Down the rabbit hole...

  The anti-vaccers, or maybe it should be anti-vaxers as that would be as illiterate as the thinking behind it is un-scientific, will be playing into the UK governments cynical hands! I heard the government had taken receipt of a report that noted anything up to 30% of the population would be unwilling to take the vaccine. But the same report also notes the vast majority of anti-vaccers fall into the lower quartiles of both academic achievement, literacy and earnings but are high in the stats for multi morbidity and for long term poor health pre-cursors such as smoking, poor diet and being overweight. Such a report, if indeed it actually exists, also states that leaving such individuals to suffer the consequences of Covid and other diseases is not harmful to the long term health of the country as any individuals that died as a result of the not getting vaccinated would only present a short term immediate cost but long-term would be produce a saving on the public purse as they are m...

  So, we are just a few hours away from the end of the 2020 US Presidential election. At least we are a few hours away from the beginning of the end of the election. With postal votes and slow counts it could all drag on for a few more days yet. But this week it should be over. Despite all the rhetoric, whether the US likes it or not, indeed whether anybody outside the US likes it or not, the result and the behaviour of people post the election is of worldwide importance. It galls me to say, but without the USA as a beacon for democracy then there is no hope for democracy long term. If there were serious civil disorder because of the result then the USA would hardly be in a position to criticise any other regime. I find some of the interviews with ordinary American citizens a cross between bizarre and concerning. There appear to be some people that believe the Democrats wish to introduce socialism into the USA. But when they describe socialism they are describing the something akin...

  I have come to the conclusion, after considerable amount of thought and contemplation, that when asked the question 'do you care about the planet?' the answer is... it depends what you mean! Do you hate it yet? Is there anything that I can do that would make the slightest bit of difference? Not really. Is that a cop out? Probably. I mean, maybe if every one of us did something then it would make a difference. But, not everybody will. More importantly, not everybody can. It sometimes strikes me that 'caring about the planet' is a rather middle class western ideal. That's not a bad thing, but the middle class west cannot dictate to the rest of the world that they cannot experience the gains and positives they have simply because now, after a century or so of causing the greater number of evils in the world affecting the planet. For instance, being outraged by the burning of the Amazon is understandable but wanting the Brazilian government to stop the practice of usi...

 When I hear the phrase, as I have many a time, 'let people go' or variations thereof I am inclined to initially fall into the trap that was meant to fallen into when first a psychologist working for a marketing team doing some work for an Human Resources department came up with those three simple words as a slogan to replace 'fired' or 'axed' or 'terminated' or 'sacked'.  In those three little words. or thereabouts and the variations thereof such as 'let you go' etc, there is supposed to be instilled a kindness. It is not that the recipient of being 'let go' has suddenly had a life destroying axe fall upon their neck ending all hope of future. It is instead supposed to instill that you are released from your shackles of servitude that bound you unwillingly and unhappily to a desk or a counter or a phone or a series of doorsteps and, having been let go, now, you can truly achieve your purpose in life.  Because, by letting you go, ...

Well, it seems to have been some time since I last bothered to write anything so I thought maybe I should sit down and write something. I can't give any assurances that it will be in the slightest bit interesting but at least it allows me to let off a bit of steam.  In some ways, by writing this crap down and then posting it on here, it's like taking the thoughts that are annoying me and causing me to reach for the emergency blood pressure tablets and putting it all in a little box and tying a ribbon around it, not necessarily yellow, but that'll do I guess. So, have I missed anything interesting? I notice that as I am writing this the daily coronavirus update is on tv in the background and for the second day running a politician is batting off questions about a single individual that broke some rules, or not depending upon your point of view, and finding how useful it is to have the Q&A section of the press conferences via video conference as that means the journalist ...

Seriously, what is wrong with the potus? He is clearly insane or suffering from very serious mental health conditions. I really think some physician should sign the appropriate papers to have the poor old guy dragged off by nice surly men in white coats with big syringes so that he can get the treatment he so desperately needs. Clearly it has gone way beyond simple politics, we are now in the realms of complete and utter madness. Granted, it seemed that way for several years now, even before he was president, but his condition has deteriorated and it might even be possible that if he were hooked up to a life support system the system would question what the point was as there was clearly no sign of life in the patient. Even if the ECG showed something the EEG would just be one long flat line, not so much as a blip! In the latest madness it seems the poor old dear has conflated the ad for bleach killing 99.99% of all known germs and Covid-19 and come to the conclusion that bleac...

One other thing I was thinking about, when not completely consumed with thinking about some little virus that's out to kill us, is voting. It struck me, although I am certain it has struck many other people many other times over many decades, is that voting is all a bit mixed up. Many a time I have seen debate about whether the vote should be extended to the age groups below 18 (18 being the voting age in the UK) and most of the time it is dismissed as not appropriate, although the definition of appropriate would appear to be that if the polling suggests the reduction of voting age would cause a shift in the total vote towards the party not in power then the party not in power wants it and the party in power does not allow it as being 'inappropriate at this time'. And so as the party in power has the power then it gets to decide and to decide to allow it even though it indicates the new voters would vote against them is the same as a turkey looking forward to Christmas c...