”The Government’s bank suspended Matt Hancock’s team from making payments to PPE suppliers at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic over fears they were being taken in by fraudsters”^. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/bank-suspended-matt-hancocks-ppe-24135963
Remember when the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said " "If there were to be any weakening of the Good Friday accords then there would be no chance whatsoever, a non starter, for a US-UK trade agreement."? Over to you BoJo...
A report from the National Audit Office contains this. If this proves to be the case then we are moving into criminal law areas. please log in to view this image
A bit of good news from France. As of the 31st of May everyone over the age of 18 will be able to get vaccinated.
It seems that Spain is going against the advice of the EU that is holding back for another fortnight before deciding if it is safe to let people from the UK in. The Indian variant is rising at an increasing rate, while a new strain is now being watched carefully. Still the good news for BB is that Moray is now a bit safer for him to do his shopping.
When my children were young, all of their clothing had to have a "Cash's" label sewn into every item of clothing they wore or took to school. As they needed larger clothes they had to be unpicked then sewn into the new ones. Judging by the picture below it looks as though labelling still exists, but does it apply to everything he is wearing? I wonder if his gloves are on a piece of ribbon down each arm sleeve? Sorry to anyone too young to remember such days. please log in to view this image
"Hello from the US. My 31 year old healthy before covid daughter is now in her 12th month of long covid. She is incapacitated…can’t work, has difficulty holding a conversation, resting heartbeat at 80bpm, oxygen levels often between the high 80s and low 90s and severe gastrointestinal problems. It amazes me that with just 45% of our population completely vaccinated, we think it’s ok to open up 100% and not wear masks any longer." This a a story that is only just developing in the UK. There are going to be huge calls on the NHS for a long time to come as people need help to overcome the effects of this. As Mme has just said rightly, you may get over the worst effects of Lyme disease, but you can be left with symptoms that never go away entirely A rush to open up everything just seems so wrong, when another couple of weeks could prevent people becoming ill and making others ill to.
Whilst I agree in principle, the problem is not 'opening up too early' , it's getting a grip of the source and the spread. With our present approach, there will never be a 'right time' - certainly a couple of weeks won't make a blind bit of difference to the overall numbers given our present methods of containments. . I really regret saying this. I recognise the great work of the vaccinators (from developers to those delivering it ) However... I have been puzzled by the ability of the virus to spread whilst we 'locked down' to suppress it - except for essential workers, and (very) leaky borders - to me the worst element of govt mismanagement - given the useless test and trace scheme. Anyway, how naive am I... ? We live in a small community of genuine friends and neighbours. Any problem, we could call on any one to help. we have 3 (retired but no matter)nurses, and a host of good sorts if we need anything. We have all behaved very responsibly it would seem. But I have recently realised however that in one family, 2 of the 3 children (in their twenties) have been coming and going with their partners, for days/ nights/weekends at a time, since Xmas, from far away. They clearly have somewhere else to live. Now, they haven't been in contact with us so it hasn't risked us, and their circumstances may be difficult - although I don't know why. No grandchildren to be cared for. Whereas, we haven't seen our children/grandchildren for over 8 months and that has taken a toll on us.. It makes me realise how the virus continues to spread , if younger adults have such disregard for the situation. I was asked what I would do by one of my neighbours. Confront them ,call the police. Sadly all I have done is get cross. As it was pointed out - what would I achieve. Lose some friendly neighbours, probably never to recover. I would welcome any counsel that disabuses me of my unhappiness.
There are problems when you live in a small community. Our Mayor has been banned from holding office because of his conflict of interest when he pushed for something that he would gain from. This has had an effect with those who believe he has been treated correctly and those who do not see it that way. It has split the community, although people tend to just not talk about it, but I feel that it is rumbling away underneath the surface. We haven't seen our children or grandchildren in England since November 2019 face to face, and although it was only a couple of times a year in normal times it has been a bit of a pain. My wife would dearly love to go and see her sister who is home now having had a stroke, but would rather just speak on the phone until things feel safer. As Nascotwoodfrog said we are living in one of the safest places in the country, and are thankful for that, and it has brought about a feeling that we don't want people coming here who could change things. The few outbreaks of the virus around us have been in the schools on a very small scale. I read of schools throughout England where there are outbreaks since they returned. This is being reported from all corners of the country, yet the detailed data is a week out of date. Pupils told they must take off masks now being told they must wear them again. Here they are still wearing them, and are having three days in school and two on-line. Although teaching to semi-faceless kids is far from ideal, it does seem to be working as I have not heard of any new outbreaks in this area since they returned. We have only this week come out of a 7.00pm curfew, going to 9.00pm. This certainly has stopped many of the younger people being out and about during the evenings. Hard on them, but my 17 year old granddaughter tells me that most of her friends understand why their fun is curtailed. It will always be difficult to judge when is the right time to relax restrictions, but my feeling is that an extra couple of weeks might pay off it it stops a further outbreak. Two friends of my grandsons have lost their fathers and have seen the pain. Statistics tell us one part of the story, but the human cost points us into the heart of it all. Any government anywhere that puts the business world ahead of the people it is charged with protecting gets no respect whatsoever from me.
I am sure Boris and his mates believe they are juggling these very difficult variables between health and the economy. They are under such pressure to open up.. And some of these night club and bar owners sound totally convincing in the face of all the science.. But yes another couple of weeks at every stage would save/ have saved many lives. The biggest mistake IMO was keeping the borders open..
We have become distanced from some of our best friends as a reult of Covid Frenchie. There is a group of people in our hamlet who could only be described as belonging to the 'esoteric scene' who refuse vaccination and testing - in the past when my wife's grandchildren visited us from Düsseldorf or Berlin they would play along with the children from this group - but no longer, we simply don't feel happy about the health risks.
That is really sad cologne. To date I haven't met anyone here who is anti-vaccination, but I have seen comments in some news related items that show there are some about. Dividing communities, or indeed countries as seen in England with Brexit, does not help when we all rely on each other in one form or another.
To add to our other woes, our son who lives in Portugal is anti-vaxx ! ( although he does point out that a very healthy lifestyle, which he practises , is a good defence against most things) And just to compound things his brother is a GP. How on earth did we manage that ? I'm confused.
I do wonder just how far some things should become mandatory. You cannot send your children to school here unless they have received certain vaccinations, and you must by law send your children to school. You must wear a seat belt when driving your car, which is designed to be for your own good mainly, and think of the fuss when that law was brought in. You cannot pick and choose which parts of your council tax you will pay on the basis that somethings you do and don't approve of your money being spent on. Should covid vaccination be made compulsory while there are still so many unknowns? Should there be sanctions such as not being able to see your football team without a certificate to show you are less likely to pass it on? Just how far do we want to go down the road to compulsion?
Germany will ban Britons from entering the country from Sunday after the UK was classified as a virus variant area of concern. As of midnight on 23 May, people travelling to Germany from Great Britain and Northern Ireland may only enter the country if they are a German citizen or resident. Spouses and children under 18 of a German citizen or resident can also enter, as long as the household are travelling together.
