Tag: Bojo

Another Covid Ramble

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This virus eh, what is coming next. I was feeling a little tired today and this evening felt my arms and neck a little sore. Strange I thought, am I ill? For the best part of an hour I felt myself getting weaker by the minute until I remembered I had been waxing the bottom of a catamaran for a few hours and that holding the waxing machine up while looking up had understandably left a little strain. What a silly boy. I laughed a lot, much of it at myself and the rest in relief that I wasn’t about to become another statistic. I wonder if there’s anyone left out there in the world who hasn’t at some point worried that they may have caught it, just a moment of weakness. Of course there will be but undoubtedly there’ll be more who have had that moment. Even those who think the whole things a scam will have for sure had a little moment. Good luck getting them to admit it though. I wonder too how many people have still not heard anything about it. There will be some interesting stories getting released in a few years.

Checks the news

The Queen has had her first official public engagement today in nine months. I forgot about her. Ninety-four years old and still going strong. Why she felt the need to be out and about meeting some scientists though is beyond me. Does she really need to be doing that, what’s the point. Seems like an unnecessary risk for a very old lady to be taking while there’s a virus running around taking very old ladies.

There seems to be some kind of tier system going on in the UK. Not everyone’s happy about it though. Liverpool and Manchester seem to be in full on tier three but are then being left to rot. It doesn’t seem too unfair to give a little support if you expect people to give up everything. Seems like something you would do if you actual gave a shit about helping people through this.

In unrelated Covid news, the Tory’s are still arseholes. Actually that’s also Covid related. It turns out Wetherspoons, that chain of pubs made famous for being cheap and shite as well as being run by a major Brexit supporting Tory donor, have been reclassified as eating establishments. In Liverpool then while all the pubs are forced to close they’ll be allowed to stay open. This mob are becoming less legitimate by the day. They’re not even pretending to hide anything either which is an actual genuine concern because it means they feel untouchable. Judging by the response of the media and the opposition, they seem to believe it too and are quite happy with the situation. It’s not that we’re going to morph into Nazi Germany, of course we’re not, but we’re looking more and more like Viktor Orban’s Hungary with each thing. You won’t get a Nazi Germany again and people will use this extreme example to delegitimise the debate, but Orban’s Hungary or Erdogan’s Turkey, genuinely these are becoming distinctly possible. Anyway, this is probably better saved for a full piece.

The Great Showmen

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What’s going on in the world then. A section of Trump’s infamous border wall with Mexico blew down. Apparently Hurricane Hanna got the better of it. Past wall failures include another section in California being knocked over in January following a strong breeze, smugglers taking minutes to saw, yes saw, through sections of the wall and another incident in San Diego apparently saw them doing this eighteen times in one month. Perhaps a series of the same incident would be more apt. It does suggest he has been making it on the cheap and undoubtedly this does fit in with the type of image of Trump we have. Doing things for show without any substance and grabbing everyone’s attention with another outlandish ‘project’ the moment the old one starts to fall to pieces. Why anyone thought a showman would change his stripes I just don’t know.

The plan wasn’t just to talk about Trump, it was to mention a few things going on in the world but it’s so easy to start with him and get carried away with whatever it is he’s doing now. I think the whole world knows what’s going on, although saying that having just quickly checked the BBC, even on the actual US regional page it doesn’t really mention a lot about how arguably troops, or their equivalent at least, have been deployed on domestic streets and quite violently against peaceful protesters. It’s almost more interesting to see what’s newsworthy and not being reported. The man is gearing up for an election as he tries to get everyone to forget about his handling of Covid-19, as well as the fact he’s still continuing to handle it badly, and focus instead on how good he is or would be at cleaning up the streets. The law and order campaign approach being one usually deployed by a hopeful incoming President criticising the current occupants job, how that quite works with a sitting President suggesting he’ll clean up the streets of not only a country he’s been running for four years but that he’s repeatedly said has “been made great again” is still slightly unclear. I’m sure he’ll all confuse us with his explanation.

What else has been going on then. Well he’s still orange. He’s still the slightly shittier American version of a television series that originated in Britain and revolved around Boris Johnson performing a stage version of A Clockwork Orange. We thought it could never be topped but evidently in the most brash of American ways it has been. I wonder which one will run for longer without being cancelled. I wonder too what the spin-off would be; their best mate Nigel Farage losing all his money and having to hang out with the working men he pretends he’s one of. Or the ultimate twist of fate, through a loophole in the law he gets kicked out of the UK and manages to claim refugee status in Germany with his wife and kids. Now that would be both compulsive and car crash television. Maybe Boris, Don and Nige could be the three men to Dominic Cummings as the baby; probably doing his best version of an early Stewie Griffin when he was his in murder everyone faze. They just don’t make television like they used to. They don’t really make reality what it once was either though. Maybe it’s just those blurred lines confusing us all. Which is which, we just don’t know.

Bojo The Wildling

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It appears Bojo came north of the wall today. He mingled with those pesky wildlings he ordinarily has no time for. When I say north of the wall, I mean nearly as far north as possible. He went all the way to the Orkney Islands. One suspects this wasn’t because he loves Scotland so much he wants to see as much of it as possible of course, it’s a lot easier to avoid the baying crowds when they consist of Angus and his dog than what they would be were he to brave Edinburgh, Glasgow or just about any place with a population capable of creating an angry mob.

He finally visited Scotland on the one year anniversary of his still slightly inexplicable rise to power. If that was supposed to fill us with some sense of honour that he would bless us with his presence on such an important day, all it did was remind us it’s taken him so long to come north. It took him one whole year despite the fact there was an actual election midway through the year. Perhaps his no show in that time was down to his love of the Union and the damage his presence would do to it.

Undeniably there is truth in that. The latest polls, and there’s more than one of them, puts support for independence at 54%. Nicola Sturgeon may try and take credit for this but when a country votes in droves for anyone but the man elected as leader yet has this very man foisted upon them it’s quite easy to see why opinion polls are only moving in one direction. When you see a country being dragged out of the European Union despite voting to stay in it, then expecting to be forced to endure an inevitable ‘no deal’ Brexit as the zealots in government return us to Year Zero and the ashes they hope to grow a new and glorious society out of, it’s fair to say the Scottish people want nothing to do with it.

Even the coronavirus has played it’s part. Nicola Sturgeon herself is very divisive, usually down the Independence / Unionist line in all fairness, but compared to Boris’ fumbled mumbled approach in confusing an entire nation on what’s expected of them while not actually doing anything himself, she has looked decisive and strong. She didn’t even have to really do anything, just be clear about what she meant when she did make a statement. Clearly there is something dark going on in the corridors of Whitehall and Number Ten, it’s no surprise more and more Scots are wanting out.

As Sturgeon said;

“I welcome the PM to Scotland today. One of the key arguments for independence is the ability of Scotland to take our own decisions, rather than having our future decided by politicians we didn’t vote for, taking us down a path we haven’t chosen. His presence highlights that“

It says a lot for a man that the opposition openly admit he does them more good than they do themselves. There is no way for sure to say one way or another whether Scotland becoming a free state would work in the short, medium or long term, and while it’s dangerous to suggest or believe that happiness is just waiting around the corner, let’s be honest anything has got to be better than this lot right now.

I remember the day after the independence referendum in 2014, I was in France picking grapes and I barely said a word all morning. I was infinitely disappointed that a people had rejected not the opportunity of independence because what is that really, but that they had rejected the chance to even attempt improving their lot. A people chose fear over hope. But who knows, there may just be light at the end of this tunnel of a horror show after all.

Tell The Truth Partisan

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I was thinking about Donald Trump today. I don’t like talking too much about American politics because I’m not American, it’s not my country and the world focuses on it enough already. The problem is that American politics plays such a large role in influencing what happens in other countries that to not take an interest in it risks potentially not understanding politics on a global scale. In that case then it’s also important to understand the situation in China, Russia, Iran and Australia. I threw in Australia there because it’s good to focus on a country that isn’t in some kind of battle with the Americans and also because their politics is so unbelievably corrupt and owned by corporate interests that it’s a warning not to be missed. That doesn’t mean we’re not corrupt and owned in Britain but at least the politicians keep up some kind of pretence.

American politics is just so unbelievably entertaining at the moment that it’s hard to keep your eyes off it. I appreciate of course that my enjoyment of politics and power as entertainment completely ignores the suffering of those who it affects. But the truth is it affects us all. And we have Boris Johnson, he’s not known as “Britain Trump” for no reason. But it’s always more than one man even though they may be desperately trying to convince you otherwise.

The thing with Trump though is that he is used to working in the entertainment industry. He understands ratings but not from a politics perspective, hence why politics has devolved into reality television. I was thinking today though that I’m starting to get bored of the constant criticism of him. That seems like a strange statement to make but it’s more that I’m just tired of hearing such completely biased and partisan news stories. It’s not that I necessarily disagree with them but I want real news, I want to know what’s really going on, not some version of events that fits a narrative and a political position. People are not idiots, they are capable of making up their minds for themselves but the left wing and the right wing seem to write such blindly ideological stories that nobody gains anything. If what you believe is right and really the best way to approach life and power then you should have nothing to fear. If the other side are full of shit and wrong then surely their argument will unravel eventually. Maybe there is something naive in this thinking, to control the narrative is to control the story but why are we so scared of being scrutinised if what we believe is genuinely the best approach.

I broke habit and voted in the last elections, and despite being bitterly disappointed Jeremy Corbyn didn’t win I will not say everything is good about him, what he thinks and how he acts. It is the same for Trump or Boris, not every single thing they suggest is bad. I may disagree with large amounts but they will have some good ideas, maybe not many but they will. How are we supposed to evolve in a mature developed society if we are unable to see moments and ideas for what they really are. Nothing is perfect, but I just want to know the truth. I want to see the world for what it is not how people want me to see it. I know I’m not alone in this and that’s only going to continue.

An Opportunity Lost?

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The more I think about it the British General Election back in December was an even bigger loss than I thought at the time. Don’t get me wrong I was pretty desponded, as the annuls of this blog can attest, but this is a deeper realisation. At the time it was clearly a missed opportunity. The Labour manifesto was in places a sensation, an attempt to strip back years of neoliberal skullduggery and corruption. It was relatively radical by an measure of what depths British politics has sunk to, we were going to have drastic and crazy levels of social welfare in line with Germany and France. Perish the thought. Apparently that was going to be Communism in the heart of Europe, well the departing heart of Europe. This realisation that we were instead about to be dragged out of Europe and forced onto our proverbial knees by an aggressively self-serving United States. To sit by as those supposedly negotiating and supposedly on our behalf pretended they were going to act tough even though they had already admitted they had put all our eggs in the Yankee basket. The neoliberal con was about to have it’s one last job before going into retirement. Of course I was despondent.

And now as the world has descended into whatever we can call this shit show, it is beyond doubt that there will be lasting effects and change coming out of all of this. Nobody who says they know really has any idea because it genuinely is all open. All open in the way that power still holds all the cards even though they’re blank. Depending how long this goes on for will depend on how your average persons view of the world changes in an open compassionate way, and that means a lot of suffering I suspect. Right now after a month of this it’s far from long enough to have any lasting change and I must point out I’m not a believer in ends justifying means or innocent people suffering. I don’t want the world necessarily to change for the better if it means innocents dying. Anyone who believes this misses the point. But had power not been this corrupt bunch of self-serving scumbags then at least this rebuild may have been done with someone other than their own and the tax dodgers interests at the top of the pile.

What an opportunity. We thought it was going to be bad having five years of a majority government of some of the worst Tories in my lifetime calling the shots. Now these people will rebuild what comes out of this and I am not looking forward. Boris is no hero despite what the media are attempting to convince you, and I doubt he had an intensive care bed epiphany about the value of the NHS and freedom of movement despite his foreign NHS nurse holding his precious little hand throughout. Imagine the vitriol had Jeremy Corbyn been in charge, there is simply no way his government would be getting let off as easily as this current mob. They would most likely blame him for the state of the NHS despite only being in power for a few months after ten years of Tory austerity and ideological cuts. We could be about to move into a period of rebuilding society and the economy with people being put first, the whole populace, not the depending on bank account version. So it is a missed opportunity, but is it a lost opportunity? This is only something time can tell. We’ve certainly not made it easy on ourselves though.

BJ Bojo In Big No No

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It appears our glorious leader has found himself stricken with virus. That came as quite a shock for many I imagine, I know it was for me. In my lifetime at least there has never been a moment in which our Prime Minister’s life has been on the line. Leaders don’t fight at the heads of armies any more, generally I’m of the persuasion they mostly don’t do much bar talk a lot though. It is utterly remarkable to think our own Prime Minister may die from this. It evoked a strange and surprising response in me actually; I felt a sadness that my leader was in danger. That is strange on many levels but mainly because I don’t see him as my leader and secondly because I don’t really see anyone or appreciate the concept of anyone being my leader. I thought I was above that. There was though definitely an emotive response within me and it shocked me, I was genuinely surprised I had these thoughts somewhere within.

You would not have heard me at 8pm though clapping on or for him. I haven’t been clapping for anyone actually. I do generally avoid these types of group activity for what I feel should be an obvious reason. For me to clap for Boris then would be no less hypocritical than someone who voted Tory clapping for an NHS nurse. Ultimately as a human being I hope he survives, my god the poor man must be terrified, but that doesn’t automatically make him a good man. While some may try to equate him to Churchill it mustn’t ever be forgotten he is partly responsible for the suffering of innocent people in this country, people have died because of the actions of his party and the votes he cast. The irony being that his life is now dependent upon the very service he has participated in stripping of it’s ability to operate these last ten years. Yet it survives.

When he first got ill I’m not afraid to admit that I didn’t believe it. There is still a part of me sceptical about this but I’m not sure how much I believe myself anymore. Apparently he is in intensive care but is still working and running the country; surely though either he is in intensive care or still working and running the country. It can’t be both. This is a government accused in the past of an horrendous lack of transparency and they’ve seemingly stuck to form in this moment when it’s completely unnecessary. For what reason do they feel they are unable to admit the true severity of his illness. I simply do not understand why it would be a problem. People are dying everywhere, the days of having a tough fighting leader are behind us, we don’t need him to wield an axe. It is perfectly okay for him to be sick but they’ve done everything they can to downplay his sickness. The country isn’t going to descend into the bad type of anarchy just because Boris Johnson is ill. Surely it would garner sympathy and with it support.

Anyway beyond the politics I wish him well. I will never gloat about the sickness and pain of others and I hope it hasn’t come across like that here. Come on then Big B you get better pal.

19 Covid’s Of Hell For PM BJ Bojo Johnson

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Big news today, our glorious leader has gone and got a dose…of coronavirus silly, what did you think I was talking about. In a vain effort to be a man of the people, British Prime Minister Boris ‘Bojo’ Johnson has caught a cold. All is well though because he’s still running the country from Downing Street but now in his underpants via video link. The Prime Minister, or BJ as he’s known to his friends, is said to be in a fine mood as he believes this will finally convince the voters he’s willing to suffer with them no matter what and that his private chef has even begun cooking traditional peoples food like mushy peas and Fray Bentos pies just to lend an air of authenticity to proceedings. He is said to be really looking forward to microwave curry Wednesdays after his old friend Tim Martin donated leftover food to the coronavirus cause. He has drawn the line though at the bottle of Jacob’s Creek on offer even if it is part of a meal deal. He is said to be disappointed that his Supreme Overlord Dominic Cummings doesn’t have DNA capable of catching human virus’ as they could have had a “jolly good sleepover together”. His loyal and trusted colleague Micheal Gove has taken over media duties and promised to do all in his power to protect BJ’s legacy in the meantime.

So that’s the news, wow what a day. Is it time to start preparing for the military to take over once the politicians start dropping? Apparently Dominic Raab is supposed to be the one putting on the dour serious face if BJ becomes incapacitated. We’ll call him the interim Prime Minister before General Stickup His-Arse steps in to maintain public order. Apparently the sports stadiums are empty at the moment which should be handy. Let’s see how many people need their daily dog walk then. We won’t even need to report on our neighbours for that second run they took either. Isn’t it Great being British, such a wonderful people. Spirit of the Blitz don’t you know. We’ll show those Europeans how we deal with virus’, won’t be any red tape on our procedures, can’t break the law if there aren’t any. Thank god for the NHS though. These nurses putting their lives at risk is the kind of dedication that will easily add a few hundred million extra quid when we’re sitting around the negotiation table with the Americans. If there are any left though, they seem to be out Briting the Brits with their virus response. Always bigger and brasher than everyone else. Pricks.