Saturday, 23 January 2021

Covid and the UK government response

 We are now nearly a year to when the first Covid case came to the UK and sadly it is as bad as ever. In the UK we are now on our third lockdown and this last lockdown started on the 17th December. 

I always knew that we would have a winter lockdown because I didn’t think that this country would be able to cope with Covid in wintery conditions. However even I didn’t think it would be as bad as it has been. 

Last March people like myself didn’t really follow the Covid pandemic so the first lockdown came as a shock! At first I felt a little sorry for Boris and his government but has the summer came and went and I started following more scientist on Twitter. I soon realised that the government could have done more to reduce transmission. 

I was horrified when the government encouraged UK people to go on holiday and then “Eat out help out” I generally believed it was a recipe for disaster. Then in September the same government then reopened all the schools, colleges and universities. All the while the number kept rising and even encouraged us to go back our physical work place. 

What makes this even more astonishing is around this time the government scientist had identified a new Covid variant in Kent but kept quiet about and only decided to tell the UK people on 17th December. 

By this time the damage was done and the Kent variant is highly transmissible and had ripped through Kent and London. Once the government announced the Kent variant other countries started seeing it in their own countries. 

So right now the UK is month into its third lockdown and the government does not seem to have a definitive plan of exiting lockdown. The NHS trace and trace system is overwhelmed and the vaccines are now being rationed out and the second dose can now be given at up to twelve weeks and this not what the manufacturer of the vaccine had said. 

So the UK government is going by its own rules and dragging 70 million people with them. What  I find truly outstanding is that the British people still believe in this government. 

We are now fast approaching the truly horrific number of 100,000 dead UK citizens and deaths are still rising with little accountability from the UK government. 

All we can hope for is that in the next few weeks they will find a road map out of lockdown and start listening to scientist. The more the government runs away from the science the harder it will be to get out of and stay out of lockdown. 

So the next few weeks will shed some light on which pathway this UK government will take.. One thing is for sure this is no way to run a country and use 70 million Brits as little pet projects. 

Sunday, 17 January 2021

The end of Trump’s presidency

 Wow! Well it’s been a while and it’s the last few days of the Trump’s presidency and what a real eye opener it has been! Culminating in the insurrection rally two weeks ago. 

Frankly I am relieved that the social media giants started to take action by removing him from their platform. It actually helped the last few days to be normal. 

I have never followed Trump on Twitter but I couldn’t help but to regularly check what incendiary things he was tweeting out. 

What I think is super sad about the Trump’s presidency our his enablers... there where clearly people in his inner circle who encouraged and turned a blind eye to his behaviour. 

This brings me to his family.. I am honestly think one of his biggest enablers was his daughter Ivanka Trump. She is one the few people that he listened to and to me did little to rein her father in. She came across someone who enjoyed being in the corridors or power and little about her father’s behaviour.

One person I couldn’t figure out for long time was Trump’s wife Melania Trump. At first I thought she was too embarrassed to do anything but has time went on I realised she shared a lot of his opinions.

The reality is when Donald Trump is long gone the likes of Melania and Ivanka will be regularly reminded how they contributed to crazy four years. 

Neither women maybe bothered now but at some point both women will hopefully be held to account for their actions and it will be interesting to see long it takes before both are made accountable for their role in Trump’s presidency.