Why
does it come as no shock whatsoever that the Conservative Government is going
to release the figures for the total of tests at the end of the month not at
the end of the month? Can it be that the
100k total of tests on which Hancock staked his future are going to be more
problematic than he thought when he thoughtlessly uttered the guarantee earlier
in the crisis?
So, the ‘end of the month’ becomes
something of a moveable feast for the Conservatives when it comes to protecting
one of their own – never mind about the people who died as a result of their
failure to boost testing when the WHO was urging countries to “Test! Test!
Test!”
If the 100k is going to be difficult to
reach to save the hide of little Matt, then perhaps we should steel ourselves
to any one of the following:
1.
The endless month of April, in the same way as
MPs are used to some debates continuing on one particular named day even if
that day has long since passed.
2.
The offering of the total number of tests
available rather than the tests actually taken.
3.
‘Discovering’ tests from previous days that have
not been counted.
4.
Making up the results.
5.
Lying.
6.
Redefining the concept of 100k
7.
Redefining the idea of a ‘test’
8.
Lying.
9.
Sacrificing Rees-Mogg to placate, well, everyone
up to and including Tories.
10.
Lying.
And let’s deal with the, “this is no time to be replacing a
key minister when we are in a crisis” as we are in the crisis we are in because
of the key ministers that we have had to put up with.
It’s
about time that our political masters began to accept responsibility, and with
that end in mind, I am glad that Johnson seems better, and he should now resign
after his disgraceful lack of responsibility in going out of his way to put
himself in harm’s way by rejecting advice to social distance. If Beckett fails to get his 100k he should
resign: he made it a key pledge, he should live or die by it. And if we are presented (eventually) with
100k, then I would like the figures scrutinized by an independent body!
With
the allowing of kids out and about, there is a definite sense of ‘emergence’
from the lockdown – even though this has just included one parent with up to
thee kids, the pictures of something approaching normality in the streets has
produce a real feeling of achievement and hope that the end of the crisis is in
sight!
People are beginning to think of what
summer could be like if social distancing is still generally in place. What are the beaches going to be looking
like? At the moment we are regaled with
film on TV of groups on the beaches being moved on. Perhaps by July we will have the beach filled
with tight camps of families jealously guarding their ‘safe’ space. One shudders to think about it too closely!
From queuing for pollo and bread and meds,
I think that people will still go on socially isolating almost like second
nature nowadays, but the continued isolation in-house is the more difficult to
take. Especially is there is an element
of age discrimination added to the mix!
The
Catalan lesson on line was an unmitigated disaster. My basic problem comes form the fact that in
Google Meet my computer stubbornly refuses to recognize that my in-built
microphone works. In other programs of a
meeting nature it has no problems but with Google Meet, although it allows my
camera to work it does not extend that courtesy to my mic.
I attempted to rectify the mic. problem by
using my mobile phone as the audio component and my Mac as the screen. This was a bad thing to do not only because I
could not read the screen within a screen within a screen on the mobile phone
as it was tiny, but also because electronically having both devices on produced
the most appalling caterwauling interference.
Then there was the attempt for all two of
us in the class (sic) to try and open the pages that would give us the work
that we had to complete before Friday.
We couldn’t find the bit to click on and eventually, after what could
only be described as a painful attempt to get us all on the same page, we were
sent a new link to get to the page. That
failed. We were then sent via email the
page in question with space for us to complete our homework. That failed.
I have done my homework, but I sent it as
a separate file via email. We will have
to see how this develops! At least we
have a week to prepare for our next on line lesson.
It will not be time enough!
