Pre Tier 3 Weekender 2

 Universities have fined students for a total of just shy of £18,000. The majority being Nottingham students. While there are no doubt many idiots among this cohort, this is just the crude exercise of power.  Can we really blame students given what they've been put through, without as much as an apology? The government don't seem to care that students, having bored heavily and moved far from home (many for the first time), want an outlet to the situation. They've been lied to and exploited, left in often poor accommodation, sometimes without sufficient resources, and given a piss poor education replacement that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. If only in the form of the debt that will increase as they struggle to find work in the post Covid world.

Landlords. They are just parasites. We've got a society where children have to put themselves into crippling debt in order to have somewhere to live while they study. Kids are paying the mortgages of these people. That's it. Doesn't seem right to me.

Dominic Raab is warning of a third wave. We all know there's going to be a third wave. Until something changes to truly short circuit the virus nothing will be achieved. All we are doing is tinkering with the edges, picking at the frayed threads of this shit tapestry. Opening things, then shutting them, then opening them again is just that. It changes nothing; the virus is there and will spread again if those fundamental conditions aren't addressed. The only we have for that, at this point, is the vaccine. The government has squandered the goodwill of the community and failed at every step to step up: testing is still inadequate, still in the hands of the incompetent. That remains the key.

The Christmas confusion, which is certainly what will ensue, is going to lead to another spread. What I suspect might happen is that when the tiers are reviewed in a couple of weeks, many will move into tier 2. This is largely a sop to the whiny Tories banging the drum right now. Unfortunately the progress of the virus post-lockdown will only come clear around this time, but by that point it might be too late given their plan to let everyone have a 'week off' over Christmas. But the virus doesn't care about holidays. 

And Philip Green is a tosser.