i guess it's worth bearing in mind that for the Conservative side of the tabloids and broadsheets, there is a basic double ploy here. They exist to make money, so a story that will generate sales or hits on the website is always useful. However, they also seem to exist to maintain a Conservative government. Johnson was a declared liar and general useless idiot way back before he arrived in number 10, and the list of his terrible decisions during around two years at the helm (along with the minions he stuffed his cabinet with) on ongoing and frankly should be a national embarrassment. The press have generally given this the swerve - imagine the outcry if Corbyn or Starmer did 1% of the sort of embezzling/lying/ mismanagement that the Tories have achieved. What we are probably seeing is that a small percentage of the centre Tory voters and some of the middle ground voters are finally becoming sickened by the parade of stupidity we have seen since 2019. And the press and the Conservative party know that it took a lot less fraud than Boris and his gang have done to unseat John Major back in the nineties. Boris has done what they wanted him to do. he got Brexit over the line, and another four years of Conservative rule. But at his core, he is a corrupt, lying fool. It will cost the party nothing to offload him and elect someone with less baggage as prime minister, and claim everything is now hunky dory. Probably less than it cost Charlton to unload Adkins. And sadly, that will probably be enough. The Conservatives have moved the entire country into a political vacuum where honesty and even human life are less valued every time (anyone remember the Johnson quote about 'let the bodies pile up' when another lock down was suggested?) and they have generally held a lead over Labour in the polls. Why anyone would think the likes of Gove will be an improvement is beyond me, but Johnson has literally taken the piss out of the country since he was elected, and it's taken two years of non stop idiocy to get him to where he is now.
Off the top of my head I can't think of anyone in the Cabinet who would be a marked improvement over Bojo, but all for different reasons. They're a pretty bizarre lot. More bizarre I would say, than the oddities that Maggie surrounded herself with. At least one or two of the old Grandees (Ken Clarke for instance) would probably have been an OK Prime Minister. He's one of the very few (one in fact ) staunch Europhiles I actually have a sneaky admiration for. Anyway, I digress. We have a Clown for Prime Minister, and the Keystone Cops for a cabinet. No sign of a ringmaster.
Looks as though this clever little virus has worked out a way to make a permanent home in the human race.
All the slack has been stretched out of the NHS and the economy. Another year or two of this and they will both snap. We're not quite there yet, but fairly soon it will boil down to a binary decision; Save lives, or save civil society. They won't be able to pretend to do both.
More from the Lectern at 8pm tonight Boris addresses the Nation... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59629916 Just what we need to cheer us all up. UK Covid Alert Level (remember that?) is going up. Omicron cases now showing up in hospitals... maybe not so mild then after all. Wonder whether any are vaccinated folk. Or if they'll even tell us for fear of the public reaction. Remember folks, work from home this week!
If the NHS is starting to struggle once more, then it’s time that treatment is withheld for anyone who has been offered the vaccines but refused. Just lock them in their homes and hope that they get over it. Why should they get priority over cancer patients, stroke patients or any other seriously ill people.
Confirmed that we've had our first Omicron fatality in the UK. Could be all kinds of reasons behind it, and I guess it was inevitable. Question is - will it remain a handful of fatalities? And a low number on ventilators? The time between now and Christmas will reveal.
Would love to do this, but of course it cannot be done. It would be the thin end of a very awful wedge. Once we start saying this group or that group of people can't access the NHS, where does it stop? Junkies? Obese folk? Smokers? The very elderly? You'd have a lot more trouble getting NI payment in too. Anyone excluded from the HNS would naturally refuse to pay any more National Insurance.
Manchester United's Premier League match this evening called off; https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59646845 Because they have some positive test results in their squad. I wonder how many? Strange that the number is not reported. They must know it. But a much more worrying question is; if cases are cropping up again in Premier League teams (the most frequently tested and best protected of all football Clubs) what is happening at EFL Clubs and lower league Clubs? How many players and staff at smaller, cash-strapped Clubs are infected? In theory many more. Maximum crowd levels must surely be under threat, and whole seasons at non-league level will be threatened again. Hundreds of Clubs must already be on their knees, crippled by financial problems.
I do not know the answers but somehow I hope we can 'ride this storm'. It is vital we do not go back to a lockdown. Businesses, including the entertainment industry cannot afford another one. Some would fold. Another lockdown would be catastrophic.
Just for perspective, I should point out that the Prem found 42 positives out of almost 4,000 tests. That's about 1 in 98, which does show how well protected the Premier League is. In the general population, COVID infection is running at about 1 in 60 I think, or even higher than that.
It looks possible we're all going to get it at some point, but if you're triple jabbed you're okay. The NHS will still have to deal with a deluge of refuseniks, at the expense of other NHS work.
I'm not going to actually say I hope refuseniks get Long Covid. But I will have zero sympathy for any who do. Having your health ruined for months or years is an awful thing. But not giving yourself as much protection as possible against that awful prospect is very dumb indeed. And of course, Long Covid costs a lot of money to manage. Those who brought it on themselves should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Making life harder for everyone.
Earliest evidence from South Africa seems to suggest that Omicron IS far less dangerous than Delta in terms of symptoms. However it also spreads far more quickly than Delta. Therefore in the UK population of over 68 million and a relatively very dense population per square mile, it WILL spread rapidly and deaths will go up. It is inevitable. The question is, does that mean we should have tougher restrictions or should we just accept that more people are going to die, but that that is not the overriding factor. It’s not an easy question to answer and to all the journalists, opposition parties, law-breakers, anyone with self interest and anarchists everywhere, who just criticise the government whatever they do, you should look at yourselves and realise that there are simply no answers which will please everyone and no answers that you can be 100% sure will turn out to be the correct ones.
Shaun Bailey - rule breaker still sitting on London Assembly Police & Crime committee https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59657361 A slightly more accurate headline than the BBC one "Shaun Bailey: Ex London mayor candidate quits over Christmas party" All he 'quit' was chairmanship of the committee. He's still a member. Why should anyone listen to anything he says regarding following rules or obeying the Law? Yet again it's one rule for us, no rules for them.
