The forecast: a cold, covid Christmas for all

Ah well – that’s Christmas done and dusted. It’s to be ‘little’, meaning; don’t do it! The elderly are advised to ‘avoid meeting their families’ – purely a precaution, you understand, because our covid government cares so much for them. Should you have the misfortune to live in the Principality, New Year’s Eve is also done and dusted. There’s a Welsh Lockdown starting on the 28th of December. As for Brexit … well, they’re still talking but according to our Brussels correspondents it’s either green for BRINO or green for No Deal. Confused? Me too … We’ll look at this below.

First though: Christmas! We were treated to a new expression: “pre-quarantine”. This means that those who want to see their family over the Holidays should ‘isolate’ now. Their ‘guidance’ makes this clear:

“Fresh guidance for England says that people should start isolating from tomorrow if they are planning to see relatives and that they should stay socially distanced from anyone they do not live with. Windows should be kept open and door handles cleaned regularly, it advised.” (link, paywalled)

Ahem. It’s December. Outside temperatures are low. Cold, as we know from pre-covid times, kills. Are people now ‘advised’ to heat the great outdoors? Are insulating, preventing heat loss to ‘save the planet or at least to keep heating costs low, no longer an issue? Perhaps this is meant as a secret subsidy to household energy suppliers? And are “we” to keep windows and doors open already while in ‘pre-quarantine’?

Perhaps the elderly and vulnerable can keep their windows and doors closed though because they’re told to better forget about meeting their family face-to-face:

“Those aged over 70 and the clinically vulnerable were told that “the safest approach may be not to form a Christmas bubble”, with guidance suggesting celebrating with relatives over Zoom instead.” (link, paywalled)

Meanwhile, Starmer – back in circulation – has accused BJ that permitting Christmas ‘freedom’, tiny as it is, is ‘the government’s next big mistake’. I’m sure he adores the Welsh lockdown starting on the 28th – Dripford, after all, is Labour. There will be no avoiding that Welsh lockdown because the Welsh case numbers are set to rise. There’s a backlog of over 11,000 positive tests which haven’t been recorded as of yet (link).

Starmer and Dripford aren’t alone. Apparently some ministers – we’re not given their names – suggested that ‘Easter can be the new Christmas’ (link, paywalled). Didn’t BJ do well not to listen to them! All hail BJ, innit like! (NOT!)

Meanwhile Whitty acknowledged that ‘both options’ – letting families meet or keep everybody locked down – were bad. Hm. His solution? Vaccine, of course. Never mind that the vaccine ‘protection’ only starts working after the 2nd jab and will take 4 weeks. ‘Mass vaccination’ began on the 8th of December. Thus, the earliest people vaccinated will be ‘protected’ from the first week of January. That’s well past Christmas, isn’t’ it! Perhaps Whitty is not quite as well informed when he tells us that visiting vaccinated family members over Christmas is ok? He had more ‘wise’ words, aimed at creating more doom, gloom and despondency:

“Covid-19 vaccines will not yet enable the ending of social distancing, England’s chief medical officer has warned, as he said there will never be “zero risk” from the virus.” (paywalled link)

Well, of course not – this ‘zero risk’ is utopian, but it’s the instrument with which to keep us all obedient to the covid empire’s rules, be they ever so damaging – to people, to the economy. If ‘rules’ were relaxed, Whitty warned, there’d be a ‘huge surge’ of cases in the under-80s because they would remain ‘at risk of becoming seriously ill and dying’. And then he washed his hands in innocence: 

“He added that even when a high uptake of the vaccine had been achieved later down the line, Britain would never be at a “point where there is zero risk”, and that the final decision on when social distancing measures should be lifted would be one taken by “political leaders”. “ (paywalled link)

It’s a safe bet that the preferred Whitty-approach will materialise, the one of keeping us peasants under the boots of ‘covid rulz’ in perpetuity. After all, BJ and his health czar are going to ‘follow Teh Science’, aren’t they! The covidians will see to it that we do, for example by using the local police. According to a report in the DT (paywalled link), some local police forces apparently demanded pub landlords check the passports (!) of their visitors, to make sure they are ‘local’.

Another article, also in the DT (paywalled link), reports that passengers of a Stena line ferry from Birkenhead to Belfast were ‘quarantined’ over Tuesday night because six crew members had tested positive. They were released on Wednesday. A Stena line spokesman said there were 322 and 53 staff onboard, that the six crew members who had tested positive had ‘only mild symptoms’, that 15 ‘close contacts’ had been identified and had now also gone into quarantine. And why was the ferry quarantined and people held overnight? Because:

“In line with our safety protocols we alerted the Port Health Authorities, who advised us to hold the vessel in Birkenhead as a precaution.” (paywalled link)

This is how covid and the fear of covid is driving out anything resembling common sense! This is why I suspect that the local elections in May could well be scrapped again, as ‘precaution’ to keep us safe. 

And so to Brexit and the ongoing talks. There’s Ms vdLeyen who told her MEPs that:

“The good news is that we have found a way forward on most issues. This is now a case of being so close and yet being so far away from each other, […] And in all honesty it sometimes feels that we will not be able resolve this question. But we continue to try finding a solution.” (link, paywalled)

Oh dear – so close, so far away, and a sell-out deal so close … ! I’m sure our friends at facst4eu will take a close look at these decidedly fishy negotiations. The report in RemainCentral was published just after midnight. Yesterday afternoon the DT’s Brussel’s mouthpiece painted a more gloomy picture – for the EU;

“The move [Ed: announcing the parliamentary Christmas recess] is a signal to the EU that the Prime Minister is not prepared to cave to EU demands over fishing, despite the European Commission president suggesting it was the last remaining obstacle to a deal on Wednesday.” (paywalled link)

So whom to believe – MS vdLeyen and her honeyed words or BJ the poseur? Here’s No 10:

“Downing Street moved to dampen hopes that a deal might be close, after Ursula von der Leyen said there was a “narrow path” to striking the zero-tariff, zero-quota deal before the end-of-year deadline. Mr Johnson said: “There’s a good deal there to be done, but if not, WTO, Australia terms it is and as I say we will prosper mightily on those terms as well. We’ve just got to make sure that we control our laws and control our own waters.” (paywalled link)

Well, forgive me for thinking that BJ is showing off when he talks about that WTO ‘deal’. I think that’s BJ ‘propaganda’ to reassure us that he’s not going to sell us down the river. I’m even more suspicious when I read more honeyed words from Ms vdLeyen even though No 10 rebutted them. Whom to believe? See this first:

“Progress had been made on subsidy law towards an agreement that would allow Brussels to take unilateral actions such as tariffs to redress unfair competition from the UK, she said. Both sides have also agreed “a strong mechanism of non regression” on EU standards on labour, social and environmental standards, Mrs von der Leyen said.” (paywalled link)

There was a rebuttal from our side though, lifting my spirits somewhat on this rollercoaster ride of ‘Deal or No Deal’:

“British sources suggested Mrs von der Leyen was presenting an overly optimistic view of the current state of the talks. One source said: “Things are definitely better than they were a few days ago but we are not close to a deal and it’s definitely not the case that everything apart from fish is settled.” A UK official said: “We’ve made some progress, but we are still very far apart in key areas.” (paywalled link)

To me, these reports, rumours and sources’ gossip look as if they’re all only posturing for each other. But then my heart sank into my boots when I read this in the DM,

“Boris Johnson last night declared ‘there is every opportunity of a deal’ as he boosted hopes that a Brexit trade agreement will be struck with the EU. The Prime Minister ditched his warning that No Deal is the most likely outcome as negotiators revealed fishing quotas are the last stumbling block.” (link)

Whom to believe? EU and French ‘sources’ who say that fishing is the last stumbling block? That the whole thing could end in tears, with Barnier and Frost still being unable to agree? The ‘French source’ saying that “I don’t have the impression that we are getting anywhere on fishing” (link)? Or BJ making a show of his recalling Parliament because there’s ‘every opportunity of a deal’? 

One thing though is certain: it’s going to be a cold Christmas – not just because of the weather but also because of the prospect of a BRINO sell-out over the holidays which we have to spend in ‘splendid covid isolation’. 

As for champagne corks popping on the 31st of December, either for the New Year or for the No Deal we want: no chance! Covid lockdowns will prevent us from celebrating. Let’s hope we’ll not have to drown our sorrows all by our own lonesome, lockdowned selves.

KBO!

Photo by starmist1