“(The PAC report) underlies the epic amounts of waste and incompetence…” (Rachel Reeves)
A Waste of Resources
On top of the tiring weekend, being woken very early by pile drivers on the waste-ground for the second Monday running didn’t help. 5 days of severe fatigue ensued. I stayed in bed and worked on the laptop while Phil shopped for essentials. The only reports to mark International Women’s Day I saw concerned modified traffic lights in London and new blue plaques in Bradford. To mark the first step on the exit roadmap, I wanted to contact my walking friend for ’coffee on a bench’ but wasn’t up to it. Children’s minister Vicky Ford gave mixed messages on whether or not it was mandatory for returning school pupils to wear masks and get PCR tests if rapid ones proved positive. Even as an anti-royalist, I found assertions made in the Oprah Winfrey ‘Megxit interview’ shocking, true or not. Extensive media coverage encompassed fears it would harm the UK’s reputation. More than cutting aid to Yemen? Polls suggested a nation divided, the queen issued a short statement and Piers Morgan melodramatically resigned from morning telly. Cutting off her family after snaring a prince, The Meg’s dad said she could see him whenever she liked. Half-sister Sam claimed she had narcissistic personality disorder and Harry suffered from Stockholm Syndrome – good call! Interestingly, amid alleged questions about the skin colour of their offspring, no one mentioned Harry’s former racist behaviour (e.g., wearing a Nazi uniform), or that he resembled James Hewitt with his ginger hair. Was it time for a DNA test?
Letters inviting us to have vaccines arrived. Logging onto the NHS booking site on Tuesday, the most accessible hub appeared to be Bradford. Avoiding weekend train travel, our first jabs would be in a couple of weeks. Phil complained it was ages away. Annoyed there were no centres in our borough, our GP practice sent text invites the following week for places nearer home. Taking up the offer, it seemed ludicrous this wasn’t done concurrently. What a waste of resources!
Nightingale hospitals were to shut, except in London and Sunderland where they would offer vaccines. A local councillor called for an enquiry into why the Harrogate site had never been used. Valance and Witless went to the S&T committee to warn of ‘significant risks’ at each step out of lockdown and a possible surge from late summer onwards. They urged the government not to ‘concertina’ the 5-week intervals. “All the modelling suggests there is going to be a further surge and that will find the people who either have not been vaccinated or where the vaccine has not worked … things can turn bad if you don’t keep a very, very close eye on it.” Pieces of the meteorite landed on a drive in Wincham, Gloucestershire. The 1.46bn year old carbonaceous chondrite was taken to the natural history museum and locals asked to keep their eyes peeled for more.
I stayed in bed Wednesday, worked on the journal and watched PMQs. Phil gone awhile on errands, he’d also had a run and came across a photography friend in our age group. Although sceptical, she was booked in for inoculation. Earplugs only partially dampened the sound of the continuous canal works at siesta time, but I had a few decent night-time sleeps mid-week. Latest tests found the Pfizer vaccine effective against the Brazilian P1 strain. NHS CE Simon Stevens confirmed to the health and social care committee that the 2019 budget included a 2.1% NHS pay rise. At PMQs, Keir queried the ’real terms’ pay cut when there were 40,000 nursing and 10,000 doctor vacancies, to be answered with a claim that Keir voted against the NHS funding act 2020, which was impossible as there was no vote. Boris failed to correct the record thus breaking the ministerial code and should have resigned.
Newsnight recalled Boris misleading parliament 3 weeks running, most significantly regarding wasteful crony PPE contracts. In an indirect dig at the EU, The Bumbler said he was “proud to support COVAX”, the UK hadn’t blocked exports and he opposed ‘vaccine nationalism’. He also backed Matt Cock who said TIT did an ‘amazing job’. This in turn was a response to the public accounts committee (PAC) finding that TIT made no ‘measurable difference’ to the spread of the pandemic. They called for justification of the ‘staggering investment’ and said released data demonstrated compliance was low, didn’t clearly show the time lag between ‘cough and contact’ or the ‘overall effectiveness of the programme’. They also found it ‘overly reliant’ on pricey consultants, contractors and temps. Shadow Minister Reeves said: “(the report) underlies the epic amounts of waste and incompetence…cash splashed on crony contracts, all while ministers insist our NHS heroes deserve nothing more than a clap and a pay cut.”
Pascale Robinson of We Own It appeared on Sky News, saying TIT failings resembled ‘groundhog day’ and it was time to ‘kick out’ private companies running a wasteful parallel system with no experience and put the money into scaling up local health teams, for whom this type of work was ‘bread and butter’. They also wanted lighthouse labs to be integrated within the NHS and more money for self-isolation.
After Lord Frost defended the ‘grace period’ decision, Newsnight debate involved claims from Sammy Wilson, DUP, that NI had the most policed border in Europe and it was legitimate to act unilaterally, due to the economic and social damage the rules inflicted (in line with article 16). The Irish government rep disagreed: “unilateral action is never the solution.” Asked if going to court was, he said that’s how it worked under the agreement. Touché!
A Waste of Time
Thursday, Morning Live featured the tradeswomen’s register, instigated by Stopcocks plumbing, who provided us with sterling service when we first bought our house. Good to see them still going strong! Phil changed the bed while I bathed. I emerged from the bathroom to find blankets annoyingly in a heap and the hoover blocking the door. Calming down with coffee, I wrote ‘Birthday Ellipse’ for Cool Places ii. A slow laptop indicated an imminent update. I switched it off and attempted a bit of cleaning, before collapsing back on the bed.
A year since the WHO declared a global pandemic, we were reminded that Madrid came to play Liverpool FC at Anfield, still seen as the possible cause of high rates in Merseyside. Research found the Kent variant twice as deadly as the original strain and the Manaus mutant ‘a threat to humanity’. Look North reported rates in Yorkshire still stubbornly high, likely because more people had no choice but to work. Health unions and the TUC announced a slow evening clap in support of NHS workers, to be repeated on 1st April when the paltry 1% pay rise kicked in. On QT, Victor Adebowale of the NHS Federation and Labour MP Steve Reed agreed staff ‘sweated blood and tears’ only to be rewarded with broken promises while billions was wasted on crony contracts. Tory Mims Davies lauded the ‘miracle of the vaccine programme’. Yeah, a miracle they actually got something right! Let’s hope the sterling efforts weren’t a complete waste of time!
A week after she went missing, the search for Sarah Everard found human remains in woods near Ashford and a male cop was arrested in Deal, Kent. Reclaim These Streets planned a ‘Covid-secure’ vigil on Saturday at Clapham Common bandstand. In the commons, Jess Philips recited names of 118 women and girls murdered by men over the past year. Debate ensued on why women had to spend their lives being careful. What about a curfew for men instead?
Slightly better on Friday, I remained in bed, taking far too long tidying up the journal entry. Mind you, I did waste time sorting folders and looking up how to insert fractions with limited success.
The R rate down to 0.6-0.8, infections were ‘levelling off’ in Scotland and NI. Dropping more in England and Wales, medics warned of signs it may rise again in the South East and South West. New rules in Wales and Scotland meant different activities allowed in each. In Scotland, up to 4 people could meet outside, groups of 15 could do outdoor non-contact sports and travel restrictions were eased so kids could go to sports clubs. Confused, Phil declared: “I’m off to Glasgow to play basketball.” In reality, he went to the co-op.
GSK’s antiviral VIR-7831 was found to reduce severe illness and death by 85% – so effective, trials stopped early. 2 Britons reportedly contracted another new variant from Antigua. Brazil fatalities hit a record 2,000 in a day amidst a second wave caused by the P1 variant. Even Bolsonaro seemed to take it seriously, approving a bill to make buying vaccines easier and wearing a mask, after saying it was just flu for a year! Exports to EU down more than 2/3 in January, Suren Thiru of the British Chambers of Commerce said it was “an ominous indication of the damage being done to post-Brexit trade with the EU by the current border disruption.”
In the evening, we watched films, drank too much wine and stayed up too late.
A Waste of Life
Saturday started bright but cold with sharp showers later. In spite of the wine, I was less fatigued and managed the day out of bed. Posting a photo for Big Sis’ birthday, I saw a report on her Facebook wall about a German court finding lockdown against human rights. Tempted to respond, anxiety levels rose so I didn’t. Phil cut and dyed my hair (long overdue) I then made a mess in the bathroom rinsing the dye off. Phil wanted to take photos of our corvid residents to add to his current series of bird portraits (see ‘Jackdaw’ above) but rather late by the time we had lunch, he settled for popping to the shop. Not drinking too much alcohol, I hoped for a better sleep but struggled with indigestion until 3.30 a.m.
Tired and with a stiff shoulder Sunday morning, I was in a bad mood while Phil appeared jolly. I made a big effort to get up and spent ages on the journal even though I thought it was finished. Nipping out with a pile of recycling, I got spooked by a neighbour coming up the steps with her dog just as I opened the door. “Sorry, you started me!” “That’s alright, he scared me too,” she mystifyingly replied.
24m adults now had at least 1 jab. Away from the plague, the main news concerned Sarah Everard. Officially-cancelled, vigils still went ahead. A mask-less Princess Kate was among those seen to lay flowers and light candles at Clapham Common. Peaceful for several hours, a typically heavy-handed Met piled in, leading to scuffles and arrests. Nasty Patel demanded a report then an investigation and Khan said he’d been ‘in contact’ with Dick! The Met Chief rebuffed calls to resign. Other gatherings across the country attracted no such intervention. It beggared belief that the Met had refused a legal event. On The Marr, Tory Victoria Atkins called it “terribly upsetting” and Jess Phillips said they “got it wrong at every single turn…There are a million ways that could have been organised, but the police put their foot down before they put their boot in…” Tory MP Caroline Nokes (chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee) said it was “badly misjudged” and Victims Commissioner Dame Vera Baird QC called circling of the bandstand “quasi military.” Subsequent demos in Parliament Square ensued.
The alleged murderer, Wayne Couzens (an officer in the diplomatic corps)* appeared in court with visible head injuries incurred while in custody. Wondering how the body was found and he traced so quickly, Phil said he probably had a tracker on a diplomatic car. Not a fan of the police, I acknowledged they didn’t usually go round randomly murdering people in the streets. He had obviously gone loco – why wasn’t that picked up in psycho tests?
Having said which, a report obtained by The Observer a week later demonstrated a catalogue of sexual abuse within the force. The incident deeply affected me and countless others, judging by social media threads. It was incredulous how the onus was on women to protect themselves from misogynist attacks but a lot of men still didn’t get it! Some defensively pointed out not all males were predatory and could be victims too, failing to recognise that women weren’t saying all men were murderers but the sad truth was that 97% of murderers were men.
Still achy and troubled at bedtime, a fluffy bath had minimal relaxing effects. Plagued by anxiety, I used the meditation soundtrack which eventually sent me to sleep but I felt unrested at the start of the new week.
*Parliamentary Diplomatic and Protection Command
References:
i. My haigas: https://wordpress.com/posts/mondaymorninghaiga.wordpress.com
ii. My Cool Places blog: https://hepdenerose.wordpress.com/
The Corvus Diaries 