CAN THEY BE THIS STUPID?

 As this madcap year draws to a close, one last blogpost from me - and once again, my thanks to Steve Walker's team at SKWAWKBOX for shining the light on all that is going wrong in this nation of ours. It is our nation, remember, even if we are being misgoverned. It's just that we have very rarely had any semblance of control or power within it. We being the masses, the many. Not the few. 

  

Prof Kailash Chand takes apart Matt Hancock's new desperation-driven 'plan' that will destroy vaccine roll-out's effectiveness

(SKWAWKBOX - 31 December 2020)

Professor Kailash Chand

Kailash Chand on a recent BBC programme:

The Government's joint committee on vaccination and immunisation (JCVI) today recommended a single dose of either vaccine should be given to as many vulnerable people as possible, rather than sticking to the original two-dose strategy.

This in no way is a scientific decision - it is political expediency.

Pfizer said in a statement:

Data from the phase three study demonstrated that, although partial protection from the vaccine appears to begin as early as 12 days after the first dose, two doses of the vaccine are required to provide the maximum protection against the disease, a vaccine efficacy of 95 per cent.

There are no data to demonstrate that protection after the first dose is sustained after 21 days.'  

Further, the trial data said that after a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine coverage was 52%. But six days after the second dose that rose to nearly 91%.

Outrageous. What use is 52% to someone over 80 or 90 who is extremely vulnerable? Delaying the second

THE PRICE OF NOT HAVING A SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT - COVID-19 DEATHS

 Last Monday (21.12.2020), the Morning Star published an article by Stewart McGill headlined 'Covid-19 and the socialist states' in which he explored the reasons why China, Vietnam, Cuba and the Communist-led Indian state of Kerala, with a combined population of 1.5 billion people [world population:7.8 billion], have lost 7,000 people to COVID-19 but Britain has had over 62,000 deaths, officially. The actual number of virus deaths in Britain will be closer to 80,000 by now (see a number of my previous blog-posts for an explanation - for instance, here). What follows is a precis of Stewart's thought-provoking piece:

China - the state with the largest population in the world - now the rival to US world hegemony

Britain has a population 21 times smaller than China, yet it has seen at least 20 times as many cases of COVID-19 and around 13 times as many deaths. The WHO has described China's efforts as 'perhaps the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment in history'. The Wuhan epicentre of the virus

THE BLAME GAME: ANYONE BUT ME: 'LOOK, I'M YOUR LEADER - IT'S NOT ME - IT'S THAT MUTANT VIRUS.' 'OH NO IT ISN'T!!!'

 

No evidence that 'new' UK variant transmits any more easily or spreads any faster - and it's not 'new', WHO has been studying it for a while

Skwawkbox (Saturday, 19 December 2020) has confirmed my suspicions. The man leading the misgovernment of this country is attempting to shift the blame for getting his Christmas messaging so disastrously wrong on to the coronavirus itself. Shame on Whitty and Vallance for standing alongside him and misrepresenting the scientific community. 

Whitty, PM, Vallance

'Boris Johnson has blamed his Christmas U-turn on a 'new' 'mutant strain' of the coronavirus, claiming that it spreads more rapidly than the previous variants present in the UK.

But according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) this week, there is nothing to suggest it actually does spread faster - and it isn't new either:

Not only is there no indication, as far as the WHO is concerned, that the new variant of the coronavirus can

FROM 'DYING TO KNOW' - AN INTRODUCTION TO MMT - MODERN MONETARY THEORY

 Do have a read of my blogpost earlier this month - press this link here - for an update on my latest book. I have now completed chapter 10 in which, as referenced in the blogpost, I present the case for MMT as a means for transforming our economy and society. But it's going to take political will. 

Professor Stephanie Kelton, advocate for MMT

Here is a shortened version of my account of the power of MMT, taken from my draft of chapter 10 in 'Dying to Know'. I hope you are as excited as I am by what I discovered. This is your taster. I have also included a couple of YouTube videos for those of you curious to find out more. 

'Stephanie Kelton and other MMT advocates are pointing out the simple truth that any government that issues its own currency can never run out of money. The US government issues its own currency – the dollar. The UK government issues its own currency – the pound sterling. Economists and politicians and

WHAT LIFE COULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE IF ONLY WE WERE NOT BEING MISGOVERNED

A moving reminder of what life can look like in an island nation that isn’t run by idiots and monsters (with no opposition)

Jacinda Ardern, the PM of New Zealand

Steve Walker of SKWAWKBOX has created this post and given permission for a wider circulation. Jacinda Ardern is also one of my heroes and has her place in 'Dying to Know', as does Steve Walker, Jeremy Corbyn, Naomi Klein, Stephanie Kelton ..... the list is worth exploring. Time for my appeal: 

I'll start this blog-post with what for some of you may be a familiar appeal. Please - if you have come to value my writing and would like to support my bid to secure publication for my pandemic journal: 'Dying to Know' - do press the blue Follow button on this blog-post. You will find it at the top on the right-hand side but only when you have a full website screen in front of you using a laptop computer. It seems it is not visible when you are in phone mode.   

And now to the amazing news that New Zealand has seen twenty-five COVID-19 deaths. In total. We have had approaching 80,000 COVID-19 deaths. 

The SKWAWKBOX has received a moving video of a simple time when proud parents and grandparents could pack tightly into a school hall to watch their children receive recognition for their hard work in class.

Today.

The video, taken by a friend of SKWAWKBOX editor Steve Walker and used with permission, shows his daughter receiving an award at her school - in New Zealand:

https://skwawkbox.org/nz-school-mp4/

The proud young girl even receives a hug and kiss from the teachers presenting the award.

New Zealand has suffered just over 2,000 cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began, with 25 deaths - because as an island nation its Prime Minister seized the opportunity to close borders and ensure that the

UPDATES ON MY PANDEMIC JOURNAL: 'DYING TO KNOW'

 I created my Mailchimp newsletter for November at the very end of the month. Here it is, with a few further updates:

UPDATES ON MY PANDEMIC JOURNAL: 'DYING TO KNOW'
 
I am writing this update on the penultimate day of the month having waited and waited as the weeks of November passed for any Jago Stone stories and images to arrive in my webmail. My wait was in vain. Fingers crossed that December will prove more fruitful. [It has been - one new story and image so far - I will produce a blogpost very soon.]

The focus, then, this month is on my pandemic journal: 'Dying to Know'. This latest book of mine has a structure that takes the reader through a real-time journey during the months of the Covid-19 pandemic as I follow the 3.5 mile circuit of my local training run, up the hill side to the top at Little Trevalgan and back down again. The literary run that fills the pages of the book is a composite of of all my local circuit runs made over a period stretching from March 2020 to the early months of 2021 - 62 runs, to date [now 65].

Last month, I included three images from my own camera of Little Trevalgan views. There are more this month.

The view from the summit of Little Trevalgan - the B3306 is visible on the middle right of the photo - this is my running circuit. Note the church of St John's in the Fields.

In my book, there is much that is only too real. But there is also magical realism. I have a magic tree and bole on my run that I can enter at will. My

BEING MISGOVERNED - THE UNFAIRNESS OF IT ALL - MATTERS OF CLASS, RACE AND REGION

 SKWAWKBOX (Tuesday, 1 December 2020) gives pride of place to No Holding Back, a report from three socialists from the north of England - Ian Lavery, M.P.; Jon Trickett, M.P.; and former M.P. Laura Smith. You won't find much coverage of this cutting analysis in the mainstream media:

"Not only did Johnson fail but he repeated that discrimination"

Smugness is one expression that comes to mind

A hard-hitting report by the No Holding Back group of northern working-class figures accused Boris Johnson's government of repeated contempt for struggling northern communities.

The report, released this morning, begins:

Boris Johnson has treated held back communities in northern England as second-class citizens. His decision to keep tough restrictions for the north for longer while neglecting to place London in tier three shows that he has no regard for the difficulties faced by our constituents. Placing London in tier two will ultimately cost unnecessary lives and prolong this second wave. With tier restrictions commencing on 3rd December, Boris Johnson had a chance to show he had learned from his blatant discrimination in trying to foist 67% furlough on Northern England while pivoting to 80% furlough when the lockdown was extended to the South of England. Not only did he fail, but he repeated that discrimination, again leaving us in no doubt of his disregard for held back communities. Like ours.

The report, published by MPs Ian Lavery and Jon Trickett and former MP Laura Smith, analyses the