Covid-19 Virus

I saw a comment recently from a doctor who was saying that, while he loves the appreciation being shown by Joe Public every Thursday, he doesn’t like the fact that “narcissistic celebrities” are posting themselves doing so all over social media - the same celebrities who, in reality, would only ever use private healthcare anyway and wouldn’t “lower” themselves to use the NHS.

 

I watched the Youtube stream of the original US version. Skipped through the random celebrities talking and only listened to the music. Thought it was excellent.

Tuned in for a little bit of the BBC coverage and thought it was dreadful.

 

Is Richard Branson after a bail out ?

Trying to sell his Island to save Virgin ..

 

Love letters to the NHS, finding a pair of used shorts to auction and an online concert. However one thing many of these so called celebrities or stars (why they are called that beats me) are reluctant to do is actually place their hands in their pockets. Let's not forget that many of them are millionaires many times over.

And as the Paradise Papers showed (sadly one of the journalists involved was murdered in Malta last year) many are engaged in tax evasion schemes and that includes the sporting fraternity. The sheer hypocrisy of some of these people beggars belief. From Lewis Hamilton and his buddies in Monaco lauding the NHS while not paying the taxes that fund such services. To Fat Sam Allardyce that paragon of virtue decrying the attacks on footballers or indeed Brangelina when they were a pair. Blathering on about world poverty and how you, yes you the member of the public should do your bit before they themselves splash out over a hundred million pounds on a luxury yacht.

Think of all the good that could do for those in great need. While we don't want a witch hunt and you could argue if someone did dip their hands in their pockets to make a fair contribution given their wealth like Mr.McCartney (I strongly suspect the average person in the street gives more of their income as a percentage to charity than most of these people) and announced it then they would also get criticized. Just do the decent thing. Not the legally correct thing. The morally right thing. And the excuses they come up with. Mr.Hamilton when he ran off to Switzerland. Or Mr.Branson the other day. I do love the Virgin Islands for their beauty. Nothing to do with it being a tax haven of course.

There are those on the other side of the coin like JK Rowling who have a conscience and should be applauded for it. And those philanthropists or individuals that could have made fortunes but gave away their designs and patents for free for the betterment of all. Philanthropy used to be fairly widespread in business and certainly owners who looked after their workers with care such as Cadbury for instance. It was a change from seeing newly arrived rural workers in the growing factories as mere numbers but it seems we have gone full cycle again for many industries.

And clap for Boris ? Hypocrisy.

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We knew PPE is going to be in short supply given the global race for it. We have had local firms all ready to go to make up the shortfall. For 2-3 weeks/ But no framework in getting raw materials to factories, no method of organizing local deliveries using couriers or the Army, taxis. How hard can it be to organize ? Matt Hancock and his cohorts are certainly far from being anywhere near a Beaverbrook or Johnson anywhere near a Churchill. Hancock has been a floundering dimwit for the most part.

When you see what is happening in NZ for instance his BoJo's dithering has been costly.Not listening to scientific advice. But to Mr.Cummings his puppet master. Compared to Germany where science has led the response.

As I have said before I think technocracies would be better models of governance. Not these stupid dogmatic ideologies pushing policy making from whatever part of the political spectrum. Politicians have been warned about the pandemic threat before certainly in the US. However facilities have been run down along with stocks of PPE. Not enough expansion of medical schools or consultancies.

It is always useful to have a strategic reserve for any crisis. Germany for example. Here we are always fighting a losing battle at the best of times let alone during a pandemic scenario which is certainly not one of the worst that can be expected. As with the laughable planning for a nuclear war government has been shown to be clueless from the start making up policy on the hoof. There is no thinking for more than an electoral term in the politicians mind. No really long long term planning.

So we are still getting coastal developments that will be inundated in future or require costly sea defences to maintain. No provision to emergency underground shelters should we get an atmosphere impact from a body from the solar system. Now some may laugh and indeed many MP's did so when Mr.Opik of all people tried to get more funding for the detection of near earth objects. Given the amount of devastation they can wreak you would think for the long term there would be a greater deal of contingency planning. Perhaps if the bolide that exploded over Siberia in 1908 has been just two hours later allowing the earths rotation to make London the target with thousands upon thousands of dead our thinking would be radically different.

 

Utter morons. It's a hoax. It's against our rights.

All encouraged by an equally thick moron. Ditto for Brazil. Not one thought for anyone else or that there is a reason these measures have been implemented. How the quiffed buffoon has been allowed to stir up trouble in predominantly Democrat held states is mind boggling. But American politics has been in the gutter for a long while.

All about dynastic families, money and your cronies. It is essentially a late Roman republic riddled with corruption and nothing more than a plutocracy. Both sides of the divide are at it. From Senator Loeffler. Look her up and some on the Democrat side using information given at committee about the impact of the virus in February to make share trades. This all needs investigation because despite the usual protestations of innocence it all stinks to high heaven.