The Year A Virus Changed The World

 

Land of Hope and Glory

Nobody cares about the Land of Hope and Glory, where ever it is. That mythical place is just a distraction from the failures of the current Ship of Fools running this country. Covid 19 is still a mystery to the science community and the Fools have run a forlorn campaign against it.

The exams regulator in England, Sally Collier, following the exams fiasco committed “hara-kiri”. That last statement was a bit fantastic but when you are dealing with Boris's Crew it's apt. 

Consider the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, still under arrest in Iran due to Boris's idle stupidity. The UK government is doing nothing to get her released. We owe Iran a ton of money and they are not letting anyone go until they get it. Britain was waiting for Trump to give the green light before we pay. Any leniency towards Iran will not sit well with US voters. So, it looks like Naz will have to sit in her cell for a few more months.

More importantly, for owners of homes wrapped in the same cladding as Grenfell Tower, whose homes are now worthless, the government is doing little to help. How would Captain Boris like to go to bed every night wondering if he would end up burnt to a crisp. The people living in these properties have done nothing wrong, they have been wronged, by builders, by inspectors, and by the government. There's an inquiry in progress but everyone has forgotten about it. The news is all about kids and schools and masks and an idiot with a paintbrush talking about Land of Hope and Glory on the BBC news.

The Tiers of a Clown

In January the public learned of an outbreak of Coronavirus. The Tory government departed company with reality. Their policy was childishly simple, a lie a day keeps the virus at bay. A new department was set up under the stairs at No.10, tasked with the development of impressive phrases. A fictional "protective ring" would be thrown around care homes, testing would be "ramped up", all decisions were being based on "the science", there would also be a "state of the art app".

The Isle of Wight would be the test bed for Johnson's world beating app, there was much excitement and then silence. The Isle of Wight experiment disappeared and went unmentioned by those talking of a world beating system app for track and trace. Ministers insisted that letting people, rather than an app, do the tracing was the way forward. Yes, the NHS nee Serco experiment was the way forward. Well, Serco proved to be as useless as the lsle of Wight app. So it was finally acknowledged the Apple/Google app was the way forward. Oddly, half of Europe worked that out from day one. Testing, or rather the availability of testing was having problems. The car park testing centres were empty, people were being instructed to travel hundreds of miles for a test. The problem was not the testing, it was a lack of lab' facilities to process the tests. Who was in charge of testing, that was Dido Harding, former CEO of Talk Talk, where she qwit under a cloud. Her poor management cost the company £60 million and lost it 95,000 customers.

In sum, the decision makers have proved witless, PPE supply has been inadequate, testing and tracing hopeless, and there has been no real policy on quarantine. Home Secretary Priti Patel announced quarantine plans for new arrivals to the UK, which will be in place from Monday, June 8. Those arriving in the UK by plane, rail, road and air will be subject to a 14-day quarantine. After arrival, visitors would be expected to travel to where they are going to quarantine, using public transport - absurd. And giving the job of ensuring these travellers stay in quarantine falls to the Border Force. More witlessness, someone arrives from abroad and then uses public transport to get home, to self isolate, or go down the pub?

In December a vaccine arrived from abroad. Idiot education secretary Gavin Williamson said we got the vaccine first because we are a better than Germany or France? The idiot did not appear to understand that the vaccine was developed in Germany by Turkish immigrants and produced in Belgium by a US firm. However, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine had storage problems and was only being used in hospitals. As of the end of December 500,000 had been tested, they will need a second jab in six weeks.

Meanwhile a new variant of the virus appeared and across the world countries were shutting their borders to British travelers. They told us the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine would be here soon to save us all. This was given the all clear by the regulator on Dec 30. They say it will be rolled out by January

Euro deal at last

27/12/20

Hands off our Halibut

Ambassadors from the 27 EU member states have unanimously approved the EU-UK post-Brexit trade deal, paving the way for it to take effect. The deal is likely to become law on 1 January, as the UK Parliament is expected to approve it on Wednesday. So the fish will all be ours in 5 years.

PMs have had no time to prepare for agreement to this deal, the whole deal will be pushed through in a day. The Labour party have been told by Keir Starmer to vote yes. Why? Keir says it's better than no deal. How can he know that? But everything will be fine as long as we all avoid use of Netscape Navigator. (see Page 921 of the TRADE AND COOPERATION AGREEMENT.

 

The World

Chinese Dementia

December 2020

Over the past three years the Chinese have put one million Muslim Uyghurs in concentration camps. On the surface these camps are being used to force the Uyghurs to turn into Chinese citizens. In truth they are being used for slave labour. Uyghur men are being sterilised. Birth rates in Uyghur regions have plunged by 60%.

In July and August this year, human rights groups called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate Chinese crimes against humanity and genocide. That was a waste of time. The UN has 193 members and only 39 condemned China this year.

 

UN Confirms its uselessness

13/10/20

China, Saudi Arabia and Russia are poised to join the United Nations Human Rights Council, raising alarm among rights groups who say the countries are among the world’s “worst rights violators”. New members will serve for three years from January 2021.

Global starvation

06/04/20

Approximately 9 million people die of hunger each year according to world hunger statistics; more than the death toll for malaria, AIDs and tuberculosis combined. And before that odd person from  Springwatch, Chris Packham pops up and says, "there's too many people in the world",  Blast-it says there’s no shortage of food in the world, just a lack of access to it.

Some thoughts on Davos

24/01/20

Davos regular, billionaire George Soros, launched a stinging attack on the "authoritarian rulers" of both the US and China. President Trump went toe to toe on climate change with Greta Thunberg and lost hands down. Elsewhere, deals were done and the status quo was re-confirmed, business as usual - that's what Davos is all about.

 

Iran admits shooting down passenger plane

11/01/20

The Ukraine airliner, shot down on Wednesday, was downed by a clueless missile operator, unable to tell the difference between a nasty MIG and a very large Boeing. The 176 people on board were all killed.
Following the government admission of guilt, protesters were out on the streets calling for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to resign. It appears that there may be elements in Iran who think it’s time for a change of direction?

Soleimani was ‘taken out’

03/01/20

Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced "Severe revenge awaits" those behind the attack on General Qasem Soleimani. Soleimani was ‘taken out’ by a US drone outside Baghdad airport, Iraq. The General’s key function was to travel round the middle-east creating havoc with his Revolutionary Guards and on his days off, to return home to slaughter demonstrators in Iran.

Clearly, Soleimani is no loss to humankind but only a simpleton like Trump would think his death had any meaning, in terms of ending the nightmare made worse by him.

 

Technology

People were buying phones for £1000, so they could spend their time living on line, looking for 'likes' on Facebook and using state of art phone cameras to post pics of themselves on Snapchat and Instagram. They followed influencers selling them false dreams that turned into nightmares. In November 2019, Tim Berners-Lee was calling for A Mid-Course Correction in his Dimbleby Lecture. His World Wide Web was being ruined by the money grubbers at Facebook and Twitter et al. For them ruin was a business model, for everyone else it was social dilemma. Self-harm among younger users was seeing a big increase, the government coninued to talk about curtailing the behaviour of the tech companies but did nothing. According to mad woman Liz Truss, our Trade secretary, the UK will establish itself as "a global technology superpower".

PPE Chumocracy

The Department for Health and Social Care doled out contracts to the chums of MPs and Lords a leaping to firms, some without a track record of providing PPE. Much of the PPE sourced had a Turkish kitemark, i.e., it was useless. The DHSC says: "We have a robust process to ensure orders are of high-quality standard and meet commercial due diligence." Almost 500 suppliers with links to politicians or senior officials were allowed to pitch directly for work. The National Audit Office tells us there was a “lack of transparency and adequate documentation” The truth is £10 billion was spent on PPE, much of it wasted. Time for a bit of distraction...

Distraction 1: A small green industrial revolution

Big ambitions with limited funds… £4bn to create 250,000 new green jobs, investment in offshore wind, making homes more energy efficient, technology to capture and store carbon created in industrial processes, a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars brought forward to 2030, and more investment in nuclear. The Committee on Climate Changes estimates it will cost £1 trillion over the next 30 years.

Distraction 2: Military Spending

Bonkers declares that the era of military spending cuts is over. A "once-in-a-generation modernisation" of the armed forces is required to extend British influence and protect the public, Bonkers said.  A new four-year funding deal would protect "hundreds of thousands" of jobs and create 40,000 new roles. There will be an increase of £16bn over four years. Actually, the increase by 2025 will only be £7bn, the money will cover the following:

A new centre dedicated to artificial intelligence

The creation of a national cyber force, which he said was already operating against terrorists, organised crime groups and hostile states

A new "RAF space command launching British satellites and our first rocket from Scotland in 2022"

Note: Our tanks use a laser to site to target enemy tanks, the Russian tank senses the laser and fires a rocket at it. Blame George Osborne. Meanwhile we were treated to a major distraction from the US.

Donald Trump defeats Covid 19 single-handedly with Dettol

12/10/20

Trump tested positive for Covid on the 0ctober 2. He stayed three nights at the Walter Reed hospital before returning to the White House on October 5. We think he was given several bottle of Dettol to drink. Whatever, he declared himself super fit. He appeared on Fox news to be quizzed on his symptoms when he first became sick, he was vague. He says he is now immune?

 

Schools Must Promote Capitalism

27/09/20

Last Thursday the DfE Issued guidance on the curriculum: “Schools should not under any circumstances use resources produced by organisations that take extreme political stances on matters. What matters? The department was a bit shaky here. It's not just Momentum they were outlawing, they have a banned list and Blast-it suspects that Amnesty International and Greenpiece are on it.

The Guidance issued to schools was set out under the heading: 'Plan your relationships, sex and health curriculum'. The information contained in this document should be of concern to every citizen but it wont be.

 

Sick Tory Rapist Found Guilty

01/08/20

Charlie Elphicke told the BBC: "I am not aware of what the alleged claims are and deny any wrongdoing.” That was in 2017 when he was briefly suspended from the Tory party. Twelve months later Mrs May needed him for a confidence vote in the Commons, so she reinstated him. He stood down in the 2019 election, knowing full well his days as a “naughty politician” were over. Well, July 31 this year saw him convicted of rape and two charges of sexual assault, his wife of 25 years left him.

More Levelling Up

02/08/20

Gavin Williamson has finally realised that we need to encourage more young people to take up technical training, he said:

"That's why this autumn I will be publishing a White Paper that will set out plans to build a world-class, German style further education system in Britain, and level up skills and opportunities.”

Failing Grayling in line for top job

11/07/20

Chris Grayling was being tipped to become the next chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC). This would not be a good idea since it does have the word ‘intelligence’ in its title and may well confuse the stooge. Failing didn't get the job. However, he did work with Hutchison Ports Europe, advising on the log-jam problems at Felixstowe Port. He handed a £100,000 a year, for 7 hours a week. The log-jam continues…

What a waste

28/06/20

Someone in government thought it was a good idea to spend £900,000 repainting the PM's plane. They say the paint job was needed in order to better represent the UK abroad. A new prime minister with a comb would have been cheaper. The RAF Voyager, an Airbus A330 jet, was repurposed for use by the UK government in 2015, at a cost of £10m. Too bad someone did not realise then that a plane painted undercoat grey was not a good look.

Jenrick plans a new career

25/06/20

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick attended a fundraising dinner at the Savoy hotel for the Conservative Party last November. He was seated on a table, sitting next to property developer Richard Desmond. Jenrick says he did not know who he was going to be seated with. You might suppose that his minions in the department might pay attention to little details that might embarrass their boss. However, the Times tells us that Desmond just happened to have a video of his latest scheme on his phone and showed it to Jenrick. Desmond had plans for a 1,500 home development at the former Westferry printing works, on London's Isle of Dogs but he didn’t have planning permission - until he sat down with Jenrick.

Now, here’s the really interesting bit. Planning permission was granted one day before a new Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) came into force that would have meant the developer paying an extra £40m to support projects in Tower Hamlets. This obviously didn’t bother Jenrick because he thought that the Labour council were a bunch of Marxists. However, Jenrick’s minions must have saved the day by telling him his action were unlawful, so he cancelled the planning permission.

Killer cladding deadline missed

23,000 homes still blighted by ACM cladding

13/06/20

Two years after the Grenfell fire the Tory government, using the vocal chords of James Brokenshire, set a deadline for the removal of the killer cladding from people's homes. The date set was June 2020. Brokenshire warned building owners to “expect enforcement action” if action wasn’t taken. In the meantime, apart from sleepless nights and mental breakdowns, residents in affected blocks are paying out for 24-hour fire wardens, or round-the-clock waking watches, paying up to £850 a month and facing “astronomical” hikes to insurance premiums.

Murder in broad daylight

06/06/20

The murder took place on May 25. George Floyd, 46, died after being arrested by police outside a shop in Minneapolis. The whole episode was videoed for the whole world to see. George on the floor, handcuffed, face down, telling police officer Derek Chauvin, who was kneeling on George's neck while he was pinned to the floor, that he could not breath. Officer Chauvin ignored George's appeals and Chauvin's three colleagues stood and watched like stooges.

A week of protest across the world ensued, there were riots in some US cities. Trump the mad president made himself more ridiculous by talking nonsense about shooting protesters, hiding in his bunker at the White House and then unleashing the military onto the streets of America. The protesters chanted 'black lives matter' and they all knew that they certainly did not in the US.

Following the protests, officer Chauvin was charged with second degree murder and his chums were all charged with aiding and abetting him. The trial will be held in some mythical legal future.

 

Harry and Meghan give us a break!

19/04/20

The couple will not speak to the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Sun or Daily Express any more. The Society of Editors said it was 'a clear attempt to undermine sections of UK media. Prince Harry and Meghan say they refuse to 'offer themselves up as currency’. And if Harry is having a nervous breakdown, can he have elsewhere. Next, we heard that the odd couple popped up in States, selling themselves to Netflix and Spotify for currency?

Labour Under New Management

04/04/20

Keir Starmer told Sky News, 

I'm often challenged, “Are you a Blairite or a Corbynista?”
‘I don’t need someone else’s name tattooed on my head to make a decision or hug a historical figure.’ Really, that's an interesting name you've got there. Would that have something to do the historical founder of the Labour party a 120 years ago? 

Arrested for loitering on a railway station

03/04/20

British Transport Police arrested Marie Dinou at Newcastle Central. She was arrested for loitering on a railway station and refusing to comply with our Covid-19 lockdown laws. She appeared in court the following day and was fined £600, with costs of £85. She was also ordered to pay a £66 victim surcharge. The victim was not called to give evidence.

It has now been revealed (by the Times) that police used the wrong law to prosecute the women. And there really wasn't a victim, unless it was the poor police person who was left feeling like a school teacher, when she refused to cooperate!

Mr Failing Strikes Again

27/02/20

Campaigners have won a Court of Appeal ruling over controversial plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport on environmental grounds. Judges singled out the former transport secretary Chris Grayling in their ruling, they said Mr Failing Grayling had not given enough consideration to the environment in his plans. A memo reveals that officials at the Department for Transport plotted to cover up warnings about the extra aircraft noise created by a third runway at Heathrow. Documents signed off by Heathrow and the former Transport Secretary Grayling in 2016 show the airport has the right to sue the Government for £500m if it pulls the plug on the project.

Bank of England biscuit man under the spotlight

25/02/20

Andrew Bailey, the man chosen to replace the phantasmagorical Mark Carney as chair of the Biscuit Committee at the Back of England, has a problem. A set up called the True and Fair Campaign, headed up by Gina Miller, has produced a “damning dossier” on Bailey’s track record - too many broken biscuits in his last job?

It says his tenure at the Financial Conduct Authority was characterised by a “toxic cocktail of negligence, incompetence and indifference” that allowed a string of financial scandals to go unchecked.

More detail on biscuit man

Church of England need a guide dog

31/01/20

Church of England bishops issued guidance that said sex is only for "heterosexual married couples”. The archbishops of Canterbury and York are "very sorry and recognise the division and hurt" this statement caused. Yes, they are very sorry but they are not taking back the guidance. You see they are engaged in a study titled, The Living in Love and Faith project, examining human sexuality. Apparently, the Church is aware that it is out of touch with today's world. It allowed same-sex partnerships, as long as no sex took place. But now it's petrified other the numbers registering for mixed-sex civil partnerships. Get the hair shirts out, is this the end of patriarchy, is marriage a dead duck?

 

Police and politicians turned a blind eye to Westminster abuse

25/02/20

Well, that's what the BBC headline said but then the story goes on to say that there was no “organised Westminster paedophile network”. The BBC piece only mentions two, now long dead, child abusers.

The 173-page review from the investigation into child sexual abuse took two years of inquiring. All they came up with was the blind eye turned by Mrs Thatcher to the handy work of Sir Peter Morrison, and David Steels failure to be rid of Sir Cyril Smith when he admitted being an abuser. These things were already public knowledge.

No. 10 Weirdo Sabisky lasts five minutes

19/02/20

Dominic Cummings, Boris the Buffoon's pet snail, put an advert in the local paper for "misfits and weirdos" to inject some real blue sky thinking into the new Tory eugenics project. Andrew Sabisky, a Cummings' groupie-slug, was taken on. Unfortunately, for his ambitions, he revealed that he had consumed the detritus of racists and raving eugenicist. He was not bright enough to keep his thoughts to himself.

The press examined his blog posts and twitterings and discovered a genuine misfit. No.10 gave Sabisky 24 hours worth of support and then told him to get lost.

Pause for a moment, the views of Sabisky dovetail with those of Cummings and Boris, and the eugenics project. Ask yourself the question, why would anyone employ Sabisky?

Admiral Andrew - not just yet

08/02/20

Prince Andrew, the paedophiles friend, turned down becoming an admiral on his 60th birthday - 19 February - well, he’s actually deferred the title, until everyone forgets his association with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and he can once again go back to work, waving and cutting ribbons. Then he can start calling himself Admiral.

The fact that several councils are questioning the idea of flying the Union Jack on his birthday (it’s traditional for royals) tells us he will not be coming back soon. However, it has been confirmed that the bells of Westminster Abbey will still ring out in celebration. The Church is home to lost souls in denial.

 

Church of England need a guide dog

31/01/20

Church of England bishops issued guidance that said sex is only for "heterosexual married couples”. The archbishops of Canterbury and York are "very sorry and recognise the division and hurt" this statement caused. Yes, they are very sorry but they are not taking back the guidance. You see they are engaged in a study titled, The Living in Love and Faith project, examining human sexuality. Apparently, the Church is aware that it is out of touch with today's world. It allowed same-sex partnerships, as long as no sex took place. But now it's petrified other the numbers registering for mixed-sex civil partnerships. Get the hair shirts out, is this the end of patriarchy, is marriage a dead duck?

Tories take back Arriva's train set

30/01/20

The Government’s Operator of Last Resort will run the Northern Rail franchise from the end of March. The Government's operator is also running London North Eastern Railway. The fate of Arriva's Northern Rail franchise is surely a case study of incompetence. The performance of Northern came to national prominence when a new timetable was introduced in May 2018, this created weeks of chaos - up to 300 services were cancelled each day. The new timetable required additional drivers, that Northern did not possess. The Department for Transport signed off on the new timetable, but Failing Grayling, Transport Secretary at the time said, it was nothing to do for him. The result of the timetable fallout was that Northern’s subsidy increased by £120m. A subsidy to a subsiduary of  Deutsche Bahn, i.e., the German state, sheer mockery.

Nothern's performance was made worse by the late delivery of new rolling stock from a Spanish supplier and a number of strikes by drivers over the role of guards on trains.

The Department for Transport has taken back Northern but does not have a plan to tackle the underlying problems.

 

A Lakanal Moment, the Grenfell inquiry

30/01/20

A moment ignored. All the companies and experts involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower knew that the cladding would fail in the event of a fire and went ahead regardless. Correspondence on the safety of the cladding, between various parties involved, reveals and confirms their callous approach to the loss of life in pursuit of profit. Now, these killers are asking to be allowed to give evidence at the inquiry without fear of subsequent prosecution.

Note: The Lakanal House fire occurred in a tower block on 3 July 2009 in Camberwell, London. Six people were killed, and at least twenty injured. No lessons were learned. 

 

Stormont re-opens

11/01/20

A padlock has been on the gate at Stormont, the Northern Ireland Parliament Buildings, for the past three years. Now, it’s open for business again, with the DUP and Sinn Fein power sharing.

Basically, Arlene Foster caused the Stormont shutdown by refusing to stand down while an inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme was taking place. The scheme ran over budget and at one point threatened to cost taxpayers £490m.

New Biscuit Man at the Bank of England

December 2019

Andrew Bailey has been appointed the new Governor of the Bank of England and will earn £495,000 a year. Sajid Javid said Bailey was "the stand-out candidate in a competitive field.” He certainly was, he made a complete mess of things at the City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority. However, now he is in charge of the Bank he’s safe. All the job involves is turning up twice a month to the Monetary Biscuit Committee and supplying the digestives.

Note for Sajid Javid: “No intention to publish”

Andrew Bailey, when chief executive of Financial Conduct Authority said:

"I recognise the public interest in the outcome of the RBS/GRG (see note below) review but I do not believe it is best served by us publishing the full report." He went on to say: “that such reports are done "on the basis that there is no intention to publish" as this "greatly facilitates the efficiency of the process”.

Meaning he was keen to avoid accidentally libelling RBS and avoiding all that maxwellization nonsense that Chilcot wasted time on during his Iraq War inquiry. That is not to say that Bailey was speedy, the review into RBS’s behaviour towards its customers was commissioned in 2014 and Bailey sat on his report until the Treasury Select Committee told him to hand it over in February 2018. In fact, the Committee already had a copy of the report, they were just giving Bailey a chance to stop looking silly. And he was being silly because he was allowing RBS to pull his strings.

 

 

UP

 

UP