As lockdown is starting to be eased, and some things are a bit more normal, but many things are not, this seems a good time to make a note of where we are.
I’m still working at home, and largely, thus is still great. No commute, more time, puss-cat company, Planet Rock via an Internet stream.
Some shops have re-opened, not that that affects me. The fact that I don’t visit shops if I can avoid it has meant the only thing that has changed about my shopping habits has been the delivery address. Garages remained open, so both cars got serviced and the Ibiza got an MOT without having to rely on the extension of expiry date.
Some children are back at school, but not many.
The slow return to a more normal situation is interesting; there’s growing economic pressure to re-open everything, and this is understandable, but obviously comes with a risk. Death rates are falling, but as a nation, we’ve shown that we really are world-beating; sadly, the way we’ve beaten the world is by having a world-beating death rate, especially for an island. Interestingly, after that letter was written, NZ had 2 cases of Covid-19, after a couple of British people managed to re-introduce it. Go Britain!
As per usual, of course, as a country we’re showing that what we really do best is bumbling incompetence and fannying around. What we do worst is planned, reasoned, timely, decisive action, which was what was needed. It’s a specialism of ours, of course, but the current government has exceeded all expectations on that front, managing not just to be evil and self-serving, as you’d expect, but also to be utterly icompetent while doing so.
From the contact-tracing app to the PPE shortage to the dumping of infected patients in care homes, through the “herd immunity”, the late lockdown, the failure to close borders (despite that being something Priti Patel is usually so keen on), the repeated failures to observe lockdown by Cummings and others, the VE-day congas, the cutting to the bone of the NHS, the ambiguous guidelines, and just the damned lies, we have a government that is inept, self-serving, and doesn’t seem to give a hoot, because the great British public, in the same way they’ll crowd a beach, do a VE day conga, or clap in the misguided feeling it will actually help anything, are proving that common sense isn’t that common and will happily vote for any useless, floppy haired idiot who talks populist crap, without evaluating if he actually has any of the required skills, never mind as to if he can employ cabinet members with them.
Talking of ineptitude, good old Matt Hancock, everyone’s least favourite phone app loving fuckwit, has announced that now we’ve happily spunked millions on development, the UK Government’s app is to be junked, to become one based on Google and Apple’s tech- you know, like every other country did, and like they were repeatedly told about.
Mr Hancock then tried to blame Apple for this.
I found this on Facebook: an imagining of the conversation.
Apple – We will make a free track and trace system.
Google – We will help, then it will works across 99 percent of phones. Should be ready by May.
UK govt – No, We’ll make our own version.
Apple and Google – you’d need our help.
Uk govt. – No we don’t, Dom’s mate says he can do it.
Apple and Google – off you go then.
Dom’s mate – can I have your proprietary code.
Apple and Google – hahahaha. No.
Dom’s mate – why not?
Apple and Google – Because your system breaches international privacy laws by ripping peoples contact data and storing it on your servers so you can use or sell it later.
Public – It does? Fuck that!
Hancock – our world beating system is up and running, at a cost of only £120,000,000
NHS – no its not.
Hancock – we have hit a snag.
Public – Whats that?
Hancock – It doesn’t work on iPhones. Or Android. And nobody wants to download it.
Whole world – really…?
Now, there’s problems with contact-tracing apps anyway, because of the way they need to use bluetooth-LE to detect contact, but to basically stick fingers up to the 2 developers of virtually the entire smartphone market, and to Open Rights Group doesn’t seem wise, huh?
Meanwhile, we’re painting a plane for £900k, and Digby-Jones, perennial fuckwit, is suggesting a new Royal Yacht. Tens of thousands have died, the economy is in tatters, and if you thought this country was a laughing stock at the start of the year, look again now, and then take another look after we hard-Brexit in a few months time and attempt to trade (and remember kids, anyone who says “We can trade on WTO rules” is pretty much guaranteed to not know what that actually means).
The UK had fights over toilet roll. TOILET ROLL. This nation that once (the emphasis being on once, and “once” being “when it was OK to trade slaves, point guns at the “inferior races” and hook the Chinese on opium”)) ruled a huge empire can now not handle a shortage of arse paper, but then again, we couldn’t cope when KFC ran out of chicken either. Still, if our leaders are demonstrating that stupidity, narcissism, and mendacity is the way to go, and the public votes them in, what can we expect?
“World Beating”. I wouldn’t trust them to be able to beat themselves off.