Well dear readers for the first time in a very long time I thought I’d do a posting not linked to a single theme but just a series of random thoughts zapping around in my mind at the moment. Each of these could be the subject of a separate posting but I thought I’d just shorthand it for fun.
Well a challenging title for this posting but one that I’ve been hoping to write for soooo long. Today it was with some delight that I heard that the Secretary of State for Hypocracy sorry Health had resigned after being caught on video camera snogging his aide. This was after the twathead had insisted that I (and millions of others similarly) couldn’t hug my daughters for months on end as part of the protection against the virus. And there he was all the time snorkelling down the throat of a married female employee he’d known from Uni and had recruited at significant public cost to be his close personal aide. Ah it’s good to know that good old Tory sleaze is alive and licking. Of course the Prime Minister said only yesterday that he had accepted the Minister’s apology and that as far as he was concerned the matter was completely over. A bit of infidelity, pah Boris does that for breakfast. Hypocracy? That’s just a Greek word for political expediency. So for the PM it was nothing to see here, carry on snogging Minister.
So this is an unhappy little posting to be sure but I’m interested to know who you feel is our most disliked bloke. I would have included female candidates but who would possibly qualify ahead of the likes of Michael Gove, Nicola Sturgeon? Surely she’s a marmite character, as much admired as detested. Katie Hopkins? Surely irrelevant these days. Amanda Holden? In my top 3 but only because she’s so frigging vacuous. But I could also list dozens of z-lister women who like Amanda H are needy and pathetic but who are harmless and have an audience for some reason.
There have been lots of tv ads which have capitalised on the covid crisis to position companies as the most caring of brands. You’ve seen them – that Co-op one with Marcus Rashford aimed at driving donations to food redistribution charity FareShare is a classic. It’s not his woodenness that jars so much as the creative thinking behind the need to create empathy with the viewer. The charitable purpose is absolutely fantastic but that over-familiarity bit where the bloke goes ‘You’re on mute Rashy’ makes me squirm. Check it out…
Well I see that the Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden is having talks today with football administrators and medical experts over the possibility of allowing top class English football to return next month behind closed doors and at neutral venues. Now nobody would be happier than me to see football’s return – so long as it is safe for all concerned. Indeed yesterday the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, was gushing  about how the Premier League’s return could ‘lift the spirits of the nation’. Wow it only seems a few days since Matt Hancock publicly pilloried top flight footballers for their wealthy lifestyles and shaming them into making a bigger contribution towards the cost of the NHS (that is in addition to the heavy tax they pay on their massive earnings) which many were already doing privately. It makes you laugh doesn’t it. The Government targets easy scapegoats but with 30,000 covid-19 deaths already on their watch (the largest in any country bar the USA which does have 4 times our population) they are suddenly in need of those overpaid footballers to take the attention and the pressure off them. And people accuse me of being cynical. Pah
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Well I watched the daily cv-19 briefing at 5pm and noted that the Government are talking confidently about achieving the Health Secretary’s target of 100,000 tests per day by the end of the month. Hurrah! Except it’s not exactly in terms of actual tests, instead they are now tweaking it to say that they’ll have the capacity to test that number. Ahh. So they’ll have 100,000 cotton buds in stock to take swabs but nowhere near enough nurses and the other medically-trained people to take the tests and process them. It’s not quite the same thing is it?
I don’t want this blogsite to sound like I have a hate complex about Matt Hancock the Health Secretary but he’s doing his damnedest to make me react against his policies. This time he’s threatened an exercise ban if people continue to flout his directions. Â Whoa Mr H, can we just take a time out here to reflect on this pronouncement.
Well these were some of the gloriously happy scenes that greeted England’s victory over Sweden on Saturday, repeated up and down the country. We watched the match at my brother’s place and what a super day. And  it happened the day after my lovely sis H got married to J which was also a great day. So a fantastic few days eh, especially for us. But the great thing is the effect England’s progress is having generally. Everyone seems to be up for it and excited at the prospect of tonight semi-final against Croatia. Shop assistants, waiters, check out girls. Everyone wants to know where are you watching it. I guess it’s that history in the making thing. Well at least potentially because a loss tonight will be gutting. Well except for maybe a few people in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia etc etc.
Pasta Paulie 