronavirus. They were, of course, using our world beating system. But, don't worry, our trusty
contacts tracers are now working as hard as possible to redress the situation .....except their phone lines all crashed as they were trying to reach tens of
thousands of potentially infectious people. The tracers reported conversations disconnecting mid-call and then being frozen out of the system for up to half an
hour when they tried to call back.
The problem was blamed on a computing malfunction. How wonderful this new technology dependent world is: sometimes.
October 6th 2020 - POWERED BY WIND - OUR PM SPEAKS
I have always believed that if you can understand, or even are aware of, the past, it will help you in the future. Learning history is far more important than many other subjects because with that knowledge you can,
perhaps, avoid future mistakes.
I have popped into this retrospective mood because our PM has announced that offshore wind farms will generate enough electricity to power every UK home by
2030. To environmentalists this is good news. Indeed it should be good news for all of us who want our planet to have a sustainable future. Harnessing the natural
power of the wind to provide electricity and entwining it with increased nuclear power looks good
Yet, I am sure that years ago, when we started to build those old coal fired power stations we all thought it was a good idea. I agree something has to be
done but I would like to hear that a thorough study has been made to make sure it is the right way to go and, more importantly, everything that might go wrong
has been examined.
Offshore wind farms are only a major threat to ships. Am I right? The electricity they will produce can easily be connected to the homes that need it. Am
I right?.
My concern, as always when a politician makes a statement, is how easy will it be to turn it into a reality. It may well produce 2,000 jobs in the
construction of the turbines but this has to be offset against the jobs lost in the oil industry and more conventional electricity production. Where was that
figure? The other thing is that our PM has said every home could be powered by wind farms but homes only account for one third of electricity consumption.
The rest goes to offices and factories. How will their electricity be produced?
I hope we can succeed because I want my children's children to be able to live on a planet that will thrive not just about survive.
October 7th 2020 - WHEN NOT WORKING IS ONLY VISIBLE TO THOSE NOT IN POWER
The government introduced restrictions in 20 areas of England early last month. The restrictions were aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 infections
in areas where the rate of transmission was very high.
Yesterday, I learned that in 19 of those 20 areas, transmission has continued to climb, in some cases very strongly. A simple man, as I am, would deduce that
maybe the restrictions are not working. What do you do? Please send your answers, any answer, to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street because I'm not sure he
has any idea at all.
October 8th 2020 - AT LAST, SOME REALLY GOOD NEWS
The United States Electoral Commission, who control the presidential debates, have announced that the next debate will have to take place remotely. The current
President, Donald Trump has said he will not take part in any virtual TV debate with his Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Trump made his comments in a telephone call to the Fox Business Channel saying "I'm not gonna waste my time on a personal debate. Sit behind a computer,
ridiculous. They cut you off... I'm not doing a virtual debate." He also made some rude comments about the moderator.
Wierdly, Trump's campaign manager said the decision of the commission to rush to Biden's defence was pathetic, a word I would have used to describe Trump's
display in the first debate. I think the possibility to cut Trump off would be a blessing and far more playing to his defence.
Meanwhile Joe Biden summed things up perfectly by say "We don't know what the president's going to do. He changes his mind every second. For me to comment on
that now would be irresponsible." How can such a spoiled little brat have become President. My heart goes out to all citizens of the United States.
October 9th 2020 - "BUT WHENEVER MONDAY COMES YOU CAN FIND ME CRYING ALL THE TIME"
Now we are all truly agog as we wait for our much maligned, correctly in my view, Prime Minister to speak to us on Monday with the latest ideas to come from intense cabinet discussions. I must admit that most boy scouts could probably come up with something better from their own in tents discussions. Reliable sources are saying, and let's face it this government operates through leaking from reliable sources, that the Cabinet have not yet reached agreement on how to operate the three tier system that has been leaked as the next solution but, quite seriously, if you have only shed three tears over the way this has all been handled you haven't been following things that closely.
Monday is the day of disclosure and I hope that this closure of this part of our fight against this pandemic achieves something more than previous ones.
October 12th 2020 - FOOD IS A NECESSITY NOT A LUXURY, DON'T EXPLOIT THE YOUNG
I've decided to defer my grumping about BOJO's speech to the nation tonight because it takes time to assess what he's said, what we were supposed to think it
meant and what it really means. That will appear tomorrow night.
Instead I want to react to something I have found out, hopefully true, from the BBC website about the way students are being treated and to be honest I'm
horrified. There is no doubt that if everyone adheres to the current government guidelines we are hitting young people the hardest. They have already, in some
cases, had the farcical situation about their exams this summer, the stress of whether they can go to uni and the situation now where many of them are virtually
imprisoned on campus. I think most people, experts, too, agree that the death toll of this virus has fallen on the elderly. Young people may carry it, may transmit
it and may be ill from it but, in general, it is not fatal. They are suffering for us, the oldest generation and I would like to thank them for that.
What has really annoyed me is how these students, unable to go out, socialise, have fun and make the most of this time of their lives, are being treated.
There are stories that food being provided for them is out of date. I am an old age pensioner and my weekly food bill is usually less than 30 pounds per week. I have
seen instances where students are being charged 170 pounds for 10 day isolation. Really? What's more undergraduates say food parcels are full of junk food such as pot
noodles and frozen ready meals. Showing a nice sense of humour, one student said the only thing saving them was that half of them had Covid and can't taste the
food anyway.
I read that the University of York give students the option of a 70 pounds meal deal for their 10 day isolation. This consists of a sandwich, crisps, chocolate
and water. If there were three meals a day, the cost is 170 pounds for ten days, about 4 times my weekly food bill. It is opportunism at the expense of the young people
who are suffering so much. Some universities actually charged 30 pounds for washing 7kg of clothes.
When I started these blogs some 5 years ago many people expected pieces which complained about the young generation. It hasn't happened. I truly feel sorry
for them during this pandemic, both those imprisoned at uni and those who have found themselves unemployed because of lock-down. It is, though, to my eyes if these
stories are true, quite clear that some universities are profiting from self isolating students.
October 13th 2020 - I WAS RIGHT TO WAIT - THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT
Pretty good judgement on my part in deciding to wait a day before commenting, or grumping, about our leader's speech last night. If you remember, at the start
of this pandemic, the government were very keen to let us all know that they were following the science, they were being guided by the experts.
Less than half an hour after the press briefing finished, the minutes of a SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) meeting back in September were
published and it was pretty obvious that the government is no longer following the SAGE recommendations. Three weeks ago the group suggested an immediate short
national lock-down. They also felt that the 10.00pm curfew would have little effect, that university teaching should all be done on-line, that all bars, restaurants,
cafes, indoor gyms and hairdressers should be closed and there should be no contact between households inside homes. The only suggestion the government appeared
to follow was to encourage working from home if you could despite having said a few weeks earlier that people should go back to work.
If you listened to that press briefing you may have also noticed that Chris Witty stated that he had no confidence that the measure announced a few minutes
before would actually reduce the transmission of the disease.
I'm fed up. This is a mess and now we know that BOJO and his team are completely responsible for the mess. I don't deny that balancing the economy against
slowing the "r" number is difficult but one thing, to my little brain, needs to be remembered. If we don't depress the transmission rate, firms will collapse.
If we do lock-down and depress the rate, firms will collapse. But the big difference is if we don't depress that rate, everything will collapse. Beating the
pandemic is the most important thing to do. When we have we can rebuild. If we don't we will have nothing to rebuild and fewer people to do it.
October 14th 2020 - IS DOING NOTHING THE SAME AS RULING NOTHING OUT?
I listened to Prime Minister's question time today and, once more, realised the futility of it all when one of the people involved has no intention of taking
part. It's not a good advertisement for any young person watching and I fear an even worse one for Eton and Oxford.
BOJO kept repeating the same old thing about the leader of the opposition, a man quite clearly way more intelligent than the BOJO. He kept saying he supported
us on Monday in Parliament but now he's changed his mind. BOJO didn't seem to understand....anything. BOJO didn't seem to understand that after he made a statement
in the Commons and then went on TV to speak to the nation, new facts came to light.
Now personally I am delighted that a highly intelligent man can see these new facts, understand them and then, in light of being aware of these new facts,
change his mind. I'm concerned that our PM couldn't grasp this might happen.
The other problem, and maybe life lesson, for BOJO is if you keep asking Captain Hindsight why does he criticise if he hasn't got an alternative then when
he presents an alternative, backed by expert opinion, you look plonker of the year if you can't produce any facts to back up your decision.
BOJO did say that although he knew he was right (I might be making this bit up but the gist is correct) he ruled nothing out and for the time being that
is what he would do. Circuit breaker within two weeks. You heard it here.
October 15th 2020 - CLARITY IS A RARITY THAT DOESN'T BRING PARITY
It is obviously completely clear as to how the government is clamping down on Covid transmission. We have Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3.. Various areas are placed
in one of these tiers. Clarity disappears when you try to discover whether there is a level of transmission that would move an area from one level to another. This
applies in both directions.
I have been told that as I am shortly to be in Tier 2, if I pop up the road 20 miles to a Tier 1 area I still have to abide by the rules in my area. So people
who live in a Tier 1 area can fraternise in pubs using the rule of six, when I am in their area I can't. No one has been able to explain what happens to people from
a Tier 1 who come into Tier 2. Do they abide by the rules in their area or not?
I would love to think we were just one country, treated the same, helping each other. I would also like to know, or even believe, that the experts the
government have appointed were being listened to when the give their views.
October 16th 2020 - WELCOME BACK TO AN OLD FRIEND
Just when you thought it wasn't safe to go out again, just when you didn't think the government could bungle anything else, Brexit rears its head again.
Now strictly speaking you can't call it Brexit anymore because we have brexited and nothing can change that fact. We left the European Union on 31 January 2020.
Fact. I put that in because yesterday I heard the Conservative MP for Ipswich somewhere stating that it was important we honoured the vote of 2016. We've done that.
It's over. We've left.
What happened after we left is that we agreed with the EU to have eleven months in which we would negotiate a trade deal and sort out a few other things.
BOJO said it would be the easiest trade deal in the world. BOJO said we hold all the cards. BOJO said all that and more and he got the vote of quite a lot of
you who thought he was telling the truth.
We have now been negotiating for nearly nine months and still nothing is signed. BOJO, with a lack of understanding of simple geography, thought it would
be easy to have the same deal that took Canada and the EU eight years to bring into force. I guess that BOJO thought that as it had been done for Canada all we needed
to do was substitute United Kingdom for Canada in the treaty. Oh BOJO! Canada is almost 7,000 kilometres away from the nearest EU country, we're 40. Canada is not
joined to the EU by a tunnel, we are. Canada was never governed by EU rules, we were. The EU didn't fish in Canadian waters, they do in ours. How anyone with
an ounce of intelligence could think we could negotiate the same deal in a tenth of the time is way beyond me.
In September he said the deadline was October 15th to sort things out or we would walk away and leave with no deal. On October 15th he said he would say
something tomorrow. He did. He said we should prepare for no deal but implied we could still keep trying otherwise, of course, he would have said we're leaving
with no deal. About an hour after he said this, a government spokesman said talks were over. It's no deal. Sensibly the EU seems to be ignoring what the British
government and BOJO say and waiting to see what they do. If only they realised how much better off they will be without us, especially this present government.
My biggest fear is that BOJO will get confused and enter into a three tier trade agreement with the EU and, subject to whatever goods each area produces,
and have a no-deal Covid where you pick a card to see who has to be isolated and stick with it. You can't deal again.
October 19th 2020 - THE TITS ARE PECKING AT OUR BRAINS AGAIN
My dislike, distrust and quite often disgust at our press media is well-known to anyone who follows this diatribe. No one in their right mind calls them
newspapers any more, an idea the BBC have taken on with their daily slot on their news website called "The Papers". Sadly their inconsistencies manifold here as
a little further down it states "Newspaper headlines".
However, in my view, these collections of print on a white surface are just pieces of paper on which journalists, editors and newspaper owners are given
space to voice their own, highly bigoted, opinions and seek, nay desire, to influence the thoughts of their own readers without any regard for the actual truth.
It was announced by the Labour leader and first minister in Wales that from Friday this week the country would be going into a "firebreak" situation. This
is a circuit break by any other name but by using a different word it implies they are not doing the same as many are suggesting the UK government should do.
Rest assured, they are doing exactly the same. Whether it works or not, I am not qualified to say. Many experts seem to think it could slow COVID down, a few don't.
I suppose the obvious thing is that it will but what do you to do when your fire breaking circuit ends is far more important. Otherwise you will simply be hoping
from firebreak to firebreak for the foreseeable future.
However this particular grump came about because of a leader article in The Sun which seems to make fun of the Labour leader in Wales, their choice to
emphasise his political party, by saying how brave it is of him to volunteer his people for house arrest, joblessness and ruin. This, they say, is just to
test the scientifically dubious theory that a new lock-down may set Covid back.
It is a blatantly political piece as it fails to say that any area which the government has put under tier three is, effectively, having its people put
under house arrest, joblessness and ruin. Secondly, there is proof that a lock-down does set COVID back. We did it before and it worked, almost all other European
countries have done it and it worked. It is not a dubious theory. It is the screaming bloody obvious. The problem, as I stated above, is what to do when lock-down
ends.
It is pure Murdoch paper speculation and designed, in my opinion, to influence readers not inform them. Lord Reith's idea of television being there to
educate, inform and entertain has been adjusted for the tabloid printed media to being there to Trample truth, Influence and Titillate the public and, in
the modern acronym over-use, I despise the TITs who peddle this rubbish.
October 20th 2020 - IT'S TURNING INTO A FARCE BUT NOT WITTY
We are not a united country and I'm talking about England here. We are not a well-governed country either. The farce of today's briefing from Downing Street
and the ridiculous situation with Greater Manchester is an embarrassment to anyone who would like to feel proud about being English. I've lived through other
similar situations and, on reflection, they all occurred under a Tory PM. Heath, Thatcher and now Johnson all brought a feeling of shame for some of their actions.
The problem is, as I see it, that they don't want to govern by consensus, they try to govern by imposition. It doesn't work. BOJO's performance tonight was
nothing short of woeful, pathetic, blundering. He lost his notes, he failed to clearly answer any questions, and he looked a wreck, both sartorially and
intellectually. I remember David Cameron once suggested his mother would not approve of Jeremy Corbyn's attire but at least he looked respectable. BOJO has
obviously created an indoor garden at No. 10 as he definitely had gone through a hedge backwards before arriving at the lectern and that would be my mother's
opinion.
I'm not one for conspiracy theories but I did hear from JVT, deputy Chief Medical Officer, that a national lock-down was no longer the correct option.
The Chief Medical Officer had said something different both within Sage and implied at the last briefing. Now, where was Chris Witty tonight. I'm sure he wasn't
writing his resignation letter.
October 21st 2020 - HOW TO SCORE AN OWN GOAL - HYPHENATED OF COURSE
Today we have seen a parliamentary debate about whether children should suffer hunger or not. That was the simple fact. The motion, put forward by Labour,
was that the government should offer free schools meals over school holidays until Easter 2021. It was defeated by 322 votes to 261. Five conservatives, with in
my view a conscience, voted for the motion, the rest didn't.
Even worse were some of the comments made by Tory MPs in the debate. One such MP, a Mr Clarke-Smith, presumably hyphenated as being a Clarke or a Smith is a
bit common, said he did not believe in nationalising children. Presumably the same children who go to school to study the national curriculum. He felt that we
should have a PR campaign encouraging absent parents to take some responsibility for their children.
The problem is, Mr Clarke-Smith, that like possessing the feelings of compassion among Tory MPs, it is only the minority of parents who don't take
responsibility. Mr C-S then took a dig at celebrity virtue signalling on twitter by proxy. An interesting comment but one I can neither uphold or decry as I have
no idea what it means. In simple language I think he was referring to Marcus Rashford's campaign to get help for poor families. Mr Rashford, as I understand, came
from a family where funds meant mealtimes were a problem. I applaud his efforts to make this matter public and his method of doing so. I am not a football fan,
I know little about him but from what I have seen and read he seems a very passionate and articulate campaigner and, if he uses twitter to get his point across,
then that is the modern way; sorry C-S. I fear that ridiculing and dismissing such a celebrity is a big own goal by Mr Clarke-Simth
I have always admitted I had a very privileged childhood and education. I was lucky. I do not believe that those less lucky should be denied basic help. No
child should ever suffer hunger. No caring parent should ever have to worry about giving their children basic needs. Marcus Rashford has raised thousands to help.
Sadly another of those majority Tory MPs that lack passion, Mr David Simmonds, the MP for the impoverished area of Ruislip, Pinner and Northwood, asked what
did it say about the opposition's priorities when their interests are swept aside in favour of currying favour with wealth and power and celebrity status, spending
taxpayers money to curry favour with celebrity status, wealth and power. Well here's an idea Mr Simmonds, let's put up the higher rate of tax to show that the
Tory party do not curry favour in such areas. I'm sure, if he knew such an increase would help alleviate child hunger and poverty Mr Rashford would pay. Will your
greedy, money grabbing, wealth crazed, Tory donating, top executives or will they all flee the country?
October 22nd 2020 - FICTION AND MPs
Tom Watson, ex deputy leader of the Labour Party and an ex MP has written a fictional novel. It seems that many MPs, some ex, some still sitting, have taken this
route. It would appear that MPs have an ability to portray fiction. I only mention this in context of the next few paragraphs.
Cast your minds back some six months when dear old, and he is looking it, BOJO stood at his lectern and alongside him was Dodo Harding, the woman who would
lead our world beating track and trace system. BOJO has continued to claim its world beating status and DODO has continued to lead it, also becoming interim head
of the body that has replaced Public Health England. DODO is married to a Conservative MP, John Penrose, who is part of a think-tank known as 1828 which had called
for the NHS to be replaced by an insurance system and for Public Health England to be scrapped. Just saying.
Yesterday BOJO was back at his lectern but this time, perhaps realising he could not compete with Watson's ability, the PM admitted that the track and trace
system needed to improve. Back in June he had proudly proclaimed that everyone would have their test results back in 24 hours. Figures for the week ending 14 October
show that just 15.1% actually did that week. Now you could argue that may be a world beater but let's not. Johnson then appeared to try to shift the blame to the old
general public by saying that "We need to make sure that people who do get a positive test self-isolate - that's absolutely crucial if this thing is going to work
in the way that it can". However one could argue that if you have not got your result back in 72 hours, isolating may be a bit late.
Another major failing in this system is that for all those people who did get a positive result only 60% of their close contacts were actually reached. Sir
Patrick Valence, the Chief Scientific Officer, made a brief attempt to paint a nice picture by saying the capacity for testing had increased, but then admitted that
it was very clear there was room for improvement. A fine example of litotes when it is clear there is not just a room for improvement there is whole bloody 240 room
palace for improvement. I feel proud to have managed to fit Sir Patrick's litotes example in the same post as BOJO's hyperbole on track and trace.
On that point of use of English I must criticise Sir Patrick for some of his almost way beyond bloody obvious, and hence useless, statements coupled with
meaningless ones.. Yesterday he said:-