September 9th 2020 - I'M BACK, POSSIBLY GRUMPIER THAN EVER
It's over six months since I last disgraced these pages, the longest gap since I started way back in May 2015. Strangely, my absence has had nothing to do with
COVID-19 although my return has. I stopped because quite simply other work was getting in the way and I couldn't spare the time to put my grumpy old thoughts on to
these pages; to be honest I hardly had the time to have any thoughts.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I've had a great six months but the project I was attempting to put together has finally had to be put on hold because
of COVID-19 and the new restrictions announced yesterday and to be introduced from the 14th. According to Matt Hancock these are simplifying the rules. With a last-
time measured IQ of 162, I don't understand them but it seems to mean I, who live alone, can only mix with one family of less than 6 people apart from my daughter's
family of 7 people with whom I am in a social bubble.
However if I go out to a pub or restaurant I can mix with as many people as happen to be there, socially distanced where possible, wearing a face mask if not
and washing my hands at every available opportunity. If I do all that, I should be safe from catching the disease. So says my Prime Minister who did of course catch
the disease.
I intend to pass comment once again on a weekday, nightly basis and weirdly, as I return, so does that great monster, Brexit. To be honest we have actually
brexited but we are now negotiating a trade deal. Or not. Last year we signed an oven-ready withdrawal agreement but it would appear that rather than still being
over ready it is about to get stuffed. Our beloved Prime Minster, despite knowing it is an international treaty, signed, witnessed and a thing to be honoured is
about to break it in a specific way. His ministers admit that such a break is illegal but he still intends to do it.
What more can I say? Tomorrow you may well find out.
September 10th 2020 - OPERATION FOOTSHOT
Operation Moonshot rapidly became Operation Footshot as, yet again, our blundering Prime Minister appears to have placed a bullet or two into his own foot. The
question is as to whether this bullet through the foot was concocted so people wouldn't take quite so much notice of his attempt to fire a cannon through
international law.
Let's first take a look at yesterday's announcement about COVID-19 testing. BOJO announced that by December we would be able to test 3 million people and by
early next year 10 million. At the moment testing capacity for testing those with symptoms is said to be about a quarter of a million and usually only 175,000 or
so are actually being done each day. What is more, people ringing for tests are either having to wait a couple of days for a test to be arranged or else being sent
to Inverness, even if they live in Southern England.
BOJO thinks, that may not be correct but anyway, that a test that hasn't even been invented yet will be used to get us back to near normality. To BOJO this
will be as simple as a pregnancy test. I assume he has some considerable experience of these. However I need to point out to the young man that pregnancy tests are
usually only used by women of child-bearing age who have a reason to believe they are pregnant. To compare this to a test that, in practice, should be needed by
nearly all the population, possibly every fourteen days, is an astounding performance of stupidity.
Most of the experts I have seen who have commented on it don't agree it will happen in the timescale BOJO has envisaged. In fact some of these experts think the
whole concept may be fantastic, meaning in the world of fantasy. Maybe our illustrious leader just heard them say "that's fantastic Boris" and took a different
meaning to what he heard.
In 1938 a certain German leader signed an agreement with three other international leaders and then completely ignored the terms of said agreement. Most decent
members of society were disgusted though not surprised. Fairly recently another leader signed a Withdrawal Agreement, an international treaty with 27 EU leaders. It
appears that he is about to try to pass legislation in Parliament that will break some of the terms of that treaty. I feel most decent members of society should be
disgusted but probably not surprised. Apparently it's OK as a country can do that to treaties so as to retain their sovereignty. Unless done deliberately, most
intelligent leaders would have checked what the treaty meant before signing it. If our leader is intelligent, your decision, I've made mine, he and his fellow
conspirators must have known this would happen.
September 11th 2020 - GOING BACK IN TIME
Just like the old days. I came back to this site on Wednesday and will only upload on week nights so it's 1974 all over again. I've just done a 3-day week.
I feel we, as human living on this planet, are in for some choppy times. On November 3rd Joe Biden might win the Presidency of the USA which will almost
certainly mean the result will be contested, disputed and every effort made to put the guy with a dead squirrel on his head back in charge. Oh, wait a minute
he's never been in charge, He was just voted President.
Meanwhile over here BOJO and DOCU will be leading us into a chasm of their own making. What will next week bring, probably a 5-day week.
September 14th 2020 - WE'RE OLD, WE'RE PERFECT
I saw this little picture on my Facebook
feed earlier this morning and, as with so many things in life, it got me thinking. The figures show that since we eased lock-down the number of new cases seem to
be coming from the 18-30 age group. That's not really surprising is it? That's the age group that socialise the most and can you imagine the state of the hospitality
sector if they didn't. After all our lovable little government spent most of August encouraging us all to eat out.
The idea, as they much liked little pic implies, is that young people should give up their social life and do everything and anything to make sure there is
no transmission of this serious virus. The problem is, and there's really no surprise here, that the virus is far less dangerous for these young people. They can
easily shake off its effects and continue with their lives. In fact they may not even realise they have it. I didn't like the way the words implied that young
people don't care about the future lives of us oldies whereas my fellow oldies will do everything and anything to protect these young people.
Then I read about the latest outburst from the POTUS. He went to California, where wild fires are ranging, and proceeded to deny that climate change was
happening and proved, with just a few words, that he, and many other of my fellow oldies, don't give a damn about the younger generation because if they did they
would firstly accept climate change is real and secondly do something about it; whatever the cost to big firms, the economy, their pockets.
I'm sorry, the welfare of our planet is our (oldies) responsibility because in most cases we have the power to do something. Amazing youngsters like
Greta Thunberg can create awareness and make an impassioned, articulate point but the power lies with the grey brigade. Instead of writing how much we care,
let's show our youngsters. Climate change is real and it will very seriously damage our young people not in 100 years, not in 50 years but very, very soon.
September 15th 2020 - IT'S ALL IN THE FIGURES
When I was at school I studied statistics for an "A" level. This has allowed me to see, yet again, that this government is the most devious I have known in my
lifetime. Let's look at a statement made today by Matt Hancock. He said the average distance travelled to a test site is just 5.8 miles. Um. What does this tell us?
Nothing. It is possible in using that statistic to count everybody who goes to a test site but can't get a test there. Obviously most people being told to travel
over 100 miles don't go so their distance, although offered, doesn't count either. Of course if I wanted to be totally devious I would tell you that this average
distance also includes all the workers and health care professionals at the site.
Let's look at something the government was saying last week. Here a spokesperson or a minister, I can't remember, announced that the median distance people
travelled was 20 miles. Now I'm sure many people do know what the median of an array of figures is but by the same token I think a lot of people would think it was
like the average, the mean. So if we hear the figure 20 miles spoken about it doesn't sound too bad but let me give you an example.
We check the distance for nine people and have the following distances travelled to a test site. 4,6,7,9,20,150,170,200,300. The median distance
travelled is indeed 20 but the average distance would be nearly 100 miles. Doesn't sound quite so good.
The other problem with any figure being given is we can't really check them because no one is releasing the official figures. Mr Hancock said the backlog
in laboratories was less than a day's capacity. Sounds nice doesn't it? However that could mean up to 244,000 tests. That's nearly a quarter of a million
possible infection not being spotted as soon as they should.
In the majority of the cases where the government or ministers churn out a statistic, a percentage, even a figure, it is meaningless. The facts are
infections are rising and the world-beating test and trace system that we were promised is a failure. If you can't test everyone who needs it, if you can't
track more that 50% of possible contacts then no figure makes the slightest difference. The government is failing, has failed and until they remove their heads
from the sand, will continue to fail and, in rather too many instances are treating us, the public, as gullible idiots.
September 16th 2020 - ADDING I CAN MAKE SO MUCH DIFFERENCE
Have you noticed with BOJO that it is all about I and how good HIS government is. His statements have little or, possibly, no thought put into them. They have
a world-beating track and trace system that can't cope. With regard to beating COVID-19, on 30 July this year he announced that I know we are going succeed and I
know we are going to beat this - if each and every one of us plays our part. Sadly he and his ministers have failed to do that.
He had an oven-ready withdrawal agreement that he forgot he needed to get stuffed. Signing it was an utter triumph although it appears that implementing it
may be slightly less so. He promised a massive trade deal with the United States but if his Internal Market Bill goes through unamended this looks very unlikely.
Worryingly, Joe Biden, the Democrat Presidential candidate once labelled BOJO as a Britain Trump. Biden also said after the referendum vote that the US would have
preferred a different outcome.
Unfortunately keep saying what "I" will do, have done, am going to do won't make it happen. The only time that "I" seems to be in the right place is when we
look at why so many of you elected this man to ruin our country.
September 17th 2020 - GO TO BED EARLY, IT WILL BE ALRIGHT IN THE MORNING
Has anyone else spotted that the COVID-19 virus is nocturnal? I spotted it today. The government, noticing a spike in number in north-east England, have
imposed some new lock-down measures in the area. To be honest, in their customary attempt to shift responsibility, they announced they were doing this after
hearing from local councils up there.
These measures include making sure all pubs shut between 10,00pm and 5am, hence my thoughts on a nocturnal spread of the disease. I'm sure, not really but
you have to say that don't you, that the government and their advisers know what they're doing. It was said, months ago, that when schools re-open, pubs and clubs
might have to shut as infections could rise. Well they have risen, although to date no one has said it has come from our schools.
The assumption must be that it comes from socialising more. What I fail to see is why closing pubs earlier will make any difference. True there will
less time to socialise but if that is the reason why not open pubs from 10.00pm and make sure all these people spreading the virus are out, on their own,
late at nights. Of course the real reason has very little, in my view, to do with curbing infections and far more to do with rescuing the economy. The sensible
and logical thing would be to have a three week complete lock-down and, if done properly and if the medical experts are correct, that should wipe the spread of
this virus out. It won't happen. When did sense and logic ever dictate what a government would do.
September 18th 2020 - TOO MUCH OF A BAD THING
You can have too much of a good thing, so they say. Sadly you can have too much of a bad thing and I see examples of this everywhere. If you buy a brand new,
large upright fridge/freezer you will feel that you need to fill it. Your old one did the job perfectly, stored sufficient food for you and your family but was
getting on a bit and could break down so you bought this bigger one.
This is what now happens with the plethora of 24 hour news channel that have been around for the last few decades. In the old days the news would appear at
lunchtime, 6.00pm and 10.00pm and, from about 1980, breakfast time. This would amount to about 3 hours a day, one eighth of what we now have. Unfortunately news
has not increased 8 fold which means these channels have to fill their time and they do it in two main ways.
Firstly they endlessly repeat stories they have run before thereby defeating the very name given to their channel. News ceases to be news when you have heard
it five times before. It is, to coin a phrase, old news. I understand this means that the audience can tune in any time and know what is happening but that is
not much use if you tune in and hear something you heard 6 hours ago but now being purveyed as "news".
The second way they fill time is with non-news stories, even non news worthy stories. Tonight BBC ran a story in their main 10.00pm news about 3 families who
had each lost a member of their family to COVID-19 on the same day, I think-it was 20 April 2020. This was not news, it happened five months ago. However much the
people agreed or even wanted to contribute to the story, I found it unpleasant. I do not want to intrude into someone's feelings of grief. It did not help in
anyway with stopping the current spread of the virus. It was totally pointless in my view and was just a way to fill a space.
The modern world may have some advantages, although quite often I don't see many of them, but 24 hours news is not one of them. It makes news less dramatic,
have less meaning, because it is there all the time. The BBC, and others, could save a lot of money by cutting down on the journalists they need by cutting down
on the news they broadcast. Just because we have become used to it, doesn't mean it is correct.
September 21st 2020 - THE RULE OF SIX
A quick update for you on the governments take on the "Rule of Six".
- Don't let anyone know we have no idea what to do to stop this pandemic coming back
- Keep doing something so that it looks as though we do know
- Make all pubs and restaurants shut at 10.00pm to demonstrate our attempts to stop the spread
- Let pubs and restaurants stay open until 10.00pm to show we care about the economy and hospitality
- Never admit that this is a half-hearted mish-mash that will make no difference
- Keep talking to people, telling them how well they've done so as to avoid anyone seeing how badly you have done. Tell them that the more infections we have,
the more people are being infected. Tell them there could be 50,000 infections if we do nothing and hope they've forgotten you said under 20,000 deaths would be
a good result, hence showing figures are meaningless and this is a very bad result. Do this every seven days, hence the rule of six.
Our leader will be speaking to us tonight. I shall be glued to the screen, pinning back my ears and awaiting a plethora of cliches and bumbling
nothingness. On second thoughts I might watch "Would I Lie To You". On third thoughts if I stay with our leader I can answer yes to that question.
September 22nd 2020 - MY PROPHETIC POWERS ARE TOO GREAT.
Yesterday I said I would be glued to my TV set to hear our Prime Minister tells us his new plan. Then I said maybe I should watch "Would I Lie To You"
instead. I do not buy the Radio Times nor any listing magazines. I duly watched our PM, the following BBC summary of things with Huw Edwards and then, lo and
behold, "Would I Lie To You" appeared. My power is too great and I have had to lie down for a day.
However, one small point need to be made. BOJO keeps saying we are testing more people than any other country in Europe. There is only one country in Europe with
a larger population than us. What would be far more interesting, relevant and even truthful, would be to say what percentage of the population we are testing because
the truth is that if we only test 30% of our population we would still test more than all but 7 of the 44 European countries. Doesn't sound nearly as good, does it?
September 23rd 2020 - WISDOM IS NOT A PRODUCT OF SCHOOLING BUT OF A LIFELONG ATTEMPT TO ACQUIRE IT - EINSTEIN
In my opinion the most important factors in the lives of young children, say those aged up to 13, are for them to be happy, be loved, have no mental health
concerns, no anxiety, a sensible, understandable routine, learn to be curious, grow their natural imagination and enjoy their childhood. Formal education comes
way down the list.
Sadly so called experts, possibly in some cases protecting their raison d'etre, do not agree. Excluding teachers, who one would think might know best,
most other people quoted, whether ministers, Children's Commissioner or medical experts, were very clear that not returning to school in September was a bad thing.
The latest figures show that 4% of schools are now not fully open because of confirmed or suspected cases of coronavirus which would mean about 900 schools.
The aforementioned Children's Commissioner was on the same day quoted as saying the number of schools who have sent pupils home was very small. Percentage-wise
maybe; number-wise, no. She also said about 5% of children were not in school. 5% doesn't sound high but it would mean nearly half a million children. Yes, half
a million children not in school.
So nearly half a million children, many of them under 13, are probably now totally confused, anxious, lost their routine and don't know what will happen
next. They were off school from March and so were all their friends. Not good but necessary. Then they went back and I know from interviews and my own experiences,
some were worried. Now they are at home again; worried. In two weeks they may be back in school again; worried. By Christmas they might have been back and forth
several times.
One reason for getting them back was so parents could return to work too. That reason is a little less true now BOJO has done an about turn on advice he
gave a month or so back. I would politely state that some of those 400,000 young children are being put under unnecessary stress and into a situation that could
lead to mental health problems or at least concerns. All because the adult experts know best. That would have been a first in this pandemic anyway but affecting
the lives of our young because the economy comes first is, in my view, totally wrong. You can easily succeed in life without any formal education. It may be
desirable to have some but not at the expense of future well-being.
September 24th 2020 - THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGING
Today the Chancellor has attempted a rescue package for some jobs and industries in our economy. However he has said that it is not possible to save all jobs,
all industries and he is, with this package, only aiming to help those that are viable. From my aged perspective we are now looking at the biggest change,
economy-wise, in my lifetime but we need to realise this.
Life, work, leisure will no longer be as it was, as it has been for those 70 years. I have long believed that I have been privileged to live through the most
changes to life in the shortest space of time but, to be honest, these were progressive changes. Cars became safer and more people owned them: air travel became
more widespread and indeed safer too. Inventions made communications easier and instant and there were many more massive changes.
But, in a way, they were changes to our lives not so much to way that we MUST live. COVID-19 will change the way we have to conduct our lives and we need to
accept that. It is also, though, a wake-up call to how we were living, how we had become self-indulgent, how we had accepted that everything we needed would be
there for us. Nightclubs have not been opened since March and it doesn't look like they will open again before next March. They were never an essential part of
life. Neither are gyms. A good walk in fresh air is just as good an exercise and, in a way, far healthier. And again, they are many other examples.
We always go on about the death of our High Streets. Maybe they should be allowed to die and the land used for affordable housing, an essential need. In
ten years time there will be no one under the age of 45 who has not had the internet in their adult lives. Using it to shop, bank, work and amuse will be
commonplace. We oldies who don't understand it and don't use it (present company and quite few more excepted), will be shuffling off this mortal coil. Why have
shops in High Streets if you can shop on-line and have it delivered? Shops will becomes warehouses as perfectly demonstrated by Amazon.
In the 1980s I was teaching retail skills to 16-year old kids and telling them that things were changing. Soon people would order things on-line and they
would be delivered. Just as shop assistants became check-out people or shelf fillers when big supermarkets appeared, now these people would be packers and delivery
drivers. I was, it seems, a little optimistic about how soon this change would happen but they are now here. The next six months should see plans being made for
the new normal, the very normal, the completely different normal. If we don't do this and stop moaning about the temporary hardships that might happen, and cater
to dissipate these, we will be constantly applying plasters to a life-threatening, life-changing wound.
September 25th 2020 - HACKED OFF AND NO SUBSTITUTE
I recently read that German police have launched a homicide investigation after a woman died during a cyber attack on a hospital. It appears that hackers
disabled the computer systems at Dusseldorf University Hospital and the patient died when doctors were attempting to transfer her to another hospital. Apparently
this would be the first known case of a life being lost from a cyber attack.
My initial though was why would anyone do this sort of thing. My second thought was I suppose it is part of this strange aspect of human behaviour where people
do this sort of thing just to have the satisfaction of knowing they can. But know it is more like highwaymen of old. They do it for monetary gain. It's called
ransomware and the perpetrators of the attack demand large payments in Bitcoin (don't ask I don't understand) in return for a software key which unlocks the systems.
This whole episode made me wonder how dependent on modern technology were we. If the systems go down, or are hacked down, is there not a manual back-up system.
Most hospitals and other large organisations have generators in the event of a power outage. Is there nothing in the event of a computer system outage?
Have we become so dependent on these machines that if they fail so do we? Are we happy with this? My answer is no, I am not. When humans did these jobs,
if they failed they could be substituted or replaced. It would appear machines cannot.
Is our future really safer in the modern world and shouldn't this be a wake-up call to make sure, one, systems are ultra secure and, two, suitable back-up is
available at all times.
September 28th 2020 - BOJO DEMONSTRATES I AM A GENIUS
The more this pandemic goes on, and it will go on, the more I am embarrassed at the stupidity and hypocrisy of BOJO, our beloved Prime Minister. A few weeks
ago he said "we will ensure that schools, colleges and universities stay open because nothing is more important than education, health and the well-being of our
young people." Does the man, his henchman DOCU and the health and education ministers really think that locking first year students up in their halls of residence
without adequate warning to get food in, is good for anyone's health and well-being. Bear in mind many of these young people have already been stressed by a faulty
algorithm.
Did he and his advisers really think that putting thousands of students into fairly crowded accommodation where they share bathrooms, kitchens and living
quarters would not result in a COVID-19 spike, because I knew. Does he think that he is improving their anxiety by saying they might not be able to go home for Christmas.
Their argument for destroying the social lives of these youngsters (to me anyway) was "don't kill granny" and this from a man who fronts up the ministry
which discharged old people into care homes without testing and "killed off" quite a few.
I notice that in the government's latest figures on the spread of the disease, partly used to justify this action against uni students, the largest rise in
infections are in the 15-19 age group and, in my mind, only 25% of that age group would be uni students. Could it possibly be that opening all schools again means
15-18 year-olds are the biggest spreaders but they couldn't tell us that could they?
And finally I would politely refer you to my post on September 17th. I'm not one to say "told you so" but I'm quite happy to write it. Am I such a genius
as being able to foresee this? Based on the intellectual ability shown by our leaders the answer is an emphatic yes. Intelligence in government and related agencies
is as dead as a dodo.
September 29th 2020 - MISCONCEIVED MISTAKE
Good news everyone. Next time you get stopped for driving over the speed limit just claim you missped. Students if you fail your exams don't worry, you just
misanswered. Someone sues you for libel, no problem you just miswrote. Warned that you were out drinking when you shouldn't be, you just misswallowed. 17 million
people probably just misvoted.
And all of this is thanks to your leader who with is bumbling demeanour has most certainly misled you every inch of the way with so many misdemeanours. What
an adventure or maybe a misadventure.
September 30th 2020 - PRESS BRIEFING - NO PRESS GOODBYE
I watched today's press briefing. It went from stating the bleeding obvious to stating the completely impossible. Both experts felt that with rising infections,
deaths and hospital admissions were going in the wrong direction. You can immediately see why these men are so well-qualified.
Meanwhile the great BOJO, in answer to a question from the BBC's Laura Kuensberg, said that although the figures were rising he knew we could defeat this
pandemic because we did it before. Sadly, for him, we succeeded in slowing things down by having a national lock-down and a couple of minutes earlier he had said
he did not want to have a national lock-down again. To my simple brain you cannot announce you can do it because you did it before if you don't have the same
circumstances that allowed you to do it last time.
I also realised how smarmy our leader is by constantly thanking students for putting up with the situation he and his government have put them in. What's
more, the press briefing completely eliminates any scrutiny. The questioners ask a question, they get a load of flannel and have no way of coming back. They get cut
off immediately.
This is all so embarrassing.
